Fairytale of New York (1)
Hey folks. I'm back, with a new tale. This is a sequel to " Why She Fights".
Title: Fairytale of New York (1)
Fandom: BtVS
Characters: Ensemble, core cast and Sunnydale survivors
Warnings: None for explicit sexuality or violence.
Ships: Gen, aside from canon relationships by "Chosen"
"Thanks for the lift, Clem," Faith said, slinging her bag over a shoulder.
"My pleasure!" replied the demon with a face only a shar-pei could love. "You saved my bacon from those guys in Baker."
"Yeah, well, it's this redemption kick I'm on." Faith shrugged. "No big. Call it quid pro."
"And don't worry." Clem mimed twisting a key between his lips. "I never saw you. That way you don't have to threaten to hunt me down and slowly torture me to death. Ha. Which you won't, right?"
"Work for one evil mayor..." Reaching down, Faith pulled a wad of bills from her sock. "Here. Gas and food for the road, and a sweetener for being quiet."
"Wow!" Clem fanned out the fifty dollar bills. "This will really help to set me up in Cleveland. Where did you get it?"
"One night stand with a hot rich dyke." Faith thumped the side of his car. "Now, get out before some cop sees you next to an interstate fugitive."
Clem favored her with a cheery thumbs up before driving away towards the Holland Tunnel. All the demons in the world that get the shit kicked out them by rednecks outside of her no-tel window, Faith thought, and it happens to be one of B's bestest buds. Fact was, Clem had saved her ass way more than she had saved his. Southern California had been chaos in the wake of the Jasmine Riots. It had taken her a week of dodging cops and National Guard just to get to Baker. She had been sure she'd be made by the CHP and Guard troops at the border from the fugitive BOLO that had to have been issued. Clem had managed to bluff her through as his niece, then drive her across the country. Wasn't a half-bad traveling companion, though she'd learned early to never accept his offer of a sandwich.
'Course, she was on her own for now.
Faith nerved herself to step out of the alley. Stupid. She'd been on the run all her life. Boston cops, Kakistos, the Sunnydale Police, responsibility--she should be used to it by now. Running was damn near her specialty. Even the fact she had a murder one beef hanging over her head wasn't exactly new. Hey, she was in New York City. Eight million people to hide among. Or, she could use some of the few thousand Kennedy had given her back in Oxnard for a bus ticket to anywhere in the country. Maybe even head down to the port, hop a freighter. Bunch of horny sailors, Faith figured she could work off her fare one way or another. Who needed a passport to see the world? It'd be better all around that way.
Faith clutched the pre-paid phone in her pocket, the text received four days ago in its memory.
Crap.
A SWAT team failed to appear the instant Faith darted out onto the sidewalk and order her to prone out. Good sign. Act natural. People on the run get caught because they look like people on the run. Nothing to see here, just another fresh face in the City that Never Sleeps. Faith relaxed the farther she walked. The new clothes she'd picked out in Vegas helped: tie-die T-shirt, cargo pants, and Birkenstocks. The Lonely Planet she glanced at every so often and the army pack completed the illusion of a clueless young backpacker. A breeze tickled the bared nape of her neck. Christ, did Clem have to chop off that much? Sleeping without her hair fanned out on her pillow had taken a lot of getting used to.
Striding north, Faith disappeared into the morning crowds.
+++
Faith splashed her bare feet in the water. Damn, that felt good. Walking from Holland Tunnel to Central Park hadn't tired her out; as anyone she screwed could tell, Slayers had one hell of a lot of endurance. Didn't make her feet any less sore after pounding the pavement for most of the day. She'd found the perfect spot by--what was this place called--right, Turtle Pond. To her left, a funky castle loomed above her on a low rock cliff. The crack of bat and ball could be heard from the baseball diamonds on the big lawn beyond. A cheap meal of a few pushcart hot dogs and one of those huge soft pretzels lay mostly demolished on a plastic bag spread on the ground beside her. Faith leaned back as she sipped from a bottle of iced tea. Kind of like the times she'd head to Revere Beach and splurge on a seafood platter from Kelly's.
What was this weird feeling?
Oh yeah, right. Contentment.
She scratched her neck. There'd be a wicked sunburn later on her throat, from looking up all day. Seriously, you'd think she was a hick from Peoria. It wasn't like Boston was exactly small beans. Neither had been L.A. Still, first time in the Big Apple? Had to admit, this town impressed. Everything back home had been a much smaller scale. Hell A might have been bigger, yeah. But there was no there to it. Just a big blob spread out under the smog. Faith had never seen so many buildings and people squeezed together. She'd taken her time to see as much as it as she could. Why not, the invitation was an open one. So she'd wandered all over downtown and midtown, trotting from one attraction to another at a pace that ate up the miles. Faith avoided the subway. Back in Boston, the T had been as lousy with vamps as the sewers in Sunny D.
Lot of energy pumping through this burg. If she wasn't reformed, Faith might have thought of doing some serious damage.
Huh. She wasn't that reformed--
"Pretty", said the woman behind her.
Faith froze.
Oh, goddamn it to hell. Always the blondes that ended up putting her down.
"My dad was NYPD before he moved west," Kate Lockley said, sitting beside Faith. She was dressed in chinos and a short-sleeved blouse. Casual for an LAPD detective. "This was one of my favorite views whenever we came back to visit."
"Doesn't have much over Franklin Park," Faith said. Was the flash of light off to the side a sniper scope? "Have to show some home town respect. You look, uh, good."
"Thanks. You're much better than when we last met." Kate drank from a bottle of water. "I took a lot of confessions while I was on the force. Yours stuck in my mind."
"Bet you didn't get many girls carrying a manslaughter and double murder." Faith licked her lips. "'Took'. So you retired?"
"They threw me out." Kate smiled mirthlessly. "More like I gracefully put in for early retirement before they put me through a final psych eval. Beating up a Captain who raised zombies and obsessing over every weird case you're supposed to roundfile isn't healthy for the career."
"Cops are such tards." Faith winced. "I mean-- You were good to me when I unloaded. Not like the screws or the uniforms."
"I think it was because you were in pain." Kate stared into the distance. "After a while, I saw the same expression every time I looked into the mirror."
"What're you doing now?" Faith forced herself to relax every muscle in her body.
"After putting in, I spent some time off. Re-evaluation, healing." Reaching into her pocket, Kate flipped open the badge holder bearing the silver-and-circle star of a US marshal. "Then some men from the military visited. Seems they wanted people to handle things on the law-enforcement side. Certain problems I'd had experience dealing with"
Faith closed her eyes.
"I'll come quiet." Faith tied up the corners of the bag. Give a hoot, don't pollute. "Never was going to run when the hammer came down. I had a nice vacay. But it's time for Faith to go back into her box."
"Was it as bad as we thought?" Kate ran her hand through the grass on the banks. "The rain of fire, the riots, whatever happened in Sunnydale?"
"Worse." Caleb's mocking laughter echoed through Faith's mind. "World dodged a bullet. Always does, though. I just scored a few assists."
"Pretty world to save." Kate turned to Faith. "I'm not here to arrest you."
"You're kidding," Faith said. "After what I did? Nothing gets you a free pass on murder and an escape charge."
"The specifics are being debated," Kate replied. "And no, you aren't being given a pass. There will be conditions. You might even have to accept incarceration in a secure facility. Right now, consider yourself under house arrest. Don't leave this island until we tell you to."
"Why?" Faith asked. "You heard everything I did. How can you let someone like me walk around outside a cage?"
"Because you risked everything to help a friend." Kate rose. "Because you surrendered when you could have run. Because Angel saw enough in you to save to risk dying for it. And--I owe Angel for a lot. This is paying it forward."
Numb, Faith accepted the card with Kate's name and office number on it.
"Keep in touch." Kate Lockley brushed off her pants. "If there's an emergency, don't hesitate to call. Really, don't. We'd like to hear about the next apocalypse before it's broadcast on CNN."
Faith stayed there for a long time until the shadows began to gather. She wiped her eyes. Goddamn sun. It must have made them watery. Have to buy a hat--though no power on Earth would get her to wear a Yankees cap. Nose was stuffed up, too. What good were Slayer powers if they didn't cure hayfever? Tossing her trash into a can, Faith hoofed to toward the 79th Street park exit. The towers rising above the trees at the border of the park spoke of money. Lots of it. 5th Avenue must be one high dollar nabe. Kennedy must be bunking with Willow in an apartment. Weird, she thought that the bratty New York slayer lived with her family in some huge mansion. None of those--
Holy.
Faith did a full Marge-from-East-Podunk jaw drop when she saw the mansion occupying half the block. A ten-foot high brick wall bordered the narrow end along 5th Ave. It continued around along the property line on 76th. A wrought-iron spiked fence ran halfway to Madison Ave along the front of the mansion on 75th. Faith wasn't a stranger to big-money digs. She'd been to Angel's in Sunnydale once or twice. She'd crashed a few black-tie affairs in Boston on the arm of a rich guy out slumming. This pile? It was huge, especially if you counted that land around here was nosebleed expensive. The four storey grey house put the "goth" in Gothic. Turrets at the corners and those saw-tooth bits along the roof line emphasized the Dracula's Castle theme. Gardens and trees were planted all around what might be four wings, two each on either side of the main hall. A gatehouse that should have come with a drawbridge allowed entrance to broad steps leading up to the front door.
Score ten million for Willow.
She should turn around right now. Kate had been clear. Faith was on probation. Hell, it might just be a trick so that Faith would trust the former detective enough to rope Buffy and the others into a harboring-fugitive charge. Hell of a way to nail down some leverage on the Slayer. 'Sides, Faith didn't deserve a pad like this. Saving the world? Yeah, good for you. But she'd done what she'd done. Better she hole up in some cheap flophouse. There was no reason to come here except the text on her cell. SAFE NOW. COME + CHILL. KEN. Brat had no idea what inviting Faith into her home really meant. Nah. She'd find some place and call. Tell everyone it'd be better all around if--
From within the grounds came the sounds of crashing swords and girlish laughter.
Happy. Safe. Together.
Faith sighed as she headed up the stairs. Christ, was she getting soft.
Title: Fairytale of New York (1)
Fandom: BtVS
Characters: Ensemble, core cast and Sunnydale survivors
Warnings: None for explicit sexuality or violence.
Ships: Gen, aside from canon relationships by "Chosen"
"Thanks for the lift, Clem," Faith said, slinging her bag over a shoulder.
"My pleasure!" replied the demon with a face only a shar-pei could love. "You saved my bacon from those guys in Baker."
"Yeah, well, it's this redemption kick I'm on." Faith shrugged. "No big. Call it quid pro."
"And don't worry." Clem mimed twisting a key between his lips. "I never saw you. That way you don't have to threaten to hunt me down and slowly torture me to death. Ha. Which you won't, right?"
"Work for one evil mayor..." Reaching down, Faith pulled a wad of bills from her sock. "Here. Gas and food for the road, and a sweetener for being quiet."
"Wow!" Clem fanned out the fifty dollar bills. "This will really help to set me up in Cleveland. Where did you get it?"
"One night stand with a hot rich dyke." Faith thumped the side of his car. "Now, get out before some cop sees you next to an interstate fugitive."
Clem favored her with a cheery thumbs up before driving away towards the Holland Tunnel. All the demons in the world that get the shit kicked out them by rednecks outside of her no-tel window, Faith thought, and it happens to be one of B's bestest buds. Fact was, Clem had saved her ass way more than she had saved his. Southern California had been chaos in the wake of the Jasmine Riots. It had taken her a week of dodging cops and National Guard just to get to Baker. She had been sure she'd be made by the CHP and Guard troops at the border from the fugitive BOLO that had to have been issued. Clem had managed to bluff her through as his niece, then drive her across the country. Wasn't a half-bad traveling companion, though she'd learned early to never accept his offer of a sandwich.
'Course, she was on her own for now.
Faith nerved herself to step out of the alley. Stupid. She'd been on the run all her life. Boston cops, Kakistos, the Sunnydale Police, responsibility--she should be used to it by now. Running was damn near her specialty. Even the fact she had a murder one beef hanging over her head wasn't exactly new. Hey, she was in New York City. Eight million people to hide among. Or, she could use some of the few thousand Kennedy had given her back in Oxnard for a bus ticket to anywhere in the country. Maybe even head down to the port, hop a freighter. Bunch of horny sailors, Faith figured she could work off her fare one way or another. Who needed a passport to see the world? It'd be better all around that way.
Faith clutched the pre-paid phone in her pocket, the text received four days ago in its memory.
Crap.
A SWAT team failed to appear the instant Faith darted out onto the sidewalk and order her to prone out. Good sign. Act natural. People on the run get caught because they look like people on the run. Nothing to see here, just another fresh face in the City that Never Sleeps. Faith relaxed the farther she walked. The new clothes she'd picked out in Vegas helped: tie-die T-shirt, cargo pants, and Birkenstocks. The Lonely Planet she glanced at every so often and the army pack completed the illusion of a clueless young backpacker. A breeze tickled the bared nape of her neck. Christ, did Clem have to chop off that much? Sleeping without her hair fanned out on her pillow had taken a lot of getting used to.
Striding north, Faith disappeared into the morning crowds.
+++
Faith splashed her bare feet in the water. Damn, that felt good. Walking from Holland Tunnel to Central Park hadn't tired her out; as anyone she screwed could tell, Slayers had one hell of a lot of endurance. Didn't make her feet any less sore after pounding the pavement for most of the day. She'd found the perfect spot by--what was this place called--right, Turtle Pond. To her left, a funky castle loomed above her on a low rock cliff. The crack of bat and ball could be heard from the baseball diamonds on the big lawn beyond. A cheap meal of a few pushcart hot dogs and one of those huge soft pretzels lay mostly demolished on a plastic bag spread on the ground beside her. Faith leaned back as she sipped from a bottle of iced tea. Kind of like the times she'd head to Revere Beach and splurge on a seafood platter from Kelly's.
What was this weird feeling?
Oh yeah, right. Contentment.
She scratched her neck. There'd be a wicked sunburn later on her throat, from looking up all day. Seriously, you'd think she was a hick from Peoria. It wasn't like Boston was exactly small beans. Neither had been L.A. Still, first time in the Big Apple? Had to admit, this town impressed. Everything back home had been a much smaller scale. Hell A might have been bigger, yeah. But there was no there to it. Just a big blob spread out under the smog. Faith had never seen so many buildings and people squeezed together. She'd taken her time to see as much as it as she could. Why not, the invitation was an open one. So she'd wandered all over downtown and midtown, trotting from one attraction to another at a pace that ate up the miles. Faith avoided the subway. Back in Boston, the T had been as lousy with vamps as the sewers in Sunny D.
Lot of energy pumping through this burg. If she wasn't reformed, Faith might have thought of doing some serious damage.
Huh. She wasn't that reformed--
"Pretty", said the woman behind her.
Faith froze.
Oh, goddamn it to hell. Always the blondes that ended up putting her down.
"My dad was NYPD before he moved west," Kate Lockley said, sitting beside Faith. She was dressed in chinos and a short-sleeved blouse. Casual for an LAPD detective. "This was one of my favorite views whenever we came back to visit."
"Doesn't have much over Franklin Park," Faith said. Was the flash of light off to the side a sniper scope? "Have to show some home town respect. You look, uh, good."
"Thanks. You're much better than when we last met." Kate drank from a bottle of water. "I took a lot of confessions while I was on the force. Yours stuck in my mind."
"Bet you didn't get many girls carrying a manslaughter and double murder." Faith licked her lips. "'Took'. So you retired?"
"They threw me out." Kate smiled mirthlessly. "More like I gracefully put in for early retirement before they put me through a final psych eval. Beating up a Captain who raised zombies and obsessing over every weird case you're supposed to roundfile isn't healthy for the career."
"Cops are such tards." Faith winced. "I mean-- You were good to me when I unloaded. Not like the screws or the uniforms."
"I think it was because you were in pain." Kate stared into the distance. "After a while, I saw the same expression every time I looked into the mirror."
"What're you doing now?" Faith forced herself to relax every muscle in her body.
"After putting in, I spent some time off. Re-evaluation, healing." Reaching into her pocket, Kate flipped open the badge holder bearing the silver-and-circle star of a US marshal. "Then some men from the military visited. Seems they wanted people to handle things on the law-enforcement side. Certain problems I'd had experience dealing with"
Faith closed her eyes.
"I'll come quiet." Faith tied up the corners of the bag. Give a hoot, don't pollute. "Never was going to run when the hammer came down. I had a nice vacay. But it's time for Faith to go back into her box."
"Was it as bad as we thought?" Kate ran her hand through the grass on the banks. "The rain of fire, the riots, whatever happened in Sunnydale?"
"Worse." Caleb's mocking laughter echoed through Faith's mind. "World dodged a bullet. Always does, though. I just scored a few assists."
"Pretty world to save." Kate turned to Faith. "I'm not here to arrest you."
"You're kidding," Faith said. "After what I did? Nothing gets you a free pass on murder and an escape charge."
"The specifics are being debated," Kate replied. "And no, you aren't being given a pass. There will be conditions. You might even have to accept incarceration in a secure facility. Right now, consider yourself under house arrest. Don't leave this island until we tell you to."
"Why?" Faith asked. "You heard everything I did. How can you let someone like me walk around outside a cage?"
"Because you risked everything to help a friend." Kate rose. "Because you surrendered when you could have run. Because Angel saw enough in you to save to risk dying for it. And--I owe Angel for a lot. This is paying it forward."
Numb, Faith accepted the card with Kate's name and office number on it.
"Keep in touch." Kate Lockley brushed off her pants. "If there's an emergency, don't hesitate to call. Really, don't. We'd like to hear about the next apocalypse before it's broadcast on CNN."
Faith stayed there for a long time until the shadows began to gather. She wiped her eyes. Goddamn sun. It must have made them watery. Have to buy a hat--though no power on Earth would get her to wear a Yankees cap. Nose was stuffed up, too. What good were Slayer powers if they didn't cure hayfever? Tossing her trash into a can, Faith hoofed to toward the 79th Street park exit. The towers rising above the trees at the border of the park spoke of money. Lots of it. 5th Avenue must be one high dollar nabe. Kennedy must be bunking with Willow in an apartment. Weird, she thought that the bratty New York slayer lived with her family in some huge mansion. None of those--
Holy.
Faith did a full Marge-from-East-Podunk jaw drop when she saw the mansion occupying half the block. A ten-foot high brick wall bordered the narrow end along 5th Ave. It continued around along the property line on 76th. A wrought-iron spiked fence ran halfway to Madison Ave along the front of the mansion on 75th. Faith wasn't a stranger to big-money digs. She'd been to Angel's in Sunnydale once or twice. She'd crashed a few black-tie affairs in Boston on the arm of a rich guy out slumming. This pile? It was huge, especially if you counted that land around here was nosebleed expensive. The four storey grey house put the "goth" in Gothic. Turrets at the corners and those saw-tooth bits along the roof line emphasized the Dracula's Castle theme. Gardens and trees were planted all around what might be four wings, two each on either side of the main hall. A gatehouse that should have come with a drawbridge allowed entrance to broad steps leading up to the front door.
Score ten million for Willow.
She should turn around right now. Kate had been clear. Faith was on probation. Hell, it might just be a trick so that Faith would trust the former detective enough to rope Buffy and the others into a harboring-fugitive charge. Hell of a way to nail down some leverage on the Slayer. 'Sides, Faith didn't deserve a pad like this. Saving the world? Yeah, good for you. But she'd done what she'd done. Better she hole up in some cheap flophouse. There was no reason to come here except the text on her cell. SAFE NOW. COME + CHILL. KEN. Brat had no idea what inviting Faith into her home really meant. Nah. She'd find some place and call. Tell everyone it'd be better all around if--
From within the grounds came the sounds of crashing swords and girlish laughter.
Happy. Safe. Together.
Faith sighed as she headed up the stairs. Christ, was she getting soft.