Let Me Stay Dead - August 17th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 17
Title: Let Me Stay Dead
Author:hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG:A
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Stargate people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Faith must face some uncomfortable truths from friends and family.
Notes: Part 17 of Faith Sheppard - Links Page
Seasons: Post-series/Season 2
Word Count: 2605
Day 10 on Earth (Night)
Faith held Haly’s hand as they stood in front a of the address she had been given in Denver. She lifted her other hand to knock but hesitated.
The door opened before she could do anything. There stood Buffy. She was still shorter, still blonde, and still pert-nosed with a fierce expression.
“Finally,” Buffy said. “Get in here.”
Faith blinked and followed her into the house. She looked around the living room. Dawn, Willow, Angel, Spike, and Buffy were waiting.
“Hey,” Angel said.
“I should have brought back up,” Faith whispered.
“Lil’ doesn’t count?” Spike asked.
“I’ve gotten really used to humans, they don’t overhear my every utterance.”
“Boring,” he suggested.
She grinned. “Anything but boring.” She looked around at them again. “So…what am I doing here?”
“We were ready to storm the castle if they didn’t let you leave,” Dawn said. She grabbed a candy from her pocket and approached. She squatted down and offered it to Haly.
Haly looked at Faith.
“She’s always got sweets in her pockets,” Faith told the girl.
“Since we were here,” Angel said, “we thought we’d figure out your next steps.”
“Next steps?” Faith said. “About what?”
“Well, there is still a lot of work to be done.”
“I return to the mission in ten days. I have to report back to base in six.”
“You’re going back?” Buffy said in disbelief.
Faith looked at her in surprise. “I am.”
“If the guys are half as hunky as her brother,” Dawn said, “I’ll volunteer to go with her.”
“No,” Buffy said sharply. She faced Faith. “Why?”
“Look, I know you moved mountains to get me here. I appreciate everything, but…I don’t want to come back.”
“I think you need to spell it out for us,” Spike told her. “We imagined you jailed and used only for your blood.”
“No. I spent all of ten minutes in cuffs.” She exhaled. “This planet… I don’t want it. I can save Earth from where I was, protect the people who have never done anything against me.”
“We’ve ne-” Dawn started.
“Don’t,” Spike cut her off. “You and I may be innocent in that statement, but the rest of the room isn’t, Bit.”
“So,” Buffy said, “because you are a killer, we were against you.”
“Careful, B, Summers are the only ones in this room who don’t have a body count.” She shook out her shoulders. “Look. I’m dead, okay. Faith Lehane is gone. She only ever brought pain and she did little but suffer. You know I’m alive, there is no one who would have shed tears at my funeral. Let me stay dead.”
Angel nodded. “As long as you’re making this choice of your own free will, we won’t stand in your way.”
88888888
Day 13 on Earth
“We really don’t have to do this,” Faith said again.
John rolled his eyes. He was dressed in a suit and jacket, the collar open.
Faith looked in the backseat where Haly was dressed in a navy peasant shirt and patterned black leggings. She had shiny silver ribbon interlaced through her braid.
“Stop,” John said.
“Easy for you to say,” Faith replied. She rubbed her hands along her dark blue slacks. Her matching blazer felt ill-sized.
“It’s not,” he told her. He turned the car up a long driveway to a plain tan-bricked but sprawling house.
As the car pulled to a stop, someone stepped out of the house. He was about John’s age and height with brown hair. Their faces did not share any significant markers. He gave a strained smile and a brief wave.
John got out of the car. “Dave,” he greeted their brother. Then he leaned down to look in the car. “Get out.”
Faith sighed and heard Haly get out of the backseat. Faith opened the door and stepped out.
“Came back with a wife and kid?” Dave asked.
“Not even close,” John replied. “Where is he?”
“His office.”
John nodded and started into the house.
Dave blinked after him. “Sorry. I’m Dave Sheppard.”
“Faith. This is Haly.”
“I don’t know how well you know him, but this probably isn’t his normal behavior. He and Dad just…butt heads a lot.” He waved her in. “Let’s interrupt before he storms right back out.”
They made their way through the house. They reached an office where John stood in front of a large desk with his arms crossed. The man sitting at the desk was in his mid-sixties with sharp features and silver hair. It was then Faith realized why Dave looked so much different, he favored his and John’s mother where John and Faith favored this man.
“This is ridiculous,” the man said.
Faith froze. She knew that voice. A memory flashed through her mind.
“The lab independently verified,” John bit out.
“Leslie Lehane tried this twenty years ago,” Patrick Sheppard told him. “She was a con artist and apparently she raised one.”
Faith was in the room, grabbing John to keep him from moving towards the desk. “John,” she said, “its okay.”
He looked at her with disbelief. “No it’s not.”
“My mom was a manipulative piece of shit,” she said. “And she did try and tell him about me - while extorting him for money.”
“You remember that?” Patrick asked.
“I remember the two of you yelling,” Faith confirmed. “And I remember her saying she would drop the whole thing for a thousand dollars.” She swallowed. “A thousand dollars and we forget about you or a lifetime of child support.”
Patrick paled. “You are Leslie’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not your father, no matter what your mother says.”
“I haven’t talked to my mother in a decade. She never told me anything about you.”
“How,” Dave cut in, “did you two meet?”
“Work,” John replied, “A doctor was getting DNA samples on base to test for a blood anomaly and found that we were related.”
“It’s a mistake,” Patrick told them.
“Not from where I’m standing,” Dave said. “I favor Grandpa Joe, but the three of you…”
Faith tucked her hair behind her ear and gave Dave a small smile.
He looked at Haly. “Does that mean this is my niece?”
“I recently adopted her,” Faith said.
Dave didn’t miss a beat. He kneeled next to the little girl. “Well, that makes me your Uncle Dave.”
Haly grinned at him.
“This is still in question,” Patrick told him.
“It isn’t,” John shot back.
“Faith, Dave, if you’d excuse us.”
Dave grimaced and exited the office. Faith and Haly followed. The door closed behind them.
“This is just another desperate attempt by Lesl-” Patrick told John.
“Faith hasn’t had any contact with her mother since she was a teenager,” John cut him off. “She doesn’t want anything from you. But I thought she deserved to meet the man who left her to the life she lived.”
“John…I had no reason to believe Leslie twenty years ago.”
“Except that you had slept with her.”
“Be that as it may, I had learned the kind of woman Leslie was immediately after and cut off contact with her. I only ever saw her again when she threatened me.”
“That’s when you met Faith?”
“Yes. And gave Leslie the thousand dollars she demanded to drop the entire thing. It was better than fighting with her.”
John’s jaw tightened. “So instead you left your daughter to live with that miserable woman and every deadbeat she brought into their lives.”
“I didn’t think it could be true.”
“Well, you were wrong.”
Patrick sat down and picked up the DNA results.
88888888
“Well, this makes much more sense,” Dave said as he poured two glasses of water.
“What does?” Faith asked.
He picked up the glasses and moved to the living room, handing her one of the glasses. “I’m definitely more a middle child.”
She grinned. “I was raised as an only child, but youngest would fit some things.”
He chuckled. “I’m guessing you and John have a good relationship?”
“We have moments. I don’t handle authority well.”
“And John exudes authority.”
“He’s in a command position at the base,” she replied. “So I actually fall under this authority from time to time.”
“I’m sorry.”
Faith chuckled. “According to our friends, if we weren’t related we’d probably fight just as much. We’re a lot alike.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m trained as a combat medic.”
“So a fighter and a healer…and you just happened to end up where John did?”
“We’ve got a rare blood anomaly. Ended up at the same base where a doctor was studying it. He was tracing origin when he realized we were related.”
Dave nodded. “How did he take it?”
Faith pointed towards the office door. “About as well as that. Honestly, we avoided it quite a bit at first. Then as we got to know each other and he started asking about my past, he started to tell me about you.”
“Me?”
“We were discussing Harvard and Stanford.”
“Ah, how I followed Dad and he didn’t.”
“Some. Mostly I was just teasing him about being smarter than he lets on.” She shrugged. “I have a GED but no college, so calling him a closet nerd was about the best I could do.”
“Which was a good jibe,” John said as he joined them, “until she took the MENSA test and scored high enough to be accepted.”
“I’m going to kill Radek for telling you that.” She looked up at John. “Are we good or going?”
“I think it’d be best if we go.”
She set the water glass down and stood. Haly jumped up as well.
“I’m sorry,” Dave said, though it was hard to tell what he was apologizing for or to whom. He reached into his back pocket and removed his wallet. He pulled out a business card. “Here,” he said holding it out to Faith, “I don’t know if you have e-mail where you are, but if you want to…I’d be glad to hear from.” His gaze went to John. “Both of you.”
John nodded. “E-mail is bulk sent irregularly, but we’ll try.”
88888888
Day 17 on Earth (Night)
Faith pulled open the door and smiled. “You came,” she said in surprise.
“I was invited,” Elizabeth pointed out.
Faith stepped back to allow her into the house. “We thought you’d be caught up with the situation with Doctor Jackson.”
“No. It’s been decided not to delay. He’ll remain with his team.”
“Oh, met the hunk heading up his team,” Faith said.
“Hunk?” Elizabeth chuckled.
“Which reminds me,” Faith continued into the living room, “Dawn, hunks galore in the Air Force.”
“No,” Buffy said.
“Elizabeth,” Carson said in greeting. “Beer or wine?”
“Wine, please.”
“Red or white?” Spike asked.
“A red, please.”
He handed her a glass.
“Elizabeth, this is Spike, Angel, Buffy, Willow, and Dawn. Elizabeth runs the base.”
“It’s nice to meet you all.”
“And you,” Willow said. “Come sit down.”
Faith grinned and leaned against the wall next to John.
“You wanted them to meet?” John said.
“I just thought we could use some time off the base. Besides, they needed to hear some of this crap from someone other than me.”
“And he’s the one you broke out of prison to save?” he asked, pointing to Angel.
“Like I said, I owed him.”
Buffy stood suddenly and left through the backdoor. Spike and Angel exchanged a look.
“I guess I’ll be right back,” Dawn said, setting her cup down.
“No,” Faith said as she pushed off the wall. “I’ll go.”
“Great,” Dawn sat back down and picked up the glass of wine next to her cup.
Faith plucked it from her. “Stop it. They don’t have the loose relationship with the rules that we have.”
“How do you manage around such straight laces?”
“We get our fix of adrenaline in other ways.” She handed the glass to Spike and went through the back door.
Buffy was standing in the middle of the backyard.
Faith walked over and stood next to her. Her gaze turned up. “There aren’t enough stars here.”
Buffy said nothing in response.
“I’m sorry, B.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I appreciate what you did. Really, it was an amazing thing to go against the government and military - for me.”
“Not just for you,” Buffy said. “I figured if they could do that to you, any of the Slayers with a record…”
“All for the greater good, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you disappointed that you weren’t riding in to save me?”
“No. I can see how your brother and your friends look at you. They respect you. You trust them.”
“Maybe.”
Buffy tilted her head. “The only person besides them that you trust in that room is Angel.”
“It’s easier to trust people when they didn’t see every bad decision I ever made. And Angel and I…well, we saved each other.”
“I’m sorry about the murderer crack. That wasn’t fair.”
“I’m past my past,” Faith said. “I know it’ll come back to bite me from time to time but it doesn’t define who I am or what I can do. At least not with them.”
“Good,” she sighed.
“You’ve got the opposite problem, too much history.”
“Yeah…too many hurts, too much betrayal, too much stuff.”
“So walk away, B.”
“You can do that because no one really gave you a choice. They wouldn’t just let me go.”
“You’re letting me go.”
“You have somewhere to be.”
“Who says you need a place to go to just…go?” Faith considered. “There is an entire universe of planets that don’t require us to be Slayers.”
“We made all those girls Slayers. I can’t just walk away from that.”
“You have to start your own life at some point…” She turned to look in Buffy’s eyes. “You already gave your life - twice. There doesn’t need to be a third time. Run, B, far away.”
“Dawn-”
“Is an adult. She’ll understand. And she’d probably like some room to make her own mistakes.”
“They’ll track me down.”
“So fake your death, call in a debt, and go somewhere else.”
“You really are a bad influence,” Buffy said, turning her face to the sky. “Because there is a deep, dark part of me that wants to do exactly that.”
88888888
6 Days into Flight to Earth
“What do you have there?” John asked.
“Um, the first time I met Haly,” Faith said as she laid the tablet down on the counter.
“Where did you get that?”
“The SGC, apparently Aiden recorded it and addressed it to Willow.”
John frowned. “He did?”
She nodded and pressed play on the tablet.
Faith was taking off Haly’s dirty hat and gloves.
Um, hi, Willow. You don’t know me, I’m Aiden, a friend of Faith’s. She didn’t want to record a message, said she had no one to send it to. With what I know about her, she probably really believes that…it’s not true here, she’s got friends. She’s a medic, spends most of her time taking care of people like this girl.
John walked into the frame, talking to Faith and Haly.
That’s John, he and Faith are…friends. It was awkward at first, but I think they both appreciate it. I know that she talks about you and B and Dawn and Angel a lot. Giles too.
The scene changed to the wall.
Faith said this was an idea she got from the Cleveland House. I don’t think she knows we know about it. I just…I wanted you know that she was okay.
The clip ended. Faith swallowed. “Did you know he’d…?”
“No. Did Willow ever get this?”
“No, the Council refused the attempt, believing the military could and would do anything to get Willow and Buffy to back off.”
He nodded, after having met the witch and other Slayer, he could definitely say they weren’t very trusting.
She looked down at the paused video. “It’s going to be strange going back there without him.”
“We’ll find Ford,” he said determinately, “we will.”
Title: Let Me Stay Dead
Author:hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG:A
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Stargate people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Faith must face some uncomfortable truths from friends and family.
Notes: Part 17 of Faith Sheppard - Links Page
Seasons: Post-series/Season 2
Word Count: 2605
Day 10 on Earth (Night)
Faith held Haly’s hand as they stood in front a of the address she had been given in Denver. She lifted her other hand to knock but hesitated.
The door opened before she could do anything. There stood Buffy. She was still shorter, still blonde, and still pert-nosed with a fierce expression.
“Finally,” Buffy said. “Get in here.”
Faith blinked and followed her into the house. She looked around the living room. Dawn, Willow, Angel, Spike, and Buffy were waiting.
“Hey,” Angel said.
“I should have brought back up,” Faith whispered.
“Lil’ doesn’t count?” Spike asked.
“I’ve gotten really used to humans, they don’t overhear my every utterance.”
“Boring,” he suggested.
She grinned. “Anything but boring.” She looked around at them again. “So…what am I doing here?”
“We were ready to storm the castle if they didn’t let you leave,” Dawn said. She grabbed a candy from her pocket and approached. She squatted down and offered it to Haly.
Haly looked at Faith.
“She’s always got sweets in her pockets,” Faith told the girl.
“Since we were here,” Angel said, “we thought we’d figure out your next steps.”
“Next steps?” Faith said. “About what?”
“Well, there is still a lot of work to be done.”
“I return to the mission in ten days. I have to report back to base in six.”
“You’re going back?” Buffy said in disbelief.
Faith looked at her in surprise. “I am.”
“If the guys are half as hunky as her brother,” Dawn said, “I’ll volunteer to go with her.”
“No,” Buffy said sharply. She faced Faith. “Why?”
“Look, I know you moved mountains to get me here. I appreciate everything, but…I don’t want to come back.”
“I think you need to spell it out for us,” Spike told her. “We imagined you jailed and used only for your blood.”
“No. I spent all of ten minutes in cuffs.” She exhaled. “This planet… I don’t want it. I can save Earth from where I was, protect the people who have never done anything against me.”
“We’ve ne-” Dawn started.
“Don’t,” Spike cut her off. “You and I may be innocent in that statement, but the rest of the room isn’t, Bit.”
“So,” Buffy said, “because you are a killer, we were against you.”
“Careful, B, Summers are the only ones in this room who don’t have a body count.” She shook out her shoulders. “Look. I’m dead, okay. Faith Lehane is gone. She only ever brought pain and she did little but suffer. You know I’m alive, there is no one who would have shed tears at my funeral. Let me stay dead.”
Angel nodded. “As long as you’re making this choice of your own free will, we won’t stand in your way.”
88888888
Day 13 on Earth
“We really don’t have to do this,” Faith said again.
John rolled his eyes. He was dressed in a suit and jacket, the collar open.
Faith looked in the backseat where Haly was dressed in a navy peasant shirt and patterned black leggings. She had shiny silver ribbon interlaced through her braid.
“Stop,” John said.
“Easy for you to say,” Faith replied. She rubbed her hands along her dark blue slacks. Her matching blazer felt ill-sized.
“It’s not,” he told her. He turned the car up a long driveway to a plain tan-bricked but sprawling house.
As the car pulled to a stop, someone stepped out of the house. He was about John’s age and height with brown hair. Their faces did not share any significant markers. He gave a strained smile and a brief wave.
John got out of the car. “Dave,” he greeted their brother. Then he leaned down to look in the car. “Get out.”
Faith sighed and heard Haly get out of the backseat. Faith opened the door and stepped out.
“Came back with a wife and kid?” Dave asked.
“Not even close,” John replied. “Where is he?”
“His office.”
John nodded and started into the house.
Dave blinked after him. “Sorry. I’m Dave Sheppard.”
“Faith. This is Haly.”
“I don’t know how well you know him, but this probably isn’t his normal behavior. He and Dad just…butt heads a lot.” He waved her in. “Let’s interrupt before he storms right back out.”
They made their way through the house. They reached an office where John stood in front of a large desk with his arms crossed. The man sitting at the desk was in his mid-sixties with sharp features and silver hair. It was then Faith realized why Dave looked so much different, he favored his and John’s mother where John and Faith favored this man.
“This is ridiculous,” the man said.
Faith froze. She knew that voice. A memory flashed through her mind.
“The lab independently verified,” John bit out.
“Leslie Lehane tried this twenty years ago,” Patrick Sheppard told him. “She was a con artist and apparently she raised one.”
Faith was in the room, grabbing John to keep him from moving towards the desk. “John,” she said, “its okay.”
He looked at her with disbelief. “No it’s not.”
“My mom was a manipulative piece of shit,” she said. “And she did try and tell him about me - while extorting him for money.”
“You remember that?” Patrick asked.
“I remember the two of you yelling,” Faith confirmed. “And I remember her saying she would drop the whole thing for a thousand dollars.” She swallowed. “A thousand dollars and we forget about you or a lifetime of child support.”
Patrick paled. “You are Leslie’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not your father, no matter what your mother says.”
“I haven’t talked to my mother in a decade. She never told me anything about you.”
“How,” Dave cut in, “did you two meet?”
“Work,” John replied, “A doctor was getting DNA samples on base to test for a blood anomaly and found that we were related.”
“It’s a mistake,” Patrick told them.
“Not from where I’m standing,” Dave said. “I favor Grandpa Joe, but the three of you…”
Faith tucked her hair behind her ear and gave Dave a small smile.
He looked at Haly. “Does that mean this is my niece?”
“I recently adopted her,” Faith said.
Dave didn’t miss a beat. He kneeled next to the little girl. “Well, that makes me your Uncle Dave.”
Haly grinned at him.
“This is still in question,” Patrick told him.
“It isn’t,” John shot back.
“Faith, Dave, if you’d excuse us.”
Dave grimaced and exited the office. Faith and Haly followed. The door closed behind them.
“This is just another desperate attempt by Lesl-” Patrick told John.
“Faith hasn’t had any contact with her mother since she was a teenager,” John cut him off. “She doesn’t want anything from you. But I thought she deserved to meet the man who left her to the life she lived.”
“John…I had no reason to believe Leslie twenty years ago.”
“Except that you had slept with her.”
“Be that as it may, I had learned the kind of woman Leslie was immediately after and cut off contact with her. I only ever saw her again when she threatened me.”
“That’s when you met Faith?”
“Yes. And gave Leslie the thousand dollars she demanded to drop the entire thing. It was better than fighting with her.”
John’s jaw tightened. “So instead you left your daughter to live with that miserable woman and every deadbeat she brought into their lives.”
“I didn’t think it could be true.”
“Well, you were wrong.”
Patrick sat down and picked up the DNA results.
88888888
“Well, this makes much more sense,” Dave said as he poured two glasses of water.
“What does?” Faith asked.
He picked up the glasses and moved to the living room, handing her one of the glasses. “I’m definitely more a middle child.”
She grinned. “I was raised as an only child, but youngest would fit some things.”
He chuckled. “I’m guessing you and John have a good relationship?”
“We have moments. I don’t handle authority well.”
“And John exudes authority.”
“He’s in a command position at the base,” she replied. “So I actually fall under this authority from time to time.”
“I’m sorry.”
Faith chuckled. “According to our friends, if we weren’t related we’d probably fight just as much. We’re a lot alike.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m trained as a combat medic.”
“So a fighter and a healer…and you just happened to end up where John did?”
“We’ve got a rare blood anomaly. Ended up at the same base where a doctor was studying it. He was tracing origin when he realized we were related.”
Dave nodded. “How did he take it?”
Faith pointed towards the office door. “About as well as that. Honestly, we avoided it quite a bit at first. Then as we got to know each other and he started asking about my past, he started to tell me about you.”
“Me?”
“We were discussing Harvard and Stanford.”
“Ah, how I followed Dad and he didn’t.”
“Some. Mostly I was just teasing him about being smarter than he lets on.” She shrugged. “I have a GED but no college, so calling him a closet nerd was about the best I could do.”
“Which was a good jibe,” John said as he joined them, “until she took the MENSA test and scored high enough to be accepted.”
“I’m going to kill Radek for telling you that.” She looked up at John. “Are we good or going?”
“I think it’d be best if we go.”
She set the water glass down and stood. Haly jumped up as well.
“I’m sorry,” Dave said, though it was hard to tell what he was apologizing for or to whom. He reached into his back pocket and removed his wallet. He pulled out a business card. “Here,” he said holding it out to Faith, “I don’t know if you have e-mail where you are, but if you want to…I’d be glad to hear from.” His gaze went to John. “Both of you.”
John nodded. “E-mail is bulk sent irregularly, but we’ll try.”
88888888
Day 17 on Earth (Night)
Faith pulled open the door and smiled. “You came,” she said in surprise.
“I was invited,” Elizabeth pointed out.
Faith stepped back to allow her into the house. “We thought you’d be caught up with the situation with Doctor Jackson.”
“No. It’s been decided not to delay. He’ll remain with his team.”
“Oh, met the hunk heading up his team,” Faith said.
“Hunk?” Elizabeth chuckled.
“Which reminds me,” Faith continued into the living room, “Dawn, hunks galore in the Air Force.”
“No,” Buffy said.
“Elizabeth,” Carson said in greeting. “Beer or wine?”
“Wine, please.”
“Red or white?” Spike asked.
“A red, please.”
He handed her a glass.
“Elizabeth, this is Spike, Angel, Buffy, Willow, and Dawn. Elizabeth runs the base.”
“It’s nice to meet you all.”
“And you,” Willow said. “Come sit down.”
Faith grinned and leaned against the wall next to John.
“You wanted them to meet?” John said.
“I just thought we could use some time off the base. Besides, they needed to hear some of this crap from someone other than me.”
“And he’s the one you broke out of prison to save?” he asked, pointing to Angel.
“Like I said, I owed him.”
Buffy stood suddenly and left through the backdoor. Spike and Angel exchanged a look.
“I guess I’ll be right back,” Dawn said, setting her cup down.
“No,” Faith said as she pushed off the wall. “I’ll go.”
“Great,” Dawn sat back down and picked up the glass of wine next to her cup.
Faith plucked it from her. “Stop it. They don’t have the loose relationship with the rules that we have.”
“How do you manage around such straight laces?”
“We get our fix of adrenaline in other ways.” She handed the glass to Spike and went through the back door.
Buffy was standing in the middle of the backyard.
Faith walked over and stood next to her. Her gaze turned up. “There aren’t enough stars here.”
Buffy said nothing in response.
“I’m sorry, B.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I appreciate what you did. Really, it was an amazing thing to go against the government and military - for me.”
“Not just for you,” Buffy said. “I figured if they could do that to you, any of the Slayers with a record…”
“All for the greater good, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you disappointed that you weren’t riding in to save me?”
“No. I can see how your brother and your friends look at you. They respect you. You trust them.”
“Maybe.”
Buffy tilted her head. “The only person besides them that you trust in that room is Angel.”
“It’s easier to trust people when they didn’t see every bad decision I ever made. And Angel and I…well, we saved each other.”
“I’m sorry about the murderer crack. That wasn’t fair.”
“I’m past my past,” Faith said. “I know it’ll come back to bite me from time to time but it doesn’t define who I am or what I can do. At least not with them.”
“Good,” she sighed.
“You’ve got the opposite problem, too much history.”
“Yeah…too many hurts, too much betrayal, too much stuff.”
“So walk away, B.”
“You can do that because no one really gave you a choice. They wouldn’t just let me go.”
“You’re letting me go.”
“You have somewhere to be.”
“Who says you need a place to go to just…go?” Faith considered. “There is an entire universe of planets that don’t require us to be Slayers.”
“We made all those girls Slayers. I can’t just walk away from that.”
“You have to start your own life at some point…” She turned to look in Buffy’s eyes. “You already gave your life - twice. There doesn’t need to be a third time. Run, B, far away.”
“Dawn-”
“Is an adult. She’ll understand. And she’d probably like some room to make her own mistakes.”
“They’ll track me down.”
“So fake your death, call in a debt, and go somewhere else.”
“You really are a bad influence,” Buffy said, turning her face to the sky. “Because there is a deep, dark part of me that wants to do exactly that.”
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6 Days into Flight to Earth
“What do you have there?” John asked.
“Um, the first time I met Haly,” Faith said as she laid the tablet down on the counter.
“Where did you get that?”
“The SGC, apparently Aiden recorded it and addressed it to Willow.”
John frowned. “He did?”
She nodded and pressed play on the tablet.
Faith was taking off Haly’s dirty hat and gloves.
Um, hi, Willow. You don’t know me, I’m Aiden, a friend of Faith’s. She didn’t want to record a message, said she had no one to send it to. With what I know about her, she probably really believes that…it’s not true here, she’s got friends. She’s a medic, spends most of her time taking care of people like this girl.
John walked into the frame, talking to Faith and Haly.
That’s John, he and Faith are…friends. It was awkward at first, but I think they both appreciate it. I know that she talks about you and B and Dawn and Angel a lot. Giles too.
The scene changed to the wall.
Faith said this was an idea she got from the Cleveland House. I don’t think she knows we know about it. I just…I wanted you know that she was okay.
The clip ended. Faith swallowed. “Did you know he’d…?”
“No. Did Willow ever get this?”
“No, the Council refused the attempt, believing the military could and would do anything to get Willow and Buffy to back off.”
He nodded, after having met the witch and other Slayer, he could definitely say they weren’t very trusting.
She looked down at the paused video. “It’s going to be strange going back there without him.”
“We’ll find Ford,” he said determinately, “we will.”