A/N: Thank you to every one who is still reading this story. I know that pretending the whole series is about Faith is a hard concept to grasp, but I do promise that there will be absolutely, positively NO Spaith in this story. It is strictly Spuffy. That being said, Buffy shows up in the next chapter. Promise. =)
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Chapter 1
London-2005
Spike sauntered into the headquarters of the Watcher’s Council and bypassed the watcher-in-training that was playing secretary outside of Rupert Giles’ office.
“Look here, mate. ‘M here because I was summoned,” he spat the word out with disdain. “There’s many a place I would rather be than here, so be a good secretary and go announce my presence to their Highnesses of the Grand Council or whatever they’re calling themselves these days.”
“Hello, Spike.”
Spike whirled around at the sound of her voice. It had been a year since the fight against the Senior Partners, a year since the talk about her having to “find” herself before starting a relationship, and a year of him staring at the wall of his gloomy L.A. apartment dreaming of her.
“Hello, luv.”
The year apart had been good to Faith. She had put on some much needed weight and added some highlights to her hair.
“You look…good,” he said, losing a bit of his bravado.
“Thanks, I’ve been doing well. You?”
“Good, fighting the good fight and all. Keeping the baddies down to a minimum in L.A. now that the former souled poof isn’t living there.”
Angel had received the Shanshu once the fight with the senior partners had ended. Seems you couldn’t sign a prophecy away. He had moved to London to be near Faith, although at the time, she had made it clear to both Angel and Spike that she wasn’t planning on dating either of them. It had been part of her “finding” herself speech.
“Right,” Faith said.
They stared at each other awkwardly for a few more minutes before Giles walked out of the office.
“Faith, what are you…Spike, you’re here. Good, good…uh, come in.” Giles ushered the vampire into his office. “Can I get you something, uh, scotch? We got some blood for you…”
“Why’m I here?” Spike said, throwing himself into a chair and propping his feet up on Giles’ desk.
“Er, yes. Right to the point, good. As you know, since the Council has rebuilt itself, we’ve been trying to use our resources to track down all the new Slayers and bring them here for training. We explain to the girls about their Calling and present ourselves as a private school to the girl’s parents.”
“And if they don’t want to come then we don’t pressure them,” Faith added.
“Wot’s this got to do with me?” Spike asked.
Faith took a deep breath. “Two months ago, Willow came across a new Slayer on the radar. The girl was in New York, so we sent one of the local Watchers to go talk to her. He called us when he had her in sight, as is procedure, but we didn’t hear from him again. One of his Slayers called us several hours later saying that she had saved him from some sort of demon and that he couldn’t remember anything.”
“Wot happened to the new girl?” Spike asked.
“Well, n-n-now that’s just it,” Giles said, waving his hand aimlessly in the air. “Almost a week later, Willow detected the girl’s signature again. This time she was in Paris, so we sent Andrew and Willow to go get her. Willow said that she told them that she wanted nothing to do with the Watcher’s Council and then they were attacked by some sort of creature that Willow has been unable to identify. The girl also altered Andrew’s memory so that he wouldn’t remember her. Obviously the spell didn’t work on Willow so she was able to tell us what happened. Of course we started researching right away.”
“Three weeks ago, her signature popped up again and Angel and I went to check it out,” Faith said, looking down at the floor when she mentioned Angel’s name. “She told us that she would speak to no one from the Watcher’s Council.”
Spike snorted “Sounds to me like she wants to be left alone. Did you ever think that maybe she doesn’t want to come to your glorified finishing school?”
“Yes and we respect that, but we want to know how she knows what the Council is to begin with,” Giles said.
“And who the Bringer-looking creeps are,” Faith added.
“Bringers? Like from the First?” Spike asked.
“Sorta, but not exactly. Their eyes and mouths were sewn shut, but their cloaks were this weird gray color, and they didn’t attack Angel and me at all. They only went after the girl even when we started attacking them.”
“What happened to the girl?”
“She’s an amazing fighter. She was taking these demons out like they were nothing, and let me tell you, these demons were NOT nothing. Angel and I had to tag team them,” Faith said. “By the time we killed the last of the demons, she was gone.”
“Wot’s this got to do with me?” Spike asked.
“She won’t talk to someone from the Watcher’s Council,” Giles started.
“You’re not apart of the Council,” Faith finished. “We want you to go talk to her. Find out what she knows and what those demons are.”
“Again, why me? You could get any bloke to do this. Xander ain’t apart of your new Council, why not get him?”
“Because she is obviously a fully-functioning witch and Slayer, and we can’t just send anyone to go talk to her,” Giles said, exasperated.
“Spike,” Faith said, quietly. “Please, we need your help.”
Spike sighed. He was going to do it. He knew he was going to do whatever they asked the moment he had first answered the phone three days earlier and agreed to show up. Denying Faith was not something that he was good at. “Where is the bloody bint?”
“Chicago,” Faith said with a smile. “You leave in two hours.”
“So keen to get rid of me already, luv?” He smiled as Faith squirmed beneath his glare.
“Come on, Spike. We don’t have time for games. This girl could be in serious trouble-“
“Or be serious trouble,” Spike interrupted.
“I’m dating Angel,” Faith blurted out.
Spike froze.
“Er, um, I’ll just,” Giles muttered, excusing himself from the room.
“I don’t smell him on you, luv,” Spike said.
“Okay, that’s gross. ‘Sides, I knew about the smelling thing so I showered and wouldn’t let him touch me…plus, this is a new outfit, so…” she trailed off. “I wanted to tell you, but…”
“You wanted to make sure that I agreed to help you first, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she said, softly.
“Maybe this girl’s got the right idea, not wanting to throw herself in with you lot. You might save the world from time to time but you’re a crap group to work with, always thinking that you know wot’s best for everyone else in the world.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I do care for you Spike.”
“Save it. I’ll talk to yer girl, but after this, you leave me alone. Let me spend the rest of my unlife in peace.”
Faith swallowed thickly and nodded. “We won’t bother you again.”
“Good.” Spike stood up, spun on his heel, and left the room, leaving Faith crying quietly behind him.
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