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~Part 1~

A murmuring sound filtered through her ears.  'Not sound, sounds', she amended mentally.  She ignored it, clinging to the remnants of sleep's welcome oblivion.  Why wake up?  It hurt too much.  Life hurt too much.  Eventually the fuzzy noises receded into nothingness, and once again the dark Slayer slept.

~~~~~

"Will she be all right?"

"I've done all I can Wesley.  Her Slayer healing should kick in and do the rest adequately now", the slender redhead said soothingly, placing an elegant hand on her friend's shoulder.

The former Watcher gave the witch a tremulous smile.  "Thank you Willow."

She nodded, her features thoughtful as she looked at the raven haired woman on Wesley's bed.  Willow knew that both Wesley and Angel insisted that Faith had turned over a new leaf, but she couldn't help but worry a little.  After all she had often been one of Faith's favorite targets when she'd gone over to the dark side.

'Dark side....', Willow pondered the thought.  Everything had been so easy back then when she'd been in high school. When it had all been black and white.  When good was good, and bad was evil.  When vampires were always bad and not allies, or even mates.  She smiled, thinking of Angel.  But now, none of that was true anymore.  She was alienated from friends she thought would stand by her forever.  She was a witch, something society seemed to want to insist made her evil just on principle.  She was mated to an ensouled vampire,  and shared a demon with said vampire through a bond so strong, she'd left Sunnydale behind without looking back.  The redhead shook her head wearily.  'There was something about loving Angel and sharing Angelus with her mate, that put good and evil in perspective.'

Stretching her sore muscles, she moved to find a seat.  The spell caster was exhausted.  The healing spells she'd used on Faith's stab wound and the
various bruises she'd found upon examination of the Slayer's body, had taken a toll on her reserves of energy.  Quietly, she watched as other woman slept
fitfully and made herself a promise.  This time she would give Faith a fair chance.  Willow had realized recently that she hadn't done so back in high school.  Buffy's disappearance had been too fresh and painful. However, now that was all past, and she resolved to do so now.  Faith deserved it.

Willow noticed Wesley re-enter the room, a fresh basin of cool water in his hands.  She smiled slightly, she really had grown to like and respect the former Watcher.  There was so much more to him than the callow, sanctimonious, tweed wearer she had known in Sunnydale.  Closing her eyes, the beautiful witch wished Angel was with her.  Unfortunately, a small inconvenience called exhaustion, had kept the vampire at the Hyperion.  He'd had a rough and very late... or was it early morning?  Still, it was only a couple more hours before he would be rested enough to make his way here, and for that, she was grateful.
 

~Part 2~

They were after her!  Not again...  She ran.  Her feet moving rapidly beneath her, pounding on pavement.  Her chest heaved with the effort, as her breath came rapidly and almost painfully into burning lungs.

Faith glanced over her shoulder quickly.  Nothing. She gasped in surprise, the breath being stolen from her lips by shock.  'Where did it go', she wondered frantically.  She knew it was after her.  It wouldn't give up.  Its comrades hadn't, at least, not until she'd killed them.

She kept running.

After a few minutes she looked back again.  Metal glinted in the early morning sunlight.  PAIN!  She screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

"Faith!  Faith!  Wake up Faith."

The dark haired Slayer lurched from her nightmare to a sitting position, her last scream, still echoing in her own ears and in the room around her.

"It was just a dream Faith, you're safe here", Wesley crooned, trying to soothe the woman.  Willow could only watch, too surprised by the violence of the other woman's nightmare, to react quickly.

Abruptly, the rogue Slayer's eyes snapped open.
 

~Part 3~

"Faith?", Willow said gently.  The Slayer's dark eyes widened as she finally became aware of her surroundings. Eventually they landed on the wiccan.

"Red?", Faith croaked, surprise evident in her voice. "What are you doing here?"

Realizing suddenly that her hand was being held, her head turned.  "Wesley", she gasped, pulling her hand away as if the former Watcher's touch burned
her flesh.

The Englishman looked startled, and sat back.  Although he knew she was probably still groggy and acting on her instinct for self-preservation, the withdrawal of her hand, felt like a rejection.  Clearing his throat, Wesley stood.   "Let me get you a glass of water Faith, Willow can fill you in on the changes.  With everything that's been going on of late, I'm afraid Angel and I have been quite remiss in visiting you and keeping you informed."  Turning on his heel, he walked out of the room, unaware that Faith's eyes lingered on his back.

The Slayer frowned and slowly turned back to face the redhead seated to her right.  She opened her mouth as if to speak, only to close it suddenly.  A
memory flitted through her mind.  "My back... it doesn't hurt so much anymore.  How-- I mean, what happened?"

"Well we were all hoping to ask you actually", Willow replied.  "But I understand if you don't want to talk about it immediately.  You can tell us, if you want when Angel and the others get here."

"The others?"

"Yeah, Gunn and Cordelia?"

Faith nodded, she'd heard of Gunn, Angel had told her about him on his last visit.  What she didn't know was why Willow was here, in Wesley's apartment.
"So, uhhh... Red, what happened to the girl?  You know the one I saw you with in Sunnydale?"

"That's been over for a while. I live here in L.A. now", the witch answered.

"Oh, so you and Wesley, huh?", the Slayer commented, her voice small and shaky.

Willow shook her head, her mouth forming a lopsided grin.  "Nope, guess again."

Faith's dark eyes brightened, and the redhead resisted the urge to smirk.  "Gunn?", the Slayer guessed this time, her voice stronger and more confident.

"Nope", Willow said again.

"Holy shit!! Angel!?"

The wiccan nodded.

"Wow, how did that happen?"

"Its kind of a long story", Willow began, "it all started with one of my spells--"

"Ahhh...", Faith said in sudden understanding.  Exasperated, the hacker rolled her eyes and huffed.

"I'll make a long story short. Basically the spell was supposed to bring me to the person who needed me most.  I did it because I thought it would bring me to Buffy, she had taken off to fight the demon du jour by herself.  Well imagine my surprise when the spell didn't take me to Buffy, or the blond you asked about, who's name is Tara by the way.... or even Xander.  Instead it brought me to Angel."

"Really?  Angel needed you?"

"Yeah", the redhead said simply, a happy smile on her face.

"But what about the whole 'happy Angel' issue?"

"Oh, that's fixed.  We're bonded, we sort of share his demon and even part of my soul to anchor him, its complicated, but its fixed", Willow said in a rush, feeling the need to reassure the other woman.

Faith quieted, her face thoughtful.  "Well that's cool and all but it doesn't seem bad... why would Angel and uhh... Wesley, stop visiting me?"

"That's where this gets more complicated, see while Angel and I were getting together and fighting the good fight, that damned law firm Wolfram and Hart
had somehow summoned Angel's Sire Darla from hell.  What's more, she wasn't a vampire anymore, but human.  She laid low for a while, then started
drugging and invading Angel's dreams, started stalking him, tried to kill me, caused problems between Angel and I, tried to seduce him, and ended up
getting toasted by me", Willow babbled quickly, outlining only the bare essentials of what had happened during the past six months. "And that's only the Darla story, those Wolfram and Hart idiots kept turning up like bad pennies.  Not to mention, Cordelia's been having an lot of those awful visions."

The Slayer's face twisted in distaste at the mention of the lawfirm.  "Jeez", Faith commented, "I think I actually understood that."

It was at that moment that Wesley came back into the room.  Willow watched in confusion as Faith's manner cooled, her body stiffening and her face
becoming expressionless.

The former Watcher carried a tray with him.  Instead of just the water he'd mentioned when he left, there was a cup of vegetable soup, a turkey sandwich, a glass of water and a glass of orange juice.  Carefully, he placed the tray on the small table by the bed.  "I thought you might be hungry.  So I took the liberty of making a few things for you."

The injured woman offered the dark haired man a brash smirk.  "Thanks Wes", she managed to utter, her mouth already full of turkey on rye.

Willow watched the scene in bemusement.  Only moments before, Faith had seemed vulnerable and open, but the minute Wesley had come into the room,
her body language had completely changed.  She seemed for a moment, almost frighteningly like the Faith of old, the Faith Willow had feared.  Somehow
though, the hacker knew, that this entire scene wasn't what it appeared.

Wesley had lapsed into silence, his eyes were rooted to the floor, and Willow wondered what he was thinking about.  He was probably dying of curiosity, like she was.  It was killing her not to just ask the other girl how she had come to be out of jail, get beat up and stabbed in the back, and yet still stumble somehow to the British ex-Watcher's home for help.

A familiar emotion tickled at the edges of the cyberwitch's mind.  'Angel!'

'I've missed you beloved.  The sun's finally setting, I'll be at Wesley's in ten.'

'And Gunn and Delia?', Willow sent through the bond.

'They should get there about the same time.  Delia's still wary of Faith, and Gunn is sticking by her just in case Faith goes 'all evil' again, as Cordelia said', Angel sent back.

'I love you.'

'And I love you ionuin.'

Faith chewed silently, unable to look away from the faraway, almost rapturous look on the small redhead's face.  'It was strange, but it almost seemed like....', the rogue Slayer shook her head, she didn't know what it seemed like, only that it was kind of weird.  Unable to stifle the curiosity, she looked over at Wesley, and gestured with her eyes to the other woman.

"O-oh that", he began a bit haltingly, "Willow's probably talking to Angel.'

The raven haired woman blinked, and coughed on the last piece of her sandwich.  Quickly, Wesley handed her the glass of water.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah.  But did you just say, that she and Angel were probably talking?"

"Did Willow explain the bond to you?", Wesley asked.

"In really humongously general terms, but yeah."

"Well", he said, looking over at the redhead, "that's sort of what it looks like.  They don't really do that too often, but if they're separated for any length of time, they occasionally check in with each other like that.  She can do other things too, like use the demon's strength, and well Angel can even spend some time in the sun."

"Wow.  So they're like meant to be, fate, a super couple, like on those soap operas", Faith murmured aloud.  "Hmmm... I always thought Fang could do
better than B."  The dark Slayer smirked, the grin widened, until finally to Wesley's consternation, the young woman began to laugh quietly, yet uncontrollably.  Tears were actually streaming down her face.  "Oh man, this is too good.  Come on Wes you have to tell me....  I mean, I take it B didn't take this turn of events very well, huh?"

Wesley sighed.  "That is an understatement.  Sunnydale has cut off all ties to Willow. No one speaks to her any longer, with the exception of Spike, and
he's not exactly the most reliable e-mail buddy she's ever had."

Faith's laughter stopped.  "Even Xander?"

"Yes."

"And here I thought they were like the best of friends.  I was so jealous of that.  Man, that really bites."

"Yeah, it does", Willow answered, surprising the two dark haired people.  Her green eyes were a bit too bright, but before either Faith or Wesley could comment on the redhead's statement, a knock sounded on the door.

Fleet of foot, the witch was out of the room in an instant, a single name on her lips.  "Angel."
 

~Part 4~

Angel pulled his mate close, crushing her smaller form to his body.  He'd missed her.  All those months with her at by his side when he slept, had spoiled him.  Her warmth, her touch, her very presence were essential to his well being, and as a result he hadn't rested as well or as long as he knew she had hoped.  Still, he felt much better physically.  The Troxxas demon he'd killed that night before had taken a nasty swipe at his leg, but the claw marks were already almost gone.

He sighed, and breathed in his witch's scent, closing his eyes for a moment.

"I missed you", Willow said softly.

"Missed you too", the dark vampire responded, gently tilting her face to his for a kiss.

"Damn!", a deep male voice said suddenly.  "Don't public displays of affection get a little old after about the age of sixteen?  I mean, Willow I can understand.... but what's your excuse big guy?"

A melodramatic female sigh echoed the man's sentiments.  "Honestly, how tacky", Cordelia teased.

The witch and vampire broke their rapidly heating embrace, a blush rising to Willow's cheeks.  Angel smirked.  "Gunn, Delia, to what do we owe the
pleasure?"

The Seer frowned.  "What do you mean?  You told us to meet you here because of Faith...."

"I meant, the whole being on time thing.  Isn't that reserved for special occasions."

Rolling her eyes, Cordelia pushed by her friends.  "Hardy har har Angel." The brunette looked around the room.  "So where is little Miss Likes To Kill, and where's Wesley?"  Expressive hazel eyes widened.  "Oh my God!  You didn't leave them alone together, did you Willow?  Don't you know what happened the last time those two were alone together?  Do hot knives and jagged glass remind you of anything people?"

"They're fine Delia, they're in Wesley's bedroom, Faith was hurt badly and I had to do a little damage repair", Willow said quickly, walking toward where
Faith lay.

"Did you ask her how it happened?  And what she's doing out of the slammer? I thought she still had at least four more years of hard time, before she was even eligible for patrol", Gunn commented.

The red witch shook her head.  "I wanted to wait until we were all here.  If she wants to tell us, I wanted her only to have to tell it once.  Whatever happened was harsh.  She was beaten pretty badly, and if Wesley hadn't managed to staunch the blood loss from that stab wound in her shoulder, she'd be dead.  To tell you the truth I don't even know how she made it here, she lost a lot of  blood."

By tacit agreement the group of friends made their way to Wesley's room. Willow noticed immediately that the Slayer had managed to finish the sandwich, the soup and even most of the juice.  Her eyes lingered on Faith's and Wesley's face, and she had to wonder at the undercurrent of tension which ran through the room.  As far as she knew, the British man had forgiven his ex-Slayer for her actions the year before.  He'd even visited her a few times while she was in prison.  Not that Willow assumed some great friendship had been kindled... but she couldn't understand why the two brunette's seemed so completely uncomfortable around each other.

Faith swallowed, blinked, and glanced down at the bed's coverlet.  It was a shade of blue, which oddly enough, sort of reminded her of Wesley's eyes. She stared at it for a few moments before steeling herself.  She looked up. Her eyes first landed on Angel, the dark vampire stood behind Willow, his hands resting on the slender woman's shoulders.  His dark eyes were warm, and there was a half smirk on his face.  Faith couldn't help but grin. She'd never really seen him smile before.  'Red must be good for him', she thought.

The next person she saw was a tall, handsome black man about her age.  He had to be Gunn.  His posture was relaxed, his hands in the pockets of his
baggy jeans.  He stood slightly in front of Cordelia.  Faith flinched at this, his body language told her a lot.

Finally, unable to put if off any longer, the rogue Slayer met the Cordelia's gaze.  The Seer stared at her long and hard, before nodding minutely and lowering her folded arms.  Faith had the feeling that her worth had just been weighed somehow.  She hoped she passed whatever test the other brunette had just performed.

"How are you feeling?", Angel asked.

Faith grinned lopsidedly.  "Five by five.  Seriously, Red here is better than an army of doctors.  She does great work."

"She does doesn't she?", the dark vampire remarked, pride in his voice. Willow ducked her head at the praise, suddenly finding the former rogue demon hunter's beige rug, amazingly interesting.

Wesley chuckled, and stood.  He gestured to the man by Cordelia, "and this is our newest ally Faith, meet Charles Gunn.  Gunn meet Faith."

The raven haired Slayer tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and nodded at the young man.  "Hey.  Heard a lot about you Gunn."

For a moment, the youth was silent, it seemed to Wesley that his friend was trying hard to decide what tack to take with Faith.  He supposed it probably
wasn't possible for the street tough to be completely friendly, considering what the woman had done to both him and Cordelia. Especially Cordelia.

Gunn's brown eyes flickered from Faith's face to Wesley's.  "Faith", he said politely, nodding to acknowledge her presence.

Suddenly a bit tired, the dark Slayer leaned back against the pillows and yawned.

Angel frowned.  "Are you tired?  We could leave you alone and come back later?"

Remembering her vivid, technicolor nightmare/memory, Faith shook her head quickly.  "No! No... uhh... don't wanna sleep."

"You're sure?", Willow asked.

"Yeah."

"So do you want to tell us what happened?", Angel queried.

Reaching for her glass of water, Faith flinched, the movement overextended her injury.  She released a hissing breath, and smiled gratefully up at Wesley when he handed her the glass.  She took a long swallow and then raised her eyes to meet Angel's.  She nodded, indicating she would tell them what she could.
 

~Part 5~

Faith took a deep breath before launching into her story.  "Four days ago, I was in jail minding my own business on laundry duty.  One minute I'm folding fashionable orange jumpsuits and beige sheets I'm sure were once probably white--"

"Ewww!", Cordelia interrupted loudly, her nose wrinkling in distaste.

The dark haired Slayer grinned.  "Anyway, the next thing I knew I'm getting hauled out 'cause I had a visitor.  I thought maybe it was Angel or
Wesley....  Instead it was one of those Wolfram and Hart lawyers."

"Lindsey", Angel growled.

Faith frowned.  "No I don't think so.  Wasn't Lindsey the pretty boy, the one with the great blue eyes?"

Angel arched a dark eyebrow.

"Naw, sorry Fang it wasn't him.  It was the chick."

"Lilah then", Wesley said.

"Yeah that's her", Faith agreed.  "She told me Wolfram and Hart had decided to give me another chance to make good on our deal.  They were going to get me out, and all I had to do was finish what I started and kill Angel."

The assembled group of evil fighters stiffened, staring at the girl on the bed.  Her brown eyes widened.  "Don't jump to conclusions guys, I told her
just where she could stick her deal.  But she just did one of those too confident, evil laughs and told me I wouldn't have a choice in the matter.
A day later, I'm suddenly in court on an appeal.  All the charges had been dropped, and Lilah was given custody."

Willow's green eyes hardened.  "So that means you were trapped with them for three days", she commented softly.

The Slayer nodded.  "Lilah's goons did all they could to 'convince' me", she murmured almost inaudibly, "but I managed to grab the bitch and use her as leverage to escape.  Once I got out from where they were holding me, I let her go and ran.  The demon goons came after me, and I managed to kill all but one.  He's the one that stuck me in the back.  I killed him too somehow, and managed to drag myself here."

"And Lindsey had nothing to do with this?", Angel said disbelievingly.

"From what I could overhear of Lilah's conversations, Lindsey went AWOL. Apparently something or someone scared the living crap outta him, and he took off.  Lilah was promoted and she's trying to look good by getting rid of you."

Angel grinned wolfishly, and Faith stifled the urge to shiver.  She counted Angel among her friends, well perhaps her only real friend, but she couldn't deny the fact that she was a Slayer and he was a vampire.  The smile looked way too Angelusy, and she didn't miss the exasperated look Willow threw his way.

"Do you think they'll come after her?", Cordelia asked her friends in concern.

Everyone in the room turned to look at the Seer in surprise.

"What?", Delia huffed defensively.  "Sure turn on me when I'm showing a little concern."

"Its doubtful actually", Wesley responded after a moment, to her earlier question.  "After all, they got Faith out of jail hoping to use her against
Angel.  The element of surprise would've been something they were counting on, and that's gone.  Its even possible, they may assume she's dead, or have realized she's here with us.  In addition since the charges were dropped, Faith is legitimately a free woman.  One cannot be tried again on the same charges.  Double jeopardy and all that..."

"So you mean, this could be over and they won't come after me?", Faith asked turning to look at her ex-Watcher.  Her gaze locked onto his.

"Yes", he replied slowly, unable to look away.

Cordelia stared at Wesley and Faith, before shrugging.  She sighed quietly, and looked over at Angel.  The dark vampire also looked bemused.  A sly grin spread across his features and he tugged Willow closer and whispered into her ear.  A slightly shocked looked crossed the redhead's face, her emerald eyes sliding back to the raven haired Slayer and the former Watcher.  Her lips formed a silent 'o', before she too seemed to shrug and lean back into Angel's embrace.  The Seer shook her head, she supposed not much surprised two girls who were born and raised on a Hellmouth and lived to tell about it.

Deciding she'd had enough of the tender moment, Cordelia coughed loudly. The sooner this little meeting was over, the sooner she could drag Gunn off so she could have her way with him.  Her boyfriend was the only one in the room who hadn't reacted to Faith and Wesley's staring match.

Faith blinked, the frozen moment broken by the sound.  'What in the hell?', she thought.  'Shit, she was going to have to get some soon, Wesley was actually starting to look good.'

"So, basically  Faith here is a free woman", Gunn stated.  He turned to the seated young woman.  "What are you going to do now that you're sprung?"

The injured woman stared at the demon hunter.  He was right, she was free. She could do whatever she wanted, leave L.A., travel, get a job, even live a normal life.  Faith groaned. Who was she kidding?  All she knew how to do was kill.  That wasn't exactly a skill she could put on her resume.

Angel and Willow both saw the panicked look on the dark haired young woman's face at the same time.  They looked at each other for confirmation, communicating more with a glance, than many couples could with actual speech.

The red haired witch cleared her throat.  "So, uhh, Faith, what DO you want to do?"

"Don't really know Red."

"You could come work for Angel Investigations", Willow offered.  "And we have plenty of room at the Hyperion."

"Really?", Faith asked uncertainly, her voice small.

"Really", Angel said in agreement.

"Well", Cordelia said, "I'm glad that's settled."  In a rather obvious move, the brunette looked at her watch. "Wow!  Look at the time, Gunn and I have to get going."  So saying, the Seer elbowed the man at her side.

Gunn grinned.  "Welcome to the team Faith."

Faith smiled, and then found herself yawning again.

"You should get some rest", Willow said.

"Naw Red, I'm really not tired."

The wiccan grinned and neared the bed.  Her green eyes seemed to grow brighter, greener.  "Sleep Faith", she murmured quietly, "sleep...."  The
Slayer yawned again, her eyelids growing heavier by the second.  Within moments she was asleep.
 

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