Thine Own Self

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Four

Faith looked out the window of the plane, her mind wandering and her stomach lurching. She’d thrown up the past three mornings, and she knew it was because of stress. Still, her stomach didn’t much care for airplanes, and she concentrated on looking at the clouds so as to avoid losing her breakfast.

Next to her, Lindsey slept, his hair a little tussled from the flight. He’d been working around the clock trying to find any information he could on the missing demi-slayer. Faith figured he needed a little rest.

Staring out the window, she could feel his presence to her left, and it comforted her even as it caused a thrill to run through her body. Watching the clouds pass by, she pushed the thought out of her head that she didn’t deserve him. She pushed thoughts of the place where she had grown up, the abusive mother, and the father she had never met out of her mind.

Suddenly, she felt the familiar nagging fear that somewhere this girl who was literally a part of her was stepping over broken beer bottles, sneaking out of the house at age fourteen because it was the only way to keep her head above water.

She felt Lindsey shift in his sleep, and she pushed the worry from her thoughts and laid her head on his shoulder, listening to his heart beat as she too fell asleep.

Dakota woke up with the sun, the lake beside her sparkling. She stretched lazily and rolled over, completely undisturbed by the fact that she was wearing very little in the way of clothing. She stood up and grabbed her clothes off of the ground, putting them on in no great hurry.

She heard an approving whistle from her left, and she simply ignored it, zipping her pants up and throwing her shirt over her head.

She felt his presence before she saw him. “Dakota Kincaide,” he said, and she almost gagged at nasal quality of his voice. She could tell without looking that he was leering at her in that stuck-up-trust-fund-baby way she had hated since the moment she’d entered her first boarding school.

She ignored him.

“Don’t be that way, baby,” he said to her, grabbing her shoulder. She didn’t even bother to meet his eyes.

“I’m not being any way, baby,” she said with easy sarcasm on the last word. He squeezed her shoulder a bit.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she told him, completely at ease, her voice’s low pitch the only cue to her annoyance.

“Do what?” he asked, leaning toward her. She recognized him as the child of one of her father’s many social acquaintances. “I know all about you, Kincaide. The bad girl who daddy ships off to one school after another because he doesn’t have time for you.”

Kody sent him a deadly, lazy grin.

“I know,” he continued, moving closer to her, “that a girl who sleeps outdoors almost completely naked is asking for something. I know you want it. It’ll feel good, baby.”

Kody looked him in the eyes and lifted her knee sharply. She had impeccable aim.

“You know,” she said, her tone still casual. “You’re right. That did feel good.”

As he writhed on the ground, she simply picked up her bag and walked off. She didn’t bother to climb up the trellis when she reached her houses

Instead, she shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans and walked in the front door. She wasn’t in the least surprise when the butler informed her, unspoken censure clear in his eyes, that her father had already left for an important meeting.

Kody scoffed. Kincaides didn’t have important meetings. As far as she could tell, her father played with his inherited money all day, cushioned by the large amount her mother had left them, and then went to play golf with someone else who had a similar occupation. His version of an important meeting was usually either a blonde socialite or an eight a.m. tee time.

Lindsey awoke as the plane landed to find Faith asleep, laying across her armrest, her head on his shoulders. A small smile of pleasure spread over Lindsey’s face. The slayer looked so peaceful when she slept. He nudged her gently, hating to bring her out of sleep, but knowing that the plane was getting ready to de-board.

Faith murmured grumpily and opened her eyes.

As soon as the two of them stepped off of the plane, a shiver went through Faith, and she knew that this girl would be the one they were looking for.

“I just want to thank you,” Kody heard a voice say behind her. She turned around to face the blonde she had named Astro.

Astro flipped her hair over her shoulder. “For making this so easy,” she continued. Kody’s eyebrow raised just slightly. “For making it so easy for your father to agree to that Swiss boarding school,” the woman clarified.

To Astro’s surprise, Dakota let out a low chuckle. After a moment, Kody spoke. “Lady,” she said, “with me, nothing is easy unless I want it to be easy. What I want to happen, happens. If I want something, I take it. If I don’t want something, I get rid of it, and honestly, you’re getting on just about my last nerve.”

Astro’s mouth dropped open.

Suddenly, a flash came that knocked Dakota to the floor, as she saw things for the first time through another person’s eyes. She blinked once, slowly, and then Astro’s perfectly grating face came into focus and Kody was no longer looking at black lingerie.

Dakota, deciding that she must have ingested some of that lake water, stood up and narrowed her eyes just slightly at the blonde woman.

“You know, Rover,” she said, drawing out the dog’s name, “you don’t want to cross me. Believe me on that one.”

“I thought I was Astro,” the blonde said hautily.

Dakota laughed a short laugh. “Well, Rover,” she said, “I guess you’ve been demoted.”

Chance squealed and the older girls laughed. Anni smiled proudly as she displayed her new black bra and panties for the girls.

“Where did you get these?” Dawn asked, curiously.

Anni smiled. “Wes bought them for me,” she said. The others stared at her in disbelief.

“He was so uncomfortable going into Victoria’s Secret that he just gave the clerk his credit card and told me to meet him in the book store when I was finished,” she clarified. The others smiled knowingly. Wes wasn’t the type to want to even hear his sister mention the word ‘bra.’

“Can I try it on?” Chance asked.

Anni shrugged. “Sure,” she replied.

Chance put it on over her clothes. Kendall snorted. Chance was so obviously twelve sometimes.

The door to the room Anni and Dawn shared with Chance opened slowly, and all of the girls jumped guiltily. Joss was standing in the doorway.

“Oh, hi Joss,” Dawn said, no enthusiasm in her voice.

“Hi,” Joss replied cautiously. She never got to be part of their fun.

There was an awkward pause as Joss closed the door behind her. Chance squirmed, trying to unclasp the black bra, but she couldn’t manage to reach it and instead ended up doing a ridiculous looking dance. All of the girls, including Joss, started cracking up.

Out in the hallway, Wes looked suspiciously toward the room. Willow’s voice entered his mind.

Don’t look so grim, Papa Bear, she said playfully.

What do you think they’re doing in there? Wes asked, his mind voice suspicious.

Having an orgy, Willow replied. Wes shot her a censuring look.

“I’m pregnant,” she reminded him out loud by way of an excuse. Wes tried not to grin at her.

“I noticed,” he whispered back, his voice husky with a British accent.

“Hopie, sweetie, did you just say something?” Cordy asked. If she had learned on thing from her experiences with Hopie, it was to never underestimate the child.

Hopie grinned and nodded.

“What?” Angel asked.

Hopie shrugged. “I dunno,” she said giggling. Then, she turned and walked out of the room and into the bathroom. She shut the door and climbed onto the counter. She opened her mouth and looked at her reflection in the mirror, carefully examining her teeth.

“They don’t look loose to me,” she said out loud. Tentatively, she brought her hand to her mouth and tried to wiggle the front teeth. They weren’t loose at all.

Hopie frowned at the mirror. Stupid dentist, she thought.

Angel and Cordelia both stared at the closed bathroom door, chuckling when they heard Hopie’s pronouncement that her teeth sure didn’t look loose.

“How was she?” Angel asked, well aware that Hopie hated anything that even somewhat resembled a doctor.

Cordy rolled her eyes. “Between the war cry and her announcement that perhaps she wouldn’t use her crossbow on the tooth fairy, I think the dentist was sufficiently wigged out.”

“And you loved it,” Angel said, a small smile playing around the tips of his mouth.

“Just a little,” Cordy replied. “I’ve been thinking,” she said suddenly, “about setting a date.”

Angel’s face softened, and for a moment, the vampire looked vulnerable and boyishly excited.

“And?” he asked.

“I think it should be soon,” Cordy replied. “As soon as Faith and Lindsey get this demi-slayer thing worked out. I want them at the wedding, though how I came to consider Faith the Vampire Slayer as one of my closest friends…”

She trailed off.

Angel kissed her. “Stranger things have happened,” he whispered, bringing his lips just off of hers.

Out just in front of the hotel, Connor caught up with Maddy, Nic, and Clay. Content that he’d scared the boys away from Maddy, he turned his attention toward glaring at the younger girl.

Maddy laughed in his face. “Okay,” she said good naturedly, “let me get this straight. I can’t kiss you, but I can’t kiss anyone else either?” She rolled her eyes.

Connor nodded seriously.

“That plan works for me,” Clay put in.

The guys stared at Nic, who remained suspiciously silent.

Maddy got a very serious expression on her face. “If I don’t learn how to kiss like Faith and Buffy do,” she said, her reason strong in her mind, “then I’ll never learn how to be a good slayer.”

“That’s not true,” Nicolaa said. “Kissing has nothing to do with slaying, Maddy.”

Maddy crossed her hands over her chest. “Uh-huh,” she said, clearly not believing Nic. “Then what’s with the lip lockage between you and my brother? Huh?”

Nicolaa blushed. “That,” she said, sending a glare at Clay, “is entirely his fault. He’s really incorrigible you know.”

“Yup,” Maddy replied, “but you kissed back, and you kissed him exactly like Faith kisses Lindsey and like Buffy kisses Spike. Coincidence? I think not.”

Connor didn’t say a word, but he wondered for a second about Maddy’s reasoning. Did that reasoning reply to the other Potentials? To shy Colette who barely ever said a word? To Kendall, whom Dawn had accused him of ogling? God forbid, to… Anni? He shook his head. Anni, whom he considered his own personal younger cousin, was far too young to be doing such a thing. He thought about the teenaged werewolf who was Anni’s boyfriend, and his glare intensified.

Ever since the Potentials had come to California, Connor had been surrounded by girls, and his life had become very complicated.

He sighed a very aggrieved sigh.

Clay, torn between testing Maddy’s theory with Nicolaa and killing his little sister, echoed Connor’s sentiments.

As they walked into the hotel, they heard another very aggrieved little sigh. They all looked down. Hopie held her arms up to Connor and he picked her up.

“You’re brooooooody,” she said, her face serious. “I’m brooooody too.”

“I’m not brooding,” Connor said darkly.

Hopie nodded seriously. “Are too, My Connor,” she replied, laying her head on his chest.

“Why are you broody?” Clay asked the little girl, tweaking the ends of her hair.

“Because,” Hopie replied, “my teeth are mean.” The others looked at her, completely bewildered.

“Whatcha mean?” Maddy asked the younger girl. Hopie looked at her, a very serious expression on her face.

“They won’t fall out,” she replied. “Not even if I try to wiggle them.”

Finally, understanding dawned on Nicolaa. “Oh,” she said, “you want to lose a tooth, so that the tooth fairy will come?” Hopie nodded.

“Tooth fairy?” Connor asked, completely bewildered. The others stared at him, horrified.

“You don’t know about the tooth fairy?” Maddy asked him.

“Some kind of magical enamel being?” Connor guessed.

“Not exactly,” Clay replied.

“What kind of childhood did you have? Everyone knows about the tooth fairy.” Maddy said, considering kissing him again just to make him mad. Connor didn’t reply.

“My Connor,” Hopie said. She waited.

Connor looked down at her. “Okay,” he said, “now I’m brooding.”

“Me too,” Hopie said. Together, brother and sister brooded.

Faith looked at the massive house in front of her in disbelief. “This is where the girl lives?” she asked. All this time, she’d been picturing the demi-Faith living in the same kind of hell hole she’d grown up in.

Lindsey looked at her, his face serious. “This doesn’t mean she doesn’t need you, Faith,” he told his wife softly. “And it doesn’t mean that we don’t need her. She’s a Potential, and more than that, I think she really might be…” he trailed off, not sure how to describe Dakota’s relationship to Faith.

“Me,” Faith replied. “A fourteen year old me.”

Lindsey shrugged. Faith took a deep breath and grinned at the Gargoyle on the front of the house.

“Why are you smiling at that?” he asked her curiously.

She shrugged, hooking her thumbs in the waistbands of her jeans. “I like it,” she replied. “Kind of endearing in an ugly monster sort of way.”

“Kind of like Connor?” Lindsey joked. Faith poked him in the ribs, but she couldn’t help but smile.

Finally, someone answered the door. “Can I help you?” the butler asked, and Faith’s skin crawled at the snooty tone of his voice.

“You know, Jeevs,” she drawled, “I think you can.”

“My word,” the man exclaimed, his mouth falling open.

Faith raised her eyebrow slightly in a questioning expression. “What?” she asked.

“For a moment,” the butler replied, “I thought Miss Kody had grown up over night.”

“Kody?” Faith questioned, her eyes meeting Lindseys.

“One of many names I answer to,” a smooth voice answered from behind the butler. The butler stepped aside, and Faith gasped as she looked at Kody, who did indeed look exactly as she had at that age.

They’d found her, she thought, her heart beating faster. This was the girl they’d been looking for. Faith and Lindsey exchanged a private look.

Dakota stared at the woman in front of her for a moment, taking in the similarities in their appearances. Faith was more muscular, her body more developed. He features were sharper than Kody’s, but very similar. Kody looked Faith in the eye, and it was like looking into a mirror.

Then Dakota turned her attention to Lindsey, and a slow smile spread over his face. “Well,” she said finally, “it looks like I have good taste.”

“Who are you?” the butler questioned.

“We’re here to talk to Mr. Kincaide,” Lindsey clarified. “We represent a small academy in California who takes girls of Kody’s abilities to train and mold.”

Kody’s eyes raised. Another boarding school? Hell no, she thought.

Out loud, she laughed. She sauntered past Faith and out the door without saying another word. Faith put her hand out to stop the girl, and Kody’s eyes flashed.

“You wanna dance with me?” she asked, the amusement and threat equally clear in her voice. Faith, suddenly feeling a bit faint, said nothing, and Kody turned and walked out the door.

Faith sat down on the ground quickly.

“What was that?” Lindsey asked her.

“Me or her?” Faith replied.

“You,” Lindsey clarified, rubbing her shoulders softly.

“I haven’t been feeling too well lately,” Faith replied. “No big.”

“And her?” Lindsey questioned.

“That’s just Miss Kody,” the butler replied, still staring at Faith. “You’ll have to excuse her, her father has always been rather preoccupied and…”

Faith interrupted him, answering Lindsey’s question. “That,” she said smiling a rue smile, “is me at fourteen.”

Finally, Wes couldn’t stand it any longer. He opened the door to the room, expecting to catch the girls doing something unsavory at the very least. They all smiled at him innocently. Willow sent Wes and I-told-you-so look.

“Well, yes,” he said stalling. “I was just coming to let you know that Jordy called earlier, Anni,” he said, realizing that it was true and he’d forgotten to give her the message.

“Thanks, Wes,” Anni replied, smiling up at him sweetly, batting her eyelashes.

He looked at each of the girls suspiciously in turn. Chance, the bra now safely in her back pocket, was blushing furiously.

“I know that something’s going on here,” he told them slowly. He turned his attention to Anni, who continued to smile at him. “You might as well confess,” she said.

“We were trying on bras,” Anni told her older brother, the bright-eyed expression never faltering on her face.

Wesley blanched. “I think I have some research to do,” he mumbled, exiting the room quickly.

Willow smiled at the girls. “Did you show them the pink lacy one I found?” Willow asked. Anni nodded wickedly.

“I love underwear,” Willow said, looking down at her huge stomach with a good-natured grin. “But none of my cool stuff fits right now.”

Joss put her hand on Willow’s stomach, half expecting something special to happen like had happened to Anni. Nothing happened. Joss dropped her hand and mumbled a hateful goodbye as she left the room.

“You guys should be nicer to Joss,” Willow said once the girl was gone.

“We were being nice to her,” Kendall said, “and now she’s all Joss-y again.” The message in her voice was crystal clear: Joss was long overdue for some actual flounce-age.

“Which of you guys are going on patrol with Buffy tonight?” Willow asked, changing the subject.

“I’m going with Buffy,” Chance said. “Kendall went last night.”

Willow looked at Dawn.

“Count me out,” the girl said. “I’m content to not get vampire dust in my nose if I don’t have to.”

“I think I’m going to patrol with Jordy,” Anni said casually.

Willow raised her eyebrow at Anni. “Really?” she asked her.

Anni nodded. “You think someone with full slayer powers and a werewolf can’t handle a few vamps by themselves?” she asked the witch.

“I think,” Willow replied, “that Wes would send you to some kind of convent.”

Anni’s eyes twinkled. “What Wesley doesn’t know,” she said, “won’t hurt him.”

Willow smiled back. “You have to take someone else with you,” she replied. “Spike would probably go, just in case you guys need some help.”

Anni readily agreed.

Oz looked at his cousin. “You and Anni are going patrolling?” he asked, no expression in his voice.

“Yup,” Jordy replied.

“Company?” Oz asked.

Jordy shrugged. Oz shrugged in return. Jordy shrugged only his left shoulder. Oz nodded.

“I could go for patrolling,” he said.

If Jordy had been more into audio-activity, he would have sighed. Instead, his expression stayed exactly neutral, just as his cousin’s did.

“Mommy?” Cale said loudly. Kate, concentrating on the road, didn’t turn to look at him as she responded.

“What is it, baby?” she replied.

“Not a baby,” he informed her. “Duck. Quack-Quack.”

Kate tried not to smile. “A duck, huh?” she asked him.

“Hungry duck,” he replied. He held up his hands in front of him like claws and he growled a very high pitched baby growl.

“Grrrr. Quack Quack. Grrrrr.” He burst into joyous little boy giggles.

“A duck doesn’t say ‘grrrrrr,’ Cale,” his mother told him.

“Monster duck!” Cale squealed gleefully, fully delighted by the idea. “Quack-Grrrr-Quack-Quack!”

“Not a monster,” Kate said firmly, not talking to the child anymore. “Never a monster.”

By nightfall, the two of them would arrive in Sunnydale, and she would take to this witch and figure out what exactly could be done to help her little boy.

 

 

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