Title: Hot To Cold
Author: Crazy_Girl_Mary
Email: crazy_girl_mary@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: They’re all Joss’ and probably some other people but hey I’m a rebel so I play if I want damn it! Also, the lyrics are Sheryl Crow, and well I can play with them too!
Summary: Faith is finally released from prison and Lilah, suddenly a giving person, sets her up in a beautiful house clear across the country with all the amenities she can stand. The only catch is that Faith has to stay away from Angel, but gripped with immense need she finds him on her front door and tears and tequila ensue. Complete.
Pairings: Faith/Angel… or is it Faith/Angelus?
Category: angst and suspense I suppose.
Spoilers: No real spoilers, I mean I don’t know the eps, and if you know Faith is in jail then you’re pretty much good, if not well then… sorry.
Rating: Some parts are NC-17, and the rest are pretty much boring filler material, no, nonsense, it’s very crucial plot information, (cough) um, which can be totally skipped over to get to the good stuff!
Author’s Comments: I finally have a website! Isn’t that exciting! I know I’m excited and I’ll be even more excited if you email me with your changes and reviews.

Faith hated the cell that was her life, and the heat that constantly filled it. She stripped off her clothes and lay flat on her back on the concrete floor. It was moments like this, late at night in the complete darkness of solitary confinement that she couldn’t help but contemplate who she was, what her life had become, and would become.

She would be out in a week. Three years in and most people couldn’t wait to be released, but she dreaded it. She was still a young woman at 20, in fact the day she was getting out was her 21st birthday, and she was fortunate for even that. Before she came to prison if someone would have told her she would live to see her twenty-first she probably would have bet heavy odds against it. She thought sometimes they didn’t keep her in longer because they were sick of her beating up other inmates and guards. She was almost always in solitary.

Why did she always start fights with the guards and inmates? She knew deep inside it was still in her nature. That she still craved pain, and that one fight that would end her life. She fought to take her mind off her life and the predicament she had gotten herself into. Maybe that was why it was best she had taken Lilah’s offer. She didn’t care if the lawyer had ulterior motives, they always did. Anyway, she would be going as far from LA as possible, New York to be exact; and it was as different from California as different could be, not just in location. She wanted somewhere cold, and somewhere she wouldn’t see anyone from her past life, somewhere she wouldn’t see anyone at all.

Lilah had brought her pictures of a beautiful place in the mountains in lonely upstate New York. She wouldn’t have to work for her money, just stay away from Angel, for whatever reason. She thought it was for the best anyway. She feared if she started slaying again, feeling all the power she had inside she would be back to the person who had landed in this joint, and that was the last person she wanted to be. She had changed a lot and with a mental change must come physical change.

She tried desperately not to think about Angel. He was the only person who seemed to care about her, and she was going to go with his enemy and abandon him for whatever fate was in store. She had loved him. She couldn’t deny it. She had loved him as much as she would allow herself to love. Being such a guarded person she didn’t think she had ever loved anyone, and she knew she had never wanted anyone like she wanted him.

Why would Wolfram & Hart want to keep her away from Angel? Maybe they just wanted her out of the picture. Having a Slayer in town and on Angel’s side would really weaken their odds in the eternal battle against good and evil. But she wasn’t even sure what side she was on, or how much she had changed. How could they know that she would be a changed girl? That she would just go with Angel?

The sound of the guard coming down the long corridor shook her from her thoughts. Must be time for breakfast already. She sat up quickly and pulled her dirty, sweaty clothes back onto her dirty, sweaty body. Another sleepless night, what else was new? At least in solitary she could sleep all day and didn’t have to walk the yard like the rest of the population. The guard slid her tray in the slit at the bottom of the door and turned the light on. She blinked letting her eyes adjust then looked over at the tray. Peanut butter and jelly on toast with some milk. The only thing the cooks knew how to make taste like food. She quickly devoured the contents. Then she did the small workout that she did every morning to keep in shape.

She walked over to the bed and pulled the pictures of the snow-covered house out of her pillowcase. Dark woods on three sides surrounded it, then a snowy mountainscape to the front. She saw a small road running a few miles away and a snow covered path leading from the road to the house. She would be completely alone there, and there would be no vampires, no Angel, no anyone to distract her from her self-punishment. Resolved she tucked the pictures back and lay down to try and fall asleep. The lights went off once more, bathing the room in darkness.

The driver pulled up in front of the prison and gently tapped on the black glass window separating the front of the limousine from the back. Lilah tapped back and heard the driver get out of the front and wait patiently for their guest to arrive. Lilah however, was not so patient. She opened the refrigerator and took out a scotch glass and the appropriate bottle with which to fill it. After a few soothingly painful sips, she pulled out her slim cigarette compact and extracted a smoke and lighter. She lit it and rolled down the window a crack to exhale the smoke out.

She felt her nerves disappearing. This was the last assignment, the last offer the senior partners had given her. Keep Faith away from Angel; if they united there would be no telling the trouble they would cause. If she didn’t do that she would completely disappear from the face of the earth she was sure. She flicked the butt out the window as she saw the heavy chain link fence pulling aside and a dark haired girl being escorted off grounds. She finished the rest of her drink and poured two more. The girl still had on her prison uniform because she had refused to put the clothes she had worn to torture her watcher back on. What a saint, Lilah thought wryly. As the girl approached the car, no longer flanked by the two burly guards, the driver opened the door to the limo and she climbed inside. She sat across from Lilah, who pointed to a stack of clean clothes at Faith’s feet.

Faith picked up the jeans, sweater, and undergarments and didn’t hesitate to strip down and change before her. Nothing to hide, no shame, Lilah thought, yeah right; the girl had more to hide then Lilah herself did. But her body was perfect and beautiful, enough to make a straight woman stare. Fortunately, Lilah was more then a straight woman, she was a straight businesswoman with her life on the line and she managed to avert her eyes and take a slow sip of her scotch. She passed the other glass to Faith when she had finished dressing but the girl put her hand up and rejected it. Saintly, Lilah thought with dry amusement. Faith then put on a pair of socks and sneakers that were next to the clothes. She looked down at herself in amusement; she didn’t think she had ever worn normal clothes in her life. They really weren’t her, or at least the old her but she was sure she’d get used to them. They would be a part of her new life, jeans-wearing-woodsy type. At least the clothes were comfortable. She looked at Lilah who had poured Faith’s rejected scotch into her own glass and was finishing the contents in one large gulp.

“Thirsty?” she asked with a smile. What was the lawyer so nervous about? They really wanted her away from Angel and she tried her hardest not to care but she wanted to know why, desperately. Lilah didn’t answer just flashed a grin and put her glass back in its place. If she didn’t want to talk that was fine with Faith. She hadn’t had a real conversation with anyone but Angel and the warden for three years, she didn’t need one now. Or maybe she did. “Why do you want me away from Angel?” she asked suddenly before realizing she was going to talk. Oh shit. Lilah held her jaw from dropping open. “Does it matter?” she asked.

“I’m not sure yet.” Faith answered truthfully.

“Because we don’t want another Slayer on the west coast and we don’t want you to go back to the way you were before,” Lilah answered, nice cover.

“Why do you care if I fail?” Faith asked. She would buy her excuse for now, it was the one she had suspected anyway, but Lilah had given in too easy for that to be the whole truth.

“I personally couldn’t care less what happens to you or Angel, but there are people who have more power then me at the firm that would like things this way.”

Faith nodded. She opened the window next to her and threw the prison clothes out on the highway. Throwing the past three years to the curb wasn’t what she meant to gesture, she just didn’t want the clothes stinking up the nice car. She put her hair up in a sloppy bun and curled up in a ball on her seat. “Let me know when we get to the airport,” she said closing her eyes.

Angel picked up the phone and dialed the number he had memorized long ago and had been using a lot recently.

“Lilah Morgan’s office.” It was the secretary.

“I need to talk to Lilah… now,” Angel said through clenched teeth.

“She’s at a meeting right now, can I take a message?” came the cheery reply.

“This is a matter of life and death, now you can go pretend to remove her from the meeting she’s not in, or you can pass her the phone and stop wasting my time,” Angel replied. He was obviously not in a playful mood. The secretary handed the phone to Lilah, whose angry expression was clear in her voice.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Where’s Faith?” he asked impatiently, he had waited long enough.

“I don’t know Angel,” she answered, slightly wincing at his growl, “Our Company no longer keeps tabs on the rogue Slayer, I thought that was your job.”

“She got out of prison over a month ago, and was picked up by a driver in a long black limousine.” Lilah frowned, she should’ve known better then to pick Faith up in the limo, but she let her wealth get the better of her. “You know I’m not stupid Lilah, and you know I want her on my side. Tell me where she is, or I’ll make your worst nightmares reality.”

Lilah frowned, “Oh Angel, how many times can you possibly threaten me?”

“Are you suggesting I take some sort of action?” Angel inquired in a deceptively cheerful voice.

“I’m deterring from answering your questions, and hopefully aggravating you, because it wouldn’t be fun any other way.” She paused a moment, “And now I’m hanging up,” and she did. He would show her some fun he though placing the phone in its cradle. He would find out where Faith was. He had to find her.

Faith had caught the first plane from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pennsylvania the day she was released. Then she took a private helicopter from Philadelphia to her new home in New York. Lilah and a security guard had accompanied her the whole way to ensure that she arrived at her destination.

The snow whipped up into mini tornadoes as the helicopter landed in her front yard. The guard jumped to the ground, helped her out, and then helped Lilah. Lilah groaned unhappily as she stumbled through the cold snow in her open toed heels. They were approaching the covered patio on the front of the house. Faith pulled her winter coat tighter around her body. It was so cold; she had never lived in a cold climate.

Maybe it was what she needed to get rid of the heat that overcame her when she slayed, when she killed, when she was bad. Lilah dug a key out of the deep pocket of her overcoat and opened the massive wood front door, which was perfectly centered in the front of the house. She went inside, followed by Faith, and then the bodyguard who shut the door behind him. Faith looked around quietly.

She couldn’t help but be amazed. She was standing in one huge room. Next to the front door was a coat tree, and they took off their coats and hung them up. Next to that was a hand carved wood bar. There was a kitchen area to the left of the room with a huge stove and refrigerator, and an island counter with stools, that like the bar were hand carved. Then to the right was an entertainment area with a big screen TV and a soft looking sectional couch, which Lilah was mentioning was a pullout. Lilah also said there was a playstation, a DVD player, and over three hundred channels. The right wall was also lined with doors, five Faith counted.

Faith couldn’t help but smile. Whatever reason they wanted her away from Angel must be a damn good one, but she didn’t care. It was worth it. In the center of the far wall was a huge fireplace and on either side of that were windows that went all the way up to the meeting of the roof. She could see the snow for a few hundred yards and then the thick black forests, and the mountains outlined blue in the far distance.

“Nice view,” Faith said lightly.

“From what I hear it’s even nicer upstairs,” Lilah said walking to the spiral staircase in the center of the large room and carefully starting to make her way up. The stairs were completely made of wood from the trees on the grounds. No nails or glue had been used. They had been carefully pieced together like a puzzle and there was no railing. Faith followed Lilah and the bodyguard was close behind to guarantee Lilah’s safety. At the top of the stairs was a loft bedroom. Faith had never seen anything more beautiful in her whole life. From the top of the stairs she could look straight out through the large windows and see the mountains over the trees more clearly. If she turned around she faced the bedroom. The two sides of the roof slowly came down and met with the floor on the left and right of the room.

In front of her was a king size waterbed with lavish pillows and mounds of covers. Beyond the bed she could see the windows of the front of the house, which were shaped like a triangle mirroring the opposite wall. She walked to the railing on the other side of the room and looked down into the kitchen. This house was incredible. Next to her was a sound system and another hand carved set of furniture, a coffee table and chairs.

When they went back downstairs Lilah directed Faith towards the five doors on the far wall. The first was to the garage. Inside was a lot of woodworking tools and firewood for the fireplace. In the center of the garage was a beat up but fairly new pick up truck. It was pretty big and Lilah said it would get her through the snow and to town whenever she needed. The second door was to the basement, and opening it sent a freezing draft through the door. They weren’t eager to be cold again so Lilah shut the door and explained to Faith that it was pretty much empty from what she had been told. The third door was a walk in closet that was twice the size of her prison cell. It was still filled with clothes, men’s clothes, most lounge around and some fancy expensive suits. Lilah smiled to hide her embarrassment but it didn’t work. “Someone was arranged to come dispose of these things.”

“This was Lindsey’s place huh?” Faith asked smiling, “It’s cool, I’ll go through it and keep what I want.” She wondered if Lindsey had been the artist who hand carved most of the furniture. Maybe he was more then she had thought, a definite eyepiece. Would he come back for a little fun if he found out she was sleeping in his bed?

The forth door was an office. It was small and cozy. There was a leather couch on the wall with a computer desk diagonal in the corner and bookshelves lining the rest of the open space. There was also a table in the middle of the room. It was very dark wood, low to the ground with pillows around it and drawers underneath. The drawers held candles, a rock garden, and lots of meditative ingredients.

The last door was long awaited. The bathroom, which Faith had been dreaming about since she got on the helicopter, was done all in black marble and Italian tile. There was a Jacuzzi bathtub sunk into the middle of the room with a step up and then a step down all around it. The left wall was lined with a counter top, twin sinks, and a huge mirror that ran the length of the wall with romantic lights all around it. A few sections of the mirror clicked open and held items of personal hygiene and such. The cabinets under the sink were filled with plush expensive towels and bed linens.

In the right corner was a huge shower. It had smoked glass doors that opened, high powered showerheads coming from all four corners of the shower and a waterfall that ran down one wall. She smiled as she imagined the water bill Wolfram & Hart would get a few weeks from now. Next to the shower was a toilet and that was everything in that room. She couldn’t wait for them to leave so she could run around like a chicken missing a head and check everything out further. Soon Lilah and the guard were ushering themselves out the door to run off to warmer climates. They hadn’t bothered to say goodbye and neither had Faith. Lilah had left her office and personal cell phone numbers by the computer incase Faith had any questions. She also left a credit card that Faith could use with practically no limit. She had instructed Faith to order any clothing or groceries she needed online since it took so long to get to the nearest town.

She smiled back remembering that first night. She had sat in the bubbly Jacuzzi for two hours. Then she had taken a shower for another hour. She felt the chill outside the covers and warmth of the bed and pulled the down comforter up over her chin. She didn’t want to get up yet and she didn’t have to. She had been in the house for almost four months now and she still woke up promptly at 6:05 AM every morning. That had been the exact time she had heard the morning whistle and received her breakfast in prison.

She wished she could will herself to stay in bed all day but knew like yesterday and all the days before that she couldn’t. She sat up and quickly put her feet in her thick slippers. Then she grabbed her robe from the headboard and wrapped it around her. She quickly made her way down the stairs and frowned at the fireplace. The woodpile was empty and the fire had completely gone out. She headed for the garage and felt the chilly wind ripple through her as she opened the door and stepped in. She could easily use the heaters but she liked the fireplace and she thought maybe inside she dreaded the warmth and heat and thought the cold would chill the sins right out of her boiling blood.

She grabbed a thick burlap bag from the pile on the ground and began filling it with firewood. She had thought life away from slaying would have her physically lacking but she considered that maybe all this outdoorsy living had gotten her in the best physical condition of her life. She chopped wood once a week. She lugged these heavy burlap bags upstairs once a day or more. She continued to work out, and even had a gym set up in the basement with a punching bag, pull up bar, and bench press.

She carried the bag up the stairs and dropped it on the tile hearth before the fireplace. Then she used some of the pieces to prop them up on each other. In the hollow underneath them she put some dried bark and twigs, which she lit. Then she went into the kitchen and made some waffles and coffee, which she ate and drank while watching the morning news. There was nothing interesting happening in her neck of the woods. At least nothing more interesting then a snowstorm but what else was new.

After she was done eating the house had already started to warm up. She turned off the television and took a quick shower then she threw on some drawstring sweat pants and a Jimi Hendrix tee shirt that had been Lindsey’s, most everything she had had been Lindsey’s. She didn’t feel bad for him; wherever he was he was better off then being controlled by the evil law firm. She went into the office and sat down at the computer. She had been attempting to write her biography since the week she arrived at the house. It cured the boredom. Sometimes she would get out the guitar she had found and use some of the books in the massive collection to teach herself a few songs but she wasn’t in the mood.

She turned on the machine and pulled up her massive document and began typing furiously. After about five minutes she stopped and turned on some music. It was a blank CD that had been in the CD player so Faith had no idea who the voice belonged to but it was pretty good, a young girl singing soulful throaty blues. She started typing again and on and off she wrote for over two hours. Then she went downstairs to work out.

She worked out for only an hour then went back upstairs. She couldn’t believe how much it bothered her to be alone. She had never had any real friends and had been emotionally alone since her mother died but she had never been physically alone. She had never been outside of a busy city. Sometimes she regretted moving so far away from everything but she convinced herself it was for the best. She went into the office and pulled out a cigar box from the meditation center, as she liked to call it. She opened the box and got out a blunt. She grabbed an ashtray and went into the living room. She flopped on the couch and lit the blunt with her Zippo and layback staring at the snow falling outside as she smoked. She hated to smoke because it always reminded her of sex, and the fact that she hadn’t had sex in over three years was almost traumatizing for her. She just tried not to think as she watched the tree bows break because of the snow and ice that weighed them down too far. When she felt the cherry burning her fingertips she put the roach in the ashtray and pulled the cover from the back of the couch over her body.

Lilah opened the key to her condo while barely managing to balance the grocery bag on her knee. She put the bag on the counter and walked over to the couch. She let her coat and shoes fall to the floor and put her feet up on the coffee table. What a day. She leaned her head back on the couch and began to relax. Why was her job so hard, why did she work so damn hard? Because she was the best of the best, she mentally answered her own internal questions. She was startled at the cold hands that wrapped around her shoulders then her neck. They began to massage her taut twisted muscles but she couldn’t relax, couldn’t even move. “Angel,” she said, “You weren’t invited.”

“I only need to be invited in once Lilah,” Angel said continuing to knead her twisted knots. “Where is she?” he asked softly in her ear.

“I told you Angel, I don’t know. You’re wasting your time.” She tried to sit up but he continued his movements, “And even if I did know I wouldn’t tell you,” she added.

“That wasn’t the right answer,” Angel growled, “Now you’re going to regret it.” He wrapped his strong hands tightly around her neck and snapped it with a quick jerk, “At least for that last second you should’ve regretted it,” he said dropping her slack body to the couch.




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