Title: What You Need
Author: Mac
Email: mac_0_1_2@yahoo.co.uk
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Faith gets out of prision and surprisingly Det. Kate Lockley wants to help her patch her life back together.

"So this is how you plan to live the rest of your life? Stuck in prison, doing the same routine over and over again when you so obviously have a body which was built for battle."

"Oh and I suppose you would notice that?" She snorted. "I guess you study me *that* much. You sure your intentions are totally professional, Detective Lockley?" Faith gave a short laugh. "Cause from where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like it."

"Faith, stop fucking around." Kate walked over to her, trying to look her in the eyes, but the room was so dark she couldn't see them. "I'm trying to help you, this is your chance to pull yourself together, to make a new start in life."

"Ok, and what's in it for you? Who really wants me out of here? Huh?" Faith stood up, feeling angrier. "I suppose your gonna hand me over to some firm like Wolfram and Hart and sell me off for some fuck with some important dude."

Kate crossed her arms across her chest and glared at Faith. They stared at one another for a few minutes, neither giving down until Faith looked at her shoes. "Ok, are you quite finished?" There was no reply from the brunette. "Good." Kate cleared her throat. "First of all, I want you out of here, cause it eats me up knowing that you're in here, when you could be out and be a great beneficial human-being to the world. Secondly, I don't like Wolfram and Hart any more than you do. And lastly, you're worth so much more then a fuck with some high executive."

Faith grinned up at her. Kate felt a feeling of relief flood through her. 'She's smiling at me, thank you God.'

"Much more?" Faith gave a half flirty smile to Kate.

"Way more." Now the stare wasn't half as threatening.

"But I don't have anywhere to go, I still have about a dozen people who are out for my butt, including Buffy Summers, and I'll be dead before I step out of the gate of the prison." Faith turned around and looked at the wall. She sighed. "I can't do it, Detective."

"No one said it would be easy, Faith. You're gonna have to make an effort to redeem yourself, otherwise you won't survive. I'm not denying that. It's gonna be a shit hard battle, but I'll be there fighting it with you." Kate put her hand on Faith's shoulder, feeling her tense up slightly.

"You will?" Faith's broken up voice whispered.

"I promise."

"Have you got everything?" Kate asked as Faith walked out of her cell carrying a backpack on her shoulder.

"Yep." Faith nodded. She winked at the female security guard who blushed violently. Kate swallowed. She didn't want to know.

"Out to my car." Kate placed her hand on the small of Faith's back; she guided her out into the prison car park. Faith threw her bag onto the back seat and sat down in the front. Kate slid into the drivers seat. She drove them out onto the highway. After about an hour of silence, Faith began to get edgy and fidgety.

"So, Lockley, any boyfriend? Girlfriend? Maybe both?"

Kate gave a small laugh. "None, at the moment anyway."

"Oh, sounds promising." Faith teased. "So, who do you have in mind?"

"No one you know, well, at least not yet anyway." Kate winked.

"Where are you taking me?" Faith glanced out the car. She watched the other cars on the motorway speeding by.

"If I told you that, I'd have to kill you." Kate said, with a serious look on her face.

Faith looked back at her in shock. "You'd-" Then she burst out laughing. "You?! Kill me?! That's a laugh!"

"It was a joke, it usually works with the other criminals I drive places." Kate frowned to herself. "Then again you're not exactly a criminal, or a normal human now that I come to think about it."

Faith nodded. "True." She stared out of the window, staring off into space for a few minutes. She turned back to Kate. "I could snap your neck with a flick of my wrist." She laughed at Kate's shocked expression. "Don't worry though, I wouldn't."

Kate forced out a small laugh. "My apartment is only one bedroom-"

"That's cool I don't mind sharing a bed with you, in fact I think I might like it." Faith grinned at the blonde.

"Actually Faith, you're sleeping on the couch."

"Oh."

Kate walked into her apartment and flicked on a couple of light switches, she turned back to Faith. "Are you coming in?"

Faith looked around the room, it smelt like Kate that was for sure. The smell of a distant cologne wafted up to her nose, it was an old smell. Like, long ago. Past. Gone. The apartment looked like one she would own, all perfectly tidily, not a spot of dust and a copy of 'USA Today' on the coffee table.

"What's wrong?" Kate spun around, looking to see if she could spot what Faith smelt. "What are you smelling?"

"You." Faith gave a half smile and then walked into the apartment, closing the door behind her. Kate raised an eyebrow, her eyes followed Faith's movements.

"Me?" Kate asked, quietly.

"You." Faith spun around to look at her. "Don't worry, it's not like you smell bad or anything. One should know the smell of thy enemy, right?" Faith took a step toward the blonde detective. She pressed her body right up against her and buried her head in her hair, taking in a deep breath. Kate pushed her away.

"You wanna watch what you're doing, Faith." Kate glared at her. "I'm not known to be very patient."

"Neither am I. Guess we have more then one thing in common, then." Faith smirked and stepped away from Kate and into the living room.

Kate frowned. More then one-? What the hell did they have in common in the first place? She walked into the living room after Faith. "What-"

"How come there's a really strong smell of Angel in here?" Faith had lost her defiant looks, she looked young. She looked her age. She looked lost and innocent.

"I don't know, he came around last night to get some information on a case. I had to let him in. His smell is probably still here." Kate walked over to her, studying her. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's the past. It's forgotten to everyone, except me. Why can't I forget the bad things? Why do they haunt me all the time?" Her voice was breaking, she felt a feeling of desperation wash over her. She looked down, her vision was blurring with tears, fuck it! Stop crying in front of her. Shit. But Kate took hold of her shoulders and pulled her into her warm, comforting embrace. There, Faith broke down and burst into tears for the first time in months. Her body shook and she slumped down to the floor with Kate still holding her, whispering soothing words into her ear.

Faith opened her heavy eyes; she winced at the brightness of the sun. A feeling of relief washed over her when she realised she wasn't in prison anymore. Someone's hands were around her waist holding her tight against a womanly body. The events of the night before replayed again in her mind. She had cried for so long and Kate had just held her close, not saying anything just holding her. They had fallen asleep on the floor beside the sofa in the living room.

She tried to sit up but the hands around her waist tightened.

"Det-" Ok, what should she call her? Lockley? Detective? Kate? "Eh... Kate?"

"Mmm..." A soft moan came from her mouth, Faith felt her breath against the back of her neck. Faith closed her eyes, she was feeling desire grow in the pit of her stomach. 'Pull yourself together!' Her eyes shot open.

"Kate, wake up. Do you have to be in work?"

"Hmmm, no..." She sighed and moved closer to Faith. "Stay here..."

"As much as I would love to-" Kate's hand slid under Faith's top and gently stroked her stomach, sliding down a bit. "Kate-" Faith's deep voice growled. Kate woke up properly. She groaned and began to sit up, she looked down at where her hands were. One of them was poked just underneath the waistband of Faith's trousers.

"Oh God! Faith... I'm so sorry!" Kate retracted her hand. She stood up and walked into the kitchen, running her hands through her hair. She put her hands on the edge of the sink and stared out of the window.

Faith leant on the doorframe and watched her.

"Looks like I'm not the only one with an interesting past." Faith walked over to Kate and put her hands on her waist, the blonde turned around to face her. "Wanna talk about it?" Kate put her hands over Faiths and removed them.

"No." She walked by the brunette and went in to the bathroom.

"Hey, come on. It's not like you can't trust me to keep a secret, I mean who the fuck would I tell?" Faith stood outside the bathroom door. "I shared with you, you should share with me, unless this is all about some big fuck up conspiracy to get me to talk to you so can get into my head and fuck around with it."

She heard the lock click on the other side and the door opened slowly. Kate looked her dead in the eye.

"There's no conspiracy Faith. I'm just trying to get you back on my side."

"Hey, I'm there." Faith raised her hands.

"No you're not. Not yet. You're still afraid of Buffy and of all those other bad events in your past. Faith... you have to get by them, you have to forget about them."

"Ok, so what's your past? Huh? What made you freak when you woke up this morning?" Faith snorted. "Ok, so you were touching me, big deal. It's not like it felt bad."

Kate shot her a look. "I came out of a big relationship recently, waking up beside you, holding you, made me remember things which I didn't want to remember." Kate looked down.

"How could I make you remember? Hello? I have long brown hair and you were holding me, correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the man usually hold the woman?" Faith's eyes widened in realisation. "Oh, oh God! Sorry! I probably just rubbed something in... did I?"

"Well only the reason why we broke up, she couldn't handle being labelled gay. She needed a 'proper' relationship." Kate pushed by Faith and walked into the front room.

"So she couldn't deal, that's her fucking problem. You're better off without her, Lockley." Faith sat down on the sofa, Kate sat beside her. "You need someone who doesn't give a fuck about your gender. It's not everything, y'know."

"What isn't?"

"Gender. It has nothing to do with the actual relationship. Well apart from the sexual factor, I mean of course that's different, you wouldn't be sucking pussy if it didn't turn you on."

Kate looked at her with a shocked expression on her face.

"Sorry." Faith winced. "I can be a bit crude at times." She paused and felt the tension in the room. "Listen, what I mean is, you can find someone you love and their gender isn't an issue when you're really in love. Like, it's not your fault if you fell in love with someone who happened to have the same gender type as you."

"You ever consider becoming a councillor?" Kate grinned.

"With my past?! I'm serious Kate. If a person in a relationship is too concerned about other people and what they think, then you're never gonna have a comfortable relationship. If you are in love, your relationship shouldn't bother you or your partner, it might bother other people, but do they have any say in your relationship?"

She sighed. "I know. It was a big thing for me. I thought I loved her."

Faith grinned at her. "Well, ya got me now."

Kate shook her head, laughing softly, she walked into the kitchen. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"So she told me that if I ever said sorry to her she would kill me."

"I see."

"So, there really is nothing that I can do to make it better. If she saw me she would kill me. I have no doubt about that. Can you blame her? I fucked her up royally this time, and all I wanted really was to feel loved – like I belonged somewhere. I've never felt that, Kate. I've always been in the way since I was born, to my mother I was a mouth to feed when she didn't have enough money to do that, cause she spent it all on dope and heroin. My watcher was the only person I had even felt any sort of love and care towards and look what fucking happened to her!"

Kate linked her fingers with Faith as they sat on the park bench.

"I'm not gonna go through what I did to Buffy again – you've already heard that. But it seems as though I can't see a good thing when it's right in front of me." Faith wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

Kate leaned over to her. "Can you see me?" she whispered into her ear.

Faith nodded, her eyes bloodshot.

"I'm a good thing."

Kate had gone out to the station to catch up on some paper work, Faith was under the strict orders not to leave the house. Sitting on the couch she was itching to do something, TV was boring her seriously. Kate had mentioned something about 'her kind of CDS' that she had bought the other day. She walked into the kitchen and picked up the plastic bag. Placebo! Yes! Oh my god – how she had missed music while spending time in jail. Beastie Boys, Therapy, couple of R'n'b.

She pushed the couch up against the wall and put the Placebo CD in the machine. She skipped to Nancy Boy. Standing in the centre of the room she began to train, feeling the old buzz come back.

They sat down at the kitchen table for dinner, Faith took in a deep breath and smelt the amazing aroma of the spaghetti bolognaise. She grinned at Kate and began to tuck in.

"Faith, I was wondering, you've been cooped up in this place for the past week. Do you wanna come out tonight? Maybe a club or something, then a little slaying after."

Faith's heart began to beat madly.

"But I do have to come with you." Kate tucked her blonde hair behind her ears and studied the look on the brunettes face. "What do you say?"

Faith laughed. "What the hell do you think I'm gonna say?"

Kate raised her eyebrows.

"I think I love you Kate."

"Ok, eat that and then we'll get ready."




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