Would help to have a name and address, bud.

Ate some corn dogs. Caught some baseball games. Toured all the rich fancy places I never coulda got into before. Hated ‘em, but still… Kinda like the thought of some Southy brat like me bein’ able to walk in there and all the old stuffy people not bein’ able to do shit about it.

OOC: The final thread between Faith and Dark Willow can be found here. If you go to my page and type /tagged/para at the end of it, you’ll be able to see the earlier posts in that thread. Just look out for the ones with the same title. That took place right before the final battle (in which Giles died) and Faith was gone by the time Willow returned from said battle. She took Angel’s soul and returned it to Buffy to allow the witches to cast a spell to restore it. Para for that is here. Tara was able to bring Willow back to her true self at around that same time, and then Faith split and went to Boston for a few weeks to unwind. Hope that helps. Please shoot me another question if you need anything else clarifying.

If she wants.

Okay listen up. I ain’t exactly share and hug and grow and talk about your feelings gal, but a lot of shit went down and… I guess most of you don’t really got any idea my part in it. ‘Cept Buffy. And maybe Will. So if you got any questions, hit me up. You get one chance for the total honesty thing and then I’m goin’ right back to bein’ the quiet type.

Oh, and Boston was the kick, but I’m back now. Got some people I gotta see.

ladyof-buffdom:

She’d said goodbye to her sister, given her a trinket Giles would have wanted her to keep, then shut the door.  She twisted the lock into place and wrapped her arms around herself, holding herself together as she moved back across the room. His chair.  It was fluffy and leather, something he had purchased after the move to Rome.  It was comfortable, and it smelled like him and the stubborn scent of tealeaves.  The Slayer sat down, almost feeling as though she was passing through his ghost when a small chill ran through her, and drew her knees to her chest.  Breaking the news to Dawn had been hard.  Too hard for her to handle, and she knew that at any given time – she would allow herself to fall apart. 

Up until now, there had been something deep inside of her that refused to break.  Even as she cried to Giles’ corpse, her fortress refused to crumble.  Now she was alone.  In his home – and no one was coming for her.  Giles wouldn’t be strolling through the door at any moment, cleaning his glasses and gently asking for an explanation about her presence.  He wouldn’t come in, see the redness in her eyes and run to her.  He couldn’t hold her, or make clucking sounds with his tongue as he expressed his disdain for her last poor judgment call.  Buffy was alone, a Slayer bereft of a Watcher.

~

There was a small crash coming from Giles’ bedroom.  Buffy’s body jerked out of a light slumber and she scrambled to stand up.  She breathed, smoothed out her shirt and ran into the bedroom.  It was dark.  She couldn’t see. “God damn it,” she grumbled, running her hand frantically along the wall to flip on the switch.  It came on, and she prepared herself for a fight.  It was just Faith.  Not just Faith.  It was the other Slayer.  The dark one, but admittedly, Buffy saw her as a beacon of light, someone who had come to her rescue.  Even if she didn’t know what she needed to be saved from.  She was going on about Angel’s soul, but Buffy didn’t care.  Faith didn’t know.  She needed to know what had been taken from her, from them.

“I was too late.” She whispered, bowing her head. “Angel…Angelus did it and I was too late but I didn’t know, Faith.  Nobody told me this was happening.”  Her eyes moved up to see the blood draining from Faith’s face, and she moved to sit on the bed.  She couldn’t stand anymore.  It was too hard.  The mattress squeaked beneath her weight and she stared at Faith. “He killed Giles.”  She choked on her words, not wanting to cry in front of Faith – but knowing she would.  Whatever strength she had reserved was gone now, and there was nothing to do but turn into a puddle, salt and water and pain and fury pooling at her feet. 

Faith Lehane might have been described as many things but naive was not one of them. She had seen loss. Her dad had been out of the way as long as she could remember. Her mother had said he’d died. It hadn’t turned out to be true. He was in fact in prison for murder. Funny how that ran in the family. She’d accepted that loss when she was young. Wasn’t a big deal. You don’t miss what you never had. Anyway, from what she’d seen of her mom’s so-called relationships, men were all pieces of shit anyway. They weren’t something that should be longed for or missed. The physical sensations that came with the passion of sex, sure, but anything more than that, Faith could live without. But then there’d been Angel. Angel had warmed Faith’s coldness, held a candle to her darkness. She had once desired him purely because Buffy had him. That and she thought it might be fun to bring out his bad side, the parts of him he was ashamed of, the parts he feared. It was more than that though. The lust had faded. She didn’t desire him in that way. Not any longer. He had saved her from herself and for that, Faith would forever owe Angel. Now she had his soul in her hand.

But it was too late. As Buffy told her of their loss she was faced with the undeniable truth that she’s screwed it up. She’d screwed him over. Angelus had killed Giles and from everything Faith knew about the guilty conscience Angel could have, when he came back, he wouldn’t be the same. It would take him probably years to get over the horror of what the demon inside him had done. Faith knew a few things about demons and not just because she had spent years of her life slaying them.  “This… this is fuckin’ useless then,” Faith muttered, tossing the pendant that held Angel’s soul aside, not caring where it fell. She’d stood at the right hand of an evil, crack-addict witch for weeks on end trying to procure the very item she’d just held in her hand and now she tossed it aside like a worthless piece of junk. She should have felt bad, and she did… but not for the right reasons. It wasn’t the soul that was junk. It was her. Once again, Faith was in the gutter only this time, it was the gutter of the dark recesses of her mind. “Giles…” she said sadly, shaking her head as she took a seat on his couch.

Her heart hurt and for the life of her, Faith didn’t understand it. Giles hadn’t been anything to her. Not really. She told herself that, but wasn’t quite sure she believed it. As much as Faith hated to admit that such a thing existed, Giles was one of the good ones. He’d never set out to hurt her. He’d even wanted to help her, even when she didn’t deserve any kind of loyalty of kindness. Whereas Wesley had wanted to ship Faith back to the watcher’s council in shackles, Giles had respected that she required a slightly more hands-off approach. Hadn’t done her any good, but at least she had tried. Faith had spent the last few months thinking Buffy was dying and there the other slayer was, standing right in front of her. Buffy. The thought hit her hard and fast. While Faith mourned for the loss of her Angel, the Angel who had saved her soul, who she attempted to repay by saving his soul in kind, she realized Buffy was mourning something even more meaningful. “B…” Faith said, her voice heavy as she lifted her head. “Shit. B, I’m sorry. He was your—” Faith didn’t know what she had intended to say. Watcher? Father? Didn’t matter any more. Whatever Giles had been, he was lost now, to all of them. “I was too late,” she uttered coldly, realizing her mistake. “Fuck!”

ladyof-buffdom:

You two are perfect for each other. 

Sure, B. Me, who risked my ass to get close to the Malocchio and give you an inside warning about all his plans to kill you. Me, who told you in advance they were gonna go after your girl so you could protect her. Me, who was almost killed for bein’ a double agent when he got onto my ass. Hey, wanna know what started him bein’ suspicious? It was ‘cause I helped Cecily, slipped her food and water and painkillers and stuff while she was kidnapped. Told you about the location of the apartment so you could come. Got Angel’s soul back a couple hours too late to save Giles’ life. Cried on your couch with you when I found out.

I’m just like her.

Good one. Fuck you.