Choices

by Izzy
Rating: NC-17

+11=12=13=14=15=Epilogue+

PART ELEVEN

The dark Slayer didn't know how long she had been standing there in the hall with her hand resting lightly on her stomach and a wistful expression on her face, but Buffy seemed very worried about her when she came back into the hall to find out what was wrong.

"Faith, are you ok? Was it what Willow said to you, what did she say?" The blonde asked with concern.

"Um, no Red was pretty cool actually. She made me promise not to hurt you and said that she was going to give me another chance."

Buffy smiled a little. "So, that's good isn't it?"

Faith couldn't hold it in any longer and tears started to run silently down her face, which made the blonde even more worried.

"Faith what is it?"

The brunette locked eyes with her lover before asking her a difficult question. "B, am I pregnant?"

"What?" The question confused Buffy for a moment, but when it hit her she stood back in shock and had to cover the gasp that threatened to escape her mouth. "Oh my God; Beth." The tears were still falling down the brunette's face and Buffy quickly moved back in to comfort her. "Oh baby, it's ok, it'll be alright."

"I'm not sure I can do this, I don't think I can be a mom." Faith said with her head buried in the crook of Buffy's neck.

"Faith, if you are pregnant then you're going to be a wonderful mom. I've been watching your double do it for more than two weeks."

"She's not me though. She hasn't made all the mistakes I've made."

Buffy shook her head. "It doesn't matter, you're the same basic person she is, and you can do it if you put your mind to it. You have it in your heart to be a good mom."

Before Faith could protest they heard a voice from behind them. Apparently they had all been wondering what was taking them so long. "She's right you know. Besides it's not all that hard, you just do what comes naturally." The other Faith approached the teary brunette. "Here try holding her." Beth was in her arms and she held the child out for her double to take.

Faith took the child and held her under the arms and out in front of her, which made the other brunette frown and the blonde smile a little.

"Hmm, I don't remember having that problem."

They were startled again by another voice behind them, this time it was Buffy's double.

"Are you kidding me? You treated her like she was a bomb that was going to go off if you touched her for the first month that she was at home with us. Not that I was much better." She said with a teasing smile on her face. "Here, let me help you." She approached the Slayer holding her child. "Put this hand under her to support her and the other hand on her back to stop her from falling backwards. Of course you would have to support her head more if she was a newborn, but the midwife will show you all that."

Beth was looking round wide eyed at the four Slayers that had congregated in the hall, amazed and amused by her parents and their doubles. She was quietly sucking her two middle fingers as she rested her head on the dark Slayer's shoulder, she had been awake since five o'clock and it was almost midday now so she was beginning to feel sleepy. She yawned and closed her eyes, which caught her parents' attention.

"Looks like all the excitement has worn her out a little." Buffy said and after giving the brunette a little longer she took her child back.

"We'd better get back. Wren will want to get started, and I'm kinda curious to hear what she has to tell us." Faith said as she moved to stand next to her wife.

"Who's Wren?" Buffy asked.

"She's the one who knows what's going on; she works for the Powers." Faith said before ushering the other couple into the living room, leaving her wife to put their daughter to bed.

Wren was standing in the middle of the room, waiting patiently for the others to join them. By the looks on the faces of the new couple as they walked into the room, she could guess what they had all been talking about.

She watched as both of the new arrivals raised an eyebrow when they first saw her. Wren was used to this, and truth be told, she liked it. For some reason, when people imagined higher beings, they saw them as wise looking figures with a dignified look, but certainly not with pink hair.

She gestured for them all to take their seats and then began to get to the point of her visit.

"For the two of you that have just joined us, my name is Wren. I work as kind of a messenger for the Powers." She could see that they were all eager to hear what she had to say and chose not to delay any further; especially as the Slayers were beginning to get restless. "As I told you two earlier," here she pointed to the visiting Slayers, "I'm here predominantly for Beth…"

Buffy (AU) came back down after a few minutes and sat down next to her dark haired lover, linking their fingers together as she made herself comfortable.

From this point Wren proceeded to tell them what she had told the Scooby members from the other reality; about the prophecy regarding Beth's coming into existence, about the Order of Destruction, and how Lebath and Lisbaen were planning to kill the Slayers' child as she was supposed to be a big threat to them in the future.

"So Beth is supposed to be a force to be reckoned with; what kind of powers will she have? What signs should we be looking out for?" Faith (AU) asked as soon as Wren had finished.

"As far as strength goes, by the time she reaches high school she should be as strong as any normal Slayer, but as she gets older her strength will grow. She will have some abilities for magic, but telekinesis will be her greatest mental power." Wren paused for a moment as this sank in. "As for signs, well as soon as you begin to see things floating around the house you'll know what that is. Her strength will mature with her, and she will have to learn how to control her magic abilities."

When Wren had finished Buffy glanced over at the other Slayers, wondering if they were as overwhelmed as she was. Her new lover looked as she imagined she herself looked, but the other two Slayers appeared even more shocked than she was.

"Had you never thought that she would be different from other kids?" Willow asked the married couple, having had similar thoughts to her best friend.

The Slayers in question exchanged a look before the blonde spoke. "Well, we anticipated that she would be different from other kids, and we already know that she's stronger, faster and less prone to illness, but we had no idea that she would gain other powers later on."

"We'll handle it though." The brunette mother said in an attempt to assure both herself and her wife. Truthfully, she was feeling a little anxious about what the future would hold, especially once their daughter hit puberty.

"Well I'm sure you all have a lot to think about now, but are there any more questions you want to ask me before I go?" Wren asked.

"Do you know how we're supposed to defeat these demons; Lebath and Lisbaen?" Buffy (AU) asked, which caused all eyes to turn once more on the bright haired woman.

"There are few books on either demon, but I'll leave you with the names of a few that I know of. I'm afraid I don't know exactly where these particular volumes are, but I have a suspicion that at least three of them are in the City of Angels." Tara passed Wren a piece of paper and a pen on which the names of the demon texts were written.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but if you can get a hold of these books I'm sure you'll find them very useful." Wren passed the paper back to the blonde witch who gave it to her girlfriend. "I'll be back in a day or two. The ritual that they want to perform should be done by the light of a new moon. That gives us four days." When Wren had finished speaking, the two witches stood up to show their visitor out; it seemed that all four Slayers had suddenly lost the ability to move as each of them was deep in thought.

Noise from upstairs roused them from their reverie and they all glanced towards the ceiling.

Faith looked to her wife. "I'll go check on her." She said as she detangled herself from the blonde's arms and made her way out of the room.

When the witches came back into the room Willow asked Buffy if she could speak to her upstairs. Buffy reluctantly followed her best friend to the witches' bedroom. The red head sat on the bed and gestured for the blonde to do the same thing, but Buffy stayed standing and Willow mentally understood the gesture; Buffy was taking a stand for Faith.

"Buffy…" Willow started, but was immediately interrupted.

"I know what you're going to say Will; you don't like Faith, so I get that you don't like the idea of me and her, but I need this. I never knew before just how much." Buffy sighed and sat down next to Willow. "Please don't hate me. You're my best friend Will, and I need you… I'll always need you."

By the time the Slayer had finished speaking Willow was close to tears. "Aww, Buff. I… I don't know what to say. I need you too, but I didn't bring you up here to tell you to stay away from Faith."

The blonde's eyebrows shot up. "Oh…" Her expression turned to a frown then. "So, what did you drag me up here for?" She asked with a small smile.

"Well I did want to talk to you about Faith. I wanted to say that I'm sorry for the way things turned out with her before. I know that we all handled her in the wrong way… or didn't handle her, as the case may be. Just know that, I'm not going to stand in the way of her trying to find redemption."

As her friend finished talking the blonde was, this time, the one left holding unshed tears. Unable to find the words to explain how she was feeling, Buffy pulled Willow into a strong embrace and whispered just two words.

"Thank you."

When the hug ended they both wore matching smiles before the red head became more serious.

"This doesn't mean though that I'm ready to forgive her or to apologise to her, yet. I'll give her the chance to prove herself though." As an after thought she added; "But if she ever hurts you then things will get ugly."

"You just had to put that in, didn't you?" She smiled coyly.

Willow smiled again. "Of course."

They then stood up and made their way out of the room. Buffy headed off to the bathroom and when she was finished walked towards the top of the stairs. She stopped before she got there and noticed that her girlfriend/lover?'s double was still in her room; talking quietly to her daughter.

Standing in the doorway the blonde furtively watched the picturesque scene of the mother and daughter. Her thoughts soon wondered to the dark Slayer who was sitting in her living room, probably feeling nervous and unsure of herself, and most likely carrying their child. Most parents didn't have the luxury of knowing that they were going to be parents the day after the conception of their child, and Buffy couldn't help thinking at that moment that perhaps they were the lucky ones.

Not that she wasn't thrilled by the thought that she and Faith were going to have a baby, but she was only just getting used to the fact that she and Faith had slept together. They hadn't yet had time to talk about their relationship and what it meant to each of them, and suddenly this huge responsibility had been thrust upon them.

She didn't even know what they were; lovers, girlfriends? Did they just sleep together? Was Faith supposed to move in with her now? Would they get married? All these questions filtered through her mind as she stood gazing at a scene that could one day be hers.

As she turned to leave the brunette looked her way and welcomed her into the room. Buffy, almost reluctantly, complied.

"How is she?" The blonde said, asking after the child.

"Restless. She can sense all the people in the house and she wants to investigate." Faith said with fondness for the small brunette.

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "She can really feel that, already?"

"Yeah, it's part of the whole Slayer thing she's inherited. Probably the reason why she kept picking up your phone when no one else could hear it ringing. Her hearing's always been real acute too; most of the reason why B and I soundproofed our bed room." She said the last part with a slight chuckle and was pleased to see the blonde blush a little. "I'm assuming it's ok for me to say things like that; now that the two of you have found a more pleasurable way of releasing all that tension, rather than battling it out." Faith said with a definite smirk.

Trying to turn the subject away from her own sex life, Buffy asked the dark Slayer how she and her wife were now that they'd been reunited.

"Last night was hard. Not having seen her for two weeks and wanting nothing more than to touch her all over… With Beth in the room though…" She didn't have to finish that sentence as the blonde had already caught on to her meaning.

"I don't envy you one bit. To be next to her and not being able to touch her… It's hard. And I've only really been doing it sitting on the couch downstairs. Maybe I shouldn't care what anybody else thinks, but I didn't want to stir anything up too much when I know she's already nervous just being here. Speaking of which, I should really be getting back down there." As she finished she started to make her way to the door.

"Ok. Tell B I'll be down in a few."

"K…" Just as she was leaving the room the blonde thought of something else to ask the dark Slayer and turned back. "Oh, I was just going to ask you if you were going to be staying here again tonight."

Faith shrugged. "Sure. Don't really have anywhere else to go. Why, did you want us out?" She asked with a frown.

"No! I was just wondering. I'll probably be staying at the hotel again, if that's ok."

"Why wouldn't I think that was ok?" She asked, confused.

"I dunno. I thought maybe you'd want us around to be here for Beth. You know, in case those demons came for her." She said with concern.

"Oh, well thanks, but I shouldn't think anything will happen tonight. Wren didn't seem to think that anything was gonna happen for a few days, and if anything did happen there'll be two Slayers here. Anyway, I think the two of you could do with the alone time, give you a chance to catch up on what you've missed."

"Alright, we'll be back some time in the morning. See if we can't figure all this out and get you guys home."

They exchanged smiles before the blonde exited the room and made her way to the living room on the ground floor. When she got to the bottom of the stairs she was taken aback by a knock at the door. On answering it she found Xander and Anya and reluctantly invited them in. Steering the two away from the living room she cornered them in the kitchen and attempted to explain the situation.

"So Buff, what's up?" Xander asked almost immediately.

"I know you guys haven't been round here much lately…" She said before she was interrupted by the ex-demon.

"Xander's been avoiding Faith 'cause he's scared of her."

The construction worker tried to protest. "I am not scared."

"Uh huh, sure honey. He doesn't like her because she undermined his manhood by sleeping with him and then forgetting about him." She finished when she'd turned back to face the Slayer.

"And it's not at all to do with the fact that she tried to strangle me to death." He said sarcastically.

"She tried to kill Buffy a bunch of times and she's ok with Faith now." Anya chimed in.

Xander looked at the blonde Slayer almost accusingly then. "Yeah, why is that?"

Buffy shook her head a little trying to organise her thoughts. "Ok Xander, I know you have your own issues when it comes to Faith, but she's changed a hell of a lot since you last saw her, and I know that if you give her a chance you'll see that. No I haven't always been Faith's number one fan, but that's past and we're working together to try and fix the mistakes we made. If you can't find it in yourself to give her that chance then I'd at least like it if you could respect my choice help her."

They were silent for a moment while the dark haired man chewed on this information. "If you want to give her a chance and try to make friendly with her then there's nothing I can do about that and I'll try not to get in the way, but I can't promise that I'll be able to do the same thing. You'll just have to give me time."

"Ok, time, I can do that. Do you think you'll be able to stay civil with her though?"

"Why?" He asked cautiously.

"She's in the living room." Buffy said guiltily.

"I'm guessing that's why you pushed us straight into the kitchen then, to give us this little talk." Buffy just nodded. "You couldn't have told us this earlier? When did she arrive?"

"Yesterday. She was driving the other Buffy here from LA and when they got here I got into the car with her and we took a drive so we could talk. We patrolled together, ate pizza, and then I stayed at her place last night. So I've not been back long. Will said she left a message on your answering machine about the meeting earlier, but didn't know what time you were going to be back."

"You stayed with Faith last night? Does that mean she's your orgasm buddie?"

Xander was about to berate his girlfriend for saying something inappropriate, but the blonde's intense blush made him do a double take and his jaw dropped to the floor when the truth hit him.

"You're sleeping with her? So why bother telling us all that crap about wanting to be her friend?"

Buffy's head shot up at this point. "It wasn't crap! I do want to be her friend, but I'd like to be her girlfriend as well."

Xander just rolled his eyes. "Yeah well, I stick by what I said… I don't think I'm ready to make nice yet, so maybe you should just give us some homework to be going on with." He said a little bitterly.

Buffy sighed. "I understand that you need time to get used to this, but we have a serious situation on our hands here… Could you at least just stay for the briefing?"

Xander nodded reluctantly and was rewarded with a hug from the Slayer. "Let's get this over with then so we can go home. I still have to make up the work schedule for tomorrow."

Buffy led them into the living room where everyone else had gathered, including Faith (AU) and Beth. The room was pretty crowded and with Xander and Anya's arrival and everyone soon noticed that there weren't enough seats.

Faith quickly stood up and moved towards the door. "I'll go get a chair from the dining room." She said by way of offering the others her seat.

"Or better yet you could stay out there." Xander suggested.

Faith stopped momentarily, feeling the pain of his words hitting her hard. She swallowed down the biting comeback and carried on walking.

"Xander!" Buffy scolded, before turning to the brunette. "Faith, could you get one for me too please?" She heard a muffled acknowledgement and turned back to her friend. "I only asked you to be civil Xander, and you can't even do that. If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all, ok?"

Xander just waved his hand in the air and looked away from the blonde Slayer as he put his arm around the ex-demon. Faith came back in a moment later carrying two chairs and placed them just inside the doorway before sitting down with Buffy.

Xander managed to stay quiet throughout the briefing, even through the various details about Beth's origin and future significance. Not too long after the briefing, as the group had delved into mixed conversation, Xander once again could not refrain from commenting generally about Faith when Buffy suggested that she and Faith patrol.

"Make sure you check for a pulse before you stick the stake in." He said before receiving simultaneous death stares from four Slayers.

"Xander, what did I tell you…? Can't you for once just keep your opinions to yourself?" She said, displaying anger as she stood up and crossed her arms over her chest.

He also stood up, pointing at her accusingly as he said, "You know what; the only reason you're defending her is because you slept with her, and you're hoping that by pretending to be her friend, you'll get to do it again."

Faith intervened at this point. "Even if that were true, it would still make you a complete hypocrite."

Feeling slightly offended by the comment, the blonde turned to the dark Slayer next to her. "You think that's true; that I would do that?"

Faith mentally slapped herself before turning to the blonde. "It was hypothetical; I didn't mean that what he said was true."

"But you think it could be." She pursued.

"B, can we do this later, when we haven't got a studio audience." The brunette asked, pleading with her eyes, to which Buffy reluctantly nodded.

The two other Slayers who, up 'till this point, had been silent, had exchanged confused glances during the conversation, and Faith gasped suddenly as the answer came to her.

"You had sex with Xander!?"

The Slayer in question closed her eyes in frustration and lifted a thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose. "Yes, ok? I had sex with Xander, I'm not exactly proud of it." She turned to Xander at this point. "No offence intended man, it just shouldn't have happened."

Before anyone could say anything else Buffy gently linked her hand through the brunette's and ended the dispute. "We're gonna go now, Faith and I will patrol and we'll all meet back here tomorrow afternoon. Anybody besides Xander have anything to say…? Ok, we'll see you all tomorrow then."

Buffy waved goodbye to the witches and the other Slayers and ushered the brunette out the front door.

It didn't take long after the two Slayers had left before the other two had had enough of the stares they were getting from the still present construction worker. They made their apologies to the witches and took their daughter up to Buffy's room, where they stayed until Xander and Anya had left.

*****

Meanwhile, dark and light Slayer walked most of the way back to the hotel in silence, uttering minor comments about where they planned to patrol later on and what time they should go out.

Buffy could tell that the dark Slayer had been emotionally wounded by what Xander had said, but wanted to wait until Faith was ready to talk about it, or to at least wait until they were inside and alone before starting to ask her questions.

As it happened, the blonde Slayer decided not to ask any questions until they had finished patrol, thinking that perhaps once Faith had got some tension out on a few vamps, she would be more willing to talk.

When they returned to the hotel in the early morning both were tired and hungry and while Faith was in the shower Buffy made them something to eat. After the food was prepared she sat on the bed and waited for her turn in the bathroom.

As Faith came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, Buffy stood up and there was an awkward moment between them as the blonde tried to move past the brunette to get to the bathroom. After a second or two of moving side to side to get past one another, they each started laughing and the atmosphere became instantly easier.

The blonde moved slowly forward and placed her hands on the brunette's hips, and then kissed her lightly on the lips, twisting them round so that their positions were reversed.

"I whipped up a little snack from what was in the mini-bar. Help yourself, I won't be long." She kissed the dark Slayer again, a little longer this time, before heading off for a greatly needed shower.

Faith pulled a white tank-top out of her bag and pulled on a pair of black boxer shorts before checking out the food laid out on a near by table. Deciding to wait until Buffy had finished in the bathroom; she took a seat on the window sill and gazed blindly at the street down bellow.

Thoughts were rushing around her mind, as they had been all day. From the joy of waking up next to Buffy, to their conversation at breakfast, her fear of being around the Scoobs again, discovering the possibility that she was pregnant, and watching the obvious closeness of her and Buffy's doubles, feeling envious of their relationship.

How would she ever be able to live up to that image after the things she'd done? Long term relationships had never been her thing; the thought of bearing her secrets and fantasies to someone she barely knew beyond the physical held deep repulsion for the brunette.

However, just that morning she had wanted nothing more that to share everything with the other Slayer. To lay bare her soul and put all of her hopes and dreams in the blonde's care. The realisation of this drove a tide of irrational fear to her brain and she suddenly felt sick and claustrophobic.

How the fuck was she supposed to handle all this? How the fuck was 'she' supposed to handle the responsibilities of keeping together a relationship with someone who, not too long ago she had shared a deep hatred, and trying to find redemption for all the bad things she's done, with the pressure of parenthood on top?

Buffy had obviously enjoyed their love making, but Faith still couldn't help thinking that somewhere inside the blonde, sex had been all she was looking for. Now Buffy would be regretting ever having touched the dark Slayer, feeling that they would have to stay together because Faith was now pregnant.

As the dark Slayer's thoughts turned increasingly sour the blonde was drying herself off and soon emerged from the steam filled bathroom with a dreamy look on her face. Seeing the frown on the brunette's face and the dark cloud that had formed around her head quickly brought Buffy back down to earth.

Moving so as not to disturb the brunette, Buffy slipped on a t-shirt and some underwear. Running her fingers through damp hair in an attempt to tame it, she approached the window and tentatively touched Faith's arm, half expecting the brunette to flinch at the touch. Buffy softly stroked the other Slayer's arm in comfort, but she remained rigid and silent.

When she did finally speak her voice was cold and she kept her eyes trained on the scene outside, avoiding looking at the blonde Slayer. "Why are you still here?"

Buffy's hand stopped and she slowly withdrew it from the dark Slayer's arm. She pushed a biting comeback to the recesses of her mind and retreated a few steps to settle herself on the bed, her knees pulled up under her chin and her arms wrapped around them.

Having dealt with Faith's mood swings in the past she knew that getting into an argument was going to do nothing to solve whatever was on her mind, and it was probably the first thing that Faith was expecting to happen. Her mind flashed quickly through all the events that had happened earlier that day, from waking up, making love, going to breakfast, getting the call from Willow.

As she chronologically moved through the day's events she began to realise why Faith was acting this way. From the point when Willow had called she realised that the brunette had begun acting differently. She had become quiet after leaving the hotel, and as the blonde had been imagining what their reception would be like back home she had thought nothing of it. She recognized then that most, if not all of the things that had happened to them today had been good.

They had woken up together and had spent a wonderful first morning in each another's arms. Willow had approved of their relationship, to a certain degree. They had discovered that they were going to have a baby… Things were looking up; the road ahead seemed bright for once. For Faith, things had gone from; being at the bottom of the ladder, seeking redemption (but not completely expecting to find it), to receiving forgiveness from some of the people she hurt the most, possibly finding love, becoming pregnant, and all in just a little over twenty-four hours.

After coming to this realisation Buffy had to think carefully about how to deal with the brunette's attitude. She eventually reckoned that she would just have to stay as calm as possible, and keep her answers short and honest.

"Why, Faith?" She asked, hoping that this would cause the brunette to turn and face her. When Faith didn't budge she sighed and continued. "Because I want to be."

Not having expected the blonde's calmness Faith turned around sharply, confusion etched across her features. The same thoughts that had been circulating round her head for most of the day were warning her not to get her hopes up, not to believe that what Buffy was telling her was the truth, reminding her of all the terrible things that she'd done and asking her if she really thought she deserved what was being offered to her.

The sad truth was that she believed that she absolutely did not deserve what was happening to her. Not friends, not happiness and certainly not love. In Faith's mind, the fact that these things were happening to her made her think that there was sure to be a catch somewhere; something that proved that she wasn't worthy, something to punish her for her wrong doings and ridicule her for ever hoping that things were going to turn out for the best.

All of her life, whenever something had been going her way, whenever she was happy, it was taken away from her. It had started with her parents. She had been happy with them and they had been taken away from her by a drunk driver and for five years after that she had had to endure the cruelties of her adopted 'family'.

It had taken her a while, but she had eventually managed to escape. It was then that her Watcher had approached her and informed her of her destiny as a Slayer. Sarah had been like her best friend, teacher and mother all rolled into one, and then that bastard Kakistos had tortured and torn her apart; she was left to look after herself once more.

Sunnydale had been the light at the end of the tunnel, with her fellow Slayer Buffy, waiting at the gates to welcome her in. At least that's how she'd imagined it. At first it had given her hope; hanging around with Buffy and her friends, but Faith had soon come to realise that she wasn't entirely welcome, no matter what she did.

In the beginning it had been the blonde Slayer herself who was secretive and had found fault with her, but when they had begun to bond a little more it was Willow who had pushed her away and become envious of their connection.

It was not hard for the brunette to admit to the fact that she had been attracted to Buffy from the start, and it had been natural for her to try and act on those feelings. Each time she had made a pass at the blonde Slayer it had seemed that there was more of a response, until Angel had come back from hell that was.

So she had had to settle for just being friends and though she had often flirted with the blonde, she had no longer expected a serious response. Their friendship had developed slowly and Faith still remembered now, the seemingly endless hours she had spent alone in her dingy motel room, waiting for dark to come so that she could spend time with Buffy.

Just as things had been looking up she had accidentally killed a man. Feeling scared and isolated she had refused offers from the others for 'help', feeling ostracised by the people who supposedly saw her as their friend. So she had eventually lost them too, though by her own betrayal when, with a mind full of anger, confusion and sour beliefs, she had gone to work for the Mayor.

Revenge had been the biggest thing on her mind then. She had convinced herself during those days and nights spent alone, that they had played her all along. Pretended to like her so that they could use her Slayer status to help when they thought they needed it. She had never been invited to attend the meetings. No one had thought to ask her how she was, if she was getting enough to eat, if she had enough money for rent or clothes. They had missed her birthday, but they hadn't known it because no one had bothered to ask her when it was.

So she had wanted revenge, and helping a man who wanted to become a demon and kill them all seemed like a pretty good way to go about it.

Of course she hadn't envisioned that her relationship with the Mayor would have turned out the way it did. Just like her first Watcher had been like a mother to her, the Mayor had been like a father. She had developed a deep love for the wannabe demon, and eventually he had ended up near the bottom of a long list of people that she had loved and lost.

The final thing that she had lost had been her self. The girl she once thought she knew had fallen into a big black hole and she didn't know if she was ever going to find that girl again. She was gone along with all the other things. Just like her virginity, she wasn't going to get that girl back.

Faith was tired of losing people, and she had come to realise that if she didn't have anyone to lose then surely she couldn't be hurt. These were her thoughts now as she trained her eyes on the blonde Slayer that she was once again beginning to fall for. It had been hard enough losing Buffy the first time when she hadn't even really experienced having her, and Faith didn't think she would be able to survive losing her again, when it really mattered.

Their baby was important to the world and the battle against evil, therefore she couldn't (even if she had wanted to) consider having an abortion, but she couldn't look after a child, so after the birth, their daughter would stay with Buffy, and Faith planned to make herself scarce from their lives.

With this in mind she knew that she would have to destroy the feelings that she had allowed to develop between them. She had to make Buffy hate her again.

Faith scoffed and rolled her eyes at the blonde's answer, trying to hide the surprise she had felt upon hearing Buffy's words. And forgetting the promise she had made to the red headed witch she began to speak in harsh tones.

"Oh, you want to. Of course, how could I forget, the golden Slayer always gets what she wants." She began to walk round the room, gesturing with her arms, and continued to make snide remarks; each one hitting its target and causing the blonde Slayer to flinch.

"It doesn't make the slightest bit of difference what I want, but I never did have a say in anything did I? Why should that change now? I didn't ask to come back to Sunnyhell, I didn't ask for you to jump into my car, I didn't ask you to forgive me, and I sure as hell didn't ask to get knocked up!

"You know what? I think Xander was right. I think you wanna be here because you got a taste and wanted to come back for more. You're no different from anyone else I've ever fucked. I get used; I get fucked and I get dumped. Sooner or later they get tired of me and then I'm out on my ass, but not this time, I'm not gonna let that happen again. I'm not gonna be yet another Buffy Summers cast off."

Buffy tried to interrupt at this point, trying not to raise her voice and hoping to calm the other Slayer down.

"You don't know what you're talking about Faith. Yeah, I've had some bad experiences with relationships, but I really think it could work between you and me."

Faith stared in disbelief, and changed her tactics a little. "Are you even listening to me? I don't fuckin' want this…! What would make you think I'd want to be with someone who gets off on fucking the un-dead?"

This hit the blonde hard and she felt her resolve bend significantly. She kept her mouth closed and tried to fight back the tears, but realised that she'd failed miserably as she tasted the saltiness of her pain gathering at the corners of her mouth.

After that last remark Faith knew she had done it, but somehow she didn't feel the way she thought she would. She was supposed to feel glad that she had broken any ties that were between them; after all it was for Buffy that she was doing this as well. Somewhere along the lines something had gone wrong, she had overlooked something, some minute detail that was the cause of the intense pain she was feeling in her chest.

As the Slayers' eyes locked together and Faith could see Buffy's heart breaking, she realised that what she was looking at was a mirror image of what was happening inside of her. The pain she was feeling inside was reflected in those beautiful green eyes that were staring back at her.

The plan had been, to make Buffy hate her and to make herself hate Buffy before either of them could fall into that vortex of feelings associated with love. What she had overlooked had been the deep down fact that they were already in love. Nobody was going to be able to take Buffy away from her, she hadn't given them the chance, in the five minutes or less she had managed to destroy all her hopes and dreams, and as the blonde Slayer excused herself to take refuge in the bathroom, Faith felt all chances of her happiness being cut to pieces by a very large proverbial axe.

Her legs buckled as the tears began to flow down her cheeks and she wept silently into her knees, which were pulled tightly against her chest.

*****

In the bathroom, Buffy filled the sink, pulled her hair back and sank her face into the cold water. Only when her lungs began to hurt from the lack of oxygen did she pull back, gasping for air. Reaching for a towel she slowly dried her face, giving herself time to think about what had just happened.

Faith's words had hurt, but what had caused her the most pain was the memory of the times that they had fought before. That was a time when they had hated one another, and Buffy could never look back on those times without feeling guilty and sorrowful. Even though she knew what Faith was trying to do it didn't make her words sting any less.

She hadn't wanted to leave the brunette out there alone with her thoughts, but she wanted even less to lose her cool and to begin arguing with Faith. That, she knew, would end all reasonable conversation and would most likely end in a fight or with one of them walking out, and the brunette would be even harder to reason with if given time alone to convince herself that she was not worthy of love and happiness.

She stared at herself for a long time, considering the next step. The images she's had that morning came back to her. Scenes involving her and Faith, watching the sun set together on a deserted beach in the middle of the summer, and making love under a moonlit sky with the sound of waves lapping against the shore. She didn't want to lose Faith, couldn't lose her. She had to fight.

With renewed resolve Buffy took a deep breath and moved towards the door.

*****

The blonde Slayer had barely been in the bathroom five minutes, but during that time Faith had begun to feel that all consuming darkness beginning to surround her. She had stopped crying and was trying to push back the dark feelings that were threatening to break out.

She tried to tell herself that things weren't that bad, they could be fixed. She just had to swallow her pride, apologise to Buffy yet again for being so stupid, and explain why she had acted the way she had. Only, that would involve telling her about her step parents, about Kakistos, and about her fears of losing anybody she ever got close to.

Then there was the possibility that Buffy wouldn't want to know, that after that last outburst she would realise that Faith wasn't worth the hassle and just leave.

Time seemed to slow down, and the more of it that passed, the less strength Faith had to hold off the darkness. When Buffy emerged from the bathroom the brunette's efforts were so concentrated that she didn't even notice. It wasn't until she felt a hand on her hair, smoothing back the still damp locks, that she realised there was someone else in the room, and the shock of it caused her head to snap up with alarm.

Buffy took her hand back sharply and let it hang in the air, wondering what the brunette's reaction was going to be, but when she saw the look of recognition in her eyes she brought it back down to rest on the dark Slayer's left knee.

When the blonde spoke it was in a soothing tone and held with it no feeling of reproach towards the other girl.

"What you said… It hurt, and I'm not sure whether I deserved it or not, but…" She paused to think and Faith waited in anxious anticipation. "Unless you really meant it, I think we should just forget it."

Faith's expression quickly changed from anxious and scared to relieved and guilty, and when she spoke her words were rushed and broken.

"B, I'm so sorry… God, I hate myself right now. I-I don't know why I said those, things."

"I do, and I think you do too." Faith raised an eyebrow. Buffy smiled at how cute she thought the brunette looked when she did that and reached out a hand to smooth out the brow with the tip of her middle finger. "We've still got a lot to work out. I know everything is happening fast, but the way I see it, we're making up for lost time.

"It's ok to feel nervous about all this, I know I do. The past couple of days; my mind has been all over the place, I've barely had time to think and most of it's just a big blur. And just for the record; what Xander said is completely untrue; I'm not with you because you're great in bed."

Faith smiled slightly at this and then sighed deeply. "I know B; deep down I know all this. There's just this part of me that doesn't want to believe it. It's like; whenever anything's going my way and I'm happy, I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop, there's got to be a catch somewhere. I guess I figure, if I have nothing, then there's nothing to lose. I didn't want us to get really serious and then have to lose you."

Tears were falling down the dark Slayer's face as she continued to talk, and only when she stopped did she notice them.

"Look at me; I'm crying like a fuckin' baby, how weak is that?" She said in annoyance.

Up until now the blonde had been letting Faith talk, sensing that she was on a role, but the brunette's last sentence was not something that she just wanted to let lie.

"You are not weak Faith; showing your emotions does not make you weak. You're allowed to cry, it's perfectly natural. God, if I didn't cry now and again I think I'd explode." She let this sink in before continuing. "I'm not going to think any less of you if you want to breakdown occasionally. All I ask is that you tolerate me when I'm having one, 'cause when it comes to breakdowns I'm like old faithful."

Faith laughed a little and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. "Thanks." She said a bit croakily.

"Anytime." They stayed quiet for a moment until Buffy asked the brunette something she'd been wondering about since Faith had mentioned it. "By the way, how did you know about Spike?"

The dark Slayer's brow furrowed in confusion. "Spike?"

Buffy hesitated for a moment wondering if the brunette actually knew about him like she'd thought, but seeing as how she'd already brought it up she knew she couldn't back out now. "Um, you said something about me and vampires, so I assumed you somehow knew about him." The look on the other Slayer's face was her answer. "You didn't know about him, did you?" She said in defeat and Faith shook her head. "Way to put my foot in it." Buffy said quietly with her eyes focused on her hands that were resting in her lap.

Faith was somewhat confused, but tried to hide it. From the blonde's unintentional confession she had worked out that Buffy had had sex with Spike, who she had only ever met in Buffy's body, but what confused her were the reasons why. She understood the whole Angel thing; he had a soul, he fought evil, and he had the whole dark and dangerous thing going on, but as far as she knew Angel was the only vampire with a soul, so that would mean that Buffy had had sex with Spike who she assumed was still evil. She would never have thought it of the blonde.

Buffy was beginning to feel worried as the silence wore on. She breathed a sigh of relief when the dark Slayer spoke calmly and reasonably.

"So, was there some other reason why you slept with him, or was it just about the whole hungry horny thing?"

"A little bit of both."

"You gonna expand on that, or do I gotta guess?" She asked, letting a grin tug at the corner of her mouth and letting the blonde Slayer know that she wasn't angry.

Feeling more confident, but needing to move around, Buffy stood up and went to the window that the brunette had been looking out of previously and stared up into the sky. Faith stayed where she was on the floor, thinking that Buffy needed the space.

"It was so peaceful up there… There was no, pain or darkness. I didn't have to worry about anything. My time was over; I'd finally earned my way into heaven." She paused and crossed her arms over her chest as the brunette got up off the floor and approached her from behind and pulled her into a loose embrace, encouraging her to continue.

"They brought me back and I couldn't cope. I was exhausted trying to pretend like everything was ok. With Spike, he didn't expect me to be ok all the time and I didn't have to pretend with him… He'd had a thing for me for quite a while, and I guess I was desperate. I wanted to know if I could still feel; he made me feel. Most of the time he just made me feel disgusted with myself, but I was spiralling downward and I felt like I couldn't stop.

"I did eventually tell him that I couldn't be with him, and that I was using him and it was killing me. He thought he was in love with me, he was still very persistent."

The blonde's last words struck an alarm bell in the brunette and she wanted to know if her thoughts were going in the right direction.

"What do you mean; persistent how?"

Buffy hesitated and wiped a tear from her cheek before crossing her arms again. "He tried to rape me." She said almost inaudibly. "He didn't; I managed to fight him off, but… It just made me feel really weak. I felt like it was my fault for having played with him before."

Faith hugged the blonde closer to her and talked calmly to her, reassuring her. "B, it wasn't your fault. You said no, that should be enough for anyone. He overstepped the border, and if I find him I'm so gonna make him hurt."

Buffy smiled slightly and turned in the embrace. "As comforting as it is that you would seek vengeance on someone who has caused me pain; you can't stake Spike."

Faith frowned. "Why the hell not?"

"He's already dust. Your double staked him last week."

The dark Slayer was a tad disappointed by this news, but also relieved that the bleached blonde blood sucker was no longer around to cause trouble. She shrugged and walked backward a couple of steps to sit on the bed and pulling the blonde along with her, tugged Buffy onto her lap.

Buffy ran her fingers through the brunette's hair and marvelled at how soft and silky it felt between her fingers, all the while letting the pain of their earlier conversation ebb away as she gave into the calmness that had begun to take over. Faith gazed up at the blonde in a kind of awe, wondering how she ever got so lucky.

"So, are we ok then?" The brunette asked after a few moments.

Buffy looked into Faith's eyes and smiled softly as she leant forward, bringing her mouth in kissing distance, and whispered, "What do you think?"

Faith ran her hand up behind the blonde's neck and pulled her down to close the remaining distance between them. The kiss started off soft and undemanding, but soon verged on becoming out of control. The synchronised rumbling of the Slayers' stomachs brought them apart and Faith groaned in annoyance at the interruption.

"Maybe we should eat that food you prepared."

Buffy lowered her head to the dark Slayer's neck and let her hands do what they wanted as she replied, "Just ignore it."

"B, I can't ignore it. It's just gonna get louder if we carry on with this."

The blonde sat up and pouted for a moment before an idea came to her. Getting off the bed she grabbed a plate from the table and then moved back over to the brunette, pushing her back down before she too could get up.

"Well, maybe we can do both then." She said with a wicked smile before popping a stone-less cherry into her mouth. As she saw the dark Slayer's eyes widen in anticipation she took a step forward and then proceeded to kneel on the bed with one knee on either side of the brunette's legs. "How d'ya like that idea?"

Faith's answer was an enthusiastic nod, and before she had time to reply properly there was a cherry in her mouth, followed shortly by a tongue, seemingly wanting to share the small morsel.

Taking her time, Buffy fed the brunette Slayer while alternatively divesting Faith of her clothes and assisting Faith in the removal of her own clothes. When the cherries were gone they decided to move onto the floor as neither one of them really wanted to sleep in a bed that was full of cookie crumbs.

After making love the first time they lay panting on the floor and it was Faith who realised what a mess they'd managed to get in to. As a solution Buffy dragged the dark Slayer into the bathroom and pushed her into the shower. Trying not to let her hair get too wet she slowly ran a soap laden sponge all over Faith's body before allowing the favour to be returned.

By the time they had dried off and slipped under the covers neither of them had enough energy to do anything besides snuggle. Buffy laid her head on Faith's shoulder and made random patterns on her stomach with the tips of her fingers, while the brunette ran her fingers through silky blonde hair.

Before long both Slayers found themselves drifting off to sleep, neither one aware of the trials that lay shortly before them.

PART TWELVE

Order of Destruction HQ; In between worlds. 16th day.

Lebath was getting restless. Ever since her outburst at the meeting her fellow council members had been avoiding her and Aramath had been keeping an eye on her every move, making it hard for her to make the necessary plans for the capture of the Slayers’ child.

Lisbaen was all prepared now for the ritual that would take place in three days. They had planned on capturing the child the day before so that the Slayers wouldn’t have enough time to find out where the ritual was taking place, but now Lebath was having second thoughts.

She had many demons at her disposal. They were strong, loyal and would die for the cause, basically they were big and stupid, but they would be enough to take down the four Slayers and any other forces they could come up with. She could have many levels of security in place before the Slayers could find their hiding, and by which time it should be just about time to start the ritual.

The hardest part was separating the Slayers so that they could easily take the child without too much hassle. As she paced a few more times up and down the length of the room an idea came to her. With this thought her mind was made up. She wasn’t going to wait any longer; she wanted that child now.

Thinking of her destination she vanished from the OoD HQ and materialised at the entrance to Lisbaen’s den, startling the guards as she did so. They bowed to her as soon as they realised who she was and made way for her to enter. Once inside she swiftly crossed over the gravel floor to Lisbaen’s quarters and didn’t bother knocking before she entered.

The scene that greeted her did not surprise her and all she had to do was to wave an arm and order them all out before turning on the remaining demon.

“I want the Slayer’s child now. I’ve decided; there is too much that could go wrong if we wait. If we could get her now we would have everything we needed. All we would have to do is to wait for the new moon, and to keep an eye out for the Slayers. They will have a hard time trying to find us; we’re not even in the same dimension as they are.” Lebath said with certainty, daring Lisbaen to contradict her.

He hesitated before answering, still trying to conduct himself after the interruption. “It’s a great plan in theory,” he began cautiously. “But these Slayers have a history of being very resourceful in times of conflict, especially when someone they care for is in danger. It would be wrong to underestimate them.”

She considered him for a while; longer than she needed to, but she wanted to watch him squirm under her gaze. At last she said, “You’re right. I wouldn’t want to underestimate them, but if left any longer they would have more time to research and to possibly discover our plan. I want to get to the child now, while their defences are low. This way we will have her and even if they do discover our location before the ritual we will have many guards to tackle them.

“We will move on this today. My sources tell me that the other two Slayers are not staying in the same place as the child’s parents. You will fix me a loop for them; to keep them out of the way. They are all supposed to be meeting later this morning. If my instincts are right, and they always are, they will send a search party for the looped Slayers and this is when we’ll strike. They will leave one Slayer with the child I’m sure of it, but with a few of our best warriors she will be no problem to overpower.” She smiled as the plan began to come together in her head.

“They have two Wiccans with them also. One is weak from a long illness; the other though is very strong. D’Hoffrin was looking to add her to his group of vengeance demons.” He warned.

“Interesting… Well, where they have witches, we shall send warlocks. The council has a few and I’m sure I can convince a couple of them to do me a favour.” She paused to think over the plan again and once she was satisfied she began giving orders. “Find someone to create a loop for the new couple. I want it in place before they wake. I will talk to the warlocks and make a deal with them. Then we will wait. When the time is right we will strike, and then the child will be mine.”

With that she swept out of the cave, leaving behind one frustrated demon and many confused and awed followers.

*****

Faith’s hotel room.

Buffy yawned and stretched as she woke, moving her head to the side as she did so. She almost choked as she suddenly found herself with a mouth-full of dark hair. She sat up slightly and pulled the remaining strands out of her mouth before taking a look at the girl lying next to her.

Faith was lying on her front with her head resting on her arms and her hair covered most of her face. Buffy smiled and turned onto her side. She reached out with her free arm and brushed a strand of dark hair out of the brunette’s face so that she could see her better.

The brunette sighed deeply in her sleep and moved closer to Buffy. It was a little over half an hour later when Faith awoke to find herself snuggled up into the crook of her lover’s arm. She too stretched and then shifted so that she could lay small kisses over Buffy’s neck and collar.

The blonde tilted her head back and closed her eyes, revelling in the sensations the brunette’s kisses were invoking in her. Faith moved so that her left leg was situated between the blonde’s and pushed down so that her thigh roughly grazed the sensitive area at the junction in between.

Buffy gasped slightly and wrapped her right leg around the brunette’s right, pulling her down father. The need for release rose up at an alarming rate in both Slayers and as Faith brought her mouth down to envelope the tip of the blonde’s breast Buffy slid a hand down the brunette’s body and buried her fingers in a nest of wiry hair.

Faith spread her legs more to give the blonde better access and lowered herself down onto probing fingers. As she began rocking back and forward she brought her lips to Buffy’s and kissed her with all the passion and desire she was feeling. She slid her own hand down to Buffy’s centre and entered her.

The two rocked back and forth, matching the other’s rhythm and Buffy soon found herself on the brink of letting go.

“Faith, faster.” She cried as she gripped the brunette’s shoulder with her free hand, and her plea was quickly answered.

The sensations rose up in her quickly and she was soon begging for release. When her body did finally grant her that wish, she surged up and her whole body stopped still as a wave of vibrations shot through her.

Faith suddenly became desperate when the blonde’s fingers stopped what they had been doing and she whimpered with need as she tried to relieve herself by rubbing her centre against the other Slayer’s thigh. Buffy, almost immediately, saw the urgency her lover craved and resumed the motions of her hand, bringing the brunette to a powerful release.

The dark Slayer collapsed on top of her girlfriend and then, so as not to crush the blonde, she rolled them over so that they were facing one another from the side. She kissed Buffy slowly, dragging her tongue over pouting lips before beginning to re-explore that warm, dark cavern.

A familiar buzzing sound brought them out of their embrace and Buffy growled before getting out of bed and retrieving the offending item from her jacket.

“Hello?” She said into the receiver.

*Buffy listen, we need you to get back here pretty quick, both of you, is that ok?*

“Is something wrong?” Buffy asked with worry.

*No, it’s just that there’s someone here who needs to speak to everyone.*

“Ok, we’ll be there as soon as we can.” Buffy said before saying goodbye and hanging up.

Faith knew by the look on the blonde’s face that there would be no more playing around that morning and she slowly got out of bed and gathered some clothes together.

“I so need to buy some new clothes.” She said as she picked up the same pants that she had been wearing for the previous two days.

“Maybe we’ll have time to make a quick pass by the mall later.” The older girl thought out loud while fastening the clasp of her bra.

“I have to call my parole officer too; I need to make an appointment to see her.”

“You can use my phone if you like.” Buffy suggested, wanting to help the brunette Slayer in any way she could.

“Thanks B.” The brunette said as she pulled her tank over her head.

They each took their turn in the bathroom before pulling on shoes and heading out the door to make their way over to Buffy’s house. As the hotel became smaller in the distance behind them Buffy slipped her arm through the brunette’s, whose hands were buried deeply in her pockets, and gave her a warm smile, which was returned in kind.

They continued the rest of the way in this manner, each of them thinking about how happy they were be near one another.

When they arrived they went straight in and neither was as nervous as the day before, when they hadn’t known what response they were going to get. Like the day they remembered as yesterday, the two witches were just coming down the stairs as they entered the hallway, and the greeting they received was much the same. The Slayers simply attributed it to something that the red head was going to have to get used to before she would lose that coldness towards the dark Slayer.

“So, who is it who wants to talk to us?” Buffy asked after an awkward moment of silence.

“Her name’s Wren, she’s in the living room.”

“Oh.” Buffy said in surprise. “How come you didn’t tell us it was Wren over the phone? And I thought she wasn’t going to come back for a couple of days; did she find something else out about these demons?”

The witches exchanged a confused look. “You know her?” Tara asked.

“We met her yesterday.” Faith said with a frown creasing her forehead.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Willow asked. “What did she tell you?” She added with curiosity.

The Slayers exchanged a glance this time. “Will, you were there… Yesterday, you called me, told us to come here. You talked with Faith in the hall and you scared her by telling her that she might be pregnant.” At the still confused expressions on her friend’s faces she turned to the brunette for confirmation and when Faith nodded that this was what she remembered Buffy continued. “Wren told us about how Beth is supposed to be some sort of super Slayer when she grows up and these two demons are trying to get to her so they can kill her… Is any of this ringing any bells?”

“Buffy, Faith only arrived in Sunnydale yesterday; this is the first time we’ve seen her in years.” Willow said with complete seriousness.

*****

Summers’ Home, Real Time.

Willow placed the receiver back into the handset when she decided that no one was going to pick up at the other end. The Slayers were supposed to have been there an hour ago and she had suggested trying to call them, but all she had gotten so far was endless ringing.

“Probably too busy having sex to care.” The red head complained quietly as her girlfriend stood before her in the hallway.

“Willow.” Tara said, admonishing the other witch. “I’m sure there’s a good explanation for their tardiness. She may just have her phone on silent and might be on her way over already.” She suggested.

Willow nodded though she didn’t entirely believe it. “We’ll give them a while longer then.”

“They know how serious the situation is. Beth is like their own child; they would want to help as much as possible I know it.” She said with resolve.

Willow smiled at the blonde and pulled her into a loving embrace and kissed her firmly. “I love you.” She simply said.

Tara blushed before returning the sentiment and they both returned to the living room to await the arrival of the other Slayers.

*****

It was more than an hour later and the two Slayers were still MIA, and Buffy was still not answering her phone. Everyone was starting to get a little worried; they couldn’t imagine that either Buffy or even Faith would be so neglectful of their duties in such a situation.

“Someone should go over there and check it out.” The dark Slayer suggested with her daughter sitting in her lap.

Buffy got up from her position beside her wife. “Something’s not right about this. Whoever goes at least one Slayer should go with them, so I’ll go.”

“Me too.” Tara said firmly, and stopped the red head when she tried to protest. “No Will, you should stay here. Your powers are stronger than mine and you might need them to help to protect Beth.”

They all agreed though Willow did reluctantly and both blonde’s kissed their respective partners (and daughter in Buffy’s case), good bye before heading out the door.

They walked quickly, not wanting to leave the brunette and red head alone for too long. They were silent except for agreeing on directions and soon they came to their desired destination. They took the lift up to the second floor and moved briskly down the hall to room 053. Buffy knocked rapidly on the wood and they waited for a moment, but no reply came.

“Try again.” Tara suggested as she saw the frustrated look on her companion’s face.

The Slayer complied, but still they got no answer. She put her ear to the door and listened.

“Can you hear anything?” The witch asked.

Buffy shook her head. “No. I can hear a clock ticking, but that’s all.”

“What if they’re still asleep?”

The other girl shook her head slowly. “I’d be able to hear Faith snoring if she were asleep.”

Tara seemed to find this amusing. “Faith snores?”

Buffy smiled. “Very softly, but I’d be able to hear it.”

A thought then occurred to the witch. “But this isn’t your Faith we’re looking for. They’re mostly the same, but what if this one doesn’t snore?”

Buffy thought about this for a moment. “I could try to break in.” She considered this as she tested the door handle to see how strong it was. “Ok, I’m gonna try it.”

She twisted the handle and pushed the door with her shoulder. Seconds later a loud click and the splintering of wood could be heard and both blondes cautiously crept inside as the door came open.

Immediately they could tell that they had been correct in their assumptions that no one was at home. Tara immediately spotted Buffy’s cell phone sitting on the bed side table and picked it up before waving it at the forgetful Slayer’s double. The Slayer at hand blushed a little bit and shrugged her shoulders.

They found nothing that would give them any clues into the other Slayers’ disappearance and the witch placed the phone back on the bed in case the pair should come back. They left the room knowing little more than when they had got there, other than the fact that neither the blonde nor brunette Slayer was still present at the hotel.

*****

Back at the house the situation had just turned chaotic. As the two brunette’s and the red head had been sitting in the living room, writing notes (and doodling), They had heard a crash and a loud bang from the back door and before they could gather any real fire power or form a plan they were encircled by at least ten demons.

Beth was immediately placed between the two of them for protection and neither the witch nor the Slayer moved too far away so that no demon could come near the tiny future warrior.

Faith moved with all the power and speed that her Slayer status, plus the desire to protect her daughter, could give her. Adrenaline pumped through her without mercy and any attacks that she couldn’t block hardly registered in her brain as she slaughtered one demon after another. She was grateful to have a mirror on the wall in front of her so that every now and then she could check on the small girl behind her and on occasion see how her new witch friend was faring against the onslaught.

Willow had started out strong and in front of her too was a growing pile of dead demons, but she was weakening rapidly and the demons were still coming. There was an invisible battle going on inside the witch at that moment, but it didn’t take long for her to decide what was best and in moments her eyes had become blacker than black and two demons quickly went down in front of her.

From outside, for everyone to see, were at least a dozen more demons. Those that could see in through the windows saw the change in the red head and signalled to one another to concentrate on the brunette instead.

The Slayer’s hope was fading fast. In the past couple of minutes the pressure from her attackers had increased dramatically, almost to the point where she could no longer keep track of them all and with many fallen victims at her feet she was beginning to find it harder and harder to move around comfortably.

With no mirror in front of her, the red head couldn’t tell how Faith was doing behind her and had no idea of the effect her decision had made on the Slayer, or what the consequences of her actions would be. She was beginning to get weak again, but as the number of her attackers had fallen a great deal she figured that they would be triumphant in the end.

The dark Slayer had just glanced over at the mirror for a second and had let the fact that her daughter was still ok register in her brain before turning back to the fight when out of nowhere a particularly ugly demon to the left of her, just out of her line of sight, brought a heavy weapon down on the back of her head.

The pain took a moment to register, but by the time it had she had already fallen and the demons were not stupid enough to let her get her ground again as they pushed forward and darkened her world with unconsciousness. Willow was not far behind the Slayer as there was no longer any protection on her back and the last thing she heard was Beth’s cries for her mother before her world too faded to black.

*****

As soon as the blonde Slayer saw the open door and smelled the scent of demons in the air she felt her heart hit the pit of her stomach and rushed forward into the house. The two blondes found broken furniture everywhere, the worst of it being in the living room where they had left their significant others and the Slayers’ daughter.

As they entered their anxiety grew; there were their lovers lying unconscious on the floor and with cuts and bruises blemishing their features. They each moved over to their partners and attempted to bring them round.

Buffy stroked the brunette’s head, which was now resting in her lap, and whispered to her. “Faith, baby. Come on, you need to wake up.” The distress was evident in her voice and in her heart she knew what had happened. At the moment she would only concentrate on the other Slayer, but she knew that as soon as Faith woke up she was going to have to face the fact that their daughter had been taken. “Faith, I need you now; please wake up.”

Over the other side of the room the Wicca was slowly waking up and soon realised what had happened. The room was a mess and her head hurt a lot, but the demons had gone and she knew what that meant; they had failed.

“Willow. Are you ok?” She heard the anxious voice of her lover from above her.

“My head hurts, but I’ll be alright. Where’s Faith?” She asked with surprising concern.

“Buffy’s trying to wake her up. What happened?”

“Demons, lots of them. Too many to fight. Did you find the others?” She asked, referring to the two Slayers that belonged in their world.

Tara shook her head slowly. “No, there was no one there, and Buffy’s cell was lying on the bed, so unless they go back there she’s not going to answer it.”

“Damn it. What the hell is going on?” She said out loud as her frustration grew.

“It didn’t look like there was a struggle; I’m thinking that they left voluntarily.” The blonde witch said, but didn’t have any theories as to what had happened to the pair.

“It was a set up.” Faith said as she caught the tail end of the witches’ conversation, having just woken up. “They wanted to make sure that there was as little resistance as possible. They knew we would go looking for the others.” She broke her gaze away from the witches and turned a guilty expression on her wife. “There were just too many of them. I couldn’t keep an eye on them all.”

Buffy felt the tears pricking the backs of her eyes and tried in vain to keep them away. “I know baby; you did your best, I wouldn’t have been able to do any more… Is she… Do you know if she’s still alive?” Buffy asked with difficulty.

Faith looked at her loved with watery eyes, but had no answer for her as the tears began to fall. It was Willow who answered the blonde Slayer’s question.

“They took her alive.” She said with certainty, but paused before explaining to them how she knew this. “She… I could still hear her crying as they left.”

They were quiet for a while; the only sounds that could be heard were the brunette’s muffled sobs as she had her head buried in her wife’s shoulder. Buffy stroked dark hair and held Faith tightly as her own tears fell in silence.

It was almost an hour later when the Slayers looked at one another again and shared an unspoken understanding of the other’s feelings. Buffy nuzzled the top of her wife’s head and then gave to her a comforting kiss. She used her great strength to pull them both off the floor and noticed for the first time that they were alone in the room and she wondered how long they had been sitting there.

“Faith, look at me.” She commanded once they were both steady on their feet. “We’re going to get her back.” She said, the tone of her voice leaving no room for disagreement.

Faith nodded before adding, “Or we’ll die trying.”

“Or we’ll die trying.” The blonde repeated in agreement.

With that settled they kissed again, taking their time to indulge in the feelings this action invoked in each of them, as they knew it would be a while before they would have the chance to do this again.

They made their way into the dining room where the witches were sitting at the table holding hands; a bright light seemed to come from all around them. When the light dissipated each of the Wiccans relaxed and began to breathe a little more slowly.

“What was that all about?” Faith asked before sitting down; she was still weak from the fight.

“A locating spell. We were trying to see where they’d taken her.” Tara said.

Both Slayers appeared interested at this. “And?” Buffy asked, impatience lining her voice.

“The results were inconclusive.” Willow said as she tried to catch her breath.

“Meaning?” Faith asked with the same tone as her wife.

The witches exchanged a look. “Meaning that she is no longer here… In this world.”

*****

AU Sunnydale.

Giles, Annie, Willow, Tara, Xander, Anya, Spike and Dawn were all sitting or standing in various places around the Magic Box that afternoon. After another two gruelling days of research they had found out quite a lot about the situation at hand.

Currently they were collecting ingredients for the spell that would bring the Slayers back to their world. They had made the discovery just the day before; it had been in one of the books that the Watcher had brought with him from England. Everyone was anxious to have the Slayers back at home and in charge; they were all feeling a little naked without their protection, though none of them would have admitted it.

They had discovered when and where the ritual would take place and knew that by now Lebath would have all the ingredients, minus Beth, or so they hoped.

The blonde vampire had joined them that morning after having kept to himself for a couple of days and had told them that a lot of demons and one or two warlocks had shown up around the hellmouth. They all made the correct assumption that the demons would be a part of Lebath’s army, and the mention of the warlocks told them how serious Lebath was in her intentions.

The two witches were collecting ingredients from the store room in the basement and were talking about their plans to defeat Lebath.

“When did you want to do the spell?” Tara asked the red head as she placed another item in the box.

“As soon as everything is ready. Today hopefully.” Willow replied. Tara was quiet for a moment while she thought about this. “Why, what were you thinking of?”

“I was just thinking that maybe it would be best to contact them first to tell them what we’re doing. Maybe by using the dream spell.” She picked up another item that was on her list and placed it in the box with the other ingredients. “What if they’re in the middle of something and we just pull them back here?”

Willow raised an eyebrow at the blonde who blushed when she realised what her friend was thinking about. “I was thinking more along the lines of them being in a fight, protecting someone, and then we pull them away and some innocent person dies because of us… But there is the other thing as well.” She admitted with a shy smile.

Willow nodded in agreement. “You’re right; it’s too risky to just do it without their knowledge. We could do the dream spell tonight. We’ll try to contact Buffy; we should be able to get at least one of them. Though I doubt she’s sleeping much.”

“Early morning would probably be the best time; after the sun has begun to rise. At least she shouldn’t still be hunting at that time.” Tara suggested and the red head quickly agreed.

They made their way up stairs to the main area of the shop and relayed their plan to the others, who also agreed that it would be best to wait until morning, and they began preparing the spell that would allow Willow to enter Buffy’s mind in their dreams.

Everyone except Spike went to bed as normal and the Watcher and the two witches set their alarms in time for sunrise so that they could perform the spell. It was only just beginning to get light when the red head was trying to get back to sleep again, after having drunk the potion, and she could hear Giles and Tara chanting in the back ground.

Fortunately the potion also acted as a sort of sleep inducing medicine and through the sounds of voices she could feel herself giving way to the feeling. Not long after the voices had drifted away the red head found herself in a white hall and men and women in blue pyjama type clothing were walking by in various directions.

She began walking, not sure of where she was going, but just following her instincts. She was startled by a scream proceeded by crying and she quickly pursued the sounds before coming to a small room where she was pleased to find both Slayers and to her surprise, a new-born Beth.

Willow decided not to interrupt just yet as the scene was so beautiful, and she considered that the blonde might be grateful to be remembering happy times. So she stood out of sight at the back of the room and watched the interaction between mothers and daughter.

Moments later a doctor stepped into the room, but this was no ordinary doctor, it was a demon in hospital scrubs and the witch was horrified to see her walk over to the bed and pick the child up before laughing maniacally and walking away, taking the baby with her. She looked back to the Slayers and saw that they were both in floods of tears, but weren’t going after the demon that had just taken their child.

She listened as the brunette wept.

“She’s gone B; I let them take her… They’re gonna kill her. I couldn’t stop them. I knew what they would do, but I couldn’t stop them.”

Not being able to stand it any longer Willow stepped forward and addressed her best friend.

“Buffy.” She said softly and watched as both Slayers turned to her with puzzled expressions.

“Will, what are you doing here?” The blonde asked after a moment.

So the red head explained to them what she knew and informed them of her plans to bring them back home. Then it was the Slayers’ turn to tell the witch about their own experiences and about Beth’s capture.

They agreed to perform the spell at twelve later that day. The Slayers told Willow about the strange disappearance of the other Slayers and wondered if those Slayers too could be brought over to their home world to help, if they could be found. Willow said that it was possible and noted in the back of her mind to make allowances for this when she came to perform the spell later.

Willow gave them each a reassuring hug and offered them a few words of comfort before concentrating on returning back to consciousness.

*****

‘Real World’ Sunnydale, Time Loop.

Both Slayers were bemused as they headed back to the hotel later that day. It had taken a while to convince everyone that they had met Wren before and that they weren’t crazy, but they had managed it in the end.

Naturally, everybody had turned to the pink haired woman for answers, none of which she had. All she could offer them were a few guesses, one of them being that Lebath had placed them in a time loop so as to take them out of the game for a short while.

When asked why the demon couldn’t have done that to all of them except Beth until the ritual was over, she replied that the council of demons would have been informed and would have become suspicious, which would have raised too many questions that the demon wouldn’t have been able to answer without blowing her cover.

So after they all had sat around in silence for a while contemplating what this could mean for theirs’ and Beth’s future the suggestion had been made that they should go back to the hotel and hope that they were back to their normal time by morning.

They rode the elevator up in silence, each deep in their own thoughts, and when they eventually reached the door to the brunette’s room the only communication that passed between them was look of increasing gloom and hopelessness before they passed through the door and into the room.

What awaited them there caught them completely by surprise.

*****

An apartment on the outskirts of Sunnydale, 'Real World'.

The apartment shone with a bright light that could not be seen, even through the windows, from outside. The light came from the centre of the main room where a familiar pink haired woman sat meditating. Eyes visibly moved from behind their lids and her forehead was creased into a deep frown as she concentrated.

Her body sagged and the light dimmed as she awakened, and her eyes scanned the room as she re-familiarised herself with her surroundings.

News had reached Wren earlier that morning telling her that Lebath had made her move and that she had been successful in taking the Slayer's child. At first she had not believed it, had been certain that it couldn't happen, but after a little talk with the higher powers she knew it was true.

The rules had changed. Lebath had moved before her time; it was unexpected, but Wren would find a way to work with it. If the bad guys were allowed to bend the rules then so was she.

*****

She decided to walk to the Slayer's house; it would give her time to think over her plan. Everything had to be done just right, and it had to be done quickly, before the powers that be had tome to stop her. She wasn't supposed to actively help the mortals; all they had allowed her to do was to give information, but then she had never been very good at following rules.

Wren was not surprised to find herself trapped against a wall by a very pissed off Slayer as soon as the door had been opened. If she had still had any doubts regarding the truth of Beth's kidnapping, this would have confirmed it.

"Faith, if you want her to talk you're gonna have to loosen your grip a little." Buffy said this from behind the dark Slayer, her voice hard and her eyes cold as she spoke.

The dark Slayer's grip loosened enough so that Wren would be able to speak, but still tight enough that it was uncomfortable for the pink haired woman.

"Ok mystery lady, you get one chance and no asking the audience; where's our daughter?" Buffy spoke again, just as the witches entered and fixed their accusing stared on the visitor.

"She's back in your home world, in an underground cavern, near the hellmouth. Look, you don't need this aggressive force. Like I said before, I'm here to help."

"Lot of help you've been so far; you said they weren't gonna move for a few days and yet here we are, minus one future bad-ass Slayer. So what'd ya have to say 'bout that?" Faith's tone was full of hurt and anger and every now and then her voice would crack slightly.

"I told you what I thought was true at the time. It was the most likely scenario and I didn't know that Lebath was going to change her mind. She's not playing by the rules, and if she's not then I don't see why I should either. Therefore, I'm going to do what I was specifically told not to and I'm going to help you get Beth back." Her gaze never once left the brunette's and with each word she could feel Faith's grip easing.

"Ok, so how exactly are you gonna help us?" Faith asked as she stepped back to stand next to her wife.

"I'll take you there; back home. You and the other Slayers."

"We can't find the others." Willow said from behind the two Slayers.

"I found that out about an hour ago. They're trapped in a time loop; they're reliving yesterday. Or more precisely, the day before yesterday as it's passed midnight now… When you're both ready we'll go there and then I'll take you home."

"What do you want us to do?" Willow asked curiously.

"Stay here and guard the hellmouth. It'll be business as usual for other vampires and demons."

Both witches nodded reluctantly. "Isn't there anything we could research in case you need any help?" Tara asked cautiously.

Wren considered this for a moment and seemed to be having an internal debate before she answered. "There's a website you could look at." She grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and jotted down the URL. "The password is there as well." She received curious stares from all four women. "It's the Watchers Council's database. Everything you'll need to know will be there. They change the password every month though so you'll have to be quick."

The Slayers took this as their cue and quickly ascended the stairs to collect any of their belongings that they had brought with them. Once they were ready they said their goodbyes and thank you's to the witches and were wished good luck before they set off for the hotel where the other Slayers had been staying.

As time was of the essence Wren broke another of the PTB's rules and teleported them all across town. They materialised outside of the room as they weren't sure what to expect from inside. They waited a while after knocking twice, but received nothing except silence from the other side.

"Are you sure they're here?" Asked Buffy impatiently.

"I'm sure." Wren said with certainty.

After knocking for a third time the brunette became fed up with waiting and forced the door open. As the trio stepped inside they were greeted with a smaller version of the Summers' home after the demon attack and on the floor lay an unconscious blonde Slayer.

Faith immediately dropped to her side, shortly followed by Buffy, but they had no success in trying to wake the other Slayer.

Meanwhile Wren had disappeared into the bathroom and came back seconds later with a worried expression.

"We don't have any time left. I don't know where the other Faith is, but if we're going to do this then we have to go now. Hopefully our unconscious friend here will be able to shed some light on the situation when we wake her up at the other end."

The lovers exchanged a quick glance and shortly nodded to one another in silent agreement.

"Alright, let's do this." Faith said as she lifted her wife's double and waited for further instruction.

Wren approached them and placed one hand on the sleeping Slayer and another on the brunette, and then instructed the conscious blonde to hold on to her.

"Whatever you do, don't let go of me." She said to Buffy before closing her eyes and beginning to chant.

*****

AU, A large cavern adjacent to the Hellmouth. 17th Day.

"Lisbaen, you amaze me. Showing your initiative by capturing the dark Slayer. This definitely put you in my good books." Lebath regarded the bound Slayer for a moment. "Isn't she going to wake up?"

"It might take a while. We wanted to make sure she stayed like this until she was secured, so we injected her with a soporific drug. It is enchanted also so she might not wake for a while."

Lebath sighed in annoyance. "Show me the girl then. I trust you didn't need an enchanted drug to keep control of her."

Lisbaen twitched slightly at the harshness of her words, but managed to contain his fear of her as he answered. "The child is awake; they'll bring her in here in a moment." He said as he looked towards the door in anticipation.

"Good… We will keep them in here together, but make sure that they are kept far apart. I don't want them managing to undo each other's restraints, or something stupid like that."

"Yes ma'm." He said obediently.

Before Lebath could become too irritated with waiting, a group of demons entered, all guarding a small cage, which contained the infant. The leader smiled wickedly as the demons set the cage down and Beth flattened herself against the back of the cage as she got nearer.

"Well, well… What have we here? It's nothing more than a frightened child." She stood up to her full height as she addressed her followers. "And this is supposed to be the mightiest warrior that ever lived." She said; mocking the 'slayer to be'. "It's pathetic really."

Several demons close by laughed nervously and kept their eyes on their leader as she retained the maniacal grin. Beth took the opportunity to check out her surroundings and soon noticed the brunette Slayer chained securely to the wall on her right. Immediately she tried to call out for the woman who she thought was her mother.

"Mommy! Mommy, wake up! Mommy, please." Tears began to fall down her face as she realised that the dark Slayer wasn't going to wake up, but she didn't stop calling to her.

"Shut up you little twit! Stop being so whiney! It's not even your mother." Beth continued to cry silently, all except for the occasional sniff. Lebath leaned down to the cage again. "Your mother is dead… Don't believe me? Ask my minions; they killed her, her and that meddling witch. Two less people to cause a problem for me."

"Daddy?" Beth said in her increasingly timid tone of voice.

Lebath frowned for a moment before she realised what the child was talking about, and then she began to laugh vigorously. "You mean the blonde Slayer; the one who just won't stay dead." Her tone was cruel as she stared fiercely at the young brunette. "Her double is dead now by the way," she said in a conversational tone, "and your 'daddy' won't evade my reach for too much longer. Two days from now and the whole of the human race will be bowing down to me."

Out of her line of sight two younger demons exchanged a nervous look and slowly tried to slip out of the room. After the euphoria of their first battle against the Slayers they had been a little too enthusiastic when it had come to giving their report; they had elaborated a tad too much and hadn't had the courage to say other wise when the leader had assumed that they had killed two of the Slayers.

"I wouldn't bet on that if I were you!" The voice was harsh and still croaky, and the tone was extremely pissed off.

"Ah. You're awake." Lebath said with a small amount of delight as she stood up and walked over to the brunette. She winced in mock sympathy as she looked over Faith's wounds. "That's a lovely black eye you've got there, does it hurt? I sure hope it does."

The dark Slayer began looking around for something and it didn't take the she demon long to figure out what that something was. "If you're looking for your little slut you won't have much luck. As soon as you were out cold she was no problem to finish off. You see, we only wanted you alive. Actually it wasn't my idea to bring you here at all. I had avoided having any of you killed as I thought it might bring unwanted attention from the PTB," she said this with a deep seed of hatred in her voice, "but Slayers die all the time from demon attacks and my connections with these demons are virtually untraceable. If they were to be traced, well, by then it would be too late to stop me."

Faith expression was somewhere between enraged and devastated. She pulled sharply on the chains, but achieved nothing except a gash on her wrist and a deep pain in her shoulder. The drugs were still working from within her system; it would take a few more hours until she was back to full strength.

"Now, now; none of that. Be a good girl and I might let you live to see the ritual." Lebath smiled evilly as she left the room and ordered four of her minions to guard the door.

*****

Lisbaen followed Lebath through a series of tunnels to a small, but surprisingly cosy cave where she threw herself upon a mass of cushions in one corner and closed her eyes with a smile on her face.

"She's cute when she's mad, isn't she?" She said with her eyes still closed.

"You mean the Slayer?" Lisbaen said in confusion.

She stared at him with a hint of loathing and a slight sense of sympathy for his inferiority. "Yes, the fuckin' Slayer. Did you think I meant the child…? Or maybe you thought I had a thing for one of your minions." She scoffed and turned her gaze away from him before standing up.

"I…"

"Be quiet; I've had enough of you kissing my ass for one day." She walked past him and disappeared through a blood red curtain and came back seconds later with a large decorative box. "I want to go over the ritual again; make sure you know you part."

"I know my part." He said with clenched teeth.

"No harm in being sure." She muttered as she opened the box.

The contents of the box seemed to glow, and Lisbaen looked on in awe as Lebath picked out the items one by one. A shiny piece of black rock was the first thing to come out, followed by an odd looking jug that made a sloshing sound as the demons set it down, and then came a small dagger, which was decorated with runic symbols and tiny yellow jewels.

"We will transport the Slayers' child down to the hellmouth at dusk two days from now. I want you to supervise her transport and then you will make sure that she is bound according to the scrolls I gave you.

"You must also make sure that everything else needed will be there; you have the list. I will enter the cave at eleven thirty, by which time I expect the child to have been prepared with the elixir. I will begin the ritual and by midnight she will be dead and I will be the most powerful member of the Order that ever existed." Lebath stared off into space as she pictured what she imagined as a glorious future.

Lisbaen gave her a moment before asking, "My men were wondering if the security plans have changed since we now have the child and a Slayer."

She didn't think about this for long. "Double the guard around their prison; I don't want that Slayer getting any ideas. As for the security around the ritual, I believe we should spread out a little more. If the other Slayer turns up with her followers I want them to be challenged well out of range of the hellmouth."

Once they had finished discussing security issues Lebath placed the items back in the box and returned them to a reinforced safe behind the red curtain. She made her way out of the cave, leaving instructions with Lisbaen not to disturb the captives until she returned the next day. She had to make an appearance at another OOD meeting and she wasn't looking forward to it.

PART THIRTEEN

Author's Note: Most of the following part will take place in the AU. Technically this is the 'real world' for the married Buffy and Faith, but I thought it would be less confusing to keep our B and F as the 'real world' Slayers and the others as the 'AU' Slayers. I hope this makes as much sense to everyone else. Now and then you might see 'RW' or 'AU' in brackets to remind you of who's who.

AU, Slayers' house.

The television flickered and digital snow dominated the black screen before the picture began to play. The room in the image mirrored the reality of the room where the dark Slayer was sat on the couch, with her pain filled eyes fixated on the black box in front of her.

A ten month old Beth stood next to the coffee table, gripping fiercely to its edge so as not to fall down. The blonde Slayer could be seen in the background with her arms open towards the child; beckoning her forward. The light in Buffy's eyes twinkled dramatically as her daughter gave up her death grip on the table and stumbled forward a couple of steps before coming to a halt.

"Come on Beth, you can do it; come to Mama." On screen Buffy said; encouraging the infant to continue.

Gradually the tiny brunette lifted one leg after the other and waddled over to her blonde haired mother. As soon as she got there Buffy scooped her up into her lap and the camera was placed hastily on the floor as Faith joined them in their joyous embrace.

As soon as the home video came to an end the people on the screen began moving speedily backwards only to start all over again. Movement from behind the dark Slayer brought her out of her reverie and she turned to find her wife standing in the door way with watery eyes. Faith held out her hand to welcome the blonde over to the couch and Buffy gratefully rushed forward and cuddled up to her mate, both of them giving and receiving comfort of the other.

They were quiet for a while; simply watching reruns of their life together. A short time later they were joined by two witches and Faith turned off the television as she and the blonde turned to face their friend.

"Is she awake?" Faith asked of her wife's double, who they had transported over from the other dimension with them after having found her unconscious in a hotel room.

Willow nodded stoically. "She says there were some demons waiting for them when they got back to the hotel. She got knocked out during the fight; doesn't know what happened to the other Faith. I told her that you didn't see her when you got there; she's upset, to say the least."

Faith lowered her head in contemplation, wondering if there was anything she could say that would ease the distressed blonde's pain. Buffy stared at her wife from behind her and stroked back locks of midnight hair as she remembered her own pain from having lost the brunette two weeks previously.

"I'll go and talk to her." The blonde said and kissed her wife's head before leaving the room.

She slowly made her way upstairs; considering with each step what she was going to say to her alternative self. What would she want to hear in this situation? A fortnight before, the only thing she had wanted to hear were ideas on how she could get Faith back, and so she reasoned that this was the type of thing her double would also want to be told.

There was no one in the spare bedroom when she stepped inside and so she retreated back into the hallway and moved a few steps to the right where the bathroom was, and where she could hear the unmistakeable sounds of someone dry-heaving.

She knocked softly on the door and waited for a moment for an answer before moving inside.

"Who is it?" Came the reply from inside. "Oh, it's me." The other blonde said humourlessly as she stood up from where she had been kneeling next to the toilet and walked over to the sink. She ran the cold tap for a while, making sure that it was really cold before splashing the soothing liquid over her face and neck.

"You ok?" The woman at home asked before she could think about how stupid the question was.

"Dandy." Buffy said sarcastically.

"Stupid question huh…? I'm gonna ask Will and Tara to work on a locating spell. Then we'll have to check out how many demons we're dealing with; we'll work out a plan from there." She paused to gage her double's reaction, which was more hopeful and attentive than it had been.

"And if we can't find everything out in time?" She enquired.

"The ritual has to take place at midnight, two days from now. If we're not ready then we'll go in with what we've got. I don't want to lose Beth any more than you want to lose Faith."

Buffy (RW) sighed in a small amount of relief and appreciation as she turned back to the sink and placed her hands on each side as she let her arms carry her weight.

"God…" She said with a strangled voice. "Why does it have to hurt so much?"

The woman standing in the doorway blew out a gush of air as she attempted to answer the rather difficult question. "I guess maybe love would be too dull if it were picnics and daisies all the time. Perhaps it's the higher beings' way of spicing up our love lives; keeping us on our toes."

The Slayer whose eyes were slightly bloodshot grinned and barked a short, formidable laugh. "If it was all picnics and daisies then there would be no need for makeup sex."

"That would suck!" Her double agreed, and then paused as she considered the other slayer's words. "You've only been together for two days and already you've got to makeup sex. How'd you manage to fall out in that time?"

Buffy turned round and rested back against the sink and waved a hand in the air in dismissal. "With amazing ease… She has this whole 'I'm not good enough for you' thing going on, words were exchanged; ergo fall out." The blonde, now leaning just inside the doorway, smiled at the familiar scenario. "You got faced with that crap too?"

"Oh yeah." She agreed wholeheartedly with a fond smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "When she came here from Boston, after two years of being apart, a lot of things happened to her there to make her feel like she wasn't worth it. She found it hard to believe that I still wanted her in spite of all that stuff."

Buffy lowered her head as she thought about what must have happened to her new lover. "She had it… Bad. Didn't she?"

"Bad doesn't even come close to describing it. I wish so much that I had held on longer; not let my mom move us away so soon. If I had thought about leaving my new number with the people who moved into our old place. It just seems like such a simple thing; why the fuck didn't I think about that?" She cursed to herself again and scuffed her foot against the white linoleum floor as she became lost in self depreciative thoughts. Her double brought her out of her reverie when she spoke again.

"Your Faith… She edged around it; hinted at some things. She said that I had to be patient with my Faith; that she would tell me in her own time. But I want to help her now, you know? I want to be able to show her that I care about her regardless of what others may think. If accepting her past is what I need to do in order to do that; no problem."

"I wish it could be that easy for you. Hell, I wish it had been that easy for me. Faith's right. She may act dumb sometimes, but she's really got the insight thing going for her; especially as she's been there herself and pretty much has the same thoughts and feelings. Just give her time." She pushed herself off the wall that she had moved to lean on, ending the conversation.

"Speaking of time," Buffy (RW) said. "We don't have a lot left to do research and work on a plan."

"Let's get to it then!"

They made their way down stairs, the owner of the home slightly in front, walking slowly as her double stopped every couple of steps to stare at the photograph on the wall. Once in the living room the Slayer in front instinctively moved to sit next to her wife and the other Buffy sat in an arm chair opposite them and the witch.

*****

After hours of reading, and talking on the phone to various contacts, they knew enough to give them the confidence they needed to go up against Lebath and feel as though they has a chance at winning. They had discovered some interesting facts about the demon's weaknesses, and knew how they could go about killing her and her partner Lisbaen.

They still wanted to know more about the number of demons that would no doubt be guarding the ritual. Wren had taken off again with promises to return the day before the ritual, and the Slayers were going to take a little trip to see an old friend to try and get some more info.

Buffy (RW) was more than eager to get out of the house as she was getting itchy feet sitting around all day, and the sun had just begun its decent over the horizon when the three Slayers strolled into 'Willie's' that evening. Business was slow, as it usually was when there was a big evil brewing, and the owner of the bar seemed pleased to have more customers when he heard the door open and close. That was, until he saw who his customers were.

The blonde Slayer and her wife were the first ones through the door and the few demons closest to them quickly slipped out through the back of the bar leaving only a pair of 'out of towners' and the bartender still present. Willie paled slightly when he saw the pair, but the expression on his face when he noticed the second blonde was priceless, and all three Slayers would have found it funny were the situation not so serious.

Faith took a seat calmly at the bar and the blondes flanked her as they too took their seats. The dark Slayer spoke, calmly and deathly serious, and inside she revelled in the slight tremble of the greasy haired man's hands as he cleaned a spotless glass over and over again.

"We're not in the mood to play games today Willie, and I really don't feel like hitting you, so why don't you just tell us what we want to know."

He shivered slightly under their intense gazes before answering them. "You'd be talkin' about these new demons in town, am I right? They've been keepin' a real low profile; didn't even know about them 'till a coupla days ago when I heard one of my regulars complain' about them.

"He's a Stickler demon, don't know if you've ever seen one; they're small, got a nasty bite, but otherwise they don't do much damage. He wasn't about to mess with these newbies by the size of 'em." Faith rolled her eyes and made a gesture that told him to get on with it. "Word is they're here for some ritual that's supposed to take place under the next new moon. They're gonna sacrifice some kid to give this demon, Lebath I think they called her, to give her more power. She's gonna be the new big thing around here if she manages to go through with it."

The brunette's mate took over from her when Willie looked as though he'd stopped talking. "Bonus question now Willie; how many of them are there?"

"There's no way I can be sure about that. Different demons say different things; they like to exaggerate." He warned as he put down his glass only to pick up another.

"Just tell us what you think." The other blonde said.

"Twenty, maybe thirty. Big things, great for following orders, but don't spend much time contemplating the meaning of life if you get what I mean." He smiled nervously, hoping that this would be enough to satisfy them. His left eye began to twitch uncontrollably as the brunette stared at him intently and he was convinced that she could read his mind.

"There's something you're not telling us." Faith said coolly as she looked him in the eye.

"No, no, I swear, that's it!" He answered a little too eagerly. Before he realised it she reached over the bar and grabbed him by his shirt collar, the glass in his hand went tumbling to the floor and smashed where his feet would have been, were they still touching the ground.

"You know that kid they're going to sacrifice." She said through clenched teeth. He nodded swiftly. "She just happens to be my daughter, and you should know by now what I get like when the people I love are in danger; patience is not one of my virtues." Her tone dripped with hate and anger and with the last word she dropped him back behind the bar where he stumbled slightly before pulling himself together.

"Two demons, in here last night, and in with these guys you're looking for. They were sitting over there in the corner, talkin' real quiet like, so I thought maybe they were saying somethin' interestin'."

"Let me guess," the visiting blonde said. "You couldn't resist the urge to eaves-drop."

He grinned slyly. "There's a room around back, and the walls here aren't too thick. That and the fact that there's a gaping hole behind that picture, left over from the last bar fight you lovely ladies had here, makes it easy to listen in on conversations."

"Well don't keep us in suspense Willie; what did they have to say that was so important?" Faith asked with a stern look, letting him know that she didn't think that he was anything more than a weasel.

"They talked about some other dimension, with other Slayers like you. They had a couple of jobs; to get the kid and one dark Slayer, and then they left. But they was back here earlier today." He rushed out quickly when he saw the brunette move to grab him again. "They were arguing this time. The gist of it was; they had got carried away when telling their boss about what a good job they'd pulled and they inadvertently led her to believe that they'd killed two Slayers. Erm, you," he pointed to Faith. "And the blonde Slayer from this other dimension."

They chewed on this information for a moment and after a few choice threats were made they assessed that he had no more to tell them and so they left him to, once again, pick up the tattered shreds of what was left of his dignity.

The news of the two Slayers' supposed deaths was both good news and bad news. Good because it meant that they had the element of surprise over Lebath and bad because they knew that Lebath would use this lie to torture Faith and Beth. It was Beth's blonde mother who suggested that they ask the witches to perform the spell that would allow one of them to enter Faith and/or Beth's dreams.

When they got back to the house they relayed the idea to the two Wiccas.

Willow exchanged a look with Tara as she thought it over. "It's doable certainly, I'm just not sure whether it's the best idea or not."

Everyone in the room looked at her in surprise, thinking that she would have been all for the suggestion.

"We can't just let them think that we're dead. I don't know about Beth, but Faith's dangerous when she's upset… At least mine is." She said the last part as she glanced over at the couple beside her.

Her double smiled at her. "It's not just yours; sometimes she acts just like Beth when she throws a tantrum."

Faith scowled at her wife. "Hey! I do not have tantrums." She protested as both Buffys giggled slightly, and ignoring them, she turned to the red head again. "So what's wrong with doing the spell then?"

Willow sighed before beginning to explain. "I don't like to think of them hurting any more than you do, but if we want to keep the element of surprise then it'd be best if they didn't know. One of Lebath's powers is telepathy; what if she were to read their minds?"

"But she hasn't used that power yet." Tara said from beside her.

"Yet. Operative word here. She's conserving her energy, but the temptation to search their minds and use their weaknesses against them could become too great. She might take a chance; thinking that she has the upper hand with two of you gone, and then if she finds out the truth…" She didn't need to say any more as they could all visualise the results.

"Ok." Buffy said in her single seat as she brushed a hand through her hair. "It's only two more days, so lets try and figure out exactly what we're gonna do with what we've got."

She then began to lay out everything she could remember from what they had learnt and Tara jotted bullet points down as they all filled things in. By the end of it they were certain that they knew everything that they could possibly find out at this point and began to devise a plan.

*****

Her wrists were sore from where the chains dug into her flesh, but she hardly noticed as her mind was otherwise occupied. She couldn't believe that Buffy was dead. How could she be?

They had only just gotten together; there was so much more that they had to do. The dark Slayer felt more alone at that moment than she ever had before in her life; utter despair clutched at the large and battered muscle in her chest and threatened to burst with this new and overwhelming burden.

Buffy was her lifeline; her shining star; her wings that had begun to carry her away from the darkness. How could she continue in this life without that? How was she supposed to bring up their child on her own? She knew that the Scoobs would offer to help, and everyone at Angel Investigations, but somehow these thoughts didn't give her any more comfort and she fought with every breath to force back the tears that were like inmates in a prison riot; demanding to be released.

Her eyes fell shortly on the small brunette huddled unmoving at the back of her cage. The two of them were on opposite sides of the miniature cave. Faith could feel the presence of at least four demons past the entrance and by the movement of the infant's gaze she figured that she too could sense them.

Seeing the child had a strange effect on the Slayer. She was effectively getting a preview of what her own daughter would be like and she couldn't help feeling maternally protective over her. For the time being, the small future Slayer was the biggest thing that was keeping Faith together. If nothing else, then she wanted to be able to get Beth out of danger; she would figure out her own future from then on, and big part of that was her plan to exact revenge on the she-demon responsible for their current situation.

Faith had lost track of how long they had been there, but she guessed it had been at least a day. Lebath had been to see them only once, and Faith had no doubt that she was simply giving them time to stew in their sorrow and misery.

She was sure that the she-demon would come again later that day to pay them a visit. Lebath would mock them and 'entertain' them with details about the ritual and what would happen once it was over. The Slayer planned to stay silent through all of this; not giving her enemy the satisfaction of her attention and saving her energy until later when she would have a better chance at escape.

As she predicted, when the over ambitious demon came to see them later that day, she brought with her four more demon guards; the dark woman had no chance of escape with such an entourage.

"So, how are our captives today?" Lebath said with a wide grin; showing four pairs of canine teeth.

The brunette sneered, but otherwise kept her mouth shut. Beth whimpered in her cage and Faith hoped silently that the child wouldn't make too much noise that would draw the demon's attention; she herself could endure a certain amount of torture, but under no circumstances would she be able to witness this child suffering physical torment.

Lebath's face contorted slightly when the Slayer did not answer and repeated the question in a similar fashion; making sure that the brunette could see that she wanted an answer. Still Faith remained taciturn.

The demon smiled cruelly and half turned around before spinning on her heel and throwing her body into a vicious punch, which resounded in a sickening crunch of one of the Slayer's lower ribs. Her sharp cry beckoned to the sentries standing guard at the door and their heads swivelled quickly inside the doorway; hoping to see some of the action.

Lebath's expression was the epiphany of evil as she clutched Faith's jaw with a clawed hand and brought haunted eyes up to meet her own. "I asked you a question, Slayer." When Faith stayed silent still the demon sighed slightly and released her grip. She cocked her head to the side as she spoke to one of her followers. "Bring me my kit… I'll make her talk; one way or another."

*****

In a cave not so far away, sat another demon in quiet contemplation. Lebath had offered him front row viewing to watch her as she went to work on the dark Slayer. Normally he wouldn't have hesitated in accepting the offer; however, his so-called partner was beginning to get under his thick hided skin and so he had declined, telling her that he had pressing matters to attend to.

In the beginning he had regarded the rather narcissistic demon with no small amount of awe and respect. She had been cool and calculating; never underestimating her enemy and thinking everything through so that the success of a particular task was almost a certainty every time.

She had almost treated him as an equal then. Now though, he was convinced that she saw him as nothing more than a means to an end.

Aside from her increasing lack of respect for his place in the shaping of her destiny, she was becoming more and more complacent with the success of the ritual. It was as if she had no doubt as to its completion and her ultimate power. She had been overlooking seemingly insignificant elements of the plan, which Lisbaen knew could destroy them if something went wrong, and now with the Slayer and the child in her possession, she was spending her time thinking of nothing else.

She had gone through the ritual with him again the day before, but though she had seemed thorough what she had actually talked about had been nothing more than an outline and there were several elements that he hadn't been able to talk to her about.

It had only occurred to him earlier that day that they might not succeed in their task, and this had forced him to think about what he should do if they were to fail. He could not simply go back to his life before; many of his minions now followed more closely to Lebath and would more than likely die if there was a final confrontation, and any survivors would be unlikely to return to his side after such a fiasco.

The best thing he could do now was to secure a backup plan. If at any time he thought that they were in serious danger of being crushed then he had to have an escape.

If he really wanted to he could go to the Order of Destruction's HQ and tell them exactly what Lebath was up to and hope that they would reward him for his information, but he was likely to gain more from Lebath's triumph than her downfall and so he had to hope that she succeeded.

He couldn't very well go to the OoD after the fact as they would probably slaughter him without a second thought for being an accomplice, and by then he was sure that the Slayers too would be gunning for his blood. No, what he really needed were outside allies, demons who had no knowledge of his dealings with Lebath, who would befriend him for his experienced leadership and out of respect for his great many years in the business and for the tales of legendry that preceding him. Younger demons would no doubt thrive on his tales of war and chaos.

With his mind set on this task and feeling more certain now than before of his 'partner's' downfall, he made his excuses to the guards and left the relative safety of the caves.

*****

AU, Summers' home.

It was six in the morning and Buffy lay wide awake in bed, wishing so much that her girlfriend could be by her side instead of the cool emptiness that possessed the other half of the king-sized bed she had slept in. It had been only a little more than thirty hours since she had been with Faith last, but every second alone felt like a lifetime.

All of the weeks, months and years that she and her dark haired lover had fought against one another and had denied their deep seeded attraction was the foundation for the harsh barrenness that now possessed her soul while the other Slayer was forcefully kept from her reach.

Her sleep had been fitful and her limbs ached from an almost possessive desire to make her get up and seek out that which she had lost. But she knew that she had to be patient. They had finalised the plan the night before and Buffy had to make herself believe that before the day was over, she and Faith would be reunited once again.

The seconds passed at a snail's pace, time seemed to have no where it wanted to be, and by half six the blonde Slayer could lie still no longer and made her way downstairs where she fixed a pot of coffee and waited for the rest of the house to stir.

By eight o'clock everyone was up, dressed and eating cereal, toast or bagels and going over the final draft of the plan around the dining room table.

Xander and Anya had turned up early on during the previous evening and had slept on the pullout bed in Beth's room. Buffy (RW) had been pleasantly surprised at the easy banter that passed between the construction worker and the dark Slayer, and secretly hoped that some day her girlfriend and best friend could share a similarly easy friendship.

Willow cleared her throat to get everyone's attention as she organised the few sheets of paper laid out in front of her. "Erm, well I think we all know why we're here," she said with a forced smile, attempting to lighten the atmosphere a little. "We want to go over the final plan so everyone knows what they're doing tonight."

They had all agreed that they should attack Lebath's fortress the night before the ritual was supposed to take place. Each of them was sure that the demons would not be expecting an attack so early; the most logical thing seemed to be to use as much of the time that they had to formulate a plan and to gather as much information as possible.

An hour before, Xander, Willow and Buffy (RW) were going to scout the area to check the positions of Lebath's foot-soldiers and to see how many demons they would have to fight. Tara and Anya were going to do a last minute location spell to pinpoint Beth and Faith's exact location within the caves; they had a map of the tunnels and coves near the hellmouth and could mark where the two brunette's were so the other three Slayers would know exactly where to go.

Faith, her wife and sister-in-law would spend the last few hours sorting out their arsenal and assigning appropriate weapons to each of their friends for the battle. Buffy (AU) had reluctantly agreed to let Dawn join in with the fight, but had given her sister strict instructions to not go any further than the demons' first line of defence, and then she and Anya would fall back to the Magic Box where they had been instructed to wait for the others to return.

Xander, with his brief experience in combat training and vast experience with combat movies, was going to stay close to Tara and Willow as they worked their magic and protect the perimeter to make sure that no demon came close enough to the witches to cause a threat. No body except the three Slayers were to enter the caves themselves.

When everyone was sure of their own parts the dark Slayer and her mate slipped off quietly to their room. Anya was reluctant to let the shop stay closed all day and risk losing any more money and Tara, Willow and Dawn had decided to go with her to check out any other spells that they thought might help them in the fight.

Xander had to go to the construction site to talk to his crew about an up-and-coming project, and so that left the other blonde Slayer to decide what she wanted to do with the rest of the day.

"Will you be alright on your own?" Xander asked with concern, having no delusions about the other two Slayers leaving their room for a while.

"You can come with us to the Magic Box if you want?" Willow said as she realised the situation; she had previously been busy gazing at the blonde witch to the right of her.

"I don't know…" The blonde Slayer said, not really wishing to be amongst too many people at that moment. But when a loud thump came from above and she caught the blushes from the replicas of her friends she reconsidered. "Actually, I think I'll take you up on that offer." She said, thinking that she would rather work off her frustrations in the training room at the Magic Box than spend the next few hours listening to the other two Slayers as they fumbled around above her.

Dawn left a note for her sister and sister in-law where she knew they would eventually end up, when they'd worked up enough of an appetite, and left with the others.

Meanwhile, in the Slayers' bedroom, all motion seemed to have stopped. Buffy lay above her mate and gazed lovingly into chocolate orbs as she thought about how lucky she was to be in this position.

They had woken up at about seven and had lazed around, basking in each other's warmth; before they had been called down to attend the meeting. Usually, when they were together, they would make love in the mornings. Deep, meaningful gazes would turn into light touching and from there things would quickly heat up and they would find themselves unable to resist the urge to touch and taste the other.

Whenever possible they would make love before a big fight also. Knowing that either one of them could die in the coming battle made them desperate to keep their unique connection up until the last moment, when they would become the Slayers and no longer Buffy and Faith.

Faith gazed back at her lover and after a long while reached up to tuck a lock of golden hair behind Buffy's ear. Her fingers came down to gently trace the contours of the blonde's face and eventually came to rest on the back of her neck. She used the position to pull pouting lips down to meet her own and soon became captivated by the feeling of that mouth devouring her essence and every part of her being.

What she thought at first was a moan quickly registered in the blonde's mind as a suppressed sob and she pulled away to find tears beginning to make tracks down her lover's face. Buffy pulled back slightly and put her hand under the brunette's chin to prevent her from avoiding her gaze.

Faith stopped the blonde as she tried to say something. "Don't, B. I don't wanna think about it right now." Buffy sat back on her calves as she observed her wife's distress. "Can't we just do what we always do?"

"And what's that, love?" Buffy said with a hint of amusement behind the sadness she was feeling.

The dark Slayer now placed her hands on slim hips in front of her. "You know. Big bad pops up, we research and make plans, and then you and I get naked and everything feels good for a while. We get to be Buffy and Faith one more time, knowing that this time we might not be ok… But now…"

"It's already not alright." The blonde sighed in defeat and rearranged her position so she was snuggled up against the brunette's side instead of straddling her waist. "We've kept her safe this long. Three years is a long time in our company to not have had numerous encounters with demons. I really like this parenthood thing. In ten years I'm sure I'll be saying different, what with teenagers being the little shits that they are. But I'm not ready to give that up yet."

"How can you be so optimistic?"

"I have Faith… In you. In us. We want our daughter back more than she wants her ritual and the power it'll give her… God damn it Faith, we deserve this. We deserve to win this."

The belief in her wife's voice seemed to fuse to her veins and run through her body like quicksilver. The optimism was contagious, and she wanted so much to believe that they could win that Faith felt her confidence rise again and fill her with hope. She almost believed then, that though the battle would be a hard one, they would win, and they would get their daughter back.

These thoughts were her comfort as she firmly pushed her lover onto her back and began their pre-battle ritual.

PART FOURTEEN

Hours later the gang returned and with an air of tension hung like a blanket around them. Each one of them was aware that this battle was no ordinary battle. They weren't just stopping a powerful demon from gaining more power; they were going to save Beth's life and if they failed the Slayers would die. They would die fighting; they would die trying to save their child.

They were also mildly aware of the other two Slayers who had also been dragged into this fight. Each one of the Scoobys, especially the witches of the group, had carefully watched the blonde Slayer's behaviour throughout the last two days, and no one could fail to notice the sadness and determination behind her eyes.

As the troops entered the dining room they saw that their two friends had already set many of the weapons out into groups or pairs on the table, and each group or pair had been given a name-tag.

Xander, Willow and I (RW) left the room to get changed into more stealth friendly clothing as they would soon be going out to execute the first part of their plan. Anya and Tara, who each had brought with them supplies from the Magic Box, took off to the living room where they would be performing the location spell.

Dawn set about helping Faith and her sister to set out their weapons and it wasn't long before they were finished and everyone was gathered in the dining room going over the plan one last time. The red head, her eldest friend and the visiting blonde each took up their weapons as they prepared to leave the Slayers' home to go on their scouting mission, but as they were only intending to take a look and not to start a fight they loaded up lightly.

While they were doing this Tara had performed the location spell and confirmed their beliefs that the two brunettes they were seeking were still being held close to the hellmouth.

Xander picked up a short sword, which had been given a specially made wooden sheath and so could be used to stake vampires, and once the sword was removed from the sheath could be used to stab and decapitate many other demon species. He also took with him a Sig Sauer P220, which his uncle Rory had given him for his twentieth birthday. As the weakest one of the three he wasn't taking any chances and attached the gun to the inside of his jacket along with two replacement magazines.

Neither I nor Willow needed to bother much with the weapons for this mission; they were weapons within themselves and so needed only a couple of stakes each. There were mixed feelings of anticipation and anxiety as the trio zipped up their jackets and left the house; their task was expected to take them no longer than half an hour, so they left among promises to be thorough but quick.

They walked at a quick pace and entered a cemetery just a block away from the high school. From then they split up and each tried to get to higher ground to get a good view of Lebath's defences, without getting too close.

*****

Back at the house Tara and Anya were clearing away all of their mystical ingredients. The ex demon was attempting to scoop up any tiny piece of potential merchandise from off the floor, ignoring the blonde witch's half smiles in response to her miserly ways.

The two remaining Slayers and Dawn had moved into the kitchen and Faith was absently crunching on an apple while the Summers sisters talked half-heartedly about the post-victory celebration.

"Wouldn't it be best to have it at the Bronze? That way I can invite all of my friends and we can all dance too." Dawn recommended.

"Dawn," I started with her 'I know best' voice. "I'm not taking my daughter to the Bronze for a party. Someone would have to stay at the house with her while everyone else went out."

The teen pouted out of habit. "Fine we'll stay here. But I get to pick out the snacks."

Faith smiled fondly at the sisterly bantering and she remembered how it used to drive her mad when they were all living with Mrs. Summers and she and I were still in high school. The memory made her think about what her mother-in-law was doing at that moment.

"B, are you gonna call your mom before we go? Just y'know, to tell her what's going on."

I nodded after she'd thought about it for a moment. "I'll call her now." She said before leaving the room.

Faith took a final bite out of her apple and threw the core across the room and into the bin. She and Dawn sat opposite one another at the table sharing a comfortable silence, both in their own thoughts. The sun was beginning to go down and the back yard was already covered with shadow.

I had been gone a while before Dawn finally spoke, and the Slayer wasn't at all surprised by the younger brunette's question.

"If something goes wrong, you won't be coming back will you?"

The dark Slayer was silent for a few moments as she tried to think of a delicate way to explain the situation to the young woman opposite her. "If…" She paused again and swallowed the growing lump in her throat. "If the worst happens; if Beth dies, then I'm gonna kill every last one of them… Or I'm gonna try. There are a lot of demons in there, and I guess it's probable that I wouldn't survive against something that big… But, to tell you the truth Dawn, I wouldn't want to go on living without her."

Dawn's face remained hard as Faith spoke, and when she was done the former 'Key' shook her head in disbelief. "So basically it'll be suicide."

Faith stayed calm, knowing that the other girl was upset and would get her say one way or another. "I guess you could put it that way."

Dawn threw her hands up in the air. "Great! So not only do I lose my niece, but I lose both my sisters as well, 'cause I know I'll go the same way you do."

"Dawn…" The Slayer started, but was interrupted by the teen.

"You're just gonna give up, both of you. What about the rest of us, what about mom?" She paused a moment and when she saw that the other brunette was seriously thinking about it she carried on. "I'm not saying it wouldn't be hard, it would, it'd be terribly hard, but life goes on Faith and so will you. Not because you'll want to, but because that's the way life is."

Before Faith could comment one way or another a voice from the doorway leading into the dining room interrupted them.

"Bloody hell Little' Bit, when'd you get so smart?" Spike walked casually into the kitchen and jumped up to sit on the work top.

Faith glared at the vampire for a moment, her emotions in turmoil from Dawn's words and the vampire's sudden appearance in her kitchen fired up her anger. She hadn't forgotten what Spike's double had almost done to the other I and it still bothered her that the vampire was capable of this and yet they had all accepted him into their little group and even trusted him to a certain extent.

"Spike! Where have you been?" Dawn said as she jumped up from her chair.

"I'm kinda curious about that myself." Faith said with a hint of animosity as she too stood to observe the vampire.

"Felt like going on a road trip for a day or two." He shrugged. "What did I miss then love?" He asked the teen.

"Well…" Dawn looked over at Faith and lowered her head slightly.

"I'm missing something… I see you made it back; where's Blondie and the midget?" He asked in a seemingly casual manner.

"B's on the phone talking to Mrs. S… Beth is…" Faith paused not sure whether to tell Spike or not. Dawn took her silence to mean that she was upset about the subject.

"We're getting Beth back tonight. Some demons have her near the hellmouth." The words were out in the air before Faith could think to stop her sister-in-law.

"Right… How did that happen exactly? Weren't you watching her?"

Faith was on him in a flash and had a butcher's knife pressed against his throat so that when he swallowed his Adam's apple chafed painfully against the blade.

"Do you like talking, Spike?" He nodded as much as he could in his position. "Do you want to keep your tongue?" Again he nodded. "Then why don't you keep it in your mouth and stop it from wagging around, 'cause you've only been back a couple of minutes and already you're beginning to piss me off." She gave him a stern look and let him stew for a moment before slowly releasing him. "If you wanna help you can stick with me and B. X-Man, Red and Tara are gonna guard the perimeter when we go in and the others will fall back to the house."

The blonde vampire stroked his throat absentmindedly as he nodded and left the room. Dawn looked at Faith curiously, wondering why she had acted the way she had. I returned a moment later and frowned as she sat down.

"What's wrong with Spike?" She asked almost immediately.

"Faith just threatened to cut his tongue out." Dawn said before the dark Slayer could answer.

I stared at her wife in amazement. "Faith?" She said half hoping for a denial on her behalf.

"I have my reasons, ok." She said sharply and after the two Summers women stared at her for a minute she left her chair and walked off in the direction of her study.

She sat heavily at her desk, leant back in the chair and attempted to rub some of the weariness from her eyes. When she opened them again the first thing her gaze fell upon was a framed picture of her wife and daughter. After a moment she reached a hand out and held it closer. The photo had been taken a day or two after the Slayers' return from their honeymoon in San Francisco. Both Slayers had half wanted to go further away, perhaps to one of the Spanish islands, but they had been reluctant to be out of range from the hellmouth in case anything had come up.

Five minutes went by in which time the dark Slayer had stared at the photo, soon there came a knock upon the door and Faith called out to the blonde Slayer to enter. Each Slayer had their own private room in the house where they could take sanctuary from everything and they had agreed to respect one another's privacy and always to knock before entering.

Often they spent their time together, but on the odd occasion when they had a disagreement they would need to cool off on their own before entering into a mature conversation. Otherwise they knew that they would most likely regress into their Slayer modes and when that happened they would sometimes wake up the next day with faint bruising.

Physical fights rarely happened and only ever did when Beth was not in the house. The one time they had fought in the house, Faith had pushed Buffy a little harder than intended and the blonde had stumbled into a shelf where she had knocked a vase over. The fragile glass had smashed and pieces had scattered over the floor, some of it stopping mere inches away from their infant daughter.

Buffy shut the door behind her and moved to stand next to the desk where she could observe her partner's face. "Hey." She said lightly. "I called Giles after my mom. He's agreed to keep researching in case we can't get in tonight and have to make another go of it tomorrow." Faith nodded in acknowledgment. "You wanna tell me what's going on?"

The brunette placed the picture back in its place and stood up. She took the blonde's hand in her own and guided her over to the loveseat under the window where she sat both of them down. Faith looked her lover over and brushed the tips of her fingers over a soft cheek and trailed a pattern down over her lips, which parted in response to her.

She leaned in and took possession of the blonde's mouth for a few delicious moments, slowly drawing out the kiss and savouring ever second of it. Buffy gasped softly as the kiss ended and gazed lovingly into her wife's eyes, inwardly marvelling at the brunette's capacity for tenderness at the most unexpected times.

"Fai?" Buffy said gently as she entwined her fingers with the other Slayer's.

Faith paused a while longer before relating the story of the other blonde Slayer's dealings with the bleached vampire. She then went on to explain what had happened after Spike had tried to rape Buffy (RW) and the events leading up to the point where she herself had had to stake him. Lastly she told Buffy what Spike had had the nerve to say before she had inventively told him to keep his mouth shut.

"I know things are a little different here, but he's capable of the same things. If he should ever get that chip taken out…" Faith trailed off knowing that the blonde would be able to pick up on her thoughts.

Buffy sighed deeply. "What do you suggest we do?"

Faith shrugged and leant further back in her seat. "All I know is I don't want to leave him alone with the others while we're out on patrol or anything. I've told him to stick with us if he wants to join the battle tonight."

The blonde nodded in agreement. "We'll put it to a vote with the gang when this is all over and done with; they should have a say in this too I think."

"Ok." Faith said in approval.

*****

They returned to the house twenty seven minutes after having left. Buffy (RW) was surprised at first to see Spike there and instinctively reached for her stake. Faith took her aside and explained that he was helping them and that they would deal with him later. The blonde reluctantly agreed and then followed the brunette back into the dining room.

Everyone gathered around the table as each of them contributed to a diagram, mapping out the area around the school and noting the position of each demon. Suggestions were made as to how the demons were likely to move and a couple of backup plans were formed in case anything went wrong.

The wedded Slayers took another moment to gather their collective strength and then ordered them all to head out. During the first stage of the attack they were to take down as many of the perimeter demons as possible and they were to make as little noise as they could so as not to alarm any other demons close by who might think about warning Lebath and Lisbaen.

The gang had planned to attack from all sides. The two blonde Slayers would take the north, the dark Slayer and Spike would take the south, Willow and Tara had the west, and the other three were to handle the far less occupied east. They wished one another good luck as they split up and went their separate ways.

*****

The two blonde Slayers were the first to encounter the opposition and immediately took the offensive. They worked in easy synchronicity and dispatched of their would-be killers with relative ease. Their path took them through a lightly wooded area where they kept close together, their ears and eyes alert to anything that would tell them of another presence.

Their progress was relatively slow as they took several pauses when they would scan the area more carefully to check for their opposition. The lack of activity in the forest unnerved them as they knew there were many of Lebath's followers around and wanted to dispatch of them before reaching the hellmouth.

As they were coming to the edge of the wooded area the visiting Slayer held up a hand to stop their movement and her identical companion followed her line of sight and quickly realised why. No more than a hundred yards to their left were two dark and heavy looking creatures, which were conversing in a language that neither of the Slayers could understand, but whatever they were talking about they didn't look too happy.

The blondes used the demons' distraction to their advantage and managed to flank their enemies before moving in for a satisfyingly energetic kill.

By the time they reached the rendezvous point for where the vampire and brunette Slayer were going to meet them their combined demon death rate had totalled up to nine. A very decent number they thought. If Faith and Spike could do the same then they should be nearly two thirds into Lebath's entourage, and if the others could handle even a quarter of their score then they would be severely better off.

*****

At the opposite side of the hellmouth Faith and Spike had walked in an uncomfortable silence for so long that they were actually hoping for something to attack them. No sooner had this thought invaded her mind when they were confronted by four muscle bound demons who quickly surrounded them, preventing escape.

"We were wondering where you guys were. Taking a smoke break were you?" One of the demons roared and another let out an ear splitting screech, which caused the vampire and the Slayer to cover their ears. "I guess not." She said as they moved in closer and she and her fanged companion took their fighting stances.

As they were finishing off the last of their monster quartet another trio of demons spotted them and ran fearlessly toward their location. The pair were already beginning to feel their bodies aching as they had sustained a heavy beating by their previous opponents, but they entered into their next battle with equal determination to come off triumphant.

They found the two blonde's already waiting for them as they reached the desired place of assembly.

Buffy (AU) couldn't resist putting a hand to her wife's forehead and a concerned expression spread over her features as she felt the forming lump that she found there. Faith winced slightly before placing her own hand over Buffy's and brought them both down to their sides.

She smiled warmly at her lover. "I'm ok; we were just a bit outnumbered that's all. How'd you guys do?" She spoke in a very low whisper, but as they all had supernatural hearing not one of them had to strain their ears to hear her.

"They were all in pairs except for the last three; there were nine altogether."

"Ok, well we're up to ten so that's nineteen altogether. If Willy was right then there might be about eleven more, that's not discounting any that the others may have taken out, but we can't be entirely sure how many there are, so we've got to stay alert." Buffy (RW) said this also in a whisper and in the back of her mind she couldn't ignore the eerie feeling the bleached blonde vampire's gaze had on her. Her hand twitched slightly as he shifted in his stance and she didn't miss the exchanged look between the other two Slayers.

All four were pleased with the outcome of the initial struggle; the three women buried their dislike for the vampire and waited only a few moments to gather themselves before exiting from their hiding place, which had been behind a group of large boulders located just behind the school, and started off towards the school's back entrance. Through the building's basement was the only way they could think of that would be less likely to have guards surrounding it.

*****

Xander called out just in time as another demon appeared and ran forward to tackle the two Wiccans, who having turned at their friend's cry saw the danger and braced themselves to meet it. The opposition had proved to be considerably more than they had originally bargained on, but Tara and Willow had seemed optimistic despite the towering odds and so the other three had tried to share their hopefulness.

Dawn and Anya were keeping their distance and the two of them were attempting to tackle one very large demon between them. Xander had already used all three of the magazines he had thought to bring with him and was striving to finish off those enemies that he had been able to wound sufficiently.

The red and blonde headed witches were working spectacularly in sync with one another to produce bands of mystical energy that had deformed monsters flying left, right and centre. The construction worker saw more than one of them take flight over his head. Soon they were feeling better as the enemy was thinning and Anya and Dawn were able to breathe more easily as they were able to finish off the one remaining demon that they had been hitting since the beginning of the battle.

They all smiled in relief as they regained their strength and looked around cautiously, looking for any more attackers. Pleased that they had done their duty they gathered together for a moment.

"Anya, you and Dawn go straight back to the house, don't stop for anything. If you can then I want you to run. Tara and I can put a protection spell on you, but don't take any chances." Willow said with authority.

The ex-demon nodded, grateful that she didn't have to stay to fight any more. Though she wanted to help out her friends, she didn't want to die doing it. Especially as she knew they could handle themselves. She was uncertain that Xander would emerge unscathed, but he had explained the plan to her over and over again and with two witches to back him up he was certain that she had nothing to worry about.

The teen paused for a second, reluctant to leave the battle so early, but one at the red head's patented 'resolve face' (the one reserved for moments like this, not the one she used when she wanted Dawn to go to bed on time), and she crumbled. She was unwilling however to leave without a good luck hug, she grabbed both witches at the same time and gestured to Xander and Anya to join them as she told them to be careful and to kick demon ass.

As the two brunettes hurried off into the distance the three remaining Scoobys trotted off in the direction of the high school.

*****

Lebath was going to be furious; there were only a few of them left and the Slayers were getting closer. A young demon who had witnessed four of his kind being slaughtered was hurrying through a series of tunnels, trying to find his leader to warn her. He risked the possibility that she would kill him on sight for bringing her such news, but he had no where else to run and he knew that he was in more danger of being decapitated if he didn't tell her.

Lebath was just exiting the area where the dark Slayer and the infant were being held and there was a smug expression painted over her features. The expression melted away as she saw him approaching and she surprised him by grabbing his head and looking into his eyes. Her mouth twitched as she let him go and she immediately began calling for her guards.

He tried to slip away as he realised that she'd read his mind, and he wanted to be elsewhere in case she decided that he was to blame for this outcome. He knew that whoever had lied about the death of two of the Slayers and the red headed witch was going to suffer.

The she demon was holding centre court now. "Where is Lisbaen!?" She roared.

A scale encrusted arm crept up slowly from the back of the crowd, which parted slightly to reveal the owner of the appendage to their leader. "He left your greatness."

"When was this?" She asked in a dangerous tone.

"Approximately half an hour ago." He said timidly.

She stared at him for a long while, her anger building. "And you only think to tell me this now?" Her voice was quiet as she addressed him. "Somebody kill him for me." She ordered and within seconds his head was lying motionless on the floor. "Listen to me," she began again in a bellowing tone. "We are under attack! Those of you who do not wish to die as many of your friends have tonight then you must fight! Any of you who don't wish to fight will answer to me…! Do I make myself clear?" No one dared to disagree and all twelve demons that remained nodded profusely. "Go then!"

They scattered and disappeared through various exits, glad to escape from Lebath's close proximity. She retreated into a nearby cave, which served as a storage room for her most prised weapons.

Immediately inside the room was a low hollowed out rock that was covered by a sheet of glass and underneath the glass laid a brass coloured pipe with a circular base and a smaller pipe shooting off from the base. It appeared remarkably to resemble a device used by some humans to smoke marijuana.

She smashed through the glass in a rage and pocketed the object. Having been raised on the surface amongst the humans she had picked up on wearing human clothing. Her present attire consisted of a pair of black overalls that covered most of her greenish brown skin. She favoured this particular style of dress for its abundance of pockets.

On the opposite wall sat a short sword and bellow it was an almost identical weapon except that it was almost twice the size. Each of them were made of solid gold and were extremely heavy for any normal person to lift, but for any being of super powers they were the weapons of choice. She slid the long sword into a harness on her back and carried the short one in her hand.

She wasn't going down without a fight, she still had a few tricks up her sleeves and if she had to kill the sacrifice then so let it be.

*****

The two Buffys, Faith and Spike crept along a narrow path leading from the school basement. The new high school had been remodelled so that the principle's office was directly above the hellmouth. You could literally walk over where the hellmouth lay in an emptied out den in an underground storage room, which was part of the basement. A passageway, that the Slayers had found during one of their battles against evil monsters that preferred to pray on high schoolers, led into a series of tunnels that they believed opened up into the caverns, which Lebath and Lisbaen were using as a hideout, and was also where the ritual would be taking place.

Each of them was keeping his or her eyes and ears open for any sign of movement from the caves' occupants. They had been correct in the assumption that there would be little to no demons guarding the entrance from the high school as it's difficult to get into the building after hours, but they knew they would be hitting the heart of Lebath's lair before long.

The sound of approaching footsteps stopped them in their tracks and they listened for a moment as the rumbling sound became louder.

"Sounds like a herd of elephants." Buffy (AU) said in a whisper.

"Or a herd of demons." The other Buffy said in reply.

They continued forward and rounded a short bend, which brought them to a fork in their path; the sounds of what could have been a small earthquake getting closer still.

"Do we split up?" Spike asked after a moment of motionless silence.

Faith shook her head languidly. "No, we're stronger as a group. If they're coming this way then we can tackle them as they step into this tunnel."

The others agreed and they stayed still for only a few seconds longer before the arrival of the first demon from the left fork, followed shortly by one from the right. The three humans and the half-breed fought with all their might, and as the tunnel from which the demons were emerging was very narrow they were advancing only one or sometimes two at a time, which gave the good-guys a greater advantage. It seemed like a long time before the last demon made a funny gurgling noise and collapsed at their feet.

Stepping over bodies they got closer together and observed the two tunnels questioningly.

"So, which one then ladies?" The vampire asked with a definite smirk, having enjoyed the last fight immensely.

Faith attempted to ignore him and thought for a moment. She was about to voice her opinion when her wife spoke up from her right side.

"I don't think it matters much which one. I get the feeling one may be a little quicker as the demons from the left got here sooner, but I think they were coming from the same place." She shared a look with her 'twin' who nodded with her.

"It would make sense that the announcement that we were here would be made from the same room. I don't think they would have arrived here at almost the same time otherwise." She shrugged. "I could be wrong though."

"We don't have much to go on, but that sounds as good as anything else. I can't hear any more coming though, so I think it'd be safe if we split up now. If your theory's right B… Sorry, Bs," here she gave a smaller version of the classic Faith smile. "Then we should meet up at about the same time on the other side of these tunnels." When she received agreeing nods from her companions she said, "Ok, Spike, you're with me again. Let's go."

The only couple between them exchanged a brief glance before going their separate ways, the two blonde Slayers went left and the other two went right. Each pair moved quickly but cautiously along their individual paths, keeping sharp senses out for any sign of approach from the opposite direction.

The two blondes were waiting at the end of the tunnel by the time Faith and Spike emerged from the darkness. The dark Slayer saw the other two Slayers first and was about to greet them and ask 'what next' when she noticed a group of figures standing to her far right, and as she turned her would-be greeting turned into a sharp gasp. Lebath stood stoically, holding her daughter by the back of her shirt in mid air. Behind them a large demon held a limp dark Slayer.

"Stay exactly where you are." Lebath ordered in a hard voice. "You…" Her voice quavered slightly as anger shook her. "You've ruined everything!" She screamed.

"Nice to know the night wasn't wasted then." Faith quipped, not being able to help herself. She regretted it however when the powerful demon shook Beth roughly, causing her to cry out in fear.

"Faith!" Buffy warned from behind her.

"Ok, ok! What do you want?" The dark Slayer said with a touch of desperation.

"What I wanted was to kill your child and to have infinite powers, but I realise now that that's never going to happen. You've killed all but one of my devoted followers, Lisbaen has turned coward and made his escape earlier tonight, but I still have what you want." She smiled cruelly. "So what more could I possibly want from you now?"

"Look," the blonde mother began. "Just let them go and we'll let you go. You could try again next year." She shrugged, but had no intention of letting things get this far ever again.

While the child's parents attempted to negotiate with the demon the other blonde Slayer was watching her girlfriend with intense concentration, hoping to see any signs of life. It was when Lebath shook Beth again and the small brunette cried out that the dark Slayer began to stir.

Faith had taken a beating from Lebath the day before, though luckily the she demon wasn't as adept at torture as she would have liked to think. Faith herself had managed a better attempt on her ex-Watcher Wesley. The damage to her body was mostly superficial and she was simply relieved that her captor hadn't had time to become more creative.

Faith was aware that something was going on in the caves and that Lebath wasn't happy about it. She had heard the rush of demons and Lebath's angry voice from where she had been chained and she had, a little recklessly, teased the demon about it. When the rumbling in the caves had died down Lebath had become slightly red with anger and had called in the one remaining follower that she had allowed to stay behind.

The former OoD member had opened Beth's cage and practically dragged her out of it, and at Faith's protests the other demon had given her a vicious blow to the side of the head and knocked her temporarily unconscious. Now she was coming round and hearing the sounds of Beth's struggles made her blood boil. Keeping her eyes closed she listened carefully to the conversation that was going on.

"Do you think there's anything you could give me that I'd want? All I want now is for you to suffer. It seems that that is all I'm in a position to do now." Lebath said angrily.

Buffy (RW) was desperate for her girlfriend to see her, wanted her to know that she was alive, wanted to give her motivation to fight. In their position they could not do much without risking Beth's life. They had no hope of reaching their enemy to stop her in time, but Faith (RW) had a chance; had the element of surprise.

"You know, if you kill them you're not going to leave here alive." Buffy (RW) said, keeping her eyes focused on Lebath's while she had her attention.

As to her wishes, Faith decided to take a quick look at her and Beth's rescuers, and to her surprise and intense relief she found all three of the other Slayers gathered on the opposite side of the cave. The dark Slayer stayed motionless within the grasp of the large demon behind her, she had to figure out a way to break free. Not only did she want to escape but the sight of the vampire made her stomach turn unpleasantly and she swore to herself that she would stake him before the night was over.

By this time all three of the Slayers standing by the entrance had noticed the brunette's awareness of the situation, and almost on instinct they stepped forward at the same time, knowing that the closer they were then the more likely they would be able to grab Beth during Faith's distraction. Lebath tensed at their movement and held the infant higher in the air as if to remind them that she had the upper hand.

"Now, now, let's not get any heroic ideas, that's how people get killed. Now if the four of you would just like to take a few steps back…" Her flow of speech was interrupted as she felt a pair of feet collide with the back of her head. The bulbous weapon that had been attached to her belt fell to the ground and smashed, spilling a foul smelling liquid and giving off a translucent smoke. She was knocked a few feet forward to where the good-guys were waiting.

As Spike and Beth's parents fought to rescue her, the other blonde Slayer ran past the she-demon and became caught up in a fight with Faith's guard, who seemed about to pull the brunette's head clean off. True to the fashion of fighting demon battles, the last demons to fall were always the strongest and they were caught up for much longer than they'd planned trying to kill Lebath's last remaining follower. When they were done the dark Slayer wasted no time and pulled her girlfriend into a tight embrace. They soon parted however as there was still one demon remaining.

It seemed that their enemy had been holding out on them before; conserving her energy for the last moment. It was as if she knew every attack that they were going to use and she was effectively blocking every one and taking close swipes at them with a golden short sword. Her speed was amazing and the strength of her hits almost knocked the Slayers and the vampire over several times.

The short sword stayed gripped in her hand. She used the handle to add pressure to her punches and with the blade positioned so that it ran down her forearm. When she landed a hit on either a Slayer or the vampire she tried to follow through with her elbow, hoping each time to slice through skin and to disable her opponents. Unfortunately the sword wasn't being put into good use as its intended victims could move fast enough that the punch acted like a forewarning and they would move accordingly to avoid the hit.

Beth was being passed between each of her parents as they took turns in fighting Lebath. Whenever she was handed over to a different mommy the demon would change her stance and move towards where the infant was being protected. They were given the impression that Lebath knew she wasn't going to win this fight, but she wasn't going to go down until she had eliminated the Slayers' child.

Lebath noticed as soon as the other Slayers joined the fray and saw clearly that the tables had turned even more intensely against her. Somehow the long sword had come unattached from her back and was lost while the sword she still held was proving to be more of a hindrance than a help. As a final effort she gathered all of her strength and lunged for the blonde Slayer who was holding Beth and with every ounce of power that she could muster she pounded the two. She heard the brunette Slayer scream in fury and jump on her back attempting to force Lebath away from her family, but she didn't stop, she couldn't stop, not until the abomination was no longer breathing.

She felt as something long and sharp was thrust through her back, severing her spinal chord. She felt as the same weapon was brought down through her thick skin over and over again. And the last thing she heard before her brain ceased to function was the dark Slayer's anguished sobs. Lebath died seconds later with a satisfied smile plastered upon her demonic face.

*****

Sunnydale, Real World.

Two bruised and exhausted Slayers appeared suddenly in the middle of the magic box, startling the few customers that were browsing the shelves and the two witches who were leafing through some spell books at the table. The Slayers staggered slightly as the transportation spell faded away and Buffy gave a tired smile to her friends before walking over to sit down at the table with the dark Slayer right behind her.

"So… How did it go?" Willow asked once she'd gotten over the jolt of their abrupt arrival.

The Slayers exchanged a look and then Buffy shrugged as she spoke. "We won." She sighed as the red head nodded as if asking her to elaborate. "I'll tell you the whole story when I've got the energy to remember it all, right now I just want a hot bath and a warm bed."

Willow reluctantly agreed, stifling her overwhelming need for information. "What about Faith?" She asked of the brunette Slayer, whose head was resting in her arms on the table and her breathing had become slow and easy as though she were asleep.

Buffy smiled and nudged her girlfriend. "Faith?"

Faith's head snapped up and her eyes darted around before landing on Buffy's. "Huh?"

"What are you gonna do now?"

She rubbed her knuckles over her tired eyes as she contemplated the question. "Erm, I should call my parole officer, he'll probably have a go at me; It'd be best to do that when I'm tired so I don't have the energy to be smart with him. I need to get back to LA, check out my stuff and figure out what I'm gonna do with it, gonna need some sleep before doin' that though. And I could do with a shower."

"Well Angel's here so he'll be able to give you a lift back." Willow stated after a moment.

Both Slayers seemed surprised and turned to face the witches with a coordinated: "What!?"

"Oh, Cordelia had a vision of the two of you and your doubles fighting Lebath. They didn't think to call here first and came rushing over, but what she was seeing was you two and the others in another reality. Well they stayed anyway in case something happened; they were still at your house when we left a couple of hours ago."

Buffy began to get up. "I guess we'd better go say hi then."

Faith nodded. "Ok then…" She sighed. "Pull me up." She said with a cheeky smile.

Buffy smiled back and took the brunette's hand, pulling her up and into her arms. The dark Slayer wrapped her arms firmly around the blonde's waist and placed a light kiss on her girlfriend's forehead, heedless of the witches' presence. Stifled giggling pulled them from their embrace and both Slayers smiled at one another before Faith winked at the witches and ushered the blonde Slayer from the shop, feeling like herself again for the first time in what felt like forever.

As they walked through the front door of 1630 Revello Drive the two Slayers went straight to the living room where they could hear the chatter of familiar voices. Peering inside they saw the dark vampire standing stoically as far away from the window as possible with his usual brooding expression marring his otherwise handsome face. Cordelia sat in a chair close to where her friend and boss was standing and seemed a great deal more mature than the last time Buffy had laid eyes on her. Giles sat facing the seer, his elbows resting wearily on each of his knees and a worried frown creating more lines than usual across his brow. Xander and Anya were missing, but after their last meeting neither Slayer was surprise by this, and Buffy hoped that her younger sister was in school if she wasn't waiting around for her and Faith to get home.

The room was quiet, but they could sense that a conversation had not long ended and when the two entered the room all eyes turned on them.

"Hey guys." Buffy said, breaking the clouding silence with a soft smile.

Her short hello acted like a starting gun as everyone was suddenly on their feet and making their way over to the Slayers to envelope them in hugs, despite firm protests from the brunette who after being hugged by Cordelia was crushed by Angel's large arms.

Faith attempted to play it cool as she was released from the close hold. "Not going soft on us are you soul boy?"

Angel straightened up immediately and with a little cough said: "Wouldn't dream of it."

It was Giles who initiated the questions regarding their adventure in the other reality to which the Slayers both rolled their eyes.

"We'll tell you the whole story later when we've cleaned up and changed, and when everyone who wants to hear it is here. Is there any food in the house?" Her final question brought out a raised eyebrow from the Watcher. "What? Dimension travelling is hungry work."

Faith laughed as the blonde led her through to the kitchen; there she jumped up onto the counter as Buffy opened the fridge and began her search for sustenance. The dark Slayer couldn't prevent the dreamy smile that slowly appeared on her face as she watched her partner and listened to her talk to herself.

Buffy turned around a few minutes later; both arms loaded with goodies and grinned at Faith before taking off into the hall and up the stairs, the brunette just seconds behind her. It was much later on when everyone, including Xander, Anya and Dawn were gathered in the dining room listening to the two Slayers as they told their story; they had just reached the part where Lebath was dead and the other Buffy had been badly injured.

Blood seemed to flow like water from the fallen Slayer. There was a scuffle as the two dark Slayers tied one of their jackets around Buffy's (AU) waist, attempting to stop the bleeding. Buffy held Beth in her arms and the vampire and her girlfriend looked on as the other brunette lifted her double and began to carry her out. They left through the same tunnels from which they arrived and came out behind the high school.

They made their way around to the front where they were hoping to find the witches and Xander who were supposed to wait for them there. Faith was never so happy to see that Xander had brought his car with him; she cradled her wife's limp body, being careful not to jolt her about as she ran across the grass towards her friends.

The three Scoobys had been sitting on a bench out front, but still keeping a sharp eye out for any kind of movement, and when they saw the figures of their supernatural friends coming round from the back of the school they could see instantly that something was wrong. Running forward they met the Slayers and each of them gasped as they saw the state the blonde Slayer was in. Xander climbed into the driving seat of his car, Faith sat with her wife and Willow in the back while Tara held Beth with her in the front seat. They left behind the blonde vampire and the two Slayers, surrounded by a cloud of dust as they sped off in the direction of the hospital.

The trio stood silently for a few minutes, simply staring at the space where the car had been and trying not to think about what might happen to the injured Slayer.

As her thoughts came back to her, Faith quickly contemplated her next move regarding the bleached blonde vampire next to her. He probably had no idea about what his double had done, or had attempted to do, but there was the possibility that he was just biding his time until an opportunity presented itself. The question Faith had to ask herself was whether she thought her and Buffy's doubles would make the decision to stake him.

So far he had shown them a great deal of loyalty, for a vampire anyway, and he did have supernatural powers that could help them out in the case of the next all too possible big battle. He was an asset to them if he behaved himself, and so far he had done. Faith knew that the other Slayers would think these things and believe them; even she could admit that these scenarios were possible, but Spike still had a serious capacity for evil and no matter what he may have done for them he should not be trusted.

Thinking about this made her weigh up the pros and cons of staking the vamp. 'Alive' he could be another soldier in battle, but he also had access to their everyday lives and the people they loved. It was too easy for him to hurt them, and there was always everyone's favourite PI vampire in LA, who was ready to help them when they needed it.

"Shall we get moving then pets?" Spike asked, interrupting Faith's internal deliberation.

She nodded and allowed him to walk past her and as he did so she slipped her stake from her pocket, unseen by either of her companions and began to walk behind him. He was smoking now and the all too familiar cloud of smoke that wafted behind him filled the dark Slayer's nostrils, making her fight the urge to gag.

She watched him for a few moments. He seemed happy; content in the rush of nicotine filling him inside and the feeling of euphoria at having won the battle; no idea that his unlife was about to end. This was the time to do it. No fight. No risk of either of the Slayers getting hurt. A quick 'death' was the vampire's reward for having fought on the side of good for more than two years.

Faith's arm jerked forward and almost in slow motion she saw as the end of the stake was embedded into the vampire's back and watched as Spike's body went ridged, arms automatically flew out to the side, and a short gasp was released from his mouth before his body crumbled into a pile of dust. So many things that she had never noticed when staking a vampire before.

Buffy turned to her with an odd expression of acceptance on her face as she heard the plunging of the stake and heard the inhuman and near silent scream of the demon dying.

"I couldn't take the risk." Faith offered as an explanation.

Buffy nodded. "I know baby. I would've done the same thing, but I thought I'd let you have that privilege. You know, seeing as you didn't get to stake the other Spike."

With hands entwined they continued on their way back to their doubles' home to break the news to Anya and Dawn and to await news of the injured party.

"You staked Spike? Without a fight?" Angel asked with a kind of awe stricken tone to his voice.

Faith shrugged a little. "Well it's not like he knew it was coming. I did stab him in the back. Most people would think of that as cowardice."

"It was for the best." Buffy confirmed, sharing her girlfriend's views.

The vampire nodded. "Yeah, I guess it was."

"Spike would have killed all of us if he'd had the chance." Anya stated abruptly, having not said anything the entire night. "Get on with the rest of the story." She ordered, which caused all of the Sunnydale gang to smile.

"Ok," Buffy began again, "Well, when we got back we told the other two what had happened and then sat waiting for one of the others to call from the hospital."

Dawn and Anya were asleep by the time Xander and the two witches walked through the door; the red head carrying a sleeping Beth in her arms. Buffy and Faith were snuggled up on the couch; the brunette was running her fingers through blonde hair and both of them were staring off into different empty spaces in the room.

The Slayers rose quietly from the couch and followed Xander into the dining room as the other two women took the infant up to her bed. He gestured for them to sit down when he saw the questioning expressions on their faces and then took a seat for himself opposite them.

"So what's going on? Is she ok?" Faith whispered.

"She still hasn't regained consciousness, but she'll live and the doctors say they're optimistic that she'll wake up within the next couple of days." His words were systematic and they could tell that he was seriously stressed out.

"Xander, you look exhausted. Why don't you take Anya up to bed and join her there. We'll take care of Dawn and keep an eye on things." Buffy said with concern.

For once he didn't argue and nodded before rising from the table. He paused for a moment on his way out as his tiring brain registered someone missing. "Where's Spike by the way? Did you ditch him somewhere?" He asked, almost seeming hopeful.

The Slayers exchanged a look before Faith said, "He's dust. We couldn't risk that he'd go back to his old ways."

Xander held up both hands with a smile. "Hey, you don't have to justify it to me; I've wanted to do that for years. I know I'll sleep well tonight now he's gone."

Faith grinned and nodded; she could definitely get used to being friends with the Xander, if only he would just stop being such a jerk and perhaps give her a chance to redeem herself.

By the next evening they had had a call from Faith at the hospital to inform them that Buffy was awake and would be coming home the following day. Knowing that things were going to be ok there, the other two Slayers decided that it was about time they headed home. Both were exhausted as they hadn't slept the previous night and through most of the week in fact, so they were exceptionally grateful when the witches offered to take them to the Magic Box the next morning where they could perform the transportation spell.

The departing Slayers made an early call to the hospital before leaving to say goodbye to their doubles to thank them and to wish them luck. Buffy thought long and hard about paying a visit to her double's mom, but thought the better of it in the end; she didn't want to upset the middle aged blonde and she knew that if she saw her she wouldn't be able to stop herself from becoming overly emotional.

She had requested to talk privately to her girlfriend's double before leaving and received confused expressions from all three of her fellow Slayers before the request was granted.

"What was that all about?" Faith asked as they left the medical building and made their way towards the magic shop.

Buffy simply grinned at the brunette and linked their arms together. "Never you mind." She added playfully before kissing the taller girl on the cheek.

When they arrived at their destination they found that all of the equipment was already set up and a banner had been hung from the ceiling which read 'Bon Voyage'. There were hugs and thank-yous all round before the read head ordered them to sit facing one another on the floor then told them to relax before she and her blonde girlfriend began to chant slowly.

"You never did tell me what that conversation was all about." Faith stated as she turned accusingly toward her girlfriend.

"And I'm still not going to." Replied Buffy, who then added: "Well at least not yet."

"So you are going to tell me eventually?" The blonde nodded. "What's so secret about it?"

Buffy leant forward so that their faces were closer together as she said, "I can't tell you, it's a secret."

Several people in the room laughed at this and after a moment the dark Slayer's menacing expression turned into an amused grin. It was getting cramped in the room and the LA gang were anxious to get back to the Hyperion so take care of any new cases that might have come through and so Faith and Buffy retreated to the blonde Slayer's room in order to gather the brunette's belongings that had been brought over from the hotel.

Faith hadn't really brought much with her. As she hadn't planned on staying in town for so long she had packed only a couple of changes of clothes and her bathroom essentials. Tara had thoughtfully put her used clothes through the wash while she and Buffy had been in the other reality and so she was at least wearing clean clothes. But needless to say it didn't take her long to throw everything into a back-pack and put her boots on.

The two Slayers paused at the door and Faith placed her bag on the floor before pulling the blonde into a deep kiss. Tongues swirled and toes curled until neither of them could take any more and had to break away.

"I'll be back soon B, and I'll call you when we get there, and every day after that." Faith said with certainty lacing her voice.

Buffy nodded, but as Faith moved to open the door she found that her girlfriend's grip was stopping her. She began to say something but was silenced by another fierce kiss. The dark Slayer's breath caught in her throat as the blonde pulled soft lips away from her own and began kissing down her neck, while curious hands sought for purchase on any piece of her flesh that they could find.

Her legs trembled and she found that she was too turned on to voice any protest as Buffy swiftly unbuttoned and unzipped her pants before delving inside to cup her already damp and throbbing centre.

"Mmmm Faith, I love it when you're wet and ready for me." Buffy whispered huskily into the brunette's ear right before she bit down on it.

The blonde Slayer's unexpected assertiveness and the dirty talk did nothing to quell the growing pressure building up inside the brunette and a stifled moan escaped unbidden from deep down inside her, which only succeeded in urging the frisky Slayer on.

As Faith's breathing became increasingly laboured Buffy's efforts increased, and though her arm was beginning to ache from the strain she was determined to hear her girlfriend cry out in ecstasy. As she pushed a third finger into her lover she used the heal of her hand to create friction against the brunette's clitoris and applied more pressure in both areas; becoming beyond aroused herself as her brain continued to register Faith's uncontrollable cries of pleasure.

The brunette's release seemed to come as a shock to both of them as it built up so quickly that she barely had time to register that it was happening. Her head felt like it was going to explode and she only had enough sense about her to grab Buffy's head, crushing their mouths together as she came and stifling the low scream that escaped her lungs.

They fumbled as Faith tried to keep her legs standing, but didn't have much luck and had to give in to letting the blonde secure her balance. Her arms rested over slender shoulders and her head against her lover's; both of them attempting to regain their composure. Faith shuddered again as Buffy withdrew her hand and began to re-zip and re-button her.

When the brunette's eyes opened she found herself staring into pools of green, and when Buffy spoke she found herself captivated by her words.

"Whatever you may think about while you're away… I don't ever want you to think that I don't want you. I do. I don't think I've ever needed or wanted anyone as much as you right now."

The dark Slayer was speechless, she couldn't think of any reply that would suffice. "I…"

Buffy shook her head slightly. "Just promise you'll come back. Tell me you'll never leave me again." Desperation was beginning to break into her voice and she had to will herself not to say any more so as not to scare the other Slayer away.

Faith just about managed to gather enough sense to lean forward and kiss the blonde fervently. When she pulled away she gazed deep into her girlfriend's eyes and unblinkingly replied with, "I promise." She stroked the blonde's jaw line. "There's no where else in the world I'd rather spend the rest of my life than here with you… Is that ok?" She asked when Buffy didn't comment.

"Is that ok?" She repeated in disbelief. "Baby it's so much more than ok… I'm just finding all of this so hard to believe," she finally confessed.

Faith smirked. "You're not the only one."

They kissed again, more for reassurance that they were there together than anything else, and embraced one another firmly before they made their way down the stairs to join the leaving party.

Angel and Cordelia were already waiting in the car having said their goodbyes to everyone and were just awaiting Faith's arrival. The dark Slayer quickly said goodbye to everyone before rushing out of the door. Buffy paused and deliberated her next action, knowing what she wanted to do, but deliberating about whether it was the right time to do it. Her deciding thought was catalysed by the reality that anything could happen to her girlfriend between now and when she was supposed to return, and she quickly followed the brunette out of the door.

"Faith wait!" The dark Slayer stopped walking and turned back to the blonde. Buffy approached her and lifted a hand to her face, pausing to look into chocolate pools before speaking. "I… I love you," Buffy confessed in a low voice.

Faith was speechless for a few moments, wondering for a minute when she was going to hit the bottom of the rabbit hole, but she was still standing there and Buffy was still staring at her with an expression of apprehension, waiting for some sort of response. The first thing that came to Faith's mind refused to pass over her lips and into the space between her and the blonde and so she pulled the blonde into a tight hug.

Not being able to see Buffy's face seemed to help her find her voice again and she was able to pull back and look into the blonde's eyes. "I love you too B. I always have."

PART FIFTEEN

Two months later.

Buffy frowned as she walked into the living room and saw her sister and two witches sitting on the couch, watching TV.

"Where's Faith?" She asked with a hint of concern.

"In the basement." Dawn replied, not taking her eyes away from the screen in front of her.

"What's she doing in the basement?"

"Laundry." Her sister replied again in the same bored tone.

The blonde Slayer began to leave the room, headed for the basement, but turned back at the last minute. "Dawn don't sit too close to the TV, you'll give yourself a headache."

"Geez Buffy, I'm not six you know." The teen answered, annoyed at her sister's comment.

"Then act like it. Show some common sense and move back from the TV." She didn't wait for an argument and took off again to find her girlfriend.

Faith had been living with them for a month now. It had taken her a little over three weeks to sort out everything with her parole officer (who had been more than a little annoyed by the dark Slayer's disappearance), and to help solve a big case at Angel Investigations before packing up her stuff and moving to Sunnydale to live with the other Slayer.

As Buffy stepped quietly down into the basement she could distinctly hear the sound of the washing machine and something else that sounded like weights being lifted. She ventured further down and when she got to the bottom she saw the dark Slayer lying face up on the workout bench that they had moved from the Magic Box into the Slayer's house.

Faith's skin, where visible, shone with perspiration and the muscles in her arms quivered as she reached for the bell bar once again. Despite the fact that the sight of her lover looking all hot and sweaty got Buffy's pulse racing, when she spoke her voice didn't betray her desire, but it did warn the dark Slayer that her girlfriend was not entirely pleased with her.

"I thought you were supposed to be doing laundry." Buffy said as she leant, seemingly nonchalantly, up against the wall.

Faith released her grip on the bar again and slowly sat up. "I am. I'm waiting for the rinse cycle to finish."

"And you just thought you'd lift some weights while you waited?" She asked in the same tone.

Faith rolled her eyes and sighed before standing up and grabbing a towel to dry off with. Once she'd thrown the towel aside she approached the blonde and stood as close as she could to her. "B, you've got to stop doing this." She stated simply.

Buffy's frown reappeared in full force and she looked up into dark brown eyes as she asked, "Doing what?"

"You have to stop acting like I'm gonna break if I do anything even remotely strenuous."

"The doctor says you have to relax." Buffy insisted.

"That doesn't mean that I'm not allowed to do anything. I'm not like normal women B; she doesn't know that. I'm not going to over do it if I'm lifting a few weights or jogging round the block or something…" She lifted a hand and placed it on the blonde's cheek. "I know you love me B, but you're beginning to make living here like being in prison; I'm not allowed to do the things I want to do, you've already got me down to two nights of slaying a week. And I've no doubt that that'll go down to nothing by the time I'm in my third trimester."

Buffy chewed on her bottom lip as she let this information sink in. "Don't you feel any different?" She asked as she placed her hand where the bump would soon begin to show itself.

Faith shrugged and led them to an old couch that had been placed in the corner of the room. "Sure, I feel different. I get worn out quicker and seem to be sleeping more, but it's nothing really in comparison to what normal women would be feeling. I probably wouldn't win first place in a triathlon as I've no doubt you would, and I'm sleeping seven hours now instead of the usual five. My boobs feel heavier, and I'm really not liking this morning sickness, but I'm told that it's supposed to go away after about twelve weeks, which isn't far from now. Stop worrying, ok?"

Faith leaned forward and found the blonde's lips with her own and kissed her girlfriend slowly at first before sneaking her tongue out to explore Buffy's mouth, increasing the pressure a little more as the kiss became more passionate. As the brunette took Buffy's hand and guided it towards her breast Buffy pulled away and severed all physical contact between them. Faith frowned and looked hurt as she regarded her girlfriend.

"Faith, maybe we shouldn't." The blonde Slayer said.

The brunette looked towards the door and figured that her lover was afraid of being interrupted by the other occupants of the house. "We can be quiet, and we don't even have to get undressed if you're worried about them catching us."

Buffy shook her head and took Faith's hand in her own. "I don't mean because of them, it's just… What if it's not ok for me to touch you now…? What if it hurts her?" She trailed off as she was slightly embarrassed about telling her girlfriend of her concerns.

Faith smiled. "Is that why you've been avoiding me this last week?"

"I haven't been avoiding you." Buffy said sharply, confused by the accusation as the only time she hadn't spent with her had been when she was at work.

It was Faith's turn to shake her head. "Sorry, I didn't phrase that right. What I meant to say was, is that why you've been avoiding being alone with me? Bed time not counted as you've been too tired to do anything this week." Buffy's guilty expression was all the brunette needed to confirm her suspicions. "B, it doesn't do any harm."

"How do you know?" The blonde asked fretfully.

"'Cause I asked the doctor, and I've read stuff about it before."

"You're sure?" The blonde asked, still doubtful.

"Positive… Though I guess if you're into really kinky stuff like S&M then that might not be too healthy, but you and me, we've got nothing to worry about."

By this point Faith had shuffled closer to her girlfriend again and her right hand was caressing the left side of Buffy's face. She leant closer and kissed Buffy softly, but didn't let it get too heated as she had done before. When they eventually broke apart Faith leant back and pulled the blonde with her so that they were hugging slightly.

"I just can't help feeling like I'm going to do something wrong." Buffy said after a long silence.

"You're not the only one who's thinking that B. Hell, I don't think there's anything in my life that I haven't screwed up in one way or another, but I'm just trying not to think about it that way. I've gotta be optimistic you know? If I think about all the things that could go wrong then I know I'm not gonna get through this."

"I know you're right, but it's just so hard to put into practice."

They stayed quiet again and all that could be heard was the spinning of the washing machine. When that stopped, Faith rose carefully from her seat and began to transfer the clothes from the washer to the dryer. Buffy watched for once; resisting the urge to take over. Once the brunette was sitting next to her again she moved her feet up onto the couch and snuggled up closer to her lover, content to stay there until Faith wanted to move. The dark Slayer was the first to speak this time and her words made Buffy sit up to look at her.

"The biggest thing I'm worried about at the moment is being able to afford everything she'll need… You can barely afford to take care of you and Dawn and pay for the house, and I know you don't want me to work, at least for a while, but we need a second income B. I've been thinking about this for a week or two and if I can just get some part time work it'll be better than nothing." She avoided looking her girlfriend directly in the eye for the fear that Buffy would think that she was insulting her; making out that she couldn't look after their little family. Faith let go of the breath that she was holding when Buffy began to speak.

"It might be for the best. I wish I made enough money so that you didn't have to, but I don't want us to have to start skipping meals because we can't afford food."

She deliberately avoided eye contact with her lover so that Faith wouldn't be able to see the expression of deep thought on her face. She had an idea that they might be close to receiving some money, which would keep them in good health for a substantial amount of time. She didn't want to assume that it would happen, but she had an idea that it would. She wasn't going to disclose her thoughts or the reason behind them to Faith, so it didn't do any harm to agree with the brunette that a second income was a good idea.

"I think there's still a place at the Double Meat Palace. The other you was working there before she left. I told the manager that she was ill and wouldn't be around for a while, but I guess you could go in and pretend to be her." Buffy looked to the brunette to check her reaction. "I told them it was appendicitis."

Faith laughed slightly. "Well, I have a scar in the right place at least."

Buffy tried to hide her sad expression as she remembered the stabbing incident before answering. "I think your appendix is on the right side."

"So?"

"So, your scar is on the left side."

"B, come on. How long has the manager been working at the DMP?"

"Ten years."

"Is she going to know which side of the body the appendix is on?" Faith asked incredulously.

"I guess not. Though that's the kinda thing you learn in school, and I know the manager has a good memory." Buffy added, still worried.

"I'll just be an anomaly if it comes to that." She caught the blonde's surprised look at smirked at her girlfriend. "What? You think because I refrain from speaking eloquently that I don't know any big words?" She smirked again as the blonde smacked her on the arm and laughed in disbelief as she looked away to hide a blush.

They stayed in the basement in a loose embrace, occasionally exchanging kisses and light caresses, under a mild pretence that they were waiting for the laundry to finish drying for anyone who came looking for them.

*****

A week later and Faith was sharing shifts at the Double Meat Palace with Buffy. As she had predicted, her story was approved and they had set her to work straight away. The blonde Slayer had to try and show her everything without anybody seeing as Faith had not yet been shown how to do anything.

Throughout the whole of Faith's first week at work Buffy hadn't been able to stop herself from sneaking glances at her girlfriend, causing her to burn more burgers than normal. Dawn found their flirting and blushing rather funny and made a point on teasing them about it whenever she had an opportunity to do so.

It was the day before Faith's birthday and Buffy was beginning to panic about the party arrangements. She knew that her girlfriend wouldn't be expecting her to know that it was her birthday, and she definitely wouldn't be expecting a party, so Buffy wanted to make it the best birthday the brunette had ever had; she was determined that nothing would ruin it.

She drummed her fingers on the kitchen table as she waited for her friends to return with the decorations and presents, and her mind drifted off while her eyes gazed into space. She was soon startled by a shrill ringing. Shaking her head to distil her wandering thoughts, she vacated her chair and answered the phone.

"Summers' residence, Buffy speaking," she answered; practicing what she thought was a grown-up voice, though she still felt that it needed work.

"Erm hello Buffy, this is Mrs. Pryce, I believe you spoke to my husband yesterday?" the woman's voice asked hopefully.

The blonde Slayer's eyes lit up when she heard this. "Yes I did. I'm so glad you called back, I don't think I made a very good impression with your husband yesterday I'm afraid. I think he thought I was crazy or something." Buffy felt quite sheepish as she said this and hoped that the person on the other end of the phone would be more inclined to listen to her because of it.

"You must forgive him; this has been quite a shock for us as I'm sure you can understand… Miss Summers are you sure about what you told him?"

"One hundred percent positive." The Slayer said with certainty.

Mrs. Pryce sighed deeply with relief before speaking excitedly. "Well I think we had better schedule a time to meet then, don't you?"

Buffy laughed shortly before organising meeting times. It was going to be a long trip for them, and she wanted to arrange their travelling times so that they would arrive in Sunnydale during the day. Mrs. Pryce was rather taken aback by her insistence that they not come into the town at night, but after the young woman explained to her that she was simply concerned for their safety she thought no more of it.

It was almost fifteen minutes after she hung up when Buffy was joining by two witches and a very excited sister. It was obvious that none of them had seen the finished items yet, which explained the expressions of anticipation on their faces. Buffy pulled out a large object and placed in the centre of the table so they could all see it. She ran her fingers over the burgundy leather cover and the gold letters spelling out her girlfriend's name.

Lifting the cover carefully, she turned to the first page. Her gaze was met by many smiling faces belonging to her friends and family. As she flipped through the pages she watched the years go by and new people began to appear. Ideally the blonde Slayer would have wanted to put in photos of Faith and her family into the album, but as she didn't have any she didn't have that choice. Approximately a quarter of the way through the large book the pictures stopped and in their place laid blank spaces, waiting to be filled. The last few photos that appeared in the album were of Buffy and Faith and one that the blonde Slayer had taken of her girlfriend's tummy with 'Two Months' written underneath it.

She closed the cover and placed the book to one side as she reached into the bag again. This time she pulled out a black case and when she opened it Dawn gasped slightly at the sight of it; this had been the gift she had most looked forward to seeing.

It was a stake holster; a lot like a gun holster really, but for… Well you know… Stakes. It fitted around each shoulder and where normally there would have been guns there were… Erm, stakes. The holster was made from black leather, lined on the inside with silk and dotted with silver studs. Faith's name had been sewn into the back with silver thread and each of the six stakes that came with it had her name burned into the handle.

The blonde Slayer looked over every inch of the gift to make sure it was perfect. She was fonder of the photo album than the stake holder; purely for the fact that it would appeal more to the dark Slayer's sense of belonging and not at all to do with the fact that it had been her idea and the stake holster had been Dawn's. She closed the lid on the gift and placed the box back in the bag before turning to her friends.

"Did you guys get all the decorations and wrapping paper?" She asked eagerly.

"Sure did."

The red headed witch picked another bag off the floor and opened it to allow the Slayer to look inside. Buffy raised an eye brow when she saw the contents.

"Willow and Dawn got a little carried away with the balloons and ribbons." Tara said by a way of explaining.

The guilty pair just shrugged before taking off with the presents and the bag of brightly coloured paper and ribbons. The two blondes shook their heads before following their loved ones up the stairs to begin wrapping presents.

By the time Faith arrived back home that evening Buffy and Dawn were sitting on the couch; the teen watching some sitcom and the blonde Slayer with a book in her lap. The dark Slayer began to walk into the room when she saw her girlfriend smile up at her, but she was quickly stopped by Dawn's voice.

"No! Stinky Slayers have to shower before sitting down." She insisted; her nose wrinkled at the pungent Double Meat Palace scent that constantly followed her sister and Faith around these days.

Buffy sighed, but refrained from admonishing her sister as she was well aware of how the smell would quickly take over the room and anything that Faith sat on. Instead she placed her book in her seat and escorted her girlfriend upstairs to the bathroom where she was adamant about helping the brunette's to undress. Not that she was faced with any resistance.

Buffy stepped into the shower behind the brunette after they made sure that the water was the right temperature. Faith tipped her head back into the centre of the spray and began to massage the water into her hair. She heard as the lid to the shampoo was opened and felt Buffy's closeness as the blonde reached to apply the cleansing liquid to her dark locks. She couldn't stop the moan that escaped her mouth and the blonde's fingertips massaged her head and she soon felt demanding lips on her own and a supple body pressed hard up against her. With small hands still rubbing the shampoo into her hair Faith kissed her girlfriend back with equal force and snaked her arms around the slender waist within easy reach.

They had to be careful as they were standing in the bath and there weren't four walls around them to keep them from falling. Once Buffy had rinsed the last of the conditioner out of her hair, Faith guided the blonde down to lie in the bath with the shower still pounding down on them. She had to struggle to keep Buffy from slipping down too much, but managed it well as she placed the other Slayer in a sitting position and pushed her own body down so that her head was placed invitingly between the blonde's legs.

Buffy's breathing doubled in intensity as the brunette moved down her body, and when Faith ducked her head down to kiss the inside of her right thigh she craned her neck, resting it on the edge of the bath and placed a hand in her girlfriend's hair, scraping her scalp lightly with her fingertips.

Faith paused in her decent to think for a moment. Her task would be easier to accomplish if Buffy's hips were raised slightly. Looking around she was ecstatic when her eyes fell on a bath pillow just behind her. She picked it up and turned back to the beautiful sight waiting for her. It suddenly occurred to her that Buffy's neck might become uncomfortable during their love making and she hesitated, wondering whether to ask the blonde what her preference was.

Buffy was beginning to get impatient, but she knew why the brunette was waiting; she would have been considering the same things and it was almost as if she could read the other Slayer's thoughts. She smiled and reached out to grab the pillow before lifting her hips and placing it beneath her. She then pulled Faith down to her and kissed her passionately. When their lips parted Buffy grinned at her girlfriend before applying pressure to the top of her head, indicating where she wanted her to go.

Faith more than willingly obeyed and slid back down to reach her target. Once again she placed light kissed along Buffy's thigh and savoured her girlfriend's scent. Her nose grazed softly along the very top of the blonde's leg and Faith grinned as the other Slayer's hips bucked slightly. Her tongue followed the line of her lips before dipping down to taste her lover. Moist folds parted to give her access and she eagerly began drawing patterns inside her mate. Buffy's sighs and moans urged her on and she could feel her own wetness making a path down between her legs.

Her hands were never idle as they caressed various areas of Buffy's body that she had quickly learnt were some of the blonde's erogenous zones. The same hand that had been gently running along the underside of Buffy's breast slowly teased its way down the soft skin until her fingers came to run along the same path that her tongue had previously taken.

The blonde's breath quickened as Faith's fingers slipped inside her and found their way to all the areas that drove her crazy. Her moans were becoming faster and louder as she lost control of her sense of privacy, not caring if anyone heard her, only caring that Faith keep doing that thing that made her feel so good. Her orgasm rolled over her quicker than she had expected and she had to force her legs to stay still so as not to kick out and hurt her lover as her body began to spasm.

Faith swallowed instinctively and revelled in the feel of Buffy's inner walls as they held onto her fingers. Her own breathing continued to come fast and short as her mate's slowly returned to normal and she laid her head on the blonde's abdomen while she let her recover.

An insistent rapping on the door brought them both back down to earth and only then did they realise that the shower was still on and that they had probably been in there a lot longer than it felt like. They shakily got to their feet and Buffy turned the water off.

"How long are you two gonna be in there!?" Dawn shouted from the other side of the door.

Another voice joined the teen's before either of the Slayers could respond. "Dawn! Leave them alone. Haven't you got any homework to do?" Buffy recognised Willow's voice and knew that her best friend could sympathise with her situation as she and Tara often had the same problem when Dawn was in the house.

The Slayers smiled at one another and began to get out of the bath as they knew they wouldn't be able to finish their love making until they were alone later on.

"We'll be out in a minute Dawn." Buffy called as she picked up a towel and wrapped it around her girlfriend.

"Good 'cause I need the toilet." Dawn said and the Slayers could hear her complaining about certain people and their inconsiderate behaviour when sex was involved.

Buffy smiled again and shook her head before leaning in to steal a kiss from the brunette. Faith's eagerness lit a light in Buffy's brain and she suddenly realised how her girlfriend must be feeling having to hide her need for release. She shuddered as Faith rested her head next to Buffy's neck and licked a path up to her ear.

The blonde gasped as Faith's hands began to wonder and she struggled to stay standing while her brain tried to think of another place for them to go. Only one place came to mind.

"Bedroom… Now!" She growled and pushed the brunette away long enough for her to grab their robes from the back of the door.

*****

Faith could think of no better place to wake up than in Buffy's bed, with the blonde Slayer snuggled up beside her. She couldn't quite bring herself to think of it as their bed yet, but she was slowly getting the hang of the whole relationship thing so in time she was sure that her thoughts would change.

It had only occurred to her the night before that it was her birthday today. She had had a distant feeling that this time of the year was supposed to be special to her in some way, but ever since her parents had died she had never celebrated her birth and she had begun to forget what date it was. The only reason she ever thought about it was when someone enquired about her age or asked her when her birthday was.

Now, on her twenty-second birthday she was waking up to the best present she could ever ask for. Her thoughts often turned sour on her and begged to remind her that she wasn't worthy of this angel beside her and that she was going to fail, no matter how hard she tried not to. Everyday these thoughts became a little quieter though, and everyday she felt a little more confident in her abilities as a mother and a lover.

Buffy's eyes soon began to open and Faith grinned as emerald orbs met her own chocolate ones. They leaned towards one another simultaneously for that morning kiss and when they parted Buffy moved closer and snuggled into her girlfriend's arms.

"You're awake early." Buffy commented as it was only eight o'clock and Faith didn't usually wake up before ten unless she had to go to work.

"Yeah, weird huh? I just didn't feel like sleeping any more." She then groaned slightly causing Buffy to look up at her with concern. She quickly motioned that she was ok. "Just a bit nauseous."

"Morning sickness?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah. Though strangely enough it doesn't always happen in the morning. Don't know why they didn't call it early pregnancy sickness or something like that." She smiled down at the blonde and reached out to play with her hair. "So what's on the agenda for today?"

The blonde Slayer shrugged and tried to seem clueless as she replied. "Don't know. I was thinking maybe we could go out for a while this morning. Maybe go and pick up some new clothes for you."

Faith frowned. "I don't need new clothes B, I like what I have."

"I know, but it won't be long before none of them fit you any more. You need to get fitted for something a little baggier."

The dark Slayer shook her head in disbelief. How could she forget something like that? "You mean maternity clothes? I've seen some of that stuff and it's all flowery and pink." She looked disgusted at the thought and Buffy laughed at her expression.

"It's not all like that. In fact, I think you'd look kinda sexy in a pair of dungarees."

"Ok." Faith said after thinking about it for a moment. "The dungarees I could handle, but I don't even wanna see you looking at anything pink or with flowers on it."

"Alright, nothing too girly."

The younger Slayer chewed on her lip as she considered what else she might want to look for. One other thing did come to her mind, but she knew that they shouldn't be spending money on anything so frivolous. Buffy noticed her expression and moved onto her elbows to get a better look at the brunette.

"What is it?" Buffy asked.

"Nothing, it's stupid." The blonde gave her a pointed look that told her she wasn't going to get away with not sharing her thoughts. "Fine." She began with a smile. "I was just thinking about how cute she would look in a mini leather jacket."

Buffy laughed. "That she would… Like a miniature you; very cute."

Faith frowned. "On second thoughts…"

"Nope, no second thoughts." Buffy interrupted. "She'll be the spitting image of you and I wouldn't want it any other way."

The brunette shook her head, knowing argument was fruitless. They rested a little longer, enjoying their closeness before they both decided to get up for breakfast. The witches were already up by the time they got downstairs and Faith was ecstatic to see that Tara was mixing pancake batter. It wasn't long after the smell of cooking had drifted upstairs that Dawn appeared in the kitchen and sat next to Faith, sleep still hanging in the corners of her eyes.

Faith couldn't help ruffling the young girl's hair and grinned at the cranky response she was given. After a second or two Dawn felt the corners of her mouth tugging gradually upwards and soon she was mimicking the dark Slayer's expression. Buffy felt her heart swell impossibly bigger at the sight of the two brunettes, and then discretely motioned for her best friend to follow her into the living room.

"We're going out after breakfast. I'll try to keep her out until lunch time; will that be long enough to get everything ready?" Buffy whispered, well aware of how well Slayer hearing worked.

Willow followed her example as she replied. "It won't take long. Even Xander agreed to help, and though she'll complain about it, Anya will come with him." She noticed the blonde's raised eyebrow as she mentioned the construction worker. "I talked to him and he eventually agreed to give her a chance."

She explained his change of heart casually though they both recognised the significance of it. He had severed most of their contact since Faith's return despite their numerous attempts to reason with him. They had only hoped that in time he would realise how childish he was being and swallow his pride. It seemed like he had finally come to his senses, but Buffy was still wary.

She looked seriously at Willow as she spoke. "As much as I'd like for Xander to be part of the gang again… And Anya I suppose," she said as an afterthought, which made the red head smile; "I don't entirely trust him at the moment. He doesn't like Faith and I swear if he's just coming round so he can… If he ruins this day for her I can't say that I'll ever be able to forgive him."

Willow nodded in understanding and they both moved back into the kitchen where they enjoyed breakfast with their family. The two Slayers left the house shortly after, leaving the others to prepare the house for the party.

*****

The Slayers shopped for a little over two hours; not nearly enough time for her friends to get everything ready Buffy thought. It didn't take much for her to persuade the brunette to go for something to eat before they returned home. They went to the first place they had had breakfast together; it had become their favourite restaurant. They sat in the same spot as before and Faith ordered a small stack of pancakes while Buffy sipped on a latte.

The blonde had told her girlfriend that they were going to have lunch at home with Willow, Tara and Dawn so she hadn't ordered much. The food disappeared in record time, but as it seemed Buffy wasn't in rush to leave, the brunette sat back to enjoy their time together. They chatted for a while until Buffy felt that it was safe to go back to the house.

The blonde Slayer was nervous as they walked back to Revello drive though she tried not to show it. She wished for the first time that she had thought to take her cell phone with her as she could have made some excuse to call the house and make sure that they were all ready. She knew that Faith could sense her feelings; she just hoped that the brunette wouldn't call her on it until they got back.

*****

As soon as the Slayers had left that morning, the Scoobs sprang into action. Willow called Xander to inform him that the coast was clear and he could come over when he was ready, while Tara and Dawn took off upstairs to fetch the decorations. Xander took his sweet time getting there, but they were still grateful for his help when he and Anya eventually arrived.

Two hours it took them to complete the decorations. Preparing the food took them another hour, which they set out on the table in the dining room. When they were sure that they had completely finished, they all sat in the living room waiting for the Slayers to return. Willow and Dawn agreed that it would have been better if they could be waiting in the dark so that they could give Faith a 'real' surprise, but the others were quick to point out that it might not be such a good idea to startle a Slayer in the dark.

Suddenly they all heard an alarm ringing. It started off quiet and gradually got louder and louder and only stopped when Tara waved a hand in the air and began ordering everyone into their places. "They're coming!" She said, with barely contained excitement. Staying in the living room, everyone seemed to hold their breath as each awaited the sound of the front door opening.

Faith's voice could be heard on the doorstep shortly as the two Slayers returned home and stopped to talk outside.

"B, are you ok? You seem kinda quiet… Anything I should know about?" Faith asked worriedly.

Buffy smiled slightly and leaned in to kiss her girlfriend. "Let's go inside and talk." She said, trying to reassure the brunette by caressing her arm. She gestured for her fellow Slayer to go ahead and after a tense moment where she thought Faith was going to refuse the brunette nodded and walked through the front door.

"SURPRISE!"

The dark Slayer stopped dead inside the door as she took in the scene before her. Streamers fell down all around her and through the brightly coloured paper, hung from the ceiling she could see a banner with her name on it.

"What…?" Suddenly she was surrounded by people all crowding to hug her and to guide her into the living room. As she was ushered away she glanced behind her and saw her girlfriend, with the biggest smile she had ever seen on the blonde, following behind.

Faith allowed herself to be pushed in her seat, in a position where the others could all see her from where they sat. Buffy perched on the arm of her lover's chair and kissed her on the head before turning to watch her open her presents.

The brunette had noticed the presence of Xander and Anya, but decided not to make a big deal out of it and to treat them as she would any of the others. Or she was going to try at least. Her mind was still having a hard time getting to grips with what was happening to her and for the most part her body was simply working on automatic. She noticed that Dawn was holding a camcorder and was thankful for it because she knew there was no way she was going to remember everything.

It didn't take long to open all of the presents as Faith excitedly tore into each gift, spraying wrapping paper everywhere. She pushed one present after another to one side as more were thrust in front of her, wanting to take more time to look over each item, but also knowing that everyone was anxious for her to open the next one.

Once all of the gifts that had been passed to her had been opened she pulled them back towards her and started to observe them more carefully. Her favourite present had been the stake holster; it was just so cool, but she knew that the album had been Buffy's idea so she made more of a deal out of it, lingering a good time over each photograph. Xander had yet to show her his gift, but had seemed genuinely surprised when his girlfriend passed a parcel of her own over to the dark Slayer, and everyone's eyes bulged slightly when she opened it to reveal some racy black lingerie. Xander was happily surprised to see Faith blush though.

The witches had decided to go along with the brunette's love for fighting and exercise and gave her a book on Tai-Bo and some videos to go with it. Then the Scoobs surprised both Slayers when Xander and Willow pulled out two more gifts and handed them over. The brunette looked up at her girlfriend and when she noticed the stunned expression the blonde was wearing she turned back to the brightly coloured packages in front of her.

She opened the smaller box first that Xander had given them. Inside were matching pendants and chains. One silver and the other one gold together they formed a heart that could be joined by a clasp in the shape of a stake. The gold half bore a bold letter F whereas the other had a more delicate B in the centre, but when Faith went to hand the silver pendant to Buffy Xander's voice stopped her.

"No. Erm, the gold one's Buffy's, the white gold one is yours." He told the dark Slayer. He received puzzled looks from them, but before he could explain his girlfriend broke in before him.

"It's to symbolise that your heart belongs to whoever's name is written on it. Well actually in this case it's just a letter, but you each know what the letter means. It was Xander's idea." Anya said with excitement and next to her the construction worker blushed slightly.

The Slayers swapped pendants and both placed their gifts around their necks. Buffy let a tear slip down her cheek as she mouthed 'thank-you' to her friend, to which she received an apologetic and long-awaited smile.

Faith had sat looking at the piece of jewellery resting against her chest for a while longer, trying to gather her words together. Finally she looked up at the young man and gave him a watery-eyed smile. "Xander…" She began, but was quickly cut off.

"Forget about it. I think the only things left to be said are: welcome home Faith, and happy birthday." Everyone cheered and clapped, turning the brunette a deeper shade of red.

"Thank-you." She whispered hoarsely. She then placed the now empty box to one side and picked up the last remaining package. As this one was also addressed to her and the other Slayer she decided that Buffy should open one and passed it to the blonde sitting on the arm of the chair.

Buffy smiled and quickly tore into the wrapping paper. She eventually pulled out a sky blue book decorated with silver patterns and in the centre there was a name written also in silver. She passed it to Faith for her to see and the dark Slayer laughed with joy when she saw her daughter's name and realised what it was. She looked at the people in the room and stopped when she saw the red head pointing towards her girlfriend from behind her.

Faith smiled and nodded. "Thanks Tara." The blonde witch blushed before replying: 'you're welcome'. Faith flipped through the pages noting all the different spaces for the first step, first word, first tooth etc. She smiled again and unconsciously rubbed a hand over her belly while her lover continued to stroke her hair.

At the red headed witch's mention of food there was a rush of people towards the kitchen and no one was surprised when Faith got there first. They pigged out on finger foods and then watched as the dark Slayer and Dawn inhaled most of the jelly and ice-cream.

Time seemed to pass by quickly, the gang talked, laughed and danced; the day was not far from being over, but there was still one more surprise to come for the dark Slayer. Shortly before dusk there was a knock at the door and before anyone could think to answer it Buffy was out of her seat and rushing into the hall. The blonde Slayer welcomed in their new guests and talked briefly with them, asking them to stay in the hall for a moment while she went back to talk to the birthday girl.

Faith was standing in the middle of the room when the shorter Slayer walked back in and stood before her. Buffy took Faith's hands in her own, not missing the confused and curious expression on her face, and leaned up to kiss her for a short time. If anything worked to calm down and reassure the brunette it was a kiss from her mate. Buffy then went on to explain the situation.

"You remember when we were in the hospital and I asked to talk to your double alone?" Faith nodded. "Well I asked her for some information about her parents and erm, mostly her grandparents…" She watched the brunette's face carefully as she continued, which changed gradually from confused to disbelieving. "She gave me an address and a phone number so shortly after we got back home I started to call around and I eventually got to talk to them. Their plane landed this morning and I asked them to come over today."

The older people in question had been listening in on the conversation and as the blonde finished talking they took their cue and slowly began to enter the room. Faith stared, awestricken, as her dead mother's parents came into the room and stood apprehensively a few feet away from her and her girlfriend.

As a kid she hadn't seen much of her grandparents, but she had talked to them a lot over the phone and she remembered her mother reading their letters to her in bed at night. She remembered thinking that she was going to go and stay with them after her parents had died, and then the disappointment when she never saw or heard from them again. She had felt lonely and rejected; taking beatings and gradually shutting herself off from the people around her, but somewhere at the back of her mind she had always hoped that she would one day see them again.

She eventually managed to look back to the blonde next to her and cleared her throat.

"I don't know what to say." She laughed nervously. "I didn't exactly rehearse for this." She was almost apologetic as she looked back to the old couple, and Buffy began to wonder if the reunion had been such a good idea after all.

"Neither did we dear." Eve said as if trying to tell the younger Slayer that it was ok to feel awkward.

Her grandmother's voice appeared to snap her out of her stupor; her feet seemed to move of their own volition and the first tear fell to the floor as she found herself wrapped up in two pairs of arms. The room remained quiet, all but for the occasional sob that came from the former rouge Slayer. After years of loneliness and pain, having so many people who cared about her had become overwhelming and she could no longer hold her emotions in. Even when the tears stopped, Faith remained in the embrace.

When she pulled away, Eve kept a hand on her shoulder and dared not take her eyes off her granddaughter lest she be taken away from them again. Jack surveyed the brunette also, noting the dark features that all the women in his family seemed to inherit.

"You're the splitting image of your mother when she was your age, Faith." He said with a proud smile.

The Slayer smiled back at him and looked around the room before remembering where she was. Spotting her girlfriend she grinned brightly and reached out, grabbing Buffy's arm and pulling her into a hug. She kissed the blonde sweetly before turning to the older couple.

"You already met my girlfriend, B." She then turned and began to point to people around the room. "That's Dawn, B's sis. Willow and Tara, and Xander and Anya." She let them all wave before going on. "Guys, this is Eve and Jack, my mom's folks." Her face then fell slightly in mock seriousness as she said, "You missed all the food."

They all laughed effortlessly, but before the two visitors could move to make themselves more comfortable, Buffy spoke up. "Honey, you forgot someone." She said to the brunette, who was still holding her hand. Faith frowned, but before she could open her mouth the older girl faced Eve and Jack again. Only when she placed her hand on Faith's stomach did the brunette understand. "Erm, Eve, Jack, this is Beth; your great-granddaughter." She indicated with her head towards Faith's abdomen as she said this and watched as their eyes got a little wider.

"You're pregnant?" Eve asked in order to confirm her thoughts.

Faith nodded and her smile got bigger the more she thought about it. She noticed her grandparents looking between her and the blonde Slayer so she shook her head a little. "We'll explain everything another time."

The older two nodded and Buffy motioned for them to take a seat before perching her own ass back on the arm of Faith's chair. It was a few more hours before Xander and Anya announced that they had to leave and Eve and Jack admitted their need for sleep a short while later. The Slayers insisted on accompanying them back to the hotel, and upon leaving them there they organised a time to meet the next day after work.

*****

Five months later.

Buffy pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she stepped down from the ladder and observed her handy work.

"You missed a spot." A familiar voice came from the doorway.

The blonde frowned and looked over the wall again to find where she had supposedly passed over with the paint brush. "Where?" She asked when she couldn't find it.

A stifled laugh came from the other side of the room and Buffy turned to see her girlfriend's amused expression. She rolled her eyes and flicked some more hair away from her vision.

"Not funny." She stated while trying to hide her own amusement as she walked towards the other Slayer.

"That's the oldest trick in the book; and you fell for it, B." Faith said with a victorious grin.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. You're gonna think it's really funny when there isn't any white chocolate cheesecake in the fridge next week."

Faith's smirk fell slightly at this. "I can go out and do my own shopping you know."

"I know." Buffy said before kissing the brunette shortly. "But it's hard to find and I know which shop stocks it."

Faith smiled at the blonde's smugness and leant forward to kiss her again. The kiss was longer this time and left them both breathless when they each pulled away.

"So, what do ya think?" Buffy asked while gesturing to the newly painted nursery.

"I love it…! Even the pink stuff." Faith said in semi-amazement at the truth of these words.

Buffy squealed in delight and jumped to hug the brunette. "I knew you would; this whole planning parenthood thing has given you a softer edge." She immediately noticed Faith's mock-horrified expression. "You're still 'bad to the bone though'… Most of the time." Buffy added.

Faith gave the other Slayer an award winning smile. "I can't help being soft around you."

"Mmmm…" Buffy wrapped her arms around the taller woman's waist. "Soft in what way? In the way you act? How you speak? Or to the touch maybe?" With the last thought she let her fingertips slide under her girlfriend's shirt to caress the underside of the now considerably larger bump protruding from the brunette's abdomen.

"I think I'll let you decide that."

"Now?" Buffy asked hopefully.

"'Fraid not B, Little D will be home in like…" She looked at her watch to check the time. "Twenty minutes. Not nearly enough time for what I have in mind."

"Damn. It'll have to wait until later then." The blonde Slayer said as her hands moved briefly higher before she pulled them back completely and walked out of the room.

Faith followed the blonde into the bedroom where Buffy proceeded to strip as she got ready to take a shower. The dark Slayer took a couple of books down from a shelf and collected a pen and notepad off the desk, all the while trying not to stare too much at the increasingly naked blonde; for the fact that she didn't want to be tempted to start anything that she couldn't finish right at that moment.

The dark Slayer took her books and pen with her as she exited the bedroom and made her way to the down stairs. As Buffy was now back in college she had decided to further her own education a little and had signed up for a child-care course that she was allowed to do from home. Her choice had been mostly influenced by the person growing inside of her as she wanted to know as much as she could about taking care of her daughter, but she also thought it could be something she would like to do as a career as well. The child care she had experienced growing up, excluding her birth relatives, had been dire and she felt that she would be able to give other kids the helping hand that she had never seen.

*****

Over the last few months life in Sunnydale had changed lot for the dark Slayer. People were actually being nice to her, and not just out of politeness or because they felt they had to; she got the feeling that they actually liked her, including Xander. It had taken him the longest time to get over their differences, but he too had got there in the end. Whether her position as Buffy's girlfriend and as a mother to be had swayed his attitude or not she would never know, but Faith was grateful for his friendship, even if he was still a bit of a dweeb sometimes.

Being reacquainted with her grandparents had come as a huge shock, but her hesitation had disappeared almost immediately as memories had bombarded her thoughts and she had been surprised to find that she felt completely at ease with them. They had stayed in Sunnydale for a month before going back to Boston. After the first week in town they had dropped another weight in her lap with the knowledge that she was entitled to her late parents' small fortune.

Her thoughts and feelings surrounding this issue had and still did vary. Relief, excitement and a sudden sense of security were contradicted by guilt, sorrow and self loathing. She had been in two minds about accepting the money, but as Jack and Eve had explained to her, the money was already hers; she had only to decide what she wanted to do with it. Of course she had known that she didn't have to keep it; there were many worthy causes/charities that would benefit from more funding, but then she had her own future to look out for as well and those of her friends and family.

Her grandparents had advised her to think about it before making any decisions and she had taken their advice. She had also talked to Buffy about it; who possessed a few ideas about what they should do. The blonde admitted to having thought about it more as she had anticipated the financial news having talked to the other Faith about it. Buffy's biggest priority was to secure their daughter and Dawn's futures, a thought to which the dark Slayer readily agreed. Beyond that there had been no solid agreements other than the security of their friends.

After a couple of weeks talking with Buffy and her grandparents Faith had gained a better idea of how she was going to use her money. It seemed that she came from a very money wise family and her parents and grandparents had made a lot of good decisions when they invested money on her behalf. Jack and Eve were more than happy to help her to choose various investment plans for Buffy, Beth and Dawn; she didn't want any of them to fall into debt if she should die.

She had also expressed a wish to purchase the Summers home and additional housing close by to create a sort of 'Scooby HQ'. Xander had his own apartment not too far away, but the Summers house was beginning to get awfully crowded with four and a half adults living there and with the addition of a baby it was going to get even more cramped. Property, unsurprisingly was dirt cheap in Sunnydale and people were always looking to sell their homes in order to escape the town and move back to where they came from, but even so none of them had expected to hear that Faith had managed to secure the deeds to 1632 Revello Drive; conveniently next door to their existing home.

It hadn't taken the dark Slayer long to persuade the two witches to move into the new place, though they had wanted to refuse, insisting that it was too much for them to take and that they could get their own place with a little time. Faith however had insisted and as she had already bought the house and had no one to live in it they were easily pushed into it and were soon excited about moving into their own place.

At this point Faith had already felt like she was being extravagant, but she was assured that she had not even touched the capital of her parents money and would have plenty left by the end of her spending to donate to the various charity organisations she'd been looking into. By the end of three months she had bought two houses, revamped the Magic Box and with Xander's help, built another floor on top of it to store all of their occult books. She had put away enough money to secure Buffy, Beth, Dawn's and her own financial future, and 'loaned' the young construction worker enough money for him to start his own business.

With most of what remained she had opened a separate bank account with a decent interest payment, out of which came a good sum of money that was shared around different charities, most concentrating on child welfare. The sum initially invested was adequate enough to ensure that the amount of cash added to the balance each year exceeded the outgoings, and so the amount would slowly increase each year.

Faith had her own ambitions to open a home for orphans and for children who had been taken away from their parents due to neglect or abuse. This idea she put to one side as she wanted to concentrate as much as her efforts on her own child as possible while Beth was young. She didn't want to start a crusade to save other peoples' children and inadvertently neglect her own child.

Everything seemed finally to be falling into place, with Willow and Tara settling into their new home (the place already smelled strongly of incense), Dawn relaxing amongst her teenage mess in what used to be the witches' room and Dawn's old room receiving the finishing touches of paint to become the new nursery.

Faith was having a hard time adjusting to how everything was going so smoothly for the first time in her life (or what she could remember of it). She was trying also not to become complacent with how things were and seemed to be constantly looking to make improvements. She was convinced that if she took a moment to enjoy the life she now had then something bad would happen to take it all away. Buffy seemed to think that these feelings would become less intense with time. As Slayers their life was never going to stay quiet, but the blonde was adamant that they should enjoy what time they had to be happy.

Faith was gradually beginning to understand what her petite lover meant with each passing day. She still found herself looking over her shoulder a lot though, just in case fate had another hurdle for her to jump over.

*****

Later that evening, after the Slayers had finished their dinner and Dawn had returned from visiting the witches for the fifth time that day, Faith picked up her books and followed Buffy up to their room.

When they had both finished in the bathroom they said goodnight to Dawn and then retreating to bed. Buffy was all over Faith as soon as they were both under the covers. She had been within close proximity to the dark Slayer all day and their numerous exchanged kisses and caresses had been slowly driving her crazy.

Faith had been becoming more and more frustrated with her restricted movement as the life inside of her continued to grow. Making love to Buffy had always been enjoyable, but lately it was a lot more challenging. A couple of times she hadn't even felt in the mood to do anything more than kissing and snuggling, but she could sense Buffy's need and so went along with it. More often than not she would have felt just as content going straight to sleep.

The blonde's attention to her became more insistent by the moment. Earlier in the day Faith had been in the mood for a little romp in the sack, but right then her body didn't seem to be reacting to her mate's touch. Thinking that perhaps she just needed some more time, the brunette pushed Buffy onto her back and started to tread a path down the blonde's neck with her tongue.

Buffy's moans spurred her on in addition to the hand pushing lightly on the top of her head. Faith quickened her pace, spending a short time teasing each of her love's sensitive nipples, but by-passed her belly to rain kisses on the insides of her thighs instead.

"Faith." Buffy said in desperation. "Baby, please." She all but whispered, having insufficient amounts of breath to speak any louder.

Faith relented and placed the heel of her hand over the blonde's centre and rubbed in firm circles, eliciting a strangled cry from her lover. Faith smiled against the silky skin under her lips; she loved the sounds Buffy made when she couldn't think and didn't care who heard her. The brunette slowly slid a moist finger past the blonde's lower lips and began to draw patterns around her entrance and up over her pleasure button.

As Faith entered her mate with two digits she placed her mouth over Buffy's heated sex and teased her with the tip of her tongue, dipping in to taste more every few seconds.

Buffy climaxed with a sharp gasp, her hips bucking along with Faith's continued ministrations. When the dark Slayer placed her lips around that firm bundle of nerves and sucked lightly, Buffy cried out again and screwed her eyes shut as her hands grasped the cotton sheets beneath her.

Faith ran her tongue smoothly over various sensitive areas, her fingers still pumping slowly. She then moved higher, swirling her tongue around Buffy's belly button and then quickly moved up so she was looking straight into the blonde's eyes. Normally she would be directly on top of her mate, but with the rather large obstruction between them she was instead laying on her side, her hand between Buffy's legs and with the blonde's head turned to the side she kissed her passionately.

She could feel the beginnings of the tremors beneath her hand and slight clenching around her fingers. Buffy's breathing changed to a faster pace and her moans became more careless. Faith once again shuffled her torso a little lower and encapsulated a pert nipple between her lips. Buffy quickly came again and turned onto her side in last minute attempt to muffle her orgasm with a pillow. Her body spasms continued as the dark Slayer kept up her stroking; only finally coming to a dull throb when Faith pulled out and wrapped her arms as well as she could around her girlfriend's midsection.

The brunette sighed inwardly in relief when she realised that Buffy had drifted off into Slumber Land. It wasn't strange to see, and normally she would give the blonde five or ten minutes of rest before kissing her back into consciousness.

Not this time though; her body was still refusing to respond to her brain and she knew that if her lover's caresses went too low then she would find a dessert instead of an oasis. A little frustrated, Faith resigned herself to sleep, snuggling up as close to Buffy as she dared to without waking her up.

*****

The LED blinked a green 4:58, the sun was just climbing up over the horizon and birds were announcing the dawn with their usual twittering. It was far too early for her to be awake, but something was happening and Faith found she could sleep no longer. She slowly sat up, swung her legs off the side of the bed and stood up, bearing her nakedness to the early morning light.

Feeling the need to empty her bladder she retrieved her robe from its hook and made her way to the bathroom. Half way there she felt an unwanted wetness on the inside of her thigh. Quickening her pace she rushed to the toilet, now certain that the call of nature had been her alarm clock that morning.

Shutting the door behind her, she pulled up her robe and sat down. After an annoyingly brief urination she went to wipe, but stopped as she noticed a dark line on her leg. A sudden abdominal pain caused her to double over and she clutched her swollen stomach as she vomited. Shaking from the pain and the sight of blood both on her legs and in the regurgitated contents of her stomach, she tried to stand.

The porcelain sink didn't do much to keep her standing and she quickly found herself slipping down the wall and coming to rest on the floor. As her vision blurred and her world turned dark she prayed for the first time in her life, asking the Powers That Be not to take her child.

EPILOGUE

Dawn tossed and turned in her bed, needing to go pee but not wanting to leave the warmth and comfort of her bed. Sometimes she managed to suppress the feelings long enough for her to drift off to sleep for a bit longer, but they were stronger and more insistent this morning and so with a sigh she forced her body to get out of bed. She knew she would be able to get a couple more hours sleep with it being only five-thirty, just as soon as she’d relieved her bladder.

The teen was mildly surprised to find the door closed when she reached the bathroom and knocked lightly in case one of the Slayers was occupying it. When no one answered she slowly pushed the door open. When she stepped into the room her eyes came to rest unexpectedly on a body. It took a moment for her brain to kick in and when she realised that the body was Faith’s she wanted desperately to be dreaming, or more accurately, having a nightmare.

For a moment or two her brain couldn’t seem to decide what she should do; call to Buffy, call an ambulance, or check the unconscious Slayer’s pulse to see if she was still alive. Fearing any confirmation of the latter she backed out of the room and ran the few short feet to her sister’s room, grabbing the cordless phone from the wall as she did so.

The blonde Slayer jerked awake at the sound of the door opening suddenly and seeing the panicked expression on Dawn’s face she jumped out of bed, forgetting about her nakedness and approached the young brunette.

"What is it?" She asked immediately as she reached for her robe and wrapped it around her body.

"Faith’s in the bathroom; she’s on the floor, unconscious." As soon as the words were out of her mouth she wanted to take them back. The horror stricken expression on her sister’s face was almost too much to bare.

Buffy glanced towards the bed and seemed surprised to see the empty space where her lover’s body should have been. Like lightening she ran down the hall and into the bathroom and slid to a halt where Faith’s body lay. She didn’t let herself hesitate as she knelt down next to her and put two fingers firmly to her neck, feeling for a pulse. It was there. It was weak, but it was there.

She vaguely registered Dawn’s voice behind her and realised after a moment that she was speaking to the emergency services. Soon the teen was kneeling beside her and searching for a pulse as well. In her state of fear and short relief Buffy hadn’t heard the questions she was being asked. She placed a hand on Dawn’s arm and smiled at her in reassurance. Her sister released a large sigh and related this information to the person on the other end of the phone.

The blonde Slayer didn’t remember much after that. At some point her sister brought her some sweats, a t-shirt and a pair of sneakers and urged her to get dressed. The ambulance arrived shortly after and she left instructions with Dawn to go next door as soon as possible and tell Willow and Tara what had happened. Then she had gotten into the back of the ambulance with Faith and had headed for the hospital.

As it happened the two witches had heard the commotion and were just coming out of the house as the paramedics pulled away with the two Slayers. Dawn met them halfway between their houses and immediately held up her hand to stop the inevitable flow of questions from the two.

"Can I use your bathroom? I promise I’ll tell you everything once I’ve emptied my bladder." She had no intention of going back into her own bathroom where there were still pools of blood present.

Tara tugged her girlfriend back in the direction of their house. "Sure thing Dawnie. Just take your time." She said, sensing the brunette’s distress at whatever had happened.

Willow began to make coffee in an attempt to keep her mind and hands busy; she didn’t want to speculate too much on what may have happened. Tara sat patiently at the breakfast bar for the teen to join them. Both witches were sipping on their caffeinated beverages when their young friend joined them. She waited only a minute or two before telling the story of how she’d woken up and found Faith unconscious on the bathroom floor.

She didn’t need to beg them to take her to the hospital as they were both on their feet, rushing to get dressed properly and to pick up some things that they thought the Slayers might need, especially Buffy as she was awake and would probably be waiting around for a long time; there was no chance that she would be persuaded to leave the hospital as long as Faith was still there.

With spare clothes for each Slayer, some snacks and drinks and some reading material to keep them occupied the trio jumped into Faith’s car. When they arrived at their destination it was almost ninety minutes since they had watched the ambulance drive away with their friends. The secretary directed them towards a family room where Buffy was already waiting. The blonde Slayer was sitting silently in an arm chair, her knees pulled up to her chest and staring with a blank expression at the wall in front of her. They stood there for a couple of minutes before she looked up and acknowledged their presence. She tried to smile, but the expression didn’t even begin to reach her eyes and seemed to make her appear even sadder than before.

They all move forward as one and when the blonde was standing they enveloped her in a group hug. They stood like that for a long time while the Slayer let go of some of her anguish and when she stopped crying they each took a seat in a close group.

"Have you heard anything yet?" Willow, the ever inquisitive member of the Scoobys asked when they were all seated. Buffy shook her head in a negative response. "Do they have any idea what might have happened?" She inquired further.

Again Buffy shook here head. "No. Or if they do then they’re not sharing. They took her straight up to the O.R. when we got here and then one of the interns dumped me in here." The red head sat back in defeat and the room was silent for a while until the blonde Slayer spoke again. "I don’t understand it. Everything was fine last night, we even…" She paused out of habit when she remembered her sister’s presence.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "It’s not like I don’t know you guys have sex. There’s a reason I wear head phones to bed you know." Her attempt at lightening the atmosphere worked slightly and all of the room’s occupants managed a small genuine smile, and she also succeeded in making her sister blush.

Buffy nodded, admitting that the young brunette’s guess was correct. "The last thing I remember was her kissing me just before I fell asleep." She received three raised eyebrows at this, to which she simply shrugged. "It knocks me out sometimes. She doesn’t mind, in fact I think she thinks of it as a compliment. Usually she’ll wait a while and then wakes me up again. Only last night she didn’t. When we started I was touching her, but she stopped me and erm, she started touching me instead. I didn’t think anything of it then. When I think about it she’s not been all that interested in making love lately. I figured it was the baby and hormone changes that were making her feel that way. But what if they were signs of something else? I should have looked into it anyway just in case." Buffy berated herself and felt her eyes starting to water again.

"Buffy, you can’t blame yourself. Pregnant women do sometimes feel less interested in sex, and it’s a logical assumption to think so. Whatever has happened seems to have come on very suddenly. If Faith was having symptoms of something worse then she would have talked to you and the doctor about it. Do you really think she would risk Beth’s life at this point out of pride or not wanting to waste the doctor’s time?" Tara spoke calmly but firmly and the Slayer found that she could think of no other response other than to nod in agreement.

It was a further twenty minutes of forced conversation and lengthy silence before they were joined by one of the doctors who had taken the dark Slayer from the paramedics. Buffy was up in a flash and looked expectantly at him.

"Miss Summers?" He asked her, to which she nodded quickly.

He motioned for her to take a seat. She complied and sat next to her sister on the couch while he took the arm chair that she had been sitting in previously.

"First of all, Miss Jackson and the baby are both doing well. Miss Jackson is still in the O.R., but she seems to be coping well with the operation." Each of their faces held more questions as he paused, wondering why they needed to operate to begin with. "The scans we took when she first came in indicated that there was a large obstruction below her stomach, or just in front of her left kidney. From what we can gather, the way the protective tissues around the stomach and kidney have healed from an earlier injury a small growth has formed, which as we have discovered is mostly scar tissue.

"Under normal circumstances this would be no problem, but with the pregnancy the growth has been gradually pushed up and we’ve estimated that in the last week or two, the area around it has become saturated with blood. With the extra pressure from the fetus, the stomach and kidney have some internal bleeding from where the growth has been pressing into them. This would account for the blood in her vomit and urine." He paused again, this time to make sure that they were taking everything in.

Buffy was fairly sure that she knew what he was referring to when he mentioned an earlier injury and it made her feel ten times worse than she already did, which, five minutes before she would have been positive was impossible. It really was her fault. It sickened her now to think that she had felt somewhat justified by her actions then, including stabbing the other Slayer. She shook these thoughts from her mind for the moment as she concentrated on the doctor as he continued to talk.

"We had to perform an emergency caesarean birth in order to operate on Miss Jackson. You’ll be pleased to know that she had a 6lb 11oz baby girl. Very healthy, and a good weight considering the fact that she’s eight weeks premature." They all brightened a little at this news and Buffy’s expression held a resemblance of surprise, having thought in the back of her mind that she’d seriously depleted her daughter’s chance of survival. "The surgeons are working at removing the growth and repairing the damaged organs, which may take a while. Someone will inform you when they’re finished. She will be taken to the recovery unit so you won’t be able to see her until tonight at the earliest. In the mean time though, I can take you to see the baby."

After a short pause the Slayer nodded and stood, followed by her sister and friends. The four of them walked in a subdued little group after the doctor towards the maternity ward. As soon as the elevator door opened their senses were bombarded with the cries of new born babes. Dawn, Willow and Tara waited behind the large glass panel as the doctors led Buffy into the nursery. The Slayer swallowed the lump in her throat and took a deep breath, thinking that it was strange that she should feel nervous about meeting her daughter for the first time.

A nurse approached them and the doctor gave her Faith’s name, the nurse, whose name she could see was Trish smiled and raised her voice over the wailing.

"You’re gonna have your hands full with this one; hasn’t stopped crying for more than a minute yet." She walked over to a cot and plucked a fussing infant from its bed. The child was clearly distressed and kicked and screamed in the nurse’s arms. Trish carried the child over to the anxious Slayer. Buffy held out her arms automatically and took Beth carefully from the nurse. Her body seemed to act of its own volition and gently began to rock the tiny girl.

"Hey Beth." The Slayer heard herself say after gazing silently at the child for a moment.

Almost instantly the baby stopped crying and opened her eyes to stare up at the blonde. She made a few gurgled noises before yawning and falling asleep. The doctor at this point had gone away to see other patients, so only the Slayer and the nurse were left there. Buffy grinned proudly at her daughter and after a short while looked up to see a shocked expression on Trish’s face.

"Well I never." She said eventually. "I’ve heard of people having ‘the touch’, but this takes the cake. How’d you do it honey?" She asked the blonde.

Buffy shrugged, unaware of the strangeness Beth’s actions had been. "Guess she just recognised my voice."

"Ahh yes. Most parents to be don’t realise the importance of taking to the baby in the womb. I guess you must have done it a lot huh?" Buffy nodded while still looking at Beth. "I’ll leave you two alone for a while; I’ll be just over here if you need me." She said as she walked away.

The Slayer glanced up and noticed her sister and friends behind the window. She walked over to the glass and repositioned Beth in her arms so the others could see her. She watched as the three women made faces at her daughter and laughed silently at them. She felt a strong sense of relief standing there with this tiny person in her arms. She thanked every deity she could think of that the baby was ok and that Faith was going to be ok.

Her thoughts buzzed back and forth between Faith, her mother and father, Angel, Faith again and then back to her mother. She wished that her girlfriend could be there with her to see and hold their creation; she knew that the dark Slayer would soon be able to see her and Beth, but her mother never would. Buffy remembered Joyce talking occasionally about grandchildren; she had joked about it when the blonde had been dating Riley, but it had never really crossed Buffy’s mind that she would ever be in a position to have kids, and now here she was, but without the older woman there to enjoy it with her. Her only consolation was a small hope that Joyce could see them from wherever she rested. Having first hand knowledge that dying wasn’t the end helped her cement this belief.

*****

The next day Buffy sat by Faith’s bed with Beth in her arms, who she was feeding from a bottle. It had taken a lot of pleading to get the hospital staff to let her take her daughter and a cot out of the maternity ward and into the dark Slayer’s room. But as the infant only stopped crying when Buffy was around and the fact that the blonde wanted to stay by Faith’s side the nurses eventually agreed.

Buffy had been to see her lover the night before for a brief amount of time before doctors had ushered her out of the room telling her that Faith wouldn’t wake up before the next day and that she needed to be left alone to recuperate from the operation. Reluctantly the blonde had agreed and went back to where her friends and sister were waiting with the newest addition to their family.

She had stayed in the hospital over night watching over Beth and waiting for the visiting hours to open so she could see Faith again. So she had been ready with her daughter and the cot all set up in the room when they wheeled the brunette in straight from recovery. If her condition had shown no sign of improvement they would have kept her in there longer, but with the incredible speed at which she healed they saw no need to do this.

Beth had seemed fascinated with the unconscious Slayer and made a lot of noise to indicate her excitement when the blonde took her for a closer look. After that Buffy had rocked her daughter and talked to her and the person occupying the bed, telling them of her thoughts for the future and how she dreamed of taking them to the beach with the gang and a picnic.

It was a few hours later, after the rest of the gang, including Xander and Anya had come and gone that Buffy noticed the dark Slayer stirring. The first thing she did was to take Beth over to her crib; she wanted to explain everything some of what had happened to Faith first before introducing her to their daughter. She raced back to the bed after making sure that the baby was comfortable and held the brunette’s hand as she came round.

"Faith?" She asked softly, getting her girlfriend’s attention while letting her know that she wasn’t alone.

A moment or two passed as Faith blinked rapidly and took in her surroundings. "B?" She finally said when her eyes landed upon the other Slayer.

"I’m here baby." The blonde said reassuringly.

"What happened?" Faith asked as she tried to sit up, but was stopped by her lover pushing her back down.

"You need to stay still honey; we don’t want the stitches to come out." At the brunette’s intense look she began to explain what had happened. "Dawn found you in the bathroom, unconscious. Do you remember what happened?" She asked with a frown.

Faith closed her eyes and thought about it. "I got up to go to the bathroom, I remember feeling like I’d wet myself, but when I sat down I saw it was blood. Then there was this sharp pain right here," she rubbed a hand lightly over her abdomen, "I threw up. I tried to get up but I couldn’t stand, then I think I blacked out."

A horrible thought came to her mind then and she realised for the first time that her midsection was much less swollen than the last time she had felt it. Her expression was the only thing Buffy needed to know what the brunette was worried about. The blonde smiled in reassurance and stood up with more of a mischievous grin on her face, which in turn relieved Faith’s anxiety a bit.

The blonde moved over to the crib once again and looked down into alert eyes and reached down to pick Beth up. She noticed on the brunette the same apprehensive expression that she was sure she had worn the previous day when Trish had passed the baby to her. She also noticed that Faith was attempting to sit up again, but with a wave of her hand and a disapproving glance the brunette returned to her previous position. Buffy handed the day old girl over to her mother to meet her for the first time and laughed when Beth giggled and kicked her legs in the air.

Faith beamed with pride, her fear forgotten as she cradled the tiny person in her arms and gently rocked her. A tear escaped unnoticed, her emotions beginning to overwhelm her and she turned to Buffy to share her joy. The blonde instantly leant forward and kissed her lover with slightly more passion than she’d intended to at first, but as Faith’s reaction was to lean further into the kiss and dip her tongue into the blonde’s mouth for a quick taste, she didn’t feel bad for it.

Buffy grinned as she pulled back and raised an eyebrow after a moment. "You’re sick; you’re not supposed to be feeling frisky." She said, although not at all disappointed by the response.

Faith shrugged. "Just relieved to be here B. I kinda thought I was a gonner for a moment back there."

"Yeah well, try not to do that again any time soon ok?" Buffy said seriously, to which Faith nodded enthusiastically.

"I think that goes for both of us." Beth was reaching for the strings on Faith’s gown and so the brunette picked them up and dangled them in front of her face, making her giggle again. "So when can we get out of here?"

"Dunno, guess we’ll have to see what the doctor says. Do you want me to get him?"

Faith shook her head. "Nah, I wanna keep it to just the three of us before they start poking and prodding me." They were silent for a while, simply enjoying the peacefulness between them. Faith eventually broke the silence. "So what did they tell you, what went wrong?" She asked with a concerned expression.

The blonde Slayer knew that she was going to have to tell her at some point, but she still jolted slightly in her seat and her hand stilled over Beth’s head when she heard the brunette’s question. She decided to just brave it and get it out as quickly as possible.

"Erm… They said it was a growth; a large collection of scar tissue that normally wouldn’t have been a problem, but with the baby there were complications. She was pushing it up into your stomach and a kidney, making them bleed internally. So they operated, first with the caesarean then I guess they patched the organs up." The way she avoided eye contact with the dark Slayer didn’t go unnoticed by Faith.

"So everything’s cool now then?" She asked, trying to get Buffy to look at her, but was presented simply with a nod. "Which kidney was it?"

This caught Buffy’s attention. "Huh? Does it matter?"

"B, I’m not dumb." Faith said with a touch of exasperation. "Scar tissue? Tends to indicate that there was an injury there at some point. I’ve only been stabbed around there once you know." She saw as the blonde’s fidgeting became worse. "You did what you thought you had to do at the time. I was on the edge B, I had it coming." The other Slayer shook her head violently, but Faith didn’t let her talk. "You don’t know what I was feeling then. I was out of control; I’m not even sure how far I would have gone."

There were tears in the older woman’s eyes and she hastily tried to wipe them away. "You could have died." She stated plainly.

"I know. But I also know that I would have died more than a couple of times by now if it hadn’t been for you. It might not have been obvious to you, but you did keep me grounded for a long time; longer than anyone else ever has. We already know that if circumstances had been different then it wouldn’t have gone down that way, but it could always be worse… I could have stabbed you and then gone on to help the Boss with the ascension and then none of this would be here." She paused while Buffy took it all in. "You know I’m right, B."

The petite Slayer nodded reluctantly. "I know, but I’m still sorry."

"Me too B… But hey, look at us now." She readjusted Beth in her arms and bounced her while pulling silly faces and generally trying to get her girlfriend’s mind away from depressing issues, which worked a charm.

Buffy moved the chair back and stood up. Gently she lifted a curious Faith and moved her a couple of inches over so she could perch on the side of the bed, her feet dangling towards the floor, left arm behind her girlfriend’s neck, head resting on her shoulder and right hand caressing Beth’s sprinkling of hair.

"I love you."

"Love you too, B" Faith leant forward and kissed the top of Buffy’s head. A few minutes past as she thought about her life now and thought that there was maybe one question that would make it perfect if she knew the answer to it. "Do you think…?" She began, but stopped to gather her thoughts. Buffy looked up at her and with her expression encouraged her to continue. "Do you think that maybe one day, it doesn’t matter when…? Maybe you’d want to…"

Buffy smiled. "Just say it honey."

"Perhaps you’d want to get me fitted with a ball and chain." Her expression was entirely serious despite the phrasing she used to pop the question; her eyes never wavered once from the blonde’s, who was gazing at her with mild surprise.

"You want to get married?"

The dark Slayer looked down at her daughter and then back up at Buffy. "I’ve never felt like I ever belonged anywhere. I’d like to belong to someone B, and I’d love for that someone to be you… I can’t imagine wanting to spend the rest of my life with anyone else but you."

The honesty and vulnerability in Faith’s demeanour touched the blonde to the core and without hesitation she leant forward and kissed her softly and with as much love as she could convey in one kiss.

"I would love to marry you."

Faith beamed at this and didn’t even bother to stop the tears that broke free. "Any particular time?" She asked, getting into the thought of planning their union.

Buffy thought for a while. "How does five months sound to you?"

"Kinda specific isn’t it…? There’s a reason for that ain’t there…" It only took her a moment to realise that by that time it would be exactly a year after they first made love. "Perfect, B."

"I can’t wait to tell everybody." Buffy said.

"Well that’ll be later. For now, just kiss me."

"Sure thing babe."

The End