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Author's Chapter Notes:
Well, Comm 101 is done and so is spring break so here we go again.
Misunderstood

Buffy came down the stairs wearing a long sleeved blue blouse and black jeans. Her boots had a two-inch heel and a stiff toe. She walked through the downstairs into the kitchen to find Dawn nearly finished with the dishes. Spike sat at the counter finishing his pizza, and Faith stood next to Dawn, placing the dishes in the drying rack. Buffy couldn't help but wonder for a minute how this had all happened.

Four years ago, two of these people were her enemies and one was not even here. Then, three years ago, she received a very chipped vampire. A year later, a very real sister. Now she had a tamed rogue Slayer. All here, in her kitchen, looking like they did this every night. She smiled and walked in. "You almost done, Dawn?"

"Yup. Last glass," she said as she handed it to Faith.

Faith set the glass in the rack and dried her hands on one of the dishtowels. "Are we patrolling?" Faith asked.

"I am, but someone still needs to stay with Dawn," Buffy said.

Dawn was about to complain, then decided against it. After all, she'd dug her way through a cave with Spike and helped fight vampires, both within the last 24 hours.

Spike looked over at Faith. "You mind staying? I think Buffy and I would manage better with the little extras we have."

Faith shook her head. "It's cool. I probably ought to get a decent night's sleep anyway. Don't want to fall asleep on the job. Not the first day anyway," she grinned.

Buffy nodded. "Ok. And, Dawn..."

"I know, bed by ten. First day of school. Yadda, yadda, yadda," she said animatedly.

Buffy couldn't help but smile. "Good." She turned to Spike who took one last bite of his pizza before standing up.

"Just let me get some weapons. Be right with ya." He walked out of the kitchen.

~~`~~

Harmony was a childe. Made by one vampire, adopted by another. Her first sire's line had a talent for hearing. Although all vampires had keen hearing by trait, her line was especially well endowed in this area.

Which was why, when she walked through the tunnels during her earlier shopping trip, she'd heard a familiar voice and followed it past the trap door for "Body Shop" and to a store across the street above her.

The voice belonged to Xander. She remembered him well, having been a friend of Cordy's when they'd started going out openly and when they broke up. Then the run-ins after her turning.

She'd sat below the building and listened as the men all spoke highly about the guy she'd dismissed without a thought most of her life, both alive and undead.

She'd gathered that from the conversations being had between hammering, the building would be empty after today, for a while at least. The sewer lead up just behind the store, and a window that could be easily broken sat in the brick wall next to the back door.

She was at that window now, Dru standing behind her. With one hard swing of the piping the blonde found near a dumpster, she broke the glass and then crawled through, careful not to tear her red leather pants.

In moments, Harmony swung open the back door, letting Drusilla gain entrance. Sweets came prancing in after her.

Dru clasped her hands in front of her. "I can hear them here." She spun and looked about the room. "They 'ave come 'ere with us and to the shimmer."

Harmony looked around the drab store. Empty shelves lined one wall, but other than that, no sign of this place's use was evident. The walls were a pale brown, as were the shelves.

The floor was dusty and chips of wood were scattered across it. "Yeah," she said flatly.

Dru didn't seem to notice or mind her unimpressed childe's reaction. Instead, she took the supplies from The Magic Box bag along with the paper she'd had with her for the last few days.

On it were instructions written step by step so that anyone, novice or not, would be able to accomplish the task at hand. The last item brought out was the crystal she still kept hidden beneath the ribbon around her waist. She set all of the items on the ground carefully.

"So now we what? Do a spell?" Harmony looked at Dru confused.

"Ahh. Not tonight." Dru came to her slowly and drifted her fingers in front of the younger vampire.

"Tonight you will learn."

Harmony's eyes quickly glazed over, lost in the rhythm of the movement of the fingers pointing towards her eyes. "What will I learn?" she asked in a whisper.

"Your power," Drusilla said, as her eyes seemed to link the two. "I have a gift to give you."

~~`~~

Buffy ran through the cemetery with a vampire close on her heels. "Spike!"

He ran as well, trying to get away from the one chasing him. "Keep going!" He ran with her, never quite catching up to her, but still beside her.

They were in his cemetery now. Familiar surroundings considering how many times they'd been through it along with the fact he‘d called the place home. They easily leapt over tombstones and bushes, ran around crypts and statues, never quite getting out of reach of the fledglings chasing them.

All at once they stopped and turned. The vampires giving chase had no time to stop their furious pace and ran right into the blondes, impaling themselves on the stakes held in wait.

"Coordinated Staking, the newest Olympic event," Buffy smiled.

"Don't know why you're so happy. You lost." He crossed his arms.

"I did not lose. I got here first." She pointed at his crypt. Then looked at it wide eyed.

"Spike?"

He saw her face and turned to his old home. "I smell it, too."

Buffy looked at him, pained. "But Faith said she checked it out."

"C'mon," he said, leading her into the upper level, pushing the door open slowly.

They both opened up their senses, trying to feel the presence of the two vampires. The residuals of its occupancy were strong, but it was empty at the moment.

He looked over his shoulder at her. "Seems clear."

Buffy nodded and they walked through the empty crypt, making their way through the trap door and into the lower level.

The smell that had caught their attention was the perfume, along with an animal of the K-9 persuasion. Upon entering, the scents were forgotten, taking a back seat to the sight.

Spike looked disgusted. "Bloody hell! Not those soddin’ unicorns!"

He walked over to the bed and picked up the comforter, then tossed it back down and picked up one of the twenty or more tiny statues of the mythical creatures displayed proudly in stacked open boxes.

Buffy laughed. "Oh my god. This is awful." She walked to a stuffed unicorn on the bed and picked it up. "At least I have taste in my stuffed toys."

She took another look around while Spike inspected his former home. "I really hoped she was telling the truth." Buffy said with sorrow in her eyes.

Spike stopped sifting through the recently acquired items. "Slayer?"

Buffy looked from the stuffed toy to him. "Faith. She said she checked here. She couldn't have thought this is what you left the place looking like."

"And if she did, we need to have a word," Spike said, trying to lighten the mood. Buffy wasn't amused.

"Buffy, might not be that. Harm's quite the power shopper. This stuff doesn't look used. It looks brand spankin' new." He held up a glass figurine of one of the horned horses.

Buffy sighed. "Spike, how much shopping could she do in broad daylight?"

"Plenty." He walked further into the cave that served as the lower level of the crypt.

Further than Buffy had gone. A few minutes went by as he walked her back through until they reached a junction. Buffy looked down the tunnel either way. "S'only the entrance here, luv. But you can get pretty much anywhere with little wear an' tear."

Buffy looked back at him. "I knew there were tunnels, I just didn't think you accessed them from here."

Spike gave her a half smile. "Not exactly an abundance of manholes in a cemetery. S'why I picked this crypt."

Buffy shook her head. "I'm still not convinced Faith didn't lie." Then her eyes went wide. "Dawn!!"

Buffy turned and ran out the tunnels, then quickly made her way to the cemetery. Spike followed her, trying to keep up. Those tests in The Council said they were even. But there were times that he knew damn well that they weren't.

She was obviously overreacting. Faith might not have even seen the lower level. Most people passed over the trap door, not giving it a second look.

But then again, maybe she had. She'd arrived at the same time as the vampires. It was a possibility. If she had seen it, or Dru, she hadn't said anything. Not a word. And she was with Dawn.

He picked up his pace, now running beside Buffy.

~~`~~

Faith did a final sweep through the house to be sure the doors were locked and it was moderately cleaned up. After checking on Dawn and finding her asleep, she headed down into the basement.

She set out some clothes for the following day and changed into a tank top and knit shorts before climbing into bed.

No sooner had her head hit the pillow then she heard pounding at the door.

Faith jumped out of the bed and ran up the stairs of the basement, pausing only to grab the stake she kept on the shelves across from her bed. She jumped through the door and ran towards the front door, right into Buffy. Her stake fell from her hand from the impact and both Slayers fell onto their backs.

"What the-?" Faith rubbed her forehead and sat up staring at Buffy who was also massaging her head. "What's going on?"

Buffy stared at her. She was dressed for bed. "Where-where's Dawn?" she asked her.

"I'm right here," a voice called from the stairs Spike was standing beside.

The women gathered themselves up and went into the living room. Dawn stood on the bottom step.

Spike took a quick look at Dawn. She seemed fine.

Buffy glanced from her sister, to Spike, then back at Faith. "Faith, what did you find when you went to Spike’s old crypt?"

Faith tilted her head, wondering why the conversation was going from Dawn to Spike's former residence. "What do you mean?"

"I mean what did you find?" Buffy repeated.

"What's going on, Buffy?" Dawn took the last step off the stairs and stood by Spike.

Faith looked from Dawn to Spike, and then she changed her stance form confused to defensive. "Just what I told you. Nothing. The place was black as pitch. But I felt my way to a bed with a pile of his old clothes on it. But nothing else. Not even any vamp hints, other than 'one male.' And that had to be him if it was still there. You'd have to nest for that vibe to stick," she explained plainly. "What's going on?"

"So you found the trap door?" Buffy clarified.

"Bu-" Dawn tried to ask again.

"Just wait, Bit. Need to know this." Spike said, raising his hand and placing it on her shoulder reassuringly.

She quickly quieted and waited as her sister and Faith spoke.

"Yeah. Near the back." She cocked her head to the side. "Why are you asking me this?"

Buffy looked straight at her. "We were just there."

Faith made no move, didn't break eye contact, and didn't seem to shift her stance in any way. "So then why are you asking me? You saw it."

Spike shook his head. "Told you. Power shopping."

Buffy looked back at him, her face was turning pink. She looked back at Faith. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Faith was still very lost in the maze of questions tossed at her. "What's goin' on, B?"

Buffy looked at the floor, then back to the brunette standing in front of her. "It's not empty. Not now anyway, and I..."

"You thought I'd lied," Faith said plainly. She took a deep breath and shook her head. "I'm sorry."

Buffy's brow furrowed. "You mean you did?" She'd been convinced just a millisecond ago that Faith hadn't lied.

"No." Faith looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry for everything else." She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly aware of how little she was wearing. "I'm sorry that you can't trust me enough to do my job." She fought tears. Fought them harder than she had any vampire or demon.

Buffy's heart went out to her. She knew she had reasons to distrust Faith, but at the same time, the dark Slayer had done nothing to deserve it since her return. Had been a completely different person since her arrival, in fact. Maybe actual earned trust wasn't there yet, but the least she could have done was find out what was going on more discreetly.

Buffy put her hand on Faith's arm. "Look, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I forgot my own rule."

Faith looked back up and at Buffy. "No. You have the right. I've given you plenty of reason to worry."

Buffy pointed back at Spike. "So has he, but we keep him around anyway."

"Hey!"

Faith smiled. "Buffy, I know why you don't trust me, yet, but for what it's worth, I wouldn't hurt you. Not any of you. I did get more out of bein' locked up than my high school equivalency."

Buffy studied her, then checked the clock on the mantel. It was almost midnight. She shrugged and went to her phone.

They watched her, not knowing whom she'd be calling at this hour. A moment later they knew.

"Giles?" Buffy asked, while she eyed them.

"Oh hi, Richard." She paused.

"Yeah I was, but you could just give him a message, if that's ok?" Another short pause.
"Could you tell him I think Faith is ready?" She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it for a second, then put the receiver back to her ear. "Glad you're happy about it." She smiled at Dawn, thinking that too much of her influence may have been passed on to the children of the Council, and listened to the young man.

"Well, I guess we'll be seeing you soon then." Buffy listened again.

"Ok. Bye." She hung up the phone.

Faith stood still.

"Well, there. No going back now." Buffy said with a Cheshire cat's grin spread across her face.

"Richard's coming?" Dawn asked happily.

"Yup," Buffy said.

"Ugh," Faith said finally. "Can't they send a normal person to boss me around?"

"No worries, pet," Spike said. "Richard's a right nice bloke"

Faith was unsure, but figured she had little choice in the matter. "If we're all done saving Dawn from me, I really need to get some sleep," she said, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

Spike nodded. "You too, Nibblet. Off to your beddie-bye."

"What are you guys going to do?" she said, afraid they were headed to bed as well.

"Not done with the patrol," he said, looking over at Buffy. "Came home before we could finish."

"I said I was sorry," Buffy whined playfully.

"Night, you two," Dawn said, smiling as she went up to bed.

"Kill an extra one for me," Faith said and headed back into the kitchen.

The two were left alone in the living room. "So, you wanna see if we can trail them from the crypt?" Buffy said as she led him out of the house.

"Sounds good to me." He followed her down Revello.


Chapter End Notes:
There are only five chapters left in this book. I think I will post updates to this and Deserving on Tuesday. from now on but hope you enjoy this little bit before then. Thanks again for the reviews and kind words from you all. :D



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