Chapter 50: Kum-ba-freakin’-yah.
Faith’s eyes flew open at the sound of urgent knocking on her door. She glanced at the clock and wondered who the hell was coming to see her at this hour.
She grabbed the knife under her pillow and made her way over to the door.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Dana. Can I come in?” Faith sighed and unchained and unlocked the door. She opened it a little and the girl squeezed in.
“You know what time it is, right?”
“Yeah. Sorry. My place isn’t very far away and…”
“And you thought you’d stop and borrow a cup of sugar?”
“You don’t have to be so rude,” Dana bristled. Faith raised an eyebrow and flicked on the light switch.
“Baby has bite.”
“Look, you weren’t listening to me earlier.” Groaning, Faith put her knife down on a table and made her way over to a chair. She motioned for the younger girl to sit down. Dana sat apprehensively, eyes darting about the place.
“Ok, so you come here to warn me, but you’re looking around like at any second I might jump up and slit your pretty little throat.”
“No I’m not,” Dana said, quickly shaking her head.
“Whatever. Ok, what’s got you so worried, kid?” Dana sighed.
“I don’t know. I just…I trust the Council, you know? They helped me and sent me with Mr. Giles so he could train me. But now they’re asking me all of these questions about my memory.”
“What about it?”
“You know what I did, right?”
“For the most part, I guess.”
“See, I don’t remember doing what I did. The people I killed? I was drugged, and they were trying to kill me. I remember coming out of it, and I was standing there covered in blood. And then I started running, but I couldn’t get very far. They put me in jail and pumped me up with some other kind of drug that must have mixed with the other drug and…”
“What’s this got to do with me?” Faith wondered, hoping to hurry up this little chit-chat.
“Anyway,” Dana continued, a bit irritated, “I went into this…kind of a catatonic state. But I mean, I wasn’t unconscious or anything. I was…I don’t know…wild. And then I guess Buffy died, and I was called, and I got so strong…and I ended up killing more people. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Ok…”
“Then the next thing I know, I’m waking up, and I’m at the Council, and I don’t remember much of anything. Mr. Travers gave me something to help me remember, and I did. I remembered everything, eventually.”
“That’s great, so…”
“So, if he has a way to bring memories back, don’t you think he has a way to take them away?” Faith furrowed her brows.
“Maybe.”
“He’s been talking about what it would be like if I didn’t have those memories. The ones of killing those men.” Dana frowned. “It’d be nice to not have to think about that every day. So I guess…what I’m asking…what would you do? You killed people. Would you want to forget about it?”
“That’s an interesting question.” Faith cracked her knuckles. “I’m not proud of what I did. But if I didn’t have those memories, I might do it again, you know?” Dana nodded.
“Yeah. Maybe you would. But me? I didn’t have a choice when I killed. I didn’t know what I was doing.” Faith flinched.
“Look kid…not everybody gets everything handed to them on a silver platter. But that’s what makes everybody what they are. We can completely fuck our lives up, or other people can do it for us. The past might help make us who we are, but it’s the end result that counts, right?” Dana smiled a little.
“You sound like Buffy.”
“Great,” Faith muttered.
“What happened between you two?”
“What do you know?”
“Not a lot. Just that you went…what’d they say…rogue?”
“I just had a better offer,” Faith pointed out. “At least I thought I did. I was your age. I wanted some recognition, I guess. I got dealt a shitty hand in life, and I show up here, and who’s getting all the credit for the slaying?”
“Buffy. I know how that feels,” Dana sighed. “But she’s good. She knows a lot more about what she’s doing than I do. The first time I saw a vampire…” She shivered. “Well, let’s just say I wasn’t exactly Miss Stealth.” Faith nodded.
“Yeah. It’s intense. But after a while, the intensity starts to feel good, and it just becomes part of you. It’s safer than drugs, I guess, except for the constant risk that you’re gonna get your neck ripped out if you make one little mistake.” Dana’s eyes widened.
“So you asked about me and B?”
“Yeah.”
“Well,” she thought, “I never really fit in with her friends. One night, I made a mistake, and I killed a human. She wanted to tell somebody, and I was freaking out. I played it cool though, because I knew the minute I freaked out, she’d go running to the cops. So I guess…I tried to make her see it was her fault too. It wasn’t. I knew that. But I couldn’t accept what I did. I saw myself as better than humans, because I was the Slayer. A Slayer,” she corrected herself. “Then this guy came along and made me an offer I thought I couldn’t refuse.” She smiled sadly. “He was like a dad to me.”
“That mayor guy, right?”
“Yeah,” Faith muttered. “Anyway, I did some pretty shitty things to B. I tried to hurt her and her friends and her boyfriend. Long story short, I ended up in a coma for eight months. When I woke up, I wanted revenge, and I almost got it. I managed to do some damage. Jumped in the sack with Buffy’s latest boy toy. The Council was after me, and I managed to get out of Sunnydale before they could find me. Ran off to L.A.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. So imagine my surprise when I get a call from Quentin Travers himself.”
“Don’t you find it kinda…you know, weird?”
“Yeah. But this is better than my jail cell. I can just as easily pay for what I did from the other side of the bars.” Dana eyed Faith.
“Maybe that’s why they brought you here.”
“What?”
“Your past is pretty painful. So is mine. Maybe they really do have some way of…”
“You think they wanna pump us up with some experimental drug and hope for the best?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I’m sure as hell not sticking around to find out.” Faith started to get up, but Dana grabbed her arm.
“No! You can’t. If that’s what they’re doing…if you leave, they might think I warned you.”
“So?”
“So what’ll they do to me?”
“That’s not my problem.” Dana stood up, a little taken aback.
“Maybe not, but we’re Slayers, Faith.”
“So we should form a little club and have sleepovers? What?”
“I’m just saying…if you watch my back, I’ll watch yours. We can keep an eye on things. Find out what’s going on. If they start asking those questions again…” Faith sighed and she shrugged her shoulders.
“Alright. As long as I’m getting three squares a day, I’m alright with that. I see any needles coming at me, and I’m out of there, you got that?”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
“Alright. So we’re not trusting this Travers guy.” Dana shrugged.
“I did before, but I’m not so sure now. I just want to get out of here.”
“You’re not going anywhere ‘til my ‘evaluation’ is over. I don’t leave, you don’t leave.”
“I know. Maybe I should call Mr. Giles.”
“Leave them out of this,” Faith barked. “I’m sure they’ve got enough heroics going on over there. If there’s a problem in the Council, I’ll take care of it. As soon as that’s done, I’m out of here.”
“We will take care of it.”
“Right, whatever. Tomorrow, we’ll check the place out.”
***
It was still a sunny late afternoon in Sunnydale. Xander was a late lunch out on the back deck while Anya balanced her checkbook. Dawn was reading so she wouldn’t fall behind at school, and everyone else was settled around the TV in the living room. On one couch was Spike lounging back, feet propped up on a footstool with Buffy lying next to him with her head resting in his lap. Willow and Tara were sprawled out on the other couch.
Tara had popped in Interview with the Vampire, and they were all watching intently. Once in a while, Spike would scoff. This particular time, Buffy looked up at him.
“What?”
“Please. Coffins? No self-respecting vampire sleeps in a coffin. Except for Dracula. But I’m not so sure that’s for safety as much as it is for kink.” Buffy made a face.
“I didn’t need to know that, baby.” She patted his knee.
“And hello? Does anybody else notice the fact that his face doesn’t change when he goes in for the kill? That’s just impossible.”
“I think he’s dreamy,” Tara admitted. At Willow’s glance, she shrugged. “What? He is.”
“Yeah. And look at his eyes. They’re just…and those lips,” Buffy awed. Spike looked down at her skeptically. “What? Come on. You can’t tell me that’s not one good looking piece of man right there.”
“You think Brad Pitt is better looking than me?”
“Well, no.”
“Then what are you going all googly-eyed over him for?”
“Because he’s a hot vampire.”
“Not really.”
“Well in the movie.”
“But not really.”
“Oh fine. You’re the hottest vampire ever. Are you happy?”
“Not if you say it like that. You’re patronizing me.” Buffy rolled her eyes but didn’t move from her place in his lap. She continued watching the television. A few minutes later came, “oh please! What’s he gonna do next, rip his shirt open and show off his rippling muscles as his Nancy-boy Fabio hair whips in the wind?”
At that, Willow and Tara whispered something and burst into a fit of giggles.
“Oi! What are you birds laughing at?”
“Nothing,” Tara insisted. “Willow just asked if I could imagine what you’d look like with long hair.” At that, Buffy burst out into hysterics. Spike grumbled but kept his eyes on the movie. From what he remembered from seeing the movie years ago, there was a naked woman eventually. Maybe that was worth sitting through hours of absurd fake vampires.
“Oh. Oh, now look at this. This is just…have you ever seen anybody brood so much? He’s giving Capitan Forehead a run for his money.” Buffy’s nails dug into his thigh. “Hey!”
“Shut up and watch the movie, Spike.” Spike sighed and leaned back into the couch. He gently stroked Buffy’s hair as she lay in his lap, and she let out a contented sigh. If she were a cat, he figured she’d be purring right about now.
The door flew open, and Xander came in carrying a plate full of hamburgers and hot dogs.
“Who’s hungry.”
“Xander, did you forget…”
“No, he didn’t,” Anya spoke up, walking in with a plate full of foil-wrapped grilled veggies.
“Thanks!” Willow beamed. She and Tara went to help set the small table off to the side of the kitchen. Spike gently squeezed Buffy’s shoulder, and she sat up. Her stomach growled, and Spike turned his head to look at her. She blushed.
“What? Bitty Buffy’s just telling us she’s really hungry.” She smiled and stood up, stretching out. “Dawn? Lunch!”
Spike went to the fridge and poured some pig’s blood into his favorite mug. When he sat down next to Buffy at the table, he reached for a burger. Xander and Anya glanced curiously at him.
“What? I eat things other than blood. You know that. Just prefer blood.”
“Then why with the stealing of our food now?”
“Because I’m hungry, you git.”
“Since when it’s it your food and not his?” Buffy wondered.
“It’s not. It’s just thought that when we picked up the blood at the butcher, that was his portion of the grocery bill.” Buffy shrugged.
“Well, I hope you accounted for the fact that I eat like a horse now.” She rubbed her small belly. “I don’t know what it is, but even though I feel awful in the morning, I’m starving at the end of the day.”
“It’s called being pregnant,” Anya pointed out. “Just wait until your ninth month. Your belly will be so big you won’t be able to see your feet or put your shoes on without sitting down. And your back will hurt, and you might not be able to sleep.”
“Gee, thanks for the rundown, Anya,” Buffy muttered, stabbing her fork into her potato salad. Spike took a long sip of his blood.
“Ok,” Xander sighed, putting his hamburger down. “I know that’s your diet and everything, but man, that’s disgusting.”
“Do you want me to starve?” At Xander’s look, he held a hand up. “Wait. Don’t answer that.” Xander glanced pleadingly at Buffy.
“Can’t he just drink that in the other room?”
“No!” Buffy protested. “Look, the dinner table is for family. You guys are my family. And Spike’s my family. So we’re gonna sit here and be one big happy family, or I’ll make the rest of this week miserable for anybody that doesn’t want to…”
“Whoa, ok, Buff. This is me backing off.”
“Please,” Spike spat. “You don’t know when to quit.”
“You just bring it out in me Spike. What can I say?”
“How about nothing? Just shut your gob.” Buffy slammed her fork down on the table.
“That’s it.”
“Buffy…” She stood up, yanking Spike by the arm and grabbing Xander by the shirt collar. “Should you really be manhandling in your condition?”
“Shut up, Xander.” She dragged them into Xander and Anya’s room. Once they were inside, she nodded to Tara, who brought over Xander’s plate and Spike’s mug of blood. She handed them to the Slayer, who placed them down on a small dresser. “You guys are going to eat dinner together. You’re going to sleep in here together. You might get out by morning, but that’s if you play nice.”
“C’mon, pet. It was just…friendly banter.”
“Yeah? Well, learn how to be friendlier.” Buffy slammed the door and held onto the knob.
“You really think that’s gonna keep us in here?”
“No,” Buffy said with a shrug toward her friends. “Tara?” Tara uttered something in Latin that Buffy couldn’t quite let out. Then she smiled brightly at her friend.
“You can let go now.” Buffy let go of the door knob, which was now shaking with one of the guy’s efforts to open it.
“Oi! Come on, Buffy. Let us out!”
“No! You’re going to be so happy and nice to each other by the time you get out of there that you’ll be singing Kum-ba-freakin’-yah!”
“Not bloody likely!”
“Shut up! I don’t want to hear another word from either one of you until tomorrow.”
“If I may,” Xander interjected, “I don’t exactly know about Spike, but eventually, I’m gonna have to use the bathroom, and…”
“Yeah. I know. And to get out, you have to give me the passphrase.”
“Passphrase?”
“If, and only if you want to go to the bathroom, you have to knock on the door and say: ‘I was wrong about Spike. Boy, he’s swell.’”
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes. And Spike?”
“Luv?”
“If you need more blood, you have to say: ‘Xander Harris is a good guy. I don’t know why I threatened to bite him all those years.’”
“I will not!”
“Oh, I think you will. Have a good evening, boys!” With that, she stalked back over to the table where the rest of her friends were now seated again. Dawn glanced at her sister.
“You ok, Buffy?” Buffy put on a bright smile.
“Great! Pass the ketchup?”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Wow! Here we are...chapter 50! Not sure how many more are left at this point, but I'm already itching to start an AU story I've been thinking about. So we shall see!
Chapter End Notes:
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