Order of Business

"Umm..I'm sorry?" she said as she gently laid the unconscious orderly down on the tiled floor. There were police officers, orderlies, doctors, and at least one inspector scattered around the waiting room moaning or completely knocked out. "I wasn't ready to be grabbed like that, it really is your own fault, you know." The questions had become more serious and after brushing the inspector's hand off of her a few times, he decided to try an twist her arm behind her to put her in handcuffs. "For my own safety...my butt."

The nurses and administrators stayed at the ends of the hallways and everyone was treating her like some kind of wild animal. Sure she didn't look her best, covered in dried blood and wearing a Gothic corset. She probably looked like a monster but if these people knew that the real monsters were only a little tunnel away, then they would be lining up behind her so she could save their asses. "I didn't mean for this to happen," she said to the crowd and waited for anyone to respond. They all just watched her and spoke among themselves. Some of them were taking cell phones pictures of her, but no one made any effort to come closer.

The inspector woke up and moaned as he grabbed his lower back. She had reversed his armlock and flipped him over her shoulder, knocking his head solidly on the end table by the waiting-room chairs.

"Werewolf!" he yelled out and pointed at her with a snarl.

After twisting around to look behind her, she realized that he meant her. "Me? I'm not a werewolf. I'm not a were-anything," she explained to him but he ignored her and kept calling her names as he tried to rescue the unconscious people from her by dragging them a few feet out into the hallway. As if he just now remembered, he drew a small pistol out of his coat pocket and aimed it right at her. "Whoa, stop, stop!" she pleaded with her hands out. If she got shot, she wouldn't be able to snatch Rami and run after she came out of surgery.

"On your knees!" he commanded. The anger flashing across his face made the gun shake in his hand.

"Easy, officer," she said softly. She was considering whether to kneel when she watched in slow motion as his finger tightened on the trigger. She was ready to do the Bruce Lee bullet dodge, or at least attempt it, when sirens sounded in the distance. The sound broke his tension and he lightened up with the weapon as he smiled at her. An angry but content smile.

"I will say this one more time to you. GET ON YOUR KNEES!" he yelled, waving the .38 Snubnose at her.

"I've done enough kneeling since I was KIDNAPPED and brought to friggin FRANCE! I'll just sit, if it's all the same to you?!" She plopped down angrily in one or the chairs and rolled her eyes when he couldn't help himself from watching her boobs bounce. As soon as the cop heard the sirens and knew backup was coming, she knew he wasn't going to shoot her unless she jumped him. She knew another thing for certain, with the way that he was doing the slow blink at her chest, she sure as hell wasn't going anywhere alone with this guy.
A bunch of other cops showed up and they all did the double take with her as he told them she was a werewolf. Guns cleared holsters all around and she met the inspector's eyes, his hungry and angry eyes. She was about to stand and whip some French weasel cop ass when Buffy followed by others came sliding to a stop, causing some of the cops to aim their weapons at her. A large blue-haired blur swung in front, pushing Buffy behind him as he drew two big golden guns and put them in the faces of the two closest cops. The change of fortunes and the primal growl coming from the blue guy was probably the reason one of the officers lost control of his bladder.

Slayers and witches spread out, FBI officers were yelling, French authorities were yelling and a group of werelions moved up with their own weapons to cover their king as Buffy who was about to either yell at Haven or the whole crowd stopped and said, "What in the hell are you wearing?" The off-hand remark had the effect of calming the situation down enough that the FBI were able to identify themselves and everyone started cautiously to lower their weapons. One of the French cops put his gun away as he ran off, presumably to go to the bathroom.

"It's my boob-tube, do you like it?" she managed to say, even though the relief at seeing her queen was almost about to make her cry.

"Yes," Haven rumbled out, causing Xander to laugh.

"I'm mad at you!" Buffy said to Haven as Xander, Blake, and Willow began to try and get information about Rami. She glared at him for a second before walking carefully around the still uneasy French cops and sitting down next to Jenn. "You okay?" she asked with gentleness.

"Yea, worried about Rami, she's in surgery right now," Jenn said as she tried to brush some of the flakes of dried blood off of her. She kept rubbing at them but it was just making a bigger mess.

"Willow will make sure she gets through it. Come with me." Buffy took her hand, pulling her to her feet and leading her down the hall to a bathroom.

Jenn was stunned into silence when she seen herself in the mirror. It wasn't just the blood and clothes that probably freaked people, it could have been that her hair was slicked back with red gore and her eyes looked so deeply sunken that she looked like she hadn't eaten anything in a month. The Slayer Queen led her to the sink and started using up all the paper towels as she washed the mess from Jenn's skin and hair.

"It'll be okay, Texas, I promise," Buffy said as she tended to her slayer. "Let me just make sure that none of this blood is yours." Seeing the tears silently start, she managed to catch Jenn as she fell and pulled her into a tight hug as both of them slid down to the floor. "It WILL be okay, baby. You survived and got Rami out. That's all that matters." The now crying Buffy rocked the sobbing teenager.

"He...they raped me! I was meat...just meat." She clung to Buffy like the queen was the only safe thing left in her life.

"We will get through this. I swear to you, Jenn, this isn't going to break us. Nothing that happened was your fault, nothing. Repeat that to me, Jenn, say it out loud so it sticks." She squeezed the girl in a possessive hug.

"Nothing that..happened was my fault." She buried her face in Buffy's neck and tried to imagine if any vampire in creation could have rolled Buffy or Faith like she was rolled by Marc. She remembered participating in and enjoying the rapes like they were consensual, like she had just decided to have sex with those guys. That's what hurt more than anything. The rape was of her mind, her free will. She shook her head and hugged Buffy back as she decided that there was no one that could do that to either of the two senior slayers.

"That's right, Jenn, and if Faith isn't killing the cowards right now, then when I find her, we will...

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"Faith, kill Aveline. Do it now!" the command pounded through her.

She looked down at the child for a moment as she felt the red energy grip her mind like a steel clamp. Her slayer came rushing to the surface and the clamp melted away. She threw a right cross at the Dragon, who blocked it easily. Then a left hook and a upwards knee strike, all of which blocked with little effort visible from the vampire.

"Easy, Faith, do not forget the babies laying around us. I would hate for you to step on one." The Dragon smiled as she stood her ground and waited while Faith calmed down. "I can see your intentions, child. You'll have to do better than that if you want to hit me. The truth is though that we both needed to learn the limits of our control of each other," she said as Faith was still glaring at her, the warm emotional bonding a distant memory. "I cannot make you do something that you do not wish to do. This is good for you. I would have stopped you from hurting the infant but now at least you know that you have free will."

Faith watched as the vampire patted her face before walking over to the door and letting in a group of people who rushed to pick up the children. She noticed several silent accusations from the people directed to Enys...the Dragon she was corrected, as she could feel that the Dragon thought it was all completely necessary and in fact wanted to lick the little bloody scratches and cuts that she was seeing as the babies were carried out. "That's sick," she told her, but the blond only smiled again, showing a lot of fang this time.

As Rollo picked Aveline up and was leaving, the Dragon touched his shoulder in passing to let him know that she approved of his decisions in this matter. She held her hand out to Faith before she had to rest for the day and the girl tried not to come but in her heart she really did want closeness with another person and she finally gave in and walked over and took her hand. She pulled the fearsome Slayer into a hug and kissed her forehead, feeling the rush of warmth that surged through the girl because of it. "You have had a hard life, child, we both have as you now know. We are a family, Faith, and we have each other. That is all that matters. You will teach me how to love and I will love you."

Faith snuggled into her strong arms, the taller woman could completely embrace her. She had a feeling that she tried to keep well hidden, that this was all a manipulation, like with the mayor but she was going to enjoy the hell out of it while it lasted and she had a mission now. She smiled up at her mast..her mom, her mom was better. She deserved a better one than the one she was born with. "Let's talk about this Dark Knight thing..."

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"So everyone was watching and it was a little rough and when the lunch truck showed up that was embarrassing but not as bad as when Xander had the porta-potties delivered and then Buffy fell asleep in Haven's lap and she was...snoring a little and when she woke up, he told her and she probably hates me now because everyone heard it and..."

"Slow down, girl," Rami said, slightly groggy from the spells Willow's team cast to cover for the hospital not giving her enough anesthetic. The magic fixed what the surgery started and she felt great, if a little tired. Unfortunately her doctors had refused to let her out of bed and were in negotiations about it with Willow. So that made her a captive audience for the small blond energizer bunny.
Rami reached out and took the girl's hand, knowing that she had beat herself up for all of this. Blake managed to hold it in for at least an eighth of second before sobbing and climbing right into the hospital bed with her. "It's okay, sis."

Blake sniffled and cleared her eyes, staring at Rami. "You never called me that before?"

"Yea, I was thinking, there were some difficult times in there and while it was happening, the only thought I had was that at least my mom had you, so it..."

They were both sobbing in each others arms when Willow walked in the door and decided to turn around and hurry right back out.

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"If you ever jump in front of me like that again, I will pinch things off of you," she snarled at him as they were looking for the tunnel Jenn told them about.

"Umm....ummm," Xander said staring ahead.

"Babe, no one threatens my lioness," the Lion king said back to her. "I didn't think, I reacted. It was just me being chivalrous."

"Umm...ummm...ummm."

"Chivalrous? You don't even know what that means...okay maybe you do," she amended at his raised eyebrow.

"Umm...umm..umm."

"Thanks babe, I...umm," he said as he looked ahead of them.

"The reflection off of these windows makes my hair look fabulous, doesn't it? Why are you guys..." She fell silent as she finally looked ahead and seen Faith standing in front of two big hairy guys with a battle axe and a shotgun. Her sister slayer had on black armored boots, black armored pants...and nothing else. "Ummm...fashion statement?" Buffy slowly turned her head and saw Dawn's husband with his jaw on his chest. "Xander!" she yelled, startling him into acting like he wasn't ogling someone other than his wife's half naked body. "Haven?" She directed to her fiancee.

"What?" he answered with a smile. "I'm a lycanthrope, baby. I deal with naked boobies all day long."

She stared at him for a moment, deciding where to pinch him when Faith cleared her throat. Turning back towards the naked breasts...slayer, she spoke, "Um, I don't suppose you could put on a coat or something? No? Hey is this like mind control or a possession? Because if it is I'll beat everyone to death and drag you off to be deprogrammed."

"No, B', it's not mind control," she said. "How are the girls?" It wasn't easy showing the twins like this, even for her but it was cool watching how they were all off track because of it.

"Jenn's going to be okay and Rami came through surgery and we caught it before they screwed her up, she'll have a full recovery too and they both will deal with some of the issues in counseling," Buffy replied as she checked out the two guys. Obviously they weren't vampires with the sun out now but they felt like something big and powerful.

"That's good. The section with the tunnel is going to be sealed so you don't have to worry about it, I have it under control."

"Faith, what the hell is going on?!" She had tried to be calm but she had to know what the deal was.

"Did Kenn become the slayer when I left."

"Yes, just like last time, and when you go back it'll jump back to you." She did not like where this was going.

"It will be awhile. I'm going to stay here and discover a few things about life and how I fit in it."

"Faith, that doesn't even sound like you. What's happening, let me help." Buffy started walking closer until the brunette slayer held up her hand for her to stop.

"Rollo, Varden, give me a minute here," she said as she turned to the two mountain men. "Go back inside."

"Mistress, we are supposed to guard you," Rollo replied to her as he kept his eyes on the lion who had positioned himself slightly ahead of the blond girl without her knowing it. "It is hard to do this if we are not with you."

"These are my friends." She glanced at Haven. "Well two of them are and the other one is going to marry into the clan. Just back off. Please?"

Buffy didn't know if she was more surprised when the barbarian called her mistress or when she said please. This was not Faith. She tensed slightly as the slayer walked towards her after the two guards squeezed back through a hole in the wall. "Umm...nice boobs?"

Faith laughed as she leaned in toward Buffy and noticed Haven tense up. Xander was being very gallant about not looking at her tits, especially after having been called on it for staring at them for the last five minutes. "Listen," Faith said quietly, as she now knew exactly how powerful the shifters and vampires were in this world and she didn't want to be overheard by anyone. "Tell Jenn and Rami that I'm taking care of few things for them. I'll be fine and I'll see them when I'm done and hey try not to tell anyone about the tunnels, a lot of people would get hurt if they knew what was under their feet. Okay?" She looked Buffy in the eyes, the girl that some of her heart still longed for.

"Are you sure about this?" Buffy loudly whispered.

"I'm 5 by 5, B'. I'm sorry that I'll probably miss the wedding. It's still gonna be in Seattle, right?" Faith stared into her eyes.

Buffy stared back at her, at the one girl who would be the one, if she ever wanted to explore the gay thing. "If we had it in this world, would you promise to come?"

"And cause Willow to have to leave Kennedy behind? You bet your ass I would. Make sure you invite the Miami crew, just make sure you have enough liquor to cover Sam." When she laughed, she noticed some of the worry leave Buffy.

"What about the official slayer?" Buffy asked.

"Kenn'll be fine, and you'll be there to keep her head small enough to fit through doorways."

Buffy grabbed the girl in a tight hug causing Xander to swallow hard. "God, I wish Dawn was here to see this," he said out loud.

"Hey, I should be back before she shoots out the next rugrat but if I'm not, keep me in mind for the name. The world could use an innocent Faith for once."

"You're okay, Faith...I'd hug you but.. those...Dawn..umm." He figured that the most intelligent thing to do would be to just shut up.

"You be safe, Faith," Buffy said as she let her out of the hug. "But don't think for a minute that you're not on a timetable here. If I think it's taking too long I will kick in the doors and drag you home."

"Take care of the girls for me and when I can come back with my head up, I'll come back."

As they walked away from Faith, Xander whispered to Buffy, "We're just leaving? After all of this?"

"Let's get the girls home, they're what's important. Something was totally off with her. She didn't even call Haven any names. We'll figure out what the deal is and then handle it. What else
can we do?" Buffy grimaced, all of the good cheer she had when talking to the other slayer completely wiped off of her face.