So Damn Domestic

Sorry it took me so damn long to get this posted. I'll try to get the next update in a lot sooner.
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Three Days Later. FPOV


So Christmas was ok. Willow, Kennedy, Dawn and her man didn’t show, but we already had a feeling they wouldn’t. Well, we already knew that Dawn and Kyle were going to his parents’ cabin out in the woods, but with Willow being heartbroken and Kennedy still feeling bad about it we really didn’t think they would be up for some Christmas cheer. Now Xander and his girl came over, and they brought their baby. She’s almost a year old. She’ll be one on January 29. She’s just the cutest little thing ever. She looks more like Katie, which is probably why. I’m just teasing. But it was nice. There weren’t a whole lot of presents but that’s ok. Things have been so hectic lately that we haven’t really had any time to go Christmas shopping. Buffy had boughten us some stuff but it was left in Ohio, which is understandable. We don’t know where Willow is. Apparently she told Giles she needed to get away, and she teleported out of his office and no one’s seen her since. I really hope she’s ok.


I haven’t talked to Kennedy much. She and Cordelia are still trying to get things worked out. I suspect that Kennedy is going to move to L.A. to be with the Queen because there’s no way she can move up here, Angel needs her, not only as a seer but for emotional support. They’re really close, as weird as it is, and I don’t think she wants to give up the big city life to move to little Shasta Lake anyway. Buffy’s pretty upset about all this. She’s pissed but she agrees with me that it’s better for them to break it off now or else things could just get worst. She’s pissed that it took so long for Kennedy to come clean and even then it took her getting caught to finally confess. I’m a little mad at her about that too but I haven’t said anything. I’m her friend, she needs me to lie to her right now. I’ll only do it for a while but if she gets too self-involved I’ll give her a good reality check.


“Deep thoughts?” Buffy asks and turns in my arms a little so she can see my face. I give her a little ‘hmm?’ and she smiles. “Well we’ve been in this bath for almost ten minutes and you still haven’t tried to feel me up. So, you’re either having really deep thoughts or you’re just not in the mood.” What is she talking about? I’m always in the mood. Especially when we take baths together. I don’t know what it is but there’s just something about a naked Buffy lying in my arms, wet and squeaky clean, with her hair up in a sloppy bun that makes me wanna run my hands down her body and work her over while she’s lying against me. I don’t know why, but I always like doing that.


“I’m just thinking about this crazy year. All the good things, all the bad things...trying to come up with a good resolution.” We aren’t going to Ohio until after the New Year rings in. Giles has a construction crew building us the apartment. Willow isn’t really feeling up to it and he doesn’t trust anyone else with that type of magic. He doesn’t want the kids to be inside it and then have it collapse or disappear or something. It should be done by the time we’re there. It isn’t going to be very big. A living room, a tiny kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms. It’s only temporary, I’m sure they’re going to tear it down as soon as we leave, or maybe they’ll keep it in case we ever need to go back. I don’t know. “There’s just so much that happened. Mattie turned six, I had a baby, I died, your mom gave us her blessing for our wedding, and then with everything with Kennedy and Willow and Cordy...well I’m thinkin about sellin the story to Paramount, maybe get enough money for us to buy a bigger house.” Crap I don’t think I should have said that. “And come January you’re going to be thirty-two, what do you think about all of this? Any regrets, how do you like your life so far?” My tone is kind of light and teasing. She is going to be thirty-two, which means I’m going to be thirty. I know I’m going to get a lot of shit for that I don’t look a damn day over twenty-three.


“It’s been great. I mean, not everything has been great, but in general this year was a good one. I’ve been planning a little more for the wedding. I’m trying to come up with a good menu now so I won’t have to argue with the caterer. And it doesn’t have to be a church wedding. That’s not the only thing me and my mom talked about. There’s this really pretty Inn somewhere in southern California that hosts weddings. We could always have it there. Spring time, all of the flowers will be blooming, it’ll be outside in the shade under a big tree. The reception will be in the back area by the pond, I know they have a pond I just can’t remember the name of the place.” She’s quiet for a few seconds. I reach up and grab the loofah off of the wall where it hangs from its little hook. I dip it into the warm water and start to slowly wash her breastbone and neck area. “Mm, that feels good.” She turns around so her back is leaning against me and she rolls her head back so it’s resting on my shoulder. I lean down and kiss her throat. I think she finally remembers that I brought up her age. “And you’re turning thirty, don’t be giving me any crap about turning thirty-two. You’re finally kissing your youth goodbye.” I smile at her and slowly work the loofah in between her breasts and down to her stomach.


“Yeah, but I’m not going to make a big deal about it like you did. And don’t even try to defend yourself, you so overreacted. I don’t think I’ve ever had sex outside in my entire life as much as I did that night.” She laughs a little at that. She had panicked about turning thirty and she wanted to do something that most teenagers do. And she started thinking and decided that when they can’t find a better place where they won’t get caught, teenagers will go into the woods and have sex. I told her they do it in the car but she insisted that we have it out in nature for all of the forest animals to see and hear. I swear the next morning the two squirrels sitting on the tree stump where talking about us. And guess who had to be on the bottom? Yeah, that’s right, me. It took me three hours to get all of the dirt off of my ass because we forgot to bring a blanket and she didn’t want to go back to get one. She can be such a pain sometimes but I love her to death. “How are we going to celebrate this year? Addy’s on the bottle now, we can have Dawn baby-sit. I’m sure she won’t mind.” I don’t think she’s listening to me anymore. Her eyes are closed and she’s gripping my thighs a little tighter then before. Probably because I’m now using the loofah to wash her inner thighs. Hmm, now here’s an idea.


“Mmmm, don’t even think about it.” Dammit. How did she know what I was going to do? Sometimes I hate how she knows me so well. But you can’t blame me. It would have been hot seeing her getting off to me fucking her with the loofah handle. Oh well, better luck next time. “And if you even think about it next time then it’ll be our last bath together.” Damn. I can’t get away with anything can I? If she would just relax and focus on what I’m doing to her and not think about her stupid ex-boyfriends then I’m sure she’d like it. But nope, we’ve tried three times with the strap on and she had me stop every time. I don’t blame her or anything but it would just be nice to spice things up a little. So I just continue to wash her thighs and she’s enjoying it, she’s even moaning a little bit. I let my other hand snake it’s way down her stomach and I feel her abdomen muscles quiver under my touch. I love it when they do that. I start to massage her inner thigh, I’m so close I feel her short hair brush against my index finger. And you wanna know what happens next? I bet you do. The baby starts crying, and we both groan in frustration.


“Don’t worry, I’ll get it.” She tells me and gets up out of the bathroom. I watch her ass as she gets up and then steps out of the tub. I let my eyes wonder her perfect body as she puts on the cotton bathrobe and leaves the room. Ok, now I’m bored. What to do, what to do? I sigh and take a look around. God, someone really needs to be this bathroom. And by someone I mean anyone but me. Damn, the water’s getting cold. How long was she gone and how long have I been zonin out? Well, we’re both clean and I guess we won’t be getting to the really good part of the bath so I might as well get out. I pull up the plug and set it on the edge of the tub and get out and dry myself off with a towel. I slip on my bathrobe and go into the bedroom to get dressed. I stop at the doorway when I see her sitting in the rocking chair, we moved it from the nursery into our bedroom, that’s in the corner of the room, gently rocking back and forth and talking to our little girl as she eats from the bottle. Her snorts and grunts can be heard from here. Buffy says she already eats like me, and I responded to that with a dry laugh.


“I’m sorry I was gone for so long, baby girl. I don’t really even know who you are. You’ve gotten so big and you’re a little feistier then I remember.” I hear Addy give out a little snort, almost like she’s disagreeing with Buffy. Buffy smiles and nods her head. And then she does the thing that I don’t like people doin to my kids. Baby talk. “Yes you are. You’re just the most argumentative little baby that I’ve ever seen. Yeah you are.” I smile a little at her words and the large smile she has on her face. She still hasn’t looked up, she’s looking Addy right in the eyes and it’s like the rest of the world has just faded away. I know the feeling. I silently step into the room and pick up her digital camera off of the dresser by the door. I turn it on and then turn off the flash. There’s enough light coming in through the window. Yeah, we took a bath in the middle of the day, so what? Mattie’s over at Dawn’s house spending time with them, it’s no big deal. Anyway, I point the camera and wait for Buffy to smile again, it doesn’t take long and then I snap the photo. I pull the camera away from my face and look down at the screen. The sunlight is streaming in between the curtains and shining on them, illuminating them. It’s the perfect picture. I sneak out of the room and put it on the computer and then delete it off of the camera. I don’t want Buffy to see it just yet. I save it to my file and then shut off the computer.


I go back into the bedroom and put the camera down. Addy must be asleep because Buffy isn’t talking anymore, just rocking back and forth and smiling down at her. I know she’s asleep because the bottle has been set aside, and there’s no way that baby would let Buffy take the bottle away from her if all the food isn’t gone yet. And there’s still a couple ounces left. So, Buffy is the thing that calms the beast huh? Ok, I’m not calling our daughter a beast like she’s horrible or evil or burdensome, but she can get very, very crabby and now that she’s a little older she’s starting to fight sleep. I don’t know why but she’ll cry and cry and cry just to stay awake. She isn’t hungry, her diaper is clean, there’s nothing wrong with her. She just doesn’t want to sleep. And I’ve tried everything, singing, rocking her, talking to her, patting her stomach, patting her back, everything I could think of, and she’ll still cry for about two and a half hours before she finally cries herself out. I really hope she stops doing that and soon because it’s keeping Mattie up at night and he’s cranky when he doesn’t get enough sleep.


She looks up and spots me staring at her. She smiles and then stands up from the chair and nods towards it with her head. My eyebrows scrunch in confusion but I walk over anyway. She whispers for me to sit down so I do. She uses her foot to gently push at the inside of my calf and I get the hint. I spread my legs and she sits down in the chair in between them and leans against me. I wrap my arms around her waist and gently rock back and forth. She loves it when I do this. For some reason she just loves it when I hold her while she’s holding one of the kids. Almost like it’s a completed chain or something, I don’t know. All I know is it makes her happy, and I want to make her happy. I rest my chin on her shoulder and look down at our little baby, cradled in Buffy’s arms, and slightly snoring. Yep, she definitely takes after me. I smile like an idiot and give Buffy a little kiss on the side of the neck. I feel her smile grow and she leans down and gives our girl a little kiss on the forehead. She grunts and moves around a little in her sleep and I can’t help but smile wider. Growing up I never thought I’d ever be this happy.


BPOV


We’re walking through a cemetery together. We talked Dawn into watching the kids so we could do some slaying tonight. We haven’t been out slaying in a long time. We’re on high alert even though there aren’t very many vamps. Sometimes I really miss living on a hellmouth. This is just so boring We might as well just go home and call it a night and we’ve only been gone for thirty minutes. There are no vamps out tonight. I hate living in this stupid town sometimes. Ok, most of the time. I miss the action of slaying, the rush that I get when I stake a vampire that actually gave me a good fight. The reason I was so worked up after I killed that demon that was fucking with Faith was because I hadn’t had that kind of slayage action in so long that my body wasn’t used to it. I hate being bored on patrol. It makes me nervous and antsy.


“Faith.” She gives out a little ‘hmm?’ As she looks around, trying to find something that we both know isn’t there. “We’re in a rut, Faith.” She stops dead in her tracks and looks at me like she’s shocked and offended by my words. I have to explain myself some more, just to vent otherwise I’ll get really frustrated. “It’s just…things have been so dull lately.” Her eyes go wide and her mouth hangs open. What is wrong with her? “I mean, last Wednesday I almost fell asleep.” She starts thinking back to last Wednesday and she shakes her head a little bit. “I mean, do you feel it too? Don’t you think that things have gotten really, really boring?” Again with the offended look. What is wrong with her? She looks behind me and I whip around, thinking that maybe there’s a vamp back there but it’s just a headstone. I look back at her when I hear something clinging together. She’s unbuckling her belt. “Faith, what are you doing?” She looks up at me, struggling with the buckle because she’s rushing herself.


“If you think things are boring B then I’ll give you a rush. Come on, fucking in a graveyard? That’s exciting, right? I mean, you never know if a vampire could sneak up behind us and try to kill us while I’m going down on you.” What the fuck is she talking about? Oh God, she thinks I meant that we’re in a sexual rut. No That isn’t what I was talking about at all.


“Faith, stop. I wasn’t talking about our sex life. That’s great. I mean, sure we don’t as much as we used to but we have kids now. But I’m satisfied with it. Trust me, you keep me very happy in that department.” She gives me this ‘oh, then what were you talking about?’ sort of look and buckles her belt back up and picks up the stake that she dropped. “I was talking about the slaying. I mean, we come out here a lot and there are never any decent vampires. They’re also so easy to fight and the fights never last more then a minute or two and then they go poof, but in a very boring way. Don’t you wish we could run into a small group of them like we did when you convinced me to jump down that manhole with you?” She rolls her eyes at that. She still feels really bad for almost getting me killed that night, even though I’ve forgiven her a million or so times. But she sighs and agrees with me.


“I guess we’ll just have to wait until we get to Ohio. We can tell the juniors to stay indoors for a couple of nights and we’ll patrol the streets. I think that would make things a little interesting.” Oh fuck I just realized something. Faith is going back to Ohio with me. That’s a good thing, a really good thing. But I never told her what Holly did. I mean, I could have stopped it sooner and it was only a little groping and grinding, but still She’s going to be so pissed. She’s probably going to beat Holly to a bloody pulp. I’m not worried about Vanessa because nothing happened between us. I passed out on the living room couch so it’s not like we were in the same bed naked together, even if all we were doing was sleeping. Fuck, this is bad. I guess she can see the panic on my face because now she’s concerned. “What? Why do you have that look on your face like you just saw someone shoot your puppy?” I give her a weird look. That was a strange analogy. Oh well. I sit down on a headstone and she sits down next to me. She questions me again and I sigh. I feel her tense up, great she’s starting to panic. She must think that something really bad happened.


“Ok, I need you to stay really calm and not get mad.” She tenses up even more. I realize now I probably should have worded that a little better. “The night you got into your accident, you know that I went out right? I mean, I told you that I was going out with some of the girls?” She nods her head yes and tenses up even more. She knows that Sissy was part of the group and I know that she’s worried something happened between us. “Ok, Sissy has nothing to do with this, so please calm down.” She exhales the breath she was holding and I can see her muscles relax. “But there was this other girl and I guess she thought she had a chance with me because she asked me to dance with her. I was going to say no but she said that it was going to be a casual dance between friends, and it was at first. But then she started grinding against me, and then she grabbed onto my hips and started sucking on my neck. I would have pulled her back sooner, but I was in shock or something.” She starts to laugh and I really want to know what’s so damn funny.


“Good to know I’m not the only fuck-up.” That was harsh, and so not true. She’s not a fuck-up, and I’d really wish she’d stop bringing herself down all the time. Then she gets serious and I know she’s about to get really jealous. “So, what’s this bitch’s name? ‘Cause when we get to Ohio I think I might pay her a little visit.” I roll my eyes. I told her because I wanted to be honest, not because I wanted her to beat Holly up. I stand up and pull on the hem of her jacket and she gets up and follows me. Maybe if we keep wondering around then we’ll find some action eventually. “What’s her name Buffy?” She sounds stern, and a little pissed.


“It doesn’t matter. It happened and she knows not to do it again. She’s not a problem Faith. I just wanted to be honest with you. I didn’t want you to find out from someone else and think that I was trying to hide it from you. I know that it wasn’t your fault because of the thrall and everything, but if that demon had just been a regular guy and you still kissed and teased him I’d be able to forgive you and drop it. Can’t you do the same for me?” I hate throwing it in her face like that but it’s the only way I’m going to get her to drop it. She sighs but doesn’t say anything. “Let’s just go home. There’s nothing here.” I start to walk off in the direction of the car but she grabs onto my hand and whips me around and presses me up against her. She kisses me and I reciprocate and slow her down a little bit. She pulls back and looks into my eyes.


“The night’s still young, B. Let’s go out, have some fun.” I nod and follow her as she leads me out of the graveyard and to the nightclub embarrassingly named Sharp. But it’s a good club and it gets a lot of people. It only takes about fifteen minutes to get there, and we did run into a couple of vampires on the way but they were easy like all of the others in this stupid town. Sometimes I really hate it here. We walk in the doors and down the stairs. Once we get to the bottom we walk passed the bar and find a table. We put down our coats and walk over to the bar. She orders us some water but I feel like getting a little drunk tonight. Not a lot, but just a little bit. I order us each a beer and she gives me this weird look. I ignore it and the bartender rushes off to get our drinks. I sigh and take a look around. It’s a young crowd tonight. Mostly college kids, which is cool I guess. We get our drinks and go over to our table. I down the water first just to get it out of the way and then I chug the bottle of alcohol. Again Faith looks at me weird as she sips at hers. I don’t really know what’s wrong with me tonight. Maybe it’s the slaying, or the lack of slaying would probably be more appropriate. It’s really starting to get to me. I thought I’d be able to live without it, but it’s in my blood, it’s what I was made for. And now I’m not getting any good slaying I’m getting bored and it sucks.


She finishes her beer and then drags me out to the dance floor. We grind against each other and quickly form a crowd around us, mostly boys, and a of couple girls. Faith gives me this smile, this small mischievous smile and then looks around at some of the people surrounding us. What is she up to now? She pulls me closer to her. I can feel her hot breath against my skin, and then she leans in and plants a big kiss on my lips. She’s doing this for show I can tell because she doesn’t try to deepen the kiss until she hears the hoots and hollers from the boys surrounding us. I’ll admit that we used to do stuff like this all the time. We wanted to show the boys what they would be missing out on. It was fun teasing them, but we haven’t done that for a long time. I thought we were over that. But I guess not. I pull back and give her this weird look. We get a few boos from most of the guys. She just smiles and keeps dancing with me.


As she’s grinding her hips against mine I can feel all of the pent up frustration start to leak forward. And I mean all of it. Being gone for a month, coming home under very crappy circumstances, not having all of my family over for Christmas, and the frustrations of having kids. I love them to death and I don’t regret having them, but sometimes I just wish we could have some time to ourselves. And I’m not talking about being home alone so we can have sex. I mean, being home alone to just sit on the couch and relax. To curl up in her arms and not have to get up, and we can just fall asleep like that. And yeah I’ll admit that I do miss not having to hold back during sex. It’s really hard to enjoy when you have a little baby sleeping three or four feet away and you have to be super quiet. I miss Faith’s dirty talk. I think the only thing better then Faith’s dirty talk is…Bingo I just got the best idea ever. I pull away from her a little and look around the room. Ah, the perfect place. No one will see us.


I grab Faith by the hand and drag her off of the dance floor, much to the boys’ disappointment. But I don’t care about those boys. At the moment I only care about fulfilling this need inside of me. I walk slowly though, casually. No need to attract unwanted attention. The last thing I need is to be interrupted. I walk towards the couches that they have lined up along the wall. I lead her over to this pillar in the corner of the room. It’s really dark back there and if we stand on the backside of the pillar no one will be able to see us. It’s perfect. She seems to catch on to what I want to do because she hands are on my hips, pushing me forward, making me walk a little faster. I love it when she’s impatient. Yep, the only thing better then Faith’s dirty talk is sex in public, I love it. It’ such a thrill. We’ve probably screwed around in every shop in this town. We haven’t done it in a long time because of the pregnancy and then I had to go away, but I guess this will be making up for lost time.


I’m wearing a skirt, which is going to make this so much easier. I lean up against the pillar and pull my skirt up. She grabs onto my hips and lifts me up a little. I wrap my legs around her and hold on tightly. She kisses me deeply, and as our tongues swirl together I feel her fingers push my panties to the side and her two middle fingers slide inside of me. I moan into her mouth and she starts pumping hard and fast. I am very well aware of my age, but sometimes you just need a good fuck in public to keep things interesting, and work out some frustrations. She moves her fingers around, strumming them like you would a guitar and my hips go crazy. I love it when she does that. It’s a little hard for me to move around but I have a good hold on her, and she’s keeping me up with her other arm. She continues to kiss me to drown out my moans just in case somewhere can hear us. It’s doubted because the music is really loud. She firmly rubs over my G-spot and I gasp out at the pleasure that runs through me. She keeps stroking firmly over that spot and then circles my clit with her thumb. Then she simultaneously presses hard on my clit and on my G-spot and I clamp onto her shoulder to stop myself from screaming out in pleasure.


When I open my eyes again she’s softly kissing my neck and her fingers are still inside of me. I shift my legs and she knows that I want down. She pulls her fingers out of me and eases me down to the ground. I readjust my underwear as she wipes her hand off on her pants. I smile devilishly at her and take her by the hand. I drag her over to the table and grab our coats and we leave. I know she needs to get off and soon or else she’s going to be cranky. She gets really worked up when we do stuff like this. I wrap my arm around her lower back and suck on her neck as we walk in the parking lot. Then I pull away and look around. It’s deserted out here, everyone’s inside. But we can’t do this out in plain sight, we like the chance of being caught, not actually being caught. Ah, another perfect spot. I pull her over to the alley and she’s looking at me like I’m crazy. It is pretty dirty down here. But that only adds to the experience. I give her an innocent smile and then press her up against the gross wall and kiss her hard. When we end the kiss we’re both panting. I start to suck on her neck again and she starts grinding her hips against me. Ok, now it’s time. She won’t be able to say no because she’s too worked up. But I doubt that she would say no anyway.


“Faith, I wanna act like a couple of teenagers. Is that ok with you?” I smile oh so sweetly. She knows exactly what I want to do. We’ve done this before and I said the exact same thing last time. She nods her head yes and then pulls me in for another kiss. I pull back and place little kisses down her jaw line, and then suck on her earlobe. She gives out this little squeak, she loves it when I suck on her ears. I work my way down her throat and stop. I suck on her hot skin, and gently scrape my teeth across it. She shivers a little and her hips are pumping faster now. I kiss my way down her body over her clothing. I place a kiss on her throat, then her breastbone, in between her breasts, then on her stomach and on her abdomen right above the waistline of her pants. I fall to my knees and unbuckle her belt. I pull down her pants until they’re around her ankles. Oh God, she’s not wearing any underwear. I gasp out in mock-horror. “Faith, you dirty tramp, you.” She smiles down at me and runs her fingers through my hair.


“Look who’s talking. I’m not the one on my knees, now am I?” She does have a point. She spreads her legs as far apart as she can. I look at her glistening sex and lick my lips. I look up at her and look into her eyes. She gives me this sexy smile, I love it when she smiles at me like that. “Well, what are you waiting for? Suck me.” I roll my eyes. Just because I want to act like teenagers doesn’t mean I want her to treat me like a trashy teen. But I keep quiet and do as I’m told. Sometimes I like being bossed around a little. I use my tongue to separate her swollen lips. She hisses in a breath and puts her hands on the wall to try and keep herself steady. I hold onto her hips to help a little. I slurp up the juices flowing out of her. I make sure to be really loud because I know she loves the noise. But the juice just keeps on comin and I know the only way I’m going to get this over with soon is by cutting this step a little short. I run the tip of my tongue up her slit and tickle her clit with it. She wiggles around and starts to moan pretty loudly. “That’s it baby, right there. Come on, B, suck me.” So I wrap my lips around her swollen, pulsating clit and I suck really hard. Her hips start pumping hard and she slips down a little. I get a better grip on her with my hands and hold her up.


I continue to suck on her quivering clit and I am feeling like a teenage girl right now, giving head to her girlfriend in some back alley after a date. Well, I’ve never heard of any girls that do that with other girls, but I know that teenage girls do it with their boyfriends. I can tell that Faith is really close. I just need to do one little thing and she’ll fall over the edge. I gently and when I say gently I mean really, super gently so I don’t hurt her, scrape the teeth of my bottom jaw up her slit and then nibble on her clit. I look up at her through my eyelashes and she’s biting her arm to keep from screaming. Her hips are going crazy and her nectar is gushing out of her. I gather up as much as I can with my mouth and swallow it down. This stuff tastes so good, I could live off of it for the rest of my life. I close my eyes and focus on the sweet yet musky taste as I lick it off of her thighs. I hear her let out a little laugh and I look up at her through my lashes again and continue to lick to her thighs like a cat with a dish of cream.


“Gotta love a girl that swallows,” she says and laughs a little more as she watches me. I smile and chuckle a little. Now that’s she’s all cleaned up down here I leave one last chaste, ok well I guess it can’t really be considered chaste because it is on her pussy. Anyway, I leave a little peck on her swollen nether lips and then help her pull up her pants. She buttons and zips them up and then clasps the buckle. “So, B, your knees are lookin a little roughed up. You feel like a teenager again?” Ok, there are so many ways I could be offended by that sentence. I could think that she’s trying to suggest that I used to do this with Angel, but she’s wrong. I never gave Angel head when I was a teenager, or when I was in my twenties. I did with Riley once but I just couldn’t force myself to do it again. And he was such a gentlemen and he would never try to convince a girl to do something she doesn’t want to do. But since Faith means well I’ll play along because I did start this after all.


“Yep. I feel like a sixteen year old girl who snuck out to see her girlfriend while her parents are sleeping.” Then I bring in the way over dramatic acting. “Oh, please walk me home. My window’s too high for me to climb inside of it by myself. I need you to lift me up. But you have to be super quiet because if my dad wakes up we’re both dead.” We start cracking up laughing and I lean against her and then give her neck a couple of quick kisses. “Ok, seriously, we need to get back. We have to pick up the car and I’m sure Dawn’s getting impatient.” She nods her head in agreement and we walk the fifteen-minute walk back to her car. But she doesn’t drive us home.


Instead she drives us to the lake and parks in the parking lot by the little information station that closes at like six at night. The sky is perfectly clear, which is pretty rare for December. The moonlight is reflecting off of the water and it looks so beautiful. She shuts off the engine but keeps the battery on and turns on the radio. She flips through the stations until she finds the one she’s looking for. She can be so cheesily romantic when she wants to be and I love it. The song ends and another one comes on. She turns the volume up a little and then looks over at me. I smile really wide at her. I haven’t heard this song in forever. She knows I love it, and it’s so appropriate for the mood. If I were a teenager lookin to score I’d put on this song. I’m sure the girls just love it. Ok, I need to stop thinking like that before I kill the mood.


Baby you don't know, what you do to me. Between me and you, I feel a chemistry. Won't let no one come and take your place. Cause the love you give can't be replaced. See no one else love me like you do. That's why I don't mind to spend my life with you. Wanna please you in anyway I can. Wanna share my world don't you understand.



She starts lipping along with the song and my eyes water up a little bit, but with joy. I love her so much. I really hope she knows how much I love her. I never thought I’d ever find someone that I would love as much as I love her. I also thought that I’d end up like my mom. I thought that I’d meet someone great, someone I’d be in love with. We’d get married, have some kids but I always thought that it would end. I never thought I’d be in a relationship that’s lasted as long as this. I never thought that after eight years of being together I’d still be madly in love with the person I’m seeing. And the fact that she’s a woman doesn’t have to do with any of it. I love Faith for who she is, not what she is. There are some people that just don’t understand that. And it makes me kind of sad that there are people out there who hate us because we love each other.


Your love is a one in a million it goes on and on and on. You give me a really good feelin all day long. Your love is a one in a million it goes on and on and on. You give me a really good feelin all day long.



I stop paying attention to the rest of the song. All I can focus on is Faith as her lisp move along with the voice of the singer. She doesn’t like to sing out loud because she doesn’t think she has a good singing voice. She’s pretty good actually. Better then your average person, but it’s not like she’s so good that she could get a record deal or something. But to me it’s perfect. Because she will sing for me when I really want her to and it’s usually something romantic like this so it’s special. The song ends and she turns down the volume as the DJ’s voice sounds out through the speakers. I lean close to her and she meets me halfway and we kiss deeply. I love her so much, sometimes I don’t think what I’m feeling is real because it just seems like it’s too much. But I know deep down that it’s real, that I’ll always love her and there’s nothing she could do to make me stop. We pull back from the kiss and we’re both smiling. And it’s in this moment, with the moon and starlight radiating from the sky, the slow romantic music playing in the background, Faith looking at me with so much love and devotion, it’s right now that I realize I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to put off the wedding. I want to merry her sooner then we originally planned. I just hope she’s open to the idea.


FPOV


I wake up and stretch my arms high above my head and feel my backbones pop back into place with a satisfying crackling sound. I yawn widely and I smile when I feel Buffy move around next to me. I open my eyes and look over at her in the few small rays of morning sunlight that’s managed to slip in through the curtains. She’s lying on her stomach with one arm under the pillow, the other hanging off the bed. One of her calves is pressed up against me, while her other leg is bent at the knee and at a perfect right angle. Her hair is really messy, and it’s going to take her at least an hour to brush it all out. There are a couple scratch marks on her back that haven’t healed yet. I got a little wrapped up in the moment last night and couldn’t help myself. The blankets are resting at her waist, leaving her upper body exposed. I reach over and gently stroke her back as she sleeps. I smile to myself as I think of last night.


After I drove to the lake, which was a pretty good idea since she really wanted to get into that ‘teenage vibe’ and I know that whenever my guy friends from back in Boston wanted to score they’d take their dates to the Harbor and look at the lights of the city. But since this town doesn’t have a harbor I figured Lake Shasta is second best. And the sky was perfect and the moon was really big and bright and it made everything so romantic but in a total cheese-ball sort of way. At least it was cheesy in the beginning, but after that song came on and I lipped it to her, she really got into it. We made out for a while, did some light over the clothing groping, but nothing too serious, nothing like back at the club or in the alley. When we parted for air I ran my thumb along her kiss swollen bottom lip and she looked into my eyes and told me that she didn’t want the night to end. I smiled and told her that it didn’t have to. She looked a little confused and was about to question me but I kissed it away.


After a few more minutes of just kissing and loving it we pulled away and I started the car. I had her close her eyes and I drove us to this really nice hotel. No it’s not the one that Kennedy was staying at when she and Willow split after the ‘Barbie incident’. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to that one and not think of that. Anyway, I rented us a room and paid in cash. I knew that Dawn was going to worry and because Willow taught her how to hack she’d be able to go online and get my credit card number and I really didn’t want her tracking us down. Buffy said she wanted to feel like a teenager, and teenagers do this. They rent hotel rooms and stay in them without their parents knowing about it. But at that point it was so much more then that. It was so much more then feeling like a lovesick teen hiding away for a night with her lover. It was about us, getting away from all the stresses of life and being together for one perfect night and not have to worry about waking the kids if we get too loud.


We took things wicked slow. I think it took us a good hour and a half maybe even two hours just to get all of our clothes off. When we were in nothing more then our bras and underwear, well she was in underwear but the best way to avoid panty lines in leather pants is to not wear panties at all. Anyway, when she was in nothing more then her bra and underwear I laid her down on the bed and started to lightly kiss her. I kissed almost every inch of her body, from her forehead down to the bottoms of her feet. Then I rolled her over and gave her a slow yet firm backrub. I started to kiss the back of her neck and I slowly worked my way down until I was again kissing her feet. She loved every second of it. She was moaning and hissing in her breaths in between panting. I was worshipping her and she knew it. I made damn sure that she was well aware of it. I had her shaking with desire she wanted me so bad. I finally gave in, the massage and full body kissing took a little over three hours. She was about ready to pop. So I took off my bra and she rolled over onto her back. I laid mostly on top of her, resting most of my weight on my elbows and knees. We kissed deeply and while we were kissing I reached down and spread her lips apart. I did the same for me and then lowered my body down on top of hers so we were in our favorite position: clit to clit. I don’t know what it is about this position that we both love so much. Maybe because it’s so intimate, I don’t know.


We took our time, and went really slow. I had her withering and moaning and practically begging me for release before we came together. We held each other for a few minutes after and then she slowly turned over so we switched positions and she did a little body licking of her own. Bet you can’t guess which part of my body she focused on. Ok, well you probably already did. She twirled her tongue up inside my pussy in ways I didn’t even know existed, and this is me we’re talking about. Buffy is not the first girl I’ve ever been with and I have a very talented tongue. Not as good as hers though. I think she was making it up as she went along because now we had time to experiment with it. We didn’t have to rush and we didn’t have to be quiet, which was great because she did this weird thing with her tongue, I can’t even describe it, and I was screamin, and squeakin for almost an hour before she finally let me come. Yes, I squeak like a girl, so what? I hate it when it happens but I can’t control it.


Anyway, after she finished lapping up all my juices she crawled back up my body, leaving the occasional kiss here and there. I know that she purposely kissed my bellybutton, and I know she did it on purpose because she looked up at me afterwards with this cautious look on her face like she was afraid I was going to freak out or something. But I didn’t. I didn’t feel weird about her kissing me there. No thoughts of him were brought on because of it. And she smiled really wide and leaned down and kissed it again. I giggled like a little girl but it didn’t break the mood like I thought it would. She held me for a few minutes and then I rolled her over onto her back and worshipped her again. And we did that, taking turns worshipping each other showing each other with our bodies how deep our love runs, until our bodies just couldn’t take it anymore. And now I’m lightly stroking her back and listening to her deep rhythmic breathing as she lightly snores.


I sigh and look over at the clock on the nightstand on Buffy’s side of the bed. Six thirty am, good thing it’s a Saturday or else we’d be in big trouble. We didn’t plan on staying out all night obviously and Dawn works on Fridays but has Saturday and Sunday off so she won’t be too pissed off at us. I look over at the nightstand on my side of the bed and pick up the phone. I dial out and then punch in the numbers to Dawn’s cell phone. I know it’s turned off and she wouldn’t answer it even if it were on. Nothing can wake that kid up before seven in the morning, at least nothing I know about. I leave a message on the voicemail saying that we’re fine, we just didn’t keep track of time on patrol and didn’t want to wake any of them up so we stayed at a hotel last night. I know that her cell is the first thing she checks when she wakes up in case she’s missed any important calls. I hang up the phone and look next to it. I smile. Score, the menu for the room service. I pick it up and flip through it a little. They gave a good selection, we should come here for often just for the food. Aw, but is it any good? Only one way to find out. I pick up the phone and dial the number.


“Hi, I’d like some room service delivered to room two-twenty-five please. Ok, I’d like five blueberry waffles with maple syrup, five buttermilk pancakes with original syrup and whip cream. Two glasses of orange juice, two glasses of milk, and two mugs of coffee one with cream and two teaspoons of sugar, the other black. Oh, and could you throw in a small bowl of whole strawberries? Ok, great. Thank you.” I hang up the phone and set the menu down on the table. I look over at the blonde beauty lying next to me and grin widely to myself. How on earth did I get this lucky? I slowly scoot over and carefully position her body so we’re spooning. She likes waking up like this. It’s rare but she loves it. I give her neck a little kiss and smile again when she giggles. The little fox is awake. I should have known, she usually protests when you try to move her when she’s sleeping, it’s cute. “How long have you been awake?” I run my fingers the best I can through her matted hair.


“Long enough to know you’re going to have to order more coffee and food.” I smile and give the side of her neck another kiss. We’re both quiet for a minute or two, but she’s tense. She’s thinking about something and she’s tying to figure out how to word it. I know her good enough to know that. “Faith.” She’s hesitant which means I’m right. “I don’t want to wait.” What? The people in the kitchen can only work so fast, if that’s what she’s talking about, but I have a feeling she’s not. “To get married, I don’t want to wait anymore. Last night was amazing, and you’re so amazing and I’d be insane to wait too much longer.” She rolls over in my arms so she can look into my eyes. She looks so hopeful and so scared at the same time. “I want to get married in the spring, this spring, when everything is blooming and coming back to life. The wedding doesn’t have to be at a church or a fancy Inn. We could have it in a park or at a really nice garden somewhere. And then I want to go away for a week to Hawaii for our honeymoon. I want all that Faith, and I don’t want to wait two years for it.” Um, ok. But I thought she had all of it planned out? What happened to all of that? I mean, I’ll willingly go along with whatever she wants, as long as it’s what she wants. I don’t want her to rush this. It’s her special day. I don’t want it to be cheapened in any way.


“I’m not protesting this, so please don’t take it that way. But what about all the plans you made? You wanted Addy to be a flower girl, if we get married this Spring when everything is just blooming she’ll only be like...four maybe five months old. She won’t be old enough to walk down an isle with a basket of flowers. And the way you talked about this before you wanted both of the kids to be involved in the wedding. And I know that this is about us, mainly you, but with everything going on with Red and Kennedy I don’t think they’ll be able to be in the same place at the same time. It would probably be like torture for Willow. Don’t you think we should wait a little while? At least until Addy is old enough to walk and that way both her and Miranda can be flower girls and Miranda can lead her down the isle so she doesn’t wonder off?” Xander’s kid, Miranda, one of the cutest little girls ever, she’s already walkin. Buffy sighs and I reach over and rub my hand up and down her side. She shivers and goosebumps so show up on her usually smooth skin. I pull the covers up so that only our heads can be seen.


“I did want that because I wanted them to feel included, but she doesn’t have to be in the wedding. I mean, she isn’t even going to remember it. And Matthew can still be the ring bearer, and someone can hold Addison. I’m sure she won’t be a problem or anything. And I’m sure we can convince someone to bring them back here to watch them. I mean, we’re going to have alcohol at the reception, and I don’t want the kids around that. And I’m sure Kennedy will watch the kids for us while we’re gone. Baby, I want to marry you, and I don’t want to wait too much longer. I want it in May because that’s when the roses bloom, and we can have it at a really nice garden in Southern California. I know a really neat place that hosts weddings. It’ll be perfect. And me and Dawn will take care of everything, you don’t have to worry about anything at all, ok?” She really does want this, I can tell by that desperate sound in her voice. If this is really what she wants then who am I to deny her? I sigh and wrap my arms around her and pull her closer to me.


“If this is really what you want then I’ll be more then happy to help you have it.” I feel her smile against my neck and she leaves little butterfly kisses all over my skin. I pull away and then lean down and give her a big kiss on the mouth. It’s hot and searing but at the same time a little gross because we haven’t brushed our teeth yet. We break apart and she’s frowning a little bit. She doesn’t like it when I kiss her when she has morning breath. After all these years together she’s still self-conscious about her breath. I think it’s kind of sweet. She’s only self-conscious about it because she’s afraid of what I’m going to think, so in Buffy’s weird way that’s her showing me that she cares. I lean in to kiss her but she pulls away. Sometimes she can be a big baby. “Alright, no more kissing until we brush our teeth. Or at least rinse our mouths out.” There’s a knock at the door and then some guy yells out ‘room service’. “That’s breakfast, I’ll be right back.” I sneak a kiss on the lips and pull away and jump out of the bed before she can smack me. I laugh a little and throw on one of the robes lying in the chair that’s against the wall. I answer the door and thank the guy as he wheels the food into the room on the little cart. I would tip him but I don’t have any cash on me. He looks at me and then at Buffy who’s still lying naked in the bed. She covered up but you can tell by the way she’s clutching onto the blankets as she sits up that she’s nude.


“You two must’ve had some fun last night.” He says and takes the lid off of the tray that has our plates of food on it. I go to say something a little rude to let him know not to fuck with us but he interrupts me. “I also brought up some chocolate fondue to go with the strawberries, compliments of the chef. Enjoy your meal and please call if you need anything else.” And then he leaves the room before I can say anything. Mmm, this food smells really good. I pick up the tray and take it over to the bed. Luckily it has these little stands and we won’t have to balance it ourselves. I rest it between me and B and she picks up her fork and starts eating. I watch her for a few seconds as she chews the food and then makes her yummy face. I love that face, it’s so cute. So I start to eat my waffles and these are pretty damn good. We’ll have to come back here sometime and spend the night again.


“Good breakfast?” I ask and she nods her head and smiles. I reach over to the little bowl of strawberries and pick one up and dip it in the little bowl of chocolate. I hold it out for her to take and she licks a little bit of the chocolate off the tip of the strawberry before capturing it between her lips and taking a small bite. She locks eyes with me and chews the red berry in her mouth and moans and makes her yummy face, and she moans a little more. She knows I go crazy when she eats like that. She’s doing it on purpose to get me all hot and bothered. And it’s working. I offer her the rest of the berry without dipping it back in the chocolate first. I laugh a little when she pouts. “Aw, aw, aw B, no double dunks. Wouldn’t want to get your germs in the chocolate.” She pouts a little and then smiles this evil smile. What is she up to? She brings her index finger up to her moan and sucks on the tip. She closes her eyes and moans a little, that does look pretty fuckin hot. Then she opens her eyes and takes her finger out of her mouth and before I can react her finger is in the bowl of chocolate, her spit and all. She smiles at me innocently and bats her eyelashes.


“There, now it doesn’t matter, does it?” I sigh and don’t say anything. She can be a brat sometimes, but I love her. I know that if I say something it’ll just start a fight. She pulls her finger out of the chocolate and holds it up by my lips. I smile and look into her eyes as I wrap my lips around the digit and softly suck the fondue off of it. I’m just forming the plan of how to convince Buffy to let me lay her down and pour the fondue over her and let me lick it all off when her stupid cell phone rings. Why do we have to be so responsible all the time? I thought we were acting like teenagers? Teenagers never leave their cell phones on when they’re going out for a night of fun and doing things they don’t want their parents to know about. She gets up off the bed and digs through the pile of clothes and then answers her cell when she finds it. “Hello?” She’s quiet as whoever is on the other end talks. She blushes a little bit. I wonder who it is. “No, we’re fine. We just stayed out kinda late and we didn’t want to wake anyone up going home.” She blushes even more and I smile. She’s so damn cute when she blushes.


“Well, yeah. So, were you calling for a reason?” She lets out this sigh of frustration and I tense up a little bit. Is the world ending again? I hope not. “Well, it’s great that they finished early but we’re not leaving until after New Year’s, Giles, we already talked about this.” She lets out another sigh and then pulls the phone away from her face and looks over at me and in a very bored sounding voice she says, “Faith, the workers finished building the apartment early, they even set up an area for Tucker to stay in, and Giles wants us to leave tomorrow. Apparently Lily is starting to act up again and we should really get there soon before something bad happens.” I sigh and run my hand through my hair. I really need a shower. I’m sticky all over.


“You go ahead. I want to wait until winter break gets over with so I can pull Mattie out of school. Red isn’t doin so good and I don’t trust her magic right now. It’d be better just to put him in a school close to the facility.” She nods her head in agreement but I know she isn’t going to go back by herself. She’s already told Giles that we’d be showing up together, dog and all, and if he wants Buffy’s help then he’ll agree to the terms. I start eating my breakfast again and only half pay attention to the conversation. I guess he’s trying to convince her to just go alone, but she’s not going to. Once she’s made up her mind there’s no changing it. That was a hard lesson to learn. Our first fight, as a couple, was a pretty bad one and over something stupid like most fights are. We were still living in the apartment. Mattie was only two months old and Buffy wanted to repaint the nursery. I told her we should just leave it because we were looking for a house so why bother? But we kept fighting and I ended up sleeping on the couch for three nights until we made up.


“Giles, Matthew goes back to school on the ninth of January and we’re going to pull him out of school and get him set up somewhere in Ohio.” There’s a little pause and she sighs again. “Yes Giles, we think that’s the best thing to do. We don’t know how long we’re going to stay there. It could be months, and the only way to send him to school out here would be Willow teleporting and she’s going through a lot right now and she needs to be left alone. The last thing we need right now is some big backfire from her magic.” She does have a point. “I want some extra time to pack. So we won’t leave until the fourteenth. I’m sorry Giles, but we’re not leaving until everything here is taken care of. No I’m not going there by myself. I didn’t want to go in the first place and after Faith’s accident there’s no way in hell I’m leaving them again.” Her voice is starting to rise. Giles better get off the phone and quick or else she’s going to be in a bad mood all damn day. “Ok. I’ll see you in January. Bye.” And she hangs up the phone. She drops in on the floor and crawls under the covers and starts to eat her breakfast again. She’s tense and I know she’s going to be crabby for a while. I never really know how to handle this type of situation. Sometimes I’ll get affectionate and she’ll say that I’m suffocating her. Sometimes I stay away and she’s says that I’m avoiding her. So I guess the best thing to do would be to play it by ear.


“So, January fourteenth huh?” She looks over at me with this weird look. “It’s just strange, us going there for so long. Almost like we’re moving there or something. I just hope we’re only there for a couple of weeks. I don’t want Mattie to get attached to anyone just to have to come back home. Those girls are going to love him. I can’t wait to see him flirt with all those girls.” She nods her head and smiles at the thought of it. He’s going to have such a good time. And I’m sure we can con the kids off on someone else so she can take me to that club she went to with those girls. I can’t to find out which one was gropin her. Giles said it himself, we’re like celebrities at that place, and news of a scandal that like would get around pretty fast. So I’m sure if I ask around someone will tell me who the bitch is. I’m not going to hit her or anything, just threaten her to stay the fuck away from B.


We finish our breakfast and I set the tray on the ground next to the bed. I sigh and lie down on my back, Buffy does the same. I look over at her, her eyebrows are knit together tightly and her eyes are slowly scanning the ceiling. She’s really deep in thought, but she also looks lost. She has the same expression on her face now that she had during the big battle. I hate that look because I feel like I need to make it go away, but I never know how. She’s overburdened by all of this, I know that better then anyone. She feels trapped, and she doesn’t know what to do. She knows that she needs to go to Ohio but at the same time all she wants to do is stay here and be normal. But she can’t do that, too many people are depending on her, just like the old days. I think that feeling is starting to bring up some bad memories or something.


“You wanna talk about it?” She stays quiet and I’m a little annoyed now. I shouldn’t be, but I can’t help it. I don’t like being ignored. “Come on Buffy, somethin is bothering you, so why won’t you tell me?” She’s quiet, but she sighs. At least she’s acknowledging that I’m talkin to her. I roll over onto my side and prop my head up with my hand, my elbow is digging into the sheets. I use my other hand to lightly stroke the soft skin of her stomach. She needs to some time to think, and she isn’t going to tell me about it anytime soon, I know that. So, the least I can do is help take her mind off of it until she’s ready to talk. Isn’t that just being a good fiancé? I lean forward and leave little butterfly kisses on her stomach. I can feel the muscles quiver as my lips softly touches the skin beneath them. I hear her giggle, and I look up at her. I rest my head on her stomach so that the side of my face is pressed gently against it. I can hear her body digesting her breakfast. There are all sorts of rumbling noises. “You wanna act like teens again? Play hooky a little longer? Brat’ll be pissed but so what?” I start to gently kiss her stomach again and she giggles a little more. She runs her fingers through my long hair and I close my eyes. She gives a little tug and I moan against her skin, causing her to giggle loudly and goosebumps to appear. I love it when she does that.


“Faith.” I look up at her and smile when I see the desire in her eyes. But there’s also a little bit of mischief. What is she up to? “Go down on me.” Huh? I know what she’s talkin about, I’m not stupid, but she’s never said it before. Well, a couple of times when I was really teasin and she was gettin frustrated, but she doesn’t like to talk dirty, she’s way too modest for that. “Don’t look so surprised. Come on Faith, fuck me with that dirty mouth of yours.” I smile one of those little half smiles that she thinks only she’s perfected. I kiss her stomach again and lightly blow some warm air onto it. She giggles and runs her fingers through my hair some more. I work my way down her body slowly, leaving little butterfly kisses. The muscles of her abdomen quiver under my touch and I smile. I love it when that happens. I rearrange myself so that I’m lying in between her legs. I wish I could stay here forever. I take one lick of the sticky liquid spilling out of her and her cell phone rings. How frustrating is that?


“Just ignore it, B, we’re acting like teens remember?” But Buffy can’t do that. It could be Dawn calling to say something horrible happened to one of the kids and we need to get home right away. Ok, I think I just freaked myself out. She gives me a sympathetic look and I smile at her. I lightly smack the top of her thigh as I sit up. She hates it when I do that. “It’s ok. We were teens for a night, I guess the party’s over. I need a shower.” I get up off the bed as she slides off it and grabs her cell phone. I tune everything out around me as I step into the shower and turn on the water. The hotter the better is my philosophy. Buffy gets pissed about it though because there are times when I’ll walk out of the shower with burn marks on me. But I barely feel it and they heal in a couple of hours. And they never scar, which I’m grateful for. The only scars I have are ones I got before I became a slayer and from the knife Buffy put in my belly. But it’s all good. I actually like the scar she gave me. I can’t explain it, but when I look at it, or touch it, it doesn’t remind me of the bad times like it should. I can’t explain it, so I’ll stop trying.


BPOV


“Matthew we cannot take all of your toys with us. You can take all of your army men.” God knows he has at least a thousand. “And you can bring Poppers.” It’s a teddy bear I bought him when he was a baby. “And your Tonka trucks, but that’s all. We can buy you some more toys when we get to Ohio, but we can’t take your entire toy chest on the plane with us.” We can’t. That thing weighs so much I had some trouble moving it when we rearranged his room. We already have most of his clothes packed. We’re only taking the winter wear since it’s still snowing in Ohio. Matthew isn’t used to that kind of cold. We’re not taking any chances with the baby getting sick since she’s only two months old. We bought some really warm clothing and I talked to Giles about the heating system and he knows that under no circumstances will the temperature in the little house thing be below sixty-five. If my baby gets sick because of this trip heads will roll, and Giles knows that. He knows how protective Faith and I are of our children and I’m sure he’s already warned the entire school including the staff that they need to be careful around our kids, because we will not hesitate to attack physically if someone does something that looks threatening. So I think it’s safe to say we should be considered dangerous.


“Ok, Mommy.” He hasn’t been fighting us on anything lately. He’s upset that he’s going to be leaving his school. He’s made a lot of friends there, and not just in his class. He has a couple of friends in first grade. He’s proving to be quite the social butterfly. I just hope he doesn’t turn into the kid that has a massive party at his house when his parents go out of town. It’s good that he’s making friends, it really is, but just not too many. And yes there is such a thing has too many friends. “Mommy, is Tucker going with us?” He’s asked me this question at least a thousand times. He’s worried that we’re going to leave the dog here. We’re not, and I’ve told him this. But he worries and I don’t think he’ll stop worrying until we’ve landed in Cleveland and he sees that Tucker is with us and is ok. We’re taking Giles’ private jet, but since Tucker is a big dog he has to be in one of those plastic dog crates and put in a back room of the plane for safety’s sake. The pilots don’t want him freaking out and hurting himself or anyone else. And they don’t want him running around the plane and breaking things. So, he’s going in a crate. He hasn’t been in one of those since he was a puppy. I hope he’ll be ok.


“Yes, Matthew, Tucker is coming with us. Mama is at the pet store buying his cage right now. Let’s hurry up and get this stuff packed so we can go get some dinner ok?” We’re leaving the day after tomorrow. We packed up our dishes except for a few that we’re using now. We’re just going to eat fast food until we leave for Ohio. Lots of Chinese mostly, we don’t want Matthew eating a lot of junk food since it’s so unhealthy. But we’re letting it slide for now. He doesn’t really like it, he misses Faith’s cooking and she’s already promised to cook a big meal once we get settled in the house at the facility. Giles sent me some pictures of it and it looks pretty nice. It’s not as big as our house but it’s comfortable. He had the construction crew put up a fence in the back so we have a large backyard for Tucker to run around in. Giles made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want our dog running around the facility causing havoc and destruction. And I know that’s exactly what he’ll do. He’ll dig and get into everything and knock things over and break stuff. But I mean, if he were to accidentally be let out of the house just once or twice then it totally wouldn’t be our fault if he dug up the flowers in the garden or chased the ducks in the pond. Nope, totally wouldn’t be our fault.


It takes us half an hour to pack up all of his toys. He convinced me to let him take some more stuff then I had told him. I know we can always buy him more but he just seems so sad about leaving, I feel bad that he has to leave most of his stuff here. Faith made it perfectly clear that we’re taking most of his book collection. We’re going to leave the ones that he never wants her to read, so that’s like five out of seventy. She reads to him a lot. And apparently she read to him a lot more then usual after I left. She would sit up at night with him and Addison during her feedings and read to both of them. He slept in the bed with her up until the night of her accident and I’m sure he’ll be sleeping with us the first week or so. Being in a new house is scary for most kids, so I’ll let him sleep in our bed with us for a week or two but then he’ll have to get used to sleeping on his own. I vowed a long time ago that I’m not going to be the parent that let’s their children sleep in the bed with them. Our kids will have their own beds and they will sleep in them.


We walk into the living room and I hear Faith in the garage, cussing a lot and sounding a little pissed. I open up the door and see her trying to get Tucker to go into the large dog crate. I smile as I watch her struggle with him. Since she’s a slayer she could easily force him inside, but she doesn’t want to hurt him so she’s trying to be gentle. She’s never going to get him in there with that attitude. But I have to go pick up the food so me helping her can wait until after dinner.


“Faith, I’m going to get the food. Addison’s still sleeping, but she should be up soon. And maybe you should try putting some food at the back of the crate and let him go in on his own. He’ll hate that thing forever if you force him to be in it.” She rolls her eyes and gives me this ‘whatever’ type of look. I hate that look, I’ve always hated it, and she knows I hate it. She does it just to piss me off. I know she does. Whatever. “I’ll be back in a little bit. Could you set the table while I’m gone?” She nods her head yes and I leave. Matthew closes the door behind him. He’s decided that he’s going with me. I had planned on taking him and Addison, but Faith is home now so the baby can stay. I hook Matthew up in his car seat and we’re off. It won’t take us long to get to the restaurant. Ten minutes, maybe a little more. The entire time I’m thinking about what it’s going to be like in Ohio.


We could be there for months, possibly even a year or more. I’m surprised we haven’t talked about selling the house. We’re getting everything shut off, the power, the water, and the gas that way we won’t have to pay for anything or worry about it. So now all we have to do is pack up what little stuff we have left to pack and then leave on Saturday. Giles is having us take an early flight so we’ll be getting up at five in the morning to drive to Sacramento. Kennedy said she’d drive us that way we won’t have to take one of our cars. We’ll be landing in Cleveland around three thirty in the afternoon, our time. It’ll be, like, twelve thirty in the afternoon in Cleveland. I hate the time difference. It’s going to take a while for the kids to get used to that. I’m sure they’ll do just fine. It shouldn’t take too long for them to adjust. I think it’ll take longer for Faith and me to adjust to it.


“Mommy, when we get to Cleveland do I get to train with the girls?” We’ve been too busy to train with him but he’s been talking about it. He knows that the facility is where the slayers go to train and learn how to fight and all of that other stuff. We aren’t sure if we should let him train with the other slayers or not. He hasn’t caused any problems in school like using his strength to takes toys from the other kids or anything like that, but we’re afraid that he’s going to show off in front of his friends and really hurt someone. And if we teach him how to do the moves then it’ll be pretty much our fault. I sigh and chew on my bottom lip a little. “Mama just kept saying ‘we’ll see’. Do I get to train with the girls, Mommy?” Ok, I think we need a subject change and right now. I pull into the parking lot of the restaurant and pull into a parking spot.


“Let’s go get the food ok?” But I know it isn’t going to be that easy. Once his mind is stuck on something there’s no distracting him. “I have to train with the girls for the school so they can get better and graduate, but maybe you and me can train on the weekends ok?” He sighs and nods his head. That’s not the answer he wanted. He wants to train with the girls, maybe it’ll happen, maybe it won’t. I have no idea, we’ll just have to wait until we get there. We go inside and pay for the food and then head home. When I walk in the front door the first thing that I notice is that the table is not set. I hate it when she does that. She usually only sets the table when she cooks, even if I ask her to do it and she agrees she won’t. This has started many fights in the past but I’m going to let it slide. We’re all stressed because of the move and I really don’t want to start anything right now. So I stay calm and set the bags of food down on the table. I don’t hear any noises, so Addison must still be sleeping, and Faith is probably out in the garage trying to get that dumb dog to cooperate.


I open the garage door and walk down the two concrete steps. What I see I don’t like, but I’m not going to get pissed. Ok, so I’m pissed but I’m not going to say anything about it. At least not a lot. Cluing you in would probably help. What I see is Faith sitting on the hood of her Camaro with an open bottle of Jack Daniels in her hand. It looks like she’s already had about a fourth of it. I walk in and sit down next to her. She doesn’t look at me, she just keeps staring into the void or whatever she’s looking at. She sighs deeply and takes another long drink of the amber liquid. She rolls her head back and looks up at the ceiling. She passes the bottle to me and I pick the cap up and twist it back on and set the bottle down in between us. She sighs again and lies down so the back of her head is resting against the glass of the windshield. I remember we almost had sex on the hood of this car, the day that Faith bought it, but then I got a little bit of a flashback and I remembered the day I had psychic ability and I heard my mom’s thoughts of when she and Giles had sex on the hood of a police car. I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to forget that.


“This is my first real home, ya know.” She says and I look up at her. I smile a little bit. She’s getting all reminiscey because we’re leaving on Saturday. “There was my house in Boston, but that was more of a hell then a home. Then there’s all the motel rooms and prison. But this is my first home.” She pauses as she sits up and looks over to the work bench. She used to spend a lot of time there, but then she got pregnant and I wouldn’t let her around the power tools. Call me a bitch but I worried way too much that she was going to hurt herself and the baby. I guess once you become pregnant people treat you like a china doll. Faith did it to me, so I did it to her. Revenge can be sweet as long as you don’t over do it. “I built Mattie’s bookshelf there. I fixed your jewelry box.” I smile a little more at that memory. She was the one who broke it. She decided it would be funny to play ‘keep away’ and she dropped it and didn’t catch it in time and the lid broke and she picked it up really quick before I could see how bad the damage was and she ran out to the garage and fixed it for me. She was so scared that she was going to get yelled at. I love that jewelry box. It was a Christmas present from her for our first Christmas together. “All of our memories are here. The good ones at least. Mattie’s first steps, first birthday, first words, the time we were sparring and you pushed me so hard my head went through the wall and I got a concussion.” I cringe at that memory. What? She was winning, and I hate losing. I got a little desperate and I pushed her harder then I meant to. “And now we’re packing up and leaving it all here. Addy’s firsts are probably going to happen in Ohio and we won’t be able to show her when she gets older. We won’t be able to take her to the exact spot where she took her first step, or the spot on the wall she colors with a marker for the first time.” We both laugh at that. Matthew had gotten a hold of a permanent marker and decided that the freshly painted bathroom would be the perfect place to unleash his artistic ability.


“Faith, it’ll be ok. We’ll make sure to be back here before any of that happens. She’s only two months old, she isn’t going to be walking until she’s about a year at least. Who knows? She might not even walk until she’s almost two. Some babies are like that. We have plenty of time to help get everyone back on track and get back here and get our lives back to normal. And I mean, it could be kind of fun. I mean, we don’t really do much during the day. Obviously now that we have Addison we’ll be taking care of her, but before she was born all we did was stay home and take care of Matthew, we only patrolled a couple nights a week. Don’t you think it’s time we do something more? I know we’re coming back here, there’s no way I’m staying in Ohio, but when we get back what then? It isn’t just recently, it’s been going on for a while, and I think that maybe there’s something missing. Maybe I could go back to college and get a degree and then get a job. I mean, we can’t live off of Giles’ money forever, and maybe it’s time we stopped being so dependent on it. It was nice in the beginning while we were getting back on our feet and everything but now it just seems like we’re mooching.” I don’t think now is the time to bring it up but whatever.


“I guess it would be good. I mean, he’s paying for the wedding and everything, and I do feel bad about him paying our bills and shit.” She sighs and runs a hand through her long hair. I got mine cut a little while ago so now it’s right below my shoulder. Oh, and I got some highlights. She loves it. She did tell me not to get it cut too short because she loves running her fingers through my hair. “Ohio’s gonna suck. It wouldn’t be as bad if we actually wanted to go but we don’t. Those brats are gonna wish they’d never acted up.” I know she’s serious and I can’t help but feel a little bad for them. Faith’s been to prison she can bring a whole new aspect of a drill sergeant that I can’t. Plus she’s really mean when she’s grumpy and I don’t think she’s going to be happy about training with the girls. I need to cheer her up somehow. I don’t like seeing Faith sad, it makes me sad. So I smile and get really close to her and kiss the side of her neck a couple of times.


“I asked Katie to come over and watch the kids so we can go patrolling. But how about we play hooky and act like teens again? We could even sneak out the bedroom window, and then put the car in neutral and roll it down the street before we start it. Then we can go back to that hotel and spend another wonderful night worshipping each other. Can we do that Faith? Can we act like teens again?” I smiles and gives me this ‘you really are crazy, aren’t you?’ type of look. Maybe I am. Maybe I’m still at that clinic in L.A. locked away in some padded room being cared for by nurses and doctors. Well, if I’m crazy and this is fake then I don’t want to be sane.