Order of Business

"Oh God, this blows," Faith said as she opened her eyes. Nothing was screaming in pain, but everything hurt. She was relieved to see a normal stone room instead of the bar from her dream.

"She is awake, Arturo," A soft voice said off to her left.

"You think so?" The big face of the big vampire that betrayed her came into view. "How could you ever tell? Fool, go and attend the mistress." She could hear the person walk out and shut the door behind him.

She rubbed her eyes and only then realized that she wasn't tied up. Looking over, she saw the giant bastard as he sat on a chair by the bed she was placed in. "How come I'm not tied up?" She stretched and noticed his eyes watched her closely while she did it.

"My mistress did not tell me to tie you up." He made no move as she sat up and swung her legs to the floor. "You are yet healing, be careful you do not reopen your wounds." It looked like he actually wanted to reach out to give her a hand. She stared at him until he leaned back in his chair and raised his hands like he was harmless.

She sat there and took stock of her condition. She still felt like something Godzilla left behind, but she could feel the slayer-healing working her over and while everything was tender, she wasn't an invalid. "Why'd you hit me on the head?"

He smiled, "My mistress told me to." He reached to the table and poured a glass of water from a clear pitcher and held it out to her. She paused for only a moment before taking it and soothing her raw throat with the cool liquid.

"Do you always do what she tells you to?" she asked, handing the glass back to him and noticing for the first time that she had a New York Yankees Jersey on. "What the Hell am I wearing?" She was from Boston, she hated the Yankees, or was supposed to. She really didn't care now that she thought about it.

He took the opportunity to admire the shirt. "Some...tourists donated their luggage awhile back, it is all we could find for you. Your jacket is being cleaned as we speak and yes, I do whatever my mistress tells me to and many things that she does not."

Faith was a little wobbly when she first stood, but after a moment she felt her sense of balance equalize and she walked carefully around the room. Every movement gave a small tug at the healing wound on her stomach. Every other cut and wound was healed over completely.
"So what's the what?" She decided to just sit back down, not as a sign of weakness, but because she felt like it. at least that's what she tried to convince herself.

The vampire stared at her for a moment. "The what?"

"The situation...Where's the mistress?" She gave 'spirit-fingers' when she said: mistress.

"She has not woken since her visit to your dream." He raised an eyebrow and gave her the feeling that he was a lech in his everyday life. "What did the two of you do in that dream?" He mimicked her 'spirit fingers' with: dream.

"Still sleeping, huh? Lightweight. I guess she will be pissed when she wakes up, unless you'd like to show me where she's sleeping at?" She could hope.

He laughed. "I am sorry, but no, I can not allow that."

She sized him up as a threat for a moment. "I don't suppose you've heard if the Dragon's dead?" she asked, deciding to change the subject.

"No such luck, ma fille, I testified to the council that you asked Belle for asylum and it was granted. The Dragon was not pleased with that, very not pleased in fact, but there is not a great deal that she can do about it."

"Didn't anybody ask where Belle was?" She was starting to wonder if she was supposed to be a captive here. She tried to remember if she heard the door lock when the other guy left.

"Of course!" he bellowed and a huge grin appeared on his face. "I told them you had an enormous appetite and Belle was trying to...how would you say?...out orgy you. They believed it or not, it matters little. None of them are about to invade Belle's territory to find the truth."

She glared at him for a second before laughing out loud. She sobered and asked, "Why did you help Jenn and Rami? Did she tell you to do that too?"

"No, I did that on my own," he answered.

"Why?"

"Because I was not told to not do it," he said as if that made perfect sense. She just shook her head.
She stood again. "Do you think I'm a hostage here?"

His mood noticeably dimmed. "No, I do not, I am not going to fight you chest to...chest," he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows that caused her to smile. "Belle is unable presently and if others were to hear of the altercation and know she was helpless, the jackals would all attack to kill her while she was weak. She dies, we all die. No one would offer to save my wife or me so what can I do?"

She studied him for a little while. "You know, Artie, you ain't bad for a vamp, even a Frenchie. Maybe you should take your wife and go on vacation somewhere far away. Nothing good is about to go down around here in the near future." Something like razing the entire place and killing everyone inside, she thought and smiled about some of the ideas she had for the ones that touched her kids.

He stood and pulled her combat knife from the back of his pants and twirled it his his huge fingers for a moment before handing it to her hilt-first. "Would that I could Dark Knight, but it is not to be. I will stand with my queen, as will my wife." She imagined that he looked sad, but it was hard to tell with these vamps.

She nodded her head slowly. "I respect that. Hell is coming, maybe you should convince Belle to go somewhere else."

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"Hey, Red, you look good. Dump Kenn again?" Faith asked as she stepped out of the shadows in the alley where Blake first came through. Willow and her three slayer guard were all startled by her sudden appearance and she shook her head at how easy it was to sneak up on them.

"Faith...thank the Goddess, we were all worried about you," Willow said as she came over and hesitated for a moment before hugging her one-time lover. She hugged the witch back and teased her by giving a quick squeeze on her rump, causing a cute squeak of indignation.

"Yea, I'm just happy I didn't have to hitch all the way to America to get home. Even if I did have to call Haven's club for help. Speaking of that, why did they say that Haven's been in Seattle for almost a week?" She nodded to the other slayers as Willow used the spell she was setting up to stall having to answer her question.

"Would you believe it if I told you Buffy was in the middle of a huge bed full of naked girls?" the Redhead asked in apparent sincerity.

"Is this a trick question?"

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"You're crying?" Jenn said in a whisper.

Damn, I am crying! "No, I'm not," she said to her blond protege as she tried to stifle the tears.

"It's okay, Faith, the first time in the Hum gets all of us now that its gotten stronger as Buffy gets closer to being healed," Rami said as she tentatively touched Faith's shoulder and when the senior slayer didn't pull away, she squeezed it and held on.

"I'm not crying." I so am. Damn, stop it you baby! she scolded herself. It was bad enough that she gave in to the urge to drop trou' and hop in the bed, now she was going to have an Oprah moment too? "This sucks." This is amazing, she thought.

"I thought your boobs would be bigger," Blake said, and then realized that everyone but the sleeping Buffy turned to stare at her. "I mean like everyone focuses on them but they're not that...they're fine, really round." Her mouth slammed shut with an audible clap.

"Shut up, Blake," Faith said.

"I'm sorry, Faith, I just don't think sometimes before I start talking, I really..." She was off on a rant before Faith interrupted.

"Shut up, Blake! It's all right, lets just not...just be quiet." At least I'm not crying now, she consoled herself. It's like coming home and somebody being there that gives a damn and wraps you in a hug. "This sucks."
She caught Jenn and Rami smile at each other and it pissed her off that others were seeing any kind of weakness from her. She was the slayer, she didn't need any ones pity. She looked at her hand resting on Buffy's stomach and any anger she had fled. It wasn't real anyway, she admitted to herself. She buried her face in the bedspread, covering the tears that she felt sliding from her eyes as the stress and the horrors of her life slowly melted away in the face of that warm hum that filled her and made her accept that she wasn't alone and would never truly be alone again. "How long do we have to do this for?"

"There's no time limit," Princess, the brunette werelion answered as she reached over and rubbed Faith's back in small circles. "You can leave whenever you want."

I could stay here forever. "I'll stick it out for a little longer," she said, hoping that the lion didn't stop rubbing her back and that Jenn wouldn't tell everyone that she was squeezing the girl's hand. "B' would so freak if she knew what was going on," she said as she leaned closer and buried her face in her queen's hair. I'm not crying, she told herself, but she so was.

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Buffy opened her eyes and paused as her mind tried to explain what she thought that she was looking at. What in the Hell is going on! she wondered as she looked at Willow's very nude body lying next to her. "What in the Hell is going on."

"Buffy!" Willow said with relief as she turned her face to look at her.

Did I turn gay? "Did I turn gay?" she asked as she desperately tried not to notice Wil's personal grooming habits.

"No, Buffy." Her friend smiled and hugged her, like they weren't both touching...all over. "It's what has been healing you. Sineya accepted your lion beast and now a little of their power structure bled off onto the slayers."

Buffy noticed that they were not alone in the bed. "Hi, Courtney," she said with a little wave, still somewhat in shock. She looked back at Willow and thought for a moment, Did she say I was a lion? "Did you say I was a lion?" Wow, I'm channeling Cordy. "Wow, I'm channeling Cordy...stop that!"

"Are you okay?" Willow asked as she became obviously worried about her. "Take it easy, Buffy, you've had a really hard time."

Buffy was about to say something, but all of a sudden the image of a tiny green-eyed lion cub appeared in her mind and was about to leap at her until the shadowed hands of her slayer reached out and picked the squirming ball of golden fur up and pulled her back to the shadows. The knowledge of all of the slayers and the pride flooded into her mind, she was stunned for a long while as she literally felt their minds, their lives flow through her. She could feel Willow. "Are you a Slayer?"

"No, Giles and Xander feel the call also, it's got to be because of the essence sharing we did to beat Adam. They would be in the bed here too, if it wasn't...icky and like Dawn didn't exist in Xander's case." Willow's big smile caused Buffy to relax and try to accept some of this weirdness for now.

"Do all the Slayers change to lions now?" she asked.

"Oh, no, they're the same as far as we can tell, it's just that you're the umm...the focus of family? They heal their psyches by touching you. It's years of therapy in one touch, it really is amazing." Willow was so happy.

"You do realize we're naked, right?"

Willow blushed quickly, "It's...different at first, but you get used to it really fast and it's a skin hunger, everyone needs to rub all over you." She blushed again.

Buffy forced the image of Giles and Xander rubbing all over her completely out of her mind, shot it, dug a very deep hole, and buried it. "What about Faith, where is she?!" she said as soon as the thought hit her mind.

"She's fine, she was in here this morning and right now I think she's training everyone on some of the capabilities those vamps have." Willow answered, and Buffy took a deep breath at the news.

"That's great. I have to talk to Faith first but we're going to have to get everyone into the conference room. The slayers are going to war."