Its Not a Relationship!... Is It?

Title: It's Not a Relationship!... Is It?
Part Four: Killers & Lovers & Visitors, Oh My!
See 1st chapter for disclaimer and all that other stuff.
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Two days had passed before another attempt on Faith’s life was made.

It was the same young man who’d managed to sneak into the hotel and hide in her room.

When Faith had gone upstairs to grab her jacket before she went out on patrol, he’d come out of her closet, gun cocked and aimed at her head.

Downstairs, Angel had sensed someone who didn’t belong there and immediately tore up the stairs to her room, followed by Wesley, Fred and Gunn.

“Faith!”

They heard her cry out. The gun went off, followed soon after by the sound of glass breaking.

By the time they got inside, Faith was falling to the floor and shaking.

Wesley ran to her, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly.

The gun lay on the floor near the bed, there was a gun shot in the wall across the room. But the he he was hanging half in, half out the window, his body impaled on a large shard of glass.

“No… no… no…” Faith whispered repeatedly, shaking her head as she gripped Weslightightly. She buried her face in his chest and began to sob.
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Now, days later, Faith still walked around the hotel in a state of shock. Her face was blank, with absolutely no expression. There was no light in her eyes and she barely made a noise, let alone spoke.

Finally, the night Angel, Gunn and Fred went to Las Vegas to get Lorne, Wesley walked into the lobby and found her sitting on the couch. She was hugging herself, rocking back and forth.

He made his way to her, sitting on the coffee table in front of her. He gripped her arms, stopped her from rocking.

“Faith, look at me. Look… at… me.” He knew she could hear him. She didn’t respond, but he knew she heard him. So he continued.

“Faith, listen to me. You did nothing wrong. It wasn’t your fault. It was out of your control.” He stared into her empty eyes, hoping to get some sort of response.

Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes brimmed over with tears. “I, I… killed someone… again.” Her voice cracked and she shook.

Wesley shook her violently. “Self-defense, Faith. It was self-defense.”

She shook her head, tears streaming down her face.

“Yes, Faith.” He nodded. “Don’t let this bring you down, not now. Not after all you’ve been through, all you’ve worked for. You’ve come so far.”

She blinked a few times and he thought he was really getting through to her.

“Faith, I lost you once because an accident like this. And I’ll be damned if I let it happen again. Come back. We need you. I need you.”

Her eyes became clear and bright, and the light was slowly coming back to them. A smile was slowly tugging at the corners of her mouth, but before she could manage to form it, he leaned forward and softly pressed his lips to hers.

It took some time for her body to respond, but she soon kissed him back, slowly deepening the kiss. She reached for his shirt and lightly pulled him closer.

In that instant, she knew the situation with Wesley had just gone from bad to worse.

They’d never shared anything meaningful before. Touches, glances, talks, kisses, sex; anything meaningful meant they hadn’t experienced it. At least not together.

But now, this kiss… it meant something. Wesley had told her she meant something to him, that he didn’t want to lose her… that he needed her. And then he’d kissed her.

And it was no where near the kisses they’d shared in the alley all those nights before. They were all about sex, danger, obsession, taking what you wanted.

This was soft, tender, meaningful.

That damned word again.

She knew she was in trouble now. But she couldn’t bring herself to pull away from him. Her fingers fumbled with the buttons on his shirt but he quickly stopped her, lightly taking hold of her wrists and pushing them away.

Their lips parted and he looked at her, shaking his head. “I can’t, Faith. You’re not…” he sighed. “I’m not going to take advantage of the situation.”

She stared at him, hurt. She’d put all of herself into that kiss, every fiber of her being. She thought he knew that. And now… he was rejecting her.

Wesley saw the hurt in her eyes and felt horrible, but refused to change his answer. He couldn’t do that to her.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, Faith. I do,” he smiled and licked his lips, giving her a quick once over. “more than you kn- more than you can tell. But it wouldn’t be right… not now, not like this.”

To his surprise, she smiled softly and nodded, leaning forward to kiss him gently.

He was blown away by the gentleness with which she kissed him. He honestly never thought she was capable of something that soft. She pulled away and he found himself wanting more, wanting so badly to pull her into his arms, take her upstairs and make love to her.

Instead, he let out the shaky breath he realized he’d been holding and smiled. “I- wh, what was that for?”

She shrugged and whispered softly. “Everything.”

Not another word was spoken as she stood went upstairs, Wesley watching her until she was completely out of his sight. He heard her door close, soon followed by the sound of the shower being turned on.

Wesley sighed and switched his seat from the coffee table to the couch and lay his head back. He closed his eyes, pictures of a certain slayer in a compromising position bombarding his mind. He smiled.
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“So she killed him?” Lilah asked, pacing the floor of her office.

Gavin nodded, forcing a smile. “That’s what I said.”

“How?”

“’How’?”

Lilah sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, how?!”

“I, uh-“ Gaving stuttered, opening his folder. He flipped through the charts and files. “Oh, here. He was uh, oh… impaled on a window.” He read slowly, looking up at her in curiosity.

Lilah nodded. “Uh-huh. Well… prove the guy was an innocent, she goes to jail again and she’s still out of way. Still works out for me.”

She sat down at her desk and chewed her bottom lip as she mulled over her options. Finally she looked back up at Gavin, fury burnging brightly in her eyes.

“Look, you do whatever you have to in order to get her out of my way. Kill her, kidnap her, brainwash her, bribe her, sell her to a family of Armenians, send her back to jail, I don’t care. Just get her the fuck away from Wesley.” She seethed.

Gavin nodded, eyeing her curiously. She seemed to be a little too emotionally involved in getting Mr. Pryce to join the Wolfram and Hart team. If he didn’t join, it was no huge deal. He wondered why she was so upset.

She glared at him. “Why are you still here?”

He smiled and nodded. “Sorry.” He calmly left her office, still confused as to what was going on. He was going to find out… even if he had to befriend Mr. Pryce and his friends themselves for a time.
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Wesley checked his watch impatiently and looked up the staircase.

“Faith! We’re going to be late!”

He finally heard her door slam and the sound of her boots clom dow down the hall and stairs.

“Alright, alright! I’m coming!”

She skipped the last few steps, jumping to the lobby floor and landing in a crouch. “Let’s go Mr. ‘I Have To Be At Least 10 Minutes Early For Everything’.” She mocked and dragged him outside.

The drove to the bus station and waited five minutes before the bus from Sunnydale pulled up.

Faiearcearched the passengers as they departed from the bus until she found the three faces she needed.

Buffy, Willow and Spike stood among the crowd, bags hanging at their sides.
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They got back to the hotel in a rush, hurrying inside.

“Sorry things were so rushed,” Wesley apologized. “We just can’t have Faith out in public very long. And we can’t leave her alone and well… Angel’s out with Gunn and Fred.”

“Jesus, y’act like I’m a fuckin’ exotic plant or something.” Faith scoffed.

Buffy smiled and shook her head. “It’s fine. Just, could you maybe explain this whole thing again?” she asked, Willow nodding to add effect. “It’s just, Angel wasn’t very clear as to what was going on. He just said that you guys needed help.”

Wesley nodded and prepared to go through everything again when Faith stopped him.

“You take too long. I’ll make it short… well, shorter anyway.”

She looked at Buffy. “When I came to LA three years ago, I signed a contract with a law firm. One that isn’t a big fan of Angel, so it was a contract that pretty much said I’d kill him. You remember, you were here the next day after I-“ she looked up at Wesley and stopped, wincing a moment.

“Yeah, I um, turned myself into the cops and got locked up. So it’s obvious I didn’t complete my part of the contract. To make it real simple, I’m in a ‘Kill or be killed’ situation and to tell you the truth, both options aren’t quite that high on my to do list.”

“Why didn’t they just off you while you were in the big house, luv?” Spike finally spoke. He wasn’t hiding the fact that he liked what he saw as he continuously looked Faith up and down, not that she minded much.

Wesley immediately didn’t like him and sighed, motioning to him.

“Who’s Bill Idol again?”

“Buffy and Willow both sniggered before Buffy managed to answer.

“Spike. We didn’t wanna bring him, but we didn’t really have a choice. Xander and Anya absolutely refused to watch him and Giles is at the end of his rope with him. We’d probably come back to a pile of dust if we’d left him.”

“And that would be bad because…” Wesley continued, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Deja-vu. I’m feeling those old Watcher vibes coming off you Wes. Better go do something the council wouldn’t like, get it outta your system.”

Spike smirked. The girl had spunk, which was saying a lot coming from him. Especially concerning a slayer.

Wesley glared at her and looked back at Willow and Buffy. “You were saying?”

Willow shrugged. “He helps.”

Spike glared at her. “Hey!”

“Unwillingly! I mean… he unwillingly… helps.” She corrected herself.

Spike rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Faith. “So, why not kill you in jail?”

“That’s what I asked. But no one’s come up with an answer to that. At least not yet.”

Angel, Fred and Gunn came back from patrol just then. Angel froze in the doorway at the sight of the petite blonde in the lobby.

“Buffy.” He breathed, staring at her.

She looked at him and smiled weakly, swallowing visibly. “Hi, Angel.”

He glanced at Spike, then at Willow, then right back at Spike. He growled. “Spike!”

“Back off, Peaches. I’m here to help.” He dismissed him with a role of his eyes.

Willow forced a smile. “I think you’re gonna hafta start over again.”