Trials and Restorations

~ Part 9 ~

"Oh my God."

"What?... Oh my God... What happened?"

"Wait... Ssssh! Someone's here."

Picking up her suitcase and using it as a shield, Kennedy took a hesitant step forward in the hallway of her home. "Hello?" she
called out. Looking to her equally perturbed girlfriend, the brunette took another step forward when ushered to do so. Calling
out again and getting no reply from the source of the noise in the kitchen, the woman stopped.
"Maybe we should call the police," she suggested.

"Yeah," Willow agreed, looking to find the phone missing from its usual position on the table in the foyer. "The phone's not there."

Her expression mirroring her fear, Kennedy forced herself to relax. "It's ok. We'll just go in there and offer them money. Maybe
they'll go away calmly without incident."

The two of them slow-stepping toward the kitchen and past their open back room, Kennedy glanced at the contents of their second lounge; most of them in disarray and spread all around the place.
"On second thought," she decided. "We can drive to the police station."
Herself and her girlfriend tiptoeing backward, toward the front door, they froze when confronted by the apparent intruder.

A piece of toast half-hanging out of her mouth, a smiling Faith greeted, "Oh. Hey guys. How ya been?"

Each looking to each other to see her girlfriend staring back with the same blank expression, both Kennedy and Willow looked back to the brunette in front of them.

Laughing at the silence upon them, Faith introduced, "It's me...Faith."

"We know," Kennedy replied, her expression still showing disturbance. "It's just that-"

"Well, Faith. Honey, you're dead." Willow completed, looking sorry for the brunette. "It must have been the spell," she told Kennedy."My "My God," Kennedy agreed. "Now she's a ghost."

Bursting into laughter, Faith walked towards the redhead and her girlfriend. "Guys I'm not dead."

Shaking her head, Kennedy sympathised. "She thinks she's not dead. Willow this is all your fault, we should have just let her rest."

"My fault?" Willow questioned. "Hello, Buffy's the one-"

"Guys, I'm not dead," Faith repeated. "If I were dead, could I be eating this piece of toast?"

"You're not dead?" Kennedy asked.

"No," Faith replied.

"You're alive?" Willow asked. "Though, that really goes without saying."

Smiling, Faith asked, "What does a not-dead slayer have to do to get some sugar 'round here?"

Mirroring, the brunette's excitement, Kennedy threw her arms around the slayer. Reeling from the intensity of Kennedy's hug, Faith found that she had to back-step after Willow joined in, throwing her entire body atop theirs.

"This is huge!" Kennedy exclaimed.

"Oh my God!" Willow cried, releasing the slayer. "Does Buffy know?"

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"Is she ready?"

"I think so," Buffy replied.

"Buffy, I need you to be sure," Giles told her, taking a seat next to the blonde and showing her a page in a reference book. "Last night, Amanda said she saw this. She didn't fight it, which I'm glad about because this may be her most powerful adversary to date."

"Is this it?" the blonde enquired, studying the picture of the quadruple headed beast.

"The first sign." Giles placed the book down and stood up. "Buffy, we may actually be facing the end of the world."

Sitting back, the slayer seemed unphased. "Giles, we've faced the 'actual' end of the world, what twice now?"

Looking in disbelief that his former slayer did not understand the gravity of the situation, the Brit replied, "This is different."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "The last two times I was alone. Now there are three slayers. Giles, relax."

"Three slayers?" Giles queried, pacing. "When did that happened? Why wasn't I informed? Where is she? A potential was called and no-one told me?"

"Again with the 'Relax, Giles'," Buffy attempted to calmed him. "No-one was called. Faith's back."

"Faith?" The older watcher queried, needing clarification. "Faith's back?"

"Can you say bitter-sweet?"

"How is she?" the ex-watcher asked, the question his prime concern.

Sighing, Buffy answered, "Not the best she's ever been. Turns out the army took her and my daughter away to be their little play-monkeys." She seethed continuing, "Needless to say, as soon as this is all over, I'm going to go and pay them a visit."

"So she's with Joyce?"

"No, Joyce is upstairs; safe and asleep."

In an attempt to process the information he was being given, Giles rubbed his temples, "So where is Faith now?"

"Staying at Willow's."

"Alone?"

Buffy nodded.

His disapproval apparent, Giles sat down beside the slayer. "Buffy, do I really have to tell you that an ordeal like that can not have been good for someone who has been through what Faith has," he told her, his tone expressing his concern. "Remember the very people who took her for all this time are the same people for whom Riley was working. Honestly, I can't believe she's not here with you."

"Don't you think I tried?" the slayer-turned-watcher asked him. "I went to talk to her last night only to find her with a knife to my husband's throat. Giles, she's displaying acute symptoms of post-traumatic stress right now; the best thing to do is just to give her time."

"Time to what? Fester away? Buffy, you are not Faith's psychiatrist and you cannot treat her like she is your patient. You were her partner and right now she needs you... More than ever, I would say. Might I remind you that you are the reason she-"

"Breakfast is served, m'lady," Scott announced, entering his living room and interrupting the greying former-librarian. "Oh. Mr. Giles." The brunette looked to his wife and then to the older man. "Sorry, I didn't know you were here. Again."

"That's okay, I was just leaving," Giles told the taller man. He looked to Buffy. "I'll come by later and we can finish this."

The slayer nodded, seeing her ex-watcher out.

Listening to ensure that the coast was clear of their visitor, Scott watched his wife return to the sofa and engage herself reading a book. "Why is he always around here?" the brunette asked. "I mean how much do you and the librarian at your old high-school have to talk about?"

When his question appeared to have been taken rhetorically, the psychiatrist knelt in front of his better half. "Honey, what's up?"

"Nothing," came the emotion-less reply from his spouse. Followed by the flip of the page she was reading.

"C'mon," he further tried. "That's the first word you've said to me since you got back. What happened at that woman's place?"

"We just talked."

"About?"

"A lot of things," Buffy toim. im. "Including you. Scott, why were you there last night?"

"I met queen 'few slices short' at a bar and she needed a ride home. I offered her one and she jumped me when I took her inside. I pushed her off and the next thing, I'm tied to a chair bound and gagged."

"Do you usually give rides to strangers?"

"No. But someone reminded me last night to get in touch with my more compassionate side."

Standing up and leaving her lover staring after her, Buffy merely replied,
"I didn't tell you to go to bars and pick up girls."

"Buffy," Scott tried, springing into action and taking his wife by her arms. He lowered his voice. "Buffy, I didn't go to a bar to pick up girls. I went there to get wasted."

"And you were supposed to be out there looking for Joyce." She looked to him with disappointment pasted on her features. "Do you even know that she's upstairs?" the slayer asked. "Do you even care?"

"Of course I do and of course I do. I was just as worried as you were."

"But you managed to get over that and make your way to the club."

"I knew she'd be okay."

"How? How did you know?"

In attempt to lighten the mood, Scott drew the slayer into his arms. "She's got your blood in her. That means she's a survivor."

Shrugging from his embrace, Buffy ordered her husband, "Let me go." When his grip only became tighter, the slayer found her push become stronger, sending the taller psychiatrist off his balance and into the wall behind him. Glancing at his hurt expression, Buffy made her way upstairs.

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"This is so huge!" Kennedy re-stated, staring wide-eyed at the slayer across the table from her.

"Feel free to stop saying that anytime," Faith told her, feeling bashful.

"But it is. I can't believe it. Faith, you’re here. Alive."

The older brunette nodded.

Kennedy whipped around to her entering girlfriend. "You are the best witch ever."

"I know," Willow admitted, placing a tray of food in front of Faith.

"Really, Red, I just ate like eight pieces of toast."

"Oh," Willow uttered, not hiding her apparent impending nausea. "Maybe we'll just save these for later."

"So where've you been?" Kennedy asked. "And why were you there for so long?"

"The initiative took us. They weren't real keen on letting us go."

Both of the practicing wiccas concerned, Willow voiced, "You both must have been so scared."

"I'm a fighter, so I was alright. But J? I gotta give that kid credit, she held it together," Faith told them. "Like, the first few
weeks they took us there, the bastards wouldn't let me see her and she musta felt so alone. But she held it together."

"You too," Kennedy chimed in. "There should be, like, an award for you."

Faith smiled. "What, the 'Your-girl's-kid-was-kidnapped-and-you-went-to-go-save-her' award." She paused correcting, "Ex-girl."

"I don't understand," Willow told the slayer, in a bid to distract her. "I get why they took Joyce, but why did they keep you too?"

"I dunno," Faith lied. "I guess to keep J with a familiar face. Leverage in case she messed up."

"How so?"

"Kinda like, be good else Faith gets a kickin'."

"My God, did they hurt you?"

"Only, every other day. But I'm kinda used to it. I guess some people have their roles in live and mine's to be the punchbag."

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"I spoke to the principal at Sunnydale High," Buffy told Joyce. "He says that you can start next week. He seems a nice guy and his name's Robin Wood, so he must have a sense of humour."

"Do I have to? I'll be academically at least two years ahead of the people my age."

"You can't not go to school, Joyce," was all Buffy would say.

Looking down defeated, Joyce could think of nothing she wanted to speak to her mother about. Looking up suddenly, she asked,
"Can I go see Faith now?"

Caught off-guard, Buffy decided, "I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Do I have to give a reason?" Buffy questioned. She softened her tone. "Joyce, Faith isn't... I don't think you should be spending so much time with her. At least not right now."

"You saw her, didn't you? What happened?"

"It is the longest story," Buffy merely replied, choosing not to answer the question. She stood. "Look, I'm thinking I should blow off work today and the two of us can spend the day at the mall. What do you say?"

"I wanna go and see Faith."

"I already told you, you can't."

"But I want to," Joyce repeated, feeling herself worked up. "You did something to her."

"No I didn't."

"Then why wont you let me see her?"

"I told you-"

"No you didn't, you just said that I can't see her. You're not the boss of me you know."

Shocked by her daughter's rudeness, the slayer wore the angriest expression she could muster. "I'm your mother," she reminded the youngster. "And sometimes I'm going to have to tell you what you can and cannot do. Even though you may not agree with what I decide, you're going to have to accept it. Okay?"

When the soldier gave a slow nod, the slayer felt compelled to leave.

TBC...