Eavesdropping
"What the HELL is she doing here?" A few hours had gone by since Buffy had showed up with Faith, and since then everyone had been pretty busy. When Dawn finally managed to corner Buffy and Giles in the kitchen she let them have it. "Did you forget who that is? What she did to you, and Angel, and me, and Mom, and..."
"Dawn..."
Buffy didn't have to say anymore than that; Dawn knew what that look meant. It always hurt just as bad, even though she knew her sister meant no harm. Faith didn't do anything to you. You didn’t even exist. All your memories of her are made up. Of course, that never made them seem any less real – for her or anyone else. She wondered if it was a sin to hate monks. "OK, but that doesn't change the fact that Faith is a killer. She’s betrayed everyone who ever tried to help her, she... Giles?" She looked to the older man for support, but got none.
"Dawn, Buffy's right about this." Dawn didn't miss out on the angry glare from Buffy to her former watcher - about THIS?!?. "People can change, Dawn. Angel did. Willow did."
"Spike did", Buffy muttered.
Giles ignored her. "If there is any chance that Faith can be rehabilitated, we owe it to her to take it."
"Yeah, ‘cause nothing says rehabilitation like breaking out of jail."
"And do you think they could have kept a Slayer in jail for three years if she wanted out?"
Dawn looked down, knowing this was another argument she was going to lose. "Fine. But I'm sleeping with Will and Kennedy tonight." She went bright red. "I-in their room, I mean. With psychoslayer in the house, it can't hurt to have a bodyguard or two."
Buffy blew a gasket. "If you think for one second that I would let her hurt you –"
"Why not? ‘Spike did!’"
Tempers flared up again and voices grew louder.
Out in the hall, Faith couldn’t help hearing every word. She’d tried to find someplace to think, but the whole house was full of teenage girls. At least back in jail she had her own cell. This place was too fucking crowded, she needed to get out of here...
She got as far as the porch and sat down, taking a deep breath of night air before lighting up a cigarette and looking out over the lawn. It was raining – just a slight drizzle, but enough so she was alone out here. This was a good spot. When was the last time she’d sat here? Right, Christmas. Four years ago. The snowstorm that came out of nowhere while she was stuck babysitting... nah, scratch that. She wasn't stuck. She had loved it. Christmas with Joyce and Dawn, eggnog, fireplace, laughter... it had just seemed right, somehow. Like something she would have liked to have. She'd tried to teach Dawn the basics of snowman construction, and then sat right here smoking while the 12-year-old who'd never even seen snow before tried to build one. Of course, the lousy California snow had been to loose for it, and it had turned into a snowball fight instead. She had felt a part of something. It had been a good feeling. And she'd fucked it up.
"So... you're Faith, huh? Heard a lot about you."
Shaken out of her memories, Faith looked up at the potential who'd come out of the house to stand next to her. Great, so much for personal space. "Seems everyone has. Can't say the same though...?"
"Rhona."
Faith looked back out at the yard, taking a drag. "Think I can make a pretty good guess what you've heard."
The girl sat down next to her. "Hey, don't be so sure about that. You know, we been talking a lot about you... I mean, you can probably guess Buffy ain't the most popular person around here these days. Thinks she’s some kind of boss and we’re just supposed to follow her orders. At least you've stood up to her. She could use a reminder that she's not the only one who -"
"Stood up to...?" Faith stared at her in disbelief. "Oh man, you so don't know what you're talking about."
"No? So all the hassle about you coming back is about what?"
"I didn't 'stand up' to B. I tried to fucking kill her. Her, Xander, Willow, just about anyone inside that house who’s not lining up to wear my boots when I kick it." She shuddered as she remembered the last time she'd been here, three years earlier. "Shit... you wanna know about ‘standing up’? Dawn told me once she thought I was way cooler than Buffy, that I wasn’t always going on about rules and responsibilities, and that she’d much rather be my sister. Now she hates my guts, you know why? Because when she was 13 years old and about a foot shorter than she is now I barged through that front door, knocked her and her mother out cold, tied her up, held her hostage and told her all about how I was going to start cutting her up in front of her mother if her sister didn’t get here soon. She begged me not to and I laughed at her. You know what that's like for a kid, to have someone you look up to go out of their way to hurt you in every way they know?" Faith put out her cigarette against the porch and got up, clearly disgusted. "You think that makes me, what, Clint fuckin' Eastwood? Think again. I ain’t saying Buffy can’t be a prissy bitch sometimes, but if I see any of you start acting like me, I will put. You. Down. Got me?"
Rhona nodded, taking a few too many steps back. "So why...?"
The question hung there unfinished. Why did you do it? Why are you back? Faith shrugged. She was still figuring that out herself. "Sharks gotta swim, bats gotta fly." Turning around to go back inside, she stopped cold in her tracks. The front door was open, and Dawn was standing right in it, glaring at her. She’d heard every word. Oh man.
Dawn crossed her arms and faced the Slayer, relishing the fact that she was actually the tallest of the two. They stood there for a few seconds before Faith looked down and squeezed past her inside. She made it to the foot of the stairs before Dawn spoke her name.
"Faith?"
She wanted to turn around, but couldn’t. What was she supposed to say? "Sorry"? Yeah, that always worked. Finally Dawn settled for talking to her back.
"You know, if you expect me to just forget about what you did to Buffy or Mom, that’s not gonna happen. But... what happened between you and me, I wanna forget it. All of it, good and bad. Clean slate, like we never met before."
"Look, Dawn... don't think I don't appreciate it, but I'm not sure I should-"
"I just thought that you'd have enough to feel bad about. It's not exactly my favorite memory either, and if you plan on sticking around it's not something I want to be thinking about every time I see you. If you want, we could just decide right now that it never happened."
Faith looked at her. She had grown up a lot. "You did get me pretty good with that snowball, though."
The younger girl shrugged and held her hand out. "Dawn Summers."
Faith looked at it for a few seconds before taking and shaking it. "Nice to meet you. I'm Faith."
"Yeah? I heard a lot about you..."
"Seems everyone has."
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