Triune by TheBear

Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: If I owned 'em, they'd have to show it on the Ecstasy Network.
Distribution: http://www.papa-bear.com/
http://mysticmuse.net
Feedback: Feed The Bear!
Pairing: Willow/Tara/Buffy

Summary: Book Three of the Triad Trilogy. Sequel to the Please Trilogy.

Gray. Everything she saw was the same fricken gray. The walls, the sheets on her bed, the clothes on her back… gray, gray, gray. Even the food was gray. And the other women… Inmates, guards, it didn't matter, they were all gray too.

She knew she deserved to be where she was. She'd hurt people- killed people even. She'd betrayed the only people who had ever cared even a little bit for her. That was what hurt the worst, the looks in their eyes when they found out… She pretended it didn't matter, that she was better than them all, when it was really the opposite. She got mad at them for looking down on her, for treating her like crap, when the truth was that they were right; they were better than her. They sacrificed themselves to do what was right, even when it cost them big time, while she…

No, she definitely deserved to be where she was. It had taken her a long time to realize it- even after she'd turned herself in, even after they locked her up… it still took months before she really admitted that she was wrong- that it was all her own fault. That every slight, every wrong she had held against the others in her life- whether they were legit or not- none of it excused what she'd done. Blaming everyone else for the bad things in her life had given her an excuse to live recklessly- she was a danger junkie because death didn't scare her, death didn't matter because no one mattered, least of all herself.

There were days… days when the gray got to her and she had a hard time not falling into old habits. Days like today when she was tempted to give in to the anger and lash out- when she wanted to blame everyone but herself… but it wasn't true. She guessed it was a sign of how far she'd come that she couldn't lie even to herself anymore, not even for a moment. The only problem with that was that, if she couldn't blame others, if she had to accept responsibility for all the horrible things she'd done…

Days like today, she wanted to blame someone, wanted to hate someone- and since she had only herself to blame…

Sometimes she constructed elaborate fantasies; how she'd get out and make it up to everybody… and they'd take her back and she'd be part of the team, fighting the good fight… She pretended that maybe she wouldn't have to be alone, that she could reach out and they'd reach back and for once in her life people would care about her- really care about how she felt, and what she did, and… and she'd matter.

Hindsight really was twenty-twenty, 'cause she could see now how she could have had that… right up to the fricken moment she walked into the mayor's office… Buffy came to the docks to bring her back because she did care about Faith's life, because she did… yeah, and things were stressed between them and the trust was damaged and stuff, but it could have worked.

She could look back now and it was all so clear. The fantasy she'd give anything to have happen was almost a reality once- till she'd pissed it all away. And so now she was stuck in a gray fricken box with bars on the front; like an animal on display.

"Too damn bad I couldn't see it then." She whispered aloud as hot tears rolled down her face.

"So let me see if I'm understanding this," Cordelia said into the resounding silence that greeted Giles explanation of the plan. "First, were gonna go get Ms. Psycho Slayer out of prison- and hope she doesn't decide to kill us all. Then, we're gonna troop up to Sunny D, where the witches and slayers get all spelled up and Buffy fights a Hellgod, while the rest of us get to guard the magic girls from attacking demons."

Through the amazing advances in digital technology, they were all able to clearly hear the exasperation in Giles voice, as well as see it on the screen as he answered, "Yes, that's it precisely, Cordelia."

"And during all this you'll be… elsewhere…" Cordy added with unconcealed sarcasm.

Buffy was quick to defend her Watcher. "I asked him to go; he's protecting The Key. If we fail, keeping The Key out of Glory's hands is the only way to save the world from a one-way ticket on the roller-coaster to hell!"

"How, exactly do you propose we get Faith out of prison?" Wesley asked. "Surely you don't intend to have her escape…"

"No, of course not," Giles said. "Her release documents are being messengered to you right now."

Wesley nodded his head as if he had solved a puzzle. He said, "The council… Of course." He followed up with, "Do you have a plan as to when and where this battle should take place?"

Buffy answered that one, "As for the when, I think it should be as soon as possible."

Giles agreed, saying, "Yes, better to surprise her I think, rather than wait for her to take the initiative."

All four Scoobies nodded and Buffy said, "Oh, yeah. We know where she's at- and I don't think she has a clue that we know."

Wesley struck a pose, left hand holding right elbow, right hand rubbing his chin as though stroking a non-existent beard. "Some sort of underground cavern? Maybe an abandoned factory?" he opined, trying to sound knowledgeable.

Her voice flat, belying a twinkle of amusement in her eye, Buffy said, "Luxury high-rise apartment building."

They spent about an hour going over possible plans- not that there was a lot to plan; basically Buffy was gonna get juiced up with the enjoining spell and go kick Glory's ass. The only questions were, where to set up the spell, and how to isolate Glory from her minions so Buffy could concentrate on the Hellgod.

Buffy figured a direct challenge to Glory would play into her ego, and incite a one-on-one fight. Willow and Tara thought it was likely that glory would feel the spell and probably send her minions after them anyway. Willow had used her computer to discover that most of the apartments in that building were empty, so they'd have their pick of locations to set up.

"I guess Hellgods make for bad neighbors," Xander joked, trying not to dwell on his 'job' in all of this.

"Rather," Wesley said. "Perhaps we should set up in the apartment across the hall- that way if she does not send her minions we will be in close enough proximity to engage them directly."

Everyone stared at him for a moment, causing him to blush. "That's a good idea." Buffy said with a note of surprise.

Gunn added, "Me and Angel could back up Buffy, then fall back, sucker them into the other apartment, where Wes, Cordy and Xan can ambush 'em!"

Xander tapped soldier memories as he said, "That's a good plan, but we need more intel- a layout of the apartments, a headcount on the targets… We're not talkin' vamps here, any special weapons needed to take these guys out?"

Giles answered that question, "From my examinations of the 'specimens' Willow and Tara provided us with, they seem vulnerable to any standard weapons- they are essentially mortal creatures… What are you thinking Xander?"

The A.I. team was looking at Xander with surprise while the Scoobies were more accustomed to Xander's magical military experience.

"Well," Xander said, feeling warm and fuzzy from the looks of pride on his friends' faces- and at the same time feeling a heavy weight in his gut from the knowledge that using these memories and skills came with a heavy price. He'd have nightmares again tonight, as he did whenever he spent any time focusing on soldier-boy's memories. He mentally shook it off- it would be worth it if he could keep his friends safe. "What I'm thinking is, Willow, Tara, and Faith are going to be totally vulnerable- and if we stick to hand weapons, there's a chance the bad guys could overwhelm us with numbers and get to the girls."

"We'll need to see the layout, but what I'm thinking is… we set up down the hall a ways, put the magic circle in a room that has one defensible entrance and Angel and Gunn can fall back to that when they draw the targets into the trap- Gunn goes in the room with the girls and has a SMG waiting for him- I'm thinking MP5 or Uzi; Angel goes outside the door with another SMG. We'll make a kinda fire-sack- Wes and Cordy will set up at fixed points with overlapping fields of fire on the entry room- they'll take out the bulk of them with a couple of SAWs- something with a lot of capacity so they can just hose 'em down. I'll set up in the opposite direction down the hall, and move into position once Angel and Gunn Draw them away- I'll mop up any that don't make it into the fire-sack or fall back once the bullet's fly, plus I'll be able to hit any stragglers that might stay with Glory.

Xander continued- not noticing the dropped jaws. "We'll need a plan for deployment if the targets don't fall for the bait… probably Angel and me, so we don't leave the girls uncovered. We'll need hands-free radios to coordinate communication, some range time once we get the guns to familiarize everybody, and a rehearsal or two…" He paused to think of what else they'd need.

Xander's attention was fractured as he tried to listen to five different questions at once, and finally he stood up and shouted, "Shut Up!" surprising everyone once again. "Ok, one at a time- Cordy."

Xander said, "I know that, Cordelia. What I'm thinking won't require a lot of skill- you and Wes will be set up with machine guns on bipods- you'll each have a defined field of fire, and all you'll have to do is squeeze the trigger and sweep the gun back and forth in that defined arc of movement. No skill involved, and we'll get some range time in to get you used to the gun. Angel and Gunn will actually have to aim, but it won't be any more difficult than shooting a crossbow, and I know you guys have done that before.

"I know how to shoot." Gunn said, not elaborating on how he might have come across that skill.

Angel opened his mouth to respond, but glanced up briefly at Tara and quickly shut it. Looking back down at the floor, he quietly said, "I've fired a gun, but it's been a while."

Xander smirked when Angel didn't rise to the 'dead-boy' bait. "Oh yeah, Tara whipped you good!" he thought. Out loud he said, "Like riding a bike- you'll pick it up quick."

The thought of guns made Willow nervous, but not as nervous as the thought of sitting there unable to move while a hoard of demons rushed five defender armed only with swords and axes, so she didn't say anything.

Buffy spoke up, "Gotta say, I'm not too thrilled with the idea of guns, but it would be stupid not to use every advantage we can get."

Giles spoke up in agreement. "I agree, absolutely; however, where will you get all of this military hardware?"

It was Gunn who answered that, "I know some people. Two days, if we can pony up the money…"

Wesley said, "Perhaps the council could be persuaded to offer some assistance…"

Giles took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Another call to Quinton… oh, joy."

"A week from next Saturday, at approximately two o'clock in the morning." Giles answered.

"A couple days to get the hardware, a day on the range and then another to rehearse… we could hit her this Friday night- a week early, so she might not be too panicked yet about where you and The Key took off to, Buff."

"Friday's fine," Buffy nodded in agreement. "I just want it over. I want the rest of my family home," she said while giving Tara and Willow a squeeze. "I want to go back to patrolling and slaying nice, simple, non-apocalypse-causing vampires."

Tara was the only one that noticed Angel averting his eyes when Buffy said that. She felt a little sorry for him; the Angelus stuff wasn't his fault. What happened today, on the other hand- that was totally his fault and she didn't feel the slightest bit remorseful for her response.

"Well, it would appear that I have another phone call to make. Wesley, do you have an account where the council could wire the money?"

"Yes, well I'll have them contact you directly." Giles said- already not looking forward to another call to Travers.

"I expect that there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but it isn't as though they have another choice… or a better plan."

"No I suppose not," Wesley said, musing on the reactions he imagined Travers and his ilk would have.

"I'm gonna go see some people, find out what it's gonna cost ya," Gunn said as he headed out the door.

"Who's going to go get Faith?" Willow softly inquired. She wasn't all that eager to see the brunette Slayer, but at least this time she could handle herself if Faith wasn't all the way 'rehabilitated'. She marveled once again at how far she'd come in just over a year's time. The last time she'd seen Faith, she'd been scared to death- knowing Faith could kill her without the slightest chance Willow could fight back. Now, Willow could take the Slayer out five ways to Sunday and not even break a sweat.

Tara spoke up, "If Xander doesn't mind driving… I thought he and I could get her." She knew Buffy wasn't eager to see Faith, and after being dominated so strongly this morning, she might need a little time with her own pet to get her in the right frame of mind.

At Buffy's confused frown, Tara said, "I thought you and Willow could go do that shopping you've been talking about…" Buffy was always saying she needed to get some sexier clothes for her pet- fuzzy sweaters and overalls just didn't do justice to today's Willow Rosenberg.

Buffy's face split into a smile at the mental image of taking her pet shopping. She looked at her Mistress with gratitude in her eyes and whispered in her ear, "Thank you, Tara."

Tara smirked, "He can buy his own clothes." At Cordelia's glare, she said, "You can always go with us to get Faith…"

Cordelia stood up and said, "How about not?" She walked toward the office. "I'll stay here in case a 'paying' client calls…" she snarked.

She woke up screaming. Not a terribly unusual occurrence, unfortunately. Common enough that the guards didn't bother anything more than a half-assed glance in that direction, and a muttered, 'damn freak!'

Cell neighbors yelled for her to shut up at various volumes, and in various languages- and the irony struck her- as it did every time- that they made far more noise in their response than she ever did in the first place.

An observer might be surprised that her cellmate's only response was a muted grumble and then rolling over and trying to get back to sleep. The first time it had happened, she'd kicked the mattress from below and gotten up to give the little white girl a piece of her mind. Her wrist still ached when the weather changed from where they had to pin the bone-fragments back together.

What had scared her even more was, when they'd let Faith out of solitary two weeks later, the way she'd offered an embarrassed apology, like it had been a casual mistake… That assured Faith the quietest, most sedate cellmate in the whole pod- probably the whole damn prison.

As Faith's breathing evened out, and she realized where she was, she felt relieved for a moment- just another damn nightmare. Another moment and her relief turned to quiet sobs as she shook off the nightmare, and returned to a hellish reality. A minute later and she angrily forced the tears away, refusing to give in- again- to the misery of this fricken place. She'd indulged enough last night; if she allowed herself to wallow in self pity for two or more days in a row, she spiraled out of control and usually ended up having to sit in the prison shrink's office and listen to that bitch lecture about self-actualization and crap like that for hours on end.

"Damn if that wasn't a freaky dream!" she thought, remembering clearly the sights and sounds of her nightmare. Usually her nightmares were either reliving stuff she did while working for the wannabe-demon Mayor of SunnyD, or accidentally killing Allan Finch, the deputy mayor- which had led to her spiral into evil in the first place, or… worst of all; her fight with Buffy- the look of horror and betrayal on the blonde's face as she realized what Faith had made her do… the dawning betrayal Faith felt in her gut- along with the kiss of the razor sharp steel- when she realized the Mayor had set her up for this… that one was the worst dream. She felt so stupid when she realized only in the end that Wilkins had left her alone and unprotected, knowing Buffy would come for her… knowing the poison he'd given her to use on Angel had a cure- the blood of a Slayer. All of it carefully choreographed to result in a situation where Buffy would both want, and need to kill Faith.

But this dream was entirely new. She was in some big, swanky, living room, and she was fighting this other girl that was dressed and made up like a hooker, and there were all these creepy, thin-haired, big headed, scabby looking demons running around. Freaky enough, but the worst part was, she couldn't move- that is, her body was moving; kicking, punching, jumping around- but she wasn't controlling it. It was like someone else was driving, and she was just along for the ride. And that scared the crap out of her- the thought of losing control was one of her worst fears, and this was more than just losing it- freaking out and doing stuff she would regret later, this was the literal, real thing.

Faith shivered involuntarily and tried to put the images out of her head. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else on which to focus her attention. She wanted to go splash cold water on her face, but that would mean looking in the mirror. She could never keep her eyes on the sink, they always slipped up to see her reflection… and usually that was a bad thing.

After a minute of looking longingly at the sink and the cool water she knew was just waiting for her there, she whispered, "Screw it!" and angrily jumped down off of the bunk. Her teeth were clenched, as were her fists. It was like she was tensed for a fight. She deliberately looked in the mirror, first thing- as though to prove to herself that she was strong, she wasn't afraid.

As always, as soon as she caught sight of her own eyes in the mirror, she stopped- frozen. Those eyes always looked back at her with such sorrow and hurt and a sense of betrayal that made sick to her stomach. Faith reacted as though the reflection was a completely different person- not her own reflection at all. After a minute of staring, she whispered tightly, "I am not evil!"

"So, Which way do I go, oh navigator?" Xander asked as they pulled away from the curb.

"Well, the printout says we need to get to the 110, and then go south to the 10," Tara answered, reading the driving directions that Willow pulled off of Mapquest.com.

"Ok, so you want to stop and get some drive-thru before we hit the highway?" Xander asked, as his belly grumbled.

"Oh, she made breakfast, but that was, like, two hours ago!" Xander said. He blushed as he remembered what she'd had for breakfast.

Tara caught the blush and imagined what might have happened this morning to help Xander work up an appetite. She was happy for him, and he seemed much more relaxed today than he had for the last few. "Ah, the joys of regular sex," she thought- amused by it because she'd never known what she was missing before she and Willow had taken their relationship to the physical level. She imagined Xander was discovering- much to his displeasure- the withdrawal symptoms of going cold-turkey. She teased him, "Worked up quite an appetite, huh?"

Xander blushed a little, but teased right back, "Look who's talking! I bet your arm is tired after swinging that paddle."

Tara blushed hotly at that. It wasn't like she thought they wouldn't know or anything, but still; the Mistress Tara persona she was living lately hadn't entirely wiped out her core of shyness.

Xander noticed the blush and duck, and it reminded him of the 'old Tara' as he thought of her. He said, "Sorry, didn't mean to embarrass you, but you went pretty public with the whole Dom/sub thing there.

Tara forced her head back up, though she couldn't make the blush go away so easily. "Uh, it wasn't really planned…"

"Yeah, you know. Back in the day when I… y'know had… feelings for Buffy…" Xander suddenly wished he hadn't brought up the subject. "Well, it was pretty easy not to like Angel just for that. Plus, I always thought he was bad for her, not just cause I was jealous." Xander pulled off the road and into a jack-in-the-box, hoping Tara would drop the subject.

"Whatever, breakfast sandwich and an orange juice is fine… You sure you aren't still lusting after Buffy?" she asked, not dropping the subject.

"I… uh…" Xander sputtered. He pulled up to the order window and slowly placed his order, hoping to delay this conversation.

As soon as Xander had finished placing his order, Tara continued, enjoying herself greatly. "I've seen you look at her, Xander. You sure there's nothing there? What about Willow?"

"Uh… Willow?" Xander stuttered, afraid at this point to even make eye contact with the witch.

"Oh yeah, she told me how she got you all worked up the other night at the Bronze…" Tara continued.

Xander gulped loudly, visions of being dropped on his head coming to mind. "Well, you're all pretty lust-worthy," he said, quickly adding, "But, there's no pining away, or anything like that going on. And, even if there was, there wouldn't be after seeing you bitch-slap Angel this morning… which, I have to say, was pretty sweet!"

Tara took pity on the poor boy, and dropped the subject. For now. "Yeah, well. I think he learned his lesson."

Buffy was already trying to figure out how she was going to pay her mom back for some of this stuff. She had her credit card that was supposed to be for emergencies… how do you explain to your mother that $175 leather pants *were* an emergency? "I can see it now… 'No, mom, they weren't for me… I just saw how sexy Willow's butt looked in them, and I couldn't say no!' Yeah that'd go over well!" she thought.

Willow looked over her shoulder in the mirror at her Mistress, having twice now asked how these looked, and gotten no response. A sly smile played across her face when she saw the slightly glazed look on the blonde's face. She got an idea and said, "Oh, lemme try it with this." She dashed back into the dressing room, shucked her t-shirt and bra and slipped on a satin crop top with spaghetti straps. It was blood red, and was just long enough that she could raise her arms above her head without exposing herself, but stopped several inches above the low-rise black leather pants. The thin calfskin of the pants hugged her ass and thighs like a glove, before dropping into a slightly flared cuff. Not bell bottoms, but still kinda retro. She could get some strappy black shoes with chunky heels and light up the Bronze.

Buffy's mouth went dry when Willow came back out with that little red top on, still sporting the ass-enhancing leather pants. "Oh God!" she thought as she noticed Willow's nipples poking through the thin top.

Willow did a little spin in front of her Mistress and asked, "What about this outfit?" She turned her back to the lightly panting blond and began to dance seductively, swaying her hips and gradually lowering herself into a crouch. "It would be great for a night at the Bronze!" she offered, keeping her voice light, as though she had no idea what effect she was having on her lover.

Buffy watched as the leather pulled taught across her pet's backside when she lowered herself. As the material pulled down, she could see the waistband of Willow's thong peeking out. "Who do you think you're fooling pet?" she thought at Willow's 'innocent' tone. "Come here pet," she croaked out. She had to clear her throat and lick her lips to get some moisture back before continuing. "Over my lap…"

"Yes Mistress," Willow whispered with a shiver. She laid over Buffy's lap, drawing her legs up so that the pants were tight across her bum, relishing what was about to happen, and blissfully unconcerned if there was anyone around.

Buffy was a little less blasé about witnesses, but it was midmorning on a weekday, and they had the store nearly to themselves. They were in the fitting area, and no one else was immediately about. Buffy stroked her pet's ass, loving the feel of the soft leather. She reigned down two quick blows, one on each cheek, amazed at how similar the sound was to spanking bare skin. "That's for teasing me so blatantly, pet," Buffy said sternly, having to work at keeping the lust out of her voice. "And, there'll be more where that came from when we get back to the hotel!"

After being released from Buffy's lap, Willow dropped to her knees before her Mistress, and said, "I apologize, Mistress. Would you allow your pet to make it up to you, Mistress?" she didn't even bother trying to hide the seductive tone in her voice this time.

Three stores, three outfits, three spankings. Buffy hadn't given in to her pet's attempts at seduction in the first two, but her resolve had weakened as they went.

In the first store, it was a simple outfit- tight blue jeans that went to just below Willow's navel, along with a red, short sleeved top that hugged her upper body snuggly, had a wide scoop neck and the hem stopped just above her navel. Along with the water-bra they'd picked out, it made her pet look very appealing, yet wouldn't have been inappropriate in any casual setting. Nevertheless, the sight of enhanced cleavage, along with her adorable little bellybutton peaking out was very arousing. Especially when Willow had begun caressing her breasts, commenting on how wonderfully the bra fit her, and how amazingly realistic it felt. She invited her Mistress to feel it- 'just to see how real it felt.' That had resulted in the first couple of swats for being a tease.

The second store netted an outfit that was a little dressier, and yet Willow had managed to turn it into another temptation. Red skirt that went to mid thigh- not quite a mini, but close- and a black turtleneck that was very stretchy and clingy. Something that could be worn to a more upscale setting, though not overly dressy; but what made it ultra sexy was the boots. Knee-high, black leather, with four inch stiletto heels. Willow would walk towards and then away from her Mistress, her hips swaying widely as she said, "These make me walk funny. Mistress, does it seem like these make my hips swing a lot when I walk?" Then she bent over and ran her hands up and down the leather encasing her calves, saying, "Do they make my legs look alright?" inviting her Mistress to look up the length of her thighs, up to where the skirt pulled up nearly, but just shy of her sweet little fanny. Of course, that made Buffy flip the skirt up over her pet's back and issue a couple more swats and again admonish her to behave. When they'd walked out of the dressing room, the male salesman was clearly sporting wood under his loose trousers. Buffy'd blushed, Willow just giggled.

And now, here she was, sitting in a fitting room with her gorgeous, sexy pet kneeling before her and asking to make amends. Her first thought was, "I am so gonna whip your ass," but when her second thought filtered through, she knew she was lost. "Oh my God! I can't believe I'm about to have sex in a dressing room!"

Willow knew from her Mistress' hesitation that she was gonna get to do what she'd been wanting to do since their first dressing room of the day. She carefully schooled her features so as not to break into a huge grin. She knew she was gonna *so* get spanked for being such a tease when they got back to the Hyperion, but she thought it was well worth it. "Please, Mistress?" she asked in her best pouty voice as she put her hands on Mistress' knees. When no command to stop was forthcoming, those hands slid up silky thighs and under her Mistress skirt.

Buffy stifled a groan and said, "Oh, very well, pet," not fooling anyone. At this point, if Willow had backed off, Buffy would have had a fist full of red hair and been pushing her pet's head right were it was going of its own volition right now.

Buffy thrashed her head about, biting her hand to try and keep quiet, with not the best success, as her pet laved her pussy like a cat cleaning its paws.

Willow smiled against her Mistress' pussy as she heard the aborted cries and muffled groans. She rapidly pumped three fingers inside her lover while sucking and licking her engorged clit.

Buffy came with a high-pitched, muted squeal, her thighs vibrating and squeezing her pet's head. When she finally relaxed, she reached under her skirt, pulled her pet out by her hair and kissed her mightily. She quickly cleaned off her pet's lips and chin, and then grabbed her wrist and brought the sticky fingers up to her mouth to clean them off as well. "That outfit's a keeper," she said at last, once she found her voice again.

The security officer looked up from the console to his store manager. "I- I… W- what the hell do we do about that?" he asked, bewildered and painfully aroused by what he'd just seen in the fitting room camera.

"You say the blonde was *spanking* the redhead when you called me?" The store manager asked as he reached over to the VCR and popped out the tape.

"Had her over her knee and everything!" the security officer said, his voice cracking.

"I'll handle it," the manager said shortly. "Just leave it to me," he added as he turned and walked out of the surveillance room.

Buffy laid the outfit on the counter to make the purchase, when a short, overweight man came from the back room and excused the register clerk.

Buffy frowned and looked at the man's name tag, noting the 'store manager' title. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

The man smiled warmly at her, saying, "No, no. Not at all, Ms…" He paused to look at the credit card Buffy had presented along with the outfit, "…Summers."

He finished ringing up the sale, put the clothes and receipt in the bag and handed it to Willow, who had stepped up to prevent her Mistress from having to carry anything.

The store manager then handed Buffy a slip of paper and said, "That is a 50% off coupon, good on your next visit, Ms. Summers. You and your girlfriend please feel free to come again very soon, Ok?"

The store manager overheard the redhead ask, 'How did he know I was your girlfriend?' as the two walked away. He chuckled and went back into his office, taking the video tape and putting it into his briefcase.

"So… Cordelia, huh…" Tara said after she and Xander had finished their breakfast. There was just something in her that couldn't stop teasing him this morning, she thought when she saw him blush.

Tara smiled, knowing he'd react like that. "Well, I've never met her- just heard lots and lots of stories from Willow and Buffy… Willow mostly."

"Oh! I, uh… I thought you, um… I mean…" he was embarrassed now that he'd so misinterpreted what she was asking. "This is still Tara we're talking about," he thought. "She wouldn't…"

Xander blushed even harder as he tried to figure out what the hell to say to that. "NO, I… well…"

Tara said, "I'll have to admit, I'm curious about that, too… you had a pretty huge grin on your face this morning. So did she, so you must have done ok." Tara had to struggle not to laugh. "Eyes on the road, Xander!" she said as he turned to her with a wide-eyed stare. "You wouldn't want to wreck Giles car! I don't think he'd ever forgive you."

Finally the expression on his face was too much, and Tara burst out laughing. "Oh Xander! You should see the look on your face!"

Xander shook his head, well and truly gotten. "What is it with the three of you lately? You all seem determined to drive me insane!" he lamented.

Tara said, "Well, it's just so much fun!" as she continued to laugh. Seeing his little-boy pout, she said, "Come on, you're the only guy in our little group. We have to pick on you."

"I don't think I could ask Giles about his sex-life. He might explode," she said while thinking that he might actually have a sex life now.

"He'd have to have one first," Xander quipped, unaware of Tara's line of thought.

Tara smiled at him knowingly, but changed the subject before he could ask her about it. "So, are you and Cordelia thinking about getting together?"

Xander's smile was warm, with just a touch of sadness. "No, I think we're just gonna stay friends- hopefully better friends than we have been recently… or pretty much ever actually."

"About us not getting together? No, not really. We have different lives. I just get that little 'what if' bug now and then." He mused silently for a moment before continuing. "I don't think either of us really had our lives together back then… though I do regret the way it ended, I don't think our relationship was gonna work out at that point."

"And now?" Tara asked, genuinely curious. She had to admit that she found herself more and more thinking about Dawn and Xander, but could he really wait a year or more to get back into a serious relationship?

"Now… she's different, I'm different- both in a good way I think… but she has a life there in LA, and I wouldn't ask her to leave it," he said.

"What? Leave Sunnydale?" At her nod, he quickly said, "Not gonna happen. I can't leave… not as long as…" he trailed off.

Tara smiled, "Not as long as Buffy's alive?" She and Willow had talked about Xander's devotion to the Slayer, accepting it even if they were unable to quantify it.

"It's not what you think," Xander was quick to explain. "It's just… I know there's a chance she could… you know, any fight could be the… And, if something happened, and I wasn't there… at least *trying* to stop it… I couldn't live with that…" He took a deep breath, blinking back the sudden tears in his eyes. "As long as there's a chance I can help…" he trailed off again, not sure how to convey this feeling. He had to be there because he had to. There was no other way; he had to help, even if he wondered sometimes whether his help was really needed.

Recognizing Xander's insecurity- having felt it herself constantly- up until recently anyway- Tara reassured him, "You do, Xander. You may not be the front line fighter, but you're always there, and you help. Plus you help in other ways- research, planning and strategy… that thing today was great, it might make all the difference! Plus, you saved Buffy's life lots of times." Tara put her hand on his arm and said, "We don't say it enough, I know. But, we're all glad you're there. Dawn and Joyce too."

"I have to say, I'm pretty happy to have you with us too, Tara." Xander said sincerely. "You've been great for Willow and Buffy. I don't think either of them has ever been as happy as they are with you."

Tara blushed, mostly because she was surprised to hear Xander say that, in those words. "I think it's even more the other way. They've helped me be, like a whole different person than I used to be- much improved version of Tara from what I was."

Xander couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yeah, you're not quite the shy little girl you were when Willow brought you to your first Scooby meeting."

It seemed like a lifetime ago, even though it was only a matter of months. "I think *that* Tara would spontaneously combust if she met me," she mused. "I didn't even know it was possible to be like this… this strong and this happy and this alive!" she shook her head and said, "so much different than what I grew up with."

Xander nodded, sympathizing. "Yeah, your family didn't seem all that… supportive…" At Tara's snort of laughter, he added, "I have to admit that I kinda wished your dad had tried something with Buffy… or that your brother had tried his luck…" Xander muttered under his breath bitterly, "Assholes!"

Tara looked at him for a moment, took in the clenched teeth and the look of suppressed rage on his face, and concluded, "You too, huh?"

Xander shot a glance at her, expecting pity- which was why he never ever discussed his life growing up with anyone- not even Willow, though she had guessed on more than one occasion from his bruises what was going on. Instead he just saw understanding. He nodded his head, still reticent to speak about it.

Tara fully understood not wanting to talk about the misery of growing up with abuse, and let it drop.

"You know, Faith had it really bad growing up," Xander said, surprisingly not dropping the subject, though not discussing his own experience either. "I mean, I don't know everything, but I know it was bad enough to drive her out onto the streets when she was just a kid… She never talked about it either, but I think there was… more than just beatings."

Tara shuddered. That was one thing she was thankful for. They had beaten her without a thought, but they never raped her. "How sad is it that I'm thankful that they just beat the crap out of me?" she said softly.

They finished the drive in relative silence, broken only by giving directions, as they reflected on their own pasts, and what horrors must have been experienced by someone who had it worse than them.

'One of *those* days,' was the thought that ran through the minds of the inmates of Q-Pod at the California Institute for Women. 'The Freak,' was how she was known in quiet whispers behind her back- usually after the speaker had glanced around to see if she was in earshot. To her face it was always a very polite 'Faith,' on those rare occasions when the brunette spoke to anyone at all. The women who routinely hit the weights, or worked out at the speed bag or the heavy bag had become accustomed to seeing this once or twice a week- 'The Freak' was in a mood, and was taking it out on the heavy bag. Most of the women were just glad they weren't the object of the girl's ire. A few, those with some skills of their own, just sat back and marveled at the power and fury this little white girl could unleash.

Twice, the warden had threatened not to replace the bag after one of Faith's little 'tantrums' as he called them, but the officers in the pod had banded together to convince him otherwise. "Better to replace the bag every week, than to pay the medical care for the inmate or inmates she'd take it out on," they had argued, convincingly.

Faith had been in only a single fight, not counting the time she broke her cellmate's wrist, in her eighteen months as a guest of the state. But the memory and stories of that fight were enough to keep almost all of the other inmates from bothering her, and those new to the pod, the ones that came thinking they were the baddest bitch on the block were cautioned to wait and watch the little girl 'working out' before challenging her. So far, none had felt all that desperate to pick a fight after seeing 'The Freak' working out her frustrations. It was pretty clear that any one of her punches or kicks would be lethal to anyone on the receiving end.

At first, Faith had tried to hide her strength from the others, but after that one fight… well there just wasn't much point.

Lupe Martinez had been the bad bitch on campus for five years. She was almost six feet tall and a good two hundred fifty pounds. She'd have made most male inmates cringe. She kept four other bad-ass girls around her all the time as her 'posse,' and everyone knew she ran the pod. Faith couldn't have cared less about the politics of prison- she had no intentions of making relationships with anyone here- friendly or otherwise. She was focused inward too much to worry about anyone else. That made everyone think she was easy meat, after all, she hardly said 'boo' to anyone; she always had her head down, and she cried a lot. The only reason she lasted a the first month was because Lupe was in solitary, and everyone knew she got first crack at the fresh meat. The thing with her cellmate was blown-off as a lucky shot, and Faith's cellmate wasn't known as much of a tough girl anyway.

Lupe had been convicted of something as pedestrian as holding up a liquor store. However, since she'd been incarcerated, she'd earned herself a life sentence by killing two other women. Why? Because they cut in front of her in the chow-line. That's when she got transferred to Q-Pod, level III containment. What did she learn from that lesson? Now she always made sure she had an alibi, and no witnesses beyond her posse when she killed.

Faith hadn't yet begun her habit of beating the hell out of the heavy bag a couple times a week in order to bleed off some of her stress, and as a result, she was pretty high strung. Not two hours after Lupe got out of solitary, she'd showered and been brought up to speed on the newest resident of Q-Pod, a sweet looking little white girl that sounded like a fine snack for a horny chickà fresh from a month's solitude.

She and her posse had cornered Faith in the library where the only witness was a corrections officer that Lupe had already bought off by having one of her posse suck his dick on a daily basis. In return for that, she got the freedom to do pretty much anything she wanted. Plus, he liked to watch Lupe force the other girls, so he made sure to take the library watch whenever he could.

He'd lost his job over this incident- the warden didn't buy his story that he didn't have time to call for backup before the fight was over. No one believed someone could do that much damage, that fast. Especially to five women, all of whom were bigger than her. He swore up and down that the whole thing was over in five seconds.

Faith hadn't even been reading, just sitting, back against the wall, head down and eyes closed, thinking about Buffy, and her last encounter with the girl, when Faith'd come to LA to kill Angel, and instead he wound up saving her. Buffy had wanted to kill her, and she would have let it happen. At that point- a month into her 8 year prison sentence- she still wished Buffy had killed her. When she looked up, sensing that someone was there, she saw four girls she recognized from the pod, and one huge girl she'd never seen before. They were spread in a kind of half circle before her.

"You were right! This is one sweet-looking little bitch!" Lupe said to her posse. "Hey little bitch," she said, focusing now on Faith. "You know how to suck pussy?"

Faith was shocked- not by the crudity, but shocked that someone would interrupt her- for thirty days, no one had said a single word to her, outside of the guards. She had been as isolated in genpop as she had been in solitary; and now this. She looked briefly at the one guard in the room and saw his cruel smirk- no help there.

At Faith's silence, Lupe continued, "No? Well you gonna learn fast!" She looked back to her posse and said, "Grab this little bitch."

Faith might have been a little rusty, but she was used to vamps that move like lightning. Before these five could do more than blink an eye, Faith was leaping up in the air, her feet lashing out toward the two on either side of her. Given that they weren't as close as Faith had expected- again, she was planning on vamp-speed- they got away with broken noses and concussions. Had they been closer to Faith, the damage would have been far worse.

The two immediately flanking Lupe had enough time to step forward and throw a punch, not that they actually connected. Faith grabbed the wrist of the one on the right, pulling the fist towards her while twisting the arm so that the girl was pushed down- her arm coming up and over her own shoulder. This caused Faith to bend down, dodging the other girl's punch and at the same time lashing out with her foot. The kick landed on her knee; utterly destroying the joint and causing her to crumple to the floor like a damp rag. Faith then finished her movement of the first girl's arm, up and back over her head, while twisting forward so that the shoulder separated and the ligaments were shredded. Her ear piercing shriek could be heard throughout the pod.

Lupe was so shocked that she hadn't even moved. Faith didn't wait for her to do so, but leapt in a spin kick that smashed the girl's face, pushing her head back so violently that it crunched two vertebrae in her neck. The doctors later agreed that it was a miracle that the girl lived at all, though she would spend the rest of her life as a quadriplegic. After about five reconstructive surgeries to rebuild her face, she almost looked like a human again.

The two with broken noses both came back ok, though they both would prefer to take a broken-glass enema rather than go within ten feet of Faith.

The girl with the dislocated shoulder also returned, though it took a month of recovery in the hospital wing and she never regained more than about twenty percent use of her right arm.

The girl with the knee was even less fortunate. She had a brace and a cane and still could barely walk again.

Since then, she'd been left alone. Even guards mostly stayed the hell away from her. She could have had her run of the pod, if she'd cared to- she didn't. She preferred to spend her time doing her work detail and trying not to think.

The guard waited until The Freak had finished demolishing another heavy bag before trying to get her attention. He had been friends with the guard that got fired over the fight between the freak and Lupe, and even he hadn't believed his friend's story about the fight. But, standing here watching that little bitch tear the leather with the force of her blows… "Maybe the guy wasn't lying after all," he thought.

Tara sat calmly on the uncomfortable bench in the visitor's waiting room. The same couldn't be said for Xander, who was pacing back and forth, lost in thought. After a couple minutes, Tara got bored with watching him. Trying to sense his emotions through their light bond only netted confusion. Xander seemed to be transitioning through fear, desire, anxiety, excitement, sorrow, and hopefulness with a chaotic ferocity.

"Xander…" she started to ask, but he wasn't paying attention. "Xander!" she tried again with no response. Finally she reached out and grabbed his hand as he passed.

Startled out of his fugue state, he asked, "Hmm? What?" as he stood in place and focused on the blonde witch at last.

Tara patted the bench next to her and said, "Sit. Tell me what's wrong." The look of compassion on her face belied the commanding nature of the words.

Still getting the strong feelings of confusion both through their spell-link, and from his easily readable face, Tara gently asked, "Nervous?"

In lieu of pacing, Xander's nervous energy translated into his legs bouncing up and down as he tapped his sneaker-clad heels on the floor. "I dunno. I… I haven't actually talked to Faith… not since she tried to kill me."

Tara remained silent. She had heard some of the events surrounding Faith's time with and against the Scoobies, but not from Xander's viewpoint. She didn't want to interrupt him from getting this off his chest, so she just gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and waited for him to speak.

The silence worked- it was more uncomfortable for Xander to bear the quiet than it was for him to fill it with his thoughts. "I… we… I liked Faith. I guess I thought of us as friends. Then we…" he looked up at Tara, partially expecting the same disapproval he would imagine on Willow's face. Seeing nothing but compassion, he looked once again at his lap and continued, "We hooked up that night… and after that she kinda avoided me. I… it hadn't been that long since I screwed up with Cordelia, and then… well it didn't help my confidence very much." He smiled self-deprecatingly at that. "So, then when I went to talk to her after the… accident; and she was trying to lay it on Buffy, and everyone was mad at her, and I just figured she was scared and screwed up, you know? So I went to talk to her and she nearly choked me to death. Then I couldn't really talk to her much after that… then it turned out she'd gone to work for the mayor… and then she almost killed Willow… and then she was in that coma for a year and all I could think was…"

After a moment, Tara gave his hand another squeeze of reassurance and said, "All you could think was…"

"I should have said something different… I thought maybe we had at least some kind of connection cause of… you know. Buffy tried to tell me that wouldn't matter, but I guess I thought it was, I dunno… like she was maybe just pissed about the blame thing." Xander looked into Tara's eyes and she saw the burgeoning tears as he continued with a cracked voice, "I wanted her to know that it could still be ok. Yeah, she screwed up and… but so what? We all messed things up before. She…"

Tara watched Xander suddenly look away and she could feel that he was sympathizing with her feelings when he continued.

"She felt cut off, like she wasn't really part of us, I think. Like we were shutting her out and turning our backs on her… And I wanted to make her understand that it wasn't like that… she didn't know that we could fight like that, be mad at each other and still be ok in the end. She'd never had it like that, I think. Everything was about rejection, and she didn't understand that anger wasn't the same as rejection." Now a tear did come spilling down his cheek as he said, "But, I screwed up. I didn't say it right and she…" he unconsciously rubbed his throat with his free hand.

Xander took a deep breath and visibly calmed himself. "Then she was in the coma for like a year, and when she did wake up… I remember me and Giles… hunting her… and I wondered if I could pull the trigger if we found her, or if she'd kill us. I remember telling Giles how messed up it was…" he shook his head. "I never saw her again, or at least not in her own body. I never called or wrote or visited once she was in jail. I guess I didn't know what to say," he finished with his eyes back in his lap.

"You blame yourself for Faith going bad?" Tara asked, knowing it was true, but still a little surprised.

Xander just kept looking in his lap, not wanting the pity or sympathy he expected to come next.

Tara's smile was neither accusing, nor filled with pity. She could understand his feelings- she had felt the same way about things in her past… the guilt she felt when she would see her dad beat her mom, and she wasn't able to do anything to stop it. It wasn't rational, but that didn't make it any less real to her at the time. "Xander, trying to help someone… trying and failing… that isn't the same as causing their problems. You can look back now and see everything you ever did that you might wish you could do differently, but in the end, it's still up to her how she turns out."

Xander shook his head, clearly wanting to argue, but again Tara cut him off. "Did you ever feel left out? Like maybe Buffy and Willow were pushing you away?"

Xander's ducked head was all the affirmation she needed. "And did you maybe do something stupid as a result?"

Xander could think of several instances that fit with what Tara was saying, and nodded his head sadly.

"Well, that must have been Buffy and Willow's fault, right? After all, they didn't stop you…" Tara said.

"I see where you're going with this…" Xander said in annoyance. "And, ok, you have a point. But I still think I could have made a difference if I had done something differently."

"The same way Buffy beats herself up every time she can't save someone from vampires. The same way she blames herself for every person Angelus hurt or killed. It's because you both want to help people and you take it personally when you can't," Tara said with another squeeze of Xander's hand.

Being compared with Buffy made it hard for Xander to dispute what she was saying. Especially when she was right in the first place.

"We can't change the past, Xander," Tara said. "No matter how much we might wish we could."

Xander could tell that she was referring to herself at least as much as she was to him.

"All we can do is move forward. From what Buffy told me about the last time she saw Faith, she really was sorry for what she did." Tara sounded truly hopeful as she said, "Maybe this was what she needed to get her life together. Sometimes we need a hard lesson to learn something important about ourselves."

Another rueful chuckle from Xander, "Yeah, I don't guess it gets much harder than prison."

Xander was calmer, though still feeling several conflicting emotions. Mainly he was worried about how Faith would react to seeing them- and the big question, "Will she help?" he wondered

Willow walked silently, hand in hand with her Mistress, her lover, in many ways her very life; Buffy Summers. "I wonder why she wanted to come here," the redhead mused as they strolled through the southern end of LA National Cemetery. It was unlike any cemetery Willow had been in before- which was saying something for a Scooby-gang member; veteran of many a graveyard patrol in her time.

This cemetery didn't have any headstones that stuck up- they were all flush with the ground. No mausoleums, except the one big one, just a big flat lawn studded with little flat markers. Willow looked at her girlfriend, trying to figure out what might be on her mind, but Buffy's face was blank, her focus apparently inward.

Buffy led them over to a tree and sat down. Willow set their bags down and kneeled in front of the Slayer. "Mistress?" she asked, "Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned by Buffy's melancholy. She'd seemed so happy not long ago when they were shopping. Then on the bus ride back toward the Hyperion, they had been on Wilshire Avenue and Buffy had decided they should get off and go for a walk when the bus stopped at the cemetery. Since then the Slayer hadn't said a word, just walked around lost in thought.

Buffy smiled at her pet. She put her less pleasant thoughts aside for a moment and basked in the warmth of Willow thoughts. "Hmmm, just thinking pet. I wonder how it's going with Tara and Xander right now."

Ah. "That certainly explains things," Willow thought. She'd been avoiding thinking about Faith all morning, not wanting to spoil her and Buffy's shopping trip. Out loud she just said, "Oh."

Buffy held out her arms, wanting to hold her lover. "Com'ere pet," she said quietly.

Willow turned and sat down between Buffy's spread thighs, leaning back against the lovely blond. She felt the warm comfort of her Mistress' embrace warring with the cool chill that accompanied the conversation she anticipated.

Willow squirmed mentally; physically she stiffened a little, despite her best effort not to. "I, uh, well… Giles says we need her… so I guess we must need her." Her arms came up over Buffy's, hugging herself. "…and I trust Giles, Mistress." She finished with a whisper.

"But you don't trust Faith." Buffy said- definitely a statement, not a question.

Willow shook her head slightly. "No, Mistress. I… I worry that she might try to hurt you," her hidden fear slipped out.

Buffy tried to joke away the tension. "What? You don't think I could take her?" she asked with a smile.

However, Willow's fears were not so easily assuaged. "What if she does something behind your back? What…" Willow's breath hitched as she imagined the worst, "what if you drop your guard, and she…"

"Shh, pet" Buffy whispered in her ear and then kissed her neck while hugging her tightly. "We'll be careful."

They sat in silence for several minutes, enjoying the comfort of each other's touch.

Eventually Buffy broke the silence, saying, "I never told you what happened when I came to LA after her…"

Willow shook her head slightly, curious about this story. She remembered Giles telling Buffy that Faith had tried to kill Angel- again- and Buffy immediately taking off to LA. All the Slayer had said when she came back was that Angel was safe, and Faith was in jail. At the time Willow had been thrilled to hear it.

"I went into Angel's place and found him holding her in his arms. Her hands were all bloody- I guess they had just fought some monster," Buffy said, remembering the events and her feelings. "I was so furious! I wanted to hurt her so bad… I remember her cringing, like she was afraid of me. I was yelling at Angel, and she started to say she was sorry. I don't even know what she was sorry for, but I told her if she apologized to me I would beat her to death…" Buffy remembered the loathing and disgust that had filled her stomach like a ball of ice. "You should have seen her, Will. She just stood there looking so pathetic. She told me to go ahead and do it… I don't think it was a challenge. I think she really wanted me to kill her."

Willow felt a chill at her Mistress' words, almost as if she anticipated Buffy's next utterance.

Buffy's voice was barely a whisper as she admitted, "I almost think I would have, if Angel hadn't stepped in-between us."

Willow hugged Buffy's arms around her, remaining silent but trying to reassure her Mistress at the same time.

"I hated her so much, Will," Buffy admitted. "She made me a victim… took away my control…" Buffy remembered Faith on the roof, screaming about control…

["You're all about control. You have no idea what it's like on the other side! Where nothing's in control, nothing makes sense! There is just pain and hate and nothing you do means anything. You can't even…"]

"Then there was a big fight… The watcher's council sent another team to try and kill Faith," Buffy said.

Willow tensed. Even though it was in the past, she remembered when the council had sent a team after Faith the first time and had almost killed Buffy instead. Of course, Buffy was in Faith's body at the time due to the mayor's little 'parting gift' to the dark haired Slayer, so it wasn't entirely the watcher team's fault… but still!

Buffy continued, "In the fight, Faith disappeared, and then the cops came and arrested Angel for hiding her." Buffy shook her head slightly, remembering how she had chewed on Angel, "When we got to the police station… I'll never forget it. Faith was there. She confessed… she confessed to everything, including stuff we didn't even know about. I couldn't believe it. Heck, I still have a hard time believing it."

Silence again reigned for a minute or two while Buffy remembered and thought, and Willow tried to work up the courage to ask her next question.

"Mistress, were you and Faith…" Willow began, fighting past the enormous lump in her throat and feeling her heart race, "Before she went evil… were you ever… together?" her voice was almost a squeak.

Buffy heard Willow's heart speed up as she asked that question. Now her own was matching it. "Together how?" she asked, automatically wanting to avoid or deny.

Buffy took a deep breath. "Remember, this is the new you- no more hiding things!" she scolded herself. "Sorry, pet. I know what you meant." Still it was hard to talk about, and she needed a couple more calming breaths before she could answer the question.

"We never had sex," Buffy said- getting the easy part out of the way. "But… we did… stuff. A couple times after major fights we… made out." Another deep breath and she added, "And there was some… touching. I know she wanted sex… but I always chickened out- told her I couldn't do that behind Angel's back…"

"Did you love her?" Willow asked, relieved a little at the no-sex, but more concerned about emotions than physical.

"Even if I did, it wouldn't change anything now, Will," Buffy tried to reassure her lover. "I think I was too scared to fall in love with Faith. She was too wild, and I was confused with the whole Angel thing, and then there were the feelings I had for you that I was denying big time… and I think a lot of the me and Faith thing was kinda cause… you know, another Slayer… someone who really knew what it was like." Buffy again hugged her girlfriend tightly and kissed her neck. "I know I hurt you back then, Will. I… I never told you how sorry I was for that."

Willow angrily scrubbed away the lone tear that had escaped her eye; pissed off at herself for letting it get to her all this time later… for giving Faith power over her for something that was over years ago. "I was so jealous of Faith," she quietly admitted. "It was stupid and selfish of me, especially after the whole fluke thing; I mean, I just get Oz back and here I am jealous of Faith 'cause I was so afraid you'd fall in love with her…"

"Believe me, Will; you didn't have a lock on the selfish gig- I was pretty amazingly self-absorbed back then. And, it didn't help that I was ignoring you and Xander and doing the whole 'want, take, have' thing with Faith." Buffy began to move her hands over Willow's torso. Nuzzling the redhead's ear with her lips and nose, Buffy whispered, "It wouldn't matter if she was completely rehabilitated and a candidate for sainthood, I love you and Tara, and nothing is going to change that."

Willow melted against her Mistress, so loving her touch and her words; Mistress knew how to make her feel better! "Thank you Mistress. I'm sorry, it's just me, being silly about stuff," she softly said.

"No, pet! If you feel it, it's not silly or stupid. Don't ever believe you've got to ignore what you feel." Buffy's hands grew bolder, feeling up her pet's breasts through the fabric of her shirt with one hand and the other toying with the redhead's waistband.

Willow whimpered quietly at the feel of her Mistress touching her like this. "I love you, Mistress!" she moaned with quiet passion.

Buffy furtively glanced around them, and seeing no one within a hundred yards, she unbuttoned her pet's pants.

Feeling her pants open up as Buffy unbuttoned them and ran the zipper down, Willow's breathing sped up. "Oh, goddess! Right here? Outside in the middle of the day where anyone could see us?!" she became extremely excited at the thought.

Buffy nibbled on her pet's earlobe for a moment and she left off fondling the girl's breasts just long enough so she could go under her shirt, push up her bra and directly touch without barrier. Her other hand, having opened up the way, now tunneled under Willow's panties and cupped her hot sex. "Oh, pet," she moaned. "You're so wet already!"

"Always wet for you, Mistress!" she gasped out when she felt Buffy pinching a nipple and stroking her pussy. Willow mewled at the feel of her Mistress sliding two fingers into her slick opening; she was trying to keep somewhat quiet given the public setting.

Buffy began pinching her pet's nipples hard, squeezing and releasing in perfect rhythm with her fingers pumping in and out of the witch's wet pussy.

Willow gasped with each pinch until she was panting like a thirsty dog on a hot July day.

Buffy grazed her pet's neck with her teeth and felt the fingers she had buried inside the witch get squeezed hard. She recognized the signs of her lover's impending orgasm- though she knew it would never happen without her express permission. She didn't even ask- it was just a certainty. "You are mine!" she growled in Willow's ear. "I will never let you go, and nothing will ever take you away from me, do you understand!?" she demanded.

"Oh, goddess yes, Mistress! I'm yours forever!" she wailed; her struggle to keep quiet lost in the overwhelming passion of the moment.

Buffy smiled and bit down on the taught flesh of Willow's neck, just above her collar; sucking hard and leaving a dark, strong mark on her pet. "Cum, pet!" she growled in the girl's ear, giving her nipple a long, hard pinch and grinding her thumb against Willow's engorged clit.

Willow keened loudly while beautiful waves of pleasure rippled through her, as though her body was a still pool into which a large rock was thrown.

While Willow lay spent against her, Buffy continued to whisper words of love and affirmation, "I adore you pet! You are my heart, and I love you with everything that I am."

Faith blinked her eyes a couple times, coming back to reality and seeing the remains of another punching bag. She always pretended it was a vamp that just wouldn't go down. She'd beat on it and kick it and basically just tear into it until either she was too tired to go on, or the bastard went down.

Just then she noticed someone was calling her name- which was unusual enough that it didn't really register with her the first couple times he yelled. She frowned when she realized what he was saying. "Visitor? I don't get visitors…" she thought. Angel had come a couple times, and he wrote her once in a while, just to let her know that she wasn't forgotten. But it was still morning, wasn't it? "Hey, what time is it?" she asked the guard as she walked through the weight-lifting area, ignoring the other inmates just as they pretended to ignore her.

"It's almost noon," the guard said, not caring why she asked. He just wanted to deliver her to where she was supposed to go, and hopefully not have to interact with her again.

"What the hell do you care? Damned freak," he thought, annoyed. "No, sun's out," he answered tersely.

"Ok, so probably not Angel…" she thought. She didn't know anyone outside of Angel; and of course the Scooby gang- but it never occurred to her even for a moment that it might be one of them. Even her Buffy-reconciliation fantasies never had them coming to her- it was always her getting out and going to them. She didn't really want to be seen living in a cage. It was different with Angel- kindred spirit, tortured soul and all that.

Faith frowned when the guard walked past the door to the visit area. Suddenly suspicious, she stopped walking and said, "Hey! Where ya goin?" Pointing to the door, she said, "Last time I checked, it was in here."

The guard turned around and had to restrain himself from snapping at her. Normally he didn't take any crap whatsoever from inmates, but this time his self-preservation instincts kept him in check. He didn't figure a wooden baton would be much use against someone who shredded punching bags for fun. "Not the booths. They told me to take you to one of the interview rooms."

Those rooms were for inmates meeting with their attorneys. Faith's attorney was a public defender whose sole job had been to stand up and plead guilty on her behalf. What kind of lawyer do you need when you already confessed to the crime?

Faith stared hard at the prison guard, but didn't get any kind of vibe off the guy. He seemed bored and annoyed, not nervous or hyped up like he was taking her to get a beating. Nevertheless, her hackles were raised and she went forward warily. "Yeah, ok. Whatever." She mumbled. Instinctively, Faith checked her back and set up a plan in her mind to deal with an ambush. Her eyes locked on the base of the guard's neck, knowing without even thinking, that her fist would be smashing against that spot at the first sign of trouble. Better to eliminate him from consideration before dealing with any other attackers. She moved forward as she followed him, closing the gap between them until she was in striking range.

The guard felt a shiver go up his spine as they resumed walking. "Goddamn freak!" He thought.

Down at the end of the corridor, the guard stopped and unlocked a door on the right-hand side. He pulled it open and gestured for Faith to go in.

Faith approached the door cautiously, her eyes sweeping every square inch of the room as it became visible. When she got close to the door she saw a vaguely familiar blond girl sitting at the table. She frowned, trying to place her. Any thought of the blond flew out of her head when she got all the way to the door and saw the room's other occupant. She froze in the doorway, feeling like she'd been gut-punched.

Cordelia had been unable to sit still for any length of time after the gang from Sunnydale left. She fluttered about from this to that, unable to focus on anything for very long. Normally when things were slow, and the phones were stubbornly silent, she would do her nails, or read Cosmo or Vogue. However, today neither of those could hold her attention either.

Finally, when she heard Wesley hang up from the one phone call they'd received this morning, she couldn't stand the tense boredom any longer. She went into his office and plopped down in one of the chairs.

Wesley raised his eyebrows at the young woman, waiting for her to say something. When she didn't, he bemusedly said, "What can I help you with, Cordelia?"

"I hate this," she stated emphatically. "It isn't bothering you?" she asked, clearly in disbelief.

"No, I was talking about the golden globe nominations… Of course I mean Faith!" Cordelia said sarcastically.

"Yes, well… it's true that our last encounter with Faith didn't go particularly smoothly…" Wesley said, his British firmly in place.

Cordelia goggled at the former watcher, "Hello?! Understatement much? Wesley, she tortured you!"

"I haven't forgotten; you may be certain of that!" he snapped. Taking a deep breath, he visibly calmed himself. "Rest assured, Cordelia; I remember quite well what happened to us both…" he broke eye contact and stared at the wall for a moment while he collected himself. "I had bloody nightmares for months after that horrible ordeal" Wesley remembered. "Honestly, I believe Angel was doing the right thing in trying to help Faith… but at the time I would have joyfully watched her being put down like a rabid dog!" he thought.

Cordelia was attacking Wesley only as a reaction to her own troubled feelings, not because she was mad at him. Wesley knew that intellectually, but it was difficult not to snap back at the tactless seer. He just stared at her for several moments, unable to think of anything to say to resolve this.

Fortunately, Cordelia also knew why she was behaving the way she was, and Wesley's silence gave her brain enough time to catch up with her mouth. She visibly deflated, sinking back into the chair and blushing at her behavior. "Sorry Wesley. I'm just…" she gestured helplessly, unable to easily sum up her feelings.

Wesley also relaxed slightly, leaning back in his chair and saying, "Quite alright, Cordelia. This is a stressful situation, what with the situation in Sunnydale and the return of Faith, and all the rest. We're all uneasy."

"Oh," she said. "I thought you meant the whole Buffy lesbian-sex-and-bondage thing."

Wesley blushed hotly. He would have never brought it up, of course, but that too was somewhat disquieting to him. It was extremely difficult not to be aroused by such thoughts. "Y- yes, well…" he stuttered uncomfortably.

"Did you really pass out when you saw them kissing last night?" she asked, taking refuge from Faith-related thoughts by teasing Wesley.

"Dammit Gunn!" Cordy exclaimed. "It's bad enough when Angel sneaks around, now you've got to do it too?"

Gunn laughed. "Aw, you're just pissed cause I interrupted you teasing English there."

"Alright, smarty-pants; enlighten me- what is it with the whole lesbian fascination?"

Gunn smiled and said, "If one beautiful woman is good, two are better. And the more you add, the better it gets! It's pretty simple," he said as though it were obvious.

Seeking to divert the conversation away from sex, Wesley asked Gunn, "Were you able to get a hold of your contact for the firearms?"

Gunn said, "Hey man, it's not like there's a catalog to shop from. She's gotta make some calls; find out what she can get her hands on quick. I told her we gotta have it by tomorrow night, so you know it's gonna cost us extra."

"I see," Wesley said. "Do you have any idea of price range at all? I need to arrange for funds as soon as possible, what with the time zone difference between us and the council…"

"Hey, you want it fast and clean, expect them to mark it up. It'll cost her extra, which means she's gonna charge us extra," Gunn explained. "Plus she knows we don't have time to shop around, so that bumps the up price even more."

"Is there no one else you can go to?" Wesley asked, still choking with sticker-shock.

Gunn spoke slowly, "If you want a gun, you can get one anywhere- but it'll be hotter than hell; stolen at least, and probably used in some crime you don't want any part of. Even then, it's gonna be a handgun or a shotgun. The stuff on Xan-man's list is military grade. You don't get that on a street corner. Plus, we're talking full auto rock and roll- not some garage-rigged semi-auto. All that adds up, man. We'll pay 20K and say thank you very much."

"Yes, well…" Wesley said, while thinking "No need to be patronizing about it." With a sigh he said, "I suppose I have a phone call to make," clearly displaying a complete lack of enthusiasm.

Gunn jumped up and sat on the counter and said, "So, what's the 411 on this other Slayer? I got the impression that no-one's real eager to see her."

Faith blinked once and turned her attention to the blond. "Uh, you wanna tell me what the hell's going on?"

Tara smiled at the irony. "Sure," she said. "Why don't you come in and sit down and I'll tell you all about it."

Faith locked down the roiling emotions playing in her stomach and affected as best she could her usual cool attitude. "Sure," she said evenly as she walked in. She jumped a little when the door closed behind her with the guard still outside. "You sure you feel safe in here alone with me?" she asked with just a little bitterness showing. She was ok as long as she focused on the blond. Every time her eyes wandered over to Xander, she felt the emotion straining to burst out of her.

Xander didn't know what he expected to see. She seemed pretty much like the old Faith, except with the edge kinda taken off. He might have believed she was really that uncaring, except he'd seen her eyes when she first saw him. He imagined that her seeing any of the Scooby gang came as quite a shock, but the emotion he had seen flare up- brief as it was- told the true tale.

"You might not remember me," Tara began. "You weren't quite yourself when we met."

Faith said, "Yeah, ok. So how's about you tell me why you guys are here. Old home week?"

Tara could tell that Faith's attitude was a thin mask at best. "She can't even look at Xander," she thought to herself sadly. "Ok, right to the point. We need your help."

Faith laughed, but there was no humor in it. This was like a twisted version of her fantasies, and she just *knew* it was going to end up turning into a nightmare. She wasn't altogether convinced that this wasn't really just a dream as it was. She felt tempted to pinch herself. "Yeah, that's funny. What's the punchline? In case you didn't notice- I'm in prison. Unless you're gonna bring the vamps to me, I'm not much use for slaying."

"It's a lot bigger than a few vamps. Big enough that the council was willing to pull some strings…"

"No way. Last time I checked, the council was trying to kill me, not bust me out of jail." Faith couldn't let herself believe this. It had to be a trick.

Faith was ready to attack again, but when she looked at Xander, her mouth snapped shut.

Tara briefly outlined what they were up against, and what their plan was to fight it.

"So, you want to use me in some spell to make a Super-Buffy and beat this hell-bitch back into her shell…" she suddenly flashed to her weird nightmare. "Does she look like some trailer-park tramp with curly brown hair and too much space between her eyes?" she asked seemingly out of the blue.

The shocked looks on Tara's and Xander's faces were enough to tell her she was right. "Dammit! I didn't want to be right, not about that!" she thought angrily.

Faith almost asked what was in it for her. "God, I can be such a bitch!" she thought. Here was a golden opportunity to try and make a start at making amends, and she could only think of herself. "Ok." She said with a sigh.

Faith suddenly seized on another opportunity- after all it was a small thing and she could actually apologize for this without feeling like complete crap. "Hey, Tara, I'm… uh…" Ok, so not as easy as you'd think.

"Uh, I'm sorry about what I said to you at the Bronze…" Faith muttered, eyes down.

Tara's smile lit up the dank and dingy room. "It's ok, Faith. We were both different people then."

Just that little forgiveness felt better that Faith had ever imagined it could. If nothing else, that alone made this spell thing worth it. Oh yeah, plus the whole saving the world thing. "That has to clear a couple of bad karma points, doesn't it?" she thought.

"Ok, so how does this work? When do I get out of here, and how do I get to SunnyD?" Faith asked.

"Today?" Faith asked, sudden excitement slipping through the chinks in her armor.

Tara nodded her head, "Of course. I just have to go talk to the warden, and give him the paperwork…"

"Five whole days?" Faith thought in wonder. She never thought she'd see the outside of these walls again, let alone five days of freedom.

Xander and Tara both thought the smile lighting up Faith's face made her look beautiful. They smiled back and Tara said, "Well, why don't I go see the warden, and you two can catch up. I imagine it may be a little while."

She hoped Xander could break through that mask Faith was wearing. She could imagine the guilt and fear hidden behind it, and it would be better if Faith could start letting it go before she saw the rest of the Scooby gang, otherwise she might just build it up even thicker.

Xander and Faith sat without saying a word for almost five minutes after Tara left. Neither one was sure what to say, how to break the silence.

Faith's enthusiasm had quickly dimmed- yes it would be good to be out, and everything, but she was afraid it would be just that much worse when she had to come back. Plus, how was she going to be able to make amends to everyone in just five days- especially if they were busy getting ready for this big fight. All her fears and insecurities were running through her mind again. "Crap, I can't even say I'm sorry to Xander! How am I gonna face B?

Finally Xander built up the courage to speak. "I'm sorry Faith," he whispered. Even after his talk with Tara, even after acknowledging that she was right- that Faith made her own choices, Xander still felt guilty for that one conversation gone horribly wrong.

"What are you sorry for?" Faith asked, surprised. She was really trying not to be defensive- desperately wanting to not be defensive, but failing.

The funny thing was, Xander fully expected to get blasted for what he was about to say. After his conversation with Tara, he realized that Faith might actually take offense- that he was trying to take responsibility for her actions, like she couldn't make her own decisions. Even though he knew that, he still felt it eating a hole in his gut, and he knew it would never go away until he apologized. She didn't have to forgive him, he just needed her to know that he knew he screwed up and was sorry for it.

Faith felt the prickly sensation at the backs of her eyes that usually preceded tears.

"I went there to try and tell you that…" he took a deep breath, not wanting to cry, "I wanted you to know that it was ok to screw up. I mean, we all screwed up big time before, me, Willow, Buffy… all of us did stuff that was really stupid before and we got through it." He lifted his head to meet her eyes as he continued, "I dunno, I guess I thought that… maybe you didn't know that. Maybe you thought we would all, like, hate you or something. Like it couldn't be fixed… Anyway, I wanted to tell you that, but I messed it up and it all came out wrong and everything…"

Faith wanted to get mad, anything not to cry. "You telling me that you think the crap I did, going to the mayor and all that, is your fault?"

"No!" Xander was quick to say. Again he felt like he was screwing things up. "Look, I'm saying things all wrong again. All I meant is that there was that one moment when it feels like I could have helped even if it was just a little tiny bit; when I just wanted you to know that I didn't hate you and that… it was possible to fix things- not that I could fix things, but just that it was possible…" he rambled.

He took another deep breath, fighting the tears, before continuing. "But I effed it up, and what I wanted to say came out wrong." He dropped his head again and whispered, "It feels like instead of helping I made it worse. I shouldn't have even… I just wanted to say I'm sorry that I didn't help."

The knife Buffy drove into her stomach didn't hurt as bad as this. Faith thought she was gonna throw up. The worst part was that she knew he wasn't trying to hurt her, that he really felt bad, like he did something wrong. That made it a hundred times worse than if he had been trying to guilt-trip her.

"Dammit Xander!" she seethed. She stood up out of her chair and turned away from him, holding her stomach in a desperate attempt to keep it together.

"I tried to kill you!" she said through tightly clenched teeth. She wanted him to be mad at her, to yell or scream or, or… anything but this! She was desperate to say that she was sorry for what she did, but she just knew that it would be like the first drop in a hurricane of emotion that was threatening to break out of her.

Xander stood up and cautiously approached her. He didn't know exactly what to say to that, so he resorted to humor, as always. "Yeah, well… you weren't the first friend of mine to try and kill me."

"You can't forgive something like that," Faith said- expressing her fear, and at the same time subconsciously crying out for that forgiveness.

Xander sobered- Usually among the Scoobies, the big screwups were apologized for and forgiven without words- just a look and a change of the subject, or an admission of guilt followed by the other person blowing it off with a 'no big,' or a 'forget it'. Rarely was there an 'I forgive you' spoken; but Xander could tell that Faith needed to hear those words.

Tentatively, Xander put his hand on Faith's shoulder and turned her till she was facing him. He stared at her eyes, though she refused to raise them to meet his. "Faith, I forgive you."

Well there was no holding back now. Later, Faith would be happy that she didn't puke right on his shirt, but right now she felt big fat tears come pouring out of her eyes and burn their way down her face. "Oh God, I'm so sorry Xander!" she cried. She put her hands on his chest to push him away, but ended up gripping his shirt and pulling him close to her as the cry turned to deep heaving sobs. "Oh God! I'm SOOO SOOORRRRYYYYY!" she wailed into his chest.

Xander felt his own eyes let go and tears stream down his face. He wrapped her shuddering frame in his arms, squeezing with all his might as he cried over and over, "It's ok, I forgive you. I forgive you Faith."

When Tara came back, she found them on their knees, crying in each other's arms.

Tara sat sideways in the front passenger's seat of Giles BMW, leaning back against the door so she could keep an eye on Faith. She remembered Faith's glowing smile as she walked out of the gates of the prison. "Why do they make them walk out that big gate?" Tara wondered incongruously. "Wouldn't it make more sense to let her come into the lobby and meet us there?" she remembered asking the prison guard when he told her she could pick up 'the parolee' outside the main prison gates. "Not a very nice man." She thought. "No point in correcting him…"

She and Xander had been sitting in the car for about half an hour waiting for the gates to open. "And when she finally comes out that… *Jerk*... has the… the…" she couldn't come up with a suitable epithet. "… to say that, and then it's like he wiped away her smile with that one comment. He just assumes that Faith wouldn't survive in the real world." Tara tried to put aside her annoyance, "I guess they probably see a lot of prisoners who don't make it through their parole… It's not like he knew she was pardoned. Still, it looked like she took it hard."

"People can be so frustrating," Tara thought. "Sometimes I just want to shake them, or drag them out to a graveyard at night and show them just what the 'real world' really is! If that guard ever had to face a vampire he'd wish he wasn't so mean to Faith… Of course he'd probably just deny what he saw." Tara shook her head, "I don't know why I even get mad about it. They'll never change. The world will never understand what people like us go through just to keep things so they can be blind and happy. The only time they'll ever believe is if we fail…"

They'd been on the road for about fifteen minutes and Faith still hadn't said a word. More and more Tara sensed an air of melancholy verging on depression coming from the dark haired Slayer; until she felt compelled to say something. "That guard was just being a jerk, Faith…"

Faith turned away from where she was staring out the window and responded, "Yeah… I know. It's just… you know. Got stuff on my mind."

"Not very convincing," Tara thought. "Slumped shoulders and bowed head… she looks like she's got something heavy pushing her down."

Xander looked at Faith in the rearview mirror and said, "Stuff, huh? Well, I don't know about you ladies, but I find it easier to think about 'Stuff' on a full stomach."

Tara looked over at him and couldn't help but smile at such typical Xander commentary. "I think that's your answer to most things, isn't it? Everything goes better with food?"

"See? Faith agrees!" Xander said to Tara, gesturing as though he were proving a point of contention. "Everything does go better with food!"

"Now that he mentions it, I am kind of hungry," Tara realized. "Besides, it might break the mood a little." She looked at the Faith and said, "We can stop somewhere… Xander and I haven't eaten since this morning either."

"Prison cuisine, not quite up to the fine fast-food standards we know and love?" Xander asked with a laugh.

Tara noticed Faith's face darken for a moment at Xander's joke, but she quickly smiled and said, "Yeah, it's pretty crappy."

"Something's definitely bothering her," Tara thought. "She seems… It's like she's not happy enough to be out of prison? That doesn't make sense."

Xander said, "Well, seeing as we're still in Chino, we might want to get a few more miles down the road before we stop for food."

Tara turned back to look at Xander, temporarily thrown off of her train of thought. "Huh? Chino's a bad place for food?" she asked.

It was Faith who answered, "Yeah; stockyards. When the wind's blowin' right, the whole fricken pod reeks like cow-ass."

Both Xander and Tara cracked up at that. "Goddess, she looks like a completely different person when she smiles! It doesn't seem to last very long, though…" Tara thought as she observed faith's smile fall away once again. "So how do I find out what's wrong, without her getting all defensive on us?"

The three lapsed into silence for a little while after laughing at Faith's joke.

"How about good ol' Mickey D's?" Xander asked when they approached another exit a few minutes later.

Tara looked at the approaching turnoff to see a familiar sight. "Good old golden arches, sticking way up on the top of a really tall pole. I wonder if other countries have one chain of restaurants that you find at every exit, on every highway?" she mused. Reading the exit sign, she asked, "Chino Hills? I thought Chino was where the cows were."

"Right," Xander began to explain. "Chino Hills is like Chino- except with no cows… at least none of the 'walking around, smelling bad' kind. They do, however, have the 'ground up and fried, on a bun with lettuce and pickles' kind, which just happens to be my cow of choice."

Suddenly, Xander's back stiffened, his eyes grew huge and his jaw sort of dropped. Tara asked, "What? Is something wrong? Did you see something?" She began to look around for anything that might have spooked him.

"No, no. Nothing, I- I just had this really weird thought…" Xander trailed off, his focus apparently inward.

Xander blushed, "Uh, yeah it's kinda stupid… I just thought, you know Dead-boy drinks cow blood… and so I thought, you know, what if he turned a cow?"

Tara stared at Xander for a second, and then flicked a glance toward the back seat to see the dark-haired Slayer's stunned and amused expression.

Tara suddenly had a weird thought of her own, "Vampire cattle… Mmm, Buffy in chaps, roping vampire cattle… She could rassle them, and then stake 'em."

Tara blushed rather strongly when she noticed Faith staring at her with a raised eyebrow.

Tara looked back and forth for a moment between Faith's smirk and Xander's sidelong glance and stammered, "Of course not! I- I was thinking of Buffy in chaps…"

By this time Xander was pulling in to the parking lot of the McDonalds. He parked the car and turned to face Tara with his own smirk firmly in place, and asked, "And would that be with or without jeans under those chaps?"

"Goddess, I can actually feel myself blushing!" Tara thought, momentarily chagrined. She made herself straighten her back and lift her chin as she answered, "That is for me to know and for you to stop picturing in your head, Mr. Harris!" She looked over at Faith, who was staring at her with her mouth kinda hanging open. "Oh my." She thought. "This is gonna be a long conversation, I can tell."

"Hey everyone! We're back!" Buffy said with a giggle as she and Willow entered the Hyperion Lobby. After dragging her eyes away from her pet and noticing empty room she asked. "Hey… Where is everybody?"

Buffy turned to her pet and looked her up and down yet again, thinking, "My God! Mmmm, mmm, good!" She watched the redhead blush under her gaze, again, and said, "Pet, I *so* love you in red and black!"

Willow's smile was already huge and it didn't diminish at all as she responded, "Thank you Mistress!"

Buffy licked her lips and breathily said, "Come on, I wanna show you off a little before I take you upstairs and teach you a lesson for being such a tease this morning!"

"God, I'm half tempted to put the leash on you!" Buffy thought. "Just that thought makes me feel so naughty and hot… I don't think I'm quite ready to show off *that* much though." Instead Buffy grabbed her pet's hand and led her down the steps.

In the office, Wesley was sitting at his desk, leaned back slightly in his chair but maintaining his customarily stiff posture even in repose. Cordelia was slouched down in a chair facing the desk, feet crossed and legs stretched out in front of her. Gunn was leaning against the wall by Cordelia, and looking at Wesley with a grin on his face.

Buffy giggled at the stunned look on Gunn's face. Her glance shot over to Wesley when he abruptly sat forward, the backrest of his chair thumping upright as it chased his retreating torso.

Cordelia's expression combined shock and admiration. She blinked a couple of times and then said, "Willow! I'm… impressed. That outfit's pretty much in style and… can you actually walk in those pants?"

"Black leather pants and red satin crop-top are *definitely* a hit!" Buffy thought, as though marking off items on a mental checklist.

Buffy stepped close to her pet and encircled her waist with one arm; making sure to stroke the pale, smooth skin exposed between the leather waistband and the hem of the top. "God, I love the feel of your hot skin under my hand; I just adore the way you shiver at my touch!" Buffy thought as she slid her hand around. "Doesn't she look absolutely yummy?" she asked, nearly gushing in her jollity.

Wesley unconsciously nodded and licked his lips, while Gunn softly grunted out, "Damn straight!" both men responding despite the rhetorical nature of the question.

Cordelia rolled her eyes and said, "Ok, I could have lived without that visual, thank you very much. Wesley, quit nodding your head, before it falls off."

Gunn laughed, drawing Cordelia's glance," And Gunn… please, the open mouthed drool thing? So very *not* attractive."

Seeing Gunn hastily wipe at his mouth, apparently looking for the non-existent drool, made Buffy laugh out loud. "Maybe I'm enjoying this too much…" She thought. "Nah! But I'd better get Will upstairs pretty soon, or we'll end up giving them a real show."

"Duh!" Buffy chastised herself. "I guess I was avoiding thinking about Faith; I should have asked that first thing." Out loud she asked, "So, did Tara check in at all? Are they coming back yet?"

Wesley looked like he was happy to have another subject to address. He quickly said, "Yes. Yes, indeed. Xander called and told me that they had handled Faith's paperwork with the warden and were waiting for her to be processed out. That was roughly an hour ago, so I suspect that they are en route as we speak."

"They're probably gonna wanna stop and eat on the way… If she's been in for a year or so, she's gonna want some real food," Gunn said.

All eyes turned to the tall man and Cordelia said, "You think so? Done a little time yourself, have you Gunn?"

"Yeah, ok, and on that note…" Buffy said as Gunn glowered at Cordelia. "We're gonna go upstairs." She turned and looked at her pet's smiling face and added, "We'll be back before they get here… probably."

"Is it some kinda Slayer thing? You guys are like bunny rabbits or something," Cordelia added.

"Hmm, is she disgusted, or jealous," Buffy wondered. "And do I really care in the slightest, either way?" Looking back to her pet, Buffy thought, "Uh, I'm gonna go with 'no' on that." She didn't bother to look back at Cordy when she replied. "Unh uh… no fur."

Hearing Gunn's sharp intake of air, Buffy thought, "Oops. Gunn got it, anyway." Before anyone else could comment, she said, "We'll be back," and steered Willow out of the office and toward the stairs.

She laughed when she heard Cordy's 'Eww, TMI,' followed by Wesley's confused, 'What?'

Tara breathed out a resigned sigh. "I don't think she's gonna let this drop; she looks way too interested," she thought. "Of course, I almost don't even mind. Buffy and Willow are mine, and I don't care if the whole world knows! How did I ever get to the point that I was comfortable talking about sex?" she asked herself. "Well, not so much comfortable, more like… I don't know. Goddess, a year and a half ago I'd never even *had* sex, and now I'm almost as bad as… well, no, I'll never be as bad as Anya."

"Come on, share, share- that's fair." Faith said, interrupting Tara's introspection. "You got the hots for B, huh? What's Red think of that?"

Tara looked away from Faith's almost catty smirk, and took in Xander's rather painful-looking attempt to not laugh. "You think this is funny, don't you?" Tara said, responding to his hysterics.

Xander took deep slow breaths, apparently trying to calm himself. "Funny? Me? No, of course not, what could be funny about that?"

"Oh yes, that was very convincing," Tara said, rolling her eyes. Turning to Faith, she said, "How about we get some food before having any conversations about my love life."

Xander nearly leapt away from the car and began walking swiftly toward the restaurant. "Food; excellent idea, Tara, let's get some food," he said.

Tara smirked at Xander's hasty retreat, but refrained from comment for the moment. "I'll tease him later," she thought. She followed him toward the building, leaving Faith to either tag along or be left behind.

Faith hastened to catch up, saying, "Uh huh, don't think I'm dropping this, Blondie. I smell a juicy story, and I want details!"

The three were sitting at a picnic table outside the McDonalds, on the side facing the street. Faith was straddling the bench seat on one side, her body turned with her right elbow resting on the table. Xander sat directly across the table from her and Tara sat on his right. It was early enough that traffic was pretty light and only a few cars passed by at a time. There weren't any people walking by, the few other diners were all inside the fast-food restaurant, only the three Scoobies braving the smoggy air.

Faith ate her burger in four big bites, relishing the taste. "Pretty sad," she said out of the blue.

"What's sad?" Tara asked, pausing just before she took another bite of her own burger.

"I was just thinking how great this tastes… and it's just a fricken fast-food burger," Faith said, feeling dumb for even bringing it up.

Xander didn't bother pausing in his consumption, speaking with his mouth full he said, "Faith, this is McDonalds. There is no bad here."

Faith turned her head to look at Xander. "Damn he's not even kidding," she thought, unable to help smiling just a little at the seriousness in his expression.

Changing the subject, Faith asked, "So, what's new in SunnyD besides the latest big bad? Buffy still knockin' boots with the clean marine?" In her thoughts she added, "Or, did I screw that up for her too?" remembering her time in Buffy's body.

"He left; went back to the military, down in Central America somewhere, I think." Xander said.

Faith stared down at the table. "Damn, I'm so freakin sorry, B. I really effed up your life, didn't I?" she thought morosely.

"You shouldn't blame yourself, Faith. They got past the body switching episode after a little while," Tara said. "He left for completely different reasons, and it was several months after what happened between you two."

Tara's words snapped her out of her self-pity in an instant. "What, are you some kind of mind reader or something? How did you know…" she trailed off when she realized what she'd just said. She crossed her arms in an unconscious effort to protect herself as her mind spun, "Damn! If she was just guessing, she knows now! Crap, crap, crap! I gotta change the subject quick!"

"Whatever. Anyway, what about you Xan-man? I remember seeing you with some blond chickadee at Giles place when I was playing dress-up last year," Faith said, trying to ignore her slip.

"Faith, come on. Tara's right…" Xander said earnestly. "Riley leaving had nothing to do with you."

"Yeah?" Faith asked, her voice betraying her incredulity. "I wish I could believe that," she thought sadly. "Maybe so, but it just means I've got a million things to be sorry for instead of a million and one," she said, her head turned away, facing the street again as she hugged her arms tightly to her body.

"Even so, Buffy can be pretty forgiving, if you'll let her," Xander said. "I know it's not the same, but I've done things to hurt Buffy lots of times. Trust me; once you both get past being mad and defensive, she wants to forgive, to make it better."

"You maybe," Faith thought. "But you're her friend." Turning her head back just enough to see him peripherally, Faith whispered, "I wanna believe you. I really do. I- I've just pissed away so many chances, you know?" She had to blink back tears, thinking "I cry enough in prison. I'm not gonna be a fricken waterworks out here too."

Visibly pulling herself together and scrubbing away the almost tears, Faith said, "So you and that blond girl still together?" Her brow crinkled as she tried to recall the name she'd heard while impersonating Buffy. "Annie or something, right?" she asked. Mentally she was begging, "Please just drop it!"

Whether he'd heard her unspoken plea or not, Xander allowed the subject to be changed. "Anya. We were together for almost a year."

"Were?" Faith asked aloud. Silently she said, "Thanks Xan-man. Gonna be hard enough to deal with B without airing it all out now."

"I wonder, did'ja cheat on her too?" Faith thought right away. And following that, she immediately chastised herself. "Way to make friends and influence people, Faith! Oh, well. At least I didn't say it out loud." She looked closely at Xander for a moment. "No tears for Annie, huh?" she said, commenting on the fact that he didn't look like he was upset at all "No offense, Xan, but you don't look like you're all that sad about it…"

"Anya, and no, I'm not that upset about it. We were together for the wrong reasons," Xander said. His voice wasn't bright and chipper or anything, but he sounded ok about it.

"So, you and Red broke up too?" Faith asked, turning her attention back to the blond girl.

"Goddess, no!" Tara said emphatically, shaking her head and looking like she was surprised at the question even. "We're great, better than great really!"

"She must be pretty damn good if your smile's anything to go by," Faith thought. After a second she frowned as she suddenly remembered the reason they were even having this conversation. "Ok, if you and red are all shooting fireworks, then what's the deal with you havin' the hots for B? Does your girl know about this little fantasy?"

"Oh yes. Willow knows all about it," Tara said, the look on her face one of desire.

"You got it bad, huh? And Red's ok with that?" Faith asked. "I can tell you've got something big to drop on me, Blondie. Gonna make me work for it?" she wondered. She voiced her next thought, "Lemme guess, you dress red up and play Slayer vs. the Vampire."

Tara laughed in genuine humor at that. Then she dropped a bombshell, "Actually, we like to let Buffy play the part of the Slayer, but we have done something like that."

Xander had been mid drink, and began to choke again, almost as bad as before. His face radiated lust at the same time he blushed furiously in embarrassment.

"What the…?" Faith's stunned brain registered Tara's words imperfectly, as though she wasn't sure she'd really heard them. She gave her head a little shake and actually went as far as sticking her finger in her ear and rotating it as though she were cleaning it out. "You wanna run that one by me again, Blondie?"

The grin on Tara's face changed from a great big one that she wore while laughing, to a smaller, more relaxed smile. She said, "Faith… Buffy and Willow and I are together."

Faith was shaking her head again, but slower this time. "No way! No Freakin Way!" she thought, stunned by Tara's words. Faith could feel pressure in her hands and looked down to see that she was clenching them tightly, to the point of knuckles popping and fingernails penetrating her skin. "I can't even…" Her mind drew a blank in mid-thought as she tried to process.

After the silence had lasted for several heartbeats, Faith spoke again. Her voice was quiet, but intense as she said, "You, and Red… And B?"

Now a torrent of thought replaced the stunned silence. Her eyes darted up to Xander briefly before focusing back on Tara. "And she doesn't even look smug! I'd be so damned smug, hell I'd probably tattoo it on my arm for the whole world to see!" she thought. "Christ, I don't think I'd even believe her, 'cept I can see it in Xan-man's eyes; lust, and pain. I probably got the same look in mine." Faith looked away from the smiling witch and stared out at the street.

Hearing Tara's gasp, Faith thought, "Crap; I didn't mean to say that." When she turned back to Tara the look on her face had changed. "Oh yeah, she heard that. Narrowed eyes, tight lips… She looks, well, not so much pissed as… I don't know, like she's gonna let me have it with both barrels?"

"I'm not worried, Faith," Tara said evenly, the smile back on her face, though smaller than before.

Faith shut up and looked at the blond closely. "No, you don't look worried," Faith thought. "I wonder how come? I could snap you like a twig; you have to know that, Right? I'm a freakin Slayer, just like B." She said, "Why the hell not?" Her eyes flicked over to Xander again and saw something she couldn't immediately place. "Like you know something I don't…" she thought.

"I know my girlfriends," Tara said serenely. "And, I know me," she added, her voice a little harder.

Faith felt the intrinsic challenge in that statement and was puzzled. "I shouldn't even be pushing this, it's not like I have any right," she thought. "Still…" she maintained a very even and unthreatening voice, allowing her confusion to come forth as she said, "That kinda sounded like a threat…" She looked back at Xander and tried to figure out the look she was seeing.

"It really wasn't," Tara said. Then she stood up, smiling pleasantly, and started to clean up the remains of her lunch. She asked, "Are we ready to get back on the road?"

"Yeah, sure," Faith said. "I know that look," she thought, coming to a conclusion about the expression she saw on Xander's face. "That was a 'you really don't wanna screw around with her' look," she realized. "So how come it was directed at me instead of Blondie?"

Willow allowed Buffy to lead her up the stairs without resistance. "I think that was payback, Mr. Gunn," Willow thought, replaying in her mind what had just happened in Wesley's office. "Payback part one, anyway!" She looked over at her Mistress, taking in the profile of her lover's face. "That was so awesome, Mistress! Thank you so much!" she said.

Buffy continued their progress toward their room as she asked, "What was, pet?" Her voice sounded surprised.

"The way you showed me off to them! The way you teased those poor boys, I loved it! I love you, Mistress!" Willow gushed.

They had almost reached the door to their room at the Hyperion by this point, and Buffy did pause this time. Willow nearly bumped into her when she turned around just before they got to the door.

Willow kept her eyes down. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. At least not yet," Willow thought. "Mistress is going to punish me for teasing her this morning… I hope I didn't spoil her mood." Unsure of what to do, she stood placidly, waiting. "Mistress will tell me what to do, I don't need to worry about it." When Buffy stood there silently for several moments, Willow got a little annoyed with herself. "Darn it, I probably spoiled her mood, she was in punishment mode and I messed it up. I can feel her eyes on me… I hope she's not upset, I don't think she's upset, but I can't look at her face without permission. Keep your mouth shut next time Willow! Yep, gotta remember; punishment time is quiet time. Unless, Mistress asks me a question, then it's ok to talk, but mostly quiet time…"

Buffy turned away without speaking and opened the door to their room. Willow managed to clamp down on her internal rambling and follow her Mistress into the room. As soon as the door closed behind her, she stopped, waiting for her next instruction. "Oh, Mistress. Please tell me what to do, tell me how to please you," she thought. "I'm yours, command me!"

Willow was feeling love and desire and something else, something she had never even tried to verbalize- just a sense of the rightness of belonging to Buffy Summers, and a deeply felt desire to do whatever it was Buffy needed her to do in order to please her Mistress. She slipped deep into that place where Willow ceased to exist and there was only Mistress' pet; the only thought in her head was a chant, "I'm yours. I'myours. I'myours.I'myoursmyoursyoursyoursyours" until it blurred into an unintelligible wave-pattern of thought that encompassed the entirety of her submission.

"The way I showed you off and teased the boys?" Buffy hadn't expected Willow to be so excited about it. "Just a second ago I was almost embarrassed by that," she thought. She stopped at the door and turned to look at her pet, thinking "I was worried that you'd be upset… but you're not…" She pondered that for a moment before turning back to the door and opening it.

Once through the door, Buffy again took a moment to look at the redhead. "You're gone already," she thought looking into Willow's eyes. "Pet?" she asked aloud.

"You're there, but you're not…" Buffy thought. "You can hear me, and you answer me and you obey me, but… it's like there's no one there when I look into your eyes. You're looking right through me…" Buffy's continued silence had no effect on her pet. Willow just stood there placidly. "Such power you give me, pet," Buffy whispered. "You really are mine, aren't you?"

"I know it. I hear it in your voice," Buffy thought. She shivered slightly, and knew it was more than just desire running through her. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm really worthy of your trust, Willow. I need you like a drug almost. If I ever lost you…" she shook her head slightly, "No. I'm not gonna let worry get to me," she thought, shrugging off her momentary melancholy.

"You, pet, were a terrible tease this morning! You got me so worked up that I actually let you go down on me in public!" she mock-growled, her voice deep and rough.

Buffy observed her pet closely. She listened as Willow's heart rate and breathing sped up. She watched as the redhead's eyes dilated and her body trembled.

"God! I get so damn hot when you do that!" Buffy thought excitedly. "Seeing you get excited just from the sound of my voice… Oh, Will. I am definitely addicted to you!" she ruminated as she watched the near-pavlovian response in her lover to the sound of Buffy's growl. "Do you have any idea what it does to me when I see you get aroused, pet?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, yes. You know it gets me all hot and bothered, don't you, pet?" Buffy whispered into her pet's ear, breathing in deeply and enjoying the bouquet of scents rising from the redhead's flushed skin. "You knew exactly what you were doing this morning, didn't you, pet?" she growled.

Buffy slid her fingers into Willow's hair at the base of her skull and slowly tightened them into a fist, getting a tight, though not brutal, grip on that red mane. She continued to whisper in her pet's ear, "Even after I spanked you in two different stores, you couldn't stop teasing me. You kept it up 'til I gave in." She pulled Willow's head back slightly as she raised her voice into a growl, "You knew I would punish you, didn't you?"

"Why, Pet?" Buffy asked. She thought, "I know the answer, but I want to hear you say it! God! I can feel every inch of my skin tingling at the very thought…"

Buffy pulled her head back a little more, exposing the redhead's long throat. She nipped lightly at the flesh under her ear as she said, "You wanted to please me… by making me cum in the ladies' dressing room? Is that it?"

"Mmm, is that nervousness or excitement I hear in your voice?" Buffy wondered silently. Out loud she prodded her pet, pulling again on her hair and demanding, "And what, pet? Tell me!"

Willow's breath was heaving by this point. "Because, Mistress… I know how you like to spank me… whip me… make me scream."

"Oh, I do *so* love it!" Buffy exulted in her mind. "If that makes me a pervert, so be it." Out loud she said, "Lift your arms, pet."

Willow lifted her arms and Buffy slid the satiny little red top up and off. "Oh, I can't resist…" she thought as she grasped Willow's stiff nipples and gave them a wicked pinch.

"Music to my ears! God, I feel so excited and naughty and… I don't even know how to describe it!" Buffy thought as she contemplated her pet's punishment. Among the excitement though, there was a tendril of worry. "Pet, are you ever afraid I'll go too far? That I could really hurt you?"

This time Buffy saw Willow looking back at her for just a moment as the redhead whispered, "If you ever thought you were really hurting me, you'd stop, Mistress. Even before I would think of using my safeword; you'd know, and you'd stop."

"How did I ever deserve you, Willow?" Buffy thought, heartfelt joy suffusing her. She whispered back, "But, if I didn't… you would use your safeword, right?"

"Ok, I feel better," Buffy thought. "Good," she said. "Let's get you naked then."

Willow said nothing, but smiled broadly, obviously in agreement with that sentiment.

As Buffy pulled down Willow's leather pants, she noticed that her pet's excitement had made a mess all over the crotch of the new garment. "Oh no! Damn, I can't let that dry, they'll be ruined!" she thought, annoyed. Suddenly her frown turned into a smile, "Mmm, I just had a really nasty naughty thought…" Out loud she snapped, "Pet! Look at this mess!" She showed Willow the wet, sticky crotch of the pants and said, "These are going to get ruined if we just leave it."

Willow bowed her head and stared at the floor. "Sorry Mistress," she said quietly.

Buffy couldn't quite keep the smirk off of her face as she lowered her voice and said, "Sorry's not gonna cut it, pet. I want you to clean this up." She put her hand under the damp area and held it up to her pet's face. Her voice was sultry as she said, "I think you have some experience in cleaning up this kind of mess…"

Buffy saw her pet's eyes widen as the implication sank in. She could see a smile threatening to break out on the redhead's face as she answered in her best little-girl voice, "Yes Mistress. I'm sorry I leaked pussy juice all over the crotch in my new pants. I'll clean them up right now."

"Dear God!" Buffy shouted mentally as Willow began to slowly and deliberately lick her own juices from the black leather. "That may be the most erotic thing I've ever seen," she thought in wonder.

Buffy felt her insides quivering as she watched Willow lick the last bit of residue off of her lips. "Oh I so want to kiss you right now!" she thought. She had to clear her throat, and still her voice was hoarse as she said, "Get on the bed, pet. On your knees, face down on the mattress."

Buffy walked over to their toy chest as she tried to calm herself a little. "What to use, what to use… Oh my God that was the hottest… Concentrate, Slayer. Pick your weapon and… Oh, when she used that voice! Damn it Willow, you know that voice drives me insane! Ok, stop it Buffy, just pick out something. Crop! Yes, the crop… like there was ever a question! Why do I even pretend to look at something else, I always use the crop… Maybe I should try something else… nah. I like the crop, she likes the crop… Ok, I've got some serious Willow-babble goin on here." Buffy thought as her mind whirled around in lust and desire. She picked up her favorite implement, the riding crop and walked over to the bed.

"You look so damn sexy!" Buffy thought as she took in the vision that was her pet. "Ok, pet. I think you need ten good hard swats to remind you that it's not nice to tease your Mistress," she said firmly. Her stern tone was belied by her actions as she gently stroked the pale globes of Willow's butt with the tip of the crop. She mused, "This isn't serious punishment like Tara did to me this morning. Willow didn't do anything really bad… we both know I enjoyed it as much as she did, and I know she wanted me to spank her for my pleasure as much as her own. So… I think a reward is in order."

Buffy leaned down over the bed until her mouth was next to Willow's, and their eyes met. "Pet, when I get to ten, you can cum."

Willow's eyes lit up and she excitedly whispered, "Oh, Thank you Mistress! Thank you so much!"

"And then," Buffy continued, "After that, we're gonna make love to each other, and you are free to cum as often as you like." She thought Willow might fall over, she was so strongly bouncing with excitement.

Buffy barely brushed Willow's lips in a ghost of a kiss and smiled. "Count them out, pet," she said with joy evident in her voice.

Buffy stood back up and lifted up the crop. "I'm way overdressed," she suddenly realized and set it back on the bed so she could quickly disrobe. Once naked, she had to restrain herself from putting her free hand to work between her own legs. "God, I'm so wet," she crooned softly, eliciting an excited whimper from her pet. She resumed running the tip of the crop over the flushed-pink skin of Willow's ass, and decided to give the witch a little pay-back teasing of her own.

"Have I ever told you how much I enjoy seeing you like this pet?" Buffy started. "Your beautiful little derrière all pushed up into the air… like you were just offering it up to me." She licked her suddenly dry lips and said, "I love the black leather of the crop against your light skin, so pink and flushed while you wait for the first swat." She listened to her pet's whimpering and said, "I love the little crying sounds you make when you're all antsy and impatient for me to start… It makes me feel powerful when you submit yourself to me like this, pet. I love it, and I love you!"

Anything Willow might have said in response was overridden by the loud smack that filled the air with Buffy's first blow.

Buffy watched as the spot she'd struck turned white for an instant after the blow, then quickly suffused red and rose slightly from the surrounding skin as blood engorged the spot. "Oh, I love that feeling!" she thought. She empathized with the sensation Willow must be experiencing, having felt it herself at Tara's hands many, many times. "Isn't it wonderful, pet?" she asked. "You feel the shocking sting," she made an audible gasping sound to illustrate the sensation, "Then the warmth… Ahhh… starts as all the blood flows into that spot and it feels… Mmmm, so good!"

Willow whined audibly, whether from the teasing and anticipation, or from the compelling commentary from her Mistress, Buffy didn't know. "Whatever the reason, I love it!" she thought, feeling the intensity of the moment.

Another hard swat, landing almost right next to the first; Buffy was trying to keep her pet off-balance, "I bet you expected that on the other side!" she thought smugly as Willow cried out the number two and her thanks. Out loud, she resumed her observations, "Oh, pet. If you could see what I'm seeing! your luminous skin… there's a moment after the swat, it looks completely unmarked. Then, almost as if it was happening all by itself the mark rises up on the skin… I just want to <swat> lick it!"

"Ooohhhh," Buffy groaned out, her voice thick and heavy as she was affected by this almost as much as Willow. She laid down another sharp swat, this time on the other cheek at last.

"Four! Thank… Five! Thank you Mistress!" Willow called out as the fifth came in the midst of her response to the fourth.

"Pet, you can't imagine how much I enjoy my enhanced senses at a moment like this!" Buffy breathed in sharply through her nose once, then took a deep, deliberate breath, again sniffing the air. "I can hear your heart pounding…" she said, drawing out the last word as she exhaled slowly. "Oh, God!" another strong sniff, "Oh, pet… you smell so gooood!" She loudly smacked her lips, like a dog licking its chops. "I can smell your Hot! <smack> Wet! <smack> Sex! <smack>"

Buffy narrowed her eyes as she mulled over where to land the last two. Each cheek of Willow's butt now sported nearly symmetrical groups of four little welts. Deciding, she landed one right on the crease where her pet's left thigh met her ass.

Before she could finish the word Mistress, Buffy landed the last for a perfect match on the top of the right thigh. "Oh I love this part so much!" she thought gleefully as Willow's legs began to vibrate.

Willow screamed out "Ten! Oh, oh, oh! th-thank you, Mi- is- stress!" her words degenerated into stuttering as the waves of pleasure washed through her.

"I've got to spank her to orgasm more often, I think" Buffy mused, enjoying the heck out of the incredibly erotic sight of her lover quivering through her release, ass still sticking way up in the air like that. "Oh, man! I can see her pussy quivering!" she thought with stunned realization, actually seeing for the first time the contractions that she had felt around her fingers and tongue so many times before.

"Ok, that's way more waiting than anyone should ever have to do!" she thought as she jumped on the bed and attacked her pet, rolling her over onto her back and spinning around so that they could each partake of the other's overflowing sex.

"So good!" and "I love you!" were pretty much the only coherent thoughts Buffy managed as she and her pet drove one another to incoherence for the next several minutes.

"Mmmm. Feels *so* good!" Willow thought, her brain still not entirely aware of her surroundings. "Warm, happy, good! Oh, better than good!" She shuddered slightly and breathed deeply. "Mmmm, smells like Buffy!" she thought. She licked her lips as she started to gain coherence and began to sense anything at all outside of herself. "Mmmm, tastes like Buffy, too."

"Willow… come back to me Will." She heard Buffy whisper. She felt her Mistress' fingers combing through her sweat-dampened tresses. "Oh yes! I love when you do that!" Willow thought, shuddering again at the feel of her lover's fingertips against her scalp. Willow's eyes fluttered open and she could feel her eyelashes brushing against something.

"Mmmm, Buffy-skin!" Willow thought as she took in the sight before her. She felt compelled to kiss her lover's neck, "It's right there after all; how could I possibly help myself?" she asked herself rhetorically.

"Oh, feels nice," Buffy muttered softly. "You back yet Will?" she asked breathily.

Willow lifted her head slightly and simultaneously felt and saw that she was draped over her girlfriend. "Hmm, I'm back," she whispered, blinking her eyes almost sleepily. "Goddess, I feel so good!" she thought as she became aware of her body's lassitude. "Oh Buffy, what you do to me!" she whispered to the Slayer. She dropped her head back down to Buffy's neck and added, "Totally beyond words."

"Go?" Willow asked sharply. "uh oh, she sounds scared" she thought as she lifted her face back up to meet the blonde's eyes. "Whaddya mean, Buff? I was right here, in bed with you."

Buffy shook her head and quietly said, "Un uh, you were somewhere else." She hugged Willow tightly as she continued, "Sometimes, when we play… it's like you go away."

Willow crinkled her eyebrows, "I'm not sure what you mean, Buffy…" she said after a moment's hesitation.

Buffy looked deep into her eyes and said, "Right now you're right here… I can look into your eyes and I see you looking back at me. There are times… I look into your eyes and, and no-one's looking back!"

"You're not telling me something Buffy," Willow thought. She rolled off the Slayer and sat up on her knees. She bent over slightly and cupped Buffy's cheeks with both hands and said, "Buffy, I've seen you with Mistress Tara, and I've watched your eyes… you go to the same place I go when I'm subbing to you. I know you know that, so what's really wrong?"

Buffy grabbed Willow's wrists and pulled her hands away, holding them in front of her and kissing her lover's fingers softly.

"Un uh, missy, you're not fooling me with the kissing thing. You just wanted to look away!" Willow thought. "Well I've got a secret weapon against recalcitrant slayers!" She put on her 'resolve face' and said, "Buffy! Look at me."

Buffy's eyes slid over Willow's face several times in passing before the resolve face worked its magic and locked her gaze up tight. "Buffy, please! Tell me what's wrong?" Willow said. Her voice was strong and yet it carried a sense of worry and vulnerability.

"It's silly Will," Buffy said, squirming under the weight of the redhead's gaze.

Willow's voice softened, but her face maintained her resolve as she said, "Buffy, if you're worried, then it's not silly. I love you so much that there aren't even any words to tell you how much. Please? Tell me what's wrong?"

"What if you don't come back?" Buffy blurted out, tearing her gaze away from the redhead. "See? It's stupid."

Willow watched as her lover's eyes seemed to well up with tears. "Goddess I think I'm gonna cry too!" she thought. "How do I answer that?"

While Willow was thinking, Buffy looked back at her again and the tears spilled as she said, "Sometimes, when I look at you… kinda like now? I, It's like my heart hurts?" She moved one of Willow's hands and laid it on her chest, on the upper slope of her left breast and said, "It feels like… I love you so much, and, and too much for my heart to hold maybe? If you went away…"

Willow could feel Buffy's pain at the thought. "Oh Buffy!" she cried. "I'll always come back to you! I'm not really gone…" she trailed off. "Goddess! How do I explain… Oh, I've got it!" she thought excitedly. She moved her other hand to cover Buffy's heart and said, "Here! This is where I go," her voice almost breaking with tenderness. "I go right here into your heart, until you surround me and I lose myself and there's only you!"

Willow moved her hands to either side of Buffy to brace herself and placed an open mouthed kiss right over her heart. "So, you see? You could never loose me…" she moved up and kissed Buffy's open mouth for several seconds before pulling away just enough to whisper against the slayers lips, "cause I'm in you all along."

"God, I love you so much Will!" Buffy said, this time a giant smile stretched her lips out of their troubled frown.

"That smile!" Willow thought, "Goddess, it makes me so happy when you smile! Ok, enough heavy stuff. It wears me out too much!" She leaned away and quipped, "Well, that's good to know, cause I'd never have guessed!"

"Rat!" Buffy growled, but any annoyance was belied by the grin that still graced her mouth.

"Un uh, not me. That was Amy!" Willow joked. "Ahhh, happy Slayer; much, much better!" she thought joyfully. "Now I can lay back down and get snuggles!"

Buffy's arms automatically circled her as Willow stretched back out against her lover and Mistress. "I wish Tara were here right now." She said. At the same time she thought, "I'm so glad I know that Buffy knows what I mean. I'd hate the thought that we had any jealousy between us. I love them both way too much to ever have to take sides."

"Me too." Buffy said with a grin. "She would have loved to see us teasing Wes and Gunn."

"I don't know if it was funnier when Gunn's mouth was all hanging open like that, or the look on his face when Cordy told him to shut it!" Buffy giggled.

Willow was laughing too hard to respond, but she was thinking "That was the best! I bet he goes home tonight and thinks about me when he… you know." She felt her face get hot and flushed, "Darn pale skin…" she pouted mentally.

"Uh oh," Willow thought with a slight shiver. "Oh, Buffy that voice!" she mentally groaned. She stuttered a little as she spoke, "I, uh I was thinking…"

"Thinking? Something naughty, I bet," Buffy crooned, running her hands over Willow's back.

"If you keep talking like that we'll still be right here when Tara gets back!" Willow thought, feeling her body respond to Buffy's voice and touch. Out loud she answered, "Well, I was thinking that, well, I bet Wesley and Gunn are, you know, when they get home… with them being all aroused and stuff…" she looked up at Buffy's face to gauge her response.

Buffy's face got a wicked smile on it for a second, then she grimaced like she's just bit into a lemon. "Eww, I so didn't need that visual! Wesley masturbating? Ugh."

Willow's thoughts followed Buffy's comment, "Yeah, the thought of Wesley… you know. Not such a… wait a minute. She said…" She quickly reviewed the statement in her mind and jerked upright and onto her knees again. "Ah ha!" she said just before she jumped off the bed to her feet and put her hand on her hips. Her voice was loud and excited and she pointed her finger accusingly at Buffy as she said, "Ah ha! You said Wesley! Just Wesley!"

"Uh huh, you can't fool me missy! I see that blush, I know what it means! It means I'm right!" she thought with joyful humor. "Oh, I am *so* gonna tease you now!" Out loud she crowed, "The thought of Wesley wigs you out, but not Gunn?"

She caught just a glimpse of Buffy's face getting extremely red before the blonde hurriedly ducked her head, breaking eye contact.

"Oh yeah, you are *so* busted Slayer! Mmm hmm, you were picturing Gunn all naked and muscley, playing with himself!" Willow taunted while swaying her hips in a little happy dance.

Buffy's head snapped up and her eyes narrowed. "All naked and muscley? I never said that!"

Willow's dance faltered. "Uh oh," she thought suddenly, feeling a tendril of fear at the possibility of being busted.

Buffy's face changed into an expression that could only be described as 'smug' as she said, "Hmm, I wasn't the only one thinking of that, was I?"

"Dang!" Willow thought. She dropped her hands to her sides and her shoulders slumped exaggeratedly. "I… may have… pictured it. Briefly!"

"Well, he is kinda cute," Willow said defensively. "It's not my fault," she thought somewhat petulantly "I'm not dead, I still notice guys, I just don't play with them" she tried to justify her feelings to herself.

Buffy's smirk fell away to be replaced with a soft smile. "Will, come on. Just cause we don't play for that team anymore doesn't mean we can't look at the players…"

"Oooh, naughty idea forming here," Willow suddenly thought as a different picture of Gunn came to mind. "Buffy, we should all go to a club tonight! It's like our last day of freedom before we have to start getting ready for the fight with Glory." Her smile was widening as she spoke.

"Clubbing… cool with me, I could be up for some post patrol danceage; but you seem awfully excited…" Buffy said with both her voice and her expression puzzled.

"Bwuhahahaha!" she thought with an evil grin. "Well, speaking of Gunn; remember what we did to Xander the other night at the Bronze?"

Buffy smiled broadly and she laughed out loud. "Oh you are baaaad, pet! I love it!"

"Jeeze, out of the soup and into the even thicker soup," Faith thought as they descended into the smog-filled LA basin. Back in Giles little BMW and on the road again after lunch and Faith was still mulling over the conversation they'd had at the McDonalds.

Xander was driving again. Tara was in the front passenger's seat, still sitting sideways facing Xander, but her eyes were closed and she appeared to be napping. Faith was sitting behind Xander, copying Tara's position, except with her feet stretched out across the back seat instead of tucked under her.

"So, B's decided to give up the ol' stick shift herself, huh?" Faith thought in wonder. "Sure she seemed pretty into the post patrol kissin' and gropin', but she'd never go for the full Unhh!, leastwise not with me. Soon as I'd try to move south-o'-the-border, it was always 'no, don't… Angel…' yeah, like Angel was ever gonna be able to scratch that itch. I always knew Red was pantin' for her big time, but I never figured her for havin the guts to go for it; especially not as long as she had her little dog-boy… I sure as hell never figured B for two girls at once!"

Faith broke off the visual contemplation of her boots for a moment and glanced at the serene-looking blond in the front seat. "I remember the first time I saw you, blondie. You were all nervous and stuttering like you were gonna fall apart. Now you're all Miss Calm, Cool and Collected… you know, I still feel like crap for what I said to you that night. Yeah, I feel better now that I apologized, but I still feel like crap, how's that work? I thought it was supposed to… You know, I don't even know what it was supposed to be like. I never thought I'd be able to even apologize to any of you, ever. Now you forgave me, and Xander's all with the forgiveness- and I did some pretty fricken bad stuff to Xan-man… and if I still feel so much pain for those things, how am I supposed to deal with B? I did stuff to her that makes everything I did to everyone else like it was nothing."

Faith's eyes dropped back down, away from Tara and to where she was wringing her hands in her lap. "Crap!" she mentally chastised herself, jerking her hands apart. "I gotta pull myself together here! Ready or not, I'm about to see her face to face…" Faith craned her head around and looked out the window behind her, thinking, "I bet I could dive out right here, jump that rail and be gone before they even stopped the car… and how pathetic is that? God, I'm so messed up."

"What?" Faith asked, wide eyed and feeling a little guilty at the thought's she'd been having. "It's not like my life would be worth a crap if I ran," she mused. "Life on the run doesn't sound much fun."

"You seem a little jumpy. Are you nervous about seeing Buffy?" Tara asked, her voice not mocking, but curious.

"Christ! Try terrified!" Faith thought. She answered the blonde's question a little less openly, "Um, well… we didn't exactly part on the best terms…"

Faith caught his glance in the rearview mirror, and he must have seen the fear on her face, because he immediately began to ramble.

"Not that… I mean if you don't feel, want, if you don't want to… and I'll just shut up and drive now." Xander said, moving his focus back to the road and hunching his shoulders a little.

"Damn, I guess I'm not the only one who's a little freaked out by all this," Faith thought. "B never told you guys what happened?" she asked, a little surprised.

It was Tara who answered, "No, she never really talked about it. Just that Angel was alive and you were in jail." She looked at Xander, as if asking for confirmation.

Faith looked back to the rearview, but Xander didn't meet her eyes when he answered.

"Actually, she never mentioned it to me at all. I just heard it from Willow, same as she told you I guess," he replied to Tara.

"I'll give 'em the abbreviated version of it," Faith thought. "Don't really want to revisit all the emotional stuff right now- don't want to fricken cry again at the moment." Out loud she said, "Wasn't much too it, really. We were arguing; big shocker there, huh? Anyways, we were arguing, and then this Watcher's council jerk pops up and starts shooting at us,"

"Buffy jumped me, knocked me down, saved my life… and then I bailed; got the hell outta there and ended up at the police station. The rest is me in a cell." Her voice was dry and even, but inside she was struggling to keep the emotions surrounding those events from overwhelming her.

"Damn, Xan-man sound a little bitter," Faith thought. Seeing Tara's eyes narrow as she glanced at him, she mused "Blondie caught it too."

Tara's expression changed back to normal as she looked back at Faith. "Why?" she asked.

Faith deliberately misconstrued the witch's question, saying, "Xan-man's probably got it, you know how B likes to protect you guys…"

"I…" Faith stopped, unsure what to say in answer to that question. Finally, she mumbled, "I couldn't, y'know, run away from it, I guess. I mean, if I was gonna do the whole redemption thing, I hadda pay the piper, right?"

Faith dropped her eyes to her lap, trying to escape Tara's stare. "Damn, it's like she's looking right through me!" she thought. She glanced up after a moment to see that the blond witch was still staring at her with a calculating look on her face, "like she's trying to figure something out- maybe like why I'm lying to her," Faith thought. "If you keep pushing, Blondie, I just might tell you the truth; and I don't think you're gonna like the answer."

Buffy sighed heavily as she watched Willow getting dressed. "You are so beautiful, Willow," she said in a lazy, happy voice.

Willow turned around from the mirror and gave Buffy one of her big, teeth-baring grins.

"Oh God!" Buffy thought. Out loud she hummed, "Mmm, Topless, grinning Willow. It really is the perfect gift."

Willow's grin got even bigger as she giggled happily. "You sure you don't like fully naked Willow even better?" she teased.

"Oh you are a little vixen, aren't you, pet? Always tempting me…" Buffy thought. Teasing right back, she said, "Naked Willow has a lot going for her, it's true. But, there's something a little naughty and fun about half-naked Willow… And, I have to say, fully clothed Willow has the benefit that I can take her out in public without getting arrested." She cupped her chin and pursed her lips for several as though pondering a weighty decision before she said, "I really can't decide. I think I'll just have to have all three."

Willow laughed out loud at that. She reached her arms up over her head and let the silky fabric slide down over her. She made a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a hum and brushed her hands over her satin covered breasts. "Ya'know, I've never really gone without a bra, much… It feels…"

Willow met her lover's eyes and nodded. "Yeah, really sexy!" Her hips and shoulders swayed exaggeratedly as she walked over to where Buffy was sitting on the edge of the bed. "Willow Rosenberg, sex kitten… Who'd a thunk it?"

"Well, it beats the heck out of 'old reliable'" Buffy teased her girl, recalling when she'd made the mistake of using that particular description for her friend. "Not a pretty picture!" she thought.

"Yep, good ol' reliable, dog, geyser person; that's me," Willow said with a smirk when she reached the bed and stood between her lover's parted thighs.

"Not even close, Will. Not then, and certainly not now," Buffy reassured her lover. She couldn't resist hugging the redhead and laid her cheek against the bare midriff before her. She hummed in pleasure as she thought, "You feel so good! God, just the feel and smell of your skin and I could go again! What you do to me…" The memory of that night, the one after the 'old reliable' comment, came to her mind and she whispered, "That was such a strange, terrible, wonderful day!"

Apparently unwilling to let things get heavy, Willow said, "Aww, Buffy. You just like to remember me in that outfit."

"That's true," Buffy said, smiling against Willow's skin. Giving the cute little bellybutton a quick kiss, she loosed her arms just a bit and stood up. "You look amazing in leather, Will. We may have to find some kind of corset like that one vamp-you had, except without all that red ruffley stuff."

Willow's eyes widened and she squeaked, "Without it? Buffy, without that red stuff, the top half of my boobs would have been all sticking out for everyone to see! That leather barely went over my nipples!"

Buffy gave the witch a quick squeeze and peck on the lips and answered, "And where's the down-side?" At Willow's bleat of outrage, she crooned, "Ahh, come on Will, I thought you liked me showing you off." To emphasize her point, Buffy grabbed Willow's leather-wrapped butt and pulled the redhead's pelvis tightly against her own.

Willow's shock-widened eyes suddenly dilated, and her jaw dropped slightly. She licked her lips and, in a low, rough voice, she said, "I… well, if we were playing, I could do it. Mistress Buffy's pet can do anything, if her Mistress commands it."

"Really?" Buffy asked, suddenly a little more serious. "And you're ok with that?"

"Ok? I'm totally ok." Willow said. She ran her hands over Buffy's flanks and explained, "It's like, when we play, I can do all of the wild, crazy, and fun stuff that I could never bring myself to do otherwise. If you say so, then I have permission to be anything, do anything you want. It's, it's amazing! It's… I'm so happy Buffy!"

"She even sounds happy," Buffy thought joyfully. "You're cute when you're giddy!" she told her girlfriend while giving her butt a couple squeezes, which caused the witch to giggle. "I guess we should go back downstairs… before they get back," she said, changing the subject to a less happy one.

"Faith." Buffy said simply. At Willow's nod, she said, "I dunno Will. I don't… part of me is really angry with her still. A part of me feels sorry for her…"

Buffy rubbed against Willow's hand and thought, "Why? Why do I feel guilty still?" Out loud she answered, "I know that I shouldn't… that it's not my fault, but I still feel guilty. I feel like I failed her."

Willow sounded exasperated as she exclaimed, "Aww, no! You can't really believe it's your fault, Buff! You did everything you could to help her, and she spit in your face every time!"

"That's no good…" Buffy thought when she saw Willow starting to get angry. She moved her hands to grab Willow's and bring them together in front of her. "I don't. Really, I don't Will." She kissed the redhead's clasped hands, and tried to keep her from getting really angry.

Willow looked at her with a combined disbelief and resolve-face, but didn't say any more.

"Seriously, Will. I know it wasn't my fault. I don't know if I did everything I could have, but I know that, even if I did, it might not have been enough." She again kissed her lover's hands and hoped Willow could see the honesty of her words. "It's just, even though my head knows all that, my heart isn't so sure."

Buffy saw Willow's wavering indecision as to whether or not to peruse it further. She changed the subject before Willow could make up her mind; "A part of me is happy that she's back."

"Really?" Willow asked, surprised. "I, I… why?" She pulled her hands away from Buffy's and moved back a step from the blonde.

"It's hard to explain, Will," Buffy said softly. She reached tentatively towards the witch and thought, "Oh, please don't pull away now!"

Willow hugged her arms across her chest and took another step back. "Yeah? Well try!" her voice snapped and she turned away from Buffy, not quite facing away, but ending up sideways to the Slayer.

"Willow?" Buffy asked, shock and worry evident in her tone. Her extended hand dropped, and her own arms stole about her body as she unconsciously emulated the redhead's posture. She felt coldness seep into her flesh. "Oh, Willow, please don't let Faith come between us… I couldn't, I don't think I could survive it." she lamented silently.

Willow's arms dropped and she turned back to Buffy, her face fallen and clearly expressing pain. Her lip was quivering and her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. "Oh, Buffy. I'm sorry!" she said sadly. She moved back to the bed and dropped to her knees before her lover. "I didn't mean to… it's just, she… she makes me crazy!" She put her hands on the backs of Buffy's knees and looked up at the blonde's bowed head. "She tried to take you away from me. I know it's selfish and I was just jealous, but I hated her for that," she tried to explain.

Buffy sat back down on the bed with a sigh and quietly said, "We both tried to kill each other, Will. It wasn't just her…" She trailed off as the thought suddenly occurred to her, "Jeeze, am I trying to defend her now?"

Before Buffy could continue, Willow interjected, "it wasn't just that, Buffy. Even before the deputy mayor thing… you were spending all your time with her, and you blew off our study dates, and you wouldn't let me go on patrol with you… I just felt like I was loosing you to her, like she was going to take you away from me." Willow reached up, pulled Buffy's arms away from her chest and took hold of the Slayer's hands between her own. She continued, "I was afraid you wouldn't want me as a friend anymore, let alone us ever being more than that."

Buffy felt a cold chill in her stomach at her lover's words. She tried to reassure the sensitive girl, "Will, whatever might have been between Faith and me like that… it's gone for good," She looked intensely into Willow's eyes and tried to make her see the truth of her words. "I feel like there's a knife all twisting inside me just thinking of how I must have hurt you back then, baby. I wish I could go back and make it all better," she chuckled ruefully and added, "I'd seriously slap some sense into me, younger-me, so I could see what I was doing to you."

Willow ducked her eyes and looked embarrassed. "It wasn't like I was all with the telling you what I was feeling either Buffy. A lot of my issues with Faith were my own… insecurity, I guess. I was afraid you'd like her better than me. I hated that she slept with Xander, and I don't even want to think about why that was. I was pretty messed up- jealous, angry and selfish about the whole thing. Not much for sharing my people, especially when I had crushes on them both."

"We can't go back and fix then, Will," Buffy said. "Much as it hurts to remember, it's never gonna change."

"Unless Cordy goes and makes another wish!" Willow interjected with a small smile.

Buffy laughed a little at the joke. "A valid point. But, barring any scorned-women wishing that I'd never come to Sunnydale; all we can do is fix stuff now and going forward." She squeezed Willow's hands reassuringly and said, "And, going forward, I want Faith on our side. Much as I'm still angry and hurt, I want her back."

Willow's eyebrows climbed high, and Buffy could see that she was struggling to put a smile on her frowning face. When the red-haired witch finally spoke, her voice was high and brittle. "I'm trying to, I want to understand, Buffy, but I don't… Why is it so important? She hasn't been on 'our side' for like two years and we've been just fine…"

Buffy's eyes lost focus and she remembered the feelings, the senses coming alive when she and Faith fought side by side. "When we would fight together- I mean, not against each other, but together against the bad guys," she broke off for a moment and remembered the sense of wonder and joy she'd felt in those moments. "In those fights… it was like, we took things to a higher level… we didn't use words to communicate; we didn't need to, we just knew. It was like we were touching something, something larger than us both. I dunno, maybe it was the Slayer spirit or whatever, but it was amazing! Powerful and strong and, and happy and… just so right." Focusing on Willow again, she tried to use a metaphor that she'd understand. "It must be something like when you and Tara do magic stuff together, like you are flowing together as you… I don't know, when you do a spell I guess. I'm not sure it's the same, cause I've never experienced it."

"I want that again, Willow. It's not about sex or desire or anything like that, at least not for me," she quickly clarified. "But it's wild and primal and powerful… and I miss it. That's why I'm glad she's out… it's why I so hope she's turned herself around, and is ready to be on the side of us, of our side, I mean. I want Faith good again. I want my Slayer-sister back next to us when we fight." She cupped her lover's face in both of her hands and asked, "Does that make any sense?"

Willow nodded her head slightly. "I think I… yes, no, I mean, I don't know if I understand all the feelings part, but yes I understand what you want. I- I just have to get over myself. I know you aren't gonna leave me and Tara for her or anything, so this jealousy thing I'm feeling is just… oh, it's like the thing with your head!"

Willow smiled and laughed a little. "You said you knew in your head that the thing with Faith wasn't your fault, but…"

"But, I still feel guilty," Buffy interjected and nodded her head more confidently. She moved her hands away from Willow's face and once again grasped the redhead's hands, giving them a little squeeze.

Willow squeezed back and said, "Right. I know Faith's no threat to me, to us. I just have to convince my feelings to buy it too." She stood up and pulled Buffy up with her. "So, we should go face the beast and I can start putting it all behind me."

Buffy knew the last was said with humor, but felt somewhat concerned and asked, "Do you think you can? I mean can you put it behind you quick enough? 'Cause we're gonna all be in that spell and it's gonna be pretty intimate from what I remember about the last time…"

Willow smiled enigmatically and said, "If she really is good, and she's really sorry for… everything. Then I think it'll be ok."

"Good." Buffy said. She felt a slight sense of relief, and her thoughts eased a little along with her emotions, "She sounds ok with things, not like she's overjoyed or anything, but…"

Willow interrupted Buffy's ruminations when she added, "But… if she's evil again, or if she hurts you… I reserve the right to kill her horribly."

Willow turned, dropped one of Buffy's hands and started to pull the Slayer towards the door.

"Well, this is it," Xander said after he put the car in park and turned off the ignition.

Tara was still sitting with her back to the door, so she couldn't see the hotel behind her. Instead her eyes were focused on the passenger in the back seat. "I've never actually seen a deer in the headlights, but I can imagine their eyes probably do look like that," she thought as she observed Faith's wide-eyed, unblinking stare. "Faith," she asked quietly. "Faith, are you ok?"

"I, uh…" Faith whispered; her stare remaining fixed. After a moment, she blinked several times and turned to meet Tara's gaze, "Uh, yeah. Five by Five, ya'know…" she said, her voice a little stronger.

Xander agreed, saying, "Yeah, come on Faith." He opened his door and stepped out of the car, adding, "How bad could it be?"

Faith chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "Sure, what's the worst that could happen?" she said quietly as she turned and opened her door.

"Faith," Tara said, stopping the dark-haired Slayer just as she was about to exit the car. "You have a chance. A chance you probably never thought you'd have; make the most of it."

Faith blinked a couple of times, her face an unchanging mask. She nodded once and then got out of the car without a word.

Tara sighed. "I hope we can all get past this quickly," she thought as she got out of the car. "We don't really have time for anything else."

The three of them walked in silence to the door that led into the lobby. Xander held the door open and Tara went in first. As she looked around the room, she noticed that the only ones present were Gunn and Willow.

"Oh Goddess!" Tara breathed out, coming to a standstill as her eyes locked on the form of her girlfriend. The sound of Xander's 'Wow!' and Faith's 'Damn!' were relegated to background noise as her focus narrowed. "Oh, Buffy! You did such a good job!" she thought as she took in the dangerously sexy outfit Willow was wearing.

Gunn laughed and called out, 'They're here!' which was enough of a distraction to make her feet move again, though nowhere near enough to pull her eyes away from the redhead. "Willow!" she said breathily, still not in total control of her vocal cords. She felt her body tingle with arousal as her mind catalogued the vision before her, "Mmm, legs and hips wrapped in skintight leather, a lovely pale strip of bare tummy… oh my, and hard nipples poking through red satin. Wow! Double wow!"

Willow smiled and opened her arms as though inviting observation. "You like?" she asked.

Tara quickly closed the distance to her lover. Her voice was deep with arousal as she said, "Oh, I more than like, Vixen!" They embraced tightly and kissed passionately for several moments. Tara then broke it off and growled quietly, "It's all I can do not to take you right here; right in front of everybody!"

Willow's eyes dilated, and she licked her lips- spiking Tara's arousal even further- before whispering back, "Be patient, we can probably sneak upstairs in a few minutes."

"Ok, Tara, get a hold of yourself!" she thought, suddenly a little embarrassed at her raw lust. "Oh dear, Faith probably heard every word of that!" she realized. Turning around to face the brunette, she saw the little smirk on her lips and felt her own face grow warm as she blushed.

She felt Willow stiffen in her arms and looked back to see the redhead staring over her shoulder at Faith. "I know, sweetie. It's gonna be hard, but we have to give her a chance," she whispered quietly in Willow's ear.

"I know," Willow said with a sigh. "Buffy and I talked about it, and she said the same thing."

Feeling Willow relax in her arms, Tara gave her one more squeeze to reassure her and then stepped to the side, leaving one arm around her lover's waist. She watched as Gunn walked over and introduced himself to Faith. She noticed Cordelia and Wesley as they came out of the office, but they stopped at the counter. Angel had followed the other two out of the office and moved around them into the room, but appeared to be hanging back until Gunn was done. She continued to look around, but her other lover was nowhere in sight. "Where's Buffy?" she asked Willow quietly.

"Damn! I don't remember Red dressing like that!" Faith thought when she saw Willow's getup. "Of course, I never imagined she'd be screwing B either, let alone two girls at once."

After a moment of using her enhanced hearing to eaves-drop, she thought, "Jeeze Blondie, get a room! I just can't picture B being with these two. She's always been way too uptight about sex and stuff, I can't believe these two are her lovers!"

Gunn approached the Dark haired Slayer, stuck his hand out and introduced himself. "Hey, you must be Faith, right?"

"Oh, I shouldn't… but I just can't help it!" Faith thought with a wicked grin. "Gunn, huh?" she said with a little sultriness to her voice. "That cause you're packing a big shooter?"

Faith laughed, not unkindly, but with very real humor. She was about to say something about not taking her seriously, when she saw the people coming out of the office behind the counter. "Here we go," she thought with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Faith!" Angel said with a warm smile on his face as he quickly moved past the still forms of Cordelia and Wesley.

"Hey Angel," Faith said, trying to maintain her mask of calm. "Jeeze, I think I've got fricken bats flapping around in here…" she thought as her arms tightened around her stomach. "I don't think I was this freaked when they locked me up!"

Angel stopped at the bottom of the steps, and looked up at her. His face was placid, but she could see compassion in his eyes as he asked, "How are you, Faith?"

Faith watched his head tilt ever so slightly, and his eyebrow twitched up. "Yeah, so you can tell I'm lying, what did you expect?" she wondered. She quietly whispered for his ears only, "I'll be ok… I'll get through it." She didn't see any change in his face and she thought, "Yeah, you don't believe that any more than I do, do you?"

Faith walked down the steps and stopped, almost touching Angel. She looked up into his face and could feel the start of tears pricking at her eyes. "Dammit! I'm not gonna fricken cry!" she screamed in her mind. "I will not be some pathetic, weak… little girl! I'm the Slayer!" she thought, furious with herself for her lack of control.

"You will get through this, Faith. I know you will," Angel whispered back, his eyes soft and warm and caring.

"I gotta get away from you before I lose it!" Faith thought, nodding once, then stepping around the vampire and facing the two remaining victims of her crimes when she last visited the city of angels.

Wesley was standing with his arms crossed over his chest and his jaw visibly clenched. "Hello Faith," he said, clearly unenthusiastic about seeing her once again.

"Wesley," she said quietly. In her mind she thought of the things she wished she could bring herself to say to his face, "I can still remember every little gasp, every cry, every choked off scream that came out of you, Wes. All the hurt sounds you made while I tortured you. I wish I could tell you how I still wake up screaming in the middle of the night, dreaming about that day. Sometimes I'm inflicting, and sometimes I'm the one in the chair… but no matter what, I feel the pain…" Finally, after some untold time, she dropped her eyes and stared at the floor, whispering, "I don't know what to say, Wes. Sorry doesn't even come close…"

Faith looked up into his eyes. "Well at least no hatred… But you aren't ready to forgive me, either, are you?" Faith thought. "That's ok. More than I deserve."

Faith had to stifle a grin when she saw Wesley flinch at the former cheerleader's brutal insensitivity. She could almost feel the echoing flinches from everyone behind her. "Leave it to you, Cordy, to put things in perspective like that," Faith said.

Cordelia didn't speak for a moment, then said, "That wasn't an attempt at humor, I seriously want to know."

"Jesus Cordy!" Gunn said, his comment echoed by the mumbles of the others in the room.

Faith stared at her, thinking, "You wanna know a secret Cordy? The only thing I did that I never felt the least bit of sorry for was smacking you in the face. If I had it to do over again, I would. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that it would blow my chances with everyone else, I'd do it again right now! God! You pissed me off way before I ever went evil!"

Finally, Faith just shook her head and said, "Prison doesn't fix things Cordelia." She turned her back on the former prom-queen and walked toward Tara and Willow, who were still standing side by side with their arms loosely circling one another.

"Faith, Buffy wanted to see you alone…" Willow said, not moving from Tara's embrace as she addressed the Slayer.

"Crap!" Faith thought as the fluttering in her stomach intensified. "Yeah…" she sighed resignedly. "Where is she?"

"Well, it's pretty obvious that Red's not gonna be quick with the forgiveness… she won't even speak to me," Faith thought as she followed the redhead up several flights of steps. Now they were walking down a cluttered hallway, debris and trash pushed aside to make a narrow path in the center of the walkway. "Well, I did keep her hostage, punch her, hold a knife to her throat and threaten to kill her… So it's not like she's got no reason…"

Willow stopped walking when they got to a door marked 'AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY'. She turned around and looked Faith directly in the eye for a moment before speaking. "Faith…"

"God, she's gonna lecture me first? This is sucking bad enough already…" Faith thought, feeling her stomach knot up tighter and tighter with each passing moment. "At this rate I'm gonna puke right on B as soon as I see her!"

"Buffy misses you. She misses having you- another Slayer- in her life," Willow said, surprising the hell out of Faith.

"What the…" Faith thought as she blinked in astonishment, nearly falling back a step at the shock. "I figured on a lecture, but not this!"

"She wants to forgive you Faith…" Willow trailed off into silence for a moment.

"Oh, now I get it," Faith thought, her surprise giving way to resigned acceptance. She said, "But… Lemme guess, Red. You don't want her too, right? I get it."

Willow shook her head and contradicted the Slayer, "You don't get it at all, Faith. If you've really changed, if you really are sorry for the things you did, and you're on the good side again, then I'm happy to have you back. I only ever hated you because you hurt my friends…"

"You weren't jealous of me and B?" Faith asked with a smirk. Instantly she dropped the smirk and chastised herself, "Damn, what is it about you and Blondie that makes me want to push so hard? Ok, so it's cause I'm jealous, no big shock there, but I gotta cut it out!"

To Faith's surprise, Willow smiled, rather than getting angry. "Of course I was jealous Faith. I was jealous of Angel too. That didn't make me hate him."

Willow continued, "I can get over all the bad-feeling stuff if this atonement thing is for real…"

"It is!" Faith said, looking back up at Willow. "It really is, Red. I- I feel…" her glance darted to the side, as she was unable to maintain eye contact. "Look, I did horrible things, stuff you don't even know about… and I can't take it back. I wish I could, but I can't. I'm so fricken sorry for the stuff I did…"

"That's good Faith. I'm glad you're sorry, if it's real." Before Faith could interject, Willow continued, "But only time will tell, at least for me. Maybe that's not fair, but I'm not really feeling fairness when it comes to the chance of my friends and lovers getting hurt."

"Yeah, I get that. I wouldn't be all that quick to forgive me either," Faith thought, feeling the familiar sense of depression that came with thoughts of her past, and what she'd done to the people who tried to be her friends. She whispered an angst-filled, "What do you want from me, Red?"

"I want what we all have always wanted from you Faith. Help us fight the big bad, be on our side and don't do anything to hurt any of us," Willow said.

Faith nodded, "I can do that," she said. In her mind she added, "That's about all I can do in the time I've got, but I *can* do that- I *will* do that!"

"Good," Willow said. She stepped aside from the door and said, "Buffy's waiting for you up there."

Just as Faith stepped forward and reached for the doorknob, Willow leaned close and whispered, "If you hurt her, I will erase you from the face of the earth."

The ultimatum was delivered in a nearly emotionless voice and Faith turned to look at the redhead, feeling incredulous. She jerked away, nearly tripping over the debris on the floor when she saw the witch's eyes. "Crap! What the hell is that?" she thought frantically at the sight- they were solid black with arcs of blue energy dancing across them. "Wha…" was all she could get out as she gaped at the redhead.

Willow's smile was truly frightening and Faith shivered involuntarily as the once 'shy little nerd' said, "Things are different now, Faith. I'm different. Last time all I could do is watch while you hurt my friends and betrayed us all." Willow blinked her eyes and, just like that, the magic was gone; her eyes were once again their normal hazel color. Her smile dropped away, and Faith could hear the conviction and raw emotion in her voice as she added, "That will *never* happen again."

As Willow turned to walk away, Faith tentatively reached out. The thought, "God, I hope I don't get fried!" flitted across her mind as she put her hand on the redhead's shoulder.

Willow stiffened slightly, but there was no magical nastiness. Faith let loose the breath she'd been unconsciously holding, and said, "I've changed too, Willow."

Willow half turned, and Faith could see the surprise on her face, "Yeah, you didn't expect me to use your name did you?" she mused before saying, "You'll see, I'm not the psychotic bitch that I was back then."

Willow nodded slightly and her voice sounded cautiously optimistic. "I hope so, Faith. I really do." Then she walked down the hall, leaving Faith to face the one person she'd hurt- and been hurt by- more than any other. "Time to face the music…"

As Willow made her way back downstairs toward the lobby, her attention was suddenly diverted. "That was closed when I came up!" she whispered upon seeing the door to her, Tara, and Buffy's room ajar.

"Ahhh, methinks there's a naughty witch hiding behind that door…" she said softly, while grinning madly.

Another giggle and Willow felt herself becoming aroused. "Somebody's horny!" she thought, the words singsong and flittering through her head. She walked to the door and playfully asked, "Is someone in there?"

When the only answer was yet another giggle, Willow sighed dramatically and said, "I guess not. Too bad, I was really horny too… I guess I'd better go downstairs and join the rest of the gang."

She got to the word 'gang' when an arm shot out of the room and dragged the redhead in, Tara's voice growling, don't you dare, Willow!"

Willow laughed as her lover pulled her out of the hall and into her embrace. "Mmm, Tara," she thought happily as she enjoyed the feel of the blond witch's tongue twining with her own. "I love the way you taste, baby. I love the way you smell, too! I love everything about you!" she thought.

Finally Tara pulled away, breathing heavily. "Goddess, you look so hot, Willow!" she growled. "I want you, I need you now!" she almost begged, her voice plaintive.

Willow felt a warm sweetness filling her at the pleading tone in her lover's voice. "Oh, so much more than just physical… you warm my heart baby!" she thought. She ran her hands over the denim clad cheeks of her lover's butt and said, "You know, all you ever have to do is ask, baby." She wasted no time, but stepped back and whipped the satin top up and over her head, laying it over the back of the chair to her right.

"You know, I've been in and out of this top four times today…" Willow said with a wink and a smirk, enjoying the flushed look in Tara's gaze as she stared at the redhead. She cupped her breasts and tweaked her nipples between her fingers, all the while staring at Tara. "I love to see you get all hot and bothered when you look at me!" Willow thought exultantly.

"Don't you just love the way that top looks when my nipples are all stiff and hard?" the redhead asked, teasing her lover and loving every minute of it. "Oh, and look at what these pants do for my ass!" she added, turning and bending over. "See how they fit like a glove? I can't wear any panties, though. They'd show for sure!"

Looking back up at Tara from between her legs, Willow cooed, "Feel it, Tara, It's like second skin." She closed her eyes and groaned loudly as Tara caressed and fondled her leather covered butt. She straightened up and turned around. Then she grabbed Tara's wrists and moved her hands back to her butt. Once Tara resumed her fondling, Willow began to unbutton the blonde's shirt, wanting skin on skin.

Willow paused her unbuttoning for a moment and closed her eyes, "Oh goddess! I feel so good when you say that to me, baby!" she thought, reveling in the feeling of warmth that filled her. Opening her eyes to see Tara's love filled gaze staring back at her, Willow cried softly, "Oh baby! I love you so much! I want you so badly right now!" she emphasized her statement by quickly divesting the blond witch of her shirt and bra, and immediately suckling one erect nipple, while tweaking and rolling the other with her fingers. In an amazing display of multitasking, Willow used her free hand to unbutton and unzip Tara's jeans.

Tara meanwhile was apparently unable to do more than whimper and gasp appreciatively at the redhead's agility.

After a few minutes of lovely torment to Tara's breasts, Willow turned the pliant girl around in her arms and walked her over to the mirror hanging on the bathroom door. She kneeled behind her lover and drew her jeans and panties down to the floor. She tossed them aside as Tara stepped out of the puddle of cloth.

Standing back up, Willow looked over the blonde's shoulder at the mirror. "Look at you, Tara!" she whispered hungrily in her ear. See how beautiful you look, especially when you're aroused like you are now!" She began to touch and stroke Tara's body, describing what she was seeing in the mirror as she did.

"Mmm, look at the way your skin blushes when I play with your breasts, Tara. It's so delicious to look at! Your breasts feel so full and hot when I drag my palms up and over them like this… Oh, yeah, I love the sounds you make baby! They make me so wet!"

"Oh yeah, watch my fingers as I move them down, down, down… Oh, goddess! You're so wet Tara! So wet for me… do you have any idea how happy that makes me, that I can make you wet like that? Open your eyes baby, I want you to watch my fingers sliding in and out of you… isn't that hot?"

"Look at your face, baby. I want you to see what happens when I… oh yeah! So beautiful when I'm rubbing your little button in a circle like that… Oh, are you gonna cum baby? So soon? Oh yeah, no, keep your eyes open baby… that's right, I want you to see what I see… Oh look! That look! You're so beautiful baby! I love seeing your face when you cum!"

Willow led the shaky witch the few steps to the bed and let her collapse onto it. She took off her pants while Tara recovered from her short, but obviously powerful, orgasm.

"Oh goddess Willow! I don't think I've ever… not that fast… That was the hottest thing I've ever seen!" she said as she drew in great, ragged breaths, trying to get her air back from the unexpected and sudden intensity.

"Buffy did that to me last week while we were playing," Willow explained as she laid the pants over the seat of the chair, just below her skimpy top. "I thought I'd never walk again I came so hard!"

Tara smiled up at her lover and said, "Well, why don't you get down here and let me show you just how grateful I can be!"

The A.I. Gang and Xander were sitting around the lobby waiting for the other four girls to come back downstairs. Buffy and Faith were still on the roof, so far as they knew; and Tara had gone upstairs soon after Willow and Faith. No real guessing was needed to know what happened when Willow didn't come back down after dropping off Faith.

Xander was passing the time by staring at Cordelia and remembering their night together. "Sure, I know she doesn't want a repeat, but I can't help thinking about her. She was so beautiful and so sexy. Mmm, the sounds she made were amazing! I never guessed Cordy'd be a moaner and a screamer…"

Cordelia threw her head back as she sat on the couch and complained, "What's taking so long? They've been up there like forever!"

"It's only been an hour and a half…" Angel said, but even he was pacing slowly back and forth.

Wesley looked worried when Xander spared him a glance. "You don't think… they might be… fighting, do you?" the former watcher asked.

"If there was fightin' goin' on up there, I don't figure it for taking this long," Gunn opined with raised brows while he sat, stretched out on the couch.

Gunn looked at the Brit as though he were a simpleton, "Are you kidding me?" he asked derisively. "Last I checked, you were at the same fight I was last night."

Gunn continued, "Didn't you see that girl fight? I have never seen anything like that in my life. She could take everyone in this room at once without even breaking a sweat." He put his hands behind his head as though that succinct comment had proven his point.

Ever the wannabe-professor, Wesley contested, "May I remind you that Faith is also a Slayer? I often had the occasion to observe the two of them sparring when I was their watcher…"

"Oh yeah, I remember the Slayers-getting-sweaty sessions so very well…" Xander hummed at the pleasant memory.

"Gunn's right," Angel said, interrupting Wesley mid lecture, "She's changed." Turning to look up the stairs, Angel sighed and said, "She was good in high-school, maybe the best Slayer I've ever seen. But, back then? she never could have done what she did last night …" a combination of wonder, awe, and a little worry colored his voice as he spoke.

"Still," Cordelia interjected, "Faith's all sneaky and evil. She could have surprised her…"

"Faith's changed, Cordy. Besides, if Buffy was in trouble, I'd know," Xander said, interrupting Cordelia and surprising everyone.

"What do you mean by that?" Cordelia asked archly, giving Xander one of her patented glares.

"I'm not the same guy I was in high school either, Cordy," Xander thought, smirking at her glare. "We're bonded," he explained to the group. "Tara cast a spell…"

Cordy cut him off, Throwing her arms up in a dramatic gesture and loudly espousing, "Like it matters? They aren't killing each other, so what's taking so long?"

Gunn smirked and said, "Well, Faith's pretty hot, and Buffy's into girls… so,"

Wesley blushed, Cordelia said, "Eww!" and Angel glowered all at the same time. Xander shuddered and shook his head, saying, "Do yourself a favor, Gunn. Don't even joke about that in front of Willow or Tara. Especially Willow!"

The smirk fell right off Gunn's face and he quickly nodded his head, saying, "Yeah, you don't need to tell me twice!"

The sound of soft giggling grabbed everyone's attention and they all saw Willow and Tara descending the stairs, hand in hand and glowing with the look of the freshly laid.

Cordelia, predictably, was the first to comment. "God! Are you three under some kind of lust spell or something? I mean, seriously; who has this much sex?"

Tara blushed slightly and quietly said, "Sorry, didn't mean to rub your nose in it."

Willow must have been feeling especially sassy, because she leaned closer to Tara, but spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, "Oh, but I like when you rub my nose in it." Her grin threatened to split her face in two.

"Dear God in Heaven!" Xander thought as he laughed out loud. "Wesley looks like he's gonna choke on something, and Tara's, well I don't think I've seen her blush that red pretty much ever!" He looked over at Cordelia and saw her grimace of disgust, but thought, "Is that a glimmer of envy I see there Queen C? I know how much I miss daily sex. I wonder if you've ever had anything like that before- if you have any idea how awesome it can be…"

Seeing Angel's scowl, Xander thought, "Gosh dead-boy. I almost feel sorry… wait- nope, not sorry at all."

Willow changed the subject when she said, "Hey Cordelia, Buffy and I thought we should all go out to a club tonight, kinda a Last-night-of-freedom-before-we-gotta-start-training-for-the-big-fight kinda thing."

Cordy must have been desperate for something to do, because she jumped up off the couch as though she'd been stung. "Clubbing? Oh yeah, I'm totally on-board with getting the heck out of this place for a night out!" She walked toward the office, gesturing for Willow to follow her, saying "Lets check the events calendars and see what's going on where…"

"I wonder if this is what it feels like to take that last walk on death row?" Faith thought as she slowly trudged up the stairs. "Even then, they don't make you climb stairs, do they?" she wondered with an ironically thematic gallows humor.

Reaching the top of the stairs despite her subconscious efforts not to, Faith opened the door, wincing at the brightness of daylight after the dark stairwell. "Of course, I knew it. The roof. It hadda be the fricken roof, didn't it, B?" She stood there for several moments before thinking, "Come on, Faith. How pathetic is this? I'm scared to step onto the roof… oh, it's like some kinda… meta-something… or whatever, right? One of them stories that's supposed to teach you something or other… Like I'm afraid to go out of the darkness into the light? Oh, yeah. That's deep."

Faith chuckled humorlessly and shook her head as she stepped out of the doorway onto the roof. "Just another way to put off the inevitable…" She looked around to the left and then the right before she saw Buffy, standing on the roof's parapet, facing out, away from the stairwell and looking into downtown LA through the perpetual brown haze. Slowly, she walked over to the blond Slayer, "The one person who's haunted my dreams… and not just since I went to prison, B. No, you were there through the whole time I was in a coma before that, and when I was working for the mayor before that, and even before I met you. I'd hear my watcher tell stories about Buffy the Vampire Slayer… Christ, I idolized you… still do…" she thought sadly as she closed the distance.

When Faith'd gotten within five feet, Buffy turned around and looked down at her.

The ringing silence made Faith uncomfortable. Her voice rasped out of her dry throat as she tried to say, "Hey, B."

Buffy jumped down, landing right in front of Faith, still not saying a word but just staring into the dark Slayer's eyes.

"What now?" Faith thought, starting to feel annoyed. "Say something, B," she whispered, desperate for any reaction from the star of her dreams and nightmares.

Buffy completely surprised her when she responded with a wicked right cross, knocking Faith flat on her ass.

Faith was so surprised that she didn't even try to get up, she just held her slack and aching jaw, staring up at the blond in shock.

Still silent, Buffy pulled a cloth wrapped bundle from under the jacket she was wearing over her little crop top and matching leather pants.

"Oh no! No, please, no!" Faith thought, dismayed by the sight as Buffy unwrapped a large and ornate knife. The thoughts and feelings it evoked played across her mind like she was watching a movie, "God, I remember how excited and scared I was when the mayor gave me that… how pissed I was when I had to leave it behind, stuck in the body of that spider-thing… how terrified I was when you stuck it in my gut like a steel flame, burning me from the inside out…" Frozen in place, she couldn't take her eyes off of the gleaming blade, once again in the hands of her sister Slayer. "What's it gonna be this time B?" she wondered.

Finally Buffy spoke. She hunched down and stared directly into Faith's eyes and said, "You did so much, Faith. So many terrible, evil things… but I think the worst was this," she said, turning the knife back and forth in her hand, reflecting the weak sunlight across Faith's face. "Even worse than when you shackled me to the wall and were planning on torturing me… You made me hate you Faith. You made me hate you so much that I stuck this inside you… not only that, but you made me hate you so much that I wanted to do it; so much that I was actually looking forward to it!" Her voice had risen to a shout by that point.

Faith scrambled to her feet, backpedaling from the angry women in front of her. "I- I'm sorry…" she began.

Buffy advanced on her, keeping within her personal space as she interrupted, ranting, "Sorry? You're sorry?" Waving her arms dramatically, Buffy yelled even louder, "Well, Sorry doesn't cut it, Faith! Sorry doesn't take back what you did! So, what else you got?"

"B, I- I…" Faith started again. Her thoughts were jumbled by this unexpected attack and she felt a combination of anger, fear, and self-loathing as the petite blond attacked.

"You what? What are you gonna say, Faith? Huh? Tell me how you can make it all better!"

Faith's anger grew large enough to overcome the loathing for a heartbeat and she got right back in Buffy's face. "What?! You want me to grovel? Is that it? Well, I won't. Screw you B!" Faith shouted angrily. "I'd fricken eat dirt and roll around on the ground like a worm if I thought it'd change one crappy thing I've done in my life; but it won't! I can't take back all the h-horrible…" Her anger died out as quickly as it had swelled up and then the guilt and self-loathing came once again to the fore. Faith turned her back on the blonde, cursing herself for the tears she couldn't stop from flowing. "There's nothing. There's nothing I can ever do to fix all the stuff I broke, Buffy," Faith cried out softly, utterly failing to keep from weeping openly. "Christ! I feel like I'm dying," she thought, hugging herself tightly against the pain in her stomach and chest.

Faith flinched hard at the feel of Buffy's hand on her shoulder, fully expecting another blow to come.

"Huh?" Faith asked, thinking, "Ok, I think my brain is starting to leak out my ears…"

"You can't change a single thing you've done," Buffy said, compassion evident in her voice.

"All you can do is be a better person, do the right thing from now on," Buffy said, still holding on to Faith's shoulder.

Faith looked into Buffy's eyes and saw the compassion that was in her voice mirrored there. Her face contorted in sorrow and she felt the hot, wet trails of tears sliding down over her cheeks.

"You're a Slayer, Faith. You can help us save the world. Again." Buffy whispered, her eyes not leaving Faith's teary orbs.

Her arms fell away from her chest and she sobbed, "Buffy, I- I'm so damn sorry!" She felt her knees give away and the strong arms of her sister-Slayer catching her and pulling her tight.

Kneeling on the roof of the Hyperion hotel, Faith wept in Buffy arms while the daylight faded and the afternoon gave way to night.

Faith sat at a table overlooking the dance floor at The Room. 'I'm actually impressed!' she thought. 'Not that I'd ever admit it to that bitch…' she thought as she remembered Cordelia's claim that she knew just where to go…

"It's hidden, there's not even a sign," she'd said. "Plus there's no cover, and it's dark enough that no one'll notice you doing that thing you do…" her last comment had been directed at Xander, and he reacted with some confusion.

"That thing I do?" Xander asked, clearly looking at Cordelia for an explanation.

Cordy raised an eyebrow and quipped, "You know, that thing? That thing where you flail around on the dance floor?"

Xander's eyes looked like they were going to bug out and his voice got loud. "You mean dancing?" he demanded.

So Faith held down the table while the others were out on the dance floor. 'It's weird; use to be I'd be out on the floor, looking to score. I dunno, I guess I'm just not up for 'use and discard' right now. How screwed up is that? I get a free vacation from prison, and you'd think I'd be out to sow a few wild oats…'

Faith looked out into the writhing mass of dancers, her enhanced vision amping up the dim lighting like it was daylight as she looked for the gang.

Cordy and Xander were dancing off to the right. 'He's not so bad as Cordy made it out,' she thought as she watched them grind and twist. 'Musta' been practicing a lot since high school. I wonder if they patched things up?' she asked herself as she saw Cordelia's hands touching his chest and stomach. 'That looks like a lot more than friends-touchin' to me!'

She looked over towards the bar, where Gunn was getting their third round of drinks. She checked him out as he started back. 'not like he can tell I'm checking him out, dark as it is in here. Another reason being a Slayer fricken rocks!' she thought. 'Tall, moves like he can handle himself. Must fight ok, if he's been taking on vamps all this time with only Wussly and Queen C helping him and Angel.'

She averted her gaze as he got close enough to see her. 'Can't say I'm sad that Wes bowed out on account of being too British,' she mused. 'Of course he came up with an excuse, but I'm not the only one who saw through it,' she thought, remembering Gunn's smirk and "Sure Wes- Somebody's gotta hold down the fort…" 'As for Angel… not sure if I'm glad he blew this off, or sad that he's not here…' she thought.

Moving her eyes back to Gunn as he sat down, she smiled and thought, 'Course, it's not like I'm bein' entirely neglected here…'

"A shot of my friend Jack, and a beer chaser, as the lady ordered," he said, setting down her drinks, as well as his own beer.

She picked up the shooter and gunned it down with a snap of her head. 'Burns so good!' she thought as she enjoyed the feel of the liquor sliding down her throat. "Oh yeah!" she breathed.

Gunn shook his head and sipped his beer. "That crap'll kill ya'!" he said with a grin.

"Not me, G, Slayers heal fast," she said with a smile and took a long drink of her own beer. 'Damn if this doesn't taste good!' she thought. 'I wonder if it's cause I'm out, and I know I'm not gonna be able to have it again, or if it's just cause 'beer is good'?'

"Yeah, I noticed," Gunn said, gesturing at her with his beer, his eyes flicking down to the lower part of her face.

Faith's hand involuntarily moved up to touch her jaw where she'd been hit earlier. 'Damn, B! That was a good one! It still aches a little!'

"The bruise is almost completely gone!" Gunn noticed, sounding surprised. His raised eyebrow seemed to be begging her to explain.

"Yeah, well… If it'd been a human, or even a vamp; it'd be gone already. But, B packs a pretty wicked punch," Faith explained.

Gunn raised his eyebrows and leaned forward over the table, "You two fought?" he asked, his voice laced with surprise.

"Not so much…" Faith started. 'I don't think I can talk about this,' she thought as her stomach clenched with the memories of the intense emotional outpouring she'd gone through a few hours earlier. "So, you- hanging with Angel and the gang, what's up with that?" she asked.

'Come on, G- you look smart enough, take a hint!' Faith thought intensely, almost as if she were trying to project her thoughts to him.

After an interminable pause, during which Faith felt the icy shiver of adrenaline flow through her, Gunn's face cleared and he answered her question. "Well, we met tryin' to take down the same nest of vamps. Then, me and my boys tried to kill him."

Faith's brows rose in surprise. "Been there, done that. Obviously, it didn't take…"

Gunn chuckled, "yeah, well… we crossed paths a few more times, then we worked together on a couple things, and then he offered me a job."

Faith felt her jaw drop a little. 'What the…?' she thought, now really surprised. "You *work* for him?"

Gunn shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "The man wants to pay me to do what I'd be doin' for free anyway? Why the hell not?"

"I…" Faith blinked a couple times and closed her mouth. 'Yeah, why the hell not?' she thought. She leaned back in her chair as well, thinking, 'This ain't so bad; hanging out and talking… never really done this before.'

Gunn continued in the face of her silence. "I been on the streets, protecting my turf and fightin' vamps, since I was like thirteen. I've taken out more and bigger bads since hooking up with Angel, Cordy, and Wes, than I ever did the whole time it was me and my gang."

Faith got a sly look on her face and said, "Fighting vamps since you were thirteen, huh? You any good at it?"

Gunn expression turned incredulous as he raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips slightly. "You kidding? I'm damn good," he stated confidently. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, and added, "But, I ain't no Slayer."

"Oh yeah?" Faith asked, going from playful to surprised. "You've seen B in action?" she asked. Surprise turned into resignation as she thought, 'Always back to B… story of my fricken life…'

'Mmm, something in the way you said that… like you're just itchin' to tell a story,' Faith thought. Her gaze drifted out over the chaos on the dance floor as she casually said, "Oh yeah?"

"Hey, If I'm boring you, just tell me and I'll shut up," Gunn said with a bit of bite in his tone.

Faith looked back at him as he slouched back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. 'Damn, not even a day out and I'm already making friends…' she thought, chagrined. "Sorry, G. I kinda still got some issues with B," she said apologetically.

Gunn's frown dissolved into a half smile. "Yeah, I get that, I think. Kinda feel like the kid sister sometimes?" he asked.

'Christ, I never thought of it like that. Did I join the God damned mayor 'cause of sibling fricken rivalry? How pathetic is that!?' Faith wondered. "I guess… it's kinda complicated" she mumbled, staring down at her beer morosely.

Faith looked up sharply and said, "No! I… I wanna know…" she trailed off. 'Crap! What the hell's my problem tonight?' she demanded silently. She took in Gunn's startled look and wide eyes and sighed heavily. Looking back down into her beer she said, "I told you it was complicated…"

"Ok…" Gunn began. "Well, basically she was killing vamps, but she was swinging this huge axe that even Angel hardly ever uses; and she was choppin' vamps in half, like three at a time with one swing!"

"Three at a time?" Faith interjected. 'Damn, sounds like I missed a serious party!' she thought enviously. 'I gotta get some stakin' in before I go back in the can!' "How many vamps were there, and what were you doin, if she was takin' all the action?" she sniped with a smirk.

Gunn smiled broadly and once again leaned in toward the dark-haired Slayer. "Oh there was plenty to go around. Lemme tell it from the start…"

"See, I knew you'd have fun!" Willow spoke loudly over the funk blaring out on the dance floor.

Tara smiled a big, goofy smile, not bothering to shout over the noisy music. 'Goddess, I never thought this could be so much fun!' she thought happily. 'I was afraid of looking dumb, I guess. I'm not much of a dancer…'

In the teeming throng of people on the floor, no one was paying any attention to the two witches pressing tightly together and moving to the music. 'They're all in their own little worlds, just like us!' she thought as she reveled in her lover's touch. 'This is so… primal. So erotic… Goddess I'm… I feel so hot and… Mmmm' her train of thought was derailed by the redhead's kiss.

Having seen many others engaged in extreme making out, both straight and gay, Tara wasn't embarrassed. She ran her hands over her girlfriend's back, under the little crop-top she was wearing and thought, 'I can't believe we're doing this! There's just something so extra-naughty about doing this in public… Goddess I'm so wet right now!'

The two danced, staring into each other's eyes as their hands roamed and their bodies swayed and undulated for several minutes when Tara saw a sly smile come over Willow's face. At that moment she twitched as a small pair of hands came around her from behind, stroking the exposed flesh between her low-slung cargo pants and the tight black t-shirt Willow had insisted she wear.

"Mmm, Buffy!" Tara said with a happy sigh, recognizing the touch of her other girlfriend by their spellbond. She looked over her shoulder at the Slayer's grinning face and saw something wild and passionate in her eyes. 'What are you thinking, you vixen?' Tara wondered. She looked back to her redheaded lover and saw a matching devilish look there. 'Uh oh!' she thought.

"What are you…" Tara started to ask when she suddenly felt Buffy's hands stroking her tummy lower and lower, moving down under the waistline of her cargo pants, under her panties, and down to the wet heat between her legs. 'Oh Goddess!' she thought, noticing Willow grin growing even broader, until her teeth were bared and just the tip of her tongue was peeking out between them.

Tara's head whipped back and forth as she looked around in a panic. "No, you can't! Someone could… I, uh… nuhhh…" her voice degenerated into a grunt as Buffy's fingers began to manipulate her swollen sex, squeezing her clit between her outer lips and grinding it around in a circular motion.

Willow's hands had moved under her shirt and pushed up her bra before Tara even noticed. Feeling the redhead pinch and roll her nipples grabbed her attention though. 'Oh I can't believe you guys are doing this to me! This is so wrong! Its so… so… so good, oh goddess! Oh Buffy! So good… your fingers inside me!' She whimpered loudly and didn't even notice or care that it was drowned out by the pulsing music.

'Harder Willow! Hard… oh yes! Just like that! Oh baby, you know just how to touch me!' she thought, nearly delirious from the onslaught by her lovers. 'Oh I so hope there's no one looking at us right now, cause I, I don't think I could stop right now!' she thought as her eyes slipped shut and she began to grind herself against Buffy's hand, completely wanton as the lust overcame any lingering sense of shame or decorum.

Tara had no idea how much time was passing as she rode the wave of ardent desire and pleasure her lovers plied her with. All she knew is she was approaching a screaming release. "Oh I'm gonna… I'm gonna!" she panted out harshly. Then she was vaguely aware of Willow's hand in her hair and Willow's mouth on her own as she crested the wave. 'Buffy! Buffy! Buffy!' she chanted over and over in her mind, unknowing as to whether she was shouting it at the same time. When she became more cognizant of Willow's kiss, she began to return it passionately. 'O goddess that was so intense!' she thought giddily, riding the endorphin rush that came with orgasm.

'You're not getting that all to yourself!' Tara mentally decreed when she felt Buffy pulling her hand out from her pants. She spun around, following the Slayer's fingers and sucked one into her mouth as Buffy suckled the other. 'Mmm, I taste good on you, Slayer!' she thought. Once Buffy's fingers were clean, Tara grabbed her by the hair and kissed her for long moments, capturing the last of her own essence on the shorter blonde's tongue.

"That was… Amazing!" Willow said from right behind Tara just as she finished kissing Buffy.

Tara turned around, one hand still tangled in Buffy's hair, and gave the redhead a short, deep kiss. "It was, love! But, now I'm all messy. You want to watch me make your Mistress clean me up?" she said with a devilish grin of her own.

Willow's eyes grew huge and fully dilated. She nodded eagerly and Tara thought, 'I can't believe I'm even thinking of this! Suddenly I don't give a darn what anyone else thinks! I'm gonna go molest my Slayer while her pet watches!'

Taking Willow's hand in her left, she turned back to Buffy. She pulled her hair, bringing her head close and growled out, "Alright Slayer, you've got work to do!"

Tara pushed Buffy ahead of her towards the restrooms, dragging Willow in her wake.

"Damn…" Faith breathed. 'Buffy's girls got themselves a wicked serious power-boost since I went away!' she thought, amazed at Gunn's story.

"Tell me about it!" Gunn said with a grin. "I gotta tell you, I'm glad they're on our side. Even so, well… you know. I sure wouldn't want to piss them off." He mumbled and turned away to look at the dance floor.

Faith just nodded slowly. Suddenly she felt a cold chill as she remembered her conversation with Willow earlier, 'Jesus! She probably wasn't fricken kidding… she really could 'erase me'…'

She wouldn't have heard him over the music if not for her enhanced hearing. Faith looked up at Gunn, asking, "What?" and noticed his slack-jawed stare at the dance floor just below them.

'What's up with him?' Faith thought with a frown as she looked down to what he was staring at. 'Oh God!' Faith's breath came out like she'd been kicked in the stomach. 'Jesus, I fricken envy you!' she thought bitterly, feeling an icy leaden ball of jealousy settle inside her.

Down on the dance floor, Tara, Buffy and Willow were dancing… if you could call it that.

Gunn's voice was thick with emotion as he quietly said, "I don't think they meant it literally when they said dancing was just vertical sex…"

'You lucky bitch!' Faith thought, feeling herself become intensely aroused. 'I can't even stop staring at you! Damn that looks like it's fricken intense!' she thought as she watched Tara twitching to a rhythm that had nothing to do with the music.

She and Gunn stared in silence, their eyes locked on the passionate scene below until the blond witch came, her scream smothered by the redhead's mouth in a fiery kiss.

Faith heard Gunn grunt out loud as she watched Buffy pull her fingers out of Tara's pants and bring them around to her mouth. She echoed that grunt when Tara spun around and helped the blond Slayer lick them clean. 'So much for moving past the whole 'use and discard' attitude. I gotta get laid or I'm gonna fricken pop!'

Faith dragged her eyes from the triad below up to glance at Gunn, just in time to see him lick his thick, sensuous lips. 'Damn, I haven't been this juiced up since I popped Xander's cherry!' Faith thought as she unconsciously squirmed in her chair. 'Wonder if he's up for it? Well, only one way to find out!'

'Is anyone in the world as blessed as I am?' Tara asked herself as she strode up the steps from the dance floor to their table. She looked back over her shoulder at Buffy and Willow as they followed her and her smile of satisfaction only grew. 'Not one, but two lovers- each among the most powerful women alive- both focused on my pleasure. Goddess! I feel… giddy!' she giggled delightedly.

'Those girls in the bathroom!' her giggles increased as she remembered the looks on their faces. 'They looked absolutely shocked! Well, except for the one body-builder/tough chick looking girl- she looked jealous,' Tara thought with a smug satisfaction that both surprised and delighted her. 'I still can't believe I did that!'

'I am *so* going to have to reward my pets tonight,' she mused as they approached the table where Cordelia and Xander were sitting, apparently taking a break at last from the dancing.

"Xander, What happened to Gunn and Faith?" Willow asked as she and Buffy sat, still holding hands.

"Yeah," Buffy added, "They hardly left the table since we got here; did Faith finally get him out on the dance floor?"

Xander and Cordelia both laughed and Xander quipped, "they took off, but I got the impression that they did have dancing in their plans."

'I love the way you wrinkle up your nose when you're confused, Will!' Tara thought while looking at the redhead as she tried to puzzle out what Xander was saying.

'I think Faith took Gunn out for a test-drive, Will," Xander said, bemused. "A mattress test drive?" he added with a waggle of his eyebrows.

"Oh…" Willow said. "Oh!" she added, eyes widening as she got the implication. "Faith and Gunn?!" she squeaked

"How? When did that happen?" Buffy said, here eyes widening in an unconscious echo of Willow.

Tara turned to look toward the dancers and glanced down through the railing at the edge of the balcony area. 'Oh, goddess…' she thought. 'Could they have seen us?' she wondered, suddenly blushing as her repressed embarrassment peaked out from hiding.

"Gee, I don't know what could have gotten to them…" Cordy said disingenuously, glancing back and forth between Buffy and the witches. "Faith said something as she dragged poor Gunn off… What was it she said, Xander?"

"Right," Xander said, failing miserably to keep the wicked grin off of his face. "She did mention something about being all worked up… I don't remember, did she say why, Cordy?"

"Something about being inspired I think… inspired by the floor-show?" Cordelia asked cattily.

'Oops, busted!' Tara thought, feeling the flush rise in her face even hotter. She looked at her lovers, who stared back with wide eyes. "You know what? It was *so* worth it!" she said decisively.

Buffy agreed, "Totally worth it." Then, as though it had just occurred to her, she added, "You know, we're gonna be real busy tomorrow… maybe we should call it a night…"

'Oh you're not fooling anyone, Slayer' Tara thought happily. 'You just wanna cum, and you know the sooner we get back to the hotel, the sooner you're gonna get naked.' As she was about to say something out loud, Cordy jumped up.

"You know, Buffy? You're absolutely right. Drive me home Xander?" she asked, ignoring the girls and focusing on Xander with a raised eyebrow and one hand on her hip.

Seeing the look on his face, Tara took pity on him. "Go ahead, Xander. We'll just catch a cab…"

"She's sure," Cordelia said quickly as she grabbed his hand and pulled him up from his chair.

"Ok, I guess I'll, uh, see you… later," he said as he gave in and allowed himself to be dragged away.

Tara laughed along until she noticed Buffy looking like she'd just bitten into something sour. "Buffy? What's wrong?" she asked.

Buffy looked up and met Tara's eyes with a look of loathing. "Ugh, scary visual place!"

"What? Cordy and Xander?" Tara asked, confused. She thought, 'Not into the boys much, personally, but Xander's a sweetie, and Cordelia's certainly worth a look or two…'

Buffy shook her head and Willow piped up, "Faith and Gunn? Cause, I kinda thought they'd be hot together!"

"Ok, Ugghh!" Willow cried plaintively as she clapped her hands to her face as if to block out the vision. "is it possible to wash your eyes out from the inside?"

Dawn, Joyce and Giles were sitting down to eat in one of the buffet areas at the Rio- chosen mostly for the fact that they had a free, nightly, all-ages show called the Carnival in the Sky, which Joyce had wanted to see. 'I just wanted to see a casino!' Dawn thought. 'Janice is going to be *so* jealous when I tell her! It's amazing! All the lights and noise and, and it's like nothing I've ever seen! Oh, maybe I can sneak a quarter into a slot machine while mom and Giles are watching the show,' she thought excitedly.

Dawn suddenly scrunched her face up and twitched. 'God! What is that?' she thought, hunching her shoulders and looking up at her mom and Giles. 'Giles must feel it too," she thought as she noticed him frowning and his eyes darting about.

Dawn also looked around their immediate surroundings as she said, "Is it that creepy back-of-the-neck-tingle-thing? 'Cause I'm feeing it too."

Giles voice was still somewhat distracted, and he continued to slowly sweep his eyes across the area as he answered, "Yes, it's as though we were being… watched."

Joyce set her silverware down on the plate just a little bit too hard; making a somewhat loud clank that immediately drew Dawn's attention away from the room. "Mom? What? Are you ok?" she asked. 'I can't tell if she's pissed, or scared. Maybe both?' she thought as she examined her mother's face.

"Joyce? What is it?" Giles asked, instantly solicitous and focusing on his lover.

"I hate this, Rupert!" Joyce hissed out between visibly clenched teeth. "I hate that we have to look over our shoulder, and be afraid to go out in public!" Her lips quivered and her eyes were shiny as she continued, "I hate that someone is trying to kill my baby, and I have to sit around and- and wait while my other daughter tries to kill them first!"

Dawn's eyes widened at her mother's rant. 'Wow! Mom's not taking things very well,' she thought. 'I guess I never really thought about it from her side… I always wanted to be a part of the team. I want to be able to help, to fight, to beat the bad guys… But she just wants us to all be safe.'

Dawn turned her gaze away from where her sister's watcher was trying to calm and console her mother and began to scan the room again. 'I kinda feel sorry for her, I guess. But really, I kinda think she needs to get over it, too. This is our life; it's weird and stuff, but it's way more important and cool than other people's. Before Buffy was the Slayer, she was a cheerleader; like there's a productive member of society! Dad's more interested in getting into his secretary's panties than he is in what happens to his family, and mom sells art to people with way too much money and no taste. She does it to take care of us, and that's obviously pretty important to me, anyway; but Buffy and Giles and the Scooby gang- they save the world, like annually or something. And, in between they save peoples lives and kill the demons and vampires who think of us as, like walking happy meals or something! That's way more important than being safe.' She shivered suddenly as a tendril of fear ran down her spine, and thought, 'not that I'm really all that excited about getting caught by Glory, or anything.'

"No, nor did I. It would be prudent, however, I think for us to, to take precautions," he said quietly, nodding his head as though in agreement with himself.

"Precautions?" Dawn asked. "Like what? Oh, are you carrying that gun that guy tried to rob us with?"

"What? It would come in pretty handy if we're being followed, don'tcha think?" Dawn said. 'Denial time has got to come to an end mom!' she thought impatiently when Joyce glared at her.

"Unfortunately, it is in the car at the moment. I thought it prudent to have it available, so I put it in the glove compartment, but I hadn't thought we might need to have it with us here…" Giles began to explain.

"Do you really think we're in that much danger right here?" Joyce asked in a strangled whisper, her eyes darting back and forth as if looking for the source of the perceived threat.

The look on Giles face made Dawn think that he was struggling between a comfortable lie, and the less pleasant truth. 'I almost wish I could believe the lie myself, but I don't think that's gonna help us, Giles," she thought

Giles face fell as he apparently decided on the uncomfortable honesty. He took Joyce's hand between both of his own, and looked straight into her eyes as he said, "I don't know, Joyce. It's only a feeling… however, Dawn sensed it as well. I think the only sensible course of action is to assume we are being watched, and, and act accordingly."

Dawn couldn't help but beam at the implied compliment. 'Yes! See, I can be part of the gang!' she thought, feeling a warm flush of pride. "So what do we do?" she asked, trying to sound confident and assured.

"We try to behave as normal. We'll act as though we didn't notice anything and continue on with our evening. I imagine that, so long as we are in the midst of the throng, we are relatively safe. I imagine they may try to follow us to where we are staying, and that is the time we will need to identify- and hopefully be able to lose them."

"Lose 'em? Shouldn't we try to trap 'em or something?" Dawn asked, disappointed.

Giles frowned slightly, "Dawn, our first priority is the safety of your mother and yourself…"

"Dawn, I appreciate that you want to help. You must remember our mission here, as it were, is to protect *you.* That was the entire point of leaving Sunnydale."

'Darn logical watcher,' Dawn thought with a little pout. She slouched back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, looking away from Giles and her mom, thinking, 'For a minute there I actually forgot that I'm the target here. I'm not a real person- I'm the damn Key. This sucks!'

Shaking her head, Dawn cut her mother off, saying, "He's right, mom…" She looked Giles in the eye and said, "You're right, I get it. I just…" She looked away again, shaking her head gently. "For a minute… Nevermind."

Dawn dropped her arms to her sides and sat back up straight. She looked at her mom for a second, thinking, 'This is so hard for you, isn't it? You're so worried about me being safe… The last thing you need is me throwing some kind of tantrum.' She blinked away the moisture in her eyes and focused back on Giles. "Ok, so how do we lose them?"

Reginald 'no-you-may-not-call-me-Reggie!' Loxley could feel his heart race as he threaded his way among the clamorous machines that dotted the floor in this den of iniquity like stones in a graveyard. 'Nearly detected, by God! Surely he must be a sorcerer to be so sensitive!" he thought furiously as he made his way to his compatriots.

"Were you able to confirm their identities?" his commander asked as he approached.

"Yes milord. It is indeed the Watcher, along with the mother and the younger sister. However, I was unable to approach closely enough to overhear anything. As I neared, the Watcher somehow detected my presence…"

"Yes, we saw it from here, however, he seems to have settled. Perhaps it was chance…" the third man espoused.

"I do not think we can take the risk," said the commander. "Their lair is strongly warded. The Watcher may be some sort of Mage… Or it may indeed have been chance. Either way, we shall not allow them to escape us."

Reginald felt his heart slow as he regained his composure. "If the girl is indeed the one we seek, should we not simply act? What concern have we with the Watcher or the mother?" he asked.

The commander shook his head in negation. "No, we were charged with ascertaining the veracity of the information, as well as taking action, should it prove genuine."

The commander's eyes never left the three diners as he answered. "Would you have me simply accept the word of a traitor? I do not trust this… person. I do not trust their motives for betraying the Slayer and her kith," he said.

"Of certainty, retribution is a petty motive," Reginald said. "Yet it is a strong one." His mind was rife with excitement as he thought, 'If it should be true… in legends are such men remembered! I can only hope the opportunity presents itself!'

The commander nodded, saying, "And thus, we are here, for it may indeed be true."

The commander turned to look at his subordinates and said, "The mother is the key to controlling the situation. With her at the point of a dirk, the Watcher shall capitulate, and the girl will be obedient."

Turning back to watch the three in question the commander's voice was quiet, but carried a sense of eager anticipation as he said, "If it should be true… The Key is the link…"

All three finished the mantra, "…The link must be severed. Such is the will of God!"

"Harder! Come on, G, give it to me!" Faith shouted as she pushed herself back to meet Gunn's thrusting hips. 'Damn, I've missed this!' she thought, grinning in delight as her ass slapped up against his lap with a loud smack.

She was on her knees, hands gripping the headboard on her bed. The room Angel had given her was several steps above the dive she'd been staying in during her time in Sunnydale, and infinitely better than her cell at the California Institute for Women, but at that moment, all she knew was that it had a bed, a headboard that she could hold onto, and a guy with the tool and the talent to make good use of them.

'Oh God! This feels so *good*! Fingers never make you feel this fricken full!' she thought, giving Gunn's thrusting cock a hard squeeze with her internal muscles.

"Jesus Faith! You're gonna kill me here!" Gunn cried out. "You're so tight!" he gasped, not slowing his thrusts at all.

"Well, that ain't no pea-shooter you're packing there!" Faith said with a grunt. She reached back with one hand and began vigorously rubbing her clit, her body aching for release. 'Oh, come on, come on, come on! So close!' she was whimpering loudly now, completely unconcerned if anyone else might be hearing them.

After another minute of hard thrusting, the only sounds those of pelvis's slapping, and voices alternately grunting or whimpering, Faith felt herself crest that wave of pleasure she'd been ardently seeking. "Oh Yeah! Oh Yeaaaaahhh! Oh God! Feeeeeeelllllssss ssssooooooooo goooooooooood!" She keened at the top of her lungs as she felt her sex quivering and trembling around his steely hardness.

It must have been too much for Gunn, because after about four more thrusts, he suddenly shouted out a wordless cry and Faith felt his hot cum flooding inside her. 'Damn, that feels fricken fantastic! Jeeze! I almost forgot how amazing it feels!' she thought with satisfaction.

Gunn collapsed, draping over her back and kissing her neck as he panted. "You are so unbelievably hot, Faith! Damn, that was somethin' else!" He pulled her shoulder as he flopped over onto his side, so that they were lying down on their sides, with her spooned up against him.

Faith snuggled back against him, content for the moment. 'Jeeze, it's been… Damn, not since Xander! That was like almost three years ago!' she thought with wonder. "Jesus, I needed that!" she sighed.

'Ok, so now what?' Faith thought. She pulled away from Gunn and rolled over till she was facing him; she stared at his face for a moment. 'Not bad… not bad at all. Not really my type, though…' she thought, and then grunted out a little chuckle as she reflected, 'Like I got a type! Unless you count 'loser'…'

"What'samatter? Gunn asked, his smile turning to a frown as he stared back at her.

"I… Normally this is the part where I'd kick you out, go take a shower and then crash for the night…" Faith said. She made no move to get up or do anything else but lay there and look at him.

"Yeah, usually I'm, like, 'get some, get gone'… but it's been long time since I've done this," she said. 'So, why ain't I hoppin' up and doin' just that?' she wondered.

Gunn smirked and said, "Well, it must be just like riding a bike, 'cause you did a damn fine job…"

Gunn chuckled and pushed himself up so he was propped up on his elbow. "Look, if you want me to go, just say the word. I didn't come in here looking for love, any more than you did. We both got worked up watching those girls havin' sex right out on the dance floor, and needed to do something about it," he said. Smiling widely and shaking his head a little, he added, "And it was the best sex I've had in pretty much as long as I can remember."

Faith rolled onto her back and returned his smile. "It was pretty fricken good, wasn't it?" she mused, her voice filled with pride.

"Hell yes! But, it don't mean we're all roses and chocolates now. If you want your space; that's cool. If you want me to spend the night, well that wouldn't suck either, just lemme know."

Faith thought for a moment her eyes running up and down his body, 'Boy does have a nice body… Mmm, I'm startin' to feel that good 'down low tickle' again already…' She started to rub her hand low on her tummy, skimming her fingers over the sticky curls above her sex as her eyes fixated on his crotch.

'Ooo it's movin!' she thought as she saw his long member, still shiny with their combined juices, begin to twitch and harden. "How about you join me in the shower and we have one for the road before you leave…" she said in a low, lusty voice.

Gunn gave a little grunt, and his cock started to swell rapidly. "I could think of worse ways to end the night…" he said, his own voice low and gravelly.

Faith jumped up out of the bed, actually swinging up into a handspring and arcing over his body to the other side of the bed. 'Just because I can!' she thought with a happy smirk.

"Showoff," Gunn said, his voice sounding a little surprised even as he obviously tried to be nonchalant about it. When he turned and swung his feet off the bed, she boldly reached out and grasped him by the root, pulling him up and along as she walked toward the bathroom. "Come on, Stud! I've got some work for you to do!"

Gunn laughed aloud as he followed behind. "I always thought it'd be a vampire that did me in, not a vampire Slayer!" he joked.

'Ok, I may not be the brightest guy in the world, but I'm pretty sure the whole 'just one night thing' just got tossed…' Xander thought as he caught Cordelia staring at him intently. He was looking at her in the mirrored tile of the elevator as they went up to her apartment. He glanced over to her and smiled gently, noticing that she dropped her gaze as soon as he turned his head. 'Hello, I can see you in the mirror!' he thought, both amused at her actions, and feeling excitement stir in his stomach and lower.

'I kinda figured something was up when you wanted me to ditch the girls and drive you home… and then you asked me up and I was pretty sure… but geez, you look like you want to eat me alive!' he thought as he resumed his observation of Cordy's reflection. 'Not that that's a bad thing…'

"So, did you see any of what Faith and Gunn were talking about?" Xander asked, trying to start a conversation.

'So busted!' he thought excitedly. 'Oh yeah, you want some Xanderlovin!' His smile grew broad as he said, "What Faith and gun were saying… that the three girls were, you know, doin' stuff to each other right out there in the open and stuff… Did you see them?"

Xander's eyes widened and he felt his own temperature rise as he watched the blush creep up Cordy's neck. 'Oh God! You got turned on by it!' he thought in amazement. 'Ok, serious lusty feelings rising here…'

Cordy straightened up and threw her hair back, striking a confident looking pose. "I may have seen some of what she was talking about. You know, what is it with them? They can't go like ten minutes without groping each other…"

The elevator dinged to a stop, and Cordy strode out the door, still ranting, "I mean, 'Hello! Get a room?' could they be less discreet?"

Xander remained a step behind, ignoring her complaining. 'God, you've got a great ass!' he thought. Shaking his head and looking back up at her face as they reached the door to her apartment, he thought, 'Uh huh, right, you're so disgusted by it, that's why your all flushed and breathing hard.'

Cordelia was still ranting as she unlocked and opened her door, "Is it a Slayer thing, like how Faith was always so slutty and such an exhibitionist…"

'Why is it, the more you harp, the harder I'm getting?' Xander asked himself as he followed the complaining brunette through the door and into the living room. He turned around so he was facing her as she locked the door behind them.

She turned back towards him, still going on about it. "Or is it a lesbian thing, 'cause I mmffhh…" she was cut off mid rant as Xander took her face in his hands and stopped her mouth with his own. He pressed her up against the door, kissing her deeply and passionately for several seconds before pulling back.

Cordelia blinked her eyes open and stared at him wide-eyed for a second. "What the hell was that Xander?" she demanded suddenly, breathing hard.

'Oh no you don't,' Xander thought, feeling his whole body tingle with desire. "Do you want me to leave?" he asked in as deep a voice as he could muster.

"I, uh… no," she said, her voice transitioning from annoyance to a surprising meekness.

A smile slowly grew on Xander's face as he thought, 'I knew it. You got so turned on by those girls that you can't even pretend not to be!' Just as he thought she was about to say something else, he growled, "Shut up Cordy," and quickly reclaimed her lips.

The statuesque brunette whimpered into his kiss when his hands moved down from her face and cupped her full breasts through the material of her dress. He pressed his bulging trousers up against her, grinding it in small circles against her lower abdomen. Xander nipped at her lips before sucking her lower lip into his mouth and lashing it with his tongue. His left hand remained at her chest, kneading and tweaking, while his right hand dropped to her thigh and pushed her skirt up till it reached her satin covered center.

'Oh God, so hot!' he thought as he stroked her lips through the material. 'Damn, you make me so hard Cordy!' he thought as his cock strained against his boxers and slacks. He swept aside the scrap of cloth, wanting skin to skin contact, and gently dragged his fingers along her slit.

He released her lip and opened his eyes to look at her. He groaned, "Oh, Cordy! You're so wet already!"

Xander's nostrils flared and he gasped, feeling a hot wave of immediate desire course through him right to his groin. "Gotta have you right now!" he breathed out as he moved his hand from her chest to unzip his fly and pull out his cock.

Cordelia helped him greatly when she lifted her right leg and wrapped it around his waist. He wrapped his left hand around her thigh at his waist to help hold it up, and guided himself into her wet sex with his right. He lined himself up and slipped in just the head before pulling his hand away and returning it to her breasts.

'Oh God! So hot, so wet! So gooood!' he exulted as he slid into her in one hard thrust.

Xander buried his face in her neck, nipping and sucking at the flesh below her ear. "So good, so hot, so damn sexy!" he grunted against her skin as he thrust in and out.

She tilted her head back against the door and panted heavily, meeting his thrust with a tilt of her hips, and pulling him to her with her leg.

He felt fingers of her left hand bury themselves into his hair, pulling his head tight to the long column of her neck. He felt her right hand worm its way between their slapping flesh, down to her center. 'So good! This feels so fricken good!' he thought over and over as he processed the sensations of her breast in his hand, her earlobe between his teeth; and her tight, hot sex gripping his cock in its wet grasp.

"Oh God Xander! How can this be so good!" Cordelia cried, her voice rising in pitch and volume until she keened.

Xander felt Cordelia's inner muscles rippling along his length gritted his teeth, willing himself not to cum. 'Not yet! Not yet!' her chanted silently until he felt her relax, coming down from her orgasm. She was leaning against the door, panting. Her eyes were half lidded until she realized that he hadn't cum along with her.

"Xander? What's wrong? What hap… oooohhhh." He words died off into a moan as he slipped out of her, still rock hard.

As she was about to speak again, Xander covered her mouth with his hand, gently. 'Hmm, where next?' he mused, glancing around the room for a moment. "Aha, the kitchen table!" he said aloud.

He turned back to Cordelia who looked both confused with his comment, and annoyed with his hand on her mouth. He smiled, feeling excitement building inside him. He dropped his hand and said, "Cordelia, I'm going to take you in every room in this apartment!"

Cordelia's eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped open as she was rendered speechless.

'This is *awesome*' he thought, almost giddy at rendering Queen C speechless. He took her arms by the wrists and moved them up around his neck before he leaned in and once again began to kiss her deeply. Without breaking their lip lock, he crouched a bit and grabbed Cordy's ass and lifted her up into the air.

'Oh yeah, you want this as much as I do!' he thought exultantly as the brunette immediately wrapped her legs around his waist, and tightened her arms around his neck. Xander carried her over to the small dining table she had in the nook of her kitchen and laid he down on it. He broke the kiss and pulled his face back just enough to focus on her eyes. She was panting deeply and her eyes were still wide and dilated. 'I don't know if that's lusty, or scared, or both… I just know I love that I put that look on your face!' he thought, feeling strong and powerful. 'Thank you again, Anya. You never made me feel this manly, but I couldn't have done it without you!'

Xander's voice was low and rough as he instructed Cordelia on what to do. "Grab the sides of the table, Cordy, and don't let go until I tell you, understand?"

Xander stood upright as he spoke. Lifting her legs up until they rested on his shoulders, he said, "Good. Now, you can make all the noise you want, but I don't wanna hear any questions or conversation out of you till I'm done with you! Got it Queen C?" At that moment he lined himself up, grabbed her thighs down where they met her pelvis, and drove himself into her in one fast stroke.

Any comment she might have made was swallowed up in a loud grunt as he bottomed out inside of her. Her head fell back to rest on the table and she began to whimper his name as he pounded into her with a steady pace. "God! You're so damn hot right now Cordy!" he growled. "Oh man, your breasts are wobbling in circles as I slide in and out of you… I don't think I've ever been this hard in my life!"

Cordelia just began to whine and it looked like she was going to cum again soon.

"Look at me Cordy!" Xander panted, feeling his own orgasm starting to coil up in his balls.

Cordelia's eyes looked unfocused and slightly crossed as she tipped her head back up to do as he instructed.

Xander locked his gaze on hers. His thrusts got faster and harder as he got closer to the end. He began to speak, his voice heavy and harsh as his own breathing sped up. "Every time you leave this apartment, you're gonna remember what it felt like when I took you up against the door. Every time you come in and turn around to lock it, you're gonna remember me pushing you up against it and just taking you! Whenever you eat breakfast in this room, you'll close your eyes and picture me screwing you right on this table! You wont be able to sit on the couch without remembering my touch! By the time we're done here, every room in this place is gonna remind you…"

Cordelia cried out a wordless wail as her release poured through her, never breaking eye contact with him.

Xander let himself go the moment he felt her insides quivering and quaking. 'Don't think I coulda held back if I wanted to!' he thought as he fell forward, grunting out her name in a loud shout.

After his breathing began to return to normal, he gently kissed her panting mouth, bending her in half as he did so. He reached down and licked a rivulet of sweat from the valley of her breasts and said, "Ok, Cordy. Three rooms to go. No, five, if we count the closets!"

Cordelia just whimpered and allowed herself to be picked up off the table without a word.

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Triune

by The Bear

Copyright © 2003

TheBear@papa-bear.com