Have a Little Faith Chapter 48

There was an awkward silence that filled Giles’ apartment.  Apparently this incident could not have come at a worse time.  The gang at Sunnydale had just recently fought a cyborg named Adam and now had to deal with Angelus too.   No one was really keen to fight and the  group from LA were still reeling over Wesley and Cordelia’s death.

Lindsey sat on the couch and was nearly back in the cloud that he had sustained right after Cordelia died.  Faith sat next to him.  She rested her shoulder against his.

“So Buffy and Giles went to get the disk?” Xander asked.

Lindsey nodded.

“We are going to have to do this?” he said, and started to get a little mad.

“It’s faith,” Doyle said.  “I knew the powers would not steer me wrong.  It was destiny--”

“It’s bullshit.”

“Xander--” Willow said.

“Angel’s been gone from us a long time,” Xander said.  “We don’t need him.  It’s been more than two years that he’s been gone.  We’ve done fine without him.”

“But we will,” Lindsey said and looked down.  “We will need him.”  But he did not believe the words.

“Lindsey, for god’s sakes, he killed your wife—“

“Don’t you think I know that,” he snapped back.

“Guys,” Faith brought up and felt uncomfortable.  “We gotta do this, especially since Angelus is gonna open some doorway.  We got a do it before he starts.”

“We can stake him.”

They were interrupted when the door opened and Buffy and Giles entered.

Lindsey perked up.  Giles pulled a disk out of his pocket.

“Is it the curse?” Faith asked.

“We tried to look at it at school,” Buffy explained.  “But Synder caught wind I was there and we had to leave.”

Giles moved over to where Willow was with her laptop.  He handed to disk to her.

Willow put it in the machine.  After a few moments, her eyes lit up.

“It’s the curse.”  Giles looked over her shoulder.  He took a deep breath.  There was silence in the room.

“I can do it,” Willow said. “I’ll do it.”

“It’s very dangerous,” Giles replied.  “It will take an incredible amount of power.”

“I can do it.  I’ve doing these things for more than two years.  I can do it.”

Tara went over to her and touched her shoulder.  “She can do it-- Mr. Giles,” she said, softly.  “I know she can.”

“When should we do it?” Faith asked.  “Do we have to be near Angelus?”

“I think so,” Willow said.

“So we gotta wait until he’s in town.”

Buffy nodded.  “We need to keep a watch out for him.”  She looked at Faith and smiled.  “You wanna go patrolling?”
 

The train pulled into Sunnydale at around 8pm.  The station manager did not notice anything odd other than about twenty or so very loud people got off.  They looked like college students.  He could not remember if there was a football game.  He looked back to his paper. His curiosity finally piqued when the train that was supposed to leave to go to the next stop never did.

He got up and looked around.  The train just stood.  Maybe it was empty.  Maybe the conductor was taking a longer break.  Although the train was due to move to the next station five minutes after it arrived.

He climbed aboard and his heart stopped for just a moment.

There were about 50 dead people on the train.
 

“Mom wants you to come over for dinner?” Buffy said, while she and Faith fought two vampires.

“Oh yeah,” she said and dusted the one she was fighting.

“Yes.  She wants to see you,” Buffy said, dusting her vamp.

“That’s cool.  Can Lindsey come too?”

“Yeah—I guess so.  So are you guys an item?”

“Not really, but maybe eventually.  I mean Cordelia has only been dead for a week.  I don’t think he’s ready for a relationship.”

“You’ve always liked him,” Buffy commented.  “When he first came to Sunnydale you defended him.”

“Yeah, I had been in his shoes.”  Faith said when three more vampires jumped out at them.
 

Joyce did not seem happy.  She had invited Faith and the others for dinner.   Though Joyce was happy to see Faith, she actually gave her a huge hug, it was obviously the situation with Angelus was bothering her.  It was a problem that she hoped was long gone from her daughter’s life.

“Hey, Joyce,” she said and smiled.  “This is my umm—friend Lindsey McDonald.”

Joyce smiled.  “Hello,” she said, shaking his hand.  Buffy had told her what happened to Cordelia.  Joyce had decided not to bring it up.

“Thank you for inviting me into your home, Mrs. Summers,” Lindsey replied.  He had never been as awkward as he did now.  He barely knew Buffy and here he was meeting her mother.

Joyce let them in and closed the door behind.  “So Mr. McDonald, Buffy told me you are a lawyer.”

“Yes,” Lindsey said and smiled.  “And you don’t have to call me Mr. McDonald.  Everyone calls me Lindsey.”

Joyce smiled.  “You must like being a lawyer.”

“Not really,” he said.  “It was a means too making money.”

“Lindsey wants to be a country singer,” Faith joked to take some of the tension away.

“Well come on in, dinner will be in about 10 minutes,” Joyce said, showing them to the living room.  She headed towards the kitchen. Buffy’s boyfriend, Riley Finn was sitting on the couch.  He stood up when Faith and Lindsey came into the room.

“At ease,” Faith joked.

Riley tried to smile and sat down.

“You know Buffy was right, you’re real cute.”

Lindsey groaned.  Riley turned a little red.  Though Lindsey was happy to see her back to her wisecracking self.

Faith made herself comfortable on the sofa.  She put her feet on the coffee table.

“So it’s gonna be us tonight?” Faith asked.

“Yes. Thought it would be better for Buffy if we keep it small,” Riley said.  Lindsey could tell he was also not happy with the whole Angelus situation.

“This must really suck for her.  I was hoping we could keep the whole Angelus situation in LA.”

“It happens,” Riley said.  Faith could tell Riley was on the stake Angelus bandwagon.  It seemed most people were.  Doyle was the only diehard that wanted to restore Angel’s soul.  Even Buffy seemed uncertain.

“I know this must suck for you.  Considering that they used to go out.”

“We can take care of him.  You don’t have to go through this mumbo jumbo.”

“We can’t stake him,” Faith explained.  “The powers that be wanted him back with a soul.”

“We’re not going to stake him.  We put a little chip in his head.  Everytime he tries to hurt someone, it will cause him pain.”

“To what end?” Lindsey asked.

“What?”

“What’s the point?  He’ll still be bad ass Angelus.  He still won’t have a soul.  And I should know, you can do plenty of damage without lifting a finger.”

Riley did not reply because Buffy entered the room. Both Lindsey and Faith were glad the conversation ended.

“Hey,” she said and smiled.  She had changed her clothes from patrolling. Riley got up and the two of them kissed.

“I’m starved,” Faith said.  “How long to dinner?”
 

Spike was annoyed.  He had been betrayed by Adam and had to grovel to make sure Buffy did not stake him.  But that was not the only thing that annoyed him.  He had laid claim to this crypt.  And it seemed like it had a revolving door.  He was watching TV when the doors burst open.

Before Spike had a chance to move, he saw that it was Angelus and Drusilla at the door.

“Hey pops,” Spike said, getting up.  “You ever hear of knocking?”

“Shut up, Spike,” Angelus said.  “You wanted to help us in exchange for getting out the chip.  Now is your chance.”

“Hello Dru,”

“Hello Spikey,” she said.

“You’re looking good,” he said.

She nodded.

“So when are we gonna kill her,” he said and vamped out.  “I’ve been waiting.”

“All in good time,” Angelus said and smiled.
 

The phone woke Faith up from her sleep.  Lindsey’s arm was across her.  The funny thing is they had decided to go slow in their relationship, but they had been sleeping in the same bed ever since Cordelia died.

She did not have to stay in the rundown hotel like last time.  Lindsey got her a really nice room at one of the best hotels in Sunnydale.

Lindsey made a stirring sound, then turned over.  Faith quickly answered the phone.  Lindsey had not been sleeping well since Cordelia died and she wanted him to sleep when he could.

“Hello,” she said, her voice, barely above a whisper.

“Hey,” said Buffy’s voice.  “Put on Channel 5 and tell me what you think?”

“Hold on,” Faith grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around herself and went over to the TV set.  She sat very close so she would not have to make the sound loud and wake up Lindsey.

There was a reporter in front of a train.

“… 54 people brutally murdered.  Police are baffled about who could have done such a horrendous thing.  The names of the deceased have not been released until family members have been contacting…"

Faith went back to the phone without turning off the TV.

“Buffy?  I guess Angelus has arrived.”
 

Chapter 49

Main