She thought the yellow-kitchen-from-hell was bright in the morning.  That was nothing compared to this.  It should be hurting her eyes, causing her to blink, look away, or at least squint.

 

The lack of discomfort was new- she could open her eyes.  So she did.  Still, she couldn’t see anything, but she wasn’t anxious.  She wasn’t worried.  She wasn’t fearful.

 

Had it been like this the last time?

 

“Yo, B?” she called out.  “You here?”

 

Faith couldn’t feel Buffy this time.  This time she was alone, or was she?  Moving further toward the source of the light, as though drawn to it, Faith could make out a shadow.  “Who’s there?” she called out, yet again. 

 

“Faith?” came Buffy’s voice.

 

“Buffy? Where are you?”

 

A hand on Faith’s shoulder caused her to spin around.  Buffy was behind her.  If B was behind her, who was that in front of her?

 

Faith woke up.

 

XXXXX

 

“B,” Faith said, knocking on her bedroom door quietly, trying not to wake up the entire house.  “Buffy?”

 

Nothing.

 

Faith tried the knob and found it unlocked.  “I’m not waiting until morning,” she said quietly, opening the door.

 

Buffy was sprawled out on her back, blankets twisted around her legs as though she had tried to kick them off, but got tangled up in them instead, and then had given up.

 

Faith walked up to the bed, pushing it slightly with her leg.  “B, wake up.”

 

Still nothing.

 

“Damn, girl.”  Faith started shaking the bed even harder, using her legs and her hands.  “B, will you wake up already?”

 

“I’m awake.  I’m awake,” she said, sitting up so quickly it startled Faith.  “What’s wrong?  What’s going on?”  As Buffy shook off the last remnants of sleep, her eyes met Faith’s.  “The dream.  You had the dream again.” 

 

Faith nodded her head.

 

“And we weren’t alone this time, were we?”

 

“Nope, we had company.”

 

“And we weren’t afraid.”

 

“Nope, kind of nice actually.”

 

“Know who it was?  Our company?” Buffy asked, untangling her feet from the blankets and moving over so Faith could sit down.

 

“No,” she said, sitting.  “Was hoping you did.  Felt like I should be following whoever it was, though.”

 

“Me too.”

 

“What do we do now?”

 

“What can we do?  We aren’t getting much in the way of helpful information, in case you didn’t notice.”

 

Buffy stood up and stretched.  “I noticed.  Nothing like feeling useless.”

 

“No shit.”

 

Buffy sat back down.  Trying to stifle a yawn, she added, “Think we’ll be taking off soon?”

 

“Yes.  No.  Maybe?” Faith shrugged.  “If I’ve learned anything, B, it’s that anything can happen.  Look at us.  We used to be The Slayers.  You know?  And now we’re like the old ones.  The experienced ones.  The teachers.  You, I can see being all leady.  Me?  Not so much.”

 

Buffy turned to Faith and held her gaze.  “You’re doing okay.  You know that, right?”

 

“Don’t recall asking.”

 

“I know you didn’t ask.  I thought I’d tell you anyway,” Buffy said, finally turning away from Faith.

 

Standing, Faith said, “Well, not like we’re going to get any answers tonight.  Might as well get some sleep.”

 

“Like I’ll sleep now.”

 

“I’m going to try.  Training Squeak takes a lot out of a person.”  Faith shuddered.  “All that talking.  Asking questions.  Xander ogling.  I definitely need sleep.”

 

Buffy smiled.  “See you in the morning, Faith.”

 

XXXXX

 

“Great, something else I get to worry about,” Faith said, slamming the cupboard door shut.  “No sleep and now no coffee.  I’m being punished, aren’t I?”

 

“I wouldn’t exactly call it being punished,” Xander said, smirking.  “I would call it learning to survive on one’s inner strength and determination.”

 

Faith looked at him.  “That doesn’t even make any sense.” 

 

Xander shrugged.  “Sounded good in my head.”

 

Faith opened the fridge and settled on a soda.  “There will be coffee in my future.  And not the too distant future at that,” she said, snapping open the can and sitting down next to Xander at the table.  “So what’s the plan for today, anyway?”

 

Xander turned all business.  “Willow and Giles were up late last night, working on her spell.  They’re hoping to have it ready sometime today.  I guess we’re in a holding pattern until then.”

 

“We’ve been in a holding pattern since we got here.”

 

“Good point.”

 

“What’s a good point?” Buffy asked, coming into the kitchen. 

 

“Same ole, same ole, B,” Faith said.  “Just waiting to get the word from Red.  She’s supposed to have some answers for us today.”

 

“Maybe I should pack,” Buffy said, sitting down.  “Be all prepared girl.”

 

“I could do that,” Xander added.  “Well, not prepared girl, but prepared guy.  Kind of makes sense, since we don’t exactly know what we’re doing yet, but we can be ready to go.”

 

“I think we kinda do know where we’re going,” Willow said, coming into the kitchen, Giles directly behind her.

 

“Don’t make us suffer.  Give it up.  Where we going?” Faith asked.

 

“Nowhere,” Willow said, tentatively.

 

“Nowhere?” Faith asked, shocked.

 

“What she said,” Buffy added.

 

“What gives?” Xander asked.

 

“Willow, please explain.” Giles prodded.

 

“With the help of the coven, we found a way to isolate the largest source of demonic energy.  Which by the way, not easy.  We did a before and after locater spell-analysis-thingy.  We started in the good old U.S. of A.  West Coast to East Coast.  Guess what?  We didn’t find anything.  Detroit didn’t have much of anything left.  Okay, not surprised.  Neither did California, Texas, Maine, nothing was exuding any sort of extra badness.  Here,” she said, handing a printout to Buffy, “it’s all right there.” 

 

“What about everyplace else?” Buffy asked.

 

“The same.  No increase,” Giles said.  “Mexico, Europe, Australia, the same.”

 

“Okay,” Faith said standing.  “This is interesting and all, but what does it mean?”

 

Willow beamed.  “We figured it out.”  She glanced at Giles who motioned for her to continue.  “It’s not that the demonic activity has decreased, it’s that the slayer activity has increased.  There’s more good mojo now, which, when it comes to spell-casting, makes the bad mojo look like it’s decreased, but it’s the same or maybe even more.  I had to tweak the spell to overlook the goodness and just focus on the badness.  Right here, under our very noses, there is something going on that is drawing baddies here, not sending them away.”

 

“What?” Faith demanded.

 

Giles cleared his throat.  “It appears that there is a presence in Detroit, and that presence is recruiting.  The would explain the dwindling numbers of vampires you have encountered while out on patrol.  They have been pulled into another direction, on the request of something we have yet to identify.”  Giles removed his glasses and handed another printout to Buffy.

 

“Since when did spells produce printouts?” Faith asked to no one in particular.  Xander glanced at her and shrugged his shoulders, smiling in the process.  Rubbing his forehead, he asked, “Is anyone else getting a headache or is it just me?”

 

“I don’t have a headache,” Emma said walking into the kitchen, tossing her coat on a chair in the corner.  “But then again, I just got here.”

 

“This oughta be interesting,” Faith said.

 

“What’s going on?” Emma asked, sitting next to Buffy.

 

“Our local demons haven’t hightailed it anywhere, Squeak.  They’re still here.  They’re just in hiding, waiting to surprise us with something big and bad,” Faith told her.

 

“We aren’t going anywhere?”

 

“Not looking that way,” Buffy said.

 

“Darn it,” Emma said, with a sigh.

 

“One day,” Faith told her.  “I’m sure you won’t be stuck here forever.’

 

“So where do we start?” Buffy asked.

 

“We start with breakfast,” Giles said, “and then take it from there.

 

XXXXX

 

After breakfast and a required coffee purchase, Faith decided to go for her run.  By the time she got to the park, she was a little calmer, but nowhere near ready to go back to the house yet.  Being stuck in Detroit was one thing, not knowing what they were fighting, something entirely different.

 

She did need to rest, though.  She looked around, and settled on a swing.  She wanted to sit and this would work as well as anything else.

 

Emma had wanted to come with her, but this time was Faith’s and Faith’s alone.  In all honesty, she liked Emma most of the time, but the kid just never let up.  She was always asking about something.  Every time Faith turned around, it felt like she was there.

 

She began to pump her legs, and in no time flat, Faith was swinging and enjoying it.   With the recent lack of alone time, the house seemed to be getting smaller and smaller.  She didn’t patrol alone at all anymore.  If for some reason Emma couldn’t make it, Buffy would go with her.

 

Buffy tended to patrol on her own which meant B got all sorts of alone time, except for the occasions when Willow or Xander decided to tag along.  The group was strong with the teaminess and not wandering too far alone.

 

Faith was beginning to think she missed the chaos of Sunnydale.  Especially with the non-chaos of this place.

 

Maybe Giles was wrong; maybe the hellmouth was actually in Cleveland and not in Detroit.  If you looked at a map, and squinted, the two cities looked really, really close.

 

It could happen.

 

Faith sighed.  She hadn’t kept track of how many months they’d been here.  If she didn’t keep track, she didn’t remind herself how long it had been since she’d seen Spike.

 

Spike.  In love with a vampire?  That was one of the dumbest things she’d ever heard.  But if she was, even a little bit?  Yeah, that would be just like her.  Making one bad decision after another.  She wasn’t anywhere near ready to see him again, but if Angel ever needed her help, Faith knew she’d go to L.A. in a heartbeat.  With or without her feelings for Spike being resolved.

 

Everyone kept asking her, but she never answered.  It was none of their business.  But she did miss Spike.  She missed talking to him, she missed patrolling with him, she just missed him in general.

 

Why was it so hard to tell them the truth?  “Hey guys, you’re right.  I do miss Spike but that doesn’t mean I’m in love with him.”  With a deep sigh, Faith let her feet drag on the ground, kicking up dust and forcing the swing to come to a complete standstill.  She knew it was getting dark and if she didn’t head back, someone would be out looking for her.

 

She supposed it was time to go home, if that’s what you’d call it.  She hadn’t really felt at home anywhere, ever.  Why should this house be any different?

 

Since there was nowhere else for her to go, Faith started back.  Her only hope was that Emma had taken the hint and gone home herself.  Faith had a suspicion that there wouldn’t be any patrolling tonight.  Too much other stuff going on.

 

XXXXX