The silence was oppressive as Faith sat with Buffy and Giles, pouring over city maps again. She was tempted to tear the stupid things up, grab her stake, and go look for something lumpy to slay. She settled on twirling her pencil around her fingers and trying not to sigh too loudly.

 

Buffy finally broke the silence.  “How hard can these demons be to find?  I mean, come on.  How many virgin-sacrificing demons can one city have?  Especially ones hanging out with the majority of Detroit’s future dust bunnies?”

 

“Do we even know where the opening to the actual hellmouth is?”  Faith asked.  “Do we go and look for another library or somethin’?”

 

“It doesn’t need to be a library, but yes, our first priority is to identify the actual opening,” Giles said, looking at the Tweety Bird clock, “which you will do shortly, when you both go out on an early patrol.”

 

“Me and B?  During the day?” Faith asked. 

 

“Yes,” Giles said.  “It is my belief that a daytime patrol would be a benefit to us.  Hopefully, it will give you both more time to scout out the area and make notes on anything you might find… not quite right, for a lack of a better phrase.”

 

“No pressure or anything.”  Faith leaned back hard in her chair, accidentally snapping the pencil she was holding in two.  “We don’t even know when this ritual is supposed to take place.”  She tossed the wooden remains on the table.

 

“That is why time is of the utmost importance,” Giles said.

 

“Is that a good idea?  Faith and I going out together?” Buffy asked.  “Shouldn’t one of us stay here in case something happens?”

 

Giles said, “I’ve spoken with both Spike and Willow, and they will stay here to ensure the safety of our houseguests.”

 

Faith stood.  “Well, let’s go then!” 

 

Finally!  Faith was beyond ready to do something other then sitting around, staring at lines on paper and breaking pencils in half.

 

XXXXX

 

“I can’t believe…” 

 

Faith laughed.  “First time you’ve been propositioned by a hooker, huh?”

 

“I’m a girl.  And she was a girl and it’s the middle of the day!”

 

“Like that makes a difference.  Money is money, B.  They don’t care where or when they get it or who they get it from.”

 

Faith caught the 'What do you mean, there’s no such thing as Santa Claus?' look on Buffy’s face.  Jeez, how B managed to be the one runaway in L.A. who avoided the seediest part of city life was beyond her.  "Eh, besides B, how sure are you that it was a girl?”

 

Which only led to B walking faster.  Faith picked up her own pace.  So much for her attempt to add a little levity.  “Wait up, already.”

 

“What’s down this way?”  Buffy asked.

 

Abrupt change of subject much?

 

“Not an alley for once,” Faith said.  “What street is it?  Michigan Avenue?  Only one way to find out.”  Without waiting for Buffy’s approval, Faith turned and headed down the street.

 

“Damn,” Faith said after they had been walking less than a half an hour.  “That’s huge and deserted.”

 

“What is it?” Buffy asked.

 

Faith went to the curb, quickly looked both ways, and trotted across the street.  When she realized Buffy wasn’t following, Faith called over her shoulder, “Come on, B.  This’ll be fun.”

 

“Gotta be some way to get in there,” Faith said, scanning the front of the old baseball stadium.  The old-fashioned “D” embossed across the front and a painted tiger around every corner.

 

“Why do we want to get in there?” Buffy asked.  “We’re supposed to be taking notes, not breaking and entering.  At least not yet.”

 

“It’s big, it’s empty, and it’s sitting on a hellmouth.  Besides, I’m not much of a note taker.  And have you ever seen their stats?  Gotta be some bad mojo coming from this place,” Faith said.

 

Buffy looked surprised.  “You know their stats?” she asked.  “I didn’t know you liked baseball.”

 

“I don’t.  Xander and I were talkin’ one day.  He told me.  It’s a guy thing.  ERA’s.  Strike outs.  I’m actually surprised I even remember any of it.”

 

“You remember actual stats?” Buffy asked, sounding amazed.

 

Wow.  So that’s what B looked like when she was impressed.  That look might take some getting used to… especially when it was aimed in Faith’s direction.

 

“I didn’t listen that close, B.  I just remember that they pretty much sucked.”

 

Faith glanced around quickly to see if they were being watched.  Aside from the normal crowd of people on any given day, Faith didn’t see anyone who could cause them any kind of trouble.  Not like it was the type of crowd that would run to the cops if they saw something amiss anyway, that’s for sure.

 

With a devious gleam in her eye, Faith jumped up and shimmied over the locked gate that surrounded the place.

 

“Come on.”

 

Faith didn’t need to hear it to know B had let out a huge sigh before she joined Faith on the other side.

 

“What now?  We have all these,” Buffy pointed to one of the entrances, “roll-top-thingies all over the place.  How do we break through those?”

 

Faith smiled.  Walking halfway around the building to a less conspicuous spot, she stopped in front of yet another roll-top door.  “Sometimes a slayer needs more than just a piece of wood.”  Faith grabbed a padlock and using her knife as a pry bar, broke the lock off.  The four other locks holding the door shut were quick to follow.

 

“That would be how,” Buffy said, joining Faith as they both bent down and pulled up the roll top door high enough so they could wriggle underneath it.

 

“Yuck,” Buffy said as they emerged from the other side.

 

Faith reached over and swatted a bunch of cobwebs out of Buffy’s hair.  “Chill.  I got ‘em outta your hair.”

 

“Thanks,” she said, reaching over and flicking something out of Faith’s hair.

 

“What? Mine too?” Faith asked, shaking her head.

 

“Not quite,” Buffy said.  “I got the web.  You got the spider.”

 

“Shit!  Did you get it out?”

 

Laughing, Buffy said, “Look at the big tough slayer, afraid of a spider!”

 

“I’m not afraid of spiders,” Faith said slightly offended.  Faith wasn’t afraid of anything.  “At least I didn’t scream like a baby girl.”

 

Buffy looking confused.  “Neither did I!”

 

“I’m just saying…” Faith said with a grin.

 

The place had been deserted awhile.  No doubt about it.  Anything that wasn’t nailed down was gone.  Wasn’t hard to make out where the concession areas used to be.  Faith wasn’t really concerned with those.  If she was a vampire and this place was left abandoned, there were better places than a beer stand to take up residence.

 

At least there was finally one familiar thing - Faith’s vampire senses were on overload.  Smiling, she asked Buffy, “You got your tingle back, didn’t you?”

“Oh, yeah.”

 

They were standing directly on top of the Hellmouth, now all they needed to do was to find out where the opening was hidden.

 

“Let’s go,” Faith said.

 

Buffy stuffed the map into the back pocket of her jeans.  “Guess we won’t be needing this anymore.”

 

“Nope.  Found it on our own.”

 

Buffy laughed.  “Giles will be so proud.”

 

XXXXX

 

“I may be a newbie,” Emma said, “but I think this is a bad idea.”  Dawn was so going to get her into trouble.

 

“I’m with the virgin,” Andrew said, excitedly and then clarified his statement quickly. “The slayer virgin, not the used-to-be-a-key virgin.  We have our instructions and no matter how difficult we believe they may be to follow, we should obey them.”  He glanced around nervously.  “Besides, if Buffy found out, we’d be in big trouble.”

 

Dawn rolled her eyes.  “I haven’t seen anything.  Buffy and what’s-her-name are out patrolling.  They even said themselves that it was dull around here.  What can it hurt if we go out and sightsee for a little while?”

 

Emma decided to let the ‘what’s her name’ comment slide.  Obviously Dawn had Faith issues, but this wasn’t the time to bring it up.  Instead, she said, “Still, it’s getting dark.”

 

“You most of all,” Dawn said, pointing her finger at her, “don’t need anyone’s approval. You’re not a prisoner or anything.”

 

“She has a Porsche, doesn’t she?” Andrew chimed in thoughtfully.

 

“Yes, and it only has two seats.  There goes that plan,” Emma said, trying her best to stop Dawn from making what could turn out to be a huge mistake.

 

“Guess that means I’m not going anywhere,” Andrew said.  “Too bad.  I was looking forward to roaming around another hellmouth in the dark.”

 

Dawn was persistent.  “Andrew, you need to distract Spike for us so we can sneak out.”

 

“Me?  Distract Spike?”

 

“What if I say I won’t do it?” Emma asked desperately.  “My car.  If I won’t drive, we don’t go anywhere.”

 

Dawn’s voice softened.  “It’s not a big deal.  Really.  We’re not going out to get drunk and get laid!  We’re going out to just look around.  A drive, maybe get something to eat.  See.  No big.  So, you in?”

 

“Excuse me,” Andrew said.  “If it’s not a big deal, then why am I keeping Spike occupied so you can sneak out?”

 

“Yeah!” Emma almost shouted, then quietly added, “Why are we sneaking if it’s not a big deal?”

 

“Spike would want to come with us.”  Dawn sighed deeply.  “He’s cool and everything, but he’d ruin it and I’m too old for a chaperone.”

 

Emma weighed the pros and cons.  Dawn was gonna go out, no matter what.  She would be safer if she went with her.  And its not like it was the middle of the night or anything.  It was still pretty early. 

 

“Fine.  We’ll go out,” Emma said.  Looking at Andrew added, "Andrew, keep Spike busy.  We’ll be outta here in less than five minutes.”

 

They didn’t even make it out of the kitchen.

 

“Nice try, Bit,” Spike said, standing in the doorway, his arms crossed in front of his chest.  “Vampire hearing.  Remember?  You’re not going anywhere.”  Spike nodded over his shoulder, continuing, “Now, we’re all going into the other room and watching the telly until Faith and Buffy get back.”

 

Dawn didn’t look too happy, but Emma was beyond relieved.  Last thing she wanted to do was tick off the other two slayers.

 

“You heard what he said,” Emma added.  “Let’s go watch the telly.”

 

“Is someone going to make popcorn or did Faith eat all of that, too?” Andrew asked in a somewhat whiney voice, following close behind them.

 

“What is it with you two and food?” Emma asked, plopping down on the couch.

 

“Let me tell you, dear childe.  We were in the middle of the battle of our lives.  In Sunnydale, on a hellmouth quite similar to this one as matter of fact, battling The First Evil…”

 

“Faith ate his Hot Pocket,” Spike said, interrupting.  “Prat hasn’t gotten over it.”

 

“How do you know?” Andrew asked, shocked.  “You weren’t even there.  I had a note on it and everything.”

 

“What did I tell you?” Spike said, sitting down next to Emma.  “After everything the lot of us had been going through, he was worried about a microwaveable piece of dough. I’m partial to the Philly cheese steaks, myself.”  He looked at Dawn.  “You going to pick the movie out, Nibblet?”

 

Dawn huffed and flounced out of the chair she was sitting in.  “Might as well.  Not like I have anything else better to do.”

 

“That’s my girl,” Spike said.

 

“We’ll see the town tomorrow…” Emma began.

 

“During the day,” Spike added quickly.

 

"But then you can't join us." Dawn pointed out.

 

"Didn't appear too heartbroken about stepping out without me tonight," Spike countered.

 

Emma felt herself tensing up.  They weren't going to fight, were they?

 

“While we’re out, could we maybe stop for some Hot Pockets?"

 

Emma marveled at Andrew's one track mind and was grateful for it at the same time.  His Hot Pocket obsession derailed the argument train Spike and Dawn were beginning to board.

 

"I couldn’t buy them in Italy,” Andrew added weakly.

 

XXXXX