A/N: Completely different from season's ending, don't bother pointing out
inaccuracies, they were purely intentional.
It Had To Be Done 5
"Faith, can I have a word?"
The brunette almost flinched at Xander's voice behind her, they were outside the school. They'd arrived in a school bus G had commandeered the previous night, while Xander was already waiting for them, sat on the bonnet of a black Trans-Am she'd heard him admit to Andrew he'd stolen that morning because it looked like 'KITT'. He hadn't spoken to her or B, contenting himself to give out his cache of guns to those who knew how to use them. "Sure," she muttered under her breath, "give it to me with both barrels."
"I'm sorry for the things I said to you in the graveyard and yesterday," she looked up in surprise. "I had every right to be angry, but I went way over the top. You're not the same person you were four years ago, and I understand what Deadboy means to you, I might not like the guy but I can respect the way he helped you, I'm only sorry," the man dropped his gaze to the ground. "That I didn't try harder to help you myself."
"Hey," she stroked her friend's cheek, thrilling that he cared enough to apologise to her. "Way I remember you tried pretty damn hard to help me but I wouldn't listen, nearly killed you for trying. That seems like a hell of a lot of effort for a self-centred bitch who treated you pretty crappily."
"Thanks Faith," it was obvious from the look on his face, her words meant a lot to him. She wasn't used to her saying anything that other people were interested in, it felt good. "I'd like you take this."
She looked down at the piece of paper Xander had passed her in confusion. "What's this Xman?"
"My e-mail address and new mobile number, I was only planning in giving copies to G-Man, Will, Anya, and Dawnie. But I guess I'd like to keep in touch with my new friend Faith, make sure she's five by five too."
She smiled at hearing her catchphrase from someone else. "Thanks X-Man. Are you going to talk to Buff?"
The man's face hardened. "Why would I ? I meant every word. Good luck in the fight, see you on the other side." He turned to go.
"Xand," the man turned back towards her, his face quizzical. The Slayer took a breath, if she didn't ask now; she might never get the nerve to try again. "After this is over, I'm gonna need a Watcher. You interested?" "Faith -," the man smiled slowly. "What the hell, I might be. One condition?"
"Name it," she replied eagerly. Anything to spend more time with him.
"You start respecting yourself a little more. You're a beautiful, strong woman that dragged herself up from hell to fight for the good guys, you deserve a hell of a lot better than a succession of one night stands. I don't have a problem with a Slayer being with somebody; just make sure it's a guy worthy of you."
"Deal," she agreed. The man nodded and walked. "I've already found him," she added in a whisper.
* * *
"Now you've finished with No. 2, you can say sorry to Buffy."
"And if I don't?" Xander turned to a cloaked Spike.
"If you don't, I'll beat an apology out of you."
"Will you?" Xander's hand flickering out, snatching at the cloak pulling it partially away from the vampire. The vampire let out a scream as his hand caught fire, Xander threw the cloak back over the vampire. "Not while you're under there you won't." Turning away from the vampire, he walked over to a watching Giles. "G-Man, if you're still interested in me being a Watcher, I might be interested. As long as you assign me to Faith."
"You've made up, splendid. And you and Buffy?"
"You're the fourth, Will, Faith, Billy, and now you. I apologised to Faith because I was in the wrong, Buffy deserved everything she got. So who am I with?"
The Watcher sighed before glancing down at his notes. "You're with Dawn and Gunn in the cafeteria."
"Sounds almost like a game of Cluedo," Xander nodded, turned away and then back to the man he regarded as his true father. "Giles, stay alive?"
The Englishman nodded and smiled softly. "You too son."
* * *
"Me and you are still all right, Xander?"
Xander grinned at the girl and hugged her. "You're still my Dawn Patrol."
The teen groaned at her nickname. "Xander!" her face turned serious. "You really hate Buffy don't you?"
Xander hesitated before looking at the teen. "Dawn, the first thing you've got to know is that no matter how I feel about your sis, I'll always love you. The second is," he paused for a second, gathering his thoughts. "I don't hate your sister, I hate the deaths her selfishness has caused - Kendra, Jenny, all the people we weren't able to save when she went on a run after getting rid of Angelus. Hell, maybe Tara would still be alive if she'd concentrated more on putting the Trio out of business than fu-, being with Spike." He shook his head. "I really don't know what's wrong with her; your mom was one of the greatest people I've known so I know it's not her upbringing. Besides," he ruffled the young girl's hair, "you're turning out just dandy."
"But there's no chance you'll make up?"
"Sorry Dawn," he shook his head. "That bridge has been well and truly nuked." And he felt all the better for it.
* * *
"So, this is hell?" Faith glanced down over the edge of the cliff. She felt the blood drain from her face as she saw the thousands of uber-vamps massed beneath them. "Oh shit. I'm starting to think this was not a good idea."
"Nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live here."
The Slayer glanced towards the stoic Oz. "I don't know if it's your material or delivery, but not funny."
The guitarist shrugged. "I'm a musician not a comedian."
"I saw you talking to Xander." Buffy's tone was clipped, disapproving. "I thought we'd agreed about him."
The slight grin that had worked its way across the Slayer's face at her exchange with the werewolf disappeared at her blonde counterpart's comment. "No B," she replied coldly. "You laid down the law same as always. And I ignored you, same as always. Girl's not got many friends, and Xander was always a better one to me than you, so I've made my choice. Live with it." She turned towards Angel. "We should be five by five, just as long as they don't notice us."
Her hero groaned. "That's right, go and jinx us." He pointed towards the army that had as one turned towards them.
"Oh fuck, come on Red." Prison was looking real good right about now.
* * *
Willow stared at the scythe, forcing away all her fear for her friends, concentrating solely on the spell. After a few seconds she started to breath heavily, sweat pour down her face. Suddenly the weapon began to hum and glow an almost blinding white. Opposite her, Kennedy swayed backwards, as if buffeted by a strong wind. A smile spread slowly across the brunette's face. "I'm a Slayer."
Willow smiled weakly. "Take the Scythe."
* * *
"I hate to worry everybody, but Peaches' medallion ain't getting it done."
Vi grinned. "Doesn't matter we've just got another 40 Slayers."
"About bloody time!" The vampire raised an eyebrow. "Oh bollocks, suddenly I become part of an endangered species."
Faith grinned at the exchange behind her; the First's army was in for a bitching surprise. "'Bout time you changed Oz?"
"Get right on it." The guitarist began changing into his werewolf, his clothes ripping as his muscles swelled and grew to gargantuan proportions, just in time to meet the on-coming army.
"Let's kick some uber-ass!" Grinning triumphantly, the Dark Slayer raised her sword and dived into the first of the ubers, her sword flashing left and right, Oz's claws tearing through any who managed to avoid her attack, while Angel and B did the same to her right. Behind her, Spike led the new Slayers' secondary line.
Within a few minutes Faith realised it wasn't enough, all of them, all super-powered, there were just too many uber-vamps. Damn it, she didn't want it to end like this, there was so much she hadn't done yet.
* * *
Five ubers, time to see if the ammo worked on them. "Gunn! The heads, shoot for the heads!" The African-American nodded before joining him in firing. "He shoots, he scores!" Xander cheered as the ubers disintegrated into dust.
"Uh guys, they brought company."
Xander and Gunn turned. Xander groaned, behind them stood another dozen or so ubers, and they'd already used up about half of one of their four magazines each to take out just five. They could handle these, but if many more came.. "Do you feel lucky punks, do you?"
Xander turned to Dawn, an incredulous look on his face. "You're quoting Dirty Harry?"
The teen shrugged as she raised her Uzi. "Seemed to suit."
Xander shook his head. "I knew those gun lessons were a bad idea."
* * *
"It would seem," Wesley shouted over the chattering of his assault rifle. "That Mr. Harris had hidden talents, his idea about the special ammunition, quite ingenious."
"Wesley!" Giles took out another two ubers. "Must you sound like such a bloody stuffed shirt? His name's soddin' Xander."
The younger man smiled dryly. "I'm sorry, I appear to be dropping back into my Sunnydale habits!" He glanced towards the young woman between him and his counterpart. "And how are you Fred?"
"Going deaf!" Fred screamed over the rattle of her sub-machine gun.
* * *
"We fought them off!"
"Thank god," Wood muttered. Although his team was the most numerous of the surface teams, him, Andrew, Anaya, & that Lorne character, it was also the weakest, with him the only truly trained fighter. It was lucky they'd been positioned the farthest away from the Hellmouth. "Is everyone okay?"
"I'm here!" Andrew shouted.
"I'm fine," Lorne said softly.
Wood nodded approvingly, he'd been pleasantly surprised both by the green- skinned demon's coolness in battle, a shocking contrast to his campness, and Anaya's abilities. Anaya, Wood's breath caught. "Anaya, where's Anaya?"
* * *
"Faith!"
Hearing Kennedy's shout she raised a hand instinctively, effortlessly plucking the thrown scythe out of the air, before diving back into battle. God she'd missed this in prison, ducking under an uber's wild swing she slashed upwards, taking the uber's out-stretched arm off at the shoulder before slicing its head off. Leaping through the air, she hit the uber nearest to her with a spin kick before thrusting the end of her scythe through its neck and twisting, tearing its head off.
Five minutes later and she was exhausted, blood leaking from half a dozen wounds. All around her, brave girls were dying. Dying, because of a plan she'd made. It wasn't fair, why couldn't she win just once? Suddenly, she heard a bellow behind her. "Oh bollocks! Whatever this amulet does its started! And it sodding hurts!"
Her heart pounding, the brunette risked a glance over her shoulder. Behind her, Spike was wailing in pain, his body enveloped in a glowing yellow light. Suddenly the light started to spread obliterating and incinerating ubers as it touched them. Faith's sudden grin disappeared as the power released by the amulet started to shake the cavern's walls. She glanced to an exhausted looking Angel. "Everyone out now! You first, if that thing hits you, you're dust."
The vampire nodded. "See you on the surface."
"Everybody out now!" she roared, "let Spike do his job."
* * *
"Xand!" Faith grabbed the man's arm. "We need to get out," the Slayer looked nervously at the shaking walls, in some places the walls and even the ceiling had already collapsed, the school wasn't going to last much longer.
"I've got to find Anaya!"
Faith's heart clenched as she looked into the man's wild eyes, he really, really loved the ex-demon. How could she compete with that? Pushing aside such thoughts as selfish and knowing that telling him Wood had found Anaya's body with two dust piles wouldn't help, the Slayer took the only course of action she could think of. "Sorry Xand," she whispered before slamming a left hook into the man's temple. Grabbing the man's falling body, she slung him over a shoulder and hurried out.
* * *
"Buffy needs her friends around her right now."
After wiping his eyes, he didn't want Angel to see his tears, Xander looked up impassively at the ensoulled vampire. "She's got Giles, Will, and Dawn," he pointed out bitterly. "Which is more than I have. I'm not about to comfort a person I don't like about the death of a bastard I'd wished dead on more than one occasion in the last year."
"Xander, Spike saved the world today."
The young man shrugged. "Does one act of self-sacrifice, well two if you count when Glory tortured him for the key's identity, cancel out 120 years of murder and torture?"
The vampire shrugged before sitting down beside him. "You didn't need to wipe away your tears Xander," Angel said softly. "Showing emotion isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength." The vampire glanced at the empty bottles at their feet. "How many of those have you had?"
Xander counted in his head. "Five." His mouth dropped open when the vampire grabbed his unopened six pack and threw it into the surrounding forest, its landing accompanied with the tell-tale tinkle of breaking glass. "What the fuck did you do that for?"
"Getting drunk never solves anything. How many people have been hit by their drunk parents? How many people have been killed by drunk drivers? Hell," the vampire chuckled dryly, "I was drunk when Darla turned me. Look how much good came out of that. You need to talk."
"Talk," he snorted, "who to, Andrew?"
"Me."
"You, we can't stand one another!" he started to rise only for the vampire to pull him back down.
"Then maybe it's time we tried again," Angel said calmly. "When you told me about you sending me to hell, I was so angry." The vampire shook his head. "But you were right." The vampire chuckled at his shocked expression. "Buffy would have held back, Angelus would have won so thank you." The vampire held out his hand. After a second, he took it. "I know you don't trust or like me and I admit your reasons are a lot more reasoned than I originally thought. I don't particularly like you either, I do respect you though, I remember you stopping Angelus twice and the time you forced me down to the Master's cavern to help Buff. If you want to talk about Anaya, I'll listen."
"Okay." He began, telling the vampire everything he could remember about Anaya - how they met, how she'd embarrass him with sex talk in public, her love of money, but most of all how she'd grown as a person. After what seemed hours he finished.
"It's obvious you loved her a lot," the vampire said. "But one day you'll meet someone who fills the hole in your heart, eases the pain you're feeling."
"I don't want anyone else," he said bitterly. "And even if I did, who'd have an one-eyed out-of-work carpenter with no home?"
"I can think of one person," the vampire surprised him. "And you're one of the few men in the world I'd trust to look after her."
"I'm going nowhere near Dawn, jailbait's so not my thing."
"I'm talking about Faith."
"Faith's told you she wants me? I thought she didn't back-track?"
"Faith hasn't told me anything," the vampire replied patiently. "I can tell the way her heartbeat speeds up whenever you enter a room, the pheromones she gives off."
"I don't do casual -."
"Neither does Faith, not anymore. She's looking for someone to share her life," the vampire rose, "if I was you I'd give the idea serious consideration."
"Angel," the vampire turned back to him. "Thanks for listening."
The vampire nodded. "My pleasure Xander, I wish I'd known Anaya, she sounded," Angel grinned, "yeah the word I'm looking for is interesting."
THE END
It Had To Be Done 5
"Faith, can I have a word?"
The brunette almost flinched at Xander's voice behind her, they were outside the school. They'd arrived in a school bus G had commandeered the previous night, while Xander was already waiting for them, sat on the bonnet of a black Trans-Am she'd heard him admit to Andrew he'd stolen that morning because it looked like 'KITT'. He hadn't spoken to her or B, contenting himself to give out his cache of guns to those who knew how to use them. "Sure," she muttered under her breath, "give it to me with both barrels."
"I'm sorry for the things I said to you in the graveyard and yesterday," she looked up in surprise. "I had every right to be angry, but I went way over the top. You're not the same person you were four years ago, and I understand what Deadboy means to you, I might not like the guy but I can respect the way he helped you, I'm only sorry," the man dropped his gaze to the ground. "That I didn't try harder to help you myself."
"Hey," she stroked her friend's cheek, thrilling that he cared enough to apologise to her. "Way I remember you tried pretty damn hard to help me but I wouldn't listen, nearly killed you for trying. That seems like a hell of a lot of effort for a self-centred bitch who treated you pretty crappily."
"Thanks Faith," it was obvious from the look on his face, her words meant a lot to him. She wasn't used to her saying anything that other people were interested in, it felt good. "I'd like you take this."
She looked down at the piece of paper Xander had passed her in confusion. "What's this Xman?"
"My e-mail address and new mobile number, I was only planning in giving copies to G-Man, Will, Anya, and Dawnie. But I guess I'd like to keep in touch with my new friend Faith, make sure she's five by five too."
She smiled at hearing her catchphrase from someone else. "Thanks X-Man. Are you going to talk to Buff?"
The man's face hardened. "Why would I ? I meant every word. Good luck in the fight, see you on the other side." He turned to go.
"Xand," the man turned back towards her, his face quizzical. The Slayer took a breath, if she didn't ask now; she might never get the nerve to try again. "After this is over, I'm gonna need a Watcher. You interested?" "Faith -," the man smiled slowly. "What the hell, I might be. One condition?"
"Name it," she replied eagerly. Anything to spend more time with him.
"You start respecting yourself a little more. You're a beautiful, strong woman that dragged herself up from hell to fight for the good guys, you deserve a hell of a lot better than a succession of one night stands. I don't have a problem with a Slayer being with somebody; just make sure it's a guy worthy of you."
"Deal," she agreed. The man nodded and walked. "I've already found him," she added in a whisper.
* * *
"Now you've finished with No. 2, you can say sorry to Buffy."
"And if I don't?" Xander turned to a cloaked Spike.
"If you don't, I'll beat an apology out of you."
"Will you?" Xander's hand flickering out, snatching at the cloak pulling it partially away from the vampire. The vampire let out a scream as his hand caught fire, Xander threw the cloak back over the vampire. "Not while you're under there you won't." Turning away from the vampire, he walked over to a watching Giles. "G-Man, if you're still interested in me being a Watcher, I might be interested. As long as you assign me to Faith."
"You've made up, splendid. And you and Buffy?"
"You're the fourth, Will, Faith, Billy, and now you. I apologised to Faith because I was in the wrong, Buffy deserved everything she got. So who am I with?"
The Watcher sighed before glancing down at his notes. "You're with Dawn and Gunn in the cafeteria."
"Sounds almost like a game of Cluedo," Xander nodded, turned away and then back to the man he regarded as his true father. "Giles, stay alive?"
The Englishman nodded and smiled softly. "You too son."
* * *
"Me and you are still all right, Xander?"
Xander grinned at the girl and hugged her. "You're still my Dawn Patrol."
The teen groaned at her nickname. "Xander!" her face turned serious. "You really hate Buffy don't you?"
Xander hesitated before looking at the teen. "Dawn, the first thing you've got to know is that no matter how I feel about your sis, I'll always love you. The second is," he paused for a second, gathering his thoughts. "I don't hate your sister, I hate the deaths her selfishness has caused - Kendra, Jenny, all the people we weren't able to save when she went on a run after getting rid of Angelus. Hell, maybe Tara would still be alive if she'd concentrated more on putting the Trio out of business than fu-, being with Spike." He shook his head. "I really don't know what's wrong with her; your mom was one of the greatest people I've known so I know it's not her upbringing. Besides," he ruffled the young girl's hair, "you're turning out just dandy."
"But there's no chance you'll make up?"
"Sorry Dawn," he shook his head. "That bridge has been well and truly nuked." And he felt all the better for it.
* * *
"So, this is hell?" Faith glanced down over the edge of the cliff. She felt the blood drain from her face as she saw the thousands of uber-vamps massed beneath them. "Oh shit. I'm starting to think this was not a good idea."
"Nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live here."
The Slayer glanced towards the stoic Oz. "I don't know if it's your material or delivery, but not funny."
The guitarist shrugged. "I'm a musician not a comedian."
"I saw you talking to Xander." Buffy's tone was clipped, disapproving. "I thought we'd agreed about him."
The slight grin that had worked its way across the Slayer's face at her exchange with the werewolf disappeared at her blonde counterpart's comment. "No B," she replied coldly. "You laid down the law same as always. And I ignored you, same as always. Girl's not got many friends, and Xander was always a better one to me than you, so I've made my choice. Live with it." She turned towards Angel. "We should be five by five, just as long as they don't notice us."
Her hero groaned. "That's right, go and jinx us." He pointed towards the army that had as one turned towards them.
"Oh fuck, come on Red." Prison was looking real good right about now.
* * *
Willow stared at the scythe, forcing away all her fear for her friends, concentrating solely on the spell. After a few seconds she started to breath heavily, sweat pour down her face. Suddenly the weapon began to hum and glow an almost blinding white. Opposite her, Kennedy swayed backwards, as if buffeted by a strong wind. A smile spread slowly across the brunette's face. "I'm a Slayer."
Willow smiled weakly. "Take the Scythe."
* * *
"I hate to worry everybody, but Peaches' medallion ain't getting it done."
Vi grinned. "Doesn't matter we've just got another 40 Slayers."
"About bloody time!" The vampire raised an eyebrow. "Oh bollocks, suddenly I become part of an endangered species."
Faith grinned at the exchange behind her; the First's army was in for a bitching surprise. "'Bout time you changed Oz?"
"Get right on it." The guitarist began changing into his werewolf, his clothes ripping as his muscles swelled and grew to gargantuan proportions, just in time to meet the on-coming army.
"Let's kick some uber-ass!" Grinning triumphantly, the Dark Slayer raised her sword and dived into the first of the ubers, her sword flashing left and right, Oz's claws tearing through any who managed to avoid her attack, while Angel and B did the same to her right. Behind her, Spike led the new Slayers' secondary line.
Within a few minutes Faith realised it wasn't enough, all of them, all super-powered, there were just too many uber-vamps. Damn it, she didn't want it to end like this, there was so much she hadn't done yet.
* * *
Five ubers, time to see if the ammo worked on them. "Gunn! The heads, shoot for the heads!" The African-American nodded before joining him in firing. "He shoots, he scores!" Xander cheered as the ubers disintegrated into dust.
"Uh guys, they brought company."
Xander and Gunn turned. Xander groaned, behind them stood another dozen or so ubers, and they'd already used up about half of one of their four magazines each to take out just five. They could handle these, but if many more came.. "Do you feel lucky punks, do you?"
Xander turned to Dawn, an incredulous look on his face. "You're quoting Dirty Harry?"
The teen shrugged as she raised her Uzi. "Seemed to suit."
Xander shook his head. "I knew those gun lessons were a bad idea."
* * *
"It would seem," Wesley shouted over the chattering of his assault rifle. "That Mr. Harris had hidden talents, his idea about the special ammunition, quite ingenious."
"Wesley!" Giles took out another two ubers. "Must you sound like such a bloody stuffed shirt? His name's soddin' Xander."
The younger man smiled dryly. "I'm sorry, I appear to be dropping back into my Sunnydale habits!" He glanced towards the young woman between him and his counterpart. "And how are you Fred?"
"Going deaf!" Fred screamed over the rattle of her sub-machine gun.
* * *
"We fought them off!"
"Thank god," Wood muttered. Although his team was the most numerous of the surface teams, him, Andrew, Anaya, & that Lorne character, it was also the weakest, with him the only truly trained fighter. It was lucky they'd been positioned the farthest away from the Hellmouth. "Is everyone okay?"
"I'm here!" Andrew shouted.
"I'm fine," Lorne said softly.
Wood nodded approvingly, he'd been pleasantly surprised both by the green- skinned demon's coolness in battle, a shocking contrast to his campness, and Anaya's abilities. Anaya, Wood's breath caught. "Anaya, where's Anaya?"
* * *
"Faith!"
Hearing Kennedy's shout she raised a hand instinctively, effortlessly plucking the thrown scythe out of the air, before diving back into battle. God she'd missed this in prison, ducking under an uber's wild swing she slashed upwards, taking the uber's out-stretched arm off at the shoulder before slicing its head off. Leaping through the air, she hit the uber nearest to her with a spin kick before thrusting the end of her scythe through its neck and twisting, tearing its head off.
Five minutes later and she was exhausted, blood leaking from half a dozen wounds. All around her, brave girls were dying. Dying, because of a plan she'd made. It wasn't fair, why couldn't she win just once? Suddenly, she heard a bellow behind her. "Oh bollocks! Whatever this amulet does its started! And it sodding hurts!"
Her heart pounding, the brunette risked a glance over her shoulder. Behind her, Spike was wailing in pain, his body enveloped in a glowing yellow light. Suddenly the light started to spread obliterating and incinerating ubers as it touched them. Faith's sudden grin disappeared as the power released by the amulet started to shake the cavern's walls. She glanced to an exhausted looking Angel. "Everyone out now! You first, if that thing hits you, you're dust."
The vampire nodded. "See you on the surface."
"Everybody out now!" she roared, "let Spike do his job."
* * *
"Xand!" Faith grabbed the man's arm. "We need to get out," the Slayer looked nervously at the shaking walls, in some places the walls and even the ceiling had already collapsed, the school wasn't going to last much longer.
"I've got to find Anaya!"
Faith's heart clenched as she looked into the man's wild eyes, he really, really loved the ex-demon. How could she compete with that? Pushing aside such thoughts as selfish and knowing that telling him Wood had found Anaya's body with two dust piles wouldn't help, the Slayer took the only course of action she could think of. "Sorry Xand," she whispered before slamming a left hook into the man's temple. Grabbing the man's falling body, she slung him over a shoulder and hurried out.
* * *
"Buffy needs her friends around her right now."
After wiping his eyes, he didn't want Angel to see his tears, Xander looked up impassively at the ensoulled vampire. "She's got Giles, Will, and Dawn," he pointed out bitterly. "Which is more than I have. I'm not about to comfort a person I don't like about the death of a bastard I'd wished dead on more than one occasion in the last year."
"Xander, Spike saved the world today."
The young man shrugged. "Does one act of self-sacrifice, well two if you count when Glory tortured him for the key's identity, cancel out 120 years of murder and torture?"
The vampire shrugged before sitting down beside him. "You didn't need to wipe away your tears Xander," Angel said softly. "Showing emotion isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength." The vampire glanced at the empty bottles at their feet. "How many of those have you had?"
Xander counted in his head. "Five." His mouth dropped open when the vampire grabbed his unopened six pack and threw it into the surrounding forest, its landing accompanied with the tell-tale tinkle of breaking glass. "What the fuck did you do that for?"
"Getting drunk never solves anything. How many people have been hit by their drunk parents? How many people have been killed by drunk drivers? Hell," the vampire chuckled dryly, "I was drunk when Darla turned me. Look how much good came out of that. You need to talk."
"Talk," he snorted, "who to, Andrew?"
"Me."
"You, we can't stand one another!" he started to rise only for the vampire to pull him back down.
"Then maybe it's time we tried again," Angel said calmly. "When you told me about you sending me to hell, I was so angry." The vampire shook his head. "But you were right." The vampire chuckled at his shocked expression. "Buffy would have held back, Angelus would have won so thank you." The vampire held out his hand. After a second, he took it. "I know you don't trust or like me and I admit your reasons are a lot more reasoned than I originally thought. I don't particularly like you either, I do respect you though, I remember you stopping Angelus twice and the time you forced me down to the Master's cavern to help Buff. If you want to talk about Anaya, I'll listen."
"Okay." He began, telling the vampire everything he could remember about Anaya - how they met, how she'd embarrass him with sex talk in public, her love of money, but most of all how she'd grown as a person. After what seemed hours he finished.
"It's obvious you loved her a lot," the vampire said. "But one day you'll meet someone who fills the hole in your heart, eases the pain you're feeling."
"I don't want anyone else," he said bitterly. "And even if I did, who'd have an one-eyed out-of-work carpenter with no home?"
"I can think of one person," the vampire surprised him. "And you're one of the few men in the world I'd trust to look after her."
"I'm going nowhere near Dawn, jailbait's so not my thing."
"I'm talking about Faith."
"Faith's told you she wants me? I thought she didn't back-track?"
"Faith hasn't told me anything," the vampire replied patiently. "I can tell the way her heartbeat speeds up whenever you enter a room, the pheromones she gives off."
"I don't do casual -."
"Neither does Faith, not anymore. She's looking for someone to share her life," the vampire rose, "if I was you I'd give the idea serious consideration."
"Angel," the vampire turned back to him. "Thanks for listening."
The vampire nodded. "My pleasure Xander, I wish I'd known Anaya, she sounded," Angel grinned, "yeah the word I'm looking for is interesting."
THE END