A strong foot caught her in the midsection and Laney found herself thrown into the opposite wall.

Ouch was the only word to come to mind as she hit. Mentally assessing her condition Laney began to pull herself back up. Had this been for real she would have been on her feet long ago, after all Vampires and Demons didn't really care a lot about how injured you were

"Damn Faith you need to stop wearing those heels, they bloody hurt" Laney cursed as she pulled herself back up. Ouch.

Laney pulled up her blue training shirt and stared at the red mark forming on her stomach, in the form of a boot.

Faith laughed at her from across the room, throwing her a towel.

"Don't be such a baby Lane, it didn't hurt that bad"

Laney frowned looking from the towel to Faith. It was times like this she really hated not being a Slayer, Faith did not have a drop of sweat on her while she herself was sweating heavily. She pouted, and sighed, she couldn't help it, it was blaringly obvious that she would never ever beat Faith in a fight. It was one of the thoughts that had kept her going during her early training 'One day, I'm going to be good enough to wipe that smirk off her face' she had promised herself on her ninth birthday, now on the eve of her eleventh she was ready to face the reality of the situation. She would never beat Faith in a fight, not hand-to-hand or with weapons anyway. One day if she kept up her training with Willow she might get an advantage with magic, but she was doubtful even that would work…

She had to face it, even though her mothers heritage had shown up somewhat in her, increased strength, speed and reflexes she would never measure up to an actual slayer. Both a good and a bad thing.

"Hey how are my favourite girls?" Xander asked as he made his way into the training room. Laney let her shirt drop satisfied that the boot mark wouldn't bruise…too badly.

Faith smiled somewhat evilly to Laney, Laney quick to catch on soon joined in and they both turned and grinned at Xander.

Xander was not stupid, he knew what those looks meant, he didn't need two eyes for that and began to slowly back towards the door.

"Now Girls, wouldn't want to do anything you'd regret now do you?" Laney would bet that sounded hollow and unconvincing even in his own ears.

"Now Xander" Laney started echoing Xander's tone "You wouldn't want my training to suffer now would you, you know I need a training partner closer to my level to practice with…" inwardly grinning in triumph as she noticed Faith had made her way behind him while he was concentrating on her, and was now between Xander and the door.

Xander turned to make a run for it

And ran straight smack bang into Faith's chest, which at any other time would have caused her to make lude comments or beat the crap out of him.

Instead she grabbed him by the shoulders turned him round and shoved him towards Laney who had already taken her fighting stance, smirk firmly in place.

Xander sighed and put his hands up, "Can I at least get some padding here?"

Sparring with Laney was nearly as bad as being a Slayers punching bag, Xander thought, nearly but not quite.

Laney was definitely her mothers daughter.

Laney was a master in the kitchen, no one quite knew where that talent came from as Xander frequently commented, "and She certainly didn't inherit that from her mother"

The reason she didn't inherit her mothers cooking habits, Laney thought, was because Andrew not her mother taught her how to cook, and no matter how much they disliked Andrew no one could fault his cooking. Andrew had moved to England to serve as cook there a few years ago but not before he taught Laney to cook, well cookies anyway he had left not long before her mother died.

While mixing the batter for her cookies Laney decided that she should put in some chocolate chips, Faith and Xander both loved anything chocolate chip cookies. Willing the wooden spoon to continue stirring Laney proceeded to search the cupboards and the pantry for the bag of chocolate chips which was notorious for going missing, they not only liked anything with chocolate chips in it but the chocolate chips as well.

Cupboard doors slammed open and closed seemingly of there own accord as Laney searched for the chocolate chips.

Finally giving up on finding them by herself she made her way to the staircase that led up to the library and the main residents of Cleveland House's bedrooms.

"Does anybody know where the chocolate chips are?" Laney shouted up the stairs, where she knew at least two of Cleveland Houses residents were likely to hear her.

"Behind the canister of sugar" came the answer, distinctively Faith.

Sighing in exasperation Laney made her way back into the kitchen, immediately noticing that her laptop, which she had placed on the island table of the kitchen, was flashing with a new message.

It was from her friend Sheri Medlock, one of the few friends Laney had that were not involved in the supernatural, inviting her out to the movies tomorrow.

Smiling Laney typed back that she would love to go and would ring later to confirm that she could come.

Snatching the chocolate chips from behind the canister of sugar Laney chucked a handful into the batter, still stirring itself and turned to turn on the oven.

Laney was in a good mood in the next morning, she was going to the movies with her friend Sheri and her family this morning. She decided it would do her good to do some meditation before she left.

It always bothered her slightly when she went out with her friends and their families, always grated on the raw wound her mother's death left on her, happy smiling faces of their mothers and fathers only served to remind her that her own mother was lost to her, and that she had never known and was never likely to know her father.

It was better to establish her inner calm before she left.

Faith, Giles, Xander, Dawn and Willow were all family, no doubt in her mind about that but sometimes even they could not fill the gap in her life her lack of parents left.

Laney loved their home in Cleveland. The house had been built not long after Uncle Giles gained access to the Watchers Council bank accounts, well the large ones anyway. Cleveland House had been built specifically with Slayers and Watchers in mind, training rooms abounded mainly underground continuing five levels below the surface. The house consisted of about sixteen training rooms in all, a few weapons rooms and over 30 bedrooms. There were three conference/living rooms and four kitchens. Cleveland House was also the home of the North America Slayers Association as well as the North American Watchers Council, hence the conference rooms.

Despite the size of Cleveland House not a lot of the rooms in Cleveland House were permanently filled, most residents of Cleveland House were in and out or moved around the country a lot and just left Cleveland House as a contact address. Cleveland House was usually only occupied by herself, Faith, Grandpa Giles, Uncle Xander, and the occasional slayer or visitor. Usually they all just stuck to the one section of the house.

Aunt Willow and Aunt Dawn were often abroad and thus not a regular part of life at Cleveland House, though they were always home for birthdays and Christmas, even Aunt Willow who is Jewish, well a Jewish pagan witch.

It was around dawn and Laney was meditating in her favourite training room the Buffy Summers Training Room named after her mother when a tapping sound on the grass broke her concentration. Laney turned her head to the wall facing outside, made entirely out of glass, that was one of the reasons this training room was her favourite, apart from the fact it was one of the few that was above ground level, on the second floor, it had also been her mothers favourite training room before her death. The glass would have been a problem for training had it not been magically reinforced by Aunt Willow, since it was reinforced by magic you could be slammed into it and it would feel like just another wall, and as a major bonus, it wouldn't break under your weight and have you fall out the window from the second floor.

What Laney saw at the window actually threw her for a moment. Perched on the small ledge at the bottom of the window was an owl, and it was staring right at her.

Keeping her movements 'quiet' and unthreatening Laney lay down in front of the window and stared at the owl on the other side, which had not moved.

She blinked.

The owl blinked back.

She blinked.

And again it blinked back.

OK that owl was officially weird.

Getting back up Laney walked over to the door still keeping an eye on the owl.

"Faith, Xander, Giles!" she yelled out as loud as she could, at least one of them had to have heard her.

It wasn't long before she could see Grandpa Giles making his way down the hallway.

"Laney what is it?" Grandpa Giles asked taking his glasses off and cleaning them, oops he must have been doing something, 'Oh well' she thought.

She pointed at the owl perched on the ledge, it still had not taken its eyes off her.

Giles put his glasses back on when he saw her fuzzy outline pointing at something.

"Oh dear lord"

His efforts at polishing his glasses redoubled.

Giles made his way over to the glass wall and opened one of the glass panels allowing the owl access to the house. The owl seemingly hooted in thanks to Giles before flying over to Laney.

Instinctively Laney raised her arm to block the owl but instead of flying right into her the owl landed on her outstretched arm.

It was at this point that she noticed the owl had something strapped to its leg. Something which looked suspiciously like an envelope.

Blinking at it curiously Laney turned her gaze to her Grandpa Giles who was looking at her with a mixture of pride and something she couldn't quite put her finger on Grandpa Giles made a motion for her to take the envelope off the owls leg.

Inwardly shrugging Laney complied, it was somewhat awkward trying to do so with only one hand but she somehow managed it. The owl relieved of its burden flew over and perched itself on the balance beam looking quite smug with itself.

Turning her attention to the envelope Laney frowned in confusion for written on the front was

Laney Malfoy

5th Largest Bedroom on Level 3,

Cleveland House, Cleveland Ohio

United States of America.

"Huh?"