Smash Into You

Rating: M (Not in the early chapters but it will come later on)

Pairing: Willow and Faith. As much as I am a Willow and Tara girl if I have to accept the fact Tara is forever gone then I really like this pairing as a season 7 or post season 7 pairing. Was never much impressed with Willow and Kennedy, Joss should have well gone down the Willow and Faith joint redemption route!

Disclaimer: If Buffy was mine then Tara would never have died and Faith would have been in every episode! Amber and Eliza are good eye candy!

Summary: Nearly a year after the defeat of the first Willow organises Faith's early release from prison and asks her to join the gang in Cleveland. Ignores the comics and presumes that Faith would have actually gone back to prison to complete her sentence.

Chapter 1

Faith had been surprised when an officer had entered her cell and told her she was to be released the next day. It was nearly a year and a half before her sentence was due to end before she had broken out to help Angel and she had expected to be stuck in jail longer not for less time after that escapade. She knew somebody must have had a hand in the strange turn of events, she suspected it was Angel but she kind of hoped it was Buffy; even if she did just need her help to stop some unimaginable evil. She didn't really need Buffy's forgiveness or approval but she couldn't deny that it would be nice if Buffy could get over everything that had passed between them. At one time it had been Faith that was holding onto the anger more than the other slayer but Faith's frustration with Buffy had dissipated some time ago, even if blondie was an uptight prick most of the time.

Faith had made the decision to return to prison to continue her sentence on her own but she could tell that Buffy approved of it. Buffy approved of it because it was 'right' and because it showed she, Faith, was truly trying to atone and Faith expected that Giles and Willow felt the same. Xander however had been glad she'd gone because he didn't have to worry about her presence, not that she could completely blame him, she had been fairly horrible to him in the past. She had sort of hoped that he would try to forgive her a little too like the others had but it hadn't seemed to happen whilst she had been fighting the first with them. She wondered how he'd react when he found out that she was no longer in prison, how any of them would react if they didn't already know.

The weird thing was that after finding out she would only be in prison another eighteen hours the hours had passed so slowly that it felt like days. Partly because of the anticipation of finally being free and partly because she feared what was waiting for her. Not that she was scared about any brewing evil in LA or the hell mouth; it was more a fear of having to try and slip back into society and live a normal (ish) life after everything she had been through. In fact, she didn't really know what to do with herself because she had never really tasted any form of normality at all, not even as a child. She realised as she was walking that she was actually shaking slightly, with anticipation and with fear.

She was dressed in the clothes she had worn the day she turned herself back into the police after defeating the first, denim jeans and matching jacket with a creamy coloured vest top. In her hand she carried a duffel bag with her original clothes and processions in from when Angel persuaded her to turn herself in. She followed in the footsteps of a burly female prison guard with dirty blonde her as she was led through a maze of passage ways to the exit of the building. She had never been through this part of the prison before as she had never legally exited it before. She could feel her mouth go dry as she reached a heavy looking outer door with two armed guards waiting by it. This was it, she was about to step out into the daylight and enjoy her newfound freedom.

The door was opened for her to step out into the sunlight and she had to blink several times to readjust her eyes to the strong light outside. Once she did she could see that the only thing between her and being released now was a metal gate in the metal fencing surrounding the prison. She stepped out towards it and the heavy door closed behind her. As she made her way across the thirty foot of pavement to the gate she noticed that standing on the other side of the gate, and leaning on a red hire car, there was a familiar face waiting for her...but not once she had expected to see.

The red haired witch waved to her and smiled as the guards opened the gate for her and Faith crossed the threshold of the prison and into her freedom. Her one person greeting party remained in place against the car so Faith slowly took a few steps towards her, wondering what to say to the girl she had once threatened to kill.

"Faith" the witch said by way of a greeting, perfectly at ease in the slayers presence. It was a sign of the red heads growing power and maturity because not that long ago she would have paled in Faith's presence.

"Willow"

Willow had gotten to the prison exit early and had been standing around for nearly twenty minutes. The odd staff member had given her strange looks on the way into work, obviously wondering who she was waiting for. She felt sorry for Faith, exiting the prison would be like taking the walk of shame. A year ago that wouldn't have bothered Willow, she'd have been more worried about the fact Faith was on the loose again. Now though things had changed, Faith had escaped and helped the scoobies defeat the first and gained their trust again.

Willow had felt so guilty when Faith had returned to prison willingly to carry out the rest of her sentence. Buffy had just thought that Faith was doing the right thing and forgot about the second slayer again but Willow could not. What right did she have to be walking around free and Faith to be locked up? Faith had killed by accident at first and Willow had done far worse. She had purposely gone after Warren and killed him for revenge; the dark magic was no excuse really. That evil was in her and she was far more dangerous than Faith could probably ever be if she lost control again. No, Willow felt like she and Faith had something in common, the need for redemption. It was something Buffy, Dawn, Giles and Xander couldn't begin to understand even if she really tried to explain it to them. The only reason they hadn't turned against Willow like they had turned against Faith was because they had known her so long and where friends. This made Willow feel even guiltier because she wished she had tried to help and support Faith during graduation year, maybe then things would have turned out differently for the brunette slayer.

It had been nine months since they had defeated the first. Nine months since Sunnydale had been destroyed and the gang had moved to the hell mouth at Cleveland. As a general rule the hell mouth at Cleveland was not as active as Sunnydale had been but it was getting worse because of the closure of their old hell mouth. The other slayers had not come with them to Cleveland and the magic that had activated their powers had gradually been wearing off so that it was now barely existent. The only one that had originally joined them was Kennedy because her and Willow had been dating, but that had only lasted a couple of weeks.

Willow had found that now the crisis with the first was over that she really didn't need or want Kennedy around, they were totally incompatible in normal everyday life. Willow had felt guilty at first because to a degree she had used Kennedy because she needed the emotional support. She had come to accept that she had tried but it just hadn't worked. Besides, Willow was still totally caught up in Tara even though she had been dead for two years. She doubted she would ever love anyone the same way she had Tara again and had just accepted that she may well be single for a long time. It wasn't like she was lonely, she lived with the gang in an old hotel that Angel had helped them acquire and the newly reformed watchers council had funded.

It wasn't like she could be jealous of her friend's romantic endeavours because Giles and Andrew were single as normal and Buffy and Xander had lost Spike and Anya in the battle with the first and where in the same boat as Willow. Neither showed any interest in dating and Willow had been shocked to realise how deeply Buffy had cared for Spike and she wished she'd been a bit more supportive of her friend over him. Dawn was the only one who had dated since the move to Cleveland but that had only been once and it was brief. Dawn was suffering the loss of Tara, Anya and Spike too and Willow thought that it had probably put Dawn of relationships a little. Loving someone was a dangerous occupation on the hell mouth, there was always a high chance it would end in misery.

Willow felt a little like the outsider in the house sometimes even more so than Andrew or the new member of the gang Chloe. Everyone was very weary of her doing any form of magic unless it was an emergency and then they expected her to just start casting the big spells. What they didn't seem to appreciate was that it put more pressure on her mentally that way as she wasn't able to practise her control on more minor spells. Sometimes they got really freaked if her eyes went black briefly during a spell and she knew that they didn't really trust her, even if they pretended otherwise.

Perhaps that had been why she had thrown herself into the project of getting Faith released early. She had rung Angel and asked for his help which he had gladly given. He was the only one that knew about what she was doing. The others wouldn't understand, Xander still didn't trust Faith one bit, but Willow felt like Faith deserved her freedom. Faith would also be someone for her to relate to, an outsider, and a person that was let in but not quite trusted. So she and Angel had put forward a legal case for Faith's release and succeeded but she knew nothing of this in her cell in prison, she just knew she was being released today.

Angel had rang Buffy and asked for Willow to come to and help him with something but it had actually been a ploy to get Willow in LA so she could meet Faith upon her release. Willow had wanted to do it but she had presumed Angel would insist on meeting Faith himself. Instead he had been keen for Willow to go as it had been her who had instigated Faith's release from jail. So she had flew to LA the night before and stayed with Angel and was now waiting patiently for Faith to be released at ten in the morning.

When the large metal door had finally swung open Willow had gasped involuntarily, although she wasn't quite sure why. It had taken several seconds before Faith had appeared in the doorway and the slayers movements where slow and apprehensive. Willow's heart had gone out to her as she watched the emotions play across the brunette who usually did so well hiding what she was feeling. Faith had begun to make her way to the prison gate and it was not until she reached the gate that she had finally noticed Willow. Not that Willow had done anything particularly attention grabbing apart from wave slightly, she had just remained leaning against the car she had hired from the airport. She did not want to crowd or force herself on Faith; she wanted the slayer to come to her.

Once Faith had been let out the gate that's exactly what she did. She had walked up to Willow and stood in front of her, silent and slightly confused by Willow's presence.

"Faith" Willow had greeted her as she gave the slayer the once over with her eyes. Faith looked in good health albeit a little pale but Willow could imagine that they didn't see much natural light in jail. She wasn't deathly pale anyway, not when you were used to seeing vampires who were seriously on the pasty side. In fact Faith looked pretty good even though she didn't have the usual make up on.

"Willow" It had taken the slayer a while to reply and although it was a sort of returned greeting it was also a question. Willow knew that Faith was wondering why she was here and she knew she explanations were in order but not here outside the prison gate.

"Let me buy you a coffee and we can talk" Willow said softly, in fact it was almost warmly. She wanted to make feel Faith to feel at ease rather than weary around her.

"Cool" Faith agreed "A latte or Mocha would be fantastic compared to the shite they give you in there!"