Author's Note: Originally written as the answer to a challenge on B/S central before it went down. Challenge will be posted at the end of the story.

I started this story a very long time ago. After several computer crashes I thought it was lost until recently when I happened upon a lone floppy disc.

I did have a beta for this long ago and far away but when I lost the story for the second time I pretty much gave up.

Suggestions or comments are welcome and any offers from the beta fairy will gladly be excepted... as long as you are of age.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Faith was bored, not to mention pissed off that she had been left cooped up with the kiddie brigade for over an hour.

She was a seasoned slayer, she’d fought the first evil, and she was dammed if she’d flown all this way to baby-sit a bunch of whiny baby slayers.

What the hell did Giles think he was doing leaving her in the van? Surely she would have been way more help than Xander Harris.

“Fucking typical” she muttered, “stupid Scoobies sticking together, bet B wouldn’t a stood for this” she grumbled to herself, imagining the reaction of the blond slayer if she’d been told to stay behind. Just as she was about to give in to her rapidly growing sense of feeling left out she was distracted by a sharp kick to the back of her seat.

“Right, that is fucking it!” she spat, turning to face the unfortunate girl that had distracted her. Both the Italian and French slayer cowered while the redhead that had done the kicking glared mutinously at Faith.

“What the fuck is your problem Meg?” Faith snarled.

“Well, I was about thinking” drawled the Irish slayer, “that you’d be wantin’ ta know that while yourself was busy bitchin’ about your life, I saw that Kennedy girly go into the hotel.”

“Fuck! Shit! Right, you lot stay in the van” she ordered, as her eyes searched the shadowed doorway of the Hyperion.

“And you’d be telling us to do that why?” came the retort.

Faith just glared at the red head before running her hands distractedly through her hair.

“Because I said so” she ground out. “Just stay here and don’t leave unless you see the signal. I’ll find out why she’s here and be right back”.

Closing the door of the van as quietly as she could she cast one last warning glare at the sulky looking redhead before heading towards the front door of the Hyperion.

Xander was halfway down the stairs when he spotted the dark female form silhouetted by the light from the doorway.

“Hey who’s there?” he called, advancing further down the stairs.

The figure, instead of answering, darted to the left before melting into the gloom of the lobby.

“Ok, so I know you’re there, ya know? And I gotta warn you If you’re here for any other reason than to deliver pizza then your gonna be in for a world of hurt” he threatened.   Swallowing nervously he froze trying to sense which direction the intruder might have gone.

He had just enough time to think ‘Oh shit’ before the mysterious figure rushed him and he felt himself falling forward down the remaining stairs.

Whether through luck or instinct, Xander managed to snag the fabric of the unknown persons clothing, pulling them off balance and down with him. Moments later, he hit the base of the stairs, his assailant fortunately cushioning his fall.

Winded and shaken Xander scrambled off the now cursing figure.

‘Oh, God it isn’t’ came the thought. ‘Shit! Willow is gonna have a bird’ was his next as he recognized the voice of the colorfully cursing figure.

“Good grief Kennedy, just what the hell do you think your doing?” he gasped out as he dodged a sudden kick.

“Fucking get out of my way Xander,” she snarled as she clambered to her feet. “Willow is here with that fucking vampire, and I wanna know why you all seem to be in on the big secret while I, her girlfriend, know squat.”

“Uh Ken… um I don’t think Willow wants to be disturbed right at this moment. She’s sorta in the middle of some powerful mojo” he muttered as Kennedy once again attempted to lash out at him.

Dodging her fist for the second time, he attempted to distract her long enough for his brain to come up with some sort of plan.

“Hey how come you know about Spike anyway? We only found out about him when we got here.” Dodging her next blow, he prayed his brain would hurry up with that plan. “So um, have you seen Buffy?”

“I guess that would be a no” he gulped as he narrowly missed getting a foot in the groin.

Just as he was about to admit defeat and resort to his all time tried and true back up plan (scream like a girl and run) another dark figure joined the one sided battle.

“Hey Kennedy” he heard with relief, “You wanna pick on someone your own size?”

“Faith? Oh thank God” sighed Xander as he recognized the dark slayer’s voice.  His brain muttered a mental ‘huh!’ to those particular words before Xander skittered back out of range of the two slayers.

“Just fucking great,” spat Kennedy. “Another vamp pet, that’s all I fucking need.”

“What is it with you Sunnydale slayers and vamps? You do know you’re supposed to kill them, not be their lapdogs don’t ya?” she taunted, searching for an opening in the older slayer’s defenses.

“Think you’ve got me confused there girlie, that would be the shorter blonder slayer you’re thinking about”, Faith snorted with derision.

“You’re protecting him aren’t you?” snarled Kennedy, rapidly loosing her already over heated temper. “And you’re keeping me from Willow, so get the hell out of my way.”

She attacked fists flying.

Faith sidestepped and with a quick leg sweep knocked the younger slayer to the ground. Before Faith could move in and pin her Kennedy rolled left and flipped herself to her feet and out of Faith’s range.

“What’s the matter Ken? Thought you were in a hurry to see ya sweetie. C’mon” Faith beckoned “All you gotta do is get past li’l old me, how hard can it be?”

“Fuck you Faith.”

“Sorry babe, don’t swing that way… but if I did? Ha, who am I kidding, not even on a bet” she shot, sidestepping another rage filled attack.

Kennedy seemed to go quiet after that, saving her focus for the fighting rather than the quipping. It wasn’t until Faith’s comment that, ‘Damn… she really wasn’t up to much and that at least B had some style about her’ that Kennedy finally lost her last shred of control.

Kennedy rushed Faith screaming that she was gonna kill her, and Xander, after thinking he had enough chick fighting visuals to last a lifetime decided that enough was enough.

Mentally thanking his old friend Riley Finn for his thoughtful gift at their last reunion, Xander fired up his one owner hardly ever driven handy dandy tazer. Zapping Kennedy in what he privately thought of as the thing she talked out of the most, her ass.

Bringing the tazer up to his face he’d shrugged and blew across it before meeting Faith’s eyes with a smirk. “Aw shucks” he drawled at Faith’s cocked eyebrow. “No need for thanks little lady, weren’t nothing but a pleasure.”

Faith just rolled her eyes before stepping forward to make sure Kennedy was well and truly out of it. Straightening up she turned to see Xander take a seat on the bottom step.

“Not that I’m not grateful or anything Xan but you do realize that I was totally enjoying that don’t ya?”

“Yeah I get that, but trust me Faith, Wills really doesn’t need the distraction at the moment, besides she had it coming, that girl just plum gets my goat.”

“I hear ya brother,” agreed Faith wholeheartedly as she studied the recumbent form of Willows lover.

“Um Xan? You don’t think Willow will turn us in to frogs or anything do ya?” she inquired offhandedly, still musing over the fact that she had been (needlessly) rescued by Xander Harris.

“Na”

Grinning, Xander leaned back on the stairs. “I really think she’s gonna be too busy explaining why her ex is here to worry about us.”

“Huh... what? You telling me that Will is batting for the other team again?”

Xander stared at her blankly.

“You do mean Oz don’t ya?” huffed Faith impatiently.

“Na… even better.”

She studied his smug face with a frown before it hit her who he meant. “Holy fuck… and I repeat. Doesn’t anybody stay dead” she wondered aloud.

“God, remind me to leave a will before I die, just in case.”

At his puzzled look she sighed. “You know, so I can leave everything to myself. Cos after that little bombshell I gotta figure if I do bite the big one my chances are 50/50 in the old resurrection stakes.”

Xander chuckled before turning his eyes back to Kennedy.

“Yeah it’s great. I’m really happy for Will, she missed Tara so much and she really deserves to have someone like her in her life. I just gotta wonder how well little Miss obsesso over there is gonna take it.

He frowned as he studied the unconscious slayer.

“I still remember what it was like when Oz came back to town that time and went all wolfy on Tara, so I’m not sure I wanna be around for this one.”

Faith eyed Kennedy speculatively. “So you don’t think she’ll choose Ken, do ya?”

“I dunno, they’ve been together for a while now, and Willow’s not the type to just up and leave someone cos an old love comes back to town. Then again… this is Tara we’re talking about... love of her life and all that.”

Xander felt a lurch somewhere in the vicinity of his heart. His thoughts inevitably drifted to Anya and the fact that even with the seemingly sudden up swing in resurrections, he still didn’t see her being a likely hat trick.

No, his Anya was gone.

He wasn’t getting the love of his life back, and for a brief moment, bitterness welled up at the thought, before a very Anya-like voice in his head reminded him that he didn’t deserve to have her back after the whole wedding that wasn’t, and that there was no guarantee that they would have gotten back together anyway, even if she did come back.

God, he missed her honesty and that endearing streak of selfishness that was pure Anya.

A moment later, he was pulled out of his maudlin thoughts by Faith’s gentle touch.

“Hey Xan man, you still with me?”

“Yeah... yeah sorry, sorta got drifty there for a moment. What was that you said?”

“I asked you what you think we should do with her. I mean she’s not gonna stay out for much longer, and she’s gonna be a tad irked when she wakes up, so…”

Xander thought for a moment before the sly grin he shot Faith had her eyebrows rising in inquiry.