Chapter Text
Buffy smiled and shook her head at her mother's words. When she had invited Faith over tonight to meet her mom, she never imagined her mother would try to use Faith's existence as reasoning for Buffy to be able to escape her calling.
Sure, she understood where her mom was coming from, after all, the woman was simply worried for her own daughter, and Buffy loved her for it. But Buffy knew better. There was no out for her, not even with the existence of a second Slayer.
She glanced toward the other room, expecting to see Faith stealing fries from her plate again, but instead she spotted a now empty chair. She shrugged, assuming the other girl had simply gone to find the bathroom.
Buffy refocused on her task of assisting her mother who was now plating up dessert, but then they both froze when they heard the tinkling sound of shattering glass come from the living room.
“What in the world?” Her mother wondered aloud.
“Faith?” Buffy called out in concern as she stepped around the counter and moved toward the room where the sound had originated. She rounded the corner just in time to spot Faith rushing out the front door.
“Faith?” Buffy called out again as she jogged to look out the door which had been left open by the fleeing Slayer. It had only been a few seconds, but Faith was already a block away and moving fast. She called out to the girl a third time, but Faith simply kept running as if hell itself was chasing her.
“Buffy?” Her mother asked from behind her, and she turned to find the woman kneeling down to pick something up from the floor.
“What is it?” Buffy asked as her mother turned it over to look at it.
“It's a picture of our family.” Her mother said, showing Buffy the frame in question. And true to her words, there under the now shattered glass—and a bit of blood—was the picture of Buffy, her mother and her father which had been taken at Disneyland almost five years earlier.
“Why would that upset her enough to run out of here like that?” Buffy asked, carefully taking the picture from her mother, focusing on the side of the frame that had been crushed and stained red. From the way it was damaged, it seemed Faith had been holding it and simply squeezed hard enough to break it, obviously cutting herself in the process.
“I don't know.” Her mother replied, furrowing her brow. “But we should probably make sure she is alright.”
“I'll go. It's almost time for me to patrol anyway.” Buffy said in a rush as she placed the picture down and grabbed her coat, only then noticing Faith had left hers during her rushed exit. “Could you call Giles and let him know what happened, and ask him to keep an eye out in case I can't find her?”
“Of course.” Her mother said, “Be careful, dear.”
“Always.” Buffy returned before throwing Faith’s coat over her shoulder and rushing out the door.
Twenty minutes later found Buffy standing outside the door to Faith's motel room. In the end, she was lucky Faith had left her coat behind, because without the motel key she had found in one of the pockets, she doubted she would have ever known where the other girl was staying. Although, with Buffy not really knowing why the girl had fled to begin with, there had been a chance Faith hadn't returned here, but the blood on the broken doorknob was a good sign that the other Slayer was inside... as was the crying she could hear.
Her concern renewed, Buffy took a moment to knock and the crying halted as Faith called out. “Go away!”
“Faith, it's me.” Buffy replied leaning the door slightly more ajar than it already had been.
There was a deep intake of breath and then a long pause before Faith whispered, “Come in.”
Buffy frowned at how utterly lost the other girl sounded, not to mention fearful.
She pushed open the door a bit more and slid inside, turning to shove the broken door closed and then locked the—thankfully still intact—deadbolt before she even bothered to take in the room itself. After all, in Sunnydale, this late at night, having a broken open door was not ideal, especially with fresh blood present to draw in the vamps.
Turning, she found Faith sitting on the floor in the corner, a small duffle bag beside her with its contents strewn all over the place as if they had been pulled out in haste. Faith herself was staring at a six inch long white slip of paper in her hand, her arms propped on her knees and her head tilted as if she was exhausted.
As Buffy stepped forward, she quickly noted that Faith's hand had been hastily wrapped with what looked like a torn shirt. Knowing from experience how quickly Slayers healed, she figured Faith wasn’t too worried about it, so she focused instead on the other issue at hand, whatever it was that had Faith looking lost and defeated.
“Hey.” Buffy tried softly, and Faith's eyes rose to meet hers. Buffy couldn't place the emotion that played across the other Slayer's face, but whatever it was it made her want to rush over and hold the other girl. Problem was that they were still relative strangers, and on top of that, Faith didn't seem like the hugging type. So instead Buffy simply asked, “Faith, what's wrong?”
“Everything I know about my life, apparently.” Faith replied, and then she chuckled ruefully, before adding, “Yours too, in a way.” Buffy couldn't help but scrunch up her face in confusion at that, but then Faith held up her hand and offered Buffy the slip of paper. “Here. See for yourself.”
Buffy stepped forward and reached for the slip, noting the stains of blood on its surface. As she took it, she finally realized it was one of those photo booth slips, the ones people tended to get taken at fairs with the four timed snaps. Turning it around to look at who was pictured, she found her eyes going wide.
There, in all four frames, was Hank Summers, happily holding, hugging and kissing a woman Buffy had never seen before.
“That's my mom.” Faith offered after a moment. “As for the man, she never told me his name… but from what she did tell me—on one of the few days she wasn't drugged off her ass—is that he was my dad.”
Buffy's surprised eyes raised beyond the picture and found Faith looking at her with the same emotional expression from before. Now however Buffy understood it because she imagined it was on her face as well.
“You're saying that you're my…” Buffy whispered out, trailing off before she could utter the word sister, and then she shook her head and began to pace as she rambled. “But that's impossible. I mean think about it… the chances of both of us being called… let alone meeting because we were both called. Heck, I had to die for there to even be two Slayers to begin with, and then Kendra had to die for you to be called… and what, you just happened to come to Sunnydale? And then you just happened to see a picture of my—our dad, which allowed you to put two and two together? You can’t tell me that doesn’t seem far-fetched.”
Faith scoffed and when Buffy raised an eyebrow at her, the other Slayer said, “We live in a world where magic and monsters are real, one where we literally have a destiny decided by some higher power above… and you don't think it's possible ? Don't think They had some hand in things?”
Buffy found herself letting out a single overwhelmed breath before nodding.
“You're right. I mean, I stopped believing in coincidences after my mom just happened to move us to a Hellmouth.” She conceded as she leaned against the wall beside Faith and slowly slid to the floor to mirror the girl’s seated position. “But this is…”
The earlier conversation with her mom about Faith pushing her way into her life suddenly echoed in her mind, the words spoken turning out to be way more poignant now than they seemed at the time.
“It’s probably good you were an only child.”
“Mom, I’m just getting my life back, I’m not looking to go halfsies on it.”
And yet now—sitting here beside her actual sister—her trepidation about sharing her friends and family seemed moot, after all, would it really be so bad? Maybe it would even be kind of nice…
She felt her lips twitch toward a smile until she glanced at Faith who she found was staring off into space almost appearing broken. Buffy guessed it all depended on how Faith felt about all this. Right now the other girl seemed to be taking this pretty hard, as if the revelation was actually bad news. Maybe, given time, Faith would come to find herself being okay with this whole thing too.
‘Actually… speaking of time.’
Buffy’s eyes found the photo strip in her hand again. “Do you know when this was taken?”
“Nine months before I was born would be my guess.” Faith replied with a shrug, her tone weary as she leaned her head back against the wall behind her and settled her gaze on the ceiling, “He was supposedly in Boston on some kind of week long business trip. Met my mom, had some good times, did the deed, and then he was gone never to be heard from again.” She scoffed and shook her head. “I’d be upset about him abandoning me, but I doubt he ever knew my mom was even preggers.”
As informative as that all had been it hadn’t actually answered Buffy’s question, so she clarified. “When were you born?”
“December fourteenth, nineteen eighty.” Faith replied.
Buffy flinched. Her parents had been married three years at that point. Hell, Buffy was born a little more than a month after Faith was, which meant that Buffy had likely been conceived just after her dad had returned from the very trip in which he had also conceived Faith.
Buffy shook her head and mumbled, “I knew Mom and dad had some issues, but I assumed that all happened later… around the time of the divorce.” Then she grimaced. “I'm supposed to see him for my birthday in a few months… how am I going to be able to look him in the eye now that I know what he did? What do you even say in that situation?” She suddenly had a thought and sat up straighter. “God, what's mom going to say?”
“I'm sorry.” Faith blurted out and Buffy looked over to see shame playing across Faith's face.
“What? Why are you sorry?” Buffy asked and then grimaced as she realized that she herself had been focusing solely on how this would affect her own life. This then had Buffy wondering where the snarky brash girl who had been on her nerves all day had gone. If anything, she would have expected Faith to be angry or call Buffy out for being so self-centered, a trait she had been trying to ditch since Hemery. Blushing she offered, “I mean, apparently I'm so used to not sharing that I've only been focusing on how this affects me… so, I should be the one apologizing.”
“Maybe, but I’m the one that showed up and ruined whatever good image you still had of your dad.” Faith said dejectedly, her gaze centered on the floor.
“Hey.” Buffy said softly, moving to scoot beside Faith. “If this is all true, then he ruined his own image. You're not to blame for any of that. Okay?”
Faith's expression remained pained and Buffy wondered what exactly Faith had been through over the years if she was blaming herself for things outside her own control. From the sound of things, at least based on Faith's comment about her mother being drugged up, the other girl's home life hadn't been very great.
Buffy's eyes wandered around the motel room and she frowned at the state of it. It seemed Faith's current home life wasn't so great either, especially seeing she was living on her own in a crummy motel while her watcher was off to some swanky retreat.
Coming to a decision, Buffy quickly stood and moved to start grabbing some of the items that she guessed Faith had probably strewn about when she had been looking for the photo strip.
“What the hell are you doin?” Faith asked, sounding somewhere between angry and confused.
“Packing your stuff.” Buffy answered without stopping. “You're coming to stay at our house until your Watcher gets here.”
“What?” Faith asked as she stood to her feet, suddenly sounding stricken with panic. “No way. Look, Buffy, I can tell that your mom's a nice lady and all, but somehow I doubt she’ll be happy to learn her ex-husband cheated on her, let alone agree to have the kid from that affair come crashing under her roof.”
“Mom isn't petty like that.” Buffy noted, and she figured Faith already understood that even from their limited interaction, so the other girl was clearly trying to come up with an excuse to not impose. When she turned to face Faith with the intention to call her on it, she found her standing there with literal fear in her eyes. God, what had happened to her to make her so afraid of being welcomed into their home? “What is this really about, Faith? Because I have a feeling it has nothing to do with my mom.”
“This has everything to do with her!” Faith yelled, grabbing the sides of her own head. “If I go there, he’ll find her! He’ll find you ! He'll learn that you matter to me, that I have something to lose… and he’ll kill you just like he did my Watcher!”
Buffy’s eyes were wide now, absolutely shocked by what she was hearing. Apparently, Faith's story about her Watcher being at a retreat was not only completely bogus, but the truth was so terrible that Faith appeared to be about to pass out even just saying it aloud.
“Faith…” Buffy said cautiously as she stepped toward her,” Who are you talking about?… Who killed your watcher?”
“Kakistos.” Faith breathed out, shivering in terror. Then she straightened and frantically began to ramble, “He’s this Master vamp I ran into in Boston… He had dozens of bloodsuckers followin’ him around, but that wasn't even the issue, because he was powerful on his own… barely flinched when I tried to take him out. Gave him a real nasty scar, but all I really did was piss him off, and Double D…” She clenched her eyes shut. “Diana… my watcher, the only person in as long as it can remember to give a damn about me, she paid for my failure.” Faith was pacing now, clearly on the verge of tears but fighting it by choosing anger instead. “He tortured her for hours right in front of me, and then killed her with a damn smile on his face. I barely managed to get away when he tried to do the same to me and I've been looking over my shoulder since!” She halted in step and her eyes darted to the door, panic written across her face. “Shit, I gotta get out of here… he's gonna find me, B. I need to leave… lure him away, keep you and your mom safe.”
Faith started toward her bag but Buffy stepped in her way.
“No way.” Buffy declared. “I mean, come on Faith, I just found out that you’re my sister . And even if I wasn't, do you really think I would let you go off to face something like this alone?"
Faith had stilled and gone wide eyed when Buffy had used the word ‘sister’ and Buffy figured until that very moment where it was stated out loud, it hadn't really sunk in yet.
Buffy quickly stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Faith who only stiffened at the contact.
“You're stuck with me, you hear me?” Buffy stated firmly.
There was a short pause and Faith's arms finally rose up to complete the embrace. Buffy was actually surprised by how desperately Faith squeezed her, and with that she could tell her sister had been in need of a good hug for a long while. She made a note inside her own head to give her one as often as possible.
“I hear ya loud and clear, B.” Faith finally sobbed out, her tears dampening Buffy's shoulder. “Five by Five.”