The fist connected with her jaw, spinning her around, where she struck the brick wall of one of the neighboring buildings.

With her back still turned, she sidestepped just in time to avoid the follow-up punch. Instead of slamming into the back of her head, the vamp's hand impacted solidly with the unyielding wall. He screamed in pain, and there was the audible 'crunch' of bones breaking.

What the hell am I doing? Faith asked herself. Here she was in Boston, the last place in America she'd ever want to be. She'd left a little over nine years earlier, and would've been perfectly happy to have never seen it again in her life. Too many bad memories. God, if only people had known what her childhood had been like... Rather than wondering how she'd gotten so screwed up, they probably would've congratulated her for managing to turn out as normal as she had.

She'd been forced to return "home" when the authorities had closed in on her yet again. This time she had been in New York when the net had started to tighten once more. And really, who else did she have to blame but herself? She could've gone somewhere, some nice big city (like New York, dumbass!), and just laid low, probably staying off the cops' radar scope for years. But no! She still had to go out slaying every night, keeping the city--whatever the current city happened to be--safe from vampires, demons, and other nasties.

Why do I do it? she asked herself for maybe the millionth time over the last five years. Thanks to Red's spell, the world had plenty of vampire slayers running around, keeping the streets safe for democracy, capitalism, and all that other good shit. So why did she do it?

She sighed and thought of Angel, and as always, the answer was obvious. Redemption, of course. She was paying off for all the evil she had done, and she'd keep doing it for the rest of her life, however long it lasted. The possibility of being caught and sent back to prison was a small price to pay when she thought of all the people she was potentially saving with every vamp or demon she killed. Maybe, when she finally did reach the ol' clearing at the end of her path, the lives she had saved might come close to balancing out the ones she'd taken.

Angel would understand.

Besides, she'd already been to prison, and it wasn't really that bad. It beat the hell out of her brief stay in Cleveland, at least.

But Boston. Here. Now.

The vampire spun and struck out at her with his remaining good hand, his useless one now hugged tight to his body. She ducked this blow easily, then landed three quick strikes to his stomach, doubling him over. Knowing she had him beat and deciding to have some fun, Faith kicked him square in the balls. He uttered a faint 'squeak' and sank to his knees, his eyes rolling up in their sockets.

"Too bad you're gonna be dust in a second, Sparky. I'd love to hear you hit some of those high notes," she chuckled, then withdrew her stake and finished him off.

While she'd been enjoying and gloating over the results of her final blow, two other vampires had silently worked their way down from the other end of the alley. Faith hadn't been in town long, but word had gotten around fast, and the local undead population had decided to take care of the slayer problem before things got too bad for them.

The lead vamp reached out, took rough hold of her by the shoulders, and launched her into the alley wall. She hit it full-on with the top of her head, a blow that would've killed most normal humans. Thanks to her slayer durability, Faith got off with just a severe stunning. She fell to the ground, groaning, hand groping dazedly for her dropped stake. The vampires laughed, each privately a little surprised it had been so easy.

So this was how it was going to end, Faith realized. Back home in Boston, alone, blindsided by what were probably a couple of two-bit, nothing vamps. Her hand found her stake. She clutched it tightly and tried to rise. No good; her body told her sorry, it wasn't quite ready to do that yet.

Unseen by any of the three combatants below, a shape had stepped out of a window of one of the buildings that formed the alley, and onto the fire escape. It stealthily climbed down until it was perched at the bottom of the escape, about eight feet off the ground, and nearly directly above and behind the two vamps.

"Careless, Slayer," the lead vamp chided. "Not watching your back... Very careless. Now you pay for that with your life." The two moved toward her.

"Look who's talking," the shape said, dropping to the ground, landing nimbly three feet from the pair. An arm, stake in hand, came up lightning-quick and dusted the taller of the two vamps, the one who'd done all the talking. The expression on his face in the instant before he disappeared was one of total shock.

The newcomer turned and tried to finish off the second vamp, but he had already recovered from his surprise. He blocked the blow aimed at his chest, then the punch that followed it, coming towards his face. He ducked down slightly, then came back up, uncoiling a vicious uppercut as he did so. His attacker grunted and went flying backwards, feet coming completely off the ground.

"I don't know who the hell you are, but you're gonna be so sor--" he began, then stopped suddenly, a look of surprise and pain on his face. A split-second later, he disintegrated. Faith stood behind him, stake in hand. She still looked a little woozy, but she'd be completely recovered in another minute or two, compliments of her slayer healing.

"I don't know who the hell you are, either, but thanks for the assist," she told the shape getting up off the ground a short distance away.

"Don't mention it, Faith," a familiar voice said. She recognized it right away, but still couldn't bring herself to believe it until the newcomer stepped out of the darkness and into one of the shafts of light spilling into the alley's mouth.

"Dawn?"

"You don't have to sound so surprised," the other girl told her, a hint of laughter mixed with irritation in her voice.

Faith couldn't get over the sight in front of her. Inwardly, beyond the shock, a part of her was laughing as it took in the younger girl's wardrobe: heavy Docs on her feet, black skintight jeans, dark tank top, topped off by a black leather jacket. She could've been looking in a mirror.

The real shock was the look of the girl herself. Gone was the soft young brat she had known back in Sunny D. In her place was a young woman Faith barely recognized. Her face had matured, hardened. There was a faint scar running from her left ear, down along her jaw, disappearing under her chin. Her gaze was steely and hard. She still had her long dark hair, but it hung down her back in a braid. Even through the jacket, Faith could see how lean and muscular her body had become. She felt a sudden heat between her legs, and did her best to ignore it for the time being.

"I like the look," she said, gesturing to the clothes, so similar to her own trademark image. She hoped Dawn didn't notice the way her eyes lingered on her breasts for a moment.

"Yeah, well, what can I say? It's a classic. It also beats the hell out of pastels for midnight vamp hunting."

"I don't know; B got by okay with the pastels," Faith pointed out.

"Uh-huh," Dawn said, in a curious tone. Faith, who prided herself on reading people, thought that tone sounded suspiciously like 'drop it.' Interesting.

The two women stood in awkward silence for a moment. Faith sensed Dawn was about to say goodbye and disappear, and was suddenly desperate to make sure she didn't do that. Not yet. Her eyes flickered to the girl's face, bounced down to her breasts, then to her legs, back to her breasts, before finally ending up at her face again.

"Uh, look, I kinda know this neighborhood, and there's a decent bar a coupla blocks from here. Feel like gettin’ a drink, catching up on old times?"

She saw Dawn hesitate, seemingly about to decline. "Come on, I'm buyin'. Whaddaya say?"

"Yeah, alright, I guess."

Heaving an inward sigh of relief that she had managed to keep the other girl in her sight for a little while longer, Faith smiled and led off in the direction of the bar.

---

The place was about half-full, which wasn't bad for eleven-thirty on a Wednesday night. Faith glanced up at the TV over the bar; the Red Sox were getting the piss walloped out of them on the west coast. Some things never change, she thought.

They picked a dimly-lit booth near the corner that gave them a good view of the room and the front door, and plenty of warning of potential trouble. A tired-looking waitress wandered over a minute later.

"WhacanIgetcha?"

"Beer," Faith replied; any brand would do, so long as it wasn't lite.

"Whiskey. And bring the bottle," Dawn ordered. Faith stared at her, hoping her eyes weren't actually bugging out of her head.

"Uh-huh. Can I see some ID, honey?"

Dawn wordlessly reached inside her jacket and withdrew her wallet, flipping it open and holding it up for inspection. The waitress nodded, apparently satisfied, and left to fetch their order.

"Damn, Dawnie..." Faith chuckled.

"I don't like people to call me that anymore," Dawn told her coldly.

"Oh. Okay. Uh, sorry," she muttered. Way to go, stupid, she told herself. You've been here less than two minutes and you've already pissed her off. "Alright, then... D... So what's the old gang up to?"

Dawn looked like she might object to this nickname too, then just shook her head, maybe deciding it wasn't worth the argument. "Well, let's see..."

She was interrupted by the return of the waitress, who set their drinks down quickly and retreated.

Giles had returned to England right after the end in Sunnydale and helped form a new Watchers Council, Dawn told her. Spike had appeared as a ghost three weeks later at Angel's law firm in LA. Xander had disappeared for awhile, though she'd heard from Willow about a year ago that he was currently living in Alaska, running some kind of wilderness expedition business. He'd taken Anya's death very hard, Dawn confided.

"But the two of them weren't even together anymore," Faith protested, a little confused.

"He still loved her," Dawn said simply. They sat in silence for a moment, drinking and thinking.

Buffy, Willow, Dawn, and Kennedy had gone to Europe for nearly a year, she continued. They had traveled around, locating and training newly-created slayers. Willow and Kennedy had broken up during their stop in Germany. She didn't know all of the details, but Dawn thought Kennedy had cheated. Faith didn't comment; she didn't know what Dawn's opinion of Kennedy was and didn't want to piss her off again, but she herself had never liked the girl and didn't think she was a good match for Red.

After Europe, she, Buffy, and Willow had come back to America for a little while, continuing the work with the new slayers. Then it was off to the Far East--Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, followed by a stop in Australia. Though Buffy and Angel almost never spoke, he'd set up an account for her through his law firm that made sure they had all the money they needed.

They were still in Australia when Dawn turned eighteen, and it was shortly after this that she and Buffy had had some sort of falling out. Dawn didn't give specifics and Faith didn't pry, but it was obviously something that still bothered the younger Summers.

She and two of the slayers who'd been traveling with them at the time, an American named Kait, who was Dawn's age, and an Australian named Becky who was a year older, left Buffy and Willow and struck out on their own. They spent several months working countless crap jobs, finally earning enough money to return to the States.

Becky drifted off soon after, but Dawn and Kait had formed a tight team. They traveled around the country on what little cash they could scrape together, battling evil and enjoying the adventure. Kait had begun training Dawn, teaching her hand-to-hand combat and weapons skills, and also coming up with a weight-training program for the two of them that they could do without any actual weightroom equipment, which was hard to come by when you were living in an abandoned bigrig trailer or deserted warehouse.

"You really lived in places like that?" Faith asked, shocked. She just couldn't picture the Dawn Summers she'd known back in Sunnydale living in an old tractor-trailer.

"Not always. Depends how much money we had at the time. Sometimes we'd have enough to afford a room for a little while, but sometimes not. So when we didn't, we just did whatever we had to."

It had been great, Dawn said wistfully, and a sad smile crossed her face. When she saw it, Faith's heart melted just a bit.

Oh Christ, she groaned silently. That is a complication I SO don't need. I didn't come in here looking for an emotional attachment--just a good screw.

It had been great until Miami, ten months ago. They'd found a vamp nest, scouted it out ahead of time, and planned their attack carefully. Only when they'd actually tried to carry it out, the five vampires they had expected turned out to be eleven. They'd done fairly well, given the odds, getting six of them. But the rest had descended on them in a furious mob, killing Kait and seriously wounding Dawn. She had gotten away with a deep cut on her face--she indicated the scar Faith had noticed earlier--and another on her left hip.

She found a place to hole up for the night, hiding from the remaining vamps, who'd stayed out until nearly sunrise looking for her. Once it was safe, she stumbled out, collapsing in the street, on the verge of death from the massive blood loss.

Luckily a car had come by not long afterwards, and the driver had stopped, picked her up, and rushed her to the hospital. They had treated her, healed her up, and then gotten rid of her as soon as they could legitimately get away with doing so--she had no money or insurance, a condition which didn't lend itself to great compassion from the medical community.

She'd spent the next few months finishing the healing process and getting herself into the best shape of her life. When she knew she was ready, she had gone back and finished off the remains of the nest.

"You took on five of 'em by yourself?" Faith asked incredulously.

"Of course," Dawn snapped. "I had to. Kait would've wanted me to. She would've done it for me."

"She was a slayer, D--you're not." Faith cringed almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

"So?" Dawn asked, anger rising in her voice. "I may not have the speed or strength you do, Faith, or that Kait did, but I can handle myself in a fight. See those guys over there?" She nodded toward a group of four well-built guys standing at the bar. "I could put all four of them in the hospital, and barely break a sweat doing it. Thanks to Kait. What she taught me--and the way she believed in me." The anger was gone now; in it's place was pain and loss. Faith could hear how brittle her voice was, and sense how close the tears were to breaking through the tough facade she had built for herself.

She knew that if the tears did come right now, Dawn would get up and bolt from the place, and she'd likely never see her again. Faith wanted that to happen about as much as she wanted to jam her thumb into her own eye.

She reached out and covered Dawn's hand with her own. Dawn flinched, but didn't pull it back. "Hey. I'm sorry I said that. 'Cause obviously, with the way you saved my ass back there tonight, you know what you're doing." She softened her voice and added, "And I'm sorry about Kait. She sounds like an amazing person."

"She was," Dawn agreed. Faith could see she was pulling herself back together, the impending tears disappearing back wherever they'd come from. "You two would've gotten along good, I think."

"I bet we would have," Faith smiled softly. She became aware of her hand covering the younger girl's, and pulled it back quickly. "So," she said, a little too loudly, "when'd you get to Boston?"

"'Bout a month ago. Heard a rumor a couple of nights back that the local vamps were planning on going looking for a slayer who'd shown up recently and started making their lives miserable. Figured I'd better go find her and save her sorry ass before they got there." She said this with a scowl, but Faith thought she could see the ghost of a smile lurking behind it.

"You didn't know it was me?"

"No," Dawn said, but her eyes darted away, and Faith knew she was lying.

"Mmm," she responded noncommittally.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes. Faith downed the last of her beer and signalled the waitress for another. She glanced over and noticed that Dawn had polished off nearly half the bottle of whiskey, but didn't seem the least bit drunk. As a slayer, thanks to her superhuman metabolism, Faith could drink all night and stay nearly stone sober. Dawn, however, didn't have that added advantage. Faith's respect for, and admiration of, the young woman went up another notch.

"So, I told you my story," Dawn spoke up finally, breaking the silence. "How about giving me yours?"

"Ah, man, where do I start?" Faith asked herself, sighing.

"Start at the beginning," Dawn told her. "No one ever heard from you again after that day five years ago, when you and Principal Wood left together after the end in Sunnydale."

"Yeah, well you know, bein' a hunted fugitive and all makes it kinda hard to stop and send postcards," she pointed out with a lopsided grin.

"How about Principal Wood?" she asked. "You two still together? Is he here in town with you?"

Faith felt her cheeks grow red, and her gaze dropped to the table in front of her. "Oh, uh... no. No, that didn't really work out, me and Robin."

"Oh," Dawn said softly. "I'm sorry," she added in an apologetic voice.

"Yeah, well, ancient history and all that shit," Faith said briskly, trying to get off the subject. "Well, there's not really all that much to tell. I stay in one city for awhile, slaying vamps and demons and trying to get by, until the cops start to get close again. When they do, I move on. I think I must've been to nearly every big city--and a lot of the small ones--in America in the last five years."

"You're alone?"

"Yeah."

A current of understanding flowed between the two women in the brief silence that followed. They looked at each other and recognized a kindred spirit in the person sitting across from them, someone who knew firsthand what it was like to live the lives they did, the hardship of a life lived constantly on the road, the harsh conditions made just that much worse by the loneliness that accompanied them.

As Faith finished off the beer in her hand and watched Dawn working on the last of the whiskey, she reached a decision. "You have a place to stay?"

"I told you I've been here awhile, didn't I? Of course I've got a place," she answered defensively.

Faith ignored the tone and pressed the issue. "A decent place? You know, with running water and a lock on the door?"

"Don't worry about me, Faith. I can take care of myself." She tossed back the liquor still remaining in the shot glass, then slammed it down on the table in front of her. A couple of heads turned in their direction, before going back to what they were doing.

"I know you can, and I won't be worrying about you, 'cause you're coming back to my place. I guess you're kinda like family, and I'm not gonna let you go spend the night sleeping under some highway overpass. I don't have much, but I'll find room for ya."

Dawn gave Faith a measuring look. Faith tried to figure out what was going through the other's mind, but drew a blank.

Yes, she desperately wanted to get in the other woman's pants; she could hardly deny that, especially to herself. But whatever else she was, she was also Buffy's sister, and Faith wasn't about to let her go spend the night with the rest of the city's indigent while she herself had a not-too-roach-infested motel room, complete with not-too-lumpy bed. She'd give Dawn the bed, and crash in a chair or on the floor tonight.

She stood up and fished out her wallet, dropping several bills onto the table. "That wasn't a request, by the way."

Dawn looked at her a moment longer, her face still unreadable. Finally she got to her feet, with not a sign of a sway from all the alcohol she'd just consumed. "Alright."

---

Faith unlocked the door and motioned for Dawn to go first, then reached in and flipped the light on. She stepped in behind her and watched the younger woman look around, taking in the room.

It was small and clean, because if there was one thing Faith demanded of her surroundings, it was that they be clean and orderly. A narrow bed stood against the wall to their left; on their right was a desk and chair, and a second, slightly more comfortable-looking chair sat nearby. The window across the room from them looked out onto a solid stone or concrete wall less than five feet away. Beyond the bed, also on the lefthand wall, was a door that led to the tiny bathroom.

"Not bad," Dawn allowed. She took her jacket off and tossed it on one of the chairs. "Nice view." She nodded toward the window.

"Yeah, well, you get what you pay for," Faith laughed slightly. She turned around for a moment, locking the door behind her. "You can take the bed tonight; I'll take the--"

When she looked back at Dawn, her voice cut off like it had been amputated with a scalpel. The other woman had already dropped her tank top to the floor, and as Faith watched, reached back and unhooked her bra, letting that fall, as well.

"Or we could do this, instead," Dawn told her. "Take off your clothes, Faith," she instructed. Her commanding tone caused Faith to open her eyes a little wider.

"Uh, D, look, maybe we shouldn't--"

Dawn silenced her by stepping forward and placing her finger to Faith's lips. "Believe it or not, Faith, I'm not blind, naive, or stupid. I've known all night that you wanted to do this." She took the older girl's hand in hers and placed it on her breast.

Faith's resolve broke as she felt the nipple harden under her fingers, guided over it by Dawn's. She reluctantly took her hand away to shrug out of her own jacket, and a moment later her tank and bra had joined the others on the floor.

Dawn knelt and began to unlace Faith's heavy boots, pulling them off, followed by the socks. Her hands slowly trailed their way up Faith's legs, lingering longer than strictly necessary on the insides of her thighs. She unbuttoned Faith's jeans and slid them down, followed by the panties.

Recovering her wits long enough to realize what she had to do, Faith knelt and performed the same tasks on the younger woman. She rose, and they stood there at arm's length, just staring at each other.

Faith felt her breathing grow ragged as she took in the vision before her. She had expected Dawn to look like her sister, but that wasn't the case at all. She was taller than Buffy, more muscular, better endowed. Faith unconsciously licked her lips as her gaze traveled over the high, firm breasts, the flat stomach, the long legs...

The thing that was most spectacular, however, was the physique; the girl looked like one solid sheath of muscle. Whatever her percentage of body fat was, it must be ridiculously low; Faith wondered if it was lower even than her own. And unlike the pansy-ass muscles cultivated by body-builders in gyms the world over, which weren't good for much besides showing off, Dawn's gave evidence of the practicality behind them. This was a physique born out of an almost desperate need to survive; these were muscles designed to hurt and kill. Faith's arousal surged higher at this realization.

She gave a start as she realized something else--looking at Dawn was like looking at herself in the mirror. Or herself at twenty-one, at any rate. Same height, same build, same dark hair, same haunted look in her eyes...

Dawn reached her hand behind Faith's neck and pulled her into a passionate kiss. It seemed to Faith that their tongues were in each other's mouths before their lips had even touched. Back and forth they went in that darkness; circling, teasing, thrusting quickly, slowly, hard, soft. It was an endless struggle each fought with every fiber of her being to win, and it was a battle they both knew neither would. Knowing this didn't stop them from trying.

God, this felt so perfect! Faith thought. It had been too long since she'd been with a woman. She really didn't have a preference either way--both sexes brought their own positives to the table--but she did like to keep up the variety and experience both sides equally, something she hadn't been doing of late, somehow ending up with one guy after another. Strictly one-night (and not even the whole night) deals, because that's just the way she operated.

Usually, anyway. She knew already that she definitely wanted D to be there when she woke up in the morning. And the morning after that.

Dawn broke the kiss. "Pretty good, Faith," she confessed with a slight smirk. "But is that all you got, or was it just the pre-show?"

"D, that was nothin' compared to the things I'm going to do to you," Faith responded with a wicked grin.

"Well, then let's see what ya got," Dawn challenged, and pulled her toward the bed.

---

It was just before sunrise. Dawn had fallen into an exhausted, very satisfied sleep a short time ago. Faith had stayed awake, just lying there, watching the younger woman sleep, marveling at the events of the last few hours. Last night she'd left this room, alone, heading out to battle the forces of darkness yet again, with nothing good to look forward to in this shitty life she'd carved out for herself.

Now, here she lay the next morning with a beautiful woman sharing her bed--a woman, she already hoped, who would be occupying this same spot for the foreseeable future. If not this particular bed, then others, as the two of them made their way across the country together. They shared an identical lifestyle already; was it too much to hope that Dawn was as tired of living it on her own as Faith was?

Last night had been one of the most amazing of her life. She'd had her fair share of sex over the years, but she honestly couldn't remember a time when it had been better than last night.

No, that's not true; she could remember a time that had been better. Sunnydale. Nine years ago. Maybe not by much, but yeah, that had been better.

She looked down at the woman by her side and smiled, a little sadly. Why should she be so surprised that Dawn had come so close to measuring up to that memory from all those years ago? Why, given what her last name was?

Dawn stirred, and was suddenly looking at her, eyes open. Faith filed that away as just one more thing to be impressed by: one instant, sound asleep; the next, wide-awake. This was someone who'd obviously learned the hard lessons of survival.

"You're awake already," Dawn observed.

"Never went to sleep."

Dawn shifted, propping her head up with her elbow. "What are you doing today?"

"I gotta go to work," Faith admitted sadly, wishing more than anything that she could spend all afternoon right where she was. "I managed to get this temp construction gig. Pay's pretty decent, and it lets me afford this place." She gestured around to the room.

Dawn was silent for a moment. "If I ask you something, will you promise to give me an honest answer?" the younger woman asked, staring at her intently.

"I don't know; depends what the question is," she answered warily. "Ask, and I'll think about it."

"When you came to Sunnydale that first time, nine years ago, were you fucking Buffy?" Dawn's blue eyes bored into Faith's brown ones, already searching for an attempt at a lie.

For a moment, Faith was tempted to do just that. Or better yet, tell her it was none of her goddamn business. But when she thought it over, she decided that that probably wasn't a very good idea. She didn't know what she and Dawn had, or what she wanted it to become, but she did know that whatever it was, she didn't want to start it out by lying to her.

"No," she answered honestly. She saw Dawn start to protest, and cut her off. "I wasn't fucking Buffy; she was fucking me." She let that hang in the air for a moment, wondering if Dawn would ask her what the hell the difference was. She didn't. She seemed to sense that Faith needed to tell it herself.

"I was in--I mean, yeah, we had a physical thing back then, but it turned out that what Buffy wanted from it wasn't the same thing that I wanted from it." She felt herself blushing, and looked away.

"I understand."

"You do, huh?"

"Yes," Dawn replied. "You were in love with her, weren't you? You were in love with her, and she just used you as a convenient back-scratcher. 'I'll go over to Angel's for awhile, drool all over his shoes and get myself incredibly turned-on, and since he can't do anything to help me with that, I'll just run over to Faithy's afterwards and let her get me off for a couple of hours.' That about it?"

Faith couldn't meet her eyes; she simply nodded shakily, her face growing even redder. Dawn had just summed it up exactly the way Faith herself had worked it out. Truth be told, she'd worked it out even back while it was still happening, but let Buffy keep coming back and using her, hoping that eventually she'd see how much Faith really loved her. Maybe she'd notice the tender and sweet way Faith tried to make love to her, as opposed to the fast, rough fucking Buffy always gave her in return. But Faith had never had anything tender and sweet in her life, and knew she was making of mess of her own attempts. So really, how could she be surprised that Buffy hadn't noticed?

"Figures. God, she's such a bitch," Dawn murmured. Then, with absolutely no warning whatsoever, she burst into tears.

"Dawnie--Uh, I mean, D--what's wrong?" Faith reached her arm under Dawn, pulling her tightly to her. Immediately she felt warm tears landing on her bare shoulder. "Shh... D... what is it?"

"It's all my fault," Dawn sobbed. "It's me--I got her killed. I KILLED HER! I--" Further explanation was cut off by a fresh burst of sobs.

Faith just held her close, whispering 'shh' along with other comforting--she hoped--sounds. Eventually, the other girl's tears tapered off a bit.

"Sorry," she muttered, wiping her eyes.

"Don't be sorry. Never. But please, talk to me. What's wrong? Who do you think you got killed? B? Is B dead?"

"No, not her--Kait. Kait's dead, and it's all my fault." She sniffled, still wiping at her red, raw eyes. "God, Faith, when we were in Australia with Buffy, she was so happy. She admired Buffy and Willow so much, and loved training with them and the other slayers we were with.

"But then Buffy and I had that fight... And afterwards I told Kait that I was leaving, and even though she didn't want to, she came with me. Because she loved me; because we loved each other. I knew she was better off with Buffy, that she should keep up her training, but I was so selfish. I loved her, and since I couldn't stay there anymore, I asked her to come with me, even though I knew she really shouldn't. God, I'm such a selfish bitch." Fresh tears began to stream from her eyes, once more landing on Faith's shoulder.

"If she'd stayed with Buffy, she'd still be alive today. She never would've died back in Miami," Dawn finished, and a choked cry escaped her throat.

"There's no way to know if that's true, D," Faith told her forcefully. "None. She might've stayed with B and finished her training, then run into some badass vamp on her first night on the job and gotten killed two years before she did. It sounds to me like no matter how things ended up, you two had a great life together. Try to focus on that, instead of the way it ended," Faith suggested, stroking the girl's cheek, wiping her tears away. Christ, she sucked at this comforting thing!

"I didn't tell you everything, Faith," Dawn said so quietly that Faith barely heard her, looking up at her through tear-filled eyes.

"About what?"

"About Miami. When I went back and cleaned out the rest of that nest, I didn't kill five vamps. I killed six."

"Uh-huh...?" Faith asked, not seeing where she was going with this.

"They didn't just kill Kait. They turned her. I had to kill her, too. I had to stake my lover to dust," she said softly, as if just comprehending this fact, then buried her face in Faith's shoulder, great wracking sobs causing her whole body to shudder uncontrollably. Faith realized this was the first time she had let all this emotion out since it had happened.

"Oh God, Dawn. Oh God, I'm so sorry," she whispered, stroking her hair, holding her tightly to her. "I can't imagine how hard that must've been." She wanted to use an endearment, like 'baby' or 'honey' or 'sweetie,' the kind of thing she knew Buffy would say. But she'd lived her whole life without anyone saying things like that to her, or saying them to others, and she felt awkward about doing so now. She cursed herself for her inability to say them, for not being able to help ease Dawn's pain a little more with the comfort one of those words could provide. She was just a lousy fucking coward.

"And that's not even all of it," she confessed when she could finally talk again. "When Kait and I left Buffy, Becky found out we were planning to come back home, and insisted on coming with us. She'd dreamed her whole life of coming to the States, and decided we were her best chance to get here. Kait and I wanted to be alone, and Becky was completely clueless about our relationship, but we liked her, and agreed she could come too.

"I think she figured out about the two of us before long, and didn't want to feel like a third wheel. We woke up one morning and she was gone. Disappeared. We tried to find her, but we never did.

"How do I know she isn't dead too, Faith?" Dawn asked, looking up at her. "This isn't her country; maybe she wound up in a ditch a week after she left us, slayer or no slayer. Did I get her killed, too?"

"No!" Faith exclaimed, staring deep into her eyes. "I'm not going to let you blame yourself for Kait's death, and I'm sure as shit not gonna let you blame yourself for someone's death who's still out there alive somewhere."

"You don't know she's alive."

"You don't know she's dead," Faith pointed out reasonably. "And since she's a slayer, I gotta say I like her chances. I'll bet you a million fuckin' bucks she's out there right now, in Boulder, Colorado, or Portland, Maine, or Atlanta, making life miserable for some asshole vamps."

"You don't have a million bucks," Dawn argued, and smiled weakly. It wasn't much, but it was a huge improvement over the tears, and it made Faith's heart melt a little more.

"No, that's true," she agreed, grinning ear-to-ear. "But I'll bet you a kiss, instead. And since I already know that I'm right, pay up." She closed her eyes and puckered up comically. Dawn laughed and leaned up, pecking Faith on the lips. Almost instantly, it grew into a deep, heated battle of tongues.

Faith's hands wandered up over Dawn's hips, along her sides, over her stomach, over her breasts. Dimly, it registered that Dawn was doing likewise to her.

"I've got a few minutes before I have to get ready for work," she panted after prying herself away from Dawn's lips.

"Mmm, not much time," the younger woman pouted. "But I think we can put it to good use." She grinned and rolled over on top of the older brunette.

---

Faith and Dawn stepped out of the room's shower twenty minutes later. It had been pretty cramped with the two of them in there, but they had managed it.

Faith was combing her hair, while Dawn took advantage of the chance to use toothpaste again, obviously relishing the feeling of clean teeth and a clean mouth. Somehow she managed not to get a single cavity and to keep her teeth sparkling white despite only semi-regular access to actual toothpaste.

"When do you get off work?" she asked after rinsing out her mouth.

"Five o'clock," Faith answered. She hesitated, figured 'what the hell?,' and took the plunge. "Umm, D, can I ask you something?" She felt her cheeks glowing again. Damn, how long had it been since she'd blushed this much? Nine years, she thought.

"What?" Dawn asked, turning around.

"Would you, uh... Would you maybe stay here? You know... with me?" Her feet suddenly seemed like the most interesting thing in the room, and she stared at them intently, like she maybe expected them to jump off her legs and run away all on their own.

She was still looking straight down when she saw Dawn's legs enter her field of vision, stepping close to her. A hand gently clasped her chin and pulled her face up, bringing her eyes into contact with those just a few inches away.

"I'll stay," Dawn agreed, smiling softly.

Faith let out the breath she hadn't known she was holding, grinned broadly, and pulled Dawn into a tight hug.

"We'd better get dressed, though," Dawn added, pulling away and looking down at their still-naked bodies. "Otherwise, I think you're gonna be late for work," she observed with a smirk.