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She walked through the hospital determined to get the hell out of Sunnydale as fast as possible. It was the year 2000 and she had spent the better part of 1999 sleeping. She cringed as she looked at the marks the IV had left in her arms. She had lost a good twenty pounds if not more, being on a liquid diet for more then eight months.
She grabbed an old lady's purse in the waiting room and ran out. As she rounded the corner a familiar tingling ran down her spine. She could sense that a vampire was near. She walked slowly down the alley and stopped as the feeling got stronger. Suddenly a pair of strong arms grabbed the weak slayer and flung her into the wall. She tried to brace herself, but she was still disoriented. Her skull cracked against the cold brick and everything went black.
Spike could smell the fresh human blood as he walked past the hospital. He followed the scent to see a vampire feeding off of a young dark haired girl.
"Hey mate, wanna share?" The peroxide vampire called out to the fledgling.
He slowly retracted his teeth and growled at Spike as her blood dripped from his teeth and chin. "Bite me man. This chick is mine."
The girl's eyes suddenly flashed open. She broke the demon's grasp and kicked him hard in the knee, shattering the sensitive joint.
The vamp howled as Spike dashed toward the couple. She snapped her head back, hitting the vampire and immediately regretted it when a fresh wave of pain shot through her.
The vampire staggered back and the slayer fell to the dirty ground below her. She turned in time to see the blond stranger stake the vampire and then he rushed to her side.
Spike looked at the jagged teeth marks left by the vampire and the blood seeping from the wound. A sudden wave of weakness flowed through him at the prospect of tasting fresh blood, something he hadn't done in months.
He cradled the girl in his arms and began to carry her toward the hospital. "No!" she cried out. "I can't go back there."
"Luv, it's the only..."
"Then put me down I'll find somewhere to go."
"You're weak. You just got..."
"Bit by a vampire? Big deal. Slayers get bit all the time. Let me go." She struggled weakly in his arms, but then he only held her tighter.
"Slayers?" Spike whispered. "You're the other one. You can stay at my place."
Her brown eyes looked up at him . "You better not try anything," she warned as she resigned herself to the fact that she needed him.
Faith found herself in a warm fluffy bed, a blanket surrounding her cold body as well as strong muscular arms. His cold lips rested on her shoulder and sent tingling waves down her spine as she tried to move. He groaned slightly against her skin, fully awakening her now. She was in a sewer of some sort. That much she could tell. A sewer and a bed? she thought . Weird.
That's when it all hit herb - the memories of the night before. She stiffened in the man's arms and he awoke with a start.
"Where the hell am I?" Faith asked as his blue eyes suddenly opened. She was taken aback. She had never thought that a man could be beautiful, but he was. He was handsome with his angled face. His eye reflected a dangerous allure that she had never seen before. He smiled slightly as he pulled Faith closer.
"Morning, luv."
"Huh?" Faith said, trying not to be affected by his sexy gaze.
"I said morning. Hasn't a man ever said that to you in bed before?"
"Actually, I kind of leave before the whole morning thing ever happens. Did you bite me? Are you a freaking vampire?" She pushed his chest and moved away from him.
"Well, I didn't start off biting you, but I had to clean the wound and stop it from bleeding. So yeah, I had to bite you or take you to the hospital and let them do the fixing as they do it."
"So you are a vampire. Holy shit!" Faith cursed. "You didn't turn me did you?"
"Why would I want to turn a Slayer? You bint's are annoying enough for the short time that you've got on this planet. Let's not have you around for a freaking eternity."
"Asshole." Faith tried sitting up, but still felt weak, even weaker then before. "How much did you take in the process, you bastard?"
"I swear I didn't take much." Spike smirked, knowing that he had only been able to drink the blood that flowed freely from her wound. Not that he hadn't tried to sweeten the pot, as it were, but the chip would go off in sharp bouts when he began to try and feed, so he was resigned to sucking gently on the wound to stop the blood flow.
"So why do I feel weaker?" She asked not totally believe him.
"It's exhaustion, luv. You were in a coma for a couple of months according to what the scoobies told me, so I figure that your body needs time to adjust to working and running again."
"I've got to go." She stepped off the bed and crashed onto the floor. Spike leapt to her side and helped her back on the bed. "You stupid vamps." Faith scowled as she felt the shredded tender flesh through the thin bandage.
"Hey, it was a vamp that saved your bloody life." Spike scolded. "What is it with me and you bint's? I got goldilocks and her boy toy giving me a hard enough time, and now I got you in here with me acting like a bloody ingrate. If you're so tough Slayer then leave. Get the hell out."
Faith stared blankly at the blond sitting next to her. Once he heard no response, he turned to see her smiling at him. "What?"
"Buffy! She did this to me and I am going to destroy that little...."
"Hey love, didn't you try that and it left the better part of your summer, fall and winter vacation in a permanent sleep?" His words jarred Faith.
"That bitch..."
"From what I understand, that bitch put your ass in a coma and let Peaches nearly drain her dry to save him."
"Peach... oh Angel." Faith began . "She WHAT? I didn't think B had it in her."
"Well she does love the moron. And I suggest that if you want to have a little happy dance on her grave that you leave my home. I would normally help you, but I've got issues that I rather not discuss with you."
"A vampire saving a Slayer and giving her advice not to do something wicked nasty to the other one...what the hell has happened to Sunnydale since I have been gone?"
"You want the made-for-TV version or the directors cut?"
Faith looked at him intrigued. "Ok, how about the directors cut, but only if you got something to snack on in the process. I'm friggin' starving."
"Yeah I got stuff. Be right back." Spike climbed up the ladder just in time to see Buffy walk through the crypt door.
"Spike." the contempt evident in her voice.
"Slayer," he mimicked. "What the bloody hell do you want?"
"I need to give you a heads up about the other Slayer, Faith."
"What about her? I heard all about her from Red, already. That she was in a coma. Put there by you." He raised his scarred eyebrow.
"I know that. I meant that she's out of the coma and on the run somewhere. I need you to help me find her."
"And why the HELL would I do that? I can't stand you as is and now you want to me to have two of you tarts around? I don't bloody think so."
"You are such an ass. If we don't find her..."
"WE! Look here go and have a nice snog with military boy and ask him to help you. Other then that, I don't care."
"Well you better care because if the council finds Faith before I do, I don't know what they'll do to her. And if they can't find her, I have a feeling that I can send them to this beautiful little crypt of yours and have a fun time with neutered Spike. Get me? The council most likely already hates me for leaving, so they won't care who they get. But what they want is Faith and I'm..."
"You're what?" Spike asked intrigued by her sudden demeanour.
"I'm...well I have a feeling that they are going to kill her. And no matter what she has done to my friends or me, I can't let them do that. She can be good, I know it. I just couldn't make her see and maybe now that she has gotten some time to think…"
"Think?" voice called from behind Spike.
The vampire slowly closed his eyes as his face secretly said 'Oh boy!'
"I was in a coma, B. I wasn't thinking . I was vegetating thanks to you, and now you come here with some crocodile tears."
Buffy gave Spike the look of death then looked at Faith standing behind him. "I wasn't crying...."
"Whatever. You come here pretending to like me and think that I can be saved like you precious Angel. Not like you cared once I was out of your life."
"What the hell are you talking about? I visited you every week. I was the one who combed your hair . I was the one who watched day after day as that heart monitor clicked, driving a person insane. I was there when they took you of the respirator. So don't think that I left you there to die."
"But you did, B. That was your intention that night when you slid that knife in my gut." Faith pulled up her shirt to reveal the jagged scar tissue that was evidence of her plight.
"You forced me..."
"Screw you. I never forced anything."
"Like hell you didn't. You tried to kill Angel. You tried to seduce... My god, you tried to kill Xander and..." Buffy argued.
"And what? I'm evil." Faith yelled . It's the only thing that I was ever good at."
As soon as the words left the slayers mouth, she looked frightened. She had finally admitted something to herself aloud that she was never supposed to reveal. She was evil.
"You're not." Buffy replied quietly, stepping towards Faith. "You're a slayer. You were born... no…you were chosen to do good."
"I'm not like you." Faith said, planting her feet.
"No one wants you to be like me."
"Like hell they don't, B. Your friends, your mom, everyone thought a Slayer should be just like you."
"Faith, did you ever stick around long enough to let us tell you how we felt? No one wanted you to be like me. Not my mom, not Giles, not Wesley, not anybody." Buffy was two feet away from Faith when she finally noticed that bloody gauze taped to the slayer's neck. "What the hell is that?"
"Ahhh slayer..." Spike finally decided to open his mouth. "It wasn't me."
Buffy's eyes went wide with fright. "She's isn't. You aren't?"
Faith realized what she meant. It hadn't even occurred to her to ask. "Was I...turned?"
"NO! Not by me and that vamp didn't have a long enough go at you to turn you." Spike said, stepping away from the slayers.
"B, I need some time to think about things."
"Well stay at my place."
"No, I'll stay here with fangless."
"Hey!"
"But..."
"But nothing, B. I don't want to be around you. I need time to think."
"Ok." Buffy said quietly before she left the crypt giving Spike the look of death.
Faith nearly collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Putting up a brave front for Buffy had been harder than she thought. Spike caught her before she hit the ground and placed her on the bier. And for the first time, Faith wanted someone to take care of her. So that day, she let the vampire in.