Dealing with Faith

Air date: 26/12/2000

13 Aug 2000, More Sunday

Jonathan and the twins follow Alex upstairs to talk to Faith. In the room the curtains are drawn and the light is off. Jayde flicks it on to reveal Buffy in the corner with her arms crossed, staring at Faith who is struggling gently against the chains holding her. Buffy doesn't look happy.

"Someone should have been watching her. We shouldn't trust her alone."

Alex goes over to Faith and calms her down.

"What are you going to do with me? I… I'm starting to remember things. The night I got taken from prison. They injected me with something, dragged me out of my cell into a van and took me someplace. A hospital maybe? Then a bunch of weird stuff and some watchers. I died in the hospital and B and the Mayor and all the people I killed were there they took me away and buried me. The I went to hell and got eaten alive. Then suddenly I was back in hospital and it all happened again and there was some stuff with you two and a hell of a lot of being tied down to a bed and I'm getting real sick of it so can you please get on with whatever you're planning on doing to me?" Her aura shows mostly fear and anger with occasional flashes of hatred.

Buffy stays to watch her while the others head downstairs and discuss releasing her. It boils down to we don't want to kill her so what choice do we have? We have to let her out of the restraints at some point. Alex talks to Buffy while the twins watch and chat to Faith. She realises Buffy is really pissed off with her and the twins comment that it makes it difficult to work out what to do with her. Faith is aware of that and comments that she'd be for killing her if the positions were reversed. She expresses regret for what she's done but her aura is transparent and hard to read. They ask her what she'd do if they released her and she say she'd put some distance between her and Buffy, and she's not a huge fan of watchers right about now. She agrees to stay around though if that is a condition of her release. Buffy comes back in looking even less happy and Faith's body language becomes hostile.

"Faith, Angel is missing. Do you have any idea where he is?"

"No."

"Well he went missing around about the same time as you got sprung form jail. Isn't that a happy coincidence?"

Faith's aura is still transparent.

"They want to release you, but let me tell you I'll be watching you. You step out of line, I'll find you."

Faith's aura flashes red then goes back to transparent.

Alex asks the twins about the chat with Faith. What choice do we have? She prepares a sedative just in case things go horribly wrong and they begin unlocking the chains. Gemma gets her some clothing and Faith goes to have a bath. Buffy comments that there is a window in the bathroom and goes outside to watch it in case Faith tries to do a runner. She doesn't. She comes downstairs after about 20 minutes and Jayde hands her some sandwiches and coffee. They offer for her to stay with the twins since she's not so big on watchers and that way Jayde is also more of a match for her than Alex if things go badly. She accepts. They inform her of the "burnt to death in prison" story and she wants to head to a bank the next day and see if she can make a withdrawal before they close her accounts.

The three girls arrive back at the twins' house to find David piling suitcases into the boot of his car. He and Stella are on their way to LA for a few days as Stella's son DMS has been shot in a drive-by gang incident. He'll be fine but he's in hospital at the moment and Stella wants to be with him. They introduce Faith as "Hope" and David and Stella leave. Faith settles in then heads out for a walk, Jayde goes off to a pool hall for the afternoon and Gemma goes to talk to the picture of Leda in the hallway, mostly about the events of the last few days and how things have gone since Leda disappeared. By the time she is finished she gets a slight feeling of being watched. Jayde and Faith come back for dinner, they all discuss being a slayer and the primal from the dreams - Faith dreamt it was in the coffin with her when she was buried by Buffy and the Mayor. Jayde goes to patrol. Faith doesn't feel up to joining her so she and Gemma stay home and discuss the primal further, and also Leda. Faith only ever dreamt Leda with the primal - they were fighting. Jayde gets a phonecall from Alex informing her that Buffy is needed back in Sunnydale and will be heading off in the morning.

During the night Jayde gets up to go to the toilet and notices that the light is on in Faith's room. She listens at the door and hears a soft breathing noises but not much else and is happy enough with that. She's just drifting back to sleep when she hears a soft voice in her room. She looks over and sees someone, probably Gemma but maybe Leda, silhouetted against the doorway.

"Gemma? What's going on?"

"Everything's Ok dear."

Actually, it does look a lot like Leda. "Huh?"

"I've come to look after you."

"Huh?" Jayde flicks on the light but there's no-one there. Jayde goes back to sleep.

14 Aug 2000, Monday

At breakfast Jayde tells Gemma that she thinks she saw Leda last night. Gemma is very happy as she'd assumed Leda was gone for good. Faith hasn't appeared as yet so Gemma takes a cup of coffee up to her room for her. Her light is on and she is sprawled across the bed in heavy sleep. Gemma places the cup gently down on the bedside table with a faint clink. Faith's eyes spring open and she jumps up with her fist pulled back ready to fight. Gemma backs away and apologises profusely, explaining that she is just bringing coffee. Faith notes the cup, relaxes and apologises, explaining that she's a little jumpy at the moment. Gemma lets her know that she's off to college but Jayde has the morning off and will take her to the bank whenever she's ready to go.

At the bank, Jayde talks Faith through all the filling in of forms and things, noting that Faith's surname is indeed Wilkins. Faith goes up to the teller, seems a bit flustered and walks away in a hurry, empty handed. Jayde asked what happened and Faith says that her accounts are closed and she's officially dead so lets get out of here and now. That's odd. Normally it would take a few weeks for the state to close the account while it waited for next of kin to make the claim.

Faith tags along to college for the lunchtime gathering in the psych department. The group discusses getting Glitch to make Faith a new identity and finding out who closed her accounts. Mary has sent Casey to classes and Jonathan has checked the surveillance on the house but nothing unusual has turned up. Conrad turns up looking mighty peeved when he spots Faith and takes Alex into a separate room for a chat. He's angry that he wasn't consulted in the decision to release Faith as he wanted to do more research on her first. Jayde and Faith overhear the conversation with their super slayer senses and Faith is looking pretty angry herself. She turns to the door and walks out. Gemma, Mary and Jonathan exchange questioning glances as Jayde follows Faith out of the room, calling out to her as she goes. Faith accelerates her pace then breaks into a run across the lawns. Jayde does the same and eventually they reach a familiar area, a familiar statue, and Jayde has lost Faith into the trees. Searching around she spots a guy sitting against the base of a tree reading a book. It’s the guy from the dream. She's a bit taken aback but that can wait, Faith is the important thing right now. She catches a glimpse of Faith not too far away and heads after her again. She's just lost sight of her again when Faith pops out from behind a tree and punches Jayde hard in the face. Jayde falls to the ground and Faith stands over her in a combat pose, ready to strike again if necessary.

"I knew it! I knew I knew that Conrad freak from somewhere!"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you! We struck a deal! He helped us get you out of there!"

"Screw that! He's not going anywhere near me! I'm not gonna be his guinea-pig. He goes or I go."

"It's not up to me. I'm not the brains of this operation."

"Why the hell not? You're the slayer. Watchers know a lot of stuff but you're the one with the power, girl. You should be the boss. You should be the one in charge, the one making the decisions around here."

"Yeah well it’s the only framework I've really got right now. I'm a bit new to this remember?"

The dream guy steps between them.

"Is everything OK here? Back off!" He reaches his hand down to Jayde and helps her up off the ground.

"Are you OK, She punched you, I saw it. Do you want to press charges?"

Jayde is struck with deja vu. "We're fine. Please. This is between me and her."

"OK, so long as everything is fine here." He picks up his book and wanders off.

"Can we get a truce here? Talk first, sprint later?"

"OK. Sorry I hit you."

They head back to the office where Conrad is sitting in one corner looking pensive. Mary, Jonathan and Gemma have already informed him of Faith's sudden departure and Jayde glowers at him as she enters. Alex asks if Faith is alright.

"Fine, but if he comes near me I'll start breaking limbs."

Conrad remains quiet. Alex takes Faith off for a soothing chat and Jayde asks Gemma to accompany her back to the statue to try and track down the guy. They find him a little way off from where he was earlier, in a grassy clearing eating some sandwiches. Gemma notes that his aura is light blue (calm) with sparkles (magical) and stays off in the trees to watch while Jayde approaches him and apologises for the incident with Faith. He introduces himself as Arden, an Anthropology PhD studying primitive religions, voodoo rituals and shamanism. He also mentions that she looks familiar to him somehow. Jayde flirts a bit (he is a bit of a babe) but unsuccessfully and eventually leaves him to his sandwiches with a resolve to hang around the Anthropology department more often if they are all that cute.

Back at the office, Alex has heard from Buffy - she's got a lead on Angel from one of his associates. Faith is pacing around a room giving off some very negative vibes and Conrad has left in a bad mood. Alex comments that the Council has agreed to no watcher interference in either Sunnydale or Berkley so Conrad is prevented from getting Council help if he wants to organise something to do with Faith. It would be best to keep a close eye on him. There is nothing stopping him from perhaps getting help from someone like Wolfram and Hart. It would also be good to keep a reasonably close eye on Faith, especially if Conrad's planned researches entail keeping Faith tied to a bed. Alex will keep an eye on Conrad and the Council will keep an eye on things from the LA end. Jayde asks what sort of tests Conrad was planning and Alex says mostly physical - strength, healing power, reflexes, some blood tests - and also some to do with her mental state. Jayde notes that it is odd that he would want to study her mental state and yet has no regard for it. Alex also comments again that none of the reports she has received about him mention any combat training and yet he's a very skilled fighter…

Conrad is to come back that afternoon to train with Jayde. Faith says she's got better places to be and heads off. Jayde warms up by jogging around the grounds in a cute little outfit and out-jogging all of the cute guys who join her as she runs.

Lawyers take note: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel and all characters related belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and fox.