DISCLAIMER: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and all its characters are
property of NBC and Dick Wolf. BtVS/Angel is the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, original characters belong to the author.
FANDOMS: Law & Order: SVU / Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
PAIRING: Olivia/Faith.
A Matter of Faith
By Acathla
Chapter Fifteen
Monday morning dawned bright and clear and Faith woke up with one thought in her head: Olivia. She realized that she'd arranged with Angel to see Lucky the same night she had a date with Olivia. This would never work, Faith already knew she didn't want Olivia to know about Lucky and ducking out early from two dates would be very suspicious. Faith got dressed and walked into the darkened living room where Fred and Angel sat talking. Thanks to the dark blankets Faith had put up yesterday, Angel could sit in the living room and not burn to death. Faith smiled, thinking about Olivia and her date later. Then she quickly sobered up when she thought about Olivia and Angel meeting. Talk about awkward.
"Morning guys." Faith said as she slowly passed the couch Angel and Fred were sitting on, never breaking her stride on her way to the kitchen for breakfast.
"Hi Faith."
"Good morning Faith."
Faith grabbed a bowl of cereal with milk before heading back into the living room to hang with her guests.
"So, I know Angel's pretty much stuck in the apartment cuz of the sun but are you going to hang here too Fred?" Faith asked before taking another spoonful of cereal.
Fred glanced at Angel who simply shrugged then turned to look at Faith. "Um, actually I've never been to New York so unless someone goes with me I think I have to stay here."
"Oh, well if that's the only thing stopping you, I could show ya around. Unless Angel doesn't wanna be alone in the apartment."
"I have no problem being alone Faith you should know that by now. But what about your father? I don't want to cause a problem if he comes home while I am here alone ya know?"
"Don't worry about it. Dad's outta town for a bit. But I wanted to talk to you Angel, about the meeting tonight."
"What about it Faith?" Angel asked.
"I forgot that I had something else planned for tonight so I'm going to call Lucky and change it to tomorrow night ok? Can you stay that long?"
"Yeah I can. What you have planned tonight, does it involve the Lucky situation or is it a separate issue?"
Faith smiled then, thinking about Olivia again. "It's a separate issue big guy. Personal business matter." Faith hoped Angel wouldn't pry too much.
Angel could tell Faith didn't want to discuss her plans so he changed the topic."Ok then, I guess tomorrow night we meet Lucky. I guess tonight I'll just walk around the city sound good?"
"Sure, as long as ya don't attack anyone." Faith said with a playful smile, knowing full well that Angel wouldn't attack anyone.
Fred decided to rejoin the conversation then, having been silent in deference to Faith's and Angel's conversation regarding their plans.
"Faith, I've been researching New York on my laptop and I was wondering if we could go to a few places I read about."
"Yeah sure Fred, what places?"
"Times Square, Central Park, The Met, and the Wax Museum."
Faith smiled, Fred had just named two of Faith's favorite places and two new ones she'd been wanting to see but wasn't sure she could go alone. Something about museums, even wax museums, indicated that one should go to them with a friend or a date.
"Not a problem. In fact, we could hit the museums before lunch, then grab some take out and have a picnic in Central Park and cap it off with some shopping in Times Square, sound good?"
Fred just smiled big like a little kid promised candy and ice cream. Faith understood the grin and grinned back.
"Well, I guess you two ladies have a full day planned so I'll let you get to it."
Faith and Fred smiled at Angel and gathered their things to go out. Grabbing her keys, her wallet and a jacket, Faith led the way with Fred trailing behind her holding her digital camera. They left the apartment and stepped into the elevator.
"Since traffic in this city is worse than LA on a good day, what do you say we skip the car and take the subways?" Faith asked Fred as the elevator made its way down to the lobby of the building.
Fred smiled, "this is your town now Faith, I'll just follow your lead."
Faith smiled, knowing that she was more than up to the task of making this a memorable day in New York City for Fred, something for her to talk about to Wesley and Gunn when she got back to L.A. The two ladies exit the elevator and head out of the building. Taking a left, they head towards the nearest downtown subway staircase and go below the city. It was going to be a great day.
Meanwhile back at Faith's Apartment...
Angel was sitting in the living room just enjoying the silence when it was broken by the ringing of the phone. Angel glanced at the phone, torn between his own curiosity to see who was calling and his desire to not get Faith into any trouble if it was her father calling. After the fourth ring the machine picked up and Angel listened to the greeting before whoever called left a message.
"Hey Faith, this is Casey. Just calling to say hi and see if you wanted to meet for lunch. Well, you're probably out already so I'll try your cell next. Talk to you later cuz! Bye."
The machine clicked off as the call disconnected. Angel just sat there wondering who Casey was until he heard that last part...'cuz'. The cousin Faith mentioned now had a name. Casey. Angel smiled, it felt good to know that Faith had family here that wasn't evil. A few late night talks long ago had led to Faith confiding in him about her mother and her watcher and the hell that her mother put her through before her watcher came for her. It was good to know that Faith had a good support system in place here. Maybe that would help keep her on the right side. Angel knew that if she had had that in Sunnydale, there was a better than good chance that she never would've turned evil.
Angel wasn't blind, he knew Buffy could've been more supportive after Faith accidentally killed the deputy mayor, Alan Finch, but Buffy had dropped the ball. Add that to Faith's past and it was no wonder she went bad. Angel could freely admit that at the time he'd been to busy with Buffy to pay much attention to Faith as she slid back into the dark side of the slayer calling. But once he let himself take a moment to notice, he saw that Faith was more like he used to be than he was comfortable with so he tried to help her. He'd almost gotten through to her when Wesley had shown up with a crew from the Watchers Council and messed everything up. It had taken almost a year but he'd gotten a second chance with Faith and this time the council wasn't in time to mess it all up.
Now, three years later, Faith was back to where she needed to be. And Angel was glad that this time she was surrounded by people that cared about her and who wouldn't let her regress back to the dark side. Angel could only hope that Faith was never tested like that again—by taking a human life.
To Be Continued