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 Seven
It was already morning when Faith arrived back home. She took out her elevator key and rode up to the apartment, leaning against the back wall of the elevator. Surprisingly, Faith had only run into two vamps the whole night. She slayed one but the other one got away. Of course, not before it had realized that this was the Slayer and that she was pissed off. If the vamp was smart he'd tell his buddies to clear outta town.
Faith felt guilty about letting the second vamp get away but the first vamp had slashed her arm with a wicked looking knife and it was bleeding too much to be of much use. Even with Slayer healing it wasn't closing as fast as it should, which made Faith think that the vamp had hit a major vein. Dammit.
With that second vamp free and who knows how many others, it wasn't until the sun began to rise that Faith felt it was safe enough to leave the park. So after tearing a strip of her shirt off to stop the bleeding, Faith continued patrolling Central Park. With the sun up, the vamps would be in hiding for the day. Faith walked into the apartment and was almost through the living room when she noticed her father asleep on the couch. It touched her that he'd been waiting up for her. But at the same time she was nervous about how he'd react to her injury.
Faith quietly made her way into her bedroom and the attached bathroom and began removing the cloth that she'd tied to the wound. Luckily, the bleeding had stopped and the wound was beginning to close up. Hopefully, by noon it wouldn't even be noticeable. Faith cleaned the wound and saw that her father had placed a first aid kit in her medicine cabinet. Faith smiled, seemed her father had thought of everything. So Faith decided to take a shower first then dress the wound so she wouldn't have to be careful with the bandage.
Martin woke up on the couch shortly after hearing Faith's bedroom door close behind her. When he glanced at the wall clock and realized what time it was, he became concerned. Faith had been out all night, and the only thing Martin could think was that there must've a high number of vampires in the park to keep Faith out all night. And of course that led to him thinking she'd been hurt and was probably bleeding to death in her bedroom having dragged herself home just so he wouldn't worry. By the time Martin's brain had finished jumping to all sorts of conclusions, he was halfway down the hall to Faith's bedroom. That was when the bedroom door opened and Faith walked out, freshly showered and dressed and looking very healthy and not hurt. Martin's face clearly showed his relief, which only made Faith smile wider at the knowledge that he really did care about her.
"Morning dad." Faith said without thinking. It just felt natural somehow after seeing how much Martin cared about her to call him dad.
Martin hid his surprised a bit at the word dad and replied, "Morning Faith. How are you?"
"Doing good, a little tired from being up all night, and hungry so I'll get some breakfast then take a nap ok?"
"Sounds like a good idea. What would you like for breakfast?"
"Got any cereal?"
"I think I do, yes. But wouldn't you like something more filling? Like, eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, or pancakes?"
Faith smiled, he'd just named all her favorite breakfast foods but while Faith enjoyed eating that stuff…she couldn't cook any of it to save her life—except maybe the toast. She'd never had to really, that's what diners were for and Mickey D's.
"Yeah I would but I can't cook, and it wouldn't be fair to ask you to cook for me when I know you gotta get to work, so I'll just have cereal and juice."
Martin felt like insisting on cooking breakfast for his daughter but when he saw the look in her eyes he realized it woould be a losing battle. She had the same glint in her eyes that her mother used to get when she had made up her mind about something and wouldn't be swayed. Linda had had that glint in her eye the day she told Martin that she was taking Faith to Boston to be trained. Martin closed off that road of thought and simply nodded to Faith.
"You know that it would be no bother at all to make breakfast for you, I mean I own the company I can be late if I want to be but I also know that you don't need me hovering over you. So I'll let you have what you want for breakfast and go get ready for work."
"Cool." Faith was half expecting him to insist on cooking and she was too tired to fight him right now so she was surprised when he backed down and didn't push the issue.
Martin turned and went into his bedroom which had it's own bathroom and began preparing for work.
Faith went into the kitchen and looked around for the cereal and a bowl and milk. Faith was on her fourth bowl of Frosted Flakes when Martin came into the kitchen to say goodbye. Faith said goodbye and walked him to the elevator. After Martin left for work, Faith finished her fourth bowl and after washing up, she went to take a nap.
Meanwhile at the 16th Precint's SVU Squad Room…
After a night filled with weird dreams of vampires—like Dracula and Lestat—and then outta nowhere Faith is there too, Olivia came into work looking like she hadn't slept at all. She rationalized that the vampire images were caused by what Warner had told them but what she couldn't figure out was why in her dream, Faith was fighting Dracula and Lestat…and winning! It was definitely a weird dreama nd one that would get locked away in her mind forever cuz she'd never tell anyone about it. They'd think she was crazy…and maybe she was if her dreams were anything to go by that is.
"Hey Liv, what's up?" Her partner Elliot Stable asked as he walked in two minutes after her and saw her sitting at her desk staring into space.
Olivia snapped out of her daze and looked up at Elliot. "What? Oh nothing, just thinking."
"About what?"
"Things…this case. The bite mark on the victim's leg, maybe there's some merit to the vampire theory." Olivia regretted that statement as soon as she said it and saw the look on Elliot's face.
"A vampire? Never figured you'd ever think that. I mean, I'd expect it from Munch maybe but not you."
Olivia knew she should probably let the subject drop but something made her keep going. "I'm not saying a real vampire cuz that's just nuts but what about someone who's read too many Anne Rice novels and now thinks he is a vampire? I mean, it wouldn't explain the rape but it would explain how she was killed ya know?"
Elliot stopped to think about it and as he was doing that, Casey Novak walked in and went right up to their desks. "Olivia, Elliot, anything new on the Walker case?"
Olivia was the one who answered her, "A few things but nothing that might point to a suspect."
"What new things have come up?"
Olivia was about to explain when Munch walked into the squad room. She knew that if he heard about the bite marks there'd be no way to shut him up about vampire myths and legends. So Olivia led Casey into one of the interview rooms to explain.
Once the door shut behind them, Elliot kept Munch distracted to prevent him from tryin to eavesdrop or anything.
Olivia and Casey sat down and Olivia explained about what Warner had told them. When she got to the bite mark, Casey's eyes went wide with disbelief.
"Wait a minute, you're telling me a vampire killed her?" The half incredulous, half mocking tone in Casey's voice pissed Olivia off and the rest of the conversation was reduced to either screaming or silences. Olivia was really trying to get along with Casey, if for no other reason than they had to work together almost everyday, but times like these made it a lot harder for Olivia to take Casey seriously.
Casey was a bit too quick to dismiss the 'vampire' theory (even the theory that it was a human who thought they were a vampire) before Olivia could explain that she was only specualting about that part. Jennifer Walker was definitely killed by the blow to the head combined with strangulation. The bite mark and loss of blood certainly didn't help but they didn't kill her.
Casey left shortly after their 'chat' and went to the courthouse for her arraignments, motions, and trials. And, of course, the seemingly endless amounts of paperwork that went with this job.
The morning passed uneventfully as Benson and Stabler tracked down Jennifer Walker's next of kin—her parents—and did the notification. They also managed to get a list of Jennifer's friends from Hudson University as well as the name of her current boyfriend.
After a brief lunch of hot dogs from a street vendor and sodas, the detectives ran down the list of friends and the boyfriend to see if they could possibly pinpoint a suspect.