DISCLAIMER: The characters of BtVS does not belong to me, which is quite obvious as I wouldn't have done certain things to them, but anyway, not mine and no profit made.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Like everything else I've written this story is also available at my own fic site, http://ryufic.blogspot.se/
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
FEEDBACK: To rosmari.karlssonfaltin[at]telia.com
Unexpected Life
By Carola "Ryûchan" Eriksson
I am not a Watcher, not now and not then, but I have been there since the beginning, watching, and know more of this story than most. As I have been asked to write this addendum to the Slayer journals I will do so to the best of my ability, and can only hope that although my account has to be brief I will do the story as much justice as I can.
Buffy Summers and the young woman that at the time was known only as Faith, the details of how they met and what exactly followed their initial meeting, how they ended up on opposite sides of conflict and how that panned out for them, will not be found on these pages. Although their past is of importance for what happened, it is easy enough to find all that could possibly be needed in the Watcher Chronicles of Rupert Giles and Dawn Summers.
Instead I begin with the end of the long coma which Faith endured as a result of dire combat with Buffy. After the fact I was told that while Buffy in the beginning set out many times to visit Faith in the hospital, she never actually managed to set foot inside the building much less reach the room where her fellow Slayer lay. Faith had visitors, as Giles and Joyce both came by regularly, and the Watchers had people checking in on her from time to time.
The day Faith woke up there was no-one there. In retrospect perhaps that would have made all the difference, if someone had been there, if she had seen some visible sign that people did still care.
Angry, lost and afraid, and on the run from just about everyone in town, Faith did not, contrary to what was thought at the time, immediately think of revenge. She had looked for the people that she knew only to find that the world had moved on without her and, as she thought then, she had been forgotten. The delivery of Mayor Wilkins' gift was an affirmation that someone had cared, someone had remembered, even if it was from beyond the grave. Faith didn't really care what the gift could do or that Wilkins' never really revealed its purpose in the message she received, she treasured it because it was something he'd given her. She never had any intention of using it anyway.
When Faith showed up on Joyce Summers' doorstep it wasn't to get at Buffy, no matter how much she tried to rationalize her behaviour at the time. Instead Faith dusted off her stolen clothes and slicked down her uncombed hair to look presentable when she was going to see the woman a part of her would always wish had been her mother and not Buffy's.
In her surprise at finding the so-called rogue Slayer at her door Joyce reacted badly, and Faith in turn reacted as life had taught her: if someone hurt her she hurt them back, hard. Fortunately for all, the punch that knocked Joyce out that night did no damage besides bruising, and it was the only thing Faith did to Joyce besides ranting and venting at her.
Amusingly enough in retrospect, that one punch thrown in a moment of thoughtlessness would weigh heavier on Faith's mind than a lot of other things she did in life up until then, and she would apologize, profusely and repeatedly, for months before Joyce finally got her to stop.
But back to that one very important night. Faith vented her pain, and Buffy came home. The two of them fought, with no regard for Joyce's furniture and the costs of repairing the house I might add, until they were located in the demolished remains of what had earlier that day been the Summers' living-room.
During the fight Wilkins' device somehow found its way out of Faith's pocket and onto Buffy's hand. Faith when she discovered this of course lunged for it, hands clasped around the metal, and with a bright light the device activated.
Both Faith and Buffy were found unconscious by Joyce whom summoned the rest of us, the old Scoobie gang, although Buffy recovered shortly after we had all gathered there. Faith on the other hand would not entirely come out of her mystically enforced sleep until a whole week later, although she did have episodes of fevered hallucinations during which she spoke, cried and plead... Well, what exactly or to whom is not important now, although I will say that even those most stubbornly opposed to Faith were swayed by pity to give her another chance when through this her past and her actions were cast in a new light.
The gathered team managed to keep Faith away from the police and, somehow, to persuade the Watchers Council to hold back and allow Buffy and Giles to deal with Faith for the moment. Much research was done until finally it was determined what exactly the hand device did: it was designed to allow the wearer to impregnate whoever was touching the device on the other side, regardless of gender.
In short, it had made it so that Buffy got Faith pregnant.
After the shock had settled a fraction it was decided that we needed a mystical means to determine whether or not Faith really was pregnant, since the usual ways were not readily available to the unconscious and wanted girl, and so more research followed. Tara, having been introduced to the group in the days following the fight at the Summers' house, came up with a spell that revealed both that Faith was indeed pregnant, and that the 'father' as it were was none other than Buffy herself.
It was at about this point that Faith finally woke up, and shock had to be put aside in order to keep Faith calm and convince her to stay. All fight left her once Buffy and Joyce together sat down to explain the situation to her, leaving Faith quite meek and quiet for several days while she digested the news.
I was not personally present the day the bomb went off and all the internalized pressure came to the surface for Faith and Buffy both, but through some things mentioned by the one that was there to witness this, Joyce, I was told that there was much screaming and crying but thankfully no violence and little in the way of aggression or accusation. Also according to Joyce, that was the day when Faith and Buffy began doing something that had been much needed for a very long time, and something both were notoriously bad at: talking.
By the time I got there Buffy and Faith had calmed down and formed the truce that would allow for the rebuild of their friendship, and the only traces I could see that something had happened at all were the red-rimmed eyes and tell-tale signs of tears. Buffy could never hide such things from me.
As I mentioned a truce was formed, but more than that, Buffy became extremely protective of Faith. We all were to some extent, partially from the pity we still felt for Faith, but mostly for the fact that this prickly girl carried our little niece inside. Joyce doted on Faith particularly much, and not all of it was for her surprise grandchild's sake either, but none of us came anywhere near the levels of Buffy. We often found ourselves wincing, expecting Faith to blow up at something ridiculously smothering that our anxious Buffy said or did, but that never happened.
Instead Faith, to our great shock, would blush and mostly agree or obey. In fact the girl that usually prided herself on being tougher than nails and having the biggest attitude this side of the Hellmouth spent a lot of her time back then doing just that: blushing around Buffy.
Of course not everything was roses and happily ever after. There was the Watchers' Council, wanting both Faith and the then unborn baby, and it took some major putting her foot down on Buffy's part, not to mention a lot of clever thinking on Giles', to keep the girl at home. In all of Watcher history there had never been a Slayer that gave birth to a child, in fact Giles hinted at that long ago the Watchers had forced a number of Slayers through some... experimental breeding, to be polite about an awful and sordid matter, and the conclusion had after some time been that Slayers just could not reproduce. And here was Faith, a Slayer, not only pregnant but pregnant with another Slayer at that.
To say that the Watchers wanted the child was putting it mildly, and all of us, the Scooby family, swore back then that no matter what, as long as there was even one of us left, the baby would not end up the Watchers' lab rat.
There were other, more immediate threats of course, like Adam and the Initiative. Faith was not allowed to do any Slayer work while she was pregnant, and instead remained at the Summers' home with Joyce, settling in and even tentatively putting down some roots. Buffy stayed at home so much between school and slaying that by the time she, full of apologies of course, decided to officially pack her things and move back home it came as no surprise to anyone.
Not even to Riley Finn.
The moving back home, or rather the reason she was doing it for, did not sit well with her increasingly neglected boyfriend, and though I once more was not present for this conversation, I know quite a few harsh words were exchanged. Riley tried an ultimatum, the details of which Buffy never told me, and when Buffy brushed it aside as ridiculous he apparently said some things that earned him a slap and Buffy a blush when she told me about it the next day. The break-up was as unpleasant as it was final, and although it sent Riley right back to the Initiative and undoubtedly caused us all some additional grief, I had to wholeheartedly approve of the decision. Frankly a few of the things he did and said afterwards made my fingers itch for a shovel, let me tell you that.
Someone else who wholeheartedly approved of Buffy's decision was Faith. Oh she did not make a big deal out of it, not like she pulled out big banners and balloons over the whole thing or anything of the sort, but she smiled a lot more. Big, unfettered and frankly adorable smiles that coupled with the power of dimples and a flirtatious look had Buffy on the receiving end of quite a few blushes herself.
As I've already mentioned it was all terribly adorable, although I can't take credit for discovering what was going on between them myself. I was at the time quite occupied with my own romantic entanglements, particularly when my ex-boyfriend came back home out of the blue and fully expected me to take him back. Well, this story is neither about me nor about Oz, so I shall say no more about that than to say that this was why I was not paying as much attention to my best friend as I should have, and insightful Tara was the one to tell me what was going on.
It probably helped that Tara, despite the shyness and low sense of self-esteem that she wrestled with back then, had reached out and managed to befriend Faith. Coming from similarly abusive backgrounds and both of them feeling like outsiders to our tight-knit group at the time, it was probably easier for them to connect. Although one would have thought their personalities would clash badly, with Tara getting hurt for it, it was clear rather quickly that Tara's gentle and caring nature was something Faith treasured, and somehow the two of them managed to draw out unexpected sides in one another.
Just as it was Tara that sat me down and explained what was happening between my best friend and her pregnant partner, it was Faith that sat Buffy down and talked her through her initial awkwardness with finding out about my relationship with Tara. The conversation we had afterwards, when Buffy had screwed up her courage enough to come to me to talk about her feelings for Faith, was one to remember and cherish always. Buffy was so nervous at first that she was completely incoherent, stumbling into full babble-mode before I helped her out and just told her I knew that she was in love with Faith.
'Not just in love, Will... She's the other part of me.' Buffy told me, more solemnly than she had ever said anything before in the years I'd known her. The effect was then ruined by her having a nervous fit over whether or not Faith could ever feel the same, how to tell her, and what Joyce would say. Naturally my reassurances and advice fell on deaf ears, and so it would take several months before Buffy would broach the subject with either of them.
I will say this about that period in the courtship of Buffy and Faith, it was amusing and most of all incredibly cute to behold. In their efforts to be sweet to one another they slipped further and further into outright couple-y things, and we who watched said nothing. When Buffy stopped on her way back home from school to buy some flowers for Faith, I said nothing. Walking in on Faith tenderly running her fingers through Buffy's hair where they sat on the couch with Buffy sound asleep, I said nothing. But I hoped for their sakes that they would say something to one another, and soon.
Adam was taken care of and the Initiative shut down, Riley Finn and the other soldier boys relocating, and for several months there was nothing more serious than vampire activity going on. Faith got big enough to wear only maternity clothing and complained about it, loudly and with great frequency, but having Buffy swoon at the sight of her, or press the side of her face against the swell seemed to make up for Faith not being able to wear her beloved leather pants anymore.
I lost count of the times I walked in on the two of them feeling the baby kick, Buffy rubbing Faith's back or her feet, or Buffy goofily trying to coach Faith through whatever birth-training programs Joyce, Giles and Anya, of all people, suggested that week. On Tara's suggestion the expectant mothers had a few wiccan rituals done as well, nothing spell-related as such, just a few blessings for unborn children and their mothers, for good health, protection and easy delivery.
It was certainly a lot sweeter and more positive than Anya's running around threatening Xander, and anyone else that had the misfortune of mentioning anything that she could overhear, with bodily harm if he spoke of buying something for the baby before she was born, citing that it was bad luck and that she was really just protecting the little one. Anya meant well though, and although I could tell that Buffy got annoyed with her at times, she and Faith were amiable about it, appreciating her concern. Eventually Xander at least got the permission from his superstitious girlfriend to begin building the crib that would be his present to the new baby, but as it was he didn't quite manage to get it finished in time.
As mentioned before in this little account of mine, months had passed where the supernatural activities were low and things were quiet. Buffy, Xander and I had a brief encounter with a pretentious vampire who claimed he was Dracula, but whether he was or not, the moment he somehow managed to get Joyce to invite him inside the house Faith, grumpy and waddling though she was at the time, grabbed the leg of a chair and dusted him in the hallway. Repeatedly in fact, as it turned out that this particular vampire had unusual recuperative powers, until Faith got Joyce to bring out the holy water. Dracula, or whoever he might have been, was dusted and flamed before what little ash remained was swept up and thrown in the trash.
What we didn't realize at the time was that Dawn had suddenly appeared among us, all of our memories altered by the powerful spell that gave her form, making us believe that she, as Buffy's little sister, had been there all along. Looking back at it now it amazes me that none of us thought it at all odd that Faith, whom until then had lived in the spare room that then became Dawn's, shared room and bed with Buffy despite the two of them not having confessed their feelings for one another at that point. But a lot of things passed us by with far too little notice back then, the first encounters with Glory and her minions were not treated nearly serious enough, and no connection was made to the epidemic of crazy people going on. Instead we were occupied with things like the case of the two Xanders, and of course Joyce's progressing illness.
Whether it was worry for her new maternal figure that caused it, or if it was just something we should have expected with the unusual nature of the pregnancy, Faith went into labour one night quite unexpectedly, and well over a month before her due date.
The denizens of Sunnydale were on their own for that night as all of us, but most importantly Buffy, were busy with far more important things at the hospital. The deliver itself was... hard on Faith because it was too easy. She had a very speedy delivery and had to fight her own body's need to bear down and push every step of the way, since Slayer strength even in a situation like that is a force to be reckoned with and we all feared the baby might be injured. Buffy held Faith's hand through it all, afterwards I noticed her wincing and discreetly pushing a few broken bones back in place when Faith wasn't looking.
Despite being born prematurely, my precious niece was big and strong and beautiful like her mothers, and of course healthy to the point the nurses eyed us all with suspicion. We didn't know it right away of course, but this little miracle, this child of two Slayers, was indeed different from other children. As a baby she was quiet, didn't really cry or complain, and once it was dark around her she wouldn't let out even the tiniest peep. Fortunately both her mothers had some kind of instinctive knowledge of exactly what she needed and when she needed it, even if they were sound asleep at the time. Later we would also find out that my little niece appeared to have inherited her mothers' increased strength, speed and agility, when she as a toddler found breaking out of even the sturdiest crib to be no challenge at all.
Returning to the days after Faith was released from the hospital with my niece, well, there were always a number of us there during the days, those of us in school could barely be pried away with a crowbar from the newest and littlest Summers long enough to attend it. In a matter of days more things than one little infant could hope to have used before she ceased to be an infant were amassed, and if Faith and Buffy themselves had not still been in a state of stunned fascination over the wonder they had created I am sure they would have tossed us all out for being too smothering in our attention. Although to our defence at least our presence meant that there were always helping hands around the house, and sparring partners available when Faith threw herself into training to become her fit self again whenever her baby girl was napping.
Personally I suspect Slayer recuperative powers to have intervened there, although of course Faith's self-imposed training was insanely intense, as it seems she managed to become more fit than ever in no time at all. Despite still not allowed to go on patrol Faith managed to have several fights with Spike at about that time, probably because the Billy Idol-wannabe vampire always seemed to be lurking around the house. On Faith's request Tara and I de-invited him from the house, as well as having a few protective charms and alarm spells added in place for the baby's protection.
Any actions against Spike were temporarily put on hold as Joyce's health took a turn for the worse and she ended up hospitalized for a while, undergoing surgery for her brain tumour. Although the surgery went well, for a short while afterwards Joyce acted 'crazy', enough so in fact that when the Queller demon was unleashed on Sunnydale, it somehow found its way to the Summers' house. Although the mystic alarms for some reason did not register an extraterrestrial demon, with both the new mothers having their already super-level senses heightened even more to any small sound in the house the Queller was dealt with swiftly and viciously by two angry Slayers. Unfortunately that was not the worst of Joyce's troubles.
Faith apparently had a bad feeling when Joyce felt dizzy one day, and called the hospital. Joyce was rushed in immediately, her situation serious enough that the doctors cautioned us that she might not make it, but in the end that Summers' stubbornness pulled through.
When the doctor told us that what had saved Joyce's life was that she had gotten to the hospital when she did, the already crying Buffy threw her arms around Faith, kissed her, and amidst much sobbing thanked her and told her that she loved her, repeatedly.
During those pivotal months so much happened. The truth about Dawn being the Key, the constant attacks of Glory, the confrontation that finally put the Watchers in their place, the random assortment of supernatural interference through rampaging trolls and lovesick vampires – Faith and Buffy sent Spike packing out of Sunnydale when his feelings for Buffy were revealed – and even, come to think of it, rampaging robot girls.
Even amongst all this Faith and Buffy found a few small moments to date at long last. Being the already established lesbian couple of the Scooby family Tara and I, aside from being called in for babysitting and protecting the other members of the Summers family, were the ones our dear Slayer friends came to for advice. While Faith went to Tara for advice on romance, wooing and successful dates, Buffy came to me for information on the more... intimate aspects of being with another woman, a conversation I since have tried very hard to forget and shall never mention again. Suffice to say that as advice-givers we did very well indeed, regardless of embarrassment level and babble urges, at least if the smiling rounds of hugs and thanks we would later receive were anything to go by.
The happy days were short-lived though, through no fault of our own, as things went from serious to absolutely insane with Glory and her minions. When Glory came for my Tara, believing her to be the Key, we somehow managed to hurt her enough that the hellgod left on her own, apparently not wanting to expend any more effort over someone whom she had already determined was not her much wanted Key after all. We were lucky, while the Summers' home had a huge gaping new hole right into the once again demolished living-room, the only damage beyond bruising to any of us was Tara's broken arm and busted lip. Before you think me callous, I do not brush aside Tara's injuries or her pain, I am merely saying that we were lucky then that it was an encounter we could all walk away from.
And walk away we did, in the sense that Buffy, Faith and the others could no longer stay in the house. Things were packed in a hurry and my parents' home was made a temporary place to stay for the Summers' family, Giles, Tara and myself. My parents were of course not home, nor had they been for months, so there was no reason why we could not all hide out there.
Then Glory got it into her insane head that the Key was my little niece, and while the relocation to my family's home threw her minions momentarily as they were not likely to have seen me go there before, they did locate us by following Xander. Glory came and there was fighting, yet another house joined the ranks of the demolished, but more importantly, despite all our efforts, Glory made to take off with her prize.
Dawn stopped her, brave little Dawnie, by screaming at the hellgoddess to take her instead for she was the real Key. As much as we had all fought to protect her, Dawn couldn't let her baby niece be hurt because of her.
Glory grabbed Dawn and left us all in the wreckage. For a long moment Buffy seemed to go into some severe kind of shock while the rest of us clambered to our feet, but thankfully Faith, after handing the baby to Joyce, grabbed hold of her girlfriend and... well, she stared at her really hard for a long moment, I really don't know what that was about, but it worked somehow. Buffy snapped out of her stupor and the lot of us went to Giles' Magic Box to regroup and plan our attack.
Tara did a locator spell on Dawn, and all of us save Joyce and my niece set out armed to the teeth for our grand do-or-die. It nearly came to that, too, but after all, we had two Slayers on our side. While Buffy kept Glory occupied with the help of the enchanted Troll hammer, Tara and I gave Faith a flying boost right up to the top of the rickety tower where Dawn was held. Although we never learned what he was called, one of the strongest servants of Glory was already up there, and Faith took a terrible beating at his hands. She did not however let him pass her and get to Dawn, and finally she managed to take his head almost completely off before she threw him off the tower.
His corpse was one of those Giles later made sure to cut apart and burn alongside of that of Glory's human form as a safety precaution, although against what Giles would not say, only mutter about it under his breath when he thought we did not notice.
Regardless of how grisly it had been, or how hard, or how battered and hurt we were, we had won. Sure, we had a lot of bruises, broken bones and two demolished houses to show for it, but we were alive, and that was a lot more than we for a while there had thought we would have. The Summers' family stayed with Giles for a while after that, cramped though his home was for all of them, until some creativeness on my part ensured that my parents' house was renovated. We then all stayed there until the Watchers Council had levelled the remains of the house on Revello Drive, building a much larger, Slayer-specialized and considerably Hellmouth-safer house in its place.
During the year and a half that followed the final battle with Glory things were quiet in Sunnydale. Demons came and went and vampires were present as ever, but no new big bad stepped up to take Glory's place. The biggest events of this time in terms of the supernatural were Dawn parking with a vampire boy during her brief stint of teenage rebellion, and Xander summoning the song-and-dance demon in a fit of pre-marital jitters. We came through those things none the worse for wear, at most we were left with the knowledge that I cannot carry a tune to save my life, while Faith has an amazing singing voice and my Tara of course is an absolute goddess.
Since Xander chose to propose to Anya in the midst of the chaos surrounding Glory it was no great surprise that the actual wedding was chaotic as well. Although I must say Anya's demons behaved better than Xander's relatives, and with a bit of Slayer intervention when an old enemy of Anyanka's decided to crash the party, everything went well in the end. I admit that I was far too preoccupied with Tara to pay any attention when Buffy and Faith snuck away for some privacy after the ceremony, however my best friend was only too eager to tell me that when they had stepped out of sight for a moment alone and to talk, one thing had led to another and suddenly Faith had proposed. Awkwardly and not exactly in the conventional way, but a proposal was a proposal, and a deliriously happy Buffy was the result.
Unlike Xander and Anya Faith and Buffy were in no hurry to head to the altar. Simple engagement rings were exchanged and with Giles' help all kinds of paperwork was dealt with, but the two them did not have their handfasting ceremony until their little girl was four years old.
Looking at my friends now I have to say that married life, as well as parenthood, agrees with them. Whatever life on the Hellmouth decides to throw at them, I know they will pull through. And I and the other Scoobies will be here watching over them.
The End