Buffy crossed her arms and shifted, as she studied her unexpected visitor. The rest of the gang didn't seem as surprised as she was, except Andrew who's reaction had been as subtle as usual. It was actually kind of concerning how desensitized everyone had gotten over the years, to impossible things happening. Mostly, everybody looked like they were waiting for her to punch Faith. Even Faith! Which was totally not fair, since when was she the violent one to worry about?

"So, you're not dead."

Faith smiled a little at that, though somewhat guiltily, and relaxed stepping a bit closer to Buffy. Her smile slowly turned into a mischievous smirk, that indicated that Buffy probably wasn't going to like what she said next. Of course she was proven right, immediately.

"Neither are you. Which, frankly, might be more surprising considering the number of times you've bitten the dust. Tryin to set a record there, B.?"

Alright, Buffy was kind of reconsidering that whole not punching Faith, thing. She was a big girl, she could take it. Giles stepped forward before Buffy could turn her train of thought into a reality, and grabbed Faith's shoulder gently. Faith flinched, but leaned into his hand a moment later, and glanced at him questioningly. Giles simply raised a warning eyebrow, and Faith seemed to pick up on what he was saying. Buffy tried not to feel too jealous over their connection, she thought she had gotten over this stuff years ago.

"What? B. knows I was just jokin." Faith sounded like she meant her protest, but Buffy could just barely make out a bit of uncertainty in her expression. Whether it was because she hadn't been joking or she wasn't sure that Buffy knew she was doing so, was up for debate.

Buffy frowned a little as she realized that she didn't know Faith well enough to know which way she meant her comment. However, she did know Giles, and from his sympathetic look, it probably meant that Faith wasn't certain she would know it was a joke. Which was ridiculous, almost nothing Faith said was to be taken seriously, now just really wasn't the time for goofing around.

"Well, right now might not be the best time for jokes. I imagine that nobody is overly pleased with us at the moment." Giles took his glasses off and began to clean them.

"You got that right! Explain yourselves! Seriously, I'm really confused here." Xander said, starting off almost yelling, before he managed to tone it down to conversational.

Giles slid his glasses back on very deliberately, as if he wanted to make sure that he could see Xander while he glared at him. Xander raised a hand as though to rub the back of his hand, before changing his mind at the last second, and putting his hands on his hips instead, and looking Giles in the eye. They had been doing this lately, passive-aggressively struggling for the Alpha male role. Usually Xander still went with most of what Giles said, but he was trying to be an equal now, as well.

Regardless, so not the point, at the moment. Buffy nodded to Faith to answer Xander. Faith shifted, uncrossed her arms and pushed slightly off the wall she had been leaning on.

"Alright, so that whole being dead thing was a bit of an, uh," Faith waved her hand by her head for a moment as she groped for the word, before brightening as she found it. " An exaggeration," she shrugged carelessly, after her somewhat anticlimactic, and very vague statement.

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "An exaggeration. Right. Okay, well as fond of your tall tales as we've all always been, F, why don't we just get to the part where you tell us exactly why we've all been under the impression that you've been dead for three years?"

"Oh, yeah that. I faked the whole dead thing. At this moment I am in fact alive, just in case anyone wasn't clear on that."

"Wait, you said at this moment. Did you die?" Dawn asked, looking surprised and curious.

"Oh, no. Good catch though, I should have phrased that better. I have not yet died, ever. Wouldn't want to go stepping on B.'s toes." Faith responded and grinned at Buffy. For some reason, she seemed to think that yet another jab at Buffy would be something she would find amusing.

Buffy huffed out a breath and dragged her hands through her hair.

"We got that part, Faith. You're obviously not dead, so can we just-"

"Hey, you don't know that for sure. I could be a vamp. for all you know. Haven't exactly kept in touch with ya. You guys would probably never be able to tell the difference in my personality. Plus, I'm pretty sure I'd dress almost exactly the same as I do now."

"I'm pretty sure you're not a vampire. You walked into my home without an invitation, which real cool of you guys, and you're standing in front of a mirror right now. And I would totally notice if you were all different, and vampirey."

Faith raised a disbelieving eyebrow at the last part of Buffy's statement, which was admittedly not spoken with as much confidence as she would have liked.

"Good points, B. " Faith nodded at Buffy, before seemingly getting distracted by the aforementioned mirror, and started taming her slightly mussed hair.

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "You have the attention span of a gnat."

"You would be amazed by the number of times I've been told that." Faith responded, pointing at her and nodding to emphasis her statement.

"No. I really wouldn't."

Faith did her sarcastic grin thing, and opened her mouth to reply before being cut off by Dawn.

"If you guys are done flirting, I thought we were wondering why Faith faked her death, and even weirder, why Giles helped her?"

"We weren't flirting!" Buffy argued vehemently, as she looked at the rest of the gang, who either appeared, amused, bored, or just confused.

"Yo, speak for yourself, B."

"Wait, what?"

"So, why did you help her Giles?" Willow interrupted.

"Oh, er, because she asked me to." Giles answered seriously.

"Okay, did you guys make a pact before coming here to make this as long and as painful of a process as you possibly could, or what?" Buffy asked.

"I'm sorry Buffy, I wish I could give you a better answer, but I don't have one. Faith came to me three years ago, and asked me to help her disappear. Of course I asked her why, but she insisted that it was better if I didn't know. That I should trust her. Since I did, I do, I agreed to help her, without knowing the exact details."

Faith looked touched, and gave Giles a small smile, that he returned.

"Kicking yourself for that one now, aren't you?" Buffy said, tapping her fingers on her arm, and trying to pretend that she had intended to say that, and it wasn't something that had just slipped out uncontrollably.

Faith frowned a little at that, before shrugging and turning to stare at the wall with affected disinterest. Giles looked unhappy and stepped forward, no doubt to reproach Buffy. She raised a hand to stop him.

"That was uncalled for, I'm sorry." Buffy tilted her head away and flicked her eyes over Faith, before studying the floor. "Before you left, you were doing really good."

"S'cool B. Thanks for the props, I appreciate it." Faith looked almost bashful for a moment, then ran her fingers through her hair, messing it up again, and grinned.

"So, why did you do it?" Buffy asked softly, enjoying this moment, and somewhat ignoring everyone around them.

"Can't recall." Alright, moment over.

"Faith!" Nearly every person in the room managed to shout in sync. It was actually kind of impressive.

"Wow, did you guys practice that?"

Buffy stepped forward threateningly. Faith looked more amused than anything else, but went ahead and continued.

"Honestly, I can't remember anything from the past few years. There was an incident." Faith hedged.

"Amnesia, you have amnesia. Of course you do, because everything in my life has to be a giant complication."

"Well, geez. Sorry that years the years of my life that I can't remember, makes things inconvenient for you, B." Faith said with frustration straining her voice, shaking her head incredulously, and digging in her pockets, pulling out a pack if cigarettes and a lighter. Buffy didn't have it in her to tell Faith that she would rather the other girl didn't smoke in her apartment. She made a mental note to mention it at a better time, later.

"I didn't mean it like that." Buffy said.

Luckily Willow jumped in before Faith could do more than scoff and roll her eyes.

"What kind of incident are we talking about? If it's magic related, I could probably work something out, see about getting your memories back."

"Thanks Red, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything magical. A few Slayers I had trained had taken me in. They said I..." Faith trailed off for a moment before incoherently mumbling what had happened to her.

" Did anybody hear her?" Xander asked looking around.

"I said! Ugh, I fell off a buildin and went into a coma for a few weeks! That's all." Faith finished. Buffy could have sworn she saw her blushing before she ducked her head, letting her hair hide her face.

"Isn't that like your fourth?" Andrew asked.

"Fifth." Faith muttered.

"Where do you keep finding these buildings to fall off of? You must have set a world record for coma's by now, woman!" Xander sounded impressed.

"They're around." Faith snapped irritably.

"So, you have no idea why you've been away because you fell into a coma, and woke up with amnesia? Also, who are these Slayers that would keep information like you being not dead, from me?" Buffy said.

"One, yeah, I was told, it's all likely to come back to me eventually. Two, not telling you who they are, don't want ya going off on em, just because they did what I asked em to. Three, why so hung up on the amnesia thing?"

"I wouldn't 'go off' on anybody, probably, and why aren't you more hung-up on it? If I didn't know what had happened to me, I don't know how I would be reacting, but as calm as you are is probably not it. I'm pretty sure I would be freaking out."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I'm not you then." Faith remarked a little sullenly.

"Faith-"

"Look, I'm sorry B. I am a little freaked, didn't mean to go shooting my mouth off like that. It's just, ya'know, nothing bad's happened yet. I'm king of hoping that whatever happened worked out, that I managed to take care of it. The girls said that I seemed to be in pretty good spirits, before I lost my memories. So it probably did. If it didn't, if something went really bad, and hey it's me so I wouldn't discount that theory yet, then maybe it's better that I don't remember."

Buffy remembered how convincingly careless Faith could be even when she was a complete wreck inside, and wasn't all that comforted by whatever whoever Faith had been hanging with, had said.

"That doesn't-look, we're not going to accomplish anything tonight, it's late. Now, we know everything that Giles and Faith do, we can get back together tomorrow. See if we can find anything on what's been happening, then."

Most of the gang didn't seem that pleased, but nobody had any better ideas, so there wasn't a lot that they could do about it. They shuffled out slowly, Xander stopping to awkwardly pat Buffy's shoulder, and nod to Faith. Faith made a move as though to leave, before Buffy grabbed her arm.

"You and Giles should just stay here, you'll be back in the morning anyway, seems weird to make you guys go out hunting for a hotel room."

Faith looked uncertain, but with an encouraging glance from Giles accepted her offer.

_________

Buffy groaned, and rolled over to check the clock on her nightstand for the time, as she was woken up by the sounds of someone rummaging around in her kitchen. Six A.M. Who the heck would get up at six if they didn't have to? It couldn't be Dawn, she never got up before noon when she was home for break from school.

Buffy tried to fall back to sleep, but it just wasn't happening today. Sighing, she got up and walked down the hall. Who should she find complacently sitting on the counter with a bowl of cereal in her hands, but Faith. Of course, should have figured that one right away, not like there were many people in the place. Besides, who else could annoy her so much before the day had even started.

"Sup, B." Faith waved at her with her spoon, and looked not the least bit tired. Her hair was a little messy, but surprisingly still appealing, similar to the wild look she'd sported in Sunnydale the first time.

"Uh, huh." Buffy grunted in Faiths' general direction. She squeezed between the small island in the middle of the room, and Faith's legs, to start up a pot of coffee. Afterwards she reached for the box of cereal resting beside Faith, and pulled out a bowl, only to find that the box was empty. Great.

She looked at Faith who was doing her best to look innocent, but was also very much losing a war with her smirk. It was like she just couldn't stop herself from messing with Buffy. Buffy felt her anger growing, it wasn't like she cared about the cereal, she had bagels, a bagel actually sounded pretty good, should of thought of that first.

It was Faith's way of being infuriating without actually doing anything wrong. If she snapped at her now she'd look crazy, besides it looked like Faith would really enjoy that. Any confirmation that she was getting under Buffy's skin had always been a pure joy for Faith back in the day, and it turns out that three years and a coma later changed nothing.

"Everything going good, there B? You look a little mad."

Faith was goading her, Buffy knew that logically, but she decided that she didn't care.

"Who wouldn't be angry! You ate all of my cereal, and faked your death for three years!"

Faith seemed to be mulling that over calmly, nodded as though to say 'good point', and swallowed a mouthful of her breakfast.

"So, are you more mad about the cereal or the not dead, thing? Cause I can get you more cereal. The other thing is a little more complicated."

"Hmmm, let me think about that, it's a real toughy. Definitely the cereal."

Faith gave an exaggerated mock offended look.

"So, you don't care about whether I'm alive or dead? What a shock! I never saw it coming."

Buffy rolled her eyes as she popped her bagels into the toaster. Faith and her dramatics. She had actually kind of missed them.

"Alright, maybe I cared a little. The affection is waning though. If you wanted me to like you, you shouldn't have woken me up at six in the morning. What are you, of all people, doing up this early anyway?"

"I've always been a morning person."

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"How so?"

Buffy didn't really have an answer. She had just sort of assumed. Faith seemed like the type to appreciate sleeping in. Besides, if you're a Slayer a lot of your life is happening at night, that makes mornings for sleeping.

"Because I said so. Be quiet."

Faith grinned and winked, but didn't say another word. Buffy hummed approvingly, and grabbed her food. They ate in surprisingly companionable silence, and it was Buffy who broke it.

"So, any ideas on what you're going to do now?"

"I'll go where I'm needed. Looks like you've got Cleveland covered, maybe I'll try out Europe again. Angel still hanging out with the Brits?"

"Yeah, he is, last I heard anyway. You don't have to leave right away. We still don't know what happened to you, beyond your penchant for falling off buildings, you could need our help. Or, who knows, maybe we'll need yours."

"The Big Bads usually aren't subtle, I'm sure if somethin's up I'll know soon enough. I'll be alright on my own."

"I know you would be, Faith. You don't really have to though, if you don't want to. "

Faith placed her bowl in the sink slowly, before leaning forwards with her elbows on her knees.

"Do you want me to stay?"

"If you want to stay."

"I didn't ask about what I want. I asked you what you wanted."

"Okay...stay."

"Really?" Faith seemed shocked, but pleased. She tried to play it cool, though, pulling out her lighter, before she could do anything else, Buffy grabbed her hand. Faith raised an eyebrow.

"Now seems like a good time to tell you, no smoking in the house."

Faith shrugged, and put it away. Buffy heard the sound of a door opening, and someone walking down the hallway, and from the way Faith's ears practically perked up, she did too. Giles stopped in the doorway, and looked astounded as he checked his watch. Faith rolled her eyes.

"Yes, we're up, it's early, and Faith and I aren't trying to kill each other. Stop gawking."

"I apologize, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"You didn't, not really. I think we said all that we were going to this morning."

"Well, I was probably going to tease you about something, but pretty much yeah. We're good."

Buffy shook her head, and pinched Faith's thigh. Faith flinched a little, but didn't stop smiling.

"So, I'm staying in Cleveland, G."

"You are? That's good, a bit unexpected, but I'm glad to hear it. You would be a great help with the girls, and I think it will be good for you to be around friends, after everything you've been through recently."

"Friends, yeah." Faith gave Buffy an odd glance, and Buffy blushed.

"It'll be good to have you." She said sincerely, and unable to look Faith in the eye.