The bar was just what she was looking for: low key, not overly populated, and had a huge
liquor selection. Faith slid onto a bar
stool and plunked down a twenty. “Shot
of Jack Daniels,” she called to the barkeep.
After downing her first shot it occurred to the Slayer that she didn’t
want to be here alone. “Yo, how long you
open?”
“Last call
is at 1:30, we close the place up at 2:00,” was the answer she received. “I’ll be back with some company,” she smiled
slyly while leaving a tip for the barkeep.
It was only 11:00 now so she had time to do a small sweep of the area
before heading back to the troops.
~~*~~
It had been two weeks since the
Slayers had defeated the First Evil and all the Uber Vamps in Sunnydale. They had lost 5 of the baby Slayers that
morning, and Robin had died four days later after fighting a horrible fever and
blood loss. The lot of them had traveled
in the school bus until Giles had thought it safe enough to stop at a hotel. This was the second stop the group had made
and Faith wasn’t sure how much more of the togetherness she could take. She could feel the urge to take off pushing
closer each day, but didn’t want to leave just yet. There was something she needed to do first,
and for once in her life she didn’t want to do it by herself. Mentally running down her options, she
narrowed it down to two people. Willow
was the obvious choice since she’d had her own issues with the Dark, but she’d
been so cuddly with Kennedy that Faith didn’t even bother going there. With the girls being 2 to 4 to a room she
just couldn’t deal with the extra estrogen.
That left her second choice:
Giles. If anyone else had a dark
side, it was the head Watcher now that the others were all gone. With that thought in mind, Faith headed to
the room Giles was at in the hotel.
~~*~~
She knocked on the door and
waited thirty seconds before pounding on the door. A befuddled Giles answered the door seconds
later. He’d obviously just gotten out of
bed and was quite un-tweedy. Giles
blinked at the dark Slayer standing in the hallway and asked the first question
that popped into his mind. “Faith what
the Bloody Hell is so important you need to wake me at” here he stopped to
glance at the clock in his room “11:45?”
“Get some clothes on, G” she
replied with a small smile. “I found a
bar with your name on it and believe it or not I don’t want to go there by
myself.”
Giles frowned at Faith then
sighed his trademark Slayer sigh. “All
right just give me a moment and I’ll accompany you.” He moved to turn away then, came back to
closely peruse Faith. “What exactly are
you planning on drinking at this bar?”
“Alcohol” she answered
cheekily. “I’ll buy first round, but you
better hurry your British ass up or I’m going to get tequila.”
“Oh dear Lord,” Giles murmured
with horror. “I’ll be right out. How far is this place?”
“Not far and they don’t close
up ‘til 2:00 so get a move on, G. I’ll
explain once we’re on our way.”
“Fine, just give me a moment,”
the Watcher replied as he shut the door in her face.
“So why am I accompanying you
to a bar in the middle of the night?” Giles queried as he walked with Faith in
the direction of said bar.
“Because we need to say some
goodbyes before we go any farther on this merry-go-round ride,” Faith shot
back. “I know it hasn’t been my style,
but I learned a few things in jail and one of those was bottling shit up just
makes it worse. So I figured you and me
would go have a drink and remember those we lost.”
Giles stopped in surprise for a
moment then began walking again to catch up with Faith, who had not slowed
down. “But why would you want to do this
with me? It’s not like you and I have
ever been close….”
Faith let out a frustrated
breath and spun around to face him.
“Yeah it’s not like I’ve been close with any of you Scoobies, but you’re
what I’ve got so trying to make the best of it here. If you don’t want to be here, just head back
to the hotel. Me, I’m going to drink
some Jack and remember those who died so the rest of us could still be
here.” After delivering this speech, she
spun around and resumed her course to the bar.
Giles frowned at her back then
picked up his pace to match her definitely faster stride. Coming from Faith this was somewhat of a
revelation and he wanted to support her as much as possible.
Several minutes later Giles
followed the dark Slayer into a small establishment that was clean, had a full
bar, and pool tables in the back. He was
quite grateful to observe there was no dance floor of any kind and the music
being played seemed to be older rock.
Faith sauntered over to the bar and climbed onto a bar stool. “Bottle of Jack D,” she called out to the
barkeeper. “Good Lord, Faith,” he
glanced down at her. “If we’re going to
be drinking a bottle we’re going to drink the good stuff,” and with that he
conversed with the barkeeper to see what they had that he could tolerate. Once an agreement was met, the barkeeper left
the bottle and two shot glasses with them and moved off to handle other
customers.
“Damn, G, this stuff is smooth,”
Faith commented with a pleased sound low in her throat.
“Hmm, quite,” was his
reply. After perusing the bar, Giles
stood and lifted the bottle. “If we’re
going to be remembering those we’ve lost, why don’t we move to that booth over
there so all these lovely people at the bar don’t have to hear us,” he
suggested mildly.
Faith looked around and gave a
curt nod. After grabbing the shot
glasses she sauntered over to the booth he’d indicated and plopped down. Giles sat down opposite her and poured each
of them another shot. “Now, why don’t
you tell me whatever it was you didn’t want to say to Buffy,” he suggested.
Faith contemplated the alcohol
in her shot glass, rolling the glass between her fingers before lifting it to
her lips to take a sip. “One of the
things I had to learn was how to deal with things. You know, not keep them inside so they ate me
up. And losing those girls…it was
tough. I mean, B kept saying that people
died in war and I know that, but they were so YOUNG. I’ve had some dreams about them, so I figured
maybe talking about it would help,” she ventured in one of the longest
conversations she’d ever had with Giles.
After taking a sip of his own
drink, Giles thoughtfully replied “And none of this has anything to do with the
death of Robin? I thought the two of you
had…gotten close,” he added delicately.
Faith’s fingers tightened on
her drink, and then she forced herself to relax. “We had sex Giles,” she ground out. “I only knew the guy for a week and a half. I’m closer to you than I ever was to him, so
no. We didn’t get close. Maybe we would have if he’d lived. But he didn’t. I was much closer to those girls than
Robin.”
“Alright, so what do you want
to talk about?” he asked softly. “I’ll
be happy to drink as much of this as we can before the place closes, but I just
don’t know what you want me to say,” Giles ventured. “You’ve become quite the warrior since your
return, but this is a side of you I’ve never seen. How do you want to….remember the girls?” he
questioned hesitantly.
Faith drew in a breath and let
it out again. Then she threw a small
smile at Giles. “I don’t really
know. Was hoping you could give me some
tips since you’ve been round this block before.
This is all new to me and I don’t really know what I’m doing. You’ve been in some of the same places I
have, so I was hoping you could shed some light on this….whatever this is,” she
finished. Looking up at the Watcher with
nothing but sincerity, she asked, ”How the hell do I get these girls out of my
dreams?”
~~*~~
After sticking around for last
call, the tipsy Slayer and Watcher slowly made their way back to the
hotel. Once there Faith followed Giles
to his room, hesitating before leaving.
She thought of the baby Slayers she was currently rooming with and how
they never stopped talking. Then she
said the first thing that came to her mind.
“Hey, G? If you’ve got a second
bed in there can I crash on it? Those
girls never shut up and I just want some quiet.
I’ll get out of here before anyone else sees. Can I stay?”
she asked plaintively.
Giles took in a breath and
opened the door wider. “Of course.”
Around 10:00 that morning Giles
awoke to a pounding on his door. He also
saw a note lying next to his head on the pillow. “Just a moment,” he called out to whoever was
pounding on his door (check out time was Noon so it was probably one of the
girls.) Opening the note he read:
Thanks for the drink last night, G. I’m taking off for Cleveland, but I’ll call
and give
you my contact info when I get there. Can’t stand the baby Slayers’ spazzing
anymore and you know I do better on my
own. Please let B and the others know I
didn’t bail on them. It’s kind of important that they don’t think
I just went back to
the old ways. And G, if you need me for anything just
holler. I’ve got your back
whenever you need it. Later, and when you get settled have a drink
and think of me. Faith
With a sigh Giles lay back
against his pillow and thought of all he and Faith had talked about. It was with some surprise he realized he
would miss the dark Slayer. But he
didn’t doubt she would stay in touch and if he had need of her there was no
doubt she would answer his call. Getting
out of bed, Giles made his way over to the door to deal with the latest baby
Slayer emergency. It was ironic how much
he and Faith were alike, now that he thought about it. She with the hard exterior, but soft interior
and he with the hard interior, but soft exterior. Giles hoped it wouldn’t be months before he
heard from Faith, but he had much to do in the meantime. Folding up the letter she’d left him, he
opened to door to another day.
