Author’s Notes: Thanks to Kar for betaing two chapters in one day and for taking this ride with me. Thank you to all my readers and reviewers. I’ve had such a great time with this.

In our twenty-first installment Sunnydale welcomes back some characters.

Chapter Twenty-One: Lost and Found

It was still so weird. It still jumped out at her sometimes, coming across it on patrol. Like, Bam, Xander's dead!

She lit a cigarette and turned away, wandering away from his grave. Buffy was beating the shit out of some Faryl. "Need any help, B?"

"No, I'm good," the other slayer grunted.

Faith waited patiently for her to snap the thing's neck. "Think that's enough for tonight? I could use a drink."

She waited for Buffy to give her some sort of holier-than-thou speech about underage drinking considering how she'd gotten a stripe taken off when she'd helped herself to one of the beers in the fridge. She'd be twenty-one in a few months, so she didn't really see what B's problem was.

"Okay," Buffy shocked her by replying. "The Bronze is a good place to finish up patrol anyway."

What was with the sudden attitude shift. "Thought I was in for a lecture."

"Huh?" Buffy twirled the axe like a lethal baton. They were both glad to have it back. They'd agreed to loan it to the Council for Willow to do the spell after two more girls had turned up with knife wounds, eyeless and slashed throats. Girls who weren't in training. Whoever was after them knew about the ones the Council had missed. And those girls needed some way to protect themselves.

Of course that didn't solve the problem that they still needed to find those girls, who were probably confused that they could now bend steel with their bare hands. Willow had a few ideas about that, but Faith wasn't sure they would work. From the stories Buffy told though, it seemed like it was a good idea not to underestimate the redhead.

And she and Buffy were learning to share. After all, they weren't the Chosen Two now. They were the senior members of a whole flock of slayers. A bunch of girls they'd never met, which was even weirder. And was having the bizarre effect of making them closer.

"You went ballistic when I drank one of yours the other night," Faith reminded her.

Buffy frowned. "Oh, that, yeah.... You know, you might as well drink them. No one else is going to." The blonde slayer laid the axe over her shoulder. "Let's drop this off before we hit the club."

It was becoming clearer now. The beers were for Fangless. Who no one had heard from in months.

Of all the surprises she'd found on her return to Sunnydale, the framed photo over Buffy's bed of the Slayer and the Slayer of Slayers decked out in dress clothes and clenching on the dance floor had thrown her most of all.

Tara was waiting for them on the back porch and Dawn came galloping out the door as they approached. Brat was all woman-sized and Faith didn't know what Xander's widow was going to do when the girl had to go back to school in the fall. She wouldn't be able to keep the shop running for the ex-vengence demon. Maybe Giles would come back.

Buffy ran up the walk to meet her sister and then Buff was dropping the weapon and sprinting into the house. Dawn was yelling something after her, but Faith was pretty sure Big Sis had stopped listening. Tara picked up the discarded axe and slipped it in behind the door before joining Dawn on the porch. Joyce came through the door after her.

"You want to come get some coffee with us?" Tara asked.

"Spike's back," Dawn explained. "Their reunion? It's probably going to get loud."

"Dawn!" Joyce scolded. She cleared her throat. "We just think it's best to give them some privacy," she explained.

Faith smirked. "I'm good. Gonna have my smoke and maybe take a walk. You guys go on."

She took a seat on the porch step and lit another coffin nail. There was some yelling and crashing inside, but she was keeping out of it unless she heard her name.

Faith stiffened as she saw a slim, dark figure coming up the sidewalk.

"Are you Buffy Summers?" the young teen asked. She looked scared to death.

"Nope. I'm Faith. You need some help?"

"It's just... I think I might be one of you."


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Buffy drank in the sight of him lounging on her couch. He looked almost the same as when she'd last seen him, but the bruises and cuts were fresh.

"Buffy."

His voice. She was going to melt. Whatever boneheaded thing he'd been off doing, she was pretty certain she was going to forgive him. He'd come back. No one ever came back.

"Buffy?"

She blinked up at him. He looked eager and terrified as he stood and walked slowly toward her. She closed the distance and grabbed his shirt. Pulled him closer for a hot, hungry kiss.

"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded between kisses.

"Things I have to tell you," he panted.

"Right. Things I need to tell you too," she agreed. "But later." She ignored his injuries and held him tight. "Right now I just want to bask. You idiot."

He smiled at her. His genuine smiles were so rare and beautiful. There would be time to talk about all of it, where he'd been, what she'd been through while he was gone. For the moment she just wanted to look at him, touch him, reassure herself that he was there.

Those eyes. She'd missed those eyes on her. She stared into them and felt an alarm in her brain. In his eyes where was a still, sparkling something. A something that hadn't been there before he'd left.

"Oh my God." She felt a weight slam into her chest. She couldn't breath. Suddenly the words Dawn had screamed at her made sense. Tara says he has an aura now.

"A soul," she gasped. "You have a soul?"

She scrambled back from him and grabbed for the nearest stake when the vampire nodded at her.

"Buffy, what--"

"Who the hell are you?" She demanded. "And what have you done with Spike?"



~~ End of Borrowed Time ~~


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What’s that, you say? This can’t really be the end? Well, my beta thought this was too cruel, so soon I shall post an epilogue from the up-coming sequel that will clear things up a bit. Please review!