Faith goes looking for her father to answer some of her questions left by her mother's return. Buffy tries to help as best she can, leading her to ask questions about her own relationship with her father and whether she should do the same.
I look up at Faith as she talks to Giles on the phone.
We shouldn't just jump to any conclusions without thinking things through first. That way lies badness. Faith wanted to go straight to her dad being some kind of demon that she had to slay. But I made sure to talk her down and call Giles before she did anything. Gave her a whole speech about how bad she would feel if she did something and ended up being wrong. She seemed to buy it. At least enough that she wasn't going to do anything drastic. Not until we know for sure.
Which is exactly what we're doing now. Or hoping to be doing right now talking with Giles. I'm sure he'll have some kind of explanation that will tell us what we need to know. He always does. It's kinda what he's always done for me, even when I didn't necessarily agree. He makes me see things from a different angle. Gives me an explanation for things I hadn't considered before. Like I'm trying to be with Faith right now.
Although I'm not sure that I'm doing the best job with the way things are going. I was supposed to keep her in check and not have her fly off the handle. Thinking she should kill her dad isn't exactly keeping her under control. Hopefully Giles will have better luck and we'll be able to work things out better. Otherwise we could be into a serious problem on top of everything. One way for Faith to fix things with her father is to kill him if he's a demon. It would not only help her with her daddy issues but also the whole supernatural mobsters thing.
Wrapping things up into a tight little bow. Not that things are ever that simple with us. I'm sure it would have all kinds of fall out for her like it did with her mom. She's had a lot more time to deal with what went down between them but I'm not sure she's completely over it. And adding all this on top of it? She's not going to think things through that well.
"You're sure?"
Sounds like she got something good from him.
"Okay... I'll tell B."
Good to know.
"Thanks G-man."
She hangs up the phone and just stands there for a while, not saying anything.
I should probably just ask.
"So... what did he say?"
A few more moments pass before she says anything.
"He thinks it was me."
What?
"You? You how?"
"My blood... with the transfusion. Apparently, it's a thing that happened with a few other slayers. They gave their blood to people and some of them recovered and had slayer abilities."
Wait...
"Does that mean... is your father a slayer now?"
She starts to move back over towards me.
"No... he said it's like an adrenaline boost. He'll be amped up for a while but..."
I get it.
"Eventually it wears off."
"So... we just have to figure out what to tell him until it's out of his system."
Hmm...
"Well, I'm sure whatever we come up with, at least it'll solve one problem."
She sits down across from me at the table with a confused look on her face.
"What's that?"
"If your dad is all super charged, then we can relax on the whole trying to protect him thing. He's a lot safer if he can defend himself."
Her face gets a little more worried.
"What?"
She takes a deep breath.
"My mom might've been an evil sociopath, but my dad was the impulsive one. Any time my mom would forget to feed me, my dad would try to make up for it. He would do all kinds of crazy things like take me out for breakfast."
Why doesn't she sound happy about that?
"That sounds nice."
"Except that we couldn't afford to go out and eat. So he spent more money then we had. And that meant I had to do without other things, like clothes that don't have holes in them, or a way to get to school other than walking, and having to steal blankets from dumpsters because we didn't have heat in the winter."
That sounds pretty crappy.
"I'm sorry."
Faith smiles back.
"My point is... my dad doesn't always think things through. If he actually figures out that he's got super strength or whatever?"
"You're worried he might bite off more than he can chew."
"Or someone might chew on him."
I take a deep breath.
"Okay, well... what do you want to do? Should we, you know, tell him?"
Our eyes meet for along moment.
"About slayers? With vampires and everything?"
I give her a sympathetic smile.
"Do you think he could handle it?"
After a while she shrugs.
"Not sure. I mean, obviously he saw what happened with those two guys we took out. What they were and all that. He probably has some idea. But..."
She pauses for a moment and I kinda push for the question.
"What?"
"Do I tell him about mom? What she really was? Who he was really married to?"
I'm not sure how to answer that.
"I don't know Faith. I mean, you probably don't want to lead with that. Maybe see how he handles the whole 'vampires are real' thing first. It's kind've a lot."
She smiles back.
"You're right. But let's make sure he doesn't go nuts and screw things up."
"Good plan. He's supposed to be in the hospital until tomorrow right?"
"Yeah... if he stays."
"You don't think he would?"
She shrugs.
"He's broke remember? He isn't going to stick around to pay his hospital bills."
Right...
"We should probably keep an eye on him then."
Hopefully we can keep him out of trouble.
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