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.
We run down the street to his apartment building, not sure what we're going to find.
As much as I wanted to believe that he had changed, he's still not the greatest guy in the world. He just ran out on his hospital bill before they could give it to him. I offered to pay for him with the money B and I got from the Council after her mom died, but he still disappeared. I'm guessing there's pretty much only one reason why he would've bolted if it wasn't because of the bill. And that means we're walking into a seriously dangerous situation. There's no telling what he is going to do if he really is all hopped up on slayer blood.
Between B and I, we've had some pretty serious screw ups over the years. Got a little drunk on our own power which made us do stuff we probably shouldn't have. I probably did a lot worse than B, but it's not like she didn't have her screw ups. And I got my craziness as much from him as I did my mom. He could go seriously crazy with this kinda power. If he does, there's no telling what he might end up hurting a lot of people.Which makes it our responsibility to stop it. The biggest question is how we'd actually do it.
Making our way to the place, I rush through the door, passing someone on the way and almost knocking them down as we go up the stairs.
B was right when she said that killing him is the wrong thing. I wanted to just take him out as soon as he looked like a demon with the whole strength thing. She kept me from killing him and making a huge mistake. Now we've got an even bigger problem though. What's happening to him is because of me, because of me giving him my blood. That makes it my fault. Like with Finch, and with the coma, and with B dying to save my life, then coming back and having to deal with that. Not to mention everything with Dawn. This is just like all of it and I have to find a way to fix it.
I can't kill him though. This isn't like what happened with Dawn. The world's not going to end if we don't kill him. And it's not like what went down with Finch either. This wasn't an accident. I knew what I was doing, even if I didn't know how it would affect him. I can't just kill him as a way to solve all my problems. It wouldn't be right, and it probably wouldn't fix them anyway.
I make it to his door first and B stops me.
"What?"
"We can't just go barging in there."
"Why not?"
"Because we don't actually know what we're walking into."
"I think we have a pretty good idea B."
"But we aren't sure. Let's not make any assumptions. Let's just knock."
Without really waiting for an answer from me, she knocks on the door.
I guess we're going the nice route first.
Neither of us have to wait long though as the door comes off its hinges as my dad opens it, mostly to his surprise.
"Damn it... I thought I had a handle on this."
He puts the door down just inside his place before going back to us.
"Hey firecracker. I figured you'd be coming by at some point."
"Well you did skip out on a hospital bill you didn't have to pay."
My dad heads back into his apartment kinda casually.
"I wasn't going to let my daughter pay for me. How would that look?"
What?
"Like someone who actually pays his bills? I told you, it's fine. It wasn't going to be a problem."
"Right... except you were a little vague on how you have the money."
B does her best to explain it herself.
"It's like she said. We make a lot from our work. Not enough to pay the people you owe, but..."
He jumps in at that point.
"Enough to pay my hospital bills, right."
We should probably get to the point though.
"At least we got our money's worth. Seems like you're doing good."
"Yeah, I'm feeling better than good actually. I feel great."
He turns to us and smiles.
"Better than I have in a long time. I'm guessing I have you to thank for that."
B and I look at each other for a second, uncertain.
"What do you mean dad?"
"I've had a few transfusions in my day. I don't usually feel this good after. But then I don't usually have a family member to give me blood. Thank you for that."
There's a long moment where we just stare at each other.
He really just thanked me for what I did. I'm not sure I've ever really heard him say thank you to me for anything. I don't really know how to respond to that.
B fixes the problem for me.
"I'm glad to hear you're feeling better Mr LeHane. Do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"What happened to the door... exactly?"
She's trying to bring it up.
"Oh, yeah... that's... it's been happening a lot lately. I'm not really sure why."
Might as well ask.
"How much is a lot?"
He's silent for a while, thinking about it.
"I don't know. I guess I noticed when I picked up a glass cup and it broke in my hand. I thought that was a little weird. Plus, I've broken more than a few door knobs on the way out, along with other things. It's like I don't know my own strength or something. It's very weird."
That has B and I looking at each other when all I can say is.
"Yeah... weird..."
My ex silently tilts her head towards my dad, trying to get me to go there.
I guess we can't just keep dancing around this.
"Do you really think that it's my blood that did this to you?"
He shrugs.
"I mean... what else could it be? But it doesn't really make any sense that it could be you."
He doesn't think so?
"Why not?"
"Well... you're my daughter and this is the first time I've ever felt like this. So unless you got something from your mother..."
He kinda trails off at that and it's probably because of the look on my face.
"Firecracker?"
I guess this is where we're going.
"Mom wasn't exactly normal... but that's not why this is happening."
B tries to add to things.
"We don't think."
Yeah, that'll help.
My dad gives us a confused look.
"I'm not like other people dad. After you disappeared, I found out that I'm different than other people."
"Different how?"
"I've got skills most people don't have. Stronger, faster and really good hand eye coordination. Better than basically anyone on the planet."
"Okay... but how does that explain what's happening to me? I mean, that's not a thing people get when they have a blood transfusion. If it were, everyone would be trying to steal each other's blood."
B points the obvious.
"Some people are."
"Not helping B."
"Right, sorry."
"It's cause my blood is special. Only a few people ever have it. Like me, or B here."
My dad looks at B for a second, then at me.
"Are you... sisters?"
What?
"Is that why you have the same blood?"
My ex and I look at each other.
She's about as weirded out as I am.
"No dad... no..."
"But, you said you have the same blood and that it had something to do with your mother. So..."
"We're not sisters dad... trust me. B and I... that's not what I'm saying."
"Then what did you mean when you said you have the same blood?"
"I'm... we're... we're what's known as slayers."
His confusion comes back.
"Slayers? Like... contract killers or something?"
"No... no we're not like that. It's more specific than that. Remember how we said we work in conflict resolution? That's what we do, but only for certain types of people. The kinds of people who are ... not normal... like us."
"Not normal?"
"Supernatural people."
B does her best to add context.
"Vampires... specifically."
"Right... those guys you owe money to? They're vampires. And so were the guys we saved you from the first time we met. That's what we meant by we've dealt with people like that before."
"So, you... fight vampires?"
"Yeah..."
"How?"
Probably a good idea to just show him.
Looking at B, she nods then starts looking around the apartment. It isn't long before she spots something and goes over to it. She picks up what looks like a decent size free weight that's probably 25 pounds, carrying it back to us. As she does, she casually flips it in the air like it's a pencil and I look over to my dad who's obviously kinda surprised. Then B takes both heavy weight sides of the thing and crushes them together until they come together. My ex smiles at my dad from his confused look before tossing it over to me like it's a tennis ball. I catch it and kinda half juggle it for fun. Giving my dad a second to adjust to what's happening in front of us, I take both sides of the compressed free weight and pull them back apart.
With it partly back to normal, I take the middle bar and adjust it so it's not crumpled anymore, doing my best to straighten it out. I do a curl or two before saying anything.
"That's how dad."
He seems to clue in to the obvious.
"You're really strong."
"We are... and right now, so are you,because I gave you my blood."
"What do you mean by right now?"
"Me giving you my blood is what's making you strong, but it's not going to last. At some point, it's gonna go away."
He turns away from both of us and seems to think about it.
"So... these people I owe money to... are vampires."
"Yes."
"And, you fight vampires..."
"Yup."
"And you gave me your blood and now I can fight vampires too."
What?
"No, dad... that's not..."
"But it's only temporary."
"Dad..."
"Which means I need to act fast."
"What? No, dad..."
B tries but gets cut off.
"Mr LeHane..."
My dad goes back to looking at us.
"I told you that I didn't want you to solve my problems for me. That's not what I want for our relationship."
"But..."
"I have to deal with this myself."
He makes his way towards the door and I get in his way.
"I can't let you do that."
"I can't let you stop me."
All of the sudden, I get shoved and my back hits a wall, sending pain through me for a second.
Damn... what the hell?
I hear another thud before I get my barrings enough to see my dad walking out the door. I look over to see B is recovering from her own hit against the wall.
This isn't going very well.
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