The F in Pike (Book 3.5) (girlxgirl)

Taking Stock

Okay, time to focus.

I make my way down the hall back towards where we're keeping Dawn, Faith not far behind me.

Will has a better handle on what's going on between me and Faith. She knows where to put her focus at least. Now it's just a question of waiting for the answer. Things between Faith and Pike are mostly stable... or at least as stable as we can expect anyway. As far as we can tell, he's not going to have Wrath coming out any time soon, so that's handled for the moment. Now the only thing to worry about is what to do about Dawn and her new abilities.

Hopefully we've gotten somewhere with her thanks to Connor, Xander and Kennedy talking with her. They were the least likely to really set her off, and so they were the safe choice to test the waters in saving Dawn from herself. Better options than me or Faith who are pretty much guaranteed to set her off angrily anyway. It's probably a good idea for us to hold off on speaking to her unless we really need to.

I just have to hope that...

Turning around the corner, I see most of the people I love sitting around and not very happy.

Well so much for that plan.

They look up at me as Faith comes up behind me and into the room. She's the first to point out the obvious.

"Looks like it didn't go very well, eh B?"

"I guess not..."

I look at my friends and family.

"What happened?"

Xander's the first to say it.

"Basically what we expected. She knew exactly how to hit us and how."

Kennedy follows him up.

"She was on the attack from the moment I walked in and never let up."

Connor finishes up.

"It's like talking to a brick wall."

That's... definitely not good.

I look at Faith before asking the most important thing.

"Did we get anywhere with her?"

Xander sighs.

"I think I might have seen a little bit of a crack towards the end, but I'm not sure."

Well that's something at least.

Faith asks first.

"So what happened?"

"I asked her to give me hope... about herself. She was talking about giving me what I wanted, and I said that what I wanted her to give me hope that she might be happy. That she could move beyond what she's going through."

"And?"

"She didn't have a response."

Okay it's not a lot of something, but it's something.

I turn to Connor and Kennedy.

"What about you guys? Anything?"

Connor's the first to speak up.

"She talked about things that happened between the two of us. Tried to screw with me and make me feel guilty about it. She attacked my relationship with my father."

That has Kennedy speaking up.

"She attacked my relationship too. Said some things about me and Willow."

Damn it, I mean, I knew it would be bad but...

"Are you guys all right?"

Connor gets this defensive look.