Mothers (girlxgirl) (Book 3)

Suspicions

Faith's POV

I'm not sure what to do.

I sit back in my chair in Anya's hospital room with Xander and Buffy, waiting for Giles to get here.

Buffy does have a point. She's my mother after all. I came back to Sunnydale to visit Joyce, a woman I've thought of as a mother for a long time. And now my real mother is actually here... or at least something that looks like her, and she wants to talk. Maybe I should give her a chance to talk. I just don't know if I can look at her without wanting to hurt her. She's the reason he was there that night. She's the reason he did what he did to me. She's the reason he was never caught.

I can't just pretend that none of it happened. I can't pretend that I don't blame her for letting it happen, for the way she treated me afterwards. Things were better for a while. People stopped coming over every night, and the drugs and alcohol all but disappeared from the house. We were an almost normal family again. But that only lasted as long as child services were watching us. Once that woman stopped coming around, it all started again, except it was worse than before. I tried to get her to stop what she was doing, and my dad, but every time I did, they'd hit me. It kept going like that, right up until she 'died'.

I should get Giles to figure out exactly what she is somehow, if she really is my mom though... I don't know. I might give her a chance to talk. Maybe...

I look over at B.

Maybe if Buffy was there to keep me from beating my mom to a bloody pulp.

"So, Anya... how's the rehab going?"

I look to Anya at Buffy's question.

"The doctors are trying to extort money out of me so they can make me bankrupt."

I can't help but smile at her accusation.

"Anya, honey, we talked about this. The doctors are just trying to make sure you heal properly so your muscles can work right."

Anya scoffs at her boyfriend.

"Xander, they keep telling me to go slower and not get better. Just so they can get more money out of me. I can't make any more money until I'm better, and I can't get better, until they get all my money out of me. They're trying to bankrupt me."

I'm just surprised at how completely paranoid she's being.

"Sweetie, you know that's not true. They just want to stop you from hurting yourself. You were going to hurt yourself with the way you were going."

"He's right Anya. When I was recovering from being tortured by Glory, the doctors kept telling me to slow down because I was pushing myself so hard. Looking back on it, they were right. I pushed too hard and I'm just glad I didn't get myself seriously hurt."

"Yes, but you have all that annoying slayer healing. You would've recovered."

Okay, time to weigh in.

"All the more reason to take it slow, you're an ex-vengeance demon, not a slayer. If you go too fast you'll get hurt and won't be able to do all the fun things you and Xander do that I really don't want to hear about."

Anya looks thoughtful for a few moments.

"You're right Faith. I do want to have lots and lots of sex when I get out of here. I should slow down."

Xander looks at me and smiles sarcastically. Just then, a short knock on the door has Giles coming in.

"Hey G-man..."