Skin Deep and Deep Secrets

7/28/2019 Skin Deep and Deep Secrets

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Skin Deep and Deep SecretsAUTHOR: Reed ([email protected])DISCLAIMER: Not mine.TIMELINE: Takes place in the middle of "Who Are You"(S4 BtVS) and around the same place on the timelinefor A:ts. And I know Gunn and Angel met after thewhole Faith fiasco, but in my pleasant little world it

happened before. The rest of the timeline might be alittle off, but it all makes sense if you're not astickler for exactness.SYNOPSIS: Buffy in Faith's body ends up at Angel's.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm taking a perhaps permanent breakon The Space Between due to complete lack of feedback.If you want that story back - FEEDBACK WOULD BE NICE!Sorry to yell, but I'm a bitter person.FEEDBACK: Please oh please oh please oh please ohplease.

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Buffy had figured out that the Watcher's Council guyshad taken her to LA, but as she emerged from the

sewers that had provided her with escape she realizedthat she was by the docks, one of the seedier areas.She pulled her body, or actually Faith's body, therest of the way out of the manhole and began to walkdown the street. Her heart was beating wildly, fromboth her narrow escape and the fear that she'd becaught again. As she near jogged down the street, shekept her eyes peeled for the Council's men, so much sothat she didn't notice anything in her way until shebumped into a solid wall of chest. She stumbledbackwards, but caught herself and looked up into apair of big brown eyes.

"Hey, little lady, ya gotta watch ya'self," the tallblack man told her. Buffy briefly considered kicking

his ass for the little lady comment, but his tone wasso kind that she let it slide.

"I'm sorry," she muttered and started down the streetagain.

"Hey, ya know you shouldn't be walking around late atnight. This isn't a good neighborhood and there's allsorts of things that go bump in the night." Buffyturned to face the man.

"Thanks, but I can take care of myself."

"I'm sure you can. But maybe I can walk you towherever you're going." Buffy considered himskeptically. He seemed sincere, but then again, itwas Los Angeles. He might just be an actor.

"Would it really be wise of me to trust a strangerthat I've met on a dark street?" she asked tilting herhead. Gunn's eyes twinkled with laughter.

"I won't hurt you. Boy Scout Honor." Buffy shruggedand agreed. Being Faith was sucky and any friend, orcompany even, would be nice. Plus, she didn't know
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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her way around anyway, so she could use a guide. Andif he tried anything, she could always beat the crapout of him. They began to walk.

"I'm Gunn, by the way."

"Buffy," she introduced herself. "So were you really

a Boy Scout?"

"Nope." He shot her a good natured grin. Buffygrinned back.

**

Faith moved her body sensually to the pounding beat,pressing up against the boys around her. She couldfeel the eyes of Willow and her new "gal pal" on her,but she could care less. Let them think that theirprecious Buffy was a slut. They'd all be dead in amatter of days anyway.

She analyzed the men around her, trying to decide who

she'd be taking home with her. Buffy's CaptainCardboard was a mediocre lay and she need someone tosatisfy her after months of unconsciousness andcelibacy. She selected the cutest one and pressedherself even closer to him.

**

"So where ya headed?" Gunn asked as they walked downthe street.

"516 Clark St," she said, before even realizing. Herconscious mind was shocked as she revealed somethingher subconscious mind had known since she arrived inL.A. She was going to Angel. Angel would help.

"Hey, isn't that Angel Investigations?" Gunn askedshooting her a sidelong glance.

"Yeah."

"Need some investigatin' done?"

"Yes and no," Buffy answered. "Angel's my...." shesifted through choices of words: love of her life,soulmate, only man that would ever make her happy, butfinally settled on "ex." Gunn did a doubletake.

"But he's a va..." he stopped himself short and Buffylaughed.

"Vampire. I know. It's complicated."

"Isn't it always?" he asked her.

Part 2

Angel closed his eyes and took a deep unneeded breath,trying to find some balance within himself. Usuallyhe had no problem finding his zen state. After all he


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had enough practice. Keeping his mind blank, or atleast extremely focused, was the only way he could getthrough most days. But tonight he couldn'tconcentrate on the book of poetry he was reading. Hisskin wastingling and it was almost as if.....but no itcouldn't be. Last time he had seen her she made it

perfectly clear that he would not be seeing her for along while, if at all.

He sighed. The last time he had seen her was also thetime when he had been human. He turned the page ofhis book and with frew the sole picture of his lovethat he possessed. He lightly caressed the photo withhis thumb. She was so beautiful. He sighed deeplyonce again and contemplated all his decisions since hefirst saw the lovely blonde Slayer. Was he right toleaveor give up his humanity? He knew the answer. Ofcourse he was. She deserved more than he could give.He closed his eyes and tried once again to relax.

Until he felt the presence of someone else in theroom. His eyes flew open, then he gasped and jumpedout of his chair.

"Faith." The brown haired Slayer standing shyly inthe doorway began to ramble.

"No! Angel, please just listen to me. I'm not Faith.Something's happened. I'm...."

"Buffy?" he questioned. As she had been babbling, hehad looked at her and behind the unfamliar brown eyeshe saw the soul that he knew as well as his own.Buffy stared at him for a moment trying to comprehendthat he understood who she was before replying.

"Yes," she answered before dissolving into tears.Angel was at her side and pulling her into his armsbefore he could even think. She buried her headagainst his chest and cried. Seeing Faith again,being out of her body, being in Angel's arms. It wasall just too much. Angel pressed a kiss into herbrown hair and whispered comforting words. As herubbed his hands over her back soothing her, henoticed the tall black man standing in the frontoffice.

"Gunn."

"Hey man. Um, is she gonna be okay?"

"She'll be fine. Can you just give us a few minutes?"

"Sure." With one last concerned glance, he closed thedoor and waited patiently in the front office. Angelled a slightly more calm, but still sniffling Buffy tothe chair by his desk and crouched next to her, takingher hands in his.

"Buffy, what happened?"


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"Faith woke up," she sniffed. "And went after my mom.We were fighting in my living room and the next thingI know, I'm in her body, being arrested, then abductedby the Watcher's Council. Two of the Council thugstook me to L.A. and they were going to ship me off theEngland to face judgement as Faith. I escaped and

came here. I don't know what to do. I can't go home,not looking like this. They wouldn't even give me achance to explain."

"It'll all be okay," he reassured her.

"How do you know?" she asked. "God only knows whatkind of damage Faith is doing in my body. And what ifthere isn't a way to switch us back?"

"There's always a counter spell," he told her,reaching up to wipe away a stray tear. "Magick is allabout balance."

"What am I going to do?" she asked him.

"Why don't you go out into the front office and helpyourself to some water or something and I'll callGiles to tell him what's going on." Buffy nodded andwent out to the front office. Angel picked up thephone and dialed his love's Watcher.

"Hello?" a soft British accent came over the line.

"Giles, it's Angel. If Buffy is there don't let onthat you're talking to me."

"It's alright Angel. I'm alone."

"Where is Buffy then?" Angel asked, worried about what

Faith might be doing.

"I believe she is at the Bronze with Willow." Angelbreathed a sigh of relief. The Bronze was good.There were lots of people at the Bronze. She wouldn'ttry anything. "Angel, what's going on?"

"The girl who looks like Buffy isn't Buffy. It'sFaith. Buffy is here with me, but she looks likeFaith."

"It's impossible," Giles told him.

"Giles, are you seriously telling me that after allyou've seen and read about it that this isimpossible?" Silence on the other end of the linesignaled his agreement.

"Are you sure? I mean, how do you know?" Gilesfinally asked.

"I just..know," Angel told him and Giles did notquestion his judgement. "I'm going to drive her backto Sunnydale. Don't let Faith know that you know.Don't let anyone be alone with her. We should be


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there in an hour." Angel hung up the phone and took aminute to collect his thoughts. However, he wasinterrupted when a scream came from the outer office.He ran into the other office to find Cordelia andWesley each pointing weapons at Buffy. Gunn hadpositioned himself between Angel's two employees andthe Slayer as she spoke rapidly trying to convince

them of her identity.

"Cordelia, Wesley, put your weapons down," heinstructed. Cordelia spun so that the crossbow thatshe was holding was pointed at him.

"Oh God! I bet you Faith stole his soul and nowthey're going to kill us all!"

"Cordelia, if I were going to kill you, you'd be deadalready."

"He's right," Wesley said, lowering his weapon andreaching over and pushing Cordy's down. "Besides hecan't lose his soul."

"What?" Both Buffy and Cordelia shrieked at the sametime. Angel shot a guilty glance at the Slayer, thenan angry glare at her ex-Watcher.

"That's not the point right now," the vampire groundout. "The point is that that's not Faith, that'sBuffy."

"Could you elaborate?" Wesley asked.

"Faith pulled some sort of body switching spell andthe Watcher's Council brought me to L.A. but I ranaway to here." Angel turned to Buffy.

"I talked to Giles and we need to go to Sunnydale."

"Fine," she said, her tone clipped. His soul waspermanent and he hadn't told her. She obviouslywasn't important enough to him to recieve that pieceof information. And she had come here when she wasvulnerable and cried in front of him. And expectedhim to help her, not because it was his duty butbecause he cared about her. Apparently she was wrong.

Part 3

Giles hung up the phone and took of his glasses. Thiswas a horrible situation. He knew that he must try to

reach Willow at the Bronze, but in reaching her, hewould alert Faith to a problem which is exactly whathe couldn't do. He could only hope that the crowdedBronze kept Faith from trying anything. Instead ofcalling Willow, he dialed Xander's number.

After talking to the boy for a minute, he hung up thephone, selected a large book from his shelf, andstarted to read.


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*

A half an hour after the confrontation in the frontoffice of Angel Investigations, Angel and Buffy wereon the road to Sunnydale with Cordelia and Wesley.Cordelia complained about how she didn't want to goback to "Sunnyhell", but when Angel told her that no

one asked her to come in the first place, she finallyshut up. Wesley kept asking Buffy questions aboutwhat she experienced during the body switch, but Buffywas only replying with one word answers as she satmoodily in the passenger seat, trying to pull her tanktop higher to cover her cleavage.

Angel continually shot glances at Buffy, trying tosort out his confusion of seeing her as Faith and hisconfusion at seeing at her at all. She however didn'tseem confused. She seemed angry. But he couldn'ttell if it was at him or at the situation. He hadn'tplanned her finding out about the permanence of hissoul in that manner. Well actually he hadn't plannedon her finding out at all. It didn't, it couldn't,

change anything between them. That's not why he hadWesley do the binding spell. The spell was solely toprevent incidents like what had happened with thatactress. Sighing inwardly, he shot another glance atBuffy.

*

"Giles!" Willow yelled, storming through theWatcher's front door with Tara on her heels. "We havea problem. It's Buffy." Three heads looked up fromtheir large books to stare at her. "She was actingall bitchy then left with some guy who was mostdefinitely not Riley. Plus Tara says something iswrong with her aura."

"Tara?" Xander questioned.

"T..t..that would be me" the blonde behind Willowsaid, stepping fully into the room.

"Tara, this is Xander, Anya and Giles. Guys, this isTara. She's my," Willow paused for a split second,"friend from the Wiccan group on campus....but ok, bigproblem with Buffy."

"Yes, we know. Faith pulled a body switch so Buffy isin Faith's body and Faith is in Buffy's body.Currently Buffy is coming from Los Angeles with

Angel."

"Who's Angel?" a male voice came from the open door.Willow spun around.

"Riley!"

"Who's Angel?" the soldier asked once again, closingthe door and sauntering into the room. "And sincewhen is Buffy in L.A.?" Willow turned back to Giles',her face stricken, but Giles gave her a reassuring nod


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and began to fill Riley in on the situation.

*

A naked Faith stretched luxiourously in the cottonsheets of the random frat boy she had selected fromthe Bronze. What was his name again? Tim? Tom?

Dave? Had she even bothered to ask? It didn't matteranyway.

She smirked. A surprisingly satisfying roll in thehay, she was about to go out and kick some demon ass,and to top it all off she was ruining Buffy's life.Not bad for someone who just woke up from a coma lessthan 48 hours ago. She got off the bed and started todress.

"Hey," the boy (Paul possibly?) said. "Where are yougoing?" Faith shot him a withering glare.

"Somewhere you're not schoolboy." She stalked out ofthe dorm room and into the night, ready and willing to

stir up a little more trouble.

Part 4

"So let me get this straight, Buffy isn't Buffy?"Riley said as Giles finished his explanation of thesituation.

"Yeah, that was kind of the point of the story,"Xander replied, with a twinge of annoyance coloringhis voice. The explanantion was perfectly clear butSoldier boy just couldn't seem to get it. He didn'tunderstand what Buffy saw in this guy - he wasn'texactly the brightest crayon in the box.

"We need to locate Faith and keep her subdued until wecan figure out how to switch the Slayers into theirright bodies." Giles glance at his watch. "Buffyshould be here soon. Riley, if you could go out andtry to find Faith and the rest of us will try tofind a way to switch them back."

*

The awkward silence wasn't broken as the four peopledrove steadily towards Sunnydale. When Angel finallypulled up in front of Giles' house, Buffy jumped outof the car before it came to a full stop. She ran upto door and entered without knocking. Five startled

faces looked up at her.

"Buffy," Giles said and she nodded, but no one moved.After a beat, Xander broke the silence.

"Okay, I'm not the only one who thinks this is weirdright? I mean normally when the Buffster comes backfrom defeating death or something equally scary we allgive her a big hug and go party, but we can't because,ya know, she's Faith."


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"It's not liked you've never hugged Faith before. Andmore." Willow muttered bitterly, getting surprisedlooks from the other occupants of the room. Sheimmediately clamped her hand over her mouth and sunkback sheepishly into the couch. "We're gonna pretendI didn't say that." Willow sighed inwardly. Shestill had Faith issues. Her burgeoning feelings for

Tara, the fact that Faith had been in a coma and thatany sort of romantic feelings toward Xander ended overa year ago didn't matter. She was still mostdecidedly bitter. She could only imagine how Buffyfelt. But she didn't get a chance to ask becauseWesley,Cordelia, and Angel appeared in the doorway.

"Ya know Giles, you really should leave your dooropen. Anyone could just waltz right in," Cordeliatold him as she did just that.

"Thank you for the advice, Cordelia," Giles saiddryly. "And Mr. Pryce, I'm surprised to see you.What are you both doing here?"

"They work for me," Angel announced.

"Well, w..we like to think of it as more of apartnership," Wesley stammered.

"No, you don't," Buffy said testily. "You work forhim. Now, where's the skanky bitch who stole my bodybecause I want it back."

"Riley went out to find her," Anya told her. At themention of her boyfriend's name, Buffy's eyes widened.With all the tension between her and Angel, shehadn't thought about Riley at all. And now her ex andher current were going to meet and that was one more

point added to the score against her.

"What then?" she asked, making a strong effort toavoid Angel's gaze which she felt settle intensely onher at the mention of Riley's name.

"We've found a spell that should reverse the effectsof the spell that Faith performed. Willow and Tarawill perform it when Faith is here."

"Tara?" Buffy asked, her eyes landing on the blondenext to Willow.

"Oh yes, Buffy this is Tara, my friend from the Wiccangroup on campus. Tara, this is Buffy. And that'sCordelia and Wesley and Angel."

"Hi," Tara said shyly.

"Nice to meet you. Sorry about all this," Buffy said,vaguely gesturing to the room but meaning the wholesituation. "But as a witch I guess you've seen someweird stuff."

"Actually this is the weirdest," the timid witch told


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her.

"Well, stick around. It only gets better," Cordeliatold her sarcastically and received glares from almosteveryone in the room. Buffy plopped down on the couchnext to Willow.

"So, I guess now we just wait."

TBC

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Skin Deep and Deep Secrets