Faith heard him coming up behind her. It was apparent that he couldn�t listen. She rolled her eyes taking a sip of her drink. �Were you going to tell me?� she didn�t even bother to look in his direction. It wasn�t fair that he was keeping these kinds of things from her. It involved her life. She had the right to know that she had died. He had made a decision to make a deal with a demon without consulting her. Although it wasn�t really a option, he should have thought about her feelings. Those sorta of things came at a high cost. �So what was it?� she swished the contents of her container around. �The deal what was the cost?� there was pain in her voice.  She didn�t know too much about those types of deals. The ones she had heard of in the past usually came at the cost of someone�s life. Dean was unusually quiet.  This said volumes to her. �How long?� she glanced over her shoulder with a icy glare when he didn�t answer quickly she crushed the can in her hand.  She was so angry she was temporarily speechless her eyes welling up with tears.  She didn�t know if she wanted to scream, punch him, or hold on to him for dear life. �You didn�t want to let me go?� she threw the can across the parking lot.  It was a double standard. He couldn�t live without her, but he expected her to going on with him gone. It wasn�t fair. �What about me? You think you can just leave me here with a baby?� the tears began to stream down her cheek. �She needs you. I need you,� she broke turning around wrapping her arms around him as the tears began to fall.  Alone. She was always alone. It was the way she was meant to go through life.

�Shit.�  Dean watched Faith storm out of the motel room. He then turned his gaze on his brother.  Dean didn�t say anything, but he didn�t need to.  His expression was speaking volumes, and none of it was polite language.  Dean stepped out onto the walkway outside the door, put his hands on the rusted railing and looked for Faith.  She had taken a seat at the bottom of the stairs, and had a soda pop in one hand.  Even from this distance, Dean could see the stiffness in her shoulders.  She was strung tight as a clockwork mainspring wound almost to breaking point.  Dean knew the truth would come out sooner or later. He�d hoped it would be later.  Can�t keep things like that secret forever.  And the deal he�d cut with the demon � he ran his fingers through his hair, �Shit.�  He had a year, less now as it had been a few days since Faith had been brought back to life.  Dean still believed it was the right thing to do.  Besides, a year is like a lifetime for a hunter.  Anything could happen in a year.  To assume he had more than a year even without the deal was just idle speculation.  The Winchesters had bullseyes painted on their chests for every monster to see from here to Maine and back again.

Faith looked both pissed and alone down there. Dean knew she needed some time to digest what she�d heard, some time to be by herself.  Faith is a loner when you get right down to it.  Maybe all slayers are.  One girl in all the world� isn�t that what they say?  No one like a slayer, except another slayer.  Still, Dean felt compelled to go to her, to try to explain.  He knew she�d understand if he had a chance to explain.  She would have done the same to save him.  For God�s sake, Dean had saved her life.

So he made his way down the stairs.  He stopped in back of her and sat two steps behind her.  She didn�t look around, but she didn�t tell him to get the hell out, either, which was progress. �Faith, I could not let you go.  You mean the world to me.�   

Sam had blurted out Dean�s secrets. They had kept her in the dark about her death and his deal. She stared silently down at the bed as Sam filled in all the missing details of the past couple of weeks. The comment about the case didn�t sink in because she was fuming about the first part of the conversation. �You son of a bitch,� she grumbled under her breath. She rose up off the bed. Dean had no right to keep this from her. He was bad enough she hadn�t know about her own death, but he had made a deal with a demon. She wouldn�t have done it for nothing. �What was the cost? What did you give her?� she glared at him, but he was silent. She stormed into the bathroom slamming the door violently behind her. She placed the palms of her hands against the edge of the sink rocking on the heels of her feet fuming as the information Sam had given her began to evoke the memories of that night.  She had been sitting on the hood of Dean�s car talking to him. They became engrossed in each other having officially decided on being a couple. The next thing she knew Sammy had caught them in the back seat. He tapped on the hood of the car telling they needed to hit the road to investigate the case. The couple dressed, but remained in the back seat curled up together. Life finally felt like it was looking up. It was dark and stormy. Sam piloted the car through the night. Suddenly out of nowhere there was a woman standing in the road.  Sam swerved losing control of the car. It careened out of control flipping. It all happened fast, but it felt like everything was in slow motion. She could remember the feeling of her body sliding around, the sound of broken glass, and crunching metal. Flickering images of the crushing vehicle filled her mind. She was then tossed out a window blood running down her face. It felt like every bone in her body was broke as she lay on the asphalt. She laid there her life slipping away. The flash back proceeded by one of waking up in the morgue furious with Dean. It made her wonder if he had a hand secretly in this memory spell stuff.

She swung the door open, �I need air.�  She grabbed her jacket off of the chair then headed for the door. Dean took a step in front of her. �Don�t touch me!� she warned him her eyes burning a hole in him. She shoved past him. He stood in the door way. �Leave me alone Winchester,� she rushed down the walk way and the stair well.  She needed to calm down before talking to him about this. They needed to be alone. It wasn�t a family discussion. There was a vending machine near the parking lot. She had enough change to grab a sprite. Then she wandered over to the stair case to sit on the bottom step sipping on her drink. Dean had made the deal because he loved her. She would have done the same thing for him, but agreements with demons never ended well. The cost had to be high. It scared her to think about what it could be.

Sam leaned forward in his seat holding a Budweiser bottle by the neck between his knees as he listened to the conversation.  Faith had said (paraphrasing), �There was a cult out here trying to bring Kakistos back, but we took care of it. For some reason they needed my blood, something to do with me dusting him or this mark, but we stopped them, end of story.� That was such a scandalously massive understatement of what they�d been through that Sam felt compelled to elaborate.  The events of the last few weeks had been more like a contortionist�s wet dream of mostly un-intertwined peculiar happenings.  Or they weren�t intertwined in any way that Sam understood, most of them anyways.  The involvement of the Order of Antemorph almost seemed like a minor side story in a whopper of a multi-tentacled mystery � a mystery that Sam had to admit to himself they hadn�t really teased apart yet.

The way John changed subjects was unsettling. Faith reached for her bottle of water taking a sip feeling it her place to answer the question since the master vampire�s connection to everyone in this room was through her. She was the first to cross his path. �Kakistos is like this ancient vampire goat dude. Centuries ago Greece he use to rule things. And he use to take women prisoners driving them made, branding them, and turning them into slaves,� she sealed the bottle. It was awkward rehashing this part of her past. A piece she wished she could truly forget. �In my teens I was possessed by this spirit a slayer that Kakistos had tortured and killed. He had taken her daughter,� she couldn�t bring herself to go into details on what the creature had done to the woman�s child. She shifted her position growing uneasy. It was hard to talk about this especially since she knew she was carrying a little girl.

�She thought she could get revenge on him through me. She�s why I ah got this tattoo on my arm. It�s his brand. She did it to draw him to me so she could take him down. It didn�t work out though. Instead because of her and this mark he ended up killing my watcher right in front of me,� she was growing emotional. She could remember the events vividly.  He had tortured the professor and there was nothing I could do about it. �She was the closest I had ever had to a mother. The only time I like almost had a home,� he had taken that from her. She began to tear up. �Anyhow, there was nothing I could do. I was scared. He was going to kill me so I destroyed his temple giving me enough time to run away. Guess he was kinda bitter about it. He followed me to Sunnydale where B and I finally ended up fighting and killing him,� this should have been the end of the tale.

�I thought it was over, but this cult was planning on bringing him back. For some reason they needed my blood something to do with me dusting him or this mark, but we stopped them end of story. What�s your interest in him?�      

Dean endured the stern look of disapproval from his Dad. John Winchester was a traditionalist when it came to family.  He was a family values guy through and through. Children shouldn�t happen out of wedlock, and they should be planned for and not be an accident, not a product of a girl being �knocked up� as Faith had unfortunately put it.  Was Dean ready to be a father, wedlock or not?  Yeah, he thought he was.  Had it not happened, if Faith wasn�t pregnant, he wouldn�t have chosen to have a kid at this time and place in his life, but now that a baby was in the oven, like a Thanksgiving turkey, he had grown fond of the idea.  With a father who�s a hunter, and a good one, and a mother who is a slayer, this kid, whether it be a boy or a girl, was going to be a champion. No doubt about it. Dean liked the idea of showing the kid the ropes, teaching him or her to fight, to hunt. It wasn�t going to be an easy childhood, but Dean and Faith were going to be there for this child.  He or she would be just fine.

�Dad, I�m going to do right by her.  We�re going to have this baby, and we�re going to love and raise it. Look, I know its not the best timing, but the timing is never right. If we wait for a calm in the storm, it�ll never happen.  And, Dad, someone has to carry on the Winchester tradition.  This baby will keep the Winchester name, the Winchester tradition alive.�

Faith tensed up as John placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn�t know if Dean ready to tell his father? It wasn�t something they could hide for very long. Everyone else pretty much knew. She looked up at John her dark tendrils falling into her face, �other than apple pie turning on me I�m five by five.� The man looked like he already had a clue.  She quietly deliberated waiting on Dean to chime in. He was still chattering with Ruby. She couldn�t understand what could have been so important that he didn�t take note of the conversation on this side of the room. �Knocked up,� she blurted out bluntly causing Sam to almost choke on his beer and Buffy�s eyes to bulge out. �Dunno why they call it morning sickness. More like anytime. I mean smells even set me off,� she placed a hand on her stomach. Dean had to stop wearing cologne around her. Sam couldn�t even bring in some of that health food grilled whatever it was in the same room as her because of the scent of the spices they used on it. The problem was bad enough it had put her in the hospital once due to dehydration, but he didn�t need to know that. She wasn�t use to getting ill. Slayers didn�t get sick, but they also usually didn�t live long enough to have children.

The conversation had taken the focus away from the matter of Kakistos. He was dead. She wanted to leave it at that. The slayer was normally fearless, but things had changed. Anything that threatened her was a danger to her unborn child and to Dean for that matter as he would risk his life for hers. There was no way she could protect them at the moment. She reached up absent mindedly rubbing her right arm that was adorned with the vampire�s mark.

Sam caught the Budweiser can in one hand before sprawling his long frame into a chair by the door, which they left open despite the cool, autumn breeze that seemed to have come out of nowhere.  He would pass on the apple pie, which seemed to have disagreed big time with Faith.  Or maybe it was morning sickness.  Besides Sam was happy enough just drinking his nutrients and calories right now.  When Dean had looked towards this room and said, �What the hell� Sam had followed his gaze and thought maybe someone other than Ruby was up here.  But it might have been just a shadow from one of the trees or maybe that damned raven passing between the sun and the window. 

So they were talking of Kakistos again.  John hadn�t answered the question � about why he asked about the cloven-hooved vampire, but Sam didn�t like that his name had come up again.  He thought they were done with this case, ready to move on to something else, like maybe a little time off.  They were only like a 100 miles from the Grand Canyon.  Shouldn�t they at least go have a look before they went on the hunt again?  If Kakistos really was still around and still of a mind to cause problems, he�d show his ugly mug sooner or later and then they�d stake the cloven-footed critter into last year.  Or maybe they�d slice his head off.  Or drown him in holy water.  There�s more than one way to off a vampire.  And how difficult could it be with two slayers on the team?  Especially two slayers who had done him in once before?  Even if Kakistos was still causing trouble in these parts, they�d take care of him in no time and still be able to see the Grand Canyon.

Faith led the way up the stairs towards the hotel room listening to the Winchesters as she walked. Buffy trailed quietly beside her. She hadn�t noticed that Dean seem distracted watching them as they moved down the walk way. He fell silent bolting in front of her grabbing the handle of the hotel room door before she could. He made sure to step into the room before her.  She reframed from commenting on the gesture considering his father was there and the given situation. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the room. Faith shot him a passing glance as she walked around him into the room.  Impending parenthood was making him weirder than usual.

Dean started chatting with Ruby about something he thought he had seen through the window. Faith headed over to the mini fridge while the others came in to join them. She grabbed an arm full of beers tossing one to Sam, John, and Buffy helping them to settle in. Then she reached back down digging in the machine for the water Dean had gotten for earlier in the evening. She stood back up breaking the seal on the drink and chugging some of it. It was weird being the only one in the room not consuming alcohol, but at least there was pie. It was still sitting on the table with only one missing piece. It had tasted like a little slice of heaven. The best thing she had had in days.  Faith grabbed a couple of paper plates and some plastic silverware procuring a chunk for John. �So John,� she motioned for him to have a seat she offered him some. She then cut off a healthy size hunk for herself licking the excess off her fingers.

�How you hear about Kakistos?� Faith settled back on the bed chowing down. Cinnamony sweet apple goodness. The first few bites were divine then it went sour. It didn�t agree with her. There was no controlling it. Before John could reply she dropped the plate bolting for the bathroom slamming the door behind her. The act captured the others attention. She fell to her knees. The pie wasn�t as wonderful on the return trip. Talk about horrible timing. She blamed the subject matter. It made her tense therefore it upset the little one. �I know how you feel kid,� she placed a hand on her stomach.  After she recomposed herself she cracked the door open slipping outside. �When you gotta go you gotta go,� she wasn�t sure what to say. John had ate the same food she had. Bad apple would have been a horrible excuse. She glanced over at Dean as she walked back over to sit on the bed.