A/N - A while ago I was having trouble writing one of Faith's interludes. I somehow wound up writing this instead.
This is a Faith from a possible future of of BaC (AKA I just assumed that anything I hadn't decided yet went in whatever direction would wierd Canon!Buffy out the most, don't read too much into things she says or thinks as far as BaC is concerned.) She landed in Canon the day after Intervention.

-?!-

Faith slowly stumbles into consciousness with a headache that puts her worst hangover to shame. Despite having woken up in a similar condition on a few occasions, she's even more hazy than usual on what happened to her the previous night. She can't recall getting drunk, or anything else that might have led to it, happening the night before.

Just… a vague recollection of bright colored lights, a loud roaring sound of air rushing past, and maybe some sort of odd falling sensation? Sideways though, not down. Was she thrown through a wall? That might explain her choice of uncomfortable napping position; sitting upright in… uh...

Forcing her eyes open in defiance of her own brain's most painful protests she confirms that her body really isn't lying to her, and that she really is sitting half-upright in a bathtub with her arms handcuffed to the pipe. Fully clothed too which, to her mind, ruled out any of the fun explanations for her situation. Given that the best she can tell, it looks like she's in the bathroom at G's apartment… she might even be okay with that last bit of boring news.

Screwing her eyes shut again as a wave of nausea hits, and exhausted from whatever it was that gifted her the migraine, Faith drifts back out of consciousness despite herself.

-Giles' Bathroom : Sometime Later-

Faith is pitted against reality once more when she's awoken by familiar voices shouting in the next room over.

Focusing on them, she can even make out some of the words whenever one someone speaks up a bit.

Giles is saying something about calling someone? Something- No, someone is… still in her cell?

A voice Faith doesn't recognize says something about robots.

"No… a Slayer." B's voice, sounding even more annoyed than usual, but Faith relaxes a bit knowing she's there.

"Ooh! Maybe ... Toth... Like Xander that one time." Faith smiles, Red sounds way too excited (as usual) about… whatever Xander apparently did.

Taking a deep breath, Faith opens her eyes. Fortunately, it seems that the headache took the light sensitivity and nausea with it when it went away in her sleep. Being a slayer is awesome, Faith decides for what must be the gajillionth time. She starts struggling to her feet in spite of the handcuffs, but is only halfway done before she realizes that she's not as alone in the room as she thought.

"Hey... Doofus..." Faith half greets, half groans, at her not-so-favorite brother, "help a girl out?" She shakes the handcuffs at Spike.

"Ah. You're awake then?" he asks from his seat on the sink, without moving to help her.

Faith scowls at him for a second before even noticing his condition; one eye swollen shut, the rest of him not looking all that much better, more bruise and scrapes than not. He points a cigarette at her and opens his mouth, but suddenly Faith connects the dots in all the wrong ways and groans again, this time with more enthusiasm, cutting off whatever he was about to say. "Mom throw you out again?" She really hopes she's wrong because her brother is the absolute worst houseguest. Especially when he's being mopey. The other option, that Drusilla might also be visiting, is deemed too taxing upon her sanity to even consider at the moment.

Spike, having already turned halfway towards the door to alert the others that she's awake, pauses and looks back at her. "What?"

Faith shrugs at her eldest brother as best she can with the cuffs on while she finishes standing up. "You don't usually visit us except for like Christmas and shit unless you and Mom have some sorta spat. It ain't a holiday, so… what happened this time? Do we get to mount another Chaos Demon's head over the mantle or did you trip and fall into some slag's-?"

"Spike!" Buffy yells as she slams open the bathroom door. "You were supposed to tell us if she woke up."

"Sup, B! Any chance you have the keys? I know I said you should indulge your kinks more, but I'm startin' ta chafe sumthin' fierce over here."

Faith furrows her brow at the confused and hostile look her girlfriend shoots her. Did they have another fight? A concussion might explain the headache she woke up with.

"Ummm…" Dawn adds hesitantly from where she's stuck her head in the doorway.

"Dawn, no! I told you to wait in the living room!"

"Oh, come on B, it's not like she's never walked in on us before. Christ, at least we're wearin' clothes this time."

Now rapidly reddening, Dawn suddenly looks like she's choking on air. Her hands slip from the door frame and she stumbles into the bathroom.

Faith misses the echoing chorus, all variations on 'What the hell!?' that follow her statement, distracted as she is by suddenly noticing that her niece looks to be at least a few years younger than she was the previous day.

"...Well… shit. That ain't good."

-Giles' Living Room: Sometime Later-

Faith, now tied to one of Mr. Giles' chairs, rolls her eyes at the group assembled across the table from her. She's added 'thinks rope and a wooden chair would stop a slayer' to her list of things that don't add up.

"Faith Dormer. Deputy, Sunnydale Sheriff's Office. Badge Number 002." Faith repeats, again, in as bored a tone as she can manage to the people she's still trying to decide between being imposters posing as her friends… badly, given Dawn's incorrect age, or she woke up in Suckworld the Second. Either way, they seem keen on imprisoning her, and she's all too happy to be as unhelpful as possible in return.

"Yes. So you've said. Many times in point of fact." Giles responds, polishing his glasses.

"Yup." Faith pops the 'p' sound as hard as she can. "I mean, you do know the definition of insanity, don'tcha?"

"Yes. Quite." Giles sighs, putting his glasses back on. "Given our history, I suppose it was a bit much to hope that any half of you would be willing to cooperate."

Faith's brow furrows, and she shoots Giles a look intended to more genuinely question his sanity. "Half a' me?"

"Argh!" Buffy throws her arms in the air as she lurches to her feet. "This is going no where. We don't have time for this; Glory is still out there!"

"Great!" Faith practically beams. "Untie me and go deal with… wait… Glory? The looney toons blonde that dressed like a call girl?"

As the barrage of startled looks and new questions rolls over her, Faith just sighs and settles in for a long day.

"...Faith Dormer. Deputy, Sunnydale Sheriff's Office. Badge Number 002."

-Giles' Living Room: Even Later-

Faith stares at the pendant, currently pulling itself towards Giles' front window. She glares across the room at "Buffy," the imposter that the pendant is most definitely not pointi- Faith frowns and looks at the hair threaded through the chain more carefully before muttering a halfhearted, "oops," under her breath.

"Oops? What do you mean, oops!?" The girl claiming to be Buffy asks, folding her arms over her chest and glaring right back at her.

Faith, making a mental note of which way Harmony is as she begins threading the other blonde hair from her wallet into the chain of her pendant, shrugs sheepishly. "Wrong blonde?"

Before Buffy can decide how to respond to that, Tara puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder and whispers in her ear.

Another moment's focus and the pendant begins to tug on her hand again, this time directly at the… mostly likely not an imposter Buffy. Faith moves her hand back and forth to be sure, and the pendant tracks Buffy back and forth in kind. "Huh… Okay then. I guess you ain't pod people."

"You thought we were pod people?" Willow looks offended at the notion.

Faith shrugs. "I wake up and you're all actin' like psychos, so… yeah? But the spell just said you're you so I guess not."

Giles smiles flatly. "Does this mean you'll talk to us now?"

"Sure." Faith shrugs, flopping down onto the couch. "Why not? Ask away Bizzaro-Giles."

Before Giles can so much as open his mouth to repeat any of his numerous questions about what Faith knows about Glory, Willow leaps in first. "You can do magic?"

"...Yeah? It ain't exactly hard. Well, the small stuff anyway. Harms and I try stay the fuck away from the more violent or complicated spells." Faith gives a small shudder at her recollection of that little bit of oops. Ah well, their eyebrows grew back. Eventually.

"Wait. Harms..? As in Harmony?"

Faith tilts her head and looks at Buffy. "Yeah?"

"Harmony Kendall?"

"No. The other Harmony." Faith drags her hand down her face in frustration as these poor imitations of her friends all look to be giving that statement serious consideration. "Oh, Christ. Yeah, Harmony Kendall."

"You're friends with Harmony!? But… she's a vampire!"

"No she ain't… and... so fuckin' what?" Faith points at Spike who grins to himself in appreciation of someone finally remembering that he's dangerous and not just useful for guard duty when a crazy slayer breaks out of prison and then… teleports into Buffy's house? Spike still isn't exactly clear on that part and no one seems willing to explain.

Faith takes a calming deep breath. She so did not miss having this particular argument and had really hoped The Doofus had gotten them past that point like Jack had.

No dice on that it seems, Buffy just folds her arms and glares at her. "Spike has a chip."

Faith sighs. "My idiot brother has a what now?"

Faith furrows her brow as everyone in the room, including Spike, suddenly stares at her again.

"Now what did I say?"