Disclaimer: Since my name is not Joss Whedon, 'Buffy: The Vampire Slayer', 'Angel' and the characters associated with the show belong to someone who in't me. I also do not own the storyline, that is taken from gidgetgirl's 'The Lost Child Challenge' (details below) posted at the Chocolate Covered Strawberries Archive. Nell belongs to me, as do Rachel Knight and Reginald Humphries.

The Lost Child Challenge

When Faith was fourteen, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend. After that, she left home on her own, pregnant with the rapist's child. When she was found by the Council, her first Watcher took the baby, assuring Faith that it would be taken care of... the Watcher then was killed by Kakistos before she could give Faith more information. Now, years later, the child has come back into Faith's life.

Requirements:

- Faith dealing with mixed feelings about the child: a mother's love and the memory of the rape.
- The child having a Faith-esque attitude problem
- The council having had some hand in the child's conception
- The child having an amazing destiny
- Faith wanting to save her daughter from her own mistakes

Epilogue

One year later

When the idea had first been broached, she had had her reservations. She had agreed, though her mother had made sure that she understood that it was her choice, and that she was in no way obliged to accept Giles' suggestion and, after an initial period of adjustment, she had been very glad that she had.

The estate her former guardian had bequeathed to her, her home since babyhood, boasted extensive grounds, a huge, palatial house and a staff paid for out of a trust Travers had established on her behalf. It was much too big for just her, even after her mother had moved in, and Giles had suggested that it would have made an ideal home for some of the younger girls who had been rescued from death at the hands of those who would have wiped out the Slayer line, at least until they were older and could begin training in earnest.

Giles, Xander and Willow, along with her mother and the staff who had had charge of Nell, all took a hand in the education and preliminary training of the seven little Slayers in their charge.

Buffy had joked that they were setting up a Slayer boarding school. She, together with Willow and Andrew, had taken responsibility for the older Slayers, choosing their Watchers and overseeing their training and welfare.

The fact that most of the youngest new Slayers had been orphans had been Nell's chief reason for agreeing to Giles' suggestion, though she had never said so in her mother's hearing for fear of hurting her feelings.

Although she had been aware that her mother was still alive, Nell had felt as if she had never truly had one until after their meeting a year previously.

At six, she was more than a year younger than the youngest of the other girls who shared her house, her tutors and her trainers but she was proud of the fact that she was well able to keep up with them. As well as having had the advantage of beginning her training years before they had, when she had barely begun to walk, Giles had explained to her that because the time of her birth had coincided with the time of her mother's calling as Slayer, she had been given an extra dose of Slayer powers.

A Slayer and a half, Xander had called her.

She wasn't sure how she felt about being special.

She had been unique all her life, it seemed.

She hadn't told anyone about seeing Rachel Knight in Boston the previous year, and had never let anyone know that she had been tempted, however briefly, to open the Seven Hells and to unleash their evil into the world, but there were times when she wondered if Xander had suspected what she had been thinking.

He had told the truth when he described himself as being able to see what others did not. He always knew when Nell, or one of the other girls, was upset or worried about something, even if nobody else noticed.

If he knew her secret, he had never let on.

The Y'sep'tac had faded away when the portals had closed, their impotent raging invisible to everyone else.

For a brief, horrible instant Nell had been terrified that that they would kill her for failing them, that they would drag her back with them to the Seven Hells but they had been unable to harm her.

She liked to think that Grandmother Rachel had been protecting her.

At her request, her ancestress' portrait had been moved from the library to her play room – one of the first changes she had insisted on when they returned from Boston was that it no longer be referred to as her day nursery – and placed above the fireplace so that Nell could imagine that she was watching her.

Her bear, Mr Travers, resplendent in a jaunty cap and coat Dawn had brought when she last visited, was cuddled in Nell's lap as she sat in her window seat, her attention half on the book she held, half on her own thoughts.

Even she wasn't sure how she felt about Mr Travers' namesake now. He had lied to her, but he had also loved her, in his way, and made sure that she was taken care of. He had stolen her from her mother, but he had thought that he was doing what was best, for her and for everyone else in the world. He had hurt her mother – nobody would explain the details of how – but if he had not, she would never have been born.

The adults had said that she would understand when she was older, but she didn't think that she would ever be old enough to understand her late guardian, or how anybody could love someone and lie to them at the same time.

"Nell?" The door opened a crack and her mother's head appeared. "Didn't hear me knocking, huh?" Faith ruffled her daughter's hair gently, sitting down beside her and glancing down at the book she held. "It must be an interesting read."

"Not really." Nell told her honestly. "I was thinking."

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"Not yet." Nell said quietly, hugging Mr Travers before setting him down next to her. She grinned as she looked up at her mother. "Maybe when you're old enough."

"Brat!" Faith scolded affectionately, surprised when two small arms slipped around her waist, hugging her tightly. Nell had never been a demonstrative child and even after a year, her hugs were rare. "What's this for?"

"Nothing." Nell told her, snuggling closer as her mother's arms closed around her. "I just wanted to hug my mom."

THE END

Author's Notes: I know it's been a long time in progress, but this story is finally no longer a WIP. I hope that you liked the ending, and the story as a whole. I've got an update in progress for 'Law and Order', so I hope to have that out soon.