Angel closed his eyes and took a deep unneeded breath,
trying to find some balance within himself.  Usually
he had no problem finding his zen state.  After all he
had enough practice.  Keeping his mind blank, or at
least extremely focused, was the only way he could get
through most days.  But tonight he couldn't
concentrate on the book of poetry he was reading.  His
skin was
tingling and it was almost as if.....but no it
couldn't be.  Last time he had seen her she made it
perfectly clear that he would not be seeing her for a
long while, if at all.

He sighed.  The last time he had seen her was also the
time when he had been human.  He turned the page of
his book and with frew the sole picture of his love
that he possessed.  He lightly caressed the photo with
his thumb.  She was so beautiful.  He sighed deeply
once again and contemplated all his decisions since he
first saw the lovely blonde Slayer.  Was he right to
leave
or give up his humanity?  He knew the answer.  Of
course 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 the
room.  His eyes flew open, then he gasped and jumped
out of his chair.

"Faith."  The brown haired Slayer standing shyly in
the 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, he
had looked at her and behind the unfamliar brown eyes
he saw the soul that he knew as well as his own.
Buffy stared at him for a moment trying to comprehend
that he understood who she was before replying.

"Yes," she answered before dissolving into tears.
Angel was at her side and pulling her into his arms
before he could even think.  She buried her head
against his chest and cried.  Seeing Faith again,
being out of her body, being in Angel's arms.  It was
all just too much.  Angel pressed a kiss into her
brown hair and whispered comforting words.  As he
rubbed his hands over her back soothing her, he
noticed the tall black man standing in the front
office.

"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 the
door and waited patiently in the front office.  Angel
led a slightly more calm, but still sniffling Buffy to
the chair by his desk and crouched next to her, taking
her hands in his.

"Buffy, what happened?"

"Faith woke up," she sniffed.  "And went after my mom.
We were fighting in my living room and the next thing
I know, I'm in her body, being arrested, then abducted
by the Watcher's Council.  Two of the Council thugs
took me to L.A. and they were going to ship me off the
England 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 a
chance to explain."

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

"How do you know?" she asked.  "God only knows what
kind of damage Faith is doing in my body.  And what if
there 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 all
about balance."

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

"Why don't you go out into the front office and help
yourself to some water or something and I'll call
Giles to tell him what's going on."  Buffy nodded and
went out to the front office.  Angel picked up the
phone 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 on
that 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."  Angel
breathed a sigh of relief.  The Bronze was good.
There were lots of people at the Bronze.  She wouldn't
try anything.  "Angel, what's going on?"

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

"It's impossible," Giles told him.

"Giles, are you seriously telling me that after all
you've seen and read about it that this is
impossible?"  Silence on the other end of the line
signaled his agreement.

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

"I just..know," Angel told him and Giles did not
question his judgement.  "I'm going to drive her back
to Sunnydale.  Don't let Faith know that you know.
Don't let anyone be alone with her.  We should be
there in an hour."  Angel hung up the phone and took a
minute to collect his thoughts.  However, he was
interrupted when a scream came from the outer office.
He ran into the other office to find Cordelia and
Wesley each pointing weapons at Buffy.  Gunn had
positioned himself between Angel's two employees and
the Slayer as she spoke rapidly trying to convince
them of her identity.

"Cordelia, Wesley, put your weapons down," he
instructed.  Cordelia spun so that the crossbow that
she was holding was pointed at him.

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

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

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

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

"That's not the point right now," the vampire ground
out.  "The point is that that's not Faith, that's
Buffy."

"Could you elaborate?" Wesley asked. 

"Faith pulled some sort of body switching spell and
the Watcher's Council brought me to L.A. but I ran
away 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 was
permanent and he hadn't told her.  She obviously
wasn't important enough to him to recieve that piece
of information.  And she had come here when she was
vulnerable and cried in front of him.  And expected
him to help her, not because it was his duty but
because he cared about her.  Apparently she was wrong.

Part 3

Giles hung up the phone and took of his glasses.  This
was a horrible situation.  He knew that he must try to
reach Willow at the Bronze, but in reaching her, he
would alert Faith to a problem which is exactly what
he couldn't do.  He could only hope that the crowded
Bronze kept Faith from trying anything.  Instead of
calling Willow, he dialed Xander's number.

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

*

A half an hour after the confrontation in the front
office of Angel Investigations, Angel and Buffy were
on the road to Sunnydale with Cordelia and Wesley.
Cordelia complained about how she didn't want to go
back to "Sunnyhell", but when Angel told her that no
one asked her to come in the first place, she finally
shut up.  Wesley kept asking Buffy questions about
what she experienced during the body switch, but Buffy
was only replying with one word answers as she sat
moodily in the passenger seat, trying to pull her tank
top higher to cover her cleavage.

Angel continually shot glances at Buffy, trying to
sort out his confusion of seeing her as Faith and his
confusion at seeing at her at all.  She however didn't
seem confused.  She seemed angry.  But he couldn't
tell if it was at him or at the situation.  He hadn't
planned her finding out about the permanence of his
soul in that manner.  Well actually he hadn't planned
on her finding out at all.  It didn't, it couldn't,
change anything between them.  That's not why he had
Wesley do the binding spell.  The spell was solely to
prevent incidents like what had happened with that
actress.  Sighing inwardly, he shot another glance at
Buffy.

*

"Giles!"  Willow yelled, storming through the
Watcher's front door with Tara on her heels.  "We have
a problem.  It's Buffy."  Three heads looked up from
their large books to stare at her.  "She was acting
all bitchy then left with some guy who was most
definitely not Riley.  Plus Tara says something is
wrong with her aura."

"Tara?" Xander questioned.

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

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

"Yes, we know.  Faith pulled a body switch so Buffy is
in 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, closing
the door and sauntering into the room.  "And since
when is Buffy in L.A.?"  Willow turned back to Giles',
her face stricken, but Giles gave her a reassuring nod
and began to fill Riley in on the situation.

*

A naked Faith stretched luxiourously in the cotton
sheets of the random frat boy she had selected from
the Bronze.  What was his name again?  Tim?  Tom?
Dave?  Had she even bothered to ask?  It didn't matter
anyway.

She smirked.  A surprisingly satisfying roll in the
hay, 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 less
than 48 hours ago.  She got off the bed and started to
dress.

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

"Somewhere you're not schoolboy."  She stalked out of
the 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 the
situation.

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

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

*

The awkward silence wasn't broken as the four people
drove steadily towards Sunnydale.  When Angel finally
pulled up in front of Giles' house, Buffy jumped out
of the car before it came to a full stop.  She ran up
to 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 weird
right?  I mean normally when the Buffster comes back
from defeating death or something equally scary we all
give her a big hug and go party, but we can't because,
ya know, she's Faith."

"It's not liked you've never hugged Faith before.  And
more." Willow muttered bitterly, getting surprised
looks from the other occupants of the room.  She
immediately clamped her hand over her mouth and sunk
back sheepishly into the couch.  "We're gonna pretend
I didn't say that."  Willow sighed inwardly.  She
still had Faith issues.  Her burgeoning feelings for
Tara, the fact that Faith had been in a coma and that
any sort of romantic feelings toward Xander ended over
a year ago didn't matter.  She was still most
decidedly bitter.  She could only imagine how Buffy
felt.  But she didn't get a chance to ask because
Wesley,
Cordelia, and Angel appeared in the doorway.

"Ya know Giles, you really should leave your door
open.  Anyone could just waltz right in," Cordelia
told him as she did just that.

"Thank you for the advice, Cordelia," Giles said
dryly.  "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 a
partnership," Wesley stammered.

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

"Riley went out to find her," Anya told her.  At the
mention of her boyfriend's name, Buffy's eyes widened.
With all the tension between her and Angel, she
hadn't thought about Riley at all.  And now her ex and
her 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 to
avoid Angel's gaze which she felt settle intensely on
her at the mention of Riley's name.

"We've found a spell that should reverse the effects
of the spell that Faith performed.  Willow and Tara
will perform it when Faith is here."

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

"Oh yes, Buffy this is Tara, my friend from the Wiccan
group on campus.  Tara, this is Buffy.  And that's
Cordelia 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 whole
situation.  "But as a witch I guess you've seen some
weird stuff."

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

"Well, stick around.  It only gets better," Cordelia
told her sarcastically and received glares from almost
everyone in the room.  Buffy plopped down on the couch
next to Willow.

"So, I guess now we just wait."

TBC