"Do you know if there are any places to grab a coffee around here?" a deep voice rumbled from behind Faith.
Faith turned around and eyed the new arrival cautiously. "Do you really want to know or are you just looking for an excuse to talk to me?"
"I..." the man trailed off, slightly sheepish.
"Simple question, Jared. Are you an idiot or a stalker?" she snapped.
Her half brother stared at her in shock, obvious hurt written on his face.
"Ok," Faith sighed. "That was a mean thing to say. I'm aware of that because I'm generally not a mean person. Sometimes. But I'm a person who just doesn't want to know you. And you are a person who is making that very difficult. So please, just stop making it difficult for me not to know you, ok?"
The Slayer sighed again and started walking away.
"I'm a nice person, ok?" Jared tried, going after her. "I... I am, and I don't know what it is that I did to you, but you know... we have the same dad, so I was just thinking a simple conversation - "
"We don't have the same dad, Jared," Faith interjected. "You and I, we do not have the same dad."
He opened his mouth to protest, but she continued on, ignoring him.
"My dad disappeared when I was five years old and I never saw him again. Does that sound like the dad you grew up with?" she asked, bitterly. "It took me twenty-five years to let someone love me. He's the most perfect man for me, and I still struggle with it. I still want to kick him out of my bed at night because sometimes, I can't let him love me. And it doesn't take a shrink to figure it out why. Because our dad chose you. So I'm sure you are a very nice guy, Jared. I'm sure your mom and your brother are nice people too. But I hope you can understand, you're not a guy I ever wanted to have to know."
There was a long silence between the two, and Faith turned away to leave again.
"He didn't know," Jared called after her. "He thought you would be alright. Please give us another chance. We're family."
"He knew," Faith replied, not turning around. "Go home and ask George what kind of woman my mother was. Then ask him how he could leave a child with that. And we're not family."