“Mommy?” Catherine stood in the doorway of the room Buffy shared with Xander.
“Yeah, hon?” Buffy asked her daughter.
“When’s daddy coming home?”
Buffy sighed. “It won’t be too long now, honey… he has to work away during the week sometimes, you know that… but he’s home every weekend. Just for you.” She smiled, hoping that it would stave off the next line.
It didn’t.
“But I miss him now, mom.” Catherine always sounded so plaintive when Xander was away.
Buffy gathered her daughter into her arms. “I know, hon. I know.”
Xander worked close to home if he could, so he did live at home most of the time, but some large jobs, like the one he was currently employed on, were too far away to commute daily. And he always made sure to spend time with Catherine when home, rather than work in his study.
But still… the times away… those were hard.
Xander turned to his assistant, Chad, shouting up from his trailer. “Hey, boss! You got a call!”
“Who is it?” Xander shouted down from where he was currently helping two workmen sort out a roofing beam that decided to warp over the weekend and pop it’s nails. Xander knew that their might have been a problem, but had hoped that it would behave. He should know that timber never does what you want it to.
“Who else?” Chad replied.
Xander smiled. “Who else indeed?” He turned to the other two workmen, Craig and Sam. “You think you can fix it now?”
Sam nodded. “Sure thing, boss. Just needed a bit of help, that’s all. And thanks.”
Xander grinned as he began to climb down the ladder up the side of the bungalow house, and said, “Hey, don’t worry about it. I’d rather you admitted you had a problem than lose me my job!”
Craig laughed. “Don’t keep the little woman waiting, boss!”
Xander fixed him with a glare. “If she heard you say that, you’d be on the endangered species list.”
Craig stopped laughing. Sam snickered. “Yeah, from your last Christmas party, I remember what she did to Max.”
Xander’s voice floated up to them. “Don’t remind me…”
Xander stepped into his trailer, where a desk sat one side and a small ‘fridge and couch the other. “Thanks, Chad. Keep an eye on them, will ya?”
Chad stepped outside. “Sure thing, boss.”
Xander picked up the phone, which Chad had left off the hook on the desk. “Yeah hon?”
Buffy smiled at the sound of Xander’s voice despite herself. “Catherine asked when you were coming home.”
Xander grinned with the attachment his daughter had to both of him and Buffy. He had never been close to his parents, Giles and Joyce, as hard as it was to admit it to Giles, had been the closest he had to parents. Jesse’s parents had been good to him, but with Jesse’s death, had moved away. Then he sighed. “Already? I hoped she wouldn’t ask until tomorrow, at least.”
Buffy shrugged, realising that Xander couldn’t see her, but not caring. “Well, she did. Cathy misses you a lot, Xander, when you’re on site. And so do I.”
Xander sighed again. “I know, Buff. But I like this… I’m good at this.”
“I know you are, Xand. And that’s the one thing that keeps me from being more forceful in my objections.”
“Boss!” Xander turned at the alarmed shout from outside.
“Dammit.” Xander cursed, “Buffy, I’ve got to go. Bye!” He blew a kiss and hung up the phone before she could respond.
Xander reached the door of the trailer, not knowing what he was going to see. When he did see, however, he wished he hadn’t.
Craig and Sam had obviously had another problem, because half the timber in the roof had suddenly decided to collapse. “Shit!” He cursed again. “Didn’t I tell you guys yesterday to shore up the beams?!”
Chad appeared from inside the skeleton of the house. “We’ve got another problem, boss. Craig fell.”
“What’s wrong?” Xander asked as he raced toward his second, and the house.
“A beam slipped, and took him with it. He’s unconscious, and it’s the falls broken his leg. Fortunately, the beams’ missed landing on him, or we’d need the Morgue, rather than the Hospital.”
Xander and Chad lifted the beam a little away, using the leverage from the joist to move a weight that would otherwise be too heavy for two men. “Get him to hospital, Chad. And stay with him. Okay?”
“Yeah, boss.” Chad, the site first-aider and ex-Army Medic rolled the unconscious body of Craig onto a stretcher that two other workmen had brought, and indicated one of them should get the other end. “See you soon.”
“I mean it. Stay with him, Chad.”
“I’ll be back when the Doc’s say he’s stable and okay.”
“Chad…” Xander started warningly.
“No, I wont be any use there, boss. I might as well come back and help with the mess. Craig knows the site number… he can call if he wakes up and needs a ride.”
Xander sighed. It all started out so well yesterday. “Fine.”
Xander sat heavily in the office chair. It wasn’t overly comfortable, Xander being a frugal administrator. While he didn’t equate ‘frugal’ with counting paperclips and pencils, he didn’t see the point in buying a chair that would make an Executive Lawyer jealous. For him, he was careful with what he spent out of the budget. For his crew, only the best was good enough. So he used an old beaten up thing that he found in one of the site skips one day. His crew hadn’t put it there, and it didn’t come from the site, so he simply shrugged, stuck a cushion on it, and got on with what he was meant to do.
Which was, right now, phoning his wife and explaining why he had hung up on her. He wasn’t looking forward to this.
The phone rang.
And rang.
And rang.
Finally, the answer phone picked up.
“Hi!” Buffy’s voice chirped, “Buffy,”
“Or Xander,” Xander’s voice interjected,
“Or Catherine,” Catherine’s voice said nervously,
“Aren’t in, right now…” Buffy continued, “So…”
“If you’d like to leave a message…” Xander heard himself say,
“Or whatever,” Buffy said again, “We’ll call you back. Oh… name and number, too.”
Xander waited for the beep, and began to speak. “Buffy, I’m sorry honey. I had to go, there was an accident on the site and Chad needs to take one of the workmen to Hospital. Oh well…” Xander sighed, and the weight of the world sudden landed on his shoulders. “I’m sorry, Buff. Speak to you soon?” Even to his own ears, his voice sounded pathetically hopeful.
He hung up, and sighed again. Scrubbing his face with his hands, Xander muttered to himself, before shaking his head slowly. “Buffy… I promise you that after this is finished, I’ll apply for that desk job.”