"You don't know what it was like, it was horrible."
"It's ok, Spike. I know it wasn't you; you were being controlled." Buffy took a deep breath, and smiled at the recently souled vampire in front of her. "The First Evil was controlling you. I know that, you don't have to worry about it any more."
"You're not going to stake me?" Spike asked, blood tears in the corners of his eyes.
Buffy shook her head; her heart was being pulled in several directions by the despair she could see in the eyes before her.
A small voice inside her was telling her just to stake him, to do her duty. She was the longest living Vampire Slayer in history, and deep inside her a primordial spirit was crying for the end to all vampires. With the ease of long practice, she ignored the voice of her ancestors and pulled Spike into a hug.
"Shhh, it's ok," she whispered gently, rocking him back and forth. Buffy tried not to think about the damage his tears were doing to her shirt.
She had found him like this, lying on the floor of his crypt, shaking violently, shortly after they had defeated the First Vampire.
Xander had jumped in front of the First Vampire, distracting it and allowing Buffy to finally destroy it with a piece of wood from the cross which Christ was crucified on. Surprisingly, Anya had found it through one of her suppliers , and had provided it to the group for free. An almost unbelievable act of generosity from the capitalistic ex-vengeance demon.
Buffy had realized that Spike would be in agony after the First Vampire was destroyed. Remembering what he had been forced to do would be a terrible burden for him so soon after regaining his soul. She had quickly made her excuses to the others and ran to his crypt.
Spike had hardly noticed her as he lay on the floor, curled up in a fetal position, mumbling to himself endlessly, "I killed, again. I killed, again."
Buffy had recently started to have romantic feelings for Spike again; after all, he had been there for her during the awful period of her life after she had been wrenched from heaven by Xander and Willow. He had also showed a remarkable determination to stay with her and win her as his own, though his obsession sometimes bordered on the unhealthy.
As she continued to hold the vampire to her, she started to mentally rationalize his attempted rape of her, dealing with the issues as each arose in her mind. She had spent the first week after the attempt, sleeping with a lit candle in her room, the dark too much to bear.
The relationship between them had been based on their violent attraction to each other. It had been a way for Buffy to release her anger at the world, to feel again. From simply fighting each other, it had quickly developed into a pattern: she would ask him to stop, he'd ignore her and they'd end up fucking, as hard as they could, where ever they could.
It had started the same way that awful night; the only difference had been that Buffy had meant it when she asked him to stop. Now she couldn't help asking herself how she could have expected Spike to realize when she truly meant for him to stop.
She didn't know the answer, but she did wonder if she had led him on. In the heat of passion, it could be easy to fail to recognize the difference.
Again, a small part of Buffy cried in pain as she thought this, but once more she ruthlessly silenced this part.
She knew she wasn't in the same mental place now as she had been back then, and wondered if she could have a normal relationship with him.
"Thank You, Buffy" he whispered, his heart in his eyes. He moved towards her slowly, allowing her room to pull back, trying to kiss her.
Buffy moved back, raising a hand and gently stopping him
"No," she said simply, quietly.
Spike backed off, instantly, stepping out of her arms.
She smiled at him a little, appreciating his actions.
"Why not?" he asked, matching her tone, not accusing her. Simply making a request for information.
"I've moved on from where I was then, I don't need to feel like that any more.
Spike nodded, appreciating the straight reply.
"I've changed too, for you." Spike said, realizing that this was perhaps his only chance. "I left because I could see you didn't need me like that any more. I went to Africa to get my soul back, for you."
His eyes seemed distant as he spoke. Buffy stared into them and was just able to see a blood red tinge as Spike remembered everything he had done while he had been a vampire. That simple sentence struck her, hard.
Spike had voluntarily regained his soul back. The idea shocked her. She knew, without a shadow of doubt, the pain he was voluntarily going through for her. Angel, her first vampire lover, had suffered for a century with the guilt constantly eating at him. The fact that Spike would willingly undergo that form of torture for her made her realize that he did love her.
As she thought of Angel, her mind flicked back to Jenny Calendar, the teacher Angel had killed during one of his trips to the dark side. She had forgiven him because it had been Angelus, not Angel, who killed Ms. Calendar.
Maybe *Spike* had attempted to rape her, not William. It was a distinction that her mind eagerly accepted.
Hardly noticing Buffy, Spike said, "I can see them, you know?"
"Who?"
"My victims, the people I tortured, the people I killed, the people I used to survive. There was no distinction for me, man, woman, child, even animals in some cases. What ever I wanted, I took. I can see them know, they haunt me when I sleep, asking the same questions other and other again. 'What gave me the right to kill them', 'Why did I kill them', 'Why don't I kill myself now, end it'"
"Spike, No!" Buffy exclaimed, shocked. "Suicide is never the answer."
Spike half nodded, barely acknowledging her, continuing to speak, "I think about it, about ending it, letting myself get the punishment I deserve. But I don't, I decided not to. You want to know why?"
Wordlessly, Buffy nodded.
"Because I need to make amends, I need to do some good first. I can never balance the scale, but maybe I can make it a little more even. I'm not much of a thinker, not much good for anything but in a fight.
"You're good for more than that, Spike." Buffy interrupted, passionately, trying to reassure him.
The look in Spike's eyes made Buffy's breath hitch in her throat.
He moved towards her, slowly, non-threateningly, giving her every opportunity to escape. He paused, inches away from her, and lowered his head, maintaining eye contact all the time. This time, Buffy didn't back away; she slowly moved her head up, meeting him halfway.
Her arms wrapped themselves around her Vampiric lover, feeling his preternaturally strong arms hold her as they kissed, gently. A kiss of love and forgiveness.
Spike slowly started to push the Slayer backwards, towards his bed. Buffy moved with him, going with the kiss as it increased in intensity. As she had so many times before, she turned off her conscious mind and went with her feelings as the Vampire laid her down on the bed in his dusty crypt.
A slither of light streamed through a crack in the door, bouncing off particles of dust in the dark crypt, announcing the daylight outside.
Buffy stretched, smiling softly, running her naked legs over her lover's. This was the first time that she had woken up next to Spike, and the first time after having sex with him that she wasn't bruised. Last night had been an expression of tenderness and love for the first time between them. Buffy had enjoyed it immensely, preferring it to the almost feral lust and passion that had engulfed them the last time, even if it hadn't been quite as exciting as before.
Spike woke with a smile, "Mornin', Pet."
Buffy dropped a kiss on the corner of his mouth, then checked her watch.
"I've got to get to work. Meet me at my place tonight for patrol?" she asked, sliding out of bed.
Spike watched her naked form with admiration, "Sure, luv."
Buffy moved, flaunting herself a little for her lover's pleasure. She had to move around the room, picking her clothes up from where they had been flung.
Dressed, she paused at the door and blew Spike a kiss.
Playfully, he reached out and grabbed, pulling it to his heart.
Buffy giggled. "Call me if you start to feel bad again," she said, her mood turning serious for a second.
Spike nodded, "I promise."
Buffy gave him one last smile, and walked out, closing the door firmly behind her.
She bounced along happily, realising that making love to Spike when he had a soul was very different than before. It was almost like loving Angel all over again, only without the whole 'losing soul' ickiness that had followed.
Back in the crypt, Spike smiled, while getting up and dressing himself. He walked to a wall, and opened a secret compartment.
He reached in and pulled out the small velvet box, looked at its contents. His smile grew.
Buffy was relaxing on the couch, watching TV, her feet propped on Spike's legs. Spike was idly playing with her socked feet, gently pulling her toes, a far away look in his eyes. Suddenly, he stopped playing and swung her feet off him, standing up to look down at her. Buffy watched him with a quizzical expression on her face.
He flashed her a quick smile, then grabbed the remote control, turning the TV off.
"Buffy, I need to say some things to you, and I need you to listen."
Buffy sat up straight, looking up into his eyes. "OK."
"I can hardly remember the time before I was turned; I've no specific memories, only feelings. I remember feeling happy, at peace with myself. You do know that I wanted to be a poet?"
Buffy nodded, and Spike smiled, reminiscing. "I was awful - it's where I got the nickname 'the bloody'; it was short for 'Bloody Awful poet'."
Buffy laughed with Spike.
"Anyways, after Angelus turned me, my memory is crystal clear." His voice hardened. "I can remember each of my victims, including the ones that I killed while Angelus taught me how to inflict as much pain as possible."
A solitary tear formed, edging its way down his cheek, past his chiselled cheekbones.
Buffy reached forwards, looking for one of his hands, offering him comfort. He smiled reassuringly at her, and continued.
"I want to make a promise to you, Buffy." Spike took a deep, if needless, breath, "from this day forth, I swear I will never drink a human's blood again, or even hurt one needlessly. Even though my chip is no longer functioning, I will act like it is at all times.
"I want us to get back together, not like we were before, but as a proper couple. I want us to date, to go out to movies, do everything I didn't want to before. I don't want us to fight, again, ever.
"I know this is going to cause problems with Xander, Willow and the others," Spike said, deliberately not using his derogatory nicknames for them. "So I wanted to make a promise to you and to them, a promise of commitment."
Spike looked Buffy directly in her eyes, and took a deep breath. Buffy smiled at him reassuringly.
Spike reached into his back pocket and pulled out the small box.
"This belonged to my mother," he whispered, then fell to one knee in front of her. "I want you to have it."
Buffy looked at him in disbelief, unmoving, frozen as she realised what he was planning.
"Elizabeth Anne Summers. Would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?" he asked, his face clearly showing his nerves and desperation for her to say 'yes'.
Buffy froze; a thousand thoughts rushed through her mind, not least the fear of being alone. Saying yes would mean accepting Spike's promise that would never leave her, that she would always have someone to turn to, someone to come home to, someone to talk to. Even if the others left, she would have someone of her own, forever.
"Yes," she whispered softly, breathing the word out. "Yes, I will marry you", she smiled and then relaxed, as Spike swept her up into his arms and kissed her hard.
"Stake, check. Holy water, check. Phone with Buffy's number on speed dial, check," Dawn recited to herself. She was going slaying on her own for the first time.
Of course, she had somehow conveniently forgotten to mention this fact to any of the others, but she *was* 17 now. After all, Buffy and the others had been slaying since they were 15. That was a whole 2 years younger than she was now. Besides, she was used to patrolling with the others, how hard could it be to do it alone?
Holding her stake nervously in one hand, Dawn started to walk, heading for Parkside Cemetery. She kept to the shadows as she patrolled, looking around her all the time.
She heard a noise in an alley and turned, bringing her stake up as she adopted a pose similar to one that Buffy might use.
"I can feel you in there," she said, her voice sounding a lot more confident that she actually was. "Come out so I can send you back to the hell you came from," she demanded.
Two eyes peered eerily out of the dark. Dawn tensed, mentally encouraging herself once more. Movement caused Dawn to grip her stake tighter; she prepared to launch herself at the Vampire, a swing kick first, followed by a high powered punch, then a stake straight to the heart. 'Piece of Cake, Dawn, you can do it girl."
As the creature came into light, Dawn leapt with a powerful yell, scaring one of the lives out of the poor cat, who meowed in protest, and slinked off. Dawn carefully looked to the left, then to the right. She quietly thanked God that no one had witnessed her humiliation. She could imagine Xander teasing her endlessly. She shuddered at the thought and went back to patrolling, still keeping to the shadows.
In the distance, she saw two vampires.
"This is it, Dawn. You can do it!" she said to herself, trying to boost her confidence. The vampires walked under a streetlight.A blonde flash caught her eye.
"Spike?" she whispered softly, then crept after them, wanting to see what her friend was up to.
As she watched, Spike lent in and kissed his companion. She could see the long dark hair float around her head, as she responded to Spike's kiss.
Dawn raised her eyebrows. 'Wow, Spike's got a new girlfriend. Wait till I tell Xander.' A smile rose across her face as she imagined the teasing her best friend would dish out to the ensouled vampire.
Spike suddenly stopped kissing, and looked around, as if sensing someone watching him. Dawn froze, willing the shadows to cover her completely.
"What is it?" a soft voice asked.
"Just a nibblet," Spike answered, turning back to his partner.
Her desire for patrol over, Dawn ran back to her house, and sneaked back into her room.
She lay awake for a while, wondering whom Spike had been kissing, when she heard the front door downstairs open.
Dawn crept out again, onto the landing, and looked down.
For the second time that night, she froze in shock as she saw Spike kissing someone. Her sister.
"What's the matter, honey?" Buffy asked, realising that Spike wasn't totally in to their current make out session.
"What?" Spike asked, resurfacing from his thoughts.
"You're not here." Buffy said. "Where are you?"
"Sorry, luv."
"Well?" Buffy asked, more amused than annoyed. She was guessing that it was something of importance because normally Spike couldn't keep his hands of her.
Spike sighed and took a deep, if needless, breath.
"Got a problem with the nibblet."
"Dawn?" Buffy asked, her eyes widening.
Spike nodded, "Yeah. You haven't told her about us, have you?"
Buffy shook her head from side to side; her pony tailed hair bounced cutely behind her, causing Spike to smile tenderly at her.
"Well, when I took her out the other day, she was being a bit too clingy. You know how she can get?"
Buffy nodded.
"She held my hand all through the film, stroking her fingers up and down. When I tried to move my hand away, she grabbed it tighter."
Buffy frowned, not liking the idea of her sister making moves on her man.
"I left it there, figuring it was harmless flirting, and watched the movie. I let Dawn drive home, as she asked."
"Wait a second! You let Dawn drive your car, but you wouldn't let me?" Buffy asked, her eyebrows furrowing in annoyance.
Spike's raised his eyebrows as he realised he'd made a tactical error. "It's going to be our car now, luv, so you can drive it whenever you want to."
Buffy acknowledged his quick thinking with a bounce, a happy smile and a quick kiss.
"Anyway, on the way home, she stopped. I asked her what she was doing, and she just smiled at me and undid her seat belt.
"Then she asked me if I thought she was still a child. Well, obviously I said no, and she smiled, then jumped on me and kissed me hard."
"She did what?" Buffy asked, shocked. The thought of her sister even looking at another boy scared her to no end, but the idea that she would jump on Spike, her fiancÉ in a car was almost unbelievable.
Spike obediently repeated his previous statement, continuing, "I was shocked, I kinda froze and she continued to kiss me, while rubbing herself against me.
"After a few seconds, I pushed her off, and she got mad, asking what the hell I was doing, didn't I think she was pretty enough?
"I said, sure, she was pretty, but that I was in love with you."
Buffy smiled at this, liking to hear her lover declare his love for her, at any time.
"She said that you were over me, that you'd moved on and that it was time I did as well, and as far as she could see, she was the perfect choice. I kinda let it slip then that we were back together and she was furious.
"I don't know if she is jealous, or if she's just embarrassed and holding a grudge now. I never led her on, Buff."
"I know Spike, you wouldn't do something like that. You've always loved her like a sister."
Spike nodded in agreement, then added, "She swore she'd break us up if it was the last thing she did."
Buffy lent back against the couch and closed her eyes, unable to comprehend what Spike had just told her. She opened her eyes and looked directly at her lover, his expression of compassion, regret and slight confusion reassured her. She moved forwards and engulfed him in a hug.
A kiss turned into two, a caress into several, and neither of them moved from the couch for sometime, as Buffy reaffirmed her hold on his heart and his body.
Upstairs, Dawn slept, unware of the noises coming from the living room below.
"Buffy, can I talk to you?" Dawn asked carefully, really not wanting to have this conversation.
Buffy nodded and sat down, mentally steeling herself for the confrontation that was about to happen.
"I kinda went out last night, after you sent me to bed," Dawn confessed, realizing that she wouldn't be able to convince her sister about Spike and the other vampire if she didn't explain exactly why she was outside at night, alone.
"Why?" Buffy said simply, a frown appearing on her face, hoping that Dawn hadn't done what she thought she had.
"I wanted to go patrol on my own." Dawn stated, then launched into an explanation, "I wanted to test myself, to see if I could do it. Besides, you all started at 15. I'm 17 now and I can handle it."
"Dawn!" Buffy exploded. "How can you be so reckless? You're not a Slayer! When we went patrolling, we always had backup, weapons, people who could match them one on one."
"Really?" Dawn snapped. "What about that time after you sent Angel back to hell, and you left town, and left Xander and Willow to do it alone?" At Buffy's shocked look, she continued. "Willow told me all about it- how several 'Ordinary' people patrolled the streets while you were off mourning sending another vampire to hell."
"At least they we're doing it together," Buffy bit back, ignoring the other references, not letting Dawn change the subject.
Dawn glared at her sister, then slowly stated, grinding the words out. "While I was patrolling, I saw Spike kissing a dark haired vampire."
Dawn waited for Buffy to react; waited for the questions she knew would come, about what Spike was doing. This would make Buffy forget about her transgressions as her ire would be transferred to the bleached blonde vampire.
"Is that the best you can come up with?" Buffy mocked, still angry at Dawn.
"What?" Dawn asked, not sure that she had heard correctly.
"I said, is that the best you can come up with? That you saw Spike kissing some one else?. I was expecting something more original than that."
Dawn just looked at her sister, stunned by the apparent change in subject. "I don't understand."
"Look, Dawn, Spike told me what happened in the car the other day, how you jumped on him. One, you're too young to be doing that sort of thing. Two, Spike is a lot older than you, and you shouldn't be having feelings for someone like that, and three, Spike is mine, and you won't be able to break us up. I want you to apologise to Spike the next time you see him."
Dawn felt tears slowly being dripping down her cheek, feeling the injustice of what Buffy was saying as she looked at the implacable face of her sister.
Buffy felt a little sorry for being harsh, but she knew it was for the best. She knew Dawn was crying because she had been found out, not because she was hurt. This way the subject wouldn't come up again.
"But-" Dawn started, only for Buffy to interrupt.
"I don't want to hear it Dawn. Now go to your room."
"That's - " Dawn tried again, desperately trying to assert her innocence. The accusations left her floundering. All she knew is that she had to get Buffy to listen to her.
"Dawn!" Buffy yelled. "This subject is closed. Go to your room."
Dawn stood and fled, the tears falling freely from her eyes as she ran up the stairs.
Spike carefully walked into the kitchen, carefully avoiding the bright sunlight that streamed through the kitchen window.
He wrapped his arms the Slayer, and kissed the top of her hair.
"I know that was hard, Luv," he said, wrapping his arms around her. "But it was for the best. We can forget about this now. Once she gets over it, she'll be happy that we are together.
"Have you given any thought on how you want to tell the others?"
"A few. I thought the best way would be to get everyone together at the Magic Box and tell them together."
"Sounds like a plan, luv. When?"
"Tonight? We're all supposed to be meeting anyway."
Spike looked pleased. He lifted Buffy off her seat and sat down, placing her firmly in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and cuddled her, offering her solace for the emotional upheaval caused by her argument with Dawn.
"Where are Spike and Buffy?" Xander asked, dropping into a comfy chair and yawning. He had spent the entire day in meetings with local politicians, ironing out issues with the rebuilding of his high school. For the first time the carpenter was regretting blowing it up 5 years ago, when they had destroyed the Ascending Mayor of Sunnydale.
Willow briefly looked up from the book she was studying. "Don't know," she said, sounding disinterested and went back to reading.
"Dawn Patrol?" Xander tried.
Dawn sat staring into space, as she had been doing for some time.
Xander frowned as he watched her. "Dawn?" Getting no response, he stood and walked over to the table she was sitting at. He waved his hand in front of her face. "Yo. Dawn! Earth to Dawn, come in, Morning Dawnie."
Dawn blushed and looked up, "Sorry Xand, got something on my mind."
Xander pulled up a chair and sat down. "Want to talk about it?" he asked, keeping his voice low.
Dawn's response was lost as the front door swung open and Buffy and Spike entered together.
"Buffy," Xander said cheerfully; in lieu of an official greeting, he patently ignored Spike. As always, Buffy rolled her eyes at his hatred for the vampire.
"Wills, come over here a second, we've got an announcement."
Willow placed the book down, carefully marking her page.
"What were you reading?" Xander asked, suddenly curious.
The Wicca shrugged lightly, "Sumerian book. Giles suggested I study it after that hassle with the First," she said, referring to the deadly super vamp that had caused them so much trouble,
"How is the G-Man?"
"Enjoying New York, the S.I.T's are dragging him all over on a massive site-seeing tour. I think he's enjoying being Uncle Giles without the threat of imminent death."
Xander laughed, and was about to reply when Buffy interrupted.
"I hate to interrupt," she lied casually, "but as I said, we have an announcement."
"Sorry," Xander responded, rolling his eyes slightly, "please go ahead, you have our complete attention."
Buffy took a deep breath, and blurted out, "Spike asked me to marry him, and I accepted."
Complete silence followed the revelation.
"He's done what and you've done what now?" Xander asked quietly, tilting his head to one side as he was positive she'd said something insane.
Buffy sighed at Xander, "I am engaged to Spike."
"Why?" Xander asked. His brain was having a lot of trouble processing this information.
"Because I love him and he asked me."
"After he's spent over a hundred years killing people, including several of the potential Slayers last week, you're marrying him?" The disbelief in Xander's voice was obvious.
"He was being controlled by the First," Buffy groaned at him, "We've been over this. Spike was innocent; he has a soul now."
Xander was starting to get upset; he could see that this was an incredibly bad idea, for Buffy, for all of them.
"Why the Hell did you even keep him alive?" Xander said forcefully. "He doesn't deserve life." He was aware that this argument was going off on a tangent, but he couldn't stop now. There was too much bad blood between them.
"We kept him alive because we needed him; he's the best fighter we've got."
"No he's not! He's betrayed us or let us down every single time. Even with Glory he was only partly effective."
"At least he's not been a fucking liability, like you."
"I've saved your life, and the world, many times, Slayer," Xander growled, getting right in Buffy's face.
Buffy sneered, her need to attack any threat overcame any semblance of thought. "Finally, you bring that up. You've just been saving it, haven't you, for an argument, any argument you couldn't win normally. Feeling superior in ever time, because you knew you had this as your ace in the pack." She paused for breath, then continued, her voice mocking Xander's deeper tones. "Oh, I'm Xander, I'm not useless, I saved the world and all of you guys and I keep it to myself, aren't I the quiet hero, love me."
"You knew about that?" Xander asked, shocked.
"Of course! Slayer here. We were all busy upstairs, so when a load of dead Zombies are found, it was obviously you. I wondered why you were keeping it quiet till Spike pointed out that you were just holding it over my head to use later. What did you think?" Buffy mocked him viciously, "You'd bring it up and I'd say 'Oooo, Xander, I misjudged you, you aren't useless, I love you, let's go to Vegas and have lots of sex?'"
Xander physically shook himself out of the shock caused by Buffy's reaction. "You think this about me having feelings for you?" he asked, "that I'm in some way jealous?"
"Duh," Buffy said, reverting to the behavior of a former head cheerleader. "Of course."
"Maybe once I would have been," the carpenter replied, "but I sure as hell wasn't in love with you when I was with Ahn, and any residual feelings were pretty much killed when you shacked up with Deadboy junior again. Once could be a mistake, but twice is a lifestyle choice. You remember the word for that? Necrophilia: sleeping with the dead."
Xander was already leaning back as he said those words, guessing correctly that Buffy's first reaction would be violence. As she missed with her roundhouse punch and over balanced herself, Xander pushed her into Spike.
"Typical Buffy, you can't even have an argument without resorting to physical violence. What the hell happened to you? I remember you lying on the floor of the bathroom, crying your eyes out after HE," Xander spat the description of Spike, "tried to rape you."
"Wait a second," Dawn interrupted. "Spike tried to Rape you?"
"Not now, Dawn," Buffy said dismissively.
"Yes, now," Dawn insisted.
"Look, it was back when he didn't have a soul. It's old news."
"You left me alone with a rapist? You asked a rapist to look after me while you were off fighting?" she asked, her voice bordering on the hysterical.
"I would never have touched you, Dawn," Spike said, visibly wincing at the accusations flung.
"I'd've said the same thing about you and Buffy," Dawn snapped back.
"What are you complaining about anyway?" Buffy spat. "It would have been what you wanted."
"What?" Xander and Dawn asked at the same time. They both had identical expressions of shock on their faces.
Buffy's expression was one of pure fury; she was enraged that both her sister and best male friend could not be happy for her and she was reacting the only way she knew how. - with violence, whether it be verbal or physical.
"Didn't your little friend tell you, Xander?" she spat out visciously. "She tried to come on to my fiancÉ then swore to break us up when Spike turned the slut down."
Xander looked at Dawn. A second was all it took for him to confirm that Spike had been lying to Buffy. "You believed a vampire over your own sister?" he asked incredulously.
"Spike Has A Soul" Buffy ground out through clenched teeth, as if that statement was enough.
"So?" Xander responded curtly.
"So, now he can't lie," Buffy said, talking slowly as if she was dealing with a two year old.
"Because he has a soul?" The disbelief was almost physical in Xander's voice.
"Of course."
Willow watched her two friends fight, torn between them, trying to decided which side to join.
"Hey Wills," Xander said as he sat at her table.
The red head looked up at him and smiled happily. "Hey Xand, how's things?"
"Good, good," the building constructor replied.
"I wanted to have a word with you," he continued as he looked over at his oldest friend.
"Go ahead." Willow folded the book she was reading and placed it neatly on the table.
"It's about Kennedy," Xander looked a little uncomfortable and said in a rush, "I'm afraid that you're getting too close to her, Wills."
"What do you mean?" Willow asked, her eyes suddenly wary.
"She's only 16, Willow. She's a lot younger than you are. Despite how forward she is, she's still below the legal age on consent."
"This isn't any of your business, Xander," Willow said shortly, her eyes darkening slightly.
"Hey, hey Willow, calm down. You know I love you - I just don't want you getting hurt or getting in trouble."
"I know, Xander," Willow said, visibly calming down. "It's just that, in five years, no one will know the difference."
Xander smiled softly, thinking he had gotten his point through to the witch. "In two years Willow, no one will mind - just give her a chance to grow up a bit first."
Reluctantly, Willow nodded.
She missed Kennedy, her current partner, the slayer in training. The red-haired Wiccan eventually realized that she had to support Buffy, as she had so many times in the past. It was the only way to get what she wanted now.
"Spike has a soul and Buffy's happy. Why can't you be happy for her, Xander?" Willow asked, entering the argument for the first time.
Xander threw her a hurt look, as he realized she was joining Buffy and Spike against him. "Spike is a vampire; a creature of the night."
"He has a soul," Willow replied, repeating Buffy's earlier defense.
"So did you," Xander snapped. "It didn't stop you from trying to end the world."
Willow burst into tears and sat down, Spike and Buffy both threw Xander disgusted looks.
"There was no need for that, Droopy," Spike spat, aware that he could get away with interfering now. Xander's reaction had been so predictable and easy to manipulate.
Xander slowly looked into the face of his erstwhile friend and said softly "What happened to you? When did you die?"
"What?" Buffy asked, confused.
"You're not Buffy. I'm not sure who you are, but you're not Buffy. Buffy always cared about her sister; she even died trying to save the world."
Xander took a deep breath, then relaxed a little. The turmoil was rocking inside him as he realized he had finally reached the end of his tether. All the problems over the years had built up, and now it finally exploded inside him. The damage was massive, and yet subtle. Xander simply stopped caring any longer about the people who had once been his friends.
As the others watched, they could see Xander change; his eyes darkened and his back straightened.
He turned to the door. "Coming, Dawn?" he asked.
Dawn didn't hesitate. The knowledge that her sister had left her with a would-be rapist had hurt her on a level she didn't know she had. All through her memories, both the artificially created and the natural ones, she had adored her sister, had felt protected by her. Buffy had been her secret hero for as long as she could remember; now she felt betrayed. The hero worship was gone, and she wasn't sure what was left in its place.
She turned and walked away from her sister and her supporters, following Xander. Spike jumped between them, deciding that Xander wasn't getting away that easily.
Xander didn't hesitate; he punched Spike as hard as he could. The punch started low and gathered weight as it flew upwards. He put all of his body and mind behind it. It caught Spike firmly on the chin, rocking his head back. It would have knocked a human out for the count; it barely affected the vampire.
But Spike was a consummate actor. He moved his head with the punch, pushing off with his legs at the same time. He flew heavily into the wall, before slumping down on to the ground.
"Spike!" Buffy yelled, jumping forwards. She launched into a spinning kick that caught Xander in the chest. Like the en-souled vampire had a few seconds before, the carpenter flew backwards, landing roughly on the table.
Spike got back to his feet, play acting his rage. Buffy stood back and callously watched him as he stalked Xander. Aiming carefully, the vampire grabbed the dark haired man by the collar and threw him across the room.
Xander landed, banging his head on a small coffee table. He immediately felt a stab of pain in his left eye, and could have sworn he heard a small popping sound. He groaned, worried because he couldn't see out of his eye, everything was black. He hoped that it was just because of the blood he could feel pouring down his cheek.
"Xander," Dawn cried, rushing over to him and helping him up. "Let's get out of here."
The heavily bleeding man put his arm around the brunette girl, and followed her out. Inside, he was hardly feeling the physical pain - the emotional pain he was experiencing was so much worse than any physical suffering he could ever undergo.
Buffy and Willow watched together, suddenly realizing that something had gone very wrong with their world; they just weren't sure what.
"Xander, wait!" Willow shouted, as Xander and Dawn got to the door.
Xander paused, still leaning heavily on the girl next to him. He impassively surveyed the three people standing in the room behind them with the eye he could still see out off. Finally, he whispered, "Only my friends call me Xander."
Xander turned; leaving the silence that had followed his parting remark behind and stumbled with Dawn's help to his car. He handed her his keys, and whispered softly, "I think you'd better get me to the hospital, Dawnie."
Ten words. Ten simple words. It was amazing how those words could change a lifetime.
"I'm sorry Mr. Harris, but there's nothing we can do."
That was all it took to seal his fate. Even staring at the ceiling wasn't the same. Nothing appeared the way it was before.
After seven years of fighting vampires, of fighting demons, ghosts and ghouls, he had his first serious injury, and in irony that would have had Machiavelli laughing, it was caused by supposed friendly fire.
Spike, Buffy's fiancé. At one time, the thought of that would have been enough to make him physically sick, now it just left him feeling a vague regret. He wondered whether he would be invited to her funeral. People who live in the dark are either corrupted or destroyed by it. He hoped she wouldn't be turned into a vampire; he didn't fancy having to fight her with extra vampire powers added to the already formidable Slayer powers.
He focused on the bed side lamp, moving his head, trying to understand the difference, but he couldn't.
'Still,' he thought to himself, returning to his original thought, faint hint of a smile appearing on his lips, he didn't know of any vampires that could handle 5 lbs of plastic explosives.
He knew he had two directions he could go now. Money wasn't a problem, his job was a lot more managerial and a lot less practical these days.
His insurance cover was going to make him pretty rich. He had winced when he had started to pay, in secret, the premiums for each of the core Scooby gang, but was glad he had, now. With the payoff he had coming, he could take the next ten years off without noticing any effect.
The first direction was to give up, to finally be out of the game. No one could blame him, perhaps more than the others, he had sacrificed. He was the only one without anything special inside him, the only one without a destiny, or a calling. He fought the night because it was the right thing to do, because it was the way he could protect his girls. But they weren't *his* girls, anymore. He wasn't sure who they were.
The second direction was to continue, to prove to himself that this was only a minor inconvenience, not a life changing event. He knew he was driven, to prove something to someone; he didn't know what exactly, but it wasn't in his personality to lay down and avoid what he knew was there.
Perhaps it was his first introduction to the night, having to stake Jessie, his best friend, his brother. Having to watch the evil creature explode into dust, taking the body of the only man he ever loved into history. He didn't want anyone else to face that, didn't want another loving family broken up over a mysterious disappearance.
If he continued, he would be dragging Dawn with him. But would she stay out of it, even if he ordered, begged or pleaded with her? Probably not. Like him, her reasons for fighting were complex. She wanted to prove herself, to protect others, to help protect the Slayer, her sister.
Everything had changed in less than 24 hours. He knew that Dawn had lost her awe over her sister, and now saw her for what she was. A normal, flawed, human, who consistently made bad mistakes in her personal relationships and forced away everyone who genuinely cared for her.
"Hi, Xander." The soft voice interrupted his musings, and he turned his head to look at his visitor.
He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but could tell that he wasn't too successful.
"The doctors won't tell me anything," she said, taking a seat next to him and grabbing his hand.
Xander sighed softly. "The eye is gone; the corner of the table pierced the cornea. A splinter destroyed the optic nerve and tore up everything inside. They had to remove the whole thing." His voice was dispassionate, as if he wasn't talking about himself.
A single tear dropped down the young girl's face, leaving a glistening path on her smooth cheek.
He reached up, very slowly and tentatively, aware that his depth perception was shot to hell, and gently touched her cheek, wiping away the tear. "Don't cry, Dawnie, it's not the end of the world. That's not due till Tuesday."
His poor attempt at a joke eked a small smile out of her.
"They are going to let me out of here in a few hours," he told her, trying to move on. There would be enough time for brooding later. He couldn't believe he had just thought that. Did this incident mean he was going to get a fetish for leather pants and start dating girls who were over two hundred years younger than him?
"Where are we going to go?" Dawn asked, suddenly realizing that they couldn't go back to the house they had been living in. Before the First Evil had been defeated, it had made sense for Xander to move in, to help look after the girls and to repair the damage that fighting monsters often accrued.
Xander smiled a little, and he could feel the pain killers start to kick in. "We could try my apartment," he suggested.
"You gave up your apartment when you moved in with us," she reminded him.
Xander laughed softly, a tiny laugh, but a laugh all the same. "I gave up one of my apartments, Dawn Patrol. I have another one on the other side of town, just in case. It made sense to have a backup base ready, in case anything happened to Case Del Summers."
Dawn blinked. "But -" she tried, before stopping. Little things that had been bothering her suddenly rearranged themselves in her mind. His succession of new cars, never worrying about them when the latest demon destroyed one, the way he always had money if people needed it. Everyone just assumed that it was there, no one asked where it came from. Now, she found out, he had an apartment ready, just in case.
"Xander, what do you do?"
A slightly twisted smile appeared on his face. "You're the first person to ask that, Dawn. After all these years, no one has bothered to see where all the money comes from.
"I'm vice president of the construction company where I work, in addition to being a foreman. I help close the deals that others work on, and occasionally take control of the bigger projects to ensure they are done on time and to budget. I spend a lot more time in a suit than I do in the jeans I wear around the house."
Two expressions vied for control of the young girls face, pride and shock. In the end, pride won. "I'm sorry for not asking earlier, but hey, teenager here. As long as I get an allowance on a semi regular basis, I just assume the money's always going to be there."
Xander smiled at her. "It's ok Dawn, I don't expect you to ask" He left unsaid the implication that he had expected the others to do so.
This small statement actually made Dawn feel bad, and she wasn't sure why. She was slowly starting to realize that she did not want to be seen as a teenager by him, and that she was going to have stop acting like one.
A doctor in a white coat entered the room. "I'm sorry Miss, but you'll have to leave while I give Mr. Harris a final check over. You can wait for your boyfriend outside."
Dawn didn't correct him, and felt a small thrill shoot through her as Xander didn't either. As she walked out, she knew that he hadn't so that she could come back in later, and so that he could be released with her. Still -
She sat on one of the cold hard chairs in the waiting room, wondering if she held a record for hospital visits before the age of eighteen.
Xander was wheeled out to her a few minutes later, his head swathed in bandages that covered one eye. As he got to the door, he stood, and looked grateful as she put an arm around him, helping him walk to the car.
Dawn found herself starting to enjoy helping him, being the responsible one. She eased him into the passenger seat, doing up his seat belt. She could see his good eye was fading a little, as the drugs started to kick in with a vengeance.
"Where are we going, Xander?"
"Hillview Apartments, on East 17." His voice was starting to slur, now, and she wondered why the hell the hospital had pumped him full of drugs before releasing him.
She drove carefully, still unused to his big SUV, but pleased that she could drive. Buffy had never let her drive, as if her own bad driving skills were genetically passed on to her younger sister.
Wincing at the bright sunlight, she pulled on a pair of sunglasses she found in the inner door compartment, noticing for the first time that they were Raybans, another expensive clue that everyone had ignored.
"Park in fifteen, Dawn." Xander opened his eye, having been on the verge of falling back asleep in the comfortable car seat. He only had two modes when dealing with people; trusted and non-trusted. Dawn was trusted, so he didn't feel the need to keep an eye on her all the time.
"Reserved parking?" she asked, a little excitedly.
He nodded, ignoring the slight pain the head movement caused.
She parked the big car as well as she could, grateful that no one was around to critique her. She jumped out and ran around, helping Xander out of the car.
He leaned heavily against her, apologizing as he did.
"Don't worry about it, Xand. The amount of times you've carried me, it's about time I got to return the favor."
They walked in to the impressive entrance lobby, as the doors opened automatically for them.
Two men were behind a security counter, one wearing a suit, the other a security guard's uniform.
"Mr. Harris, are you ok?" the man in a suit asked, walking over to them.
Dawn looked up at him, answering because she could feel that Xander didn't want to talk. "He was mugged, by a gang on PCP. He's going to be fine."
The man smiled at her, and motioned down over the lobby floor they had just walked over. "Mr. Harris does seem to have quite a few run-ins with these gangs. He offered a few suggestions when his company was building this place to help keep them out." The floor tiles were laid out in a large cross shape. "It's strange," the man's eyes were twinkling as he spoke, "but the gangs don't like coming in here. Of course, it might have something to do with the priests that Xander had bless the floor."
Dawn smiled up at him, "Mr.?"
"Michaels, Kyle Michaels. I own the building." Kyle looped another arm around Xander and helped Dawn move him into the elevator. Pressing a button for the top floor, he continued, "I was working here late one night, when two vampires came up and started attacking me. Xander was dropping by with some figures I needed, and dusted them for me. He explained what was going on, and what his night job was. A lot of his suggestions made a lot more sense then.
"When Xander came to me, I tried to get him to accept the apartment free of charge, as a thank you for saving my life, but he refused, and in the end, we agreed he'd pay cost price."
"That's pure Xander," Dawn said with a smile. "He just wants to help people."
Kyle nodded. "Yeah, my wife adores him. She's always asking when he is going to come around again. That boy can sure pack away the food, and if there's one thing Molly loves, it's someone who eats all her food."
By this time Xander was almost unconscious, he wasn't paying attention to the conversation at all.
"He told me about the codename, 'Gangs on PCP'," Kyle explained as the car ascended.
"I did wonder," Dawn admitted, as the elevator door opened into a small, tasteful lobby. She pulled out Xander's car keys and looked at Kyle, "You don't happen to know which key it is, do you?"
He took the key ring and opened the door.
"My God, this place is huge."
Kyle laughed, "Yes, it's a four bedroom apartment and takes up the entire top floor. You can explore later, but let's put Xander in bed, first."
Dawn nodded, helping Kyle lay the now unconscious Xander down on a large bed in the master suite.
She walked with Kyle to the door. "Can you tell me how long you've been going out with Xander?" he asked.
Dawn blushed prettily. "Only for about six months. He was worried about my age before that. It took a long time to convince him, otherwise."
"How old are you?"
"Eighteen," she lied happily.
"Well, you and Xander will have to come over lunch when he's back up and running. Molly will want to meet the girl that's stolen his heart," he teased with a large smile. "She was planning on setting him up with some of her nieces. I'm pleased that he's found someone on his own, and," the next part was delivered with a playful leer, "that he's found someone a lot better looking than our nieces."
Dawn tried very hard to contain the blush that was steadily turning her face bright red, but failed. "Thanks, I think," she squeaked.
He laughed softly, "Don't mind me. It was good meeting you, Ms.?"
"Summers, Dawn Summers," she said, holding out her hand.
He shook it, and then winked at her. "Look after Xander, and if you need anything, dial 9 on the phone. I'll leave instructions for the guard to get whatever you might need."
"Thanks, Kyle," she said with a smile, liking this man who obviously cared for Xander. It was another small shock to realize that the carpenter had a life completely separate from the one she had known. This man before her was a prime example. A little portly, with eyes that seemed to dance, and grey peppered black hair. He grinned at her once more, as the doors to the elevator shut.
The seventeen year old walked back into the huge apartment and looked at her watch, a little surprised to find that it was so late. She walked back into the bedroom and looked down at her sleeping...friend? She decided to categorize him later.
She sat on the foot of the bed, and removed his heavy boots. She held them up, surprised at the weight, and realized that they had steel toe caps. She laughed softly as she noticed the tiny engravings of crosses built into each shoe.
Dawn bit her lip, trying to decide what to do next. His socks came off easily, before she reached for his belt, pulling it out from under him through the loops of his jeans. Next, she undid the buttons of his shirt and lifted him up from the bed, trying to ignore the groan he gave her.
"Come on, Xand. You're going to have to help me here, I'm not strong enough."
Even on the edge of unconsciousness, he responded to one of 'his girls' asking for help. He lifted himself up, moving his arms to allow her to remove his blood stained t-shirt. Laying back down, he lifted his hips at her instruction, as she pulled his jeans down his legs.
Dawn paused, looking down at the body of her first ever crush. This was the first time she had had the chance to really look at him. She touched his shoulder lightly, watching for any response. The drugs had finally done their job, and he was out for the count.
Xander was not a body builder, he didn't have the chiseled muscles associated with people like Stallone. She had seen Spike enough times, the vampire seemed to have problems keeping his shirt on, so she had something to compare him to.
Spike was wiry, almost looking gaunt half the time. She knew her sister liked Spike's look, but she didn't. Xander was more like a real male. His body was solid, and a lot bigger than the baggy clothes he customarily wore showed. His chest was well defined, as was his shoulders, his legs looked powerful.
Dawn felt all the feelings she had ever had for him return with a vengeance. The only thing that stopped her from touching him was Xander's unconscious state. It didn't feel right to do so, not when he couldn't enjoy it.
She was a ball of energy made into a person. A being that was, technically, only three years old. When she had been created, the monks had given her a complete history, and made her into a form that would be protected by the Slayer, her sister.
Now, she started to wonder if that had really been their intention. The memories didn't quite match up. Ever since they had moved to the area, there had only been one person who had consistently been there for her. From the patching of skinned knees to the reassuring that things would be ok. When her mom had died, one person more than any other had been there for her, holding her through the tears and heartbreak. Even when she had started shoplifting, one person had forgiven her first and offered her a way out, as well as slipping her a regular allowance so that she could get the things she wanted and have a normal life.
Whenever she had needed something for school, one person had been there to help, either emotionally, financially or physically. There were countless times the person had gone out of their way to make sure she was at school on time, that she had as normal a life as possible.
One person had sacrificed to make sure that she was safe, throwing themselves in harm's way, sacrificing themselves.
One person had always believed in her over everyone else.
Dawn found herself breaking out in goosebumps as she realized that the monks had gone a lot further than everyone had thought. They had created her as the Slayer's sister to get the protection from her, but had created her as a girl so that she would be protected by someone else as well, someone who would love her unconditionally and always be there for her.
It didn't make any sense for them to have given her a huge crush, unless it meant that they had built her so that she would get the best protection for the rest of her life, from an amazing man.
She had been made for Xander.
He was the one person she could rely on, the heart of the Scooby Gang. The person with the emotional core of steel, who would keep loving her as long as was physically possible.
As surely as she had been made to be loved like a sister by Buffy, she had been made to be loved like a woman by Xander.
She started to feel guilty about the times she had fantasized about Spike. He was the bad boy, the untamable wild man that girls secretly lusted after, the loners who didn't play by the rules.
Dawn had known that he was a killer, but it was a vague concept, like being a Catholic. All she had ever really seen was him fighting on their side. But hearing that he was a rapist, that he had actually hit Buffy had brought his nature to the forefront. In a moment of clarity, she saw how Xander had tried to keep Spike away from her, even when she didn't want it. Another example of how he had tried hard to keep her safe.
Her sister had always been there for physical safety, although that had been questionable recently, when she left her in the care of Spike, but it had always been Xander who had taken care of her.
The problem she would now have was persuading him that she was adult enough for a relationship, and that he could fall pretty hard for her if he accepted it. Even better, she knew he had a hell of a lot of experience with Anya, that he was really good in bed. She licked her lips softly, knowing that he'd be able to make her first time incredibly special, and, as an added bonus, would not turn into a soulless monster in the morning, unlike some sister's chosen paramours she could mention.
She was pretty optimistic that she could get him thinking of her that way. After all, she was now living with him, in a gorgeous apartment, and that would give a lot of room for 'accidental encounters.'
He would resist, hard, but if there was one thing about she knew Xander, it was that he would do anything for the people he loved.
She knew he needed love, craved it even. Despite his awful childhood and all the heartbreak he had gone through over the years, he was still an innocent at heart, offering everyone else what he wanted so badly himself. She promised herself that she would give him what he needed so badly, even though he didn't know it.
Dawn realized she had fallen completely in love with Xander. Looking down at the man, she frowned as she realized he was starting to have a nightmare. He was tossing his head, murmuring 'No, please no.'
"Shh, it's ok, I'm here," she whispered to him, stroking his chest. It seemed to work, as he settled back down a little, falling back into a deep sleep. Deciding that there was no way she was leaving him alone tonight; Dawn stood and walked over to the drawers. They were sadly bereft of clothing, only a couple of t-shirts and pairs of jeans. She guessed this was because his clothes were at her sister's house.
She pulled out the t-shirt and measured it against her, then she smiled as she saw it would reach mid-thigh. Reaching up behind her, she undid the zipper of her light summer dress, letting it pool to the floor, her imagination running away, showing her pictures of her doing this while he was awake, his hot gaze burning her.
She pulled the t-shirt on, smiling because it smelt of him. She climbed into bed, a little shyly, and snuggled up for him. If anyone had told her yesterday that she would be spending a night with Xander she would have laughed at them, and accused them of taking drugs.
She woke up a few times in the night, as Xander's nightmares returned, but whispering softly to him seemed to make him relax. It saddened her that all he needed was reassurance, something that had always been lacking in his life.
She woke up, more refreshed than she could ever remember feeling, as sunlight twinkled through the curtains. During the night she had draped herself over him, her head resting on his shoulder. What was even better for her was that his arm had clamped over her back, and was holding her firmly in place. Even if it was an automatic reflex, it still felt really good.
Showing a maturity that hadn't been there the day before, she gently moved from under him, knowing that he would be embarrassed to wake up with her like this. It would take a lot of work on her part to get him to realize that his emotions could change from platonic love to sexual love. The reward made the work seem like something she would enjoy.
With a very feminine giggle, she knew that Xander was about to enter a very confusing phase of his life.
She walked into the kitchen, and looked in the fridge hopefully, only to be disappointed that it was empty, so she explored the huge apartment.
Xander woke slowly, feeling a lot more rested than he had recently. He had a moment's panic when he realized he couldn't see out of one eye, before the memories came flooding back.
Buffy was marrying Spike. He shook his head sadly at how little that statement meant to him now. She had made her own bed, now she had to lie in it. He felt an emptiness, as though something had been ripped from him.
He frowned as he smelt a faint trace of perfume, a light airy fragrance that seemed familiar, but a little different.
He put together his good nights sleep and his lack of nightmares, and realized Dawn must have looked after him all night.
Carefully he stood, his headache almost completely gone, and walked into the kitchen. Everything had to be done slowly, because his depth perception was still a mess.
"Morning," he said quietly, finding her admiring the view from the top of the block.
She jumped a little, then threw a smile at him, her long hair floating around her face as she turned her head. "Morning, Xand," she replied with a warm smile.
"Thanks for looking after me," he said simply.
She threw him a look he didn't understand, then smiled sweetly at him. "It felt good to look after you for a change, after all the times you've looked after me. But your fridge is empty."
Xander laughed. "Yeah, I didn't expect us to be living here yet. I always thought we'd use it if anything happened to the house."
"I hope you don't mind me using your t-shirt, but I needed to sleep in something."
Xander grinned at her. "You look a lot cuter in it that I do." This wasn't the first time he had complimented her, but after her decisions last night, it meant something very different to her.
"How about we get dressed, nip out to IHOP for breakfast, then go shopping?" he suggested.
"Are you sure you're up for that?" She asked, looking worried at him.
"As long as I keep taking the pills, Morning Dawnie."
She sniggered at him, "Yeah, I heard about that."
"Go and get dressed, missy. I'm getting hungry."
"Yes, master," she joked, and flounced off, trying to get her t-shirt to bounce a little. A quick glance at Xander's expression proved that she had been successful.
Getting dressed wasn't exactly a time consuming job, when all you have was the dress you were wearing the day before. She slid the t-shirt off, putting it to one side, deciding that it was hers now. The dress on, she retreated to one of the bathroom, hoping that he had some form of personal hygiene products.
"Bedroom's yours, Xan," she shouted, un-wrapping a new toothbrush found in a cupboard.
Xander pulled a fresh pair of jeans out of the drawers, and found he had to sit down to put them on, his balance was gone. The doctors had informed him that it would get better, as long as he kept trying. The more active he would be, the quicker his body would learn to deal with the loss of an eye. It was the reason he was forcing himself to go out today.
He followed Dawn's path, entering the bathroom as she entered, unwrapping another toothbrush. He had stocked up with a few of the very basics, just in case, but being male, had no idea what else to get.
They met up again in the large living room; one whole wall was a giant window, offering an unrivalled view of Sunnydale. He hadn't wanted to take the penthouse apartment, but suspected that Kyle had forced it on him, as partial payment for saving his life.
They took the elevator downstairs, in a comfortable silence. "You don't mind doing the chauffeuring today?" he asked her, dangling his keys.
They were grabbed before he could blink. "What do you think?" she grinned.
He just laughed.
A pleasant breakfast was followed by a trip to one of Sunnydale's malls.
"What are we getting from here, Xan?" Dawn asked, a little surprised that he had asked her to drive here.
"We're going to need some clothing till we can get our stuff from your sister's place."
Dawn frowned a little, and pulled him into the food court. "Sit," she commanded, before going to one of the food stands and getting a couple of drinks.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked softly, looking down at the table as she spoke. "You've got your own life to live, you don't have to take me in. I think I'd be safe with Her there."
Xander raised his hand, gently touching her chin and raising it, so he could see her eyes.
"Dawn, you are a part of my life. But it's up to you; I won't stop you from going back there."
She smiled tremulously at him, her bright eyes glistening with moisture. "Something happened yesterday, Xand and I haven't dealt with it yet. What She said hurt deeply. She's always been the person I looked up to, the one who was supposed to look out for what was best for me.
"But she accused me of trying to break up her relationship, of wanting Spike for myself. I don't want Spike! I never did, Xan."
"I know, Dawn," Xander said softly, his one eye focused on hers.
"Then yesterday, she accused me of wanting to be raped. Wanting to be raped by a vampire. What sort of sick person is she becoming? How can I feel safe around her knowing that that is what she is thinking?"
"Dawn," Xander took a deep breath. "What Buffy said yesterday, she said in anger. I'm not trying to defend what she said, just explain it. She lost her temper, that's all."
"But she always does that. Whenever anyone stands up to her, her first reaction is always to fight. Verbal or Physical, it doesn't seem to matter. I'm scared of her now. It's been going that way for some time, yesterday just seemed to finish it off."
"Dawn, I can't defend her. I don't know what she is thinking. I feel like I should be able to, but it's happened too many times now. Like I said, it's up to you. It's your decision. You're an adult now, capable of deciding for yourself what you want to do."
Dawn smiled at him, a faint sheen of tears covered her eyes. "I want to live with you. I promise to help out, do my share of the work without complaining. As you said, I'm an adult now, and I'm going to act like one."
"In that case," Xander smiled broadly, "it's time to go shopping."
He stopped suddenly, turning to her. "I'm paying, Dawn. Don't argue, and just go nuts. I don't know when we'll be able to get to pick up our clothing."
Years of being friends with a lot of girls had built up a lot of tolerance in him for shopping, and as he took Dawn around the stores, he found himself enjoying it a lot more than he had before.
Usually, Buffy and Willow would have drifted from store to store, using him more as a pack mule than a member of the group.
Dawn was totally different. She dragged him into each store with enthusiasm, then modeled each outfit for him. She was having the time of her life. She had never been on a shopping spree like this before. Money had always been tight, especially since her mother had died, and the chance to actually get exactly what she wanted was amazing.
She deliberately chose a different style for herself. Baggy jeans were out, while skirts were in. Partly, this was to show off her legs more, and partly because she wanted a more grown up style.
Each outfit she tried, Xander had something positive to say about it, although he did occasionally note if he thought something was not flattering on her. She found that, to her shock and amazement, he had a pretty good idea about fashion. Obviously, living so long with so many girls had rubbed off on him.
A few hours later, they returned to the car loaded down with clothes. She had everything from formal to lounging around the house, and was almost literally walking on air with excitement. As they put the bag in the trunk, she hugged him tightly.
"Thank You," she said, trying hard not to cry.
"Hey," he smiled, stroking her hair gently. "We've not finished yet. I need some clothes as well."
Instantly reinvigorated, Dawn pulled him back into the mall. It was then that Xander realized he was getting absolutely no choice about his clothing. She dragged him as around before, this time picking out unerringly clothing that fitted his frame and matched his eye. His original wardrobe had been built up over time, and contained many crimes against the fashion industry, something she would not permit to happen this time. This one was being built from scratch by someone who understood the basics of color coordination. As they went through the stores, Dawn lectured him about which clothing could be worn with which.
He had never enjoyed shopping for himself before, preferring to walk into a store, grab the first thing that he saw and get out quickly. This was far different, as he found himself listening to Dawn closely, memorizing color combinations and outfits, finding that he actually liked looking smart as he saw himself in a mirror.
The final stop was to pick him up a couple of suits for work. Dawn discussed with great details color, style and fabric with the tailor, which Xander listened in with great amusement. Eventually, once Dawn and the tailor had come to an agreement, Xander had his measurements taken and a promise that the suits would be ready in a week. As he wasn't planning on going back to work for at least that long, it wasn't a problem.
While Dawn was looking around at the ties, the tailor came up to him, and said with a smile, "I must congratulate you on your girlfriend's taste. It's rare to find someone so young who understands the difference between a good suit and a great suit."
Dawn hovered near by, pretending not to pay attention, waiting for Xander to reply.
Xander smiled, "Yeah, she took one look at my standard wardrobe and decided I needed a complete new one. She's got really good taste."
Dawn felt her heart flip, as she realized he hadn't denied that she was his girlfriend.
Xander checked his watch, and realized they still had a lot to do. "Come on, Dawn," he called. "We need to get a new TV."
Only through great concentration did Dawn manage to walk over to him, her original desire to either float or bounce firmly squashed.
As they walked out of the store, she asked, "A new TV?"
"Yeah, you probably didn't notice, but I never bothered to get one." His eye gleamed, an expression that caused Dawn's heart to jump into her throat. For the first time, he had an expression similar to one of days before, a happy one.
Dawn smiled at him, "Come on then, Xan. If you're lucky, I'll let you buy a new game system as well. And maybe a stereo and a DVD player."
"WooHoo," he cheered, "come on Dawnmeister." Xander took off towards an electronics shop, the large bags trailing out from all angles. Dawn laughed and followed.
They exploded into a Sony store, to the obvious displeasure of a salesman.
"Can I help?" he asked, his attitude clearly stating that he hoped he couldn't. Xander was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and had half his head bandaged. Dawn was wearing her light dress, and her hair was floating around in a way that Xander occasionally found himself watching.
"Yes," Dawn said clearly, "I want a 46" plasma flat screen TV, with a DVD player, a Playstation 2, a discreet sound station with flat panel speakers and a smaller flat screen for a bedroom. And I want to be served by someone without an attitude problem."
The salesman blinked at her, his mouth opening and shutting as he tried to think of something to say. To his misfortune, another younger salesman, who had taken the time to look at the sheer amount of bags they had been carrying, quickly stepped in. "Certainly, Ma'am, if you'll step this way, I'll be happy to show you our range of products."
Favoring him with a regal smile, Dawn followed him to one side. Amused, Xander trailed after them. He had thought he knew her, both his real and his implanted memories of her were comprehensive, so he had presumed that he had Dawn Summers figured out. He now realized how wrong he had been. A quick glance at the shell shocked first salesman had him trying hard not to giggle.
The next five minutes were a revelation for him, as Dawn discussed the different TV's and sound systems. Keeping quiet, he let her handle everything.
Dawn was having the time of her life, she'd spent some time last year planning the ultimate bedroom for herself. She'd spent ages on Willow's computer, surfing the internet for technology, and had learnt a lot.
"Hey, Honey," she looked at Xander. "Does your apartment have an internet connection?"
Xander raised his one working eyebrow at her term of endearment. "Yes, the building shares a T-1 connection, there's an Ethernet jack next to the phone line."
Dawn turned back to the salesman, "Ok, we'll want a couple of Vaio laptops with wireless Ethernet cards, and a wireless hub to finish off with."
Another discussion followed, which lost Xander after the first few seconds. He hadn't heard anyone techno-babble like that since Willow a few years back.
Dawn turned to Xander, and he could see a small amount of shock in her eyes. Almost reluctantly, she passed on the total to him. He smiled a little, and, to the huge disappointment of the original salesman, pulled out his Amex card and handed it to her without a word.
Her eyes went wide, a look that was a plain mixture of shock and pleasure appeared.
Xander found that he liked that expression. A lot. Something had changed with Dawn, but he wasn't sure what it was.
Turning back to the salesman, who, a few days ago, she might have flirted with while looking for a date, she decided that it was time to save Xander some money. What followed was a virtuoso display in negotiation, as she bargained, flirted and threatened to get up and leave. In the end, the manager came out and they agreed on a 7% discount, with free delivery and installation for the next day.
That concluded, she handed over Xander's card, and let him sign for it.
They then walked out, leaving behind one very pleased salesman, who saw his commission for the week go through the roof, one pleased manager, who saw his store sales for week reach a new record, and one gutted salesman, who had none of these things, and, to finish off his day, was called into the manager's office and given a large talking to about not pre-judging a customer.
"Are you sure you're ok with that, Xan?" Dawn was beginning to feel really guilty. She had got totally carried away, and had just spent over $1000 for every minute she had been in that store.
"You've just spent my completion bonus for my last project," Xander said with a grin, "So don't worry about it. I was planning on kitting out the apartment with modern stuff, and I'm just glad that you made sure I wasn't ripped off."
Dawn's smile was incredibly bright. "You know, if you ever want to really piss off Buffy, Willow and Spike, you should invite them around one day."
Xander laughed his agreement.
As they walked back to the car, Xander once again tried to work out what exactly had changed in their relationship.
Yesterday morning, Dawn had been a kid, a close friend of his, but a kid. In less than twenty four hours, she had decided to move out of home and had spent the night looking after him. She'd then proved to be an interesting, fun and insightful companion, who had made the day one of the most enjoyable he could remember. She had followed it all up by showing him how to buy clothes, then, taken complete control, with a put down of a salesman he only dreamed of doing, of his electronic buying. And she did it all with a charm that endeared her to virtually all the salespeople they had dealt with, who had congratulated him on his girlfriend.
Girlfriend.
He wasn't sure why he hadn't denied it when the term was used.
Before today, he would have said, 'She's like a sister to me.' Perhaps it was because of his injury, that he wanted some sort of pride to have a beautiful young girl at his side. He knew he shouldn't be thinking about her as beautiful - he had practically helped raise her.
Besides, she was over her crush on him.
Wasn't she?
The successful visit to the Mall had been followed by an equally successful visit to a grocery store. Both Dawn and Xander had silently agreed to actually try and buy decent food. Microwave pizzas had been dumped in favor of differing cuts of meat, salads and items from the delicatessen. Bottles of coke were supplemented by bottles of water, orange juice and a four pack of beer.
Almost mournfully, Xander had looked at the trolley of food and said, "I miss junkfood."
Dawn had laughed and nudged him, "you're a big boy now Xand, you have to get big boy food."
Xander had laughed, and ignored the rude stare of the cashier who was fascinated by the bandages swathed around his head.
As Xander still couldn't drive, he handed Dawn his keys and told her to go to school on her own. With a bright smile, she dropped a kiss on his cheek and vanished out the door.
The apartment suddenly seemed a lot quieter than it had a few minutes before. He opened his briefcase and tried to concentrate on the contracts inside. He was partially successful, as the time passed reasonably quickly. The only interruption came from the Sony delivery men.
He watched with great interest as the flat screen TV was hung on a wall and a DVD player hidden in a stylish cabinet next door. The stand-alone music system looked like it belonged in 'Total Recall'. He spent 5 minutes waving his hand in front of it, watching as the sensors opened and shut the CD holder. Small things amused small minds, and he knew he had the smallest, at times.
One of the advantages of buying from one store was that everything worked together. The DVD and TV hooked up to the stereo, with the flat panel speakers displayed neatly in each corner of the room actually looked more art deco than pieces of technology.
Dawn pulled in to the students' car park, grateful again that she was early enough to have an easy space to pull the huge car into. She slid out, carefully keeping her skirt down, and walked towards the building.
Her demeanor was very different to what it had been on Friday. She had a slight smile on her face, Xander's Raybans perched on her nose, and walked with a confident stride that the teenager had not possessed a few days before. The tight jeans and cropped t-shirts had been replaced by a smart skirt that fell to just above her knees, and a light blouse that only had two of the three standard buttons undone.
"Hey Dawn, looking good," one of a group of guys wearing Sunnydale Football team jackets called. At least, that's what she hoped he said, as her Neanderthal was not currently up to date.
She threw a polite smile at him, and continued on her path. She wasn't interested in playing the high school dating game anymore. She had a much bigger target to aim her affections at: persuading Xander that she was date-worthy material.
"What's happened to her?" one of the jocks asked another.
"She's got an older boyfriend," one of them said with a rare moment of insight. "New clothes, new car and new confidence. All points to the same thing."
"I didn't realize how hot she was! I think I'll get close to her, so I can 'console' her when the older guy dumps her."
Ribald laughter followed that statement. It was a curious aspect of high school that, as soon as a girl became unavailable, she became a lot more attractive. Especially if this was due to an older boyfriend. It was probably the idea that an older boyfriend would want certain acts to take place, and younger girls had a habit of performing these acts.
"What the hell happened to you?"
Dawn grinned. "Moved in with Xander."
"No Way!"
"Yep, but you can't tell anyone. Promise me, Chrissy."
The smaller blonde looked at her friend. "Are you sleeping with him?"
"No!" Dawn's voice was shocked, avoiding the fact that she wanted to. "Look, Buffy and I had a major blow up. She accused me of something that was totally untrue, of wanting to break up her relationship with her boyfriend. She then announced that she was marrying him, and Xander told her she was being stupid. Her boyfriend is a complete jerk, spends all day hanging around and goes out at night, getting into fights. They had a massive fight over it, that ended with Buffy's fiancé beating Xander up pretty badly. The guy makes me really nervous, so Xander offered to let me live with him. He's got a new apartment."
"Where you get to play nursemaid to a cute older guy?"
Dawn giggled. "Yeah. He took me shopping yesterday, and brought me a whole new wardrobe. It was so cool."
"Lucky bitch!"
"Oi," Dawn knocked her friend into a locker with a grin, before grabbing her hands. "His new apartment didn't have a TV, so he let me chose a new one for him. We went to that new Sony store and he brought $20,000 worth of stuff, his apartment is going to be the coolest place in the world."
"And you're falling for him, big time?"
Dawn's face lost its smile. She pulled her friend into a deserted classroom. "Not falling, fallen. I'm in love with him."
This wasn't the first time that Dawn had made a statement like that, normally about a fellow student. It was the first time it had been said with absolute conviction.
Chrissy stared intently into Dawn's eyes, searching for something. "Ok, I won't say anything. Until your birthday, anyway."
"Thanks, you're the best."
Xander put the documents back down; the legal jargon sometimes made him wonder exactly why he given up building. Creating something with your hands was a lot less stressful than dealing with lawyers.
He pulled out his cell phone, as a quick scan of the apartment had revealed that he was missing a standard land line. He dialed a number from memory and waited for it to be answered.
"Sunnydale High School," a perky voice said.
"Could you put me through to Principal Wood please? My name is Xander Harris."
"I'll just see if he is available, Mr. Harris. Please hold."
Sunnydale High School was not the richest in the world, so there was no music for Xander to listen to as he waited, just a beep every 30 seconds told him he was still connected.
"Xander, What can I do for you?" The friendly voice of the Principal surprised him.
"A situation has come up; I need to meet you after school today. I can come to your office."
"Ok, around 4:30?"
"That's fine, thanks."
"No problem, Xander, see you later."
Checking the time, Xander dialed another number from memory.
"Hey Dawn Patrol, how's school going?"
"Ok. What d'ya need, Xandman?"
"You, to pick me up straight after school and bring me back for a meeting with Wood."
"What are you seeing him for?"
"To explain why you are living with me. I want to see if we can head off any problems that Spike might cause."
"Ok, I'll leave as soon as I can. See you later."
"Thanks, Dawn."
Dawn hung up her phone, a bright smile on her face.
"From someone who normally has to have her frown surgically removed, you're looking pretty damn happy."
Dawn grinned. "Xander's meeting the Principal later, to make sure there won't be a problem with me staying with him."
"Cool! So that's why you look like the cats that got the cream, gone back for the strawberries and ended up with Wimbledon tickets."
"You are very weird!"
"Why thank you, my dear Dawn. So, when are you going to invite me to see this new apartment, and what's it like anyway?"
"You know that new apartment block on East 17?"
"It's there? Damn, Dawnie, talk about landing on your feet! That place is gorgeous."
"He has the penthouse apartment, it's got 4 bedrooms, all with en-suite bathrooms, a huge kitchen, a dining room, and a humongous living room with a window wall that you can see all of Sunnydale from."
"When did you forget to mention that he is rich? If I'd known that, I'd have gone after him myself."
"Whore," Dawn grinned teasingly.
"Hey, I'm not the one shacked up with an older guy. I'm not the one with a new SUV parked outside. I'm not the one who's got a brand new wardrobe."
Dawn shrugged, and flicked her hair; she stood and moved off, ready to go to class. She turned, looking over her shoulder at her best friend. "If you haven't got it, don't be jealous of those of us who have."
Chrissy laughed loudly, and then ran to catch up with her. "I don't know if I should mention this, Sugar, but you are attracting a butt load of attention."
"What do you mean?" Dawn asked, confused.
"You've shot way up the school hierarchy."
"Huh? How? Actually, I don't care about that anymore."
"Dawn, Dawn, Dawn," Chrissy sighed, "I can't believe your education has been so lacking.
"Last week, you were available. You flirted with the right people, you ignored the wrong people. You followed the rules, you wore the correct clothing. As such, you were pretty much ignored by the guys, mainly because they hadn't gotten around to you yet. You were near the bottom of the pecking order.
"Now, you've got new clothes, new confidence, a new smile, which, by the way, is blowing people away. Rumor already has it that you are dating a college guy, and a rich one at that.
"No, I didn't say anything, so drop that look immediately, Ms Summers! Anyway, you've gone from being available to being *very* unavailable. In the twisted intellects of the boys and girls who go to this place, this means that you are now *wanted*. The girls will be friends with you, partly so that they can check if you are planning on stealing their boyfriends, and partly to see how you hooked a college guy, and to see if they can copy you and get one themselves. The guys will hang around you hoping that when your relationship fails, you'll turn to one of them for comfort. They'll then be lifted up the ladder because they will have replaced a college student. It's all completely logical."
"Logical?" Dawn looked stunned. "It's stupid and pointless. I'm not interested in that."
"And that's the biggest change, and why you will go even higher. You've suddenly obtained a degree of maturity that the other girls haven't got. Which makes the guys chase after you even more."
"Won't that make the girls hate me?" Dawn asked, getting really confused.
"Of course not. They'll want to learn everything they can from you, so that they can copy you and get the same respect. Of course, there will be the back stabbers, but as long as you keep your original friends, me, close, you'll be fine."
Dawn shook her head. "So what am I supposed to do about all of this?"
"That's the best part - nothing at all. Just keep turning up to school wearing smart and slightly sexy clothing, ignore the guys, be friendly to the girls and keep that smile on your face.
"Oh, and ignore it when the bitches call you a whore."
"What? Wait a second! Where did that last bit come from?"
"I may have glossed over that a little," Chrissy admitted, enjoying the confused look on her friend's face. "The school bitches will try and bring you down a peg; it's their way of boosting themselves and retaining control."
"You haven't made any sense at all," Dawn groaned.
"Look, if someone does insult you, just remember that violence is the answer."
As if on cue, their progress to their English class was halted. Three girls, in outfits that would have made the legendary Cordelia Chase approve, stood in front of them.
"Well look what we have here," the lead girl, Porsche, announced loudly, calling attention to herself. She took her position as Queen of Sunnydale High very seriously, and hearing that someone else had a college boyfriend, while she was only dating the Quarterback, meant she had to react quickly to knock this girl down.
"I hear you've got a new boyfriend, who's buying you lots of little presents. Tell me, has he taught you that fucking him is the only acceptable payment yet?"
Her hangers-on giggled at the insult.
Her friend's last piece of advice firmly in her mind, Dawn took a step forward and punched Porsche, hard, catching her right on the chin, knocking her to the ground. "No, he taught me how to lock my wrist when I punch. I leave that other sort of behavior to you, and the blow jobs you gave the entire football team for winning the last game."
With a dismissive flick of her hair, Dawn stepped around the fallen cheerleader and continued on her way to class. She ignored the cheers that followed her.
As they entered the classroom, Chrissy dropped to her knees and starting bowing, in true 'Wayne's World' style.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Dawn, I didn't actually mean that you should really hit someone. I was joking. But that was brilliant! A cool punch, a classic put down, then walking off as if nothing happened. You just broke every rule in the high school book, and pulled it off brilliantly. I thought that you were a no-hoper, forever destined to be near the middle of the ladder. By the end of the day, you'll be a queen."
Dawn groaned, sitting down and holding her head. "I don't want this. All I want to do is get through school as quickly as possible, then go home and work on getting Xander to fall in love with me."
Chrissy sat down next to her, patting her back softly. "I know, Sugar, but look how grateful the local store owners are going to be. You've just inspired a whole generation of teenagers to dress with class."
The school bell rang, so Dawn lifted her head, getting her notebook out. As the rest of the class entered, she was inundated with smiles and greetings, mostly from people who had never before bothered to notice her.
The rest of the day passed by in a blur. She now had a slightly flushed expression that actually added to her looks. People she had never met took the time to stop and say 'Hi', party invitations were handed out like they were confetti, and offers of hanging out and shopping were dropped at every opportunity. With a polite and friendly smile, she turned them all down, saying that she had plans. Of course, this just added to her mythos, and it was a very confused Dawn who eventually escaped to Xander's car.
Noticing she was running a little late, she hooked her cell phone up to the car's hand free system and called Xander.
"Xan, I'm running a little late. Can you meet me downstairs? I'll be there in five."
"Sure, Dawn, see you in a bit."
Xander had spent a very positive afternoon on the phone. After a bit of weaseling, the insurance company had eventually agreed that his doctor's records were adequate, and his policy did cover loss of eyes due to muggings. The police report, while sketchy, was completely enough for him to file his claim, leaving the company with very little room to maneuver. They did try, but when he got the construction company lawyers to drop them a line, they changed their tune very quickly. He suspected that the agent who sold him the policies was now going to get a very firm talking to. Not that he cared; the payoff was going to be astronomical.
His bosses had also been very understanding. Like most of Xander's friends, they had been introduced to Sunnydale's night life in a most unfortunate way. Displaying a hitherto unknown use for a builders shovel, Xander had dealt with the incident with as little fuss as possible. His first promotion to managerial level had been another reward that he had tried to turn down, but he was told to accept it or he would be sacked.
His subsequent promotions, though, had all been due to the sheer competence the carpenter possessed. The owners of PJH Construction had been delighted; not only had the brown-eyed young man saved their lives, but he had then proved to be a genius at contract negotiations, as well as a whiz at getting difficult projects finished on time and under budget.
With his knowledge of the night, Xander had also worked closely with the architects. The result? It was becoming well known, if whispered, that the PJH construction buildings were the safest in town, resulting in a huge boost in business.
Unknown to the modest young man, the owners were already thinking about changing the name from PJH to PJHX Construction. Peter, James and Harry being the original three owners.
With his finances extremely healthy, Xander had spent half an hour debating a decision. Should he pay off the Summers' mortgage, leaving Buffy and Willow in a much better state?
In the end, he decided to put off the decision for now. Despite everything that had happened, there was still a tiny voice inside him that told him to give them another chance. It was almost drowned out by the hurt and anger of many years abuse of their friendship, but it was still there. That was the only reason he didn't just say 'no' and move on.
Xander had always been generous. Even when he hadn't had anything, he had willingly given everything he had to others, to help with whatever they needed. So it wasn't a surprise that, now he had money, he didn't think about how much he was spending on Dawn, only about what she needed.
When he went back to work next week, he would need his car. As he usually worked late, he wouldn't be able to pick her up from school. With perfect logic, this meant that he would simply buy her a new car. Possible repercussions of such an act never crossed his mind. A member of his family needed something and he could get it for them. That was the only thing that mattered.
He waited outside for Dawn to pick him up, absently focusing on different objects, trying to get used to the difference in how he saw things. It was better than yesterday, although his eye socket had started to ache. He had been told that this would happen, and that he would have to be fitted with an artificial eye after a while. The only good thing about the situation was that if he wore dark glasses, no one would be able to tell that he only had one eye.
Dawn pulled to a stop next to him, and he climbed in slowly.
The journey back to school was filled with conversation about the day. Dawn told her about her classes, leaving out the strange things that had happened out of class. Xander told her about the new equipment that had been installed. He mentioned that the two laptops were unopened, waiting for her to do...something... with them.
She laughed at his technophobia, asking him if he was the next Giles. He had looked so horrified at the suggestion that Dawn had had to pull the car over for a minute till she stopped laughing.
She reluctantly agreed to wait in the car while Xander went to the Principals office.
The route was very familiar; years of attending the school with a less than perfect disciplinary record had meant that he had trod this path on numerous occasions. At least the friendly face of the Principal Robin Wood was better than the face of the disgusting troll Snyder, the principal in his day.
"What the hell happened to you?" Were the polite words he was greeted with.
A faint smile flickered onto Xander's face as he sat down. "Long story."
"You want a coffee first?" the principal asked.
"Nah, been drinking the damn stuff all day, I'm so caffeine'd up that I could walk up that wall."
Wood laughed. "Ok Xan, let me have it."
Xander settled back in to the chair, noticing it was a lot more comfortable than the ones Snyder had employed.
"Buffy has gotten engaged to Spike."
The normally cool Principal gaped at Xander, his jaw dropping almost to the floor. "She's done what? No! Don't answer that!" He got to his feet, pacing around the room. "I thought, well, hoped, that she was over him."
Xander shook his head. "Nope."
Muttering to himself, Wood sat back down, slumping a little. He reached into the lower desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a shot glass full, and offered one to Xander, who declined.
Knocking it back, he then looked at the young man in front of him. "Continue!"
Xander obeyed the command, explaining everything that had happened, not leaving anything out.
"So, after leaving the hospital, we went back to my apartment, and Dawn's going to live with me now."
The Principal nodded slowly, considering the situation. His first reaction to being told an underage student was moving in with an older man would have been a fast phone call to social services. This, however, was *very* different. He held a lot of respect for Xander, and completely agreed that Dawn should be nowhere near Spike. He hated the blonde vampire with a passion that was unrivalled by anything else in his life, as the vampire had killed his mother.
"You want me to change her address on the school records and list you as her official guardian?"
Xander nodded. "Please."
Wood frowned a little, then made a decision. "Xander, it's not that I don't trust you, but I need to speak to Dawn first, and make sure she is ok with this."
"Of course," he shrugged, having expected it. "I'll call her in."
A few minutes later, the pretty young girl entered nervously. Xander gave her a smile, and told her he'd wait outside while they talked.
"Dawn, I asked you in because I have to make sure that Xander's not pressuring you to move out. That this is really what you want."
She smiled at him. "Did he tell you what Buffy said about me?"
Wood shook his head. Xander had mentioned it, but he wanted to hear it from her directly. "She accused me of wanting to be raped by Spike."
The fury in Dawn's voice revealed a lot more to the Principal than he had expected. He recognized it as a similar hatred of the Vampire to his own.
"What's Xander's apartment like?"
"Huge four bedroom place in the new block on East 17. He has the penthouse suite."
"And you have your own room?"
"Of course," Dawn said. "Xander doesn't think of me that way." She said the absolute truth, and not many people would have heard the faint sadness in her voice.
While he asked her a few more inconsequential questions, the principal started to pull his thoughts together. Dawn was safer with Xander than with just about anyone else he could think of. The man would do everything in his power to protect her, that was a given. It was Dawn that was concerning him a little. He knew she was a level headed girl, and was not far from Slayer level herself when it came to power and ability. He recognized the sadness in her voice when she had said that Xander didn't think about her that way. He also heard a completely unsaid 'yet' that she had tried to hide.
He smiled to himself. He liked the young man, a lot, and he also knew he had a very clear view on Vampires. Dust them all and let someone else sort out the mess. He also knew part of Xander's history with unhappy romances. This girl, who was looking much more like a woman these days, he admitted to himself, would be very good for the younger man. It was probably slightly sexist, he admitted to himself, but if Xander had been chasing Dawn, he would have whisked Dawn out of his grasp so fast it would have left an imprint. But with Dawn doing the chasing, and Xander not having a clue, the situation was very different.
"You like him, don't you?"
Dawn went bright red, as she tried to stammer a denial. He smiled softly at her, "All I'd ask is that you don't do anything inappropriate till you are 18."
As Dawn's face fell, he continued. "It's only a couple of months, Dawn. I'm going to change the records so that Xander is listed as you're guardian. He'll receive all the stuff that would normally go to your parents. I suggest that you keep the illusion that you have a College boyfriend for now. You can always reveal that it's Xander later."
Dawn smiled at him, He'd always been nice to her, even when he had argued with Spike and she'd tried to defend the Vampire. "I still have the same problem, though," she admitted. "How do I get Xander to like me, like that?"
Wood laughed, more than a little amused. "I'm the wrong person to ask, Dawn. All I will say is to be yourself. It might take him some time, but he will eventually see that you have grown up. I suspect that you have made a good start with your new clothes."
"Xander took me shopping. All my old ones are at her house."
"Oh, one more thing Dawn. While I shouldn't condone violence in school, I admire your restraint in only hitting her lightly. Your full strength could have done a lot of damage." His voice was stern. "Violence is not an answer"
"However, no complaints were made, and no teachers saw the incident, so you're off the hook. Just don't let it happen again," he warned.
Dawn nodded, wondering how he knew about it. She stood and walked to the door.
"Oh Dawn?" Wood smiled, losing his Principle persona. "Good luck. Xander needs a girlfriend."
She blushed prettily again, grinned at him and walked out, letting Xander back in.
"Ok, as far as this school is concerned, Dawn is now your responsibility. I would recommend you talk to Buffy, to make sure they don't accuse you of kidnapping or anything else."
"Thanks," Xander replied. "I'm planning on going around next to have a chat with them." He smiled bitterly, "I'm really not looking forward to it."
Wood watched them walk together away from his office, the tall brunette construction worker and the smaller form of the Slayer's sister. He raised his glass, toasting them. "Your life's about to get a lot more complicated, Xander. But the rewards are more than you can imagine. I wish you both good luck and God speed."
"Dawn, drive us over to your sister's house. We'll pick up our clothing and then get the hell out of there as fast as we can."
Dawn looked nervous, "I'm not sure that I want to face them yet. It was only two days ago that this all blew up."
"I know, Dawnie, but I need to have a talk with Buffy, Willow and Spike."
The journey to Revello Drive was filled with a nervous tension.
Dawn pulled into the driveway, next to Spike's pimp mobile. Xander pulled out a brown envelope from the glove compartment and placed it in the inside pocket of his jacket.
"Dawn, don't volunteer any information. Feel free to look as smug as you like, just don't tell them where we are living."
"Ok, Xan," she replied, biting her lower lip nervously.
Xander shook himself, wondering why he found that strangely alluring.
The door opened as the approached it, Buffy and Willow stood watching them.
As Xander climbed out of the SUV, they couldn't miss the large bandages wrapped around his head. A flash of guilt shot through the two girls, but they remembered that Xander was never hurt seriously.
A bruise here, a sprain there and a broken arm was pretty much the sum total of his injuries in all the time he had fought by their side.
They had seen Xander cut his head on a table. They hadn't been called from the Hospital, and they hadn't checked. They simply presumed that it was a semi-serious cut to his forehead.
"Come crawling back?" Buffy asked, immediately on the offensive, trying to offset a little of the guilt she was feeling. "Got nowhere to live?"
Somehow, Buffy's hostility had a positive effect on Dawn. She wasn't going to let this skank get away with insulting her future boy friend.
Dawn smirked at her sister, then looked down at her own smart, expensive clothes, then looked at Buffy's faded jeans and old top. The implication was obvious, and her sister's expression darkened.
"We're here to pick up our clothing, then we're gone again," Xander said firmly.
"Fine," Buffy half sighed, showing them into the living room.
They walked in, to see Spike waiting for them. The room was dark and gloomy due to the blackout curtains Xander had erected a few weeks before.
"Droopy," Spike spat. "Dawn will not be living with you. She's moving back in here, where she belongs with her sister."
"Like hell I am, you fucking rapist," Dawn responded, her insult carrying more weight because she didn't shout it.
Spike snarled, his face vamping out as he took a step forwards.
Xander took a step to one side, while calmly reaching behind his back. With a smooth motion, he pulled a gun out and shot Spike in the stomach. Well, he *meant* to shoot the stomach, but with only one eye, it was hard to aim. The vampire made a high pitched keening sound and dropped to the floor, clutching his crotch.
Dawn actually laughed. She was as shocked as Buffy and Willow, but there was such a feeling of justice in Xander's movements that she couldn't help herself.
Anything Buffy was going to do was immediately halted as Xander pointed the barrel of the gun at her.
"Don't even think about trying any magic, Willow," Xander's growled softly, his eye not leaving Buffy. "I know all your signs, and one hint of a spell and I'll shoot."
Buffy fumed, desperately wanting to jump at him, but aware that even she probably wouldn't survive a point blank shot.
"I suggest that we move into the kitchen, and discuss this like reasonable adults."
Against her will, Buffy turned around and walked towards the kitchen, Willow following.
As quickly as possible, Xander changed the ammunition clip in his gun. "Those were regular bullets," he growled at the incapacitated vampire. "These are blessed bullets. I have no idea if they will dust you or not, but I'm more than willing to put a couple in your dead heart and find out."
Xander walked off, leaving him rocking on the ground. He entered the kitchen and sat at the table. Dawn moved her chair so that she sat next to him, offering and receiving support.
"Lover boy will be fine," Xander announced. "His vampiric healing will have him back to normal within thirty minutes. And considering what he did to me. I think that's just a little of the payback he has coming.
"But I didn't come here to discuss Spike, I came here to make sure you people didn't do something stupid," he told the two women who were sitting on the opposite side of the table, staring at him as if they didn't know who, or what, he was.
"What do you mean?" Willow asked, hardly recognizing the cold stranger in front of her.
Xander sighed patiently, "I'm sure that by now Spike has made several suggestions for getting Dawn back under his control. Let me guess, a call to the police and child welfare complaining that I've kidnapped her and am raping her?"
Flashes of guilt appeared in both Buffy and Willow's eyes as his remarks hit home.
"I thought so. Listen very carefully, because this will be the only time you hear this. This is what is going to happen if you do anything like that.
"First, a doctor's report will be produced showing that Dawn is still a virgin.
"Secondly, my lawyers will file with the local courts a motion to declare Dawn an emancipated minor. This will be based on Buffy's extensive criminal record, her failure to maintain gainful employment for any length of time, her ongoing associations with people of low moral character and the fact that she's been suspected of both assault and murder.
"Thirdly, the IRS will be notified of Spike's status, including the facts of how he appears to support you without a job, and how he hasn't ever paid taxes.
"Fourthly, the INS will be notified of Spike's status as an illegal alien. I somehow doubt that he's got a valid green card, all things considered.
"All of this will take over a year before it is settled, within which time Dawn will be 18 and legally entitled to make her own decisions. In which case, I will direct my lawyers to sue you for slander and defamation of character.
"And finally, the police will receive evidence that Willow has been committing statutory rape."
Buffy and Willow paled, shocked expressions appearing on their face, but Xander hadn't finished yet.
He pulled out the envelope he had placed in his jacket earlier. Opening it, he started placing pictures and pieces of paper down on the table.
Buffy and Spike kissing passionately.
Buffy and Spike in the Bronze, fighting.
A copy of Kennedy's birth certificate.
A picture of Willow and Kennedy kissing passionately, with Willow's hands on her partner's chest.
Buffy and Spike, together, in public, engaged in an act that should have been confined to a bedroom.
Spike, naked from the waist up, thrusting his crotch at the S.I.T's.
"The negatives of these pictures are being held by my lawyers," He said quietly.
"This isn't you," Willow croaked, unable to take her eyes from the picture.
"You don't know who I am," Xander snapped. His one eye glared at them, showing exactly how furious he was.
"What do I do for a living?"
Buffy and Willow looked at each other.
"You're a carpenter?" Willow ventured, a bit uncertainly.
"I was a carpenter, two years ago. I'm now one of the vice presidents of PJH construction. You really don't know me. All you had to do was ask. Well, it's way too late for that now.
"Dawn, go and start packing."
The green eyed girl got a lot of pleasure at seeing her sister and ex-friend appear so shell shocked. She ran up the stairs and started to pack, grabbing a suitcase from under the bed. She didn't actually pack that much clothing. Their shopping trip had been very comprehensive, after all, and she wanted to stay as far away from 'young Dawn' clothing as she possibly could.
She filled the suitcase with pictures and mementoes, mainly of her mother, favorite books, stuff needed for school, her favorite CD's and pretty much everything else she couldn't leave behind. She dragged the case to the stairs, shocked by how heavy it was.
Looking down, she could see that Xander was still sitting with the other two girls, so she walked into his room and started packing for him. While she did pack some of his clothes, she conveniently left out some of his wilder experiments. She examined his suit and turned her nose up at it, cheap and off the shelf. He would look *much* better in the ones they had arranged for him.
She then examined his pictures, one by one. A lot were of Buffy, Willow and Anya, and he even had a couple of Cordelia and Giles. What did surprise her was how many he had of her. She found a huge smile forming on her face as she realized that there was as many of her as there were of Buffy and Willow. And while Buffy and Willow were often photographed together, she was on her own in most of them.
"I knew it," she whispered to herself. "I've just got to get you to realize now."
Picking up his suitcase, she dragged it next to hers. Then, with a grunt, she picked both up. Thankful that she had some residual Slayer strength she carried them down the stairs into the kitchen.
"I packed yours as well, Xand."
"Thanks Dawnie," he said, shooting her a grateful look.
"You bastard," Spike shouted, appearing in the doorway. Xander reacted instantly again. In a split second he had his gun in hand, and in moment of mercy, for Buffy, not for Spike, he shot the vampire in the knee. He compensated for his vision this time, and hit the vampire perfectly, blowing out his kneecap. The sound of the shot echoed around the room, as the peroxide blonde fell to the floor once more.
"It burns, it burns," he cried in agony.
"The bullets work then?" Xander sounded interested.
Spike's response was a series of invectives that showed the length and breadth of his knowledge of expletives.
Xander looked firmly at the still stunned Buffy and Willow. "You have made your decisions, now live with them."
With a hint of reluctance, he pulled one last peace of paper out of the envelope and laid it on top.
"Now, we're even."
He stood up and grabbed one of the suitcases.
"Come on Dawn." His voice was radically different as he talked to the younger Summers.
"Wait," Buffy said, "Where are you staying?"
"My apartment." Xander's face twisted into an evil grin.
"Where's that?"
"Get Willow to find out, if she remembers how to do something other than use Google."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, digesting what had just happened.
"Damn, Xander, I don't know what to say."
Xander moved his head so he could see her expression. Thinking that she disapproved, he mentally collected the defenses he thought he would need.
"That was amazing," she continued happily. "I can't believe you shot Spike like that."
"I was aiming for his stomach," the brunette replied honestly.
"Xander, I just want to say, thanks for everything you are doing."
"I told you before, Dawn. Your safety is the most important thing to me. You couldn't be safe with Spike in that house."
Dawn decided to accept this for now, and just bide her time till she had an opportunity to show her gratitude properly.
"Where did you get those pictures from?" she asked, changing the subject.
Xander shrugged. "I had Andrew drop them round earlier."
A surprised expression appeared on the green eyed girl's face. "Andrew? What happened to him? I haven't seen him since Giles and the S.I.T's went to New York."
"He's back in College, being sponsored by PJH Construction. He helps us out with some of the more proactive anti-vampire defenses our buildings have, and in return, he gets his fees paid, a small apartment to live in, rent free, and a small stipend to keep him busy. He's actually getting straight A's, now that he's not under Warren's thumb all the time. When he graduates, he's going to work for us full time, as head of our Supernatural Defense department. He's got too much experience to waste, and if handled properly, will make a great ally.
"The picture of Buffy and Spike was from Warren's personal collection. After Willow fried that murdering scumbag, we went through all of his stuff together. I think it was cathartic for Andrew.
"Anyway, it seems that Warren had a large collection of these pictures, taken by a network of hidden cameras he had set up around the town.
"I destroyed most of the images, but I thought it was a good idea to keep a few, just in case."
"What happened to all of the cameras?" Dawn asked, carefully negotiating the SUV through a stop sign.
"We rewired them, added a thermal camera overlaid onto a normal camera, and hooked up a motion detector. Whenever they detect movement without a body temperature, they set off an alarm at the PJH control centre, where it is assessed, and if necessary, a security team is sent to neutralize the threat."
Dawn checked the mirrors on her car, then swerved violent, pulling into a McDonald's car park, swinging the car into a parking slot and pulling to a stop, hard. She undid her seatbelt and turned to face Xander, the shock on her face making her eyes seem incredibly large.
"You're telling me that you have a private firm dealing with Vampires? Based on a city wide network of Vampire sensors?"
Xander nodded. "You think that Buffy suddenly started having an easier life just because the first went 'Poof'?"
"Does Giles know?"
"Of course. How do you think he knows the best place to patrol? He gets a SitRep before each patrol, and our number on his cell phone speed-dial."
"Giles doesn't have a cell phone."
"Of course he does, he just doesn't like using it."
Dawn slid her right leg underneath her, settling in and making herself comfortable, sensing that this conversation might take a while. "Isn't that like the Initiative?"
Xander grinned. "Nah, I've never been to a farm in my life, and I have a personality.
"Sunnydale is a strange place, Dawn. We've had the highest death rate in the country for years, but it's always been covered up, first by the Mayor, then by incompetence as people simply stopped believing the stories.
"I've got to admit that it was a bit of a shock to find out that most of the police are not like the unlamented Detective Stein.
"I was at a corporate function around six months ago, when I was approached by a police sergeant called Steve Morris. He'd been friends with Pete Johnson for some time - Pete's one of my bosses. Anyway, Pete had told him, over several beers, about Vampires, and had expected Steve to laugh. Turns out that half of the Sunnydale police force have been trying to fight vampires for around a year, but received no support at all.
"We talked for a few hours, and it gave me an idea. I pitched it to Pete and the others, and they gave me the backing to re-jig the security team we had.
"I got Steve involved first, laid out the all the cards on the table, and he joined instantly. We then raided the police force. We selectively offered new jobs to the people who had experienced the dark and felt like they wanted to help.
"With Steve involved, we had 100% acceptance rate. We now have a waiting list of people wanting to join. People can only get on the list with the recommendation of two existing members; it helps create a feeling of teamwork and inter-reliability.
"Of course, we pay very good salaries, with great insurance benefits. These people are helping keep the night safe, so they deserve to be looked after. We pass the costs onto our customers, the ones who are willing to pay for safety.
"We've just started to hire armourers, shown them vampires, demons and the like and how to destroy them, given them a large budget and sent them off to brainstorm. The blessed bullets were their first idea, but they're working on all sorts of other things too.
"We have a chapel in the Head Office, Father O'Reilly is on full time call for blessings, exorcisms and any thing else that might be needed. He's also our liaison with the Catholic Church.
"For far too long Sunnydale has been an open town for Vampires. Well, as far as I am concerned, it's damn well time that changed. I'm fed up with the 'Missing' column in the local paper being bigger than the news section. This is my hometown, and I want it safe for everyone living here.
"If that means setting up a private security force and running it, then damn it, that's what I'll do. In two years time, I intend to hold a New Years festival, the first one since 1831. I want to hold it outside City Hall, and I want it so that the only trouble anyone might have is caused by the occasional person who's had too much to drink."
Dawn gaped at him, trying to take in everything he had just told her.
With a grin, he reached over and gently lifted her chin, closing her mouth.
Absently, she shook herself. "Damn, Xander. Why the hell didn't you tell us?"
The smile vanished from his face. "I tried, several times, but was told that a window needed fixing, and to please get on with that, instead."
Dawn launched herself forwards, engulfing him in a hug.
"I can't change what's happened in the past, Xan. All I can do is promise you that you do have friends that care about you, and won't take advantage of you."
She could feel the tension slowly ease from his body, as his hands flattened against her back and gently started to stroke her hair. The young woman had to struggle to restrain the sudden urge to start purring.
Dawn had to stop herself from swearing as Xander's pocket started to ring. He released her gently, and pulled his cell phone out.
"Harris."
"Xander, it's Molly. Have you eaten yet tonight?"
"Nope. Haven't gotten around to it, yet."
"Excellent! I expect you at my door in twenty minutes. And make sure you bring Dawn." Not waiting for Xander to say anything, she hung up.
He stared at his phone for a second, and then smiled. "We're been invited to go and eat dinner with some friends of mine. Did you meet Kyle the other night?" he looked slightly confused, wondering how Molly knew about Dawn.
Dawn nodded. "Yeah, he helped me get you upstairs. I mentioned 'Gang members on PCP' and he laughed."
Xander grinned, "That's fast becoming an in house joke, and we still use it to refer to vampires. Anyway, we need to get moving, Kyle's wife wants us there in twenty minutes."
Taking a deep breath to try and quell the butterflies that had suddenly taken up residence in his stomach, Dawn re-fastened her seat back, and followed Xander's directions to the Michaels' home, concentrating on not hyper ventilating as she drove..
Looking over at the girl, he reached out and touched her hand. "Relax, Dawn. You know that Kyle is a nice person, and Molly's the same. They are good people; you've got nothing to worry about."
She smiled slightly, taking a deep breath. Her mind had been running through the worst possible scenarios, everything from accidentally insulting their hosts to breaking something. She desperately wanted to make a good impression; this was the first time that Xander had offered her an entrance into his world and she wanted to take it properly.
Dawn knew that Xander had never taken Anya to any of his work events, because of her curiously sporadic grasp of social etiquette, and none of his other friends even knew that he did this sort of thing.
Her nerves returned with a vengeance as they paused outside the gates of a huge mansion.
"It's ok, Dawn" Xander said reassuringly, after a brief conversation through an intercom. "You look great, Molly's going to love you."
Dawn pulled the car to a stop, and got out of the car, trailing Xander a little as he walked to the door. The imposing entrance swung opened as they moved towards it.
"Xander, Dawn, It's good to see you again."
"Hey, Kyle," Xander greeted him with a firm handshake. "I hear you finally found a way of getting me into bed."
Kyle rolled his eyes at Xander, and moved to greet the girl half hiding behind him. "Come in, come in. Molly's desperate to meet you."
Dawn took a step forward, and instinctively, reached up and dropped a kiss on his cheek.
Kyle melted; there was simply no other word for it. He and Xander had been friends for around a year, and the carpenter had never seen him like this. With a fatherly smile, he put his hand lightly on Dawn's back and steered her into the house, almost ignoring his other guest.
Xander followed as they walked through the formal reception rooms to the living room the two actually lived in.
He was amused as Kyle kept up a running commentary on everything as they walked through, almost excitedly pointing out different features of his house to the teenager who had enchanted him almost from the moment they had met.
Miranda Beauchamps-Michaels, Molly to her friends, watched unseen from the side as Xander's girlfriend charmed her husband. She smiled, liking the girl already. Kyle had come home Saturday raving about her, even to the extent that he had made the mistake of repeating his comment that she was better looking than her nieces.
Candor forced her to admit that he had been right. The young girl, dressed in elegant casual clothes, had an elfin like face that emphasized her huge eyes, and gorgeous straight hair that Molly would literally have killed for in her youth.
She took a step forward, announcing her presence. She smiled at Xander, returning his open greeting, and saw the flash of nervousness in Dawn's eyes. She was an imposing figure, in her late fifties, dressed in a very expensive suit, designed to convey the impression of old money. She was the product of a merger between two of the richest families on the West coast, and had married more money in Kyle. Most of her image was an act, set out for the shallow people who expected such actions from her.
She paled and frowned as she caught a full look at Xander's huge bandage over his head. She took several steps into the room and engulfed the young man in a tight hug.
"You look horrible."
"Thanks, Molly," Xander said with a grin. "I knew I could count of you to beat me over the head with the unvarnished truth."
"What happened?"
"Small vampire incident. It's bad for my future career as a model, but great for my backup plan of being a pirate."
Molly frowned, finally releasing him. "If you ever need anything, Xander, I better be your first port of call, or you'll regret it."
Xander smiled warmly at her. "Molly, trust me, I'm fine. I really don't need anything."
"Your problem is that you're too self effacing, Alexander Harris."
Xander winced at the usage of his first name, realizing that he had somehow managed to annoy Molly slightly. His self preservation instincts immediately kicked and he decided that the only way to save himself was to sacrifice someone else.
"Molly. This is Dawn Summers," he introduced the slim, elegant brunette who was quietly watching the both, putting his arm around her waist and pulling her close. With his gaze on Molly's face, he missed the brief, outraged look Dawn threw at him as she realized what he was doing.
Molly moved forwards, a quiet look telling Xander that she recognized his diversion, as eagerly hugged Dawn. "Come on, child, I've been dying to meet you. Let's go and chat while these two talk about boring business." Before Dawn could protest, Molly had dragged her out and into the kitchen.
"Sit," the older woman commanded, pointing to a large stool on the other side of a worktop. Obediently, Dawn sat and watched in amazement as Molly continued to cook. There was something that just seemed wrong with the picture, as the expensively dressed lady continued to stir a few of the pans.
"I just love to cook," Molly confided to the teenager, smiling warmly at her. "All of this is just an act, our families demand it. We'd rather live in a small apartment somewhere.
"Now, tell me about you and Xander."
Dawn felt herself pinned by the blue eyes of her host, and found herself unable to lie. "I'm not really his girlfriend," she said, looking down.
"But you want to be?"
Dawn nodded slowly, blushing again. "Dawn, I know about Vampires, and I know about the Slayer being your sister. Why don't you tell me just exactly what happened to you and Xander?" Her voice was soft and caring, offering support and trust.
Dawn looked up, seeing something she hadn't seen since her mother had died, a mother figure who as concerned about her and wanted to listen to whatever she wanted to tell her. Trusting her, she launched into her story.
The younger girl told the older woman everything, except for the Key business. That was something that she was not willing to tell anyone, no matter how much Xander trusted them.
Molly was an excellent listener, occasionally requesting more details and reacting at the right places.
At the end, Molly walked around the table and embraced her, letting the distraught teen cry.
Dawn sobbed into her shoulder, letting all her grief over her sister's actions out.
Once Dawn had cried herself out, Molly leant back and smiled a sad half smile.
"Kyle told you that I was planning on trying to set Xander up with one of my nieces?" she asked, stroking the girl's back slowly.
Dawn nodded, looking up, a little confused.
"You've ruined that plan now, and I couldn't be happier. The niece I had in mind is a spoilt brat, it's the main reason I hadn't introduced them yet. And why my sister ever gave her the name 'Porsche' I'll never understand."
Dawn visibly paled at the name, and Molly immediately guessed at the cause
"What happened, Dawn? I presume Porsche goes to the same school as you."
"Erm," Dawn prevaricated, trying desperately to think of something to say, as she wished that Xander would come and save her.
"Dawn," Molly's voice was gentle, but firm. "I know what sort of girl my niece is. Please don't lie to me."
Dawn nodded, and reluctantly told her about Porsche, the insult, her reply and her own insult. As she delivered her final line, she stopped, looking down, not wanting to see her reaction.
Molly looked at the young girl, then threw her head back and roared with laughter. "Oh, Dawn. I would have paid to see that in person."
The girl in question blushed profusely.
"Dawn, you're going to be perfect for Xander. You may not be his girlfriend now, but with my help, you soon will be. What he needs is a girl who isn't a Queen Bitch, a Slut or an ex-Vengeance Demon."
Dawn giggled at the description of her paramour's ex-girlfriends.
Molly sighed softly. "Kyle and I have pretty much adopted Xander. He's an amazing young man, smart, brave, good looking, with a great sense of humor, and a streak of honor a mile wide.
"After he saved Kyle's life, we wanted to reward him. As you can tell, we're not short of cash, but he wouldn't accept anything. He said he was 'just happy to help'." Molly frowned a little. "I was not going to accept that. No one does something so big for me and gets nothing in return. We made friends with him, and got him to talk to us. It wasn't easy, but one night, I ordered him to talk and he caved in.
"If I ever meet your sister, I'm going to have some very firm words with her."
Dawn actually smiled; the image of this lady tearing a strip out of her mystical Slayer of a sister was very amusing. And quite appealing, too.
"Xander had, and still does, a confidence problem. We've been working on building up his confidence, pointing out everything he does well. There are a lot of things that he is incredibly good at, and it makes me want to scream that all this talent has been wasted for so many years."
Dawn nodded slowly. "It's been kinda difficult to realize that I only knew a part of Xander for all these years. I feel guilty that I didn't try and find out more about him."
"You're finding out now, though, aren't you?"
Dawn nodded, "Yeah. We've all had this image of Xander in our minds all these years, and no one ever bothered to realize that he isn't 16 any more."
Molly smiled, and moved back to the simmering pans. "So, tell me a bit more about you, honey."
"Ok, tell me what happened. And don't hide it this time. Dawn won't be able to lie to Molly and we will compare notes later."
"What's this? Divide and Conquer?"
"If it worked for Caesar, it will work for a couple of interfering old people."
Xander laughed. "You're not...Wait! Yes you are, on both counts."
"Thank you," Kyle said dryly. "Now get to the details. Drink?"
"Just a coke, please."
Kyle poured Xander a drink, then got himself a small whiskey, sitting in a comfy chair opposite the brown eyed young man, who settled himself on the couch.
"It started on Saturday. I'd spent the morning at the school going over some final details with Robin Wood, the Principal. Then I went to Buffy's house and tried to talk to Willow, but she was still sulking over the advice I gave her over Kennedy.
"I went over to Dawn, who was just staring into space. It was kinda disturbing - she had this look on her face that I sometimes see in the mirror. A feeling of betrayal, as if someone who cares about you just turned around and smacked you in the face.
"Then Buffy entered, with Spike." Xander spat the peroxide Vampire's name like it was an expletive. "She called everyone together and announced that Spike had asked her to marry him, and that she'd accepted."
Xander swayed back instinctively as a thin sheen of whiskey exploded out of Kyle's mouth. "She did what!?"
Xander grinned. "That was pretty much my reaction, as well. I made her repeat it. Then I expressed my disbelief that she would marry a Vampire.
"She pretty much blew me off, as always, and called me useless."
Kyle frowned, getting ready to boost Xander's morale. He sure as hell wasn't going to let this young man sink back into the pit he had been a year ago. He'd never had children, and his nieces were spoilt brats, so he'd never missed them. This situation was different now; he loved Xander like a son, and knew that Molly did as well. He just wished that Xander wasn't so stubborn at times. What was the point of being incredibly rich, if you couldn't spoil your son? It had meant they had to sneakily arrange little things, like selling him the penthouse apartment at a massively subsidized price, like making sure that any flight he took was first class, like paying for the SIT's and Giles to go New York for several weeks,
"I wasn't going to take that, not this time," Xander continued, unaware of his friend's internal monologue. "So I argued back, and she accused me of being jealous and still being in love with her."
"Are you?" Kyle prompted gently. He was pretty sure of the answer, especially after meeting the long haired girl downstairs.
"No, I haven't been for some time. It used to be the case that I felt something for her, but that was killed when I found out what sort of person she really is. I don't even find her that attractive any more. Partly because I know she sleeps with vampires, which has that whole 'Ewwwww' thing attached to it. And partly, because she's so thin. I can't tell you the number of times I've been tempted to tie her down and force-feed her a couple of burgers."
Kyle laughed at the imagery, motioning Xander to continue.
"So, no, I'm not in love with her anymore. I'm not sixteen anymore. I've done the 'Secret' romance, the 'quick fuck' romance and the 'sexual Olympics' romance. Combine that with pining over the Slayer for a few years, kissing Willow a while back, and being attracted to any female who wanted to kill me, and I've pretty much had a disastrous string of relationships. Going to Buffy now would be a step backwards for me."
Kyle smiled with an expression Xander didn't recognize; he'd never received fatherly pride from his own biological parent.
"After that, I accused Spike of being useless, which I believe the facts will back me up on. She retaliated by calling me a 'fucking liability.'
"I reminded her that I had saved her life many times. She accused me of holding the whole "Sisters of JHE and the Zombies" over her head for many years. That Spike said, I was doing it for a sense of superiority."
"Why hadn't you told them?"
"It didn't seem important. The panic was over, they were all congratulating themselves on a job well done, why bring them down?"
Kyle shook his head slowly. "Continue."
"Well, I kinda called her a necrophiliac, which didn't go down too well."
Kyle laughed loudly. "A little harsh, perhaps, but it has the virtue of being true."
Xander nodded. "I actually told her that once was a mistake, but twice was a lifestyle choice.
"She tried to hit me, then, but I'd guessed that she would have that response, so I got out of the way. I asked what had happened to her, that she hasn't been herself for so long, that I'm not even sure if she was ever like how I remember her."
"Have you considered that she's suffering from Post Traumatic Stress, Xander?" Kyle asked gently, having been waiting for a chance to bring this up.
"Yes, I've been trying to get her to see a shrink for ages. She won't, doesn't think that there is anything wrong with her. Before they were destroyed, the Watchers Council had psychologists on their books, who were normally used to help Watchers, but Giles got permission for them to work on Buffy. We sat her down and explained everything. She exploded, accused us of not trusting her, of trying to have her committed and ran out, to Spike. Who, I am sure, reinforced those beliefs."
"Why haven't you killed Spike?" The question was said calmly, without a hint of censure.
"I think that Spike is just a symptom, not the major issue. If I got rid of him, I'm pretty sure that Buffy would find someone else to take his role. It's a case of better the devil you know. He's reasonably easy to predict. I hadn't anticipated him turning Buffy against Dawn, but everything else went pretty much as I thought it would.
"I still need to ask Dawn what happened before I got there. I don't want to drag up bad memories, so I'm going to give her a few more days.
"Anyway, back to the argument, I asked Buffy how she could date someone who tried to Rape her. I forgot Dawn didn't know about the incident, and she joined in, asking how the hell Buffy could choose to leave her with an attempted rapist. Things got a little heated, and Buffy accused Dawn of wanting to be raped by Spike."
Kyle had stopped drinking, just in case another revelation came out that would cause him to cough. This time, he didn't spray his drink, his jaw just dropped open.
"She did what?" he asked, disbelief evident in his voice.
Xander nodded, reacting to his expression, not his words. "I know. Buffy kept repeating that Spike had a soul, as if somehow that made everything better. I'm not sure where she gets this idea that a soul makes everything okay. She's killed hundreds of demons with souls, an assassin with a soul, in fact, the only thing that hasn't got a soul is a vampire, and she's slept with two of them.
"Willow then joined in on her side, pretty much repeating what Buffy had said. She was doing it for Kennedy. She wants that girl and isn't going to let anything get in her way. I tried to get her to see the shrink as well, and she did for a bit, after the whole 'vein-y Willow tries to end the world' thingy and I thought we were back to being friends then, that we were really connecting again like when we had been kids. But as soon as the First Evil started coming around, she fell back into predictable behavior, and the magic usage returned with a vengeance. At times she seemed that she had forgotten about Tara entirely and moved on.
"This was the final straw for me. I've had it up to here with being told I was useless. I finally realized that friends don't treat each other like that, and that while I still considered them friends, they still looked at me as a 16yr old, who could fix the problems that occurred when your house is regularly invaded by demons."
"Why haven't you put any security systems at their house?" Kyle interrupted, suddenly curious.
"I tried, several times, and was told, 'Only Slayers can detect Vampires, Xand, but could you look at the boiler, it's acting up.'
Kyle rolled his eyes. "Sorry. Please continue."
"So, I got Dawn to come with me and tried to leave. Spike got in the way, so I punched him. Buffy jumped into protect him, kicked me, then Spike threw me across the room, where I landed on the corner of a table and lost this." Xander waved vaguely towards his head.
"I left, telling them that we were no longer friends, and then I got Dawn to drive me to the hospital. They had to remove the eye completely; the optic nerve was destroyed.
"Dawn took me back to the apartment, which, I presume, is where she met you?"
"Yes," Kyle said, with a small smile. "When I first saw you, I was going to take over and bring you back here, but the way you were leaning on her, and the way she was totally focused on looking after you, made me change my mind. She's a very special girl, Xander."
"I know," Xander replied. "We went shopping the other day, and I had one of the most enjoyable days I can remember."
"Have you talked to Robin about Dawn yet?"
"Yeah, today. He's going to help, and I made sure that Buffy, Willow and Spike aren't going to interfere either. I blackmailed them," he suddenly grinned, "and I also field-tested the new bullets on Spike. They definitely had some sort of effect. He was whining about how it burned."
"Excellent. You should see some of the things the guys have planned. I swear, give a geek a new idea and a challenge and they will surprise you every time."
"Like what?" Xander asked, with a hint of professional curiosity.
"I'm not going to spoil the surprise," he said with a grin. "You are going to love it."
Changing subjects, Kyle asked," Have you got a TV yet?"
"Yeah, Dawn picked everything for me."
"Alexander Harris!" Molly's voice joined the conversation from the doorway. "I thought that we agreed that Kyle and I were going to buy you that sort of thing as a house warming gift."
Xander blushed, and sat back in his chair, subconsciously trying to put more distance between them. "You guys have done so much for me already."
It had taken Molly and Kyle a long time to get to know Xander as well as they did, and they knew that he honestly believed that he was worthless. Well, he used to anyway. He couldn't accept that people might want to do things for him, just because they wanted to.
Dawn lightly placed a hand on Molly's shoulder. "May I?"
The hostess nodded slowly, not used to taking a back seat to anyone. She watched with great interest as the long haired girl approached Xander, who appeared a little scared of her.
She sat down on the couch next to him, her legs brushing his, and pulled him forwards so that his eye was level with hers.
"Do you know how important you are, to me?" she asked softly. She desperately wanted to tell him that she loved him, that she wanted to kiss him senseless, but she knew that this was not the right time. He would run so fast and so hard, she'd be living with Spike again before she could blink.
She didn't wait for his reply. "Since we came to Sunnydale, you were the one who was there consistently for me. No matter how much I was hurt, how much I screwed up, how annoying I was, you were my rock. The one I could cling to, when everything was going wrong.
"When mom died, you were always there for me. You didn't even care about the arguments it caused in your relationship with Anya. Even the last few days, you've taken me in without hesitation, spent a fortune on new clothes for me, cleared things with the Principal and neutralized Spike's attempts to control me, too.
"Even in the fighting, whenever a vampire came close, you were always there to rescue me, jumping in the way of danger to make sure I was safe.
"You've always been generous, Xander. I remember you buying me little presents when I was just the bratty sister of one of your best friends. You were the one who never complained when I showed up. You even went against Buffy and Willow to try and include me in all your group activities." Dawn was going into the implanted memories now, but to her, they were as real as all the others.
"You remember what happened when I was thirteen? With my doll's house?"
The look on Xander's face was curious, a mixture of fear and reluctance, showing that he did indeed remember.
Dawn looked at Molly and Kyle, who had sat down opposite them, watching the beautiful girl waltz through Xander's mental barriers as if they weren't there.
"A Clorth'ra demon broke into the house, and while Buffy was fighting it, my doll house was smashed. It was the last thing that Dad bought me before he left.
"I was pretty inconsolable, annoying Mom and Buffy with almost constant whining about it. It was devastating for me. I felt like Dad was finally gone forever. Then I came home one day, and on my bed was a completely repaired doll's house. There was nothing to say who had done it, or anything. I went downstairs, smiling for the first time in a week, and asked Mom about it. She didn't know anything. So by a process of elimination, I went through all of our friends, and realized that the only person who had the ability to do something so well was Xander.
"Despite the fact that Xander was working as a Pizza guy and paying his parents rent for the privilege of living in a basement, he took the time and money to repair the sister of one of his friends doll houses.
"I still have it. But now, it's stored safely in the attic, and it will go to my children. It no longer represents Dad's last gift to me. It represents the love an eighteen year old had for an awkward and irritating thirteen year old girl."
She paused, taking a breath. She had been incredibly careful not to mention anything about Xander being a surrogate father. She didn't think he'd be able to handle the male equivalent of Oedipus complex if it arose.
"Molly and Kyle love you." Dawn stated this incontrovertibly. It wasn't just their words, it was the way they looked at him. She had received a lot more open affection in her time than Xander, so she was able to recognize the look.
"Like you wanted to make a little girl feel better, they want to do the same for you. Making you happy makes them happy."
Dawn licked her lips, and hoped her final line wasn't going to do down the wrong way. "Don't you think it's selfish to not let other people give you things?"
"When did you grow up and become so wise?" Xander half whispered.
"When a handsome man decided that I was more important than anything else in his world, and swore to protect me."
Dawn smiled at him, breaking the moment deliberately. This 'taking her time' business was going to kill her.
"Now, are you going to let Molly and Kyle spoil you, or am I going to have to tell Molly your middle name?"
Xander looked shocked at her, then laughed loudly. He was joined a second later by the others. "That's blackmail, Dawnie," he spluttered.
"I know," she looked smugly at him.
"Ok, I give." Xander stood up and walked over to the couple. He embraced them both, and relaxed a little more as they both eagerly hugged him back.
"Dawn is incredibly special, Xander. Don't let her go," Molly whispered into his ear.
He drew back, looking strangely at her, not exactly sure what that last bit meant.
Molly just smiled innocently, hoping that her words would cause a seed of thought in his brain to grow. Xander didn't have a chance; he'd fall in love with Dawn eventually, and she was going to make sure of that. It was almost amusing, he didn't even know when he'd sealed his fate. It was probably something little, like giving her an ice cream on a sunny day. She was convinced that Dawn had decided a long time ago to marry Xander.
'A summer wedding, here,' she decided absently, happily planning way ahead.
She would not have been shocked to find out that Kyle was thinking something similar. Although he quickly moved on to more immediate matters. He now had permission to spoil Xander rotten, he had over twenty two years of birthdays to make up for, and he was eagerly looking forward to it. The first thing, he decided, was to get Xander a new car. His SUV had been purchased to transport the SIT's around, and while it served that purpose, it was not really suitable for a successful businessman. Deciding that a subtle conversation change would help, he asked "Tell me Xander, what do you prefer, BMW's, Audi's or Mercedes?"
Molly playfully rolled her eyes. She'd have to have a little chat with her husband later, as he was obviously from the George Bush School of subtlety.
"Before you answer that, let's move into the kitchen, the food is ready."
Buffy and Willow sat, frozen, looking at the pictures on the table before them. With a great deal of reluctance, Buffy reached out and pulled the last piece of paper towards her.
She turned it over and went white, suddenly realizing what it symbolized. A single tear fell down her cheek; it was quickly followed by many others. It was never meant to be like this.
Seeing her cry, Willow reached out and pulled it from her hands. She looked down, passed the address details and read the terse statements. She, too, felt tears drip down her face.
Two sentences over the last few days started to circle around her mind. "Now, we're even." And "Only my friends call me Xander."
Unevenly, Spike rose from the floor. His knee wasn't healing properly, and he wasn't sure what he could do about it. He picked up the paper and looked at. It was a faxed copy of a letter from the bank, stating that Buffy's mortgage had been paid in full. With his back to the girls, he smiled happily. Not only had he succeeded in getting rid of one of the Slayer's staunchest allies, but the stupid git had actually paid off the house. That alone was worth all the pain he'd just gone through.
He'd have to work on getting rid of Willow, next. That fact that both Willow and Buffy still obviously cared in some way about Xander would make it easy for him to play them off on each other.
"Xander's upset at the moment. Why don't we give him a day or so to calm down, then we'll go to his apartment and persuade him that Dawn belongs here, with her sister?" Spike said, moving over to his fiancé and hugging her, letting her use his shoulder to cry on.
"I know it looks bad now, but there is a bright side. Xander is now going to be safe, he's going to have to stop fighting. He'll be able to have a normal life. That's what you wanted, isn't it?"
Buffy nodded slowly, letting her fiancé's words of comfort wash over her. She pushed her face into his cold neck and inhaled, breathing him in.
Willow looked disgustedly at Spike, realizing how he was manipulating her friend, but then remembered that Xander was against her relationship with Kennedy and decided that maybe it was for the best, after all.
The sound of the phone ringing interrupted them. Spike hobbled over and picked up the phone.
"'Ello?"
"William, it's Giles. How is everything proceeding in my absence?"
"Everything's fine, Mate. How ya enjoyin' ya holiday?"
"Taking five teenage girls around New York? I'd rather be fighting a Bulogoshi demon."
Spike laughed at the reference to the exceptionally fragrant Demon.
"Anyway, can I speak to Xander?"
"'Fraid not, he's at the cinema with Dawn. I can get him to call you back if you want?"
"What? No, that won't be necessary; I'm in a damned public phone box." Giles's voice suddenly faded, and the vampire heard him shout, "Molly, Don't do that," before his voice returned. "Look, Spike, I've got to go, I'll check in later. Bye."
"Uh huh," Spike said to the dial tone. "Westfield Cemetery? Garloch Demon? Got it, we'll look into it tonight. Enjoy the rest of your stay."
"Sorry Darlin', but we're going to have to work. One of Giles contact in New York warned him that a Garloch demon is hanging around Westfield causing trouble."
"I thought Garloch demon's were non violent?" Willow interrupted.
'Oh, you will definitely have to go,' Spike thought to himself. "They are, normally, but this one's gone rogue.
"Can you try and find Xander's new address, while Buffy and I go sort out this problem?"
Willow nodded slowly, deciding that, once they knew where he was now living, she could go over and at least apologize and try to explain.
"Buffy," Spike said. "Come on, I'll even let you drive."
Happy to have her mind taken off her problems, the Slayer smiled and stood, grabbing his keys.
It was a curious meeting, eight species of demons sat around a table. At the head was a Brachen half demon, who was currently appearing in his human form.
"So it has started then?"
"Yes. Last night, Andy was killed by the Slayer, at the direction of the Betrayer," the reporter, a Cluck'ta demon named Bill, announced. No one was quite sure what his real name was; when asked it had taken over fifteen minutes for the vaguely humanoid demon to recite it.
The Brachen demon, Simon to his friends, sighed. "The situation is becoming untenable. What happened to the Watcher and the Carpenter?"
"The Watcher is in New York, with the future Slayers. The Carpenter's influence has been removed from the Slayer."
"What?" Simon demanded. "How has this come to pass?"
"The Betrayer has become engaged to the Slayer."
"That's just sick! I mean, I know she's a Slayer, and looks human, but, EWWWW!" interrupted Micklornswath of the Deathwok Clan. He had moved to Sunnydale after working at his brothers club in Los Angeles for several years.
Soft laughter echoed around the table. "There's no accounting for taste. This does leave us with a problem, though."
"The Witch is with the Slayer and the Betrayer. Once again, she has abandoned the true path and strayed into the shrubbery. However, all is not lost. The Carpenter is now protecting the Key. The Key is very safe; she is in the Fortress."
Approving murmurs continued around the table. "What about the Carpenter's disciples?"
"The Security force is concentrating on Vampires only, and is under the Carpenter's direct control."
"Excellent! I'm sure we can all agree that killing the Cursed Ones is a good thing." Agreement was whispered from everyone at the table.
"I believe it is time for us to approach the Carpenter. Will he accept us, Bill?"
"The Carpenter is the One Who Sees. He has always been open minded about our kind, while he has a in-depth hatred for the Cursed Ones. Remember, he has had a serious relationship with Anyanka, one of Halfrek's demons."
Simon nodded, as Bill continued. "A truly unique opportunity has arisen. I obtained his Hospital report. The Betrayer caused one of the Carpenter's eyes to be completely removed."
A gasp went around the table, "That is why the Carpenter has left and is now protecting the Key. I believe that we should offer him the 'Orb of Isis'. He will truly become the One Who Sees."
"That is an extraordinary gift," Simon noted carefully.
"Agreed. The Carpenter will not be concerned with ordinary money. He has attracted the protection of the some of the Ultra Wealthy members of his race. However, a magical device, offered freely, as a gift without strings will inspire his confidence in us."
"How well protected is the Fortress?" a deep gravelly voice asked, his face shrouded in darkness.
With a small bow of respect, Bill replied, "Extremely so. The chance of a Cursed invasion succeeding is zero. The Key is protected."
"Excellent," the gravelly voice replied. "My vote is to offer the Carpenter the gift. He will need it in times to come, as we will need him."
"Anyone opposed to this?" Simon asked. No one replied. "Then I will arrange a meeting with the Carpenter, and invite him to our next meeting. I believe that any prevarication on our part will be disastrous in the long term.
"With that out of the way, shall we move on?"
The meal the night before had been excellent. Molly was a fantastic cook, and both Xander and Dawn had over eaten. This had caused them to drive home at a very leisurely pace. They had parked and walked up to the elevator together, with Xander nodding at the security guard. A trained observer would have noticed the fight the guard had, not to salute.
They had parted as soon as they had entered the apartment, both going to their respective bedrooms. It had been an emotional day, and they were exhausted.
Dawn climbed into bed, wishing for the time when they would retreat to the same room and would lay in each other's arms, falling asleep together. This romantic dream was enough to put her into a gentle slumber, a hauntingly beautiful smile on her face.
Before he went to bed, Xander checked in on her, as he had every night so far. He smiled tenderly, "What are you dreaming about, Dawnie?" he whispered to himself, unable to take his eyes from her face.
He had no idea how long he stayed there, watching her sleep. He could barely make himself turn away.
Eventually his tiredness overtook him, and he stumbled into his own bed, but sleep wouldn't come. His mind replayed the events of the last few days.
Dawn had changed; he had actually seen her grow up and mature, literally overnight. His anger at Buffy and Spike returned. They had stolen the last of her childhood.
He was a lot more worried now, since Dawn had told them about the original argument last night. Spike's mysterious lady sounded far too much like Drusilla for comfort. The last thing they needed was an insane super vamp in town. The only thing that consoled him was that Dawn was safe. This apartment was practically impregnable. And he only added the 'practically' because 'impregnable' was too much like 'unsinkable' for his liking. And he was very much afraid of the icebergs represented by the vampires.
It didn't help that Dawn's metamorphosis had turned her into a beautiful young woman. She had impressed him more and more each day, with her intelligence, wit and humor. While she continued to act like an adult, he was determined to treat her as such. He really wanted to see how she would react to more responsibility.
When he had arranged for the mortgage on the Summers' house to be paid off, he had also arranged for a debit card to be produced for her, under his bank account. It would be very interesting to see if she would act like a teenager and go wild, or would show the restraint a mature adult would. He was betting on the second.
He tried to analyze why he was finding himself touching her a bit more, her shoulder, her face, her back. He was incredibly comfortable being tactile with her, and that was a little unusual for him. Growing up, sudden movements would cause him to flinch minutely; he'd try and avoid getting into those situations. This was the result of the numerous beatings his father would give him, for any minor infraction of his rules. But when Dawn touched him, it was as if his subconscious had decided that it was ok for her to touch him, and he didn't react.
With a sigh of confusion, he fell asleep, Molly's words to him on his mind. "Don't let her go."
The next day passed normally. Well, it did for Xander, anyway. He spent the day doing paperwork and looking over blue-prints. The reports from the preliminary testing of XTech security group's armory division were extremely promising. Kyle hadn't been lying when he had talked about the originality of the people involved. Anything that kept his people safe was his top priority.
XTech was a wholly owned subsidiary of PJH Construction, but was run by Xander alone. His bosses had stumped up the cash and the technical and legal backup, but had left him to run it. It was a little strange, as far as he was concerned, but they had insisted.
What he didn't realize was that the running of XTech was his final test; if he made a success of it, the three partners were going to force a partnership on him. The construction company was expanding fast, their reputation was unparalleled at the moment, and their new security concepts were attracting much attention from both sides of the thin white line.
Dawn's day was much the same as the day before, extremely confusing and bizarre. To people who cared about the school's social structure, it was as if the long haired girl had stepped outside of the known, and had somehow ended up at the very top.
Chrissy was proving invaluable; it was fair to say that the small blonde knew everyone in the school. As people approached Dawn, she would whisper their name to her best friend. Dawn would then use that info and talk to the person one on one. She quickly got the reputation of being extremely nice, friendly and fun to be around.
At lunch, she had sat down in her usual seat, opposite Chrissy on one of the tables to the side of the cafeteria, and had immediately been swamped by people, all jostling to sit on the same table. She had taken it with good grace, offering apologetic glances to those who had been shoved out the way.
The Queen of the school was supposed to be above talking to mere peasants. She was supposed to set the standard in dress and looks that others aspired to. She was supposed to put down anyone who crossed her as quickly as possible, and rule with an iron fist.
Dawn was not a Queen. She had no wish to be. All she wanted was to get through the day as easily as possible. If that meant being nice to a lot of people, so be it. Geek, Jock, Nerd, Cheerleader, it didn't matter to her. Everyone was treated the same way, everyone got the same direct look, the same full attention.
A lot of the senior hierarchy didn't like it. She was mucking up the traditional high school hierarchy, the people at the bottom were starting to realize that they didn't deserve to be at the bottom and were starting to stand up for themselves.
The problem was that the group of jocks and cheerleaders, who had been at the top, suddenly found themselves powerless. Like many dictatorships, the minority had ruled over the majority through fear and intimidation. With the fear being effectively removed, the majority realized a very valuable point - *They* were the majority, and intimidation would not work when you had numbers on your side.
It wasn't just numbers; Dawn's army consisted of people who were becoming fanatically loyal to her. She was one of their own who had reached dizzying heights, then not forgotten where she had come from. The school paper was already planning an article on her, the student government was meeting to decide how to try and get her to run for them. Even the chess club was planning on asking her to sit in one of their meetings.
People knew that they could approach her, and even if she said no, they wouldn't be shot down, there would be a valid reason for her refusal.
In the afternoon, a rumor swept through certain quarters that the old guard, the jocks and cheerleaders, were planning a confrontation. With out Dawn's knowledge, a large group of students had congregated and decided that it just wasn't going to happen.
They liked the new way, and wanted to keep it. These people weren't the geeks or the nerds, they were the normal people, who just wanted to get school over with as soon as possible and get on with their lives. They had no pretensions about being overly popular or successful, they had plans to go to college and then get a job. None of them knew exactly what, but they knew they would do something.
They had laughed amongst themselves at the popular kids, the ones who were being big fish in a small pond. They had consoled each other with the knowledge that when they went out into the big world of college, they would suddenly become small fish in a huge pond. They had been resigned to the status quo, but now that had been broken, and they seized their chance.
Under the watchful, but unseen, eye of Robin Wood, who stood hidden at the back, they walked over to the gym and separated. In a classic pincer movement, the students had entered the large hall through every entrance, blocking all avenues of escape.
Adam Walker was the current editor for the Sunnydale Journal, the weekly student newspaper. He had been elected spokesperson, since his ability with words was not just limited to text.
He had moved to the front and looked at the much smaller group.
"Greetings," he said urbanely. "It has come to our attention that a certain group of students have nefarious designs on another student."
"So, what?" Lance Michaels demanded aggressively.
Adam sighed theatrically, and shook his head. "You hardly noticed, did you?"
"Notice what?"
"The whole school changed over-night, the old order has been made redundant. You are no longer relevant."
"I'm the captain of the football team," Lance said, as if that made all the difference.
"And we're all very proud of you. Your ability to throw and catch a ball is extremely impressive." The sarcasm flew straight past most of the elite group; it did, however, cause a ripple of amusement amongst Dawn's protectors.
"You can't stop us," Porsche snarled, joining the conversation.
"Au contraire, we have stopped you. You've just not realized it yet."
"Lance, knock this dweeb out."
Any move Lance was going to make was instantly halted by a slight rearrangement in front of them. Half of the football team stood behind Adam, as well as prominent members of the school boxing team, the school karate team, and scariest of all, the school psycho.
Ian Walker was a fighter, who had been introduced to Sunnydale's 'night life' at an early age. It had left him with a couple of visible scars, and a lot of mental ones. He had been found one night, fighting a couple of vampires, and *winning*, by a member of XTech. As a result, he had been invited back to the main office, where he had met Xander. The two of them had talked all night, swapping stories and telling bad jokes. It had been one hell of a relief for Ian to realize he wasn't alone in his battle. His semi-psychotic nature had been curtailed, after counseling had been arranged by Xander, but he had decided to keep up his reputation at school. It kept him out of the way of the elite arrayed before him now.
He had been invited to join the XTech force as soon as he left school, if his grades improved. Xander had sat in during a meeting between him and Principal Wood, where everything had been explained to the Principal. It had been a great shock for him to find that the new Principal had been fighting the dark as long as he had been alive.
Although his grades might indicate something different, he was exceptionally smart. You just don't stay alive in Sunnydale at night without it. He had seen Dawn's sudden elevation and had put two and two together very quickly.
He had noticed that Dawn's pictures were all over Xander's office. Xander was extremely wealthy, and had known the girl for a very long time, and rumor had it that he was protecting her at his apartment, which he knew from experience was the safest place in the city.
Dawn's mysterious boyfriend was obviously Xander. Whether or not they were actually going out, he didn't know. What he did know was that the one man who had treated him normally, who had helped him far beyond the call of duty felt that this girl was worthy of protecting. As a future member of XTech, and a close friend of Xander's, he had decided to protect Dawn at school, where his brown eyed friend couldn't. He hadn't bothered to pass this information on to anyone, it simply wasn't necessary.
He had approached Dawn that morning, just to say 'hi' and see what sort of person she was. He was used to being ignored, to being insulted behind his back, to people being scared of him.
Dawn had looked him up and down, smiled at him warmly and simply said, "Hi, Ian." She had offered him her hand to shake, which he had, and had almost been stunned, literally.
Ian believed he was slightly psychic, something to do with the Hellmouth, probably. When he touched the brunette's hand, he had felt just how much she loved his friend. It was something so pure and almost innocent that he had felt a smile come over him. The first in many, many years.
Every Queen needed a Knight, someone to do the dirty work for them, someone to protect her and accept her challenges, to protect her honor. In that moment, Ian had sworn to himself that he would be Dawn's Knight. When the Queen got her King, he would serve them both. As far as he was concerned, the Innocent Queen and the Warrior King were the most important people on the planet.
They were good people who fought to protect others, not for rewards, not for fame and glory, but simply to help others, to help the ones who could not fight, to help the weak and the needy. Xander and Dawn were two people he could look up to.
"If you take one more step, I will end your football career. Dawn is under my personal protection." He told Lance in a quiet, matter-of-fact tone of voice.
Two years before, a vampire had almost crushed his larynx; it left him with an eerie, quiet voice that seemed to fill the auditorium without really trying. He walked slowly to the front, aware that he was the center of attention, and actually enjoying it, for once. Having been shunned, feared and hated for so many years, it felt incredibly good to be on the right side.
Standing next to Adam, in front of the more physically able protectors, he glared at the old guard and shrugged off his coat. The scars on his arms looked like the sort that you would receive in knife fights. They had been caused by the claws of vampires. What people had thought was a slightly fat body turned out to be a hugely muscled torso that had been hidden by his trench coat. His nose had been broken too many times for him to count, and his hair was long and pitch black. He looked down at that vast majority of the school from his full 6" 2' height. He had slouched for so long, that he had given the impression of being much smaller.
There were two opposing thoughts running through the opposing groups, and one identical.
The opposing thoughts were, "Thank god he's on our side," and "I wish he was on our side."
The similar thought was, "How the hell did Dawn win HIM over?"
Lance looked nervously at Porsche, looking for direction.
Ian grinned, as frighteningly as he could, the same expression he used with great effect on vampires. "Porsche, Porsche, Porsche," he said mockingly. He had phoned XTech at lunch time, and had heard a very interesting rumor. That Dawn and Xander had been invited to dinner at the Michael's mansion last night, and that Miranda had adored the girl.
Gossip about Xander was one of the few vices that XTech had. They all followed him, trusting him implicitly, but they also loved to exchange stories about him. They knew about the Slayer, the Watcher, the Witch and the others, but they were more impressed by Xander. He didn't have any super powers, he didn't have any destiny, he just did what was right. To the ex-policemen, this said more about his character than anything else could have. The control center had picked up his car entering the mansion; the long range security cameras had seen them leave, after Molly had given Dawn a huge hug.
"You do know where Dawn and her Boyfriend ate last night, don't you?"
"What are you talking about?" Only the fear of the psycho kept the trailing insult from leaving her mouth.
"Kyle and Miranda Beauchamps-Michaels. Auntie and Uncle are extremely fond of Ms Summer's boyfriend, and I'm sure she'd hate to hear that you were doing anything against the girlfriend of one of her very close friends. Doesn't Miranda control the purse strings in your family?" His voice was mocking and carried around the room,
Porsche blanched. It was a very frustrating fact that her mother had to obey the rules that Miranda laid down. She bemoaned this fact frequently, but never to her sister's face. The two siblings were very, very different people.
Ian sighed audibly, "You have been replaced. There is a new Queen. Any threat to the Queen will be dealt with, by me, and by everyone else here. I am Dawn's first knight, and I have pledged my allegiance to her and her boyfriend."
Lance rolled his eyes; he had no idea what this jerk was going on about, but decided that a short display of his physical superiority would cower the others. He took a couple of quick steps forward, his football skills coming to the fore, and threw a haymaker as hard as he could at the psycho's head.
Only Ian's head had moved; the football player's speed was remarkably slow, when compared to a Vampire. Ian then moved, so fast that only the Karate team could follow his movements. He skipped to one side, jumped and drove a devastating kick into the lumbering giant's stomach. As the air violently exited Lance's lungs, he bent forwards, presenting the dark haired vampire fighter with an easy opportunity. A short, but incredibly powerful, punch impacted on the football player's jaw, knocking his body to the ground, and his mind into next week.
A second later, he was standing in his original place, not even having the grace to look out of breath. "That was your only warning."
Everything changed suddenly. Not a single word was said, but the old guard surrendered. It was felt by everyone. Ian and Adam nodded at each other, and turned around. Their backup followed them, emptying the sports hall, leaving a shell shocked formerly elite group and one person unconscious on the floor.
Robin Wood smiled to himself, watching them go. His school was changing, for the better, and was being done in a way that he had never experienced before. Lance had attacked Ian, so he could hardly blame him for defending himself. He had been impressed with the restraint shown. The sort of punches you had to deliver to effect a being so much stronger than you would cause serious damage to a student.
The thing that amused him the most, was that the catalyst for this was blissfully unaware of what was happening in her name.
Sunnydale High School had just undergone an, almost, bloodless coup. And all it had taken was one pretty girl. It had started when the girl had slipped out of a new SUV, taken off when the girl had refused to accept an insult from the previous regime and had shown she could stand up for herself, both physically and verbally, and had been finished when she had not let it go to her head, and had been extremely friendly to anyone and everyone.
She had shown people that there was a different way, and everyone had followed her quickly.
As for Dawn, she received the final seal of approval at the end of the day. She'd met the Principal on the way out, who'd given her some paperwork for Xander, and she'd given him a hug goodbye as she walked out, to find him hugging her back, in full view of the student population.
"Honey," Buffy said quietly. She was lying in bed, with Spike. He'd just started to wake up as the sun had set.
"Yeah, ducks?"
"Did we do the right thing, with Xander?"
"Of course we did. We didn't do anything wrong. Droopy should have been happy for us."
"But his head was so heavily bandaged."
"I know, but he banged his forehead, that always bleeds heavily. I could smell the blood on him, it was old and stale. He'd already started to heal properly."
She sighed softly, idly running her hand over his chest, tracing intricate patterns. "It's just...I don't know." Her voice was low, mirroring her uncertainty.
Spike's voice became warm and caring. "You thought this would happen - that he wouldn't be able to handle you being happy for a change. He wanted to take away your chance for the future. He's not worth you being upset about it.
"Like Giles did, like Riley did - he left you. He abandoned you. It's not your fault, that they stole you back from heaven. They dragged you from where you were warm and safe, then they tried to stop you from moving on." He spoke with a level cadence, timing his words to the rise and fall of her chest.
"When you came back, there was one person always there for you. One person who helped you try and regain your life. One person who didn't care that you came back from the place they ripped you from, different. One person who was willing to love you more than anyone else and stick by you no matter what happened. And when you decided to make that person the luckiest guy in the world, by marrying him, they wanted to stop you. They wanted to take away your happiness."
He slid his arm under her and pulled her closer to him.
"I love you, Buffy. I will never abandon you; I belong to you as you belong to me. I'll never leave you. I even willingly had my soul returned, suffering eternal regret for what I have done, to prove myself to you.
"I'll never leave you," he said again. "I'll always be here for you. You'll never be alone again. You've done nothing wrong."
He felt her slowly relax against him, and bury her face in his neck, seeking the comfort she seemed to believe she was somehow destined to always be denied. Spike smiled to himself, a smile that grew into a grin as she slid over him, straddling him.
She lifted herself up, and smiled down at him. "You're right." Those were her last words for sometime, as she started to move atop him.
Simon walked up to the entrance way of Xander's apartment building, mentally rehearsing what he was going to say.
The doors opened for him, and he entered confidently, only to suddenly freeze. The security guard was pointing a very large gun at him, and scowling.
"Sir, Do not take another step," the guard demanded in a firm voice. "If you do, I will activate the buildings defenses."
The guard spoke in a very firm manner, that of one accustomed to command and being obeyed.
Simon had yet to move a muscle. He had heard that this building was protected from vampires, so he hadn't expected any trouble, being only a half demon that appeared human. His sharp eyes suddenly focused on small metal tubes that weren't quite flush in the far wall. He gulped nervously; suddenly very aware that a wrong move would end his life very quickly.
"Sir," the guard continued, "Please state your business."
"My name is Simon Verkochnar, I am here to see Alexander Harris."
"Does Mr. Harris know you are coming?"
Simon shook his head. "I am not here to cause him any harm."
"Please wait, where you are, Sir." He picked up a phone, pressing 1 on the keypad.
"Mr. Harris, We have a Brachen half demon down here. He would like to see you." He paused, obviously listening to the reply.
"Yes, Sir," he said, putting down the receiver. He pressed a button, and a second later another guard appeared and silently took his place.
"Come with me, Sir," the guard said. It wasn't a request.
"Aren't you going to check me for weapons?"
They walked into the elevator, the guard pressing the buttons. "You have a small round object in your left pants pocket. You have 75 cents in your right pocket. You have no other metal on your body. You are a half demon, whose demon form has Spikes. If you attack me now, the other security guard will flood this car with gas, knocking us both out instantly."
"Oh." Simon was impressed. He didn't have a clue how they had identified him so easily, and suspected that if Xander had replied differently, he would be walking home now. If he were lucky.
A small knock on the door to the Apartment was swiftly followed by Xander opening it.
"Please come in, Mr.?"
"Just call me Simon," he said, accepting the hand that Xander offered.
They moved into the living room, where Dawn was sitting in the corner of a couch, curled up, a laptop on her legs. Out of Simon's sight, her screen had a full schematic of the Demon's physiology, and complete instructions on how to take him out easily and quickly. The guard already knew this, and was standing at a discreet distance, his hands by his side, hanging loosely, his gun in easy reach.
"What can I do for you, Simon?" Xander asked. "We don't get many house guests here."
Simon looked at the young man, who still had a large bandage wrapped around half his head. He had heard rumors and reports about him, about everything he had done since he had found out about the night, and had been suitably impressed. Now, standing in his presence, he felt a lot more impressed, as he realized that Xander was quite capable of having him killed if he offered any sort of threat.
"Not all demons want to rule the world," Simon started, his standard introduction.
"Please," Xander interrupted politely, "get to your point. I am well aware of the fact that there are good demons as well as evil demons. I do not judge on race, only on behavior."
"Sorry," Ian said, off balance. "We have a problem, and we are going to need your help. The Betrayer is trying to take over the underground, with the help of the Black Lady. He has started to move against us, and with the Slayer on his side, we can't get to him."
"The Betrayer being Spike?" Xander asked, only guessing because of the mention of the Slayer.
"Yes, he came to us offering his help first, then decided that he didn't need us in his way. The Black Lady has arrived, and some of our numbers have started to die. Last night, the Slayer killed a Garloch Demon on his behalf."
"Garloch Demons are pacifists, aren't they? Willow would have known that."
"The Witch was not there. The Slayer took directions and executed our friend."
Xander frowned. "What do you want from me?"
"The Dark Lady wants control; she wishes to open the Hellmouth, and bring death to all."
Xander laughed softly. "Sorry, but I've heard that a few times."
Simon nodded. "I know. Many times. With our council gone, all the demons here will be forced to join her, instantly swelling her ranks by around a thousand."
"There are that many in town?" Xander looked slightly surprised.
The Brachen demon nodded. "Yes. All living peacefully as they have for many years."
"Why come to me?" the carpenter asked.
"Because you are the One Who Sees. The person who has started up the first practical plan we have seen for making this town safe at night. You are the one with the open mind."
Xander nodded slowly, aware that Buffy still operated on an "Attack first, and hope to get answers from a Corpse" basis.
"Who is the Black Lady?"
"We do not know," Simon said softly, looking down. His lack of knowledge irritated him; he didn't like not negotiating from a position of power.
Xander thought for a second, then made an instant decision. "How many people do you need protecting?"
"Eight," Simon replied.
"Ok, I will find accommodation in PJH Construction buildings for each person, it's about as safe as anyone can be in this time. However, I will want to meet them first."
"What do you want in return?" Simon asked, curiously.
Xander shrugged. "Just keep your people in the light and there won't be a problem."
Simon smiled, "I thought you would say that. We do not ask for favors, we pay our own way. Originally, we were going to offer you money, as a thank you. However, we know that you are friends with the Ultra Wealthy, and as such, have no need for it. Instead, as proof of our commitment, I offer you this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small ball. "The Orb of Isis."
Xander looked up at Dawn, who was already tapping furiously on her keyboard. A few seconds later, a password and IP address restricted search engine returned several hits. She skimmed through them, and raised her eyebrows.
"An expensive gift," she said softly.
Simon nodded in agreement, "but I think that it was meant to go to Xander. He is the One Who Sees."
"Sees what?" Xander interrupted.
The same blush of embarrassment appeared on Simon's face. "Again, we don't know."
"Dawn, what have you found?"
"Xander," her voice was commanding. "Remove your bandage and hold the orb to your eye socket."
He trusted Dawn implicitly; she had the knowledge in front of her. Turning slightly, he removed the bandage and lifted the Orb up towards his eye.
A second later, he started to scream.
Xander's hand flew to his now full eye socket; the pain was almost unbearable. As he had held up the Orb, it had twitched in his hand, and then, seemingly of its own volition, jumped towards his face and slipped into the empty eye socket.
The Orb scanned the no-longer-empty socket. The optical nerve was damaged, so it decided to repair that first. Tiny razors shot out of the back of the orb, and started to shave the damaged nerve, removing the dead tissue. It wasn't aware of the pain it was causing. It didn't know that the repair it was doing was sending intense messages of agony directly to its host's brain.
With the scraping done, a small stem emerged from the back of the Orb and attached itself to the nerve. Deciding to find out what sort of person its host was, it activated a very small part of its receptors and started to filter visible light.
To ensure it could not be removed without its permission, the Orb shot three hooks into Xander's eye socket. It could feel the blood start to trickle past it, onto its host's cheek, so it quickly heated the hooks up, cauterizing the wound.
That done, the Orb settled into a monitoring mode. If the host followed the path of the Knight, it would slowly open its receptors, enabling the host brain to adjust to the extra sensory input.
If the recipient didn't, it would open all of its receptors at once, overloading the brain and killing the host instantly.
The effect on the room was instantaneous. The guard was the first to move. Seeing his boss in pain, he took two quick steps forward and dropped into a crouch. His left leg shot out as he spun counterclockwise, sweeping the Brachen's legs from under him, and dropping him to the floor, on his back. Before Simon even realized that he was on the floor, he was faced by a snarling guard and a very large, imposing, black gun was being shoved into his face.
It was at that point that the half-demon decided that he was perfectly content with being on the floor, and was quite willing to stay there as long as was necessary.
The guard, once the immediate threat was contained, triggered a level one alarm on his pocket communicator. The level one alarm called all local guards to his location, to help out. There were five available levels of alarm ratings, with Level Five indicating the Armageddon Device should be prepared.
Dawn shoved her laptop to the side and rushed to Xander; the website hadn't said anything about this. Reaching him, she pulled him down hard, into her arms and cradled him. She ran her hands soothingly over his back as he whimpered in pain, twisting and turning as he tried to escape the waves of agony pulsing through him. He somehow recognized her, and held on for dear life.
A minute later, the door to Xander's apartment exploded open, followed by three off duty security guards, one of whom had clearly been involved in something far more pleasurable, when the alarm went off, and who was clearly not amused by it.
They instantly took in the situation; one human-appearing guy was lying on the floor with a gun pointed at him by a colleague, and their boss was being carefully, but possessively, cradled by one of the girls from the pictures in his office. Two of them pointed their guns at Simon and waited, analyzing the situation, while the third immediately began calling for an emergency medical team.
With one hand held against his eye, a thin trail of blood visible down his cheek, Xander looked up.
"Mike," he addressed the half dressed, scowling guard. "Cancel that call for the med-team. Then get your ass back downstairs to Vanessa and continue whatever you were doing. Then, when you've finished, apologize to her for me."
"But-," Mike looked torn.
"That was not a request," Xander said firmly. "You can come up later and I'll explain everything. Go! Now!"
Mike nodded and vanished out the door. The other three guards looked amused, but unsurprised. Xander always looked after his people first.
Xander took a deep breath, then addressed the guards. "Thanks guys. You can let him up, he didn't do anything wrong." There was no hint of censure in his voice; he certainly did not want to sound ungrateful for them trying to protect him. If anything more serious had happened to him, or if Simon had struggled, there would have been a large mess staining his carpet.
Reluctantly, the three guards stood back, but did not re-holster their guns.
Simon got to his feet slowly.
"What happened?" he eventually asked. He'd read all the reports on the XTech Security force, he'd even read reports about how loyal they were to the Carpenter, but it had never actually clicked inside him exactly how true that those reports were. He understood now. Completely and unambiguously.
Xander took a deep breath, and, still cradled in Dawn's arms, removed his hand. The Orb of Isis was fully visible in what had been an empty eye socket. "I can see," he said simply.
"It didn't say anything about pain, Xan," Dawn said softly, her voice just reaching the guards. "The website said that the Orb had the power to repair damaged eyes. I'm sorry. If I had known..."
"Dawn," Xander interrupted firmly, "don't apologize. The pain was intense, but it's gone now." He reached up, as fast as he could and tapped her nose. "And I've got my eyesight back. My depth perception's returned." He sounded extremely happy.
"And you have a golden eye," Dawn pointed out, smiling a little. Xander in a good mood was always infectious.
"Cool," Xander exclaimed happily.
The three guards looked at each other and smiled - it looked like they had some killer gossip for later. They were trained observers and could see the difference in how the couple held each other. Dawn was holding Xander in a very possessive manner, protecting him. Xander was holding her in a grateful manner, as if he was receiving support from it. However, they were incredibly close to each other, Xander lying almost completely on top of the smaller girl, and his smile at her was incredibly warm and tender.
It looked like Dawn was making a play for their boss, and the guards' response was automatic and reflexive. It meant that by tomorrow, the brunette girl would be the most investigated person in Sunnydale. Unofficially, of course, but they were all protective of Xander; he'd given them their first real hope of finally getting revenge on the night.
He'd organized them, paid them well, given them great benefits and cool new weapons. Any girl he dated better not try anything - they weren't going to let anything to happen to him.
"Rob, Joe, you two can go as well. Enjoy the rest of your night off. That's an order. If you want to go out tonight, charge it to the company as a thank you for your prompt action."
They grinned at each other, deciding in that instant to really hit the nightclubs. They were young, good looking, single and had just been offered a free night out. With an identical salute, the two rushed off to get changed.
Xander laughed softly, almost unaware that he was still being held by Dawn, although he did realize that he was totally relaxed. "I bet they turn up to work tomorrow worse for wear."
The last guard smiled, nodding.
"Simon," Xander said, "thank you."
Simon smiled, "I'm glad the Orb accepted you. I was a bit concerned that it wouldn't."
Xander nodded. "How soon can you get the eight members that need protection together so I can meet them?"
"Tomorrow night."
"Do you know where our headquarters are?"
"Yes."
"Meet me there at six tomorrow night."
It was interesting for Dawn to see Xander act so decisively. He didn't look to anyone to validate his actions; he just took the responsibility for his own decisions and trusted himself enough to give them.
She had seen Buffy try and act like this, when fighting the First Evil. Her sister would bark orders and lead them into disastrous actions, expecting people to follow, simply because she was the Slayer. It hadn't lasted long, before Xander had took her to one side and gently pointed out that leading people to their death was not a good way to keep a happy force behind you. Buffy had flipped out, yelling and shouting at Xander, that he was betraying her and undermining her authority.
It had been the first time that she had seen Xander lose his temper at the blonde Slayer. They had engaged in a shouting match for five minutes, before Xander had stormed off.
Xander was stuck. Buffy was leading them to certain defeat. No one would stand up to her, as she was the strongest, physically, and people were afraid to tell her the truth that she was losing it mentally. And to make matters worse, XTech was nowhere near ready to deal with a being like the First.
'Well, Xand, it's time to work in the shadows again," he told himself, getting in his car and driving to the Magic Box.
"Hey, Anya," he greeted his ex-fiancé with a smile as he entered her shop.
"Xander," Anya said happily. "Are you here to fulfill your capitalistic obligations and exchange money for goods and/or services?"
"'Fraid not, Ahn. Need advice."
Anya pouted a little. She had a very direct mind. Xander had abandoned her at the altar, she had slept with Spike. It seemed a reasonably fair trade in her view, even if it did mean that she would never have sex with Xander again. The two were very different, with Spike being a lot more experienced while Xander made up for his lesser experience with a lot more passion. Both had provided many satisfactory orgasms.
"This is probably a stupid question, but do you know how to defeat the First Evil?"
Anya nodded. "Of course. You can't be a vengeance demon for over a thousand years with out picking up a few things."
"And you didn't bother to tell anyone because?"
"No one asked, and Buffy wanted to stake me."
Xander laughed to himself softly, how typically ironic. All of this could have been ended some time ago if they'd just used the resources they had.
"How?"
"The First is the personification of evil. All you need is something that is as Holy as he is Evil."
"Like what?"
"A part of the Cross Christ was crucified on would do it."
Xander's eyebrows had disappeared into his hairline at this stage. "Can you get a piece?"
Anya smiled brightly, as she said, "It won't be cheap." She rubbed her hands together, then did the Capitalistic Dance of Anticipation of Great Wealth.
Xander laughed and said his goodbyes, walking out and drove back to Casa Del Summers.
The next night Buffy had gathered them together again.
"We failed last night because you were not good enough. If you don't improve tonight, you will die."
The SIT's looked at her, their faces expressionless. No one wanted to speak up and be accused of being a traitor, but no one was at all confident that Buffy had any idea of what needed to be done. As Buffy walked out, they all turned to look over at Xander, who threw them a wide smile and a confident wink.
They looked at him, a little confused, but smiled. He obviously knew something they didn't.
Buffy had then taken them to an abandoned warehouse. It was so obviously a trap that, for a brief second, Xander contemplated asking if Buffy was actually seeing the same thing he was.
Her battle plan was...simplistic, was the kindest description. Everyone charge in and try and stay alive. The second part only really seemed to apply to her.
They had entered the building, and were instantly surrounded by the First's Army of Bringers. Then, the First itself had appeared, to gloat and talk too much, as it always did.
Xander grabbed the stake he had carved out of the wood Anya had obtained for him, and threw it to Buffy. "Stab him with that!"
Showing uncommon sense for a change, she did. The last expression on the First's face was one of shock.
Caleb, his first lieutenant, who had effortlessly beaten Buffy to a pulp several times before this, had taken one look and jumped out of a window, vanishing into the night.
The Bringers had simply dissolved; their ability to remain on this plain had been lost with their leader.
The ease with which the First had finally been dealt with shocked Xander. So many people had died because they had followed bad tactics, bad leadership and not used the resources available to them to the fullest extent.
"See, this is what happens when you follow someone who knows what they are doing."
Buffy's announcement caused stunned looks to appear on the faces surrounding her. It was so obvious to them that Xander had done something to defeat him, that her taking credit for the victory was mind-boggling.
Buffy smiled happily, mistaking their shock for awe. She had suddenly frowned, and gasped, "Spike," before running out the door.
Yet again, the Bleached Wonder had been absent when there was real fighting to be done.
Xander turned to the SIT's and Giles. "You've all done really well these past few days." He didn't mention Buffy, not wanting to get into that now. "As a reward, I've arranged for you all to go on holiday to New York."
Cheers had met his announcement, and it was a very different group of teenage girls who had returned to the Summers' residence. They had left the next day, before Buffy had returned. Giles had gone with them as their chaperone, secretly delighted to be getting out of Sunnydale for a while.
After seeing the SIT's and Giles off at the airport, Xander had returned to the Magic Box.
"It worked, Ahn. What do you want as a 'Thank You' present?"
Anya grinned at him. "Celebration sex?" she asked hopefully.
He laughed. "Nope, sorry."
"Ok, then I want to go on a cruise, where there will be lots of millionaires for me to find, and lots of cute sailor boys for me to have sex with."
It had only taken a couple of phone calls to get her on a cruise around the Mediterranean. It was amazing what could happen when you waved large amounts of cash at people.
Simon nodded. "Thank you. Till tomorrow, then."
He turned and walked to the door, a smile appearing on his face. The two made a really cute couple, and more importantly, Bill didn't know about it. He would have a lot of fun teasing him about that.
The guard accompanied him down to the foyer.
"You're not just a security guard, are you?" the half-demon asked casually as they descended in the elevator.
"Sergeant Brad Hooper," he introduced himself proudly. "U.S. Army Rangers, 1st Battalion."
Simon blinked. "Why are you working security?"
Brad grinned, an expression that seemed a little strange on his stern face. "I'm not. I'm a team leader for XTech security. We all take turns working the desk in this building."
"Why?" Simon looked interested.
"Two reasons. To protect Xander - he's the boss. It's a sergeant's duty to advise and protect the field commander and make sure he survives a battle," he said seriously. "I like to know that Xander's safe at night. If he goes out, we normally have a couple of people trailing him."
"Does he know this?" Simon looked shocked.
"Nope. And we'd prefer it stayed that way. The boss has got an amazing ability to get himself into trouble. He's too important to be lost in some meaningless skirmish." They'd reached the door, and had paused to continue the conversation.
"And the other thing?"
"One day a bunch of tango's are going to try and take Xander out. They're going to attack this building, and I want to be behind the desk when they do."
"Why?" Simon asked, fascinated.
"Because this building has teeth, and I want to use them." The smile Brad wore as he said this, was unnerving, to say the least.
Realizing that he wasn't going to get any more useful information out of Brad, Simon bade him good night and walked into the dark, quickly vanishing.
"What happened upstairs?" the backup guard asked as Brad returned to his seat.
"Just another standard night in the life of Alexander Harris," Brad said with a smile.
There had been a slightly uncomfortable moment when Xander had finally realized just how closely he was being held by Dawn, and just how much he was enjoying it. They had released each other at the same time. Dawn had recognized how relaxed Xander had been while she held him, and continued her game plan of taking things very slowly.
She picked up her laptop and sat down next to him, her back against the side of the couch with her feet burying themselves under his thighs for warmth.
"There are a few notes here, about the Orb, wanna hear them?" she asked him, apparently once more engrossed in the web page devoted to the mystical object.
Xander nodded. "Definitely."
"Ok, to make the Orb look like a real eye, think 'Hide Eye'."
Xander frowned. "Think it? Not say something?"
Dawn shook her head, looking at him wide-eyed and exaggerating the movement slightly so that her hair would dance. She hid a triumphant smirk as she caught him watching it with a distracted look on his face. "The Orb is supposed to read your thoughts and obey them."
'Hide Eye' Xander thought to himself, repeating the phrase over and over.
Dawn shot up, placing the laptop on his lap, and vanished into her room. She returned a second later with a hand held mirror. She passed it to him and recovered her laptop, resuming her position.
Xander held it up, and repeated the mental command, directing it towards the Orb. He was fascinated as the golden Orb seemed to flicker, paling into whiteness. A brown spot appeared in the centre, quickly growing to be a pupil. Finally a black dot appeared in the center.
He looked up, then down, watching with a huge smile as the two eyes seemed to follow his thoughts perfectly.
"'Show Eye' reverses it."
Xander nodded and gave the command. A few seconds later, he was the possessor of one gold and one brown eye.
"Can I take it out?" he asked her.
Dawn looked down at her screen, tapping the arrow key as she scrolled quickly down the web page. "It doesn't say. There's not that much information here really. I saw the part where it said that it could restore your eyesight and stopped."
They had eaten together a short while later, a pasta dish Xander had quickly thrown together. He'd then spent a few minutes on the phone, before smiling at her. "I'm just going to pop down to Mike's. I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Ok, Xand." Dawn curled up on the couch, idly flicking through web pages. She had not watched as much TV since moving in, and strangely enough, didn't miss it. It was a lot more fun to sit quietly with Xander and talk about the day, or surf the net while curled up on the couch next to him as he did paperwork.
Xander took the elevator down several levels. He jogged down the corridor, lightly rapping on numbered door.
Mike swung it open; he was now freshly showered, and looked to be in a lot better mood. Seeing Xander, he snapped to attention and saluted instinctively.
Xander looked at him, amused.
The soldier-turned-policeman-turned-XTech-member blushed, realizing that, technically, he wasn't in an army anymore. Still, between them, the members of XTech were working on persuading Xander that they were a security force, so were, technically, like an army, and therefore, saluting, technically, was allowed. They hadn't got far yet, but they still had hopes of persuading him.
Showing respect to senior officers was automatic to people like him, and despite his young age, Xander was definitely the senior officer.
"Sorry for the interruption earlier, Mike. To make up for it, you and Vanessa are going to 'Olive's' tomorrow." Olive's was one of the best restaurants in town, serving the finest authentic Italian food. Normally, there was a four week minimum waiting list, but they employed XTech security, who had quickly, decisively, and most importantly, discreetly, dealt with a minor Vampire incident the week before. The incredibly grateful owners had then made sure that Xander knew he had a reservation when ever he wanted it.
Mike grinned. "Yes sir! Thank you, Sir!"
Xander winced, "Well, anyway, apologize to your wife for me again. Brad set the alarm off because a present from that guy on the floor had some unexpected, unpleasant side effects. On the bright side, it did cure my sight problem."
Mike nodded. "And that doesn't seem strange to you?"
The dark haired carpenter shrugged. "It's the price of growing up on the Hellmouth. A magical device that fixes your vision is pretty much par for the course, these days."
The ex-soldier laughed softly. "Rather you than me. I'm having enough trouble with Vampires and Demons."
Xander looked at him seriously. "Don't worry about it. As soon as I arrange some proper back up, we will start hunting them. You'll quickly find that they can die like everything else - you might just need a bigger gun."
Mike nodded, and grinned. The kid was a natural leader. He looked after his troops, knew everyone by name, was unwilling to send anyone some place he hadn't been before, and was fantastic at making sure everyone had a high morale and was well motivated. When you factored
in the pay, the health benefits and the company housing, working for XTech was the best job in the world for someone who wanted to do something productive and still get an adrenaline rush.
Xander grinned, and said goodbye, leaving a very happy Mike to reap the benefits of Xander's generosity.
"Newly-weds," he smirked to himself as he walked away.
Back in his apartment, he turned the lights down a little and sat down on the couch close to Dawn.
He smiled at her and leant back, looking at the ceiling, marveling at how normal things looked again.
It was extremely comfortable for both of them, as they sat and looked out the window at the Sunnydale nightscape. Xander used a remote to start some music playing softly in the background. Dawn's face had a slightly glow from the laptop on her legs.
In front of them, was an awe inspiring view of Sunnydale. They looked out at the night lights illuminating the sky. There was a quiet kind of peace that neither of them had really experienced before.
"You remember that I mentioned the security force?" Xander spoke to the ceiling more than to Dawn, his eyes hooded.
"Yes?" she said softly, not wanting to break the mood.
It was dark and intimate, slightly unreal. It was as though the rest of the world existed a million miles away, and that the two of them were sitting above it all, looking down on humanity with all its mistakes and foibles, but seeing only the peace and perfection.
"The company is called XTech, it's owned by PJH, and I run it."
Dawn smiled warmly at him; her expression of pride caused a slight flush of pleasure inside him.
"We're getting close to the stage where we can stop reacting, and start acting. We're limited to several small response fleets at the moment, but I really want us out there hunting Vampires and Demons. You can't win a war by waiting for the enemy; you have to take the fight to them. The problem is that we're very reliant on technology, and I'd like some backup available for us for when things go wrong. 'Cause they will, sooner or later. Mr Murphy's always waiting on the sidelines."
"What sort of backup?"
"Slayer style back up. I was originally going to ask Buffy to help, but I don't think she'd take orders from me. And with Spike being the leech he is, I will not have him involved in any of my companies."
"What are you thinking of doing then?" Dawn had a slight sinking feeling in her stomach.
"I'd like to get Faith involved."
Dawn's eyebrows shot up, and it was only with a great deal of hard-fought restraint that she managed to ask her next question in a normal tone of voice. "So you think she will help?"
The last thing she needed was the gorgeous, sexy, and *experienced* Faith honing in on her future territory. As soon as Faith saw what had become of Xander, and how successful he was now, she would definitely try and get back with him, Dawn thought, carefully keeping her face neutral. The skank already had a history with Xander, and the teenager could remember that, at times, she had made the enthusiastic Anya look like a shy, demure nun.
"Faith turned herself in to the police last year. She confessed to everything and after some plea bargaining, was sent to jail for a year. They had no evidence of her killing Alan Finch, so they just got her on a couple of minor assault charges. She's working with Angel at the moment, and I think she would be better here."
"What about your relationship with her?" Dawn asked, feeling that his next words could shatter her into a million tiny pieces.
Xander shifted slightly, bringing her feet onto his lap as he faced her. It was a totally unconscious gesture for him, but was certainly noted and appreciated by the long-haired green-eyed girl watching him.
It was times like this that he really appreciated the small changes Dawn had made in his life this past week. He'd never had someone he could just sit down and talk to. Not since Jessie died, anyway.
His life since then had been a massive roller coaster ride of highs and lows. His relationships had all ended badly, and he was determined not to make the same mistakes again. Anya had been a wonderful girl, but her unique outlook, that of a being who had spent thousands of years torturing men in revenge, meant that her views were often brutal. Combined with her attitude towards sex, meant that a typical conversation with her was normally along the lines of "Let's have sex," and
"Ok."
There was something special about just sitting with someone, at the end of the day, discussing problems in a rational matter, not internalizing them. It made them seem less of a challenge, perhaps proving the only adage that 'a problem shared was a problem halved.'
Dawn seemed to understand what he was going through. She never judged, she just listened and offered the best advice she could. It was more proof than ever before that she had grown up.
Reluctantly, he said, "I think I made one of the biggest mistakes in my life by sleeping with her. Don't get me wrong, she wanted it, and I wanted it, too, but looking back, I don't think it was what Faith needed."
"What do you mean?" Dawn prompted softly.
"By sleeping with her, I became just another statistic for her, another person who was friendly with her, then used her. I think I reinforced her self image that she was only good for two things: Fighting and Fucking.
"She was already running scared when she got here, and instead of helping her deal, we tried to turn her into another Buffy. I tried to help, but couldn't get through. Then by sleeping with her, I lost the chance to do anymore for her.
"From a personal perspective, I think that trying to start another relationship with her would be a massive step backwards for me. It's almost impossible to try and help someone turn their life around when you are having sex with them. It would be very hypocritical to talk about having stability when you're having wild monkey sex and hanging from the ceiling. I'm not what she needs in that way, and she's definitely not what I need in a partner.
"She needs me to be her brother, her friend and her security blanket. She needs me to get her to a psychologist and help her deal with her issues. She's changed a bit, but not all that much. I talked to Angel last week and he told me a lot about her. He thinks that I could probably reach her.
"I wrote to her while she was in prison, and she wrote back, and we managed to become friends, I think. Now it's time for me to prove that friendship and help her with whatever she wants to be."
Dawn was shocked at what she had just heard, and she quickly abandoned Faith as a subject, to try and deal with something a lot more bizarre.
"You called him Angel! You didn't call him 'Deadboy' and you phoned him last week? What's going on? Last time we checked, you couldn't stand him!"
Xander smiled slightly. "Yeah. It's Spike's fault really." He said, trailing off into silence.
"You want to explain that a little?"
"Spike got his soul back, right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you remember what happened the first time we saw Angel get his soul back, after one of his trips to the dark side?"
"He broke down in tears, spent several weeks brooding and walked around like he had the weight of the world hanging on his shoulders."
Xander nodded. "Exactly. I've done a bit of research on this. When a vampire takes over, the original owner of the body is shunted out and left to fend for itself. The demon has full control. So, when Angel regained control over his body, he felt guilt for something that, technically, he hadn't done. He has spent all these years trying to earn redemption for something that wasn't his fault. He was as much a victim as the people who died.
"When Spike got his soul back, there was no real noticeable difference. No big breakdown, no wailing and brooding about the thousands of lives he had taken, just a 'Oh well, never mind' attitude. I think that says a lot about the personalities involved, and it made me realize that maybe I was wrong about Angel.
"So, I went up to see him around 6 months ago. We sat down and talked, in his office, for most of the night. We admitted that a lot of our problems were that we were jealous of each other, especially over Buffy.
"I was jealous because he had her love, he was jealous because I could be there during the day, and I had her friendship. As we've both moved on, it meant that we no longer had that between us. I'm not saying that we are close friends, but we can be in the same room as each other without both of us wanting to stake the other.
"To be honest, I wish your sister was back with him. At least he wanted what was best for Buffy, and had the moral fortitude to realize that her future did not include him. Spike is a parasite. He wants his own desires, regardless of the cost to her.
"Anyway, he gave me a tour of the Hyperion, the hotel he's based in. It's actually quite a nice place, if you ignore the years of neglect. So we decided to do a deal. I'd bring the construction and project management skills, he'd bring the property. I checked it over with my bosses, and we now own half the hotel. I've got a couple of PJH crews over there at the moment, redoing the whole place. We hope to open it next year, and we should make a nice profit."
Dawn nodded slowly; it was a lot to take in. The idea of Xander and Angel working together in a purely business deal was almost shocking. Still, it showed once more that people changed.
Moving the subject back to the dark haired Slayer, she asked, "What are you planning for Faith?"
"That's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. I'm going to offer her a consultancy based job with XTech, where she'll be involved in training and operations. I'm also going to offer to let her move in here, to start with. I really don't think she should be living alone. What do you think about that?"
Dawn looked a little confused. "It's your apartment, Xan."
Xander smiled at her. "But you're living here, Dawn. It's your home now, too. You have just as much say in this as I do."
His statement was met with a smile that blew him away. He found himself staring at it for a lot longer than would be considered polite.
Her reply was a lot easier to make, now that she was sure that he wouldn't be considering a relationship with the Slayer. "Of course, she should move in."
Xander smiled proudly at her, and the conversation moved on to other things. It was a night that neither wanted to end.
In New York, a dark haired girl carefully reread the email on the screen in front of her.
"To: Willow <willow[at]wiccanwitches.org>
From: Kennedy <richlesbogirl[at]hotmail.com>
Subject: Future
Willow,
Hey, how's it going?
Well, New York is a blast; we've been running Giles ragged. He pretends not to like it, but he's been having fun really.
Look, I don't know how to put this, so I'll just come out and say it, 'k?
I've had a lot of time to think while I've been here. I had a long talk with Giles, and he agreed that it is very unlikely that I will ever be a Slayer. With the First dead, there's no real reason why
Buffy can't have a long life, and even if she does die, there is still Faith.
I'm afraid I don't know who I am anymore. All this fighting and everything kinda put me on a path I didn't want to go down.
When I came to Sunnydale, you were everything I could ever want. Intelligent, beautiful, powerful and openly gay. You even had friends who knew you were gay and accepted you, who loved you for who you were. It was an exotic combination, and I fell for you, hard.
We had a lot of fun together, and you were as loving at night, as you were during the day.
I'm sorry, Willow, but I'm just not ready for a full time relationship. You need someone willing to settle down with you, and I'm not that person. I need to find out who I am before I can do anything else. I thought I was gay, but being here, well, I started to look at Men, and saw a couple that interested me. It's not fair on you if I stay, and it's not fair on me.
I've called my Dad, and I'm going to go home. I'm going to go back to High School, and try and get on with the rest of my life.
I'm sorry for doing this through email, but I know if I see you again, I'll give in, and that's something I just can't afford to now.
I'm sorry.
Love,
Kennedy."
The mouse slowly moved across the screen, hovering over the send button. A hard click sent the email rushing through cyberspace, to a POP3 box on the other side of America.
"Buffy, we're out of coffee," Willow shouted up the stairs.
"Take some cash from the jar and go get some."
"The jar's empty."
"What?" The blonde Slayer suddenly appeared, dressed only in a towel.
Willow held up the brown ceramic jar. "Jar. Empty."
Buffy looked surprised. "The jar's never empty. Spike must have forgotten to fill it up. Wait a minute."
The Slayer trotted back to her room.
"Spike," she whispered, nuzzling into his chest.
"Whassa ou want?" he mumbled. There was still a hint of daylight outside and he had no wish to see it.
"The jar's empty. We need coffee."
Spike groaned, "Tell Xander to put my share in for me." The tired vampire rolled over, trying to get back to sleep.
It was a very confused blonde who went back down to the kitchen, a few minutes later, after taking the time to throw on a robe.
"Willow, did you ever put any money in the jar?" she asked her friend.
The red-head shook her head and paled as her agile mind started to put things together. "Xander told me he'd put my share in for me, that I needed the spare money for college. You?"
Buffy slumped into a chair. "Xander told me that he'd take care of my share, since I needed to concentrate on beating the First Evil."
The jar sat forlornly on the kitchen table, next to the faxed letter from the bank, stating that the mortgage was paid in full.
"Buffy," Willow said quietly. "That jar has been keeping us alive for the past four or five months. With Giles unable to access the Council's bank accounts and looking after the kids, we used it for everything. I always thought that everyone else put money in as well. I'm betting that Xander took care of Giles' share as well."
Buffy frowned in thought, "Let me get Spike. We need to discuss this."
She jogged upstairs again, and shortly afterward Willow could hear the protests as the Vampire was dragged out of bed. She looked around the kitchen, and reached over and grabbed the pile of mail on the counter top.
"Junk, bill, junk, bill, bill, junk," she mumbled as she sorted the letters into two piles. Throwing the junk mail into the trash bin, she tried to ignore the giggling she could hear from upstairs.
She opened each of the bills and placed them on the table.
"Ok," Spike bounded into the room; obviously, the giggling had been something enjoyable for him. "What's the problem?"
Willow sighed to herself. "Jar. Empty. We have bills that need paying and a rather large shortage of anything to pay them with."
Spike slumped down on to the chair, watching as Buffy joined them. "What happened to your share of the money?" he inquired, looking curiously at the witch.
"Same as you," Willow snapped. "Xander put it in for me."
"You too?" The peroxide blonde asked the Slayer.
Buffy nodded. "And we think he put in Giles' share as well."
Spike scowled, "You're telling me that Droopy was bankrolling us?"
His statement was met with twin nods.
"Wonderful." Spike was not happy; this was going to set back his plans. A lot.
"We're going to need to split the bills three ways," Willow said, trying to move forwards. "We've got Gas, Electric and Telephone bills here that all need paying."
Buffy smiled, a slightly twisted expression without any humor. "I'm guessing that leaving the bills on the counter, so that they disappear like they used to won't be an option?"
"Xander paid the bills as well?" Willow groaned.
"Ok, we can handle this," Spike pronounced. He picked up the bills. "Ok, we've got around $100 worth here; do we get any other bills?"
Buffy and Willow looked blank. "No idea."
Spike rolled his eyes and walked over to a drawer; he opened it and pulled out a large wad of paper. "The whelp put everything here. We'll just go through it and get everything for the last month."
They sat together, separating the invoices, all of which had been paid either by check or by debit from Xander's account. The two women were disappointed when they saw that the water bill had been paid by debit in the past, but had been stopped this month. Obviously, Xander had meant it when he had said they were no longer friends.
"How come Angel always had money?" Willow asked Spike, out of the blue.
Spike looked embarrassed, as he rather sheepishly explained. "He was always into that sort of stuff, liked to be in control of everything. He looked after the money when we were together. I didn't care as long as I had my fags. I used to steal anything else I needed."
"What about when you were at the crypt? You had electricity there."
"I was stealing it from the church; I had a cable run down there."
"Ok," Buffy interrupted, looking at the total on the calculator in front of her. "At the moment, we need around two hundred each to carry on as we have been. If we get rid of the Cable TV and economize a little on the food, we can get that down to one-fifty."
No one felt the need to state how difficult it would have been if they had the mortgage to pay as well. It was rapidly becoming obvious just how significant a role Xander had played in their lives, and just how oblivious they had been to the fact.
Willow did a couple of calculations in her head. With the refund she had gotten from the college for moving off campus, she could just about handle that amount.
"That's fine by me," she said. "I'm going to go get some coffee."
"K," Buffy said, watching her red-headed friend leave.
"How are we going to find three hundred a month?" Buffy looked at her fiancé, clearly worried.
"I'm not sure," he replied. This really put a hitch in his plan to get rid of Willow; at the moment, they needed her.
Coffee in hand, Willow sat at her computer. She brought up a web browser and did a quick DNS lookup for the DMV computer. Getting the IP address, she fired up a program she hadn't used in ages and waited expectantly.
Only it didn't work.
She frowned, and did a trace route to the computer she was trying to get into. She counted down the hops, the computers the message passed on from her source computer to the destination computer, and finally saw the reason why. A new firewall had been installed, and she didn't have a clue how to bypass it.
She contemplated nipping into a chat room and asking for help, but couldn't face it. The great W!cked!W!sp reduced to being a script kiddie? Not a chance! She hadn't realized how out of date she had become, having concentrated so much on her magic these past four years. Without doing some in depth analysis, using packet sniffing, she couldn't even use magic to help her bypass the sophisticated firewall.
Out of curiosity, she tried the local hospital, and was relieved to find a back door she had programmed years ago was still functioning. It was the first time she had ever been grateful that the hospitals were under-funded and relatively technologically backward.
With a happy smile, and a quick sip of the hot coffee, she browsed through the records, bringing up Xander's medical file.
The list of incidents was long, a tribute to how long he had been a Scooby. Reaching the last one, she brought it up, and started to read. Half way down, she spit her coffee over the screen.
Suddenly incredibly pale, the red headed witch grabbed a tissue and slowly wiped the screen clean. She took a deep breath, and read it again, then re-read it a third time, before collapsing back in the chair.
With the medical terminology deciphered, she realized that Xander had lost an eye. That Spike's throwing her best-friend-since-childhood across the room had crippled him for life.
No wonder Xander had been so cold to them.
A small box appeared on the center of her screen. "You have new mail."
Wondering what else could go wrong, she opened her mail client and smiled. It was from Kennedy.
Later that night, Spike poked his head around Willow's door. He could hear her in the bathroom; it sounded like the stupid bint was crying over something. He wandered over to her computer and looked at the screen. Unable to believe his luck, he saw Xander's new address. He quickly memorized it and left the room silently, creeping downstairs.
Once down in the kitchen, he picked up the phone and dialed a number from memory. "It's me," he whispered. "I've got Xander's new address."
In another part of town, a tall black haired woman laughed to herself. It was time to remove the Carpenter from any future consideration.
"You," she pointed to one of the vampires. "Take a group over to this address, and then force the guard to let you in. Kill everyone you find except for the Key."
"Can we hurt her?"
"Of course. Just don't kill her. Or you'll wish you had truly died all those years ago," she smiled at her minions, a sight that most of them shiver with fear.
The vampire she had designated smiled and bowed. This was going to be a good night.
Louie McMaster had been a vampire for nearly a century now. In that time, he had both ruled and served. It had taken him nearly a quarter of his unlife to realize that he was not destined for leadership, he just didn't have what it takes. From that moment on he'd attached himself to those who could, and served them loyally. Well, at least as loyally as any vampire could server another.
He looked around him, as he had his companions arrived at the address they had been given. Fourteen other vampires were looking as eager as he was.
"Charge," he yelled, running forwards.
The automatic doors of Xander's apartment building parted as they ran in.
A few seconds before the vampires entered, a warning light went off on Brad's desk. He jumped to his feet, pulling out his gun and swapping the standard ammunition clip for one with the blessed bullets their tech division had developed. A flick of his fingers turned on the video cameras, piping a feed straight back to XTech HQ. A calm smile appeared on his face; it looked like he finally was getting his wish.
"Stop!" he yelled forcefully.
Surprised, the vampires actually obeyed him, skidding to a halt.
"This is your first and only warning. If you do not turn around and leave, I will activate the defenses."
Louie laughed. He'd see just how brave this guard was, when his stomach was being spread over his own desk.
"Kill him!"
The vampires howled in pleasure, and jumped towards Brad. He calmly flicked another switch and sat back to watch the show.
The first time that Louie realized something had gone amiss was when the Vampires bounced off an invisible barrier and started to jump around, as their feet started to smoke.
Behind him, steel shutters slammed down to the floor over the entrance, trapping them inside the lobby.
Small nozzles appeared from recesses in the ceiling and started to spray water. Agonized screams followed from his team, shouts of pain that he realized he was participating in, as the holy water started to burn his skin.
In front of them, wall panels slid open, revealing rectangular panels, with bulbs in them. They started to hum as they warmed up, putting out intense ultra violet light, enough to give a human a sun-tan in minutes. It was more than enough to start to burn the vampires.
Louie didn't even feel the floor underneath him suddenly drop open; he was already dead (again) by the time his body landed on the densely packed forest of ultra sharp stakes beneath.
Brad turned off the defenses and walked to the edge of the pit. He could see a small robot scoot around the bottom, sweeping up the ashes for analysis later. The floor swung back into place, the water having drained off, and was, once again, pristine.
With a huge grin, the ex-soldier walked back to his desk, whistling. "Sometimes, it's good to be me."
He contemplated letting Xander know what had just happened, but figured the boss could find out in the morning.
Reluctantly, the witch got out of the shower, and wrapped a towel around herself. She walked back to her room and started to dry herself methodically. She pulled on an old t-shirt and sat in front of the mirror.
"Who are you?" she asked softly, looking at her reflection.
Everything had been so simple, five years ago. She'd been a shy computer nerd, completely in love, or so she thought, with her best friend. She had spent her days hanging around with Xander and Jessie, secure in the fact that they both loved her as a sister.
Then Buffy had arrived, and everything changed.
Over the years, she'd lost her friendship with Xander. Sure, they'd experimented with kissage, but when they had been discovered, she'd made a conscious decision to pull away from him, so she wouldn't be tempted again.
It had been easier when they went to college for the first few years; with Xander being off campus, it became second nature to forget him, to leave him out. "It's for his own good," had been their combined mantra.
It had been a lie; they just didn't want stupid Xander with his strange fashion sense and weird humor around the sophisticated crowd they wanted to hang with.
Even when he had been engaged to Anya, they had continued to ignore him, only calling him when he could be useful for fixing things.
Yet, he had stopped her from destroying the world. When Tara had died, Buffy, Giles, Dawn - hell, even Anya had all tried to console her, trying to get her to accept her grief. It had been Xander who had helped her get past it, to start to move it on. Despite how badly he had been treated, he had still been there for her. Buffy had tried, but the clumsy 'I know your hurting' routine had rung sour, especially when everyone knew that she had been out frolicking with Spike all the time she wasn't with them.
Xander had always been there for her. It was just another facet of her life. She was red headed, she was Jewish, she was Wicca, Xander would be there for her.
But now he wasn't.
Now, he lived in a nice apartment, judging by his address, on the other side of town. Now, he was looking after Dawn. Now, he was living with the fact that he would only have one eye for the rest of his life.
Kennedy, the dark haired Slayer-in-Training. She had been the first girl Willow had been interested in, after Tara. It had been fun to be chased by the younger girl. She'd felt wanted again, and had started to fall in love with the younger girl.
She had been so upset when Xander had suggested that she back off a little. Didn't he know how wonderful it was to wake up with someone again? To have someone you could talk to again?
He probably did, she admitted to herself. Slowly, her hand went up to her head and she started to comb her hair, losing herself in the repetitive task.
Despite knowing that Xander was right, she'd sided with Buffy, as she had so many times over the year. When did she become such a lap dog? What had happened to Feisty Willow, the cute redhead with the famous Resolve Face?
Yet again, she'd turned away from the one person who would always be there for her, and chosen someone else.
Yet again, someone else had left her.
Only this time, he had left as well.
She was alone.
"You ok?" Buffy asked softly from the door.
Willow shook her head, still watching herself in the mirror. "Kennedy has left me."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Buffy said quietly, moving forward to hug her friend.
"Silly Cow doesn't know what she is missing out on," Spike said, trying to act supportive from his perch outside the bedroom door.
Willow felt the magic surge inside her, and the urge to unleash it at the Vampire was immense. Only Buffy's hug saved the bloodsucker from being fried from the inside out.
Willow buried her face in Buffy's shoulder. Insults aimed at Kennedy was the last thing she needed right now. Sure, Spike was trying to help, but doing it in such an insensitive manner actually made it worse.
Seeing how late it was, Willow said, "I'm going to go to sleep. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Ok," Buffy said gently, walking out and taking Spike's hand. "Sleep well."
Willow lay on the bed, idly playing with the t-shirt she was wearing. Xander had given it to her a few years ago, after she had admired it. For the longest time it had smelt of him, and wearing it still gave her comfort.
Xander hated her; she'd trodden on him one time too many.
That thought actually terrified her. He'd been the one constant throughout the changes in her life and, now, he was no longer there. Realizing that Kennedy was also gone somehow paled in comparison.
She'd never be able to look into Xander's eyes again. He'd always have one missing, and now, she was scared of finding out what the remaining one would tell her. Would the eye that had always laughed with her, always sparkled at her, be dead?
If only she hadn't chosen a young girl she had known for just six months over her lifelong friend.
If only she could turn back time.
If only it had never happened.
Then everything would be fine.
She could work at making Xander love her again.
She'd be safe and protected once more.
Her rock would be back.
She could love him like she used to, as her brother, and treat him properly.
Xander and Willow. Friends forever.
If only she could change her decision.
If only she had supported him.
If only.
Xander closed his eyes and lent back, letting the stream of water hit him firmly in the face. Four days of having to closely watch himself, to ensure that his bandage stayed dry had been frustrating.
With his hair clean, he whistled as he dried himself, then dressed in some khakis and a casual deep blue shirt Dawn had picked out for him the day they had gone shopping. Brown loafers completed his outfit. While he wasn't due back at the office till Monday, he wanted to get in today and make a start on the paperwork.
He joined Dawn in the kitchen, and quickly put together some scrambled eggs on toast for them. Dawn stood and made him a coffee as he worked, neither minding the comfortable silence.
"I'm going to drop you off this morning," Xander eventually said, as they sat at the kitchen table and ate. "I want go get into the office, 'cause I'm probably going to have a foot-high pile of paperwork to look through."
Dawn smiled at him. "Can I drive?" Her grin was clearly teasing him.
He just laughed at her, then reached into his pocket and flipped a card across the table at her.
"What's this?" she asked, picking it up and looking at it curiously.
"Debit card," Xander replied with a grin.
"Why?" Dawn watched him closely; she definitely hadn't expected this.
"There is going to be times when you need money, when we need some shopping and I can't do it. There's also the chance that something Sunnydale-ish will happen, and I'd rather you were not stranded any where. The money comes straight from my account."
Dawn was shocked. A couple of weeks ago, being handed this would have been like being given the keys to Fort Knox, and she would have gone on a mega shopping spree. Not now. She promised herself to only use it in emergencies. He'd already given her all the clothes she could ever want, and the apartment, while sparsely decorated, had everything she could need.
"Thank you," she said simply. As he had the night before, Xander found himself getting lost in her smile.
Ian walked into the front office of XTech bright and early and smiled. "Morning Gladys."
"Morning, Ian," the receptionist smiled at him. "You might want to pop into the back; the boys are really excited about something."
Ian grinned and walked to the door. He paused and held up his hand as a simultaneous retinal, palm, and infra red scan verified both his identity and that he was alive, and the door opened.
"Ian," Andrew called him over excitedly. "You have to see this! We had a bunch of Vampires try out the Fortress last night."
Ian's eyebrows shot up. "No way!" he challenged him.
Quick as a flash, he joined the group of technicians and XTech guards gathered in front of the large monitor.
The screen replayed the action, repeating it from many different angles. "Fifteen vampires wiped out in less than seven seconds." Andrew stated, sounding awed.
Ian grinned. He had helped to install some of the defenses and knowing they worked so well was a huge satisfaction for him.
Leaving the technicians to analyze the different data streams, Andrew and Ian wandered off, idly checking out some of the new weapons the lab boys and girls were working on.
"Andrew, can you run a background check on someone for me?" Michael requested as he approached the two of them, backed up by Rob and Joe, the other two guards from the night before.
"Sure, who?"
"The long-haired brunette with green eyes from the photos in Xander's office."
"Dawn?" Ian asked, getting in just before Andrew could. "Why?"
"We think she's interested in the boss, and we just want to make sure she's on the level."
"No, I won't run a check on her," Andrew stated firmly. "It's completely unnecessary. Dawn is the sister of the Slayer, and is *completely* trustworthy," he emphasized. "Xander's known her for seven years."
"I agree," Ian continued. "Dawn is one of the nicest people I've ever met."
He moved to the table and sat down on the edge, looking at the four of them. "Monday morning, at school, I started to hear rumors that Dawn had a new rich boyfriend, and was trying to become the new Queen of Sunnydale high."
Andrew snorted. "Dawn wouldn't want that," he commented. "She wouldn't be interested in anything like that!"
"I know that, now," Ian agreed. "But I didn't at the time. She had changed, though; she was looking a lot older than she had a few days before, and had this bright, friendly smile on her face. Anyway, Porsche - Molly and Kyle's niece - who was the current Bitch Queen - accused Dawn of sleeping with her boyfriend for the new clothes."
Ian's smile suddenly grew. "Dawn took a step forward and knocked Porsche on her ass with just one punch. Then, she looked down at her and accused her of giving blowjobs to the entire football team and walked off."
The four of them laughed, smiling. "Wish I could have seen that!" Andrew grinned.
"Anyway, on Tuesday," Ian continued, "I went up and talked to Dawn for the first time. She knew who I was and wasn't scared of me in the least. She even offered her hand for me to shake."
The three guards looked slightly impressed. Despite not yet being eighteen, Ian had a presence, when he got in a mood, which easily scared people. It was a determination that he would take down his opponent, no matter what the cost to himself. A feeling that, if you were standing in his way, you were going down, even if it killed him in the process.
"That afternoon, Adam - my cousin - came up to me and asked for some backup. He'd heard that Porsche, with her boyfriend Lance, were planning on jumping Dawn. Well, I wasn't going to let a friend of Xander's down, so I went with him.
"They talked for a bit, I taunted them, and then I told them very firmly that Dawn's was under my protection. Lance ignored me and tried to hit me." Ian shook his head, trying to keep his laughter down. "I know he thought he was being fast, but I had time to make a coffee before his punch would have landed."
His audience laughed again, amused. This was the first time the intense young man had opened up like this, and they were surprised to find that they actually enjoyed seeing this side him. They had no idea that Dawn's influence was already showing.
"Anyway, I knocked him down and they all surrendered. The school's a much nicer place now. Dawn's the Queen, but doesn't act like it. No one is scared any more, it's just a load of kids getting on together and trying to learn.
"Dawn and Xander are not together. Xander doesn't think of her that way, yet. I am positive that she will not hurt him, and is not trying anything. She couldn't," he finished his story and sat back.
The three guards nodded slowly, deciding that with two people that Xander trusted so much endorsing her, they could accept it.
"But," Ian's grin turned a little evil, "I do think we should run a book on when Dawn gets him to changes his mind."
The guard's eyes lit up, and seconds later, money was being placed on the table. Andrew agreed to run it, and began taking the bets. By the end of the day, every single member of XTech - apart from Xander - was taking part, as well as some people who weren't officially affiliated with the security company.
Unaware of this, Xander walked into the XTech building, and greeted Gladys.
He passed through the same security, and walked into the large open plan office space. Surprised at seeing the youth so early in the morning, he turned to Ian. "Aren't you going to be late for school?"
Ian moved towards Xander, distracting him, while Andrew tidied away the cash and the other guards and technicians made themselves scarce. He checked his watch and swore. "Sorry, last track of time."
Xander grinned; he reached over and opened a locked key press. "Here, take a company car. Drop it back later."
"Thanks, X-Man," Ian said, grinning at his future boss.
"Get." Xander pointed to the door.
Ian threw a cheerful salute and dashed out, ignoring Xander's groan.
Xander walked over to the guards still gathered around the monitor. "Brad, aren't you off duty this morning?"
Brad turned and grinned, "Didn't want to miss your reaction. Watch this, boss. A bunch of tangos attacked the building last night."
"The defenses worked?" Xander asked, suddenly excited.
"Just watch."
They played the tape in real time.
"Wow," Xander said, extremely impressed after he had seen the teamp. "Wish this had been available a few years ago."
"It will be standard installation now for all PJH buildings," Andrew said, entering the conversation.
"How does it work?" Dean, a relatively new member asked from the back.
Xander looked at his watch. "Ok, people, we'll do a full debrief in the mission room in twenty minutes."
Murmurs of agreement followed his statement as people dispersed. "Andrew, can you set the tape up in there?"
"Sure, Xander," he smiled.
"Do you have classes this morning?"
"Nope, free till lunch."
"Good, you can help me up front, then."
Andrew suddenly looked nervous. "I'm not good in front of a crowd, Xander."
Xander clapped him on the back. "You'll be fine, buddy. I'll be right there next to you. All these people know you're the man behind the defenses we're showing off. It's only fair that you get the credit as well. Just talk to them like you do to me."
As Xander walked to his office, Andrew walked into the debriefing room. He could hardly believe how much his life had changed since Xander had decided that he was worthy of a second chance. As much as he regretted his actions with Warren, he was secretly glad it had happened, because it meant he was now a trusted member of XTech. He was getting great grades at college, he had a bright future and he was helping people. Andrew was yet another person whose loyalty to Xander bordered on the fanatical.
"Ok, people." Xander easily brought the room to attention. "Last night, fifteen tangos attacked the Fortress. This video will show what happened."
The lights dimmed and the curtains automatically shut as the projector kicked into life. Twenty seconds later, it was over.
"I'm going to ask Andrew now describe what happened. He's the team leader responsible for the technology," Xander announced to the assembled troops.
The warm applause that greeted Andrew gave him the courage he was lacking.
"At exactly 02:15:47 hours this morning, XTech security cameras picked up multiple heatless targets, moving rapidly towards the entrance. The alarm activated, alerting the current guard, Brad Hooper," Andrew announced, as the projector once again begin the records of the attack.
"Following standard procedure, Brad turned on the cameras and activated the defenses in 'Passive Mode'."
The video beside then him switched to a different angle, the small controller in Andrew's hand sending the commands to the computer under the screen next to him.
"After offering a warning, Brad then set the defenses to 'Attack Mode' and the Vampires attacked.
"As you can see, the standard XTech 'Passive Protection' program is extremely effective. The barrier the tangos are hitting, here, is the residential border of the property," Andrew pointed out, as he paused the projector momentarily. "By having an open, non-residential foyer, we get an extremely effective killing ground. The steel shutters prevent any hostile force from both escaping, and calling reinforcements.
"The blessed floor with the inlaid crosses also seems to be reasonably effective, as the vampires' feet are starting to smoke.
"Now, the aggressive defenses kick in. The multi-directional nozzles are hooked up to standard XTech security cameras and are programmed to direct the spray at moving targets that lack a higher than ambient temperature heat source. Although it looks like we are spraying acid, it is purely holy water. We have designed this system to be as safe to non-hostiles as possible.
"The second stage defense, kicking in, now, is the Ultra-Violet light sources. Vampires can not face sunlight, and we believed that it was UV rays that caused the break down in the enemy's molecular structure. I won't go into great detail here, but if anyone is curious, they can ask me for details after the debriefing is finished.
"Now that we know that the UV lamps work, we will see if we can get a power increase. At the moment, they are enough to cause the Vampires to start to smoke, so, if we pump up the juice, there is no reason why it can't be instantly fatal. The effect on a human would probably be an instant sun burn, but I'd rather have peeling skin than be a Happy Meal on legs."
Andrew's attempt at a joke was met with appreciative laughter.
"Finally, the heat sensors also made a check for any living being present among the vampires. Finding none, stage three is activated, and the floor dropped away. This had the added bonus of sluicing all the water away, cleaning the floor. All the remaining vampires fell, to be impaled on the spikes below. Their ashes were collected and returned here for study."
Enthusiastic applause rang out as Andrew finished his presentation. XTech's recruitment drive had continued in Xander's absence, and they were now nearing eighty members, of which it was a pretty even split between technicians and guards. Everyone was here, except those on actual guard duty.
"Thank you, Andrew." Xander took over, as the lights came on.
"Any questions?"
"Can I have a copy?" A voice from the back yelled.
Xander looked at Andrew, who shrugged. "Sure, I'll stick it on CD for anyone who wants a copy."
"Excellent." Xander paused, and looked around the room. "What we have seen here is proof that we will soon be ready to take the war to the vampires and demons. The first stage is nearing completion. We have seven secure bases located around Sunnydale, all equipped with the defenses you've just seen so effectively demonstrated. The new weapons are almost ready for field testing, and as soon as I can arrange for some non-technical back up, we *will* start to take the fight the enemy."
Loud cheers met his final statement. For far too long the people living here had fought an ongoing campaign, winning small battles but ultimately losing the war. Now, finally, they had a chance to be the predators, to hunt the vampires and demons who regarded Sunnydale as some truck stop on the way from Hell to Earth.
Xander let them cheer for a few minutes, then dismissed them. He walked out of the conference room and into his office. He sat at his desk and picked up the phone; he had a few things he needed to arrange.
Lance Michaels was most definitely having a bad week. Monday morning, everything had been great in his world. He was the school King, was dating the Queen, and had almost the entire student population scared of him. Walking down the corridor, he had always felt a wonderful feeling of power. With his cronies, he laughed cruelly as people got out of his way, and gloried how the geeks would try and hide from him.
Now he was ignored, forced to walk like everyone else and he hated it. During the lunch break, he walked down one of the long corridors and finally spotted someone he could take his frustration out on. The guy's name was Darren, Daryl or something like that. He didn't really care; the guy was a total geek, more interested in computers than sports. As such, he was a natural target for the large quarterback.
Lance walked up behind him, shooting a quick glance at the people backing him up. They were all members of the former elite - football players. He wished Porsche was here - she'd enjoy the humiliation he was about to dish out. That damn psycho had scared her badly, though, by mentioning that Dawn was friends with her aunt. Well, he didn't believe it; there was no way a low class girl like Dawn could even meet a high class lady like Miranda.
He kicked out with his left leg, catching Daryl's ankle. He roughly pushed the dweeb against a locker.
"What the hell are you doing?" Daryl spat, the fear he had held the quarterback in had been lessened by the events of the past few days.
"Ooo, the dork's fighting back," one of players tittered.
The lack of fear enraged Lance; he grabbed the smaller boy by the throat and lifted him up against the lockers, lifting his feet from the floor. The boy's eyes seemed to flicker to the right for a second, and he still refused to look scared, despite his position. Lance decided that it was time to start putting himself back on top of the pyramid. He pulled his fist back, ready to knock Daryl into next week.
Only his fist never connected. An absolutely furious Dawn had marched through the crowd that was gathering, grabbed the fist and wrenched it back, hard. You'd think that there should be no way the slim brunette could overpower the huge quarterback, yet she did.
She spun the quarterback around, and, like she had with Porsche, launched a straight right hook to his chin. Unlike with Porsche, however, she didn't hold back this time. Lance's head snapped back, crashing into the locker. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.
With her hands on her hips, Dawn glared at the remaining eight football players, while myriad groups of students quickly began surrounding them, eager to see what was going on.
"Any one else want to start bullying?" The slim brunette demanded, the anger almost literally radiating off her.
Bruce Harper was Lance's best friend, and wasn't going to let this arrogant little bitch get away with knocking out his buddy.
"She can't take the eight of us," he said with a growl. "Get her."
"I warned you."
Three words were all it took to make the players pause in their tracks.
Ian suddenly seemed to materialize next to Dawn, a scary grin on his face.
"You can't take all of us. We outnumber you eight to two," they heard one of the eight say loudly.
Ian's voice seemed capable of freezing water, as he calmly replied, "Maybe we can, maybe we can't. But I can, and will, break the left leg of the first person who moves."
Dawn suddenly realized what Ian was doing, and was impressed with the subtlety of his approach.
"And I will break the arm of the second person."
The normally warm and happy girl sounded like she was seriously contemplating attacking the players, her voice was so enraged.
Ian's expression didn't change, but was very pleased that the small girl next to him understood basic psychology. "So, what's it going to be? As a group you *might* win, but the leaders *will* have their football careers ended."
He waited while the players looked at each other; no one wanted to be the person to take that first step, or the second person.
Having seen both of their opponents take out Lance with disturbing ease over the past few days, and watching as the Queen and her Knight stood and glared at them, the players had no doubt that they could, and would, follow up their threats with actions.
"Do you want to draw lots?" Ian taunted, unconsciously slipping into a martial arts stance.
One by one, the players backed down. All of them, except Bruce. It was probably the repeated blows to the head from his position on the defensive line, but despite the fact his support had vanished, despite the fact his best friend was still unconscious on the floor a few feet away,. despite the fact that neither Dawn nor Ian showed an ounce of fear, he decided to attack.
He managed three steps forward before Ian intercepted him. It wasn't really a fight, since the term 'fight' implies two participants. There was only one in this incident. An incredibly brutal move, where all of Ian's power was coalesced into a short movement was unleashed, and a second later, Bruce was unconscious, his left femur neatly broken.
"Is there a problem here?" Principal Wood asked, moving through the large crowd that had gathered.
"No, Sir," Dawn smiled at him.
Lance was starting to regain consciousness and sat up.
"We were just having a chat with Lance and Bruce. Lance was just saying how much he'd like to volunteer for the Senior Citizens Villa visits on Monday nights, when he tripped and crashed into Bruce."
"Excellent," the principal said with a smile. "We can always use more volunteers."
He had enjoyed his best-ever PTA meeting of his career last night, during which the parents had spent the time they usually devoted to complaining about the students and the facilities, congratulating him on the changes that happened to the school. A lot of the lower grade students had raved to their parents about how much fun school had become, and how much the atmosphere had improved. A quick check of the attendance record showed that, in only four days, the number of students truant had dropped 64%.
The parents had presumed it was down to changes the Principal had made, which made the normally torrid meeting go extremely smoothly.
Robin Wood had inherited a very useful skill from his mother, a Slayer: the ability to be present in a crowd and remain unnoticed. As a principal, he should have stepped in and stopped this incident, but fighting vampires all his life had given him a different outlook.
The future of the school had been balanced on a knife edge for a second. If Lance had managed to hit the student, it would have cast a small amount of doubt in the minds of the student population about the validity of the new order, possibly allowing the old elite to make a comeback in the future.
With that first threat handled so effectively by Dawn, it had left another possible. Eight students against two. The mood of the crowd had been easy to read, and it boded poorly for the former school 'elite'. If the players had all attacked, it could have quickly turned into a riot, as the other students moved to protect the new Queen. That would have pushed the school too far in the other direction, and he would have had to stamp it down, quickly and harshly. The way that Dawn and Ian handled the affair was perfect.
Ian had started to isolate the leader, and Dawn had followed his lead instantly. As a group, the eight students might have attacked, gaining courage from the actions of each of his comrades. But with their opponents clearly stating that first two individuals to step forward would pay the price of taking the first step, the mob was left leaderless.
For some reason, one that Principal Wood did not understand, Bruce had decided to attack. As he did, Ian had to make a split decision. He could easily have stopped the football player by simply knocking him out. But that would have left another chink in the new regime's image, that their promises would not be kept.
Both of the teenagers had been on a war footing for a significant part of their young lives, so their responses were in line with that. The promise to break the leg of the first person to move had been kept, and anybody who even thought about doing something similar in the future would have to do it *knowing* that the best they could hope for was a broken bone.
Every other member of the school student population was a normal teenager. No one had the authority to order another to make the first move, not when that first move would result in guaranteed injury. No one had the courage to lead, accepting that they would receive such an injury; the rewards were not high enough.
The counter attack had been successfully neutralized before it had begun.
"Lance, I expect to see you after school, at the bus stop, for the next eight weeks. Transport will be provided for you." Wood tried very hard to hide his smile; another volunteer would be gratefully accepted. "Now pick up your friend and get to the nurse."
"I think I heard a crack when Bruce fell, Sir. He might have broken his leg." Dawn's voice was back to normal: warm and caring.
"You two carry Bruce to the nurse's office," Wood pointed to two of the group from earlier, guessing, correctly, that seeing that the Queen and her Knight had done exactly what they promised would inhibit further displays of stupidity.
The principal turned and walked away, merging into the crowd and seeming to vanish. Almost invisible again, he hung around the outer fringes to see what, if anything, else was going to happen.
"I really don't want to see anything like this happen again." Dawn's calm voice floated through the room.
Happy smiles broke out on the students, as they started to disperse. Dawn's legend continued to grow as everyone started to talk about *that* punch. The punch that had knocked out someone who outweighed her by over 120 pounds. Although she didn't know it, a school legend had already started to grow about Dawn and her confrontation with one of the more prominent, and obnoxious, bullies that had marred the school's, relatively, peaceful atmosphere.
"You ok?" Dawn asked Daryl quietly.
He nodded, a stunned expression still on his face. He had hoped that Dawn would rescue him - hell, everyone had hoped that, but he hadn't been expecting *this*, personal recognition and interest from her.
"Good," Dawn lent in and gave him a small peck on the cheek, thinking that he needed a little boost. "If anything like this happens again, let me know."
She walked off, joining Chrissy, and completely oblivious to Daryl falling to his knees behind her.
"Don't do it," Ian advised Daryl as gently as he could.
"Do what?" the geek asked, no longer afraid of the once-time-psycho, who had just helped save him.
"Fall in love with her."
Daryl looked up, blushing.
"I know her boyfriend really well, and Dawn is completely in love with him. If I were you, I'd just try and become friends with her." He too turned and walked away.
Daryl smiled slowly. Friendship would be good.
Dawn placed her tray, full of stuff that the cafeteria staff claimed was food, and sat opposite Chrissy. She looked around, and then suddenly stood and shouted, "Ian! Over here."
Surprised, Ian made his way over to Dawn's table, and looked at her questioningly.
"Take a seat," she gestured airily at the space next to her best friend.
Reluctantly, Ian sat next to the cute blonde.
"No one gets away with helping me out like that without a thank you," Dawn said with a cheerful smile.
Ian smiled shyly. He was fine when it came to dealing with vampires and the ex-soldier and ex-policemen that made up the XTech security force, but like almost all men, he was completely out of his depth when it came to dealing with women.
With a slight shrug, Chrissy smiled at Ian, and accepted his position as a friend and protector of Dawn's. She turned to her best friend and asked. "Where the hell did you learn that?"
"Learn what?" Dawn asked, sipping on a can of coke.
"You both stared down a group that outnumbered you four-to-one."
Unlike Bruce, Chrissy was more than capable of working out the individual odds.
"Basic psychology," Dawn said. "Isolate the leader, make him too scared to move, and no one knows what to do."
"And you two learnt this, where?" the blonde asked, turning to draw Ian into the conversation.
"Xander," Dawn said.
"Dawn's boyfriend," Ian replied.
Both Chrissy and Dawn immediately swung their gazes to look at him.
"You know Xander?" Dawn asked, quietly.
Ian nodded. "Yeah, he helped me out after I was attacked by some 'Gang Members on PCP.' He's offered me a job with XTech after I get out of school."
"Wait a second," Chrissy interrupted. She might be a natural blonde, but she didn't suffer from the stereotypical lack of brains that seemed to afflict so many of her compatriots. "Xander runs XTech? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't find out till last night," Dawn admitted.
"But Xander's been planning and building it for the last nine months," Ian said, the surprise showing on his face.
Dawn blushed, incredibly embarrassed. "Well, we weren't exactly the friends to Xander that he was to us," she admitted reluctantly. "I only found out what he was doing after I moved in with him on Saturday. "
Her blush faded, turning into a look of determination. "I am making it up to him now, though."
Ian smiled at her, his eye twinkling slightly, wondering if he could change increase his bet when he saw Andrew later that afternoon.
"Dawn, what does my Dad do?"
Dawn looked at the blonde, confused. "Policeman?"
Chrissy shook her head, "Not any more. He's now a guard for XTech security."
"No way!"
"What's his name?" Ian asked, wondering if he knew her dad well.
"Brad. Brad Hooper."
Ian smiled, "Good man, your father. Very cool head on his shoulders."
"I met him last night," Dawn admitted, "but I didn't recognize him. He was working the desk at Xander's apartment."
Chrissy looked around nervously, before lowering her voice slightly. "Which means that both of you know what really goes on around here at night?"
Dawn looked at Ian, who nodded. "Yes," she said softly.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Ian remained very still, realizing that he was not really a part of this conversation.
Dawn reached out and took one of the blonde's hands. "It's something that we've always tried to keep quiet, Chris. We've always thought that there would be a massive panic if people knew that vampires and demons really existed.
"My sister, Xander, Willow and Giles have been fighting them together since they were fifteen. They've saved the world more times than I can remember. It's only recently that I've been allowed to help them. The life we live is scary and dark. We face death all the time, fighting beings that are much stronger than humans."
"Didn't you trust me?" Chrissy asked softly.
"I do trust you," Dawn said quietly, "but I didn't want you looking at me like I was insane. You have to admit, if you've never seen a vampire or demon, that it'd be kinda difficult to prove they really exist. You've been my only true friend for two years now. I wouldn't have told you about Xander if I didn't trust you."
Chrissy nodded and smiled slowly, accepting her friend's words. "So what really happened to make you leave home?"
Ian listened in quietly, trying to hide his pleasure at finding out more about his boss and friend.
Deciding that she would explain about the Slayer later, Dawn replied, "She decided that she was going to accept an offer of engagement from a vampire with a soul."
Her dad had told her about how vampires were created, and Chrissy understood the soul concept. What she couldn't understand, though, was the idea of a human even considering marrying one.
Dawn held up her hand to forestall any of the standard comments about marrying the undead. "Xander and Buffy argued over it, and all the years of our abuse of Xander's friendship blew up. She made some bad accusations, and Spike, the vampire, beat Xander up pretty badly. The rest happened just like I told you."
They both turned to Ian. "Your turn," they said in unison, before turning and grinning at each other.
Speaking quietly, so as not to be overheard, Ian took a deep breath.
Ian moodily kicked a stone as he walked along the street. "Damn teachers, always on my case," he mumbled to himself. Detention had kept him at school past dust, meaning he was now walking home, alone, in the dark.
"Look what we have here," a mocking voice suddenly interrupted him.
Ian looked around, his eyes showing his fear, as he searched for the source of the voice. A tall biker, dressed in trademark leather and black t-shirt, smirked down at him.
"What do you want?" Ian asked, backing away slowly.
The vampire grinned. "You, for dinner."
As Ian watched, the biker's face seemed to melt and reform, as it grew ridges and sharp teeth.
Ian did the only thing he could do, he turned and ran. The preternaturally fast vampire caught him easily and held him up by the neck.
"I like it when they fight back. It gets the blood moving and gives them such a delicious taste."
Ian's eyes slowly lost their fear as he looked at the creature holding him. He pulled his leg back, then, as hard as he could, kicked the vampire in the groin.
An expression of pain crossed the biker's face, and he dropped Ian, as he crumbled to his knees, clutching his damaged appendages. "You're gonna pay for that, punk" he snarled. "I was gonna kill ya quick, but I'll make it slow, now."
Ian growled back at him, deciding that if he was going to die, he was definitely taking this bastard with him. Looking around desperately, he picked up a trash can and, like a WWE superstar, smacked the vampire over the head with it, then followed that up with a second pass across its face.
The boy dropped the now seriously dented can and looked around for more weapons. With great relief, he spotted an old metal baseball bat that had fallen out of the can. Thanking the heavens for his luck, he picked it up quickly and turned back to the enraged vampire.
As the vampire approached, the boy's mind flicked to wrestling again, focusing on the sound of Bobby 'The Weasel' Heenan commentating on a fight between Andre the Giant and The Ultimate Warrior.
"You take out the big man's wheels and the car stops," he had said, as the warrior went to work on the giant's knees. The advice firmly in mind, the boy swung the bat as hard as he could, catching the vampire, who had expected a body shot, on the knee.
He heard a loud crack as the vampire's kneecap broke, immediately followed by a loud scream of pain.
In agony, the biker fell to the ground, clutching his knee. Not one to miss an advantage, Ian quickly broke the other knee. As his anger grew, the boy used the bat to its fullest extent, losing his fear as he broke both arms, and then the ribs of the vampire rolling on the floor, who was frantically trying to work out what had gone wrong.
Remembering what he had seen in vampire movies, Ian used the bat against a nearby fence, breaking off a piece of wood. He grabbed and moved back to the vampire, stabbing him in the heart, then watching, surprised but pleased, as the undead creature turned to dust.
Adrenaline flooding through his body, Ian ran home.
"Why are you late?" His mom yelled at him.
"I was attacked by a vampire," Ian said excitedly.
His mother took a step forward and clipped him around the ear. "Don't lie to me, young man. Vampires don't exist. Get up to your room, now."
"But -" Ian tried again.
"No buts," his mother interrupted firmly. "Get to your room."
"I thought I was going insane," Ian admitted. "No one I told believed me. So, I went out hunting for them, with a stake and a cross. I didn't see another vampire for nearly two weeks, and I was so grateful when I finally did, because then I knew I wasn't crazy, that I almost let him kill me, before I remembered to fight back."
Dawn and Chrissy laughed softly, although they were both looking at him with very impressed expressions.
"Anyway," Ian continued, "I lucked out and ran into the guy who runs the Shotokan Karate dojo, down near the Mall. He took me in, and started to teach me to fight.
"Vampires got him a year ago; he took four of them with him as he went, and made sure he couldn't be turned. That was when this whole psycho thing started. I couldn't handle it anymore, not that I was handling it all that well before that. It seemed all I did was fight, whether it was here or at night, it didn't matter.
"Then, I was fighting a couple of them around two months ago, and winning, when Chrissy's dad stumbled across us and gave me a hand."
Ian blushed slightly. "I wasn't too polite, since I felt that he had interrupted my fight. I was so far gone that I was hoping that a Vampire would finally put me out of my misery.
"Anyway, Brad wasn't going to accept that, and bundled me into a car faster than I could blink." The former-psycho grinned at the blonde, "Your dad can be really scary at times," he told her, his eyes full of respect for the older man.
Chrissy nodded, "I know."
"Anyway, we pulled up outside of some building, and Brad marched me in. I was getting a little worried, as I had no idea what was going on. I was left alone in an office for a few minutes, and I was starting to get back my attitude, when this dark haired guy, who couldn't be more than 5 years older than I me, walks in.
"He sat down opposite me, reaches into a cupboard and pulls out a couple of cokes. He leant back, swung his feet up on his desk and said, quietly, 'The first vampire I killed was my best friend since childhood. I can still see his face as I pushed the stake into his heart.'
"His introduction really got to me; I felt that, at last, someone knew something like what I had been feeling. We talked all night, swapping stories about vampires, and he introduced me to the fact that demons exist, too. He talked about the Scooby gang a lot, about your sister, Willow, Giles and you, Dawn. He was so proud of all of you, and everything you had accomplished in the years that he'd known you.
"It wasn't till later, when I started to talk to Brad, that I found that Xander never talked about himself, and what he had done. It had taken some pretty deep investigation by several ex-intelligence people to find out that Xander hadn't been sitting idly on the sidelines during this. He gives the impression that he was always just along for the ride, that everyone else did all the work. He's too damn modest for his own good, but he couldn't hide it from us. He probably doesn't even know that we've investigated him.
"You know why XTech works?" he asked rhetorically, "It's because of him. The story of the Scooby gang is full of powerful witches, Slayers and uber-humans. Yet every single time, when ever the shit was hitting the fan, the man who saved the world was a normal human. He's not even the best fighter in the world. He's just someone who saw that humans were under attack and chose to help stop them.
"It never occurred to him that he could run away, that it wasn't his fight, that it wasn't his manifest destiny. One of the guys asked him that once: why he didn't just leave? He just said that if we were ever going to win, it would need everyone who could, to step up to the plate.
"Given the choice between a chosen Slayer, an incredibly powerful witch, a souled vampire, or Xander, at XTech, we'd take the willing volunteer who gets the job done every single time. Sure, the others are big hitters, but what have they done with it?
"Well, Xander's used his skill and talent to put together a force that can take the fight to them. None of this traditional 'fight them with stakes at night' business. Xander believes in superior firepower and whenever possible, superior numbers. Everyone who works for him has been touched by vampires in some way. All we needed was someone who could organize things, get us together, supply us with weapons and teach us how to kill them, and we'd have the ability to take the fight to them, for the first time since the original banishment of demons hundreds of thousands of years ago. Xander is that person. He's put his blood, sweat, tears and money into making this happen. And despite all his work, he *still* thinks that he's the weak link." Ian looked extremely irritated that his boss had such low self esteem, and gave the impression that if he met those responsible, he'd take a few steps himself to get a little payback in for Xander.
"He doesn't know it, but we use him as a major figure in the basic XTech training. His battle with the Zombie street gang is a perfect example of applied battlefield psychology."
"Wait a second," Dawn's eyes were huge, as she looked in shock at her new friend. "Can you tell me what happened then?" She had heard Xander mention it during the argument last Saturday, but nothing further since then. With everything else that had been going on, she hadn't gotten back around to asking him about it.
Ian didn't look surprised that she didn't know. That lack of surprise hurt Dawn a little.
"I think you should get Xander to tell you, Dawn," Ian said gently. "It's his decision, not mine, just what he wants to tell you about it."
She nodded slowly, and smiled a thank you at him.
Before Ian could resume his story, his cell phone went off.
"Hello?"
"Ian, it's Xander."
Ian grinned at Dawn. "Hey Xander." He loved the way Dawn's eyes seemed to light up when she heard who it was. It turned the already attractive teenager into a devastatingly beautiful young woman.
"Ian, I need a favor."
"Name it, X-man."
"Do you know Dawn Summers? She's a student in the same year as you."
Ian grinned, "She's right here, sitting next to me."
Xander frowned, at the other end of the phone, wondering why that statement bothered him a little. "I was wondering if you could give her a lift home, after school, since you've got a company car. I'm going to be stuck here till late."
"Not a problem, boss. Want to talk to her?" Ian replied.
"Please."
There was a pause as Ian handed the phone to Dawn.
"Hi Xander," she said, a bright smile on her face.
"Dawn, I'm going to be stuck here till late, because I've got the Demon Council coming at six, and I need to prepare places for them to stay. I've asked Ian to give you a lift home. He works for me, so you'll be safe with him."
Dawn stood and grinned at her friends, and took a few steps away, so she could say something in private.
"Xander," the volume she was using had considerably lessened. "Would you mind if I took Ian shopping for some new clothes? His old jeans really don't suit him."
Xander suddenly felt a huge pang of jealousy shoot through him. The idea of Dawn looking at Ian made him want to attack the younger boy with a baseball bat. But in a mature way. "Sure," he said, in what he hoped was a level voice. "I tried to do that myself, but he wouldn't accept it."
Dawn's already bright smile seemed to increase in intensity. Despite standing alone, every single person in the cafeteria was watching her, all thinking that, who ever her boyfriend was, he must be really special to make Dawn smile like that.
She knew Xander well; studying him had been a habit for most of her mid-teenage years, after all, so she recognized the hidden tone in his voice. Xander was jealous that she was paying attention to Ian. He might not admit it to himself, but he was *starting* to think of her like that. She decided to put him out of his misery.
"I'm thinking that he would make a really good boyfriend for Chrissy," she said conspiratorially.
Xander's stomach seemed to massively unclench, and he found himself grinning like an idiot as he heard Dawn say that. "Good idea, Dawn. See if you can get him a suit as well, he'll need it later. Don't worry about the cost, I'll charge it back to XTech."
Dawn said goodbye and hung up, handing Ian his phone back. She looked at Chrissy, her smile becoming slightly wolfish. "How do you feel about a shopping trip after school?"
"I'm always up for shopping," the blonde grinned.
Dawn turned to Ian. "Xander's your boss, correct?"
Ian nodded slowly, not liking her smile, at all. Something about it made him more than a little nervous.
"And he's just asked you to look after me, and see me home safe?"
Ian nodded again, starting to get a slightly trapped expression. He could feel that Dawn was setting him up.
"So, until I get home, your job is to keep me happy and safe?"
For a third time, Ian nodded.
"Excellent. I will be very upset if you don't come shopping with me, and don't allow me to get you a new wardrobe."
Ian's jaw dropped, as the trap Dawn had set was finally sprung. Desperately he tried to find a way out of this. He'd managed to turn down Xander when he had offered.
Dawn reached out and lifted his jaw. "You're not getting out of this, Ian, so just accept it gracefully."
"But -" Ian started.
"No buts, Ian. I've already cleared this with Xander. You're going to need a suit for work anyway, so it's now an order. And you wouldn't want to break an order, would you?"
Ian groaned as he gave in. "Ok, we'll go shopping."
Dawn and Chrissy grinned at each other again, and performed a high five.
They were interrupted again by a white faced Daryl.
"Can I talk to you?" he begged, looking around in fear. "In private."
Dawn didn't ask any questions, she just stood up and nodded. "Come with me."
Chrissy and Ian made the same decision, that Daryl was afraid of something and needed protection. They followed the other two, forming a protective triangle around him. Ian started scowling, encouraging people to get out of their way. It was remarkably effective, and left that rest of the students still eating their lunches, wondering what help Daryl needed and how Dawn would do it. No one doubted that the help would be given, or that any of them could have done the same thing. It was, simply, the way of the new order.
They entered an empty classroom, and shut the door firmly behind them.
Daryl started to pace, running his fingers through his hair.
"Don't take this the wrong way," he begged. "But, Ian suggested that I become friends with you, instead of falling in love with you." He was obviously distraught, the words tumbling out of his mouth.
"I thought that it was a great idea, but I wanted to know a bit more about you first. Anyway, I hacked into a few places I probably shouldn't have, and I ran across some really strange things." He paused, seeming to think about how to phrase the next thing he had to say, so that they wouldn't think he was crazy.
"Do vampires really exist?" he finally blurted out. "Because I found all sorts of things pointing to them. And what the hell is XTech? It looks like they're some kind of private army fighting them!"
Dawn visibly relaxed, as did Ian and Chrissy. "Yes, Daryl, vampires do exist," she reassured him. "And yes, XTech is a security force put together to fight them. So it's not something you need to worry about."
"You all know about Vampires?" Daryl sounded shocked.
Dawn grinned at him, pleased that he was taking the revelation as well as he was. "Vampire fighter," she pointed to herself. "Vampire fighter," she pointed at Ian. "Daughter of a vampire fighter," she pointed at Chrissy.
"My boyfriend runs XTech, and Ian works for them, part time. Chrissy's dad works for them full time."
"Oh, wow." Daryl calmed down a bit, apparently relieved that he wasn't going crazy.
Dawn looked the small geek over, and decided that he needed a few minutes to digest what he had just been told.
"Where did you hack?" she asked
"Hmm?" he appeared distracted, "Oh I started at the DMV, they've put a new firewall in place, but not much else."
"Nmap portscan?" Dawn asked.
Daryl blinked at her, suddenly focusing on her. He hadn't thought that anyone else in the school even knew what a port scan was, never mind knowing what the best program for it was.
"Yeah, it allowed SSH connections through."
"Ahh," Dawn said with a smile, "Let me guess, it was running an old version of SSH?"
"Yeah," his voice was becoming awed at the display of knowledge by this incredible young woman.
"So you 'ploited the SSH1 CRC32 hole?" Dawn smiled, and decided to help the obviously stunned geek out. "A friend of mine taught me to hack a few years ago. I've kept up with the latest developments."
Ian looked at Chrissy, his expression clearly asking if she had any idea what they were talking about. The blonde girl grinned back at him and shook her head, as she gave him a miniscule shrug of her shoulders. She was finding out more and more about her friend this week, and was enjoying it.
Daryl was willing to start worshipping Dawn again. A gorgeous girl who knew how to hack? The only remaining question was how well she could shoot, and what kind of arsenal she possessed. He wondered if she would mind if he started calling her Trinity.
His mind suddenly pushed the answer to the vampire questions he had asked him it.
At an early age, he had developed the ability to ask himself some questions, and be able to do other things while his brain solved them for him. The questions he'd asked where, "What do I do, now that I know they exist, and how do I become friends with Dawn?" His brain, being extra helpful, gave him an answer to one of the most puzzling questions of his life, which he had asked some time ago. "What do I do with my life?"
The reply he received was simple, "Help them and join XTech."
Daryl smiled, the major dilemmas in his life now solved. "Ok, what's the state of XTech's computer department?"
"Why?" Dawn asked, a bit puzzled by this question that apparently came out of the blue.
Daryl bit his lower lip, trying to work out what he should do next. He wasn't used to dealing with people, preferring his computers. Computers were always logical. You put information in, you got information out. If the information wasn't what you expected, then you made a mistake when you gave it the information. People were illogical, and that scared him a little.
"I've always felt like I was supposed to do something with my life," he tried to explain his reasoning to the three of them. "I just never knew what. I thought I'd be a programmer, but the thought of being another John Carmack doesn't thrill me. Strange as that sounds. I can make computers do anything I want, I've had several submission accepted by Linus and I'm well known on Kernel Trap mailing list.
"Even though, by contributing, I was helping people, it didn't seem enough. Like my help was too indirect, to insubstantial. But then I found out about vampires thirty minutes ago, and I've felt more alive this last half hour than I have in my life. There's a war going on, and no one knows about it. Can you think of anything better to dedicate your life to? Some of the stories I read were horrid, in-depth reports about the tortures that vampires have put humans through. And now, I find that someone's putting together an army to take them on and beat them. It's exciting, it's rewarding. I can't pretend it doesn't exist, and I want to help. I need to help. I *choose* to help." His voice gained in confidence as he realized that he was speaking the absolute truth. "I choose to help," he repeated.
Dawn smiled at him, a hint of respect in her gaze. She turned and looked at Ian quizzically. He shrugged and pulled out his phone, dialing a number.
"Andrew? It's Ian. I've got a question for you. You looking for skilled hackers?"
He listened for a second, and then explained what Daryl had just said. He passed the phone to the geek.
"Err, Hello?"
"Daryl, is it? My name's Andrew. I'd just like to know if you'd be willing to pop down to our office on Saturday."
"Of course, Sir," he said.
Andrew laughed at that. "Please, don't call me sir. Call me Andrew. Ian will tell you where we are. If you've got your own laptop and would prefer to use that, feel free to bring it. If not, don't worry, we have some very up to date computers here."
"What time?"
"Make it 11A.M. You'll be meeting me first, and if you are as good as Ian thinks you are, you'll be meeting the boss."
"Ok," Daryl gulped nervously.
"I'll see you on Saturday then. Goodbye." Andrew hung up.
Daryl handed the phone back to Ian, "I've got an interview on Saturday. First with Andrew, then with the boss." The geek looked stunned, and then looked at Dawn as something clicked. "Your boyfriend?"
Dawn smiled. "Not quite. But he will be, soon."
Chrissy and Ian both grinned, while Daryl looked slightly confused.
The school bell rang, signifying the start of afternoon classes. After a goodbye, Dawn and Chrissy headed off to English.
Ian put his hand on Daryl's shoulder, making the boy stop.
"Please keep the fact that Dawn's boyfriend is the head of XTech secret. It's much safer for everyone if it's not widely known. There's also a slight legal problem, as Dawn is living with Xander in his apartment, because of a domestic situation rendering it impossible for her to live at home."
Daryl nodded. "I promise. You said make friends with her, and I want to do that."
"You made a good start," Ian said with a grin. "Come on, you're in my physics class aren't you?"
Coach Bradey was irritated. His star quarterback had been embarrassed by a slip of a girl, and his
best linebacker was now in the hospital ER getting his leg set in a class. And they had basically done it with Principal Woods' blessing! Still, he had Ian and Dawn for Gym in the final period, so he'd get some revenge there.
After changing into the standard shorts and t-shirt, the senior students gathered around the coach, as they always did before separating into the individual sexes.
"I think," Bradey said, "that we will deviate from our standard plan today. Instead, we'll play a game off dodge-ball."
Groans came from most of the girls; the idea of having a heavy ball thrown at them was not appealing.
"Erm, Coach," Dawn asked, "Would you mind if Ian and I did some sparring, instead?"
Coach Bradey smiled; he was going to enjoy saying no. He wanted Dawn to be hurt by a ball.
"I think that would be an excellent idea, Dawn."
Bradey looked around, shocked to find the principal in his gym.
Robin had decided to pop down at the start to the lesson, since he was well aware that the coach was fanatically loyal to his football players, regardless of the effect on the rest of the school. He was really very predictable.
Dawn grinned happily, and moved over to the mats, Ian following her.
She pulled her hair back into a pony tail, and smiled cheerfully at him.
"You sure you want to do this?" he asked, a little concerned about accidentally hurting her.
Dawn nodded. "How about we take it slowly to start with, then see where we can go from there?"
Ian nodded. "Let's go."
He leaped forwards, his left foot snapping out as he aimed a roundhouse kick straight for her head. True to his word, it wasn't any where near his top speed.
Dawn dropped into a crouch and spun clockwise, her right foot shooting out, and hooking towards Ian's ankle.
Recovering from his kick, Ian jumped Dawn's response, landed a few paces away from her and held up his hand. "Sorry, I should have known better. Want to really go for it?" he asked, a somewhat feral grin on his face.
Dawn nodded eagerly, her eyes bright with excitement and a matching grin on her lips, too, each of them recognizing in the other an equivalent level of skill they so often found lacking in their usual opponents. This was a *lot* more fun than dodging hard rubber balls.
They paused and bowed to each other, then began to fight seriously.
The students playing dodge ball quickly abandoned the game as the sounds of the fight reached them. Ignoring the fuming coach, they formed a circle around the two fighters, almost awed by a level of expertise few of them had ever seen demonstrated.
Dawn and Ian were having a fantastic time. Having some Slayer powers meant that Dawn was never able to practice with someone her equal. Buffy was a lot stronger and faster than she was, as were the vampires, while the SIT's weren't nearly up to her standard. Ian was perfect, a human who had been training harder than she had been for the past four years, and who was nearly as strong as she was.
Ian felt the same way. When he fought Vampires he was always the weaker one, but when he had fought others in the dojo, he had always hit too hard and either had been disqualified or the other person had been instantly knocked out, not leaving him with much training. Dawn was perfect.
Their two styles were also very different. Dawn's seemed a mix of Aikido and kickboxing. Moves designed to use Ian's strength against him were easily mixed with kicks from impossible angles and amazing agility.
Ian's was a much less graceful style; it almost seemed like a distilled version of most of the major 'hard' martial arts, akin to the type of instruction given the elite special forces of the various nations' militaries. It seemed to use the same brutality some of the onlookers had seen earlier. Punches didn't seem to travel very far, yet had his whole body behind them. Kicks that would have broken ribs were either dodged or blocked by the smaller girl in front of him.
After a few minutes, the two combatants were sweating, but not breathing heavily, the crowd started to cheer. The split was about fifty-fifty. Ian's protection of the Queen and his acceptance by her had already started to repair the damage engendered by his reputation as the school psycho for so many years.
Faking a punch towards Dawn's face, Ian spun and snapped a spinning heel kick to her side. He felt a burst of pride as Dawn blocked it again, grabbed his foot and tried to slam her elbow into his knee. He pulled back hard, regaining his balance.
As Ian dropped back into a defensive stance, Dawn continued forward, flowing into an attack pattern that would make maximum use of her superior speed and agility. As she drove a left-right combination of short punches towards Ian's abdomen that were intended to pull his guard down and away from his head, Dawn chambered her right leg as she snapped her hips to her left, her leg floating upward and forward and gliding over Ian's slightly lowered guarding hands.
Reacting instantly to the barely registered attack, Ian pulled his head back as he brought his left arm back up to protect his upper body, trying to deflect the kick away from his head, as he drove his right hand forward in an attack on Dawn's torso.
The slim brunette immediately snapped her right leg down to the floor, and continued her counterclockwise spin, chambering her left leg and then driving it up under Ian's arm and inward, ignoring his punch and letting it slide past her, a bare centimeter away from her body.
Ian twisted violently, one hand barely blocking the kick before it crashed into his ribs. He stepped forwards, slipping into a side-facing horse riding stance, his right foot to the fore. He raised his right hand, as if he was going to throw an outside block, but didn't form a fist. As his left foot passed his right, he swept an outside sword hand strike at Dawn's neck.
Before the crowd had a chance to gasp at the deadly move, Dawn twisted to one side, grabbed his hand as it flew towards her and stepped into him, flipping Ian over her shoulder.
Ian let himself go, landing smoothly and rolling to his feet with ease.
They continued to spar for another ten minutes, with the once-disgruntled coach suddenly looking at them, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. He had visions of winning the all-state karate championship, in both male and female categories filling his mind. He'd never seen anyone fight the way these two were currently doing.
Ian knew that they were both equal fighters, that Dawn was as good as he was, and he was actually pleased with the fact. So he made a decision that anyone who had known him before Xander had saved him, would have claimed that he would never do.
Using a move borrowed from Jeet Kun Do, that Giles had shown her once, Dawn threw a low kick to Ian's legs. She then moved in as fast as she could and threw a quick series of hand over hand short punches, which Ian blocked. Ian's memory threw an image of Bruce Lee doing this once, so he immediately realized what she was going to do next. As she finished the move with a hard knee strike to his chest, Ian deliberately moved his hands a little slowly, letting the kick through.
With a groan of pain, he was thrown back several feet and landed on his back, winded. He held up his hand in submission and smiled weakly at her as he gasped for breath.
"I give," he whispered, his voice still managing to carry to the ears of everyone who had gone quiet as the final move had landed.
The cheers and applause that was followed were deafening as the students responded to the sort of display that they had only seen on TV before. Dawn stood in the middle of the mat, panting hard, sweat running down her face, her face flushed. She had no right to look beautiful, but she did, nonetheless.
She walked over to Ian and held out her hand, and he grabbed it and let her pull him up. "Good match," she said loudly and hugged him.
Ian smiled and hugged her back, "You too, Dawn."
"You two can take the rest of the class off," Wood said with a smile. He'd enjoyed the fight as much as the students, and contemplated asking Xander if he could help out with their combat training. While the kids were very good, they both had room for improvement.
"Yes," Coach Bradey agreed, still looking a little stunned. "The rest of you, back to class as normal." Dodge-ball was forgotten.
Ian and Dawn grabbed a drink and sat on the bleachers, watching the other students.
"Why did you let me win?" Dawn asked, curiously, quietly letting Ian know that she had realized he had let her kick through his guard.
"From a pride point of view, I knew we were equal," Ian started to explain. "I've never been the sort of person to care what others think. But, *you're* the class protector, Dawn.
"You've got no idea how much the school has changed, have you?"
Dawn shook her head, her eyes wide as she looked at him.
'Xander, you're a hell of a lucky man,' Ian thought to himself, the slightest bit of envy coloring his thoughts for a moment, before he mentally shook himself and banished the negative emotion, replacing it with happiness that his boss had finally found a woman who fully appreciated him.
"Everyone hated the old guard; they were arrogant, obnoxious as hell and made life miserable for everyone but themselves. Over the last few days, you've stopped that, and stopped them. People are no longer miserable about coming to school. Take earlier today - why did you step in and save Daryl?"
"Because of Xander," Dawn said slowly. "Not directly, but he's always been the one to stand up for people being bullied. He couldn't fight, so he'd insult them and protect his friends by taking the beatings for them. He's always throwing himself in front of danger to protect someone else."
Ian nodded. It was almost surreal, to find that the more he peeled off the various layers of Xander's cloak, the more he found he admired the man.
"When I saw Daryl about to be hurt, I knew that Xander wouldn't let it happen, so I couldn't either."
"And you'd do the same for anyone else?"
Dawn nodded, "Of course."
"That's exactly what I mean, Dawn. You went to the rescue of someone so far beneath you in the perceived school social structure that you shouldn't have even known he existed, let alone care about him. Everyone knows that you'd do the same for them. Everyone looks up to you. Haven't you noticed how many people are dressing up, more carefully and less casually, like you do, now?"
Dawn shook her head. "Not really, no."
Ian just laughed softly. "How's it going with Xander?" He asked, changing the subject, sensing Dawn's unease.
"Slowly," she admitted, "but little things tell me it's working. He hasn't called me Dawnie or Dawn Patrol for almost a week. It's like he knows I'm grown up, now. I catch him watching me occasionally."
Ian smiled, pleased, and again wondered if he could change the bet he had placed earlier.
It was with a degree of shock that he realized that he had made friends with Dawn. And probably Chrissy and Daryl, too.
Dawn smiled at him, suddenly struck by a similar thought. She had her own Scooby Gang, now.
Daryl was her Willow, a shy geek, a genius at computers.
Chrissy was her Xander, not so good in a fight, at least not yet, but really good at making people laugh and breaking any tension. She was also as fanatically loyal as Xander was.
Ian was her Angel, only without the whole vampire and doomed love affair business. The fighter who could match her, and would help her take out the night.
Xander was her Giles, only without the tweed and father-daughter relationship.
XTech was the Watchers Council, only without the hidden agenda, and run by her future boyfriend.
She smiled. As long as she didn't screw it up like Buffy had, she was set for life.
Xander picked up the phone and pressed the speed dial button.
"Molly? It's Xander."
"Xander!" Molly's warm voice replied. "What can I do for you this morning, dear?"
"Can we meet for lunch? I need to bring you up to date on what happened last night."
"Of course. Why don't you meet us at the club?"
"Will do. See you later."
Xander hung up, and looked at the pile of paperwork on his desk. It was all very well running XTech while doing his job for PJH, but it sure generated a lot of paperwork.
Angel's hotel reconstruction was coming along nicely, and would be ready for opening in the New Year. Xander decided to make a change to the building specs, and upgrade it from a standard PJH to an XTech secure location. The difference was that XTech buildings had the aggressive defenses, while PJH were purely defensive. He'd have to offer it as a challenge to Andrew to work out a way that Angel would not set off the alarms.
He was interrupted by a knock on the door. He looked up, and smiled a welcome. "Come in, Brad."
Brad walked in, a little reluctantly.
Xander smiled slightly. "Either I've grown a couple of horns, or you've got some bad news for me."
Brad took a seat opposite the dark haired carpenter. He'd been volunteered for this mission, after a talk with several of the senior members of XTech.
"You've missed training for the past four weeks." He'd decided that bluntness was the best way to handle this task.
Xander winced, and then blushed slightly. "I know," he said with a sigh. "It's been a bit crazy, recently."
"That's not really an excuse," Brad pointed out quietly. He simply could not shout at a senior officer.
"True," Xander admitted reluctantly, waiting to hear whatever else Brad had to say.
"Look," Brad took a deep breath. "If you don't start coming back to the lessons, we will have to revoke your combat status."
Xander blinked at him. "What?"
"Your rules, Xander," Brad reminded him of one of the first rules Xander had established upon for formation of XTech. "'Any XTech member who misses training for a month is not fit for active duty, and cannot return till they have completed a two-week refresher course.'" He quoted the training manual. "You might be the boss, Xander, but that doesn't excuse you. When we go out fighting, we *have* to know that we can trust you as much as you have to know you can trust us.
"You've got a lot of people who are here because of you; you can *not* afford to lose their respect. Everyone knows that you are working several jobs, and that's fine. If you want to spend your time doing paperwork, no one will think any less of you. Everyone knows it has to be done. But if you want to be on the hit squads, you have to train.
"We know that you have been injured these past few days, but that doesn't explain the weeks you missed before that.
"We can not, will not, allow you to endanger any of the squads if you are not up to date on the latest anti-vampire weapons and tactics."
Xander nodded slowly, his hands tightly gripping the edge of the table. With a small amount of effort, he swallowed his pride.
"Give my apologies to the guys. I'll be there for the afternoon session."
Brad smiled slowly, and he switched to a more fatherly mode, aware that his boss wasn't that much older than his daughter. "You are doing a good job, Xan, but the troops need to know what you are. At the moment, they're unsure if you're a desk jockey or part of a team."
Xander let his guard down a little, Brad had been the second person he had hired for XTech, and he was incredibly pleased he had managed to persuade the ex-soldier to work for him. "I know. It's just hard, sometimes. I mean, I've been fighting for seven years now, and been possessed by a soldier spirit - you'd think that this stuff would come easily for me."
"And it doesn't?"
"I'm pretty good with a gun, point and click isn't that difficult. It's the hand to hand stuff I've been having trouble with. I've had enough of being thrown around by vampires these past seven years."
Xander threw a wry style, "My normal style of attack is usually along the lines off 'let them pommel me while someone better recovers, then saves me'"
"You know that won't work in a small unit?"
The dark haired man nodded, "I know, I didn't mean to miss the first one, I got called into a PJH meeting at the last minute. After that, it just got easier to make excuses and not be there." He looked a little guilty as he confessed.
"Xander, you have done an amazing job in a short time."
Brad deliberately kept trying to build up his bosses self esteem, even he could see that it was lower than it should be. "No one here will care if you pull back from the edge. You've been fighting a permanent war longer than any of them. You have great planning skills, and show good tactical instincts. You don't have to risk your skin any more. That's what you put us together for."
Xander shook his head slowly. "I can't do that, Brad. I cannot order people to go into hostile situations while I am safe. And I don't think I can stop fighting."
"Why not?"
Xander frowned. "I'm not sure. It's just part of what I am. Ever since I found out about vampires, I've been keeping myself in the fight. I can't stop that now."
Brad nodded and smiled. "I'll see you this afternoon, then."
Xander nodded. As Brad reached the door, he called out, "Brad?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
As the XTech guard left the room, Xander threw himself back into his paperwork, he wanted to get it out of the way before moving on to some research.
Three hours of paperwork and research later, Xander was more than happy to jump into his car and drive to the club. He'd been there once before, back when he had been dating Cordelia. It was an ultra-exclusive country club, where very rich people went to play the occasional game of golf or tennis, and be seen in the bar and the pool.
Molly and Kyle complained about having to go there, but it was the only place to do business with some of the more snobby people they dealt with.
Xander pulled up outside the main clubhouse entrance and jumped out, to let the valet park his car.
"Excuse me, Sir, are you a member?" An officious looking man in the club's uniform asked. He didn't like the look of the young man, the sort of clientele he was used to getting drove Ferraris and Mercedes, not SUVs.
"Nope," Xander said cheerfully, "I'm-"
"Then I'm sorry, sir," the self-important idiot interrupted him, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. If you're a tradesman, the entrance is further down the road."
"But-" Xander tried again.
"Leave, Sir, before I call security."
Xander laughed at him, anticipating the reactions that Molly and Kyle were going to have when they learned about this. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number quickly.
"Molly?"
"Xander, where are you?" Molly sounded a little concerned that he was late.
"Stuck outside the door. Some uniformed guard has asked me to use the tradesman's entrance."
"Did you tell him who you were visiting?"
"I tried, but he threatened to call security on me." Xander's voice was clearly amused.
"Wait there! Someone will be out *immediately* to sort this out." Molly's voice was clearly *not* amused.
Xander hung up and grinned at the pompous, officious guard. He was exactly the sort of person they would never hire at XTech. Someone who loved the petty powers his job gave him.
Inside the club, Molly hung up the phone and started to growl.
Kyle looked at her, and started to feel sorry for whoever had awakened her ire. "Problem, honey?"
Molly nodded, "Some guard won't let Xander in, told him to use the tradesman entrance, wouldn't let him explain he was seeing me, and then threatened to call security."
Kyle frowned, suddenly understanding his wife's temper.
"Sorry, dear," Molly touched his hand. "It's my turn. You wait here."
Kyle pouted, and gave in. He reigned in his own desire to avenge the insult to his unofficially adopted son, and settled back to watch the show.
"You!" Molly said loudly, pointing to the senior waiter. "Go and fetch the manager immediately."
"Yes, Mrs. Michaels," the unfortunate waiter said, vanishing quickly. The first thing he had been told, on becoming the senior waiter, was that you did *not* annoy Miranda and Kyle Michaels.
The waiter moved faster than he had in years, breaking into a jog as he headed straight to the general manager's office. He ignored the secretary and burst straight in, interrupting a staff meeting.
"What is the meaning of this!?" The general manager demanded, shocked at the lack of respect and the interruption.
"Mrs. Michaels wants to see you, immediately, sir. She sounds really annoyed."
The manager went white and gulped. He stood, and told the remaining staff, "Wait here for me. I'll be back shortly."
He then nervously followed his head waiter back to the dining area. Molly and Kyle were on the Board of Governors, and had arranged for his predecessor to be fired, after the man had made the mistake of insulting one of the waiters in public.
"How can I help you, Mrs. Michaels?" he asked respectfully, as he arrived at their table.
"You can tell me why your security guard is refusing entry to a future partner of PJH construction, the president and CEO of XTech security," Molly's voice was starting to rise, and she ended on a crescendo, "and my adopted son, Alexander Harris."
The already pale manager lost the rest of his color. He couldn't imagine a worse scenario.
PJH Construction owned the club, and he had heard many rumors about the fast rising prodigy that was making money for them, hand over fist. The club's security had been installed by XTech, a PJH subsidiary, on the advice of practically every member, although the personnel running it were under his control, since he hadn't thought that XTech would have the necessary ability to deal with their clientele. He was seriously regretting that decision now; at least *they* would have recognized their boss.
"Please give me a few moments to deal with this, Mrs. Michaels. I'm certain I can have this sorted out very quickly."
Molly nodded, once, sharply. She didn't have to say anything further; the threat was very clear in her body language.
When it came down to the people who frequented the club, money talked. Molly and Kyle had the most, so they talked the loudest. Everyone present was watching the display with avid interest; they didn't know that the Michaels had adopted, and this was killer gossip. They were extremely curious about Xander as well, everyone in the know had heard about him, the multi-talented, fastest rising star in the PJH universe.
The manager kept his decorum as he walked quickly through the tables to the exit, but as soon as he was out of sight, he started to run. Nightmare scenarios of the Michaels' adopted son being bundled, or worse, attacked, by over zealous security guards, ran through his mind, as well as the end of the career it would cause him.
"You, come with me," he shouted to one of the valets as he ran through the main lobby.
He took the steps down three at a time, and arrived just in time to hear the guard sneer, "We don't have any one called Molly on our members' list, so put the phone away and get out of here."
"Mr. Harris," he called, skidding to a stop. He held out his hand, grabbing the bemused carpenter's hand and shaking it profusely. "I do deeply apologize for this misunderstanding, sir."
He turned to the valet he had grabbed, and instructed him, "Park Mr. Harris's car for him. Immediately."
"Yes, Sir!" The valet had no idea what was going on, so he did exactly as he was told as quickly as possible.
The manager then turned to the guard, his eyes narrowed with anger. "Go to my office and wait for me!" The tone of command was absolute, and the guard gulped, suddenly realizing that something had gone very wrong. He'd never before seen the manager personally come out of the building into the Sunnydale heat to meet a guest.
"Please, come with me, Mr. Harris. The Michaels are eagerly awaiting your arrival for lunch."
At the mention of the Michaels', the guard went white. Like a man walking down the green mile to his execution, he slowly trudged to the office.
Xander follow the manager in, hiding his amusement.
As they reached the table, Molly stood and embraced Xander warmly, before releasing him so that Kyle could do the same. The public display of affection did not go unnoticed by the other members, who were discreetly watching with great interest..
"I do hope there won't be a repeat of this incident," Molly said, her voice cold enough to chill the entire building in the middle of an autumn heat wave. "Especially as Alexander has two memberships to this club."
"Two?" the manager asked, confused. He hadn't even known that the young man was a member.
"Yes. As a vice president of PJH and the CEO of XTech, he has a corporate membership. And you will find that he is clearly registered as a member under my family name." She paused, before continuing in a slightly less frigid time. "You will take care of the issue, won't you?"
The manager nodded fervently; the guard would be fired two minutes after he returned to his office.
"You will, of course, allow me to take care of lunch for you, as a small apology for Mr. Harris's delay," he stated, attempting to smooth over the massive faux-pas one of his people had committed.
Molly graced him with a regal smile and nodded once, dismissing him at the same time.
He paused on the way out, to ensure that the head waiter would serve them personally, and then popped in to the kitchen to sure their meal would be the very best the kitchen could provide.
It was a very relieved manager, who returned to his office. He hoped that, with the guard gone, this incident would quickly be forgotten. He most definitely never wanted to go through another five minutes like that again.
Out in the dining room, the atmosphere had warmed up significantly.
"Well, that was fun," Molly said with a grin. A grin that was shared by Kyle.
"Since when have I been a member here?" Xander asked, almost as surprised by the revelation of his membership as the manager.
"Didn't Peter tell you?"
Xander blushed slightly. "He might have, I guess. He told me a lot of things when I was promoted."
"Anyway, you've got some explaining to do, Xander. What on earth happened to your eye?" Molly asked, changing the subject as she suddenly realized that her 'son' was no longer wearing a bandage over his eye, and the said eye now looked completely normal.
"Would you believe that a friendly demon gave me the Orb of Isis as prepayment for XTech protecting Sunnydale's Demon Council?" the former carpenter asked nonchalantly.
Kyle immediately lifted his hand and caught the attention of the waiter. "Two beers and a coke, please." He knew that Xander was driving and only staying for lunch, as he was due back in the office that afternoon. Kyle had an important meeting later at the club, and decided that he was going to need something to help him and Molly through this conversation.
"Ok," Kyle said slowly as the beers arrived. He took a few deep gulps of the amber liquid before continuing with his questions. "Friendly demon, Orb of Isis, XTech protection and a demon Council?" he repeated the most significant terms he heard Xander mention.
Xander nodded, sipping his coke. "Yep," he agreed, the hint of a grin on his face.
"Don't be facetious Xander. Details, Son, details. Now."
"Yes, Mom," Xander said, grinning.
Although it was meant as a joke, the appellation went straight to Molly's heart, one of the biggest smiles of her life lit up her face.
"I got a visit from a Brachen half-demon last night at the complex. They generally appear human, but can easily change into their demon form, which is stronger and more resilient than their human form. When I was in LA earlier this year, Angel told me about a close friend of his, named Doyle of his who was the same species. They're pretty much like humans in most things, in that they just want to live their lives, get married, have a nice house and die naturally of old age.
"Simon, the half-demon, runs Sunnydale's demon council. It seems that there is a new Big Bad in town, who wants to open the Hellmouth, yadda, yadda, yadda. She arranged for Spike to get Buffy to kill a member, as the opening gambit in an attempt to take over the council, and use its influence on our sizeable demon population to force them to join her.
"I agreed it would be best for that not to happen, so I agreed that we'd put them in some of our secure bases and keep them safe. As a thank you, they gave me the Orb of Isis. Dawn was reading a webpage on the Orb, and told me to lift it up to my eye. A few minutes and some extreme pain later, and I had a new eye."
Xander turned slightly, so his back was to the rest of the room, and pointed to his eye.
As Molly and Kyle watched carefully, the eye turned golden, before returning to its hidden state, simulating a normal eye.
As if synchronized, Molly and Kyle both drained their drinks.
"You know," Kyle said thoughtfully, "that's the first time I've ever heard a potential world ending event described with 'Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.'"
Xander and Molly laughed, although Xander did look a little sheepish.
"Sorry," he apologized with a grin, "it's just that, if we had a dollar for every vampire or demon who wanted to open the Hellmouth, we'd have enough to buy a small car."
"What else does the Orb do?" Molly asked, curious.
"Don't know, there's not much information available on it. I did some research on Isis this morning. It's believed that Isis was the daughter of either Hermes or Prometheus. Her name means Wisdom, and she was known as the goddess of 10,000 applications. To the Egyptians, she represented the female aspects of a deity to mankind; kind of the universal mother to all that lived, as well as the goddess of wisdom, truth and power. The statues that remain of her have her decorated with symbols of the sun, the moon and the stars. Her girdle was joined together by four gold plates, which represented each of the four elements.
"The research I did showed that Hermes taught her as she was growing up, and she used the knowledge to invent the written word, caused men to love women, invent sailing, give mankind laws, ended cannibalism, made justice more powerful than silver and gold, instructed mankind in the mysteries of magic and caused truth to be considered the most precious of all things."
Molly and Kyle both had parental expressions of pride on their faces. They hated that Xander had always been considered the stupid one by his friends. This sort of research proved that he was intelligent, even if you ignored his successful business dealings.
"Isis was married to Osiris, the great and benevolent ruler of Egypt. He was murdered by Set, his jealous brother, and was dismembered and Set spread his brother's parts far and wide. With her sister, Nephthys, Isis found all of her husband's body, and used magic to reanimate him, only he couldn't live on this plane anymore, so he descended to become Lord of the Underworld.
"Osiris and Isis' son, Horus, who had the head of a falcon, started a war with Set, to reclaim Egypt. During the final battle, Set tore out Horus' eye and threw it to the ground, but the God Throth restored Horus' eyesight. Horus then avenged his father by killing Set. Isis thanked Throth by persuading Osiris to give him the job he wanted, that of Clerk of the Underworld, where for eternity, Throth has weighed the hearts of the dead in the hall of the two truths, deciding who goes to heaven and hell.
"After Set was defeated, and after some more of the Deistic unpleasantness that seems really prevalent, Horus eventually presented his damaged eye to Osiris, in the underworld, which restored Osiris to eternal life and became known as the Wedjet-eye, the Eye of Eternity, which protected all from harm. Osiris gave the eye to his wife, no longer needing it, who stored its power into an orb, as a servant of those who would protect the innocent."
Molly and Kyle sat silently, trying to digest what they had just heard. "So you think that the Orb might be the Eye of Eternity?"
Xander nodded slowly, "It would make sense. But I read that recipients of the Eye had to undergo great trials to be accepted. It just jumped into my eye socket."
Kyle slowly started to smile. "Great trials? Don't you think that fighting on the Hellmouth without any special powers would be a suitable trial?"
Xander blinked. "I hadn't considered that."
"No, you wouldn't." Molly said dryly, a small smile of mild exasperation on her face as she looked at him.
They paused their conversation as Kyle ordered club sandwiches for all of them.
"How's living with Dawn?" Molly asked, as the waiter vanished towards the kitchens.
"Much better than I thought it would be," Xander admitted, settling back in his chair. "She seems to care about what I have to say. We spend most evenings just talking things over. I trust her. She doesn't seem seventeen, anymore."
Molly exchanged a small smile with Kyle. It looked like Dawn's plan was proceeding perfectly.
Two hours later, back in his office, Xander continued his paperwork, after arranging for Ian to take Dawn home.
True to his word, he attended the afternoon's training session, and actually found it felt good to get rid of some of the stresses of the past week on the practice mat.
After showering, he returned to his office, feeling a lot more relaxed.
As the clock ticked closer to six, he called Rob and Joe into his office.
"Guys, we're having guests at six o'clock. They are the Sunnydale demon council, so I need you two to meet them and bring them into the debriefing room. Then, once we finish, we're going to need to split them up and take them to our secure buildings. I've arranged for apartments to be ready for them. We might have to pick up their families, as well, so make sure all the Vans are ready."
"Yes, Sir!" They both saluted and turned, and were out of the door before Xander could object to the saluting.
He walked into the conference room and played with the remote controls, setting up the same film he had demonstrated to the XTech personnel this morning.
Andrew wasn't due back from College till around the same time that the Council was going to arrive, so this meant that Xander had to set up the digital presentation himself.
As Rob and Joe shepherded the Council in, Xander tried to categorize as many of them as he could. He recognized a few, including one that looked a lot like Lorne, the anagogic friend of Angel's.
Xander walked over and shook Simon's hand, welcoming him and the others to XTech head quarters.
After everyone had sat down, Xander said, "Can I offer anyone a drink before we start? I'm afraid that we've only got human drinks on hand, although I can order out if necessary."
"Coffee will be fine," a deep gravelly voice came from a being that seemed to be embracing darkness. The other demons followed his lead, so Xander nodded to Joe.
"Before we start," Xander said with a wolfish smile. "I thought you might like a demonstration of the sort of protection we are offering."
He turned and pressed 'play' on the projector, stepping to one side as the lights automatically dimmed. Unlike this morning, the video repeated itself through all the available angles, showing the vampires being killed with the utmost efficiency.
As the lights returned, the council gave a round of applause.
"Impressive, Carpenter," the gravelly voice said again. While Simon was the head, it was obvious who the most powerful demon was. "What have you got to defend against demons?"
Xander moved back in front of the long rectangular table. "I don't want to go into specifics, but our anti-demon defenses have been designed by the same person who was responsible for our anti-vampire defenses. We are confident that any demon foolish enough to attack one of our buildings would suffer the same fate."
It was the absolute confidence and coldness of voice that persuaded the Council that Xander meant what he was saying, rather than his words.
Luckily for the brown haired man at the head of the table, he was an exceptionally good liar.
The XTech techies had not managed to come up with any sure fire anti-demon technologies - yet. This was mainly due to the fact that there were so many different varieties and species that they had to evaluate and develop countermeasures against, while ensuring that any human bystanders wouldn't get toasted, also. The technology to scan and identify demons was pretty well established. A blend of x-rays, infrared, ultra violet and visible light scan beams, combined with a database of body temperatures, bone structures and a pattern recognition system was extremely effective in determining who was or wasn't human.
The first anti-demon idea had been to use ultra-powerful microwave technology. The idea was to literally pour on the juice, frying the creature from the inside, till they either cooked themselves to death, or went *splat*. The main problem that the techs had encountered with this solution was that Demons liked to carry weapons, and it was felt that all the resultant electrical arcing was too dangerous to any non-hostile in the nearby area.
At the moment, they were reliant on a combination of some very large guns hooked up to the standard cameras as well as petroleum jelly based flame throwers.
The weapons might be crude, but they were surprisingly effective.
"Now," Xander sat at the head of the table, a position he was slowly becoming used to. "I have a few questions for you. How long have you been in Sunnydale?"
Simon, at a nod from the dark demon, settled back in his chair. "Demon's are attracted to Sunnydale because of the Hellmouth. As well as being a portal to hell, the mouth has two major benefits for demons. First off, it generates a very low level magical field that persuades humans that nothing is wrong. A normally observant human in Sunnydale will see something unusual, and a second later forget about it, deciding that they had been mistaken. As it is not very powerful, if someone has a strong enough mind, and is confronted with proof, the field can be broken.
"The second benefit is similar to photosynthesis in plants. The magic feeds us. It's like spending your life in the artic, then suddenly lying in a field on a hot summer day, feeling the sun beat down on you. It's very difficult to explain to a non-demon.
"It can be very addictive, especially to vampires. It's one of the many reasons they are so keen to open the Hellmouth, so that its influence would spread through out the land.
"When the ex-mayor founded the town, a lot of demons moved in quickly, thinking it would be a perfect place to raise their families. It was a chance to live a somewhat normal life, coexisting peacefully with humans. Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way for very long, The Mayor quickly stomped down on anyone who stood in the way of him ascending.
"It was only after you and your friends extremely successful defeat of him that the Demon Council was formed, made up of representatives of the major groups who live in, and below, Sunnydale."
"Why haven't you contacted us before?" Xander asked.
"We did try," Simon admitted, obviously uncomfortable with what he had to say next. "We sent an envoy, but the Slayer killed him before he could say anything. I'm afraid that we decided that it was not worth losing another member."
Xander nodded slowly, "I apologize for your loss. We are halting the 'attack first, maybe ask questions later policy'." He was acutely embarrassed and ashamed that they had lost out on potential allies by Buffy's acting hastily.
Changing the subject, Xander looked at one of the Demons. "Are you a member of the Deathwok clan?"
The demon smiled widely. "Yes. And to answer your next question, yes, Lorne is my older brother."
"Not a Pylea fan, either then?" Xander said with a grin, referring to the demon's home dimension.
"Nope, horrid place, a whole planet full of demons with bad dress sense and unfortunate hair."
Xander couldn't help laughing out loud at that reply.
With a grin, Xander returned to the original subject. "So, it's the Hellmouth that causes the rank stupidity among the population here?"
"Yes," Simon agreed. "It can be beneficial, but with so many vampires, it tends to be very negative for humans."
"We are trying to stop that," Xander said wryly.
"We know, and it's one of the reasons for us approaching you, now. Bill," Simon nodded to an inconspicuous looking demon, "gave us a report on the status of XTech, and we were very impressed. Not even the Government program was as well organized. We believe that you are close to arriving at a stage where you will be taking the fight to them?"
Xander nodded slowly, a slight frown appearing on his face.
Simon smiled slightly. "Don't worry. We have no wish for the Hellmouth to open; it would mean the end of our lives. As renegades from the 'True Demon' philosophy of killing everyone, we'd be executed pretty quickly."
"I was more concerned about an investigation into us being successful," Xander admitted.
"Ahh, I understand," Simon replied. "Bill, would you mind giving a quick demonstration?"
Bill stood, and seemed to blur. "Of course not, Simon," he said, as he changed into a mirror image of the Brachen, even his voice matched.
Xander looked a little surprised. "A useful talent," he said dryly.
Bill, as Simon, actually laughed, and returned to his normal innocuous form. "I've got perfect control over my own DNA. I just insert new sequences, change the balance a little and then replicate it throughout my body."
"Do you want another job?" Xander asked with a grin.
The whole table laughed, understanding where the human was coming from. "Maybe," Bill said. "We can discuss that at a later date."
"Ok, one final thing. Would you mind if we scanned you all? As part of the defenses, we have a demon recognition program installed. It matches certain key elements, such as body heat, bone structure, and blood density against known demons so that we can do a threat analysis. It also helps us fight, if necessary, as we know the weak points."
Xander grinned suddenly. "Such as knowing that a kick in the ass for our well dressed friend over there is a little more threatening that it is for you, Simon."
Again the council laughed, acknowledging the fact that the demon Xander had nodded to had his heart in his left buttock.
"What is involved in the scanning?" Simon asked.
"Nothing," Xander replied. "We can scan all of you where you are sitting now."
Simon looked around the table, and seeing no opposition, he gave their permission.
Xander pulled out his communicator from his pocket, and pressed a button. "Andrew, start the scan."
As far as anyone could tell, nothing happened.
"It's done, Xander. Could you ask what species the demons in chairs four and seven are, please? The rest we know."
"Will do," he looked at the first demon. "Do you mind telling us what species you are?"
"Groosalugg," he replied. "Retired."
Xander nodded, Andrew would fill him in later as to why the 'retired' bit was important.
"And you, Sir?" Xander paid a little more respect to the dark demon. IT was never a good idea to insult someone who scared other demons. While he was pretty sure he was safe, he didn't want to field-test the rooms anti-demon weaponry unless it was very necessary, since the chances of him getting out alive were slim.
There seemed to be a pregnant pause, as everyone waited to see how the demon would react.
They were surprised when he chuckled. "I like you, Carpenter. I am a freak, a sport. I am the only one of my kind. I am half Pockla, half Nahdra."
Xander bowed his thanks, making another note to ask Andrew what the both of those demons were, and why such a combination would cause such fear and respect in the other demons present
"All right, now, on to more practical matters. How many of you have families that you would like protected?"
Simon looked a little surprised; he hadn't expected the protection to be offered to anyone but the Council itself.
"You would hardly be protected if our enemies could influence you by attacking your families," Xander explained upon seeing Simon and the others' reaction to his offer.
Simon nodded, "We all have."
"Ok, I have vans outside. Each of you, please go with the driver, pick up your families and any special food or nutritional supplements that you might need for the first few days. You will then be taken to your new apartments. Each of you will be accompanied by XTech security guards, to ensure that you all arrive safely."
Xander smiled at them. "You are now under our protection, gentleman. I would be very upset if anyone of you were to accidentally die now."
Another laugh swept the table, as the demons and the human stood up.
"Simon, you're with me. The rest of you, if you'll follow Brad and Joe, they will take you to your designated vans. Each of you will be given an XTech communicator. Band 1 will allow you to talk to each other; Band 2 will connect you here, in case of emergencies."
As the demons filed out, Simon turned to Xander. "How's Dawn?" It hadn't taken Bill long, once he had heard about the young girl living with the Carpenter, to find out everything he wanted to about the girl.
The Council had met before meeting with Xander, and had decided that the girl would be good for him, and would help keep him open minded.
Outside the conference room, Lorne's brother, Micklornswath, Mick to his friends, said, "I hear you guys are running a book on when Dawn gets Xander. Can I place a bet as well?"
Joe grinned, suddenly loosing the slight nervousness he had. It had been a shock for him to find that demon's existed. He'd only accepted the existence of vampires after losing two very close friends to them, before a lucky strike had impaled the vampire on a wooden fence. The idea that the demons would want to bet on when their boss and his girl would get together hammered home the fact that demons could be like humans...good and bad.
"Sure," he grinned. "How much do you want to get in for?"
Dawn, Ian and Chrissy's shopping trip had been very successful. Dawn had, with her friend's help, basically transformed Ian's wardrobe completely, before the teenage boy had received a call from home, urgently requesting his presence.
A quick phone call to Xander had verified that Dawn was on the company insurance, and so could take the company car. So Dawn had dropped Ian off at his home first, then Chrissy.
She smiled cheerfully at the guard, one she hadn't seen before, as she carried Xander's new suits past. They had been ready a day early when she had taken Ian into the same store, so she had collected them for him. She couldn't wait to see what he looked like in them.
She hung the suits in his closet and wandered into the kitchen. 'Ok, Dawn. Xander's going to be home late, time to prove your part of this family by cooking for him,' she thought to herself.
She glanced at the phone, looked through the cupboards and the fridge, then looked at the phone again. She just had one problem with her plan - she didn't have a clue how to cook.
The fridge was close to being empty, a sign that they hadn't been shopping in nearly a week. So she threw a couple of large potatoes in the oven, turning it to medium and decided to nip down the store to get a couple of steaks.
Buffy sighed as she looked at her empty fridge; it had an eerie correspondence to her wallet. She decided to go to the store and pick up something for dinner that evening, Spike had left her a couple of bucks on the table.
She threw a coat on and walked out, pretty much ignoring the rain.
Dawn took a deep breath, and then sprinted through the rain to the car. She tapped the button on the key ring, unlocking the car remotely, before slipping into the driver's side of the brand new Ford Taurus, which Xander had chosen as the basic model for the XTech company car.
She fastened her seatbelt, placed the key in the ignition, and smiled as the two liter Zetec engine roared into life. She floored the gas pedal as she dropped the car into gear, and laughed as the wheels spun wildly on the wet ground for a moment, before biting and pushing her back into the seat from the acceleration.
It was a thoroughly miserable Buffy who eventually arrived, soaked through, at the store. She pulled a wet cart from the cart rack, and shook herself, trying to get some of the surface water off her coat. She couldn't believe how fast the weather had turned from this morning, when they had been suffering in a heat wave, to this seemingly endless rain.
Dawn laughed to herself as the sporty car splashed through the puddles - its active suspension made taking the corners appear like she was on a train track. She flicked the radio on to 96-Wave, and started to sing along to Meatloaf's 'Bat Out Of Hell'.
She was enjoying herself so much, she almost forgot what she was out to get, and so ended up halfway across town, in the supermarket that she had used to go to with her mother.
She parked the car, finding it a lot easier to handle than Xander's huge SUV and hopped out. Her good mood was not going to be ruined by some rain, so she danced across the car park, jumping childishly into some of the smaller puddles, her long hair swinging around wildly.
She threw a huge smile at a store worker who handed her a dry trolley, a smile that was going to be remembered and used by that particular worker at night.
Buffy walked around the store, keeping a close eye on everything she put in her cart. Her normal brands were replaced with cheaper store brands, something that she was extremely depressed about. Heinz most definitely made the best ketchup; nothing else tasted the same.
Dawn bounced down the aisle, still singing to herself. She grabbed some salad fixings as she passed the produce section, deciding that it would be nice to have an accompaniment. She looked at the row of sauces, and grabbed a jar of Heinz mayonnaise, not sure if they had any in the house - mixed with some hamburger relish, it made a great salad dressing. Her mom had used to make it all the time, when she was younger.
She stopped at the meat counter, and waited her turn.
Buffy sighed as she picked up a pack of frozen chicken thighs. It would do for dinner, till they could sort out their finances and afford to get some proper food.
She was interrupted in her thoughts by a familiar voice.
"Can I have two of those sirloin steaks, please?"
Buffy rounded the corner, to see the smiling face of her younger sister. She watched as her sister was handed two expensive looking pieces of meat.
Slayer powers to the fore, she followed Dawn around the supermarket, as the younger girl stopped and carelessly added more stuff to her cart. Her own shopping finished, she watched with a tinge of envy as the younger girl added several bottles of coke, some Pringles, and then spent several minutes looking at deserts.
Buffy took a deep breath and pushed her cart forwards.
"Dawn," she said quietly.
The younger girl looked up, an expression close to fear on her face momentarily, before it vanished as the brown haired girl composed herself.
"Buffy," she replied coldly.
"So, are you enjoying living with Xander?"
"Yes, thank you. How's your engagement going?"
"Wonderfully."
Their conversation petered out into silence, as they both tried to think of something to say.
"I have to go," Dawn finally said. "I need to get home; I want to get these steaks ready for when Xander gets home."
"Oh," Buffy sniffed. "Making you cook is he?"
Dawn sighed. "Actually, Buffy," she came close to spitting her sister's name, "Xander has cooked every day this week. He has to work late tonight, so I thought I'd return the favor.
"It was nice seeing you," she said, obviously lying.
"You too," Buffy responded automatically. The Slayer watched as her sister walked off, realizing that she desperately wanted to call her back, but the words wouldn't leave her mouth. This wasn't how she wanted the conversation to go. She missed her sister a great deal, but was to proud to admit it. Besides, Dawn had lied about Spike.
She followed Dawn to the check out, and felt a twinge of jealousy as Dawn paid by simply handing the clerk a bank card.
As Dawn took her stuff out to her car, Buffy paid her own smaller bill. She had got her sums right, and had just enough cash.
She picked up her shopping and carried it out the shop.
Dawn sat in her car, and wiped a tear from her eye. She hadn't meant to snap at her sister, it just happened when she had insulted Xander, yet again. Her sister still didn't have a clue about who Xander really was, and that annoyed her no end.
The green eyed girl started the engine, and pulled up beside her sister as she saw her walking on the sidewalk. She pressed the button to lower the passenger side window.
"Do you want a lift home?"
Buffy looked at Dawn, and at the brand new car she was driving. "It's ok, I'd prefer the walk," she replied.
Dawn looked at the rain, and shrugged. She'd at least made the offer. If Buffy wanted to keep on being prissy, so be it. She pushed the button to raise the window and drove off smoothly, leaving her sister to curse her pride and walk home in the rain.
Dawn put the radio back on, and tried to recapture her earlier mood.
Back in their apartment, Dawn unpacked the groceries and made the salad quickly. It was then that something hit her. She had no idea at all how to really cook. Defrosting something and popping it into the microwave was about the extent of her culinary ability.
She walked over to her laptop, and looked at some of the more popular culinary sites, but didn't know if she trusted herself following instructions like that. She really wanted to get this right.
She looked at the phone, and hesitated.
It took another twenty seconds before she finally picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello?" An extremely cultured voice answered.
"Molly, it's Dawn."
The tome of her voice changed in an instant. "Dawn," Molly sounded incredibly pleased to hear from her, and the young brunette could practically feel the older woman's smile. "What can I do for you, dear?"
"Well," Dawn sounded embarrassed, mainly because she was. "Xander's working late, and I wanted to cook for him. I went and brought some steaks, but I don't know how to cook them."
"Honey, I'll be there in five minutes."
"Thanks," Dawn said, a little surprised. She hadn't expected Molly to come around, she'd just hoped that she'd give her some pointers over the phone.
Molly hung up and smiled brightly at her husband. "Dawn needs help cooking for Xander, so I'm going to help her. Can you be a dear and make sure that Xander doesn't come home early?" The poor child would be embarrassed beyond words if he walked in while I was helping her make dinner."
"Of course," Kyle said with a smile.
Molly dropped a kiss on his cheek and hurried out, dropping by her kitchen on her way out. She almost jumped into her Mercedes, and, while wearing a brilliant smile, she gunned the engine and took off as fast as she could.
Kyle watched her go with a smile. He couldn't remember when he had ever seen her so happy. It was an unfortunate coincidence that both of them had been sterile. They'd discussed adopting, but had never gotten around to it. Having Dawn and Xander in their lives showed them a bit of what they had missed, but it also filled the same gap. Molly was off to help someone she loved, and it had taken many years off her. He thanked the heavens once more for bringing first Xander, then Dawn into their lives.
Picking up his mobile, he went out to his own BMW and went to check up on Xander.
Molly swung into the car park at high speed, expertly breaking and parking in one of the visitor slots. She jumped out the car and practically jogged towards the door. She smiled at the guard, who stood and saluted.
"Relax," she smiled at him. "I'm just going to see Dawn."
He nodded and smiled, dropping his salute.
As she vanished into the elevator, he smiled. It looked like Dawn had definitely passed the Michaels' test.
She knocked on the door to Xander's apartment, and immediately hugged the brown haired girl as she opened it.
"Come on, honey. We don't have much time. I brought some 'practice steaks' for you to try cooking first, first," she said, as she led the girl into the kitchen.
"All right, now" Molly said, lifting herself onto the counter. "I'm not going to do any of the work, that's your job. I'm just going to tell you what to do."
"Ok," Dawn said, accepting the challenge with a grin.
"First, get out some bell peppers, an onion and some mushrooms. We'll make a little something to go with it."
Dawn found herself having a great time and enjoying the work immensely as she followed the simple instructions to cut, slice, dice, fry and bake the relevant parts. The instructions were mixed in with a wide-ranging conversation, as Molly discreetly checked out Dawn's intelligence. She was extremely pleased to find that Dawn was easily as smart as Xander, with a surprising amount of knowledge of the world, considering she was only seventeen.
The young woman's first practice steak wasn't a complete success, but by the time she had done her third, she understood the concepts well enough for Molly to give her some praise.
While Dawn checked the potatoes, Molly stuck the 'starter' steaks into a Tupperware container; her dogs would enjoy the snack later.
A quick heads-up message on her cell from Kyle alerted Molly that Xander had finished with the Council and was on his way home, and would be there in ten minutes.
Molly hopped off the counter. The steaks Dawn had purchased were ready to be cooked, the salad was made and in a bowl ready to be served, and the bottle of wine Molly had brought with her was cooling in the refrigerator.
"Xander's going to be here soon, so I'm going to vanish."
Dawn walked over and gave her a huge hug. "Thank you, so much, Molly. I really appreciate the help."
Molly smiled another huge smile. "It's been a lot of fun, Dawn. Please make sure you always phone me when you need anything."
"I will," Dawn said, enjoying the maternal embrace. She hadn't realized how much she had missed this sort of hug.
With a grin, Molly vanished, pulling out of the car park barely a minute before Xander arrived back.
He walked in and was pleasantly surprised to find the kitchen table set for two. His fatigue instantly vanished.
"Smells really good," he said to Dawn, an incredibly impressed expression on his face. He had been expecting that he would have to cook after he had gotten home, as he didn't think Dawn could. Yet again, he was forced to reevaluate the girl who was having such a dramatic influence on his life.
"Sit down, and I'll get the potatoes out of the oven, and start the steaks," Dawn suggested with a small smile as she realized what he had been thinking.
Xander saluted, and sat at the table, eagerly awaiting the food that already had his taste buds screaming for seconds just from the fragrance
Dawn poured him a glass of red wine. He looked surprised, but didn't comment, not even as she poured herself a glass.
Dawn then checked that the frying pan was as incredibly hot, before laying down the two pieces of meat she had purchased earlier. When they were cooked, she added the sauce to one side, before plumping the potato as she got it out of the oven. She added the salad to the side and brought the larger plate to him.
For once, he didn't dig in, but waited for her to sit opposite him.
"You look really nice," he said as he noticed her clothes as she sat down.
Dawn smiled widely at him, delighted at the unexpected compliment. She had expected him to be too tired to do anything more than simply eat and try to relax and unwind before going to bed.
"Thank you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this," he said with a smile at her. Anya might have been extremely proficient at gutting at cheating man, but her ability with food preparation was limited to picking up the phone and ordering take-away. That had meant that Xander had cooked for the two of them more often than not.
"I told you, Xan. I'm an adult now, and I'm going to do my share without complaining."
Xander smiled warmly at her. "I'm glad you're here," he said simply.
She favored him with another of the smiles that seemed to put the sun to shame.
He took a bite, and his face took on a look of such rapture that she had to giggle.
After complementing her, they both started to eat seriously. The conversation, as it had been every night, ranged from the joking to the serious. And yet again, Xander found himself realizing that there was literally no one else on the planet he would rather spend time with.
Buffy attempted to towel dry her hair, but wasn't very successful. She left it hanging wet around her shoulders as she added some store bought casserole mix to the chicken, and placed it in the oven.
"Hey, ducks." Spike's voice, caring and loving, did more to warm her than his body did. "What's the matter?"
Buffy sighed. "I met Dawn in the supermarket. She had Xander's bank card and was getting something for them to eat, and she said she wanted to cook as he had been cooking since she moved in."
Spike nodded.
"I wanted to ask her to come home, but I couldn't get the words out. It all came out wrong. I tried to tell her how much I missed her, but I couldn't."
Spike wrapped an arm around her, and held her to him. She snuggled into him, pressing her face against his shoulder.
Unseen by the Slayer, Spike smirked, unable to resist the opportunity to further isolate her from any possible support system. "You wanted to ask her to come home?"
Buffy nodded, thinking that she just said that.
"That's not how you do it, luv. Remember how you beat the First?"
The blonde Slayer lent back and stared at her partner. "What?"
"You didn't ask anyone to do anything while you were running the successful campaign to defeat the First, you told everyone what to do, and they did it. Thanks to you, the First was defeated. You can't ask Dawn nicely to come home, that doesn't work. You have to be the general again, and order her home, and not accept any mutiny."
"But..." Buffy tried to interrupt.
"No," Spike insisted. "You were the one who saw what the First was doing and put together the plan to stop him. It worked, you won. Remember?"
She nodded slowly.
"People respect victorious leaders, darlin'. You just have to remind Dawn that you are one, and she'll recognize that you know best."
"What would I do without you?" Buffy asked, accepting his words at face value.
"Let's hope you never have to find out."
Kennedy awoke with a slight smile. It felt really good to be back in her own bed. She looked around her large room and smiled again. She had spent too much time with the other SIT's in that crowded house. 'I really should have gotten Daddy to pay for some decent accommodation for us.'
She crawled out of the four poster bed, and spent half an hour getting ready for the day. After arriving home yesterday, on her birthday, her father had taken her out of a meal at the country club, and promised to buy her a present at the weekend. What she wanted was a new Mercedes SLK coupe; sadly, her father had something a little less pricey in mind.
Dressed in some expensive, fashionable clothes once more, and feeling rich again for the first time in several months, she wandered into her father's study and sat down opposite him as he finished up the telephone call he was on.
"Damn it!" Her father slammed the phone down as hard as he could, and leant back. With his eyes firmly fixed on the ceiling, he swore loudly and fulsomely.
"Problem, Daddy?"
He fixed his daughter with a baleful eye, then slowly smiled as she winked at him.
"I've just lost another contract to renovate a chain of hotels to PJH Construction. It's the fourth contract this month, and it's starting to cost me money."
"Who are they?"
"They are one of the biggest contractors on the west coast, and my biggest rivals. I was killing them last year, undercutting them pretty much everywhere. We cut corners and came out ahead in the end."
The statement might have landed him in trouble in a court of law, but he had always had a peculiar relationship with his daughter. He had never been a true father, and had pretty much left his wife to bring Kennedy up when she was younger. When she had died, a few years before, he had made the effort to get to know her, but his parental skills had been...lacking.
For the first few years, they had been virtual strangers living in the same house. She asked for something, he gave it to her, and that was it. After a while, he had started to warm to her as she grew up, and had started to teach her some of his business, realizing that one day he would need an heir, one who could understand the need to sometimes bend the law.
When that Watcher had shown up, to take her away, he had simply left the decision up to her. She was more his friend than his daughter, and as such, deserved the right to make her own decisions, he felt.
He was completely unaware that he *did* have some fatherly feelings for her, such as his total inability to see that Kennedy was very spoilt, very used to getting her own way.
"Now, they've got some new hotshot VP who's worked his way up from their construction crews and who a reputation for security systems that is amazing, to say the least."
"So who are they?"
"They're a good sized firm that's starting to grow fast, based in Sunnydale," he looked down through his paperwork. "Their new VP is one...Alexander Harris, a former carpenter who they found on one of their shift teams."
"Xander?" Kennedy asked, shocked at hearing that name coming from her father's mouth. "You have a picture?" She wanted to make sure it was actually him, not just some weird coincidence.
"Sure," her father said, rummaging again. He passed a photo over to her; it was a black and white, taken from a distance as the young man had been stepping from a car. "You know him?"
"Yeah, he was a good friend of the Slayers, but we all thought that he was just a carpenter. All he did when not at work was hang around the house, help out and fix the damages the vamps and demons did. He was kinda, sweet though. He always looked out for all of us, gave us a pep talk when we needed it, and it was him that came up with the weapon that defeated the First."
"You still gay?" The question was a little blunt, but honest all the same.
"Don't know," she replied. Kennedy had often thought that he knew more about her than he had ever let on, that maybe he was her father after all.
He smiled at her. "So, you still want that Merc?"
Kennedy frowned at him, tilting her head.
"Cards, dad!"
The short hand was something they had developed sometime ago.
"I want Mr. Harris to work for me, and I want you to go get him. I've sent some of my people, but he seems to be the loyal sort, wouldn't even listen to them." His voice was calm and considerate, as if asking his underage daughter to go and 'get' a man was the most normal thing in the world for a father to do.
Kennedy was shocked. She had started to fancy men, and sure, Xander was attractive, but did she really want to just go 'get' someone? First off, there was the whole Willow situation; she had chickened out of the relationship with the Witch by email, despite the fact that she knew it was for the best. Did she really want to be back in the same town as her former lover? But, she started to consider the whole situation; Xander was obviously richer than she had realized, he was unattached, she would get that Mercedes she wanted, and could probably wheedle more out of her father, and who better to test out her newly discovered heterosexuality with, than someone she already knew.
"It will need to be more than a Mercedes."
Her father smiled, back on familiar territory. The negotiation took most of the day.
Xander sat in his office, doing more paperwork; it was becoming a routine that he really liked. Breakfast with Dawn, followed by a light conversation and a coffee, before they both went their separate paths for the day, knowing they would meet up again later.
He wondered if this is what marriage was like.
The carpenter froze. Dead still. Although, considering where they lived, he really should come up with a better comparison.
Marriage? What the hell?
Xander sighed, dropping the report he was reading. It wasn't the most interesting at the best of times, and this certainly wasn't those times.
He had to think about Dawn, properly. Since this had blown up last Saturday, he'd been happily running through the week, dealing and reacting to everything, and not giving much extra thought to anything that was happening. He was aware that things had been changing between him and the Slayer's younger sister, but he was happy to just let things go on as they were.
Xander leant back into his chair and looked at the ceiling.
He was starting to find a girl who wasn't even eighteen yet attractive. It was strange, he reflected to himself, she was nothing like any of his previous partners. She didn't wear trashy clothes, and not want to be seen with him. She didn't flirt openly, or make off color remarks; hell, she seemed more mature than he was half the time. She certainly wasn't like Anya, her behavior with Molly and Kyle had shown that. Both of them talked about her more than they talked about him, which was something he was more than happy to join in with.
But that still left the main problem. Dawn was not even eighteen yet. It wouldn't have mattered if he was her age, but he wasn't. He was four and a half years older than she was, well, if you didn't count the implanted memories, he was nearly eighteen years older than her.
She had been, well, not his sister, but more like his niece for all these years. It had been a little strange, how he'd never thought of her like family, but he had put it down to that fact that, while he had been good friends with Buffy, it had never been anything more. It was as if the potential to have Dawn as a sister had always been there. All it would have needed was for Buffy to have agreed to date him, and he would have pushed her into that category for life.
But Buffy never had, and he had never mentally pushed her into that hole. It was almost as if his subconscious was saying, "Why push away someone who might be worthwhile in the very distant future."
But even that didn't change the age difference, and the fact that he still wasn't sure if he could change the family feelings of love for her into something else. And more importantly, he didn't know if he wanted to.
Dawn was making it very easy for him to fall in love with her, even if she didn't know it. She listened to him, she reassured and encouraged him, she wanted to know about him. All the things he had never had in a home life, she had just waltzed in and started doing, and it was addictive.
She had even cooked for him last night, and he hadn't even known that she knew how to cook.
Dawn was also beautiful. It had been a hell of a shock to realize that. He remembered the cute teenager who had a crush on him, the innocent flirtation. That had been blown out of the water the other night when she had flounced past him in one of his t-shirts, and he was pretty damn sure she had been naked underneath it. It had taken every ounce of his Anya created willpower not to stare at her chest.
Dawn had a chest. That was another uncomfortable thought. Especially after a dream that same night that showed him the possibilities attached to that chest.
Regardless of anything else, Dawn was under age. So this kind of thinking was pointless at the moment. He knew he was denying the possibility to himself, but her age gave him a buffer he could use for now.
"Got a sec, boss?"
Xander looked up, a little startled. "Take a seat, Andrew," he gestured lazily.
"Thanks. I got the field results for the new guns."
Xander looked balefully at the large report his friend was holding. "Want to give me the gist of it?"
Andrew grinned, he'd expected that. "The new G36 passed every test we put it through, and the guys love it."
"I'm going to regret asking this, but what is the G36?"
"A new assault rifle we've been checking out. We've been testing two versions, the K and C. The K is a short assault rifle with a shortened forearm and barrel. It comes with a flash suppressor, making it great for night work. It can take up to a hundred round magazine drum, and can have a 40mm grenade launcher attached to it. The guys have come up with some really good ideas for anti-demon and anti-vampire grenades.
"The C is the commando compact version, and is quite a bit smaller, and will mainly be used as our entry weapon for taking out nests. We chose this over a sub machine gun because it's got superior terminal ballistics and will go straight through body armor, so it should pierce most demon hides, also.
"We fired over ten thousand rounds through these babies; we even went out to the desert to test it under extreme conditions. They recommend that you clean it every thousand rounds, but it's got a cool exhaust system, that meant it didn't freeze, even with all the sand and dust around."
"Andrew. You're still a geek."
The geek in question grinned. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
Xander laughed.
"How come you're not more into this, what with being possessed by that soldier spirit in your junior year?"
Xander looked at him sharply. "How did you know about that?"
Andrew shrugged, "Part of our research on the Scooby gang brought it up. The image of Buffy as a helpless socialite seemed somehow apt."
"The memory started failing pretty quickly, so about the only thing I have left is the ability to shoot. It seems that the ability was automatic, and sunk into my mind, the rest was training and didn't."
Andrew nodded, leaning back in to his seat.
"What are you going to do about Ian?"
"What do you mean?" Xander frowned.
"Your idea of him joining after college isn't working. He's here most nights, and all weekend. He puts in almost as many hours as you do. Add to that he has better fighting skills than most of the people here and more actual experience with vampires and you have a person we need on a more official basis."
"What are you suggesting?"
"We pay him for weekends and two nights a week, which is pretty much all we can get away with legally."
Xander sighed. "This is going to cause a problem. I can't see Dawn sitting on the sidelines, either, once we start patrolling. She is not going to sit by at home while I'm out at night and we're going to need every advantage we have."
"And I've got an interview tomorrow for someone Ian picked out, a friend of his named Daryl," Andrew added with a smile. "The guy found out about Vampires after hacking into somewhere he shouldn't have." He held up his hand, forestalling the obvious question. "No, I don't know where or what he did, but I'll find out tomorrow. I have a couple of tests for him, but if he's as good as Ian thinks, we're going to need him."
"How old is he?"
"Don't know."
"God, I hope he's at least eighteen. The last thing I need is California Child Welfare department on my back."
Andrew grinned. "That's why you're the boss, and I have," he checked his watch, "twenty minutes to get to class." He stood and walked out.
"Andrew," Xander called after him. "You're doing a really good job here. Thank you."
It was an extremely happy Andrew who aced his psychology test later that day. Xander's final words were playing over and over in his mind, positive reinforcement for someone who had lacked anything like it all his life.
Xander looked at his watch, and realized that is was lunch time. He held a quick internal debate with himself, but in the end couldn't resist the lure. He phoned one number, held a quick conversation, then phoned another.
"Dawn, you got any plans for tonight?" he asked, after exchanging a greeting with the brunette girl.
"Nope," Dawn said cheerfully.
"How do you fancy eating out?"
It was with great willpower that Dawn resisted the urge to squeal with delight. "That would be great. What should I wear?"
"Something smart, I'll be wearing one of the suits you chose for me. I'll pick you up at six?"
"Ok," Dawn's smile was almost visible down the phone. "See ya then, Xan."
Dawn looked over at Ian, Chrissy and Daryl. "Xander's taking me out tonight, to a restaurant." She beamed, her smile incredibly wide, before it suddenly fell. "Oh my god, what am I going to wear?"
Chrissy laughed, "Don't worry. I'll come round after school, and help you get ready."
"But you haven't got a car," Dawn pointed out with a pout. "And there's no way in hell that you're walking home in the dark alone."
Ian leant forward with a suggestion. "I'll come home with you, and then take Chrissy home later, before I drop the car back off at XTech. You coming, Daryl?"
Daryl looked shocked for a brief second, his eyes flicking to Dawn's, who was smiling and nodding.
"Sure," he said weakly, still not quite able to believe that he was being accepted as he was by the school queen.
"Excellent," Ian said with a grin. "Daryl and I can use the Playstation, while you two girl it up."
Chrissy responded with a sweet smile and a not so sweet elbow to his stomach.
The bell rung for afternoon classes, and they walked out of the canteen. The eyes of the school population were on the group again, only this time the split was a lot more even. The new clothes had achieved a similar effect on Ian. All of a sudden, he was being noticed by girls who had avoided him before. The psycho attitude was known to have vanished, leaving a dark haired bad boy, who had proved several times he was good in a fight. Teenage hormones had suddenly made a lot of girls very aware of him.
After school, Ian and Daryl had joined the two girls at Dawn's car, and traveled together back to the apartment.
The guard smiled at Dawn, and nodded to Ian. As the foursome walked past, he immediately sent photo's of the other two to headquarters. Unofficially, of course.
"Whoa!" Darryl and Chrissy looked extremely impressed as Dawn opened the door to the apartment she shared with Xander.
Daryl immediately walked over to the TV, as Chrissy turned to the huge windows and looked out at Sunnydale.
Ian and Dawn shared a grin; their friends' reactions were somewhat predictable.
Chrissy shook herself, then remembered why she was here. "You, shower," she ordered Dawn. "You, couch. You, kitchen, drinks," she issued orders to Daryl and Ian respectively.
With an amused expression, the others silently followed her orders. Daryl sat on the couch, then grinned as he spotted a laptop laying on the floor.
"You mind?" he asked Dawn, nodding towards the laptop.
"Use the one on the table, that's Xander's. He's hardly touched it, so he won't mind it getting some real use."
"Thanks," he grinned at her, making Dawn realize that he wasn't at all bad looking when he smiled.
Dawn smiled back and wandered into her room, Chrissy joining her as she relieved the returning Ian of a couple of cans of coke. "See you later, boys."
The blonde grinned impishly at them, then danced into the bedroom.
Daryl booted the laptop, going immediately into the BIOS. A few keystrokes later, he smiled widely as he found that it could boot from an USB device. He pulled out his house keys and unhooked a small cigarette sized box. After snapping the cap off, he plugged it into the back and let the computer boot into his custom Linux distribution.
Without looking up, he said quietly, "So, you like Chrissy, huh?"
"What?" Ian asked, shocked and almost blushing.
"Chrissy, the cute blonde you hang around with. You like her."
"First off, it's we who hang around her, not I. And secondly, what the hell are you talking about?"
Daryl logged in, and typed "startx twm" at the prompt, his bespoke .Xinitrc taking the argument and starting his favorite window manager. He ignored the mangled mess that Ian's last statement had been, and responded absently. "Your eyes never leave her when she's in the same room."
"..." Ian said, in a feat of superior linguistics, before standing and turning the Playstation on. He sat next to Daryl, and quickly lost himself in the game.
Daryl smiled, using his nightly build of the new firebird browser to check his email.
They talked quietly, neither of them ever actually having had a male or, well, any, friends before, so not quite sure how to act. All they knew was that they liked each other.
Inside the bedroom, Dawn stepped out of the bathroom wearing only a tower.
"So, what look are we going for here? The 'I want to jump your bones', the 'I'm a big girl, I want you to jump my bones?' or the 'I'm boring but classy, I'll wait for the bone jumping' look?" Chrissy asked.
Dawn blinked at her for several seconds, then laughed. "The third I think. Slow and steady wins the race, and all that."
The blonde rolled her eyes and walked over to Dawn's wardrobe. "Well, it's a good thing you want the 'boring but classy'. That's all you've got." She sounded a little disgusted.
"Hey," Dawn complained. "I think I look good in those clothes."
"You do, sugar," Chrissy admitted. "But how are you going to catch him without showing some skin?"
Dawn sat on the bed, folding her legs under her. "Xander's not a normal guy, Chrissy. Buffy once called him one of the girls. He seems to have an endless amount of love to give, but in the past, he has had trouble drawing the line between platonic and sexual love." She placed her elbows on her knees and held her chin up. "He was dating a girl named Cordelia, while in love with my sister and also having a very close relationship with Willow. Cordelia dumped him after she and Oz, Willow's boyfriend, found them kissing together."
Chrissy leant back against the dresser. "I didn't think Xander would be the type to cheat."
Dawn nodded in agreement. "I think he learnt his lesson, as he never even looked like cheating on Anya. He is starting to change, though, drawing the line a lot more firmly between platonic and sexual. I didn't realize at the time, but when he refused to sleep with Anya just before the final battle, that was one of the first steps towards him growing up like that.
"We had a talk about Faith, another girl from his past, the other night. It showed again that he is trying to move on from his past. That he didn't want the same things he wanted as a teenager. I'm pretty sure he's made his peace with Cordy as well.
"All of this means that I don't want to try and get him by showing some skin. Believe me, I tried that between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. He must have thought that my entire wardrobe consisted of tank tops and boxer shorts. It didn't work; he just thought it was cute Dawnie with her adorable little crush." Her voice was mocking as she delivered the last line. "Xander is moving towards an adult relationship, and I want to be the one he turns to. I can't be that by flashing skin at him. I'm not even sure how I can be that. I just hope that being myself, and being as mature as I can be, means that when he is ready, he will look at me first, and like what he sees."
"So you don't think Xander is perfect, then?" The young blonde asked softly, not ever having seen her friend so open. She guessed it was a once in a life time opportunity and wanted to take advantage of it.
Dawn shook her head. "Uh-uh! Xander's got an amazing ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. He'll hide his feelings behind jokes and flip remarks, and as I said, in the past, has shown an inability to differentiate between the types of love that he feels. And he can hold a grudge till the next ice age without breaking a sweat. But I see him trying to change, to get over his jokes and remarks, and I think that Molly and Kyle are really helping him there. He still holds a grudge, but I'm not sure that he'll ever change that, and it's actually kinda reassuring in a way. Predictable, you know?
"I'm in love with him, with Alexander Harris. I think that I see his good points and his bad points, and I hope I can accept both. I had him on a pedestal while I was crushing on him, but this is much more than that."
"You seem a lot older than your age, Dawn. Sometimes, at least."
Dawn sighed softly, "Sometimes, Chrissy, I feel as old as the universe."
There was a brief silence, before the blonde grinned impishly. "So, we still need to decide what you're wearing." She reached into the closet and pulled something out.
"This will do perfectly."
Dawn looked at the dress and slowly smiled. "If this doesn't show him that I'm grown up, nothing will."
It was the first time she had ever had a 'little black dress' and she was looking forward to his reaction to it.
"Ok," Chrissy started to go through her drawers, rating each piece as she picked it up. "Underwear, underwear. Childish, yeuch, what the hell were you thinking? Ahh, perfect." The discarded items to one side, she turned to her friend, holding up the garments. "You've never even worn these, have you?"
Dawn shook her head, looking nervous. "I don't know if I like the idea of being on my first unofficial date with Xander with a permanent wedgie."
"It's either this, or commando, sugar," the blonde advised with a grin.
The long haired brunette girl frowned at her friend; she thought that the blonde was taking way too much pleasure in all of this.
"Bra?" Dawn sighed.
"Not with this dress, Honey."
Dawn paled. "I don't know if I can do this. What if he doesn't think I look good?"
Chrissy laughed, and wondered if Dawn was a Gemini, she certainly seemed to have two aspects to her personality. One, that of someone totally in love with a guy she had known all her life, and knew better than she knew herself, and another, who was a normal teenage girl, crushing on an older man.
"You'll knock his socks off, sugar."
There was a companionable silence in the main room, as Daryl took advantage of the buildings T-1 line and Ian played on the Playstation.
Chrissy entered the room first, and for the first time since she had left the room, Ian looked up. Casually, he nudged Daryl, hoping it would wipe the smirk of his face. It didn't.
Dawn came out next, to low wolf whistles from the two boys. She smiled at them and twirled lightly. Her black dress started below her shoulders and finished just above her knees. It had a heart shaped area of fabric that hinted at the valley between her breasts.
"You think he will like it?"
"He'd have to be brain dead not to," Daryl said honestly. Seeing how much Dawn was in love with a guy he had never met had forced him to realize that she would never look at him like that. She was a one man woman, and she had chosen. He just hoped that Xander was worthy of her.
Ian looked at his watch, then saved his game. "Come on, we need to get out of here. Xander will be picking Dawn up in five minutes." He turned and looked at the brunette. "Make sure you wait inside the building, Dawn, we don't want you snatched away."
Dawn rolled her eyes at him, and answered in a droll voice, "Yes, dad."
He smirked back, and lead the other two out, only stopping to make sure the guard kept an eye on Dawn when she came down.
Xander looked at his watch, then dialed Kyle's mobile.
"What's up, Xander?" Kyle asked, his Caller-ID having identified Xander's office number.
"Erm, I haven't asked this since I was sixteen, but, err... Can I borrow your car tonight? I'm taking Dawn to a restaurant and would rather take her in style."
"Of course you can." Kyle didn't hesitate a moment in his reply.
"Great," Xander smile was almost visible down the phone. "I'll be around in fifteen minutes."
Kyle hung up and grinned at Molly. "Guess who's taking Dawn out on a date and wants to borrow my car?"
Molly grinned in excitement. "Did he call it a date?"
Her husband shook his head. "Nope."
"Oh well, getting them together in a romantic restaurant is a start."
Kyle nodded, then made his way to the garage. He didn't think that Xander knew just how many cars he and Molly had between them. Eleven at last count, ranging from a Ferrari F60 to a small BMW Z3. He wandered around slowly, running his hands over the cars, trying to decide which one would be best to lend to his adopted son. He wasn't concerned about the car being damaged, just what would make the right impression and allow the two of them to enjoy it the most.
He contemplated the standard Rolls Royce, but decided it was to austere for such an occasion. He suddenly grinned as he came across the perfect car. A Bentley Continental GT, a six liter twin turbo charged twelve cylinder engine. It could do 0 to 60 in less than 5 seconds, and would stop again in half that time. It cornered like a train and was fitted to the brim with the latest technology. He had only driven it a few times himself, so he enjoyed it as he drove out of the garage and around the front of the house.
Kyle smiled and waited by the car as Xander drove up. He smiled as he saw the Carpenter smile at him, then do a classic double take as he looked at the car Kyle was sat next to.
"That's not your BMW," Xander said softly, almost reverently, unable to drag his eyes away from the sleek lines of the car in front of him.
Kyle struggled to stop from laughing; the naked want on Xander's face was a joy to behold. "My BMW's being washed," he lied. "So I thought I'd lend you one of my other cars."
Xander nodded absently, walking around the Bentley.
"Friend cabbages are an excellent source of fuel for hovercrafts," The older man stated calmly.
"Oh yeah," Xander agreed absently, peering through the driver's side window at the driver's console.
"Molly ran away to join the circus this morning, she's going to be an elephant trainer."
"Good for her," the carpenter replied as he opened the door and knelt to look in.
He suddenly stood up and looked at Kyle, blushing furiously. "Could you repeat those last two statements?"
Kyle laughed loudly. "No, I don't think so. Here," he threw Xander a card shaped piece of plastic. "Keep it for the weekend, bring it back on Monday."
Xander caught the card, recognizing it as a keyless entry system similar to a Mercedes'. With a smile, he walked over and hugged the older man. "Thank you," he said simply.
"Any time, Son. Any time."
A lopsided grin later and Xander was in the car. The ignition button, combined with the proximity of the plastic card caused the engine to roar into life. The dashboard illuminated, high lighting the dark stained Walnut interior. He depressed the clutch, thankful he had learnt to drive shift, pushed the gear stick into first, and slowly let up the clutch, feeling for the bite as the gears engaged.
Xander pulled away carefully, getting used to the powerful car. He opened the window to wave a final thanks at Kyle, before pulling out of the estate and onto the open road. He turned the stereo up loud, and floored the accelerator.
The shock of the power that pushed him hard back into the seat, caused him to release the accelerator pedal, as he realized he would have to take it a lot slower till he understood how the car worked.
By the time he had arrived at the apartment building, he was very confident in his ability to handle the gorgeous car.
He pulled up outside the entrance door, and got out, the car switching itself off and locking itself as it sensed its plastic key move out of range.
"Wow," Xander said softly, as he came face to face with Dawn, who was waiting for him in the lobby. "You look amazing."
Dawn smiled, instinctively realizing that he hadn't meant to say that the way it came out. "You're not looking bad yourself. That suit really looks good on you."
He smiled at her, and only the faint hint of confusion in his eyes showed the effect that this very grown up Dawn was having on him.
The long haired girl kept her smirk under wraps. She had a very unfair advantage in knowing exactly what Xander was thinking, and fully intended to use it.
"Shall we go?"
"We shall," Dawn smiled regally, holding his arm. Dawn was unaware, and Xander had forgotten, about the security camera installed above the door. The guard hadn't, though, and it only took several seconds for the video to be showing on most of the XTech monitors, to some cheering from the people who had bet on an early get together, and some groans from those who had thought it would take longer.
"What is this?" Dawn's voice was awestruck as she looked at the car.
"Bentley Continental GT. Kyle leant it to me, thought it was more appropriate than my SUV."
Dawn's already wide eyes went even wider, and then started to shine with excitement. "Can I drive it?" she asked with an impish smile on her face.
Xander shook his head slowly, as they climbed in to the car.
Dawn decided to pull out the big guns. She leant forwards, placing a hand lightly on his thigh, leaning her head back, allowing her hair to brush his shoulder. She made her eyes as wide as possible, and put enough emotion in them to break the hardest of hearts. "Please, Xan," she whispered with a husky little voice.
Xander folded faster than a card shark at a police convention. His eyes desperately leaped around the car, as he tried as hard as he could to avoid staring down the front of her dress. She kept the ultra innocent expression on her face, while internally her mind was throwing a huge celebration party.
Dawn *knew* that Xander was not seeing her as a little girl. It was making him uncomfortable, and he didn't know how to deal with it, but he was definitely seeing her as a woman. She needed every advantage she could get, she knew, especially with Faith arriving soon.
She settled back into the seat, her palm instantly demanding that it be put back on his warm thigh. With a slight sigh of regret, the girl promised her palm she would do so later, and perhaps find other places as well.
Xander cleared his throat, and started the car, driving off in silence, his thigh still burning from the short time her hand had rested so innocently on it. He shot a glance at her, and found that she was wearing a smile that looked remarkably like the Mona Lisa.
Five years ago, Xander would not have understood that smile, maybe even a year ago, he wouldn't have. He had learnt a lot from Anya, and from the other girls in his life, and for once, he found himself understanding what she was doing. She wanted him to see her as an adult, and she had succeeded. First, seeing how elegant she looked, then how easily she had manipulated him, forced him to realize that little Dawnie was all grown up now, and more than capable of deciding for herself what she wanted.
He was not sure what he felt for her, apart from an unquestionable attraction, but he slowly started to realize that he most definitely wanted to find out. For now, he decided that the best thing to do was carry on as normal.
Xander parked the car himself, unwilling to let the concierge service drive a car worth more than the restaurant. He got out first, then opened the door for Dawn, a slight smile on his face.
They walked in together, to be greeted by the owner warmly. "This way, Mr. Harris. Your table is ready." The elderly Italian led them to a secluded corner on a balcony, where they had a perfect view of the night sky and the rest of the restaurant.
Dawn was too young, and Xander too insecure for them to notice the reaction they got. Half of the eyes in the building were watching Dawn, (well, her legs and ass, at least) as she walked up the stairs, and the other half was watching similar things. They wondered who the beautiful girl and powerfully dressed young man were.
Ian dropped Daryl off first; the geek lived with his mother in a nice modern townhouse in a good residential area of Summerville.
Ian placed the car in gear again, and drove off slowly, not really wanting to reach his destination.
"So, how long have you known Dawn?" he asked.
Chrissy smiled in the darkness. She could see that he was taking the long route back to her place, and didn't mind in the least. "About three years. She was failing Math, and Mrs. Jenkins asked me to help her out. I did, got to know her, and we've been friends since."
Ian smiled.
"What happened in the Gym the other day?"
"You heard about that?" Ian asked, a little uncomfortably.
"Yeah," the blonde grinned. "A lot of people talk to me, especially now, letting me know what is going on in the school. Yesterday, I heard about a former school psycho swearing his allegiance to the new Queen."
Ian nodded, not allowing himself to be embarrassed. "Xander saved my life. He told me most of his life story, so when Adam asked for some backup, I felt that I owed him enough to help someone he obviously cares about. It was pretty much the old guard trying to get back in charge, so I threw a few facts at them, neutralized Porsche and knocked Lance out. All in all, a good five minutes of work. I'd wanted to hit him for ages, anyway." He admitted with a small grin. "This way, it was for a good cause."
Chrissy laughed softly, flicking her hair absently over her shoulder.
"I didn't actually meet Dawn till the next day, and hey, I was impressed. She seemed to accept me instantly."
"Yeah, she's started to do that, make instant judgments about people. She's pretty accurate, too."
Ian slowed the car, reluctantly, pulling to a stop outside her house. It being dark, he got out first, and opened the door for her.
She climbed out and smiled warmly at him, thinking that he was not that bad looking, especially with those intense eyes. Chrissy leant back against the car, and decided to continue the conversation for a few minutes.
In Sunnydale, that was a mistake.
"Ahh, young love, it always makes the blood taste better." A mocking voice interrupted them, as three denim clad young looking men appeared out of the darkness.
"Chrissy, get your ass inside, now!" Ian's voice was insistently commanding, and the blonde found herself running before she realized it.
The lead vampire looked pissed as one of his meals escaped. "Well, you'll just have to do for the three of us."
"You really picked the wrong night to fuck with me," Ian growled. "Do you have any idea how long it has been since I got to talk to a girl like that? It was before puberty. You fucking vampires ruined the first four years of my being a teenager, and now you come and ruin this? I'm definitely going to make you go down on your knees and fucking beg to be staked."
The three vampires exchanged looks; this was not how it was supposed to go. Human were supposed to be paralyzed with fear, not extremely pissed off that their evening had been interrupted. Their keen vampiric sense of smell showed them all that Ian was not even slightly intimidated by them, and that he was preparing himself for violence.
"Get him!"
The vampire to the left, a long-haired blond man, took three quick steps forward, his arms out to grab the boy. He didn't even see the boy shift slightly, but he did feel the pain in his chest, as the stake that Ian kept in the back of his pants was retrieved and shoved into his chest with a satisfying thud.
"You bastard, you killed Kenny!"
Ian stopped, and looked at the vampire suspiciously. "You're kidding, right?" he asked.
"What?" The vampires asked, looking really confused.
"You've never seen South Park?"
"What the hell is that?"
"Ok," Ian looked relieved. "Let's go, then."
The two vampires looked at each other, puzzled, then shrugged their shoulders and decided to work together.
Ian's expression didn't change, but he felt slightly nervous. One on one, he could take a vampire, two on one, would be a lot more difficult. Still, there was no way in hell he was allowing these scum buckets past to get to Chrissy.
A sharp whistle caught the vampire's attention, they looked up, to find Chrissy pointing a gun at them.
"Bullets don't hurt us, Girlie," the one on the left smirked.
"No," Ian agreed, having started to move as soon as he heard Chrissy whistle. The vampire never heard him finish his statement with, "But my stake will."
The remaining vampire growled, and leapt at Ian, his claws out, determined to take the boy with him.
A sharp crack sounded, and the vampire disintegrated, the dust landing over the teenager.
He looked up, and saw Chrissy standing there, a determined look on her face. Ian walked over to her slowly, and gently took the gun from her hands, thumbing the safety on. He wrapped his arms around her, as she began to shake.
"You did good, Chrissy," he whispered, holding her tightly, stroking her back. "Thanks."
"I've never shot at anyone before," she hiccupped, tears starting to roll down her face.
"And you still haven't. They were vampires; they were already dead, you just put their bodies to rest." He felt her nodding against him, and smiled as he could almost feel her pulling herself together.
"What are you doing tomorrow?" she asked.
"Going into work, I'll need to give a report about what just happened."
"Pick me up before you go in, it's about time I found out exactly what Dad does for a living." She paused, and remembered the shouted words he had exchanged with the vampires. "And you can buy me lunch."
Ian blinked, then grinned at her. He threw a salute, and carefully handed her the gun back. "I'll tell Brad what happened when I hand the car in."
She nodded, and gave him another chaste hug, before stepping in and shutting the door. Out of sight, she fell back against the wall and started to smile.
In the car, Ian picked up his mobile and dialed.
"Brad, where are you?"
"Guard duty at Fortress 2."
"I'll be there in five," he hung up, knowing that the mystery would irritate the older man.
True to his word, Ian pulled the car into a parking slot next to a tall apartment block that was similar to the one Xander lived in.
He walked in and stood next to the counter, "I'm here to relieve you," he said with a smile.
"What? Why?" Brad growled.
"Chrissy needs you," Ian replied, then told him what had happened, including the fact she had shot one of the vampires.
"The bullets work then?"
"Yep, one blessed bullet, one dusty vampire. She's a good shot."
"She is," fatherly pride dominated the ex-soldier's face as he nodded his agreement. He picked up his coat and car keys, and walked from behind the counter. "Thank you," he said simply, dropping a hand on Ian's shoulder.
The teen blushed faintly. "Not a problem, sir" he replied, walking around and standing behind the counter. He reached into his bag and pulled out an XTech jacket. It wasn't a full uniform, but as long as he stayed behind the desk, it would be fine.
"Your replacement will arrive at ten."
"K, now get going."
Brad walked out to his car, smiling. Saving his daughter's life was a sure way of ensuring he would give his permission when they started dating. He was pretty sure that the boy liked his girl; he just needed to find out if she liked him now.
Xander and Dawn talked quietly all night, enjoying the food and the unobtrusive music playing in the background.
After paying, they left walking to the borrowed car. With a smile, and praying that he wouldn't regret it, Xander walked to the passenger side and started to get in.
Dawn, realizing what he was doing, moved forwards fast and hugged him hard, dropping a kiss on his cheek.
Buffy and Willow, on their way to a graveyard for patrol, came around the corner just at that moment. They saw Dawn hug Xander, then the back of his head as he climbed in.
Dawn looked up, and smirked, recognizing them easily. There were not many blonde and redheaded girls who would walk alone at night through Sunnydale.
She walked around the back of the car, as it was near a street lamp, so that she could be sure they could see exactly what she was wearing. She climbed in the driver's seat, and started the engine, which growled eagerly into life. Dawn reversed it slowly, hoping that the two girls would see the badge on the car, before she stepped on the gas, placing it in first and drove off. Unlike when she had driven the Focus, there was no showboating this time. The car might be capable of nearly two hundred miles an hour, but she knew she wasn't, and the last thing she wanted to do was betray the insane amount of trust Xander had placed on her.
"Do you have any idea how much that car is worth?" Willow decided that it would be best to ignore most of the issues that little display had thrown up, at least for the minute.
"No. How much?"
"The standard model is over three hundred thousand dollars."
"And he let Dawn drive it?"
"It looked that way, yes."
"Why would he do that?"
Willow took a deep breath. "Probably because Xander only has one eye now."
Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer, Savior of the World on numerous occasions, liked to think that she was pretty jaded. A new vampire threat was met with nonchalance, a new Big Bad, boredom.
She knew that it took a lot to shock her.
It only took eight words from Willow to make her stumble, as shock and horror interfered with her natural process of walking.
"What?" she asked stunned, praying that she had misheard.
With a sort of grim pleasure, Willow stopped and turned to the blonde Slayer. "Xander Harris, the man who has saved both of us on numerous occasions, is now crippled for life."
"How?" Buffy gasped, leaning against the nearest wall for support.
"Probably when you decided that it would be better to kick him, than let him leave, and when your fiancé threw him across the room." Willow hoped that by passing some guilt onto Buffy, she would feel better.
"But..." Buffy started, pausing. With a sick feeling in her stomach, she remembered the bandages around his head, and how they had covered his eye.
"When did you find out?"
"Yesterday," Willow admitted grimly. "Seconds before Kennedy dumped me."
"Oh."
"His hospital report said that the corner of the table pierced his cornea, leaving a splinter. They had to remove everything."
"But Xander never gets injured," Buffy protested.
"Not when fighting demons and vampires, no." Willow's tone was inexorable, as she dealt with her own feelings of guilt by attacking someone marginally more at fault that she was. "Kinda ironic that the first serious injury any of us gets is caused by someone supposedly on our side."
Buffy frowned, realizing that there had been a slur on Spike. "He is on our side, he has a soul."
"Do you really believe that the only difference between good and evil is a soul?"
Buffy nodded.
"Then why did you want to kill Anya?"
"She was a demon!" Buffy protested.
"She also kept her soul."
Buffy's mouth opened and shut as she tried to think of a retort.
"Why did you want to kill her, anyway?" Willow asked, pushing the point she was trying to make home harder.
"She was a demon!" Buffy was starting to get irritated.
"Don't take that tone with me," the Wiccan snapped. "You're not the Slayer laying down the law to a bunch of scared teenagers. Now, what was so bad about Anya becoming a demon that you wanted to stake her?"
Buffy modulated her tone a little. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had talked to her like that, but she did remember just how powerful Willow was these days, and she felt a little flush of fear. Fear that she would not be able to beat the witch in a one on one fight. "She had those frat guys killed."
"And she sacrificed her best friend to bring them back to life."
"She would have done it again."
"How do you know?"
"She was a demon." The Slayer's argument was flimsy at best.
"So why haven't you staked Spike?"
"Because he has a soul."
"As had Anya. So that's the soul argument completely out of the way."
Willow was determined now to get a response from the Slayer, one that made some sort of sense. She had no idea why it was so important to her; she just knew that she wanted something out of Buffy. "Now, why has Spike had a 'get out of staking free' card, and why has Anya, who has not killed anyone, who has been a friend of ours for several years, who helped figure out how to defeat Glory and save Dawn's life, had a staked shoved against her heart at the first hint of trouble?"
"I don't know." Buffy spat the words out, leaning against the wall as her legs started to give way. "It just seemed right, you know - Demon, stake it."
"So why not Spike?"
"Because I love him."
"Do you?"
"Yes."
"Do you, really?"
"I don't know." Buffy was getting confused and upset. "I need him," she cried. "He's always been there for me."
"Over everyone else?"
"Yes."
Willow sighed slowly, starting to piece things together. "What have we become?"
"What do you mean?"
"When I was fifteen, before you arrived, I thought I'd eventually grow up, marry Xander, have two point four kids and a white picket fence. When we started helping you, everything started to change. Look at us, seven years later. You've been dead twice, and you are now marrying a vampire. I've changed my sexuality, had my lover die in my arms, tried to end the world, then jumped into another relationship so I wouldn't feel so alone when I woke up.
"Seven years later, my best friend, the one person who looked after me above anyone else, hates my guts because I took him for granted, not just recently, but probably since the start."
Willow laughed ironically. "Can you tell I've been thinking about this all day?"
Buffy nodded slowly. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know," Willow sighed. "I keep remembering Xander saying 'Only my friends call me Xander.' And then how cold he acted towards us when he was protecting Dawn.
"Do you ever wonder if he was right?"
Buffy shook her head violently. "Spike wouldn't lie to me."
"And Xander would?"
Buffy frowned as she felt everything slipping away from her. "You're supposed to be on my side here," she said plaintively, looking at the Wiccan.
"Answer the question, damn it."
"I don't know. Wait. Yes, he would. He made me send Angel to hell."
Willow blinked. "Five years ago? You've been holding a grudge for five years?"
Buffy shrugged, sinking to the floor. The night was forgotten, as was patrolling. "He lied to me once about someone I loved, why not again? Spike never lied to me."
Willow decided to ignore the issue of the numerous Spike lies for the moment. "So you were punishing him for ruining your relationship with Angel, by trying to kill Anya?" she asked, wanting to make sure that there were no misunderstandings.
Buffy nodded her head slowly, looking shocked as she realized the full import of her actions for the first time.
"Oh Goddess! Did it ever occur to you that Xander might possibly have had a different reason than jealousy for the Angel thing?"
"He did it because he wanted me, and was jealous of Angel."
"And the thought that saving the world was more important than you, him, you and him, you and Angel, anyone, 'cause I was lying in a hospital bed, never having performed the soul restoration spell before, and the end of the world was scheduled to happen and you think, that maybe, Xander was a little more concerned about everyone on this planet becoming a happy meal?" The babbling was pure Willow, although it did make more sense than usual.
It took the blonde Slayer a few seconds to decipher the whole sentence. "But, he wanted me. Besides, you backed me up. You always do."
Willow sighed, and in a tone full of self disgust said, "I always chose the side opposite to Xander. You know why? Because I *knew* that he would always be there for me, no matter what I did. I wasn't sure about you, or about anyone else. So, it was much easier to take the other side, 'cause it wouldn't damage anything. Xander would always be there for me, when I needed him.
"I was always comforted by that," the witch admitted. "I didn't need to pay him any attention, or have him around. I treated him like a dog.
"I chose your side on Saturday because Xander asked me to go easy on Kennedy, that she wasn't ready for a relationship yet. And hey, what'd'ya know, he was right."
"Oh," Buffy said quietly, thinking over everything that had just been said
.As long as Willow had been supporting her relationship with Spike, everything had been ok. She didn't have to think, because that was what Willow was for, and all she had to do was listen and feel. Finding out that the Wiccan had only supported her because she wanted to keep from losing her friendship was both upsetting and slightly sickening.
Willow had always been the brainy one. Buffy had simply presumed that the redhead had thought her relationship with Spike through for her, and that she had approved. It meant that she had not had to think about it for herself.
"I save the world," Buffy announced suddenly. "I can't deal with all this as well."
"With thinking for yourself?" Willow asked dryly.
"No. Yes. I don't know."
"Perhaps it's time you learnt."
"Spike..." Buffy started.
"No, Damn it! Buffy, you need to think for yourself, not let someone else do it. Who the hell are you? Do you even know?"
"I'm the Slayer."
"Is that it?"
"Yes."
"What about Buffy?"
"Huh?"
"You are Buffy."
"I know."
"Do you? Because the Slayer would not be in love with a Vampire."
"Then I'm Buffy."
Willow growled with frustration. "Damn it, think for yourself."
"I don't know how."
Willow collapsed onto the cold concrete pavement next to Buffy. "Are you happy?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you happy, with your life? When you were growing up, is this what you imagined?"
Buffy shook her head. "No."
"When did we become train wrecks?"
"Huh?"
"Our lives," Willow clarified. "When did they become train wrecks?"
Buffy shrugged. "What are you going to do about Xander?"
"I don't know," the redheaded Witch replied. "I wish I could go back and chose door number two."
"Leaving me alone, you mean."
"Not everything is about you, Buffy. You're twenty two; you should realize that by now."
"What does that mean?" Buffy snapped back.
"It means," Willow said slowly, as if talking to a child. "That you need to look around and see how your actions affect other people. Take responsibility for them. We both do."
"And how is that going to help us get back to being friends with Xander?" The blonde asked her.
The red-headed witch blinked at the Slayer.
"Do you really think that a quick 'I'm sorry' is going to make any difference at all? Or you could really go for it and say 'I'm sorry, I thought that waking up next to someone in the morning was more important than any mere friendship." Buffy moved onto the attack, she felt she had been on the receiving end to much this evening already.
"And we both know what Xander is like," she snarled at the redhead. "He's hated Spike for years, and he hated Angel before him. When that guy hates, he hates for life."
Willow burst into tears as she realized the Slayer was right, which suddenly made Buffy realize that the words she had thrown at her friend applied to her as well.
A second later, and they were embracing, crying and holding on to each other.
"What are we going to do, Wills?"
"I don't know, Buffy. I don't know."
"I need money."
"That wasn't part of the deal."
"Look, you asked me to get rid of her support, I did that. How was I supposed to know that Droops was bankrolling the whole shebang?"
"I don't really care. You got rid of her support for your own reasons; they merely coincided with mine."
"I don't need much, just enough to keep her happy. When she's unhappy, she wants her friends around to cheer her up."
The lady in black sighed. "Fine, I'll give you some money. How are you proceeding?"
"She believes everything I say."
"Excellent. The time is drawing near."
"Yeah, about that," Spike interrupted. "Do you have to kill the nibblet?"
The lady in black frowned. "Are you questioning me?"
Spike shook his head, "No, no. It's just, I kinda like her."
"You were the one who told me she is the Key. With her blood, I can open the Hellmouth completely. All I have to do is perform the ritual and then drain the power from her."
"But you will perform my ceremony before you open it, right?"
She sighed, again. "Yes, Spike. We will perform the ceremony on the Slayer beforehand. As promised. I will cast the spell as you turn her, and she will be yours for all eternity."
Spike smiled slowly.
"Now, you may kiss me, then leave."
Spike, knowing a command when he heard one, followed her instructions to the letter.
Unseen, a nameless vampire slowly walked away. As he left the building and silently vanished into the night, he seemed to blur a little as he faded out of sight.
"Do you want to come into work with me today?"
Dawn smiled when she heard Xander's offer, she has been thinking of the best way to ask if she could accompany him when he headed in, today. "I was going to ask if I could come. I know that Daryl and Ian are going to be there."
"What's Daryl like?" Xander asked, curious to know something about his prospective employee.
"He's a geek, like Andrew and Jonathan used to be," she said with a grin. "He knows at least as much as Willow did about computers and hacking, if not more. He's also starting to look like a really good, loyal, friend."
Xander nodded and smiled. He finished his morning coffee. "Leave in fifteen minutes?" he half stated, half asked.
Dawn nodded and threw a smile at him, walking back into her room. She could feel his eyes on her as she went, and once inside the privacy of her bedroom, her face broke into a huge smile.
She dressed quickly, packing some sweats in a bag at the same time. She hoped that she would get a chance to do some training today. It had been over a week since she had done any real workout, apart from the fight with Ian, and wanted to make sure she didn't lose her edge.
Xander drove them competently through town, maneuvering the powerful car with ease. "I'm going to hate to give this car back to Kyle."
"Why not buy your own?" Dawn asked.
Xander laughed softly. "I'm not that rich, Dawn. This car is the top of the line model, and the prices start at 300k. I'm pretty sure Kyle paid even more for this."
"Oh," Dawn's face had an expression of amazement on it. "And you let me drive it? What the hell were you thinking?" she asked, unable to believe he had trusted her to handle the car properly.
"Pretty much, 'I hope she doesn't crash it'."
Dawn laughed, startled. "I meant about letting me drive it, idiot."
Xander grinned as he pulled into the car park outside his office building.
"That, Dawn, is something you will have to find out later," he said, as he got out of the car.
'Flirt-age!' Dawn's mind screamed. 'That was *definitely* flirting.' The rest of her thoughts were along the lines of a Super Bowl celebration party - lots of hooting and hollering, but very little sense. She climbed out of the car as well, and followed Xander into the building.
She smiled as she saw the exterior. A low-key entrance way, in a standard business park, it looked just like one of a hundred different warehouses in Sunnydale. It was definitely the sort of place Xander would choose.
The entrance hallway had a modern feel; it had been designed to put people at their ease as they waited. A single receptionist sat behind an imposing counter, occasionally answering telephone calls. She smiled at Xander and Dawn as they entered the vestibule, recognizing the girl from the pictures and gossip. She had bet on mid-December in the Xander-Dawn pool.
Xander identified himself, explaining to Dawn at the same time what each part did and why.
"Hi Xan, Dawn." Andrew said, walking up to the couple, an easy-going smile on his face..
Dawn smiled warmly back at him, noticing the little differences in an instant. Their ex-enemy was walking with confidence, his head held high. He looked a lot fitter than he had been, and now had an aura of confidence, as if his always high intelligence was now backed up by high self esteem.
"Any problems last night?" Xander asked.
"Nope, nothing on the cameras."
"What's the plan for Daryl today?"
Andrew smiled. "I'm going to start with the standard Psych test, as long as he passes that, then, I've got a couple of computer tests lined up for him. If all goes well, I'll pass him to you and you can make the final decision."
"Thanks," Xander said dryly. "We'll be in my office."
"K, catch ya later, Xan, Dawn."
"Wow," Dawn said as they walked off towards Xander's office. "He's changed."
Xander nodded. "All he needed was a bit of encouragement."
They entered his office, Xander sitting in his chair as he indicated Dawn to sit in front of him.
She did, feeling a little nervous, and suddenly realizing that this was becoming very official. This wasn't Xander and Dawn Scooby stuff, this was now 'Alexander Harris, head of XTech and Dawn Summer, student' stuff. She licked her suddenly dry lips slightly, and noticed just how well Xander seemed to suit his position. The clumsy youth she had known seemed to have vanished, leaving behind a man accustomed to giving orders in the business world. Dawn wondered how well that ability would transfer to a battle field.
"Do you want a drink?"
"Please," Dawn nodded. "Water."
Xander moved over to a cabinet, opening it to reveal a full mini-bar. He poured himself and Dawn large glasses of cold water, added a couple of slices of lemon and some ice, and gave one of the two to the girl.
"Thanks," she smiled.
Xander sat back down, and looked across the desk at her. "Why did you want to come here today?"
"Because I wanted to train," Dawn replied honestly, wondering what was going on.
"To fight vampires?"
"And demons, and anything else that tries to end the world."
"You don't want to live a normal life, finish High School?"
"I can't. I can't abandon people to die. I don't just fight because of Buffy, or because of you. I need to know that I'm helping the people who are willing to stand up. I chose to help, Xander." She knew the last argument would have a bigger effect on the brunet than any other.
"I thought you would say that," he said dryly. "I have an offer for you, if you're interested."
"Go on." She took a sip of her water.
"I want to employ you, here at XTech, on the same terms as Ian. You'll be paid to work for two nights a week, and a Saturday, at twelve dollars an hour.
"But, I can not show any favoritism to you. You'll have to follow orders like everyone else, follow all the rules. I will not be involved with what you do while you are here, although when we start actively patrolling, then I will probably be in the same group as you."
Dawn's looked shocked as she tried to take his offer in. The thought of being paid to do something she would do for free was a concept she had difficulty with, after witnessing her sister's and the Scoobies' labors for the past several years.
"One of the reasons I started this firm was so that the people willing to put their lives on the line were well compensated for their efforts.
"If everything goes well, you'll be given another choice in the summer."
"What's that?" Dawn asked, intrigued.
"You will be offered the same deal as Andrew. XTech will sponsor you through college, on the condition that you work for us for five years at the end. If you don't want that, then I will pay for your college personally, but you will have to promise not to patrol, at all."
"What do you mean?" Dawn frowned at the thought that he might be trying to 'protect' her, the way all of the Scoobies had done the past few years..
"The idea of a group of teenagers patrolling at night, armed with a couple of stakes and a crossbow is a ridiculous, archaic idea. When we start patrolling, we will be carrying the latest weaponry, have backup available at all times, and will work on a shift basis, so that no one has to spend every single day doing it. Everyone working the hunter patrols will have regular psychiatric checkups to make sure the pressure isn't getting to them, and if it does, they will be moved to standard XTech guard jobs, without any loss of pay. If you're not going to be with us, you have to promise not to go looking for trouble on your own."
Dawn nodded her head, solemnly. It was not exactly a hard choice for her. On one hand, she could go to college, have all her fees paid for by Xander's company, work with him at nights and at weekends, probably still live with him, then work for him full time afterwards, while enjoying the benefits of patrolling with professionals. On the other, she could try being a normal teenager at college, not having to worry about the safety of her friends each night they went out on patrol.
She had never been conscripted, she wasn't the 'Chosen One'. Sure, her place on this earth was not exactly the most normal, but she was definitely her own person, able to make her own choices. As she had already said, she wanted to fight, and would fight for free, if that was necessary.
As well as wanting to fight, she wanted to make sure Xander was safe. She had realized a long time, there was no way he would stop fighting. Like her, he had chosen to fight, and was now making some extremely positive contributions to it. There was going to be a revolution in how the Darkness was fought, and he was bringing it about.
She smiled and answered immediately, "I accept the job offer, Xan."
Xander grinned at her. "Good. Now, get your butt out to Andrew, and tell him you said yes. He'll give you access to all our buildings and sort out the paperwork. If you see Ian, tell him I want a word. Oh, and don't mention this to him yet, I need to make him the same offer."
"Yes, sir." Dawn stood and snapped a cheeky salute at him.
Xander's eyes fixed on her chest for a fraction of a second, as the fabric was pulled tight, before he regained control of himself. He sighed audibly, "Get."
Dawn laughed again and walked out.
"Honey?"
"Spike," Buffy said with a smile, having just picked up the ringing telephone. "Where are you?"
"My crypt," the vampire responded. "I got a job last night, as a bouncer at Willy's, and got caught by the dawn."
"That's great news," Buffy said with a happy little bounce.
"Why don't you come over now? We can stay here, then go patrolling later, okay?"
"'Kay," Buffy said with a smile as she hung up.
The Slayer walked through the kitchen to the living room. "That was Spike, he's at his crypt. I'm going over to see him, then we'll patrol from there, so I'll be out the rest of the day."
Willow nodded, "Try and remember a little of what we talked about last night, Buffy."
The blonde girl nodded, then bounced upstairs to get changed for her fiancé. Willow sighed as she watched her, 'in one ear, out the other', she reflected. Or as her Psych teacher would put it, she had strong behavioral tracks and was not comfortable in leaving them.
With Buffy gone, Willow's mind started to go around in circles. Xander would not forgive her, she told herself and wished once more that she had chosen door number two.
'Magic can help,' a soft voice told her seductively. 'It can make it like you did choose to back him, and you would be living in luxury with him. You'd have you friend back,' it whispered to her.
The Wiccan shook her head, trying to fight the idea, but it made too much sense. It never occurred to her what a simple and heartfelt apology would feel like, since she had never given one before; she had always hidden behind anger and magic.
Almost in a daze, she stood and walked downstairs into the basement. She moved some of Spike's old stuff to one side and slowly started to draw a pentagram.
"We need to talk, Spike."
"What about?" Spike asked, his voice curious.
"Willow found out, from Xander's medical records, that he lost an eye when you threw him across the room last week."
"Serves him right," Spike said automatically, then realized he had said the wrong thing as Buffy pulled away from him.
"What?" she asked.
"I'm sorry, Ducks," The vampire apologized, lowering his voice into the steady cadence he normally used when he spoke to her alone.
Buffy absently shook herself, unconsciously throwing off the effects of Spike's attempt at hypnotism. "No, why do you think he deserved that?"
"He was trying to stop you from being happy."
Buffy shook her head, "No, he was trying to stop me from making what he thought was a mistake. He was doing what he felt was right."
Spike looked a little worried, he thought he had broken the need for Buffy to think for herself; had presumed that she was totally dependent on him, as well as Willow, a little. "You think I should apologize?" he asked through gritted teeth.
Buffy nodded and smiled, relaxing a little. "I think that would be a good start."
With a relieved look, Spike scooted next to her, and soon had her very distracted.
"I'm here to see Andrew, my name is Daryl Marks."
"One second, Mr. Marks." The receptionist smiled professionally as she dialed a number from memory. A short conversation later, she looked back up at the teenage boy. "Please take a seat, Andrew will be with you in a minute."
No sooner had Daryl settled down on the couch when a casually dressed youth walked through the double doors off to the side of the receptionist's desk.
"Hi, I'm Andrew Wells." The blond haired young man introduced himself with a smile. "It's good to meet you."
"Thank you," Daryl said nervously, a little surprised to find that the person interviewing him was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. It made Daryl feel rather over dressed in his store-brought suit.
Andrew smiled. "We're very informal about dress code when we're not on duty," he explained his experience. "It comes from Xander hating formal wear."
"So I can lose this damn tie, then?" Daryl said with a smile.
"Absolutely," Andrew agreed. "This is a retinal, palm and infra-red scan," he explained as they stopped before the doors and indicated a black assembly set into the wall. "Checks that I'm alive, as well as identifying me. We wanted to make sure that someone couldn't get through just by doing a 'demolition man'."
Daryl nodded, recognizing the reference to a movie where a retinal scan had been fooled by Wesley Snipe's character simply cutting out the eye of an authorized person. "Why didn't you choose a full biometric scan?"
"Facial recognition software isn't that effective, yet. A baseball cap can stop it from identifying someone, despite what the government tells us. It's just one of the things we are working on."
They walked through the door, past the reception room into the lab, and Daryl stopped dead in his tracks.
As he looked around, there was really only one reaction possible from the geek. Stunned silence.
Andrew grinned. "Xander gave me a huge budget to get this area kitted out properly. It's our R&D area for XTech Security. All the passive technology that we develop is also sent out to PJH Construction, the company that owns XTech.
"XTech started when Xander met up with Brad Hooper, Chrissy's Dad." The former would-be super-villain explained. "He sold the idea to the owners of PJH who immediately saw the benefits of both having a team of people dedicated to fighting evil, as well as having researchers come up with different ways of identifying and destroying demons and vampires.
"It took a massive investment to get it started, but we paid for ourselves inside the first six months, when some of the technology we developed was the key factor in a huge contract to renovate a chain of hotels.
"In that corner we have a cluster of Sun servers, used for heavy duty computational stuff. Those three racks are filled with Intel blade servers. All of them are identical dual 1.5ghz Zeon processors with 2 gigs of ram each. The final racks are standard Athlon's and are used as our network storage drives. We've got an OC-3 connection directly to Cable & Wireless' OC-48 backbone in LA, with triple redundancy. We also have a satellite connection on the roof, to a separate hub in Atlanta. The building's power supply has two unique incoming connections as well as a back up generator that can power us for five days before needing refueling. The desktop machines are similar in spec to the servers, each with its own 80gig hard drive and 17" flat panel monitors.
"Each night a backup is taken of everything and stored on a tape here, and on a rewriteable DVD offsite."
"C-can I?" Daryl stuttered, looking at a computer before him.
Andrew smiled and nodded.
Daryl opened the browser, went straight to Red Hat's site, and a few clicks later, started downloading an ISO of their latest release. His eyes turned reverently wide as the download completed faster than he had ever seen it.
"The bottle neck is the Disk I/O," Andrew said with an amused smile. "If you want to see some real download speed, use one of the Suns and download it into memory." He had done some similar tests when the line had been installed, and it was only his four months of using it constantly that had calmed him down a little.
"Operating systems?" Daryl asked.
"Custom versions of Gentoo Linux on the desktops, Debian stable for the servers, although the Kernels have been updated. We have a couple of 'BSD machines floating around, a QNX box in the corner, we're playing with the benefits of a real time OS for the facial recognition software."
"Databases?"
"MySQL for light stuff, and Oracle for the heavy duty stuff."
"You do realize I would pay you to play with this stuff, don't you?" Daryl asked, a bit hesitantly.
Andrew laughed loudly. "I thought the same thing. I was so nervous when I took the proposal to Xander; he just stared at it for a second, then looked at me. He asked, 'We need this stuff?', I nodded and he simply signed it off."
"Just like that? No committee or anything?" Daryl's experience with office operating procedures had been garnered through reading the Dilbert cartoon.
Andrew shook his head, "Xander is the ultimate boss here. What he says, goes. Anyway, first thing I need you to do is take this test. Don't worry about it, it's a standard psychology test to make sure that some of this stuff isn't going to blow your mind and turn you into a vegetable." Andrew's grin was clearly teasing, and it relaxed the younger boy.
It only took ten minutes for Daryl to fill in the boxes, and ten seconds for his answers to be scanned and a verdict come up on one of the computers. "Excellent," Andrew said with a smile. "Now the real tests can begin."
Andrew moved to a machine that was on the desktop. "I want you read the contents of this hard drive, and tell me where the file 'Andrew1.txt' is located. It's running the standard Gentoo linux, and no, I'm not giving you the login."
Daryl nodded and smiled, it was an easy test. He turned the computer on, and attempted to get into the BIOS. The computer's control system was password protected, so he shut the computer down and unplugged the power supply. The case design was very modern, with handles to pull the sides down, baring the motherboard to his eager gaze.
He idly pulled a few things out of his pockets, an anti-static wrist band and a small box. He pulled the wristband on, and opened the box, pulling out a small pair of tweezers. Daryl examined the motherboard for a second, then moved a jumper along one position. The change restored the BIOS to its factory settings, removing the password. He moved the jumper back and closed the box, restoring the power. He booted it again, this time changing the BIOS's boot sequence as he had with Xander's laptop. He recycled the power once more, this time with his USB hard drive in the rear, and waited for it to boot. A simple command, "Find / -name Andrew1.txt", later, and he smiled. "There you go," he indicated the screen.
Andrew smiled broadly, decidedly pleased with the teenager's actions. The test itself was simple, if you knew what you were doing. He had expected the boy to try and use a password tool against the login program, but this approach bypassed it completely and showed a different way of thinking. He decided to skip several of the tests, and move on to a big one.
"Ok, you have an hour to break into the machine on 10.91.64.22. You can download any tools you want."
Daryl nodded, excitement showing in his eye. Still using his own Linux distribution, he shot off a quick traceroute to the internal IP address, then raised his eyebrows as he found a firewall in the way. This would certainly be a challenge.
"You want a drink?" Andrew asked.
"Dr. Pepper would be great," Daryl replied absently, pulling up NMap to help identify the firewall he was dealing with.
Andrew wandered off to get them both a drink, placed the cold can next to the boy and moved over to his own desk and started to work.
"Done it!" Daryl said forty-five minutes later.
"Read the text file in the Andrew home directory."
Daryl nodded, and typed the commands to change to that directory, list the contents, then read the file. It simply said, 'Congratulations, you've passed the practical tests.'"
The boy grinned, while Andrew picked up the phone. "Xan? He passed, with flying colors. Ok."
"Come on," he said with a smile. "It's time you met the boss."
Daryl nodded, taking a last swig from his can, and dropping it into the trash. His nerves returned with a vengeance as he followed Andrew to an office, and was ushered in.
Xander stood and walked around to him, offering his hand. "I'm Alexander Harris, although everyone calls me Xander."
"Nice to meet you," Daryl said formally.
"Take a seat."
Daryl sat, as Xander returned to his chair and picked up a piece of paper. The carpenter was very relieved to see that Daryl was just eighteen. With Ian's, Dawn's and now Andrew's recommendation, the decision to hire the boy was a very easy one for him to make, so he made the same offer he had given to Dawn and Ian earlier.
It took Daryl much less time to accept it, especially when he realized just how much he would be getting paid for a part time job, exactly what equipment that could buy him, and how much it would get his mother off his back. Added to that, the chance to waltz through college, emerging without any student loans, while doing it with friends and doing something worth while, and having that huge lab to play with, meant that he simply said "Yes," almost as soon as Xander finished talking.
Xander grinned at him. "Welcome to the team. Are there going to be any problems with your family, about you working?"
Daryl shook his head, "There shouldn't be. Mom's been pushing me to get a part time job for the past six months," he admitted with a smile.
"If there is, get her to call me and I'll talk to her." He offered Daryl his professional business card.
Daryl took it and smiled, starting to see why this man was held in such high regard by everyone.
Xander joined Dawn, Ian, Daryl, Chrissy and Andrew for lunch, although he was surprised to find the blonde there. He knew that Brad had a daughter, but had never actually met her.
The XTech canteen was superb. Being someone who thought with his stomach first, food was very close to his heart. He had hired some designers to make the canteen a place where people could relax and unwind, and at meal times, get served some excellent food. It was yet another reason he had more people wanting to join, than he had places for.
It was only when they were walking towards the armory that Xander suddenly realized what had happened at lunch time. He had refereed the conversation, pointed it in new directions, reigned in some of the wilder ideas and generally acted like a mature adult.
He had become Giles.
Xander groaned, and got some strange looks from the people walking around him, especially when he almost blushed and waved it away.
They walked into the armory, which had a shooting range attached. Andrew took Ian and Chrissy to one side as they already knew how to shoot.
"As part of working here, there is a requisite for both of you to become competent with the handling of a firearm." Xander was speaking a little more formally than he normally did; respect for firearms was pretty inbuilt, especially since the Soldier Guy incident.
Daryl and Dawn exchanged looks, smiling slightly.
"I'm going to hand you over to Brad for the actual training. You will not be allowed to patrol with us, until you have passed the basic competency tests. When we go out, no one will be defenseless."
Brad walked up with a smile, and took over. The two new XTech members were slightly disappointed to learn that they were not going to be able to fire a gun till they had learnt how they work and how to take care of one.
Xander walked over to Andrew, Ian and Chrissy, leaving the other two in the ex-soldier's capable hands.
"Here, try this out," Andrew said, handing Chrissy a bow.
The girl smiled, and expertly hooked it back, using one of the arrows that Andrew had passed her, and released with a small hitch in her breath.
The arrow arched through the air gracefully, impacting dead centre in the chest of a target, which was mocked up as a vampire. The arrow penetrated, then suddenly exploded, destroying the upper half of the target.
Andrew grinned excitedly. "The explosion pushes fragments of wood all through the body, so it should be lethal, no matter where it hits."
Xander smiled as he walked up. "We could have done with something like that in the early days."
Andrew nodded, "Yeah, hopefully we'll be able to shrink the arrow heads, so that they'll fit a crossbow. Until then, though, we'll need someone who can shoot."
Xander nodded, trying to avoid the idea of having to hire another teenager. He suspected that he would have to, if Chrissy was anything like her father. Still, he figured he would talk to her father first, sound him out.
With the demonstration over, Xander spent some time just practicing with his gun.
Brad was showing them the standard XTech handgun, a Glock 31, when Dawn frowned. "Xander doesn't use that one, does he?"
"Yeah, that's the prerogative of being the boss. He uses a Sig Sauer P220 sport, I think he likes it because of the Duotone finish, but don't tell him I said that."
Dawn laughed. "Yeah, Xander would choose a gun that looks cool."
Brad smiled, and continued the lesson, ending, several hours later, with allowing the two of them to shoot for the first time.
Xander walked over and watched with a grin, making eye contact with Brad.
Dawn pulled up the weapon and tried to follow the instructions she had been given. She slowly squeezed the trigger, and didn't jump when it the bullet exploded from the barrel. The electronic board next to her showed her exactly where her bullet had landed. She had been going for the chest, but had aimed to high, nicking the target's neck.
She took a deep breath and tried again, compensating for her last mistake.
This one was a lot closer; it was in the fifth ring radiating from the heart shaped target in the center. With a slight frown, she fired again, and then rapidly fired off the remaining seven bullets.
Brad looked at the targets, checked the readout and sighed. He pulled out his wallet and removed a twenty dollar bill. "Wise-ass," he mumbled, handing the money to Xander.
Xander smirked and admired the money, lifting it to the light. "My wallet thanks you."
Dawn removed her earplugs and looked at the two of them. "What was that about?"
Xander grinned. "I bet Brad twenty bucks that you'd pass the basic test first time, and you did. Congratulations."
Willow finished her pentagram and looked at it. She knew that Xander had no magical ability, and neither did Dawn, so the chances of the spell not working was incredibly slim.
She promised herself that this would be the last time she would ever do anything like this; she just needed to get back with Xander first, before giving up magic completely.
She took a deep breath and lit the candles.
Willow started to chant. The spell was designed to make Xander and Dawn forget exactly what happened last Saturday.
Willow had designed her spell carefully; she had learnt her lesson well since she had clumsily wiped Tara's mind. That time, she had made herself a house of cards: pretty on the outside, but one touch and it all came tumbling down.
This was different; it had taken her a great deal more time, since this spell was a kind of spell virus which would affect anyone Xander or Dawn came in to physical contact with. It would track back to last Saturday, and change everyone's memories, so that it looked like Willow had supported Xander. While people's memories of subsequent events, would continue unchanged, the perception of everyone affected would be that the witch had helped Xander when ever necessary, and was now living with him in his huge apartment.
The pentagram was a standard defense against magical backlash; it would keep all magical energy away from her, just in case a problem should develop
With the spell cast, she frowned, as she sensed something was blocking it. Some kind of force field seemed to be protecting Xander and Dawn.
Her eyes turned black as she put more of her own energy into the spell. Stopping never occurred to her - it was now a personal challenge.
"Down here we have the control center, it's the main hub for all of our reconnaissance," Xander said to Dawn as they walked down a corridor.
The brunette smiled, enjoying Xander's undivided attention for the first time during the day.
"How do..." Dawn started, before suddenly throwing her hand out against the wall, as she lost her balance.
"Dawn, you ok?" Xander asked, before he was hit as well. He fell to his knees as he felt something enter his mind, a hostile invasion.
The Orb of Isis, recognizing a magical attack, did what it could to help. It dumped some information directly into Xander's brain, and then prepared to help its host defend himself.
Xander swayed on his knees, grasping Dawn's hands.
"Dawn, look at me," he demanded harshly, his voice echoing the pain he was now feeling.
Dawn moaned, turning her head and looking into his eyes. Her gaze seemed to catch in his, and she found herself unable to look away. She fell to her knees as the pain started, materializing as an intense headache.
"Are you alright?" The worried voice of a guard asked, shocked to find his boss and Dawn in the middle of a corridor, on their knees in pain.
"Get Andrew," Xander growled, his lips pulled back as he struggled to fight the magic, ignoring the pain the fighting was causing. "Someone's casting a memory spell on us."
The guard didn't panic; he had been trained too well for that. He pulled his communicator from his pocket.
"Andrew, Level 3 alert, Corridor 2b, Headquarters."
Andrew was still talking to Daryl when the call came in on his communicator. He blanched and instantly shot to his feet, "Come with me."
Andrew arrived precious seconds before Daryl - standard XTech procedure had meant he had started to work on his physical fitness, and as such, was capable of moving a lot faster than the untrained computer specialist. "What's going on?"
Xander groaned, pulling Dawn tightly against him. "Memory attack - someone's trying to change our memory of something," he ground out through clenched teeth.
Andrew thought for a second, analyzing both demons and humans capable of doing such a thing. A few came to mind, but only one person they knew off had the raw power to breach his anti-magic defenses.
"Willow?" he ventured.
Reluctantly, Xander nodded, agreeing with the blonde hacker/mage's assessment.
"You have to fight it, both of you together. Try and bring up memories that you share, it should confuse the spell long enough for us to stop it."
Andrew turned, and switched his communicator to a general frequency. "X1 is currently under magical attack; prepare for immediate deployment into hostile territory. We are dealing with a powerful witch, so everyone be on high alert. This is a level three emergency. Repeat this is a level three emergency."
The control room followed its emergency procedures. Level three was only one level short of a full demonic invasion and with Xander under attack, nervous looks were exchanged. Every guard in the building rushed to the armory, picking up their G36C assault rifles and bullet proof vests before assembling in their squads, outside in the parking lot.
Trained ex-police drivers pulled up in XTech marked vans, as well as several motorcycles.
Andrew turned to Daryl. "Go back to my office, use the computer there to access the City's network, and clear us a path through all the traffic lights."
Daryl nodded and took off, a thrill of excitement, anticipation and a little bit of fear going through him. Finally, he was using his computer prowess for a reason: to help Dawn and her future partner.
Ian shot to his feet as the call came through on the general frequency. "Sorry, I have to go."
"Can I help?" Chrissy asked, understanding the serious nature of the emergency.
"You're not cleared for patrol, Chris. Help Dawn and Xan."
The blonde nodded, and watched with a slight smile as the ex-psycho ran at full speed towards the armory.
She quickly made her way to the corridor where Xander and Dawn were fighting the spell's effects, passing Andrew.
"Chrissy, keep an eye on them. Don't let anyone touch them, they have to stay together and stay awake to fight the spell," Andrew shouted as he ran past.
Chrissy picked up her pace, arriving the same time as the medical team.
"Andrew says they are not to be touched till this is over, they're fighting a magical attack," she informed the med-techs before they could touch either of the two.
Andrew ran through the corridors, not stopping to put on any of his own protective clothing, since time was off the essence. He almost flew out of the building and into the open door of the brand new Ford Taurus waiting at the curb.
The two-liter Zetec engine roared as the accelerator was rammed to the floor. Behind them, a row of heavy duty vans, loaded with armed personnel followed. He nodded to Ian, who had jumped into the back seat as soon as he had seen Andrew appear, and fastened his seat belt.
Ian handed him a bullet proof vest. "You're not getting out of the car without putting this on!"
Andrew grinned, struggling into it. Despite the seriousness of the situation, his eyes were alight with excitement and accomplishment. Finally, he *knew* he was doing something directly for Xander, not something for Xander that was really for everyone else. He was paying his boss back for the faith he had placed in him, for the chance at redemption, for making him feel like he was a valuable and accepted member of society.
The four motor cyclists took point, moving ahead and clearing junctions. Andrew smiled with pleasure as he noted that the traffic lights ahead started to turn to green long before they got there, and held till they had gone through. Daryl was obviously living up to his billing.
At the same time, Daryl, in Andrew's office, pulled up the police network, and started running distractions, keeping the Sunnydale police force clear of the route the vans were taking.
"Dawn," Xander gasped, "We've got to fight this. Andrew said to remember something together."
Dawn nodded, her eyes still locked on his, noticing that both his eyes now had a gold tinge. "Remember the time we first met?"
"Mom," the blonde haired girl said brightly. "This is Xander, a friend from school."
"Hi, Mrs. Summers," Xander said with a cheerful grin. "It's a pleasure to meet you; I can see where Buffy gets her looks from."
Joyce Summers took a long look at his face, and then smiled. The young man before her had an open honesty that was instantly appealing to her. He looked like the sort of person who, once he made a friend, would stick by them for life. Her instant judgment was that he was a nice boy, who seemed better than that Puck, or whatever his name was, guy from back home.
"Xander's an unusual name," she said with a warm smile, reflexively offering him a cookie.
His eyes firmly fixated on the treat in front of him, he replied absently. "It's short for Alexander, Ma'am."
Joyce grinned; she had him figured out already. "You can have the cookie if you promise to call me Joyce."
"I can do that, Mrs. Joyce," Xander said, his expression clearly teasing her.
'Oh Buffy, you've got a good one here,' she thought to herself as she handed him the sugar coated cookie. "Are you going to be staying for dinner, Xander? I'm making lasagna."
Xander's eyes lit up, almost transforming his face. She'd never come across someone so incredibly open with his emotions before.
"Yes, please!" he nodded eagerly. "I'm even willing to sacrifice someone to you if it will help get me more invitations."
Buffy nudged him hard, but he ignored her objecting to his off color joke; it cut a bit to close to the bone.
"That's ok, Xander," Joyce said with a grin. "I will, however, accepts compliments if you like the food."
"Oh fair and beauteous lady," Xander declared, going down on one knee in front of her. "I do solemnly swear to cast a multitude of fulsome praise on the products of your dainty hands' hard labor, if that be the currency of the kingdom."
"Xander," Buffy started to pout, not liking her new friend giving attention to someone other than her. "Stop flirting with my mom."
"I'm not flirting, Buff. I'm merely ensuring that your mother knows that I realize that she was the original model that you were cast from, and that I am prepared to worship her, especially if she cooks as well as she looks."
Joyce couldn't help but laugh; it felt good to be admired, even if it was patently false and designed to get on her good side. It was working. Still, Xander had one more test to pass before being given the keys to her dinner table: the younger sister.
Speaking of which, the shy eleven year old was peering around the door, wondering what the commotion was. She was shocked to see a really good looking boy kneeling in front of her mother, while her sister was frowning. Not shocked that Buffy was frowning - she did that a lot. She was shocked to see a good-looking boy hanging around her sister. Ever since the burning down the gym incident, there hadn't been a lot of people hanging around any of her family.
Xander turned his head, a small movement catching his eye. An incredibly cute young girl was peering at him, her green eyes wide. She had long brown hair that emphasized the elfish shape of her face. He threw a wink and a wide smile at her.
"What's that," he asked, pointing at the young girl. "It looks like a spy."
The girl giggled, her shyness forgotten.
"You know what we do with spies?" Xander asked, looking up at Joyce.
Joyce's smile grew a lot warmer. "Nope. What do we do with spies, Xander?"
The brown haired teenager's grin turned teasingly evil. "We capture and interrogate them."
He jumped to his feet and ran towards her, ignoring Buffy rolling her eyes at him.
The younger girl squealed with laughter and turned, trying to escape, but couldn't. He caught her with ease, lifting her way up, over his shoulder, letting her hang down his back in a fireman's carry. He brought her back into the kitchen and placed her on the table firmly.
"So, who do we have here?" he asked.
"Not gonna tell," she giggled, and then mimed zipping up her mouth and throwing away the key.
"Oh, like that is it?" Xander totally missed the look between Buffy and Joyce, as they both wished that the locking was real, for once.
"Well," he continued, "I guess I'm going to have to torture it out of you." He took a step forward and started to tickle her sides.
She squirmed under him, desperately trying to keep quiet.
"I can do this all night," he told her. "I've had lots of practice of getting secrets out. It's why I'm the Chief Torturer." As he spoke, he puffed his chest out and looked proud.
The girl laughed loudly, unable to keep quiet any more. Joyce and Buffy joined her, he looked so ridiculous they couldn't help themselves.
"Laugh at me, will you?" he said, semi-pompously. "I'll teach you pay proper respect!" He resumed his tickling, causing Dawn to scream at him to stop. "See, you can speak," he looked triumphant.
"Dawn, Dawn, I'm Dawn," she gasped. Her capitulation was total, and she breathed heavily with relief as he stopped his tickling.
"Dawn, eh?" He grinned at her, "a pretty name for a very pretty girl."
The smile that appeared on Dawn's face was one that her mother had not seen since her divorce. It was incredibly joyful, a far change from the sullen child they had lived with recently.
"You think I'm pretty?" she asked hesitantly, looking down at her feet as she sat up.
Xander nodded, "Yep. All of three of you are good looking. You mom's the prettiest, and normally I'd say that Buffy was second, but she's always frowning and pouting, lately. She doesn't know that if the wind changes, she'll be stuck like that for life." The last part was said in a conspiratorial whisper, that Buffy had no problems hearing at all.
She frowned at him, really not liking in the least the fact that HER friend was being so friendly with her Mom AND her annoying brat of a sister.
"See!" Xander said, pointing to her. "Frown-y face."
Dawn giggled.
"Xander," Buffy ground through her teeth. "We have homework to do. Upstairs, now!"
Xander rolled his eyes at Dawn, causing her to giggle again. "Yes, Mistress Buffy," he said with a thick accent, doing a fairly good impersonation of Frankenstein.
He lumbered over to her, swaying his arms.
"You've got an hour before lunch," Joyce said, smiling at Xander.
"Woo Hoo!" Xander grabbed Buffy's hand. "Come on Buffster, we can fail the Math homework easily in that time."
The kitchen was a lot quieter with Xander gone. Dawn hopped of the table and hugged Joyce. "I love you, mom," she said quietly. With a further squeeze, the girl vanished into the living room, the sound of the TV soon echoed back to a shocked Joyce.
She had been trying for nearly a year to get her youngest daughter to open up and laugh again. She'd taken Hank's departure a lot harder than Buffy, as she'd always been his favorite. It made it harder for Joyce to understand how her husband could just up and leave them like he had.
It had taken Buffy's friend five minutes to get through to her. She smiled, appreciatively; that boy was going to get the best meal of his life.
True to his word, Xander had been fulsome with his praise. He even went to the extent of dropping his play face and stating seriously that it was the best meal he had ever had.
Joyce smiled happily at him, wishing that, just once, her daughters would make nice comments about her cooking.
"Can I watch TV before bed?" Dawn asked.
Joyce looked at her watch, surprised to find that it was already half past eight. "For half an hour, yes, but get ready for bed first."
Dawn smiled happily and scampered out of the room.
At the mention of bed, Xander said, "I should be getting out of here as well."
Joyce grinned at him, "If I let you leave before Dawn got to say goodnight, I'd regret it for a very long time."
Xander smiled. "In that case, I'll do the dishes till she's done." He didn't wait for a reply, and started to clean up.
Joyce shot a look at Buffy, clearly pointing out that Xander's behavior was exemplary and that she should take notes.
Buffy rolled her eyes and frowned at Xander. She'd told him to turn down his flirting with her sister and mother. He was definitely potential boyfriend material, although there was the whole mess with Willow shooting cow eyes at him all the time, and she didn't want to lose her only girlfriend so far.
Typically, he had simply ignored her and continued to entertain both of them.
Four people didn't create that much mess, so he was finished the same time as Dawn, and they all moved into the living room to watch TV and talk.
Dawn showed the cunning nature that all young girls seem to possess instinctively, as she managed to arrange for Xander to sit on the couch, her mom and Buffy to sit on the chairs and her to sit next to the male guest.
They talked for a while, with Xander entertaining all three of the Summers' ladies with tales of him and Willow growing up, and Sunnydale in general. He had just got to the "We Hate Cordelia" club when he felt the weight against his arm relax. He looked down to find that Dawn had finally succumbed to sleep, and was resting against him.
He smiled gently at her, and looked at her mother for guidance.
"We need to get her into bed," she said quietly.
Xander nodded and shifted slowly, catching her as she slipped on to his lap. With one arm under her knees and one around her shoulders, he easily lifted the small girl and followed Joyce upstairs. He placed her in a pink bed in a room that reminded him a lot of Willow's and dropped a light kiss on her forehead. "Sweet dreams, Dawnie," he whispered, covering her in the blanket.
Joyce watched from the doorway, having carefully been observing him. She was a mother first and foremost, and wanted to make sure that Xander wasn't some sort of pervert. While she knew he was friends with Buffy, and was becoming friends with her, she didn't know much about him, yet. There were always some men who preferred little girls, and she had to make sure that Xander wasn't one of them.
She smiled happily; she couldn't sense anything negative or dangerous from him. Joyce wondered what his home life was like; he seemed to be really enjoying spending time at her house.
Dawn kept her eyes closed as she listened to them leaving her room. She hadn't actually fallen asleep, she'd just wanted to see what would happen. The last thought on her mind, as she drifted into sleep was, 'Dawn Harris'.
When Joyce checked in on her later, her daughter still had the widest smile on her face that she could ever remember seeing.
As the vans, bikes and cars screamed through Sunnydale, Andrew continued his briefing over the communicator network. "Our target is a red headed Caucasian female. Willow Rosenberg, you have seen pictures of her in X1's office. She is currently casting a spell to change X1 and D1's memory." D1 was a new designation, but everyone knew who Andrew meant; after all, they all had money on her succeeding.
Switching channels, Andrew called Daryl back at the office. "Can you get blueprints for the house?" he asked.
"Not a problem," he replied. "Want me to fax them through to the vans?"
Somehow, it didn't surprise Andrew that Daryl knew that the vans had fax machines, or that he knew the numbers.
"Please. Andrew Out!"
The blond haired young man now leading the teams bore almost no resemblance to the shy geek the XTech guards had been introduced to a few months ago. He had blossomed under Xander's tutelage, till he had reached the stage where he automatically took control of this mission, because he was the ONLY person with experience dealing with magic users.
XTech was unusual in that the only qualification needed for advancement and command was competency and acceptance by peers. Andrew had been accepted as a member, for his knowledge of magic, his technical ability and numerous clever ideas for the anti-vampire and anti-demon defenses, and when he had started shouting orders about what to do, he had been accepted instantly as the mission commander. With Xander incapacitated, they were grateful for his experience.
"I want a perimeter guard patrolling the back and the front, and three insertion teams, Alpha, Beta and Charlie - Delta and Echo, you're on patrol and crowd control.
"The subject is probably in the basement, so I want the first floor cleared by Charlie and the ground floor cleared by Beta. Alpha team, we're going into the basement. The house is a standard four bedroom suburban two story house. Maps are coming through on the fax machines now.
"Alpha team, when we enter, do not touch the Witch. Clear the surrounding area, but make sure you do NOT go inside any areas protected by candles or a chalk pattern.
"Everyone, there may be a blonde, Billy Idol look-alike vampire inside. If you see him, do not kill him, unless you have to. If he refuses orders, shoot him immediately.
"There is also a chance that the Slayer may be in residence. If you see her, surround her and don't get near her. She is lightning fast and extremely strong. Shoot only in self defense, but don't take any chances with her. If she won't cooperate, take her down." It wasn't a difficult decision for Andrew to make. Xander's life was possibly on the line, and he wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of saving him, even if it meant killing the Chosen One. After all, there would always be another Chosen One; there would only ever be one Xander.
"ETA is three minutes, do a final weapon check and prepare for action. Andrew Out."
Andrew looked over at Ian. "What?"
Ian smiled, "I didn't think you had it in you. Good job."
Andrew blushed, "Thanks." He pulled out his own gun and calmly checked the clip blessed bullets in it.
Willow was shocked; something was going wrong with her spell, and she didn't know what. It was if something was blocking it. She gritted her teeth; black veins seemed to explode around the side of her head.
The XTech med unit was blocking the corridor, next to Chrissy, looking annoyed at their own impotence.
Identical thin trails of blood ran from Xander and Dawn's noses. Their brains felt like they were on fire, as mystical energy battered them unrelentingly. Xander's resistance was being boosted a little by the Orb, Dawn by her slight slayer powers and Key essence. The bulk of their resistance was being powered by fear.
Dawn was terrified someone was trying to make her forget that she loved Xander, and so, was concentrating everything she had on him.
Xander was petrified by the idea that someone was trying to take Dawn away from him, that maybe Spike had persuaded Willow to make Xander forget about her.
He concentrated on the green eyed girl in his arms, her eyes still locked on his brown ones. His anger grew as he saw the pain she was in; Dawn's pain was far harder for him to take than his own.
'I'm gonna punch that Bitch into next week,' Dawn thought savagely, hating the pain she could see in her love's eyes. She desperately wanted to take it away from him.
"Remember that time Buffy left town?"
Xander pulled up to the house on Revello drive, parking his Uncle Rory's car.
The seventeen year old hopped out of the old convertible and bounded up the steps.
"What are you doing here, Xander?" Joyce asked, surprised to see him up so early.
"Came to visit my favorite lady," he grinned. "And kidnap her daughter for the day."
"Oh?" Joyce asked with a smile.
"There's a big fair in Oxnard. Willow's making kissy faces with Oz and Cordy's still in Mexico. So I thought to myself, 'Xander, who's the prettiest girl you know who you can abduct and make it look like coming was her idea?' Only one person came to mind."
Joyce laughed loudly and raised her hands. "Let me go and see if she's awake and wants to go with you."
"Thanks," Xander grinned at her, jumping into the couch and turning on Cartoon Network.
Joyce trotted upstairs and into her youngest daughter's room. The past two years had seen the childish pink be replaced with a more mature color scheme and a lot more posters. It was much more like a traditional bedroom of a girl about to enter her teens.
"Dawn," she said gently, sitting on the corner of the bed.
The vaguely human shaped form on the bed groaned. "Yeah?"
"Xander's downstairs, and he wants to take you to Oxnard for the day, to the fair there."
Those words had a miraculous effect on the twelve year old. Her head shot out from under the covers.
"Xander wants to take me out?" she squealed quietly in excitement.
Joyce nodded, completely trusting her daughter in the young man's hands.
"I've got nothing to wear." Dawn's face suddenly fell.
Joyce couldn't help but laugh. "Why don't you pop into the shower while I find an outfit for you?"
Dawn nodded and scampered out of bed, while Joyce walked into the abandoned bedroom of her eldest daughter. This was so like Xander: he had noticed that Dawn had been missing her sister badly the other night, and had told her that he would do something about it.
To her lasting regret, she could now see that Buffy was never going to see Xander 'that way', and it was only now that the boy was starting to get over his massive crush on her. It was such a pity that her oldest daughter was so attracted by the dark, dangerous types, overlooking what she had in front of her.
Joyce picked out an outfit that stood bang on the line between being youthful and being adult. She placed it on Dawn's bed and went back downstairs to make them both some breakfast.
Dawn bounced out of the shower, letting her hair down from the pony tail she had used to keep it out of the water. She looked at the clothes and smiled; they were perfect, especially if she pulled the skirt up a little as soon as she was away from her mother.
The girl grinned happily, and pulled on her sister's clothing, before walking downstairs. It took a lot of effort, but she managed not to bounce.
"Hey, Morning Dawnie. Looking good."
Dawn smiled happily and twirled for him.
Joyce smiled to herself, her daughter's crush was so obvious, but she couldn't think of any other person she would rather have her aim her affections at.
They ate breakfast fast, before Xander ushered her out the door. Joyce thrust fifty dollars in to his hand, frowning at him as he opened his mouth to protest.
Xander gave in with a grin, and tossed a salute at her.
The drive went relatively well; Dawn had pulled up her skirt a bit, but Xander hadn't noticed, to her disappointment.
They walked around the fair, riding a few of the attractions, just generally talking and having a good time.
"Win a prize for your girlfriend, Guv?" a fake British accent interrupted them.
Xander looked up - a tall, long haired man, with numerous tattoos, was standing in front of a shooting gallery.
"Sure," Xander said, to Dawn's delight. The fact he hadn't denied being her boyfriend was possibly the best thing that had ever happened to her.
He picked up the fake rifle and handed the guy a dollar. He fired at the target, missing. Soldier Boy memories started to flood back and he fired again, and again. He missed all three.
"Aww, want to try again?"
Xander turned and winked at Dawn. "Which prize do you want?"
Dawn pointed to a huge pink elephant. "That one."
"To win that, you've got to knock down all six boxes with 3 shots," the stall owner said, indicating a pyramid of boxes as far away as they could be.
Xander handed him another dollar. With a quick movement he pulled the air rifle back to his shoulder and let off three rapid shots, adjusting for the distorted sights that had caused him to miss the first time. All 6 boxes went flying.
With a very sick look, the tattooed man passed Dawn her prize, and made it clear he wanted them to leave.
With a laugh, Xander wrapped his arm around Dawn's shoulder and led her away.
They walked over to the Ferris wheel, and had a carriage to themselves, as long as you didn't count Mike the Elephant, as Dawn had insisted on calling him.
"You miss her?" Xander asked, finally broaching the subject he had planned the day around.
Dawn looked out over the fair, as the Ferris wheel slowly looped. "Yeah," she nodded. "She may be a pain, but she's still my sister, then suddenly gets in an argument with Mom over her being a Slayer and vanishes."
Xander took her hand gently. "Dawn, Buffy didn't just go because of the argument, but because of Angel as well. She had to send him to hell. It's a hell of a burden for anyone to carry.
"She asked me to look after you while she was gone," he confided to her. That was a lie, but Dawn didn't need to know that. "She felt that she needed some time to herself, away from the fighting, away from the constant pressure, so she left town. She loves you, she always has. It was nothing that you did that drove her away."
Dawn looked at him, a tear dropping down her cheek. "But -"
"No buts, Dawnie." Xander's hand cupped her cheek and wiped away the tear. "She loves you and wanted to keep you safe. She's only going to be gone for a bit, and it's not your fault."
Dawn smiled slowly, and leant forward and hugged him hard. She was so relieved and grateful for what he had said, that she forgot to take advantage of the hug, and for once, was just a girl on the cusp of womanhood.
Xander stroked her back gently. Joyce had told him a few weeks ago that Dawn was blaming herself for her sister's disappearance, and he'd been determined to make sure she stopped thinking it was her own fault.
The cavalcade screeched to a halt outside the Summers' house. The team leaders jogged over to Andrew, who looked at his watch. "Entry in 30 seconds, three, two, one. Mark!"
The team leaders synchronized their countdowns and took the teams took their places, two teams going to the back of the house.
Andrew and Ian took their positions behind the Alpha team leader; for the moment, he was in charge.
"Three, two, one. Go! Go! Go!"
Simultaneously, the front and back doors were forced open, hand held battering rams powered by over a metric ton per square inch pressure made short work of the locks.
Beta and Charlie teams entered first, their rifles held at the ready as they stormed through the house, one team splitting and sprinting up the stairs. One person covered while his partner opened a door, before both of them did a visual check, before entering and shouting "Clear."
Alpha team burst through straight after Beta team, and smashed open the door to basement, entering quickly and efficiently.
Mindful of Andrew's warning, aside from keeping watch for any offensive actions she might take, they ignored the now-black-eyed witch who appeared to be totally focused on her spell. Once the surrounding area was cleared, Ian and Andrew approached Willow's protective circle.
Andrew studied the layout of the candle and the chalk design inscribed on the floor. It was a standard pentagram, designed primarily to keep out magic. He lent down and blew out the nearest candles, and nodded to Ian.
Ian took two steps forward and punched Willow, his anger at her attack meaning the punch was a little harder than he might normally have used on a human. He caught her flush on the chin and knocked her out cleanly. She fell to the floor, unconscious.
The pain suddenly stopped for the two people on the floor.
"Dawn?" Xander asked.
"Yes, Xander?" her voice was soft and full of pain.
"Do you remember?"
She smiled at him, showing her emotions a little. "Yes."
Despite the blood on her face, the pain in her eyes, Xander had never seen her look more beautiful. "I do too, Dawn."
He pulled the girl to him tighter, as they both collapsed to the floor and passed out.
It took the med team only three seconds to get to them both, and start to do their jobs.
Willow's consciousness slowly swam back into place, and she looked around with bleary eyes. She could remember starting a spell, it going wrong and her having to pour her energy into it, then a sharp pain in her jaw, which, now she noticed it, was causing her an immense amount of pain.
She opened her eyes as her eyesight returned fully. She was flat on her back, and had four heavily armed men pointing assault rifles at her. Her eyes widened in fear, and dread started to set in as she saw Andrew.
Terror grabbed her when she saw the logo's the guards were wearing. A stylized X.
She recognized it, because she had drawn it for Xander, when she was fourteen.
Xander must know that she cast the spell.
Her last thought as she too passed out was, "Oh shit."
Andrew looked down with barely disguised anger at the girl on the floor.
"Go and get a stretcher," Andrew said quietly, to two of the four guards. "We'll keep her in the holding cells."
They saluted and left, leaving Andrew to walk up to Ian.
"They are both unconscious, but Chrissy said that they seemed to remember before they past out."
Andrew nodded, and looked down at the Witch again. "I'm not going to allow her to do that again."
"What are you going to do?"
"Talk to Giles, and then find a way to bind her powers. She's done this before, and we all thought she had learnt her lesson. She treats magic as a convenience. It's like someone who uses karate to change a light bulb, by destroying the bulb first, then wondering where to go from there."
Ian nodded. "We could just kill her," he suggested.
Andrew actually considered the idea for a few seconds, before his common sense returned. "Nah," he smiled. "I think losing her magic will be punishment enough."
Ian grinned, glad his comment had been taken the right way. "I guess so."
Andrew pulled out his phone, and made a call directly to Pete Morris, Xander's boss and partner of PJH Construction.
"Mr. Morris, it's Andrew Wells from XTech. Sorry to call you on a Saturday night, but we have a situation."
"What is the problem, Andrew?" Pete asked, vaguely remembering the young man he had been introduced to once, while on a tour of the XTech building.
"Xander's been the victim of a magical attack; we had to destroy several doors of the house he used to live at, to stop the attack. We need a crew here, urgently to fix up the mess we made."
"Is Xander all right?" Pete asked, sounding worried.
"I'm not sure yet, Sir. The medics at the scene say he is unconscious."
"A team will be there in five minutes. You better tell Miranda and Kyle Michaels what has happened."
"I will, Sir."
"Please keep my informed of any further developments."
"Certainly, Sir."
They exchanged goodbyes and hung up.
"Do you mind staying here, with Alpha team, for the clean up crew?" Andrew asked Ian.
"Nope, just tell Chrissy I'll see her tomorrow."
Andrew nodded, "Brad's gonna be pissed he missed this."
For the first time, Ian cracked a smile. "True."
The drive back to XTech head quarters was a lot more sedate, giving Andrew a chance to make his next phone call.
"Mrs. Michaels? My name is Andrew Wells."
"What can I do for you, Andrew? Is there a problem?" Molly instantly recognized the young man.
"I'm afraid that Xander and Dawn have been the victims of a powerful magical attack. They are currently unconscious at XTech headquarters."
"We'll be there in two minutes!" Molly hung up the phone and turned to her husband. "Xander's been attacked and is unconscious."
Kyle swore, and jumped to his feet. Together, they jogged out to his car, climbed in, and he took off at high speed.
They arrived the same time as Andrew.
"They are in the First Aid room," Andrew said, after exchanging greetings. The nearest he had previously come to these two was when Xander had given them a guided tour of the buildings.
Molly nodded, and instantly took off towards it, leaving Kyle to find out what happened.
She burst through the doors and headed towards the door.
"Whoa! Where do you think you are going?" Chrissy stood in front of the door separating the waiting area and the room the two victims were sat in.
"Do you know who I am?" Molly would regret using that phrase for a very long time, it was completely out of character for her to say something like that.
"I don't care who you are," Chrissy said firmly. "The doctor's said to make sure that only people we know get in to see Xander and Dawn. They have already been attacked once today."
Automatically, Daryl stood and moved next to Chrissy, backing her up completely.
Molly took a deep breath, but was interrupted by the door being opened by Andrew and her husband.
"It's ok, Chrissy," Andrew said with a smile. "I'll vouch for them."
Chrissy nodded and stood to one side, allowing Molly in.
"Oh, Xander," she whispered softly, moving over to him. She looked at Dawn, and noticed that they both had a thin trail of fresh blood from dripping from their noses. She picked up a cloth and tenderly wiped them both clean, then sat down to wait and watch.
Kyle turned to Andrew. "Thanks for letting us know, and for what you did."
Andrew shrugged, "Xander saved me, and I owe him big time.
"Anyway, I need to check on the being who did this, then do a full debrief with the men. So, if you'll excuse me..."
Kyle nodded, and watched with a smile as the blond haired young man strode confidently out of the room.
He joined his wife, and sat down next to her. "Molly, did you say anything to the people stopping you from entering?" Twenty five years of marriage meant that Kyle knew his wife's responses to frustrations quite well.
She paled and nodded. "Wait here," she told her husband, not wanting for Xander and Dawn to be alone for a single minute.
She took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, and walked out to meet the two teenagers who had stood in her way.
"I'm Miranda Beauchamp-Michaels," she introduced herself, and hid a small smile as both of them recognized the name.
"I just wanted to apologize for my earlier behavior. It was quite inexcusable, not to mention down right rude."
Daryl and Chrissy looked at each other, shocked. "Erm, that's ok," Chrissy replied softly, "you were just upset about Xander and Dawn."
"Please, call me Molly," she said with a smile. "I have to say I'm impressed that you both stood up to me, it's been a while since anyone has done that."
Both of them blushed.
"Has there been any change?" Daryl asked, changing the subject as smoothly as he could.
"Why don't you wait with us inside?" Molly invited the two of them. "We can talk more there."
"What happened?" Brad Hooper asked Andrew as he arrived back. With Xander unconscious, he was the second in command.
"Magical attack." Andrew pointed at Willow. "She broke through the shields with a spell designed to modify Dawn and Xan's memory."
"How did she get through the shield?"
Andrew sighed, "I designed them to negate magical energy, unfortunately, but she has enough power to blow up the world, and nothing I could do would be able to stop her."
Brad nodded slowly, "What are you going to do with her?"
"Find a way of ensuring it never happens again. She has too much power and nowhere near enough discipline. She's like a six year old with a grudge and a Kalashnikov." Andrew's analogies changed depending on who he was talking to.
Brad nodded again, scowling at the unconscious witch.
"When do you think she will wake up?"
"I'm keeping her unconscious," Andrew admitted. "I need time to prepare, and have to check with a few people. I also want Xander's input."
"How did the teams do?" Brad asked, changing the subject slightly.
Andrew smiled, "Brilliantly. We were in and out within 3 minutes, the whole house cleared."
"Good," Brad smiled approvingly. "I thought Xander was nuts, insisting we train like we did for fast entries. Looks like it's paid off already."
"Yeah, but I think he had vampires in mind, not stupid, overly powerful witches with a complete lack of moral compass.
"Anyway, I need to give the guys a debrief. You want to tag along?"
"Yeah, I think I will."
Kennedy sat in her car and watched, shocked, as a bunch of humans burst through the door of her old home, then a few minutes later, carried the unconscious form of her ex-girlfriend out.
A few minutes later, a couple of vans pulled up, marked with a construction firm's logo. As she watched, several doors were carried out, locks were replaced and the house was restored to its original state.
Stunned, she drove to the hotel her father had made her a reservation at, wondering how she could exploit this situation best.
Ian joined the others waiting inside the large room that was the XTech primary medical lab. Xander's planning had reached this part as well, he had too much experience in the damage that fighting vampires and demons caused, to have ignored such a vital component.
The medical department had one large reception/waiting room, and two fully equipped surgeries. There were two medical teams on full time duty, to give complete 24 hour coverage.
The reception room had extremely comfortable chairs, a TV, and monitors that could show the contents of the surgical rooms, for people who didn't want to wait inside.
After Andrew had joined the Michaels and Chrissy and Daryl, they had agreed to move somewhere a little more comfortable, with the door open and the monitors on.
Much as Molly wanted to stay in the same room, she accepted the advice of everyone else that they should move out.
"What's the situation?" Ian asked, not liking the look on people's faces.
"The doctor has done a full examination, and he doesn't think there is any brain damage. It looks like they are suffering from a form of physical exhaustion. They must have used up a lot of energy fighting the spell." Kyle ran his fingers through his hair, wishing that he had some better news.
"Well, Dawn's been wanting to sleep in the same room as Xander for some time," Chrissy said with a slight grin. "I think she'll be pissed when she realizes she was unconscious during it."
The bad joke only raised a few smiles, but the atmosphere in the room lightened considerably, and it wasn't long till they were all involved in a wide ranging conversation.
"They have to be alright," Andrew stated calmly. "For Willow's sake, more than anything else."
"Why is that?" Molly frowned.
"Because downstairs, I have thirty men, all of whom have been trained to kill, all of whom have access to all sorts of weapons, all of whom are loyal to the boss. I've already had to have words with several people who were in favor of an 'accident' happening, and ending the Witch problem once and for all.'
"Oh." Molly thought about it for a few seconds, and then said, "Good." She tried hard to ignore the disapproving stare of her husband. Damn it, her son, and someone who in a very short time had made a huge impression on her heart, was inside that room, unconscious due to some selfish bitch with unbelievable arrogance. If either of them was hurt, she certainly would not be sad to hear about any 'accidents'.
Kyle smiled slightly, able to read his wife perfectly. She might be feeling a little bloodthirsty at the moment, but it wouldn't last. As soon as the kids woke up, and she calmed down, she would help anyway she could to deal with the long term effects of this evening. She might have a short fuse, but once it had blown out, what was left was a warm, loving, caring woman, willing to do anything for her friends. It was one of the many reasons he loved her.
With her dad downstairs, Chrissy had no trouble spending the night in the waiting room. Ian's parents were used to him spending all night out, so weren't worried. Daryl had phoned home, talked to his mother, and had told her that he was staying at Ian's. His mother had been so pleased that Daryl had actually made a friend, and was out of his room, that she hadn't put up a fuss at all.
Daryl was the first to fall asleep, curling up in one of the arm chairs.
Chrissy had fallen next; she had been sitting next to Ian. With a sleepy smile at him, she calmly pulled her legs up, and slid down, resting her head in his lap.
Ian had tensed, unable to believe that she would do that with him, that she would trust him so much. Gently, and as tenderly as he could, he stroked her hair back.
Andrew, Molly and Kyle each exchanged smiles at the sight. Andrew had known Ian the longest, and was really pleased the boy had found someone; he understood the loneliness of being single during your teenage years better than most.
Ian continued to stroke the long hair of the blonde, admiring the texture and softness of it. She wasn't a stand out beauty, but at this close range, he realized how pretty she was. Her nose turned up a little at the end, she had a mouth that was more suited to smiling than frowning. She had eyes that seemed to change color depending on her mood.
He wasn't a poetic person, hell, he was more at home in a fight than a restaurant, but he slowly started to realize that he wanted something else, he wanted her trust: he wanted her.
A noise from the corner, as Andrew shifted his chair, caused her to wake for a second. She looked up at him, smiled sleepily, and went back to sleep.
Ian smiled, and rested his own head back, drifting off himself.
Andrew, Molly and Kyle talked for a bit longer, till Andrew yawned, and practically ordered the two older people to take the beds in the other room. They tried to protest, but Andrew's fatigue, and the effects of a long day, meant that he dropped his usual deference and ordered them to go and lie down.
The married couple gave in, but not before Molly extracted a promise that Andrew would wake her if anything changed, and a few seconds later, were very comfortably asleep.
The doctor, a fifteen year veteran who had treated most of the Scooby gang during his career, had been pleased to finally learn the truth about what was going on in Sunnydale. He had already started to develop new treatments and procedures to treat victims of 'gang members on PCP', based on the extensive research available from some of the websites that Andrew had given him access to.
After working with Xander for several months, he understood the loyalty that these people, and the guards below, felt for the young man now in his care.
He pulled out some blankets, and gently covered the sleeping teenagers and Andrew.
With that done, he dimmed the lights, and walked into the room with Dawn and Xander.
"You better wake up soon," he said softly. "There are a lot of people who need you right now."
Later that night, while the Doctor was checking on the two, he noticed some unusual eye movements under Xander's closed eye.
With a frown, he walked back out and gently shook Andrew awake.
"What's up?" Andrew asked, coming to full consciousness quickly.
"Strange eye movements, and as it's his artificial eye, I figured it was more your area than mine."
"I'll take a look at it," the young blond said with a smile.
Andrew nodded, and walked into the hospital room. He looked at the readout on the nearest computer, and then pressed a few buttons to bring up a magical scan of the area. The scan showed that there was some very low-level magic being wrought in Xander's vicinity.
Keeping his promise, he quietly walked through the darkened reception room and into the next room and gently touched Molly's shoulder.
She awoke immediately. "What's happened?"
"The Orb of Isis is doing something to Xander," Andrew explained quietly.
Molly nodded and got up off the bed. She silently followed Andrew into the other room.
"What's it doing, exactly?" she asked quietly, as she looked down at the two children who had taken their places in her heart.
"I don't know," Andrew admitted. "I don't think it's hurting him, though."
Molly nodded slowly. "Go back to sleep, I'll stay with him for a bit, just to make sure."
He nodded and walked back into the waiting room, dropping into a chair and curling back up. He was asleep in seconds, a trick Xander had taught him some months earlier. 'Considering the situations we're going to be handling, you need to be able to rest wherever and whenever you can,' he remembered his mentor telling him.
Molly pulled up a chair next to Xander, and quietly sat down, taking his hand in hers. She looked down at the artificial eye, that was twitching softly, and started to pray. She prayed that the eye was doing something good, was not causing him any pain.
She stayed there till the twitching stopped, then gently kissed his forehead, before returning to sleep rejoin Kyle in the next room, and eventually fall into a troubled sleep.
Andrew woke up and groaned, stretching. "I'm getting too damn old to be doing this," he mumbled to himself, as he tried to un-kink his back.
He walked over and checked on the two patients, who were both still unconscious.
"Any change?" Ian's low voice asked from across the room.
Andrew checked the charts. "There was a little magical activity from the eye last night, but that was it."
"What was it doing?" Ian asked.
"Don't know," Andrew sighed.
"Damn," Chrissy said, sitting up and stretching. "Ladies room?"
"Down there, 2nd door on the left," Andrew replied.
"Thanks," she said with a smile, then turned to Ian. "You make a good pillow, sugar."
She grinned and bounced out of the room.
"No one should have that much energy first thing," Daryl complained, stretching himself. He delicately ignored Ian's blush.
Andrew grinned, and picked up the phone. He dialed the canteen, and ordered six full breakfasts to be brought up.
"Good man," Kyle said approvingly, coming out of the other surgery. "How are our sleeping beauties?"
"Still awaiting their prince," Andrew said dryly. "Sleep well?"
"Reasonably," Kyle said.
"I need to go make a phone call, and check the nightly logs, but I'll be back in time for breakfast. If anything happens, dial 0 on the phone and ask for me."
"Will do," Kyle said.
Andrew walked out and down the hall, into his office. He pulled out his Sharp Zaurus handheld and checked his address book, looking for the number he needed. He found it, and dialed it quickly, sitting back in his boss' seat.
The phone was finally answered after half a dozen rings, and Andrew heard the sounds of fumbling, followed by a faint, "Blasted contraption."
"Hello?" The voice finally came through loud and clear. "This had been be bloody damn important."
"Giles, it's Andrew."
"Hello Andrew. I take it that, due to the fact you are phoning me on this irritating device, there is a problem?"
"'Fraid so." Andrew took a deep breath. "Last night, Willow fell off the wagon, and tried to do a memory spell on Xander and Dawn."
"Oh my," Giles said, softly.
"We stopped her before she could finish the spell, but Xander and Dawn have been unconscious all night, and I'm keeping her sedated, under armed guard."
"Is the guard truly necessary?"
"It's to keep people out, not her in!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Giles," Andrew sounded a little exasperated. "Willow launched an unprovoked attack on the Head of XTech security. I have a building full of very well trained men who really object to that sort of thing, and are very interested in setting a precedent that will scare the hell out of anyone else who thinks about attacking him."
"Oh, quite right," Giles said.
"I think it's time you came home. We've got the SIT training center about finished, so the accommodation is ready for you."
"SIT Training center?" Giles asked, confused.
"Oh," Giles could almost hear Andrew blush. "I guess Xander wanted it to be a surprise for you. Well, he's built a series of bedrooms and a common room next to the XTech training room. I think you'll find it a lot more comfortable than living in a small house."
"Oh yes, indeed," Giles said reverently, realizing all the benefits that this would give him as he tried to rebuild the Watchers Council. "You're quite right; it is, indeed, time I returned to work. The vacation has been fun, but there is a lot to be done."
"And Willow to deal with," Andrew added, refocusing the ex-Watcher.
"Yes," Giles agreed, his voice changing as the earlier message started to sink through properly. "What exactly happened?"
Andrew frowned, suddenly realizing that Giles hadn't been kept informed of the recent events. "I think it would be best if we tell you in person. It's been a hectic week and a lot has happened. If you're willing to come home, I'll prepare the travel arrangements for you and the SIT's."
"Thank you," Giles said. "I do hope that Xander and Dawn are alright."
Andrew said goodbye, and hung up. He spent five minutes organizing the return flights, phoned Giles back, and then joined everyone else in the surgery waiting room, for breakfast.
Father Richard O'Reilly walked through the doors of XTech with his normal burst of energy. A passionate Irishman, with deep red hair and surprisingly dark eyes, he had been a member of the priesthood since repenting his youthful misdeeds. Having made more mistakes in his life than most of his flock, he had a lot more life experiences to draw on when dealing with the problems that people gave to him. It made him extremely popular, especially in a town that had such problems as Sunnydale.
He had met Xander Harris when he had caught the younger man appropriating some Holy Water from the baptismal font. He had approached the man curiously; his experience had been that hooligans and drug dealers preferred the gold religious paraphernalia that was a trademark of his religion.
Xander hadn't explained fully why he needed it, but his earnest face, and very clear eyes, had convinced him to allow Xander to take what was needed.
A few days later, he had found out exactly why Xander had taken the Holy Water, when a vampire had attacked him in his church. The creature had entered the building, and taunted him, before vamping out. As far as he was concerned, no priest like him was going to be killed by a creature of Satan, and he had fallen in to old patterns. His strong fists had caught the vampire by surprise, giving him enough time to scramble for a cross. He used the cross to keep the vampire at bay, as he worked his way around to the font at which point the vampire had received a large amount of holy water to its face. The water acted like acid, blinding it. He then stood above the vampire and chanted an old blessing.
"Jesus Christ rebukes you, O Demon! By the sacred Name of Jesus and that of Mary, His Holy Mother, and by the power of the Most Holy Rosary, I command you: Be gone, unclean spirit! I exorcise you, Demon, this servant of Almighty God and His sealed Image, by the grace of the Most Holy Spirit, by the sprinkling of this holy water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
He had been pleasantly surprised when it had worked, and the vampire had vanished into a cloud of dust. That night, the father had met another old friend, a bottle of 20 yr. old Scottish whiskey.
When Xander had arrived back for more supplies, the Priest had pulled him into his vestry, and explained what had happened. That had been the start of their friendship, and as Xander had started XTech, it had been him who had started to bless the bullets, deciding that an army fighting for God deserved the best it could get.
The small detail that had sealed his desire to help Xander had been the unassuming young man's description of himself; that of a simple carpenter.
Father O'Reilly had always held a soft spot for carpenters.
"Morning Father," the receptionist smiled at him.
He grinned back at her, pausing to be identified. As he entered the main XTech entrance room, he frowned at the noise level. Or rather, the lack thereof. Normally it was a pretty boisterous place, but this morning it was silent.
Ominously so.
"Joe," he said, grabbing one of the guards as they walked past. "What's happened?"
"You'd better get the full story from Andrew; he's in his office."
"Thanks," the priest replied, and walked quickly to the office.
"Andrew, what in the name of all that's holy is going on?"
"Morning Father," Andrew greeted him with a slight smile. "Have a seat."
He sat down as indicated, and looked at the young man before him. The blond boy looked tired, as if he had not had much sleep last night.
"Last night, Willow launched a magical attack on Xander and Dawn, trying to change their memories of something. It's left them both unconscious in the hospital wing."
"And Willow?"
"In a holding cell, unconscious, down stairs."
"When is she likely to wake up?"
"When I turn of the sleep inducer," Andrew admitted with a slight smile.
Long talks with Xander, which had bordered on confessionals, meant that Father O'Reilly had an intimate knowledge of the comings and goings of the Scooby gang.
"What about Xander and Dawn?"
"We're not sure. Xander's eye is doing something, but we don't know what."
"This that Orb of Isis item you mentioned?"
Andrew nodded, and then went silent as he could see his guest deep in thought.
"I think I'd like a talk with Willow, but I'll need your help before hand."
Willow's mind swam back into consciousness, and she protested the light with a groan. She experienced a second's confusion, before reality swam back into painful focus. Her already pale face lost all its color as she realized her actions, and how it had backfired. Guilt swam through her, overwhelming her senses and causing her stomach to churn.
She looked around desperately, and seeing a toilet, fell to the floor in front of it, and lost the remaining food in her stomach. She dry-heaved a few times, then stumbled back to the low cot, her jaw reminding her of one of the consequences of the night before.
Incuriously, she looked around the small room. It was small and painted in soft beige. The only furniture was the cot she was sitting on, and the toilet in the corner. The solid one-piece door looked to be heavy steel.
She stared at the door, idly contemplating using magic to escape, as it opened.
A tall priest walked in, the door shutting smoothly behind him, and placed the chair he was carrying on the floor, then sat in it, shifting around a bit to get comfy, before saying anything.
"I'm Richard O'Reilly," he introduced himself, deliberately playing up an accent that was more cultivated than natural.
"Willow Rosenberg," the witch replied, a little dryly.
"Want to tell me what happened yesterday?"
Willow sighed, and in a monotone voice said, "I tried to cast a spell on Xander and Dawn, to change their memories. It wasn't working, so I put more power into it. I remember a sharp pain in my jaw, before waking up and seeing a logo. I then passed out and woke up here a few minutes ago."
The idea of lying didn't seem to be a good one, and she was sick of it. Sick of lying, sick of her life, sick of everything. She just wanted to curl up and drift away; maybe she would see Tara again. But would Tara want her now? Since the girl had died, Willow had eviscerated the man who had killed her, tried to end the world, jumped into a relationship with a younger girl and cast aside Xander, again, as she had so many times before. Then, to top it off, she had used a modified 'blank slate' spell - the same one she had promised Tara she would never use again.
"Do you believe in God?"
"I'm a Wicca. I worship my goddess."
"So your magic would work on me? Even though I am a representative of God?"
Willow shrugged.
Father O'Reilly smiled and pulled a pen out of his pocket and placed it beside him. "Would you mind doing a little test for me?"
The red-headed girl shrugged again.
"Can you make this pen levitate?"
Willow narrowed her eyes; something so little didn't even require a spell. The pen floated a few inches of the ground, before dropping back down to the floor.
"Now, could you try that spell on me?"
She thought for a second, and mentally chanted a spell, pointing her hand at the priest.
Nothing happened.
A look of shock appeared on the girl's face, and she tried again, throwing more of her power into it.
Nothing happened again.
Willow looked worried. She threw her power at the pen again, pointing at it, and it rocketed to the ceiling. She kept her power floating in the forefront of her mind as she pointed at the priest, a smile of triumph on her face.
Yet again, nothing happened.
With wide eyes, she collapsed back onto the cot, unable to believe what she had just seen.
"God is everywhere, Willow. He infuses us with his great love and lends us His power in times of need. He protects and He guides. All things come from Him, and all things lead to Him. For too long, you have used magic without respect and without guidance and without fear of consequence.
"He is watching you, as He is watching everyone, and He will judge you in the end. Everything you do will come back to you threefold, a cardinal belief of yours, I believe.
"He has leant you this power to serve Him."
"But I worship a goddess," Willow whispered.
The priest smiled slightly as he asked, "Who do you think your Goddess worships?"
He then stood, picked up his chair and slowly walked out, leaving a very confused wicca behind.
Outside the holding cell, he was met by Brad and Andrew.
"I don't remember that being the Catholic doctrine," Brad said curiously. "Doesn't your religion talk about one true God, and everything else as being blasphemy?"
"Of course, but telling Willow that, when she has proof otherwise would be a little stupid. To be honest, finding that the Devil exists, and that witchcraft actually works, has caused me to examine my own beliefs. But, it was not difficult to reconcile the differences, when I realized that the gods and goddesses, were merely what we have called Angels before."
Brad nodded slowly, not sure that he agreed, as he was quite comfortable with the idea of multiple gods. "I half thought you'd want to burn her," he teased the priest, changing the tone a little.
Richard just laughed and turned to Andrew with a smug look on his face. "I told you it would work."
Andrew rolled his eyes at the priest. "You were lucky, if she hadn't been making such wild gestures, there is no way I would have been able to turn on and off the magic suppressor like I did. You would have hit the roof so hard, we'd have been clearing up essence de-priest for a month."
"You need to have more faith in God, Andrew. He works in ways beyond our comprehension." He smiled beatifically at the two stunned men, and started to walk towards the infirmary.
"Remind me to never play cards with him," Brad said, after a moment's thought.
"Agreed!"
Long before she became a Wicca, Willow was Jewish. It wasn't like being a red-head, or being a girl, it was somehow more than that. It defined her life, and her existence. Everything from not having a Christmas like other kids and celebrating Chanukah instead, to studying the Torah had defined her. Yet she had found it controlling and dominating.
She had wanted more, and when she found the Wiccan religion, with its much more honest way of looking at things, and its unbelievable practicality of having a female God, she had embraced it whole heartedly.
But only to a point. She had paid lip service to the laws of the religion. She speed read the text, then promptly ignored it, and as long as her power increased, she saw no real reason to pay attention to the verse and chapter. After all, she had read the Torah and saw how out of date and archaic that was, with a lot of it contradictory and irrelevant in a modern world. How could the Wiccan religion, one that outdated Judaism by millennia, be any different?
So she had tripped along merely, ignoring the signs that now seemed so obvious to her. Everything that had made her happy had now been stripped away. She was alone, friendless - Buffy was more of a subset of Spike these days - and had just alienated the only two other people she would have counted on in the past. She had no illusions about Giles, who had risked everything he had and was to give her a second chance.
The really sad thing was that she couldn't think of a single reason she should have another one.
She was scared. She curled up on the cot, into a fetal position, and tried hard not to cry. The thought of a divine being, His presence being so comprehensively proved to her, judging her, and her actions, suddenly made her think of her immortal soul. Her upbringing had made her think that she when she died, she would simply be reincarnated, but now, the other thing that could happen came back. That her soul would be held in limbo until Christ returned.
Judgment Day.
When all the souls of the dead would be judged by their actions when alive.
Judgment Day.
The two words increased her fear, as she realized that Magic had been a gift. A gift with a price tag she had ignored with ease. Her almost digital memory was normally a blessing; now, it was a curse. She remembered everything, from reading about the Threefold rule, to her actions.
Tears slowly ran down her cheek as everything came back to her.
Inside the waiting room, Daryl, Ian, Chrissy, Molly and Kyle were all sat around a table, playing cards. They were using surgical swabs for chips, and judging by the large pile in front of Molly, she was having a good day.
"Of course, the fact that Molly spends every Thursday with her poker buddies would explain why she is winning," Kyle said with a grin.
"Kyle!" Molly complained, annoyed at him for giving away her secret.
The others laughed, it didn't really matter. The games were just a distraction to the endless waiting for Xander and Dawn to wake up.
The door swung open, and Father O'Reilly entered with his standard enthusiasm. He received a mixed greeting, as Ian groaned, and Chrissy, Molly and Kyle smiled.
"Ian," the Father said with a smile. "It's been a long time since I've seen you in church." His dark eyes noticed how close the boy was sitting next to Chrissy. "I'm sure there are all sorts of things you want to confess?"
Ian lent forwards and started to bang his head against the table. "Shouldn't you be in church?"
The priest grinned. "I left my trainee in charge; he's handling my duties for me."
Ian groaned again.
The others around the table burst out into laughter, except for Daryl who looked a little lost.
Molly smiled and lent over to him. "Father O'Reilly has been teasing Ian for the past two years. It's his favorite sport."
"Who are you?" The father asked with a grin, deciding that Daryl looked like an ideal partner for him to tease with Ian.
"Daryl Marks, Father."
"Tell me, Daryl, do you believe in God?"
The boy took a deep breath, then grinned at Ian, fully aware that he was about to become a target as well. "Linus Torvalds? Sure, even talked to him a few times."
Father O'Reilly froze. His mind whirred trying to place the name that sounded familiar. Only a Time magazine article saved him, as he remembered the name of the Finnish student that had started the Linux operating system. The article had explained how techies and geeks around the world considered him a god-like figure. His eyes flicked to Ian, who was looking at his friend with a mixture of thanks and respect.
He laughed and relaxed. "I meant the real God."
Daryl frowned a little, looking him in the eyes. "I only found out that Hell existed a few days ago, I'm going to need some time to work through that, before I decide to move from my nice safe atheism."
The priest nodded slowly, "When you want to talk, I'm always available." The teasing was gone, replaced by his full religious persona.
"So," the priest said, pulling up a chair. "Poker, is it?"
What followed, was a tightly fought match between Molly and Father O'Reilly, with the others spending more time watching than actually playing.
Ian took the opportunity to try and exact some revenge on the Father. "You know, Daryl, that our Father here, is our secret weapon against Vampires?"
"Really?" Daryl asked, recognizing his role to encourage the story.
"Oh yes," Ian replied, conveniently ignoring the priest's glare. "We were walking home one night, a few months ago, in the dark. It was me, the Father, Brad and Xander. We'd spent the day working on The Fortress, when a group of vampires approached us. Xander and I went ahead, we both had stakes, so we got to them first, leaving Brad with the Father."
"What happened next?" Daryl asked, trying hard not to grin.
"Well, we were using Xan's strategy of shooting them in the kneecaps to disable them, then staking them before they could recover. It was working pretty well, but we needed help, so Brad joined in. This, of course, left our Father defenseless."
The man in question snorted at this, but raised Molly two swabs.
"With most of the vampires gone, Xander suddenly spotted one approaching the Father. None of us could get to him, we were all kind of busy, so we were worried. You know how Xander gets when someone is in trouble. Jump in the way first, think later. Anyway, he tried to, but a vampire grabbed his leg. He was extremely annoyed, shot the vampire five times, and then staked him.
"I'd finished mine by this point, and we turned together, to see our favorite Priest just standing there. We both shouted for him to move, but he just smiled and waited till the vampire was near by."
By now, Molly, Kyle and Chrissy were engaged in the story. The Father used that to his advantage to win another hand of poker.
"Anyway, our Father just raises his hand, makes a sign of the cross and says, 'O Divine Eternal Father, in union with your Divine Son and the Holy Spirit, and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg You to destroy the Power of your greatest enemy - the evil spirits.' And the vampire exploded into dust."
The people listening applauded and cheered. "How did you do that?" Kyle asked, not having heard the story. "I thought Xander said that Priests couldn't just bless vampires to death."
Father O'Reilly steepled his fingers, placing his elbows on the table. "I did a lot of research when I realized that Vampires are real. I already knew from talking to Xander that they were affected by religious icons - crosses and the like, and that it didn't seem to matter which religion they were from. A Star of David was as effective as a cross.
"It seemed that it was not so much the icon itself, but the faith in a deity behind it that caused the reaction.
"I looked into example of priests being killed by vampires, and came to the conclusion that, when confronted by proof of the devil nearly all priests immediately started to question their faith. Instead of thanking God for the test, they questioned God, and lost faith in Him.
"The first time I was attacked by a vampire, I didn't have time to question myself. I think that I had subconsciously been given a hint by Xander's behavior that they exist, so I was a little prepared. I exorcised the demon, following the doctrine to the letter.
"So, armed with my faith in God, the most powerful weapon in existence, I was in no way worried about a mere vampire."
There was a moment's silence around the table, as everyone digested the priest's words, before the game picked up again.
It was no surprise to anyone, that when a beeping indicated one of the two patients was waking up, Molly was the first to move. The noise had barely registered when she was up, her chair bouncing to the floor, and she was through the door.
"You know," Ian said dryly. "She could put a vampire to shame with the sort of speed she just showed."
Molly stood over Dawn, watching as the girl struggled back into consciousness. She lightly brushed the girl's hair back from her face.
Dawn jerked awake with a gasp. "Xander?"
"Shhh," Molly whispered, ignoring the doctor who was watching the monitoring equipment with interest. She pulled the younger girl into a gentle hug. "Xander's fine, honey."
Dawn relaxed into the hug, recognizing Molly.
"He's still unconscious, but we have the doctors monitoring him all the time. He is going to be fine. Do you remember what happened?"
Dawn nodded slowly. "Yes, we were walking towards the control centre when we attacked. I remember the pain, and how much Xander was in pain. When it ended, I think we both passed out."
Molly smiled in relief. "Yep, that was pretty much what happened. Now, how are you feeling."
The girl frowned for a second, and then looked surprised. "I feel great," she admitted. "Nothing wrong at all, not even a headache."
Molly and Dawn looked at the doctor. "As far as I can tell, everything is normal. However, if you get any headaches or dizziness, I want you to come back me immediately."
Dawn nodded, then stretched. "What time is it?"
"Nearly midday, you've been out for sixteen hours."
Dawn swung her legs over the bed, moved from Molly's embrace and walked over to Xander's bed. She lightly ran her fingers over his face, then leaned in and softly kissed his cheek. The gesture of affection was completely unselfconscious. She stroked his hair back softly.
"Rest, Xan. Wake up when you're ready, I'll be waiting for you."
The rumbling of her stomach reminded her that it had been a long time since she had eaten.
Molly smiled, "We sent one of the guards to your apartment to get you some new clothes. Why don't you change into a gown, and I'll show you the showers, before we order you some food. Everyone is waiting outside, so you can join us while we wait for our prince to awaken."
Dawn nodded, and watched as Molly and the Doctor left, turning off the camera's as they walked out.
She stripped the hospital gown off carelessly; she had no compunctions about being naked in front of an unconscious Xander. In fact, she was still looking forward to being naked in front of a conscious Xander. She pulled on her dressing gown, and grabbed some new clothing. She was pretty sure that a woman had chosen her clothing and guessed it was the wife of the guard.
She carried her clothing out, the door, smiling wryly at the others, who had been told, with extreme firmness, that they were not to ask her anything till she had cleaned up and eaten.
The shower was luxury, as with everything else in this building, Xander had not scrimped. The hot water sprayed down on her, rushing away the stress of the previous day. She luxuriated in it, washing herself with the supplied soap. The whole shower area was slightly reminiscent of her en-suite room at home. Obviously Xander had arranged for the same architects and designers, which made sense really, as they were from the same company.
She spent twenty minutes blow drying her hair. She was positive that Xander would not wake up yet. She wasn't sure why, she just knew it for a fact.
Dawn felt totally refreshed, as she walked back to the waiting room. A large dinner, was awaiting her, as was everyone else. They were all eating the same thing, what looked like a turkey dinner, as normally seen at Thanksgiving.
"Dawn, this is Father O'Reilly, he's our resident priest." Ian introduced them with a smile. "How are you feeling?"
Dawn grinned at him, "Pretty good. I'll be better when Xander wake's up and I can make sure he's ok."
Father O'Reilly watched the slim girl with interest. He, like most others at XTech, had heard a lot about her, about how she was making a play for his friend's heart, and how, almost universally, it was being approved by people who knew him. She was very pretty, but, from what he had seen, all of Xander's female friends were. He decided to reserve judgment until he had a chance to get to know her better.
After the extremely nice lunch, Dawn finally explained what had happened from their point of view. She recalled the memories with a soft smile, her first meeting with Xander was something none of them had talked about before, and caused a huge smile to appear on Molly's face.
Chrissy, Ian and Daryl were smiling as well. They were finding out more about their friend's history than they ever had. While Ian and Daryl were new friends, Chrissy had been friends with her for years, and even she didn't know a lot of this stuff. Dawn's past had always been a subject that was out of bounds.
"What happened to Willow?" she asked.
"She's downstairs," Andrew announced, entering the room in time to answer the question. "Good to see you awake, Dawn."
"Thanks Andrew," she smiled at him.
"Yes, Andrew," Molly said. "Why don't you tell us what happened last night?"
With Ian's help, Andrew recounted the events, leaving out, for now, how Ian had knocked Willow unconscious, and how later they had contemplated killing her.
Dawn stood, walked over to Andrew, and hugged him. "Thank you," she said softly, before repeating the action with Ian, then Daryl. She sat down, unaware of the furious blushes that had appeared on the boys' faces, or the amused looks on the faces of the adults.
"I want to see Willow," Dawn announced. Her anger at her ex-friend's actions had been slowly starting to boil since she had awoken, and she wanted to confront the witch about her betrayal before Xander awoke. The feeling that Xander was going to be unconscious for a while yet was still strong.
Andrew looked at Molly, then Father O'Reilly for guidance. They both shrugged.
The blond boy saw no reason why not, since the two girls had been close when he had lived with them, and he led Dawn downstairs to the detention centre.
The guards who saw her on the journey down to the detention area, smiled, looking relieved that she was awake, as it bore well for their boss.
The guard who was currently on duty, took one look at her face, and quickly started broadcasting the feed from the cell, to every TV in the building. He had a feeling that everyone would want to see it.
Upstairs, Ian took one look at the feed, and said "Oh-oh, I recognize that expression." He thought for a second, and then smirked. "Poor Willow," his voice was extremely insincere.
"What do you mean?" Molly asked with a slight frown on her face.
"The last time she looked like that, she punched out the captain of the football team," Daryl explained, his grin matching Ian's.
"Oh," Molly replied, and then she too, grinned.
Downstairs, Andrew opened the door to the cell, then stepped away, monitoring from inside.
"Willow," Dawn spat. Her voice was relayed with the video feed, gathering everyone's attention.
The red-headed girl stood up from her cot, a look of sorrow on her face. "Dawn," she started.
"I can't talk to you right now," Dawn said, a look of fury on her face. "You didn't have to see the pain you caused Xander last night. Not just they physical pain of your attempted mind rape, but the mental pain that someone he once trusted so much, that he risked his life to stop ending the world, would do that to him." She took a step forwards, and punched Willow, hard. She looked down at the red-headed girl, who was now on the floor, a stunned look on her face. "That was for the physical pain you caused us."
The insulation of the cell meant that neither of them heard the loud cheering that echoed around the building.
"If it was up to me, I'd make sure that you never came into contact with him again. But we both know that Xander isn't like that. It's one of the reasons I'm in love with him. But if you ever even think of hurting him again, I will find a way to stop you. Permanently!"
Dawn turned on her heel, and stormed towards the door, which Andrew opened quickly, not wanting to spoil her exit.
Willow groaned, now her jaw ached on both sides. It was nothing compared with the revelation that Dawn has just proved conclusively. Dawn was in love with Xander. She had not even thought of that, and realizing that the brunette girl was only concerned about the pain she had inflicted on the male, not herself, was a little frightening.
She remembered clearly that one of Xander's personality traits was his loyalty. She had heard about the time he had told Buffy he would kill her if Willow had been hurt due to the Slayer's inactions. If Xander felt anything for Dawn, he would act the same way as she just had, more upset about what had happened to her than the pain and hurt he had suffered himself. She gulped, curling back up on the cot. Tears once more started to drip down her face.
The afternoon found the people waiting outside the XTech hospital room playing more cards, and idly talking. No one thought about leaving, they were all determined to be there when Xander woke up. Even Daryl, who had the weakest ties to the brunet, understood the price of friendship.
"You're not as worried as I thought you would be," Chrissy said to Dawn, peering over her cards.
Dawn nodded in agreement. "Something's happened between us, I can feel that he is unconscious and that he needs to be."
Molly frowned, swapping two cards for fresh ones from the deck. "Some form of psychic connection?"
"Possibly," Dawn replied as she folded.
"Any other table in the world, and that statement would be met with derisive laughter," Chrissy pointed out dryly, to chuckles from the rest of the table.
Dawn smiled. "True. I wonder if it will last, or if it's just some remnant of the attack last night."
"We've only managed to locate two of them," the vampire admitted, groveling on the floor in front of the dark vampire.
"What?" the lady snarled, her face taking an enraged look.
"We tried, but the Carpenter has given them his personal protection. We couldn't follow all the different vans."
The lady frowned, and idly kicked him in the face, throwing him across the room.
The last attack had been disastrous, losing half of her more reliable vampires, a loss she could ill afford. But with the demon council hidden, she had no chance of convincing the large demon population of Sunnydale to follow her.
She now knew that the Carpenter knew how to deal with vampires, so she decided that she would send her demonic henchmen to do the deed for her. Little things like property borders and religious icons did not affect them, so they would be perfect.
Her henchmen were four brutish looking Kalif demons; they rarely displayed any sign of original thought, but stuck to a task like glue, once it had been explained to them in very short words.
"Go with these vampires and kill the council members," she commanded imperiously. It was more than likely that they would manage to kill a lot of innocent humans as well. The thought of the upcoming carnage was enough to put her in a good mood.
The Kalif demons nodded. Outside the decrepit hideout, they split into pairs. Each team accompanied a small group of vampires to the different locations.
Two red-leather skinned demons grunted to each other, as they paused outside the first building. It was a small-ish apartment block, with the PJH sign above the entrance hallway. It was pretty modern looking, and reeked of exclusiveness.
Their grunting over, the two demons charged for the entrance, while the vampires merged into the darkness, their work done. The demons didn't stop for the door; they merely burst straight through the glass panels.
The guard took one look, noting the horns and skin, and the dramatic entrance and smacked the emergency button. Instantly, a level three alert sounded on the XTech communicators. The panels in the back of the entrance foyer shifted slightly, revealing the same thin tubes that had been placed in the Fortress. The guard hit the floor, and a second later, the tubes seemed to expand a slightly.
Behind the tubes, a soft whirring was heard for a fraction of a second; an instant later the foyer's heavy sound insulation was tested to the maximum, as five machine guns burst into life.
The 7.62mm NATO Vektor SS-77 general purpose machine guns were belt fed with armor piercing ammunition. The whirring sound was the automatic targeting system, hooked up to standard XTech security cameras. The guns had been chosen for their reliability. It was a simplistic solution to the demon problem, but was devastatingly effective.
The demons didn't stand a chance, and a second later, the floor dropped open, sluicing the bloody remains of the demons away.
The remaining two demons attacked the second building at the same time. Structurally, it was identical to the first. They followed the same pattern, breaking through the door, and charged in, only to skid to a halt.
Before them, was their worst nightmare.
"I came to Sunnydale to retire," the nightmare growled, a sword appearing in his hands. "Now you invade my new home."
The demons exchanged nervous looks. They wanted to run, but couldn't, as it was against everything they stood for. The Groosalugg demon was a champion fighter, a gladiator from the Scum pits of Ur. He was used as the bogey man by Kalif elders to scare children into following the true path.
They approached together, claws out, convincing themselves they could win.
The guard, watching with interest, was already piping the feed back to head quarters. If this was the sort of guest they would be looking after, he was all for it.
Groo hardly seemed to move, yet his sword swiftly danced a figure eight pattern, and two headless demons fell to the floor.
"If you'll take a few steps back, Sir," the guard requested politely.
The champion fighter looked up in surprise, then took a few steps back. He watched with interest as the floor swung open, and the bodies were washed down into the pit.
"Nice," he grinned.
"You know," the guard said. "If you're looking for a job, Xander would hire you in a second."
Groo smiled, "I'm retired."
"Yes, Sir."
"Is there a meeting room we could use? I think I need to talk to the council."
"We'll arrange it, if you'll give us an hour."
The half demon nodded, "I'll tell the other council members."
"Have you seen Willow?" Buffy asked, idly watching the Sunday evening TV.
"Nope."
"Strange," Buffy replied. "She's normally studying on a Sunday night."
Spike shrugged, unconcerned.
With Spike's disinterest, Buffy dismissed the thought with an ease that would have scared her a few years ago, and went back to watching TV.
Willow tried to sleep, but couldn't. Two thoughts running through her mind wouldn't let her. The priest's visit, proving that her use of magic was not unrestricted, and Dawn's protestation of her love for Xander.
She shuddered, the thoughts revolved into one. Fear. Fear of Xander. She didn't think she could face him, but knew there was no avoiding it.
She covered herself in the blanket, still curled in a ball, and stared blankly at the wall.
Dawn started to move about ten seconds before the monitors picked up the changes in heart rate and brain patterns that signified Xander waking up.
Molly followed her a second later, guessing that Dawn knew that he was awakening.
Xander groaned softly, the memory of pain still strong in his mind. He raised himself on one elbow, and opened his eyes.
A flood of information suddenly assaulted his brain, already over-extended by the attack the previous night. He panicked, shifting backwards against the wall as he tried to escape it.
Everything he could see seemed to flicker in a confused jumble of lights; things he shouldn't be able to see seemed visible. He shrieked, as his heart rate jumped into panic status, adrenaline pouring through his body.
He felt a hand touch him, and jerked from it, rational thought long since gone. Xander fell off the bed, the monitoring equipment whined as it lost all contact with its subject. He backed into the corner, shivering, holding his hands to his eyes, trying to block out all the images.
"Shh, Xander, shhh, listen to me," Dawn crooned instinctively. She dropped to her knees next to him hovering nearby, trying not to scare him even more.
Xander's breath calmed a little, responding to the sound of her voice.
As if she was approaching a scared animal, the long haired girl slowly moved closer to him, her body language as unthreatening as she could make it. She could almost feel the panic in his mind, the confusion, and she needed to help him.
From the doorway, Molly, Kyle and Father O'Reilly watched silently, the others trying to peer around them, or watching on the monitors. They all had identical expressions of concern on their faces as they watched Dawn try to reach the terrified Xander.
For Father O'Reilly, it was enlightening. He finally saw why everyone was so blasé about the idea of Dawn and Xander being together. It looked like the boy didn't know that he was falling for the girl, but it was obvious that he was. He was responding to her on a basic level, as she pulled him back from what ever nightmare he was experiencing. He idly wondered if it was too late to join the betting pool that he had heard about. The average entrance fee for the pool had risen to two hundred dollars, and with over a hundred people already entered, the money was substantial.
In the corner, Xander turned and buried his face into Dawn's shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him, and he breathed deeply, inhaling the light airy scent that was so Dawn.
"What's happened, Xan?" she asked softly, holding him close.
"Too many colors," Xander whispered back, his voice barely carrying to the people listening at the door. "Too many shapes, everything is blurry. Colors shouldn't exist, reds, blues, hazes."
Outside the door, Andrew's face took on a thoughtful expression; the description rang a bell in his mind. Automatically he delved through his extensive sci-fi knowledge. Films like Blade Runner and Dune were examined and dismissed, Star Wars as well. Then he flicked through his Star Trek memories, and stopped. Star Trek. He delved through the episodes; all of them were catalogued neatly in his mind until he came across the scene he wanted. His expression turned reverent.
"Oh my God," he whispered excitedly, before pushing his way past the human barricade in the door.
The geek dropped to his knees next to Xander. "Xander, it's Andrew. I need you to listen to me carefully."
Xander turned his head slightly, his eyes still closed but his panic receding. He didn't move from Dawn's embrace.
"I need you to open your eyes slowly, and then concentrate on Dawn, and Dawn alone. I need you to pretend that you are in a crowded room full of people, and you are trying to listen to her. Do that with your mind - see Dawn and nothing else."
Tension seemed to explode into the room, as Molly, Kyle and the Father entered, allowing Ian, Daryl and Chrissy to see as well.
Xander pulled back a little from Dawn, turning his head so he was facing her, then slowly opened his eyes.
The girl smiled encouragingly, preparing herself in case he flinched away again.
"Concentrate, Xand," Andrew said calmly. "You can do it."
Xander frowned, listening to his friend's voice and concentrated hard. Slowly, the images seemed to disappear, and Dawn's smiling face came into clear focus. He gave a relieved smile and hugged her tightly, whispering his thanks.
The tension vanished as Ian and Daryl cheered loudly, the three adults suddenly had huge grins on their faces.
Xander smiled as he turned to look at them, and they all pretended not to notice that Xander showed no sign at all of releasing Dawn.
Andrew was almost bouncing with excitement, a stage Ian had never seen the normally composed student in. His eyes were alight as if Santa Claus had just given him the hand written scripts to Star Wars: A New Hope, personally signed by George Lucas, Mark Hamil and Harrison Ford.
"You need to lay down, Xan, and let the doctor check you out," Dawn told him firmly.
Xander nodded, too relieved to have his sight back to normal to argue.
"Ok, people, everyone out!" The doctor ordered from the doorway. He had been alerted by the machine loosing contact with Xander, but had stayed at the back till he was needed.
Dawn was the last to leave, and only did so with a noticeable reluctance.
It took the doctor less than five minutes to pronounce Xander fit. The brown eyed boy grinned happily, and threw on the clothes that had been left for him. He walked out of the hospital room, and grinned at all the people gathering there.
"Can we hold this discussion in the cafeteria?" he asked, as his stomach announced its presence to the occupants.
With wide smiles, everyone agreed and moved to the canteen, taking over a table in the corner. While it was a little late for the normal selection of dinner foodstuffs, the staff were more than happy to make something for all of them to eat, relief showing on their faces that the boss seemed ok.
"Ok, And'. Hit me!" Xander said to the blond boy whose eyes were still looking as though he was a slight nudge away from doing the can-can around the room.
Andrew grinned. "What was it that Simon called you, when he gave you the Orb?"
"The One Who Sees," Xander replied.
Andrew's grin turned to a triumphant smirk. "He was right."
"What?" Xander demanded with a slight smile.
"Can I call you Xander La Forge?"
"Huh?" Xander's surprise was mirrored around the table.
"You've got a VISOR!"
An expression of surprise appeared on Xander's face.
"Erm, for those of us who aren't sci-fi geeks, could we get a translation?" Dawn asked, her light voice ensured that no offence was taken.
"Lieutenant Command Geordi LaForge, Chief Engineer of the Starship Enterprise," Daryl grinned, entering the conversation. "He lost his eyesight in a fire when he was two years old, and was fitted with a VISOR connected via neural implants that allowed him to "see" throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, from heat and infrared through visible light to radio waves."
Andrew grinned and nodded. "On one episode, they hooked up his VISOR to the main screen and what it showed was exactly the same as Xander's description. The episode used the same analogy I did, and it was how Geordi differentiated."
The blond suddenly frowned. "How are you feeling, any headaches?"
Xander shook his head, "I feel fine. How did this happen?"
Andrew shrugged. "We picked up some low level magic emanating from the Orb while you were out. I think it must have been changing the way your eye interacts with your brain, to allow you to handle all the extra input."
"How will this help Xander?" Molly asked. She might not have got the Star Trek reference, but the scientific references sounded interesting.
By now, Daryl and Andrew were grinning the same way. "He can literally "See" vampires and most, if not all demons. He's a walking security camera."
"How?" Father O'Reilly asked, leaning across the table.
The reply was interrupted by the arrival of food.
Andrew picked up a folder and removed several pieces of paper. He quickly moved several cups to hold the paper upright, then moved a cup of coffee and a glass of water behind the paper, out of Xander's visible sight.
"Xan, concentrate on the paper - you're looking for heat. I want you to tell me which side the hot coffee is on, and which side the water is."
Dawn raised her hand, lightly resting it on his shoulder for support.
Xander stared at the paper, concentrating on heat. Every thing seemed to slowly shimmer around him, and he could start to make out the bright red that represented heat, and the cool blue that was cold. He pointed to the left, correctly identifying the coffee.
"Now look around, Xander. The people here are all human, and we should have identical temperatures." Andrew's lecture was more for the non-XTech members at the table. "Vampires have no body heat, so should show up as a faint outline, Demons range, but are normally a lot hotter than humans, even when in disguise. It's how out security cameras work.
"Xander, we are going to have to run a load of tests on this tomorrow."
The boy in question nodded, still looking around. The only difference he could see, was that Dawn was a slightly different color to the rest. He made a mental note to talk to Andrew about it, tomorrow.
With his stomach on the way to being filled, Xander reluctantly turned to the other item on the agenda. "Ok, tell me what happened yesterday."
Groo stood before the gathered Demon Council. True to their words, the XTech employees had arranged and coordinated the meeting with the utmost efficiency and a minimum of fuss. It had taken a quick call to Brad to authorize it, and once he had said yes, they simply moved.
"I took out two of the Black Lady's minions earlier, when they attacked the building I've been staying in."
Bill grinned, "Yeah, mine too. Two Kalif demons. They lasted around fifteen seconds before the XTech security proved it's the best in the world."
"What happened?" Simon asked, curiously.
"Five massive machine guns and almost unlimited amour piercing ammunition attached to an automatic targeting system, is what happened," was Bill's smiling reply.
Simon whistled softly, "Two dead demons?"
"Yep," Bill said happily. "Looks like the Carpenter was right when he said he'd protect us.
"I do have something to report though so I'm glad this meeting was called." Bill knew he was hijacking Groo's meeting, but this was more important.
"Last night, the Witch cast a spell on the Key and the Carpenter." As gasps echoed around the table, Bill gave a full report on the previous night's raid by XTech, as well as the behavior of the Priest and the Geek that morning.
Bill paused, took a sip of water, and continued, "I attended a meeting with the Black Lady and the Betrayer. It seems that the Betrayer is working for her, in return for her casting the spell of bonding on the Slayer, as she is turned."
Horrified looks appeared on some of the faces, Micklansworth looked sick. "That's horrible," he gasped. "Not even she deserves that."
The other members agreed.
The demon in black started to speak, in what was for him, an almost amused tone. "I think it is time we got off the fence, so to speak. I propose that we assist the Carpenter in dealing with the Betrayer, by breaking his hold on the Slayer."
"How do you suggest we do that?" Simon asked politely.
The demon's voice changed dramatically, and it lost all warmth and politeness as he started to explain the plan he had for the Vampire.
Xander sat with his feet on his desk, a piece of paper resting on his lap completely ignored.
All his attention was on the monitor in front of him as he stared at the still form of his childhood friend. He was tempted to leave her there, to walk out, but he couldn't. Not this time. Things had changed now, perhaps for ever.
He stood suddenly, the paper dropping unnoticed to the floor, fluttering in the breeze from the air conditioning.
Dawn was with Andrew - the boy was showing her around the monitors for the security cameras they had around Sunnydale, while he finished off the paperwork from last nights raid. As the boss, he had to check everything had been done according to the procedures he himself had laid down.
Running what was, in effect, an illegal paramilitary group was something that occasionally bugged him, and while he knew that if the Men in Bland Cars ever came for him, he'd be screwed - first financially, then figuratively, and finally, literally, in a high security prison - he was determined to do something about it, and show these people exactly what he had been doing.
With Molly and Kyle, there was even a chance that he might get away with it. The government might not like it, but when major politicians owed his friends major favors, things could happen.
"Open up," he told the guard casually.
"Are you sure you want to do this now, sir?" the guard asked.
"No, but I'm going to anyway."
"Okay, sir." The guard pressed a few buttons on the brightly lit console in front of him, and the heavy door opened. Almost as an afterthought, the guard ensured that the magic suppressor was on full.
"Xander! Oh god, Xander," Willow said, as she looked up and saw him enter the cell.
"Shut up," Xander whispered.
Willow did exactly that, staring at him, her eyes wide.
"You hurt me," he said quietly. "You've hurt me a few times. Emotionally, physically, it didn't matter. You were my Willow, my friend. I protected you, stood up for you, and loved you. I was there when you needed me. I was there even when you said you didn't. I forgave you. Every time."
"Xand…"
"I said, shut up." There was no fire in his voice, no emotion. "I might even have forgiven you for this, for attacking me. But you hurt Dawn. And I can't forgive that.
"I always thought you were so smart. So knowledgeable. So intelligent. I didn't realize that though you might be intelligent, you have no idea how the world works.
"You have no idea what life is really about, do you? You peer out from your Ivory Tower, secure in your power, and think that with a spell, everything will work out for Willow.
"You're still fourteen. You're still an adolescent girl intimidated by Cordy, mocked by others, afraid of her own shadow. You hide it better, but you're still living the fantasy. The same fantasy you had as a child.
"Do you remember, Willow? Do you remember when we would talk all night, about how I'd be a badass like Wolverine, and you'd be like Rogue, beautiful and powerful.
"I grew up Willow. I realized I didn't need super powers to be a man. I could look at what I was facing, and make an effort to face it with every resource I had.
"You're still there, using your powers as a crutch to hide behind."
"But…"
"This isn't the time for you to talk. At the moment, it's only what remains of the nice memories I have of you that are stopping me from treating you like we would anyone else who attacked one of our own, and executing you."
Willow gasped in horror, recoiling backwards.
"Shocked to hear it? Would you prefer it if I used a pretty euphemism?
"Welcome to XTech, Willow, where the people without super powers join together to fight the dark. Where we work to keep everyone safe - in as many different ways as possible.
"I told you to find out where I lived - I actually hoped that you would use that to find out exactly what I was doing these days. But you didn't, because you had your magic, and you were safe in your little world.
"I'm twenty two years old now. Over the last year, I've fought many battles, some physical, some spiritual, and some emotional, and I've started to make a success out of myself. I can't be friends with a fourteen year old. Not when that friendship risks the people I care about.
"If you'd just attacked me, who knows what I might have done?
"But you didn't. You attacked Dawn as well." He turned, and walked towards the end, before pausing.
He turned, and looked over his shoulder, taking in the tears running down his former childhood friend's face, and the devastated look in her eyes and for the first time in his life, the pain was only a minor dull ache - and not the agony that the idea of Willow in pain used to cause him.
"Goodbye, Willow Rosenberg," he whispered, and walked out, the door slamming shut behind him.
Dawn stared at the monitor, and slowly started to smile.
"Dawn?"
She turned, and raised her hand, brushing her hair back absently.
"Xander cares about me," she said simply. "A lot more than he is willing accept at the moment. I can feel it, I could feel it when he was talking to her. He won't forgive anyone that hurts me."
"And that's good?" Andrew asked.
"It is. It means he's on the right track. He is already putting me first in his mind, and soon he will realize that I can and do put him first."
"So you still have the bond you mentioned earlier?"
"Yes. I'll tell him about it when we go home."
"Home?"
"It's definitely home. I've not felt at home in my house since Mom died, but with Xander, I do. For me, home is wherever Xander is. Now, I'm going to go persuade him to come home with me, and you should go home as well."
Andrew yawned and stretched. "Yeah, I've got a test tomorrow I should at least pretend to study for." He paused and at Dawn's look continued, "Oh, it's only a little thing, I could do it in my sleep."
Dawn nodded, and leant over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for what you did." She turned on her heel and walked out, leaving behind a smiling boy who was marveling at his good fortune in at last finding real friends.
Her low heels clicked on the floor as she walked towards Xander's office, the sound echoing in a comforting way. She didn't bother to knock; she wasn't on duty now, as she walked in.
He was looking sad as he stared at the screen in front of him, showing Willow's reaction to what he had said to her. Without pausing she switched it off, and then perched on the table next to him.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For putting me first," she replied.
"There are too many cameras in this place."
"Maybe," Dawn agreed. "It just means that you find it more difficult to be quietly heroic."
"I said I'd look after you, Dawn, and I meant it. Buffy and Willow don't want me to look out for them, they made that clear, and I've finally accepted it."
"I do," Dawn replied. "And I want more from you."
"I know," Xander said with a sigh.
"I'll give you space, Xan, but not for long. I can feel you, you know, after what Willow did. I can feel your heart beating; I can feel what you feel. You're a little confused."
"Not even safe in my own mind?" he asked, a wry smile on his face. "You're still in high school Dawn, and I can't help but think that I'm taking advantage of you, somehow."
Dawn laughed, tilting her head back. "Do you really think that everyone would be so helpful if you were?"
"Huh?"
"Molly, Kyle. Your friends. Even Principal Wood. Haven't you noticed how everyone is encouraging you?"
Xander shook his head slowly.
"They're doing it because they know that it's what I want, and that I'm the one pushing for it. I know who you are, Xander, I know you better than anyone else. I know what you want, and I'm pretty sure that I am that person."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because things have changed, because Willow changed things. We have to adapt and move on, but we can't go back. I can't go back to wondering if you feel anything for me, when I know that you do. When I know that you are putting me first.
"But so you know, I put you first Xander. You. Not the head of XTech. Not the guy who hides behind the smiles. Not even the guy who's always so strong."
She paused, and then looked him straight in the eye.
"You've got five more weeks Xander, till my birthday. Then I'm going to demand what's mine. Your heart. Take your time; have your space. I've waited this long, I can wait for a few more weeks. And once I'm eighteen, a legal adult in every sense of the word, you will have no excuses left, nothing to hide behind."
She raised her hand slowly, and lightly cupped his cheek, moving his head up. With infinite slowness, she leant down and kissed him very gently, pulling back instantly. He didn't pull back, as she knew he wouldn't.
For the first time, her hatred of Willow diminished rapidly. Without meaning to, the witch had given her the knowledge she had wanted so desperately.
"Now," she said, breaking the spell. "It's time to go home."
Xander stared at her thoughtfully, shook himself a little, and picked up the phone. He dialed a speed dial number and waited.
"Robin, it's Xander."
He paused, listening to the other end of the conversation.
"Does everyone know what happens in my life?" he complained. He laughed at the reply. "I'm going to take Dawn to L.A. tomorrow. We need to get a Slayer."
"Okay… Thanks."
Xander hung up the phone and smiled slightly. "Robin thinks a day off will be good for you, after what happened yesterday.
Dawn nodded, suddenly nervous at the thought of meeting Faith again. She was worried that she'd have to defend her territory, and the thought of fighting Faith wasn't a good one.
Xander reached up and lightly touched her cheek.
"It goes both ways," he said softly with a small smile.
Dawn felt her eyes go wide as she looked at him. "The bond… or?"
He shrugged lightly. "Both. Come on, let's get out of here."
She nodded and jumped off the table. "What are you going to do with Willow?"
"Dunno," he sighed. "I'll have a chat with people on Tuesday and make a decision then."
"I'm going for some smokes, luv," Spike yelled, as he walked out the house.
"Can you get some chocolate as well?" Buffy asked, from the couch.
"Sure."
Spike sighed as he walked out and into the open air. There had been a strange smell around the house today, and he wasn't sure what it is. Things almost smelt new. He jumped into his car, and reversed into the road, spinning the wheels as he jammed it into first and the heavy engine roared into the still night.
He drove with no care for anyone or anything else - he didn't even bother with a seat belt. Being an immortal vampire kind of made it pointless.
Perhaps if he had worn one, things would have happened differently.
As it was, something stepped out straight in front of him, and he had no chance to stop.
The car hit the demon at forty five miles an hour, and the demon won. The hood of the car crumpled and collapsed as it came to an abrupt stop. It was like driving into an oak tree. Spike barely had time to mutter an epithet before he was thrown through the windscreen, and flew through the air for forty feet, before landing heavily on to the floor.
"Hello Spike," Simon said as he walked over to the vampire. "We were wondering if you'd join us for a little chat."
"Shit," Spike moaned, as Simon swung the sledgehammer in his hands down, catching him on the jaw, and sending him into oblivion.
With a nod of his head, a tow truck appeared to take Spike's car away, while a small ambulance came around the corner and pulled to the stop. Acting quickly, the team of attendants jumped out, strapped Spike firmly to a stretcher, and placed him in the ambulance.
Simon got in the back, and they drove off. The whole thing took less than a minute, and while there had been some minor magical assistance to get the car on the back of the truck so quickly, it had been remarkably easy to catch the arrogant vampire, while leaving very little evidence that anything had happened - even the glass had vanished.
The demon that had stopped the car was on his way home. He came from a dimension with a *much* higher gravity than this one. One of the consequent side effects was that he weighed slightly less than a Boeing 747, and seemed almost as dense as the core of the sun.
There had been no need for Simon to use the sledgehammer, when drugs would have done, but he liked to be personally involved whenever possible, and he wasn't above getting in a small bit of revenge for the demons Spike had killed. Especially for killing pacifists. It was disgusting.
Spike awoke, and instantly started to struggle. It was a little unfortunate for him that there wasn't that much room in the ambulance, as it meant Simon had to hit him quite a few times to get him unconscious again - he just couldn't swing properly.
They pulled up outside an abandoned warehouse. He was the first to admit it was a little clichéd, but sometimes you just had to go with the classics. With a smile, Simon helped wheel the vampire out of the ambulance and inside the building.
Inside was a small TV studio, and a small medical wing, where they delivered the still-unconscious vampire
Another demon, wearing a black robe, came around and removed Spike's shirt with a few slices of a scalpel.
"Wake him," the half Pockla/half Nahdra demon said quietly. Not for the first time, Simon wished he knew his name. It would make things so much easier.
Simon nodded, and punched Spike hard. It seemed to do the trick, as the vampire gasped, and tried to stand up.
"Scalpel," the demon in black demanded, as he took over.
"What's going on?" Spike demanded, looking wildly around as he struggled against the restraints. The bright light above him was designed to ensure that he couldn't see anything.
"Your punishment," the demon said simply. "You went against the Council, now you pay the price." With a delicate slowness, the demon pressed down with his hand, and Spike froze, looking at what was touching him.
As the first of the demons hands came into view, all that was revealed was a skeletal hand, with no flesh, no blood.
Another skeletal hand appeared into view, this one holding a scalpel, and moved with intractable slowness towards the pale vampiric skin.
"Wait," Spike cried. "What do you want?"
"You to suffer," the demon replied. "You in pain. I want the people who have died to hear your screams as I remove each of your major organs. But don't worry, you will heal, and I will start again. By the time I have finished with you, people will no longer talk about Prometheus, as your suffering will put him to shame."
"You can't," Spike cried desperately. sweat starting to pour down his face.
"Of course, I can," The demon's voice sounded amused - something that put Simon's teeth a little on edge. He was more than a little glad that this demon was on his side.
The demon cut smoothly across the vampires stomach, causing Spike to scream in agony.
"I once kept a vampire alive for fifteen years," the demon said conversationally. "He screamed so beautifully."
"I can tell you what you want," Spike shouted. He paused, as another cut made him scream. "Just tell me what you want. I'll do it."
"I told you," the demon replied, sounding vaguely amused. "I want you to scream." He peeled back some of the skin, and nodded. Spike's head was lifted up, so that he could see what was happening.
"I'm going to reach inside and grab your intestines," the demon said as if he was talking about ordering a mocha.
"No," Spike whined, trying to scramble away in fear, only the bonds were holding him to tightly.
"He could be useful," Simon said suddenly. "He could tell us things we need to know."
"I don't care," the demon said. "I want to show him what happens when you cross us."
"I'll tell," Spike shouted, "What ever you want. I'll tell."
"See," Simon said. "He's willing to be helpful, isn't that enough? Surely that makes up for his past mistakes against us."
"No," the demon growled, annoyed.
If this wasn't an act, Simon would currently have been contemplating running. Fast.
"He'll tell us the truth, won't you, Spike?"
"Of course," Spike yelled. As the hand moved towards the cuts in Spike's stomach, the bleached vampire begged. "Please."
The hand moved away with an almost visible reluctance. A syringe came into view, with a clear liquid inside it. Without any attempt at subtlety, the vampire was injected with it's contents. Spike immediately started to scream.
"Painful?" the demon asked. "It should be. It's Holy Water. You see, if you try and escape, you die. If you lie, you die. If you tell the truth, the water will be removed before it reaches your heart. Do you know what happens when Holy Water touches a vampire's heart?"
Spike shook his head violently.
"Nor do I," the demon said, adding a few eye drop of an unidentified liquid to Spike's eyes. The eye drops were to prevent him from seeing what was happening.
"I can't see," Spike yelled. "What have you done?"
"Blinded you," the demon said, a tone of sadness just barely audible. "Sadly, it's not permanent. It will wear off in a few hours."
Simon helped undo the terrified vampire, and carried him to a chair. The cuts had already healed. "Chin up, there's a good fellow," Simon said. "You answer the questions and everything is going to be okay. You'll be able to walk out from here."
Despite the temporary blindness, Simon couldn't help but smile as a light flashed in the vampire's eyes, and he knew the vampire was already plotting revenge.
"What has the Black Lady offered you, so that you work for her?"
"I don't…" Spike started.
"See," the demon growled. "I told you. Back to the table."
"No, wait," Spike cried. "She offered me Buffy, okay? Buffy."
"What do you mean?" Simon asked.
"I want the stupid bint, forever; she'll give her to me."
"How?"
"Make 'er a freaking leech; she'll be mine for eternity, so I can do whatever I want with her."
"Just for the record, what is a leech?"
"It's a servant, she'll be totally reliant on me for everything, she won't be able to live without me. I'll be her everything, her world."
"And she will agree to this?"
"Oh yeah," Spike boasted, as if forgetting what and where he was. "I've been controlling the stupid bint for ages. A bit of hypnosis here and there, just to smooth things over. She loves me, just been improvin' on that. She'll believe anything I say, so I'll just tell her summat stupid like it being for the good of everyone and it'll make her more powerful, and she'll lay down."
"What about the Key?"
"Sad that, but the Black Lady wants her. Gonna open the Hellmouth with her. Pity she has to die, I almost like her. Innocent, you know, I bet she'd taste fantastic."
"With the Hellmouth open, wouldn't the Slayer be a major target?"
"'Course, that's why I'm having her attached to me. No one else will be able to 'ave her, and I'll 'ave her for life."
"Going back to the leech thing for a moment, what will she feel?"
"Doesn't matter," Spike shrugged indifferently. "I'll have what I want."
"I think I read somewhere that leeches can't really feel anything, that they are mindless creatures totally at their master's will, existing totally in limbo."
"So what? Don't matter in the slightest," he reiterated. "I'll have 'er for ever, she'll be mine, and mine alone. I've taken away everything else that matters to her, and when her sister dies, I'll be the only thing left."
Simon frowned. "Release him."
Spike looked pleased. "So I'm free?"
"You are," Simon agreed. He turned away and looked at the demon. The demon nodded, and they both walked away.
"See to Spike's freedom," Simon said to a group of demons waiting.
As one, eager smiles appeared on their faces, and they moved in.
"Hey! What's going on?" Spike yelled. "Why haven't you released me yet?"
The demons waited for his eyesight to return, and as it did, the first word he yelled was, "Shit."
The fifteen demons were close friends of the Garloch demon that Spike had arranged for Buffy to kill, and they wanted some payback. And while they had promised not to kill Spike, it had been left unsaid that the next ten or fifteen hours would be very unpleasant for the bleached blonde vampire.
The sound of Spike's screams echoed around the building, as Simon and Demon looked at each other.
"I have never tortured another living creature," yhe demon said in a low voice. "I believe, however, that I am willing to start with that creature."
Simon nodded. "He is seriously warped. And people complain that we don't have souls."
"What do you intend to do with the videos?"
"Send one to the Carpenter, one to the Slayer, and one to the Tortured Soul."
"There are too many vampires with souls. They are not natural."
"Agreed. Humans put far to much value on them, useless things."
"The video should break the Betrayers hold on the Slayer."
"And if not, the Carpenter will deal with him anyway."
"An interesting evening's work."
"Can I ask a question?" Simon said nervously.
"You may."
"Your hand?"
The demon laughed under his breath and held out his hand. It was perfectly normal.
"A mere illusion, I felt it would be…" he paused, searching for the right word. "Chilling."
Simon nodded. "I was chilled," he mumbled.
The demon laughed softly. "I will see you later, my wife is waiting."
"You're married?" Simon blurted.
The demon seemed amused, despite his darkness. "My illusions are most… convincing. My wife knows who I am, but prefers a human form."
Simon nodded. "Thank you," he said, as he bowed formally.
The demon nodded and flickered, vanishing in an instant.
"I really don't want to know what he looks like," Simon tried to convince himself. "Really."
He turned and walked back inside the warehouse. People were already removing the surgery and the studio equipment. He walked over and acquired the video, and left. The smell of Spike's blood was turning his stomach.
At least the screaming had stopped, it looked like one of the demons had crushed Spike's larynx. It would heal.. Eventually.
With a shrug, he walked out to his car, and drove to a nearby shop. There weren't many video stores that would remain open this late on a Sunday night, but the owner was a demon nuts about technology, and had been happy to help when the Council had approached him.
Ian walked into the school, his eyes hidden by his sunglasses, searching for Chrissie.
"Morning," he said softly.
"Hey," the blonde said brightly, giving him a hug. "Where's Dawn this morning?"
"Xander's taking her to L.A. for the day, she needs some time to recover, and he's got some XTech business up there."
"Good," Chrissie said cheerfully. She waved suddenly. "Daryl, over here."
Daryl strolled over, a visible confidence in his stride. "Hi guys, fun weekend, wasn't it."
The other two laughed. "I guess," Chrissie said. "A little scary at times."
"Nah," Daryl grinned. "We're the good guys. But boy, did it feel good to be doing something important for a change."
"You did good," Ian said simply, clapping the smaller boy on the back.
"Everyone was amazing," Daryl said, ignoring the praise. "I think I've got a new hero."
"Xander?" Chrissie asked.
"Nope," Daryl said. "I could never be him. Andrew, on the other hand - that's what I want to be like."
Ian smiled, "Good choice. Andrew went through a bad patch. Just don't copy that."
Daryl nodded. "I won't."
"If it isn't the dweebs waiting for their poxy queen. What is she, shacked up with her boyfriend?" Porsche sneered, as she appeared in front of them, her lackeys beside and behind her.
"Haven't you learnt your lesson yet?" Chrissie asked with an audible sigh.
"You forget who I am," Porsche snarled. "This is my school, and I'm taking it back."
Daryl moved forwards, only to stop as Ian placed a hand on his shoulder. With an amused look on his face, Ian pulled out a cell phone, flipped it over, and dialed a number.
He waited for it to be picked up, and then smiled.
"Hey Molly," he said.
Porsche's face suddenly lost all its color.
"Got a question for you. How attached are you to your niece?"
He paused, and grinned at the worried girl in front of him, aware that the crowd was growing around them. He had no idea why the stupid girl was trying to regain control, but figured it was probably her mother pointing out to her how rich they were. Which, of course, meant that they were better than anyone not as rich.
"She is my niece, so I do have to be a little fond of her," he heard Molly reply.
"Really? I was thinking of breaking her nose; you know, as a lesson."
If possible, Porsche went even whiter.
"Do you know how much that would cost me in cosmetic surgery?" Molly's highly amused voice said.
"Don't pay for the surgery then," Ian replied nonchalantly, trying to make sure that the people listening underst00d what was happening.
"That is an option," Molly agreed. "Exactly what has she done to upset you this morning?"
"She's trying to regain control of the school, and with Dawn in Los Angeles for the day, I figured it would be a good idea to give an object lesson in what happens to people who try and usurp the queen."
"I'm afraid I can't let you hit her," Molly replied.
"Why can't you let me hit her?" Ian asked, frowning for added effect.
"Because it would mean you getting expelled, and you've got to get good grades."
"But Molly," he whined, hiding his grin. "I don't mind."
"No, Ian," Molly laughed. "I'm afraid my decision is final. But as my niece is there, why don't you put her on?"
"If you insist," Ian sighed. With a malicious little grin, he held out the phone to Porsche. "Your aunt would like a little word with you."
With a shaking hand, Porsche took the phone. "Hello?"
Porsche immediately moved the earpiece away from her ear - the yelling from the other end was almost audible.
"But…" Porsche said, and then stopped.
"But…"
"Yes, aunt," she said, dejectedly. "Yes. I'll see you tonight."
With a hate filled glance, she handed Ian's phone back to him.
"Hey, Molly," he said again.
"I've scared her a little," Molly laughed. "But it's time I reigned my sister in. I want a niece like Dawn, not a spoilt brat like Porsche. Porsche and her mother have been invited for tea tonight. I'm sure it's something they'll enjoy immensely. Or not."
Ian grinned, "I'd enjoy tea at your place."
"Good," Molly said. "In that case, you, Chrissie and Daryl can come around for dinner tomorrow at seven."
Ian blinked, "Tomorrow at seven?"
"Exactly. You do know where I live?"
"Yep," Ian replied. "Let me just check." He put the phone away from his mouth. "Molly's invited us for dinner tomorrow; you okay to make it?"
"Shouldn't be a problem," Chrissie replied.
"Yep, no problem here," Daryl agreed.
"That's not a problem, Molly," Ian said. "On one condition."
"What's that?"
"That you allow us to try and win back some of our poker losses with you."
Molly laughed loudly. "I'll be happy to empty your stash again," she replied.
"I'll see you tomorrow then," Ian said, as he exchanged goodbyes and hung up. He completely ignored Porsche as he looked at his friends. "We're going to have to practice our poker tonight, she cleaned us out on Saturday and I don't want a repeat."
Daryl nodded. "Actually, I was doing some studying last night, I'll show you what I learned tonight."
"Cool," Ian grinned. He looked back at Porsche and sighed. "You just don't get it, do you?" He didn't wait for a response. "This school is Dawn's, because she is the only person here who won't take it. I know that's got to be a difficult concept for you to understand, but having power isn't about using it for yourself, it's about using it for everyone else. Everyone else in the school knows that it's a better place - that people are happier than they have been in a very long time, and it's because Dawn doesn't want the power.
"All she wants is to get through school as easily as possible, make friends with as many people as she can, so that she can be happy, and spend time with her boyfriend. If that means she is forced to take control of the school, then she will do that. She's got a deep need to help people, and she gets it from her boyfriend, who saved my life. I owe him more than I can ever pay back, and I owe Dawn as well. I will not let anything happen to her while I am still breathing."
His voice went lower, as he leaned into Porsche's face. "The only reason I am not making an example of you is because of the respect I have for Molly. But that respect does not outweigh what I owe Dawn's boyfriend. If I hear of you trying something like this again, or any of your idiotic friends, I will take action, and not even the best plastic surgeons will be able to repair what I do to that face of yours."
Ian straightened, and looked behind her - her entourage refused to meet his eyes. "And the same goes for you idiots as well. I tried to be nice about letting you know how things had changed, and you're too stupid to understand. If violence is all that you can comprehend, then violence is what I will give you. I am not Dawn. And I am *not*a nice person. I will act where she would show mercy."
He sighed, and turned his back on them in a gesture of pure contempt, and looked around at the silent crowd. "Let's go to class," he said simply to Chrissie and Daryl.
"Where is Dawn this morning?" Daryl asked, as they walked through the path that opened for them.
"After what happened at the weekend, her boyfriend is taking her to L.A. for the day."
"Good," Daryl replied. "Are you going into work after school?"
"Yeah, I've got to practice with the fighting instructor. You should come."
"Me?" Daryl laughed, "Fight? Have you really looked at me?"
"So you're under nourished," Ian laughed. "Let me change your diet and put you on an exercise routine and I guarantee you put on twenty pounds in the next six months."
"So you're a nutritionist as well?" Chrissy teased.
Ian laughed. "Of course, if you call steak and Guinness nutrition," he smirked.
"I don't," Daryl replied.
"Ian," Robin Wood called, as they reached the end of the crowd.
"Yes, Mr. Wood?" Ian said politely.
"Are your going to see Ms. Summers' boyfriend this evening?"
"Probably."
"Excellent. Can you stop by my office later, please? I've got some paperwork for him."
"No problem. But can I ask a favor?"
The principal raised an eyebrow enquiringly.
"Rumor has it that you're pretty good at martial arts yourself. Any chance you could teach Dawn and me anything?"
Robin nodded, a small smile appearing on his face. "I'd be delighted to. Shall we say Wednesday at seven?"
Ian nodded in respect.
"I suggest you get to class," the principal continued. "You wouldn't want to be late."
"No sir," Ian said, and offered a jaunty salute. "I'll see you guys at lunch?"
"Damn right," Daryl agreed cheerfully.
"Yep, although I'm not looking forward to Math," Chrissie groaned.
"That's alright," Daryl said, "I'll explain as we go through."
"Cool," Chrissie bounced. She walked over and kissed Ian on the cheek. "See you later sweetie, and try and keep those homicidal instincts in check."
"I'll try," Ian agreed, trying desperately not to blush.
"Ready?" Xander asked, as he stepping into the living room.
"Yep," Dawn smiled. She was wearing a smart chestnut brown skirt that matched the highlights in her hair, and a slightly lighter colored shirt, and had put a touch of make up on to emphasize her eyes. She stood, and shook her head a little, letting her hair fall naturally around her face. She looked up as she felt a small rush of pleasure from Xander as he looked at her.
"Come on," he said simply, and walked out the door to the elevator.
"Still got the car?" Dawn asked, a little surprised.
"Yep," Xander replied, as swung into the low slung sports car. "Kyle insisted I use it today, said it could do with a longer run than around Sunnydale."
Dawn smiled and settled in comfortably.
"Hit it, Xand, let's see what this thing can really do."
Xander laughed and pulled out slowly, driving towards the interstate.
"This isn't exactly what I meant," Dawn muttered, she felt like they were about to be overtaken by a tractor.
Xander smirked at her, and kept at the same slow speed. As they pulled onto the Interstate, he suddenly floored the accelerator, and Dawn squealed as she was pushed hard back into the seat.
He kept the pressure on, as the car rocketed past a hundred, and kept going.
She felt completely safe, despite the fact she could see the needle heading towards the hundred and twenty mark; she knew he'd never let anything happen to her, and it was an exhilarating feeling.
The cars in the slow lane started to blur as he kept his foot down, till they approached a hundred and fifty. The car seemed to be purring its encouragement, glorying in being put to the use it had been designed for,
The feeling of being pushed stopped as Xander let of the accelerator. She turned to look at him, and for a second had a glimpse of him as a teenager again, as he laughed.
"Man, this car rocks," he grinned at her, reveling in the sheer power hidden under the engine.
Dawn laughed. "This is definitely what I meant," she shouted.
"That acceleration was killer," Xander agreed. A red light on the dashboard flashed, and he slammed on the brakes.
"Radar detector," he grinned.
"Cool," Dawn said. "Is there anything this car can't do?"
"If not, Kyle could probably get it added," Xander laughed.
"Yeah," Dawn agreed. At fifty-five she couldn't even hear the engine purring. "So, what are you going to say to Faith?"
"I'm going to tell her the truth. That we need help, that Buffy can't do it, and I'll give her a steady job."
"Do you think she'll want to come back to Sunnydale?"
"I hope so, if only because it's where the action is."
Xander engaged the cruise control, and settled in for the journey. "I'm kinda curious to see what the Hyperion is looking like. I've got one of my best crews in there, doing it up. When we've finished, we expect it to be one of the most exclusive, and safest, places in L.A. Cordy's ecstatic, as Angel put her in charge of Public Relations. It gets her invites to meet all sorts of people, with all the rumors that are floating around about it already.
"The whole basement is going to be a giant nightclub - well, two, actually. One human, one demon. Anyone found intermingling will regret it," he added. "We take human security more seriously than demon security. But as long as they're good, they'll have the coolest place in L.A. to play in."
"Cool," Dawn replied. "I can't wait to see it."
They talked for the entire journey, Dawn was deliberately pulling back from him, as she had promised, so that he had the space to get used to the idea that they were going to be a couple now.
Once inside L.A., he pulled into the new carpark inside the Hyperions ground floor, and climbed out, Dawn joining him.
"Let's go catch us a Slayer."
They walked into the front door of the hotel, Xander letting them through the security doors with a five-digit key code, and Dawn had to stop her jaw from opening at the luxurious surrounding. Everything was either marble or mahogany, and it looked incredibly expensive.
"Hey, Boss," a tall man in a suit said, as he walked up to them.
"Gary," Xander said. "How's it going?"
"Well we're actually ahead of schedule. They finished the lobby this morning. The first five floors are done, and we hope to start getting some business coming in next month. We've got the supplies to finish the other floors, and a helicopter doing deliveries."
"Excellent," Xander said with a smile. "I'll do a full inspection later this afternoon."
Gary nodded. "Your people are in the offices down there," he said, pointing to the left.
"Thanks. Come on, Dawn."
They walked down the marble hallway, to a plain door, with another keypad on the outside. Xander tapped another number, and opened the door. "All our doors have an XTech override," he mentioned casually.
They walked in, to find a large meeting room. The ceiling lights were on full, to compensate for the heavy duty blackout blinds covering the windows.
Angel was at the head of the table, Cordy to one side, Faith the other. Wes, Fred, and Gunn took up the other seats.
"Deadboy," Xander growled.
Angel turned and rolled his eyes. "Haven't you been killed yet?"
"You wish," Xander replied.
"I do. See how you like being a vampire," Angel growled back, stalking over to Xander. "You are still annoying."
Xander paused for a second, and then laughed. "Thank you, I try."
Angel grinned and held out his hand. "It's good to see you again, Xander."
"You too, Angel," Xander replied.
Dawn found herself breathing again, as she realized they had been teasing each other.
"Hi, Dawn," Angel said, smiling and looking a little curious as he took her in.
"Hey, Angel," Dawn replied, a polite smile on her face.
"Take a seat?" Angel offered. "We're about finished here."
"Wow, boytoy," Faith said, as she stood and slinked around the table. "Looking good. Been eating your Wheaties?"
Dawn tensed slightly, wanting to kick the raven haired girls ass immediately. The girl still oozed sex, as if it came out of her every pore. If Xander had even given the slightest mental hint of attraction, she would have tried, Slayer or no Slayer. She clenched her teeth and tried to smile.
"Actually Angel," Xander said. "I came to have a chat with Faith, can we borrow an office?"
"Sure."
"Ooo," Faith purred. "Want me alone do you? Well, what are you waiting for?" she asked, heading towards the office. "I want to see what else has changed in all these years."
Xander groaned and looked at Angel.
"With long practice," the vampire muttered in answer to the unasked question.
He nodded, and walked into the office after her.
"Dawn," Cordy said, standing. "We need to talk as well. Follow me."
Dawn blinked, and did as she was told. This wasn't at all what she had expected.
They entered an office next to the one that Xander and Faith were in, and sat opposite each other on two low slung leather seats. They were both wearing remarkably similar clothing, although Dawn's skirt was a little shorter, emphasizing her legs, whereas Cordelia's top was tighter, emphasizing her chest.
"Exactly why do you think you would be good for Xander?" Cordelia asked icily.
"What?" Dawn blinked.
"Oh, please," Cordy said with a sigh. "Don't try and hide from me. You looked like you were a second from laying the smack down on Ms. Skakiness next door."
"Xander's mine," Dawn stated.
"So you believe," Cordy replied. "And exactly why do you think that?"
"Because…" Dawn started. "Because I am what he needs," she eventually said.
"What he needs?" Cordy mocked. "Please. Xander needs someone strong, not a mouse wearing big girl clothes."
Dawn blinked, and shook her head. She'd heard rumors about Cordy acting like a Queen, but had never experienced it herself.
"But," Dawn started.
"Don't interrupt your betters, little girl," Cordy mocked. "You're still a kid playing at being grown up. Don't try and tell me you're what he needs. You're barely out of diapers."
"You…"
"Me?" Cordy interrupted again. "Don't be silly, you're no match for me. Never will be, you need to step away from Xander."
"Screw you," Dawn said, suddenly losing her temper, and at the same time, her fear.
"I don't give a damn who the hell you think you are, you stuck up bitch. I am what Xander needs in his life. Someone stable, who thinks of him as an equal, who puts him first, and isn't a Queen Bitch, a stupid witch, a slutty Slayer, a brain-dead Slayer, a nympho demon, a preying mantis, an ancient mummy, or any other stupid creature. I don't know, or really care what's up your butt at the moment, I've got enough to worry about with the stupid skank making a play for him in the next room without listening to you act like you're fourteen again and still in high school.
"Things have changed, and you've haven't been around to see them, so don't act like you know what the hell is going on in my life, or his. I want Xander, he wants me, and if it wasn't for that bloody nobility streak he's got, I'd probably be spending my nights finding out exactly what someone who's been with Anya can make me feel, instead of being alone in my stupid bed waiting for my stupid birthday so I can finally show him that the stupid laws don't apply any more, and he can't hide behind them.
"Now, if you have something interesting to say to me, say it! Otherwise, go back to what you were doing before you opened your mouth, you interfering shrew."
Dawn glared at Cordy, and then felt confused as the brunette threw her head back and laughed loudly. She blinked at the older girl.
"Cordelia?"
"You can call me Cordy," she said through her laughter. "Did you just call your sister a brain-dead Slayer?"
Dawn shrugged. "Those insults were interchangeable."
Cordy laughed harder, before stumbling to her feet and pouring a couple of glasses of water. She put one in front of Dawn and collapsed back down into her seat inelegantly.
"Maybe you are what Xander needs," she said cheerfully. "And it's good to know that I'm still a wonderful actress."
"What?"
"It was test, Dawn," Cordelia explained simply. "I wanted to see if there was anything inside that pretty exterior. If you look at that list of insults you reeled off, all of them had one thing in common."
"They were strong women?" Dawn said, slowly feeling her stomach unclench.
"Exactly. That's the only thing that big doofus needs."
"You do realize that 'doofus' is the vice president of a construction company, and is very close friends to the Micheals'?" Dawn asked, not liking Xander being called that.
"Of course," Cordy replied. "Don't take me calling him that as a sign of disrespect; no one is prouder of what Xander has done than me. Look around you, do you think we'd have such amazing set-up if he hadn't been involved? Xander's done some amazing things over the past year, but we don't need to talk about him.
"Let's talk about you."
"Me?"
"Yes," Cordy said. "You've obviously got a good dress sense, let's see what else you know, Queen of Sunnydale."
"What?"
"You think I wouldn't know?" Cordy grinned. "You're a much better heir than Porsche. She's not fit to tie my elegant boots."
Dawn laughed. "Yeah, well, that was an accident."
"You accidentally punched her and accused her of blowing the entire football team?"
"She caught me at a bad time," Dawn mumbled, somewhat embarrassed tat her comments were so widely known, now.
"Right," Cordelia drawled.
Xander walked into the office, to find Faith reclining on the desk, staring at him.
"So," she whispered, licking her lips slowly. "You wanted to talk to me?"
"Talk, yes," Xander said, and it was only by keeping a mental picture of Dawn in his head that he was able to stop staring at the body in front of him. He sat comfortably and crossed his legs.
"Sit down, Faith," he sighed.
"I like it here," she purred back. "Although, I could do with a neck rub."
"Couldn't we all," Xander muttered. "Faith, sit down and stop trying to seduce me."
"Ooo," Faith smirked. She rolled off the table, landing like a cat on all fours, and crawled her way towards him, swaying seductively. "Forceful now, are we?
"I've been a bad little girl, I need someone to take charge of me," she said in a little girl's voice.
"You damn well do," Xander agreed. "But it isn't going to be me. Look, you're still as sexy as hell, and probably more beautiful than when I last saw you, but I'm not going to sleep with you again, okay?"
"Who said anything about sleeping?" Faith asked, as she leant back and thrust her chest higher.
Xander shook his head. Even with everything else going on in his life, he had to admit the site of Faith like that was one that no male could ever not enjoy. He gathered all his will power, and twisted in his seat pulling off his jacket. He ignored Faith's triumphant smirk, and as soon as he had it off, he threw it on her.
"Now, please sit down properly," he said, as he regained full control. "I want to talk to you, not fuck you."
"Don't you find me attractive?" Faith asked, her eyes wide with shock.
"A corpse would find you attractive. Wait, bad analogy. You know what I mean."
Faith sat down on the edge of the chair. She shrugged. "So, you're cute as well, why aren't we doing it like rabbits on the floor?"
Xander groaned. "Is that all you think about?"
"There aren't any vampires or demons near by that need Slaying," she shrugged negligently.
"Yeah, well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Slaying?" Faith asked, looking at him with a pout.
"I don't know," Xander said. "I thought you'd changed. I thought you said that you weren't…"
"A slut?" Faith asked, looking up at him with her eyes wide, as she pronounced the last word with emphasis.
"If the boots fit," Xander said dryly.
"They don't," Faith said sitting back comfortably, placing his jacket on the side of the chair.
"You shouldn't leave that laying on the floor," she scolded. "It will crease."
"What?"
"So, you and the Slayer Sis, eh?"
Xander blinked. "What the hell is going on here?"
Faith ran her fingers through her hair and smirked some more.
"Please, if I'd gone any further in there, that girl was going to attack me." She paused. "Of course, she would have lost, but it would have been fun."
Xander stared at her, feeling more than a little lost.
"I have changed, Xander," the girl said cheerfully. "But not that much. I still like sex as much as I like Slaying, and I like yanking people's chains just as much as ever. When you two walked in, she was glaring at me before you even said 'Hi'. She obviously thinks that I'm some sort of competition."
"I didn't think of that," Xander mumbled.
"Because you don't think of me that way?"
"Yeah," he shrugged.
"So, why aren't you showing her what you've learnt over all these years?"
"What?" There were times when Xander really felt like he didn't understand women at all, and this was one of those times.
"If you'd been doing her," Faith explained slowly, as if dealing with an idiot, "she would have been smirking at me, 'cause she had something she thinks I want. And don't get me wrong, you're good for a quick lay, Xan, but you're the sort of guy that secretly wants a white picket fence, a wife that loves you, and 2.4 kids. Me, I want a quick fight, a long screw, and then a nice place to sleep off my hangover."
"She's only seventeen," he explained.
"And?" Faith prompted.
"And?"
"Oh Jesus, Xander. Don't tell me you're not tying her to the bed and ravishing that hot little body of hers because she's a little young?"
Xander stiffened.
"Ahh," Faith smiled. "You're worried because she's B's lil' sis, and that you're being a big bad Xander by falling for that innocent sexuality that she's got coming out of her pores."
"Well, yeah," Xander admitted.
"That's bullshit, Xan. The girl's nuts about you - she'd have to be to think of fighting me - and you can't be much short of nuts about her if you're turning down me for little Ms. Sexy legs."
Xander groaned. "Can we get on to what I came here for?"
"As it's not for a quick roll on Angel's desk with me, sure. Hey, you want to get Dawn in here, so you can do it on his desk anyway? I bet you'd get a kick out of that."
"Faith!" Xander groaned again. "Look, I want to offer you a job."
"Coaching Dawn to be Faith-like in bed?"
"No!" Xander said firmly. "Look, we need a Slayer. Most of the people at XTech are biting at the bit to start hunting Vampires. Our defensive technologies are kick ass, but it's not enough, there are still too many vampires hunting people in the night. We need to take the fight to them; we need to bring the whole thing into the 21st century.
"But, I won't let us go without a Slayer as back up. We were going to use Buffy, but that's no longer an option."
"What with her bending over tombstones for that vampire? Slayers are supposed to put the stake in Vampires, not the other way around."
"Quite," Xander agreed.
Faith laughed again, throwing her head back. "Quite? My god, you're becoming Jeeves."
Xander held his head in his hand. "I know, don't rub it in, okay? I realized the other day that I was acting as a mentor to a bunch of seventeen to eighteen year olds."
"Which didn't help your wanting to bend that girl over your bed?"
"In crude terms, yes," Xander sighed. "But that's not what I'm here to talk about."
"Sounds like you need to talk to someone," Faith disagreed. "But we can come back to that subject later. So you want me to come back to good ol' Sunnyhell?"
"Yes," Xander said simply. "Basically, I want to pay you to be XTech's resident Slayer. You'll be responsible for helping with the training, and patrolling with one of our teams at night. You'll also be on call for major emergencies.
"The pay is $100,000 a year, with full health cover, dental cover, paid sick leave, and twenty days holiday, and use of a PJH condo."
Faith blinked. She shook her head. She blinked again, and looked at Xander.
"Would you repeat that again, please?" she said in a voice he'd never heard from her before.
Xander obliged, suddenly feeling better about the situation.
"You know I'd come back for a chance to fight, and a semi-decent place to crash, right?"
Xander nodded. "That's not the way we work, Faith. You put your ass on the line, we have it covered. None of this stupid Sacred Duty crap. You have a job saving the world; you better believe that you're getting paid for it."
He enjoyed the way Faith was looking at him, as if she couldn't quite comprehend what he was saying.
"It's too much," she mumbled.
"Bullshit," he replied. "It's not really enough, but I've got a few budget constraints to work with. It's up to you Faith. If you want, you can even go to college. We'll pay for it."
"And you don't want to fuck me?"
"Nope," he smiled.
"Then why the hell are you doing this?"
"Because I need a Slayer. Because I can't work with Buffy. Because I know what it's like to be down and out of it. Because, when it comes down to it, I'd feel a lot better know that you will be backing us up, and that when we need you, you'll be there, fighting for us."
"But, I tried to kill you - kill you all," she muttered.
Xander smiled crookedly, "So have most of the people I know, at one time or another. People grow, they change. What happened in the past stays there. I'm offering you this chance, Faith. If you take it, you're gonna have to play by the rules."
"I do that these days anyway," Faith said absently. "Damn, Xan. Are you sure about this?"
"I've got a four bedroom penthouse; you've got a room there if you want it, till you can find your own place."
"What about Ms. Innocent?"
"I asked her, it's her home as well."
"You're living with her, and not banging her? What the hell is she playing at?"
"Faith!"
"Okay," the girl said. "Yes, I'll come with you, yes I accept. You can give me the rules and regs later."
"Excellent," Xander smiled.
"So, why is sweetcheeks living with you?"
Xander walked out, followed by Faith, and met up with Cordy, Dawn, and Angel who were sitting at the table, talking.
"Angel, I've offered a Faith a job," he said casually.
"Stealing my staff, Xan?"
He grinned. "I've got bigger pockets than you, call it poaching."
Angel nodded. "You're ready to start hunting then?"
"Absolutely."
"That's great news. You got time to inspect the hotel?"
"That's the other reason I'm here," Xander smiled. "I need to give the bosses a decent progress update on this project."
"And that's going to take you all afternoon?" Cordelia said.
"Yes," Xander smiled at her.
"Good. Faith and I are taking Dawn shopping."
"Cool," Faith grinned. "But first I need to have a talk to the uptight princess. Come on, Dawn." She turned on her heel, and slinked back towards the office, Dawn stalking after her.
Cordy laughed under her breath. "I pity you, Xander."
"You do?" he asked nervously.
"Dawn told me you were planning on inviting Faith to live with you."
"Yeah?"
Cordelia smirked, "You haven't got a clue, have you?"
"What?"
"There are some things we will never know," Angel interrupted. "Come on, let's go."
Xander sighed and looked at Cordy. "Dawn's got my card. Don't bankrupt me, but make sure she spends something."
Cordelia smirked at him once more. "Do you really think that will be a problem?"
Dawn marched into the office behind Faith.
Faith jumped onto the table, span around it, and stared at Dawn intently. "Good legs, but you don't have much upstairs."
Dawn blinked. "Look who's talking you top-heavy slut."
Faith smirked. "Relax kiddo. Much as I wouldn't mind giving Xander a quick roll for old times' sake, I'm not going to jump him."
"You're not?" Dawn asked warily.
"Nope. Xander's a settling down kinda guy. I'm about as ready to settle down as you are to film a Porno."
Dawn slumped down into a chair. "You're not after Xander?"
"Nope. He's yours. But I do have a question?"
"What?"
"You've been living with him for weeks. Why the hell are you still in separate beds?"
"Cordy asked me the same thing. I'll say the same thing to you. I don't want Xander like that, you know? I want him as me. I want him to want me as much as I want him, I want him for life, not just for a quick screw. I can't do that by being you, or by being Cordelia, or even by trying to be Anya. That's not who I am. All I can be is Dawn, okay? I know what's holding Xander back; I know how nervous he is about my age, and about me being Buffy's sister. He's got this idea in his head that he might be taking advantage of me."
Faith snorted.
Dawn smiled slightly, "But you know what? I wouldn't change him. He wouldn't be Xander if he wasn't like that."
"So, are you really five by five with me crashing with you?"
"Now that I know you're not after Xander, sure."
"You're not concerned about my little homicidal thing?"
Dawn grinned, "Who hasn't felt the urge to kill Buffy?"
Faith frowned. "That bad, eh?"
"What?"
"You're relationship with B?"
"Xander tell you what she said?"
She shook her head.
"She said that I wanted to be raped by Spike."
Faith scowled. "Bitch should try it before she talks about it."
"Err?"
"It was a long time ago," Faith shrugged. "I looked him up a few years later, he won't be doing it again."
Dawn nodded.
"I also tried to kill Xander."
"Are you going to do it again?"
"Hell no. I was in a bad, scary place. It was like being on a bad trip that wouldn't end. But you know, sometimes you have to hit bottom before you can come up again."
Dawn nodded. "I hope I never find out."
"Nah," Faith grinned. "You've got your head on your shoulders. We all looked past Xander, 'cause you know, he was a norm."
"A norm?"
"Yeah, normal. Not a Slayer, witch, werewolf, vampire, demon, or anything else. Took us all a lot longer to realize that he was the strongest of the lot of us. But I've got a much more important question."
"Yeah?"
"XTech - how cute are the uniforms?"
Dawn laughed. "I really want to see Xander in one, but he hasn't yet."
"That good?"
"Oh yeah, take the best of the police, army, and navy, and you have the start of the XTech uniform."
"Would I look good in it?"
"Faith," Dawn said slowly. "You'd look good in a sack cloth."
"True," Faith grinned. "Does it bother you that Xander's been around a bit?"
Dawn shook her head. "He's not with them any more, and well, what would you rather have for you first time? A teenage guy who lasts thirty seconds, or a guy who could keep a nympho demon happy?"
"You know, D," Faith said with a grin, "we're going to get on fine. You haven't got a stick up your butt, and while you're a hell of a lot more patient than I am, you've got good instincts. Now, let's get Hotlips and go spend your money."
"Do you call anyone by their name?"
"Xander, mainly, but apart from that, not if I can help it."
They walked out again, to meet Cordy.
"Xander's bank card!" Cordelia demanded.
Dawn handed it over instantly, before she could help herself.
"Great," Cordelia grinned at Faith. "Let's go see how much money we can spend on Dawnie here. I'm betting that she put her own wardrobe together. Right?" she looked at the younger girl with an arched, but elegant, eyebrow.
Dawn nodded.
"Just you wait till you see what happens when you shop with some real shoppers," Cordy announced.
"Faith?" Dawn asked, looking a little surprised.
"Hey," Faith shrugged. "Just because I like to wear leather, doesn't mean I can't shop. And just wait till Xander sees those legs of your encased in something skin tight."
Dawn groaned as Faith and Cordelia smirked at each other. "Now come on. I've ordered a limo, 'cause it's time to hit the shops!"
The last thing anyone in the hotel would have heard, was the resigned sigh of the younger brunette as she was dragged into the white limousine.