AN This was written with a very dear friend Rhys Kendrick about a billion years ago. I give him full credit and admiration for his ability to visualize Xander. We traded off paragraphs, interweaving the story. It was a singularly unique experience that meshed wonderfully.
Ilana Lorelei Harris stared at her bedroom ceiling. A framed picture of Frankenstein stared right back. In shock, she rolled over on her tummy. The phone held loosely in her left hand clattered to the floor, but she didn't notice. She placed her face in her hands and tried so hard not to scream.
Not in pain, or frustration. But pure exhilaration. The kind that comes from a one in a life time opportunity. The kind of once in lifetime that occurs when the hottest, but nicest, guy in school ask you to go to prom. Her…a junior. And he was a senior.
**Breath, Rory, passing out will do no good. ** She rolled over and sat up. She looked at the grinning picture of the Swamp Thing and grinned back. Okay, she could do this.
Do what? **Dammit, breathe** She folded her pinky, ring and middle fingers together. With her first fingers together in a point, and her thumbs creating a hollow, she rested her chin. Rubbing her nose on her fingers, she thought.
"What does one need for Prom anyway?" She sat for a minute. Abruptly her hands moved to point to the closet. "Clothes help." She got up and opened her closet. Athletic gear and uniforms stared out at her.
"I know I have a dress in here somewhere." She shifted stuff around and rummaged through the jeans and T-shirts.
She stood up holding her prize. With a pursed look on her face, she regarded the garment. "Some how I don't think this will work." The dress was the traditional pink sugary-plum fairy dress. Her mother had tried to get her to go as the Sugar-Plum Fairy when she was 6. She decided to go as a pirate, just like her dad.
She was holding up the dress when her bedroom door opened. "Hey there little lady"
Turning, Ilana threw a wry look at her father. "Nice accent, Dad."
Xander grinned. "Wellll now. It's not every dad good old dad gets the western cowboy drawl just right." He leaned against the doorjamb.
Looking at his 17 year-old daughter, Xander felt in some odd way like he had done a good thing. He knew he had been blessed for something he had done right. His relationship with Ilana was proof that he wasn't all bad.
Ilana smiled slightly and looked at her dad. He had always been there for her, so understanding and even jovial through her somewhat bumpy adolescence, or as he had sometimes referred to it jokingly; the Hell between childhood and retirement. Xander Harris, a father...and a good one at that. The funny thing was he had never even thought about what married life would be, but then he just grew up.
Abruptly, she shoved the dress behind her and dropped it to the floor, sensing in a way that only the closest daughter-father pair ever could, what he was about to say, "If you mention a certain fruit and small mythical creature I will have to kill you". She grabbed her hockey stick and gestured at him.
He smiled. "Actually, I was kinda wondering about the thud, I take it your ok then?"
"Well yes and no..." She scratched the back of her head in one hand, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she did so. Biting her lip, she lookedat her dad. Did she tell him?
"Anything I can help with" Oblivious to the pondering of his daughter, he walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Leaning down, he plucked the small dress up off the floor and hung it back up again "People tell me I'm good at making problems go away, or maybe that was good at pretending they're not there. Or was it hiding till it went away." He sighed
a short questioning sigh to himself as Ilana sat on her bed.
"You mean the whole 'I laugh in the face of danger, then I hide till it goes away'?"
Grinning, Xander closed the closet. "Something like that. What's up squirt?"
"Well...I kind of need a new dress" She looked up, a confused look on her face. How was he going to take this?
"I'm sorry, what?" Perplexion covered his face as both his eyebrows raised in unison "Did I just hear right, cause I thought you just voluntarily asked me to buy you a dress" He held a hand to his heart. "Oh god I feel weak and fluttery."
She cocked her head to the side. "Dad" she complained.
"No, really, you know they're the long things that cover your legs and sometimes have frilly bits on the ends... The girls I went to school with looked sexy in them…NOT that you would know anything about that."
Tossing an exasperated look at him, she went back to studying her hands "I can ask mom you know..."She trailed off.
"No, I want to help, its what I'm here for right?" He smiled again
"That and money" came a snappy response.
"Id argue with you but I was a carefree teenager once…"
She shot him a pointed glance.
"Ok, so I'm still kind of a carefree teenager...but now I'm one with money and wisdom, so the question is, who's the guy and is his father bigger than me, cause if so it may be difficult for me to kill him and get away with it"
"Dad!, come on, that's not fair, he's a nice guy"
"Ilana, they're all nice guys...nice guys who want the same thing- I was a nice guy...I still had the usual guy instincts.."
She stood up defiantly. "Somehow dad I don't think linoleum will come up in the conversation."
"Ok, you don't need to hear about my instincts, but the point is I don't trust him...who is he?"
"You're not going to like it, but he's amazing... he's cute and he likes me!"
He took a breath as she raised her voice. "Does mister cute and amazing have a name? Or his parents for that matter."
"Well you like his mom. Used to have a crush on her."
"That describes half the population of Sunnydale." He raised an eyebrow pointedly.
"Liam Summers" She closed her eyes, waiting for the explosion.
He took a step back, shaking his head a little as he did. "I knew it...The Harris dating choices live on..."
"Hey, I didn't know Michael was a Demon!
"Well our door sure found out, look, I know you're dance is coming up and I want you to have fun…"
'Here it comes', she thought bleakly.
"…but there will be no fun had by a son of Angel with my virgin daughter! You are a virgin right?"
She responded, now flailing her arms as she did so. "Yes dad! For the 500th time yes! I don't believe this... I really like him and you want to keep me locked up in a house steel till I'm 35!"
"Actually that would be 42."
"DAD!"
"You could still have cable in there...and don't raise your voice to me"
"You're being unfair about this, and you're just still mad about Angel! Just cause he got Buffy and looks better in leather pants." Ilana knew she hurt her father with her words but she couldn't see for the tears. She sobbed a little as she spoke.
"Go to your room!"
"I am in my room!"
He looked around briefly. "Well I'll leave then!" He yelled back before walking out and closing the door behind him. *That went well I think* He leaned his head against the door, mentally beating himself for what he'd said. Grabbing his cell, he dialed a well-remembered number.
"Hey, Will."
"Xander, you are such a moron."
Xander looked at the phone in shock. "Huh?"
"Apologize you dweeb. Or is it King of Cretins now? Buffy told me about Liam wanting to take Rory to prom."
"Ilana." He corrected absently. Everyone but him called his daughter by her nickname. It kind of bugged him. Ilana liked it because she could hide with the nickname. "Buffy told you?"
"Yeah. Liam has been stewing for weeks and panicking on how to ask."
"He has?"
"Xander…talk to her." Click.
Willow was always hanging up on him. But she was always right it seemed. He dialed a number on his phone and held his breath.
Ilana sat in the middle of her floor, crying. She NEVER fought with her father. It just wasn't done. She jumped when the phone rang. "Hello?" she sniffed.
"So you really like him huh?"
"Yeah, and I'm still mad at you" She sniffed, wiping away another tear.
"I'm not paying more than $400 for a dress"
She smiled a little and laughed, still sniffing. Same old dad. "Thanks dad...I'm sorry about before, Mom says you look great in leather."
"What you mother thinks is rarely polite, but I am sorry too... I still don't like the idea of you and Liam, but if it makes you happy...I'm happy for you. Besides I know Buffy would never raise her son to be like me. He probably has outdated manners that have no use."
" You mean like pulling out my chair and holding the door for me? Yeah you're right." She took a breath and looked at Frankenstein. "Hey dad…you're back on my Christmas list. And I'll think about giving back your title of greatest father on the planet"
"I'm honored".
"I love you."
"I love you too Ilana."