Time Frame: A decade or so after both BtVS & AtS finales.
Rating: T-Mature (cuz Faith still curses like a sailor)
This story contains several gay relationships, consider yourselves forewarned.
Legalities: All B:tVS characters are that of the Mighty Whedon and his glorious intellect. This work is meant only in celebration and nothing ulterior.
Chapter 1 - A Man In A Suit
Andrew Wells stared at himself in the mirror. His tie was Windsor knotted, his crisp white button-down shirt was spotless, and his gray pinstripe suit was perfectly tailored, his lucky official Federation badge shined in the light. He was the picture of a professional, even a successful man. Jean-luc would be proud. He did not feel that way. Another deep breath and he made his way out the restaurant bathroom. The afternoon sun shone through large windows near the table his party sat.
Andrew Wells was not a man who scared easily anymore. Younger, he had a penchant for running and hiding, but he had grown up considerably since then. Gone was the babbling nervous nerd, and now he was a confident, more reinged in nerd. Andrew had faced down demons, sorcerers, even beings who had called themselves gods; he was nowhere near the definition of the word coward. After his years with the Council, at the front lines of a secret war, some would even call him a hero.
Yet, having brunch with his boyfriend and his boyfriend's family, made him want to run out the door and never come back. His fear was pushed to the side with each step through the crowded restaurant toward his party's table. Taking a seat next to his boyfriend, Mark, gave him some measure of confidence.
The two had been dating for almost a year now and Mark had decided to make the big move of having his family meet Andrew, much to the uneasiness of his parents, who barely accepted their youngest son's lifestyle. Both self-professed huge geeks, cosplayers and video-game junkies, they had so much to bond over which only added to the quiet consternation of Mark's parents.
The Finns were all dusty blonde like Mark, with his parents sporting grays. Iowa natives, around the table sat Rob, the eldest son, Brooke, the younger sister and their parents Joel and Nancy. They were a conservative bunch though their children were much looser on those ideals. Joel, coming from an military-blue-collar family, had a hard time adjusting to the new truths of the world. Gays and homosexuals just being...well, God knows what. But him and Nancy were good Christians, and Christ said to love more than anything, or at least to accept, and so they did. They accepted their son, the gentle child he was. They even accepted an invitation for brunch with his, lord help them, boyfriend. Of a year! Set up by their cousin! Joel Finn would have words with Riley one day.
"So Andrew, Mark was vague about exactly what you do." Nancy started, she was polite but reserved.
"Um, I run the supplying part for my company." Andrew answered easily.
"He heads the logistics department for a multinational charity." Mark gave his boastful clarification.
"Logistics?" Rob interjected with a quirked eyebrow. "Doesn't that usually that means big guys hauling things." The inference was not missed, standing at five feet and six inches with an almost scrawny frame, Andrew was not a big guy at all.
"Rob, that's not it at all." Mark defended, annoyed at his brother's words.
"Actually, when we started, that's what it was." Andrew admitted becoming reminiscent. "In fact, there were only two of us doing it in the beginning. We were moving furniture, equipment, cooking, cleaning and with Xander, the other guy, being there before me, I was pretty much the lowest man on the totem pole." he explained.
"Me and Xander, we were the only fetch and carry people for a long time, then we expanded and got more organized. When the South African sub-divison opened up, Xander went to run logistics there. I stayed in the Cleveland home-base but transferred when the New York offices opened. Now, after all that, I'm the guy who tells the big guys where to haul things, but on an more national and sometimes international level."
It was the most mundane explanation he was willing to give. The truth was that his whole department did their best to streamline movement and communications for slayers and watchers in the field for the Council, though the logistics department still looked over some of the more menial side of things.
"International?" Brooke asked, she was in her teens and with her father holding a blue collar job all his life and her mother being a home-maker, she had never met person at Andrew's level of corporate management before.
"Yeah, we've got a lot of people everywhere, and my people have to make sure everyone knows where everyone's going." Brooke and Nancy seemed a little impressed. Rob and Joel were unmoved.
"He's helped the whole company stay connected. He even had a cellphone app made for company employees." Andrew's boyfriend revealed eagerly.
"App?" Rob asked, mildly intrigued.
"It's called 'the Big Board.'" Andrew explained with a dismissive wave. "Even before we started, when all we were doing just taking care of runaway girls, I tried to keep everyone on track with a giant whiteboard in my friends living room. I kept calling it 'the Big Bard' and the name just stuck." Sudden thoughts of tending the wounded in a cramped house on Rovello drive invaded Andrew. A long pause left the family awkwardly waiting watching the well dressed man's thousand yard stare. Joel cleared his throat and Andrew continued right along.
"Then, we started calling anything that was part of overall planning or communication for the company 'the Big Board'. At first it was just a dumb joke that no one took seriously but me, then it got more crucial as we grew. The app kind of connects everyone's cellular device. All you need is a smartphone with company access and it can connect anywhere with a signal."
"What exactly is it your company does?" Joel asked his big shoulders a little stiff from his almost easing internal tension .
"A few things, really, but we focus on charity work. For that side, we help young women out of terrible situations all around the world. Then we get them into schools and jobs, if they need it." Mark's mother nodded at that, their family gave often to such causes.
"We also do a lot of work with the Red Cross and Greenpeace, but Xander's the one that really handles all of that. He was always the field guy, and I was always the research guy."
"Where are your offices?" Joel asked trying to keep the conversation going. There were a lot of things Mark's father didn't want to talk about with his youngest son's boyfriend but focusing on work seemed like a readily safe topic.
"Here, actually upstairs." Andrew pointed up with a finger. The family reflexively looked to the ceiling. The restaurant they were eating in was in the lobby of a large skyscraper in downtown New York City. "Fifteenth floor and up is all company property." Andrew supplied. He thought a moment and added, "And I think we have a couple sub-basements too."
"Sub-basements?" Rob asked.
"Yeah, right below the shooting range." Andrew revealed. The Council's armory was maintained in the building, and keeping stock of guns and ammo was part of the watcher's responsibility. The Finn family then saw their father's eyes perk into bright attention, as though an on button was pressed somewhere on his person.
"Shooting range? Here?" the father of three asked surprised.
Andrew Wells, Watcher of the Council, nodded his head. "Oh yeah, this building is federally contracted to have one, which helps a lot since all senior staff are tested every few years."
"Tested for what?" Joel was lost.
"Pistol, at the minimum. I qualify for marksman actually." Andrew boasted shyly.
"No way a nancy like you can shoot better'n me." Blurted Rob, who regretted his words immediately. Mark gave his older brother a dirty look The rest of his family looked aghast; borne of Midwestern hospitality, they were a people who did their best to maintain propriety. Andrew seemed unphased.
"Robert Finn." Joel growled at his eldest son. "Apologize. Now." He instructed, and the younger man looked sincerely chastened.
"Aw, I'm sorry. Andrew. That came out real bad." Rob took back his words with an embarrassed scratch to the back of his head.
"It's okay, Rob. I've been called worse." An easy smile with another dismissive wave of his hand. Joel let a low achem before speak, letting the table know they had finished that discussion.
"From everything you've just told us, it makes you sound like a paperwork kind'a guy. What do you need to be sidearm tested for, Andrew? " Joel Finn asked gruffly.
"To be field rated and ready." Andrew's brows knitted. He should have lied, but a command voice was drilled into him after being trained by Riley Finn and working side by side with Xander's Solider-boy for so long.
"You're out in the field, son? For what?" The rest of the table's interests were piqued. Even Mark had never heard this side of Andrew Wells before. He came off as a shy and successful CO and the charity line was used often around company for the year they were together. Guns? When did his boyfriend start shooting guns?
A heartbeat and Andrew replied. "Oh, a lot of things." A waiter approached with a smart-phone in a silver tray and signaled for Andrew's attention. With a nervous "Excuse me." Andrew got up from his seat and left the table. His boyfriend watched him go.
As he walked away, Andrew sighed knowing they would be discussing him now. "Field duty? Nice lie, Mr. Professional-Liar."
He internally berated himself for the accidental truth he let slip. A shake of his head and he regained his focus. He wondered who would call, the next hour and a half was booked as personal.
The watcher put the phone to his ear and heard a single word. He took a deep breath that only Mark noticed. His shoulders tensed going up and down before Andrew set the smart-phone down. A waved and circled motion with his finger to the waiter and the young woman briskly walked off, intent clear on her face.
Andrew walked back to his table nearly as fast.
"Well it looks like the restaurant has to close." Andrew spoke hurriedly.
"What?" Joel asked scrunching his big eyebrows incredulously.
"So, I thought you guys would like to a quick visit to the range." He practically pushed off Joel from his seat and got the family up and out and away from glass windows and open spaces. Waiters and other restaurant staff did the same to other patrons, emptying the suddenly closed restaurant. Almost shoving them along, and garnering semi-startled looks from Nancy and Joel.
Andrew and the Finn family made a bee-line through a thinning crowd towards a door that would normally have guards posted at either side. He moved them underground, to an armory. Through the door, a small foyer section was also unmanned. Andrew entered first, checking his Big Board app as he stepped.
"Hello?" He called. "Esther?" There was no answer.
"Andrew? Who are you talking to?" Marked asked as the Finns spilled into the room. Like the good military family they were, Andrew shushed them with a hand motion.
"Esther, it's okay, I see you on the Big Board. You can come out." Andrew soothed.
"I'm over here." was returned from the check in booth. Coming closer, the family saw a small girl sitting farther in the back corner of the booth hidden behind a counter that was normally manned by at least one guard. The young girl had bright red hair in pig-tails and freckles covered her face.
"Hey, sweety." Andrew asked gently.
"I know you, you're Mr. Wells." the girl declared with a point.
"I am, Esther." Andrew nodded. "How do you know me?"
"My mom works here, she usually sits at the counter." Esther revealed. Andrew knew the woman, Barbara was her name he believed.
"Where's your mom now, Esther?"
The girl, no older than twelve, peered around the watcher to the Finn family behind him. "Are they Council, Mr. Wells?" Esther whispered, and Andrew smiled at her. She was a smart girl.
Andrew shook his head no.
"She got called upstairs. Said it was important." Esther spoke with her eyes as well as her mouth, Andrew understood both. "She told me to stay here and be quiet, that she'd be right back." The child explained casually. "I can take you guys down if you want." She looked to the family as she started up.
"It's okay, Esther. I know the way." Andrew offered. "Okay, everyone follow me." He started walking. Mark hurried next to him.
"Is she okay, Andy?" His boyfriend asked worriedly. His family looked agitated after being rushed over here before they could finish their meals.
"Yeah, her mom just needed to take care of something real fast. I told Esther she could come with us."
"How'd you know she was here?" Joel asked, a little uneasily.
Andrew ran this building, and it's security sensors ran through the Big Board profile on his phone. "It's my job to know where everyone is." the watcher shrugged before opening a door.
The watcher stumbled backwards as a shotgun came out barrel first. "Don't move." Came a hard but feminine voice behind it.
"Stand down!" urged another.
From the door came two dark figures, the first a woman, petite and would have been pretty if not for her angry scowl behind a gun. The second was a tall and broad man with brown hair and an eye-patch. The small woman charged through the threshold, forcing back Andrew and the Finn family.
"Wells?" she growled out.
"Andrew!" Cried the man, happily.
"Guys? What are you doing here!"
"Tactical genius here got us stuck in the freight elevator." The small woman jerked her head to the one-eyed man behind her. She rested her shotgun on her shoulder as she spoke and wore a tactical vest, tight jeans and combat boots. She had a machete strapped to her back whose handle peeked out from behind her.
"No one told you to shoot out the cables, Faith. The master strategist you are." He shot back dismissively. The man sported an old brown leather jacket, black fatigue pants and guns holstered to his hip and chest, he would have seemed dangerous if not for his friendly demeanor.
A lopsided grin and a handshake approached Andrew. The woman disappeared into the shadows the the stairs with an eye-roll.
"Hey, am I glad to see you! Listen, from a guy who's seen the situation with his own eye, pay no attention to the read outs, this whole thing is totally recoverable." the one-eyed man began explaining.
"Xander Harris, did you lose my building?!" Andrew demanded of the taller man.
"No way, Andy. This is just defense mode, this place is still ours, mostly." The larger man reared back with his hands up in front of himself defensively. "We just need to take out their main mojo guy. Which is where you're comin' in Andrew Wells, my man." Xander glanced up and over the smaller man and finally noticed the bewildered and agitated Finns.
"Who are they?" Xander asked with a point.
Andrew only sighed dejectedly.