"Well, this looks like the place." Xander said as he looked, from the piece of paper in his hand, up at the skyscraper looking in front of them. "Doesn't look very kid friendly does it?"

Buffy had to agree wit him. "Hey, watch it!" She narrowly missed being run over by a stampede of people moving to and fro on the sidewalk. "Did I ever tell you that I hate New York?"

Xander pilled Buffy into the safety of the building. "Only one or two hundred times." He lead the way to the reception desk."Willow called and made us an appointment right?"

"Yup, she, unlike us, can do more than one thing at once." Buffy declared proudly as she smiled at the bubble gum pink haired receptionist. "We have a three o'clock appoint with Mary Jentry."

"She's expecting you. Go on back." The young, pretty, receptionist motioned towards the long hallway off to the right side of her desk. "Last door on your right."

"Thank you." Xander started down the hall and stepped into the only open office. "Mary Jentry, I presume?" He held out his hand to the short, stout, middle-aged woman sitting behind the cluttered desk. "I'm Xander and this is my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Buffy Summers." He always introduced both Buffy and Willow as his bestest friends because they were so why lie about it?

Buffy was a little more cautious and took the time to survey the small, cramped, office for any signs of danger. After finding none, she shook the womans offered hand and sat down in one of the two chairs not piled high with boxes and folders.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both." Mary said with a genuine smile. "I was a little surprised when I received a call from your colleague requesting an appointment, not many people bother." She pulled a folder from the bottom of one the of the piles on her desk and opened it. "I just have a few questions I need answered before I can, legally, give you the file. You don't mind, do you?" At the shake of his head, she continued. "You live in England, is that correct?"

Xander nodded and settled into the chair beside Buffy. "Lived there for three years now."

Mary nodded not surprised since the young man had a bit of an accent, that was clearly not American, that she was sure he wasn't aware of. "I must say that you're my first international case." She jotted down the information and moved onto the next question. "Before that, where did you life?" She needed to know so she could update the file then close it for good, something that should have been done when the child in question turned eighteen.

"Right before that we lived in Cleveland for a year and before that was good ol' Sunnydale California. That's pre-sinkhole not after." Xander joked.

"I'm assuming that since his case file is here that he originated from New York?" Buffy asked still not completely convinced that this woman was harmless. "So how did he end up on the other side of the country?"

"That's correct." Mary answered. "The file states that the..." She paused to look up the name. "The Harris' were friends of the biological parents. It was requested that they take custody of the child." She turned her attention back to Xander. "I'm guessing my correspondence must have came as quite a shock? The Harris' haven't told you anything about the adoption?" This wasn't odd, what would be odd is if he was told anything.

Xander grimpsed at the mention of his parents. "Actually, they're dead but before that they didn't give any inkling that I wasn't theirs. I mean, Dad even tried to sell me once, when I was little so..." He trailed off having no idea where he was heading with that.

Mary gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry for your loss." She made another notation in the file. "You mind me asking how they died?"

Buffy sat up straighter in her chair, lying was something she had grown very good at over the years; especially lies about Sunnydale and anything relating to it. "Some people escaped Sunnydale and others didn't." It was a simple explanation. "The Harris' refused to evacuate and they paid for their stupidity." She was blunt if nothing else.

"That's horrible." Marry laid her pen down for the moment. "I remember reading about Sunnydale in the newspapers. Over two hundred dead and more than a hundred missing. It was said to be the tragedy of the year." Mary eyed the two young people as something occurred to her. "You two are survivors?"

"We were...lucky. We escaped with our lives but lost everything we had except each other. So don't feel sorry for me because I don't." Xander told her, honestly. "Don't get me wrong, I loved my parents regardless of their many many faults and don't misunderstand my reasons for being here. I'm not here for a new family to replace the one I lost because I already have a family. I'm here for answers, nothing more, nothing less. So if you don't mind, I have a few questions of my own."

A sense of pride overwhelmed Buffy and she reached over and laid her hand on his leg out of support.

Mary felt herself fluster but at the same time she found herself nodding. "Very well, what would you like to know, Mister Harris?"

Xander laid his hand over Buffy's and gave it a little squeeze, glad for the silent support she was offering. "Does your files say who my biological parents are and why...why they gave me up?"

Looking down, Mary scanned the file for the information he wanted. "Your original birth certificate has a Jacob Carter listed as your father and a Marie Erickson-Carter listed as your mother. It says here that Mrs. Carter was in a car accident which induced labor. Because of injuries sustained you were born via caesarian section at which time..." She trailed off and looked up. The poor, poor, boy.

"At which time what?" Xander was beginning to panic. "Did I have horns? Or a tail? I had a tail, didn't I?!" He babbled sounding very much like Willow.

Mary blinked and hurried to reassure him that he didn't have horns or a tail at birth. "You were born healthy, no deformities. But I'm afraid that Mrs. Carter, your mother, passed away just after you took your first breath." When she said just after, she meant just after. The record has only two seconds between his birth and his mothers death. "It was your father who requested, through us, that you be placed with the Harris'. I guess it was too much for him to handle." She told him, quietly, gently. "It does say here that he received yearly status reports regarding you but they stopped just after you turned five and he made no further requests regarding you."

Xander shook his head and clutched Buffy's hand. "Man, I must have been horrible in my previous life if this is suppose to be a step up." His eyes widened, comically. "I was a Spike in my previous life." He used humor to break the seriousness of the situation.

Buffy snorted and patted his leg after breaking his death grip he had on her hand. "I doubt that you were anything like Spike in a previous life." She turned her attention to Mary just as Xander's cellphone began to ring and he excused himself to take the call in the hall. "Your files say anything else about the Carters?"

"I did a little research when I first found the file but before I contacted Alexander. Jacob and Marie had two children prior to young Alexander. Samantha, who was twelve when Marie died and Mark, who was fourteen. Jacob is currently listed as a retired Air Force General who is now an Ambassador to a foreign land. Samantha is an active Air Force Colonel currently assigned to NORAD. And Mark is a computer programmer for a small technology company." Mary told her.

"Sorry about that, one of my girls got into a fight." Xander said as he reentered the office. "We done here, Buff?"

"Ready when you are, Xand-man." Buffy said with a smile. "So, who got in a fight? Please tell me it wasn't Torrey again."

Mary looked from one to the other. "One of your girls?" She questioned, uncertain.

Xander shook his head. "It wasn't Torrey, at least not this time. This time it was Nikka." He looked at Mary. "It's not what your thinking. I'm not some pervert running a brothel out of my house. Tell her Buffy!" He demanded.

Buffy grinned. "Xander loves kids and not in the eww gross kinda way. Back in England we run a school for girls and it's a full time job, let me tell you. My sister and her boyfriend are filling in for us while we're here but they're young and our girls don't always listen. Sometimes calling us is the only option left besides homicide." She raised an eyebrow at Xander. "Do what did Dawn do?"

"Wasn't little sis dishing out the punishment. Andrew was the big bad and took away her city privileges for a month. He was calling to tell me that she broke into his room and hid his entire comic book collection." Xander told her with a smirk. "I give her points for originality. To bad I'm gonna havta call her grandparents when we get back."

"One last thing before you go." Mary jotted something down on a post-it and handed it to him. "I was able to track down Samantha's address for you. I know you said that you weren't looking for a new family but you never know."

Standing, Buffy read what she had written down. "Colorado Springs, Colorado? That's a long ways from here." She pointed out.

Xander nodded and tucked the address away. "Thank you, Mrs. Jentry. Was there anything else you needed to know to close the file?"

Mary gave him a smile, such a polite young man. She was certain that whatever he decided to do about his biological family would be the right thing for him to do. "No, it was nice meeting you both and I hope you get things worked out with your girls."

Buffy stood and followed Xander to the door. "Good day, Mrs. Jentry." With that said she disappeared out the door. "Wait up, Xand!" She called to his retreating form. "When we get back to the hotel I want you to pack while I call Willow and have her book us a flight out of JFK tonight."

Once they were both gone, Mary put the finishing touches on the file and placed it in the closed section. In the back of her mind she realized that she still didn't know why the case hadn't been closed earlier but something else needed her attention and she pushed Alexander Xander Harris out of her mind.

"We going somewhere?" Xander asked, amused. "We don't have to go back home just yet. Andrew is in no danger and I'm sure he'll find his comic books all intact."

"I hear Colorado is nice this time of year." Was all Buffy said as she lead him down the sidewalk and towards their hotel. Only nice thing about New York City was that everything was within walking distance.

Xander fell into step beside her. "I was serious when I told her that I already have a family, Buff."

Buffy shrugged. "I know. I just don't want you to have any regrets about this." She said then fell silent.

"Why would I have regrets about this?" Xander asked his, now, silent companion then added. "I have better things to have regrets about than meeting people that gave me up without a second thought twenty-seven years ago."

"Because." Buffy sighed and pulled him off to the side. "I have regrets about my father even though he isn't in my life." She paused then continued. "Dad remarried about four years ago. He called to invite Dawn and me to the wedding and we never called him back. Then he called a few months later to tell us that Shelia, his new wife, was pregnant. I didn't take the news very well and neither did Dawn. He sounded so bloody happy on the phone that I wanted to cause him as much pain as I could. I told him to take his new family and go to tell. Then I preceded to tell him that if he ever tried to contact me again I'd do everything in my power to make his new, perfect, life a living hell. Dawn said he called her a few days later and she told him that we were doing fine without him and had been for a while. Then she told him in no uncertain terms that we were through being a family. He never tried to contact us again. I, um, had Willow look him up a couple of months ago. He's still living in LA with Shelia, his four year old son, Carson, and two year old daughter, Mia. I regret shutting him out of my life even though it was the right thing to do." She looked down at her shoes. "I don't want you to feel the way I feel, nobody should feel like that. Ever."

Xander pulled her into a hug. "Does Dawn know?" He asked into her hair.

Buffy shook her head and stepped out of the hug. "She'll probably find out sooner or later but right now she doesn't need to know. Maybe once she finishes college and her and Andrew set a date, I'll tell her. By then she'll have a stable enough life to handle the news." She snorted. "I can't say I'm looking forward to telling her that her father is a son-of-a-bitch that cares for his new family more than the one he already had. I think I could have forgiven him for being absent if he'd been around when mom got sick Or even if he had showed up for the funeral but...what he did was unforgivable." She blinked her eyes to clear away the tears that had formed but hadn't fallen. "So we're going to Colorado and we're going to meet your sister." She left no room for argument.

"Ay, ay, ma'am!" Xander saluted her then draped one arm over her shoulders and started them walking again. "Isn't ironic that we literally run a school with branches scattered around the globe but we can't make simple travel arrangements?" He asked after they walked in silence for several minutes.

Tilting her head to the side, Buffy looked at him. "You want to make the arrangements when we get back to the hotel?" She asked, skeptically.

Xander shook his head. "No, not what I meant. I just wanted to point out that we can save the world many times over but neither of us know how to book a flight or even a hotel room for that matter. What would we do without Willow, huh?"

Buffy chuckled. "We'd we landlocked across the great pond, that's for sure." She snuggled into his side as they walked.

Neither of them knew what tomorrow would bring but they were both ready to face it.