Part 9

Alex sat on one of the many weight-benches in the gym. He had been there for an hour, an hour when he thought his life had gone to hell.

He had found his dad. Or rather, his dad had found him.

And daddy dearest was a killer. Worse than a killer - a serial killer.

Soon, the room began to fill with people. Watchers in training working weights and running, while Slayers were fighting and weapons training. With Alex watching them all, while not really seeing them.

Across the room, Sherry was watching Alex.

He had not moved for at a while, just staring around at the room. At first she thought he was watching Misty as she bounced around the room. And with Misty - she really bounced. The girl bounced sitting still. Misty made all the other girls feel self-conscious in the showers. Sherry looked down at her own chest and wished once again that she had a little more there than what she had. And she ran to pick up a fallen sword, and saw Misty bend to pick her own up, Sherry wished she could fill out her shorts as well as Misty did that, too.

Looking back at Alex, he was still sitting there and hadn't even noticed Misty bend, not like most of the male WITs had. Looking over at the coach who was leading the training, she nodded toward Alex, and after receiving an ok nod, she moved toward Alex. He didn't even look up at she moved up beside him.

"Why the long face, Loser?" Sherry asked in the slight accented voice of hers causing Alex jump and almost fall over.

"Its nothing, carrot top." Alex said with a small smile.

"Sure," Sherry said with a raised eyebrow. "You didn't even blink when old Misty mountains over then nearly fell out of her top doing hand stands."

"Ohh, she did?" Alex looking around to check the other girl out.

"You freak!" Sherry said with a laughing tone as she slapped his shoulder.

"Me, a freak?" Alex said smiling. "I'll have you know I have worked long and hard on being a perv."

"That's what I always liked about you," Sherry said, her smile turning into something that made Alex's stomach jump.

"What?" Alex wasn't quite sure why he felt like he was walking a tight rope.

"That you get long and hard, being a perv."

"Gahhh!" was all that came out of Alex's mouth while he was imitating a fish.

"Score one for the redhead," Sherry laughed.

"You –"Alex said, smiling once again.

"There, there's the famous Alex smile," Sherry said smugly. "So what's up? You looked like you have cancer of the puppy."

"I found my dad," Alex in a small voice.

"That's great!" Sherry said, but when Alex didn't say anything or even look at her, she asked, "Isn't it?"

"Yeah, right." Alex said with a snort. "I find my dad and he turns out to be a black hat."

"What?"

"My dad's name is Jason Bourn, the assassin. The one that beat my mom up, that the Council has been looking for. A bad guy!"

"How..." This was a shock, and the young Slayer really didn't know what to say about this. She'd had so many 'Your mom's not a slut talks' she couldn't count, but 'Your dad's not an assassin' – well, that was a new one.

"Aunt Willow, she got into Bourns brain and found out who he is, then She LET him get away to go kill some one." The rage in his voice clear for her to hear.

"I am sure she had her reasons," Sherry said, trying to calm her friend down. "She never would let anyone get hurt if she could stop it."

"She already has. He's gone. Or didn't you hear that part?" Alex all but snarled at his friend.

"Calm down, tiger. Friend here, remember?" Sherry said, drawing back from Alex.

"Sorry," Alex said, looking down at his feet. This was his friend; one of his true friends - someone he could turn to no matter what and would always be there for him.

"That's ok. Just remember that I'm your friend, not a punching bag. Unless you want to take it out on the floor," she told him, nodding out on the mats, where Misty was slamming another Watcher in training to the ground, then falling on him to pin him to the mat. Not that the guy in question looked like he was too mad about the girl laying on him.

"Uh...Not right now," he said, a blush moving up on his face. There was no way he would tell his friend about the dreams he had been having with her, that had them in the same places but with a whole lot less clothing.

"So, where is your mom and Willow?" Sherry asked, biting her lips. She had not seen either one of them, and with Alex acting this way, she needed help and the only ones she could think of were his family.

"They're gone," Alex replied. "Both packed up and gone this morning. I suppose that they couldn't deal with the ideal of their Xan as a murderer."

It took all her courage to walk up to the door, much less knock on the door. She knew Giles had an open door policy that anyone could come to him at any time, and no one would question it.

But this? She felt like she was ratting out a friend.

But as Sherry moved toward the door, she noticed it was open and she could hear Giles talking to someone on the phone.

"Yes, he's on the move. Willow was able to determine the target."

"–"

"Jack Ryan." Giles paused. "Yes, that one."

" I am sure you can do something, Riley. But don't hurt him if you can."

"–"

"From what we can work out, part of his conditioning will not let him stop once he is targeted on someone. The last time cause a psychotic break that he still hasn't recovered from."

"–"

"Yes, if you have to, kill him. But please don't, if you can take him down any other way."

Sherry slowly dropped her arm and moved away from the door. This couldn't end any way but bad. If they killed Alex's dad, he would never forgive them. No matter what his dad had done, he still was his dad.

Shaking her head, she turned and walked back to the showers. She'd get a long hot shower, then she would hunt up her friend and take him out somewhere and have a good time. She didn't think he would have many good times any time soon. So she was going make sure at least today was a good one.

Bourne stood in the park. Across the small pond, Jack Ryan was walking along the promenade. His security team doing what they did best - blend in. Most people wouldn't have even noticed them. The guy over there was jogging, but he never was out of sight of Ryan, and the bulge on his lower back was just the outline of a service weapon. Most likely a nine millimeter, but it could be a forty five.

Then there was the woman with the baby stroller following Ryan. not once had she checked on her baby, but she had watched everyone that had gotten within 10 feet of Ryan.

And don't forget the maintenance crew on the lawn mowers that never finished their area before moving to the next one to stay close to Ryan. The crew was good, Bourne would give them that, but they still hadn't noticed him.

As he watched Ryan walk, the CIA head was talking to a small boy - his son, Jack Jr., if the records were correct. The more the man talked to the boy, the more the pistol in his pocket got heavier and heavier.

But he had his mission, he had to set things right.

Willow looked over at Faith. The dark-haired woman was sitting across from her eating breakfast.

"How far behind him are we?" Faith asked, when she noticed the redhead looking at her.

"Not far. He's in the city," the Red Witch said with a shrug. "That's the best I can do, and if I was any farther away, I wouldn't even have that."

"Then it looks like we patrol," Faith said looking at her friend. "We know who he's after so we know where he's going to show."

Next day

Jack walked the park. He needed to get out of the office, burn off the feelings that built up in him after a day in the office. He would walk the park to purge his mind of those dark feeling and urges, the ideal that he had sent someone to their death or ordered someone killed. He never wanted to bring the office home.

But the last three days he couldn't. Not after he'd been contacted by a Riley Finn, a top agent in a war that was darker than even his war, with a warning that an assassin was after him.

Jason Bourne. That name had sent his security detail into overdrive, moving his wife and kids into a controlled townhouse, having teachers brought in for the kids, even having their friends driven over to play, but never letting them out.

It was difficult for them, but it was better than a madman taking them or hurting them, just to get to him.

His wife would still go to the hospital to work, even see some of her patients, but only under controlled conditions. She was not pleased, and she let him know it, repeatedly. So these little walks were needed. If not for him, for his marriage.

George Markus walked beside his boss. He had been part of the detail for five years and he was damned if something would happen to the Boss on his watch. Even if he was being stupid. As these walks were.

Just as they reached the half way mark, a gun shot rang out, and at the same time his ear piece filled with static as his radio when out. George pulled Jack to the ground and pulled his service weapon, trying to aim in all directions at once, while hoping the pick-up vehicle would get there fast.

Just then a dark van pulled up and the side door opened, a dark haired man at the wheel and a black man holding the door open. George got to his feet pulling Jack up as he went, then pushing him into the van. Only ,as he got moved to follow, the van sped away. As the van cleared out of sight, the jamming that had blocked out the radios cleared.

"Pick up is down!" the driver called out as he tried again to get the van to move.

George once again looked the way his boss had been taken. "I am so dead."

Jack felt himself pulled into the van and the black agent slam the door behind him, in the face of George. Jack tried to pull himself up only to have the black man push him back down, then he felt a pin prick on his arm, and his ears seemed to be stuffed with cotton and he was sliding down a dark hallway.

"Sorry, man," a voice called as he slid into the darkness. "It's just business."

The hour following the kidnapping of Jack Ryan, Washington was in arms. Within two hours, the whole of the USA was on a manhunt. Within three hours, it had gone international.

Every agency knew who had taken him, but not why.

Bourne killed. Period.

But this was surprisingly bloodless.

To say that the American government was having a bad day was an understatement.

Between the CIA and the FBI, they had kept the kidnapping from making it to the press, but everyone knew it would come out, sooner or later. Either by a leak or when Jack's body turned up.

The only one that was smiling about it was one Pamela Landry. From her time tracking Bourne, she knew that he was slipperier than an eel and would only be found when he wanted to be found. Even though he had taken her boss hostage, she knew he wasn't a killer and if he had taken someone, it was either to help them or help someone else. If he came after you, you were dead; so if her boss wasn't dead in the park, Bourne hadn't killed him.

All she could do was file her reports on Bourne and what he would most likely do, then sit back to watch as the brightest agents on the FBI and CIA matched wits with the best field assassin that she had EVER seen.

Just as she sat back, her phone ran.

Faith stood in the command center, surrounded by agents, all of them with one thing on their mind: Capture or kill Xander.

Her Xander. She had built this wonder world around a man she didn't know any more. The Xander she knew wouldn't hurt a human. A Demon he would, in a heart beat. But a human? No way.

But he had. Lots of them, if the records were to be believed.

And the kicker was, she did. Riley stood across the room from her, going over records.

It had been a slow build to get at least a working relationship with the man,

after what she had done to him. She was glad he would even be in the same room with her.

But they had gotten over their problems for the greater good. What had happed would never be forgotten, but they could work together.

Riley had been talking to the blonde bitch for a while now. The Bitch had shown up a few hours ago and almost smiled with every report that came in. It was like she was rooting for her boss to be dead.

Then Faith had overheard an agent talking about her. Pamela Landry had almost caught Bourne in Germany, then let him go, filing her reports saying that Bourne wasn't a threat if he was left alone.

And now he had her boss. Riley had talked to her for an hour before walking away, shaking his head.

"What's up?" Faith asked when he was close to her.

"Nothing," Riley said, looking at the dark Slayer. "That's the problem. He just grabbed one of the most powerful and well-liked men in the US and, then just faded from sight. Like he was a ghost."

"Nope," Faith told the agent. "Just well trained."

"Not that it matters," Riley said looking down at picture of the Ryan Family. "He's dead. Or as good as."

"I don't think so," Faith said looking at the picture as well. "If my boy wanted him dead, he would be dead right there. He took him. So he needs the King Spook for something. What it is, I couldn't tell ya."

"You and Willow said he was coming to kill Jack," Riley said looking sharply at Faith.

"I told you what Red said," Faith said with a shake of her head, causing her dark hair to flip across her shoulders. "He didn't tell me anything."

Just then Landry's cell phone rang. She glanced out the windows of the office, familiar feelings coming over her.

"Hiya, Pam." Bourne's voice came to her over the phone.

"Hello, Jason."

As she said that name, all work in the room came a stop. Riley looked at Landry, who nodded her head. With that nod, Riley snapped out orders, and agents jumped into action.

Faith moved to stand near the woman agent and watched her. With her Slayer hearing, she could just make out the voice on the phone line.

"How's it going?" Bourne asked. He was watching Pam as he talked to her on the phone. He could make out Pam's eyes as she searched the building across from her. He knew she was looking for him. He had used this tactic a little to much. But it was fun. He noticed movement at her side as Faith moved next to Pam, and then Riley moved to her other side.

"Just fine," Pam replied her eyes, scanning the buildings across the street from her. She knew it was pointless, there was just too many windows and roof tops for him to hide behind. "Where's my Boss?"

"He's fine," Bourne said, "I will let him go in a few days. I just need to talk to him."

"Yeah," Pam said. "You know, you could have just gotten an appointment with him."

"Yes, I can see that happening. I have not harmed him or am going to harm him. Could you put Faith on?"

"Faith?" Pam asked as the woman next to her stiffened. Riley was shaking his head 'no' as he watched.

"Yes," Bourne said with a smile.

"Phone for you," Pam said as she handed the phone to the dark-haired woman standing next to her.

"Why did you do that?" Riley asked, watching Faith talking on the phone. "You could have kept him on the line longer for the trace to run on him."

"He's watching us," Pam said looking at the blond agent. "Don't you read your reports?"

"You don't know that."

"Faith?" Pam asked the Slayer. "Could you ask Bourne to tell me what color shirt Riley is wearing?"

"Sure," the Slayer said uncertainly. After she asked, she could almost hear a smile in her Xan's voice as he told her. As she told the room, all eyes snapped toward the windows.

"I had suggested that we at least put curtains up in these rooms," Pam reminded Riley with a smile.

Faith just shook her head and went back to the phone.

"So you can see me?" she asked.

"Yes. You look beautiful, but tired," Bourne told her, then asked, "Why did you come?"

"Don't want you to do anything stupid. It's a woman's duty to make sure her man doesn't do anything stupid."

"Your man?" Bourne was caught almost flat footed by that. He expected at least she wouldn't want to see him again. That she would keep his son from him.

"Yeah," Faith almost whispered. She looked around the room, almost ducking her head as the room was watching her. This was a turn that no one in the room thought would happen.

"I told you and Willow that I would be back and I meant it. I need to fix something that I did."

"What?" Faith asked. She knew from the reports that Riley had let her read Bourne had done a lot of badness.

"I have a lot to make up for but this is a first step." With that, he hung up his phone.

Taking one more look at woman in the widow, he recalled the train ride. She could make him happy if he let her, but did he deserve it?

Three days later.

Willow was desolate.

Xan had done it. He had killed a good man and she didn't know how to take it.

Xan was not a killer but he really was. If he had killed in self defense, she could take that, but he had hunted down someone that had noting to do with what had happened in his life.

She sat in the dark of her room. While Faith had run with the FBI and Riley's group looking for Xander, she had hunted him with magic. She never got a lock on him, he was always moving. They did pick up the guy that helped him, an agent that had been let go from the CID and had started work as a mercenary, but then, nothing. Both Xander and Jack Ryan had disappeared off the face of the earth.

The only thing was that Jack's wife had found a letter in her bedroom from Jack saying he was ok and would be back.

Everyone though that Jack was dead, and that the letter was a delaying tactic, but Willow knew better. She knew Xander and, deep down, she knew that he would not do something that mean, that cruel to the Ryan's family.

She looked out the window of her apartment; she had taken one off the Council grounds so she could have peace and quiet away from the kids. Most of the Slayers in training didn't really think she was that special, and most thought of her only as Kennedy's girl friend. But a lot of the Witches and Mage's in training looked at her with something akin to hero worship, and Willow was still enough of the shy girl to be freaked out about it.

Just then, there was a knock at her door. She opened the door and there he stood: her Xander.

"Did... did you kill him?" Willow asked her voice almost breaking.

"No," Bourne replied, looking at the redhead, "He's very much alive. Right now, he should be talking to Giles."

"About what?"

"A lost Slayer," Bourne drew himself up. "Dana. I was the one to turn her over to Treadstone."

"I know," Willow said, moving back into her apartment.

Bourne stepped into the room and looked around. It was neat and well ordered; books lined the walls and plants hung from hooks all around the room. Here and there, he could almost feel weapons, a slight bulge in the a wall hanging where a sword was, an piece of modern art work and hidden in it was a sliver trench knife, the knuckles covered in holy symbols. There were a few others spread out throughout the room, as well.

"I brought her back. Jack's making arraignments for her to meet with the Council." Bourne looked at his could-be-again sister. "If she chooses to come in, then she will be allowed, but if not, Jack will be taking care of her."

"But she's a Slayer." Willow said in a confused voice.

"Yes, she is, and more than likely, she will come back. But I will not take a slave and free it, only to turn it over to another master. She didn't have it as hard as I did; they gave her a family and memories. A place where she belonged. I was just a weapon. She was a spy."

Willow sat back from the hard edge in his voice.

"Why did you come here?" Willow asked as she looked at the man before her. She still could see the Assassin, but at the same time, a little of her Xan was standing there as well.

"You used to be my friend. At least, to who I used to be. I would like to try and be that again. But I am not who I used to be. I might become him again, but then again, I might not. If you don't want that or me around, you will never see me. I just want all the cards on the table between us.

"I feel... I feel like I owe you that."

"Xan.."

"That's not my name. I'm Bourne. Jason Bourne. It's all I have in the world that I know is mine, 100. Like I said, I am not Xander."

"Jason," Willow said a pleading look in her green eyes. "I want to get to know you again. I want to tell you who were, and be here for who you'll be come."

"Ok," Jason said. "A new start?"

"A new start," Willow said, smiling at Jason.

"Let's go to the Council, so you can met your family?"

"Sure."