Finally, a TV cross, and one that's fairly mainstream at that! Sorry for not updating yesterday, but the Document Manager was FUBARed again.

Standard disclaimer, et cetera.

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An Immortal Dilemma

Xander sat up and took a deep breath, reflexively feeling for the sucking chest wound that had done him in this time before he remembered.

Not a vampire. Can't ever be a vampire.

And that alone was worth all the shit he'd taken since that Halloween and his Highlander costume.

"You okay?" the voice was almost a surprise. Even as used to hearing it as he was, first impressions counted, and Faith hadn't seemed like the emotional type.

"You know, that when I come back I heal damn near anything," he said, a faint smile taking any sting out of his words. "Besides, better me than you."

"I just . . ." she trailed off, her eyes falling.

"You feel guilty, because it still hurts me, even if you know I can stand right back up again," another small smile crossed his lips. "We've been through this before, Faith. You've just got the one life. As far as we can tell, I no longer have an expiration date."

An actual smile crossed the dark-haired Slayer's lips at the joke. "Still no reason to let B slice ya' up like that. I thought you had like, five centuries of experience using that sword?"

Xander accepted the teasing for what it was and responded in kind. "But if I let her cut me up, she gets to think she's winning." He grimaced a bit and his mood became more serious. "Besides, she really did catch me by surprise with that attack. It was such a stupid thing to do, I never anticipated it."

"Ah, yes, B's best friend. Dumb luck," Faith griped before shaking her head and switching topics. "By the way, G sent us the newest info on the whole mess with the Mayor, and since I recall you saying something about work before play yesterday . . ." Faith purposely allowed her voice to trail off.

Xander smirked at her. "Well now I do recall something like that being said. Lets get the work over quickly so we can move on to the important part."

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Faith stepped out of the bathroom, hair still damp from her shower and quickly peeked in at Xander's sleeping form. He'd been running all day yesterday chasing that idiot demon summoner, and less than half an hour after they'd managed to finally hit the bastard with something that'd kept him down they'd run headlong into B.

And, of course B decided to continue her running quarrel with X.

Faith understood the need to take revenge. After all, when she'd first showed up in good old Sunny-D she'd wanted nothing so much as a chance to kill the vampire that'd taken her Watcher-the first person to ever give a shit about her-away from her. She hadn't thought she'd get that chance, but she'd wanted it.

She'd occasionally devoted the off hour to wondering what would have happened to her if it'd been B she met in that graveyard instead of X. And how . . . not odd precisely, but something akin to it, that the loss of the first person to care for her had led to her finding the second.

Faith had never dared to hope, growing up, that she'd ever find someone she'd want to settle down with. Now, though.

A house, a dog, even some kids.

She'd even let him put in a nice white picket fence. If bad came to worse, there were plenty of uses for partially sharpened bits of wood.

First, though, they had to deal with the Mayor in a suitably permanent fashion. Still looking at the man who'd saved her life on several occasions and, quite possibly, her soul on others, she gave into temptation and dropped her towel.

Who knows, maybe not all of those rugrats'll be adopted. I know there's some scientific principle that tells ya' to experiment before jumping to conclusions. Faith smiled. This was education she could get behind.

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A short one today, but I'm so close to exhausted as makes no difference and I'd've had trouble maintaining coherency with anything longer. For those of you who don't recognize the cross, its with Highlander.

Once again, I have to do my Mike Rowe impression and ask for ideas. Y'know you've got some :)

And that's it. I'm gonna go crash.