Part XXV

The first time Kevin woke up and really took in his surroundings he was… confused. He remembered snatches of Javi's voice, Beckett's hand, Castle's unending rambling, and…

Big green eyes – the same ones that were looking back at him now.

"Buffy?"

His throat was itchy and his voice didn't sound like his own but the blinding smile she gave him was all that mattered. He found himself answering with one of his own even though he had no idea what was going on.

"Hey, bro, there's other people here besides your girlfriend, you know," Javi said, his teasing grin appearing over him on the opposite side of Buffy's. "People that haven't slept in forty-eight hours or eaten- oof!"

Beckett's face bearing a small, genuine smile took up the space Javi's had been in a second before.

"Good to see you awake. We were worried."

"Worried?" Castle said, popping up next to her. "I think that's an understatement. You scared the crap out of me, man."

Seeing Castle made his hazy memory itch. His eyes went back to Buffy. Hadn't she…

"I had the weirdest dream," he mumbled, pictures that didn't make sense piling up in his head. "Or more of a nightmare, I guess. You were there," he said, looking at Buffy and seeing a broken body in an alley. "And you were there," he said, seeking out Javi and Becket, remembering the hurt of their skepticism. "And you were there," he said, seeing Castle too close with a terrifying expression then the explosion of pain in his stomach.

"Uhhh," the others all looked at each other but he waved them off with an uncoordinated, tube-laden hand.

"Never mind. Just nightmares from whatever drugs they have me on. Tell me what happ-"

Then a vaguely familiar redhead appeared from thin air in the middle of the room.

He could see Buffy rubbing her forehead from the corner of his eye, but couldn't stop staring at…

"Willow," Buffy said, filing in the name Kevin was reaching for. "I think we need to talk about this thing you do where you have really bad magical timing. You need a spell for reading the room before you appear or something."

"Spell… It-It wasn't a dream! All that-"

He lurched upright, grabbing Buffy by the shoulders. His mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to find the words while she fussed about how he shouldn't be moving around like that yet. Ignoring the pain in his stomach and her concern, he yanked her into a tight hug – the relief that she was there, that she was alive, was so overwhelming it left him lightheaded. Well, that and the newly remembered stab wound and whatever meds they had him on.

Buffy was tense against him for a second before she gripped him back fiercely, hands tangling in the back of his hospital gown.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered against his neck, pulling back to look at him in confusion when he laughed.

He tried to put into words the elation he felt at having thought he lost her, having almost died himself, only to find themselves whole and together again. How many people got that? How many devastated people had he seen in his career that begged and prayed for a second chance that never came?

Her eyes were suddenly threatening to overflow and he realized that in his drugged-up state he'd said all that out loud. His eyes darted around the room to see most of them looking touched, even Javi (though he knew he'd just given his partner a fresh supply of teasing material). All except Castle… who was scribbling in his notebook.

"So," he coughed uncomfortably. "What did I miss while I was out?"

Castle stopped writing and flipped back a few pages in his little notebook.

"The daring detective, going against the face of logic to pursue the case of his missing lover, was betrayed by his best friend, partner and writing sensation. But wait! It wasn't him! It was an evil twin! Pretending to be the handsome writer, the deranged evil priest stabbed the detective and left him bleeding while he took his lookalike's place, unbeknownst to the new allies they'd acquired-"

"Unbeknownst?" Kate muttered.

"Best friend and partner?" Javi looked truly offended. "You know that's me, right?"

"It sounds like a bad soap opera," Willow said thoughtfully.

"It's just an overview!" He defended. "It'll be gold when I finish."

"Long story short, Caleb planned an ambush after taking Castle's place, but I guess his control over the Ubervamp wasn't as control-y as he'd hoped. Then Slaughter showed up and magicked the vamp in a box while I cut off Caleb's head and set him on fire."

She was so blasé when she said that it left him reeling for a second. Her eyes widened and she paled.

"Ummm, sorry, that's probably not something that you want to hear from a girl after a first date."

He laid his hand over hers on the bed and shook his head. "Definitely a first. But seeing as it was an evil undead priest, I'm glad you were there. Well, not glad, but…"

"They're so cute it's almost sickening," Javi said in wonderment.

Kevin felt himself turning red under the scrutiny. "So, what happened to the 'vamp in a box'?"

"Oh, that's me! I mean, that's why I'm here," Willow said, putting her hand up a little.

"We sent it with Willow to see if they could find out A) how it was done and B) how to destroy it. Both to get rid of this guy and for when we find Wolfram and Hart's secret stash of nasties," Buffy supplied.

"Secret stash?" Kevin asked, feeling more lost now than he did before he asked what had happened.

"I guess they're keeping a cellar full of old big bads, like that could never go wrong."

"We've worked out the how, which is a little useless since we don't have any reason to just lock up bad guys," Willow said. "But we're still working on how to destroy it. The good news is the box's magical signature is really unique, so we might be able to trace it."

"They'll be expecting that. We need to think about their next step - they'll either try to move them, shield them, or set a trap," Kate said, surprising them all. She gave a shrug. "I don't like any of this but I can't ignore it either. If there's anything you need to stop them that I can do, let me know."

"Yeah, me too," Javi said

"Oh, oh, me too! Please! Me too," Castle added, waving his notebook in the air.

Buffy was shaking her head though. "This is dangerous, guys. Dangerous on a good day. And going after Wolfram and Hart? Not going to be any good days there."

"We already signed up for this," Kevin said. "Maybe not the things you deal with, but protecting people in the ways we could. Just because there's a layer we didn't know about doesn't mean we feel any differently about that."

"I definitely feel differently," Javi said, giving Kevin a look like he was crazy. "But yeah, same sentiment."

"Okay, but information only." Buffy gave a stern look to everyone but Willow. "No confronting the nasties that go bump in the night without supernatural backup, got it?"

They all nodded – Javi and Kate with somber silence and Castle with barely contained glee.

"Okay then. Let's get to work," Kevin said. "What's been-"

"Not you," Javi interrupted, giving him the look like he was crazy again. He was really sick of that look. "You need to take your ass back to sleep."

"You are kind of full of healing holes," Buffy said with a grimace. "Maybe sleep-"

Suddenly Willow was beside him and a tingly/itchy feeling rolled over him. Within seconds the pain, the haze from the meds, his headache and the distant nausea had all disappeared.

"So… maybe we can forget about that time I made you and your friends think you were crazy now?"

He couldn't help but laugh at her hopeful and embarrassed smile while Buffy palmed her forehead again.

"Why didn't you do that before?" She asked.

"I wanted to make sure his brain was okay first," she defended.

Even though Kevin still felt like he only had the barest of understandings of what had happened, he felt satisfied and… excited? Like a new chapter of his life was just beginning.

Six Months Later

Kevin trudged down the hall, the sound of construction making him want to cry. He let his jacket drop on the floor by the front door, shed his shoes in the kitchen where he downed a glass of water, lost his tie in the hall and got his shirt half unbuttoned before he collapsed on the bed, face mashed in the comforter.

The hammering and sawing seemed to be centered right behind his eyeballs and his teeth ground together in irritation. The empty apartment, the empty bed, was bad enough, but they had to go and add insult to injury. Deciding he'd had enough and was going to pull a page from Javi's book and go have a talk with the construction crew, he dragged himself upright again. He detoured through the kitchen and slipped his shoes back on and had just shut the door behind him when silence descended on the hall. Hand on doorknob, he stood there for a minute, waiting to see if it would resume. A quick glance at his watch told him it was too late for lunch but too early for them to be done for the day, so why-

The elevator dinged, drawing his attention and a sight for literally sore eyes stepped out. Grumbling to herself with a scowl on her face, Buffy made her way down the hall, flipping through her keyring.

A melting kind of feeling went through him, all the tension from the last few days just oozing away and leaving him feeling like a gooey puddle. A feeling that intensified tenfold when she looked up at him and her own expression cleared, replaced by a sheepish smile.

"Dawn can bitch all she wants about the new apartment being delayed. I was not dealing with that noise when I haven't slept in three days," she said with a shrug. "Did you just get home too? Have I mentioned lately I love your weird hours?"

"I think I was the one saying it last time, so it was your turn," he said as she stopped in front of him." You read my mind with the construction guys. We were going to have a talk."

"Ooh manly," she grinned. "Sorry I stole your thunder."

"Thunder freely given," he said, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close. "Does she mean to buy up the whole building? Are we going to live in a perpetual state of construction purgatory?"

"It's either that or she and every slayer that passes through stays with us."

"…I wonder if they need any help?"

She laughed and reached up to his shoulder, revealing a ramen noodle that had been hitchhiking on his shoulder. "Dumpster diving?"

"Glamorous life of a detective." He plucked at some orangish viscous fluid gluing her blond strands together on one side. "You look a little sticky yourself. Gooey demons?"

"A whole nest," she groaned, head falling forward onto his chest.

A wave of something that smelled like cat litter and broccoli were sauteed in garlic wafted up to him. She pulled her head back from him, wrinkling her nose at the same time as him.

"Is that you or me?"

"I honestly don't know."

He was going to have to burn that comforter he defiled...

He scooped her up over his shoulder and pushed back into the apartment, their laughter echoing down the hallway.

"Case solved?" She asked as he kicked his shoes off in the entry and went to work on hers one handed, the other secured behind her knees as she dangled off of him like the noodle.

"Yes," he breathed with a quick thanks to God. "And Kate and Castle are going through the Wolfram and Hart info they dug up with Xander."

"They are? I should-" He stilled her wiggling by dropping her back to her feet and pressing her to the front door with an intense kiss.

"We've both been gone for days," he said against her lips, pulling back just enough to pull her shirt over her head. "We need to shower and eat and sleep and.."

"And?" Blinking linking innocently, she grabbed his shirt and yanked it open so that the buttons were sent skittering all over the apartment, one pinging off the replica statue of David that was now wearing a "Kiss the Cook" apron.

"Definitely 'and'."

Lifting her so her legs were wrapped around his waist he made his way to the bathroom. Cases and construction, nosey sisters and crazy hours, demons and evil law firms - his life had never been better.