Chapter 3: Introductions
Summary: Xander finishes explaining some things, and
then introduces some of his friends to the Scooby gang.
"So,
as I was-"
"But
Xander-"
"WHAT?"
I shouted, until I realized who'd said it.
Willow. Then I repeated the
question more calmly, but still with an edge.
'Power envy' my foot…"What, Wil?"
"It's
just that nothing you've said really explains the whole 'caught Buffy' thing…"
she commented in a quiet, remorseful tone.
"Well,
I'm getting to that…" I explained, "I figured if I was going to tell this to
you all, I'd tell you the whole thing.
That's coming up."
"Oh…"
Willow replied, still sounding sorry. I
think that she, of everyone, realized how badly they had hurt my feelings with
that 'you're imagining' crap. Then
again, she's Willow.
"So,
anyway," I started again, "I found Jesse. He was-"
"Now,
I am just wondering, but how exactly did you find him?" Giles asked with
interest. That perked me up. If Giles believed me enough to ask things,
the gang would do so soon enough.
"Jes? Oh, he'd heard of my reputation, and since
the one thing he'd stuck around to do had been done by someone already-"
"And
what was that?" Anya asked, getting
into the story.
"Stake
Darla." I told them simply, "He had wanted revenge on her, and had planned to
kill her, but Deadboy got there first, as you all know…"
"And?"
Spike prodded impatiently. I think he
wanted to distance things as far away from his sire as possible.
"And
so, after he saw her explode into dust bunnies, he went to the Guide, which he
never knew was me, his best friend."
"That
was one hell of a surprise…" Jesse commented from the counter where he'd picked
up the book, "Who'da thought my idiot best bro was the 'great and benevolent
Guide'…"
"Thanks,
Jes…" I answered him, which got me a strange look from everyone. But I just moved on.
"So,
when we met, I told him everything about the Scoobies and everything, and he
decided that he wanted to stay and help me."
"You
see, Jesse, and Lily, who I'll introduce in a minute, can do a lot of helpful
things. They can walk through walls,
they can (though it takes concentration) move or hold objects, and other
things. So Jesse decided that he would
protect me and Willow during battles."
"You
mean-"
"Yes…"
I answered, "Every fight we've ever fought, Jesse and others have helped us
out. It's probably one of the reasons
I've lived this long."
Willow,
who had sat stone faced during the entire time, finally blinked.
"Jesse?"
she asked carefully.
A
second later, Jesse pulled out a pad and pen from behind the counter and began
to write, the pen scrambling along the surface of the paper. Written was the reply of 'Yes, Willow?'
Willow,
old hand of the Hellmouth, heavy duty Witch, backed up like a frightened rabbit
and gasped. Oh boy.
"Jes,
you're scaring her…" I told him.
"Well,
how else was I gonna answer her?" he asked irritably.
"I
don't know…"
"You
could've spoke through Xan." Lily put in.
"They
don't even totally believe him yet, Lil." Jesse replied crossly as he held up
the piece of paper to her, "I figure this would answer her AND give him more
proof."
"Can't
prove any-"
"YO!"
I interrupted my two friends to get peace.
They don't bicker often but when they do… "It's all right. Just warn me next time…"
"Okay,"
Jesse responded with a shrug; then he continued writing.
I
turned to all the people who still had bodies (when there's a vampire in the
bunch, you can't really say 'all the people still living'), and all of them
except Willow were looking back at me like I'd just pulled a rabbit out of my
ear.
"What?"
"You
just…treat this as if it's absolutely common, don't you?" Giles asked me with a
strange sense of wonder in his tone.
I
shrugged. "Been doing it since Freshmen
year. I'm kinda used to it."
"And
the out of body experiences?" Giles continued to question, obviously trying to
steer me towards explaining tonight's events.
But I had one more thing to cover.
"In
a minute, G-man…" I said, "Just let me introduce you to Lily…"
Immediately,
the dead dancer turned around to face us all the preened, though only I saw
it. It made me smile.
"Lily
has been dead for a little under a hundred years. She came out to California to work as a performer in a bar out
here for her sister, and she was only here a year or so before a vampire
attacked her on her way home from work.
"I
met her around three years ago, and she's helped me, and you guys, since."
There
was silence, and then Lily walked over to Jesse, grabbed the pen and a piece of
paper from the bottom of the pad, and wrote something. Then she held it up.
"Hi. Nice to meet you all." It read in Lily's
flowing script.
"And
nice to meet you too, luv." Spike said with an appreciative glance at where the
paper was, "It'd be even nicer if you continued the job you were doin' on my
back…"
I
looked to Lily, and she looked to me.
Then we both looked to Spike.
"Shut
up…" we chorused, though I was the only one heard.
"Can't
blame a bloke for tryin'…" the vampire answered shamelessly.
"We
can ALWAYS blame you, o' biteless wonder…always…"
Spike
looked like he was about to argue, but decided against it. Buffy, who'd been rather quiet, spoke before
he had a chance to change his mind.
"So?"
she asked, "About the tree?"
"Well,"
I started again, "That part of the deal I found out way back in Freshmen year
when I got possessed by the hyena."
"The
hyena?" Willow asked, looking up from whatever Jesse was writing her. I wasn't really interested in what he was
writing, since I knew that he was leaving out the most important thing he had
to say to her anyway….
Oh
boy, they're gonna be mad. "Um, I kinda
lied to you guys about that. I did
remember everything about that-"
"You-
"But
not like you think." I interrupted hastily, "You see, when the hyena possessed
me, it REALLY took over my body and pushed out my spirit. I wasn't in there at all. It just kicked me out, which was a bizarre
feeling if I may say so. And when the
hyena left, I jumped back into my body, which was a really strange experience
too. But after that, I did a little
research of my own and found out why.
"Remember
how I said that staking Jesse made me 'crack'?
Well, that's true. The pain sort
of tore a little gap in the link between my body and my soul. THAT's why I can see spirits, cause I'm
sorta a spirit that's just in a body.
And that's why, I found out, I could leave my body without dying, at
least for a little while.
"Pretty
much my limit is a half an hour, but I try not to stay out of my body at all."
"Why?"
Tara asked quietly. I'm pretty sure
that's how she does everything. "That
sounds like a wonderful thing to be able to do…"
"Yeah,"
I agreed, "It is interesting, but it's also dangerous. While I'm out of my body, it's even easier
to possess me than usual. I'm like an
empty glove waiting to be filled, and there are far too many hands in this
little town that would love to fill that glove and leave me a without a body."
"So
you're saying," Buffy asked, "That you jumped out of your body as a ghost, ran
behind me, and then caught me?"
"Pretty
much, Buffster…" I answered calmly, "Then I ran back to my body and hopped in
before anyone else got the idea…"
There
was a pause, and then Buffy ever so slowly walked over to me and gave me a big
hug. Then she pulled back, arms still
wonderfully around me, and looked up at me with those beautiful eyes so full
of…something I can't even describe.
"Thank
you, Xander…" she said softly, "But I've just got one question…"
"What?"
I replied, a bit giddy.
"WHY
THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL US THIS BEFORE!?"
