TITLE: Buffy's Turn 2\?

AUTHOR: Rick

DISCLAIMER: All stuff Buffy belongs to Josh Whedon and others.

ROMANTIC PAIRINGS: Is there really any other. B\X in the end. Xander and various others before that. B\R ends in chapter 1, as does X\A

E-MAIL: amulet@my-dejanews.com

SUMMARY: Xander hits the streets of LA, hard. He meets Kate, has a reunion with an old flame and generally trashes Angel's domain

CHAPTER: 2- LA HURTS TOO.

Xander wanders from highway to highway, going in the general direction of LA. He has no idea or plan to his wandering but, strangely enough, feels something is guiding him. Nothing strong or defined. Just a subtle undercurrent of purpose.

Once he gets within the city limits the undercurrent gets stronger. After making a right hand turn down one mostly deserted street he has to stop short as a woman is running toward him at a frantic pace. He pulls to the side and catches up to her.

"Miss, do you need help?"

"You can't help. Just get the hell out of here before they get you too!"

No sooner are the words out of her mouth when they are accosted by three evil looking thugs. They have the stench of the night on them. The woman makes one last plea in Xander's direction.

"I told you to get the hell out of here. Now go!"

Xander completely ignores her, flying into one of them, staking it before it has a chance to react to his presence. The woman punches one of them as Xander stakes the second. Before the last one can pounce back on his prey Xander has him in dust also. When they are all disposed of Xander pulls out a second stake from his jacket pocket. He throws it to the woman.

"Here, aim for the chest or back, heart high."

"Who the hell are you?"

Before he can answer three more of the monsters are on them. Daemons are Daemons. The Los Angeles variety don't seem to be any tougher than their Sunnydale counterparts. The leftover dust residue does seem a bit smoggier if that is possible.

Xander again nails two out of three, leaving the other one for his partner to kill. After the dust clears the woman again addresses our hero.

"Now will you tell me who you are?"

"Well, I'm nobody special but somehow I think I was sent here tonight."

"You're special enough for me. But I can't talk about it now. I have to try to rescue my partner. They took us both. I escaped but she wasn't so lucky."

"All right...I'll help."

"Thanks, you seem to know what to do with this variety of bad guys."

"Where I come from these guys grow on trees...or at least they seem to at times."

The woman holds out her hand. "Kate...my name is Kate. What's yours?"

"Xander...glad to meet you, Kate."

"Not half as glad as I am to meet you."

"Where do they have your friend?"

"In a building around the corner from here."

Xander grabs her hand. "Lets go, they aren't holding her for ransom. Vamps only capture people for two reasons. Either they need her blood for something or her body."

"I should call back up Xander."

"Are you a cop?"

"Yea, are you?"

"Nope, just a civilian."

"Yea, and I'm the queen of Sheeba."

"What?"

"You may not be a cop but you're sure as hell not just a regular Joe."

"Well, it's a very long story."

Kate is taken in by Xander for the moment. Something about him really attracts her. She stares at him as they reach the building.

"Where is she Kate?"

"Who?"

"Earth to Kate....honey, where is your partner?"

"Oh...she's on the third floor of that high rise over there."

"Well, lets go up there then."

"We're just going to bust into the place?"

"Isn't that the way the cops do it?"

"You watch too many TV shows, Xander."

"Well, in the daemon hunting thing we just go right after them."

"If this were normal police business I would insist you stay here but since this seems to be your area of expertise...lead the way oh daemon hunter."

As Xander is about to move Kate grabs his arm.

"What, Kate?"

"Are you attracted to me, Xander?"

"What?"

"It's a simple question, Xander. Come on, are you?"

Xander takes a quick look at his partner. It's not a hard question to answer.

"Yea, I am."

Kate pulls the boy's head close to her for a kiss. It is nice.

"You move fast, don't you?"

"Well I'm use to living on the edge. Just in case we end up dead I just wanted to see what it would feel like."

Kate begins to walk toward the building.

"And...?"

"I'll tell you later."

Xander shrugs his shoulders and follows her. They sneak up the fire escape. They peer into the room. The woman appears to be still alive. Xander looks at Kate.

"When I count to three. Just stake everything in sight."

They bust in. The vamps are startled. There are only five of them. Xander and Kate make short work of them. Xander unties the woman. She collapses into his arms. They get her to Xander's car, rushing her to the hospital. Xander and Kate sit in the waiting room. She had her blonde hair back in a pony tail. She shakes it free. Xander notices. He can't help but to look at her. She notices.

"It was very nice, Xander."

Xander looks at her with a puzzling glance.

"The kiss, it was very nice."

"I thought so too." Xander reaches his hand to Kate's face. She leans into his touch. The tender moment is interrupted by a nurse coming into the room .

"You are the friends of Miss Diamond?" Kate nods.

"She only has minor cuts and bruises but she lost an inordinate amount of blood somehow. We are giving her a transfusion. She should be fine in a few hours."

After a few hours Julie is released. They go back to Kate's house. After a few tearful thanks they put her to bed in Kate's spare room. Then Xander and Kate plop down on Kate's couch exhausted. Xander comments.

"Nice way to spend a Friday night, huh?"

Kate looks at Xander lovingly. "Well, if I put it all into perspective, at least I met you."

Kate is a very direct, straight forward woman. They have both acknowledged an attraction for each other. They have become close in a very short time. Live threatening situations will do that to you.

Xander outlines Kate's facial features with his hand. Very shortly they become lip locked. Kate barely has the energy to drag Xander into her bedroom. They manage to express their mutual infatuation with one another quite well despite their weariness. Afterwards they fall soundly asleep in each other's arms.

The next morning Xander groans as the stream of sunshine invades the bedroom. For a moment he forgets where he is. Then he gets a quick look at the beautiful blonde haired woman lying beside him with her back to him. For a split second his heart races like it never has raced before.

"Buffy?"

Kate responds to his voice turning in his direction.

"Buffy, who's Buffy?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Kate. For a minute I had no idea where I was."

"Well now that you've figured it out what do you think?"

Xander replies with a smile. "Either I've died and this is all part of the paradise thing or else you and I...you know..."

"Yep, I do know and I'm really glad I know you."

"The feeling is mutual Kate."

They enjoy a sweet good morning kiss. There is room in both their lives right now to just lose themselves in this moment. They enjoy each other in a very sweet way. Then they fall asleep again still not completely recovered from the festivities of the evening before.

They are awoken by Julie walking into the room. She had no idea Xander spent the night. She is clearly embarrassed.

"Oh, Kate, I had no idea...I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, Julie, you had a bad time last night. Come on in."

Xander adds. "Yea, Julie, and if you need to talk to Kate alone I'll..."

Xander begins to get up but Kate stops him.

"Ah, Xander...you have a little problem, remember?"

Xander looks at himself then gets it. He's buck naked.

"Oh, yea. I guess I have to stay."

After a good laugh Julie assures the boy.

"Xander, after what you did for us last night I think you are entitled to stay."

"Oh, okay."

After a leisurely breakfast Julie returns to her home. Xander and Kate have a discussion.

"Xander, with all the excitement we never really talked about your plans."

"Kate, at this point I don't really have any long range plans. But, while I'm here I think I'll visit a friend of mine."

"Xander, I'm not going to beat around the bush with you. I'm very attracted to you. If you decide you've found whatever it is you're searching for and it doesn't involve another woman, look me up."

"Thank you, Kate, I sure will."

They exchange a very warm kiss. Then Xander leaves. He has an ex girlfriend to look up. He has no idea why, but something keeps telling him to visit her. He pulls out a card from his wallet. "Angel Investigations"

Twenty minutes later he finds himself outside the address. As he is going up the elevator all his memories of Cordelia Chase fill his mind, especially his betrayal of her with Willow. Cordelia did not dump him. She had changed an awful lot just to be with him. What he did to her was inexcusable. They never really talked about it either.

When Cordelia first sees Xander she can't help herself. She gets him in a very tender hug. When they break they stare at each other for a few seconds. They share a very nice kiss. Then Cordelia calmly steps back and floors Xander with a punch to his jaw. Xander wasn't expecting it. He hits the ground like a ton of bricks. Wesley saw the last few seconds of the kiss and all of the knockout. He bends down to see if he can help Xander. He looks back at Cordelia.

"Ah, can you say...mixed signals?"

"Xander will understand it perfectly."

"If you say so."

Together they get Xander to the couch. He opens his eyes but must close them again to get the room to stop spinning. Once he recovers he looks at his former closet hero. She points her finger at him.

"Now we're even Xander. I've been saving that up for the next time I saw you."

"Which one...the punch or the kiss?"

"Well...maybe both. Are you all right?"

"I guess I'll live but I never want to get on your wrong side again."

Xander joins Wesley and Cordelia for lunch. Cordelia is very curious.

"Xander, why are you here?"

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