Title: Loose Ends
Author: Jane McCartney
Disclaimer: All the characters you recognize belong to Joss & co. (all hail the crackhead). I'm just fooling around with his universe, with no intention of making money or anything.
Classification: Buffy-Angel crossover
Rating: PG13
Feedback: Yes, please! Doesn't everyone want it?
Email: janemccartney@bol.com.br
Distribution: Anywhere, I don't mind, just credit me and inform me where it's at.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Theo, who actually made this project a viable one with his amazing and wonderful work â€" I'm truly grateful for your help with the English grammar and all the necessary adaptations. You're my savior.
Note: This is my very first attempt at fan fiction, and English is definitely not my native language, so I'd be happy if you guys didn't go too hard on me â€" please. I'm just doing the best I can here.
Summary: [Buffy-Angel Crossover] Xander shows up in Los Angeles, and brings with him a secret that'll lead him into dangerous territory. Can he cope with that? And his friends, will they be there for him?
***
Neil Diamond, or so the name that the homeless middle-aged beggar had chosen for himself happened to be, stopped in front of the soiled basement door and then went in.
An aged wooden table, a trashed piece of something that had once been a magnificent red velvet couch, an old phonograph and multiple dusty disco albums lying scattered along the dirty surface of the cold floor, formed the chaotic but somehow nostalgic ambience of the place.
The fake Neil Diamond scratched his gray and smelly beard, and smiled openly. He loved it when he was alone with his beloved rats, and Donna Summer's unbeatable voice.
The street bum picked up the diva queen album from the floor, and strongly rubbed his hand against the cover's surface, intending to remove the dust from the music star's image.
"Ha! Glorious, darling, you're absolutely fabulous!" the fake Neil chimed in, making a genuine disco hip-shaking move. All the while crossing the dark basement, reaching a corner and putting a giant red hat on top of his partially bald head.
Soon Donna Summer's loud voice filled the up-until-then silent room, and Lance Randolph â€" a.k.a. 'Neil Diamond' â€" started to dance shamelessly, throwing his arms up and down and shaking his elderly body to the rhythm of the music.
However, the basement's supposed emptiness was no more when a heavy, wrinkled hand smashed down onto the phonograph, cutting off Donna's voice.
"Hey, whoa! What the hell â€" whaddaya think you're doing? That's Donna Summer who's singin', ya moron!" the homeless man said sternly, finally turning around to face the cause of this upsetting disturbance.
And when he did so, his middle-aged features quickly took on a mask of scary paleness covering his panicked expression and confused eyes.
He tried to yell, run, anything that would have been a help to him to get the hell out of there; but neither his voice nor his legs were being exactly cooperative, right at that moment.
The creature stared indifferently at the poor man's futile attempts to scream and escape, and simply raised one claw to its head-level. Then the thing shoved it harshly through Lance's wrinkled left arm, and pulled.
The street bum tried futilely to get back his ripped-off arm, but the wound was bleeding too profusely for his body to make any movement at that moment.
The fake Neil Diamond stared in pure shock, while that horrible deformed creature made its way closer to him, with slow and confident steps across the bloody basement's floor.
"Please, please, I-I don't wanna die! I swear I'll return the hat, I just stole it 'cause I was desperate!" Lance begged, his cries getting louder and louder and echoing pointlessly throughout the empty, darkened basement.
The humanoid demon slowly moved its gaze up and down the middle-aged man's sobbing form, then soon afterward grabbed Lance Randolph by his ragged shirt and separated his head from the rest of his body.
"Clean up the mess," the creature simply ordered.
At that point, three vampires entered the basement and joined the humanoid demon.
"C'mon man, there's guts and blood scattered all over the goddamn floor!" a long-haired vampire complained crankily.
A taller and dark-haired vampire, one that could easily be taken as the leader of the undead trio by his attitude and posture, advanced one long step forward and did his best to generate a disinterested and disdainful expression.
"Just clean it up, you shithead," the vampire leader ordered him with an annoyed voice.
A beautiful female vampire with long red locks of curly hair, generous red lips and a delicate milky-white face came forth. She sashayed her petite body up to the dark-haired vampire's one, and laughed almost maniacally.
"What a stupid moron you've got as a childe in that one," the female vampire chimed in.
"Yeah, you're probably right. Maybe I'm getting old, I can't pick 'em anymore," the alpha vamp retorted playfully, holding her slim hands and interlacing her skinny fingers with his own.
"I don't know about that," the red-haired vampiress whispered libidinously into his ear, her pale hands now moving seductively along the leader's well- constructed physique.
"Oh, spare me!" the younger bloodsucker protested lamely. "I *am* hearing this, you guys!"
The vampire couple promptly ignored his complaints, and started to exchange generous kisses with lots of tongue.
"Great," the long-haired creature sighed, kicking an old Donna Summer's album in his way. "Just fucking great. You two guys, always thinking you're the goddamn kings of the world!"
"Queen in my case," the vampiress then said dryly. "And, honestly Johnny, just do as you're told and shut the hell up for once, would you?" she finished up, disinterest evident in her naturally poisonous voice while she focused on playing with her boyfriend's locks of dark hair.
"Bitch," the young one sighed in a low voice, while grabbing the homeless old man and dragging his heavy dead body outside.
He hated it when she called him Johnny. And it's not as if that damned whore doesn't know that...
"Honey, tell me again why we're helping him â€" I mean, it," the red-haired vampiress pointed a polished and long nail in the direction of the humanoid demon, who was about a foot taller than the dark-haired vampire himself.
And who had a silver medallion, with an unidentified symbol around its large neck.
"Well, there's a lot of reasons why we should, but," Luke smirked evilly at his red-haired girlfriend. "Don't you think that destroying the world's a very good one?"
"Destroying the world," the suddenly bored vampiress faked a yawn. "Can't guys ever think of anything new to do? You know what, that's why we vamps are so discriminated against in this world â€" male vampires, they never learn and keep making the same mistakes, with all that 'destroying the world' crap."
The dark-haired creature of the night violently grabbed her fists, and smashed his beloved Isabelle's body against his own.
"I don't think you're quite getting the point, my dear," Luke whispered firmly.
"The ugly guy over there," he pointed in the humanoid demon's direction, which was deeply concentrating on reading an ancient dusty book. "Well, it's the real thing now, I can feel it," the vampire proudly finished, an uncontestable look of certainty and lust covering his pale face.
"Right," the beautiful red-haired vamp snorted, clearly not convinced by Luke's maniacal words.
The long-haired younger vampire re-entered the basement; his hands dirty with Lance Randolph's blood. "The crazy guy with the hat? Well, I got rid of him. And now the territory's clean for us, and the trap's armed for the kid," Gerard, the young one, announced proudly.
"Whatever," Luke sighed disdainfully, promptly ignoring his young childe's annoying voice and turning back to steal a hungry kiss from Isabelle, his lover for the past two centuries.
"Vampires," the demon called out imposingly for the trio of bloodsuckers, finally diverting its attention away from the aged book and taking the silver medallion into its claws.
"Yes, master," Luke punctually answered, shoving his girlfriend's body away and turning his attention to the demon completely.
"It is well. The ritual shall be proceeding on schedule, then," the demon considered things pointedly.
"Just what the hell are they saying?" an utterly puzzled Gerard whispered to the red-haired vampiress, taking care not to interrupt his sire and the demon's conversation.
Isabelle sighed tiredly. Her lover's childe could be a real pain in the ass.
"My Luke's talking about the trap for the boy, and Ugly Demon there told him about witchcraft stuff that we're gonna use. Damn it, Johnny, we've already talked about the plan before!"
"Name's John, Isabelle," the long-haired vampire said sarcastically, growling raggedly at his sire's irritating girlfriend. I really, really hate that bitch...
"Whatever," the red-haired bloodsucker snorted tiredly.
Gerard promptly opened his mouth to deliver a dirty remark at the vampiress' lack of interest, but a sudden explosion of white and blue flashes of light rapidly interrupted his plans of doing any such thing.
"The spell's done," the dark-haired vampire known simply as Luke smirked in an utterly depraved way.
***
"Mr. Harris?" Kelly Marshall approached the couch where Xander was sitting, an unreadable look etched onto his face.
The curly-haired nurse had found herself wondering about this guy's deal more than once during her shift, which was utterly odd: she'd attended like what, a thousand patients and relatives during her brief career as a successful nurse in St. Matthew's Hospital. But this guy...
He was somehow different.
He'd sent out mysterious glances following every new step or shadow that occasionally came into the waiting room, stares that seemed to capture everything and nothing around him at the same time.
Plus he had beautiful, deep brown eyes lost in tormented oblivion and, strangely and contradictorily enough, a careful but undeniable vigilance about everything and everyone around him.
They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul.
For Kelly Marshall, staring almost viciously at that young man's heart- breaking sorrow over his injured girlfriend, they didn't know what they were talking about.
Because if they did, if that claim was truly another one of life's incontestable rules, the blonde nurse was pretty much certain that Xander Harris was the one in desperate need of help.
Not genuine but hungry, perverse and powerful guilt seemed to be tearing the dark-haired boy's soul apart in a fast, cruel blow.
And that scared her.
Kelly had felt an instant sympathy for the young man, from the very first minute he'd arrived at St. Matthew's with his bloody girlfriend's body in his arms; an odd feeling, beyond her understanding.
And the curly-haired nurse really didn't want to voice her inner thoughts that clamored for an explanation about Xander's reasons for such haunted eyes â€" 'cause she was afraid of the answer, should she get it.
Kelly feared that he'd be just one more of the many criminal perps often found in a hospital, someone who had no virtue and decency; a person capable of things that anyone normal can only imagine seeing on TV and the newspapers.
A mother who beats her child.
A husband who beats his wife.
A dealer that sells his drugs to high-school students.
A murderer.
Those people were the figures of Kelly's most nauseous nightmares, and there were so many of them these days... so many, just too damn many for Nurse Marshall's liking.
Well, uh, I guess they aren't exactly too few of them for anyone else's liking either, the blonde nurse considered.
And, even if Kelly didn't actually believe that Xander was just one more for the road in that kind of bizarre gallery, she just could not help fearing that this was exactly what he was.
One more for the road.
It was, somehow, very curious. He was just another guy, simply another face in the crowd; but at the same time, such a different one.
This Mr. Harris was someone who seemed to know things that most people didn't, horrifying things that reached his eyes and made them shadowy relics of what they should be.
And Kelly really hated it when the victim needed to be put in the villain's clothing.
"Mr. Harris? Xander?" the curly-haired young woman had to insist on calling Xander's name again, as he didn't reply to her first call.
"Huh?" the dark-haired boy answered distractedly, finally noticing the petite woman standing in front of him with a chart in its hands and a pair of ocean-green eyes staring expectantly at him.
"Oh, yeah, Kelly. I think I was a little out of it, sorry," Xander apologized, briefly recomposing himself on the couch and moving his previously distracted eyes to Kelly's naturally wide ones.
The nurse offered him a sympathetic look, and smiled warmly. "It's OK. I'm bringing good news, actually."
Kelly could swear that Xander's eyes sparkled hopefully, after she'd made this last statement.
"Is Cordy â€" Cordelia, is she okay?" the dark-haired young boy asked anxiously.
"We were able to stabilize her," the blonde young woman began. "We can't tell yet if there'll be any further complications, but I personally don't believe that'll happen; luckily, neither her kidney nor any other vital organs were damaged," Kelly paused and looked thoughtful for a second. "Your girlfriend's a pretty lucky girl, you know?"
"Depends on your point of view," Xander replied automatically, but then analyzed the nurse's words more carefully.
"Hey, no, wait. Cordy's not my girlfriend," the young man quickly spluttered.
"Really?!" a surprised Kelly blurted out perhaps a little louder than she'd had intended to, winning several turns of heads from other people in the waiting room â€" which then made her blush a furious red color, like immediately.
"Yeah, really," the dark-haired boy retorted, his impatient words being spoken in a rougher tone than what he'd desired them to be.
"Oh â€" sorry, I-I don't know what made me assume that she was... I, it's, I mean, it's just that when I saw your ring, I just â€" I just presumed, I guess... you seemed to love her deeply," the curly-haired nurse babbled, hating herself for such inexcusable confusion.
"I don't love her," Xander replied nervously. "I mean, I do love her, as a friend, obviously, but I'm in love with my Anya. We, we got married a while ago, it was raining, we got all wet and stuff, and a neighbor's soaked rabbit gatecrashed the ceremony, but I convinced Anya that it wasn't evil, and then she said she loved me and I said I loved her twice as much and she said she loved me all that times infinity. We were full of love, I think. J- just for each other, that is."
Great, the young man thought. What a babbling idiot I am!
The dark-haired boy looked down at his hands, and the sparkle of his engagement ring - which Anya had bought exactly a month before their wedding day - flashing from a hospital lamp instantly caught his attention, as a sudden realization hit him strongly.
"Oh, shit," Xander simply whispered.
"What?" Kelly demanded curiously.
"Damn it!" Xander continued, now pacing viciously back and forth along the hospital's waiting room. "God, no! I'm so dead, Anya's gonna kill me!"
"Sir â€" Mr. Harris, Xander," Kelly tentatively risked saying. "P-please, what the heck are you talking about?"
"I mean, God," the time-traveller pondered, promptly ignoring the nurse's question. "When they sent me back here, I didn't remember the exact date â€" they just kept repeating 'seven days, you've got seven days...'"
"Mr. Harris, are you OK?" the confused nurse insisted in a harder tone.
"No, Anya's totally gonna kill me," Xander sighed in frustration and tiredness, letting his body fall carelessly onto the couch. The blonde nurse just stood there, a dumb look on her face.
Strange, strange guy, she remarked to herself.
"D-don't you wanna see Ms. Chase?" Kelly then questioned him carefully.
"Oh â€" of course! It's, it's really good that Cordy's OK," the young man replied with a stammer, diverting his look from Kelly's. He was slightly ashamed about forgetting about his former girlfriend's situation, even if it had been just for one practically insignificant moment.
Kelly Marshall called another nurse, who guided the dark-haired young man away to Cordelia's room. Kelly then took her glasses into her hands and cleaned them, putting them back on quickly so she'd not bump into anyone in her way.
The nurse grabbed a pile of charts from the desk into her slim hands, and started to review some of them. She noticed that Dr. Lewis had signed in a pregnant 16-year-old teenager, Sarah Carter, in ward four for emergency care.
Kelly sighed tiredly. She didn't know exactly why, or how; but she just found herself stuck with a strange certainty that Xander Harris and his recently declared non-girlfriend would be bringing an enormous headache to her upcoming day.
"Good evening, Ms. Carter, I'm Kelly Marshall and I'm gonna be your nurse, OK? Now, I want..."
***
The male nurse pointed out Cordelia's room to Xander and glanced in the direction at the dark-haired boy, who absent-mindedly sent him a "Thanks," and went in.
Cordelia Chase was lying passively on the bed, which was covered with white sheets. Her pale face and several disorganized brunette locks of hair offered a completely different look against his former girlfriend's previous Queen C image; which was one of an always well-dressed spoiled girl, masquerading as a beautiful and delightful princess.
Still, she looked prettier than ever.
The young man approached her fragile figure silently, long and lights steps prudently advancing to Cordelia's still body.
At her side, Xander glanced at the seer's beautiful features and softly caressed her short hair. A sudden and deep regret filled his soul. He honestly didn't know what he'd have done, if she had died.
"Xander," the pretty brunette suddenly mumbled.
The dark-haired young man jumped to his feet in surprise, but quickly came closer to Cordelia's figure. He'd noticed that she was still asleep, and he smiled weakly.
She's calling for me, in her dreams? That idea was strange, but somehow funny and comforting to him.
"I'm here, Cordy," Xander replied affectionately, not really expecting an answer.
The dark-haired boy kissed her forehead and, almost addictively, stared at the sleeping brunette very intensely for several moments.
Millions of thoughts had been running freely through his exhausted mind just barely minutes ago. Contradictory sensations had burned his soul, with the confused memories and feelings.
Happiness, rightness, love.
Chaos, nightmares, Hell.
A sparkling and beautiful Anya in a white leather wedding dress.
God, she looked so beautiful, the young man remembered painfully.
Their wedding. Their friends. Their love.
But destiny had that tricky and sardonic sense of humor, where the matter of Xander Harris was concerned.
Hopeless nights, loose ends.
No, the young man had insisted reluctantly to himself.
He was going to change what had happened, even if he had to die to do it.
But at that moment, quite honestly, Xander couldn't care less about prior events and the pain that had cruelly encapsulated his life for the last month.
'Cause right now, he had momentarily forgotten all the painful memories that had forcefully occupied his mind, during all those weeks since the prophecy had come to pass and Angelus had ascended.
His entire attention was focused exclusively and entirely onto a certain beautiful brunette, a young woman who had once held the keys to his mind, heart and soul.
The young woman whom he'd almost gotten killed not once but twice with his lies, foolishness and â€" apparently his greatest skill â€" his inability to protect the ones he loved.
"Xander," Cordelia groaned painfully.
"Sshh, Cor, everything's gonna be OK," Xander replied softly.
The brunette seer slowly opened her sleepy eyes and stared at her former boyfriend's figure, panic quickly consuming her entire soul along with desperate fear and pain, and making Cordelia's innards strongly shiver.
"P-please, d-don't hurt me," the girl then said in a low and fearful voice.
A confused and puzzled Xander automatically stepped back. "Cordy? W-what are you talkin' about? It's me, Xander, I'm not gonna hurt you..."
"You're not Xander," the young seer replied sharply. "Can't be, y-you hurt me," she then added in fear.
"What? Look, I-I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'd never, ever hurt you â€" uh, not intentionally, OK?" the dark-haired boy managed to say, though his former girlfriend's tremulous words were hitting him with an almost unnatural strength, over his already strong feelings of guilt over the seer's injuries.
"Get away from me," Cordelia said dazedly.
The brunette girl was disoriented and confused. Everything just seemed so... wrong.
Why? God, just tell me why? the confused seer had asked herself the same question, over and over in every moment of consciousness that her body had allowed her to have since... *it* had found her.
It... She didn't want to give this 'it' a name. It was just an 'it', it wasn't something factual, or... real. It couldn't be, no way in Hell â€" she wouldn't believe that.
It was simply an 'it'. Period.
After all, why would Xander Harris try to kill me, for God's sake?
"Get away from me!" Cordelia's now-screaming voice cried out tearfully, violently avoiding Xander's futile attempts to reach her pale hands with his own by shoving him away from her, with as much force as her weakened body would allow.
And although Xander barely moved, he didn't try to touch her anymore.
He didn't even try to think anymore.
It was almost the last straw, in this situation during the insane last few weeks where he'd lost so much. The thought came to Xander and even though he tried to resist it, he failed.
What's the point anymore? Even Cordy's turned against me...
And that hurt.
'Cause to think and discover the motivations that would explain his former girlfriend believing that he'd not only hurt her, but had come back to do such an implausible and horrifying thing again â€" to see her scared, wide eyes, if he simply came near...
To think about that, it really hurt a lot.
What the hell's going on here? was all that Xander's brain was capable of thinking next.
But there was no reply other than the hysterical screams that erupted from his former girlfriend's wide, scared mouth.
***
Well, here's chapter number 10, I guess.
Uh, I didn't really like it - but I swear, in the next chapters, there'll be lots of Scooby Gang, Fang Gang and Faith/Xander interaction.
So, now... review me! Please, c'mon, it'll take you just a short, brief minute! Please, I've got a real addiction problem for them...
Author: Jane McCartney
Disclaimer: All the characters you recognize belong to Joss & co. (all hail the crackhead). I'm just fooling around with his universe, with no intention of making money or anything.
Classification: Buffy-Angel crossover
Rating: PG13
Feedback: Yes, please! Doesn't everyone want it?
Email: janemccartney@bol.com.br
Distribution: Anywhere, I don't mind, just credit me and inform me where it's at.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Theo, who actually made this project a viable one with his amazing and wonderful work â€" I'm truly grateful for your help with the English grammar and all the necessary adaptations. You're my savior.
Note: This is my very first attempt at fan fiction, and English is definitely not my native language, so I'd be happy if you guys didn't go too hard on me â€" please. I'm just doing the best I can here.
Summary: [Buffy-Angel Crossover] Xander shows up in Los Angeles, and brings with him a secret that'll lead him into dangerous territory. Can he cope with that? And his friends, will they be there for him?
***
Neil Diamond, or so the name that the homeless middle-aged beggar had chosen for himself happened to be, stopped in front of the soiled basement door and then went in.
An aged wooden table, a trashed piece of something that had once been a magnificent red velvet couch, an old phonograph and multiple dusty disco albums lying scattered along the dirty surface of the cold floor, formed the chaotic but somehow nostalgic ambience of the place.
The fake Neil Diamond scratched his gray and smelly beard, and smiled openly. He loved it when he was alone with his beloved rats, and Donna Summer's unbeatable voice.
The street bum picked up the diva queen album from the floor, and strongly rubbed his hand against the cover's surface, intending to remove the dust from the music star's image.
"Ha! Glorious, darling, you're absolutely fabulous!" the fake Neil chimed in, making a genuine disco hip-shaking move. All the while crossing the dark basement, reaching a corner and putting a giant red hat on top of his partially bald head.
Soon Donna Summer's loud voice filled the up-until-then silent room, and Lance Randolph â€" a.k.a. 'Neil Diamond' â€" started to dance shamelessly, throwing his arms up and down and shaking his elderly body to the rhythm of the music.
However, the basement's supposed emptiness was no more when a heavy, wrinkled hand smashed down onto the phonograph, cutting off Donna's voice.
"Hey, whoa! What the hell â€" whaddaya think you're doing? That's Donna Summer who's singin', ya moron!" the homeless man said sternly, finally turning around to face the cause of this upsetting disturbance.
And when he did so, his middle-aged features quickly took on a mask of scary paleness covering his panicked expression and confused eyes.
He tried to yell, run, anything that would have been a help to him to get the hell out of there; but neither his voice nor his legs were being exactly cooperative, right at that moment.
The creature stared indifferently at the poor man's futile attempts to scream and escape, and simply raised one claw to its head-level. Then the thing shoved it harshly through Lance's wrinkled left arm, and pulled.
The street bum tried futilely to get back his ripped-off arm, but the wound was bleeding too profusely for his body to make any movement at that moment.
The fake Neil Diamond stared in pure shock, while that horrible deformed creature made its way closer to him, with slow and confident steps across the bloody basement's floor.
"Please, please, I-I don't wanna die! I swear I'll return the hat, I just stole it 'cause I was desperate!" Lance begged, his cries getting louder and louder and echoing pointlessly throughout the empty, darkened basement.
The humanoid demon slowly moved its gaze up and down the middle-aged man's sobbing form, then soon afterward grabbed Lance Randolph by his ragged shirt and separated his head from the rest of his body.
"Clean up the mess," the creature simply ordered.
At that point, three vampires entered the basement and joined the humanoid demon.
"C'mon man, there's guts and blood scattered all over the goddamn floor!" a long-haired vampire complained crankily.
A taller and dark-haired vampire, one that could easily be taken as the leader of the undead trio by his attitude and posture, advanced one long step forward and did his best to generate a disinterested and disdainful expression.
"Just clean it up, you shithead," the vampire leader ordered him with an annoyed voice.
A beautiful female vampire with long red locks of curly hair, generous red lips and a delicate milky-white face came forth. She sashayed her petite body up to the dark-haired vampire's one, and laughed almost maniacally.
"What a stupid moron you've got as a childe in that one," the female vampire chimed in.
"Yeah, you're probably right. Maybe I'm getting old, I can't pick 'em anymore," the alpha vamp retorted playfully, holding her slim hands and interlacing her skinny fingers with his own.
"I don't know about that," the red-haired vampiress whispered libidinously into his ear, her pale hands now moving seductively along the leader's well- constructed physique.
"Oh, spare me!" the younger bloodsucker protested lamely. "I *am* hearing this, you guys!"
The vampire couple promptly ignored his complaints, and started to exchange generous kisses with lots of tongue.
"Great," the long-haired creature sighed, kicking an old Donna Summer's album in his way. "Just fucking great. You two guys, always thinking you're the goddamn kings of the world!"
"Queen in my case," the vampiress then said dryly. "And, honestly Johnny, just do as you're told and shut the hell up for once, would you?" she finished up, disinterest evident in her naturally poisonous voice while she focused on playing with her boyfriend's locks of dark hair.
"Bitch," the young one sighed in a low voice, while grabbing the homeless old man and dragging his heavy dead body outside.
He hated it when she called him Johnny. And it's not as if that damned whore doesn't know that...
"Honey, tell me again why we're helping him â€" I mean, it," the red-haired vampiress pointed a polished and long nail in the direction of the humanoid demon, who was about a foot taller than the dark-haired vampire himself.
And who had a silver medallion, with an unidentified symbol around its large neck.
"Well, there's a lot of reasons why we should, but," Luke smirked evilly at his red-haired girlfriend. "Don't you think that destroying the world's a very good one?"
"Destroying the world," the suddenly bored vampiress faked a yawn. "Can't guys ever think of anything new to do? You know what, that's why we vamps are so discriminated against in this world â€" male vampires, they never learn and keep making the same mistakes, with all that 'destroying the world' crap."
The dark-haired creature of the night violently grabbed her fists, and smashed his beloved Isabelle's body against his own.
"I don't think you're quite getting the point, my dear," Luke whispered firmly.
"The ugly guy over there," he pointed in the humanoid demon's direction, which was deeply concentrating on reading an ancient dusty book. "Well, it's the real thing now, I can feel it," the vampire proudly finished, an uncontestable look of certainty and lust covering his pale face.
"Right," the beautiful red-haired vamp snorted, clearly not convinced by Luke's maniacal words.
The long-haired younger vampire re-entered the basement; his hands dirty with Lance Randolph's blood. "The crazy guy with the hat? Well, I got rid of him. And now the territory's clean for us, and the trap's armed for the kid," Gerard, the young one, announced proudly.
"Whatever," Luke sighed disdainfully, promptly ignoring his young childe's annoying voice and turning back to steal a hungry kiss from Isabelle, his lover for the past two centuries.
"Vampires," the demon called out imposingly for the trio of bloodsuckers, finally diverting its attention away from the aged book and taking the silver medallion into its claws.
"Yes, master," Luke punctually answered, shoving his girlfriend's body away and turning his attention to the demon completely.
"It is well. The ritual shall be proceeding on schedule, then," the demon considered things pointedly.
"Just what the hell are they saying?" an utterly puzzled Gerard whispered to the red-haired vampiress, taking care not to interrupt his sire and the demon's conversation.
Isabelle sighed tiredly. Her lover's childe could be a real pain in the ass.
"My Luke's talking about the trap for the boy, and Ugly Demon there told him about witchcraft stuff that we're gonna use. Damn it, Johnny, we've already talked about the plan before!"
"Name's John, Isabelle," the long-haired vampire said sarcastically, growling raggedly at his sire's irritating girlfriend. I really, really hate that bitch...
"Whatever," the red-haired bloodsucker snorted tiredly.
Gerard promptly opened his mouth to deliver a dirty remark at the vampiress' lack of interest, but a sudden explosion of white and blue flashes of light rapidly interrupted his plans of doing any such thing.
"The spell's done," the dark-haired vampire known simply as Luke smirked in an utterly depraved way.
***
"Mr. Harris?" Kelly Marshall approached the couch where Xander was sitting, an unreadable look etched onto his face.
The curly-haired nurse had found herself wondering about this guy's deal more than once during her shift, which was utterly odd: she'd attended like what, a thousand patients and relatives during her brief career as a successful nurse in St. Matthew's Hospital. But this guy...
He was somehow different.
He'd sent out mysterious glances following every new step or shadow that occasionally came into the waiting room, stares that seemed to capture everything and nothing around him at the same time.
Plus he had beautiful, deep brown eyes lost in tormented oblivion and, strangely and contradictorily enough, a careful but undeniable vigilance about everything and everyone around him.
They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul.
For Kelly Marshall, staring almost viciously at that young man's heart- breaking sorrow over his injured girlfriend, they didn't know what they were talking about.
Because if they did, if that claim was truly another one of life's incontestable rules, the blonde nurse was pretty much certain that Xander Harris was the one in desperate need of help.
Not genuine but hungry, perverse and powerful guilt seemed to be tearing the dark-haired boy's soul apart in a fast, cruel blow.
And that scared her.
Kelly had felt an instant sympathy for the young man, from the very first minute he'd arrived at St. Matthew's with his bloody girlfriend's body in his arms; an odd feeling, beyond her understanding.
And the curly-haired nurse really didn't want to voice her inner thoughts that clamored for an explanation about Xander's reasons for such haunted eyes â€" 'cause she was afraid of the answer, should she get it.
Kelly feared that he'd be just one more of the many criminal perps often found in a hospital, someone who had no virtue and decency; a person capable of things that anyone normal can only imagine seeing on TV and the newspapers.
A mother who beats her child.
A husband who beats his wife.
A dealer that sells his drugs to high-school students.
A murderer.
Those people were the figures of Kelly's most nauseous nightmares, and there were so many of them these days... so many, just too damn many for Nurse Marshall's liking.
Well, uh, I guess they aren't exactly too few of them for anyone else's liking either, the blonde nurse considered.
And, even if Kelly didn't actually believe that Xander was just one more for the road in that kind of bizarre gallery, she just could not help fearing that this was exactly what he was.
One more for the road.
It was, somehow, very curious. He was just another guy, simply another face in the crowd; but at the same time, such a different one.
This Mr. Harris was someone who seemed to know things that most people didn't, horrifying things that reached his eyes and made them shadowy relics of what they should be.
And Kelly really hated it when the victim needed to be put in the villain's clothing.
"Mr. Harris? Xander?" the curly-haired young woman had to insist on calling Xander's name again, as he didn't reply to her first call.
"Huh?" the dark-haired boy answered distractedly, finally noticing the petite woman standing in front of him with a chart in its hands and a pair of ocean-green eyes staring expectantly at him.
"Oh, yeah, Kelly. I think I was a little out of it, sorry," Xander apologized, briefly recomposing himself on the couch and moving his previously distracted eyes to Kelly's naturally wide ones.
The nurse offered him a sympathetic look, and smiled warmly. "It's OK. I'm bringing good news, actually."
Kelly could swear that Xander's eyes sparkled hopefully, after she'd made this last statement.
"Is Cordy â€" Cordelia, is she okay?" the dark-haired young boy asked anxiously.
"We were able to stabilize her," the blonde young woman began. "We can't tell yet if there'll be any further complications, but I personally don't believe that'll happen; luckily, neither her kidney nor any other vital organs were damaged," Kelly paused and looked thoughtful for a second. "Your girlfriend's a pretty lucky girl, you know?"
"Depends on your point of view," Xander replied automatically, but then analyzed the nurse's words more carefully.
"Hey, no, wait. Cordy's not my girlfriend," the young man quickly spluttered.
"Really?!" a surprised Kelly blurted out perhaps a little louder than she'd had intended to, winning several turns of heads from other people in the waiting room â€" which then made her blush a furious red color, like immediately.
"Yeah, really," the dark-haired boy retorted, his impatient words being spoken in a rougher tone than what he'd desired them to be.
"Oh â€" sorry, I-I don't know what made me assume that she was... I, it's, I mean, it's just that when I saw your ring, I just â€" I just presumed, I guess... you seemed to love her deeply," the curly-haired nurse babbled, hating herself for such inexcusable confusion.
"I don't love her," Xander replied nervously. "I mean, I do love her, as a friend, obviously, but I'm in love with my Anya. We, we got married a while ago, it was raining, we got all wet and stuff, and a neighbor's soaked rabbit gatecrashed the ceremony, but I convinced Anya that it wasn't evil, and then she said she loved me and I said I loved her twice as much and she said she loved me all that times infinity. We were full of love, I think. J- just for each other, that is."
Great, the young man thought. What a babbling idiot I am!
The dark-haired boy looked down at his hands, and the sparkle of his engagement ring - which Anya had bought exactly a month before their wedding day - flashing from a hospital lamp instantly caught his attention, as a sudden realization hit him strongly.
"Oh, shit," Xander simply whispered.
"What?" Kelly demanded curiously.
"Damn it!" Xander continued, now pacing viciously back and forth along the hospital's waiting room. "God, no! I'm so dead, Anya's gonna kill me!"
"Sir â€" Mr. Harris, Xander," Kelly tentatively risked saying. "P-please, what the heck are you talking about?"
"I mean, God," the time-traveller pondered, promptly ignoring the nurse's question. "When they sent me back here, I didn't remember the exact date â€" they just kept repeating 'seven days, you've got seven days...'"
"Mr. Harris, are you OK?" the confused nurse insisted in a harder tone.
"No, Anya's totally gonna kill me," Xander sighed in frustration and tiredness, letting his body fall carelessly onto the couch. The blonde nurse just stood there, a dumb look on her face.
Strange, strange guy, she remarked to herself.
"D-don't you wanna see Ms. Chase?" Kelly then questioned him carefully.
"Oh â€" of course! It's, it's really good that Cordy's OK," the young man replied with a stammer, diverting his look from Kelly's. He was slightly ashamed about forgetting about his former girlfriend's situation, even if it had been just for one practically insignificant moment.
Kelly Marshall called another nurse, who guided the dark-haired young man away to Cordelia's room. Kelly then took her glasses into her hands and cleaned them, putting them back on quickly so she'd not bump into anyone in her way.
The nurse grabbed a pile of charts from the desk into her slim hands, and started to review some of them. She noticed that Dr. Lewis had signed in a pregnant 16-year-old teenager, Sarah Carter, in ward four for emergency care.
Kelly sighed tiredly. She didn't know exactly why, or how; but she just found herself stuck with a strange certainty that Xander Harris and his recently declared non-girlfriend would be bringing an enormous headache to her upcoming day.
"Good evening, Ms. Carter, I'm Kelly Marshall and I'm gonna be your nurse, OK? Now, I want..."
***
The male nurse pointed out Cordelia's room to Xander and glanced in the direction at the dark-haired boy, who absent-mindedly sent him a "Thanks," and went in.
Cordelia Chase was lying passively on the bed, which was covered with white sheets. Her pale face and several disorganized brunette locks of hair offered a completely different look against his former girlfriend's previous Queen C image; which was one of an always well-dressed spoiled girl, masquerading as a beautiful and delightful princess.
Still, she looked prettier than ever.
The young man approached her fragile figure silently, long and lights steps prudently advancing to Cordelia's still body.
At her side, Xander glanced at the seer's beautiful features and softly caressed her short hair. A sudden and deep regret filled his soul. He honestly didn't know what he'd have done, if she had died.
"Xander," the pretty brunette suddenly mumbled.
The dark-haired young man jumped to his feet in surprise, but quickly came closer to Cordelia's figure. He'd noticed that she was still asleep, and he smiled weakly.
She's calling for me, in her dreams? That idea was strange, but somehow funny and comforting to him.
"I'm here, Cordy," Xander replied affectionately, not really expecting an answer.
The dark-haired boy kissed her forehead and, almost addictively, stared at the sleeping brunette very intensely for several moments.
Millions of thoughts had been running freely through his exhausted mind just barely minutes ago. Contradictory sensations had burned his soul, with the confused memories and feelings.
Happiness, rightness, love.
Chaos, nightmares, Hell.
A sparkling and beautiful Anya in a white leather wedding dress.
God, she looked so beautiful, the young man remembered painfully.
Their wedding. Their friends. Their love.
But destiny had that tricky and sardonic sense of humor, where the matter of Xander Harris was concerned.
Hopeless nights, loose ends.
No, the young man had insisted reluctantly to himself.
He was going to change what had happened, even if he had to die to do it.
But at that moment, quite honestly, Xander couldn't care less about prior events and the pain that had cruelly encapsulated his life for the last month.
'Cause right now, he had momentarily forgotten all the painful memories that had forcefully occupied his mind, during all those weeks since the prophecy had come to pass and Angelus had ascended.
His entire attention was focused exclusively and entirely onto a certain beautiful brunette, a young woman who had once held the keys to his mind, heart and soul.
The young woman whom he'd almost gotten killed not once but twice with his lies, foolishness and â€" apparently his greatest skill â€" his inability to protect the ones he loved.
"Xander," Cordelia groaned painfully.
"Sshh, Cor, everything's gonna be OK," Xander replied softly.
The brunette seer slowly opened her sleepy eyes and stared at her former boyfriend's figure, panic quickly consuming her entire soul along with desperate fear and pain, and making Cordelia's innards strongly shiver.
"P-please, d-don't hurt me," the girl then said in a low and fearful voice.
A confused and puzzled Xander automatically stepped back. "Cordy? W-what are you talkin' about? It's me, Xander, I'm not gonna hurt you..."
"You're not Xander," the young seer replied sharply. "Can't be, y-you hurt me," she then added in fear.
"What? Look, I-I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'd never, ever hurt you â€" uh, not intentionally, OK?" the dark-haired boy managed to say, though his former girlfriend's tremulous words were hitting him with an almost unnatural strength, over his already strong feelings of guilt over the seer's injuries.
"Get away from me," Cordelia said dazedly.
The brunette girl was disoriented and confused. Everything just seemed so... wrong.
Why? God, just tell me why? the confused seer had asked herself the same question, over and over in every moment of consciousness that her body had allowed her to have since... *it* had found her.
It... She didn't want to give this 'it' a name. It was just an 'it', it wasn't something factual, or... real. It couldn't be, no way in Hell â€" she wouldn't believe that.
It was simply an 'it'. Period.
After all, why would Xander Harris try to kill me, for God's sake?
"Get away from me!" Cordelia's now-screaming voice cried out tearfully, violently avoiding Xander's futile attempts to reach her pale hands with his own by shoving him away from her, with as much force as her weakened body would allow.
And although Xander barely moved, he didn't try to touch her anymore.
He didn't even try to think anymore.
It was almost the last straw, in this situation during the insane last few weeks where he'd lost so much. The thought came to Xander and even though he tried to resist it, he failed.
What's the point anymore? Even Cordy's turned against me...
And that hurt.
'Cause to think and discover the motivations that would explain his former girlfriend believing that he'd not only hurt her, but had come back to do such an implausible and horrifying thing again â€" to see her scared, wide eyes, if he simply came near...
To think about that, it really hurt a lot.
What the hell's going on here? was all that Xander's brain was capable of thinking next.
But there was no reply other than the hysterical screams that erupted from his former girlfriend's wide, scared mouth.
***
Well, here's chapter number 10, I guess.
Uh, I didn't really like it - but I swear, in the next chapters, there'll be lots of Scooby Gang, Fang Gang and Faith/Xander interaction.
So, now... review me! Please, c'mon, it'll take you just a short, brief minute! Please, I've got a real addiction problem for them...