"1st to Die - Sunnydale Style"

by Eye of the Dodo

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Summary: The cast of characters from James Patterson's '1st to Die' are encompassed into an entirely new reality.

Not Buffy-Related/AU History: Xander left after the episode 'Entropy' when tensions with Buffy were to high. Tara didn't die and Chris (from 1st to Die) survived being shot. Well... the bullet missed his heart, anyways. Everything's the same, although Kennedy and the Potentials are in Sunnydale.

Setting: as if the end of S6 through past S7 (Seeing Red [6.19] à Chosen [7.22]) never happened. Warren was arrested sometime after Xander left. A few months after when 'Chosen' would have happened.

A/N: This was based off an X-Files fic I read. Sorry for making Kennedy such an a** but... I can't really write her in character because there are only a few episodes where she's a major part (compared to Willow and Xander and Tara, for instance) so this is my best attempt. *hangs head in shame and goes back to writing* *looks up from her writing for another notice* I describe the characters in 1st to Die because I'm not sure how many Buffy fans will have read it.

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            Lindsay Boxer stood outside of the hospital room. She put her hand on the doorknob for the seventh time before withdrawing it.

            "Lindsay, It'll be fine," Claire said from next to her. "I know I'll never see him in my office."

            Lindsay smiled at that jibe. Claire worked in the morgue part of her career life. Lindsay was one of San Francisco's best homicide detectives. She, along with her partner-turned-lover Christopher Raleigh, Claire Washburn, Cindy Thompson (a reporter friend of hers) and Jill Bernhardt, an assistant D.A., had solved a cast of bride and groom murders. Chris had been seriously wounded with a bullet-wound to the chest but was doing fine.

            "How are things going with you, Linds?" asked Claire.

            "Better," she replied honestly. Lindsay had a form of Nigeli's Apoplastic Anaemia, a disease that destroyed red blood cells. She had been getting progressively better.

            Lindsay put on a resolve face and opened the door to the hospital room. Maybe this was finally time to tell him he could come home.

            She looks like one of my friends, Alexander Levelle Harris thought, watching his partner go into the room. One of my former friends, he reminded himself sadly.

            "So, how'd things go?" Alex asked when she came out of the room about half an hour later. He noted the dried tears on her cheeks.

            "As well as expected," Lindsay replied. Alex had been her partner since just after Chris was injured and forced to quit the force. His past was unknown but he was a good agent, and that was all that mattered. He also didn't have as hard a time dealing with some of the things they were forced to deal with.

            "That's good." He paused, not wanting to say what he needed to next. "Lindsay?"

            "Yeah, Alex?"

            He cleared his throat. "I... uh... got a call. From Chief Mercer." Chief Mercer was head of the homicide detectives. "He said there were a bunch of homicides in a town called Sunnydale. It's between here and LA. They want out help there. We leave tomorrow."

            Lindsay looked at him with a small smile. "I guess it'll be good to get back into the business." She frowned. "Chris leaves the hospital tomorrow."

            "I know.  But, Lindsay, this is important. People are dying."

            "Alex, I'm fully aware of that," she replied stotically. "Just let me save them."

            I don't know If you can, he thought. Sunnydale isn't an average town.

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            Alex walked into the Sunnydale police department, a place he never wanted to see again.

            "May I help you?" the officer at the desk asked. Lindsay filled him in on why they were there and after that followed hours upon hours of police talk and uncomfortable chairs.

            "Alex?" Lindsay asked when they had gotten back to the hotel they were staying at until the apartment had become available. "Is there something you're not telling me? Something seems to be bugging you."

            "I... I don't really want to talk about it."

            He looked over at Lindsay. She had a resolve face on again. He grinned. "I know what you're going to say. Just tell me. Okay, I'll give you the reader's digest version.

            "I grew up in this town. Lived here for the first twenty years of my life. Longer, even. Then things went bad. Really bad. And I couldn't take it. So I left. In two years, I got where I am today. End of story."

            Lindsay smiled at him. "I think that was more of a Disneyfied version. But I'll let it slide."

            Alex looked at her and got an idea. "Hey, I know where there's a good place to hang out. Wanna go? I know I'm not Chris, but..."

            "I'd love to. C'mon." She smiled and pulled him from off of his bed before realizing she didn't know where he was talking about. "You'll have to lead me there, though."

            As they made their way to his car, she couldn't help but notice the small stick he picked up from the ground and pocketed. Or the fact that he looked up at the full moon and grimaced.

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            Alex drove to the Bronze, choosing the shortest route that didn't have them going by the Summers' or the Magick Box.

           Inside the Bronze, he smiled at the band that was playing. Dingoes Ate My Baby.  Oz's cure was working, then. "Good band," he commented to Lindsay. She nodded and followed him as he searched for a table. Then he became suddenly aware of the danger of seeing Buffy or another of the people who had once been his friends.

            "Did you used to come here often?" she asked and look at him when they had sat down.

            "Yeah.  When the world wasn't going to end."

            Before Lindsay could comment on that, they heard a faint scream from outside, even above the music and the voices. The two detectives ran to investigate it.

            Outside, the street was empty. Listening closely, Alex could hear the all-to familiar sounds of a struggle coming from around a corner.

            "This way!" he said quietly as they ran to it. He pulled out the stick when he saw what was happening. "Get away from her," Alex said to the vampire. When the vamp stepped away shocked, he then addressed Lindsay. "Get hew away from here. I'll take care of him."

            Before he could say that, he heard a whispered word from behind him that sounded like it was in Latin. Then the vampire burst into flames.

            "Xander," was the next word out of the witch's mouth.

            "Willow," he replied coolly, turning around. "Didn't expect to find you here."

            She rushed forewords and hugged him. "Xander." She giggled. "Silly, silly Xander."

            Lindsay cleared her throat from behind them, causing the reunited friends to spring apart. "Would someone want to tell me what's going on here? Why did she incinerate that man? And how could she have done that, anyways?"

            Alex "Xander" looked at Willow then back at Lindsay. "Lindsay, Willow Rosenberg. Wills, Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer." Xander looked at Willow again. "Care to explain? Or should we get Buffy?"

            Willow paused and motioned for him to follow her a few feet away. She then turned to face him. "Xander, who is that? I know her name, but... Is it right to tell her about Buffy? I know you just got back and all and I don't know what you've been doing but I just feel that we should..."

            Xander held up a finger to her lips, effectively silencing her. "You're babbling, Willow."

            "Sorry," replied the woman he hadn't seen for years. "Tara or Kennedy usually shut me up before I get going." She paused and continued more seriously. "Xand, I know that you've been gone for a long time, but are you sure that it's right to tell her about Buffy?"

            Xander looked at her with a look more serious she had seen on him than any since his wedding. Well, his not-wedding. "Willow, this is important. There are innocent people dying out here." He held up his hand to silence her. Not the usual two or three a week. No. Hundreds of people have died in the last month. Died or disappeared. Chief Mercer sent us here to help the local police out."

            "Whoa, whoa. Back up. 'Chief'? Help the police? What's going on, Xander?"

            Before he could reply, he was cut off with Lindsay clearing her throat again. "Alex? Care to tell me what's going on right now? I don't think that's too much to ask of my partner."

            "You are, aren't you? You're a cop! Wow! Alexander Levelle Harris! A cop!"

            Xander shook his head and blushed a little as Willow laughed. She finally stopped much to his relief. "Fine," said Willow. "I'll get Buffy. D'you remember where the Magick Box is?"

            He scoffed at her. "Willow, would I ever forget? Thanks. I'll meet you there in half an hour." Watching her go, he turned back to Lindsay. "Sorry about that. I was hoping I'd be able to talk to her sometime." He sighed. "If she still remembered me. I think that she and Buffy can explain things better. About this town. And other things."

            Lindsay just looked at him. "Alex, I want answers. Now. How did that man just burst into flame? Wasn't that murder?"

            Xander just held up his hand. "Listen, Lieutenant. Although I'm the rookie back in SF, I'm the one who knows what he's doing here. Let me ask you this. What was your best accomplishment as part of the force?"

            Lindsay paused, at a loss. "Well... I guess the bride and groom murders."

            "Oh, really? Listen to this. I've saved the world six times. Six. Each time it was up to my friends and I. None of us are cops. None."

            "Detective Alexander Harris, I highly doubt that you have saved the world. Even once."

            "Let's just see about that," he said under his breath as he stalked back into the Bronze to get their coats. Let's just see.

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            At the Magick Box, the Scoobies, minus Xander, sat around the circular table.

            "Let's get this straight," Anya said, still not believing what her Wiccan friend had told her. "Xander is here, and he's working for the cops because there's been a bunch of huge murders?"

            "That's right," said Xander impassionedly, walking in the door. "And Lieutenant Boxer here is with me. I think she's owed an explanation, and your theories on the homicides."

            Dawn held up her hand. "Xander, the last time someone asked for a theory, we all started singing."

            "It wasn't my fault!"

            "Yes it was! You were the one who summoned the demon!" Buffy shot back before grabbing him in a hug. "I've missed you so much..."

            "I've missed you, too." He pulled back to look at all of them. "If you still like me, that is."

            "Xander, I-I think I speak for all of us wh-when I say that we still love y-y-you," Tara said from her seat next to her girlfriend.

            "Xand, she's right. We'll always love you," Buffy said.

            "Even me," Anya quipped. "Although I'm still mad at you."

            "And me," Kennedy added from her seat near Buffy. "Although I've never met you. And only heard bad things about you from Anya."

            "Kennedy!" Willow smacked the potential on the arm. "That's not nice!"

            "It's the truth," she said in her not-quite British, not –quite American accent. "Besides. Who's his girlfriend, anyways?"

            Lindsay glared at her. "He is NOT my boyfriend! We're partners. SFPD homicide inspectors. I'm lieutenant Lindsay Boxer. And besides. I have a fiancé."

            Xander looked a t her for a second before winking at her and saying to Buffy, "I think we owe her an explanation. And one to how Willow incinerated that Vamp outside of the Bronze. I thought she was living magick-free."

            "What!?" Lindsay exclaimed. "'Vamp'? 'Magick'? Did I hear 'Demon' before?"

            "You haven't told her anything, have you? Nothing about here? Or me?" the Slayer asked him with an open mouth. "Nothing at all?"

            "Not a thing, Buff. Why don't we make introductions and someone can Explain it to her."

            So introductions were made and the Scoobies, this time including Xander, sat around the table to try and explain Sunnydale to the newest addition to the Scoobies.

            "Have you ever heard of a Vampire Slayer?"

            "A Vampire Slayer? Can't say that I have. I wasn't much into legends and myths."

            Buffy smiled. "I'm not a legend. Neither are Vampires. Or demons. Vampire Slayers... they slay vampires. And demons. And stop apocalypses. And-" She was cut off with a glare from Willow. "There's usually only one a generation, but I died, so another was Called. There's a long story behind it. Usually, they have Watchers, who look over them. But mine went back to England."

            "I should say demons are real!" said Anya. "I'm here, aren't I? Although I stopped being a vengeance demon until Xander left me."

            Lindsay sat, open mouthed. "I'm sitting here with a Vampire Slayer. And a demon. This is the last thing I expected. I just thought this would be another simple case. Look at the corpses, pretend to be strong, go back home and cry, the put some bastard in jail."

            "You're not only sitting with a Slayer and a demon, though," Kennedy quipped. "There's me, a Slayer-in-waiting."

            "And us," Willow said, gesturing to herself and Tara.

            "W-we're... We're witches," Tara said, staring at the door to the back to the shop.

            "You bloody well can't forget about me, can you?"

            The name "Spike" left the lips of everyone but Lindsay and Kennedy who looked at each other and shrugged.

            "Wait, let me guess," Lindsay ventured. "He's a werewolf or something."

            "Not far off, luv. I'm a vampire."

            "No way! Where are the fangs? This isn't logically possible. This isn't happening. It can't happen. Not physically possible," Lindsay shot out. This was too much for her. Vampires and demons? What's next? A hell mouth? Or someone dating a werewolf?

            "How can we sum the rest of this up for you better..." said Willow. "I know this is all hard to believe."

            "Hard to believe!? This is all impossible! How many times do I have to say that? I think you're all insane!"

            From the doorway, they heard a new voice. "I'd like to test that theory."

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TBC

A/N: Here's the first chapter of my second posted fanfic ever. I think everyone who's reading this knows who said the last sentence. Ya gotta love that line. If you don't know, I guess you'll just have to wait until the next chapter to find out.