Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or concepts in BTVS or HL (although I may twist them to my own evil ends) and I'm not making any money out of this

Premise: Buffy/HL X-over

BTVS: post Gift. Buffy isn't brought back to life, Willow and Tarra take over protecting Sunnydale using magic instead of hand-to-hand weapons and bring in a couple other Wiccans to help, Giles leaves them his library and returns to England, Anya and Xander break up and Xander leaves Sunnydale.

HL: Duncan didn't kill Richie. Duncan, Richie, Methos, Casandra, and Amanda together defeated the demon. Casandra Hasn't forgiven Methos and still can't stand to be anywhere near him but has acknowledged that he isn't the same person and she gave up any homicidal intentions towards him

If you like this please Review so I know you do. If you don't please review so I know what not to do next time.

Now the Story:

Surprise, surprise Ch 5: Phone calls

After half a dozen rings Meathos fumbled for the phone, picked it up and hung up. The second time Methos snarled into the phone "Go Away!" before hanging up. The third time the phone rang he decided to actually answer the phone since someone thought it was so urgent to get hold of him. "Who ever you are you better have a good reason for calling me so early in the freaking morning!" He snarled into the phone.

"Adam I need a lift from behind the Seacover municipal recycling center." Richie said quickly before Methos could hang up the phone again. "I got in some trouble and my back's broken. I need you to give me a lift home."

"Ben gamal h'olea calevet!" Adam cursed. "Why couldn't you wait to get into trouble when McClaud's here to rescue you. Or at least wait till a more reasonable hour." Meathos complained pointlessly. What sort of trouble aww "If I'd waited the insane new immortal would have had a very public death and the way he acted when he recovered from his first death an even more public waking which would have had you, me, mac and every other immortal in the city running around for a week doing damage control." Richie answered acidly. "So you going to pick me up?"

"Yah. I'll be there in fifteen minutes or less, if only so that you can tell me the entire story about the insane newbie you found." Adam replied much more cheerfully. "This sounds like the kind of story worth getting out of bed for."

On that note the two Immortals hung up the phone.

It took Xander nearly ten minutes of random turns, stops and starts to become convinced he wasn't being followed. As soon as he was he stopped the car and looked it over. The back seat was torched but the fire extinguisher he kept under the seat was gone and there were remains of powder from the fire extinguisher on the front seat suggesting that someone had put out the fire. The Equipment in the trunk was untouched and Xander pushed aside his bags and pulled out his ax and three stakes from the hidden compartment in the trunk. He put one of the stakes in the small sheath he'd sown into his jacket and stuck the other two in his belt along his back where they wouldn't be seen unless someone was looking for them. The ax ht place against the passenger seat next to him with it's head on the car floor. It would be a bit difficult to explain if he was stopped by a cop but better that then not having it if whatever that thing that was interested in him caught up to him.

Once Xander was satisfied with his weapon arrangements he started off again this time in search of a cheap motel. After more then an hour and a half Xander finally managed to get to the section of the city where he could find a cheap motel. Two hours after he'd run over whatever the thing that had caught him Xander was sitting in a motel room trying to figure out what to do next.

Calling Willow or Giles were obvious possibilities but since he didn't have Giles's phone that left Willow and Xander was reluctant to call her early in the morning as he knew she'd have been up till nearly dawn either preparing magic traps for demons and vampires around Sunnydale, clearing up those which had been rather messy, or running her new Internet software company. For some reason both computer geeks and demons seemed to work mostly at night.

So unless the creature or one of it's buddies caught up he'd wait till noon to call Willow. In the meantime he'd try and sort out what he knew. He'd had his car break down but it was now working fine, or as fine as it ever had since he got it. This didn't mean that there was anything 'hellmouthy' about the break down as the car had acted up before and then started working again just fine after it had cooled down a bit.

Then he'd gotten into a fight with some gang which in hind sight was because the gang leader picked up on the fact that he didn't think they were a danger and took it as an insult. "Humans can also be dangerous" Xander reminded himself. Forgetting that was what got him in this trouble. The gang leader shot him in the shoulder and... Xander's internal review of past events stuttered to a halt. He remembered being hit in the shoulder. He remembered the pain and the spray of blood and the wrenching agony as he used that arm to fight the hoods. He didn't however feel like someone who'd been shot should feel.

Checking His shirt and jacket Xander found two holes in the shirt. One in the shoulder and one in the middle of the chest and one hole in the jacket's shoulder. The shirt was also soaked in blood around the hole in the shoulder and a few stains around the one in the chest. What he didn't find was any scars or signs he'd been hurt. Not even the bruises he'd have expected given how he felt when he ran away from the creature that had taken him.

This changed the situation. He could no longer afford to wait until a reasonable hour to call willow. Picking up the phone he dialed the number he still thought of as Buffy's number the phone was picked up on the first ring and Dawn's voice began to inform him he'd reached the offices of Will o' the Wisp computer resources. Xander didn't bother waiting for the message to run through telling him their office hours and offering to get back to him if he left a message. Instead he hit the asterix sign three times then 666 then the number sign. The automated phone system Willow and Dawn set up accepted the emergency code and after only two rings a breathless Willow answered the phone.

"Yes? What happened? Xander? Are you ok? Where's the apocalypse?"

"Slow down Willow." Xander told her. "I'm in Seacover, I don't think there's an apocalypse but I don't know what happened."