XIX.

Faith, the Vampire Slayer, pushed open the door to apartment B14.

"Yo, uncanny X-Man, what's…" The wisecrack died on her lips. With the speed and agility that showed she was not a 'Potential,' she was not a 'Slayer in Training,' she was the Real Deal, she jumped over the chair that Wood had knocked over and landed next to where the two men grappled over the coffee table.

With a combination of instinct and long practice, she had slid a stake into her hand as she cleared the chair. With the discipline she was finally bringing to her vocation, she noticed two things. Robin was mad, no form, no balance. He just had two handfuls of Xander and was shaking him. Second thing, Xander was letting him.

She flipped the stake in one hand and put the other on Xander's chest, caught the stake reversed and used it to rap Robin smartly on the knuckles. As he released his grip she pushed Xander down into the couch and waved the stake in front of Wood.

"Lucy!" she chided him, "you got some 'splainin' to do!"

Robin looked at her, then back at Xander. He shrugged, rolling his powerful shoulders and settling his jacket down over his lean frame. He wore a leather jacket now instead of his old 3-piece suits. A short tailored jacket in black leather. Faith's influence. Well, Faith and reruns of Avery Brooks on 'Spenser for Hire.' Hawk was just the Man.

"I better explain it," Wood told her. "He'll just go to pieces again, and we might need him before this is fixed. Give him a hand, we'll take your car."

"Where are we going?" she was lifting Xander off the couch, and not needing slayer strength to do it. He was pretty docile, not itself a good sign.

"The dojo. I uh, I think I broke his only chair." He started writing a note to leave on the door as his wife maneuvered Xander down into the car.

Shortly they were heading out to Anaheim in Faith's little SUV. By the time they'd reached the dojo, she had a pretty good idea of what had happened. She whistled appreciatively.

"Gotta give you props, Harris. When you fuck up you go totally balls to the wall, don't you?"

She opened his door and he followed her quietly into the little shop in a strip mall, past the red neon 'open 24 hrs' sign into the main entry. Here a hand printed sign neatly stated "Faith Wood's Dojo: Kempo, Master Sensei Robin Wood. Body Guard services. Herbal remedies." Across the bottom was a red printed notice in a totally different style and font that read "And Color Laser Copies!"

They waved to a Chinese man at the desk who looked like God's older brother. He had a strong face and a long white beard, the end of which he kept tucked in his shirt pocket. He said, "ni hao," absently and went on reading. It was the sixth "Harry Potter," probably the best one, so who could blame him?

They went down the hall and through the doors into the residence, and all three were seated at a low table, Japanese style. Faith eyed Xander while Robin set the table and began to make tea, to some elaborate formula of his own devising. She placed her palms on the table and spoke softly but firmly to him. It was amazing how centered she seemed, so unlike the restless girl Xander had first met off the bus from Boston. There were other changes too of course.

"So as I see it," she said in her business voice, "this is strictly a recovery mission. Find the girl, get her home, let you two make with the nice talk talking, yes?"

"No," Xander said, looking up. "This is not a recovery, it's a rescue. I don't care if she never speaks to me again. Well of course I care. I mean, the number one thing is that she is on the streets. Alone, in a strange city, with no money and thinking that the people who care most about her are just trying to protect her out some sense of duty. Feeling that way, she might do something dangerous just to prove she doesn't need protecting."

"So, if we can get her back to her sister, say, and she tells us not to let you within a mile? You okay with that?"

"Of course I'm not okay!" Xander shouted. He was about to smack his hand down on the table when Robin placed a saucer with a small steaming cup before him. "I'm not okay," he repeated, "but I don't care what happens to me right now, alright."

Faith looked at Robin, shaking her head slowly. "Man, boy's got it bad."

Wood took a sip of his own tea and tipped the cup at her. "You're not wrong."

XX.

October 11.

"One, please." She was standing at the ticket counter looking at the map, and thinking about the emergency money she had slipped into her shorts pocket that morning. Dawn had stopped her wildly successful career in petty theft when she was in junior high, but she still tended to squirrel things away about her person rather than carry the big girly purse. Now she was standing at the bus line station with about fifty-five dollars in cash and a twenty-five-dollar traveler's check she'd been given for graduation.

"Destination?"

"Sunnydale? Um… oh."

"No Sunnydale stops, Hon, those maps are old. New schedule's on the fliers there. So, destination?"

Dawn considered the schedules briefly. As she put her hand in her pocket, she felt the hard rectangle of Xander's credit card. She'd forgotten to return it to him after lunch the day before.

"I'm sorry. I am currently without country," she told the confused ticket seller and she turned away. In minutes she was on the local bus headed to the airport.

An hour later, she was standing at the ATM outside the airport, looking at the credit card as if she could stare it into speaking to her. She was trying to guess Xander's code for cash advance. She'd tried 2-8-3-3 (BUFF) and 2-2-7-4 (CASH) only to be rejected. If she tried another bad code it would take the card. Nothing ventured, she thought. 3-2-9-6 (DAWN).

"Please select withdrawal amount?"

"Xander, you damned fool." She was crying as she took out four hundred, the most it would allow, and headed into the terminal. She was tempted to take the first flight to anywhere, but she knew she had to have a plan.

She looked at the big departure board, and then went to the Frontier Airlines ticket counter.

"Are there any seats left on flight 829 for today?" she asked the man at the desk. He made some quick entries into his computer.

"For what date of return?"

"I won't be coming back."

"Yes, I have a one reserve left, they were just about to open standby."

"How much is that ticket?"

"The fare is 309 with your taxes and fuel surcharge. How would you like to pay for that today?"

"Cash," she said, pushing some bills and her ID over the counter to him.

XXI.

October 12.

Xander had spent the night with the Woods, trying to devise a strategy for finding Dawn. Faith had finally pushed her fingers through her dark hair, which she now wore in a short soccer-mom bob, and glared at Xander.

"Harris," she'd told him, "We're taking you home. You're no good to us here in the state you're in. Be there if she comes home or calls, and get yourself some rest." They'd dropped him off and picked up Robin's car.

Now Xander was looking at the phone and trying to figure out what he was going to tell Buffy. The phone rang in his hand and he immediately answered it, tying to stay calm.

"Hello?"

"Hello Xander? It's Buffy." She sounded concerned. Great. Word must have spread already. "I heard about what's going on in California, and I wanted you to know we're sending some people. Are you okay?"

"It's been a rough couple days… And thanks for the support, but I'm not sure how much the Watchers' Council can do…"

"Oh didn't you hear? That would be Slayers' Council, now. We actually outnumber them, at least for the time being. We have some good people coming there, should get everything squared away. And if not, hey, I always knew you and I had one more fight coming."

"Buff, I'm sorry. You have to know that. If I could undo this I would, but I don't want to fight you, I just want it over."

"Fight me? What are you talking about? I was talking about us fighting together, like old times. Xander?"

"If anything happens to Dawn you know that I would…" he began.

"Dawn?" she interrupted. "What happened to Dawn? Is she there? What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Dawn being missing. What are you talking about?"

"Some sort of Zombie army that's been building in Beverly Hills… back up! Dawn is missing from where since when?"

It took a while but they finally sorted out that Giles and Buffy had been trying to reach him to talk about some Zombie issue in the 90210, and had no clue that Dawn was even staying with him that week. He managed to give Buffy the bare details without going into any of the more troubling issues.

"So, you and Dawnie had a fight, and she ran away? That is so like her." Buffy sounded a little exasperated but not too concerned. "Let's just hope she stays out of Beverly Hills."

"Buff," said Xander "I love you, and will never forget you for saving my life and the whole world numerous times, but some times you really piss me off."

"Me? What did I do?" She sounded shocked, and hurt.

"Did you know Dawn was even here? No, you thought she was still at school. You told us once you wanted to show her the world, to see her grow up, to be there for her… Well guess what, you missed it. We all did. She grew up anyway, and there has been no one there for her. I'm living with that right now and I think it's time you started living with it too."

"Xander…" She didn't know what to say. Her life was complicated, and hard, and she had been distracted, on her own journey of cookie-dough baking personal discovery. She'd always thought there would be plenty of time with Dawn afterwards.

"Like I said, I love you, Buff. But do me a favor? You and your Council go fight zombies or do whatever it is you guys do now to stop the world from ending. As long as you keep the world running, I'm going to focus on living in it." He broke the connection and stared into space for a minute.

"Okay. I'm eighteen. I want to run away and I have some cash and my ID but nothing else but the clothes on my back… Hey!" He pulled out his wallet, thumbed through. "And my boyfriend's credit card, the boyfriend I am angry and hurt by. What do I do next?"

He made a call, and hit some bureaucracy. "Mr. Harris, we show a cash withdrawal at Orange County airport, but if the card has been stolen we can happily cancel it and issue you a new card…"

"It's not stolen, don't shut it off! It's just my… uh, my fiancée has it and I need to know if she's made any charges… wherever it is she went."

"Sir, if you want to add your fiancée to your account we will need to issue her a card in her name, sir. Let me transfer you to account management…"

"No wait, don't…" It was too late. He finally just had them make up a second card in his name he could pick up at the credit union before lunch.