With a Father's Love
By Teri
Summary: We know Xander has loved Buffy since he first saw her, but what if it was a different kind of love? Sound a little odd? You might be surprised how well the pieces fit. Come on, you know you are curious. Aren't you? Rated: PG
Warnings: Hank/Joyce - Post-Chosen with some flashbacks
Chapter 8: A Little Rayne Must Fall
"However, your plan will cause a good amount of Chaos. It will have the Watchers and the Powers so confused. It'll be fun. So, I'm in. You just found the man who can help you." He smiled genuinely this time. "By the way, my name is Ethan Rayne."
"Ethan!" Giles was all but shouting. "Ethan is involved with this!"
"Yeah, he was and it was the only reason I didn't feed him to some demon after the band-candy incident."
The mere mention of the candy incident took the wind out of Giles' bluster. "So, Ethan made you a teenager?"
Xander merely nodded his head.
"Xander? How did you manage to so integrate yourself into Sunnydale? Willow tells so many stories of the two of you as children and the feelings her memories produce enough feeling for you that you were the only one able to help her when she was so far gone. I never heard of a memory spell being so encompassing, even one of Ethan's?"
"Oh, that's an easy one. We did grow-up together." Xander smiled at the look on Giles' face.
"You mean Willow is involved with this . . . whatever this is?" He looked absolutely astounded.
"Wills is just what she seems. No, she didn't grow up with me. What I meant to say is I grew up with her."
Giles was confused.
"See, I learned enough about Slayers to realize that if reality were altered to much she would know it - sense it. Maybe not on a conscious level, but at some level. The feeling would be enough to keep her from trusting me. I couldn't have that."
"I don't think I understand." Giles said carefully. In truth, he had an inkling of what Xander was leading up to, but it was so hard to contemplate.
"I think you do, but for clarity sake. I couldn't just appear in Sunnydale when she did, appearing to be her age. I needed to fit in, BE that age. I needed to belong in that place and time and not be out of place creating ripples in the natural order." Xander paused and stood.
He began to pace as he continued. "We tried to see other ways around it. My original hope had been a way that I could be both father and friend. A way that if I ate the yellow M&M I would be her age and all I needed to do was pop a blue one to be back to normal. However, it wasn't going to work that way. My visions, Joyce's research, and Ethan's knowledge all said that same thing. I needed to go back. Ethan knew a spell that could do it, send me back to the past, make me belong to the time period, and make me the appropriate age."
Xander looked over at Giles. "Of course, there was a catch."
Giles knew there would be. Magic always sought a balance. It wasn't meant to be easy.
"The spell would require that I was well established in the time line. It also would last for twenty years, not a day more and not a day less. There would be no going back and forth. Ethan knew no other way."
"How could you trust Ethan?"
"Joyce and I honestly believed him, I still do even after everything, but the truth was even if he was lying to us we didn't have many other options. We knew I had to fit-in. Buffy's safety was always our first priority. Nothing else mattered." Xander stopped pacing and sat once more. "We knew that slayers became inactive after 10 years, not that any lived that long anymore. Of course, we planned for Buffy to change that."
"What?" Giles interrupted. He had never heard that before.
"You didn't know?" Xander was just a surprised.
"No. I didn't."
"It's true. Keep their 'powers' but whatever makes them 'the slayer' goes away and vampires and demons see them as nothing more than normal women."
Xander smiled at the look on Giles' face. He really didn't know.
"For a lot of reasons, it was decided I would start life again at age 3, just in time to start pre-school with the other kids. Ethan went back with me and turned me over to social services. I had only been with Tony and Jessica Harris a week when I first met Willow. She looked so hurt and alone. I was definitely alone and knew I would be for another 12 years or so. She was smarter than your average 3-year-old, which was good since I was hardly average. It seemed a perfect match. She was always so sad and I always tried to cheer her up and hence goofy Xander was born."
"Amazing."
I hope someone enjoyed the update.
Teri 9/11/04
