"Because you're that nice of a guy, and I have to try things on."
"Why did I even agree to come here again?"
"Because," Faith said, pointing at their next destination. "I have to try things on."
"Uh uh," Xander said. "No way am I going in there."
"What's wrong, loverboy?" Faith asked. "Don't wanna watch me try on a teddy?"
"I may not be in an actual relationship with Lara or anything," Xander said, "but I feel fairly certain that this would not be the best way to even try to start anything. 'So what did you do this afternoon?' 'Oh, nothing. Just went to the mall with that girl you assumed I was sleeping with and watched her try on lingerie. But there's nothing going on. I swear.' At which point I pick myself up off the floor and wait for the red mark from where she slapped me to go away, and wait for the little red dot from Boxer's laser sight to show up somewhere around my forehead."
"Yeah. And anyway, Robin would be kinda pissed."
"Which is a much better reason than my eventual death," Xander said sarcastically. "Are things any better with him?"
"Yeah," Faith said as they strolled towards the Victoria's Secret. "He called and apologized and everything, and he's supposed to be flyin' out in a couple days. The Hellmouth stuff was, like, real Hellmouth stuff. Demons flyin' everywhere and a couple kiddy Slayers got hurt, so he really hadn't had time to call."
"That does explain a lot," Xander said.
"Yeah," Faith said. "He was real apologetic and promised he'd make it up to me."
Xander nodded, stopped outside the Victoria's Secret and pointed across the hall to the music store. "I'll be there."
"I might be a while," Faith said, with a smirk. "They got lots of slutty stuff to choose from."
"You went to the mall without me?!?"
"Uh, now, Dawn, it wasn't like I—"
"I mean, what, are you totally insensitive?"
"Well, first off, I didn't know—"
"I'm going to have school coming up soon, I so could have used some new outfits. And shoes. And maybe a purse or two. I can't believe –"
"Back off, Pip," Faith said. "My fault. I dragged him."
"And made me your pack horse," Xander said, finally dropping a bunch of bags on the floor of the Hyperion's lobby. "I think you can get this... stuff... up to your room from here."
"Sure thing," Faith said as she gathered the bags and headed up to her room. "Thanks, X."
"Well, when are you going to take me to the mall?" Dawn asked, her arms crossed firmly over her chest.
Xander flopped down on one of the couches in the lobby. "I don't know," he said, realizing that he couldn't very well take Faith and refuse to take Dawn. "I'm kinda wiped from this trip. Ask me again later. Hey, someone toss me a water would you?"
"You see that?" Angel asked Lorne. "Do you think it's something about Sunnydale girls that makes him do things he doesn't want to?"
"Who knows, Sugar Pie?" Lorne responded as he threw a bottle of water from the small refrigerator behind the desk at Xander. "Cordy could do it too, so maybe you're right."
"Stop calling me pastries," Angel muttered.
"Or maybe," Xander said as he caught the bottle, "I just like them better than you."
Dawn stuck her tongue out at Angel and Lorne, an action Lorne returned in kind, forcing Dawn into a fit of giggling.
"Is Gunn still here?" Xander asked, still lying down.
"I think he's upstairs," Angel said. "Why?"
"Cologne, for tonight. I wanna borrow some."
"Tryin' to make an impression?" Angel asked.
"Something like that."
"What's tonight?" Dawn asked cheerily.
"Oh, uh, I kind of have a dinner thing," Xander said.
"Oh? Who with?" Dawn asked, still smiling.
"This woman that I met last night."
Dawn frowned. "Where did you go last night?"
"A bar, I was meeting the rest of my team."
"Oh," Dawn said. "Is she nice?"
"Seems it," Xander said.
Dawn nodded. "Okay."
"Is that... I mean, are you..."
"It's fine," she said. "Well, not fine, but... I mean, just remember your promise."
"Of course," Xander said. "Hey, who's going on your emergency contact form?"
"What?" asked Dawn.
"For school. You said you have school soon. Who's on the form?"
"Oh. Uh, we haven't... I don't know. Angel?"
"Yeah, well, we hadn't really, you know... figured that out yet," Angel said, frowning. "You want it?"
Xander sat up and rolled his neck. "I'd love it, but my schedule's unreliable."
"What do you think, Dawn?" Angel asked.
"How about Lorne?" she asked, drawing a laugh from all involved.
"I think our local Adama isn't quite cut out for the LA public school system."
"They're just still prejudiced against green-skinned, red-horned demons," Lorne said, taking a sip of his drink.
"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of your wardrobe," Xander said. "But yeah, that too."
"Who's Adama?" Dawn asked.
"No!" Angel and Lorne shouted.
Xander grinned. "You're very lucky I don't have a lot of time right now," Xander said. "Otherwise you'd get the full lecture. Suffice to say, Adama was on the series Battlestar Galactica, played by actor Lorne Green."
"Oh," Dawn said, looking at Lorne. "Oh. Got it."
Xander shook his head. "Anyway, you should probably call Buffy on this one," Xander said. "Legal guardian and everything."
"I'll call her later," Angel said.
Xander got up and went to steal Gunn's cologne, then headed home and prepared for his date with Lara.
Xander was relatively happy. The date was nowhere near as awkward as it could have been. It was still very awkward, but considering that she had insulted a comatose friend of his that morning, and he had later gotten into a fight with her brother, well... it wasn't that bad.
"Listen," Lara said after about five solid minutes of awkward silence at the restaurant. "About today. This morning, I mean. I'm... I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have made assumptions. It was... it was wrong, and... well, I just am..."
"Sorry," Xander said, smiling.
Lara nodded, and smiled back.
"It's okay," Xander said. "I mean, no. It's not okay... but I forgive you, or whatever the appropriate thing is. And for the record, I didn't want to fight your brother. I think he's a good cop, I just... the guys tell me that he thinks I'm intruding because of everything that happened with T.J."
"Mike can be... a little overbearing," Lara said.
"I don't hold that against him," Xander said. "Big brothers are supposed to look out for their sisters."
"You a big brother?" Lara asked.
Xander shook his head and looked down at his plate. "No, I'm an only child. Although, I was a kind of a big brother for my friend Willow... until the whole kissing thing, that would just be disturbing. Although now, I'm taking care – sort of – of my other friend's younger sister. Although she has a crush on me, so that's also a little disturbing."
Xander looked up. "I'm an only child, and it's always been that way," he said, smiling.
Lara laughed.
Dinner went much more smoothly from there on out.
After the meal and a hearty dessert, Xander paid the bill and led Lara out to his truck. As they reached his truck, there was a loud disturbance from an alleyway. Xander turned at the noise.
"What was that?" Lara asked.
"I don't know," Xander said, frowning. He opened the passenger door to his truck and pulled out his gun from the glove compartment and tucked it into his waistband, while slipping a stake into his jacket pocket. "Get inside," he said to Lara, handing her the keys. "Lock the door. Don't open it for anyone but me. If a person with a disfigured face comes out of that alley, I want you to leave. Got it?"
"A disfigured face?" Lara asked.
"Gang initiation," Xander said. Lara nodded and slid across to the driver's seat.
"Hey," Lara called, before Xander shut the door.
"Yeah?"
"Be careful," she said, smiling softly at him. Xander smiled back, then closed the door and jogged towards the alley. Lara noticed the glove compartment was still open, and went to shut it, but something caught her eye. She moved some papers out of the way, and saw what looked like two bottles of holy water, a cross and a sharpened stick. "What the hell?" she asked herself, remembering the small bag in his bathroom. She closed the door to the glove compartment and waited for Xander to return.
Xander approached the alley, listening intently. As he heard the sounds of a fight coming from the alley, he slid his gun into the back of his jeans and gripped the stake that was in his jacket pocket.
Xander entered the alley and saw Angel fighting off four different vampires. Utilizing surprise, Xander rushed the one closest to him, impaling its heart on his stake and dusting it. Xander turned to the next one, which had by then reacted to his presence, and ducked a haymaker leveled at him. He grabbed its arm and flung it into the brick wall.
Angel turned and, the odds having become much better, grabbed the nearest vampire and threw it into the last remaining one. He shoved his stake through both of their hearts at the same time, but lost his handle on it, and it dusted with them. He looked up and saw Xander blocking punches from the last vampire. Angel watched in interest as Xander slowly worked his way inside the vampire's defenses. As the vampire reached out with both arms to grapple him, Xander grabbed both its arms, twisted them and head butted the vampire straight in the nose, staggering it back towards the wall. Taking advantage of its momentary stunning, Xander slammed the stake home, turning the vamp to dust.
They both heard footsteps and turned to engage, but relaxed when they saw Gunn and Wesley run into the alley.
"Nice timing, guys," Angel said.
"You tend," Wesley panted, "to run... a bit faster... than us.... Hello, Xander. You know, Angel, if we were integrated with the firm, we would have people who could –"
"Not now, Wes," Angel said.
"Man," Xander said, "you people still know how to ruin a good evening, you know that?"
"You still on your date?" Gunn asked, shouldering his hubcap-turned-axe.
"Just finished dinner," Xander said.
"So the fun's just startin' ain't it?" Gunn asked.
Xander rolled his eyes. "Who were these guys?"
"Don't know," Angel said. "Caught them feeding on a couple of girls down near MacArthur Park. Chased 'em here. Thanks, by the way."
Xander nodded. "Well, I'm going back to my date. You guys have fun."
"Hey, uh, can I borrow your stake?" Angel asked. "I kind of lost mine."
Xander tossed the vampire his stake and walked off, his three friends trailing behind him.
"Oh, I talked to Buffy," Angel said. "She said... um..."
"Oh come on, spit it out," Xander said, waving his arm behind him towards his truck. "I've got a girl waiting."
"She wants you to be the emergency contact guy," Angel said. Xander's face registered shock. "She trusts you to do what's best for Dawn, and thinks Dawn would have the easiest time talking to you about... stuff."
"Oh," Xander said, still frozen from surprise. "You mean despite –"
"Yeah," Angel said. "She said the problems between you and her shouldn't have any effect on what's best for Dawn."
Xander coughed, and shook his head to clear it. "Okay. Sure, yeah. Well, I'm sure I can work around any unreliable schedule problems."
"Tell him the rest," Gunn said.
"Right," Angel said. "She wants you to call her with your answer and also to talk about possibly, uh... maybe making you Dawn's co-guardian, so there's somebody in town who can, you know... sign things, make arrangements for... other things. You know. That kind of stuff."
Xander stared at Angel. For longer than he should have.
"Xander?" Wesley asked, waving his hand in front of Xander's face. "Hello?"
"I think you broke him," Gunn said.
"Well, you're the one who said to tell him," Angel said, poking Xander in the shoulder. "Hey, you in there?"
Xander's body suddenly shook, causing Wes and Angel to take a step back. Xander started laughing. "That was funny," Xander said, as the others laughed nervously, while exchanging expressions of bewilderment. "You had me going there for a minute, Deadboy. That's a good one. Me, in charge of a seventeen year old. Ha!" Xander started to walk off, still chuckling. "I'll drop by in the morning about the emergency contact thing."
"No," Angel said, "It wasn't –"
"Let it go, man," Gunn said, dropping his axe back into his hands. "Give him the night, talk to him in the morning."
Xander walked back to his truck, wavering back and forth between being amused and terrified. As he approached, Lara unlocked the doors and slid back to the passenger side.
"Everything all right?" she asked.
"Oh fine," Xander said with a chuckle. "Just some friends pulling a prank on me."
"They do that often?" Lara asked.
"Once in a while, you know. It happens," Xander said. He smiled. "Especially when they know I'm excited about a girl."
Lara blushed a little. "You scraped your knuckles," she said, looking at his hand as it gripped the steering wheel.
"Huh?" Xander asked, then looked to his hand. "Oh, yeah. I slipped on some trash and instead of opening my hand to the wall, it ended up being more of a punch. I'll be fine."
"Well, I thought I saw some water in here," Lara said, reaching for the glove compartment.
"No!" Xander said, a little too emphatically. "It's all right. No big."
"What was that bit at the end there?" Lara asked, noting Xander's reluctance to open the glove compartment with her in the cab.
"Oh, a friend of ours, her sister is staying in LA for a while, for school. She wants me to be the emergency contact number for the school. You know for, uh..."
"Emergencies?"
"Right. Those. Anyway, we're gonna work out the details in the morning, get Dawn registered for school, that kind of thing."
"Ah," Lara said.
Xander turned to her and smiled. "You ready to get out of here?"
"Sure," Lara said, returning the smile.
Xander put the truck in gear and made his way out of the parking lot, making sure to honk at the three men as they passed. He drove back to Lara's apartment, and walked her to the front step of the building.
"So, do you want to come up?" Lara asked, playing with the top button on Xander's shirt.
Xander smiled. "I would like to," he said.
"But..." she prompted.
"But I really do have to get up in the morning and deal with that stuff. And you never know when Hondo might call."
"What about your beeper?" Lara asked. "I know you have one of those."
"Yeah," Xander said. "I do, but the truth is I probably wouldn't be the best company right now."
"Why not?"
"Well, the guys also told me some other, more personal stuff, that I kind of need to deal with. If I were to come up... well, my mind would be other places. Wouldn't be good for either of us."
Lara sighed. "All right. But, promise me you'll call?"
"I will. I promise," Xander said, before giving Lara a kiss goodnight and heading back to his apartment.
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End Chapter 14