"Hey," she said, sitting next to him.
"Hey," he replied, not facing her.
"So, that was… interesting."
Xander nodded. "Yeah. I imagine it was."
"So…"
"Yeah?" Xander asked.
"I should probably be asking something about… Faith, and Robin, and just how you managed to get involved."
"Okay."
"There's really only two things that cross my mind. One, if you'd do that for Faith, is it any wonder I trust you with Dawn?"
Xander smiled, still looking at the ground. "And two?"
"Am I still one of your girls?"
Xander looked up at Buffy and saw sincerity in her eyes.
"Of course you are," he said, wrapping his arm around her. Buffy rested her head against his shoulder. They sat on the steps, watching the cars drive by in the distance, at the end of the long driveway, enjoying, for the first time in a while, each others' presence.
"I've missed you," Buffy said.
"I missed you, too," he said.
The door behind them opened, and both Xander and Buffy turned to see Robin standing there.
"I uh… I'd like to apologize…" he started.
"I'm not the one you insulted," Xander interrupted. "Don't make it up to me, make it up to her." He turned back to the street, and felt Buffy turn beside him as well. They heard the door click shut behind them, and sat together in the late morning sun.
"Have you guys seen Xander?" Willow asked. She was in the mansion's rec room where a group of slayers were playing Dance Dance Revolution on the PlayStation 2. It was an exercise in redundancy. They all got perfect scores.
"Who's Xander?" one of them asked.
"You know, the guy? Showed up yesterday with Dawn? Some of you met him in LA, he was a cop?"
"Ohh," a couple of them said, grins on their faces as they remembered him. "Him."
"He's here?" one girl asked.
"Oh, I saw some guy I didn't know storm out of Giles office earlier," said one girl. "Buffy chased after him."
"Any idea where they went?" Willow asked.
The girl shrugged. "I dunno. But Robin came out a few minutes later with a growing bump on his cheek, and he was rubbing his throat."
"Weird," Willow said. "Well, thanks."
Willow left the rec room and continued looking through the mansion.
"Willow?"
The redhead turned around and saw Dawn behind her, looking confused.
"Yeah, Dawnie?" Willow asked.
"Where's Buffy and Xander?"
"I have no idea. And it's 'where are.'"
"Whatever, I don't start school for a while," Dawn said.
"Well, one of the girls saw somebody who was probably Xander leaving Giles' office. Maybe he knows."
The two girls made their way towards Giles' office, where they found the man sitting behind his desk, sipping at a glass of scotch.
"Isn't it kind of early for that?" Dawn asked.
"Mmm," Giles said. "Yes, it probably is. However, it is, I feel, justified."
"Hey," Willow said, "how come Judy saw Robin leaving here bruised and rubbing his neck?"
"Probably because Xander and I both assaulted him," Giles said. He then filled both Dawn and Willow in on the events of the morning.
"He actually called her that?" Willow asked.
"It would appear so, yes," Giles said.
"So that's why he couldn't go out," said Dawn.
"What?" Willow asked.
"Well, Lorne read them a couple days ago," she said.
"Them?" Giles asked.
"Oh, the whole SWAT team, Xander, Gunn and Faith. Anyway, Lorne said something to Xander and Faith, I think about them having some destiny they have to complete… being together to defeat some big bad."
"What does that have to do with Xander not going out?"
"Faith was in a bad mood. So when the rest of us were going to go watch Oz play at this club – "
"Wait, Oz?" Willow asked.
"Oh. Yeah. He's kind of staying with Angel for a while. Showed up in LA pretty recently, but he's been hanging out with Devon a lot. Anyway, we were all going to go watch, but Xander had to stay and deal with Faith. Or at least, that's what Lorne said."
"Why?" Giles asked.
"I don't know. Just did."
"Well, anyway, do you know where they are?" Willow asked. "Xander and Buffy, I mean."
"No," Giles said. "I've not seen them since."
"I've looked everywhere in the mansion," Willow said, pouting. "I think we lost them."
"If you have looked everywhere in the mansion, then where else can they be?" Giles asked, pointedly.
"Uh… not in the mansion?" Willow asked. Giles continued looking at her. "Oh! Outside, right. I knew that. Thanks, Giles."
The older man nodded at the two young women, who stood up to leave. Willow left the room, happy to have somewhere else to search for her friends, but Dawn paused for a moment.
"You okay, Giles?" she asked, concern creasing her features.
"Yes, thank you. I'm quite all right."
"Okay," Dawn said. She turned to leave, then thought better of it. She slipped behind Giles' desk, gave the man a hug and a kiss on the cheek, then followed Willow, leaving a smiling Giles in her wake.
Almost as soon as she left the room, Giles' phone rang.
"Ah ha!"
Buffy and Xander turned around and saw Willow had poked her head out the front door, and the rest of the redheaded witch soon followed, with Dawn a few steps behind.
"You guys have been hiding!" Willow accused.
"Will, we've been sitting here for like an hour," Buffy said.
"Doing what?" Dawn asked.
"Talking," Xander said.
"And seeing how far we can throw pebbles," said Buffy, pointing to numerous little rocks that were scattered along the walkway.
"Just talking?" Willow asked.
"Well," said Xander, "we considered discussing our plans to destroy and/or take over the world, but then we'd just have to kick our own asses, and that's more trouble than it's worth."
"What with the weird bending," Buffy said, nodding.
"So what's up?" Dawn asked.
"Just enjoying the day," Xander said.
Willow and Dawn sat on the steps, Dawn next to her sister and Willow next to Xander, and the four of them sat there, throwing pebbles, talking and enjoying the warm summer sun.
The door opened behind them, and all four turned and saw Giles step out onto the front porch.
"Xander," he said, his face very serious.
"Yeah?" Xander asked, looking up.
"You need to come inside. Angel's on the phone."
"Is everything okay?" Xander asked. He, and the girls around him all rose to their feet.
Giles opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He closed his mouth and tried again. "You need to take the call in my office."
Xander, not liking the look in Giles' eyes and the tone of his voice, hurried inside to the office and picked up the phone.
"Angel? What's going on? Is everyone okay?" he asked.
Xander stood there, the phone to his ear, as the girls filed into Giles' office, waiting patiently to see what was going on. Slowly, a look of shock came over Xander's face.
"She what?" he asked.
Willow and Buffy both looked to Dawn, concernedly. The young woman merely shrugged her ignorance. The three of them looked back to Xander, and a saw a smile was slowly forming on his face. The girls shared another look between them, and when they looked back, Xander's smile had turned into a full-blown grin.
"Hey," he said happily, holding the phone to his shoulder. "You guys feel like moving this party to LA?"
Approximately nine hours later
Xander strode into the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart, followed by three young women who were among the most important in his life, and a man who had for years been a mentor. With the confidence of someone who knew the inside of the building like they had, on occasion, broken into it, Xander led the group to the elevator and up to the thirtieth floor.
They were greeted, upon their arrival, by the sight of a bustling crew of people moving about the various rooms with boxes, files and documents, some furniture and, not infrequently, mystical artifacts. Xander grabbed a random person and demanded to know where Angel's office was.
The man's eyes widened and, shifting his burden in one arm, he pointed to a set of double doors. Xander nodded and walked in the direction indicated, the girls following close behind. Without knocking, Xander pushed the doors open and strode into the office, a grin crossing his face as he did so. The group looked around for a second, before their eyes settled on a young woman sitting with her back facing them.
Xander cleared his throat, and the young woman turned around. A grin forced itself onto her face. She stood and rushed across the room, to be met halfway by Xander and wrapped in a bear hug. Xander twirled her around a couple of times, before setting her back down on the ground, laughing. They considered each other for a moment, before embracing one more time.
Pulling away, Xander looked in her eyes and shook his head.
"You don't ever scare us like that again," he ordered her. "You get me?"
"Trying to tell me what to do, huh? Just who do you think I am, buster?"
Xander laughed and hugged the woman one more time. "It's great to have you back with us, Cordy," he said. "God, I missed you."
"Hey," Willow said from behind him. "Stop hogging ex-coma girl."
Xander broke away from his long-time friend, to let her be surrounded by yet more long-time friends. Xander looked to where Angel was leaning against his desk, and moved to join the vampire. The two of them watched the girls talking and hugging and generally getting reacquainted.
"Where's everyone else?" Xander asked.
"Well," Angel said. "Lorne's out talking to some underworldy contacts, Gunn is asleep because of this thing we killed last night. It kind of stabbed him in the stomach, and he's on bed-rest. Oz is… well, I don't really know what he's doing, and Wesley and Fred are doing a bit of research."
"Those two are spending an awful lot of time together, recently," Xander noted. "So. How did she wake up?"
"That's the thing," Angel said, his voice dropping almost to a whisper. "Wes finally convinced me that we need to move into the offices. Something about being able to run a company better if we're actually at the company."
"Imagine that," Xander said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Anyway, we start moving things into the offices, and bam, all of a sudden, she's awake. It's a little suspicious," Angel said. "That's what Wes and Fred are looking into. How did the papers work out?"
"Giles is having a third party look into them. Once that's done, that guy Andrew's going to have them sent to the hotel by courier, and we'll get it all signed and notarized. Do you wish you'd moved in sooner?"
Angel shook his head. "We had no way of knowing this would happen. It's possible, albeit unlikely, that it's a coincidence. Not knowing what would happen, it's good that we waited until we were ready. That said, of course I wish I had. All those months without her, hoping, wondering, worrying…"
Xander nodded silently. "How quickly after you started moving in?"
"Minutes," Angel said. "Maybe half an hour after Wes and I walked in the doors, Fred got a call at the hotel. After a few hours of talking and catching her up on stuff, well, we've been working ever since."
Xander sighed. "Nothing's ever easy here, is it?"
"Wouldn't be us if it were," Angel said. He stood up fully. "Hey, have you guys eaten?" he asked of the whole group.
"There was a snack on the flight," Giles said. "But nothing of any significance."
"We haven't eaten either," Angel said. "Should we go out? Evil law firm's treat."
"Ooh, dirty money food," Willow said. "That's the best kind."
Angel smiled, walked up and wrapped his arm around Cordelia's waist, holding the woman close to him, bringing forth her million-dollar smile. Buffy was a little dismayed to see how easily and comfortably the former cheerleader leaned into Angel's side, her head resting on his shoulder.
Noticing Buffy's disturbed expression, Xander strode forward and slung an arm over both Buffy's and Dawn's shoulders, and led them out of the office in much the same way Angel had, with Willow and Giles following behind them. Xander knew, of course, that Buffy's Angel issues would need dealing with, but hoped to put that off until at least the next day.
Ignoring the problem for the moment, Xander concentrated on the fact that Cordelia was awake, and followed the vampire with a smile on his face.
"Hey," he called out, catching Angel's attention. "Let's swing by the hotel, pick up Faith, and Oz if he's around."
He failed to notice when Buffy's frown deepened.
End Chapter 23