I went to the Harris house, which was two doors down from the Rosenberg house. The houses were essentially of identical design, but the Harris house was not nearly so well maintained.

The door was opened by a man who smelled strongly of beer, cigarettes, and Fritos. Just under middle height, with a substantial beer belly, he was dressed in a white t-shirt and dirty grey slacks. He was barefoot, and his hair was mussed even though it smelled of hair gell, and dirty enough I that couldn't be sure of the color. He looked like Xander Harris might have looked if he was thirty years older, showered once a week, and spent all the time he wasn't in the shower on the couch. Behind him, there was a reclining/rocking chair still rocking, and there were Fritos on it, and several beer cans. There were also Frito crumbs on his shirt, but I didn't see any mushrooms growing on him. From the back of the house, I smelled bacon and eggs cooking, even though it was seven o'clock in the evening.

"Are you Mr. Harris?"

"Who wants to know?"

"I do."

"Huh?"

"No, that's not right. You're supposed to say 'and who the hell are you?'"

"Who the hell cares? You sellin' somethin'? 'Cause I ain't buyin' nothin'."

"No, I'm just canvassing the neighborhood counting Frito crumbs on T-shirts. So far, you win. You have 24."

He started to close the door. I blocked it with my foot. He looked at me, and at my foot, then turned around and started to go back into the house. Xander came out of the back into the living room wearing an apron.

"Dad, dinner's ready." He looked past his dad and saw me. "And Mr. Spenser, what are you doing here?"

"I came up with another question to ask you."

"Dad, your dinner's in the kitchen. I need to talk with this guy." Xander took off his apron.

"Where're you goin'?" The elder Harris jerked his head towards me. "He a cop?"

"Yeah Dad, he's a police officer. He's taking me away 'cause I stole a missile launcher from Fort Wilkins."

"Well, I ain't payin' your bail if he arrests you." With that, the elder Harris left us.

Xander and I walked to the sidewalk.

"Heard you makin' fun of my Dad," Xander said.

I felt bad, particularly in light of what I was going to ask him.

"Shit. I'm sorry," I said. "I sometimes have a reputation for going into smartass mode too easily."

"Hey, no problem," Xander said. "I'm just jealous because I can't make fun of him to his face without getting the shit smacked out of me. Besides which, he was giving you such good setup lines."

"He hit you a lot?"

"Not as much as he used to," Xander said. "Just don't offer to have the 'lay off Xander' talk with him. Buffy's already made that offer."

"Maybe I'd be less embarrassing."

"Yeah, but 'less embarrassing' is still embarrassing."

We walked in silence around the first corner of the block.

"So what did you want to ask me?" Xander said.

"When you talked with Buffy at the hospital, she told you to stay put, which you were going to do."

"Right."

"Then Willow tells you she's going to retry the spell to restore Angel's soul, and she asks you to find Buffy and tell her what she's doing. You go and find Buffy, and she enlists your help to rescue Giles."

"Yeah," Xander said. He made the "yeah" into two syllables, "yea" and "uh".

"Only one thing is bothering me. What was the actual message you relayed to Buffy, if you gave her any at all?"

Xander looked at me as if I had just threatened to shoot him.

"God, I suck," he said. I could barely hear what he said next. "I told Buffy that Willow said…to kick his ass."

"That doesn't sound like Willow," I said.

"Usually no, although there are times that the Willster will surprise you. Like when you tell her about what I really said. She may look and act really sweet, but she can really hold a grudge. She finds out what I really said, I can pretty much guarantee she won't speak to me….as in ever again."

"I have no intention of saying anything to Willow," I said. "Why did you decide not to give Buffy Willow's actual message?"

Xander ducked his head and shook it. "I dunno. Jealous I guess."

"Of Angel?"

"Of Angel. Of Buffy. I mean, I got a great girlfriend now, and I'm not really still hoping for something with Buffy."

"But you did."

"Ohhhhhh yeah. Anyway, it's more the fact, I think, that Buffy chose a two hundred and fifty year old vampire over me that…that got under my skin. And the idea of Buffy going back to Angel after the things he did…."

"So you were being petty."

"The pettiest. Spenser, I know you think I am a complete asshole, and you're right. What I did was horrible."

"Maybe not," I said. "What was the reason for you going to meet Buffy?"

"Well, Willow sent me. I told you that."

"So that you could tell her about the plan to restore Angel's soul."

"Well…that was the plan anyway."

"Would you have run all that way, from the hospital to the outskirts of town, just to deliver a lame lie?"

"No," Xander said. "I was going to tell her…Buffy…exactly what Willow told me to tell her. But when I saw her…"

"When you saw her?"

"I was so upset about the idea of Angel getting off the hook for everything he did that I just…."

"Xander, were you upset about the idea of Angel 'getting off the hook' before you saw Buffy?"

"Well yeah."

"So again, what changed? It wasn't your animosity towards Angel. That was already there."

Xander closed his eyes. "I saw her…Buffy….walking alone, carrying a sword. She was going up against God knew how many vampires, including three really powerful ones, but she looked like…like she was ready, ready to go in and win. I've seen her look determined before, but I never saw her look like that."

"So why didn't you tell Buffy Willow's real message?"

"Because….because….I think because I thought she would lose her edge if I did." Xander looked at me. "Hey, do you think maybe I did the right thing after all, maybe even for the right reasons?"

"I don't know about the reasons, but for what it's worth, I think you did do the right thing," I said. "I think if you had relayed Willow's actual message, Buffy probably would have been killed. Her attention would have been divided between winning the fight and keeping Angel alive long enough for Willow's spell to work. The odds were already long enough without dividing her attention."

"Wow," said Xander.

"However, I also think you should tell Willow what you did," I said.

"And get on Willow's bad side for life?" Xander said. "Not a chance."

"Then you better hope she never finds out on her own," I said. "Particularly since someday Willow and Buffy are probably going to compare notes about that night."

"Oh man I hope not," Xander said. Then he looked at me. "Wait a minute! Are you thinking that you're going to be finding Buffy soon?"

"I think I'm getting close," I said.