Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and the Lorimar characters aren't mine either and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine.
This is dedicated to those of you who watched the show.
SHS Principal's Office, November 4th, 1997, 7:55 AM
Alexander walked up to the secretary's desk, and for the first time he could remember the woman smiled brightly at him, "Hello, Alexander, the Snapping Turtle isn't in today; apparently he's taken a sick day for some reason."
"I'm pained," he smiled back, a little shyly, "Hey, did the approval for my class restructuring go through yet?"
"Oh yes! And Willow Rosenberg's too. Also, the test days and such are there also, in calendar format."
"Why thank you, I appreciate it," he smiled again as he looked it over, and placed it in a folder, "Have a great day, now."
Xander had a great time heading to computer class, showing up and after waving Willow forward and talking to Miss Calendar, they both left class to the amazement of the other students.
"Well, Willow, did you have a chance to ask your parents?"
"About the school and everything? Yes. But not about the money. But I think you have that handled already. At least once you get some one old enough to legally sign the business contracts with vendors, we'll be good to go. Or if you incorporate, which requires a couple adults, you could have them appoint you as manager with the authority. That way as long as you're paying on delivery and not in arrears, they can sell to you."
"I love your brain, Willow," the young man smiled at his best friend and business partner, 'if only I could get the dominatrix image out of my own brain…'
She beamed at him, 'Getting closer, my captain, maybe I really ought to switch into the dominatrix costume sometime. He doesn't know I had it on when I asked him, and changed at the last second.'
The business day was a little slow, but just as well since the two students plotted out and scheduled their study times, business hours and even Buffy and Slayer time for the next eight months. Ethan's records had been surprisingly exemplary, and with only their own adjustments, the inventory, shrinkage and minor details were soon squared away by lunch. And Xander noticed Willow seemed to be scooting by him and just managing the occasional contact as they passed. And while she seemed oblivious, his older-guy Darien memories assured him that he was clearly under attack. Those memories also suggested that redheads with green eyes were very much attractive.
Alexander turned the out to lunch sign around at one o'clock, having decided that people on their own lunch hours might actually want to shop in the costume store; four did.
They business couple entered the empty store Xander had added to his part of the settlement, and it seemed intact, very recently remodeled including paint, and ready for occupancy.
"Hmm, Willow? Want to have lunch with me?" Alexander asked, maybe a little reticent. She turned at the semi-formal nature of the question.
"Sure, Alexander, I'd love to. But why the formality?"
"Because it's semi-date-like?"
"Semi?"
"I'm not quite sure of the signals being sent, and I'm not sure which are my preferences or Darien's…so is 'semi' okay for now?"
"But definitely date-like?"
"Yeah…"
She hugged him close, a little more so than expected, and beamed, "I'd love to."
As he watched her head back to the other store to freshen up, he wondered, 'I wonder what a full date gets me.'
Blushing, he followed, 'Bad Alexander…'
They'd gone to the little Italian Bistro that had always seemed to be a bit pricey, but Alexander could only smile at how much his Willow enjoyed the lunch and the Italian soda afterwards.
They reached the store, and reopened it, Willow agreeing to cover the register and work out technical stuff with Selma as Xander looked over Selma's floor plans for if the magic store owner were willing to sell. He noted the improved fixture and inventory relocations based on popularity, volume, profitability and two hundred more years of esthetic research. She'd also included variations on what to do with the very large space above the three units, possible living space, storage space, and small police raining facility. She'd even considered amounts of materials, costs, labor and what Darien would have been able to handle with his skill set to minimize his profile in Sunnydale. Happily, after electric and power were contracted out, it would take several months but he could probably do all of the rest himself. His Xanderness felt good about doing it by hand, that way it all wouldn't seem like they were cheating. Willow smiled when he'd told her this an hour or so later.
"So I get to watch you all manly and sweaty with your shirt off and hand you a cold one?" she smiled teasingly, and leaned into his side as she looked at the lists of materials and figures, "'cause I vote for that. And you're right about it almost feeling like cheating, but with this whole retail stuff and your building the place, it feels good, ya know?"
Buffy and Giles walked into the store a few minutes later to find Xander's arm lingering around Willow's back as they looked up from the prints Selma had printed on the large plotter the AI had ordered and rush-delivered with a bunch of other computer equipment, much of it that new wireless people were starting to talk about, as well as cabling and switching.
"Hey guys," Buffy smiled at what looked like the early stages of couple-hood, giving her best female friend a knowing look, "Whatcha looking at?"
Willow understood the look and smiled back, "Oh, we're going to put in a computer network, with like a catalog with pictures and prices, so people can look up to see what we have in stock, and what they can order through us if we don't."
"I say, something useful from that infernal machine," Giles nodded with approval, "and if you keep it simple I dare say it should be successful."
Xander nodded, "Well what brings you by so soon after school?"
Buffy looked up from where her and Willow had started to whisper, "Oh, just wanted to see how the two shopkeepers were doing; it's the talk of school. And without Spike to worry about, I'm hoping for a slow week until the next vampire decides to make himself boss-vamp."
Xander cocked an eyebrow in her direction, causing her to confess, "Plus I have to catch up girl-gossip with Willow; haven't seen her much since Halloween. And Giles wanted to talk to you about something boring."
"Excuse me," Giles rolled his eyes and chose to further ignore the teenaged girl, then gestured to the back of the store, "But she is correct, Xander. I would like to discuss some things with you."
"Sure G-Man," the youth replied loud enough for Buffy to hear and smile about as they headed into the back room and close the door. "So, Dr. Giles, what would you like to discuss?"
"I merely wished to ascertain how you and Willow are faring. I take it both of you are retaining everything so far…"
"I haven't noticed any reduction, and she doesn't seem to, why?"
"Well, Buffy has today made the re-acquaintance of a former schoolmate. Since this is the Hellmouth, I wondered if you could, um, use your investigative skills to see if his arrival at this time is mere coincidence."
"We can do that, Giles, but you seem a little more concerned."
"Well, I've considered that Buffy's costume would carry with it not only very few useful skills, but negative personality traits. I'd like to make sure that you and Willow aren't going to suddenly fade out from her socially, as if such traits linger, they might become reinforced by isolation."
"Wow, Giles, that's incredibly insightful, and not just in a Watcher-Slayer way."
"Well, with you and Willow both likely to maintain your gifts due to the proximity to the statue, after Buffy excelled on her French test today, I have no choice but to widen my area of concern."
Alexander smiled, "And you're welcome to do so, Giles. While I now have much more experience because of the memories, you have more direct experience from the point of view of this world in particular. And I can't think of a better mentor for the three of us to have. So Willow and I will do a full background check and hopefully will have something for you tomorrow. Do you have a name?"
"Billy Fordham, he's matriculating at Sunnydale." Giles waited a moment as Xander wrote it down.
"I'm not going to …touch that one, Giles."
"I just had to be sure there was something of the old you in there."
"Well, the best way to describe it, is that after twenty years as an Interpol officer, I suddenly went back in time to my earlier self and can't remember the events themselves afterwards."
"A forty year old now plagued by his teenaged body? You poor bas—never mind, but that does rather describe it quite well. But Willow…"
"Um, then continuing our analogical construct, then I not knowing of events, I'm pretty sure she was my wife or long-term girlfriend during that time and I'm not willing going to give up the relationship of my life due to the weirdness of it all? Since…I'm a young guy that now has skills and a dress sense."
"Hmm, very well, it at least makes it easier in terms of how to speak with you on matters."
"If they still show the reruns of Time Trax at ten on Fridays, you could watch them and compare."
"Oh well, thank you for your candor," Giles nodded as they shook hands and entered the front of the store again. Buffy smiled and looked up.
"What were you two talking about?"
"Giles figured he needed to step in and give me 'the Dad' speech about taking care of one of his daughters," Xander smiled disingenuously close to the truth, but making it look like his relationship with Willow was the issue, "The usual bodily harm and avoidance thereof."
Buffy laughed and grabbed her mentor's arm as they left to get some training done. She turned to Willow, "Remember, tonight at the Bronze, okay?"
"Do you do that all the time? The near-truth thing?"
"Only so I don't have to lie or betray confidences," he shrugged, then filled her in on Giles' request, "So what did Buffy have to say?"
"Well…" Willow drew out the word, "She's happy that we're an almost-couple, but she saw Angel with a vampiress that he knew who was wearing clothes like from the last century, so maybe she's an old flame, so Buffy's a little down."
"Hmm, while I don't like the corpsy one at all, if it was that far back it would have been Angelus the Bitey and not Angel the Broody. Which begs the question of why he'd just talk with her."
"I don't know, you want me to research this Billy Fordham?"
"Yeah," Xander nodded as he reached to a coat rack and put on his Flying Tigers coat, "Do you need Selma?"
"I don't think so, so please take her with you so she can get out a little more…"
A prim female voice sounded quite amused, "I assure you, Willow, that while I don't really need to 'get out a little' I do appreciate the sentiment."
"You're welcome, Selma. Do you need a hug?"
Xander looked both amused and surprised at this statement, as well as Selma's, "No, not right now, I'm still processing the information and my reactions. I'd rather not risk a processor overload, however pleasant, until we know more."
"Okay, just let me know, okay?"
"Thank you, Willow," the AI replied almost emotionally, "Signing off."
"Wow, what was that about?" Xander asked quietly, "If it's not too personal to share?"
"Oh, it's just that whenever I switch, I can do it very quickly, and since we discovered that in holo-form I can 'touch' Selma, we're seeing how much overlap we may have exchanged since that night. And hugs are good, but we don't want to rush her."
"Willow, that's wonderful," he smiled, "Please give her a light one from me the next time you contact. Oh, well, I guess I better go."
"What are you doing, Cap'n," she said, smiling as she sorta caught her term of address for him, "Anything to do with Billy Fordham?"
"Maybe, I was thinking that since he doesn't really do anything else, we could put Angel on the payroll, have him gather information on the human criminals in this area, as well as the ones we're getting to know already. Maybe put him to use making contacts, running errands and doing research."
"I thought you hated him?"
"Hmm, since Darien's visit, it's complicated."
"How so?"
"Well, it used to be his vampire mom killed our brother Jesse," he spoke slightly sadly, causing Willow to understand a lot of things, "And when I had the hots for Buffy, the fact that she fell for a cryptic non-fighting corpse that was in his twenties when he died, didn't sit well. And vampire."
"And now?"
"I feel the same way, but I have a better perspective, but that doesn't mean we can't keep track of his almost every moment by employing him, and mutually benefit from it."
"What about Buffy?"
"I don't understand," he smiled with a slight head shake.
"She cares about him."
"Big yuck factor, but yeah, I know. I'm hoping this Ford guy turns out to be legit; a human boyfriend for her, and a vampire with a soul employee for us."
The knocking at the door at 3:30 in the afternoon greatly started Angel, and he was very surprised to see a well-dressed Xander Harris standing in wait.
"May I come in?" the young man asked without insulting nickname, so Angel politely gestured him in, "How have you been?"
"Um, fine, I guess, what brings you by so … courteously?"
"Business proposition, actually," the human smiled back, "something to pass the time for you as well." He explained the framework he'd considered, and honestly revealed his thinking except for the Buffy getting a human boyfriend hope of his, "So would you be interested? If you're sincere about the whole redemption thing, it's something you should consider."
"I'd work for you?"
"As odd as it is, yes, but only as a subcontractor as I outlined," Alexander pointed out, "You aren't the janitor or the sidekick."
Angel looked thoughtful and pensive at the same time, "Just who was it again you dressed as on Halloween that let you kill Spike?"
"A cop from two hundred years in the future, but your question reminds me…female, dark hair, dresses like it was the 19th century, you know her from your Angelus days, is in Sunnydale?"
"Oh," the vampire sighed with a hint of sadness; something about the calm and currently non-offending new Xander made it easier to discuss matters, "When I was evil…"
"I need to interrupt and ask a question, if I may…were you evil, were you just a soul sitting in the background watching it happen, or is the soul a separate person and you weren't there but you have the memories?"
"Um, the last one, but with the memories…it seems like me."
"Okay, thanks for making that clear, Angel," Xander smiled reassuringly, "but could you phrase it, 'when Angelus was running around' or something like that? Since it wasn't you actually doing what you were about to describe."
The soul in the vampire considered things for a minute, "Alright, when Angelus was in his heyday, he drove a woman about to take holy orders insane, and she was a seer. Then he turned her. Her name is Drusilla and she's the one you described. Why?"
"No soul, and if that's Drusilla she's probably going to figure out I dusted Spike. So we need to dust her before she goes after Willow or Buffy in retaliation."
"I, uh…"
"Feel so guilty you're not sure if you can?"
Angel nodded and sighed.
"Okay, how about you take care of the minions and give me a clear shot at her? If I hit, she dusts. You will fulfill your responsibility to end her, but I'll actually carry out the task. Fair enough?"
"Yeah," Angel nodded, surprised at the changed demeanor of the young man, who he noticed he could barely smell, but was still human, "I'd appreciate the help, but what about Buffy?"
"You mean about me, or about helping to dust Drusilla?"
"You…"
"I'm letting her figure it all out on her own rather than hit her with it; who knows if she'll freak or go into a funk," Xander gestured uncertainty, and then reached in and got out Selma, "Please just touch the card. Since I already have something that can disrupt the blood magic binding demon to host, and causes dusting, I was wondering what a test of skin and energy signatures might show. Don't worry, you're not the experiment, but I figure if we come up with something that might work on a vampire your age, it should take out minions easy enough."
"Um, okay," Angel replied reticently, touching the card, surprised when nothing happened.
"Thanks, it's all I had so I'll transfer the skin sample later." The young man noticed it was just after 4:00 already, "Oh hey, I have to go now. I'll be getting you a cell phone in the next couple of days, and maybe some other stuff that might help you gather information more surreptitiously than now."
"That police officer had quite the education, didn't he?" Angel asked with a smile.
"Yeah, he did actually, I can't say I mind to much, though," Alexander smiled back and offered his hand, "I'll talk to you soon."
After a second, Angel returned the handshake and walked Alexander Lambert to the door, "I'm in for now. If it doesn't work, we won't have lost anything."