Chapter 2

Xander was having a bad morning. When he had gotten into the hospital last night he was able to enjoy the fun of having his ribs taped up followed by the joy of pain meds. That wasn't so bad until he realized that that just made him more tired than he already was and the nurses wouldn't let him sleep for more than an hour at a time. 'stupid mild concussion' He had had worse and was trying to convince the nurses that he was fine and would be even better if he could get some actual sleep. But would anyone listen to him? Noooo, can't have that. "Whatever happened to the idea that the customer is always right?" he thought to himself. He still didn't understand why they would tell him he needed rest and then not let him sleep.

If that wasn't bad enough, he had called Giles to check up and let him know he was alright. The hospital had called him in the middle of the night because Giles name was still listed as his guardian on his medical records thanks to Willow and the frequent trips to Sunnydale Memorial. He had since gotten multiple phone calls from Willow and Buffy checking up on him and berating him for fighting vampires, when it wasn't his job. 'Really, if one more friend calls me stupid I am going to scream'

Just when he was about to write off the day as a loss, The beautiful brunet woman from last night walked in.

"Hey hero."

Xander smiled his first real smile of the day. "Hey, Rachel right? You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

She smirked at that, "What your not enjoying yourself being taken care of by beautiful nurses?" she asked with a small laugh in her voice.

"Well I have seen them walk by, but I think my nurse used to be a Hun, and is possibly an escaped war criminal." He takes a good look at her and she seems much better than she did last night. She's dressed in slacks and a nice blouse, where as last night she was in a skirt suit and looked like she just came out of a board meeting. Overall she looked really good. "Your looking a lot better today though."

She chucked at his comment, "Thanks, you look pretty good today too, well for someone that was hit by a bus at least." That was true enough, his face was almost one big bruse and his mouth was still swollen. Add to that the bruses on his arms and showing around his neck and he was looking pretty beat up.

She sat at the small but comfortable chair that seems is in every hospital room next to the bed and gets a mildly serious look on her face, "I think I've somewhat come to terms with what happened last night, but I would like to talk to you about it some more if your up to it later."

Xander gives her a comforting smile, "Sure I think I can make time, but lets wait till I'm out of this torture chamber cleverly disguised as a hospital." He replied with a laugh. "They said I can leave tomorrow, believe it or not this is all mostly superficial. The only real damage beyond bad brusing and small cuts are the broken ribs, and well there isn't a lot to be done about that. I should be at 100 in a couple of weeks, or close enough that it doesn't matter."

"Really, that's fairly amazing. I thought you would be in here for a week at least." She replied genuinely happy for him, and glad he hadn't suffered more serious damage saving her. "Do you have anywhere to stay when you get out? "

"Oh yea, I have a hotel room on the waterfront just outside 'The Narrows', I should be fine there till I get back on my feet." Outwardly he was smiling but he was cringing on the inside. Medical bill were expensive and he didn't have a lot of money left. He really didn't like the idea but he would probably have to hand over all his money then grab his stuff and leave for sunnyhell as soon as he got out.

Rachel didn't seem fooled, "No you don't, after you get checked out I am taking you back to my place. It's the least I can do for you saving my life. Besides I already grabbed your stuff from your hotel and the city is footing the bill for your hospital stay." She stated with a brilliant smile on her face. "You can stay in my spare room until your feeling better."

"You really don't have…. Wait, how did you know where I was staying?" Xander sputtered out growing instantly suspicious.

Rachel just gave him a little smile, "Hey I may not be working for some huge powerful law firm, but there are definite perks to being the assistant DA. I got your info from the hospital last night and checked up on you. It looked like you had been doing this kind of stuff for a while now, but no real criminal charges, so I figured I could trust you."

Xander thought about it for a second or two, then let out his own big smile. "I'm glad that after saving your life, and an extensive background check you feel you can trust me." He laughed a little at that, "But really, thanks for the medical bills, they would have been rough, but I really don't want to impose."

"No really, I insist." She was glad, and mildly surprised that he wasn't upset over the background check. She was expecting some anger at the invasion of privacy, but apparently he understood the value of checking up on people.

Xander weighed the options in his head for a moment. She really seemed to genuinely want to help, and really the alternatives were a crappy hotel room near the bad part of town, or a hot brunet ADA that he really wouldn't mind getting to know better.

"Ok, I'll do it."

There was that brilliant smile again, 'Oh no, bad Xander, your probably too young for her anyways, she's probably in her 30's and thinks of you as just a kid.' As much as he tried to convince himself otherwise, he knew he would be making a fool of himself soon.

"Good, I'll be by with a friend tomorrow to get you out of here and get you settled in at my place." She reached out and squeezed his hand, then got up to leave.

"I'm sorry I have to get out of here so soon but I have to pick up some paperwork from my office. So I will see you in the morning then?"

Xander gave her another small smile of gratitude, "Don't worry about it, I'm glad you stopped by. And thank you for everything."

"It's not a problem, really. It's the least I could do." She went to the door, "Get some rest I'll see if I can get the nurses to lighten up a little."

"Thank you so much." Xander said with a smile. She just smiled back and left.

'Huh, today is really looking up, and tomorrow I get to stay with a beautiful woman whose life I saved. Not only that, but I tackled 3 vamps last night, staked two, all by my lonesome, and lived to tell about it. I could get to liking this town.'

The rest of his day was spent sleeping. It seemed as though Rachel was able to get the nurses to back off, and Xander spent the day enjoying some much needed sleep. The entire day he was only woken up twice to take his medications.

Xander woke up late at night feeling that there was something was wrong. He became really worried immediately after when he saw the window was open. He was fairly sure that no one would have opened it since it was late summer and the AC was on. Looking deep into the shadows, he noticed there was a darker spot in the corner that was vaguely man sized. He reached for the call button on next to the bed as casually as he could when he spoke.

"I know your there so you might as well come out."

To say that batman was both surprised and impressed when as soon as he set foot into the room Xander started to stir. He then immediately stepped back into the shadows knowing he would be just about invisible. As much as he hated Ra's, he was damn good at what he learned, possibly the best. He sat back and decided to watch to see how Xander reacted, and he was surprised again when Xander briefly glanced around the room at the shadowed corners and then focused on him while trying to sneak his hand to the call button. He decided to let the man at ease and stepped out into the dim light, glad that the door was closed and the nurses had just left an hour ago. It would be a few hours till they checked on him again.

"You won't be needing that." He said as he stepped forward.

Xander visibly relaxed but not completely when he saw who was there. "I didn't think you would come here to see me. I figured I would be pulled into a dark alley somewhere after I got out."

Batman gave a small smirk. "I usually reserve that kind of treatment for criminals, not good Samaritans. Unless there is something about you that you think you should tell me."

Xander blanched for a moment, "NO!.. I mean no, nope nobody but us good Samaritans and caped crusaders here." He stuttered out with a smile.

Batman cocked up an eyebrow in question at the 'caped crusader' comment, not that Xander could see it but he got the idea, though otherwise remained silent.

"Not that there's anything wrong with capes, my friend Willow wore one for a while in 7th grade, course that was more of a cloak… Not saying your cape is cloak like or girly or anything… Cause it's not… I'm just going to shut up now." Xander just started to nervously pick at the sheet and his hospital gown while squirming uncomfortably under batmans gaze.

For his part batman never before remembered having to fight this hard to keep the smile off his face. 'And this kid fights vampires and demons, how do you do that for years and still be this awkward. Plus he's not scared of me, definitely need to keep an eye on this one.'

"I came here to find out what you know about vampires, not fashion. Plus I'd like to know how a guy like you got in this field."

Xander seemed relieved that he didn't take offense. He was fairly certain that this guy was all human, but he was also laid up in a hospital bed feeling mostly broken.

"Well, that's kinda a long story. Lets start with this, what's your take on creation theory?"

"Whatever I say I doubt you'll tell me I'm right so why don't you just keep explaining."

'Geez, I wonder if he ever relaxes, this guy definitely needs a vacation and a prozac'. Well, this is really more G-mans thing but I will try to enlighten you. Lets start with, the world is much older than you know…." He tells the whole spiel and by the end batman sits quietly.

"And what about your story?"

"Wait, after all that the only question you have for me is, 'what's my story?'." Xander looks at him incredulously. "I was expecting at least a little stunned amazement, or maybe even a quiet, 'I don't believe you." The last part was said in a deep voice, like a bad batman impersonation.

"Lets just say I reserve judgment for more evidence. Now I am still waiting for your story."

"Fine, here you go." Xander took a moment to try and figure out how to not mention anyone who was too important. "Well, in my sophomore year in high school one of my friends got turned into a vampire. I ended up having to stake him when he and a whole bunch of vampires were trying to do this ritual and bring about the end of the world. Then I find out that my home town in situated on top of the mouth of hell. Literally a point where all this bad mojo is centered and is a gateway to hell. Well this whole demons thing has a kind of check and balance system, and there are mystically empowered people out there literally made to fight this sort of thing. Thing is, after what happened to my friend, I couldn't stay out of the fight. Powers or no powers, I am in this fight till I die. Lucky for me, the vamp population is a lot less the farther out from the hellmouth you go so it's only in the big cities that I find any since I hit Colorado."

Batman, was fairly intrigued, despite his better judgment… or possibly because if it, this kid was a trouble magnet. He was really going to have to think about this later. He could tell that Xander wasn't telling him everything, but then again he could understand the need to keep some secrets.

"So, what are their strengths and weakness, and how do you go about spotting and stopping these.. things?"

Xander got a slightly worried expression on his face, "Well spotting them is kinda easy, most demons are easy, they don't look human. Some demons are fairly harmless but most are pretty much evil incarnate. Vampires are kinda tricky though. Anything that's less than 100 years old or so is usually stuck in their old fashions and such, so their easier, but the smart or older ones tend to understand the need to blend in. I think I have built up a little experience so I recognize them more often than not but it takes practice." He wasn't about to mention his possession. He didn't want to make himself seem dangerous.

What most people didn't know was he got a few boosts from the hyena that lingered after he was exorcised. It wasn't much, but he had a good instinct on whether or not someone or something was dangerous, on top of that he was still a little faster, stronger, had some enhance senses, and healed faster than your average human. Nothing that could be considered supernatural, but more than he was before.

"Their strengths and weaknesses depend on the demon. Vampires are on average 4 or 5 times faster and stronger than your average human, and they can be killed by fire, sunlight, decapitation, or a wooden stake through the heart. Crosses repel them and burn on contact as does holy water, but the only way to kill them with holy water is make them drink it, or maybe hit them with a fire hose shooting it… Actually that's not a bad idea, I wonder if you can have water in pipes turned into holy water?... Whatever, most demons are stronger that people, not always faster, but almost always stronger. The hard part is figuring out how to kill them, but generally things die if you cut off it's head…" The more Xander talked the more he seemed to relax, but now that worried expression came back full force.

"Now the most important thing to keep in mind is that you can't just stop them. If you find yourself having to fight a demon, you have to kill because it won't stop killing people if you don't. Demons don't have souls and so most are just intelligent killing machines. Even if you can stop one, it probably can't survive without killing and or eating people. Most have no conscience or remorse, they look at people as food. Besides, even if you could put one in jail and it could live, a lot of them are either immortal or live a really long time. There is no safe way to contain them. They have to be destroyed."

The serious look in his eyes never wavered during his speech and batman could tell that he wasn't kidding.

"So then how do you tell the bad ones from the peaceful ones?"

"Easy, if they try to kill you on sight, they are evil." Xander said with a smirk. "I'm fairly certain that you'll want some more proof, so after I get out of here and feel a little better, I can take you to a place that will prove my point."

Batman noticed that Xander's eyes began to droop and decided that he had more than enough information for now.

"Fine, I will contact you later about that. For now I think I'll just check into what you told me so far and we'll see."

With that batman stepped back into the shadows and seemed to disappear, yet again. Then with a rustle of fabric he was gone back out the window.

Xander got up, and dragged his IV to the window very carefully and wincing the whole time but he really needed to move and stretch his legs and muscles anyways. Besides he really wanted to make sure that batman was really gone. He walked into the shadows till he felt the wall and then looked out the window, there was no trace of anyone having been there at all. With that he shut the window and went back to bed. 'This is going to be a hell of a stay. Why did I have to come to Gotham again? Oh yea, I wanted to see the big city, and had to pick the one with a weird crime fighter type guy in it. One of these days I am going to remember that curiosity kills'. He knew it would never happen, but it never hurts to dream. He made his way back to bed and decided to get back to his much needed sleep.

Batman was on top of a building a block away, and noticed that there was a figure in Xander's window. 'Damn he recovers fast too. He's definitely a fighter.' He wasn't sure what to think about that. Xander had given him a lot of information tonight, and as much as he accepted the existence of vampires, and possibly other demons as well, the history of the world that he'd been given was a bit too far fetched. In addition to that was the idea that he had to kill them. He understood the fact that the judicial system couldn't deal with it, but extermination?... That was some thing he wasn't sure he could really wrap his mind around.

'There has to be a better way'. He decided to continue his patrol, 'Better to deal with what I know for now and think on the rest later.'