Standard Disclaimer Applies
AN: Thanks to Wolf who was as always the best. I use a bad word in this chapter, it starts with F so it offends you I apologise but as an artist I felt that it was needed. Thanks to those that review the last time, I'm pleased you didn't see the last twist coming.
Chapter 11
When the arguing inside the Harris household became too much, Xander would escape to Willow's or camp out in the backyard lying in a sleeping bag staring up at the sky as the sound of hysterics drifted through the air. On these nights Xander would imagine belonging to a different family, a happier family.
Some days his Mom would wake him for school with a hot breakfast made and clean clothes ready. On other days he would wake up late and the only sign of his parents would be a rug covered lump on the couch and he would have to wade through his mess of clothes pulling together the only clean items he could find regardless if they matched or not. Soon this mix-matched fashion became his own original style, initially developed to hide the neglect of a mother consumed by depression too blue to clean.
When he was thirteen Anthony smacked him across the face for the first time. When he was fourteen his parents disappeared for two weeks and he never told anyone that he was living in his house alone, eating as usual at Will's, doing his own laundry. When they returned they never apologised for leaving him alone without a word, never mentioned where they had gone and never did it again.
Anthony Harris and Jessica Harris parents of Alexander Harris, but asXander crossed through the streets of Colorado Springs in his UncleRory's beat up old convertible he knew that even their names were a lie.
Anthony Harris used to be known as Thomas Fisher, an Air-Force Major in a black ops unit with Jack until he was transferred to Washington a year and a half before Charlie was killed.
This was as much information as Xander had been able to carefully pry from Sara without alerting her suspicions. Then after dinner he had wished her a goodnight and casually mentioned he had forgotten about a job he had planned in a neighbouring town. He would be gone for a few days, but he had promised to call to check in the next night.
It was time to get some answers and Xander would look in the one place he should have looked, when all this started, at the beginning.
At the birthplace of Alexander Lavelle Harris.
Arriving in Sunnydale the next morning Xander bypasses his favourite haunts and friends to travel straight to the home he grew up in. Slipping his key into the lock he moves into his old home with a shout of hello and from the living room comes a deep voice.
"Xander that you?" Tony Harris demands.
Xander takes a deep breath as he moves through the house and stops at the threshold to the room where his Dad sits in an armchair watching classic ESPN.
"How you doing Tom?" Xander starts and Tony's head snaps up and he stares at his son in shock.
"What did you just call me?" Tony demands rising from the chair and
Xander steps into the room.
"I called you Tom, that's your name isn't it? Thomas Fisher." Xander says calmly
The color is draining from Tony's face but he still retorts.
"You've gone mad boy. You get knocked on the head?"
"Shot actually, wasn't it?" Xander fires back and Tony steps back.
"Isn't that what happened Tom? I got shot in the head and you brought me to Sunnydale? Set up a new life with a fake wife and a fake name and someone else's kid?"
"I don't know, what you're talking about." Tony stammers lamely and Xander shrugs walking forward.
"You were a Major in the Air-Force and you were in the same unit as Jack O'Neill. But I'm confused, how does a person go from a person's team member to stealing their son?" Xander said it calmer then felt.
"How do you…?" Tony asks lamely.
"It doesn't matter how I know what I know, what matters now is thatyou tell me why?"
"I can't tell you that." Tony says.
"You can and you will." Xander threatens.
"You're trying to intimidate me?" Tony asks with a small smile he walks forward to stand a step away from Xander. "On my worst day I could beat you into the ground, boy." He states flatly emphasizing the word 'boy' and Xander punches him in the face.
The blow came faster then Tony could expect and hit the older man in the chin, snapping his head back and sending him sprawling back into the grubby carpet of the living room.
"Why'd you do it? Why steal me just to spend my whole life being an arsehole?" Xander shouts losing his control and advancing towards Tony.
Tony rubs a hand along his jaw and looks up to where Xander has come to stand over him and twisting his legs manages to kick Xander's legs out from the boy. Xander falls back against the floor with a crash that nearly knocks all the air from his lungs. As soon as Xander hits the floor Tony was on his feet and advancing on him.
"You think you can take me? I was special ops! I was the best of the best!" Tony yells as he lashes out with a boot-covered foot catching Xander in the side. The blow landing just under Xander's ribs has enough force to roll him over. Xander forces himself up with his arms and then seeing the boot come back rolls away from the kick ending up on his back, his hand holding his ribs in agony.
Tony came again lashing out with the boot and Xander lets out a cry of pain as he propels himself heel over head into a backwards roll landing on his knees, he pushes up and charges at Tony. Xander's shoulder drives into Tony's waist and the two end up crashing into the end of the couch in a mess of tangled arms and legs.
Xander is on top of Tony and flinging punches at the older man's face. Tony blocks the punches with his arms as he tries to bring his legs up to grapple Xander off him but he is older and heavier and slower then he used to be and the wasted muscles won't perform the action with success.
"You ruined their lives!" Xander yells as another hit lands Tony under the eye.
"I was saving their lives!" Tony screams back hoarsely and Xander stops for a second in surprise.
"You shot me to save their lives?" He demands and Tony stares up at him, the fight leaving the older man.
"I didn't shoot you ... I saved you." He says pained.
"What?" Xander says shocked. Never would he have suspected Tony Harris of heroic tendencies.
"Are you really that stupid that you think that I would shoot you in the head only to steal you away and raise you as my own?" Tony demands pushing Xander back, and Xander heaves himself up into a standing position his right arm cradling his aching ribs.
Tony uses the side of the couch to pull himself into a pained standing position. He keeps his back to the wall and watches Xander warily as he does so, speaking only when he has finally managed to stand upright.
"It was the only way." He states and Xander shakes his head.
"Tell me what happened?" Xander asks angrily and Tony sighs and collapses into the couch his left eye swollen near shut he touches it gingerly and falls silent.
"Dad, please?" Xander pleads and Tony looks up at him.
"I don't know what happened, not all of it." Tony says exhausted.
"Then tell me the bits that you know."
"All I know is that a friend from the unit called me the day after you were shot and said he needed me to do him a favour. When I met him he had you all bundled up in the back of a truck he told me they were going to kill you and he asked me to hide you. Said that one day he would come and find you."
" Who are they?" Xander asks and Tony shakes his head.
"I don't know. He didn't tell me and I didn't ask. I just took you and looked after you until you woke up."
"And then?"
"And then you woke up and you didn't know who you were, or where you lived, or what your name was." Tony explains,
"So?"
"So it was decided that it would be better if you stayed with me. So you did and he sent me some money and let me know that if they ever found out that you were alive they would kill you, me, Jess, him,
Sara everyone. What was I supposed to do?" Tony challenged.
Xander is looking down at Tony is disbelief.
"You could have gone to ..." Tony cuts him off,
"To who, the cops, the FBI? The order to kill you came from the top, Xander. From the top of the top, it was clear that there was no-one and no organisation we could deal with that would prevent them from taking everyone out!" Tony shouts in aggravation.
"Who was the guy, what was his name?"
"If you go looking for these answers Xander, they will kill you."
Tony tells Xander staring up at the man he raised as his son, sitting there with a look of fear in his eyes Xander has never seen before.
"You think I'm scared of them? I'm not. You think I'm not going to find them? I am." Xander says flatly.
"This is bigger then you Xander, take the fact that you're alive as a bonus and let's just ..." This time it's Xander that cuts Tony off.
"What? Go on pretending to be one big happy family?"
"I did the best I could!" Tony yells suddenly pulling himself off the couch and waving a finger at Xander. "I gave up my whole life for you! My job! My Fiancée! My home! And what did I get in return? I get stuck in this shit hole of a town working a minium wage job, married to a woman I hate and who hates me. Trying to pretend I know what the fuck I'm doing as I try and raise you!"
"Then let it go, tell me who he was and I'll stop them." Xander promises shakily.
"I never asked for this." Tony speaks more softly then the yelling he's just done. "But I stuck it out, I stayed hidden and below the radar to save your life and all I'm asking in return is that you let it be." Tony pleads.
"I can't do that." Xander replies after a beat, a picture popping into his head, of Sara and the look on her face when she realised her son was still alive.
"You can but you won't and I'm not going to help you anymore." Tony maintains
"You owe it to Sara and Jack to help me." Xander fires back and Tony has no immediate reply.
"Just pretend you never found out?" Tony asks of Xander as he moves away towards the liquor cabinet.
"I'm afraid I can't do that. Not now, it's gone too far." Xander explains and Tony looks up and closes his eyes.
"You told them who you are?" He asks his voice trembling.
"I did." Xander says and Tony fiddles with the liquor cabinet door and finally gets it open.
"Jack knows?" He asks as he grabs a bottle of whisky around the neck, unscrews the lid and takes a few good gulps wincing as the firey liquid hits his stomach.
"Yes." Xander half lies, "I met him and Sara last week, Sara knows what happened she went to the morgue and found proof." He explains.
Tony's head drops in defeat, the room falls into silence as he takes another long sip of the Whisky.
"Peter Phillips." He finally mutters beaten, " I don't know where he is now."
"Thanks." Xander starts as Tony turns round but he stops talking as
Tony shakes his head.
"You were always his son. Never mine." He concedes, "Get out." Tony states quietly taking another swig of the Whisky and Xander nods.
It isn't until Xander reaches the curve that Tony takes his gun from the liquor cabinet and with tears in his eyes as he watches the retreating back of the boy he called son, shoots himself in the head.
AN: WE have a purpose and a direction! Like where we're going, picked the surprise, then let me know, it takes very little time but is sooo helpful when it comes to writing the next chapter.