Chapter 4: Nor Playing Solitaire 'til Dawn (With a Deck of 51) -
Tuesday September 15, 1998; Sunnydale, The Bronze, night.
An exhilarated Faith broke off from Scott as the current number ended, laughing when he begged off from another dance. Grinning and shaking her head, she followed him back to the tables where their friends were sitting. Friend: Tamara must have found someone to dance with, or have wandered off to the ladies room or something, leaving Xander the lone non-dancing holdout. Aura hadn't even shown; like Cordy, she'd pled feeling 'off' tonight and stayed home to nurse a headache, according to the Caribbean girl. Faith straddled a chair as Scott slumped into the one next to it, breathing heavily.
"Hey, guy," Faith said. Xander blinked, turning his attention from the dance floor and favoring her with his usual half grin. More-or-less usual. Faith carefully blanked a frown off of her face as she recognized the complete lack of normal 'Xanderness' in the grin. Cocking her head slightly, she studied him, adding, "Just 'cause the Cordy earlied out's no need to lose all the fun."
"Huh?" Xander blinked again, then shook his head. He gave a short laugh, coming back a bit more to her usual friend. "No. Naw, just have some thing on my mind, Faith. I gots the fun, honest," he said, twisting in his seat to the music to demonstrate.
"Right." Faith nodded as Scott laughed. "You gots the spaz, anyway," she joked.
"Hey, for me that's where the fun is," Xander cracked back. "'Cause I'm the Spaz Man, jazz man."
Scott shook his head, saying, "I'm going to leave you two bickering over putting the spaz back into fun while I head up for drinks." he made a show of glancing at his watch, then over his shoulder at the crowd. "If I leave now, I can be back with refreshments sometime before Homecoming."
"That would be of the good," Faith allowed. She made a suggestion for her drink, and watched as Xander waved Scott off without ordering anything for himself.
Once Scott had disappeared into the Bronze's Tuesday night crowd, Faith vacated her chair and slid into the wall booth next to Xander, getting a startled look as he wrenched his attention back from the dance floor.
"Ok, give, Harris," Faith demanded, nudging him with her leg. "You been kinda off ever since you showed up in the library this afternoon on your free period. What gives?"
"Hmmm. You tell me," Xander suggested, returning his attention to the busy dance floor. He cut off Faith's comment by throwing his arm across her shoulders and giving her far shoulder a slight squeeze, pointing out to the couples with that hand. "Anything seem... odd to you?"
"Huh. It's the Hellmouth, Xan. Everything seems 'odd' to me here," Faith stated. Even so, she followed his pointing finger and scanned the dance floor until her eyes landed on a flash of red hair that resolved itself into a sensually gyrating Willow. Cocking her head, she studied the redhead and her boyfriend.
"I better move this before Scott tears it off and beats me with it," Xander remarked as he withdrew his arm from across her shoulders.
Faith smirked and continued to watch the floor, periodically coming back to Willow and Oz. After a bit she spotted Tamara dancing with one of the jocks, Blayne or something or other. A laughing Willow grabbed Oz by the arm after the song ended, refusing to let him off the floor before the next one began. Tamara patted her partner on the chest, smiling, and began making her way back to the tables and her drink.
"Ok... " Faith frowned slightly. "Will's a bit looser than normal, but not too much so." She gave Tamara a friendly nod as the black girl slid into her chair, continuing. "And she's been kinda coming out of her shy spot for the past few weeks."
"Hah." Tamara shook her head. "Shoulda seen her unload on Snyder at lunch today." Xander nodded.
"Huh." Faith took that in, continuing to watch. "That reminds me of something, but I can't place it," she said, finally.
"Well," Xander stretched, then nudged Faith in the side with his elbow. "I'm going to go catch some air for a minute." He caught Faith's eye as she slid out of the booth to let him up and flicked his eyes to the front door and back.
"Sounds good," Faith remarked. "Tell Scott I followed the dork here to make sure he doesn't get mugged?" She trailed after Xander at Tamara's wave, following him out the front and then out along the sidewalk until he picked a spot to lean up against the side of the club.
Casually leaning a short bit away facing him, Faith studied him for a few minutes. "Ok. Will's obviously got you a bit spooked?"
Xander shook his head, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets. "Not just that, no. Whole day's got me a bit wigsome." Cocking his head and studying her back, he asked, "You sense anything off about anyone today?"
"Huh." Faith stared at him for a minute, then closed her eyes and let her impressions of Red, Cordelia, the club, and other people go through her mind. After a bit, she opened them again. "Oz, but he usually sets off my slayer sense just a touch. Other than that... there's been something kinda right at the edge of my nerves, but I can't pin it to anything."
"Hmmm." Xander scowled, hunching into his jacket a bit. The corner of his lips quirked up and he gave her a direct look. "I understand you had a close encounter with our resident psychotic thug?"
It took a moment for Faith to translate that, and then the corners of her lips quirked up in return. "A couple of them."
Xander's eyebrows went up. "A couple?" He shook his head, "Didn't occur to you to mention that?"
Faith bit her lip, then reached up to push her hair back with both hands. "Err. Yeah, but it kept slipping my mind." She smirked, "Kinda like it must've done yours after your run in with the O'Toole last week."
"Oh." Xander's expression went comical and Faith snickered. "Uh. It was kind of a busy week," he said. "And close encounters with school bullies barely even register these days."
"Hear that," Faith said, nodding. "Kinda small stuff compared to what we see."
Xander nodded back, grinning, then he sobered, a dark expression crossing his face as he glanced away. "A little birdy told me that the thug trio tried leaning on Cordy end of last week," he remarked.
"Son of a-- " Faith started to swear, then broke off abruptly, giving Xander a curious look. "Huh," she said, cocking her head again. Her eyes went slightly opaque.
"Huh?" Xander gave her an honestly curious look, and she shook her head, her eyes clearing.
"You just pinged on my slaydar there for a sec, when you were talking about Jack and the C," she stated. "Real low level. Kinda the way Oz does sometime, or that Tor and Heidi pair."
Xander's eyes widened, and he pushed off from the wall, running a hand through his hair. "I really didn't need to hear that right now, thanks." Scowling, he kicked at the wall.
Faith shrugged.
"Fuck," Xander said, causing Faith's eyes to widen a bit at the unexpected vulgarity from him. The corner of his mouth twitched up into a half grin, and he met her eyes evenly. "I'm gonna cut out here. Need to go see a man about a dog." Faith watched him curiously, not responding. Xander added, "You mind keeping your eyes and slaydar open for anything unusual with Will or anyone else?"
Nodding slowly, Faith shoulder pushed off the wall herself. "Sure. Like, any idea for what?" Her voice came out a bit exasperated at the end of the question.
"If I did, it wouldn't be a question, would it?" Xander shook his head, giving out with a harsh laugh. "Dunno, slay gal. I'm either losing my mind completely, or something bizarre is up."
"Heh. And we shouldn't rule out the losing your mind thing, huh?" Faith's mouth twisted. "'K. Watch for random oddness. Got it."
"Yup. And if you can, pull Tamara off to one side and Oz and get them to tell you about lunch," Xander said. Picking up his pack from by his feet, he gave her the half grin again and turned out towards the parking lot.
"Hey," Faith called out after him. "Dark out. Got protection?"
Half turning, Xander called back, "Half a tank of gas, Holy Paintballs of Doom, stakes, an axe, it's night, and I'm wearing sunglasses." He hoisted the pack one handed in a kind of a wave.
Snickering, Faith shook her head, "Guess you're all set, Elwood."
"I'm Jake. You're Elwood," drifted back to her.
................................................
Tuesday September 15, 1998; Los Angeles, night.
Shaking his head, Pike looked up from his coffee cup at Buffy. "Man, ok, that's one hell of a story," he stated.
"Even told in disjointed Buffyesque fashion?" Buffy said, teasing.
"Well, I did want to call for a translator at several points. And someone with a Power Point presentation," Pike said, his lips twitching at the corners. Buffy snorted, balling up her napkin and miming throwing it at him. Pike ducked his head, laughing.
Feeling more relaxed than she had in the past few weeks, Buffy made a slight face at him. "Ok, so let's see you do better at explaining Sunnydale and the Strange Life and Bad Choices of Buffy Summers, Mr. Power Pointy." She grinned around her straw, finishing the last of her milkshake.
"Oh no," Pike held up his hands in surrender. "Not even gonna go there." Grinning, he said, "You heard how mine came out."
"Oh yeah," Buffy agreed. "All stop and go and to and froish across things. I have whiplash now." Sighing, she gave him a level look, "Seriously, that was painful. Must have been hell to go through."
"Was," Pike agreed, his eyes going distant for a moment. "Guess you can see why I freaked a bit?"
"Well, it was kind of a quiet and restrained freaking," Buffy admitted. "Xander had more of a loud and abrasive freaksome thing going at the end. Not that I could blame him so much, really." Cocking her head, she asked, "So what now?"
"Huh." Pike shrugged. "Depends on what we both want to do? I'd like to say that we make the past the past and just figure out what's ahead and go on, but it's never really that easy, is it?" Buffy shook her head. Pike nodded, blowing his breath out, "So... how about we start with the basics?"
"Which are?" Buffy asked curiously. "Right now, I have a hard time sorting out basic from all the jumble and complexy."
"Basic: I think we can agree we both like each other. Have ever since we got past sniping at each other at Hemery," Pike said. Buffy nodded. "Basic," he continued, "Safe to say neither of us is without screwups in the past. And we're probably going to make more of them in the future." Buffy frowned, but she nodded again, and Pike finished with, "So how about we just accept what's done and try not to let it get in the way? Go back to hanging out and enjoying each other, take it slow, and see where it goes?"
"Sounds good," Buffy said after a long pause. She nodded a bit more decisively, then added a bit hesitantly, "So, uh, how do you do that?" Her voice was a bit plaintive.
Pike tossed his head back laughing. "Uh, fuck if I know? I'm still trying to work on just getting up in the morning and putting one foot in front of the other."
"Oh, gee, you're a great help," Buffy teased, laughing. "But I can get with the one foot thing." She sighed again, "Now if I could just get with the unscrewing my head thing."
Nodding, Pike said, "Yeah, well, sometimes you just have to go with: 'what we feel doesn't always have anything to do with what we think' and run with that fact. What we do in spite of it matters."
"Ok, so where's Pike and what have you done with him?" Buffy asked, laughing. "When did you go from par-tay animal to philosopher and Mr. Maturity?"
"Well, I am a couple of years older than you," Pike said, grinning. "Mr. Held Back Senior Wasteoid, remember?" He put his hand up, catching the crumpled napkin Buffy did throw at him this time. "Who knew Mr. Starkey's remedial psyche class would come in handy post-Hemery?"
"Who knew you actually stayed awake in it?" Buffy shook her head, grinning back. "So, back to movie nights on days off and the occasional non-datey thing for awhile while we sort?"
Pike nodded. "Sounds good," he said. "For awhile anyway - I'm taking a two month offshore contract on a rig from the second week of October through the first week of December to make sure our bank account stays healthy."
"Wow," Buffy started at him. "That's not long away. Two whole months from home... isn't that kind of hard on Elena?"
"Well, yeah," Pike admitted, scowling. "But I have to weigh keeping a roof, meals, and clothes on her back too. And making sure we have a pad to fall back on in case anything happens." He spread his hands, "I don't like it, but... it means a couple of months of her living with her Gran Mama and me being away while I work my butt off for thirty some-odd an hour plus all the overtime and time and a half I can survive. Trade off."
Buffy's jaw dropped. She swallowed a couple of times, staring at him, "T-thirty... wow. All of a sudden I want to spit on Helen's and my minimum wagey thing."
"Hey, diesel mechanics make good money, who knew?" Pike laughed. "And offshore contracts pay a premium for short term help." He spread his hands slightly, sobering a bit, "Elena's always going to be my top priority. I don't like being away, but I'll sacrifice a little now to make sure she's taken care of in the long run."
"Huh." Buffy nodded, then frowned slightly. "Isn't that kinda at odds though?" At Pike's inquiring look, she elaborated, "I mean... squaring that with vamp hunting with Gunn and his people?"
Pike looked away out the window for a time, finally shrugging and looking back at her. "Yeah, well... 'taking care of' covers more than just groceries. Someday, Elena's going to find out about the real world and things. I want her to be able to look at her daddy when she does and not see someone who buried his head in the sand and ran away from it." He gave her an even look, "Not a safe world. Every vamp we kill makes one less that I have to worry about being a threat to her."
"Trade-off, right," Buffy said after considering for awhile. "Being a grownup sucks, doesn't it?"
"Heh. Yeah," Pike said, laughing. "Hey - it's late. Let's walk back to my truck and I'll give you a ride home."
................................................
Tuesday September 15, 1998; Sunnydale, Corner's Drive-In and Malt Shop, late night.
Limping slightly, Xander leaned up against a telephone pole to catch his wind before heading across to the Drive-In by the Highway 101 exit. A lone vamp, blinded and smoking from a face full of Holy Water paintballs, had still gotten a kick into his hip before he'd managed to side step and get the end of one of the shorter sharpened bokken through its heart from behind.
He didn't think anything was broken, but he was pretty sure he was going to have a bone deep bruise once it had a chance to stiffen up overnight. The elbow scrape over his eye stung worse. Whoever had the bright idea of inventing vampires really needed a stern talking to, following by a beating across the head and shoulders with an axe. Followed by decapitation, burning, and hanging.
Maybe the hanging was overkill.
Rubbing his hip, Xander grimaced and then straightened up from the pole to hobble across the street to Corner's. He could see Tor's restored Barracuda parked near the front of the empty lot as he crossed the vacant street. Reaching the door, he looked inside the nearly empty restaurant until he spotted the pair of former thugs, former hyenas and took a deep breath, pushing it open and striding in.
Ok. Maybe former. And maybe striding, if you squinted and ignored the limp.
"Hey." Xander nodded to the two, un-slinging his pack and setting it next to an empty chair across from them. Looking around, he could see that the drive in hadn't changed since he and Jesse used to skateboard or bike down here in the 7th grade. Same retro 50's seats, tables and booths, same big jukebox, and the same counter - complete with soda fountain in addition to a more modern drink dispenser - and grill. Same rows of drive in slots up front with the ordering intercoms and menu boards for the day car hops to take trays out to. Only in day time, though: no one went out to strange cars at night in Sunnydale.
No one with longevity instincts, anyway.
"Hey, Boss." Heidi grinned up at him, Tor nodding from behind a burger.
"Don't call me Boss," Xander objected, mildly. "Gonna go order... be right back." He headed up to the order counter, carefully ignoring the cheery 'Sure thing, Boss' from behind him.
Returning, he slid into the chair with his drink, letting out a heavy sigh and a heartfelt groan as he stretched his leg out in front of him. Tor frowned slightly.
"You all right?"
"Had a brief discussion with a gang member on PCP," Xander said in a sour tone.
"Ah. Gonna guess he lost the argument," Heidi said, nodding. Xander nodded, glancing curiously from Tor's burger to her plate of salad and dressing.
"You went vegetarian?" Xander asked, frowning. "Err, after the... ?" Heidi rolled her eyes slightly.
"Always been a vegetarian." She frowned slightly, looking down at her plate. "Used to do it with chicken and fish though. Now I can't look meat of any kind in the eye, since... " Xander nodded.
"Me, I still like meat," Tor stated, polishing off his burger and licking his fingers. He washed it down with a slug of coke and swallowed."Can't quite make myself eat pork any more, though. And I used to love a good pork chop."
Xander shuddered. "Don't mention pork in the same conversation as 'the incident'," he said. "And, eew."
The late night counter girl brought out his burgers, and Xander unwrapped and bit into the first of them. After a few minutes chewing, he swallowed, looking across the table. "Ok, gotta question for you two."
"Shoot," Tor said. His tone and expression were noncommittal.
"How much do you two remember about the 'incident'?" Xander asked. He tore into his burger while he waited for responses.
Heidi and Tor exchanged looks for a long several minutes, then apparently reached some conclusion because they both relaxed slightly and shrugged. "Everything," Heidi said. "Not all at once, but after a few weeks of nightmares it started coming back."
"Yup," Tor added. "Kyle and Rhonda couldn't handle it for awhile. They finally moved out with their folks."
"But you guys stayed?" Xander asked, curious.
"Uh... we live here, Xan. And work and go to school here," Tor said, his expression odd. "We grew up here."
"Besides, our folks couldn't afford to move," Heidi added.
"That too," Tor grinned. "We're just trying to make it through to graduation. Then we'll figure it out from there."
Nodding, Xander chewed on that along with his burger. Time for the big one, now. Swallowing again, he took a long drink from his soda and asked, "And how much is left from all that?"
Heidi and Tor exchanged looks again, and then fixed Xander with flat stares. "Some," Tor admitted. "We're a bit faster and a bit stronger than we used to be. Can take a punch better. Heal a bit faster than I remember doing."
Heidi nodded. "Sense of smell, hear better - not like it was during, but... it's more like turning the volume down on a stereo, not like turning the stereo off."
"You?" Tor asked in a deceptively casual voice. Heidi watched Xander curiously, waiting for his answer.
"None." Xander made it come out flat, his voice even, and his eyes not wavering from Tor's. He was pretty sure he pulled off the denial convincingly.
Right up to the point where Heidi made a snorting sound and grinned, saying, "Pull the other one, Xan. It gives chocolate milk."
Tor nodded. He said carefully, "You... register, Xan. On all senses." He spread his hands, looking across the table. "Kind of like your friend Buffy does, only different." He grinned tightly, adding, "And you smell like Heidi, only not girlish like."
"Mostly not like," Heidi said, tilting her head as she watched him.
The odds were pretty good that jumping up, tearing his hair, and pounding on the table and screaming in a Charlton Heston voice 'I am not a hyena!!!' would go over real well. It would probably feel satisfying as all hell, but it probably wouldn't help.
Besides, his leg hurt.
Chewing the last bit of his second burger carefully, Xander considered. After a bit he swallowed, then glared across the table into each of the other two's eyes until their gaze shifted and they looked away. He grinned a bit maliciously when Tor's eyes broke. "Some," he allowed.
"But you don't like realizing that," Heidi said. Xander's head whipped toward her, his eyes hot, but her return gaze was sympathetic and his gaze broke first this time.
"Not so much," Xander admitted. He rolled his shoulders, shifting his leg into a new position with a grimace. "I'm not real fond of a lot of things I did while I was that," he said, his voice flat.
"Try eating a principal," Tor suggested. "Adds a whole new dimension to your regrets list, lemme tell yas."
Staring at him, Xander felt his lips start twitching and then finally he shook his head, a harsh bark of laughter coming out. "I'll just bet it does," he said, starting to laugh harder.
Tor and Heidi both looked at him like he was insane until finally Tor's lips started twitching too. "He had impeccable taste, though," Tor remarked. Heidi stared at him and then burst out laughing herself. Xander doubled over, gasping.
"Oh man, that is just so wrong," Heidi said. "I liked Flutie," she stated, pausing for a beat, "He was tender hearted."
"Oh gods," Xander pounded the table, his eyes starting to water. "You two are sick."
"Well yeah," Tor said between gasps of laughter, "But we have real educated palates."
Heidi sprayed soda across the table, shooting a wounded look at Tor. Xander took a deep, shuddering breath, glaring at Tor.
"You don't eat people. Not because there's a Law," Xander pointed an accusing finger at Tor. "Because of the principal of the thing."
Tor choked, spluttering. Heidi thumped him on the back until he quit gasping and he shook his head. "You win, enough."
Xander grinned back at them, then shook his head. "That was just so wrong, but somehow, oddly, I feel much better now."
"It's a sick sad world," Heidi cocked her head, again giving him a sympathetic look. "How long've you been holding that in and burying it?"
"Since it happened," Xander said. His shoulders sagged and he took a ragged breath.
"Cathartic," Tor said, nodding. "We had each other to talk it out with, once we got to where we could stand to look at each other again."
"I had Cordy, later on. But she really couldn't relate or do much more than sympathize while saying 'eww'," Xander admitted. "And there were a lot of things I couldn't tell her."
"The cheerleader's righteous," Heidi said. "Got guts, too."
"That she does," Xander nodded. "You can understand why I'm not too keen on having Jack spill them out for display purposes." The other two nodded. Cocking his head, Xander's brow creased, "Gotta ask: you two weren't exactly on the side of the angels and geeks even before you got possessed. Why are you acting like White Hats now?"
Both of them had another one of those intense nonverbal communication moments, looking at each other uncomfortably. Tor broke eye contact with Heidi and met Xander's evenly. "We're not heroes, Xan. We leave that up to your little geek club and your blonde friend. But somehow, eating someone kinda makes for a shock to your world view, you know?" He shrugged, "Just doesn't feel right to go back to picking on nerds and harassing guys like Jonathan and Lance after that."
"Besides," Heidi added. "Hyenas are territorial. We don't really like other predators on our turf. "Specially not scavengers like Jack and others."
"Heh. And it's more fun to take down other predators," Tor said, laughing. Heidi gave him an indulgent look that had an awful lot of 'damn straight' in it.
Xander stared at both of them for a long time, considering. Finally, he said, "You expect me to believe you had a life changing experience and decided to not be bullies any more?"
Heidi shrugged, "Believe what you want, Xan. But tell me - don't you ever look at some 'gangbanger on PCP' and not just get pissed because he's hunting someone, but because he's doing it in your space, where you live? I mean seriously, can't see straight, want him dead dead just for existing on your territory pissed?"
Xander considered that for a long time, thinking hard and running all of the emotions he'd felt on vampires and demons through his head since the hyena episode, trying to separate them from what he'd felt before when he discovered about them. Trying to separate them from what he felt on Jesse's turning and death. After a long time, he nodded slowly.
"I can see that, I guess," he admitted. "You didn't step in to help Jonathan against Jack, though. Just watched."
Tor shrugged. Glancing over, he noticed the night people were shutting down and cleaning the kitchen and counters in preparation for closing. "Let's move this outside." Xander nodded, following them out.
After settling into seats at one of the outside tables, Tor spread his hands. "Like I said. We're not heroes. Just trying to get by alive in this town." He shook his head, "Jack wasn't going to really hurt Jonno. Just bend him a bit."
Heidi said, "He would have killed you, though. We stepped in on that, and on the cheerleader when he would have gone over the edge there. There's a difference."
Xander shook his head, trying to figure out some way to explain it to them and get it across. Finally he gave up. 'You either get that you should stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves, even when it's not life or death, or you don't,' he decided. Maybe it's enough that you get what parts of it you can, even if it's not perfect,' he thought, followed by, 'Wow. That almost sounded adult. I'm starting to worry myself.'
"Well, I can't fault you for not playing heroes," he said, finally. "Especially not when you did when it counted."
"Por nada," Tor said. "Can't let the Boss's mate get taken down. It ain't right."
"Don't call me 'Boss'," Xander said, reflexively. "Ok, back to my question from earlier today," he said, pinning Heidi in her seat with his eyes. "I need to know what you've been noticing."
Heidi looked away uncomfortably. "Like I said earlier, there's... " she trailed off.
"There's what?" Xander demanded. His ability to be circumspect was wearing thin, along with his patience and his irritation was growing pretty damn quickly. He was tired, weirded out, worried about his friends, and his hip hurt. Heidi knew something useful. And Xander knew she knew it, though he couldn't say how, other than by some instinct down in his guts combined with the way she'd been watching Hideyoshi in class today. He felt the sensation of his stomach twisting as Heidi waffled.
"Look," Heidi said, looking away nervously. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Last time someone told me that, people died," Xander said in a flat voice. "People who could have lived. Sorry, the number you have dialed is no longer in service. Try again."
Heidi wilted under Xander's stare and shook her head, blonde hair falling into her face. "Something's got my nerves on edge, but I'm not real sure what. It's been itching at me since this morning. Really can't explain it, Xan. Just kind of an odd feeling, you know?"
"No, I really don't," Xander said. He gritted his teeth slightly in irritation.
"I think you do," Heidi countered, fixing him with a flat stare in turn, tossing her head back and giving a high pitched laugh. Her head fell forward until her startlingly bright hazel-brown eyes were fixed on his and her expression was one of dark amusement. "Tell me you don't feel things grating along the edge of your nerves that you can't explain sometimes."
"Heidi... " Xander's voice came out low and soft and dangerous. "You really don't want to jerk me around... " He felt himself rising out of his seat, heedless of the pain and stiffness in his hip, and an oddly sensation of watching events unfold from a distance outside of himself coming over him.
"Ease up, Xan," Tor's voice brought Xander back to himself, and he sat back down abruptly, suddenly realizing he'd been standing up leaning over the table with Heidi pressed back in her seat away from him. "Let's not go there, Xan," Tor said. "No one here really wants to go there with you, and you really don't want to hurt Heidi, right?"
Xander exhaled slowly and shut his eyes, shuddering slightly as he thought about the sensations running through him and the feeling of distance from the events he'd been about to watch himself initiate. "Sorry. I don't know what got into me."
"No makey. Just trying to head things off from getting abrupt," Tor said easily. "And not really wanting to have to answer to your sex goddess guardian angel, either."
"Look, why don't you explain what you're looking for," Heidi said, relaxing slightly. "And maybe we can figure out if I know anything that'll help figure it out?"
"Huh." Xander considered both of them, wondering at it for a minute. "Ok. Just how much do the two of you know about the oddness around this town, anyway?"
"Huh," Tor said in return. "Well, we know there's a lot of weird people around with faces that go strange at times and they smell funny. 'Off' funny, not funny ha ha or funny BO. We know that a lot of people get dead here in some pretty strange ways, and sometimes you see them again later." He considered before continuing, "We know there's people around who give off strange vibes and smells, at times, and they feel dangerous. Or things that might not be 'people', but you usually don't see those up close or clearly."
Heidi nodded. "We know there's places you don't go at night, and that this town has a weird vibe to it, right along the edge of your nerves. Especially at the school."
"And that your friend Summers was a lot stronger than a girl her size should be, and you hear things about her - and you guys - being in fights with the the weird people all the time," Tor added. "And your friend Faith has the same type of scent and feel to her that Summers did."
"Hmm." Xander frowned, thinking rapidly. "Ok. But you don't know what it all adds up to?" He got blank looks, and took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair. "Ok. First off... the world is older than we know, and unlike most people believe, it didn't start out as a garden party... "
It took him less time than he thought it would, and at the end of it, Tor and Heidi looked at each other, then back at him. "That'd explain the corpse smell," Heidi said.
"Vampires," Tor said, carefully. "And demons. You know, that really makes a lot of sense when you add it all together."
Xander stared at him, resisting an urge to shake his head in disbelief. "Ok, so you've seen bizarre shamans and rituals with animal spirits, but you didn't add up the 'gangs on PCP' with bumpy foreheads and nasty teeth to 'vampires'?"
"Noo... " Heidi and Tor exchanged looks again. She shrugged, looking back at Xander. "We thought they were aliens. Because of the shifting faces."
Xander threw his head back, a long burst of laughter startled out of him. He shook his head, wiping his eyes. "And I thought I watched too many bad sci-fi movies."
"You can never watch too many lame sci-fi movies," Tor said. "That would explain the dead smell, though." Cocking his head, he asked, "How do you kill them? Like in the movies?"
Xander nodded. "Wooden stake in the heart, fire, decapitation. Demons, depends, but cutting off the head's usually a good bet."
"I have a sudden urge to drop out of school," Heidi said. "Or transfer to Miss Porter's." Xander laughed, nodding.
"Ok," Heidi said carefully. "Not sure how anything connects, though. Like I said, I just started getting a weird vibe in class today. Not sure what it was from, but whatever it was set my inner bitch on edge, completely. Like it woke her up all of a sudden." There was an emphasis to the 'inner bitch' that suggested strongly she wasn't using the b-word in the same sense Cordy would.
"Huh. That was the first time I noticed all the girls acting odd," Xander said.
Heidi shrugged, "Stopped grating along the edge of my nerves after a few hours and I quit worrying at it."
Xander raised an eyebrow, thinking. "Cordy, Will, and Aura went back to normal more or less sometime after lunch. Pretty much, anyway." He gave her a look, asking, "You didn't see anyone doing anything that might have caused it? I don't know... just anyone doing something 'odd'?" She shook her head.
"Maybe just a temp effect off of that, what'd you call it, Hellmouth thing?" Tor asked. "And it wore off later?"
"Maybe," Xander shrugged. "Oh well... " he considered for a moment, surprising himself by breaking out in a yawn. "If you feel it in biology tomorrow again, get my attention somehow."
Heidi nodded. She wrote on the table top with an invisible pen and ink, "Make note: if get antsy in biology, throw textbook at Xander."
"Ha ha," Xander said, sourly.
"What are you planning to do about Jack?" Tor asked, his voice casual.
Xander sighed, running a hand through his hair again tiredly. "Jack's managed to annoy Faith. Twice," he said. "I'm thinking he may be a self-correcting problem with a short half life."
Heidi gave him a dubious look. "Your friend Buffy didn't seem like she really had a handle on dealing with things outside of the PCPers."
Xander shook his head, "As Faith'll be happy to pound into anyone who wants to push the point: she's not Buffy." He yawned again, "Ok, I'm gone. Not gonna get nearly enough sleep to deal with class tomorrow as it is." He stood up, grimacing as he put weight on the vamp kicked hip.
"We'll give you a ride," Tor said. "Just promise not to tell anyone you got geek cooties inside of my 'Cuda."
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