Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayerverse or Doctor Who
At the Hospital:
Willow stares at Xander, stunned at what she was just told. "You're an alien, and the guy over there is the only survivor of a war that took place over space and time that was against a genocidal race of armored starfish?"
"Basically," Xander smirks. "There was more to that, but that'll have to do."
"But that makes you makes —"
Xander puts a finger to her mouth and chuckles, "Wills, babbling."
She stops and gives a sheepish smile. "Sorry."
Donna looks around cluelessly and whispers in the Doctor's ear, "He's a friend of yours?"
"Distant cousin," whispers back the Doctor.
"Ah!" she replies quietly. "Cool."
Willow looks like a child in a candy store, feeling Xander's dual hearts and hearing stories of Xander's real past. After an hour or so, Willow sits in stunned silence. The shy redhead says slowly, "Are…you still my Xander?" Her eyes look at him with a mix of fear and sadness. He smiles warmly and wraps her in a tight hug. She stammers, "Xander!"
The darkly-clothed Time Lord rubs her back and whispers in her ear, "I'll always be your Xander. Plus, I'm not completely oblivious like I used to be. I know you love me." Her face practically glows bright red. "I have to check something, but I think I might have an offer for you."
She stiffens in his arms and he whispers, "Not that kind of offer." She relaxes slightly but he can tell from her body language that she is disappointed. "At least, not yet." A smile graces her face. He leans back and stares into her eyes, pulling her hair back behind her ears. "Keep that smile. It's beautiful." He glances over his shoulder at his long lost relative. "Doctor, fix her up. I want to show her my Tardis." He scoots over on his bed and continues to hold Willow's hand. Willow unconsciously wraps her fingers around his hand with a smile still on her face.
Buffy watches the interaction with a frown. 'He used to only like me…But I'm happy for Willow...' She takes a quick look at Donna Noble; the Slayer notices instantly that the woman is staring back at her.
"You fancy him, don't you?" Donna asks.
Buffy frowns and takes a step back. "Who? Xander? No way! I like—"
"The souled alien that tried to unfreeze the statue? Yeah right. I can tell when people are a match, and you two aren't," Donna says bluntly. "Those Time Lords…I think they're simply amazing." Buffy scowls and peeks back at Xander.
Buffy mumbles, "I like Angel." She crosses her arms over her chest and moves away from Donna. Meanwhile, the Doctor is using his sonic screwdriver and modifying the hospital equipment in the room.
"Just a touch here and add a regenerative interface there," he says to himself absently. He holds up a newly modified device. "Here we go! The dermal and bone regenerator is ready." Willow's eyes light up while Buffy and Donna nod dumbly.
Xander watches him carefully and the Doctor hands it to him. Smiling, the teenage Time Lord scans it over his friend's broken skin. Buffy and Willow stare in shock while the skin reconnects together and the scars fade into nothingness. "Good as new," comments Xander. He hands the device back to the Doctor before turning back to Willow and holding out his hand. "Let's go to my house and then I'll make you an offer that I hope you can't refuse."
Willow giggles, "Okay, Xander." She takes his offered arm and rises from her bed with a pair of jeans on. She pulls the hospital gown off over her head, revealing a bright orange flower-covered shirt. Xander raises an eyebrow and she shrugs innocently. "I was going to break out of this place tonight. I don't like hospitals."
"Looks like she has some spunk to her!" the Doctor says with a grin at Xander. "You're going to need that if you're going to be making that offer." Willow and Buffy looks to their best friend curiously.
Xander just smiles at them. "Come on. We're going to my house. Coming along, Doctor, Donna?" They nod and he offers his other arm to Buffy who takes it. Xander walks out of the room and down the hall with a girl on each arm.
A nurse looks as if she is about to try to stop them. The nurse steps in front of them and opens her mouth to speak. Xander rolls his eyes and reaches out, pinching a nerve in her neck. He shoves her limp form to the Doctor who hands her off to Donna. Donna gasps at his dismissal of her but recovers quickly and pushes the unconscious nurse into a wheelchair.
They walk out of the hospital and pile into the Tardis to go to Xander's house. Buffy asks as the Tardis starts to disappear, "Can we use that fixer-upper doohickey to heal Giles?"
"Nope!" he says with a smile. He shouts, "Ouch!" and rubs his arm when she hits it with her Slayer enhanced strength.
At Xander's House:
The loud whirring sound resounds through the air next to a large oak tree. An overweight drunken man staggers out of the house with a half empty bottle in his hand. The man blinks while a man-sized wooden telephone booth slowly materializes into existence a few feet in front of him. Its door opens and teenagers pile out. "Get off of my property, ya brats!" the man shouts at them, waving his bottle at them. The dark-haired one of them places his hand on a blonde girl's shoulder when she starts forward.
"He's mine, Buffs," the boy says coldly. A couple watches them from the doorway of the telephone booth. He stalks forward and ducks under a sloppy punch. He deflects a second punch easily, hitting the man's wrist so that he drops his bottle onto the grass. "Hello, Tom. You're not my real dad and I'm not going to put up with your brutality for another moment." The man burps drunkenly and stares at the boy in confusion.
His eyes light up in recognition after a few seconds. "Boy! Get up in your room! I'll deal with you later!" the man roars.
Xander snarls, "I think not." He lashes out at the man's face, the man's nose snapping loudly.
"You broke my nose, you little—" the man yells but the Doctor interrupts him with a wave of a hand.
"He's been beating you?" the Time Lord inquires. Xander nods with a tight frown on his face. "Thanks for telling me!" He stalks forward and punches the man hard in the face. The man is pushed back onto his back by the force of the punch. Donna looks at her companion in surprise at the rare fury on his face. The Doctor leans over the drunk and growls out, "Nobody hurts my family! I am tempted to drop kick you into the waiting jaws of a tyrannosaurus rex! Hunter, may I?" He looks at Xander with a nearly murderous glare.
"No. People like him are the reason why Daleks thought that all races deserved to be wiped out," grinds out Xander. "But he's still given me room and board in this literal Hellhole instead of making me Vampiry food." Xander kneels down onto Tom's chest and punches him hard enough to knock him out.
Buffy snaps, "Xander, you always said that you were just clumsy! You never said he beat you up! I'm going to make him face the wrath of a Slayer! You're next for lying to me!"
"Can I convince you to hold off on that until I show you my surprise?" Xander asks in a hopeful tone of voice.
The blonde Slayer pokes his chest hard enough to make him wince and states, "This. Had. Better. Be. Good." Xander nods while Willow cling tighter to his arm possessively. The redhead gives Buffy a look that says, 'Mine. No hurting mine.' Buffy rolls her eyes and redirects her impatient stare back to Xander. The teenager looks around the yard slowly as if looking for something.
The Doctor smirks, "You're sure that you know where it is?"
"It's around here somewhere," Xander mutters, starting to wander slightly from beside the Tardis.
Donna raises an eyebrow and retorts, "Lost your toy, little Time Lord?" Xander ignores her, but she says to the Doctor, "See? Even you Time Lords lose things!"
"True, Time Lords can lose things," Doctor grins cheekily. "But I don't."
At that moment, Xander pokes the tree and grins. "Found it!" He knocks on the wood and puts his ear to it.
"You put your Tarness in the tree?" Buffy asks, giving Xander an odd look. The Doctor puts his hand over his mouth to hide a smirk and places an arm under it to support his hand.
Xander glances quickly over to her. "No, my Tardis is not in the tree. My Tardis is the tree!" Willow and Buffy exchange a look. "Tardis, open," he orders. The tree trunk opens in the shape of a door. Xander hurries in and the door closes behind him. The Scoobies watch the tree curiously. The Doctor merely smirks. The outside of the tree turns into a thick Roman temple pillar and then into a large boulder. Willow stands open-mouthed at the sight. It changes into a telephone booth and then into a totem pole. It shifts into a square section of brick wall. It shifts again into a giant plastic penguin.
The camouflage door opens and Xander pokes his head out. "Like it?" They stare at him blankly. "Um…I guess not." The door closes and it changes into a tree again. He pokes his head out again. "Better?" The Doctor reaches into the Tardis and pulls him out by the arm.
"It's fine, Hunter. I was going to head off after you found your Tardis…but I was curious to know if you wanted to come with me. You know…we both live forever. It could get a little lonely by yourself," the Doctor offers. Not even the famous Time Lord can hide the hopefulness in his voice.
Xander frowns reluctantly and slowly pulls away after a long tense moment. "I'm sorry, Doctor." He backs up until he is between Buffy and Willow. He places his arms over their shoulders and smiles weakly, "I'm not alone."
The Doctor sighs and looks down. He looks up at Xander with a forced smile. "That's okay. I understand. If you ever want to reconsider, there is always the—"
"—phone in the Tardis that I can use to call yours. I'll keep that in mind, especially if I'm in any trouble," finishes Xander.
The Doctor gives his trademark grin. "In that case, I'll stay near the phone. There is something we Time Lords excel at more than any other race to ever exist!"
"What's that?" Xander inquires with a quirked eyebrow.
The Doctor's grin widens. "Running! Lots of running!"
"I'll keep that in mind," Xander smirks with amusement. "But I'm sort of used to that."
The Doctor nods and smiles at Donna sadly. "Well, it's time to go, Donna! I still never showed you the biggest library in the galaxy!" He strolls off quickly.
Donna quickly shakes everyone's hand and starts to run after him. She calls over her shoulder, "So nice to meet you all!" She catches up to the Doctor just as he closes the door behind her and starts powering up the Tardis for travel. Donna stops cold in her tracks. "Doctor?" she says in a quiet voice. Standing at the controls with his head bowed is the Doctor. The Time Lord raises his head and looks at her. A single tear rolls down his cheek. "I'm sorry, Doctor," she says.
He wipes the tear away and forces a smile onto his face again. "On to the library, shall we?" He flips the switches and it starts to whirl. "Hold on to something." He feels two arms wrap around him from behind.
He hears her whisper, "No matter how strong you are, Doctor, not even you are invincible." The Tardis begins to make the whirring sound and it begins to disappear from view. On the inside is the Doctor making Donna Noble the first human to see the Doctor cry and for him to cry on her shoulder.
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