Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters.

Chapter 12

As they drove to LA Andrew felt happy, he wasn't sure what he had with Bobby just yet but he was glad that Bobby liked him too. John had taken it on himself to protect Andrew's virtue from Bobby even though Andrew had assured him that he wasn't ready for that kind of relationship.

John pulled into a small town for the night before they headed to LA as they wanted to rest and relax and Andrew needed to talk to the Professor about two possible people coming in.

As he called the Professor he nearly hit himself on the head; it had to be near midnight there but he was glad that he hadn't woken up the Professor.

"Andrew," Charles said warmly, "How goes your trip?" and listened to Andrew talk about Bart, Charles hushed him and said, "Of course, your friend is most welcome to come live with us and also I must mention that your uncle Jonathon called me, a most kind hearted man; he and his family are coming to check out the institute in a couple of weeks."

"Cool," Andrew said, "Though I think he wants us to live with him."

"And I shall convince him to possibly consider leaving you with us," Charles said, "But it seems that family is very important to him and might I ask; how far you are from Sunnydale?"

"It's not far now Professor," Andrew said, "I'm just a bit uneasy."

"That is to be expected," the Professor said, "A great many traumatic things happened to you there, do you want to come home?"

"No," Andrew said, "I gotta be strong and besides I got Bobby, Bart and John with me."

The Professor smiled slightly at Andrew's slight stop on the name Bobby and he wondered when Bobby would make his move? If it hadn't been for Andrew's wish to never use his powers on people he'd have sensed Bobby's attraction some months ago.

Meanwhile Bart and John were busy shopping and John noticed that Bart was going for every snack food he could find, he saw Bart speed up and take a couple of apples and leave the store and raised a eyebrow; Andrew never liked him committing crimes or stealing Summers's scotch, he was going to hate Bart's attitude.

Bart was eating one of the apples he had stolen when John came out and said, "Kid, you better not tell Andrew that you were stealing."

"Why? I was hungry," Bart said, biting into an apple, "What's the problem?"

"Because," John said with a grimace, "It is wrong but I can get why you wanted to do that."

Bart smiled at John and John looked at him and said, "Cute but remember: you get Andrew into trouble and I'm taking you behind the woods at school."

"Cool," Bart said, "And what are we gonna do behind the woods?"

John groaned and said, "Find out if you are the fastest man truly in name and action," he smirked when Bart turned red in the face, he rubbed Bart's short spiky hair and said, "Let's go, I don't want Bobby thinking he can get lucky with my baby brother."

Bart shook his head and said, "You think they'd let me watch or what?"

"Look, there are things I don't want to picture my brother doing and him in bed with Bobby the iceman Drake is one of them," John said shaking his head.

Back at the hotel Andrew had just hung up and sat next to Bobby, who was attempting to find something good on TV.

"So, everyone still alive at the mansion," Bobby asked, "Or do we have to go back?"

"Nope," Andrew said, "Rioters killed everyone, except for the Professor and he's stuck rebuilding."

Bobby laughed as Andrew began to giggle a bit, they sat back on the bed and Bobby pulled Andrew close to him and sighed, "You think John's gonna like us dating?"

"Probably not," Andrew said, "I'm just glad that he's not technically inclined or else he's probably put a chip in your head that cause you pain every time you think of me in a sexual way."

Bobby smiled and said, "I love John like a brother, a psychotic brother though but I can't fault him for being protective of you. After all, you never say anything bad about him."

Andrew reached up and kissed Bobby and snuggled into his arms, Bobby concentrated and created a rose of pure ice for Andrew, who smiled and said, "It's beautiful, you know that. You should become an artist."

"Yeah, that'd go good with my dad," Bobby said, Andrew looked confused and he sighed, "Sorry, I guess you and John don't know too much about my family?"

"No, you just sit there listening to our problems," Andrew gasped and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, we should've listened your problems too."

"No, your immediate family is way worse than mine," Bobby said, "But my family has its problems, I mean my family only likes normal things and Andrew trust me, when I introduce you to them they are going to hate you."

"Are you planning on introducing me to them?" Andrew asked, "When?"

"Whenever you're ready for passive aggressive glares and my brother calling you all sorts of names," Bobby said with a smile, "We Drakes don't talk, we glare."

Andrew smiled a bit and said, "Bobby, my dad put me into a coma for supporting John and not treating him any differently. I think I could handle glares."

"Yeah, about that," Bobby said, "I'm starting to understand why John is so bitter."

"Yeah," Andrew nodded, "That's part of the reason but there's other reasons; the few kids he was friends with, their families refused to let them near him and one guy even threatened his life."

"Who was that?" Bobby asked, "I mean it sounds a bit extreme, doesn't it?"

"No more than some of the horror stories of what I heard," Andrew said, "I mean there was some poor girl who got killed by her own family as they had a priest do their best to take the demon out of her."

Bobby winced as the thought hit him; his parents wouldn't do that but they would definitely not want to see him anymore.

"Wait Andrew," Bobby said, "There's one thing that confuses me; why was Tucker so special to your parents?"

"Oh," Andrew said, "Mom is, or was, kind of frail and, from what I heard, John was a difficult pregnancy and mom swore that he wanted to stay in her; it was difficult as they had to cut him out of it but Tucker's birth was apparently perfect."

"And what about you Andrew?" Bobby whispered.

"I was the surprise after Tucker and John," Andrew said, "They didn't want another child, they were planning on having only two children."

Bobby saw that Andrew wasn't feeling too good and whispered, "Sorry, is this painful for you?"

"Kind of," Andrew said, "But that part of my life is over and you can't live in the past and focus on past hurts."

When John came in with Bart he saw Andrew snuggled up next to Bobby and felt a bit of jealously, he sighed, he knew this day would come but he was happy that Andrew was considering dating Bobby. He would like never say this but Drake was a good guy; he'd take good care of Andrew.

Bart noticed the look and said, "I'll snuggle close to you if you want?"

"No," John said, "You can sleep on the floor."

Andrew looked up and said, "Be nice John, Bart's trying to be your friend."

"He's trying to get in my pants," John said back to Andrew.

"No I'm not," Bart said with a pout, "I just want to bond with you."

John snorted, Bart smiled and gave him the best eyes he could give and John sighed, "Sure, but no cuddling or else there will be fire broiled brat."

Bart gave him a pout and said, "Sure thing," and sat next to John.

Bobby muttered, "They're going to kill each other Andrew."

"Tell them to do it quietly," Andrew said, "I wanna sleep now," as he started to snore softly while he was still attached to Bobby.

John looked over and said, "Good luck trying to get him to let go, he seems to have super human strength when he sleeps."

"Hmm," Bobby smirked, "If I start dating him I'll just have to get used to it," he looked at John's glare and said, "Can't I be a wiseass too?"

"Hmmph," John snorted as he went to sleep and sighed; now he knew Andrew was in good hands as Bobby wouldn't let anything bad happen to Andrew.

The next morning John woke up to feel Bart snuggled close to him and he sighed, 'Great two little brothers,' and heard Bart mumble, "You're warm."

"Yeah," John said, "But you gotta let go now."

"No," Bart mumbled, "Warm."

John woke Bobby up and whispered, "Get him off me."

"Why? It's kind of cute," Bobby said, "He's treating you like you're a teddy bear."

"I only let Andrew do it because he's my baby brother, I don't need to trade one clinger for another one," John growled as Bart snuggled closer.

Bobby smiled and managed to pull Bart off, who started to complain until he looked at John's face and said, "Sorry John."

John shrugged and said, "No problem, just let go next time," and saw Bart smile but quickly added, "If there's a next time."

Bart's face fell and John said, "It's alright kiddo, I'm not saying that there won't be a next time," he looked at Bart and realized, 'Oh god, I love the kid like he's my little brother,' and froze, 'He's going to be like a little me,' and thought, 'I better stop that from happening.'

Andrew smiled as they were leaving the town, he knew they'd be in LA soon but he was nervous about what would happen in Sunnydale, he felt safe with Bobby and John around but he was more worried about John, he knew that John wanted to burn Sunnydale to the ground, he hated the town.

The trip to LA was uneventful and Andrew was uneasy; he saw that John had tensed up too as he was getting uneasy about Sunnydale too.

"You know," Andrew said, "Its Bobby's and Bart's first trip here in L.A, why don't we stop here for the day and show them around?"

John shrugged and said, "Sure, why not, it's like two hours to Sunnydale, we can go tomorrow."

They stopped by a small restaurant downtown to pick up a piece of pie when Andrew felt a wave sorrow and despair so deep it nearly hurt him physically, he got up and excused himself so he could go look for the source, he walked past a blonde girl who looked down.

Andrew stared at her and said, "Are you alright?"

"Umm yeah, I am," she said and walked away."

"No, you're not," Andrew said, "I can tell that your pain is really fresh, do you want to talk about Ms?"

She looked at his bright blue eyes and his honest face and felt a wave of happiness and a warm feeling come over her and she smiled for the first time in a month.

"Oh, you can call me Anne," she said.

Andrew gave her a warm smile and said, "Would you like to sit with us? I want you to meet my brothers and boyfriend."

Anne smiled and said, "Sure, I guess so."

They walked back to the table and John looked at Anne and patted the seat next to him, he said, "Hi, I'm John."

"Hi, I'm Anne."

The others introduced themselves and they began to talk while Andrew was trying to feel why she was feeling so much pain but it hurt to be around her right now.

"So," Anne said, "Where you boys heading too?"

John muttered, "A stupid town called Sunnydale, we're supposed to find someone there."

"Oh, umm," Anne said, "Sunnydale's a bad town, people shouldn't go there."

"Don't I know it," John said, "Andy and I, we're from that shithole of the damned originally and if I had my way I'd burn the fucking town to the ground and laugh as the ashes filled the sky."

Anne smiled a bit and said, "I like your idea a bit, actually I'd like to see the town burn too."

Andrew looked at her and said, "Who did you lose?" At Anne's look Andrew continued, "The sadness and the sense of loss you have, it makes me think you had to do something regrettable."

"Yes," Anne said, "There was trouble in Sunnydale for me basically but it's still too raw for me to talk about."

"Alright but we'll stay for a bit," Andrew said, "But don't force yourself to tell us."

"So," Anne said, "Who's this person you're looking for?"

John looked at her and said quietly, "She's a mutant or at least the guy we work for thinks so, she was reported to have heightened strength and other abilities. Somehow it got back to Professor Xavier and he asked us to check it out and invite her to come back with us."

Anne froze, 'They're looking for me? Since when do slayers read as mutant or whatever? And why does this guy want me? Probably just to make me fight for them,' she shook her head and said, "So what does he want to do with the girl?"

"To help her," Andrew said, "To give her a home if she needs it," he looked at her and felt a wave hope come from her and Andrew smiled, calming her down.

"You're her aren't you?" Andrew said with a small voice, "We've come a long way to meet you."

"No," Anne said, "I'm not a mutant so you guys can't help me."

John shrugged and said, "What are you going to do? Stay here until you can't stand it anymore? Besides the kid who's sitting with me; he ain't a mutant either and we're helping him."

Bart smiled at her and Anne looked at them with a weird look on her face and said, in a hopeful voice, "Can this guy really help me?"

"Yeah, he might be able to help you," John said, "And if not you get to live in a nice place for a bit."

Anne smiled slightly and said, "Sure, it can't be any worse than this place."

Andrew looked at her and said, "You trust us, just like that?"

"Why? Are you guys planning to sacrifice me?" Anne said, "Or something like that? And besides, you guys seem alright."

"No," John said with a smirk, "We don't do that anymore and though we live in a school so you might get hazed."

"By the way," Anne said, "My name's Buffy."

John made a face and said, "I like Anne better, its sounds nicer."

TBC

Poll question: Buffy will be staying at the Xavier institute for a little while, when she gets back with her new friends how will the Scoobies react? How will Joyce react to all this?

Please rate and review.