Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Rating: Just a little bad language.
Spoilers: Anything and everything.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.
Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.
Then I got this idea.
"Buffy hardly trusts me at all as it is, Mrs. Summers," Xander said.
"She's my daughter, Xander. Please."
"All right, fine," he sighed. "Angel's... tall, dark -- well, actually kinda pale -- and handsome. He's got this aura of mystery around him, but I think he really cares for Buffy. I just think the whole thing's doomed from the start."
"Why would you think that?" she asked.
"That's kind of hard to say."
Oh, boy, is that an understatement... he thought. There was literally no way he could possibly explain the whole soul curse clause thing without making the big reveal... and as much as he felt Mrs. Summers should know, it was still Buffy's mom and Buffy's decision.
"Now, I'll admit," he said finally, "I'm hardly objective here -- hormones and all when I first met her -- and I really think she needs to find a nice boy -- or girl, for that matter -- her own age as opposed to going after the whole Harlequin romance thing, but she's been very vocal about what she thinks of my opinion on this matter."
"Girl?" Joyce cocked an eyebrow.
He shrugged, "Whatever makes her happy. I don't think, in the long run, Angel can do that for her."
"But say... someone like you could?" she probed.
He waved it off, "I have other priorities right now, ma'am, and... and I suppose there's too much history between us for us to ever get together like that."
Joyce frowned, "You've only known her for a year."
"A lot can happen in a year," he murmured.
"I see."
I wish you could, Xander thought, before Joyce started speaking again.
"I think I'd like to meet this 'Angel.'"
Oh, crap.
"I'm not sure if that-"
"In fact, I insist."
Crap. Crap! Crap crap crap!
"Um..." he coughed. "I'll see what I can arrange. Oh, there's one other thing. The reason he's kinda pale is because he has a... congenital skin condition. Burns easily in the sun."
Oh, boy, is that an understatement... he thought for a second time.
"Do what you can," she said. "I'd appreciate it either way, Xander."
What have I gotten myself into? When did I lose control?
In the back of Xander's mind, his inner Cordy snarked, What makes you think you ever had control? This is Joyce, remember?
What worried Xander more than the fact that this voice was correct was the fact it sounded like Cordelia... though he supposed it could have been worse: It could have sounded like Harmony.
"You told her what?!"
"Hey, don't look at me!" Xander protested, holding his hands up placatingly. "I don't know where she even heard your name, but she was asking about you. What was I supposed to do? Lie?"
Angel looked at him. He scowled back.
"Nuh uh. Keeping secrets is one thing, Angel, but I won't lie to Mrs. Summers like that. She deserves better than that. I told her you had a congenital skin condition that made you burn easily, okay? And all I said was that I'd try."
"Which pretty much obligates me to meet her anyway," Angel shot back. "If I don't, I look like a jerk."
"'Look like,' my ass," Xander muttered under his breath. "Look, Angel, think about it. You're dating her daughter. She's a mom. She worries. The least you could do is talk to her."
"Like you said, Harris, she's Buffy's mother, and I'm dating her daughter. She'll want to kill me."
"And the problem with that is?" Xander snarked for a moment before he sighed. "Look, if you want, I'll be there to play referee. I'll even promise not to snark at you while she's there."
Angel stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. Shaking it off, he paced, "Why not tell Buffy?"
Xander looked at Angel as if he'd grown a set of wings, "And have her pissed at both of us?! Are you nuts?!" He shook his head, "C'mon, Angel, is meeting Buffy's mom really that scary?"
"She drove off Spike!" Angel snapped. "Buffy told me she hit him over the head with a fire axe!"
"Wouldn't that drive you off?" Xander asked reasonably. "Unless, you know, the rumors are true, and you're a masocist of some kind..."
"It is driving me off," Angel growled, ignoring the jab. "If it weren't, we wouldn't be having this argument, would we?"
"No, we wouldn't, just like we wouldn't if you would just be a man about it and go meet her."
That jab, Angel didn't ignore.
"All right, fine," he glowered. "I'll meet her."
Xander would never know how the meeting went. All he could figure out for sure was that it must have gone well after he made his discreet exit, or Angel and Buffy would have come after him.
As it was, he didn't question it. Whatever would happen with Angel would happen. And whatever that was, Xander had a promise to keep.
Two promises, actually. One to Angel... and one to Angelus, back in that other timeline.
When Child Protective Services showed up, Xander was... touched. And a little confused. They had never shown an interest in him the last time around, and he was trying to puzzle through what he could possibly have done to attract their attention this time.
"God damned bitch," he heard Tony mutter under his breath. For a brief moment, Xander pondered what kind of pattern Tony's brains -- provided he actually still had any after all that booze -- would make on the wall...
It would be... so easy...
The moment lasted only a split-second, but it was far longer than he was comfortable with.
Which was why he was caught a little out of sorts and was unable to completely deflect the CPS agents' attention.
One might wonder why Xander would prefer to stay with his biological parents. The reason was actually pretty simple, and it was all tied to his responsibilities, both to patrolling the hellmouth and rebuilding the Corps. The last thing he needed was to be placed with responsible parents.
Responsible parents would actually notice -- and care -- that he was out at all hours of the night.
While emancipation was possible, he wasn't about to bet on that. Especially since he couldn't claim an independent income, as "asteroid mining" was hardly the sort of business he could legitimately report to the government.
Monica had seen a lot of things in her existence, but even by the loosest of standards, CPS should have taken this child, Alexander Harris, away from his parents a long time ago. She just couldn't see how that hadn't happened yet.
Though, she supposed, he wasn't really a child anymore. Not in the ways that counted, anyway.
"I don't understand, Tess. How is it that no one called Child Protective Services before?" She shook her head, "The hospital records alone..."
"People are blind to what they don't want to admit, baby," the dark-skinned older woman replied gently. "There's also a dark presence here that encourages them not to look too closely."
"He tried to pretend like it wasn't happening," Monica commented. "Like he was fine there. Why?"
"He's afraid," Tess said simply. "Not for himself, but for his mission. He's afraid we'll put him where he can't help others."
"I suppose that's why we're here, then," Monica murmured. "He deserves a little happiness."
"And he'll get it," Tess assured her. "He'll need it for the road ahead. He's slipped out of destiny's grasp and into uncharted waters."
As far as Xander was concerned, compared to trying to fend off the far-too-helpful-to-be-true CPS agents, dealing with Eyghon was almost too easy.
One dead body plus one one-way trip to the sun equalled one crispy fried demon
The hard part was ditching the two CPS women long enough to do that. He had a theory on those CPS agents, by the way. As stated before, they were far too helpful to be the real deal.
He was betting on demon. After all, there were demon lawyers. Why not demon CPS agents? That bureacracy was evil -- a necessary evil, but evil nonetheless -- was a widely accepted fact, after all.
Plus, they were female. And interested in him. Even if only on a professional basis. That, more than anything else, was what cinched it for him.
Unfortunately, his hopes of finding and disposing of Spike and Drusilla were in vain. However, the time, he knew, was fast approaching the point where he wouldn't need to find them.
Career week was coming up.
And with it, half the Scourge of Europe...
...and Kendra.
Author's Postscript:
Monica and Tess are more of a cameo than anything else. I have never actually watched even a single full episode of Touched by an Angel, so I relied on Yorath to get their "voices" right.