Xander didn't get up and start pacing up and down frantically. He didn't start shouting at Giles. He was too shocked for that.

Instead, Xander calmly said "Giles, when exactly was it that you lost your mind?"

"I didn't. We've agreed that Slayers definitely need a place that they can recover from their everyday life. And, really, you're the only one who could run it."

"Build it, maybe. But Giles, I can't run something like that! I'm not a nurse, or a psychiatrist, or anything like that. How am I meant to help them, after they've gone out and seen their friends killed by vampires?"

"You don't have to be different with them, Xander. You don't have to know how to treat their problems. You just have to be normal. I think that you underestimate just how restful it is to be in a normal place with normal people. And, for whatever reason, there aren't any demons in the area, and you are the most normal person we've got who's had experience fighting the supernatural."

Xander opened his mouth to protest, but then he remembered the few short days that he'd spent in Stars Hollow the first time that he'd come by. Even though he'd been on his road trip for weeks at that point, Xander had enjoyed his time in Stars Hollow more than he had anywhere else he'd been. And not just because of Rory, either. "Okay, you might just have a point there." Xander conceded.

"And of course you'll have any help that you need."

"On to my next point - Giles, why the hell couldn't you have told me this an hour earlier? I've gone and left Rory broken hearted because I told her I couldn't stay. Damn it, Giles, that was hard. If you had told me that earlier, I could've told her that I wanted to stay. That I could stay."

"I needed to know that you wanted to stay. And I don't think that you would have, had you not known that Rory wanted you to."

"Still, Giles, you could've brought it up. This problem you've got giving out information is ridiculous. You should probably see someone about it."

"Will you take the job, Xander?"

"I-I need to talk to someone about it."

"Of course." Giles nodded.

About an hour later, Xander drove up to Lorelai's house. He knew that there was every chance that she wouldn't be there - she might be sorting out something at the Dragonfly before it opened, or at Luke's, but Xander didn't doubt Lorelai's capacity to incite a lynch mob should the occasion call for it. It would probably be for the best to get her alone.

He knocked on the door. After a minute, Lorelai opened it. "Oh. It's you." Lorelai said so coldly that Xander could feel frost in his hair.

"Can I talk to you for a moment, please? Before you slam the door or make a run for the shovel or something?"

Lorelai, who had actually been wondering if she could make it to the garage to get the shovel and back before Xander could escape in his car, nodded. "Five minutes."

Xander sighed noisily. "I actually brought you a battle axe to threaten me with, because your shovel's a little rusty and blunt, but then I thought that if you saw me carrying it up the driveway you'd probably call the police and that would make things really awkward. But it's in my trunk, I'll give you my keys and you can get it if you like."

"That won't be necessary. Yet." Lorelai said ominously.

"I mean, not that your shovel isn't a decent weapon or anything. I've got a massive bruise on my arm where Rory hit me with it, earlier." Xander rolled up his sleeve, revealing the purpling bruise spreading from his elbow to his shoulder.

"I trust that you'll be getting to the point soon enough?"

"Well, um, you probably imagined that I spent the last couple of months breaking girls' hearts and laughing at them, or something like that."

"Hmm, I admit I had this thought where you stroked a white cat while feeding girls to sharks while laughing hysterically."

Xander blinked. "Wow. Disturbing thought."

"I try my best."

"But, anyway, it hasn't been like that. Do you remember Anya? She died in Sunnydale. She didn't make it out. I lost other friends there, too. For the last couple of months I've been a mess. I've been working too hard, and I-I-I... well, it hasn't been white cats or sharks with fricking lasers on their heads, let me tell you that. And after Rory and I got into that big fight just before Christmas and she said that she never wanted to speak to me again, I didn't want her to be put through that. I thought it would be better if she didn't see me like that. I thought it would better that she thought that I was dead rather than having me coming and being broken and all that."

Lorelai looked at him for a long time. Xander suspected that the intimidating stare was just her covering up the fact that she didn't actually know what to say. Eventually, she managed "You could've at least told her you were alive, and then quietly bowed out. You could have saved her the pain she's been going through."

Xander looked down. "I know. That would've made more sense. But grief doesn't exactly help with all the sense making. I can't really defend myself, except to say that I didn't mean to hurt her. You can threaten me with my battle axe to make sure I don't do it again, if you like."

"Again? What do you mean, again?"

Xander rubbed his chest. "I've been offered a job in Stars Hollow. The company I work for wants to open a place here to help girls who've seen tragedies like what happened at Sunnydale. They want me to run it. Here. Because Stars Hollow is restful, and calm, and supposedly just the place for girls that have seen things that no one should have to see. Unfortunately, the guy who made me the offer made it after I broke Rory's heart saying I couldn't stay, because he's got a bloody idiocy quota the size of Sunnydale. But I won't take the job if you say that I shouldn't. I don't want to hurt Rory again."

"You want me to decide whether you should take the job or not?" Lorelai said incredulously.

Xander nodded. "I don't want to cause any trouble between you and Rory. Rory already asked me to stay, but... you're important to her. If you want me gone, I'm gone."

Lorelai said thoughtfully "Do you want to stay?"

"Yes. A thousand times yes. I want to stay. I didn't want to leave in the first place. I would love to stay." Xander said vehemently.

"Do you really have a battle axe in your car?"

"I do. Do you want me to get it?"

Lorelai waved a hand. "That's not necessary. I-I think you can stay. But only because you looked so pitiful. And if you hurt Rory again, I will kill you."

Xander pointed at his face. "For future reference, this is my serious face. While I'm wearing it, I'm being serious. So you know that I'm being serious when I say that, if I hurt Rory again, I will bring you my battle axe and let you chop me to pieces with it."

"I'll hold you to that."

Xander grinned. "Thank you."

Xander didn't stop grinning as he drove to Yale. He wasn't entirely sure that he could.

He knocked on the door of Rory's dorm. There was no answer.

He guessed that Rory might be in a class, or something. He hadn't thought about that.

Xander knocked again, and called "Rory? Rory? Can you open the door?"

He heard a shuffling sound from inside, and a moment later Rory opened the door. She'd been crying. Xander stopped grinning and felt physically sick.

He did, however, hand her the toy lion that he'd stopped to buy on the way. He said simply "I can stay, Rory. I can stay. I'm not leaving again."

Rory looked down at the lion in her hand, then up at Xander. "Really?"

Xander nodded. "I've got my serious face on. I'm being serious."

Rory rubbed her head. "Did I fall asleep at some point? Am I dreaming this?"

Xander tilted his head. "You dream about me?"

Rory hesitated for a long moment, then said unconvincingly "No."

"Liar."

"That's not the point. Are you really staying?"

Xander reached out gingerly to run his fingers through Rory's hair. She shivered. "I'm really staying."

Rory took a step back, opening the door wider. "Do you want to come in?"

"I do."

They talked. Xander briefly told her that he hadn't known that Rory would forget him, but Rory refused to talk about that. They quickly moved onto other topics. They talked about Paris and her sixty year old tenured professor boyfriend, and Faith knocking Xander out. Rory warned him that Luke would probably do the same if he saw Xander. They talked about light things, and never took their eyes off each other. Rory never put down the toy lion that Xander had given her.

Eventually, Rory reluctantly said that she still had finals to prepare for. Xander realised that he hadn't yet told Giles that he was taking the job. They took their leave of each other. They didn't kiss.

"Giles!" Xander yelled, when he got back to the house in New Haven. "Giles! Where are you?"

"Dining room." Giles called back. Xander went into the dining room, where he was greeted by the sight of Giles and Dawn sitting at a table. Dawn was half way through a giant cup of coffee, which Xander couldn't help but think was a bad idea. Dawn coped nearly as badly with coffee as Willow did.

"I'm taking the job, Giles."

"Ah, good." Giles said, smiling. "I hoped you would."

"Is this job the surprising surprise that Giles unsurprisingly wants to surprisingly surprise me with in a surprise fashion?" Dawn said quickly.

Xander hesitated for a moment as he figured out what Dawn had actually said. "Yes. It is."

"Dawn, how do you like Stars Hollow?"

Dawn shrugged. "I haven't been kidnapped yet and it has a decent bookstore."

"High praise." Xander murmured.

"Would you like to finish high school here?"

Dawn thought about it. She thought about it rather less than she would've had she not just drunk rather a lot of coffee. "Sure, why not?"

"In that case, while Xander builds the building for the Slayer convalescence home, you two can live in Stars Hollow. The Council has already bought the site for the home, and two other houses side by side."

"I'm getting my own house?" Dawn squeaked.

"Technically. Xander will be next door. You're eighteen Dawn, you can legally live by yourself. Although he'll basically be your guardian. Other Scoobies will drop by now and then, but for the most part it'll be the two of you."

Xander groaned and put his head in his hands. "Oh no. Not prolonged exposure to the plague that is Dawn."

Dawn threw a spoon at him. "I'm not that bad."

"Hey, Dawn, I basically lived with you Buffy and Willow the last few months. I know how bad you are."

Dawn stuck out her tongue.

Giles watched this with amusement. "I'll be staying around for the next couple of weeks until you get properly settled in. After that, you'll be on your own."

"Well, I can always spank Dawn if she's a bad girl." Xander said brightly.

Dawn turned bright pink and ran away.

"What did I say?" Xander said innocently.

Giles gave him a long look. "I can't tell if you're peculiarly dense, or if you take some perverse pleasure in making people uncomfortable."