Disclamer: I don't own Buffy, Angel or any of the characters and concepts therein.

Thanks to Lilykep for beta-reading.

This is, barring next chapter (which will be an epilogue-y sort of thing), the last chapter of Next Year's Girl. I did toy with the idea of this fic having a sequel, expanding the series into three, but on mature consideration, while there's certainly more than will happen in the lives of these characters, and more that will be different from canon… there's just not that much more story to tell.

Compared to some of my other more divergence-y focused stories, the divergence, with Darla and everything else, has been as much in service to the advancement of the story with Xander and Cordelia and everything Xander's been dealing with as it has the actual divergence.

Yes, obviously, everything that happened in this fic would mean that 'Season 3' of AtS would be very different from what we got in the show. But… it's not really something that I'm as interested in writing out in detail.

Thank you so much for your reviews and comments, favorites, follows, bookmarks, kudos, subscriptions and more. This is not exactly your typical Xander-centric or Xander/Cordelia fic, but it's one that I've loved writing.

As one final note – Xander fluctuates between referring to themselves with 'he/his' and 'she/her' in the chapter, because, well, it's a hard habit for Xander to break after so little time.

Next Year's Girl

By Kylia

Chapter 16: Crisis Averted. This One, Anyway.

January 20th, 2001

Foreclosed Apartment Building, Los Angeles

Resolving that it was time to accept that he was stuck as a girl, that he needed to get used to it and internalize it was one thing.

Actually doing it, Xander found, was a very different matter.

She'd been able to think of herself as Cordelia's girlfriend easily enough, even in her own mind. But thinking of himself as a 'girl' as really, really doing that…

Still a work in progress.

Xander switched his car into parking gear, and turned it off, getting out of the car and stepping into the courtyard out front of the hotel. It was late, he was just getting back from another patrol in a new neighborhood. L.A. was big, sprawling and there were demons and vampires everywhere, if you looked closely, but they just weren't as concentrated as in Sunnydale. And they were more careful with their kills.

So there were a lot of nights where Xander would just completely fail to find any vamps, let alone kill them.

As for demons – Xander really couldn't kill a demon just because he found a demon. He ran into a lot of them, because they lived in the same sort of run down, condemned, cheap, or abandoned buildings that most vamps hung out in. But, unless they attacked him or had, like, human body parts on them (he'd only run into one of those), he made a point to not attack them. Not without knowing for sure if they were dangerous to people.

Tonight, however, was not one of those nights where she didn't get to kill any vampires.

"Okay, so I admit my quipping game is nowhere near as good as Buffy's, but really, guys? You're undead, immortal, think you're better than humans, have a superior sense of smell, and you choose to live like this?" Xander ducked under the punch from the vamp in front of him, delivering an uppercut to the vampire's chin, sending his head snapping back as he staggered away, his buddies pulling themselves to their feet as well.

Xander moved back, putting some distance between herself and the three vamps left in this nest. There'd been five, but an ambush and some quick moves had taken out the first two.

Really, really should have made sure it was only the three I thought it was at first. Three vamps was about as many as Xander trusted herself to take on alone safely, when she had a choice.

Pulling her stake from her pocket, Xander looked around the apartment the vamps had set up in. It really was a mess, random detritus, bloody clothes, empty bottles of alcohol, takeout containers and just the stench of unwashed… everything hung in the air. The furniture, such as it was, was sagging, broken or otherwise in poor shape, stained with blood and god knew what else.

"Really, no response?" He asked, as the vampires formed up, all standing together, game faces out, snarling at him.

"Are you really trying to have a chat about the way we live while we're fighting?" One vamp asked – she looked like she'd been about Xander's age when she died, wearing a tight, low-cut, midriff-baring top and a miniskirt, but she'd also been the hardest to get off her feet, so Xander was thinking she was the boss.

"Well, I really don't get why you guys like to live in such filth. Not every vampire, but a hell of a lot of you," Xander shrugged. He stayed in his position, watching the three vamps – they were trying to spread out a bit, slowly, the leader giving small gestures with her hands.

Slightly smart boss that actually knows how to use numbers. Crap. They were going to try to come at her from multiple angles, all at once, spreading out, watching her, watching for him to make a move first…

Well, I hate to disappoint. Of the other two, the one on the left seemed the easier dusting – so Xander moved right, running at the vamp there, jumping into a kick, sending that one flying as the other two came at her, their movements fast compared to human, but just a little slow compared to her…

And that slowness cost the one that had been on the left. Instead of chasing after vamp he'd sent flying, Xander spun, driving his stake into the chest of the other minion vampire, pulling the piece of wood back at the last minute, watching the vampire's body vanish to dust, the skeleton visible for the briefest of moments and then it collapsed to the ground.

The leader was on him then, cursing at him as Xander was forced on the defensive, ducking and blocking blows and attempted grabs – the vamp wanted to do more than just hurt him. She wanted to pin him, immobilize him, and drain him.

But I'm not letting that happen. If some random vampire killed her, Cordelia would never forgive her.

Xander blocked another swing, hitting the inside of the vampire's arm along the elbow, knocking it away, but the other arm came in and hit her in the gut, knocking the air out of her. Xander stumbled back, not quite doubled over, gasping, stake clattering to the ground.

Fuck.

The boss was on her and Xander only had a moment to wonder why the other vampire wasn't joining before she had to put all her focus into this fight – a flurry of wild blows, coming too fast for her to do anything but block, Xander searching for an opening as she caught one, two blows on her upper arm, another on her ribs – enough to hurt, but nothing she couldn't handle…

Taking the blows gave Xander an opening – ducking under another swing, Xander moved to the side, low to the ground, diving for her stake and snatching it up – rolling onto her back as the vampire lunged for her, trying to land atop him.

At the last minute, a second before the vampire could reach him and wrap her arms around his neck, Xander moved his stake, catching her in the chest as she landed atop him.

Coughing up dust, Xander climbed to his feet, looking to see the last vampire, who had apparently decided to sit out the fight, either not wanting to die for his boss at this point, or maybe hoping the boss would die.

"I - " whatever the vampire was going to say, he didn't, instead diving out of the window, the glass shattering, a five-story drop greeting him.

Xander reached the window as he saw the vampire pull himself to his feet, half-limping away. A quick check revealed no fire escape on this side of the building, and Xander pulled back. Even limping, the vampire would probably vanish into the night by the time Xander got to the stairs, went down…

"Well, four out of five isn't bad." Xander muttered to herself, and started searching.

He was only halfway through checking the apartment, finding some loose cash and a few watches and wallets in the mess and filth when his phone rang. Caller ID listed 'Angel'.

Why would Deadboy call me? The nickname was habit, rather than malice now.

"Angel," Xander answered as he picked up. "Is everything – is Cordy-"

"Cordelia was fine when she went home a few hours ago." Angel interrupted, his voice thick with emotion – a hell of a lot more than he usually heard from the vampire. "It's Darla."

Fuck. It would be that, if Cordy was fine, that would get Angel upset. Had something gone wrong? It had to be, he wouldn't be so audibly upset if she - "Fuck." Xander Echoed her own thoughts, "What happened? Did Wolfram and Hart come after her, finally?" For all the paranoia on Angel's part that someone might come for Darla, might try to turn her against her will – it had never happened. Maybe it was because he'd almost always been there, covering her, but…

Maybe Wolfram and Hart was just glad that he was out of commission for a while. But if Angel was calling -

Xander stuffed what she'd been able to find in the vampire nest into her pockets, rather than finishing up the search. If Angel was calling for her help, then it was a big deal, right?

"No – no, they..." Angel trailed off, and Xander slowed, halfway down the five flights of stairs already. "She died an hour ago. I – I called because I knew you were on patrol, and I need you to get some diesel fuel on your way back to the hotel."

Diesel? But what Angel meant hit him in a few seconds. "You want to burn her body."

"She asked me to a few days ago." Angel said quietly, Xander could imagine his downcast eyes as he said that. "Said she wanted to make sure there was no chance Wolfram and Hart could use her body, or vamp her even after she died or worse."

"And what, you're just gonna burn her in the garden?" That seemed like all sorts of bad idea – illegal, fire risk… Xander knew that human bodies didn't burn down very easily. The things you picked up when you helped fight vampires.

"I can't exactly take her to a crematorium without all the paperwork." Angel explained, speaking slowly "It's the last thing she asked me to do," He added, weight to his words that Xander had never heard from the vampire, "so I'm going to do it. But I – I can't leave her body alone to go get-"

"Get the diesel." Xander finished. "Alright." She sighed, exhaling slowly. "I'll get some. Still might be a better idea to burn her somewhere that's not the hotel. It's not exactly an out of the way part of the city, Angel. Do you want that cop that hates you to come after you?"

"Kate – she – it's – I don't think she hates me anymore. Not after – not after the Shroud of Rahmon." Angel said carefully. "I think I'll be fine."

"Just don't burn the hotel down without warning me so I can grab all my stuff first." Xander said, then hung up.

She resumed her way down the stairs, moving slowly, though her thoughts were racing a mile a minute.

She felt… some way, about Darla's death. Indirectly the woman was responsible for most of what had happened in Xander the last few months. She was, at this point, all but certain that Darla was the thing that Angel had needed her help with, the problem the Slayer visions had drawn her here to deal with.

If I hadn't been there – if Cordelia hadn't pressured me into following them… Lindsey and Drusilla would have gotten their hands on Darla. Probably turned her. Best case scenario, they found Darla before she woke up the next night, a vampire all over again.

Not a very likely one, really, given how far someone could travel in a day when they had the resources of Wolfram and Hart. Xander didn't know how far that really was, for a vampire and a corpse, but it had to be a lot of miles.

And then they'd be dealing with a pair of vampires who had thought Angelus was the sort of guy to hang with. Even if Angelus had been worse than either of them, Darla and Drusilla was probably still a really terrible combination for the city.

And if not for Angel protecting Darla so fervently, Xander and Cordelia might not have spent as much time together, working together, as Xander filled in for Angel.

And if not for that…

I mean, maybe things would have come to a head eventually, but Cordelia and I are not inevitable soulmates.

She still didn't love Cordelia again yet, but every day, it felt like she was getting closer. The weight of it was…

It was a lot.

Xander wanted to believe that she wouldn't screw this up. That she wouldn't hurt Cordelia again. That she wouldn't sabotage herself, or screw things up. Yeah, it was a lot. The weight of what was likely coming, the prospect of loving Cordelia again, of – hopefully – being loved by her again, but…

I can do this. Sure, Cordelia and she would probably fight more than most couples. But honestly, Xander wouldn't have it any other way.

But all that, indirectly, was owed to Darla. Plus, she'd just been such a significant, if background, fact of her life the last two months. And now she was dead.

"If she was the big crisis… I guess the crisis is averted."

Xander started up her car, debating if she should call Cordelia. Would Angel call Cordelia and Wesley to tell them? It was past midnight now. But it was a pretty important thing that had happened.

Darla was dead. Crisis averted, but Wolfram and Hart would be up to something else, and they'd have to deal with that.

What was it Ivanova said after Jinxo left the station? 'No Boom Today? Boom Tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.'

Assuming Angel hadn't already called Wesley and Cordelia to at least let them know, Xander would have to call Cordy, at least. Let her know.

Not that it would change much. Sure, when she'd first arrived in LA. she figured she'd do whatever her Slayer Dreams had brought her here to deal with and then… gone back to traipsing around the southwest, killing demons and vampires.

Definitely not leaving LA anytime soon now.

January 20th, 2001

Hyperion Hotel, Los Angeles

As it turned out, by the time Xander got there, Cordelia and Wesley had arrived as well. Wesley looked like he'd been up all night, but Cordelia had a telltale 'you woke me up while I was sleeping and I am not happy about it' expression Xander knew very well.

All three of them – four, if you counted Darla's dead body – were there. Looking around, Xander supposed there was at least a chance that the burning might not attract a ton of attention. The front gate into the garden, the wall, they were pretty overgrown, masking it all from the street pretty well. Angel had actually dig a long, narrow pit to hold Darla's body, a sort of firepit, and put various pieces of wooden scrap in the bit with the dead woman's body.

Xander carried the two five-gallon gas cans, both full up to Angel and set them down in front of the vampire. "Diesel fuel, as ordered. You get this isn't enough to burn her to ash, right? It takes like, twice this much. And a long time." Again, hazards of having much smarter friends who fought vampires a lot, for years.

"I'm not looking for turning her to ashes, just enough so that there's nothing Wolfram and Hart can do to her body… with her body." Angel said quickly, his tone brought back to his usual controlled, level – not exactly emotionless tone, but definitely not as thick and heavy with feeling as it had been on the phone.

"Fair enough." Xander considered for a moment then, "I'm going to grab the fire extinguisher, just in case."

"Already done," Wesley said, gesturing to his left – Xander followed the motion and saw the extinguisher sitting there, on the steps up onto the covered porch. Within easy access, in case something went wrong.

"Alright then." Xander looked down into the pit, only the lights from the lobby and the light from the moon overhead illuminating Darla's body. She looked…

Well, she looked dead, yeah, but her body was a lot thinner, her skin much more… washed out, for lack of a better word. She looked like shit, really. It kind of reminded Xander of when she'd gotten a good look at Faith's body, looking at herself in the mirror all those months ago. Strung out, pale, just… not great. At all. To put it simply.

Darla didn't quite have the same strung out quality to her, and her eyes were closed, her body positioned to be laying in state, arms crossed over her chest, wearing a simple red dress. She'd lost weight, muscle tone, her hair seemed kinda stringy…

Then again, who looked good after spending a month and a half dying of syphilis complications?

Xander looked back at Angel, then, "I'm sorry." He said quietly. "I know you wanted to try and save her." She couldn't bring herself to actually care much about Darla being dead – beyond a general 'well, sucks that someone died' sort of thing, but Angel cared about her death, and surprisingly, Xander did feel a little bad for Angel.

Hopefully it'll pass quickly.

Angel said nothing but, but gave him a single nod, and Xander walked past the vampire, over to Cordelia, standing beside her. Cordelia was probably here to give moral support to Angel. Xander was staying here, watching, rather than going to her room because…

I guess for the same reason? Xander couldn't think of a better answer, and she wasn't really happy with that fact.

"Darla's the reason you came to L.A." Cordelia murmured.

"Pretty sure that's what the dreams were about, what the Host saw, yeah." Xander exhaled slowly. "Her becoming a vampire again would have been very much of the bad," Xander's tone was just as quiet as hers as Angel started to douse Darla's corpse in the fuel. He didn't use the entire five gallons, let alone the second one, not yet, but who knew what would come. The vampire struck a match and took a step back, tossing it into the pit.

Xander looked away from the flames.

"But it's not like this whole thing with Darla is the only reason I've been sticking around the last two months." Xander pointed out quietly. "I'm not going anywhere." She hesitated, "Unless you want me to."

Cordelia's hand found hers, taking it, holding it. Her girlfriend shook her head, "No. God no." She let out a quiet breath, closing her eyes a moment.

"Worried I was going to want to leave?" Xander asked, unable to stop from smiling just a tiny bit at the prospect, despite the dead body starting to burn less than fifteen feet away from her.

Cordelia bit her lip, then nodded. "Just a little." She admitted. It was hard to say in the limited light, but it looked like Cordelia flushed for a moment there. She shook her head, "We can talk about this later." She looked back towards the now blazing fire. Angel was standing a little too close to it for comfort, and Xander shifted position, just a touch, so she could run for the extinguisher easier, if she had to.

"Not much to talk about." Xander replied, shaking her own head. "I'm not going anywhere. That's really all that needs to be said." She squeezed Cordelia's hand.

Yeah. The crisis was averted. But there would always be another.

Always would be, when you fought demons and vampires, whether it was in Sunnydale or here in Los Angeles or anywhere else Xander could go.

I'm a Slayer. This shit attracts me, and I attract it. Or something like this.

But it wasn't the crises that would be keeping her here. You couldn't live for the crises. Xander had learned that early on, back when she couldn't contribute much to the fighting.

It wasn't just her relationship with Cordelia, keeping her here. That was most of it, sure but…

Fucked up and strange as it was, accidental as it might have been…

Angel Investigations was starting to feel a bit like home.