A/N Syg, I agree that out of universe the unfortunate habit the writers had of not going back and explaining prior canon when they came up with something new also caused a lot of problems. A prime one is Wesley telling Buffy that they, the Council and that was meant to include her, didn't work with or help vampires, under any circumstances. Or him trying to arrest Faith over an accident but ignoring the fact that Buffy had killed people and let Angelus go, which gave him the opportunity to kill. You can argue about the affect any of that had on Buffy or how you don't think she should be accountable and the audience does, but from the stand point of both the law and the Watchers Council, Buffy's actions are far worse than Faith's and both had circumstances that should have been addressed. But they either never knew Buffy's actions or they let her get away with it.

Or they held the two to different standards, which also makes no sense. Not addressing prior canon when bringing in something new they'd just thought up is always going to leave more questions than answers and launch a thousand fanfics as people try to figure out answers for themselves.

Willow being left alone a lot by her parent is something I don't think is ever outright stated, but it is implied a number of times, like with Xander's parents being abusive, by off hand comments and by them only being seen on camera once. I've seen comments by people who felt we should have seen more of the parents and it would have helped us understand the characters better and my research shows Joss wanted the show to be from the teenagers point of view and that meant having reasons the parents weren't around.

Syg, Have you read Kerrain's stories? They made it hurt. 😟

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Xander came out of his meditation with a lot on his mind, he and Coyote had talked for a long time, from his point of view, but since it all happened in his head, time really was irrelevant. And most of what Coyote had to say involved the Powers and their games and what it was doing to people. He needed to think and make some decisions. His immediate priority was helping Faith, his counterpart and Buffy and Willow and Cordelia. Things were not happening here that happened in his reality, Willow had never studied Magic in his reality for instance and Coyote had no idea what the goal of the Powers was, just what they were doing and how it was hurting people.

Faith was stirring, waking up. He'd watched his Faith wake up many times over the years, he'd seen how she'd tense as sleep left her mind and then relax when she registered his presence, trusting him in that instinctive moment between heartbeats. This Faith stayed tense, there was no trust. She opened her eyes and saw him and sprang up, immediately on the defensive.

"Who are you? Where am I?" She squinted. "Xander? What the Hell -."

"You're a long way from Hell, Faith." Xander stood up and made no move toward her. "You're in the Upper Realms, not Heaven or even a heavenly realm, but definitely a place where the people who called it home weren't monsters or demons. This was the home of the Elders, guardian/protectors and whitelighters. They were murdered thousands of years ago."

"And how do you know that?"

"An actual god told me. I'm not the Xander Harris you know, Faith, I'm from another reality, where this mass murder never happened." Going for honestly because Faith would never trust him if he held back. He orbed away from her and appeared by the pool. "I don't know how I ended up in your reality, but in mine this place is as much my home as the apartment where I live with my wife is. I'm a whitelighter, Faith, I died in the service of good and was remade a new life form, nearly twenty years ago in my reality. Would you like to see what your Xander is up to right now?"

"He's not mine." She glared at him, cautiously approaching the pool and keeping him in sight. He knew the peace of this place was affecting her, which was why she wasn't going straight for an attack, but she wasn't remotely trusting. He touched the edge of the pool and the local Xander appeared in it. "How long have I been out? He's beefed up, not that he didn't look good naked before, but damn, those shouiders look solid!"

"The image is of what he's doing right now." The Xander with the cool light trick told her. "I think he's getting ready for work."

"He lives there? That's as nasty as where I was living." Faith muttered. Xander didn't respond, pressing Faith for details before she was ready to talk would only lead to her clamping up. One good thing about him dying in his world, it had gotten him out of his parents place. The Xander in the viewing pool finished dressing and left, stopping at a road side stand to buy some flowers in a vase. A bunch of sunflowers, interesting. They watched as he stopped at the hospital and breezed passed the receptionist with a cheerful, "Hope your week's been good, Alice!" And into an elevator, he got out and passed another receptionist, who waved him on with a grin and whitelighter Xander's gut tightened as he understood where his counterpart was going, even if Faith didn't yet.

"Excuse me, where is she, was she taken for tests or something?" He asked a nurse passing by, who frowned at the empty bed.

"I'll check." She assured him. "Just set the flowers on the bedside table as usual, Xander. I know you have to get to work."

"Yeah, tomorrow's my real visit, just dropping some flowers off for her, brighten her room." He went in and set the vase next to the Snoopy in leather. "I can't stay anyway, my boss left me a message last night to see him first thing this morning, he left before I did."

"I'll find out if Miss Lehaine's been sent for tests or something and give you call, Xander. Have a good day."

"What the fuck?!" Faith's strangled scream echoed through the mostly empty realm. "That's my hospital room! Why the Hell am I in the hospital? And why would Xander be visiting me?!"