Bridges

By Tassos

Nine Lives Of Scary Cats

Jack shut the engine off and looked at the house in trepidation. It was covered in snow with Christmas lights in the trees and a wreath on the front door like every other house on the block in the quiet neighborhood. The early morning light reflected brightly off of everything as if nothing were wrong, making the whole situation feel surreal. It was just after eight, December twenty-sixth, and Jack couldn’t help but feel very tired.

Honestly, he didn’t know what to expect. His phone call to Xander last night had been terse and to the point. His son hadn’t wanted to discuss anything over the phone, just requested that he come and offered to pick him up from the airport, but that hadn’t been necessary. Jack and his teammates had flown cargo out of Peterson late last night and been issued an SUV at the base about forty miles outside of Cleveland. And here they were. Jack felt a strong revulsion to going inside because that would mean that this was really happening and Xander really had gotten pulled into his dangerous world.

“Jack,” Daniel prodded from the backseat. Jack nodded and sighed. Knowing there was no other choice, he got out of the car. The path to the front door was clear and sprinkled with salt that crunched beneath their feet. Daniel found the doorbell easily enough beside him when they reached the top step, and it was only a minute before Dawn answered the door.

“Jack!” she said, clearly surprised to see him there so early. “And friends,” equally startled by the three additional people.

“Hey, Dawn,” Jack greeted the young woman. She was still in her floral print pajamas with heavy socks covering her feet.

“We thought you were coming later,” she said, stepping back to let them in.

Everything looked just the same as Jack remembered except for the decorations and the stack of wood that sat by the staircase waiting to repair the damage to the banister. The sight of it was an unpleasant reminder that all was not well. Off to the left, Jack heard the TV from the den.

“Everyone else is still asleep except for Courtney and Giles. They should be up soon though. Jackets and snow boots off,” Dawn pointed to the coat rack next to the door and the rows of shoes underneath. Once they wouldn’t spoil the carpet, she led them around to the den. A modest sized Christmas tree sat in the corner and wrapping paper still seemed to cling to everything. Decorations of every kind were on every available surface, from cute plastic elves to a Menorah to odd wooden carvings and candles. The little girl Xander had brought to his house barely a week earlier sat curled up under an afghan on the couch watching cartoons, and nearby Rupert Giles sat in an armchair with a book. Both looked up when they entered the latter getting slowly to his feet to greet them.

“Colonel O’Neill,” the Englishman offered his hand after a moment, which Jack shook briskly. He looked curiously at the others behind him.

“Ah, Rupert Giles, I’d like you to meet some colleagues of mine. Major Carter, Dr. Jackson, and Murray.” Giles shook each of their hands with a polite smile as if visitors at eight in the morning the day after Christmas were completely normal.

“A pleasure to meet you,” he said. “I’m afraid the others aren’t awake yet.”

“That’s what Dawn said,” Jack nodded toward the teenager who was coolly looking over his team. Carter and Daniel both shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny while Teal’c simply lifted an eyebrow in her direction. Dawn, Jack was surprised to see, met him stare for stare.

“I can go wake them up,” Dawn told them after a distracted second. “Though you will so owe me for this,” she said turning from Teal’c to Giles. The older man merely nodded, a pensive look on his face while she disappeared.

“Would you like some tea or coffee?” he offered.

“Coffee would be great,” Daniel spoke up, and Giles nodded and went to the kitchen leaving the four of them alone with Courtney and the cartoons. Jack turned to his teammates to see what they thought of things so far. After a quick exchange of silent guess-we-wait-and-see looks, Daniel, predictably, wandered over to the bookshelf by the tree and Teal’c over to the collection of movies. A statue of a naked woman with tree branches extending from her outstretched arms and hair, her feet melding into roots – and plastic miniature ornaments on every branch that clearly had not come with the statue – had caught Carter’s eye and now Jack’s. He remembered Xander saying something about how Willow was sort of pagan.

“It’s an Earth symbol,” Courtney surprised them both by saying. She was watching them look at the statue with clear eyes and an empty expression. “Willow says it’s to remind us that we’re part of the Earth and the Earth is part of us.”

“And the ornaments?” Jack couldn’t help but ask, flicking a small plastic snowman with his finger.

“They represent our culture,” said Courtney. “Since our culture’s part of who we are, it’s part of the Earth too. I think it looks pretty.” Jack personally thought it looked tacky, but who was he to argue? He was about to make some bland comment about it for conversation’s sake but Courtney beat him too it. “Thanks for letting me stay over that time,” she said. “I know you were kind of mad about it.”

“I wasn’t mad,” Jack interrupted. She watched him with that beguiling stare of the young and suddenly Jack didn’t know how to explain. “Just . . . surprised.” Surprised, confused – and Jack still didn’t know what had been going on, what was still going on. “I’m sorry about your house,” he said, remembering it had burned. The sudden welling of tears in Courtney’s eyes only confirmed why she was here and not with her own family. Another thing Jack was going to grill Xander about when he got down here.

“Did you get anything good for Christmas?” asked Carter in an effort to distract Courtney, who smiled weakly and nodded in return. Jack listened halfheartedly while she and Carter chatted Harry Potter books and clothing. The unsettled feeling was back and with it impatience. Jack just wanted to get to the answers right now. Enough of this waiting and wondering. He stood to pace off some of his sudden energy but luckily Giles returned with a coffeepot and four mugs before he drove everyone nuts.

Giles set about pouring but Jack didn’t really notice because just then Xander walked in with Dawn and her sister Buffy. His son had taken time to pull on jeans and a sweatshirt though his hair was still tousled from sleep. Dawn too had changed; she and Buffy were both in the same kind of casual warm clothes meant for hanging around the house, but Jack only noticed them peripherally.

“Jack.”

“Xander.”

“Busy holiday?”

“Yeah,” Jack didn’t know what to say to the penetrating stare that wanted to know why he’d been absent on Christmas Day. “So you had some visitors?” he asked lightly to open up the subject.

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, breaking eye contact and looking over Jack’s shoulder at the others. “And I see you brought friends.”

“Yes,” Giles interrupted the tense atmosphere. “Xander, why don’t you and Jack go talk in the sitting room. And Dawn you might want to clean up the dining room a little bit so we can eat in there later?” He lifted his eyebrows and Dawn’s eyes opened wide and darted to Jack before she hurried off. Great, more secrets, thought Jack, wondering just what it was they were hiding in the dining room. And he was tired of it all. Just tired of double talk and silence, and he was sick of doing this by their rules.

“Why don’t we just talk here,” he suggested instead, anger held in check. “You all know what’s going on. We’re all going to find out. Let’s just get it in the open right here.” He looked from Giles to Xander, challenging either one to disagree. He wasn’t disappointed.

“This is between you and me right now,” said Xander. And the uncertainty Jack saw in Xander’s face for one unguarded moment decided him. Remembered words from that awful night – people to protect, don’t trust who you work for . . . The conflicting mysteries hadn’t added up to anything he or his team could figure out on the flight over. But whatever it was, it was important to Xander, something that he didn’t trust the government with – which actually scared Jack. And it looked like Xander was about to tell him anyway.

“All right,” Jack agreed. He exchanged a look with his team, but none of them protested, only nodded in understanding. So Jack followed Xander to the sitting room where they had first talked on that summer day half a year ago. He felt like he was meeting his son for the first time again, which he supposed he was in a way.

“So,” he said, once they were seated opposite each other, the door firmly closed behind them. “You really have eight NID agents in your basement?”

Xander nodded, unsmiling. “Yeah. I’ll take you down later.” He looked down at his hands then back up. “So, this isn’t how I normally do this,” he said. “But with the NID wanting something from you, and me being a convenient target, and me being Mr. North America to people that the government would probably like to experiment on, all adds up to bad.”

“Xander,” Jack closed his eyes briefly, wondering just how he did it, “one more time. In English. With coherent sentences.”

“I need to know that what I’m about to tell you won’t get passed on to your CO or anyone else where you work,” said Xander sitting up and leaning forward so his elbows rested on his knees. “I’m telling you because you’re my father and if we keep seeing each other you’re going to find out anyway.”

“I’m going to have to tell my team,” said Jack after a moment. “Daniel, Carter, and Murray. I’ve told them enough already, but you can trust them.” Xander didn’t look too surprised by that; he probably had suspected it the moment he saw SG-1 in the den with Jack. “And I have to tell my CO.”

“Jack – ”

“You remember General Hammond?” Jack spoke over him, raising a hand to ward off protest. “Yesterday we got an ultimatum from some people who want control over our project,” he said carefully. Xander deserved to know after all, since they had tried to use him as a pawn. A part of Jack was perversely proud that his pawn had teeth.

“The NID.”

“No, they just used the NID,” said Jack. “They gave me a number to call, where you were supposedly. The phone was off and then I got your messages. Hammond was there for that and wants answers as much as I do.”

“Then I don’t know if I can tell you,” said Xander.

“You can trust Hammond,” said Jack. “He’s a good man and one of the best commanders I’ve had. Ever. I can promise it won’t go beyond the five of us.”

“That’s reassuring,” Xander’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “And how do I know once you find out that you won’t go ‘hey, I bet we could use these people to make better soldiers.’”

“Xander!” said Jack exasperated. “I don’t know what you’re talking about – obviously, since you refuse to tell me anything – but General Hammond told you every embarrassing story about me that he could remember. Do you really think that he’s the type of man that would hurt innocent people just so we could get better soldiers?” Xander looked surprised by this outburst but remained silent and wary. Frustrated, Jack went on, trying to get him to see that the government and the military were not always the evil people he took them for. “I know there are people like that, but we’ve been fighting those kinds of people who want to force me into retirement for years. And we don’t let them win, no matter what. And on top of that, I wouldn’t let Hammond do anything that would endanger you or whoever you’re protecting because you’re my son and that’s my job as your dad!” Xander didn’t move or say anything, just stared with that same unreadable expression and Jack couldn’t tell whether that was good or not. “Look,” he said self-consciously, “all I need to tell him is how you managed to beat off eight NID. Beyond that . . .”

“They wanted you to retire?” asked Xander, finally speaking.

“Yeah,” said Jack. “They forced Hammond out once and we had to blackmail them to get him reinstated. Thought they’d use you to get me out of the way this time. Might have worked, too.”

“Oh. Kind of anticlimactic,” Xander relaxed back into the couch, and Jack heaved an internal sigh of relief. “Okay,” he looked directly at Jack who met his one-eyed stare evenly. “I don’t know how much you can avoid telling your CO. I’ll leave that up to you, and so help you if you double cross me.” He paused, dead serious, and waited for Jack’s equally solemn, “You have my word.”

“All right,” Xander began. “So this is the part where I tell you that demons and vampires and all sorts of ugly evil things are real. And then you say ‘no, that’s crazy,’ and want to have me locked up but can’t figure out a way to do it since I’m over twenty-one and my psyche test is clean. Then I say ‘yes, they are,’ and you yell and scream, then I prove it, and you go into shock over the whole deal until finding refuge in ‘okay, it’s real’ but not really believing it until you almost get eaten.”

Jack though about it for a minute then voiced the only response he could come up with. “What?” Because Xander didn’t just say what he thought he had, had he? Demons? Vampires? All sorts of ugly evil things?

“Jack,” Xander sat forward again with no grin or glint in his eye that suggested that he might be joking. “The world is far creepier than you ever thought possible. Every myth and urban legend you’ve ever heard is probably true including and especially the monsters part. They’re real. Vampires, werewolves, things you’ve never even dreamed of that are looking for a nice human snack in the middle of the night when you’re out walking your dog.”

“I don’t have a dog,” said Jack absently, still trying to absorb what Xander was trying to say.

“Fine. Cat. Whatever,” Xander brushed it aside. “The point is, it’s real and it’s out there, and we’re the front, middle, and last line of defense.”

Demons? Vampires? All sorts of ugly evil things? Jack was still stuck on that part. “So when you asked me if I believed in vampires – ”

“I meant actual vampires,” said Xander.

“Not a metaphor for something normal like drugs or terrorism?”

“No.”

“Oh.” Actual vampires. “Okay.” And demons. “I can accept that.” And all sorts of ugly evil things. Because, hey, went to other planets and fought aliens on a daily basis. Sure, no problem. “Except for the fact that it’s completely insane!” Jack snapped out of his initial shock getting to his feet suddenly. Because, hey, fought aliens on a daily basis. He would have known about alien-like things on his own planet, he thought angrily. The SGC got wind of everything weird that went on, thank you very much.

“The reason Dawn picked you up from the airport on Thanksgiving was because the rest of us were at a deserted YMCA stopping a ritual massacre,” Xander went on as if he hadn’t said anything. “I got cut that cut on my arm and Willow got those scratches during the fight. You didn’t see all the bruises down my side from getting thrown into a wall. And the fish in the soup didn’t have eyes because we needed them for the potion that would disrupt the ritual.”

“Potion?” Vampires, demons, ugly evil things, and now potions? It was just . . . “Xander, are you even listening to yourself?” Jack asked. He couldn’t believe this, though he remembered the soup well enough. “You’re talking about fairy tale stuff!”

“No, I’m talking about my life.”

That simple statement brought Jack up short mid rant because Xander was not smiling. And instead of looking frustrated or bothered about not being believed, he just looked . . . like this was a normal reaction that would eventually pass. For some reason that just made Jack angry, like he was the one coming up with wild stories and talking out of his ass when it was the other way around. Because what did vampires or demons or whatever have to do with having eight NID agents in Xander’s basement?

“I’m getting to that,” said Xander, annoyance creeping into his voice, and Jack realized he had practically yelled the question.

“Let me guess, they’re vampires,” Jack bit out caustically. Part of some delusion that because they were bad men they must be quote-unquote evil.

“If they were vampires, they’d be dead, you wouldn’t be here, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Xander informed him evenly. “The NID guys are here because of whatever *you* do, not me, so don’t go blaming them on us.”

“Fine,” said Jack tersely. “So explain it to me. What do ‘vampires’ have to do with the NID?”

“So, we’ve established that there are creatures of pure evil in the world – ”

“So you claim.” Jack couldn’t believe he was listening to this. Couldn’t believe Xander, his calm, rational, sometimes funny son who worked at Home Depot was talking to him about vampires. The surrealism of this whole conversation was unreal.

“ – who like nothing better than to eat humans and end the world,” Xander ignored Jack and his seething comment.

“Still here, though aren’t we.”

Xander nodded reasonably. “Because in opposition to the bad guys are the slayers.”

“Slayers?” Jack asked at this new word. That hardly sounded reassuring to know there were a bunch of people called ‘slayers’ who went around ‘slaying’ monsters. “That’s where you come in? You’re one of these ‘slayers’?”

Xander actually smiled at that, a hovering self-deprecating smile accompanied by a shake of the head. “No,” he said. “Slayers are girls. Properly known as vampire slayers since they’re what they kill the most of.”

“Teenage girls.” Jack didn’t like where this was leading.

“Chosen by whatever mystical force chooses slayers,” Xander nodded. “Sometime during puberty.” Puberty. Courtney’s age. Memories of thirty girls crowded into the house over the summer. Self defense camp he’d called it then. Before Jack could respond, Xander went on. “When they’re called, slayers get superhuman strength, speed, reflexes. Basically you put them in a normal fight and they’ll win. Against vampires and demons, you even the playing field.”

“Teenage girls,” Jack said again, this time for clarity. “Superheroes against the monsters? You do know how ridiculous this sounds, right?”

“Jack, would you just hear me out?” Xander was now exasperated with him. “I know you don’t believe me right now, all right? I get that. But you wanted to know what the big secret was and I’m telling you.”

“Secret?” Jack asked incredulously. “This is the secret? This is why you left in the middle of the night without a goodbye? Because of ‘vampires’?”

“Yes,” Xander glared at him defiantly. “You wanted the truth – ”

“What truth?” snapped Jack angrily, his words loud in his own ears. Of all the . . . He spun and loomed angrily over Xander who glowered up at him from his seat on the couch. “You’re talking about god damned vampires, for crying out loud! You still don’t trust me enough to tell me what’s really going on!”

“The only reason I’m telling you is *because* I trust you, Jack!” Xander stood now, too, forcing Jack to take a step back. His single brown eye practically burned in its socket.

“You call this trust?!” Jack yelled back. “You tell me you have eight NID agents in your basement – who I have yet to see proof of – then start talking about vampires and little girls who kill them. This is not a game, Xander, and I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I want answers and I want them now! How the hell did you capture eight highly trained NID agents?”

“They came, they tripped the wards, the got their asses knocked unconscious by three slayers and the rest of us. I hit mine over the head with an axe,” said Xander.

His words froze Jack’s next retort on his lips, a dozen emotions rushing through him. Anger, hurt, but most of all disappointment in Xander for thinking he would take this cooked up explanation as the truth. And trust? They didn’t have that. They didn’t have anything, he saw now. Just more lies on top of happy small talk about nothing. It was all a joke, just another laugh for the universe at his expense.

“I want to see the NID agents,” said Jack softly in his command voice, the one that even Daniel listened to on occasion. The one that went with the closed off, cold glare he was now giving his son like he was some young airman who didn’t know who he was messing with.

But Xander glared back just as stubbornly, not giving an inch. “No,” he said. “Not until you hear me out and see my proof.”

“Proof that vampires exist?” asked Jack sarcastically, admiring Xander’s tenacity if nothing else.

“Proof that slayers exist,” Xander corrected him. “We don’t keep vampires around,” he added in a ‘duh’ tone.

“Of course not.”

“You want proof or not?” Xander ignored the sarcasm.

“Fine,” Jack sighed, his curiosity piqued in spite of himself. “This I gotta see.” How was Xander going to prove the existence of slayers, get one the girls to kill a hamburger?

Xander went to the door and called for Buffy who came in a moment later with a four-by-four piece of wood. She smiled cheerily at Jack who simply watched her suspiciously.

“I take it you’ve filled him in on the basics?” Buffy asked Xander.

“Happy in denial-land,” was his response. Buffy nodded, glancing back at Jack and assessing the false smile he sent her way.

“Forgive me if I expected an actual explanation for everything,” he said sickly sweet.

Buffy just handed him the beam and said, “try to break it in half,” at which Jack lifted his eyebrows. She had to be kidding. The beam was solid wood about four feet long and splintered at one end as if someone had broken it. He ran his hands over the wood but neither felt nor saw any cracks along its length. He gave it an experimental twist with his hands but nothing gave. Hell, Teal’c would have a hard time putting a dent in it.

“Don’t tell me. You’re going to break it,” he said, handing it back to her. Buffy was a small woman who couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred twenty pounds, and he felt that was pushing it. She accepted the four-by-four confidently however, gripped it at either end – and snapped it in half with a simple jerk as if it were no more than a banana.

Jack blinked and accepted the two new pieces of wood that Buffy handed back to him. Okay, that was impressive, he conceded. Impressive and . . . wow. She had just broken practically a log in half with her bare hands. And okay, he didn’t see the trick because it looked like there was no trick. And just how the hell had she done that?! He looked up at his son and Buffy who both were waiting for a reaction but Jack didn’t know what to say. Or think for that matter. If this had happened in the briefing room, he probably would have believed it with only a minimum of bad jokes and reassurance from Frasier that she wasn’t snaked. But Buffy wasn’t snaked; neither Carter nor Teal’c had sensed anything. And Buffy had just broken a four-by-four in half with her bare hands. What the hell was he supposed to say to that? And where did a girl her size get that kind of strength from anyway?

“Show off,” he finally said, earning him a relieved grin from Xander and a wry, so-sue-me smile from Buffy.

“Yep, three ring circus, that’s me,” she said. “Except without the rings and hoops of fire though I can do those too. Jump through them, I mean. And, only one me instead of three . . . but you probably figured that one out.” Jack looked up at her from the splintered wood and she abruptly stopped talking. Did they have lessons in how to confuse people with words? Granted, Jack didn’t understand a lot of what Daniel or Carter spouted off, but he at least was comforted by the fact that somewhere someone did.

“Jack, meet the Slayer,” said Xander, and something in the way he said it put capital letters around the word.

“Of vampires,” Jack asked looking again from the split wood to the blonde and back. “And demons and other ugly evil things?” This was not happening, he told himself. He was not about to accept this. But damn it, he was, against his will like catching a cold he swore he was never going to get.

“Whose slime never gets out of your clothes,” Buffy added, which only made Jack think of the biohazard hampers in the locker room on base.

“So those NID agents – ”

“Never stood a chance,” she finished.

“And those wards you mentioned?” he looked at Xander questioningly

“Magical alarm system. Set off on the lawn.”

Three really powerful girls and a magical alarm system. And vampires and stuff Jack really could have done with knowing less about. He should have been yelling again or something, anything but this sudden calm. Oh, hell. Hammond was never going to believe this. He could see his report now: Went to Cleveland to investigate botched kidnapping of son. Agents ambushed by barely legal residents. Agents beaten into submission by girls. Egos badly bruised.

“So you want to see them?” asked Xander not needing to specify who. Still stunned, Jack followed him to the basement stairs, where Buffy left them for the kitchen and the smells of breakfast, and followed Xander down. It was a nice set up and obviously where the . . . slayers, he tried out the new word, stayed for their summer training. The TV had been moved in front of the back two rooms where sure enough four men in black gear sat on the floor before it, backs to the false wall. All four stood when they approached, one poked his head around a door and summoned the others from inside. And Jack saw that while there was nothing holding them back none of them moved any closer.

“Harris,” one of them said coolly, and Xander nodded to them. But all eyes were on Jack, the stranger, though none of them seemed to recognize him.

“How are you keeping them restrained?” he asked lowly.

“Upstairs,” was his son’s short reply. He didn’t want them to know. A good precaution given what he’d told Jack. The rogue NID cells were among those who wouldn’t hesitate about experimenting on Buffy or any of the other slayers given half a chance. So he followed Xander back upstairs and back into the sitting room and listened as his son explained that by mixing a little bit of this and a little bit of that and saying a few words you could effectively make a one way force field to keep things from getting out while still being able to send things like food and remote controls in. It didn’t sound like there was much to it. In fact, it sounded pretty damn useful, but he kept that comment to himself.

“So that’s it,” said Xander when he finished. Once more he was leaning forward, elbows on knees with his hands loosely clasped between them. A thousand questions stuttered through Jack’s mind but he didn’t know where to start – didn’t know if he wanted to know the answers, like how Xander had gotten involved and what exactly it was that he did now. But most of all what held him back was still a bad case of skepticism, because even though he’d seen it, he wasn’t ready to just believe it yet. He smiled privately: this from a man that had a TV character based on him.

“Is that a good smile or a bad smile” Xander broke in on his thought, a little of the wary puppy creeping into his expression.

“An I-don’t-know-what-to-think smile,” Jack replied. He held up a hand to stop whatever Xander was going to say. “I think I need to talk to my team,” he said.

Xander let go his breath and nodded then got to his feet. Jack followed him out to the den where Teal’c was watching cartoons with Courtney right in front of the TV and Daniel and Carter were chatting with Dawn, though it looked like Daniel was doing most of the talking. Giles and Buffy had disappeared, presumably to the noisy and aromatic kitchen. It took a moment for them to register their presence in the room and Jack took the time to really look at the two girls lounging around like normal girls on vacation. He wondered if they were the other two slayers of the house, if they went out and fought vampires and knew how to kill them. If they could cast spells. And watching Courtney watch the animated adventures of pink and green sketches with a distracted expression as unchanging as Teal’c’s, he wondered why her house had burned down.

“Dawn,” Xander’s voice disturbed the scene, pulling the teenager’s attention from Daniel’s story to him. “Can you drive me to work?” he asked, making Jack turn to him in surprise. He’d forgotten all about that. Dawn nodded and got to her feet, brushing past Jack as she and Xander left the room. “I’ll be home around five,” said Xander in parting. SG-1 turned to Jack.

“We need to talk.”

*****************************************************

“So explain to me again that thing you were talking about,” was the first thing Xander asked once he and Dawn were safely out the door. The chill wind felt good against Xander’s face as they headed for the car.

“What thing?” Dawn frowned in thought.

“The file thing you were spouting before I was awake when you woke me up.”

“Oh, that,” Dawn nodded now. She slid into the driver’s seat while Xander went around to the other side of the car. He waited patiently while Dawn focused on the ignition, heat, and backing out of the driveway, but once they were on the street and moving forward she continued. “Daniel Jackson and Sam Carter’s files were in the NID computers too, along with another person called Teal’c. There weren’t any photos but I remembered the names because they were in the same folder as Jack’s file.”

“Did you read them?” he asked.

“No, not yet,” Dawn replied. They turned onto the main road out of their sleepy neighborhood. “Though I don’t know how much it will tell us. Jack’s was pretty vague. All this stuff about projects he’s thwarted. If they played darts I bet his picture would be on the dart board.”

Xander was comforted by that news that Jack was not a part of the lets-attack-on-Christmas party. “Did they say what projects?”

“They were only listed by designation. Stupid smart spies,” she grumbled this last. Xander gave her a quick glance at her frustration, marveling at how she’d grown up following in both Giles’s and Willow’s footsteps. Their better footsteps, he amended.

“How did telling him go?” she asked.

“By the book,” said Xander his mind jumping tracks from Dawn to Jack. As there were four stages of grief, there were four stages of learning about the dark and nasty underbelly of the world. Jack was still in stage three of conditional acceptance but not complete belief. “He was a little calmer about Buffy than I thought he’d be, but he’ll deal okay when it sinks in, I think.”

“What he’d say about the NID?”

“We didn’t get that far. He wanted to tell the others first, so I figure we’ll have a big happy talk tonight.”

“Should I get ice cream?”

“Dawn, do the words ‘strapped for cash’ mean anything to you?”

“You have a job,” she retorted.

“Which covers normal groceries for eight people and now eight honored guests,” Xander shot back.

“We’re only feeding them pancakes.”

He ignored her. “Which leaves little things like water, electricity, heat, and all the extra stuff for Christmas including Courtney’s new stuff and the emergency plane tickets –”

“Okay, okay, sheesh,” Dawn interrupted Xander’s long litany of just exactly where all the money went. “We’re not that bad off are we?”

“No,” Xander admitted. “But unless Giles gets things straightened out soon in England it’s gonna get pretty tight.” Winning access to Council accounts was turning out to be a long, slow process that yielded money in fits and bursts. So far they’d only gotten the small potatoes, but come summer training they would need gigantic faire sized potatoes. “It won’t be so bad once everyone goes off in January,” he added referring to the end of the four-month visit from Buffy, Willow, Kennedy, and, though he’d been in and out, Giles. They were needed in other parts of the world and at the Council meeting after Thanksgiving they’d each chosen a continent to start in.

Xander wasn’t happy to see them go. It was like they were finally splitting apart after practically a lifetime together, and for him and Willow it was. Sure they’d have Christmas and other holidays, but Xander knew it wouldn’t be the same. They’d have their stories of their own slayers and slayer schools while Xander had his with Dawn and Andrew and Vi and Diana. And then Dawn would leave next year and then the older slayers would go off and new ones would come guard the hellmouth until they destroyed this one too. Or it destroyed them. Slayers would die and be chosen and he would be there helping, training, guiding, and it would never end, this fight against all that tried to hurt humanity. Cheery thoughts. Barely twenty-three and Xander already felt like an old man.

“So what were you guys talking about in there?” he asked to distract himself.

“History stuff,” Dawn answered. “Daniel asked about school and we started talking about college. I told him I was interested in a good language program and he just started talking. He said I should look for places with good exchange programs too because living in another country is the best way to learn. So that means I should go visit Buffy a lot. And Willow and Faith and whoever gets China.” Xander smiled at this obvious maneuvering, having no doubt that Dawn would travel widely over the next couple of years. “Anyway,” she went on, grinning too, “then we started talking about places he’s been. You know he was born in Egypt? He’s an archeologist now and did the teaching thing before he went to work for the military. His specialty’s Egypt, obviously, but I get the feeling that he’s pretty up on every other ancient culture too, but that’s just a hunch.”

Xander was impressed that she had gotten that much information out of one relatively short conversation. “Any other deep dark secrets come to light?” he asked teasingly.

Dawn shrugged. “He’s cute.”

“Oh, I so did not hear you just say that.”

“What? He is. Even you should be able to see that.”

“Please don’t tell me you have a crush on him.”

“Me? Come on, Xander. He may be cute but he’s still old.”

“And since when has that stopped anyone in our house?”

Dawn just gave him a withering look that Xander couldn’t help but grin at. “When did Angel, Spike, or Anya act their age?” she asked back and Xander had to concede the point.

“Just as long as you remember that.”

“So it’s okay if I date immature vampires?” Dawn asked slyly.

“No!” Xander glared at her. It wasn’t funny. No, not funny at all. “Dawn . . .”

“I’m kidding,” she said. “Jeez, relax. Not dating here.”

“Keep it that way.”

“Xander!”

“I’m just saying . . .”

“I know what you’re ‘just saying.’ Dating evil, sex bad. Trust me. I’m never going to get involved with someone I can’t have sex with.”

“Dawn!” He really didn’t want to hear this. Dawn and . . . god, he couldn’t even think the word in the same sentence.

“Xander, I’m eighteen,” she retorted disdainfully. “And you’re one to talk, Mr. Sex-Olympics.”

Xander let out a strangled noise. No, definitely not going to think about Dawn and . . . at all. Ever. And thank god for work, he thought desperately as Dawn finally turned into the strip mall where Home Depot sat in all its orange glory. He practically leapt from the car away from the conversation.

“Five o’clock?” asked Dawn and Xander nodded, summoning a shaky smile for her. Dawn grinned toothily back.

***********************************************************

His team’s reactions were about what Jack had expected. Carter began with an outright, “Impossible!” while Daniel looked pensive and confused still mulling it over. Teal’c frowned.

“Sir,” said Carter in her serious and reasonable tone of voice. “That’s simply not possible.” And then she started off on something about synapses and energy that he didn’t really follow but that sounded pretty impressive nonetheless. Daniel looked impressed and that was enough for him. Only . . .

“You’re forgetting about the magic part, Carter,” he said. And why was he defending this totally insane idea? It wasn’t like he completely believed it either. If not for Buffy’s display of strength and the captured commandos, he would be dismissing it entirely.

“We’ve certainly seen enough that we haven’t been able to explain before either,” said Daniel quietly. “I’ll have to research the myths. I’m not saying I’m convinced, but we should at least look into it.”

“I am curious why we have never seen any indication of vampires before,” said Teal’c. “We receive information on any suspected Goa’uld activity. Would not mass murder of civilians be a similar warning sign?”

“I don’t know,” said Jack scrubbing his face and running tired hands through his hair. “All I know is that Xander’s explanation for the NID was magic and slayers. And you didn’t see Buffy break that four-by-four,” he pointed to the two pieces which were still by the sitting room couch. The others followed his finger and stared at it for a second.

“Well, let’s accept for the moment that it’s true,” said Daniel, rising from his seat to pace. “The existence of magic and strong . . . girls gave them warning and a chance to take out the NID. How did they get past the guns?”

“Disarmed them before they could use them,” Buffy’s voice from the door had every head spinning her way. “Sorry to interrupt, but do you guys want breakfast?” Seeing their chance at answers, Jack nodded and they moved the party to the kitchen where Andrew was dancing around the stove. Bacon and pancakes were already done and now eggs were getting scrambled. Courtney was already there munching on toast while Giles sipped tea in the corner, eyeing them as they came in. But what Jack noticed was the new unpainted boards filling in a section of wall.

“That’s where mine landed,” said Courtney suddenly. She was watching Jack study the wall. “Kicked him in the stomach.”

“You kicked a full grown man into a wall?” repeated Carter incredulously. A brief glance at the others found them to be studying SG-1. Like Xander earlier, none of them were smiling. “I’m sorry, that’s just –”

“I know it’s quite incredible,” interjected Giles. “But I assure you it’s quite true. The supernatural is real, however much you may want to deny it.”

“Your specialty is folklore, isn’t it Mr. Giles?” asked Daniel, blinking owlishly.

“The occult and demonology actually,” said Giles. “Though folklore does play into that.”

“Then you know that there are usually alternate explanations for most superstitions, many of which are due to coincidence and fear.”

“Great,” said Buffy with a smile that definitely had teeth behind it. “My life is an alternate explanation. Like gangs on PCP or boiler room explosions or earthquakes and sinkholes or gas leaks or laryngitis.” At each word her voice rose and she stalked closer to Daniel with eyes so hard and cold that it was as if another person glared out at them. One who had seen much and lost much and was about to pounce on anyone who got in her way. Buffy radiated power, controlled but with a terrible promise. Giles made no move to stop her. “I’ve heard them all. So don’t you come in here to our house and our world and presume to tell me that I fight figments of my imagination.”

Daniel managed to keep his retreat to one step back. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I meant no disrespect.” He flashed her his sweet-innocent-mistake eyes that had mollified many women in his time and that once more seemed to do the trick. Buffy nodded once and grudgingly stepped back, crisis averted. But Jack’s eyes followed her even as Giles smoothly stepped in and started talking about the origins of vampires and the world. He watched how Andrew carefully watched her, the release of tension from the young man’s shoulders when he tentatively offered her some bacon and she accepted with a tired smile. She didn’t appear to be paying attention to what was going on behind her, but when she rejoined the group she was standing between Teal’c and Courtney, her eyes sliding over him and Carter and Daniel until they met Jack’s, hard and challenging. And in that stare, Jack saw a leader asking him silently if there was going to be a problem here. He said no, by nodding and looking away first. No problem here. Because he had also seen in those few seconds of understanding, that SG-1 would lose and lose hard.

The next few hours passed in bliss for Daniel and Carter who ended up in the dining room arguing with Giles about what was and wasn’t possible. Jack and Teal’c had stayed with them for the first bit about basic supernatural stuff like how to kill vampires but once the other three got going on the laws governing magical use, Jack couldn’t say yes faster when Andrew asked if anyone wanted to play Jedi Knights on his new X-Box. The others would give him the Reader’s Digest version later anyway.

“Andrew,” said Teal’c while the kid was setting up. “Have you encountered many vampires?”

“Vampires?” Andrew adopted what would have passed for a knowing look on anyone else but him. Casually he tossed them controllers. Jack’s fell short. “I’ve encountered many, my friend. Too many to count. I’ve braved the darkness and the creatures that lurk in the shadows and come out on top every time.” He nodded gravely then hurried and sat down when the two men looked him over in disbelief. It wasn’t just the faux tone of voice, but also the scrawny stature and complete air of incompetence the poor kid had. Andrew, Jack concluded, was one of the strangest people he’d met. And that was saying a lot.

“Really?” Jack finally said.

“Of course,” Andrew tried again for the look of wisdom but then realized that it wasn’t working. “Mostly because I was with slayers who get in trouble if I get hurt. But I have killed vampires! Over ten!” he said in a normal, if a little proud voice.

“So they do exist,” said Teal’c.

“Yeah. You wanna see my bite mark?” He craned his head suddenly and pointed to a scar on his neck: two puncture holes linked by over and under arching lines. Just as if someone had bitten him. Real. Evidence of vampires marked into Andrew’s skin for life.

“Why are you not now a vampire?” asked Teal’c while Jack was still absorbing this new revelation.

“’Cause I didn’t suck his blood,” Andrew explained, his voice dropping so they had to lean in to hear his words. “It’s a very dark and ancient blood ritual where the vampire offers his victim eternity, and as the last drops of his blood seep away from him, on the verge of death, his sire opens a vein and lets him drink. Then at sunset the following night, when light disappears from the world, the new vampire rises from his own grave, powerful and hungry.”

“Until he gets his ass staked by a slayer,” Dawn’s matter of fact voice made Andrew jump with a muffled ‘eep’ at which the girl rolled her eyes as she joined them on the couch. “Whacha playing?”

“Jedi Knights,” said Andrew getting up and plugging in the fourth controller, which he then gave to her.

“Are you one of these slayers?” Teal’c asked the question that Jack had been wondering all day.

“Me, no,” said Dawn. “I’m just the tag-a-long little sister.” Andrew snorted and she kicked him.

“So who’s the third one here?” asked Jack. “Willow?”

“Kennedy,” said Andrew, eyes glued to the screen as he picked his character. When he and Dawn started fighting over who got what, Jack realized that they weren’t going to get anything more interesting out of the two, so he too threw himself into the game.

Around one, a very tousled Willow and Kennedy finally came downstairs in bathrobes and gave Jack and Teal’s a surprised hello, before darting into the kitchen and back upstairs. Dawn yelled after them to be back down for dinner at six or starve, muttering something about nymphos under her breath afterwards that Jack really wished he hadn’t heard. The afternoon passed.

The match broke up at quarter to five when Dawn had to leave to get Xander and Andrew needed to get dinner started. Teal’c and Jack followed still discussing tactics and levels and gave him a hand. By the time Xander and Dawn returned, bringing with them a carton of ice cream, Andrew had taken pancakes downstairs to the NID and ordered the three intellectuals to set the table. They looked a little confused at first but eventually managed just fine. By six, everything was ready and on the table, and by six ten, Willow and Kennedy showed up giggling like crazy. Jack tried not to think about it.

“So,” said Buffy once the initial feeding frenzy had calmed down and conversation loomed on the horizon. “What are you going to do about the guys in the basement?” she asked. And Jack realized that business had finally begun.

*************************************************************

Xander looked up from his spaghetti to Jack with everyone else.

“We can take them off your hands. No questions asked.”

“No investigation or anything?” asked Xander.

“As far as everyone else is concerned, we are the investigation. And we have enough pull that no one else will look into the matter,” said Jack.

“What about the people who ordered it?” asked Buffy. “They’re gonna want to know, right? And they’ll have people go inside or whatever and ask them what happened?”

Jack paused for a second before nodding. “Yeah,” he said. “The NID we’re talking about is a rogue section. And we don’t know where all their cells are.”

“Sleeper cells?” asked Xander, pulling the word out of the back of his head. Jack looked at him surprised that he knew the term and nodded.

“Like that sleeper agent thing?” asked Dawn. “Don’t know they’re there until you pull the trigger?”

“Except in this case, the trigger is orders form the top,” said Xander. “Do you know who that is?” The looks their four guests shot each other said that they did know but were reluctant to say. “Jack, what will he do if he finds out about slayers?”

“The rogue NID would be very interested,” said Daniel quietly when Jack didn’t answer right away. “If they find out, they’ll keep coming after you.” He glanced at Courtney who stared at him wide-eyed.

“So there’s no guarantee that they won’t talk,” said Buffy. And Xander knew what was coming next. So did Willow. He watched as his two best friends shared a long look that held a whole conversation and suddenly Xander was glad he had let Dawn talk him into ice cream. “So when can you get them?” asked Buffy quietly.

“You’re still going to let us take them?” asked Jack. “Despite the risk?”

“There’s not going to be any risk,” Willow spoke up from her end of the table looking ashy to Xander. “I’m gonna . . .” she waved a hand vaguely.

But Jack seemed to get it. And he didn’t look too happy about it either. Nor did any of his friends. “You’re talking about wiping their memories?!” Daniel asked appalled.

“I see little other choice,” Buffy snapped his attention from Willow to herself. “It’s either that or kill them, and we don’t kill humans as a general rule.”

“And messing with their memories is excusable?”

“If it means keeping teenagers out of NID labs, then yes.”

Daniel closed his mouth at that though his eyes were still not appeased. Xander could understand his protest, they all could having been there before, but at the same time, it was more important to keep their secret identities as secret as possible from the government.

“All right,” said Jack also coming to the same conclusion. “We can have them out of here the day after tomorrow.

“So are you going to reimburse us for groceries then?” asked Andrew. “Cause they kinda ate a lot.”

And Xander, seeing his opportunity for more money piped in, “And compensation for loss of sleep and hardship would be nice too.”

“And incentive to not go to the police or press,” Dawn added. Sam cracked a smile at that but Jack didn’t seem too amused. “What?” asked Dawn him. “I’ve got college tuition to pay next year.”

“I’ll ask the General about the groceries,” said Jack. “But I’m not making any promises.”

“So about this general guy,” said Buffy and Xander could actually feel Jack and the others wince at her irreverent tone. “He’s not going to gives us any problems, right? Xander says you stood up for him and that he’s an okay guy . . .”

“General Hammond is a most honorable man,” said Murray in that weird formal way of his. “He will not betray your trust in him.”

“Hey,” said Willow suddenly, a worried frown on her face that put Xander immediately on guard. “Hey, hey,” she said, this time staring but not staring at Murray, like she was trying to see the air around him. And when she blinked back from wherever, she looked a little confused and not the good kind of confused where it’s something normal and . . . and now she was really staring at Murray. “Are you human?” she asked. “Because you’re sort of are but you’re also sort of not and you’re not connected and I think you’re what’s been itching me all day even though I wasn’t really paying attention, but you’re not are you?”

Murray sat as still as ever. And more importantly, at Willow’s first question Jack, Sam, and Daniel had all suddenly sat up and stared at her, then each other in what were definitely not she’s-crazy looks but shit-she’s-onto-us looks. Jack wasn’t even registering the babble that usually had him scratching his head, figuratively speaking. But Willow was right. For a second, Xander felt like shouting, ‘I knew it!’ but he refrained and settled for an internal trumpet fanfare because Jack did not look happy. Daniel and Sam didn’t look happy either but they were both looking at Jack whose unhappiness doubled theirs combined. And Murray simply raised an eyebrow as if to say, ‘moi?’

“Are you an alien?!” Andrew broke the tense silence first in an awed voice. “Because that is *so* cool! Ooh, you’re doing the Spock eyebrow thing!” He lifted his hand in the Vulcan greeting. “Live long and prosper.”

No, Jack was not happy at all. “He’s not an alien,” he told Andrew impatiently.

“But he is,” said Willow, certain now. “He’s not from Earth because he’s not connected to her. Except for the little strands like a baby’s but those don’t really count since you’re not a baby.”

“Willow, Murray is not an alien,” Jack repeated. “If he were, do you think the government would let him out of its sight?”

“But –”

“He’s not an alien.” But no one was buying it. If Willow said he wasn’t from Earth, he wasn’t from Earth. And the import of that statement just hit Xander all of a sudden. Not from Earth. From another planet. Xander had to go with Andrew on this one – that was so cool! In a really, really freaky kind of way.

“So the deep space telemetry is really talking to little green men – or not green as the case is?” he asked a little giddy himself at the idea as he glanced at Murray’s decidedly not green pallor.

“Oh, and you’re like the cultural person, right?” Dawn asked Daniel excitedly who looked decidedly uncomfortable at her sudden attention. “That’s why all the archeological stuff was there!”

Sam’s head immediately snapped to the teenager who realized her mistake as soon as the words slipped out of her mouth. “What archeological stuff where?” the Major asked.

“Uh, nowhere?” tried Dawn as the tension at the table skyrocketed. Everyone stopped eating, looking from Sam to Dawn to Jack to Buffy, the four of whom had their own circle of wary glances going.

“Dawn,” said Jack in a gentle yet dangerous tone of voice that Xander remembered from earlier. “Where did you see that archeological information?” he asked. Dawn stared at him, mesmerized and a little scared, her confidence shaken by his sudden commanding intensity.

“Jack!” Buffy snapped before Dawn could answer. “Where we got our information is irrelevant. As far as I’m concerned, Murray could be a cow and I wouldn’t care as long as he kept his teeth off of humans. Stop threatening my sister!”

Jack swiveled his glare on Buffy who met it head on. “This is classified information. If we have a breach in security, I consider that very relevant,” he said. “Now where did you get it?”

Willow tentatively raised her hand and waved. “Breach in security,” she said. “That’s me. I don’t think anyone else could have done it.”

“You hacked the SGC computers?” asked Sam, a note of disbelief in her voice.

Willow and Dawn exchanged a brief look that said ‘guilty’ to anyone with eyes. “If that’s what you call Area 52 then yeah,” she said. “But it was totally not the system’s fault,” she hurriedly added. “You have really good security and we couldn’t have done it without cheating. And the not keeping top secret stuff on the internet linked computers was brilliant.” She smiled. Jack rubbed his hands through his hair and Daniel looked like he wanted to grin.

Sam asked, “Cheating?”

“Magic.”

Jack looked up. “You used magic to hack into the most secure computers in the country?”

“Second most, and yeah. The old fashioned way wasn’t doing too good.”

“What second-most?” Sam sounded slightly offended by Willow’s correction.

The redhead ducked her head modestly. “Ours are better. Because of the magic. Your code is pretty droolworthy though. You don’t mind if I borrow some of it, do you?”

“I designed the system,” said Sam. Willow immediately sat up, awe on every line of her face.

“You did? That’s like . . .”

“Carter, could you two drool over code later?” Jack interrupted while Willow was still searching for words.

“Yes, sir.”

“So you got into our computers,” he continued, directing the question to Buffy.

“We thought you might have been behind the NID, so yeah. But we thought you did weapons stuff,” she answered.

“Why’s that?”

“Cause all the stuff at that other place was weapons stuff.”

“Area 51,” Xander clarified before Jack had an ulcer. Though he looked like he was going to have one anyway as he exchanged worried frowns with his friends.

“So intelligent life on other planets exists?” asked Giles getting back to the basic revelation of the evening. Xander could tell he was rather surprised by the idea. And when Jack sighed and nodded, the cat already running circles around them, Giles’s only comment was “Dear lord.” He took his glasses off and cleaned them with his napkin. Xander watched the familiar ritual not sure whether he was surprised or not by the confirmation. He was leaning toward not. But then . . . he looked at Murray and a shiver ran up his spine.

“Is your real name Teal’c?” asked Dawn then. “With an apostrophe?” At the sudden combined eyepower of the four she added, “Not your computers, the NID’s.”

“Is there anyone you didn’t hack?” asked Jack.

“Chill out,” Kennedy retorted, speaking for the first time. “So your secret’s out. Deal with it. I mean it not as if you don’t know about our secret lives. Quid pro quo. Anyway, we have enough problems without aliens. Why do we care what you do in Area 51 or 2 or whatever you call it?”

Jack was about to reply when Andrew interrupted. “Can I have your autograph?” he asked Murray.

“Andrew!” at least three people exclaimed.

“What? You know you want one too,” he replied. “It will commemorate the day the saucers landed, the day when Murrays arrived where no Murray had gone before!”

“Murray’s his name, dumbass,” Kennedy told him.

“Well, I think it’s great too,” said Willow cheerfully. “How do you like Christmas so far?” she asked.

“I have lived on this planet for seven years,” said Murray. “And have had as many Christmases.”

“Oh,” Willow deflated at this news but then brightened again. “But never Hanukah, right? Or Solstice? Though both are past now, I guess, but we still have our decorations up and –”

“You’ve been here seven years?” Xander interrupted. Seven years and no news flash?

“It has been classified,” said Murray or rather, Teal’c.

“Very classified,” added Jack. All went silent at this reminder that knowledge was not always a good thing. In fact, if Xander remembered correctly, it was a prosecutable thing.

“So now what?” asked Xander. “Now that we know stuff we shouldn’t and you know stuff that you shouldn’t.” He met Jack’s gaze across the table, his face inscrutable.

“I don’t know,” he finally said. “I don’t know.”


Ten Years Taken Off of Life

A brisk breeze greeted Xander when he stepped outside onto the back porch, escaping the after-dinner cleanup in the kitchen. Jack stood on the steps in borrowed shoes, having slipped away as soon as he could. He was looking up at the stars, muted by the neighborhood lights, and a waxing moon when Xander joined him, the older man barely acknowledging his presence with a slight flicker of his eyes.

Xander didn’t know what to say so he said nothing and simply looked over the back yard that seemed to glow from the reflected light on the snow. It was his first winter in Cleveland and Xander had already had enough snow to last him a lifetime. The delight of those first flakes had quickly given way to weary annoyance as more just fell from the sky. Though making snow angels had been fun back in November. Dawn, Vi, and Diana had gone all out with a snow vampire too and then practiced demolishing it.

Jack hadn’t moved from stargazing when Xander snuck a look at him. Following his eyes to the constellations, he wondered what the older man saw when he looked up there. Teal’c’s planet? Were there other aliens that had made contact with Earth? Were they a threat, he couldn’t help but wonder given that it was a top military secret. Xander had never given much thought to it. *E.T.* was about as far as he had gotten in thinking about life from other planets. Though there had been that Queller demon the year of Glory. Probably all sorts of things living on the moon. Did that mean then, that aliens were really demons? Murray or Teal’c, or whatever his name was, was certainly human enough looking. His beanie probably hid an ingrown horn or something.

He wanted to ask about a million things, but Jack didn’t look like he was up for questions he probably couldn’t answer anyway. It was as if he had completely forgotten Xander was there even though he had been standing there for at least a minute in the freezing cold that didn’t seem to be bothering Jack. They were back to the not talking awkwardness of those first meetings last summer. Not that they had really pushed the big things before, or at all, but now that they had both fessed up to being Batman, it was as if Jack didn’t even know where to start, and neither did Xander for that matter. Here they were, standing on a dark winter’s night, supposing to be friends. “So aliens,” Xander said breaking the stillness. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about that, somewhere up there on the cool but weirded out scale.

“Yep,” said Jack without moving, his eyes remaining on the stars.

Xander decided to take the verbal response as a good sign. “How’d that happen?”

Jack sighed and finally looked away from the sky at him. “It’s classified,” he said softly, his words underscored by regret both in his voice and eyes and how they quickly darted away.

“I guess I’m gonna get that a lot, aren’t I?” said Xander just as softly, also looking away over the yard. Jack didn’t answer. “So much for sharing.” So much for getting past the gaping plot holes in their lives.

“Xander,” Jack sounded tired. “You already know too much.”

“I don’t know anything,” Xander countered. “I only know you have an alien in a mountain in Colorado. Except here, now because some guys want you to retire or something.”

“It’s a power play and definitely more than you should know,” said Jack with annoyance. “I don’t know what Willow did with the computer stuff or the . . . the . . . thing she did with Teal’c, but whatever it was I wish she hadn’t. I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to the General,” he sighed again, running a hand through his hair. “The computer breach alone is going to send him through the roof.”

“Willow’s not in any trouble, is she?” Xander asked apprehensively. Jack gave him a what-do-you-think look that obviously said ‘yes’ in big bold letters. “It was completely justified, you know,” he replied, immediately defending his friend.

“I know. If I was in your place I’d have ordered the same thing,” Jack nodded, then asked after a pause, “The magic stuff’s real, isn’t it? Not some sort of technology? Even seeing the thing in the basement . . .” he trailed off, but Xander understood. There was nothing like watching someone do their mojo to make you a believer.

“Yeah, it’s real.”

“Is she really going to erase their memories?”

“She’s done it before,” Xander replied.

“Could you do it?”

“Me? No,” said Xander, his thoughts flickering back to both times Tara had broken up with Willow because of memory magic. He remembered Anya wondering later if this would have fallen in her jurisdiction had she still been a ‘justice’ demon. “I don’t hone my inner warlock.” Off Jack’s questioning look he added, “Even with a spell to follow it takes skill and power to do something drastic like that. I can only do the little stuff any idiot who can read can do.”

Jack smiled a little at that but it didn’t reach his eyes. Instead he regarded Xander as if he were searching for something but couldn’t find it, and it was beginning to make him uncomfortable. “What?” Xander finally asked, hoping against hope that he didn’t have alfredo sauce anywhere embarrassing.

“Nothing,” said Jack glancing away, the awkwardness like a shroud between them. But there was definitely a something there.

“What?” Xander repeated as his curiosity won out over caution.

“It’s nothing. Really,” said Jack looking up and away again, crossing then uncrossing his arms and jamming his hands in his pockets. “I was just thinking about . . . about how much I don’t know about you at all.”

“Yeah, well same here,” Xander agreed. A lifetime’s worth of stuff he thought, even as the word ‘classified’ echoed in his mind. “But I guess you won’t tell me much about what you do.”

“There’s all this paperwork and a pesky court martial if you spill the beans,” Jack said regretfully, and Xander knew he was too good of an officer to do that. “So vampires,” Jack echoed his earlier comment about aliens. “Andrew showed us his bite mark.” Xander smiled at that. “How did you find out about them?”

“I met Buffy,” said Xander pretty much summing up the day everything changed with a slightly nostalgic smile. “Tenth grade. I overheard her and Giles talking about them in the library first day of school, then Buffy saved Willow from a vamp a few days later and, voila, the beginning of a beautiful friendship full of untold danger with a dash of terror thrown in for kicks.” The rest was history, Xander added to himself even as Jack regarded him with a carefully neutral expression. High school felt so long ago now, like a dream that bordered on a nightmare but one you still recognized as just a dream that you could wake yourself up from if it got too bad.

“How much danger?” Jack asked.

Xander looked at him for a moment wondering how much to tell him. He’d never told his own parents, his mom and the man he’d thought was his father, never told them anything. Even at his wedding all of Anya’s friends had been introduced as circus people still in costume. Tony had been too drunk to notice.

But Jack wasn’t Tony. Jack had noticed and he had worried and he hadn’t been put off by excuses. His words from a week ago – ‘you are my business’ – suddenly came back to him, and Xander decided that he wanted this to work. He wanted what Buffy had found with her mom and not what Willow held onto with her own parents from afar.

“It’s dangerous. We fight against creatures that go out every night to find someone to eat. People die,” he said. “Do you remember about Jesse?” he paused, continuing when Jack nodded at the familiar name. “He was the first vampire I staked.” Jack started at this but Xander went on. “Me, Giles, Willow, we’ve all lost a girlfriend along the way, in Buffy’s case two boyfriends. Two years ago I lost my eye.”

“A fight?”

He nodded abruptly. “I got in the way of a really powerful guy who was more interested in playing. Thought it’d be funny,” he added with a bitter twist to his lips. The memory of how it felt, the sickening squish of his left eye into his head still gave him nightmares, and even now made him shudder.

“I’m sorry,” said Jack but Xander carefully shrugged it away. It wasn’t going to bring his eye back, or Anya or any of the other slayers or Tara or Jenny or kids he’d grown up with or . . . he stopped because he could think of too many more people that were dead or forever hurt by the supernatural. “I guess . . .” said Jack, “at this point it’s pointless to ask you to stop.” He crossed his arms across his chest again as if he were trying to distance himself from the Xander’s life.

“Pretty much,” Xander agreed though he appreciated him saying it. But there was too much work to be done, too many reasons to stay. The fight had become so much of his life that he didn’t think he would ever be able to just walk away.

“Why do you train them?” asked Jack suddenly. “The girls. If it’s so dangerous they shouldn’t be anywhere near this.”

‘Them’ being the slayers, Xander couldn’t fault him for demanding an answer, but at the same time there was no choice in the matter. “That’s what Courtney’s parents said,” he said quietly. “They wouldn’t let Courtney come to training last summer. Didn’t take us seriously. If they had, maybe they’d be alive now.” He returned Jack’s heavy gaze with one of his own. “It’s not fair and it’s not easy but slayers just can’t ignore the Slayer inside. It gets them killed.”

Jack sighed and ran his hand over his face as he absorbed this, clearly not happy with the situation.

“Xander,” the back door banged open and Andrew leaned around it while keeping his feet safely inside. “Buffy wants you. Courtney’s aunt and uncle are here,” he said before quickly closing the door on the cold.

“I gotta go,” Xander turned back to Jack who simply nodded without looking at him. After a tense moment when neither one of them said anything, Xander left him on the porch and went inside. When he glanced out the window as he kicked off his shoes, Jack was again staring at the stars.

*************************************

Jack’s eyes flittered from Orion to Cassiopeia seeing planets filled with trees and people he didn’t understand, and he felt suddenly that he was on another such planet now as anger gave way to helplessness. It reminded him of the children on that one world upon whom the fate of their people rested to the point where they hadn’t a chance to just be kids. Here it felt worse: the slayers were losing their innocence to violence. They were essentially soldiers born to fight a never-ending war. And despite what Xander had told him about Courtney, Jack almost had a mind to go up to Giles or Buffy and demand that they just stop training them and let professionals take care of the vampires.

And Xander . . . tenth grade, Jack thought. He’d been what? Fifteen? Sixteen years-old? Christ. It made him wonder again if this was all real because sixteen was just way too young to be killing what was left of your best friend. It was a wonder Xander was as normal as he was. Hell, he was still a kid to Jack, younger than most of the recruits they saw at the SGC. But at the same time so much older.

There had to be another way. This just couldn’t be the only way to hold off all the . . . ugly evil things. Maybe he could talk to Davis about it since this would fall into the category of national security. At least he hoped so. If the government didn’t know and hadn’t done anything about it at this point, convincing the people who mattered might be a little difficult but if he could get Xander’s help with the briefing, or even Buffy’s, he was sure they could at least get people thinking about it. And put a bullseye on the girls . . . so maybe not Buffy’s help. If they spun it right though, the Pentagon would never have to know about the girls or Xander or anybody, just the monsters.

With a parting look at the stars, Jack went back into the house quickly passing through the now clean kitchen and the dining room into the den. On the floor in front of the tv, Teal’c and Andrew were playing Jedi Knights while Daniel, Carter, and Dawn chatted on the couch. Or rather on closer inspection, Daniel and Carter were discussing mythology that could be reinterpreted while Dawn read a book and cast glances at the foyer.

“Hey, Jack,” Daniel greeted him looking up from the conversation when he walked in. His eyebrows lifted slightly in a small frown as if to ask Jack if he was all right. Nodding in response to both the greeting and the question, Jack glanced once more over the sparely populated room.

“Where is everyone?” he asked.

“Xander, Giles, Buffy, and Courtney are with her relatives in the front room,” Carter supplied. “Don’t know where Willow and Kennedy are.”

“On patrol,” Dawn spoke up.

“Patrol?”

“In the city,” she said. “I think tonight’s the west side. Today’s Sunday, right?”

“So they’re out looking for . . . ” Daniel didn’t know quite how to finish but Dawn understood anyway.

“The usual fledges and signs of impending doom. Not much happens around Christmas though.” She cast another look at the foyer before shrugging. “They’ll probably make a date out of it.”

Jack stared at her and wondered if she even heard what she was saying. What Xander had just told him was a very dangerous life where people *died* Dawn was shrugging off as nothing to worry about. “When are they checking in?” he asked perhaps a little more harshly than he intended.

“You mean call?” asked Dawn. “They’ll only do that if they need help. Otherwise they’ll be back by morning at the latest.”

Morning was an awful long time for them to be out there on their own, especially in a city at night where other dangers lurked besides the ones they were looking for. They could be mugged or trapped in a bad neighborhood or lost, and Dawn wasn’t even sure where they were? To Jack’s military mind, that was too many risks to take without enough back up.

“What do you mean by ‘signs of impending doom?’” asked Daniel, getting back to her earlier comment.

“Weird stuff that doesn’t fall into the normal category of weird,” Dawn frowned, having trouble defining it herself. “Like, really strong demons – or talkative, threatening ones. Or missing artifacts from graves. Stuff like that . . .” she shrugged. “It’s the kind of stuff that when you see it, you know it’s gonna be bad, I guess. Though sometimes we miss it till it’s almost too late.”

Her last comment didn’t sound very reassuring and neither was the thoughtful look on her face that was obviously thinking of specific examples. “What sort of impending doom are we talking about here?” asked Jack sharply.

Dawn glanced at Andrew on the floor who snuck a look over his shoulder full of apprehension and a hundred meanings. “Massacres,” said Dawn carefully. “Rituals for any number of things. Sometimes the end of the world.”

“End of the world?” Jack asked in chorus with Daniel and Carter. Even Teal’c paused in his game with Andrew and looked up at this news.

“It hasn’t really happened in while,” Dawn rushed on to reassure them, but Jack if anything felt even less reassured. “There’s only been, like, one major try here, everything else’s been local scale stuff.”

“You’re saying there have been attempts to end the world?” asked Daniel who was the first to recover. “What are we talking about here? A magical destruction of Earth’s existence or some apocalyptic scenario of wide spread natural destruction? There are many myths that –”

“Hell on Earth,” Dawn interrupted, her bluntness prompting him and everyone to silence. “Mostly they just want that.”

Jack’s mind flashed to Netu, the Goa’uld hell world that had been beyond anything he had ever imagined that Hell could be. If Dawn’s definition was anything like what they’d been through . . . but it couldn’t be, right? But if it was . . . Jack’s outrage only increased at what these kids were dealing with. Damnit, they knew. SG-1 had been there, done that and bought out the save-the-world t-shirts. It was difficult enough when you had years of training to fall back on. “And Willow and Kennedy are out there on their own?” he asked. *Looking* for things that wanted Hell?

“They’re not going to die from walking in the street,” said Dawn as if it were obvious but nonetheless on the defensive. “You should pity who they meet.”

“Besides nothing smart is stupid enough to attack them if Willow’s there,” added Andrew in that brand of logic that was prevalent around this house which Jack for the life of him couldn’t follow. He took a small measure of relief from the fact that both Carter and Daniel looked at each other in mild confusion before turning to the young man and asking,

“Why would they be afraid of Willow?” asked Daniel. It was a very good question, and one that Jack wanted an answer to as well. Andrew blushed under the sudden scrutiny, shifting uncomfortably from side to side as everyone stared at him for the split second before Dawn drew SG-1’s attention back to her.

“Willow’s a witch,” she said which was no answer at all since Jack and his teammates had already surmised as much from dinner. And from what Xander had said, she had enough skill and power to do more than low level spells, whatever that meant exactly.

“Just how powerful is she?” asked Jack suspiciously. Because if even the bad guys were afraid of her – and from Dawn’s uncomfortable glance away, that was more telling than anything she could have said. Willow added up to more than just average. Andrew was suddenly very absorbed in his video game, doing moves even though Teal’c was no longer actively playing. “Dawn?” Jack turned back to the young woman on the couch.

“What?” she said defensively. “She’s good, big deal.”

Jack didn’t answer. Big deal, indeed. It didn’t really change anything except for the fact that Willow’s power was considered something not to be discussed, but maybe they were simply wary of talking to virtual strangers about it, especially with the problems they had with the military in general. Don’t let the enemy know just how powerful your weapons really are. Carter and Daniel for once taking their cue from him didn’t press the matter, instead simply exchanging looks with Jack, Teal’c, and each other. At every turn, things were more than they seemed, convincing Jack further that these kids needed help. And that matter of national security? Hell on Earth definitely qualified.

Sudden shouting from the direction of the foyer broke off any further thought of how exactly Jack was going to get them help. “You expect . . . believe . . . crap?!” an unfamiliar man yelled, his words obscured by the doors and distance. Every head in the den snapped up but the reply was too soft to hear. Then, “No!! We . . . Courtney away . . . lunatics . . . police . . . near my niece again!!”

“They . . . dead . . . didn’t listen . . .!!” he heard Buffy shout back this time. “ . . . want that?!”

“Stay away . . .!!”

“Hey!!” That was Xander.

“Stop it!! Stop it!! Stop it!! Stop it!!” Courtney’s high voice broke over the argument ringing clearly through the house. “They’re dead!” she screamed, her voice breaking at the sudden abuse. “Vampires . . . right in front of me! They . . . screaming and they died! They died!!” Then the sound of a door crashing open and running feet and the front door slamming open and closed. Dawn jumped up and ran after her while Jack and the rest of them got up, bewildered and wondering if they should follow or not. Andrew was the first to move, going to the window and pulling the curtain back just enough to see out into the front yard. Jack and his teammates soon joined him. In the background they could hear the murmuring voices of those in the sitting room.

Outside under the dull illumination of a street light, Courtney had run to one of the three trees in the front yard and started hitting it, knocking snow from the branches above. Dawn stood several feet behind her, not trying to stop her but waiting until she had tired herself out and collapsed to the ground. Then Dawn was there, cautiously at first then suddenly pulling the younger girl into a close hug as her anguished sobs echoed softly through the night.

“Oh, god,” Daniel whispered as they pulled away from the window, the haunted look in his eye no doubt remembering the loss of his own parents as a child.

“I thought . . .” Carter never finished her sentence but from the stunned look on her face she felt as Jack did – that his stomach had just clenched into a knot. What had been haltingly accepted till now, even with the disturbing facts he’d since learned, was now devastatingly summed up in one little girl crying in the snow.

“We’ve got to help them,” Jack murmured. “This isn’t right.”

“What are you suggesting, O’Neill?” asked Teal’c. “At the moment we are unequipped to deal with the vampires and other demons.”

“I’m not saying right this instant,” said Jack. “When we get back to base we make a few phone calls, see if we can get some ball rolling so these kids don’t have to deal with all this . . . crap.”

“You’re gonna tell?!” Andrew’s sudden entrance into the conversation reigned Jack’s thoughts in, reminding him of Xander’s demand that he not tell anyone beyond his team and Hammond. “You can’t do that!”

“Andrew, we’re not going to tell anyone about the slayers,” Jack turned to him impatiently. “That’s the whole point: to keep them out of this. Her parents are *dead* because she got dragged into all this vampire stuff!” He didn’t know who he was angrier at right now, the vampires, Xander and Giles and Buffy for dragging Courtney into their world, or Andrew for not seeing that it had to stop.

“But . . . but . . . that’s impossible!” Andrew protested. “That’s like asking Superman to stay in the phonebooth or Aragorn to stop being noble and kingly or –”

“That is not the same,” Teal’c interrupted before anyone else came out of his mouth.

“Did you not see *Spiderman*?” Andrew shouted, his voice squeaking slightly even as his eyes took on a slightly impatient manic glint that was perhaps the most surprising thing off all about the young man’s outburst, aside from the fact that he was standing up to them at all. “Courtney was Chosen,” said Andrew, the capitals practically audible. “It’s destiny!”

“Destiny?!” Jack shouted back. “Getting her life destroyed was destiny?!”

“Andrew,” Daniel interjected in his reasonable voice that had calmed many an excited native. “Don’t you think destiny is exaggerating things a little? What about free will?”

Gotcha, the thought flickered through Jack’s mind as Andrew floundered for words, his face melting through an array of frustration. “There’s free will . . . but there’s also destiny . . . like an umbrella . . . destiny, I mean. Only instead of keeping the rain out it just wants you to stay dry underneath. It doesn’t care what you do under there as long as you stay dry . . . dry is free will . . . You can’t escape,” he said. “‘With great power comes great responsibility.’”

“So you’re saying that because they can fight, they should?” said Daniel looking over the tops of his glasses. He glanced quickly at Jack, and then said, “Is that right?”

“No, you don’t understand!” Andrew said in a more normal voice though he was clearly still frustrated with them. Daniel’s soothing tone had worked its magic and had even made Jack’s own temper simmer down. “It’s not about the fighting, it’s about the power!”

“Power?” asked Jack, unsure what he meant.

“You know, power. Everyone has it, but slayers more,” said Andrew, again trying to explain but not having the words. “She could kill a regular person if she wanted, or by accident. She could join the Dark Side of the Force just ‘cause. If she hides she’ll be found. She’s always going to be involved because she is power. Destiny. The rest is keeping dry.” He huffed. “It makes more sense when Buffy explains it,” he half whined.

But Jack thought he sort of understood where they were coming from, Spiderman not withstanding. Kids with superpowers were like kids with guns and Jack knew only too well what innocent tragedies came from that combination. If Xander and Giles and everyone else here didn’t find them, train them, and give them an acceptable target then the death toll might be just that much higher. In their war, these were the soldiers they needed and they weren’t going to turn them away. But it still didn’t make it right, and given Andrew’s resistance, of all people, he knew they would have their work cut out for them convincing the others.

He let out an explosive sigh, barely listening as Daniel continued arguing with Andrew. Here he’d come to Cleveland, fearing the worst from having inadvertently dragged Xander into his world, when in fact it was he who had been irrecoverably drawn into Xander’s.

****************************************

“I hate parents!” Buffy groaned as she flopped back on the shoddy sitting room couch. Xander merely rolled his head to look at her from where he sat already splayed out. The relatives had just left, and it was only nine-thirty. It felt like half the night had already passed away.

“Aunt and uncle,” he corrected her, but Buffy only muttered a half hearted “Guardians, whatever” in response, which made Xander grin. Poor Buffy had no patience for normal people. He pitied the families she would have to talk to in Europe – in a foreign language. Thankfully they’d done a lot of the initial legwork last year so it wouldn’t be quite the same disaster, but there were still all those newbies out there that had been called since then and all the ones to come. Xander was just glad he got to stay in America.

“Well, at least they finally listened,” said Giles from where he sat a little straighter in the armchair. “That’s something. I suspect they’ll be all right in the end.”

“I hope so for Courtney’s sake,” said Xander though he agreed with the assessment. Kim and Paul Laysan had reacted by the book and had only lashed out in fear and denial. However, they loved their niece enough to take Courtney’s blowup to heart. This family would make it. Others hadn’t; some probably shouldn’t have been told. A couple of the slayers had told him they had ended up denying it again to their parents who couldn’t cope. Getting them back for the summer was going to be a challenge that Xander was not looking forward to.

As for the Laysans, Giles as the resident ‘parent’ was going to meet with them tomorrow, somewhere more neutral to talk about the details. Courtney would probably stay in Cleveland until all the legalities and school stuff were taken care of so they could maximize her training time. The real work wouldn’t begin until the summer of course, but she needed more than just instinct for the interim.

Xander sighed. He hated this part of the watcher gig, dealing with the support systems and families that were changed forever. Sure the system was better now for the slayers but it was still pretty high up on the sucking scale.

Thinking of families and the Laysans in particular made Xander think of his previous revelation of the day. All things considered, Jack had taken it fairly well, but that was where Xander’s experience with parents ran out. His own he had avoided as much as possible after eighth grade, like squeaky boards when you were trying to sneak in after curfew. Not that they had really cared enough to give him a curfew. Had Jack been his dad growing up, he was sure there would have been not only a curfew but an angry and worried-out-of-his-mind parent waiting up for him. Xander could handle Jack mad now only because of nerves steeled from years of standing up to Buffy and Giles, but his high school self would have stood no chance.

“Hey Buffy,” he said, again rolling his head to look at her. “How did your mom take finding out, after you came back, I mean?” he added referring to the summer Buffy had run away to LA.

She thought for a moment before answering. “Things were different,” she said slowly. “At first I think we were both just getting used to each other again. She didn’t push too much but she did ask what was going on.” Buffy smiled faintly, “A couple times she stayed up late and made cookies that were warm and gooey when I got home.”

“It was hard on her,” said Giles softly. “She held up remarkably well.”

“She was amazing,” Buffy agreed sadly. “And it took me so long to see it. It was almost too late.” She let out a sigh that held the edges of tears though her eyes were still dry.

“But such are teenagers,” Giles replied gently. “No one ever knows as much as they do about anything.”

“Were we really as awful as I remember?” she asked.

“Do you really want to know?” There was a teasing twinkle in Giles’s eye as he said this, lightening the mood.

“Buffy, think of Dawn and multiply by three,” Xander suggested. He, Buffy, and Willow had probably broken every school rule there was for their regular teachers, and poor Giles had had to deal with them the rest of the time along with their significant others. “And add a factor of ten for Cordelia,” he added at the thought of his ex-girlfriend.

“Uhhgg. I am never having kids,” Buffy declared.

“Yes, because that plan works out, oh so well,” said Giles dryly surprising a bark of laughter out of Xander and a wide eyed look from Buffy.

“Great,” she said resettling. “I can just see myself in ten years, old and fat, clucking over my glasses at my slayers about doing their homework.” The image of her little and old made Xander laugh again that prompted an arch look from the ‘little old lady.’

“I wouldn’t worry Buffy,” he said consolingly. “You’ll never be fat or wear glasses.”

“I’ll still be old,” she grumbled.

“And this is a bad thing?” asked Giles.

Buffy turned to him a smiled, serious now. “No,” she said quietly. “I guess . . . I’m still getting used to the idea that I’ve got at life beyond twenty-five.” Giles smiled back, as did Xander, the three of them sharing mutual love and hope for a better life for all of them. Leaving Sunnydale had been like breaking free of a curse, and traveling America and Europe looking for slayers had been the best medicine for all the hurt and pain they’d suffered. The trip had shown them that despite all the bad stuff – vampires, corrupt cops, human crime, global climate change – there was still so much to live for in the world, so much to fight for. There were puppies and basketball games and carnivals and cafes and Yosemite Park and people. Millions and billions of people who loved life too.

Xander knew it wasn’t all black and white, he’d need only look at their own lives to see that, and he was cynical enough to ask twice what the catch was. Good people messed up, bad people changed for the better, and everyone was just struggling through life as best they could. It was having that chance to struggle that was important. Hope. Somehow it was easier to see outside of Sunnydale.

“So Xander, how’s the dad thing going?” Buffy broke the silence that had fallen over them like a warm blanket. “He didn’t look too happy at dinner.”

Xander thought back over their stilted conversation on the porch that hadn’t done anything it seemed except reinforce the gap between them. “He’s not happy about any of it. His work’s classified and no one is supposed to know about it.” Jack hadn’t appeared too angry though, just tired and worried. “I think he was more upset about us fighting vampires for a living.”

“This from a guy who’s friends with an alien?” asked Buffy.

“I suspect his problem arises more from the existence of the supernatural,” said Giles. “Dr. Jackson and Major Carter earlier were trying to rationalize everything with science. Honestly, I couldn’t understand half of what they were saying, but they were more concerned with the reasons behind the belief than the actual beliefs.”

Thinking back on it, Xander wasn’t so sure. “Not Jack,” he disagreed. “He had a problem with *us* fighting. ‘Kids’. Basically told me he wanted me to stop because it was too dangerous.”

A ghost of a smile flittered over Buffy’s face at that news. “I like him,” she said. “Not that you should stop,” she quickly added, suddenly worried Xander might take it the wrong way, “but it’s cool that he asked.”

“So I can keep him?” Xander joked, but internally giddy that Jack had won Buffy’s approval.

“Xander, I think you would be foolish to let him go,” said Giles, making Xander this time look at the other man in surprise. Giles was actually for Jack now? After all the hemming and hawing about the American military and casual questions about his visits and general disapproving vibes? Xander was so startled, he just stared at the one adult that had been constant in his life and who now smiled knowingly back at him, clearly amused by his frank disbelief that he approved.

“Xand, you’re gonna catch flies if you leave your jaw there,” said Buffy with a giggle. Abruptly, he shut his mouth and looked from one to the other.

“He’s been good for you,” said Giles still smiling like he knew everything. “And I must say that I’m impressed he has not disappeared on you.”

“I don’t think I could get him to if I wanted it,” Xander replied, finally over most of his shock and decidedly happy about Giles’s sudden support.

“Just as long as the military thing doesn’t backfire on us,” said Buffy. “If it does I reserve the right to blow up their mountain.”

“I know I’m going to regret asking, but why blow it up?” asked Giles wincing in anticipation.

Buffy shrugged impishly. “I’m better at blowing up stuff. Three for two record, you know.”

“Besides,” Xander couldn’t help but add. “Finding the mountain would be a hell of a lot easier than going after the people involved.”

“Plus, we could give them time to evacuate,” said Buffy magnanimously, as if utter destruction were not her goal. Giles merely regarded them calmly, unfazed by their plan.

“Just as long as I am not in the country when you do so,” was all he said. He stood up and grimaced from moving stiff muscles. “Either of you like tea?” he asked as his back popped.

“Coffee.”

“Hot chocolate,” they requested. Giles shook his head at them but nodded anyway and left for the kitchen. Xander and Buffy just stayed on the comfy couch, too lazy to move.

“You really like Jack?” Xander asked a minute later.

“Yeah,” Buffy sighed, turning her head towards him and smiling. “I do. He’s around, you know? You guys visit. He calls. Sometimes I wish my dad would bother himself about it, but then I remember how much I don’t like him. But I like Jack. He’s a lot like you.”

“Witty and ridiculously good looking?” Xander joked.

“He could pass for cute,” said Buffy with the devil in her eye. Xander threw his head back against the couch.

“First Dawn, now you!” he groaned.

“Dawn said he was cute?”

“Not Jack, Daniel. Which is marginally better I guess. At least he’s not supposed to be my father.” He looked critically at Buffy and tried thinking about her and Jack. It was a bad idea. “I need therapy,” he said. “I think I just scarred myself for life.”

“Why?” asked Buffy giving him a quizzical look at his odd statement.

Xander’s mouth opened to share before he could stop it. “You as my stepmom. I will never forgive you if that happens.”

Buffy looked at him a little stricken by that, and then burst out laughing. After a second, Xander joined in. The idea was ridiculous and so completely beyond messed up, but stranger things had happened. It felt good to laugh, like all the uncertainty and stress just drained away from his chest, down his arms, and out his fingertips, leaving only a relaxed tiredness behind. By the time Giles came in a few minutes later, their laughter had melted into spurts of giggles. The Head Watcher simply handed them two steaming mugs and quirked an eyebrow.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” Buffy told him as she accepted her hot chocolate.

“Do either of you have objections to putting up Colonel O’Neill and his friends for the night?” Giles took her advice to heart.

Xander shrugged. “No, why?”

“Oh, he just told me they were going to have to leave soon to get back to the base they’re staying at. I thought why not stay here.”

“Sure, but I want Willow or someone to put an alarm on their door.”

“Buffy,”

“Xander, we’re not chaining them up, but they could still be dangerous,” the Slayer overrode his protest. “It’s just in case. They won’t even know it’s there.”

Unable to argue with that logic, and knowing he wouldn’t win anyway if he did, Xander agreed to it. “Okay,” he sighed. “I’ll go ask them.” With that, he pulled himself to his feet and went in search of Jack.

****************************************

“Hey Jack,” Xander’s voice interrupted the discussion around the dining room table. Jack and his team were solidifying what they knew and trying to come up with a report for Hammond and possibly Davis about the situation here. Top on his list of recommendations was a program that eliminated the need for underage slayers.

“Xander, what’s up?” he asked as his son joined them at the table with a cup of coffee. Jack wondered if there was any left in the kitchen.

“Giles said you have to leave soon. Do you wanna just stay here for the night?” he asked. “We’ve got plenty of space.”

“That’d be great,” Jack smiled, not very surprised by the offer but glad for it nonetheless. They needed to be back here in the morning anyway to see about the rogue NID agents and it would save them a long drive each way.

“Cool. So whatcha doing here?” Xander turned his attention to the looseleaf paper Jack was writing on. “ ‘Intelligence, armament . . .’ You planning a war or something?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Jack carefully. Considering the way Andrew had blown up over this, he wasn’t too sure he was ready for Xander’s reaction to his little brainchild. He cast looks to Daniel, Carter, and Teal’c, silently asking them if he should broach the subject.

“We were actually thinking of what we could do to help,” said Daniel, ever the diplomat. “From what you’ve told us, it sounds like a pretty big job protecting the world from vampires from out of Cleveland.”

“So when you say help, you mean have the military come in with intelligence and weapons and just do the job for us?” Xander looked from Daniel to Jack questioningly. So far, no explosions, that was good.

“That would be the long term goal,” said Carter. “With such a big project we would need a transition period but the ultimate goal is that the need for slayers would be gone.”

“Gone.” Xander let out a half laugh of disbelief, pulling Jack’s piece of paper over and looking at it one more time. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, do you?”

A little taken aback by this response, Jack lifted his eyebrows and suggested, “Vampires? Ugly evil things? Look, I know we’re new to this stuff, but there’s got to be a better way to fight them than with little girls.”

Xander leveled his eye on him. “And what about the next hell god or when the First makes his next move? Will your soldiers be able to handle that?”

“True gods do not exist,” said Teal’c, but Xander wasn’t smiling when he turned to the Jaffa.

“Yeah? Tell that to someone who wasn’t there.”

Jack glanced down the table at Daniel and Carter who looked just as bewildered as he felt. But Xander went on.

“It’s not just vampires,” he said sitting back in his chair so he could see them all more easily. “And it’s not just demons you can kill by shooting. There are a lot of things out there, that trying to shoot them full of bullets will just piss them off. Intelligence isn’t just finding out where they are either.”

“We realize it’s not that simple,” said Jack a little annoyed at being talked down to. “This is just a start.”

“You’re talking about setting up a system we already have in place,” Xander replied.

“Oh?” said Jack. This was news. Where was this marvelous system then? “You have people gathering info on all hostile movements? Backup standing by for Willow and Kennedy? Measures in place in case someone tries to end the world?”

“Yeah, us.”

Great. Jack sighed impatiently. That was hardly an answer and all this was getting nowhere. “Xander, training hardly counts. We’re talking about an organized defense against all the supernatural crap. No more kids fighting and dying.”

“Taking them out of the action won’t protect them,” Xander shook his head. “You need the supernatural to fight the supernatural, and that’s the slayers. They’re drawn to it. Half your soldiers will be dead in their first skirmish. I’m not kidding, Jack,” he added when the older man opened his mouth to protest. He was dead serious. “I know you don’t like it,” he said a little more softly. “Most of the time I don’t like it either, but more people will die if we don’t do it our way.”

“What’s the system you have?” Carter asked into the ensuing silence. Xander broke off his staring contest with Jack and smiled sourly.

“Welcome to the North American Headquarters of the International Watchers Council,” he said.

“International Watcher’s Council?” Jack repeated, not sure he was hearing this. He looked around at the china cabinet and the framed Ansel Adams posters on the walls. “Here?”

“This is just the central operations room,” said Xander dryly, “also known three times a day as the dining room.”

“You’re saying that you run an international organization against vampires out of the dining room?” he asked.

Xander shrugged. “It’s the table. Giles actually runs the international part as Head of the Watchers. I just take care of the slayers in North America, though Mexico and all those little countries down there are getting transferred to the South American office once Willow gets set up.”

“Mr. North America,” Jack recalled Xander’s confusing statement from that morning. Xander was responsible for maintaining the safety of an entire continent? That was insane!

“Why have you been chosen for these positions?” asked Teal’c. “Would it not be more fitting for an elder generation to carry out these duties?”

“Because the ‘elder generation’ also known as the Stuffy Assholes in England Who Thought They Knew What Was Going On But Really Didn’t went kablewie two years ago,” Xander said, a little irritated. “Giles and about fifteen people he’s found since then are all that’s left of the old Council. That left us with a whole lot of new slayers all over the place so we decided to reform the council so that it would actually help the Slayer instead of try to enslave her.”

“Wait a minute,” said Jack, holding up a hand to slow him down. There had been a bit too much information for him to process in that last explanation. “There was another organization before you, who did the same thing?”

“No.” Xander corrected him. “There was an older Council that *claimed* to do the same thing. The Slayer was just their tool in the fight. They didn’t really do anything except cause trouble for us. It was about power,” he practically spat the same word Andrew had used earlier. “*We* still do what we’ve always done just on a bigger scale now that there are more slayers.”

“More slayers?” asked Daniel.

“There used to be one, Buffy. And I am so not explaining right now. Point is, we’re set up to handle it. You’d just be getting in our way.”

More complications, Jack figured. He could feel a headache coming on already. It sounded like some serious history, for what was clicking together in Jack’s head was the timeframe. Two years ago Xander had lost his eye, Sunnydale had sunk into the ground, and his girlfriend had died. That sounded like too much of a coincidence for comfort. He almost asked what had happened but decided to wait until he and Xander were alone. Instead, he simply watched his son as Daniel tried to convince him that quitting would give him a chance at a better life, but Xander wasn’t having any of it. Jack saw the same determination in his eye that had been there out on the porch, when he’d asked about it. Xander was in too deep. ‘I’m talking about my life,’ he’d said just that morning. Jack had thought earlier that maybe he would see reason and let the soldiers take over, but once again, Xander’s deep seated mistrust of the military wouldn’t give ground, no matter what Daniel said.

“Look, the last time you guys tried to take over we had to bail you out,” Xander brought Jack crashing back to the present. “So just forget it already. The government tries to take over again we’ll stop you. And trust me when I say you don’t want to get Buffy or Willow mad.” But it was his first statement that got Jack’s attention.

“What do you mean ‘the last time we took over’?”

Xander sighed, obviously wishing he hadn’t said anything. “It was called the Initiative. Top secret, obviously. Ended with a lot of dead soldiers. The ones that made it only did because we stepped in. They didn’t know what they were dealing with; you don’t know what you’re dealing with. And I don’t care about your good intentions, there’s always going to be some mad scientist who wants to play god and damn the consequences. So I’m telling you now, we will not let that happen again. If it does I’d stay away from that mountain of yours.”

Jack sat up at the words that sounded ominously like a threat. “Why?” he asked.

Xander glanced at him then at the others. “Buffy said something about blowing it up,” he said casually. And something in the way he said it made Jack certain he wasn’t joking around. “Come on,” Xander abruptly stood up, effectively putting an end to the conversation. “I’ll show you where you’re staying.” He left the room by way of the kitchen, and as Jack and his team got up to follow him, he knew that they’d be spending the night talking instead of sleeping.


Eleventh Hour Tango

Force of habit woke Jack around six thirty the following morning. It took him a moment to register why the sun was shining from the wrong direction before the sight of the bunk above him reminded him where he was. Xander had put them up in Diana and Vi’s room that had two sets of bunkbeds and its own bathroom. Unlike the guest room that he had stayed in over Thanksgiving, this room was well decorated with the lives of two teenage girls. Movie and band posters were on the walls, photos of friends were stuck into the mirror, and pastel colored curtains hung from the top bunks giving the room a homey feel. To look at it, he would never have guessed that the two girls fought vampires on a nightly basis.

He and SG-1 had stayed up the better part of the night talking about everything they had learned thus far, especially Xander’s denial of help the night before and all the other little bombshells he had dropped along the way, namely the Watcher’s Council and the Initiative project. Daniel had quickly jumped to their defense, saying they couldn’t really blame Xander for resisting what he essentially saw as a hostile takeover, even if it would benefit them in the end. Jack hadn’t really argued; they’d run into too many situations offworld where this had happened for him not to see the broader cultural implications. But it still didn’t change the fact that having kids on the front line was wrong, and since they were dealing with the kids themselves, it was going to be very difficult to get them to see this. Jack wasn’t about to give up though.

Other than convincing Xander that they needed help, Jack needed to call the General today to report and Carter wanted to call her contact at the NID – the legit branch – to see if he knew anything. Yesterday’s revelations had completely sidetracked Jack from the actual matter at hand, namely Kinsey, the rogue NID, and how they were going to handle this mess, especially now that it had just gotten messier. He was positively dreading his call to Hammond.

Unable to sleep anymore, Jack got up and went to the bathroom. He really hoped today was better than yesterday. Maybe with everyone rested and not pulling secrets out of their hats, they could get something accomplished. Daniel and Teal’c were stirring when he returned, woken no doubt by his movements, while Carter was still curled up under the covers. Jack told them to go back to sleep in a whisper since he doubted anyone else would be up at such an early hour. Quickly, he dressed as quietly as he could and left the room, padding softly down the stairs. The house was peaceful for once though as he drew closer to the kitchen, Jack heard soft voices.

The kitchen was empty but a quick peak into the dining room showed Dawn and Courtney in their pajamas pouring over a laptop on the table. Neither one of them noticed him so absorbed were they in their work. Dawn seemed to be showing Courtney how to do something so Jack drew back from sight wondering why they were up this early but not wanting to intrude. Instead he kept an ear open as he searched the cabinets for coffee fixings.

“Willow showed me this one,” Dawn was saying. “It’s easier if you go to advanced search then try to do it there. That’s down here.” A few mouse clicks. “Then you type in the keywords,” now the sound of typing, “author,” more typing, “and sorted by date, latest first.” Another few clicks then, “Voila! All the papers and abstracts written by Dr. Jackson.”

Jack’s head shot up at this last. His attention riveted on the other room, he stared at the door as if he could see through it. Looking into Daniel now were they? Oh, this couldn’t be good. It took all of his self control not to go in there and find out what they had found. And how the hell did they find every paper he’d ever written on the internet?

“That’s a lot of papers,” Courtney commented quietly.

“They’re probably not all the same person,” said Dawn. “We can eliminate all these down here ‘cause they’re too old for him. Now we’ll go through the rest and see what looks right.”

“Won’t they all be right?”

“Nope. The computer just grabs everything that matches, even if it doesn’t fit exactly what we’re looking for. See? Jackson, C. We don’t care about what he wrote. Here, you want to go through and get all the Ds?” He heard some shuffling as the two girls must have traded places, then footsteps and he quickly turned away from the door and tried to look like he hadn’t been listening.

“Jack,” Dawn stopped short at the open door that separated the two rooms. “You’re up early,” she said recovering. She headed over to the fridge with her head held stubbornly up, deliberately not looking at him.

“Couldn’t sleep,” he replied as she pulled out the orange juice and turned to the cabinet for glasses.

“Us either,” said Dawn. She poured two glasses of OJ then looked up and said helpfully, “filters are in the one to the right.”

“Thanks.” He turned to the cabinet she indicated. He heard her go back into the dining room while he fixed himself coffee.

“I think I got them all,” he heard Courtney report then Dawn showed her how to do the next step of downloading the files they wanted. Next thing he knew, a printer was going in the background. Deciding he better interrupt before they read the papers from who-knows-whose-computers, Jack quickly scooped ground coffee into the filter, filled the top with water and set it to drip. A moment later he was in the dining room with two faces looking up at his abrupt entrance.

“Hey kids! Whatcha doing?” Jack asked cheerfully as if he didn’t know what they were up to. Courtney looked anxiously at Dawn but the older girl just shrugged, not seeming to care that he knew, her head again lifting slightly.

“Research,” she said vaguely looking back at the computer screen.

“Wouldn’t happen to be on, oh say, Daniel would it?” asked Jack in the same sarcastically cheerful tone.

“It’s a matter of public record,” said Dawn primly cutting her eyes at him, daring him to challenge her actions. “Perfectly legal.”

“Uh huh.” Jack didn’t believe her. “So where did you get the papers? They were just lying on the internet?”

“Actually yes,” she said smugly. “Database of academic journals and everything they’ve ever published.” She looked at him triumphantly, her eyes saying ‘beat that.’

“What makes you think you’ll find anything in there?” he asked.

“What makes you think we won’t?” she countered. “We have to start somewhere, unless you want to fill us in . . .” she trailed off hopefully.

“Does the word ‘classified’ mean anything to you?” he asked.

“Interesting?” Dawn suggested impishly. Jack had to stop an eye roll at that, wishing she would just drop it. Poking around Daniel’s past papers wouldn’t yield much direct information but it would lead to other questions that Jack would much rather not have raised. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much he could do about Dawn’s curiosity at the moment short of breaking her computer, and all that would accomplish would be postponing the inevitable and making her hate him.

“Some things are better left alone,” he said quietly, hoping to impress upon her the gravity of the situation.

“And some things shouldn’t be ignored,” said Dawn. Her large eyes caught Jack’s in a gaze that was both enchanting and too old for the face that held it. It wouldn’t matter what Jack said; she was going to look into it anyway. Nothing could stop that now. With a resigned and frustrated sigh, Jack went back into the kitchen and stared at the coffee maker trying to straighten everything out in his head, but his thoughts were a tangled mess. It wouldn’t hurt anyone if they knew and kept it to themselves, but if they told others or let something slip or if the wrong people wanted to keep them quiet . . . There was more than one way to ruin a life, most a lot more unpleasant than a frontal attack – blacklisting, anonymous tips to local cops, a random hit-and-run accident crossing the street. Jack sighed. He’d seen them all, and damn it he didn’t want that to happen to anyone here, but what could he do? What a mess indeed.

He was still thinking about it and his options if the worst occurred when the coffee finally finished and even twenty minutes later when it was finally late enough for him to call the General. As much as he didn’t want to make the call he was glad to be distracted. He fished out his cell phone that was secured for just these purposes and stepped outside to dial the Mountain.

“Hammond,” the General answered the phone briskly.

“Good Morning, General,” said Jack with a cheerfulness he didn’t feel. Oh, this was not going to be fun.

“Colonel O’Neill, how’s the situation in Cleveland?”

“Oh, still here,” said Jack. “Xander really does have the NID locked up in his basement. I’m gonna call the base and get someone to pick them up.”

“Did he explain how he managed to get them there?” the General asked calmly.

“You’re not going to like it,” said Jack.

“Colonel.” He could hear Hammond frowning at him over the line.

“Yeah, so,” here went nothing, “do you believe in magic?” he asked.

“Colonel.” The General’s frown increased.

“I know it sounds ludicrous. Believe me, I know,” he ran his free hand through his hair. Once more he couldn’t believe he was defending the idea. “But just hear me out. Xander and his friends claim to use magic, and unless they’re hiding some Asgard technology somewhere . . .”

“Colonel, you’re saying that these people aided by *magic* captured a team of Black Ops trained soldiers?” Disbelief colored every syllable.

“Yes, sir. I don’t have all the details yet of what exactly happened,” Jack said, “but I did see the commandos sitting in the basement being held prisoner by a force field that is not being produced by any technology that I could see anywhere in the house.”

“What about some other technology that we are not aware of,” said Hammond, latching onto a rationalization for Jack’s insane babble. “Are they another alien race we haven’t encountered yet?”

“Could be, but I doubt it,” said Jack. The thought had crossed his mind last night but the kids didn’t act anything but human and had been all too surprised at the revelation that Teal’c was an alien. Xander was human; there was no doubt of that. And Jack couldn’t forget the sight of Andrew’s bite mark that looked like it came out of a Dracula movie. No, if they were aliens, they had at least been born on Earth and had a vested interest in protecting the planet. Ironically, it was this explanation that Jack should have believed but didn’t. “You want the really bad news?”

“Bad news?” Hammond practically growled. Yeah, he wasn’t happy.

“Two of Xander’s friends hacked the SGC, NID, and Groom Lake computers.” Silence on the other end. Jack figured he might as well tell him the rest before the storm broke. “And one of them figured out by *looking* at Teal’c that he wasn’t from Earth.”

“Colonel,” the General’s voice was heavy. “If they aren’t another alien race, I hope you have a very good explanation for this.”

“Magic?”

“Colonel O’Neill.” Clearly the General still didn’t believe him if the increase in volume was any indication.

“Sir, that was Xander’s explanation, and as crazy as it is, I believe him,” Jack immediately jumped in. “There’s more.”

“More?!” Hammond was about to blow a gasket and Jack was suddenly very grateful he was halfway across the country at the moment.

“Yes, sir,” said Jack. “Now I know this is going to sound just as insane but try to keep an open mind. I didn’t want to believe it either but too much of it fits together.” Jack took a deep breath to steel himself. “There’s another war going on against vampires and demons,” he said.

Hammond was silent. Jack gritted his teeth and squinted his eyes in preparation for the explosion, but in the end what came was far scarier. “Colonel, I sincerely hope you are pulling my leg,” the General said in a deadly quiet voice.

“Sir, I wish to God I was,” he said. “But I watched a girl break a four-by-four with her bare hands and I don’t think she’s an alien.” He then proceeded to tell Hammond everything they knew about slayers and the creatures they fought including why he didn’t think they were extraterrestrial, his desire to get the kids off the front line and Xander’s resistance to the idea. Jack kept the conversation short and to the point. “I’m hoping that Daniel will talk them round once he’s set loose on them,” he finished. “Xander’s right about one thing though. We can’t let anyone know about the superhero kids.”

“We’ll worry about that when we get to it,” said Hammond. He had listened gravely, asking a few questions here and there, but ultimately accepting Jack’s analysis of the situation on trust alone. “Right now we have to worry about the NID that you have there. Mr. Freyland asked about your retirement papers yesterday. He doesn’t know that the kidnapping failed.”

“So there’s a chance we can stick this to Kinsey before he can get his hands clean,” said Jack, visions of publicly humiliating the Vice-President-elect eliciting a grim smile.

“We will have to be careful, Colonel,” cautioned Hammond. “Chances are we’ll only be able to keep him away from your son. I expect a report once you’ve taken the agents into custody.”

“Understood, sir,” Jack replied.

“Colonel.” The General hung up, and Jack flipped his cell closed, looking out over the snowy back yard. He had a lot to think about.

**********************************************************************************

Boxes of cereal littered the countertop when Xander finally dragged himself downstairs around nine. A little disappointed that it was Special K, Cheerios, or Life for breakfast instead of sausage and waffles, he grabbed the latter and a bowl. Through the kitchen window, he saw Jack talking intently with his friends on the porch. He was tempted to go out and see what they were talking about, but it looked like the kind of conversation that would stop abruptly as soon as the door opened. Instead Xander took his cereal into the dining room, which, no surprise, held Giles, Dawn, and Courtney, the laptop, and a hell of a lot of paper. All three looked up and smiled with a brief ‘good morning’ when he came in but quickly returned to their work.

Since this was normal research behavior, Xander simply sat and ate his cereal, snagging one of the papers to see what was up. ‘Third Dynasty Upper Kingdom Extends South to Khmunu,’ he read the title of the article from, his eyes flickered to the top of the page, the *Journal of Egyptology*. Then the author caught his eye: Daniel Jackson. Feeling a little guilty on the man’s behalf he asked, “Does he know we’re looking up his stuff?”

“Jack does,” said Dawn glancing up, her pen retreating from the paper in front of her. “Since they’re not telling us anything . . .” she shrugged letting the rest go unsaid. But somehow, as curious as he was, Xander felt like they were violating a trust, especially since the man they were snooping was standing on the back porch.

“You know, I don’t think the Third Dynasty has much to do with aliens,” he said nodding at all the papers scattered about.

“It tells us that a really good archeologist suddenly quit his job and started working for the Air Force sometime in the last eight years,” said Dawn.

“How do you know that?”

“His last abstract was published in 1997 then nothing after that,” said Courtney with a quick glance at Dawn for approval.

“Abstract?” asked Xander, unfamiliar with the term.

“For scientific papers it’s the summary of the paper,” Courtney reached over and pointed at the paragraph set just under the title on the paper he held. “For talks at conferences, there’s just an abstract,” she pulled a single sheet of paper from a stack by Dawn who winked at Xander while the younger girl bustled around like a professional. Xander smiled to himself at Courtney’s newfound expertise on abstracts, schooling his features when she turned back and handed it to him. It was entitled ‘Dating of Hanuptra Temple Pushes Back Age of the Great Pyramids.’ He tried reading the paragraph but immediately ran into words that he didn’t think Giles knew.

“So what’s it mean?” he asked waving the paper.

“It means that the Pyramids are older than everyone thought, according to Dr. Jackson,” said Giles succinctly, finally putting down the paper he’d been reading. Obviously he had known what a few of those words meant. “I’m afraid that doesn’t tell us much. Even in Watcher circles there isn’t much known about Egypt or the Middle East before the Crusades. What we have, or I should say had, was sketchy at best in terms of history, especially following the purging by the Muslims. Most of what survived over the years were the rituals and spell lore. Modern archeology has unearthed more than we ever had on our own given the written language barrier until the Rosetta Stone was found. I’m afraid I don’t know much more about it as the Council primarily ignored Egypt since demons tend to regard the area as taboo.”

“Any reason why?” asked Dawn at this new bit of information.

“No, no explanation has ever been found,” said Giles. “Some have speculated that it’s because of the desert. There’s also a theory that the gods protect the land, however I don’t believe that. The Egyptian pantheon are rather strong as gods go but they can only work peripherally in our dimension through the rituals that have been established.”

“That still doesn’t have much to do with aliens,” said Xander turning back to his cereal. It was a little soggier after being ignored.

“We have to start somewhere,” Dawn shrugged. “Hopefully it’ll give me ideas for when I start running the internet searches.” Xander didn’t have an answer to that. That’s how research worked; you started with what you could and went from there. Finishing his cereal, Xander left them to it and went back into the kitchen. This time he chose Cheerios, mourning slightly that they were regular and not Honey Nut, but oh well, couldn’t have everything. He was rummaging around in the cupboard for honey when the door opened behind him and Daniel and Teal’c came inside.

“Morning Xander,” Daniel smiled at him coming over and helping himself to a refill of coffee. Teal’c nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Morning. Sleep well?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Very well, thanks,” said Daniel. “I was wondering if we could talk later,” he said hesitantly. “After you get back from work or – ”

“About what?” Xander finally found the honey hiding behind two jars of crunchy peanut butter. Taking the cap off of the little golden bear he squirted a generous amount over his cereal. When he looked up both Daniel and Teal’c were watching him and his cereal curiously. “They’re plain,” he explained.

“Right,” Daniel started, frowning a bit at having been caught staring. “Well, I had some questions about what you do here with the . . . vampire fighting,” he got back to his earlier train of thought. “Jack was probably a little premature yesterday, but I still think we can help.” He blinked and set down his cup of coffee. “Xander,” he said carefully. “I know the military isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, believe me I know.” He gave him a humorless smile. “And I realize it doesn’t help that you’ve had some bad experiences. But the military has a lot of good people, Jack’s one of them, Sam’s another. And we can help if you let us.”

“So what, you asking for a chance to convince us to quit?” Xander asked for clarity, not quite sure what Daniel was asking for.

“No, not at all,” Daniel hastened to explain. “For the moment we just want to learn a little more about what you do here. I promise we won’t try anything without your permission.” The archeologist looked at him earnestly, sincerity in every word.

Xander picked up his bowl of Cheerios and shoveled a spoonful into his mouth. They better not try anything without their permission. Things would get ugly for them both if they did. As for telling them what the Council did, hadn’t they already done that? Fight vampires, save the world, make everywhere a safer place. What more was there to know? Besides, full disclosure felt a little too much like baring their collective neck to the wolves.

On the other hand . . . Xander looked back at Daniel who still regarded him hopefully, and at Teal’c who had been worried about his and Jack’s relationship. Outside, Jack and Sam were still speaking. He’d given his word it wouldn’t go further than five people; he was worried about kids fighting and getting hurt. Above all, Xander trusted him still, and his friends. The question remained, was he being foolish by doing so?

“I’ll have to ask the Council Board members,” he finally answered.

“Of course,” agreed Daniel nodding though he didn’t look too pleased by the answer.

“How long will it take for a response from them?” asked Teal’c.

Xander shrugged and looked at the clock. “Six of us are here. Once Willow wakes up we’ll have to call England and Africa to get the other three on the line.” The others being Faith, Robin, and Vi who rounded out the Scooby Board which was composed of Giles and the chief slayer and watcher from each headquarters, as figurative as a few of them were.

“Africa?” asked Daniel.

“International remember?” said Xander. “Think the American military will help with that?” he asked sarcastically. Of course, Riley’s ‘anti-terrorist’ team worked out of South America but that was one squad in the middle of the jungle. How would they cover the world?

“You probably guessed we’re already intergalactic,” said Daniel with a wry grin and a nod at Teal’c. The reply startled a grin out of Xander even as he felt the weird dislocated feeling he got from thinking about aliens. Unable to think of anything to add, he headed for the dining room with his cereal. When Daniel and Teal’c followed he turned to them.

“I should warn you that they’re reading all the papers you ever wrote,” he told Daniel who only smiled.

“Jack said as much,” he said. “To be honest it’s a little flattering.”

“I’m just warning you,” said Xander, pushing open the door. All three gluttons for punishment looked up from their reading and glanced at each other then Daniel a little nervously.

“I hear you’re reading up on me,” Daniel said by way of breaking the ice as he and Teal’c sat down with Xander.

“Would be easier if you could write,” said Dawn playfully with a hint of a challenge.

“Excuse me?”

“She said you should learn how to write,” said Courtney heavily, rolling her eyes as only a thirteen year-old could. The open dictionary was by her elbow.

“Yeah, well,” Daniel smiled self deprecatingly, “I don’t think my writing cleaned up till I started writing reports on a regular basis.”

“Oh, what a wonderful idea –”

“Giles, no,” Xander cut him off before he could finish the thought. “We have so many other better things to do with our time.”

“Xander, we do need to document. Think of all the lovely reference books we *don’t* have,” he held up a hand to forestall the next protest. “And before you say it, I would never presume to ask you or anyone here to write anything. Posterity would never understand it.”

“Hey!” Xander lifted a threatening spoon.

“What’s ‘posterity’?” asked Courtney.

“I rest my case. Do you want the job?” Giles turned to Daniel, a playful glint in his eye. Xander could tell the senior watcher was just loving the presence of other old people.

“I know what it means,” Dawn gave Giles an unamused and slightly offended look.

“Yes, and when will you have time to write reports between university and translations?” Giles asked. “Not to mention everything else that will invariably come up.”

“You’re right. You should hire a secretary,” Dawn agreed readily.

“You do translations?” asked Daniel curiously.

“Someone has to,” said Dawn modestly. She grinned slightly and tried not to look like she was seeing if he was impressed. No crush his ass, thought Xander, but luckily for Daniel he didn’t seem to be aware of it.

“What do you translate?” he asked curiously.

“Other languages?” said Dawn eliciting a snort of laughter from Courtney.

“I believe Daniel Jackson is asking about what languages you translate,” said Teal’c perfectly serious, which only caused Courtney to giggle harder. The alien raised an eyebrow in her direction in apparent confusion, which made Xander sputter on his Cheerios.

“Are you all right, Xander Harris?” Teal’c turned to him and Xander managed to nod and swallow, a semi decent face presented to the alien before he took another bite. At that moment Teal’c added, “If you are not careful milk will come out of your nose. It is most uncomfortable.”

Xander lost it. Worst of all, milk did come out of his nose as he tried to keep from spewing cheerios all over the table. And did it hurt like hell! Giles and Dawn were immediately on their feet to rescue all documents in his vague vicinity while Courtney giggled uncontrollably in her chair.

“Teal’c, leave him alone,” said Daniel chuckling as well while Xander tried to learn how to breathe again. The alien quirked an eyebrow at his friend, and Xander was sure he saw the corners of his mouth twitch. Suitably recovered, he darted into the kitchen for a paper towel to clean up the mess he’d made.

“So what languages do you translate?” Dawn was asking Daniel when he returned.

“I can’t really talk about it,” said Daniel.

“Ah, yes, the infamous military secrets,” said Giles. “Do they include the age of the Pyramids?”

The lack of an immediate answer made Xander look up from his mess. “No,” said Daniel a moment too late. But the damage was done. And he knew it.

Giles sat back contemplatively. “I see,” he said softly.

“What?” asked Courtney, looking from one adult to the next. Daniel looked decidedly uncomfortable while Teal’c face had returned to its stoic mask, his gaze fixed on the China cabinet above Dawn’s head.

“Aliens built the Pyramids,” said Giles. “Am I right?”

“The Great Pyramids?” Dawn squeaked. “The ones at Giza?”

“Am I right, Dr. Jackson?” Giles repeated. Daniel and Teal’c looked at each other but remained silent. “Since you’re not saying anything, I can only assume that I am correct.” He removed his glasses, the hand that held them covering his mouth in thought. “This is . . .”

“Look,” said Daniel but Giles waved him to silence.

“Yes, yes, you didn’t tell us anything,” he said absently, his eyes finding Teal’c. “And though I’m sure the threats are very interesting, we can skip them if you don’t mind. Now what can you tell me about the Pyramids?”

“I’m afraid there is nothing we can say without the permission of General Hammond,” said Teal’c.

“We could give them the . . . you know,” Courtney stuttered to a halt as both Daniel and Teal’c turned stony gazes on her. “Or not.”

“Give us what?” asked Daniel, now looking from Xander to Giles for an answer.

“No one’s giving anyone anything,” Xander jumped in before more was spilled. They did not need the military knowing more than they needed to, especially if they did need to use the Very stuff later. Courtney was about to protest but Xander’s glare and Dawn’s gentle hand on her arm stilled the young slayer. It was into this tense silence that Jack and Sam walked into a minute later.

“Hey! . . .” Jack’s cheerful greeting fell flat yet still managed to break the spell that had fallen over them. “What’s up?”

“We figured out that aliens built the Great Pyramids,” said Dawn with equal false cheer. Xander winced at the obvious dare in her voice and waited for Jack to confirm with Daniel and Teal’c before he sighed in frustration, all traces of a good mood gone. He probably already needed an aspirin or six.

“Daniel,” Jack said tiredly.

“They didn’t tell us anything, though their silences were most telling,” Giles stepped in. “And there is nothing you can do about it now in any case.”

Jack met his challenging stare a moment before sighing, his eyes closing briefly. “Will you stop? Please?” asked Jack. “Just stop fishing for information.”

“Like you?” asked Xander innocently. Because if they were going to keep snooping around he wanted to have a little more blackmail material than ‘Look, aliens!’

“Xander.”

“No. You have been hounding us about what we do ever since you found out with no guarantee beyond your word that you won’t start stalking us,” Xander looked Jack straight in the eye. “You say it’s need-to-know and classified. Fine. So’s our info. And you already know all you need to.”

“Why don’t we both agree not to push any further right now and concentrate on the situation at hand,” Daniel cut in trying to calm everyone down. “Truce, all right?” He looked from Jack to Xander who continued to stare at each other.

Xander couldn’t tell what Jack was thinking. His face was closed off from all emotion, and watching him Xander couldn’t help but wonder when everything had gotten so screwed up between them. The fragile trust that had been growing was gone, replaced by sheer uncertainty about motives and methods. Now, he realized, instead of the slow steps into each other’s lives they were standing on opposite sides of the chasm after the wood had crumbled away beneath their feet.

“Truce,” said Xander hating the word that echoed from a battlefield. He looked away at the table, the papers, Giles who gravely held Daniel’s eyes.

“I called the base. They’re sending a team to pick up the NID,” Jack changed the subject back to their mutual problem. “They should be here in a couple of hours.”

“Dawn,” said Giles softly. “Would you go get Buffy, Willow, and Kennedy, please? We’ll need to do the memory spell soon.”

Without a word, the young woman rose and went upstairs. Jack and Sam joined the rest of them at the table, the Major snagging a paper as she sat. Not a word was spoken, the silence gaining pressure as the seconds went by. After what seemed like an eternity of avoiding each other, Dawn finally returned, standing nervously at the doorway, but the others weren’t with her.

“Xander, could you come?” she requested, her voice slightly strained, but she didn’t need to say anymore. Willow. In a heartbeat, he was on his feet and up the stairs. Buffy and Kennedy were with her in her room, her girlfriend standing in front of her, holding her hands, while Willow looked about to bolt.

“You are not going to fall,” said Kennedy with conviction. “You hear me? I’ll be right there with you. Buffy’ll be right there. If you even slip we’ll be there to catch you. You can do this.”

“I can do this,” Willow repeated. Despite her words, her voice was soft and high from hidden fear. “Sure, I haven’t done anything like this since Tara and it’s not nice magic and I haven’t used power like this for a long time and they’re people and – ”

“Willow,” Buffy interrupted gently with a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You’re not going to mess up. You’re strong. White Witch, remember? It’s all about how you use the power. It’s for the slayers’ protection.”

“But –”

“Wills,” Xander joined in, coming in and pulling his best friend into a hug. “You will be fine. We’re right behind you.”

“Promise?” Tension vibrated in every fiber of her being.

“Promise.” He gave her one last squeeze before letting her go. Willow smiled a little shakily at them, hands reaching out for both Kennedy and Buffy. She took a deep, steadying breath.

“Okay,” she said. “Okay.” Another breath. “I’m just gonna stay her a minute and get ready.”

“Take as long as you need,” said Buffy with a parting squeeze. Both she and Xander looked at Kennedy who nodded back. She would stay with Willow while she meditated and got her supplies ready.

“She’ll be fine,” said Buffy once the door had closed behind them, but her tone indicated that she was reassuring herself as much as Xander. He understood how she felt, a mix of fear and nervousness for their friend. Willow’s uncertainty was disturbing. She hadn’t been this bothered by serious magic since last August when she’d had to do a rather nasty banishing that had relied heavily on some of the darker forces. This spell should have been a piece of cake compared to that, but Xander knew that the difficult casting was complicated by the raw emotions that Willow associated with this particular type of spell. Add to that the fact that she would be performing the spell on eight humans, and they had a very nervous witch on their hands. Xander just hoped they got through it in one piece.

****************************************************************************

Jack watched Willow disappear into the basement in silence from the dining room where he and SG-1 had been banished to wait. It was a stunned silence in the wake of the argument between Daniel and Carter and Buffy and Xander over whether or not they could watch the magic spell that was about to take place. And in the wake of one floating bowl of cereal. Xander had been the one to suggest a pencil in exasperation when Carter kept pressing the point about needing proof that magic really existed. So when Willow and Kennedy had finally appeared, he’d asked his friend to do it. She had. And it was sinking in once more for Jack that magic was real.

And so casual. Xander had simply called out when Willow and Kennedy had finally come downstairs an hour after he and Buffy had reappeared. Giles had already left for his meeting with Courtney’s relatives while Dawn and the young slayer had disappeared with Andrew into the back yard for a snowball fight. So it was just SG-1 in the dining room with Buffy. Xander had asked about floating something; Willow had raised her hand at the forgotten bowl that sat on the table. Even Carter had been speechless after that. They hadn’t seen anything like it since Cassie’s manipulated genetics had suddenly given her control over magnetic fields thanks to Nurtti’s experiments.

Not alien, he had to repeat to himself. Magic. Force of willpower that Carter couldn’t explain with quantum mechanics or magnets other equally obscure physics. Not alien because there was too much evidence against that.

When the door closed, Jack turned back to the table. His teammates were over their initial shock much as he was now. “So she’s going to wipe their memories,” Carter asked Buffy and Xander who had remained with them. Obviously not as comfortable with the idea as she seemed.

“Yeah,” said Buffy shortly, still irritated from the argument. She and Xander had been antsy ever since they had come back downstairs though neither had said why. Now that Willow and Kennedy were in the basement, their nerves had only escalated. Jack watched Xander keep glancing at the door.

“Is something wrong?” he asked a little irritated himself by his son’s obvious worry.

“No.” Xander shot him a startled look then exchanged a quick one with Buffy.

“She has done this before, right?” asked Jack, recalling their conversation on the porch. He really hoped she wasn’t doing anything experimental down there because in his experience that rarely ended well.

This time the young man quickly glanced away, not meeting Jack’s eyes. “Yeah,” he said quietly. Another look at Buffy then a return to the door.

“What happened?” asked Daniel softly picking up on the undercurrents that were shifting around them.

“God! Can’t you people just lay off?” Buffy snapped, abruptly getting to her feet and going into the kitchen. A moment later they heard the back door open and slam shut. A waft of cold air hit them in the dining room. All eyes turned to Xander who shifted uncomfortably at the sudden scrutiny of perplexed and worried adults.

“What happened, Xander?” asked Jack seriously. “Did someone hurt her mind with this spell?” His eyes briefly met Carter’s. Hell, they had all been mentally raped at one point or another. If that was the case then Jack understood her reluctance to have an audience as she confronted the thing that had hurt her.

But Xander seemed reluctant to answer. Finally, he said, “No, she wasn’t the one hurt. But you don’t mess around with magic, especially this kind of magic.”

“What kind is that?” Carter pressed.

“The dark kind,” said Xander, a slightly haunted look in his eye as he stared at the tabletop, obviously seeing something other than paper.

“So you think Willow’s might get hurt by doing this spell?” asked Daniel which only made Xander look up and snort humorlessly.

“The *spell* won’t hurt her,” he said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if she can’t sleep tonight.” He gave a twisted smile that held anything but humor. “Bad memories.” He lapsed back into silence and refused to look at them, the conversation effectively over.

Jack and his teammates knew better than to push. In his mind, ‘dark magic’ echoed ominously. When Xander had first mentioned magic, the word had summoned images of disappearing tigers and fairies with a healthy dose of skepticism and searching for alien technology. In fact once he’d calmed down, he had even wondered if it could be used to their advantage in the fight against the Goa’uld. But given Xander’s obvious discomfort with the memory spell, Jack wasn’t so sure now. Worst, he couldn’t even ask since Xander wasn’t in a sharing mood. Aside from the whole revelation, Xander hadn’t been in a sharing mood since they’d arrived. Given the circumstances, it was understandable Jack knew, but it also underscored the lost progress they had made.

Ah, who was he kidding? He and his son had barely scratched the surface of each other’s lives before, and even that had crumbled everything back to the stiff silences like the one that held them right now. And deep down, Jack felt . . . betrayed was hardly justified, but disappointed didn’t seem to cover it. Unsettled, Jack tried to put it from his mind, but watching his son fidget nervously and unable to do anything to ease his concerns, it was impossible. It was almost a relief when the doorbell rang.

*****************************************************************************

Xander jumped in surprise at the unexpected noise then frowned, wondering who could be at their door at noon two days after Christmas. Nevertheless he went to answer it.

Two men in suits and overcoats stood on the front steps. While not identical in dress or looks, they wore matching expressions that could have been etched from granite. “Mr. Harris?” the man on the right spoke first.

“Yes,” said Xander cautiously. He didn’t like them knowing his name – that was not a good sign. Quickly he scanned the street and saw their inconspicuous car parked on the street in front of the house.

“I’m Detective Gladi and this is Detective Olus,” the man went on. Two badges flashed quickly before Xander’s eyes as his heart suddenly went into overtime at their words. Just what were detectives doing here? Now? Today? When they had eight people being held prisoner in their basement? If Xander had been a suspicious person he would have thought the two things were connected. And Xander was a suspicious person.

“What do you want?” he asked rudely, keeping his body squarely in the door so they didn’t get the idea that they could just walk into his house.

“Nothing to worry about,” Olus, the one on the left smiled. The action relaxed his face and made him much less threatening, which only served to heighten Xander’s suspicion. “There was a robbery at the Home Depot you work at yesterday and we just want to ask you a few questions.”

“We understand that you were working yesterday. We need you to come with us to the station to look at a lineup,” Gladi trailed off expectantly, his body turned to allow Xander to pass.

“Excuse me?” asked Xander, startled by this sudden request.

“We need you to come to the station to look at the lineup,” said Olus easily. “We have a suspect and since you were working yesterday, we need to confirm that he was indeed there. You boss said he saw you him in your section. Please, it’ll just take half an hour.”

“Look, now’s really not a good time,” said Xander with a frown. It had been pretty quiet at work yesterday, doubly so in the lumberyard. There had been maybe two customers that had come into his drafty section so he had spent most of the day doing inventory. And hey! Where were all the questions about yesterday? Cop shows always had the detectives explain the situation to people first. “What was stolen?” he asked.

“Sir, if you’d just come with us,” said Gladi, a look of irritation sweeping across his face.

“No, you tell me –” Xander never got a chance to finish as all of a sudden Olus sprang. The detective went for his hands first while Gladi went for his head with a cloth that was no doubt soaked in something nice and sleepy.

Xander jerked back and tried to get free with a shout of “Buffy! Help!” even as he noticed two more men materialize from the car, both with guns drawn. At his call, footsteps thundered from the dining room as Jack and his friends ran into the foyer only to stutter to a halt at the guns trained on them from the backup.

Xander yanked his head away from Gladi and tried to tear himself away from Olus but the latter held him fast as they dragged him down the steps. Instinct from years of fighting vampires and demons kicked in. As soon as his feet hit the next step down, Xander pushed out with all his might sending himself backwards with his full weight toppling over Olus and Gladi. Overcast sky was all Xander saw as his body jarred loose from his captor, his head cracking painfully on another head. Shots rang out, cries, shouts, then the unmistakable sounds of fighting from the yard and all of a sudden Jack and Teal’c were on him subduing Gladi and Olus while Daniel and Sam got Xander safely out of the way onto the snow covered grass. All Xander felt was the stinging sharp pain in his head as the world around him blended together before snapping back into place.

“Ow!” Xander gently checked the integrity of his skull then stopped in surprise as he surveyed the scene. At his feet Jack and Teal’c were both kneeling on their respective captives who each had an arm twisted cruelly up their back. Olus wasn’t moving, his eyes glazed probably from a concussion, having taken the brunt of Xander’s fall. Gladi on the other hand squirmed, though Teal’c’s bulk effectively put a stop to any shifty moves that might free him.

Further out on the lawn the two goons who’d had the guns lay unconscious in the snow, dark colored guns and rocks on the ground around them. Buffy stood over one, toeing him with her green snowboot none the worse for wear. To the side, Andrew, Dawn, and Courtney stood similarly decked out in snowgear looking a little bewildered. Andrew hefted a snowball in one hand.

“Are you all right?” Jack twisted to look at him. Recognizing that he was still in mild shock, Xander nodded and expelled a deep breath.

“Peachy,” he said. “What I always wanted for Christmas. See the world from the inside of a black van. Now you’ve gone and ruined it.” Jack snorted at him but nonetheless a relived smile made it across his lips.

“More rogue NID?” asked Dawn as she, Andrew, and Courtney came over to them.

“I wouldn’t bet against it,” said Jack sourly as both Sam and Daniel nodded. Xander noticed another rock gripped tightly in Courtney’s hand. She had the look of a stunned rabbit but was quickly calming down. Buffy came up a few steps behind looking ready to kill someone.

“Jeez, what is it with these people?” huffed Buffy, this time nudging Olus’s arm when she stopped beside his prone body. “They’re like roaches or something. You kill one and there’s like a million to take its place.”

“Uh, Buffy? There’s only four of them,” Dawn pointed out.

“They get points for broad daylight,” the Slayer grumbled.

“Right.” Jack stood dragging Olus with him. “Let’s get these guys inside. Daniel, Carter, grab those two. I assume you want them in the basement?” he asked Buffy who sighed and nodded. She wasn’t happy about this, not at all.

While Jack and Teal’c took care of Gladi and Olus, Buffy offered Xander a hand up. “You all right?” she repeated Jack’s earlier question.

He shrugged. The pain in the back of his head was settling into a dull throb, nothing exciting. “If I were getting paid for this, I’d demand a raise,” he told her. “Think we can blackmail them for some cash?”

Buffy grinned. “I wish. Come on.” She tugged gently on his arm and led him into the house. “Let’s go see what we can beat out of this batch.”


Twelve Little Monkeys Hoppin' On The Bed

They ended up not throwing their four new prisoners down in the basement. Jack saw Buffy take one look at the closed door and think better of it. Instead she ordered the unconscious, groggy, or struggling agents into the sitting room, sending Dawn and by extension Courtney, for rope.

“Garbage ties would be better,” Jack told her before the two girls left the room. “They won’t be able to get out of those.” Buffy stared at him a moment before blinking.

“Right. Human,” she said and then nodded to her sister approving the change as she followed them out. Jack shook his head and let the comment pass. There was no time right now for processing the last two minutes. These men had to be taken care of first. And kindly questioned as to what the hell they thought they were doing trying to kidnap his son. Jack glanced back at Xander who was flapping Carter away while she tried to check him out.

“It’s fine. No stars, no birdies, and only minimal residual anvil,” his son was telling her. Carter had that exasperated but determined set to her jaw that said she was having none of it, a look Jack knew and hated well.

“Xander, let me check you out, or I’m calling a doctor.”

“I’m fine. I don’t need a doctor,” said Xander stubbornly.

“Fine, then we’ll take you to the hospital,” said Carter briskly. “Daniel, could you help me get him to the car?” Xander jumped back, wobbled a bit then refound his balance.

“Xander, just let her look at you!” Jack snapped, finally fed up with them. “If you’re really fine there’s no harm done.”

“I’m not going to the hospital,” Xander grumbled defiantly but allowing Carter to check his visual tracking nonetheless.

Jack rolled his eyes at Teal’c who raised an amused eyebrow. A moment later, Dawn and Courtney came back in with several lengths of rough rope.

“We don’t have any garbage ties,” she said apologetically as she held them out to him. “They’re all drawstring.”

“There were twist ties, if you still want them,” Courtney offered. “But they’re kinda short.”

Jack resisted a cutting a remark at the thought of hooking together bits of paper covered wire to restrain trained agents. The kid was only trying to help after all. “Rope’s fine,” he said, accepting a piece and efficiently binding his prisoner’s hands and feet. He went to help Teal’c with his live one while Daniel took care of the unconscious men.

Buffy was back by the time they finished, carrying with her a glass of water. Her face was unnaturally chipper as she smiled at Teal’c prisoner who was the only one in any condition to talk. “Are you okay?” she asked while Jack and Teal’c pulled him into a chair. “Don’t be so mean!” she looked indignantly at them, her eyes wider than normal. Jack had to restrain another snort at her obvious attempt at playing ‘good cop’. From the way he was looking at her, the agent wasn’t buying it either. “You want some water?” she asked him.

“No, thanks,” the agent said with sweet sarcasm.

“I really think you should reconsider,” said Buffy in the same innocent-little-girl tone.

“Oh, yeah?” challenged the agent. Jack had enough of this.

“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” he said. He stepped over in front of Buffy so he was squarely facing the agent. “Colonel Jack O’Neill, United States Air Force. The young man you just tried to abduct is my son. You,” he pointed directly at the man’s face, “are going to one of the finest prisons in the country whether you cooperate with us or not. You tell us who you work for and who you get your orders from and we’ll see about cutting a deal. So start talking.”

He had the agent’s complete, if insolent attention, and Jack briefly wondered if that’s what he looked like to the Goa’uld. It was damn annoying, so he figured it must be close. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Buffy staring at him, her innocent act gone and replaced by irritation that he had just taken over like that. But really, she wasn’t helping.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded of Jack, one hand dangerously settled on her hip.

“Interrogating the prisoner,” Jack shot back. “Being nice to him is not gonna help.”

“Fine. Hold this.” She handed him the glass of water then abruptly grabbed the agent by the front of his shirt until his face was inches away from hers. Jack made no move to stop her for the moment, wondering just what she was up to. “I know two things,” she said darkly. “One, you attacked my best friend. Two, you are going to drink that water.” As she said this, one hand let go of his shirt and twisted his jaw open. Panic flooded the agent’s eyes at this startling display of strength. Surprised himself, Jack had no time to protest as her other hand took the glass from his and poured it down his throat. Some dribbled down his chin but Buffy gave him no choice but to swallow the rest with her hand clamped across his mouth and nose. When it was over she stepped back.

“Now,” she said in a normal tone of voice, quite pleased with herself. “Tell me who you work for, who gave you your orders, who they work for, and what you were supposed to do here?”

And to Jack’s surprise, and the agent’s for that matter, he started talking. His orders were simple and came from a man named Kielly who from the looks Buffy and Dawn exchanged was familiar to them. Their primary objective was to apprehend Xander and take him to a secure facility in the countryside. The agent kindly provided them with the location. Their secondary objective was to investigate the disappearance of the first team. He didn’t know much more than that. They were just the field agents after all, following their orders like any good bad guy.

Once his guts were spilled, Buffy smiled, patted him on the cheek and punched him across the jaw, knocking him unconscious.

“Hey,” said Daniel. “Was that really necessary?”

“I don’t like people who kidnap my friends,” Buffy glared at him. She turned to Jack. “So did that mean anything to you?” she asked all business.

“Uh, not really. You?” he asked back, wondering if she’d share what she knew. Surprisingly, she did.

“Kielly was the one who sent the first group,” Buffy said glancing at her sister.

“We couldn’t find out who he got his orders from,” Dawn finished. “The rest is like what the others said.”

Jack looked over at Daniel who stared back then after a moment shrugged and nodded as if to say, ‘yes I’d tell them, but it’s up to you’. Given the vast amount of information Xander’s friends had uncovered already, it probably wouldn’t hurt. Besides, Jack didn’t think there was anything they could do about it without drawing more unwanted attention to themselves.

He turned back at Buffy. “The man who’s behind Kielly is Dick Kinsey,” he said.

A second or two passed while it sunk in, only surprisingly it was Dawn who exclaimed, “as in the next-Vice-President Kinsey?!” while Buffy remained confused.

“We have another Vice President?” she said. “That means we have another President too, right? Why doesn’t anyone tell me these things? And how do you know?” she turned annoyed to her sister who sighed heavily in exasperation.

“Hello? Eighteen now. Got to vote for the first time.”

“Did you know about this?” Buffy turned this time to Xander who had rejoined them with Carter around the unconscious men.

“You were here for her birthday,” he said with a confused look at Jack who couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How could Buffy not know it was an election year? It was impossible to ignore with all the news and ads and bumper stickers everywhere, even for him and he wasn’t even on the planet most of the time.

“No, the election. That’s the second one I’ve missed,” she whined. “That’s so not fair! I’ve got rights to exercise here, but noooo, too late! They’re gonna get out of shape and flabby and then where will I be? Stupid country,” she grumbled.

“You were saying?” Xander pointedly turned away from Buffy’s sour mutterings to Jack. “Our next Vice-President’s wants to kidnap me to get to you?”

“You’ve *met* him?” asked Courtney, awestruck by the idea of meeting such a famous person.

“He’s really not a nice guy,” Jack told her. “Quite a . . .butthole actually,” he quickly caught himself.

“It’s okay, you can say ‘asshole’,” said Courtney with a patient nod. “I’m not a kid, I’ve heard it before.”

“Good to know,” he nodded seriously, though that’s exactly what she was to him. And she really shouldn’t be swearing at her age. Across from him, he saw Daniel politely cover a grin with his hand. “Anyway,” he got back to the point. “To cut a long story short, he doesn’t like me, or us, or the fact that he can’t control our project, so – ”

“He wants to use Xander to get to you,” Buffy finished. She still looked a little put out from before. “You didn’t vote for him, did you?” she asked Dawn suddenly.

“It’s none of your business, but no,” the young woman replied. “Didn’t help though since Ohio did.”

“You tried and that’s what matters,” said Xander consolingly.

“Look, forget the election,” said Jack. “We’re stuck with him and there’s really not much you can do about that.”

“Hey – ”

“But,” Jack cut off Buffy before she went off. “He doesn’t know the attacks have failed yet.”

“What?” This was news to the kids.

“We know it’s Kinsey because he sent an aide to demand my retirement papers. Yesterday the aide was still asking about them. Kinsey doesn’t know,” Jack explained.

“We’re working with a contact in the NID about establishing a connection between Kinsey and these attacks,” said Carter. “If we can do that, then we have blackmail material.”

“Since our last blackmail is no longer any good,” Jack muttered. And damn Kinsey for getting away with it.

“Will it work?” asked Buffy. “I mean with sleeper cells he can just keep on attacking us until he accidentally finds out something he shouldn’t. I don’t want to deal with the military again.”

Carter looked at Jack and he read the uncertainty there. Buffy was right, as long as the rogue NID existed and Kinsey was in a position to gain from SG-1’s removal, he would keep trying, and eventually he would get through. Before he could put a reassuring spin on it though, the sound of police sirens intruded into their conversation.

“Shit!” Buffy spun to face the window. “Basement now!” she snapped gesturing frantically at the bodies on the floor. Jack made for the one in the chair only to be grabbed by the arm by Xander and pulled to the front door.

“Ready to play dad?” he asked humorlessly.

“I’ll be there in sec,” said Buffy, but Xander shook his head.

“I got it,” he said. “Just get them out of here.” They ended up having more time than expected. Jack watched with Xander as the two police officers went to the neighbor two doors down first who must have made the call. By the time they came walking up the front steps, the NID agents and Teal’c were hiding in the basement while Daniel, Carter, Buffy, Andrew, and the kids hung back in the TV room.

This time the officers were legit, and Jack got the chance to play the supporting role of the family patriarch to Xander’s superb storytelling. No, don’t know where the shots came from. Sounded almost like New Years firecrackers going off early. They were just as startled as the neighbors had been. They quickly got the kids inside just in case. The scuffle marks in the snow? Snowball fight, sir. The car is my dad’s here. The other cars belong to my aunt and uncle, do you want me to get them?

It didn’t hurt that Courtney poked her head around the corner, the image of a curious little kid wondering why the police were at her house. Satisfied, the officers left after a few minutes. Xander slumped against the door in relief, apparently he’d been more nervous than he’d let on.

“You’re good,” Jack commented mildly, both impressed and disturbed by how easy it had been to get rid of them. Xander was a good liar and he didn’t know how to feel about that. “Where’d you learn that?”

“From the Sunnydale police,” Xander grinned at the irony. He straightened and started for the den. “You wouldn’t believe what they called all the supernatural stuff that went on in town.” Jack had an idea, a certain two motherships coming to mind. Unfortunately he didn’t get a chance to ask as they joined the others.

“So Kinsey,” Buffy began only to be interrupted by a cry from the kitchen hallway.

“What?” Willow’s voice snapped.

“Uh oh,” said Xander. “I think she just found out about the new guys.”

Sure enough, two seconds later, Willow stormed into the living room looking madder than Jack had ever seen her. Her jaw was set and her eyes narrowed as they scanned the room. “They sent more?” she asked, her voice a shade lower than normal.

“Calm down, Willow, we already interrogated them,” said Buffy.

“Calm down? They came back. Again. I’ll calm down when I’m good and ready! Nobody gets away with attacking Xander twice!” her voice rose only slightly but its intensity doubled until she was practically hissing the words. From Xander’s and his friend’s reactions, this wasn’t a good sign.

“Willow, I’m all right. We took care of them,” said Xander with his hands outstretched in a calming gesture. Behind her, Kennedy made an aborted move forward, deciding to let Xander handle her girlfriend instead.

“Who sent them?” she demanded.

“We were just talking about that,” Carter started only to get a glare from the red head.

“*Who* sent them.”

“Willow,” Xander snapped, getting in her face. “Get a hold of yourself! You’re losing it here and we can not afford that right now.”

“Come on, Will,” Kennedy stepped up this time. “Deep breath. I got you, all right?”

Willow visibly shook as she slowly inhaled and exhaled, her eyes closing. She allowed Kennedy to take her back into the kitchen.

“What just happened?” asked Jack looking from the kitchen hall to Xander who sighed and put his hands on his hips.

“That is why we really need to stop Kinsey,” he said.

“Or someone’s gonna get killed,” added Andrew quietly which earned him a scowl from both Xander and Buffy.

“Andrew,” Dawn elbowed him.

“What? You know it’s true,” the young man defended himself.

Buffy rolled her eyes at him. “It’s the magic,” she told Jack and the others. “Dark magic . . . messes with her. She’s normally not like this, but the spell . . .”

The spell that both she and Xander hadn’t wanted to talk about earlier. If this was what she was like now, Jack wondered how bad it had gotten before. He looked thoughtfully at Andrew who had scooted away from Dawn, pouting.

“So Kinsey,” Buffy said pointedly.

“Right, Kinsey,” Jack nodded. “Don’t care for him.”

“You already said that.”

“Oh, right,” Jack frowned. They had also covered just about everything else too. “We’re working on it.”

“That’s not good enough,” said Buffy, which made Jack glare at her. What did she expect, miracles? Magic? ‘Cause she was the one with the hyped up witch.

“Sorry, I left my wand in my other pants,” he said sarcastically. “There’s not much more I can do here besides wish he were gone.”

“So what are you doing exactly?” asked Buffy. She crossed her arms in front of her impatiently.

“We’re – ” began Carter again when Dawn cleared her throat and interrupted.

“Uh, Buffy, he said the w-word,” she said. Every eye from SG-1 turned to her in surprise.

“The ‘w-word’?” asked Daniel for them. What the hell was the w-word, wondered Jack. Wand?

“W-i-s-h,” she spelled absently still staring at her sister. Buffy looked at Xander like she had suddenly gotten an idea.

“Do you think there’s a patron demon for disgruntled voters?” she asked.

Jack stared at her, then looked at his teammates to make sure he wasn’t the only one confused – or rather blind-sided – by this sudden question. Just *what* was a patron demon?

“We could always ask,” said Xander quietly. And that’s when Jack noticed that Xander didn’t look too happy about whatever it was they were talking about.

“I’ll get Willow,” Dawn volunteered quickly, disappearing from the room.

“Uh, what’s going on?” asked Jack waving his hand to get their attention. “And patron demon?”

“And why is ‘wish’ a four letter word?” added Daniel.

“Because it has four letters. You know, more than three, less than five?” said Xander, oh-so-helpfully.

“So good to know you can count,” said Jack starting to really get annoyed with them and all their cryptic bullshit. “Now that we’ve cleared up that mystery not at all, care to fill us in?”

“Vengeance demon,” said Buffy right as Dawn, Willow, and Kennedy returned. “We’re gonna see about commissioning a wish to take care of Kinsey.”

“Oh, of course.” Jack turned to Daniel, Carter, and Teal’c. “We’re commissioning a wish,” he told them as if he knew what that meant. “Will it cost much?”

But they were ignoring him now. Instead Xander and his friends were standing in a loose circle around Willow who had arranged herself cross-legged on the floor. Exchanging nervous glances with Daniel and Carter, Jack didn’t comment, figuring, given her earlier outburst that that probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

And then she began to chant in some language that Jack did not speak in slow measured tones. He cast an inquiring glance to Daniel who was concentrating on the words that he apparently understood. The linguist sidled up to them so their whispers wouldn’t disturb the proceedings.

“She’s praising blood and vengeance and asking someone – can’t quite distinguish the name – to speak to them,” he said, he listened a little more and grimaced. “That’s gross.” But he didn’t elaborate. Assuming it was more of the same, Jack watched with the others. There was nothing spectacular about it; it was more like a ritual than anything magical. If this was a spell, Jack was beginning to doubt that it worked or that any spell actually would.

And then, before he could even finish the though a burst of flame erupted in front of Willow a figure in its midst that was not human colored. Jack blinked. This was new. Maybe not surprising after all the things they’d seen on other planets, but definitely new and there was a freaking holographic fire in the living room! That talked.

***********************************************************************************

“Who dares summon me?” a deep booming voice echoed through the room. Xander rolled his eye at all the dramatics. “Bow before the great and powerful – oh, it’s you,” D’Hoffryn said in a lighter normal tone of voice, standing face to face with Buffy. Abruptly, the fires went out and the demon dressed in long robes put his hands on his hips with an annoyed expression on his face. “You know, I really don’t like you very much.”

“Good to see you too,” said Buffy dryly.

“So glad we had this chat. I’ll just be going now.” But before he could do more than wave, Willow’s voice snapped out.

“Hold it right there, mister. We’re not finished with you!”

“Willow!” D’Hoffryn turned with a look of genuine delight crossing his face. “I thought it was you! A little tang of the bitter in the casting. Say, you’re not going on a rampage are you? ‘Cause we can do this later. I’ve got five to one on you cracking within the month and a little revenge served cold would turn this whole unpleasant summoning into my lucky day. I’ll even give you a cut of the pot.” His voice dropped to a pseudo whisper. “Succulent Mihratti spawn. Very hard to come by.”

Willow glared at him, her nose wrinkling in disgust. “Eww, no,” she said. “Unless I start on you.”

“Ooh, aggressive,” D’Hoffryn grinned. “You’re not by any chance accepting the job?” When Willow glared harder, he merely grimaced. “I though not.”

“But we do want to make a wish,” Buffy jumped in.

That stopped the demon cold. Slowly he turned to face the Slayer. “You?” Disbelief was etched into every line in his body.

“Yes, us.”

D’Hoffryn glanced at Willow, obviously wondering why she wasn’t taking care of it personally. “Must not be such a pressing need if no one’s been called to you,” he said as he swept his eyes over them all. “But I’ll bite. In as much gory detail as possible please.”

“There’s a politician that wants to kidnap Xander. We want to stop him by wishing him out of power, or something,” Buffy smiled.

Xander suddenly found himself under the D’Hoffryn’s smoldering gaze for a moment before the Demon Lord slightly bowed his head to him. “We were very sorry to hear of your loss. Anyanka is dearly missed by all.”

Startled by the sudden sympathy, Xander nodded. “Thank you,” he said. He felt a lump rise in his throat and hastily swallowed it down before it could choke him. Out of the corner of his right eye he noticed Jack watching him but he pretended not to notice. Instead he focused on the conversation unfolding between Buffy and D’Hoffryn.

“Now, about this wish,” the Demon Lord was saying. “Normally I would say, ‘yes’ with copious amounts of glee, but I know you too well for old fashioned trust.” He gave them an insincere smile. “It’s going to cost you.”

“What do you want?” asked Buffy, her chin rising stubbornly.

D’Hoffryn’s teeth gleamed white. “I want a bound contract that forbids you meddling in the vengeance business forever.”

“Forever, huh?” Buffy snorted at the stipulation.

“Since you have a bothersome habit of not staying dead . . .”

“What’s this ‘bound contract’ thing?”

Willow cleared her throat and answered this one. “Umm, it means that you forfeit your soul if you, you know, break the contract.”

“Like *The Little Mermaid*?” Andrew squeaked. All heads swiveled to where he stood by Dawn, suddenly shifting uncertainly. “You’ve all seen it, too,” he mumbled defensively.

“Yes, delightful film,” said D’Hoffryn. “Only you won’t just be losing your voice and no amount of kissing will save you.”

Xander tried to banish the image of D’Hoffryn singing Disney songs because that was just disturbing. “Who would have to sign this contract?” he asked.

“All of you. No meddlers allowed.”

“Just me,” Buffy bartered. “No one else will be able to stop a wish on their own.”

“What do you take me for, a fool?”

“What do you mean ‘meddle’? Because that’s pretty vague,” said Willow. “We’ll need a precise definition before we cast any contract.”

“Can I be the Party in the first part?” asked Xander which only earned him his own set of confused looks. “Never mind.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to work for me?” D’Hoffryn asked Willow. “Christmas and Easter off.” All he got was another glare. “Darn it,” he sighed. Buffy claimed his attention then as she started haggling with him over what constituted interference in the job of a vengeance demon. Basically he didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Anya. Buffy didn’t want to be limited in her response to threats on humans. It didn’t take long for them to realize that this was going to take more time than they had thought so Buffy invited D’Hoffryn into the dining room with her and Willow. Xander watched them go, not feeling like listening to them squabble, remembering the last time he’d seen D’Hoffryn when he’d killed Halfrek to take back Anya’s wish and remove her powers.

Kennedy, Dawn, Andrew, and Courtney drifted away as well, the teenager asking a million questions about why Buffy had summoned and not killed the demon. The complicated story of the grayness that was their life, thought Xander when he overheard. The bad guys are not always who they seem to be, and even the bad guys have their own rules and ambiguous morality that can be useful from time to time.

“So, you know each other?” Xander started at Jack’s voice by his side, the older man having joined him now that details were being hammered out.

“Yeah,” he replied. A quick glance showed Jack looking surprisingly calm about the whole demon summoning.

“And he’s not an alien?”

“Demon. Well, demon lord, I suppose,” amended Xander. “His deal’s vengeance.”

“Who’s Anyanka?”

Xander swallowed. “Anya.” He could feel Jack’s surprise but refused to look at him and offer an explanation.

“Anya as in . . .”

“My ex-fiancée.” The other three looked at him sharply at this, Daniel and Sam clearly surprised and Teal’c doing the eyebrow thing that seemed to be the only way he expressed emotion. All three glanced at Jack, taking their cue from him.

“Oh.” Jack was quiet then putting the pieces together, “She didn’t look like – ”

“She was human while we were together.” Xander just decided to ignore the rest of them; he didn’t care what they thought anyway. Nonetheless, his eye darted to Jack to see how he was taking it.

“Oh.” Jack was calm as before. No judgement, no anything, and Xander wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He expected something more reactive than acceptance, but the shock might still come later he knew. For the moment, Jack was an unreadable mask. “So that was a . . . demon?” asked Jack again. This time Xander just looked at him. Hadn’t they already been over this? “I thought you, you know, killed them.”

Not just Courtney had questions then. “D’Hoffryn doesn’t really exist in our dimension. He’s from somewhere I can’t pronounce,” Xander shrugged. “He’s actually not so bad for a demon if you ignore the people he kills.”

“Always good to have murderous friends,” said Daniel sarcastically, a little anger mixed in with the shock on his face. Xander let out a humorless snort at how true that was.

“He may be a bastard but he’ll take care of Kinsey,” he said. With both Buffy and Willow working on him, Xander had no doubt of that. “And that’s what’s more important right now.”

“When you say take ‘care of’ . . .” Sam let the question hang.

“That’ll be up to us. Whatever vengeance we wish upon him. That’s how it works,” Xander explained. “We won’t kill him or anything. Willow will probably come up with something good.” Though, now that he thought about it, in her current mood, she really shouldn’t be deciding anything. She might choose something rash and permanent. He looked at the dining room door anxiously. Buffy wouldn’t let her do anything stupid.

“Wish, huh?” Jack gave him a measured look. “Guess we better be careful what we wish for.”

Xander nodded. “You have no idea,” he said.

*************************************************************************

Jack waited for Xander to elaborate sensing a story there, but his son didn’t seem to want to share. Instead he patiently answered Carter’s other questions about how this ‘wish’ thing worked. It didn’t sound too bad overall as it was restricted to the creativity of the human wisher. But then again, humans could be very creative in thinking up punishments, Jack knew, especially if they didn’t think they would be carried out. A messed up system after all. Why were they talking with this guy, thing, again? And how did they know him in the first place? Though Jack could probably guess given the rather interesting conversation that they had started out with. And the mention of Xander’s ex-girlfriend who had died two years ago when a lot of other nasty crap seemed to have gone down.

Jack sighed to himself and looked behind him for an armchair to fall into. Too much information in bits and pieces had filtered in over the last few days. God, had they really arrived just yesterday morning? So much had happened.

“Your planet is full of surprises, O’Neill,” Teal’c interrupted his thoughts sitting near him on the couch. “I never expected to see a creature appear in fire in someone’s living room.”

“You and me both,” Jack commented his gaze flickering back to Xander who was still speaking with Carter while Daniel listened with a reluctantly interested expression on his face.

“There are no limits,” Xander was saying. “If the girl you cheated on says she wants your, you know,” he stuttered embarrassed, “to fall off, it’ll fall off in the most painful way possible. Probably with boils.”

Jack shuddered at the mental image, noting that both Carter and Daniel looked away uncomfortably at the example.

“Is he suggesting what I think he is suggesting?” said Teal’c with a non-expression that bordered on distaste.

“I think so, yeah,” Jack nodded, shifting in his seat slightly. It was just painful to even think about. He almost missed the Jaffa warrior subtly doing the same. But he did, and it made Jack feel immensely better for as much as Teal’c was his unflappable friend it was still nice to know that he was flappable.

The ringing of a phone prevented any further discussion. It was the normal ring from the kitchen that Xander hurried out to answer leaving SG-1 on their own. They were all silent as they glanced at one another to see how everyone was taking the last ten minutes.

“Well, that was oddly familiar,” commented Carter. “I think I’m less surprised than I should be.”

“Wait till the lack of technology settles in,” suggested Daniel with a wry smile. “Then it’ll start to bug you.” Carter nodded and smiled at that as did Jack, all of them knowing how true it was. The archeologist’s smile however quickly faded away.

“Daniel?” Jack asked what was wrong. His friend sighed, a hand coming up to rub the back of his head.

“Nothing. I think it’s just bothering me already,” his lips twisted up as he glanced at Carter. “It’s just . . . anyone else feeling out of our league? I mean we see cultures that are simultaneously similar and different from ours, or what we know of, all the time. We face hostile . . . ss,” he caught himself in time, “too but they’re never so . . .”

“Flamboyant?” Jack couldn’t resist.

“That,” Daniel acknowledged not rising to the bait but smiling a bit anyway. “Or just . . . personable. When was the last time an enemy of ours offered us Christmas and Easter off just to switch sides?”

“When was the last time Hammond gave us Christmas and Easter off?” Carter asked back dryly.

“Good point. Think we should switch sides?” asked Jack.

“Leave the service of the SGC for a demon lord?” Teal’c looked amused.

“Hey, we can be patron demons of . . . intergalactic victims,” Jack threw out there. It didn’t sound half-bad actually.

“I believe many of the System Lords already see us as such,” commented Teal’c. “An official title in addition would make us that much . . . more intimidating.”

“Teal’c, it’s okay. No one’s here to overhear you say ‘cool’,” Jack patted him on the knee reassuringly. Both Daniel and Carter grinned at this as they came over to join them in the sitting area.

“Do you think this wish will really work, sir?” asked Carter after a moment.

Jack shrugged. Honestly, he didn’t have the first clue. He was tired of thinking of all this crap. “Xander does,” he said, and as he did he realized that despite the ludicrousness of everything, it was enough for now.

**************************************************************************************

When Xander answered the phone he half expected it to be Giles and so was surprised when another familiar voice answered his crisp ‘hello.’

“Xander?” Riley Finn queried from who-knew-where.

“Riley!” said Xander delighted at hearing his friend’s voice. “You called!”

“Yeah,” Riley chuckled at the obvious.

“I mean, of course you called since you’re on the phone,” Xander stopped, realizing that smoothing it over only made him sound more like an idiot. Then the present finally caught up with him and he remembered that *he* was the one who had called Riley first, or rather the long chain of flower shops that kept them in touch. “I’m glad you called.”

“Yeah, I heard you were having some troubles.”

“Standard kidnapping that leads all the way back to the Vice President and something top secret in Colorado,” Xander explained. “You probably figured out we don’t want certain other things known to the nosy government beyond you.”

“That wasn’t in your message,” said Riley clearly surprised. “Did you find out why they wanted you?”

“You’re not going to believe this,” Xander began with a grin. He still almost didn’t believe it himself. Briefly, he told Riley about Jack and what they had found out so far – which wasn’t much beyond the next VP wanted control of the top secret project that Jack worked on. Riley listened patiently and when he was done ten minutes later, was silent for a good minute taking it all in.

“I got a call from the Pentagon about an hour ago,” he finally said. “Someone from the Air Force was asking about the Initiative. We don’t use that designation anymore.”

Xander winced and said, “I may have slipped when I was trying to convince them not to interfere.”

“It’s all right. Actually makes it easier for us, since we know the source for sure.” Riley didn’t sound bothered in the least. “Since I’m the Council liaison, the Pentagon is going to reroute all inquiries to me. We won’t be able to take care of the rogue NID – I didn’t even know there were rogue cells. There was supposedly a purge a couple of years ago . . . Anyway, we’ll handle the Air Force and anyone else we can get our hands on. The brass doesn’t realize how important you guys are so they pretty much leave everything to me and Sam. They’ve got other countries to worry about.”

“So you’ve heard about these NID?” asked Xander surprised.

“In black ops, you pretty much hear fairy tales about every other black ops out there. The Air Force in Colorado is one of the best kept secrets in the world. Ours might be better only because we’re so small and no one cares.” Xander smiled at the touch of both pride and jealously in Riley’s voice. “The aliens don’t surprise me, though I’d bet they’re not all happy and nice like the one you’ve met.”

Xander nodded to himself, details flitting about in his head. The strange story of how Jack and Daniel had met, the midnight summons the night he’d gotten Courtney, the absolute synchronicity of the four member team. You didn’t get that close by simply working together. “I wouldn’t bet against you on that.”

“Yeah.” There was another pause. “So,” Riley said. “New dad, huh?”

“Yeah,” Xander sighed himself now.

“How’s that working out?” Riley sounded hesitant.

“Until the whole I-fight-vampires-slash-my best-friend’s-an-alien mess, surprisingly good. I haven’t managed to scare him away yet.”

Riley chuckled again. “No offence Xander, but you come across as a fuzzy puppy most of the time. I doubt you’ll scare him away.”

“Hey! I resemble that remark!” Xander mock huffed. Riley laughed this time.

“Seriously, though,” he said calming down, “you good with it?”

“Yeah,” Xander breathed. “But you should probably call me again tomorrow.”

“Just let him know that a team of commandos will come after him if he tries anything. And we don’t scare so easily.”

This time Xander laughed. “He’ll be the armless turnip whose body you might not be able to find.”

“Noted,” he heard Riley laugh again, a light relaxing sound that Xander suddenly missed in person. He’d only been around for about a year, but he had been a Scooby, one that Xander had probably understood better than anyone. And they had been friends – still were if the death threat on his behalf was any indication.

“Hey, Riley,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad you called.”

“No problem.”

They chatted on for a few minutes about the Council and how everyone was doing. Xander reassured Riley that they had the Kinsey problem in hand with D’Hoffryn. Riley promised to get back with them soon about the Air Force and to give Sam a hug and a kiss from everyone.

By the time Xander hung up and rejoined Jack and his friends in the den, Buffy, Willow, and D’Hoffryn emerged from the dining room, all three looking pleased with themselves. Xander wondered if he should tell Buffy about Riley’s call, but decided to wait, since her ex would be calling back in a few days anyway.

“So we ready for a little wishfest?” he asked everyone rubbing his hands together in anticipation. His conversation with Riley had left him in a good mood and ready to kick some ass, albeit from a thousand miles away.

“Quite!” said D’Hoffryn. “Once Willow and I cast the paperwork, I’ll send Norman right over.”

“Norman?” Jack lifted his eyebrows in surprise at the name.

“Patron of oppressed constituencies,” D’Hoffryn smiled as he explained. “We changed his name after he accepted the position.”

“What was it before?” asked Jack. Xander knew he had to be as curious as he was about how bad his name must have been before if he had changed it to Norman.

“Charles Guiteau. He’s really quite good.”

Norman still wasn’t a better name, Xander shook his head at the notion. It took a moment for him to realize that Jack was looking at D’Hoffryn funny. His teammates having already picked up on it simply looked nervously between the two, Daniel’s brow furrowed in thought that a second later cleared up and he too stared at the demon.

“The guy who assassinated Garfield?” Daniel asked.

What? thought Xander. “Garfield? Garfield isn’t dead,” he said. In fact Garfield couldn’t be dead because Sunday funnies would never be the same. A sudden rush of panic hit him as he suddenly wished he’d looked more closely at the paper last weekend.

“Isn’t Garfield a cat?” asked Buffy who didn’t read the comics and hadn’t realized the full implication of what his assassination meant yet.

But now for some reason, Willow and the four adults minus Teal’c were staring at them like they were talking crazy. D’Hoffryn merely looked amused.

“Please don’t tell me they cancelled him,” said Xander softly.

“Um, Xander, I think he meant *President* Garfield,” said Willow slowly.

“We had a fat cat as *president*?” said Buffy. “Where was I when all this happened?”

“Sleeping through history after saving the world?” suggested Willow. “President Garfield was a man who was elected in the late 19th century and then assassinated while in office.”

“Oh,” Buffy looked at Xander who felt his face flush with embarrassment. He gave an apologetic shrug and shook off the feeling that he wanted a hole to swallow him right now, because so not a good thing to think on a hellmouth.

“Ah, that was so beautiful,” said D’Hoffryn nostalgically. “He has done wonders since. And he just keeps getting better. You remember the election of 2000? Marvelous!”

“There was an election in 2000?” mumbled Buffy. “Why does no one tell me these things?”

“You’re mom got sick,” said Willow quietly.

“Oh. Right.” A shudder of old grief brushed over Buffy in the blink of an eye before she shook it off and got down to business. “So Norman will be here Friday,” she said. “And all of us in the house except them have to do the bond thing.” She gestured toward Jack and his friends, excluding them from the circle.

Willow must have called out for the others mentally because a minute later the four younger Scoobies arrived. The actual bound contract spell didn’t take that long to do. Both Willow and D’Hoffryn cast simultaneously and checked each other’s spells. The final product was a conjured piece of paper that had to be signed by everyone along with a donation of hair. That was it. D’Hoffryn left then with a cheery goodbye in much better spirits than in which he had arrived. As if on cue, Jack’s phone rang.

“O’Neill,” he answered. He listened for a moment then said, “thank you, Sergeant,” and hung up. “The pickup crew from the base will be here in twenty minutes,” he told the rest of them, which sparked another flurry of activity. Willow and Kennedy ran off to get the ingredients for the memory spell for the remaining four monkeys in the sitting room. Giles returned with Courtney’s aunt and uncle at about that time and suddenly Buffy was dragging him off in one direction to talk about D’Hoffryn while Xander and Dawn tried to explain away the bodies and the magic making without coming off as completely out of control trouble magnets. Lucky for them, Giles had done a good job talking the Laysans around.

By the time the couple was safely in the dining room with coffee, the Air Force guys had arrived for the prisoners, all now happily unaware of anything strange in the house like invisible one-way walls. After they left it seemed like a tornado had come and gone. Xander stood in the doorway watching the van drive away and hoping that none of the neighbors had noticed too much. When silence once more held sway, he finally noticed that he wasn’t alone on the stoop.

************************************************************************************

“Hey,” said Jack. He took another step out the door, closing it behind him.

“Hey.” Xander glanced over his shoulder to look at him. “You know, there’s this thing called heat inside.” He turned to go in, but Jack raised a hand to stop him.

“In a minute.” His words halted Xander in his tracks and the young man gave him a wary look.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“I just got a call from Hammond,” said Jack. “We gotta get back.” If anything, Xander became even stiller.

“When?” he asked, the wariness replaced by something else.

“We’ll leave tonight.”

“That’s sudden.”

“Something came up.”

“Classified, huh?” Xander smiled, looking away, looking anywhere in fact except at Jack. The older man didn’t know if he was hurt by that or not, but some things were not meant to be shared. From the looks of things here, Xander had enough to keep himself busy without the added worry of alien attack. If only Jack could say the same now that he knew the truth.

Instead of replying to that, he mentioned the other thing the General had passed along. “Hammond got an interesting phone call today,” he began. “Not too long ago from the Army liaison with the International Watcher’s Council.” Xander blinked, a smile blossoming across his face at the news. “Didn’t know you kept in touch with the Army,” Jack went on. His son’s reaction confirmed another secret that had been held between them. But Xander shrugged and crossed his arms across his chest.

“Just Riley,” he said. “That was the guy that called, right?”

Surprised, Jack nodded. “Agent Riley Finn. No rank was given.”

“He’s Buffy’s ex-boyfriend. He called earlier.” Jack looked up sharply, again surprised. Xander grinned suddenly. “You can add him to the list of people to avoid if you ever hurt me.”

“A friend then?” For some reason that was a relief, probably because it meant that Finn could be trusted if he had managed to win Xander’s trust. Jack was beginning to learn how hard that was if the last two days were anything to go by. But he must have done something right because here they were each with their biggest secrets at least partially exposed and nowhere to hide. And hey, still talking to each other.

“So leaving tonight then,” said Xander. “You don’t have any other big surprises for me, do you?” he asked half-jokingly.

“Do you?” Jack asked back as he shook his head ‘no.’ Xander responded in kind. Another heavy silence fell between them, as seemed to happen too often. Neither one of them knew what to add. “I didn’t totally screw this up with you, did I?” Jack finally asked, pleased when Xander smiled albeit a little self-consciously.

“We’re friends, right?” he said though the statement held more hesitation than it should have. And though it felt like a rejection in some ways, Jack smiled anyway and didn’t let it show.

“Friends,” he repeated firmly. But he had nothing to add to that because he wondered if they really were friends, each of them leading a double life that only dire circumstances had forced them to admit to. All assumptions were gone now, all points of reference because how had anything either of them had said not been tainted by half-truth or outright deceit?

“So,” said Xander.

“So,” said Jack staring at an old eye in a young and wounded face. He remembered his surprise when he had first seen Xander in person, wondering if he’d be given a chance to get to know his son. Now he wondered if he knew too much.

He stuck out his hand. “Mr. Harris,” he said formally. “I’m Colonel Jack O’Neill, United States Air Force. I work on a top secret project in Colorado and I’m your biological father. My favorite color is blue and I don’t like chicken.”

Xander stared at him as if he’d gone mad, and Jack thought for a second that he wouldn’t accept his hand. But he did.

“Xander Harris,” a strong, warm hand clasped Jack’s. “I’m a carpenter by trade but I work at Home Depot by day and as Chief Watcher of North America for the International Watcher’s Council by night. My favorite color is sunshine yellow and I don’t like pot roast or broccoli.”

Jack smiled. “It’s nice to meet you.”


Thirteen Of Friday

Friday, January 7th Xander reveled in the absolute quiet around him. For the first time in months he had the house entirely to himself. This included everything in said house, notably the TV and the remote control, access to the kitchen and all the goodies he had unearthed in the pantry that was usually under Andrew’s strict watch. Almost gleefully, he settled in the best spot on the couch with his cheddar popcorn, NuttyButty’s, and Cherry Coke ready for a night of channel surfing and brain rotting.

The last week had been long. After New Years, everyone had gone into a state of panic as they suddenly realized they were leaving for other continents. Willow and Kennedy were now somewhere in Brazil while Giles and Buffy were on their way to Europe. Courtney had gone to her new home in Missouri with her aunt and uncle, phone numbers and email addresses in hand along with a promise to pick her up for summer training. Vi and Diana had finally gotten back from their vacation to England and were presently out with Dawn and Andrew seeing a movie and no doubt getting the lowdown on the Great Christmas Caper of the US Government. Xander didn’t care, just as long as they were *gone* and stayed that way for several hours. He needed time to himself to chill out, relax, and generally miss his best friends who were now a world away. But he wasn’t going to think about that now. No, he was going to vegge out and watch whatever he wanted and eat all the junk food he could.

So it was when he had finally gotten into an episode of *That 70’s Show* that the phone chose to ring. Given that it was either an international call or another attempt on the hellmouth, Xander sighed to the empty house and went to answer it.

“Hello?”

It was neither. “Xander?” Jack’s voice queried over the phone. Xander suppressed another sigh. He really didn’t want to deal with this now. This was the first and probably last time he’d have the house all to himself, dammit. And they’d found out last week that despite an unspoken promise to start afresh, they really had very little to say to each other.

“Hi, Jack,” he replied anyway. He couldn’t just hang up like he was a telemarketer. And as long as it wasn’t Xander footing the bill he could afford not to make things worse between them. He did after all like the guy.

“Hi, how are you doing?”

“Good, you?”

“Good.”

In the uncomfortable pause that followed, Xander wondered if he should mention that everyone had left for unintelligible places. But Jack thankfully found something to say first.

“How’s demon fighting going?”

“Quiet so far,” said Xander. “Normal newbies on patrol but nothing major.”

“Any word from your flamey friend?” he asked.

It took a moment for Xander to figure out whom he meant. “D’Hoffryn? Not him, but we did meet Norman. He came the day before yesterday. Had a few good ideas on how to keep the wish low profile.” Xander had mostly stayed out of the conversation while Willow and Buffy had worked out the details. “He’s been cursed so that the President will see him as a self-serving idiot who he’d be better off without. The President that is.”

“No humiliating public growth of horns or something?” asked Jack and Xander could have sworn he sounded disappointed.

“People don’t like to notice stuff like that, and we certainly don’t want people in certain five sided buildings tracing anything back to us.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. Xander heard him take a breath to say something, but in the end he didn’t and more silence followed. “I hope I’m there to see Kinsey’s face when the President fires him.”

Xander shrugged to himself since he couldn’t care less as long as the dude wasn’t poking his nose where it didn’t belong. Noses got broken that way after all. “Yeah, well, I don’t know when it’s going to happen.”

“I’m sure I’ll be the first to know when it does.”

Xander turned toward the den during the next silence, but though he couldn’t see the screen he could hear the ads going on. “So how’s work?” he asked.

“Busy,” was Jack’s short reply. He didn’t elaborate, not that Xander had really been expecting him to. He was still marginally curious about what exactly Jack did, but it was mostly because Jack had found out so much about him. On the other hand, part of him really didn’t want to know. He had enough nightmares to deal with already.

Nevertheless, Xander just couldn’t resist. “Meet any new aliens?”

“Xander,” said Jack warningly.

“Just asking.”

“Well, I can’t tell you that we did.”

Xander grinned at the exasperation and obvious smile in Jack’s voice. “If they were little green women I’m gonna be jealous,” he said.

“Nothing to worry about. They weren’t green,” Jack easily shot back making Xander laugh. “Next time I see them I’ll be sure to give them your regards.”

“And my phone number?”

“At a charge of ten bucks a number.”

“If they try to kill me I’ll expect a full refund,” said Xander.

This time Jack laughed, an easy sound that reminded Xander of his September visit to Colorado when their secrets had been nothing more than forgotten whispers of something not quite right. This time though, the shadows were out in broad daylight. The silence that followed was not quite as strained as the preceding one, and Xander didn’t mind so much his interrupted evening.

So exactly a week later when Jack called again in the middle of their playing Jedi Knights, Xander easily passed off his losing Apprentice to Diana who had much better chance against Andrew’s Sith Lord.

“Hi, Jack,” he said accepting the phone form Dawn who had answered.

“Hi,” said Jack letting the word out in sigh. “How’s Cleveland?”

“Cleveland’s good,” said Xander. “The rest of us are doing fine too. How was your week?”

There was a noticeable pause on the other end before Jack sighed again and said, “Crap, to be honest.”

“What happened?” Xander leaned against the counter in the kitchen.

Another pause as Jack tried to figure out what he could say. “A good friend died a few days ago,” he finally said.

Xander’s heart stopped. “It wasn’t – ”

“No, my team’s fine,” Jack hastily told him. “They’re off working right now. Do you remember Janet Frasier?”

Xander did. The short doctor at the General’s Christmas party ages ago. They hadn’t really chatted, but Xander had liked her. She’d had a daughter his age too. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m sorry.” He knew the words were inadequate but they were all he had to give.

“Yeah,” Jack murmured.

Xander wanted to ask if he was okay but he knew that he wouldn’t be. You were never okay when a friend had just died. But he wanted to know how it had happened. Wanted to know whether it was a disease or a demon attack – or alien or whatever – as impossible as that sounded. How did one die under a mountain in Colorado?

“How is her daughter doing?” he asked instead.

“Okay,” Jack said, then huffed and added. “God, I don’t know.”

“Make sure she eats,” Xander offered, recalling how Buffy’s and Dawn’s appetites had disappeared, even his to a degree, when Joyce had died. Eating felt so pointless for some reason when the person who should have been there wasn’t. “She’ll probably not be hungry for a year.”

“I know.” The gentle words reminding Xander that this was not the first person that Jack had lost in his life.

“Was it because of work?” he asked suddenly.

“Yes,” Jack answered but he said no more than that. Couldn’t say more than that. The knowledge was enough to make Xander glad he was leaning against the counter for support because Janet had been the doctor. Jack on the other hand was Special Ops. Images of the Initiative the night they had defeated Adam came to his mind, all the soldiers they couldn’t save in their fight to get out themselves.

He’d never thought of Jack’s job as really dangerous before even though he knew that it had to be. The difference between knowing and *knowing* was like the difference between patrol and an apocalypse. Both were dangerous, both could get you killed, but the odds between them were drastically different.

“Things still calm out there?” Jack finally broke the silence that had fallen between them. But Xander heard the question underneath, a little taken aback still by the concern the older man held for him.

“Yeah. I don’t go out since it’s been quiet. Vi and Diana both have enough experience to handle whatever’s out there,” he said.

“Just –” Jack cut himself off, the rest of his sentence lost. Xander waited for him to go on, unsure if he would or not. Finally, Jack did. “Be careful.”

And for some reason, Xander felt the need to make a joke lest Jack know what those two words meant at that moment. Instead he said, “I will.”

Jack left it at that and they turned to other lighter topics. But beneath it was an all too familiar tension, a worry that was not easily dispelled.

******************************************************************************

Over the next three weeks, Jack and Xander managed to find things to talk about during their Friday phone calls. Most of the time it was inconsequential stuff like movies or the price of strawberries in the dead of winter, establishing new boundaries that they no longer had to tiptoe around. Even after hearing about the Doc, Xander didn’t push about the classified stuff for which Jack was grateful. In some ways he hated having to keep Xander in the dark – and he never did tell him about his own injury at the time – but at least it didn’t put him in a compromising position.

For his part, Jack tried to keep his inquiries about his son’s life to a minimum. So far it seemed nothing remarkable had happened in Cleveland and instead their conversations turned to Kinsey and the impending wish. After inauguration on the 20th, Jack began to doubt that anything would happen at all, but he didn’t tell Xander that. He also didn’t tell Xander about the phone calls Hammond had made that had Kinsey backed in a corner for the moment. There hadn’t been any more attacks.

The moments Jack like the best though were the ones where the sarcastic, funny Xander he was coming to know better slipped to the side and let the deeply caring, passionate Xander through. It had happened only a couple of times, the first time after Jack had asked if anymore freelance carpentry jobs had come his way. One had, and Jack had listened without understanding a word for half an hour as Xander told him all about it. He’d made sure to ask the next time he called as well. The third time had taken Jack a bit by surprise when Xander had told him about Diana having trouble in school. She’d had an essay due that she’d completely forgotten about and had gone into a panic for which Xander had been totally unprepared. He was worried about how well she was coping with having more slayer responsibility now that it was down to her and Vi. Jack had listened and let Xander talk himself out, suggesting afterwards that Xander maybe start by helping her organize her time. If everything she had to do was laid out then it might help her wrap her head around it.

Xander had sounded relieved by the suggestion, and nothing could have made Jack prouder or happier in that moment than to be giving advice to his son. And that he’d accepted it. After Christmas, Jack hadn’t known if that was ever going to happen.

Jack found himself looking forward to the calls that were his chance to connect with his grown child. And he was pretty sure that Xander liked them too. Just the week before he’d been the one to call, not Jack. So on Friday, February 11th, Jack was disappointed that no one was home to answer the phone. He left a brief message to let Xander know he’d called, then tried to watch TV but failed miserably when all he could think about was where Xander was and why he had missed the phone call. It was their thing now, and in Jack’s opinion not something to be shrugged off lightly. He told himself that maybe Xander was home late from whatever, but as the clock ticked past ten, eleven, midnight, Jack knew that Xander wasn’t going to be calling that night. With a disappointed sigh, he went to bed.

He slept too. Until three in the morning when the phone that had been so stubborn in its earlier silence decided to ring noisily. His face still buried in his pillow and denial, Jack started awake, groaning when he realized he was safe in bed. If it was Hammond, he was going to kill him. Daniel, torture.

“O’Neill,” he snapped into the receiver that he had groped from his bedside table.

“What?” a startled voice came over the line. Jack cursed. If this was a prank call he was going to kill the person on the other end.

“Who is this?” he demanded still more asleep than awake, though that was rapidly changing.

“Uh, Jack?” the voice said hesitantly. It took him another moment to recognize Xander’s voice.

“Xander?” What the hell was Xander doing calling him at three in the morning?

“You’re not Giles,” said Xander.

“No, I'm not Giles,” Jack replied irritated. Correction, why was Xander calling Giles at three in the morning?

“Right. I'll call you later then.”

“No, wait Xander,” Jack said hastily. “Is everything all right?” Jack's brain was catching up with him now and it was curious, and a little worried. It was four am in Cleveland.

“Not really,” Xander sighed. “Look, I really need to call Giles right now.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Unless you know the nesting habits of random ten footed demons with really big teeth.”

“Well, no,” Jack couldn't say he did. “I take it you had a run in with these guys?”

“Diana and Dawn did.” Xander sighed heavily. “Dawn's in the hospital with a concussion, broken ribs, and some internal bleeding they had to take care of.”

Jack froze at the news. “Diana?”

“Missing,” he said quietly, the one word summing up a long terrifying night. “Jack, sorry for waking you up. I really do need to talk to Giles though. I'll talk to you when this is all over.”

“Xander.”

“Bye.” And he hung up. Jack hung up his own phone harder than necessary. Dawn hospitalized and Diana missing, he thought, dropping his head back on his pillow. Xander must be going nuts with worry. And they still had those demons to fight. What if Xander got hurt, or was the next one to go missing? All Jack could think about was his lost eye. He looked at the clock again. Barely two minutes had passed during their conversation.

Kids. They were just kids. There were only the five of them at the house right now and they were already down to one young slayer, one incompetent Andrew, and his son. He just knew that he was going to be sitting by the phone all day, waiting for Xander to call. If he called. He’d only called the house by accident this time, maybe he wasn’t going to call again until the whole mess was sorted out. And by that point, for all Jack knew, Xander could be dead.

“That’s it,” he abruptly sat up and grabbed the phone. It was Saturday for crying out loud. He had the damn weekend off. Quickly he called information for an airline and booked the next flight out. No way was that the last time he was talking to his son.

***********************************************************************************

By ten in the morning, Xander started to feel the exhaustion creep into his veins as he listened to Giles and scribbled notes on a legal pad. He’d been running on pure adrenaline since eleven last night when the shit had hit the fan. Now he had to force himself to concentrate. The info wasn’t very helpful. The Depedius Ravana, the demon that had Dawn and Diana had run into, liked cold dark place like every other demon of the face of the planet. They were relatively rare and hibernated for about two years every decade. However when active, they were known to hire themselves out to other demons, which meant that now Xander and Vi, and Andrew, had to figure out who it was working for. Terrific. Xander had no clue where to start other than the art stuff that was turning out to be a dead end as far as his foggy head was concerned.

“So how do we kill this thing?” he asked as Giles wound down.

“Any way you can,” the Watcher sighed from England. “It has no magical defense, just its size and arms.”

“Right,” Xander sighed as well, a hand snagging the rough sketch Dawn had given them at the hospital. It was essentially a stick figure, oval head, two eyes, large triangular teeth, oval body, two legs, and eight arms. There was a stick person drawn beside it to give a sense of its size that was about three times too big. Looked like a giant rabid porcupine.

He was about to ask if Giles had any ideas on how to trap it or something when the doorbell interrupted. The noise startled Xander but after a second he told Giles to hold on, set the phone down, and went to answer it. He grabbed his axe off the side table in the foyer then went to check the peephole. “Shit.” He opened the door, his axe arm falling to his side and demanded, “What the hell are you doing here?”

Jack only smiled brightly. “Hi, Xander. I had the weekend off, thought I’d come and visit. Can I come in?” His eyes flickered over Xander, lifting slightly when he saw the axe but not commenting.

Xander did not need this right now. He was tempted to shut the door in Jack’s face but politeness won out over lack of sleep and he stepped back to let him through. “What are you doing here?” he repeated turning and leading the way back to the dining hall where Giles waited.

“You sounded like you could use some support,” was Jack’s only answer from behind. “Whoa.”

Xander glanced at him over his shoulder when they came into the dining room, grabbing the phone before reclaiming his seat. The table was a mess of books and papers stacked on top of each other. The laptop was plugged in at the other end. “I’m back,” he said into the phone.

“What happened?”

“Jack showed up on the doorstep. Wants to help,” he glared pointedly at his old man for a good second. Jack only grinned again and started poking through the books and papers. “So,” Xander looked around for the legal pad he’d been taking notes on. He’d deal with Jack in a minute. “Any ideas on how to trap this thing?”

“I don’t know,” said Giles. “Due to its rarity, its weaknesses aren’t well documented. That and our bloody library was blown up.” He started talking about the last time he’d heard of an encounter with a Ravana but Xander started to zone out as he watched Jack.

His unexpected guest had one of the demon indices in his hand now, the one that had the more common murder and mayhem variety. Usually a good place to start but this time it had come up empty. The smile was gone from Jack’s face as he flipped through it. He frowned near the middle and Xander knew that he was looking at the picture of the Sarcathogen, a demon covered in oozing sores that looked like it’d been hit by Ebola. They were related to Chaos demons and apparently liked to eat boiled wombats in a diseased-brain stew, the younger the better. If they couldn’t get the wombats they settled for the brains.

“I’ll ask Buffy for any ideas,” Giles finished, snapping Xander’s attention back to the phone in his hand.

“Okay,” he said. “Just don’t tell her how bad Dawn is.”

“Xander, she should know.”

“Yeah, and she’ll freak. She’s got to get used to us managing on our own.”

“I’ll tell her Dawn was hurt but will be fine.”

“Good. Give her a broken arm or something.”

“I’ll call when I know more,” said Giles, and Xander could tell he didn’t agree but would accede anyway. “Get some sleep if you can.”

Xander snorted at the likelihood of that idea and said his goodbyes. Jack lowered the book when he heard Xander put down the phone.

“So what’s going on?” asked Jack.

Xander stared at him, him brain a couple of seconds behind the spoken words. Why was Jack here again? He had a vague recollection of talking to him last night but he had no idea what they’d talked about much less what he could have said that made Jack decide to get on a plane and fly to Cleveland. “Why are you here again?” he asked.

“You said Dawn was in the hospital and Diana was missing,” said Jack. “I thought you could use some help.”

“You should go home, Jack,” Xander sighed. He didn’t have time for this. Art, he thought absently. He had to figure out what was stolen.

“Xander, I’m not going home,” said Jack quietly yet forcefully, drawing Xander’s attention back to him. “Now, tell me what’s going on so I can help.”

Xander thought about arguing but he was just too tired. “This week there’s been a bunch of break ins at artsy places with some interesting coroner’s reports that we thought were worth looking into. Tuesday it was the museum. A whole wing got smashed up. They’re still sorting through what could be missing. Yesterday it was an art show on the East Side. Dawn and Diana were checking it out last night when they were attacked.”

“Why was Dawn out there?”

“Because she wanted to go.” Jack gave him a look that asked if he was crazy for allowing such a thing. Given that Xander already hated himself for it, the look only served to piss him off. It wasn’t like Dawn couldn’t handle herself in a fight, and it wasn’t like they had been expecting more than a normal B&E. “Don’t say it.”

Jack sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. “How’s she doing?” he asked.

“Asleep last time I checked. Andrew’s with her.” He glanced at the clock through the kitchen door. He should probably go in and see her soon. Unfortunately, he had way too much to do here.

“Where’s Vi?”

“Sleeping. She got home around sunrise so I made her go to bed.” Vi had been out looking for any sign of Diana. She had tracked the Ravana through the East Side but had lost it once it crossed the tracks.

“Did you get any sleep?” Xander just looked at him. “Right,” Jack nodded with a humorless smile. “So what can I do?”

Xander looked at all the paper and books around him. He really didn’t feel like trying to explain all this right now, not on an empty stomach. “Donuts,” he said looking up.

“What?”

“You can go get donuts. Scooby tradition at the research party.” Xander frowned. “Of course it’s hard to have a party of one, or two I guess.”

“How about I make an actual breakfast instead,” suggested Jack. “That way you can give me the details while I’m at it.”

The donuts flashed before Xander’s eyes. “But . . . but . . . donuts!”

“Well, grab some on the way to the hospital,” said Jack as he passed behind Xander’s chair into the kitchen. “Come on.”

Xander watched him go and start banging around looking for a frying pan and food, wondering just when he had lost control. But it was still kind of nice.

**************************************************************************************

Over the next hour, Jack got a crash course in how to be a Scooby starting with who Scooby was and why Jack’s life was dull and unfulfilled for the lack of a big brown cartoon dog. But they had quickly moved past that to the situation at hand. Listening to Xander as he cooked was a challenge for Jack in two ways. First, he was cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen which meant he had to interrupt to ask where the spatulas and other things were. Secondly, Xander was beyond tired and worried and his normally disjointed way of saying things had more mixed metaphors than Jack had thought possible. But in the end he gleaned the important facts.

The eight-armed Ravana thing was working for something else that was after a few pieces of art. The wing that had been raided in the museum had been of African art, as had the art exhibit where Dawn had been injured. So far they didn’t know what was taken, though from the looks of it, whoever was after this stuff was assembling something . . . to do something nefarious and evil no doubt. Vi had traced the Ravana to the railroad tracks on the East Side of town but then lost the trail. Xander thought it might mean the creature had gone underground at that point but they couldn’t be sure until they went back there.

That meant that four of the five Ws were left unanswered – who, what, where, and when. ‘Why’ they apparently didn’t care about.

“So, you want to look for what they’re after or figure out how to kill the decipede?” asked Xander carrying his plate of eggs and toast back into the dining room.

“Kill the thingy-pede,” Jack answered immediately. Art was not something he was about to touch with a ten-foot pole or without a good handy archeologist to throw at it first. He had no idea where he would even begin to look for information.

“All right. Here’s what we know about it,” Xander tossed him a legal pad full of barely legible handwriting and a drawing.

“A giant porcupine?” he asked, looking up from the . . . ‘sketch’ was pushing it.

“Those are arms,” Xander rubbed his face tiredly.

“Xander?”

“Yeah?”

“Never mind,” Jack said. He had been going to suggest that Xander get a little shut eye. He looked like hell. His hair was an unbrushed mess, his skin was pale, and his clothes were rumpled. But Jack knew what was running through his head. One wounded and one missing. How often had he been in the same position? There was no way he would convince his son to sleep now.

Instead he turned his attention to the stick figure and the legal pad, wondering how they were going to get past eight arms and thick skin with nothing more than medieval weaponry. How the hell had they survived this long using weapons that were ten centuries out of date? The main problem was the multitude of arms; they needed a way to neutralize the arms, and he didn’t think just chopping them off one at a time would work.

After about ten minutes of worrying at the problem, Jack started to get restless. A glance at Xander showed his son on the computer, a little dazed but nonetheless staring intently at the screen. He only looked up when Vi walked in a little while later, fully dressed in clothes that had been slept in but nonetheless looking ready to go. The young woman summoned a shaky smile for Xander, and Jack watched as he tracked her to the kitchen with a worried frown that didn’t waver as she grabbed food and returned.

“How’s it going?” she asked in a low, subdued tone.

“I talked to Giles so we know what we’re up against,” said Xander. “Jack’s working on a plan to kill it.” Vi glanced over at Xander’s nod in Jack’s direction, doing a double take.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, clearly surprised by his presence.

“Just thought I’d visit,” Jack replied easily.

“I’m sifting through the art stuff now,” Xander continued. “Something will come up once I can think.”

“Are you okay?” Vi asked timidly.

“Nothing a little sleep won’t fix,” Xander smiled. “We need to relieve Andrew at the hospital. I don’t think much will be happening before dark.”

Vi nodded. “So meeting tonight?” she asked him.

Xander shrugged and yawned. “I don’t know, is there a meeting tonight?” he asked her back.

Vi looked at Jack nervously then back at Xander who’s gaze had never left her face. Jack watched the interchange interestedly. “We’ll meet at dinner time?”

“When do you want that? Sunset’s around six.”

“Before dinner,” Vi said a little more decisively. “At five.”

“Five it is,” Xander agreed. “You want to change before we go see Dawn?”

“Yeah.” Vi gave herself a once over then swallowed the rest of her toast in two bites before leaving and going back upstairs.

“What was that?” Jack asked when they were alone again.

“What?” asked Xander through another yawn.

“Making her set the meeting like that?” said Jack, a little puzzled by it since he’d thought that Xander was the one in charge.

“She’s the Slayer,” was Xander’s reply that really didn’t answer the question. He must have seen Jack’s confusion though because he went on. “She’s not always going to have someone to hold her hand. She’s Chief Slayer of the Hellmouth, she’s in charge. She has to know how to deal.” He closed his eye, exhaustion getting the better of him. “This is the first big thing she’s had where Buffy or Faith haven’t been around,” he said. “With Dawn and Diana . . .” he stopped, and Jack plainly heard the fear in his voice. Didn’t matter that Vi was the battle commander, Xander was the one who took care of them the rest of the time, and his kids were in trouble.

“They’ll be okay,” Jack said quietly, words the only comfort he could give. “Dawn’s going to be fine. She’s a little banged up, but she’ll be just fine.”

Xander opened his eye and huffed. “Buffy’s gonna kill me.”

Jack smiled. “You’ll get over it,” he said. “And we’ll find Diana. She’s a slayer, right? Any four-by-four that gets in her way will be pulverized.” And that did it, a brief smile from his son that faded into another yawn. “You need to get some sleep.”

“I know,” Xander acknowledged quietly. “I’ll sleep when we get to the hospital.”

He ended up sleeping on the way to the hospital while Jack followed Vi who was driving the other car so they wouldn’t have to make two trips later. Xander’s head lolled back and his face went slack when he finally succumbed to the gentle motion of the car. Jack nudged his shoulder when they arrived. Xander started awake looking all around him before recognizing the hospital’s parking garage.

Xander led the way inside to the elevators, hitting the button to the fourth floor where they got off and followed the signs to the ward. “We’re looking for Dawn Summers?” Xander asked the nurse at the desk who smiled and pulled out a list to check.

“Third down on the right,” she pointed to the left hallway.

The door was cracked open and the only light came from a side lamp above the guest chairs where Andrew was reading a comic book. He looked up when they came in, his eyes flickering to Dawn who was asleep.

“She’s been out for awhile,” he said by way of greeting. He frowned when he saw Jack. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Visiting,” Jack told him. Xander and Vi went to stand beside Dawn to check for themselves that she was okay. There was some light bruising on her chin, but otherwise there was no visible sign of her injuries, the blanket no doubt hiding the bandages around her ribs.

“What did the doctors say?” asked Xander, turning back to Andrew.

“The internal bleeding was from one of her ribs but it’s stopped now. They want to keep her till tomorrow to be sure. Her concussion’s not that bad though.”

“Good.” Xander let out a long breath of relief, locking eyes with Vi who mustered a weak smile. “Right, ready to learn all you wanted to know about African art?” he asked Andrew.

“Does what I know from the *X-Men* count?”

“I wish.” Xander stepped over and began filling his friend in on what they had found out so far and what the computer had cross-referenced from the two sites.

Jack took the opportunity to join Vi by Dawn’s side. The young woman had taken the unconscious girl’s hand lightly as she watched her sleep. “Looks like she’s going to be just fine,” he said quietly, making Vi look up in surprise. She eyed him warily for a second before dropping her head.

“She shouldn’t have gotten hurt,” she said. “I should have gone instead of her.”

“Hey,” said Jack gently, feeling for the guilt that laced her voice.

“I’m the slayer, I should have been out there with Diana. Then Dawn wouldn’t be here and Diana wouldn’t be . . . somewhere.”

“Vi,” Jack waited until he lifted his eyes to his. “You can’t change what happened,” he said quietly. “But you do control what happens now and you can plan for what happens ten minutes from now. If you’re going to be in command you have to be in the here and now, not feeling guilty about what happened last night.”

“So I’m just supposed to forget that I nearly got my best friend killed?” she demanded harshly, but still quietly so as not to disturb Dawn.

“No,” said Jack. “But you need to accept that Dawn is fighting this fight too, and that sometimes your people will get wounded. It sucks, you’ll have nightmares about it, but unless you lock her in a room for the rest of her life, it’s going to be a risk.”

Vi looked away and smiled bitterly, sniffing a little though no tears fell. “That’s what Xander said,” she told him. “It doesn’t help.”

“I know.” And Jack did know. Every time one of his teammates got hurt, he felt it. Every time. “She’ll be okay,” he said again. “And look on the bright side, you get to beat up the thing that did this to her. That always makes me feel better.”

Vi grinned at that, a steel gleam of retribution in her eyes when she looked up that Jack knew well. Behind them, Andrew was gathering his things. Xander asked him to leave the comic books, which then surprisingly made Andrew stop and stare at him gravely.

“Leave my comics? Where just anyone could take them?” he asked as if Xander were asking him to leave his wallet or something equally important. “I don’t think so.”

“Andrew, nothing’s going to happen to them,” said Xander in exasperation.

“You could sit on them! Or bend the pages. I’ve seen what you do to books.”

“Yeah, but since when have I ever hurt a comic book?”

“I haven’t seen you not hurt one.”

“I haven’t touched any!”

“So how do I know you won’t hurt them?”

“I control your paycheck.”

“We don’t get paid.”

“But when we do, I’ll control it.”

Andrew thought about this, a man who knew he would have no choice. Grudgingly he put down the comics and ruffled through them, considering as he looked them over. Finally, he pulled one out and started to hand it to Xander, holding back when Xander’s hand touched it. “If anything happens to it . . .”

“Yeah, yeah, you know where I sleep,” said Xander with a grin. “I promise I’ll treat it with the utmost respect it deserves.”

“If – ”

“Andrew,” Vi drew out the word and rolled her eyes. “Let’s go.” With a last surly look in Xander’s direction, he followed her out the door.

Jack looked at Xander. Xander looked at Jack and grinned, very pleased with himself. But Jack had a question. “You don’t get paid?”

*****************************************************************************

“Not yet,” Xander told him. He checked out the comic; it was an *X-Men* that was a part of the Age of Apocalypse universe. Pretty good win if he said so himself.

“I should have guessed,” said Jack in such a way that finally made Xander pay attention.

“What?”

“Is it worth it?” asked Jack with an impatient glance at Dawn’s prone form.

Xander sighed. He’d thought they had gotten past all this at Christmas, but it looked like it was still bothering Jack. “I think having the world around in the morning is pretty good compensation. Is what you do worth watching your friends die for?” He knew he’d struck a nerve when Jack flinched and looked away.

“Sorry,” said Jack.

Xander found one of the armchairs and sat down. He looked at the bright cover of the comic in his hands. Fitting in a way that he held an encounter in the Age of Apocalypse universe where Magneto was a good guy, Cyclops and Beast were bad guys and everything was on the verge of going to hell at the whim of absolute Evil. “Sometimes I want out,” he said quietly. “We all do.” He paused, thinking of the horror he’s seen. “Buffy even tried it once” – twice if he counted the time she died and the awful year of her return – “but she couldn’t stay away. Because it was denying a part of herself.” He looked across the room at Jack. “Willow could have gone to college anywhere, but she stayed. And me, I guess I never tried that hard to get out. I didn’t have anything else going for me for a long time, so I stayed.”

“Without superpowers,” said Jack with a trace of sarcastic humor. Xander thought back to that first time when he’d simply been at the right place at the right time, and second where he knew no one else would have succeeded.

“It doesn’t take superpowers to save the world,” he said.

“But a whole lot of luck,” Jack added, his sense of humor definitely sneaking in there, and Xander knew, he just knew, that Jack had done it too.

“Donuts don’t hurt either.”

Jack laughed. “Is that why you wanted donuts?”

“Never underestimate copious amounts of sugar.”

“I’ll be sure to tell the General that next time I’m ordering supplies.”

“ ‘Sir, we really need donuts, the world won’t go round without them!’ ” Xander said in his best Jack voice. He could just see the portly Hammond giving Jack the evil eye. And Jack of course would just grin his ass off right back. The mental image just made him laugh, his head a little lightheaded. God, he was tired and now he was getting loopy. He closed his eye, just to rest for a moment. He didn’t notice when he fell asleep.

He didn’t know what woke him an hour or two later. Outside the window blinds, the light had shifted but inside the only light was still the one that Jack was now reading by. Xander shifted and stretched muscles that were sore from sleeping in a chair. His neck especially felt like a knife had been yanked down its side, but he felt much better for having slept.

On the bed, Dawn was still resting. He got up to check on her. She was still pale, and asleep she looked like the little girl he had babysat for all those years. When had she gone and grown up, he wondered, though he knew it was around the same time he had. She looked young, but she wasn’t. But she was. And she was hurt. He felt like he had let her down in some way though realistically he knew they had had no way of knowing.

“Did you ever believe in happy endings?” he asked suddenly of Jack.

“Yes. I still do.” Xander turned to look at him questioningly. Jack let loose a small smile at his confusion. “Pessimism is habit forming.” He paused then added. “Optimism is too, I think.”

Xander cracked a grin at that. “The new drug, optimism. Twenty bucks a pop.”

“More like life,” said Jack, a serious note back in his tone. “Did you know Charlie used to read the *X-Men*?” Wondering where that had come from, Xander waited for him to finish. “I almost didn’t get a chance to remember that.”

“A mission?” he asked, remembering the lost friend in January, imagining the others he must have lost in his long military career that was so black it could have been a gravity well for information.

“Habit forming pessimism.” Jack looked back at the comic in his hand. “Daniel gave me a happy ending. Maybe not what I would have wanted but . . . maybe there’s only happier endings.”

“Is that why you came?” asked Xander. “Here. To make sure.”

Jack shrugged. “I was half asleep and scared that that was the last time we’d talk. I may not like you throwing yourself into danger all the time but –”

“ – that’d be sticking a ‘pot’ post-it on your forehead,” Xander finished.

“Something like that.”

Xander nodded. As they looked at each other across Dawn’s hospital room, he felt more than words pass between them. Xander didn’t need to ask if he’d ever get used to the fear of losing a loved one or a girl in his care. He didn’t need to ask if it was always lonely at the top or whether fighting was worth giving up normal. He didn’t need to hear that time healed wounds but until he let them go the guilt would burn as fresh as the day it happened. He knew his answers and had long since made peace with himself and the ghosts of his life. He didn’t need Jack to tell him these things but they were said anyway in that one look between them. And for once it was about *him,* and the feeling felt like a bucket of warm water being poured over his head as he hadn’t felt since Anya had last smiled at him, for him.

Jack had come for him.

********************************************************************************

Jack was beginning to regret having come. But that probably had more to do with the huge frickin’ demon in front of him that looked absolutely nothing like a giant porcupine. For one, it was an awful putrid yellow-green with no hair and really big teeth. Not to mention eight arms that were absolutely everywhere.

They had received a frantic call from Andrew and Vi that they had figured out that the ceremony thing to call forth some head honcho war demon was going to start at sunset of the night of the new moon, which of course was tonight, and been told in no uncertain terms to get their asses to the warehouses by the tracks. Well, Xander had, but since he didn’t drive if he could avoid it, and since Jack had rather forcefully told him he was coming too, Jack had come along. And in the car, he had gotten the twenty-minute crash course in medieval weaponry.

“I’m giving you a crossbow and the extra axe. Careful of it getting stuck in any bones, especially skulls,” Xander had told him when they’d pulled up next to Andrew who was waiting for them. Vi had already gone ahead to scout out the building. “And I want you to stay back as long as you can. You’re the diversion if we get into trouble.” Andrew had nodded as he’d loaded his own crossbow so Jack assumed he’d be staying back as well.

And now here the two of them were behind a stack of empty crates shooting bolts at the giant centipede in an effort to distract it from Vi’s sword and Xander’s double headed axe that darted in from behind whenever he had a clear shot. Jack tried to ignore his son before he could think about him getting stepped on and instead focused on hitting hands and shoulders. But he couldn’t ignore Vi front and center as she ducked and dodged, stabbed and sliced, flipped and kicked, bounced off walls and got back up. She was pure determination, fury, and strength, and she kept the demon screaming and howling until it was so full of bolts and gashes that it could no longer stand up.

As soon as it had crashed to its knees, Vi was on it, brushing away its last attempts at resistance before ripping her sword up its middle. Oozing yellowish blood flowed out with its life. “I am not cleaning that up,” muttered Andrew from beside him as they rushed after Vi and Xander who were already running through the door that was no longer guarded.

The sounds of battle already echoed from the other room, centered around one corner where something small was cornered amongst ten or so human sized demons that had gray pebbly skin, clawed fingers, and wore the same Wal-Mart brand as everyone else. A knot of demons in the center of the room that were obviously waiting for the corner situation to be resolved, jumped at their sudden entrance. Jack had no more time to think before one of them was rushing at him with his claws out, only noticing that he too had unhealthily big teeth before striking out with his borrowed axe. Xander was right about it sticking.

Around him were shouts from the others, but Jack only saw the snarling faces before him, up close and personal, and all of them wanting him dead. He knew that Andrew was beside him, that Vi had gone off after the person in the corner and that Xander was making for the big shots at the center and very firmly keeping Jack on his left side. The old soldier made sure he stayed there, all the way to the smashing of the funny carvings set up in a triangular formation in the middle of a complex drawing. And then it was over. The demons scattered. The dead left lying.

“Diana!” shouted Xander. And there she was, limping slightly beside Vi as the two slayers joined them. Her hair was tangled and her clothes torn and there was a huge chain and a piece of wall attached to her wrists, but to Jack she seemed to glow with the energy of a little kid that had had too much candy. It was like watching Vi fight the Ravana though the older girl had a quieter intensity to her. Watching them as they surveyed the scene with pride, Jack was reminded of the power he’d seen in Buffy’s eyes at Christmas, a mere shimmer of what combat brought out. And he thought that he finally understood what Xander had meant about slayers. Forces of nature disguised as girls.

Arms burning now that the adrenaline was wearing off, and his knee telling him that he was getting way to old for this shit, Jack just wanted to go to sleep.

*************************************************************************************

Sunday hosted a late breakfast at the house, filled with jokes and tales. Diana had indeed been captured by the Ravana and taken to its bosses, the still unresearched and unknown but fondly renamed Rock Heads, who had been going to use her as the human blood ingredient. The giant porcupine hadn’t realized that to people smaller than itself, this one girl that offered resistance probably hadn’t been the best choice for the job. Considering that it was dead now, Jack couldn’t help but point out the understatement of the year.

Diana had been knocked out during the fight and had regained consciousness once before being knocked out again. When she had woken for the second time just before the ceremony, she had taken part of the wall with her.

Dawn had screamed in surprise when she had showed up in her room looking none the worse for wear. The two girls hadn’t stopped talking as they first checked Dawn out from the hospital then drove home. No one really minded.

Dinner was another riotous affair of people who had faced death and were happy to have come out the other side. Jack joked with them but couldn’t help feeling sad and a little old. He wondered if Giles ever felt this out of place at a table of kids. He felt Xander’s gaze on him more than once.

After dinner, he went upstairs to pack the bag he hadn’t really unpacked. He was back in the bare room he’d stayed in over Thanksgiving, which seemed so long ago now, a lifetime. When Xander and the girls had done exactly the same thing.

“I think Andrew got most of the blood out, but it’s gray so you can say it’s an ink stain or something if anyone asks.” Xander stood in the doorway with Jack’s clothes that he’d worn the night before. They had been hastily folded, and Jack accepted them with a thanks. Xander watched as he put them in his bag. “I’m glad you came,” he said abruptly, making Jack stop and look up. His son looked vaguely embarrassed at admitting it but then he grinned. “You need a little work on the rapid reload of your crossbow, but you’re a mean shot.”

“Thanks. It was only my first battle of the twelfth century,” Jack smiled.

“We could have gone caveman against vampires,” Xander shrugged.

“Caveman?”

“Stakes. Little bits of wood through the heart. About as low-tech as you get.”

Jack thought he could stand a little more low-tech in his life and a little less of the advanced alien doohickeys. They did come in handy, he had to admit, but what Jack wouldn’t give to be able to smash an axe through Anubis’s nonexistent head.

Joking aside, he was just glad that Friday night’s phone call had had a happy ending to it. A happier ending. And that’s what was bothering him. One girl and a little help had taken out a creature that Jack wouldn’t have contemplated going up against without at least a grenade and a couple of bars of C4. And she had done it with a sword.

Perhaps most disturbing was that this was not a one-time deal. It was everyday, and Xander was right in the thick of it, probably summing up injuries and a missing person as having a bad week. But Xander hadn’t tried to hide it from him this time. He almost wished he had.

“What?” asked Xander.

“Just wondering how I’m ever going to sleep again from worrying about you,” said Jack.

“You’re going to worry?” Xander seemed slightly surprised. Jack could only lift his eyebrows.

“Of course, I’m going to worry about you!” he snapped. “You’re out there fighting giant . . . green things! And I’m not always going to be there. And stop looking surprised,” he added suddenly irritated. What? Did Xander think he’d come all the way out here on a weekend off just because the mood struck him?

“Sorry,” said Xander not sounding sorry at all. “You’re being all parenty.” He smiled and flicked a hand to explain. “Not used to it coming from anyone other than Giles.”

That stopped Jack for a second – no one other than Giles, he thought angrily. “Well, you better get used to it,” he said, leveling a gaze at his son that spoke of ‘elses’ better not voiced aloud.

And Xander said, “Okay.”


Fourteen Gazillion To Go

Jack didn’t know what was worse, knowing the kind of things Xander fought or letting his imagination fill in the blanks. It had been two months since he’d fought his first demon and it seemed like his calls to Xander kept getting more and more irregular. Granted, part of that was his mission schedule but Xander’s was just as erratic.

They’d come to a sort of agreement about what they talked about. If Jack wanted to know what was going on, he asked point blank and Xander would usually answer with watered down answers. “Just a snake thing that took longer to track down than we thought,” or “Some kids at the high school getting in over their heads with the magic.” Jack tried not to be too pushy about it, but when Xander sounded exhausted or down he always asked.

For his part, Xander asked even fewer questions but that seemed more because he was tired of the endless lack of details that Jack could provide. But somehow he always knew when Jack got hurt or when he was worried about a wounded teammate. Jack had asked after the third time how he knew, wondering if it was more magic, but Xander instead told him simply that he called later. Jack remembered feeling slightly uncomfortable when he’d heard that and thinking that his son was too perceptive for his own good. Or rather Jack’s.

That was why he was staring at the phone right now instead of picking it up and dialing. Xander would *know* that this wasn’t a normal call. Jack’s mind flickered over the last few days. The mission to extract the Ancient’s library device, Anubis’s attack, and now, way too much knowledge in his head that could kill him in a matter of days.

Last night when his team had been over, Daniel had asked him what he was going to tell Xander. Jack had replied, “That I was saving the world.” The truth was he didn’t know what he was going to say. The problem was he also couldn’t not call. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the phone. Maybe he’d get lucky and Xander would be at work.

The phone rang once, twice, three times. When it got to five, Jack was ready to let out a sigh of relief – that was quickly dashed when a breathless “Hello?” answered.

“Hey, Vi, it’s Jack,” he said pleasantly, recognizing the teenager’s voice. With an ease that comes from years of practice, he staunchly ignored the feeling of dread that clung in his stomach.

“Hey, Jack!” she cheerfully replied. “How you doing? Xander’s upstairs, just a sec. XANDER!”

Jack smiled at the quick transfer figuring he had interrupted something or other. Usually he would at least have a chance to answer questions and ask how things were going before Xander was shouted for.

“Hey, Jack,” his son’s light tone greeted him all too quickly. “You’re calling early for once.”

Jack nodded and said, “Yeah, thought I’d change things up.” It was two in the afternoon on a Sunday. So much for the at-work plan.

“Uh-huh,” said Xander. Crap, thought Jack. “So what’s up?” Double crap, Jack amended. He should have asked that first.

“Oh, you know, same old, same old,” said Jack evasively. “How are you?”

“In need of a new job.”

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked suddenly concerned.

“The one I have is boring me to tears,” said Xander. “I’ve had some crappy jobs before but I usually managed to get fired before I got too bored with them. Here, my boss actually likes me and says I do good work and doesn’t mind my switching shifts at the last minute.”

“And that’s bad?”

“For my other job, no. But I feel like I’m going to go insane if I have to keep this up. I hate retail.”

“Ah, the joys of knowing that the customer is always right,” said Jack sagely.

“‘Right’ is a relative term,” said Xander with a sigh.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. In more than just the retail sense, he thought. If he . . . he would miss this, the idle chatter about life, knowing how he was doing, what was good, what was bad. Jack closed his eyes. “Have I told you how proud I am of you?” he half whispered. He heard Xander’s breath catch on the other end of the line.

“Jack?” Xander’s voice was breathy and uncertain. “What’s wrong?”

Jack felt like an idiot now for even saying it. He was a man of action, not words, and his only relief was that Xander wasn’t there to see him shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “Nothing really – ”

“Jack,” Xander cut him off harshly. “You don’t start a ‘goodbye’ speech when nothing’s wrong.”

“Xander – ”

“No, you started a ‘goodbye’ speech! ‘I’m proud of you, I love you.’ If every thing is just puppies and rainbows you *don’t* say that!” Xander snapped. “Now what’s wrong?!” A little taken aback by the vehemence in his son’s voice, Jack was shocked into silence for minute. “Jack!” Xander prompted.

“I, uh,” Jack struggled for a way to explain that wouldn’t be breaking a zillion laws. “I kinda did something stupid,” he finally said. “But given the situation, there wasn’t really a choice.” He paused and Xander remained silent, waiting. “I can’t go into detail, and it’s not hopeless, just . . .”

“Dire?” Xander finished for him. Jack winced.

“Well, I might die,” he quipped quietly. Dead silence. Jack wondered for a moment if Xander was still there.

“That bad?” Xander finally said, his voice tight even as he tried to keep it light. “Is this a scheduled death or are you just ad libbing?”

“If it happens, and I stress the ‘if,’” Jack hesitated, remembering the last time he’d spouted alien words and felt himself lose his mind, “sometime next week.”

“Got it all planned out, huh? Decided life was too boring under your mountain, and hey, let’s give death a try. Next Thursday good for you?”

Jack winced at the raw sarcasm. “It’s not like that,” he said a little exasperatedly. “If you must know it’s probably going to save the world.” Maybe Xander would understand in terms he seemed to be familiar with.

“Great,” said Xander bitingly. “I’ll have to let the others know that Apocalypse Season has opened early this year. Good to know I rate at least a phone call.”

“Xander,” said Jack.

“What?”

But Jack didn’t have anything to say. He felt empty, like a tin can that someone was still trying to hammer the last of the beans out of. “I’m sorry,” he said. Sorry for . . . everything. God, he hadn’t felt this bad about anything in years.

“Don’t be sorry,” said Xander, his voice softer than it was before but no less hurt. “Just make sure you don’t die. Or I swear to whatever gods there are that I will have Willow resurrect you so I can kill you myself.”

Jack couldn’t help but smile at the threat. “Guess I better not die then.”

“No.” Xander sighed. “Look, call me when you’re not going to die any more.”

He was going to hang up. “Xander,” said Jack quickly, not wanting his last chance to slip away.

“No,” his son interrupted. “*Call me* when you’re not going to die.” And he was gone. Jack held the phone a moment longer, staring at it blankly before replacing it in the cradle. Unsaid. Too much had been left unsaid. His head fell into weary palms. Xander sure wasn’t letting him off easy. There had been no ‘ifs’ in his demand. Jack was just going to have to make sure he was alive to tell him.

****************************************************************************************

Xander stared at the phone he had slammed down. Bastard. That stupid, damn . . . bastard. Unconsciously he clenched his jaw, so angry that he couldn’t do more than glare holes in the phone and hope they burned Jack. He was going to kill him. And he wasn’t going to die, oh no, Jack was going to stay nice and healthy until Xander could get his hands on him, then he would show him what dying was all about. If – but Xander squelched the thought before it had even formed. Jack was going to call him in a week, and Xander was going to scream at him for being an idiot. Three rules of slaying: if it’s bad, run; always make plans for the day after; and don’t die! And then of course there was always the addendum rule that was true beyond slaying that girls were always right. At least one of them. But not the point here.

No, the point here was simple. Jack was an idiot. And a bastard. And Xander would never forgive him if he died.

Suddenly feeling the urge to hit something, he slammed down to the basement, made a beeline for the punching bag, and started beating the hell out of it. His thoughts gave way to mindlessness and the burning anger that he refused to let go of. He didn’t know how long he was down there but he was sweaty and pleasantly tired when he finally stopped, leaning forward to rest his head against the bag.

Dawn was sitting on the bottom stairs when he finally turned around. Large eyes watching out of a considering face, but she didn’t say anything, just followed his progress as he came and sat beside her. They sat in silence for a minute before Dawn broke it.

“Jack?” she asked. Xander nodded. “What happened?”

He didn’t look at her. “Said he did something that could kill him to save the world.”

“Oh.”

Neither one of them said anymore. They didn’t move until Andrew came and asked what they wanted for dinner. And that evening, they all went on patrol.

**********************************************************************************

The next three days were tense. After Jack’s phone call, Xander was paranoid about everything going to hell – literally. He was also snappish and bad tempered with everyone, which didn’t help, matters much, even if they knew why. Sort of. As Xander kept ranting, Jack hadn’t given them any useful information about what was potentially going down so they didn’t know what they were looking for in the first place.

Xander had alerted Giles and the others, and the scattered research department had gone to work combing for any kind of a clue, but nothing came up. Jack still hadn’t called.

It was on Tuesday when they finally figured it out. Xander was at work checking stock in the back with the radio on for company when the commercial break suddenly turned into a news report. “We have a special weather report from the National Weather Station. An unexpected meteor shower is in progress across much of the Western Hemisphere. People are advised to stay indoors as there have already been reports of meteors striking the surface in Texas and Bolivia. Scientists say that it should pass within the hour.”

The report brought Xander up short and he stared at the radio for a second before bolting for the door. Unexpected meteor shower, his ass. Those things were tracked, predicted. He should know since Dawn and Andrew dragged them all outside to watch the shooting stars when they came. And if they were already hitting the Earth? No way was it natural.

Xander made it to the staff room at the other end of the building in less than two minutes. It took him another thirty seconds to find his cell phone and call Andrew.

“Hello?”

“Andrew, turn on the news. I think we have our world ending event,” he said quickly. “Call Giles and let him know.”

“Meteors?” said Andrew and Xander could hear the TV on in the background. “Xander, I don’t think there’s much we can do against meteors.”

“We can stop whatever’s causing them,” Xander said, though he had no idea how they would do that. “Look, call Giles, see what he says and call me back.” He glanced quickly at his watch. It was a little after two. His shift didn’t end till four and the girls wouldn’t get home from school until around three thirty. Xander wondered if they had that long. “How are the wards on the hellmouth?” he asked waiting a minute as Andrew went and checked the crystal.

“No change,” he reported. “I’ll call if it does.”

“All right, thanks. See you later.” He hit ‘end’ and sighed. There really wasn’t much he could do now until he heard back from Giles and Andrew. He might as well get paid for the next two hours.

But even as he went back to the stock room and started counting nuts and bolts again, Xander couldn’t help but worry about what was going on and feel a frustrating sense of helplessness about it. And wonder what Jack was doing at that very moment. It sucked. He couldn’t concentrate and ended up recounting the packs of nails four times. He’d been at it an hour or so, his mind wandering from nails to nasty creatures crawling out of meteors when the question of what was going on suddenly became a lot less academic.

Xander *felt* it. Suddenly, in every fiber of his being he felt a tug that grew ever more insistent, building and building through his bones and muscles like liquid fire until suddenly a part of him was ripped away like duct tape being ripped off of skin. It was so hard and fast that the force of it knocked him to his knees, his whole body burning for an instant before slowly melting away in a throbbing pulse. Xander gasped for breath, wondering what the hell had just happened and at the same time, afraid of the answer. Nothing in his life had ever felt like that, nothing, and Xander had undergone some wacky spells in his time.

It took him a few minutes to stand, a wash of dizziness forcing him to pause with his head between his knees to prevent his lunch from ending up on the floor. When he finally did manage to get to his feet and stay on them, his head had cleared considerably and the burning sensation was all but gone, leaving him with a killer headache and something else that niggled in the back of his head. It wasn’t until he stepped out of the stock room and saw the rest of the store acting as if nothing had happened that Xander, now more confused than ever, realized that everything felt just a bit off. ‘Everything’ as in the artificial light, the sounds of people talking, the way his feet felt against the ground – and at the same time everything was just as it always had been. Exactly alike except for that feeling.

He quickly fished his cell out of his pocket and hit the speed dial for home. It took three rings for Andrew to answer and when he did, Xander knew that he had felt whatever it was too.

******************************************************************************

In fact, one frantic phone call from the high school, one from Giles, one from Buffy, and a panicked call from Kennedy confirmed that anyone that had anything to do with the supernatural had felt it. And in varying degrees. In Brazil, Willow was still unconscious. Of the Cleveland crowd, Dawn had been hit the hardest, but even she had woken up after a few hours. Vi and Diana and the other slayers had taken it hard as well but with a much faster recovery time, though it had been longer than Xander’s and Andrew’s. And everyone felt the same shift in perception that couldn’t be described as more than a feeling of something off, almost like when ears wouldn’t pop when they needed to, only not quite as concrete a feeling.

And that wasn’t even the bad news. No, what currently had the five continent conference call’s attention was the fact that the slayers’ powers were greatly diminished. Buffy had noticed it first since she had been on the prowl in Europe at the time. One minute she’d been fighting a vamp, the next she’d been fighting for her life.

“I haven’t been able to contact the Bath coven,” Giles was saying. “I believe, given Willow’s reaction, that they were hit hard as well.” Xander glanced around the dining room table. Andrew was clearly scared and nervous and trying to hide it. Dawn, pale and still in pain sat huddled in a blanket beside him. Diana refused to look up from the tabletop while Vi met Xander’s gaze with a frightened yet determined one of her own. “The force seems to be proportional to the amount of magic used by the individual. What ever it was, it ripped away innate power.”

“So how do we stop it?” demanded Kennedy anxiously.

“It’s already over,” said Giles. “Until we know what caused it, I don’t think there’s much we can do except wait and see.”

“Any ideas?” asked Buffy.

“The meteor shower,” said Xander.

“Yes, quite,” Giles sighed. “Hardly coincidental that it stopped after the event.”

“We need to contact all our slayers and let them know what’s going on,” said Faith.

“Giles?” said Dawn suddenly, “if something ripped all the magical energy from everyone around the world, where did it all go?”

There was a brief silence. “I don’t suppose there’s energy heaven,” suggested Buffy quietly.

“No,” said Giles.

“So we need to find out what that meteor shower was, why it stopped, and where all our magical energy went,” Buffy gathered their agenda together.

“And who’s behind it,” added Vi who quickly paused after realizing that she had actually spoken the thought aloud. “I was just thinking,” she went on a little more hesitantly, “you know how everything feels off? What if it’s not just the witches and magic users, but all magic? Someone trying to disable the wards and natural protections around the hellmouth.”

“Everything’s connected,” murmured Kennedy, reciting Willow’s catchphrase into the ensuing silence.

Xander shared a look with Vi. If she was right, they had a serious problem on their hands. Natural magic was everywhere. According to Willow, it connected everything, made some places more sacred than others, prevented vampires from entering occupied homes, allowed essence to pass from a person to a treasured object, provided natural resistance to opening the hellmouth . . . the list went on.

“Giles test that theory,” said Buffy urgently, as aware as Xander of the formula for disaster. “Xander, Vi, you guys take care of the meteor research. Kennedy, get in touch with Riley, let him know what’s going on. Faith, Robin, get in touch with the rest of the watchers. And everyone start calling your slayers.”

The call ended as they all hastened away to follow orders, the democracy of the Board falling away in crisis. Xander refused to let himself think of what could go down – or come up – if the wrong demons figured out that the Earth’s magical forces had suddenly been drained. Crap. He got to his feet abruptly and went to the kitchen to make sure they had enough coffee.

*****************************************************************************************

Over the next day and a half, no one got any sleep. The girls stayed home from school to ‘recover’ from their fainting spells and everyone camped out in the dining room. Andrew took the books looking for any and all references to apocalyptic meteor showers while Dawn took the Internet, printing and processing whatever she could get her hands on. Diana and Xander called the slayers. Vi hit the streets to check out the usual demon bars and hangout for anything useful, though so far she’d only come up with confused and scared demons. Their contacts had no idea what was going on either and quite a few were packing up to leave town in self-preservation.

Vi and Diana’s slayer strength was returning although slowly and only due to their proximity to the hellmouth. Elsewhere around the country, and globe for that matter, slayer powers were returning at about half that rate, which left none of them in any condition to fight. Going by Vi’s estimation it would be another few days for her and Diana, and at least a week before the rest of them were up to full power.

Wednesday night, Giles confirmed that all magic, not just that of casters, had been ripped away by the force. The Bath coven had been knocked unconscious as Willow had though when they had awakened twenty-eight hours later, Willow had still been unconscious. Simple spells were impossible and normal magical objects were no longer expressing their otherworldly qualities. Dawn even tested the truth potion which failed to force Xander to say he had one eye.

But it was Dawn’s report that was perhaps the most telling. “All the places that were hit by meteors yesterday were communications arrays. And there’s been reports of satellites down for a couple of companies.” The phone was on speaker setting in the middle of the dining room table. The Board was all there with the exception of Willow.

“So you’re saying that the meteors weren’t meteors?” asked Buffy through the speakerphone.

“We think it’s aliens,” said Andrew with a quick look at Xander. They had talked about it earlier when Dawn had found the first news reports. Coupled with Jack’s ‘end of the world’ timing, it made sense. Of course, they still had no proof.

“Aliens,” said Robin with a little skepticism.

Xander ignored him. “Kennedy, did you reach Riley?”

“No, he still hasn’t gotten back to me.”

“That still doesn’t explain the drain of magical energy,” said Giles getting back to Dawn’s point. “Only the meteor shower.”

“Which stopped after the drain,” said Buffy.

“But we haven’t been invaded yet,” Andrew pointed out. “That means the aliens were stopped by the magic. We think.” He grinned as he told them what he had figured out from watching way too many sci-fi movies.

There was a pause as the others took this in.

“Are you saying the Earth is frickin allergic to alien attacks?” asked Faith.

“Whatever happened, if this is what Jack was talking about, the military knows,” said Xander.

“Or at least has a place to start,” said Buffy quietly. “Xander, it looks like it’s up to you guys to go chat them up.”

“Not till we hear from Riley,” Xander said. He did not want to get locked up before he could even talk to someone.

“Make it soon. We gotta figure out how to get the magic back in balance or we are so screwed.” Talk turned then to status reports. In the US, the lack of mojo was still not common knowledge as far as they could tell. In Africa and South America communications were so bad there was no way to really know. In Italy, however, word of the slayer’s weakness had already spread leaving Buffy at a loss of what to do. She couldn’t wait a week for her powers to come back – she needed them now. If word from Europe got across the ocean . . . well, Cleveland would probably become the next great demon vacation spot.

********************************************************************************

Riley finally called around five am Thursday morning, waking Xander from a fitful sleep. To make matters worse, he stubbed his toe on the doorframe as he stumbled across the hall to the office. “’Lo?” he said, sitting heavily at the desk, rubbing his poor foot.

“Xander? Riley. I hope you have a suit.”

“What? Riley? Hi,” Xander mumbled still mostly asleep. “What did you say?”

“I got Kennedy’s messages yesterday about the magic. Happened to us too. One of our mages is still in a coma,” Riley explained sounding far more awake than necessary. “If you’re right about the barriers we are in deep shit.”

“Tell me about it,” said Xander dryly as the sleep started to clear from his brain. He was sitting on the damn hellmouth.

“We called our people in Washington,” Riley went on. “They talked to the Joint Chiefs who didn’t give them the time of day till they mentioned your aliens.”

“What’d they say?”

“I think they were a little upset about us knowing.”

“Ouch,” Xander sighed. Perfect, now the government was going to be after them on top of all this.

“General Taylor backed us up though,” said Riley.

“General Who?” asked Xander, more than a little surprised.

“Army Chief of Staff. I’ve met him a few times. He’s a good man. He’s the one who keeps tabs on our operation and unofficially on yours.”

“What?!” This was news to Xander. “Why didn’t you ever tell us?” he asked, feeling slightly betrayed.

“Relax. It’s strictly surveillance. He was in on the Initiative and knows better than to interfere. But he’s got a vested interest in protecting his country too, you know.”

“Right, sorry,” Xander sighed. He really shouldn’t have been surprised, and it was a credit to this General that he was staying out of their way.

“Anyway,” Riley went on. “He’s taking us seriously. When I got Kennedy’s second message about the natural magic and the hellmouth and the Italian demons I called him and since I’m in the jungle, he got you clearance to learn about what happened and fix the problem.

“Me?” said Xander completely awake now from the jolt of adrenaline at the news. “Why me?”

“He’s sending you to a military base. Who else is there? Dawn?” Right, no high school students allowed. “Now the people at the base haven’t been cleared about the Council so don’t tell them anything. Someone’s picking you up at six. Codephrase: ‘Lovely day to walk your dog to Mars’. Then you say ‘Only if it’s raining in Hell’. Got that?”

“‘Only if it’s raining in Hell,’” Xander repeated, the cloak and dagger stuff making him smile. Andrew was going to be so jealous. Then again, unless he wanted to be spouting codephrases for the rest of his life, he probably shouldn’t tell him. But he would be so jealous. “Thanks, Riley.”

“Just doing my job,” said his friend. “Let me know what happens. I gotta get back.”

“Good luck,” said Xander before they hung up. He closed his eye, feeling a light draft waft through his uncovered eye socket. It was way too early to be up let alone thinking. With a final shake of his head, Xander went back to sleep for the remaining twenty minutes before he had to get up for real to meet whoever Taylor had sent to talk to him about Mars. After setting his alarm, Xander’s last thought as he drifted back to sleep was that he didn’t have a suit.

******************************************************************************************

Xander didn’t start to get nervous until they were driving up the mountain. He’d only been half-awake when Major Davis had showed up on the front step, then the car ride and subsequent flight to a still undisclosed location had put him soundly back to sleep. He’d tried to stay conscious, really, but his body had refused to cooperate.

Now that they were off the military transport and on their way to the mysterious base he couldn’t ignore the worms crawling around in his stomach. Though that was partly hunger, which was a good thing because it gave him another thing to think about. Namely donuts.

His escort, Major Davis, hadn’t been very chatty the whole trip aside from their initial meeting. Xander knew that he hadn’t been expecting a kid with one eye hopelessly underdressed in khakis, dark blue button-down shirt, red snowman tie, and a winter jacket that had old gore stains on it. The covert looks the Major sent his way were still trying to puzzle him out. What a way to make an impression.

When they got to the base that went into the Cheyenne Mountain, Xander suddenly knew where they were. Jack’s base. Major Davis led him through two checkpoints where Xander’s driver’s license and Council ID were checked and rechecked before they were allowed onto the elevator that went down ten floors before stopping. When they got off, they were at another checkpoint. Xander idly wondered if they had any confidence in the people upstairs at all as he once again showed them his ID. Paranoid didn’t even begin to cover it. And then they got onto another elevator. And this one went down for a lot longer than ten stories.

“Welcome to the SGC, Mr. Harris,” Major Davis said when the elevator door finally opened. Xander shot him a startled look at the familiar designation that he wasn’t supposed to know. SCG, Bluebook, Area 52 – really, really top secret military base that had at least one alien on staff. He took a deep breath and followed the Major down the cold gray halls. He sure hoped he didn’t have to get out of here in a hurry because there was no way he was going to be able to remember all these twists and turns.

While they walked, Xander took in the uniformed men and women around him. Most were in plain green or blue fatigues striding purposefully from one place to another. They all looked at Xander curiously, their expressions guarded and evaluating. He tried to ignore the sensation of too many eyes crawling all over him, but it was rather difficult, too much like a vampire’s gaze as it sized up dinner for comfort. It was almost a relief when they reached the conference room.

The conference room was very spacious and very empty when they arrived. The walls held tasteful hotel pictures except for one wall whose windows were covered by a blast shield. It took Xander a moment to process what was wrong at first and then it hit him – there were windows underground.

The center of the room was dominated by a large table surrounded by comfy looking chairs. Two flags stood against the far wall where another door stood ajar. Major Davis walked confidently up to it while Xander followed with a little more trepidation. He really shouldn’t have been nervous since this was Jack’s base and Jack had told General George about them. It should make everything easier in the long run, but nevertheless Xander felt like a kid dragged off to the principal’s office. Or maybe that was the human in the vamp nest talking.

“Dr. Weir,” said Major Davis knocking on the doorframe. Xander stopped short. Uh, Weir? he had a second to wonder as a tall, brunette woman stood from behind what was obviously her desk and came to greet them.

“Ah, Major Davis,” Dr. Weir smiled warmly, her eyes briefly meeting the Major’s before settling on Xander. “And you must be Director Harris from the International Watcher’s Council.”

“Yes, it’s good to meet you,” Xander managed without stammering as he shook her hand. Meanwhile his mind was doing some hasty rearranging. Not General George but Dr. Weir. Not someone who knew but someone who most definitely was not in the know, and wasn’t supposed to. On the plus side she wasn’t military. Which begged the question of what she was doing in charge of a military base. And . . . doctor of what?

“Please,” she gestured for the two men to join her at the conference table. Xander couldn’t help but appreciate all the room it offered as he sat opposite Davis while Dr. Weir took the seat at the head.

“Dr. Weir, Mr. Harris has been authorized to be briefed on the Stargate Project, in particular, the events of the past few days to evaluate their impact,” said Davis. Weir nodded, the introduction obviously a confirmation.

“I just got off the phone with the Joint Chiefs,” she said with a small smile. “They aren’t much for giving notice. I’m afraid they didn’t explain what your organization does exactly.” Her voice turned upward in an invitation to explain.

Yeah right. Xander was very tempted to say ‘classified’ and leave it at that but he decided to be nice. “Um, I can’t really say other than that we are concerned with the fate of the world,” he said as clearly as possible. Weir nodded and didn’t look put out in the slightest. In fact, Xander had no idea what she was thinking. She was calm and collected and all the things Xander didn’t feel at the moment.

“Of course,” she said. “Well, as I was just briefed four days ago, I’ve asked Dr. Jackson to come join us as I’m sure he’ll do a much better job of explaining.”

“You’re new here?” Xander asked. He did some quick math in his head. Four days ago was after Jack had called but before the drain. Crap, power struggles.

“Yes,” said Weir calmly. “And yourself, how long have you worked for the Council?”

“Longer than four days,” he replied which earned him another smile though he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t have time to ponder it however as the doors at the opposite end of the conference room burst open as a man barreled through.

“Sorry I’m late,” the man said. His arms were laden with file folders, one hand gripping a cup of coffee. In green fatigues, it took Xander a moment to recognize him as Daniel. At the same moment, the haggard archeologist, who looked like Xander felt, stopped short as he caught sight of their guest.

Xander quickly shook his head at him and said hastily, “Dr. Jackson, I presume?” Please get it, please get it, he chanted mentally. If they knew each other, Weir would want to know why and then all these awkward questions would come up and Xander really wanted to avoid that. At all costs.

Daniel stared at him for a long second before snapping his mouth closed and saying, “Uh . . . yeah, Daniel Jackson.” He came around the table next to Davis and carefully put down his coffee and papers.

“Dr. Jackson, Director Harris of the Watcher’s Council,” Weir introduced them as they shook hands. “He’s here to be briefed on the project.”

“Right.” Daniel frowned briefly, then grabbed his folders, checking a few before sliding one over to Xander. “Right,” he repeated. He looked at the folder in his hand for a moment then looked up and fixed Xander with his gaze. “The Stargate Project rose out of a discovery in 1928 on a dig in Egypt. An artifact was uncovered, a giant ring that had been purposefully buried.”

“How big a ring?” Xander interrupted as he tried to get a picture of it in his head.

Daniel grinned slightly. “Big enough to walk through. Also covered in symbols. The US government ultimately took possession of the ring and a few years ago figured out what it was: a stargate.”

“A gate to stars and aliens,” said Xander in not quite a question. Across from him, Major Davis sat up straighter and frowned, obviously wondering how he’d jumped to that conclusion.

Xander spared him a glance. “A meteor shower that only takes out communications arrays? I’m sure *that* was a coincidence. There is a reason we wanted to talk to you.” He resisted the urge to roll his eye. He caught another grin from Daniel who continued.

“Other planets actually. But essentially . . . aliens. In fact most of the people we encounter are humans descended from people here on Earth.” Daniel paused to let that sink in, going on when Xander nodded. It did make sense and explained why Teal’c looked human and why the Air Force had archeologists. “Originally they were taken there by another alien race called the Goa’uld who are a parasitic species that take humans as hosts. There’s a picture in there.” Daniel motioned for him to open his folder. Xander found the picture of the freaky snake-like thing that looked like a tentacle from the demon they had killed last August. Except smaller. “The Goa’uld pretend to be gods and they take humans as slaves. Whole civilizations were uplifted and moved to other planets.” Xander looked up at Daniel’s tone, meeting eyes that mesmerized him with their intensity. “They are pure evil. There is no talking, no negotiating, and no mercy. We’ve been at war with them for about seven years now.”

Xander felt his heart clench, his mind going back to Jack’s phone call in a panicked rush. “And . . . they attacked,” he said slowly.

“Yeah. One of them.”

Xander looked back at the picture, only half listening as Daniel rambled on about them being feudal and having their own armies and ships and not playing nice together. It was so small. He wondered how it took control over someone. Demons did it so many different ways – there used to be a book on parasitic ones that would burrow through your back or only attach after sex or eating. He wondered if this should be harder to wrap his head around.

“Director Harris,” Dr. Weir’s gentle voice interrupted Daniel’s flow. “Are you all right? I know this is difficult but I can assure you that it is very real.”

“What?” Xander looked up out of his thoughts into her sympathetic eyes. “Yeah, real,” he agreed absently. “How does it take a host?” he turned back to Daniel.

“Through the back of the neck or the mouth. They attach themselves to the brainstem. There’s an MRI.”

Xander flipped though his folder till he found it. It gave him the shivers just looking at it, a pale serpentine form wrapped around the brainstem. Ick. “Now there’s something that would drive you mad. I don’t suppose they pay rent?”

“Uh, no,” said Daniel with another ghost of a smile, reaching for his coffee. Weir and Davis both shifted uncomfortably at the joke, which pleased Xander no end. Not so confident now, were they?

“So the guy who attacked. What happened?” he asked, putting aside the MRI for now.

“Anubis,” said Daniel. “He wanted to take over Earth, kill us, enslave us.”

“Doesn’t like us much, does he,” Xander commented.

“We tend to piss them off,” Daniel replied. Beside him Davis smiled a bit. Daniel went on and explained the happenings of the last few days. How the older, more advanced alien race that had made the stargates had left a weapon behind in an outpost in Antarctica. How they had recovered the location from a library device on another planet. How his CO, Jack O’Neill, now had so much information in his head from the device that his brain would deteriorate.

Daniel’s eyes held Xander’s as he told him this last bit, soft and kind while Xander felt an emptiness rush through him. “He used his knowledge to activate the weapon which destroyed Anubis’s fleet and afterwards he was frozen and placed in stasis. At least that’s what we think.”

“Is he . . . alive?” asked Xander.

“We think so.”

But frozen in Antarctica with stuff in his head that could kill him. Would freezing him help?

“Director Harris,” Dr. Weir said, pulling him out of his introspection. “What sort of analysis do you need of the last few days?”

Xander shook his head to clear it. Focus, he told himself. Twisting his thoughts away from Jack, he turned towards her. “I need to know everything you can tell me about the weapon that was used,” he said. From the descriptions, that had to be it.

“The weapon?” said Dr. Weir. “May I ask why?”

“Aren’t you supposed to cooperate?” he shot back.

“Director, you were given clearance for the Stargate Project and recent events. It was not my understanding that you were allowed access to knowledge about a very powerful weapon.” Weir’s voice was stern but still on the right side of polite.

“Right, cause I’m gonna run home and make one in my backyard,” Xander said before he could stop himself. “Look,” he said more seriously before Weir could say anything. “Something happened when that weapon did its thing. Something drastic.” Xander searched for words that wouldn’t give too much away. “I could care less about the weapon. If I wanted to blow something up I’d go steal a rocket launcher. So help me out here.”

Dr. Weir regarded him for a minute with that same unreadable expression while Xander tried to look sincere.

“Dr. Weir, there’s no way he could get access to the site and with as little as we know about the Ancients’ technology, it can’t hurt,” said Daniel into the silence. Finally Weir nodded.

“I’m afraid there’s not much we can tell you,” she said, sitting back in her chair with a sigh. “Access to the weapon has been severely limited due to the political situation. We’re having difficulty getting even Colonel O’Neill back.”

“But you will get him back, right?” Xander asked suddenly sidetracked by this news. Jack couldn’t stay in Antarctica forever, ‘cause even in stasis he would waste away.

“Yes, eventually,” Weir smiled. “Major Davis, the latest science report is on my desk, if you would.” The Major nodded and went to fetch it, returning a moment later. Weir smiled a ‘thank you’ as she accepted it and slid it to Xander. “What we do know is that the weapon is controlled mentally by a person, in this case Colonel O’Neill.” Between her and Daniel, they explained the very vague particulars on how the weapon worked. Basically, you plugged in the power source, sat in a chair, and thought real hard for globules of energy to come out of the floor. The energy packets could be consolidated or could work independently of each other. Except Xander reasoned the energy was magic and what they thought was a power source was probably a key or something. Dangerous whatever it was, if it unleashed the full magical power of the Earth. And now that magical power was in space. Great. Xander rubbed his eye tiredly as they finished up. Why couldn’t this be easy? Just once?

“So what’s the prognosis?” asked Daniel cautiously.

Xander smiled humorlessly, his gaze flickering from him to Weir and back. “Do you want the bad news or the bad news?” he asked.

“That bad?”

“With the nice energy shake in space? We’ve got . . . issues,” he said not sure if Daniel understood what he meant or not.

“Issues?” asked Weir sharply.

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, unsure of how much more he could say. The scary part was, he had no idea what to do about it. The person best suited to solving this problem was Willow and she was either still unconscious or still sick from the backlash. And what were they going to do until the Earth naturally restored itself? Crap. Crap, crap, crap. With a cherry on top.

Xander leafed through the science report again, ignoring the words that were far too technical for him and focusing on the pictures of the underground room and the equipment covered in strange symbols. And then suddenly he was staring at Jack through a block of ice like some warped piece of art. He was staring at nothing, his face blank and lifeless, and Xander felt something akin to panic flutter in his chest. Jack in Antarctica, frozen with something in his head that would kill him if he woke up. It hit him then that he might not ever see him again, alive. This picture might be his last. Killed from knowing too much.

Abstractly, Xander knew he should be focusing on the weapon at hand, but Scooby instincts to protect people first and deal with the consequences later kicked in and he couldn’t look away. “What’s been done about getting Jack back?” he asked.

“We’re working on it,” said Dr. Weir. “Several countries have just been briefed on the Stargate Project given the recent attack and are reluctant to let us take anything from the site, but it is a priority. That’s not really relevant to this discussion, however.”

Xander looked up at her. “So he’s just being left there?”

“Director Harris – ”

“He’s got all that stuff in his head that’s killing him and you’re just leaving them there?” He couldn’t believe it. Wasn’t he the guy that had just saved all their asses by knowing what to do? Even if he inadvertently caused the drain to make the weapon work . . . And if he was left there he was as good as dead. Wasn’t there some way they could fix him?

“So this problem you’re addressing,” said Daniel slowly yet abruptly shifting topics. “It has to do with the . . . energy . . . and how it works?”

“I think so, yeah,” said Xander watching the archeologist carefully as he obviously thought through something.

“Then Jack should know,” he said finally. Daniel sat up straighter but seemed hesitant to continue. “He’s got the knowledge of the Ancients who built the weapon. In theory if we revive him, he should be able to tell us what you need to know before . . .”

“His brain leaks out of his ears?” Xander suggested. It was obvious, of course, more so now that it had been thought out loud. And it was terrifying because that would only speed up the deterioration of Jack’s brain once he was thawed, if it had even been stopped at all. He couldn’t risk that, even if what he could tell them would help. “Waking him up will kill him.” And that was the bottom line.

“We’re working on that,” Daniel shifted slightly in his seat with a quick glance at Davis. He tried to smile reassuringly though the worry never left his face. “We’re not going to let him die. We have some allies that can help and when they get here we can do it. We won’t rush into anything.” He turned to Weir. “But there’s got to be a way we can use that to get him back here.”

Peripherally, he heard Daniel, Weir, and Davis start talking diplomacy but he ignored them and instead looked back at the picture of Jack encased in ice, cold and dead-like. Xander wouldn’t lose him this way. He couldn’t. In his head he heard Jack’s words come back to haunt him, words he’d shoved down with anger so they wouldn’t become goodbye. Words he needed to hear again suddenly because sometimes being able to say goodbye was worth it.

There it was, the traitorous thought he’d managed to keep away for the last six days. Jack could die. Was probably going to, in fact. And Xander didn’t want to lose him.

“How much can you tell us about why you need to know about the weapon?” Weir interrupted his morbid thoughts.

“Nothing anyone would believe.”

“Then there’s not much we can bargain with. Barring an act of God, this is going to be very difficult.”

“Then just go kidnap him in the middle of the night,” Xander suggested the simplest answer he could think of. He probably should have kept his mouth closed given the raised eyebrows he was getting, though Daniel did seem more amused than shocked. “Or something,” Xander added hastily.

“Not a bad idea,” Daniel muttered and from the expectant look he gave Weir, Xander figured he must have been harping on getting his best friend back since it had happened.

“Dr. Jackson.”

“I’m just saying . . .” Daniel lifted his hands in his defense.

Dr. Weir gave him a final warning look before she turned to Xander. “We’ll see what we can do. You’re welcome to stay on base. Dr. Jackson, perhaps you could show Director Harris to the commissary?”

“Sure,” Daniel nodded, rising and gathering his things while Xander followed suit and shook hands with both Weir and Davis before following him out the door.

“You want to see the stargate?” Daniel asked as they exited through the door through which Daniel had entered. Xander didn’t even have a chance to say yes as suddenly he was looking at it through the window of the control. It was large. Slate blue-gray in color with symbols and funny triangle things around its edge and a metal pinwheel across its face.

Xander stared at it for a second before saying the first thing that came to mind. “That’s cool!”

Daniel grinned. “Wait till you see it in action. Come on.” With a last look at the portal to other planets – planets! Xander thought excitedly – he followed his guide down the steps into the corridor below. He almost wanted to try it. Andrew was going to be *so* jealous.

“I was surprised to see you here,” said Daniel giving Xander a quick look as they started down the hallway. “You look like you’ve had a rough couple of days.”

“Yeah, well, getting all the magic sucked out of your body while your dad uses it to save the world on top of finding out that he might die afterwards will do that to you,” Xander replied. That got Daniel’s attention, his step faltering a second before reestablishing itself.

“Jack called you?” he asked. Xander nodded. “And the . . . magic . . .?”

Xander sighed and returned the curious gaze, clear and hiding nothing. Xander was relieved that there was someone else who knew about his world that he could talk to in this cold place. Another person who, even if he didn’t get it all, wouldn’t disbelieve him or the magnitude of what they were facing. It probably broke all the rules, but he didn’t care. Rules were made to be ignored. “I’ll tell you over breakfast.”

**************************************************************************************

Daniel and Xander’s interesting breakfast took place in a forgotten corner of the dining hall and was joined midway through by Jack’s other friends Sam and Teal’c. Xander eyed them carefully at first – he hadn’t seen them since Christmas – but nevertheless recapped what he’d already told Daniel and finished with the guesses the Scoobies had made. Daniel and Sam both asked questions focusing on the details of the drain, which they accepted as magic with little protest, and on the nature of magic in the world and what its loss meant. Surprisingly, they knew more than Xander had first thought they did.

“We had a long talk with Mr. Giles,” Sam told him with an amused smile when he asked.

“And did a little reading on our own,” Daniel added with a shrug. “You’d be surprised at how many Internet sources there are on the supernatural the way you described it.”

“Trust me. They’re all bookmarked on our computer,” Xander replied with a grin of his own that the others shared. Except for Teal’c who was starting to make Xander uncomfortable as always. Xander didn’t think he would ever figure the guy out.

He took another bite of soggy French toast as silence fell over them briefly, the other three not bothering to fill it with chatter as they turned back to their own neglected cups of coffee. It was kinda funny how they had just pulled him into their circle. Sam and Teal’c’s arrival had effectively shielded Xander from the rest of the room. At Christmas, he hadn’t talked much with them beyond the little stuff so it was a little awkward not knowing what to say. But on the other hand, there was no pressure. Sam smiled when his eye met hers, and Daniel seemed to be distracted by his thoughts again. He was probably thinking about Jack, wondering like Xander was about what would happen to him.

“How was he when he . . . you know . . . fired the weapon?” Xander asked suddenly. Jack’s friends all looked at him then each other before Daniel answered.

“He’d already lost the ability to speak English,” he said quietly. “The migraines hadn’t set in yet though.”

“So when they wake him up . . . You can fix him, right?”

“We’ve been trying to get in touch with the Asgard,” said Sam. “They took the library out of his head last time.”

“Asgard?” Xander didn’t recognize the name that must have belonged to the allies Daniel had mentioned earlier. And more importantly, “Last time?”

“Another alien race with advanced technology,” Daniel explained. “We met them the last time it happened.”

“O’Neill is friends with a commander in their fleet,” added Teal’c. “If they can help, they will.”

The relief that surged through him that Jack had lived through this before was short-lived. “When did you call them?” The question sparked another round of worried looks and Xander knew that it had been far too long ago for comfort.

“Last week when he downloaded the library,” Sam told him.

“I’m sensing a need for plan B,” said Xander, abruptly putting down his fork. He wasn’t so hungry anymore. Of course, what did he know about getting in touch with aliens, anyway? Even if the three people sitting with him thought it was taking too long and were worried and –

“Xander,” said Daniel gently. “We’ll get him back.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes,” said Teal’c, surprising Xander enough to look up at him. “We will find a solution. If the Asgard do not come, then we will find a way to replenish the Earth’s magical forces and your friend will restore him in your manner.” The calm confidence in his voice was reassuring and the belief that Willow would be able to cure Jack comforting. “O’Neill will never stop fighting. Do not give up on him.”

“I know. I’m not. It’s just . . .” Xander picked his fork back up and started resolutely picking at his sodden toast, unsure how to put his feelings into words.

“He’s your father,” said Daniel for him, and Xander heard in his voice understanding of what he was going through because the three of them were struggling with the same thing for their friend, their brother.

“Yeah,” Xander quietly agreed looking around at knowing eyes. And it didn’t seem so weird that he was a part of this group, in this place, at this time. Not so weird at all.

******************************************************************************************

When they met back in the conference room a few hours later, Dr. Weir greeted them with a smile. “Good news, gentlemen,” she said. “The ambassadors have managed to come to an agreement. Dropping the name of your organization did wonders for the negotiation,” she looked at Xander with unvoiced questions undoubtedly running amok behind her eyes. “Once the British ambassador heard you were looking into the situation he apparently disappeared to make a few phone calls and came back supporting Colonel O’Neill’s return to us.”

“What can I say? We’re connected,” Xander said modestly, giving grudging points to the old Council.

“Yes, you are,” Weir agreed with the unreadable look. “We’re expecting his return once the scientists have figured out how to get him here.”

“Thank you,” said Xander in relief. One obstacle down, fourteen gazillion to go.

“I’ve assigned you quarters in the VIP rooms while we wait. Until then I only ask that you stay with your escort.” She nodded to the airman by the door. “Dr. Jackson, if I might have a word?”

The meeting obviously over, Xander went and followed his new friend to the ugly little room they’d given him a few floors up. Dark colors, boring walls, what was it with the military? And of course, absolutely nothing to do. So Xander did the only thing he could: kicked off his shoes, threw his coat on a chair, and went to sleep.

A few hours later a knock on the door woke him with a start, his new surroundings confusing him for a minute before he put two and four together to get three in the missing spot. When he got up to answer it, he found Daniel at the door grinning like a loon.

“You’re not gonna believe this,” he said excitedly.

“Jack’s here?”

“No, not that, but almost as good,” Daniel shook his head coming in. “Kinsey has just been quarantined in the infirmary.”

“Kinsey? The guy who wanted me kidnapped?” Xander stared at him. The Vice President of the United States Kinsey?

“The very same. Did you know the President fired him during the attack?”

“He did what?!” Xander found a chair and sat in it, Daniel joining him

“Fired him. Dr. Weir just told me when she told me he was back and in quarantine.” Daniel was still grinning. “Apparently he tried to run to another planet to hide.”

“And the President fired him?”

“Yeah.” Daniel paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know under normal circumstances I would feel bad for the guy, but considering how much I hate him . . . Anyway,” he pulled himself back from his rambling thoughts. “He was on his way back to Washington when he suddenly developed a nasty case of boils on his ass.” Daniel lifted innocent eyebrows at Xander who couldn’t stop the glee from surfacing. “Now the firing is . . . understandable. Normal even. But the boils . . . well they figure they’re some sort of alien virus that he picked up here. Funny thing is, no one else seems to have the same symptoms.”

“You know, I have this friend,” said Xander conversationally as he leaned back in his chair, very satisfied with life at the moment. “And you really shouldn’t try to hurt people she cares about. She gets a little cranky.”

Daniel smiled, his arms crossed comfortably across his chest as he too sat back very satisfied with poetic justice. A major pain in the ass for the major pain in the ass. “Does she like presents?”

*************************************************************************************

By dinnertime, Xander was bored. Very bored. All this free time waiting and nothing to do. Not even a TV to rot his brain on. He’d hung out with Daniel for a while, but he hadn’t been too interested in all the translating stuff and eventually he’d drifted back to his room with a book on mythology that wasn’t nearly as interesting as Daniel had said it was. He couldn’t get out of there fast enough when Sam came by to ask him to dinner.

“Oh, thank you!” said Xander. “I was ready to tear out the pages and play wasteketball. Here, take this,” he handed off the book before harm accidentally befell it.

Sam only grinned at his antics. “You’re as bad as the Colonel,” she said fondly, which made Xander shake his head in embarrassed pleasure. He was his own person, had been for a long time, but it was still nice to hear.

“Hey, you’ve had something to do all day,” Xander defended himself. “I have done nothing but catch up in sleep and imagine how much pain Kinsey must be in.”

“You guys really did it, didn’t you?” said Sam with a bit of amazement thrown in her tone. “I honestly didn’t think it would happen,” she shook her head. “When I heard he’d been fired, I thought Hayes had just finally seen him for the jerk he was. Nothing magic about that. But the boils . . . how the hell did you manage that?”

“Wishful thinking,” Xander deadpanned. Sam cut her eyes at him with a look that told him she knew there was a little devil somewhere behind that innocent expression.

As they rounded the next corner, it took a few seconds for Xander to notice it. And when he did, he thought it was just the hall and the strange place. His steps slowed and Sam stopped as he did, staring at him curiously.

“Xander, are you all right?” she asked, worry at his abrupt change in behavior now marring her brow.

Xander held very still, one hand coming up in the universal ‘wait’ gesture. Senses suddenly turned on to their max, he listened, his eye darting back and forth trying to pinpoint whatever it was, though he had a fairly good idea. Things were *shifting*. Subtly and more slowly than before, but nonetheless sliding back into place, feeling inexplicably right.

“Something’s happened,” he said quietly, his eye finding Sam.

“Xander?” She stepped towards him and laid her hand lightly on his arm.

“In Antarctica. Everything’s right again. Or getting there faster than it was.”

“Everything . . .” Sam trailed off getting it. “We need to tell Dr. Weir.”

“No!” said Xander. At Sam’s startled expression he explained. “If we tell her, I have to leave, and if I leave I won’t see Jack.”

“We still need to figure out what caused the correction,” said Sam. “You don’t have to leave till after we figure that out.”

She was right, he supposed. They had to know what had changed so they would know what not to do to prevent the drain from ever happening again. At the moment though, Xander needed to make a phone call.

***********************************************************************************

In the end, Sam did convince Xander that they needed to tell Weir, but only after he called Giles so it looked like the confirmation was the original report. Weir listened and agreed that Xander could stay until the situation was resolved and after two days and a lot of confusing reports that Xander was only too happy to let Sam translate, they had an answer. Sort of.

The simple explanation was that it had to do with unplugging the thing Jack had plugged in. The complicated part had to do with connections and energy and Laws of Thermodynamics that made Xander’s head hurt. The plan was still to pick Jack’s brain before it up and walked out on him, but for that they were still waiting on the Asgard. Xander was waiting on Willow.

But Xander didn’t really care about any of the ‘whys’. As far as he was concerned, the crisis had been averted and he didn’t really care about the details. All they had to do was not use the key thing again and they wouldn’t have any more problems.

No, what Xander cared about was the other significant event that took place that day: the return of Jack’s partially frozen body. He’d arrived that afternoon, the surprising de-stasitizing process already begun by the key’s unplugging in Antarctica, but it was thankfully slow going. The doctors were all scratching their heads, trying to figure out how he wasn’t dead as he slowly recovered his normal body temperature like a thawing turkey left to sit on the counter. At a loss, they had finally stopped hovering for the night. A little nurse distraction by Daniel and guard distraction by Teal’c and Xander found himself in a chair in the isolated room where Jack lay as still as death.

But not dead yet. Xander had been sitting there just watching him since Sam had left some twenty minutes ago. Silver hair framed a peaceful if pale face with lips that were a little too purple for comfort. Jack looked older, tired. Frail. It was at once frightening and heartening to see him there so vulnerable but still alive. The monitoring equipment hummed in the background.

“I know I told you to call me,” Xander finally broke the silence softly. “But then you had to go popsicle on me and now I’m the one calling on you. I hate hospitals but I guess you know about that with Dawn and all.” He stopped. They always said talking helped. Sometimes Xander wondered. “Sure made a mess of things, huh? But it got you back anyway. Can you believe those guys, fighting over who gets what with you just stuck there? I’ll never get politicians. Oh, and you’ll never guess what happened to Kinsey . . . though I think I’ll tell you when you wake up. You’d appreciate it more.” He paused again while Jack continued to breathe in and out, in and out. Xander hated watching him. Hated sitting by his bed waiting. He hated knowing that the last thing he’d said had been harsh and cruel and deep in denial.

“I’m sorry I was mad at you,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you finish saying what you needed to say. I just couldn’t . . . couldn’t think about losing you.” Xander sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees letting his head sag down a moment before looking back up at the man who had just waltzed into his life last summer. Had it really been almost a year already? “It was kind of scary actually. When you said you were proud of me. Not a run-for-your-life scared, but you know . . . It’s been a long time since anyone’s said that to me. My dad, Tony, when we talked he would yell. Of course, he was drunk most of the time – you can imagine how pleasant that was.” Xander let out a dry chuckle. “In less than a year and from another state you managed to be more my dad than he’d been since . . . a long time. I keep saying that – ‘long time.’

“I guess what I’m saying is that you can’t die on me, Jack. You can’t die on me because I don’t want it to be another long time before someone decides to hop a plane for me because of one crazy phone call in the middle of the night. Not that you have to do that every time, but it’s the thought that counts, right? Right.” He trailed off.

“Teal’c says we’ll find a way to put your marbles back in your head. You’ve got some cool friends, though I almost killed one of Daniel’s books. Sam said I was as bad as you about that. I can see that. You know I have an irrational fear of old books? Comes from reading too many trying to save the world. Giles just loves them. It’s always about the books with him. Though I did find a TV at his apartment back in Sunnydale, so there is proof that he’s moved into the twentieth century. Hasn’t made it to the twenty-first yet, but we’re working on him. Did I tell you about how he killed his cell phone? There was a demon involved but I think Giles just used that as an excuse.”

Xander rambled on, talking about anything and everything that popped into his head. He didn’t know how long he sat there, just that he couldn’t stop talking. He talked until he no longer made sense to himself and the pauses between ramblings grew longer and longer. The whole while, Jack breathed in and out, in and out, steady and strong until he seemed to be more sleeping than just lying there half-dead. And when Teal’c came in and told him to go to bed, Xander left feeling at peace for the first time since Jack’s phone call. His father might not have been out of the woods yet, but he was going to be fine.


Fifteen Thousand Miles From Earth

When Xander innocently passed by the infirmary the next morning, he was surprised to meet Dr. Weir in the hallway about to go in. “Director Harris,” she greeted him warmly with her customary professional politeness.

“Dr. Weir,” Xander nodded back.

“I was just going to check on Colonel O’Neill. Would you care to join me?”

A bit startled by the offer, Xander nodded and followed her through the infirmary door. A nurse noticed their arrival and went to fetch the doctor on duty who was introduced as Dr. Brightman. She sighed when Weir asked about Jack.

“According to our estimates, he will be physically recovered by early tomorrow morning. His vital signs all show consistent improvement which is accelerating as he warms up. The levels still lay well below survivable hypothermic conditions, but he’s alive.” The doctor seemed at a loss to explain. “None of us have ever seen a thermal recovery like this before. We think it must be linked to the anomalous reading we saw in the MRI yesterday. We have another one scheduled for 1100. Hopefully we’ll know more then.”

“And the brain damage?”

“As far as we can tell, that process has been retarded as well,” said Dr. Brightman. “Recovery, from what I understand, will be impossible without the Asgard. You can go on and see him, if you wish.”

“Thank you,” said Weir. Dr. Brightman led them to the private room and left them at the door. Xander was surprised to see Teal’c sitting by Jack’s bed. He rose when they entered.

“Dr. Weir, Xander Harris,” he greeted them. After a moment, he added, “Would you like privacy?”

“Yes, please. Thank you,” Weir nodded. Bowing slightly and giving Xander a lingering look, Teal’c left.

Jack seemed much as he had the night before, like he was sleeping. The monitors were all still attached and providing background noise. Weir moved to the foot of the bed and was silent. Unsure, Xander hesitantly came and stood beside her, his own thoughts revolving around tomorrow and what would happen then.

“I understand you lost your escort last night.” Taken by surprise, Xander turned to the woman beside him like a deer in headlights. “You came here?” She looked at him already knowing the answer.

“Yeah,” said Xander.

“May I ask why?” But he remained silent, tearing his gaze away from her to the still body on the bed. “Director Harris, please understand I’m not accusing you of anything,” Weir said. “You’ve been spending most of your stay here with SG-1, and last night they sneaked you in here where you sat till nearly four this morning. You haven’t been very forthcoming in your reasons for being here and if you have an ulterior motive, I’d like to know.”

Xander almost laughed. Sure he had an ulterior motive: making sure Jack lived, but there wasn’t much he could do about that at the moment. First he had to finish thawing, then he had to call Giles to see what could be done, see if Willow was okay, or barring that another witch, hopefully closer. He might have to call LA. Angel was sure to have someone who could pull off the tricky magic, though it killed Xander to ask the vampire.

“Daniel and Teal’c let me in. Shouldn’t that speak for it self?” he asked.

“It begs the question to why.”

“It has nothing to do with why I’m here.”

“All right, Director Harris,” Weir’s voice sharpened and when he looked, her gaze was as cool and commanding as any slayer’s, one that said don’t-mess-with-me. “I will accept that for now. But understand that this man is under my command and that any threats to him will be dealt with accordingly.”

“I’m not a threat.”

“Just so we’re clear,” said Weir. She turned and started heading for the door.

Xander watched her back for a full second before he impulsively called out, “He’s my father.” Weir turned, raised eyebrows the only show of surprise at his announcement. “You can ask Daniel or Teal’c or Sam,” he added. If she wanted more proof he bet he could find the paternity confirmation at Jack’s house, but he didn’t think he needed it.

“I didn’t know he had a son,” she said.

“You’ve only been here a week.” Weir nodded in acknowledgment, eyes darting from Jack to him as she absorbed this new information. “Thanks though,” added Xander. At her inquiring look he smiled. “For threatening me. It means a lot.”

Weir smiled in return. “Thank you for telling me.” With a final nod she left him to his visit.

Xander sighed as he settled into the chair Teal’c had recently vacated, a mixed feeling of pride and dread clenching his stomach. His gut instinct about her better not be wrong, he thought, but he didn’t think it was.

“Dr. Weir, please come to the briefing room,” the PA system requested. Xander looked up curiously but knew that until his name was called he wouldn’t be welcome. So he stayed and wondered how the girls were doing at home, prayed there wouldn’t be anyone else in the hospital, and that Andrew was still in one piece. He didn’t know how much time had passed as he let his thoughts wander to friends far and wide.

But when Jack’s body disappeared in a flash of white light he was up and running out the door before his heart had started beating again.

********************************************************************************************

Numb . . . cold . . . floating . . . There were noises around him . . . humming but not a song. There was light . . . then it was gone. Words, smells, all faded back into fog. There was no hurry. What would come would come. He was safe.

Time melted. Sounds came again more insistently. Familiar sounds that converged into words that Jack knew. Questions asked that he had answers to. Answers that faded and words that transformed into gibberish that he couldn’t understand. Awareness slowly pushed back the fog. He tried to open his eyes, but they were heavy. He sighed in frustration and tried again. The voices stopped.

“Jack?”

He opened his eyes. “Daniel?” Slowly turning his head at the semi-familiar surroundings, he found his friend smiling at him, arms crossed across his chest. And beside him was another, much shorter friend. “Thor!”

“Greetings, O’Neill. It is good to see you well,” the tiny gray alien inclined his head briefly before coming over and releasing him from the medical pod. Still stiff, sore, and cold and with a crushing headache, Jack slowly sat up and swung his legs over the side. The first thought that came to mind was to wonder what was he doing here, but through the haze in his head, he remembered, the planet with the library. That was about it.

“Jack?” asked Daniel concerned now.

“Anubis?” he asked. Daniel nodded.

“No longer a threat. How much do you remember?”

“Not much.” It wasn’t so much a haze anymore as a blank, with pieces snapping out too fast too see every once in a while. He tried to identify them as Daniel recounted the last couple days of the mission.

“And then you put yourself in stasis,” Daniel finished.

“How long?”

“Five days. You actually started defrosting when they removed the power source from the chair two days ago. Thor got here this morning.”

“Impeccable timing as ever,” Jack smiled at Thor.

“I am only sorry I could not arrive sooner.”

“Hey, you got here,” Jack said lightly. He stood up to protesting muscles, experimentally stretching his arms. The burning stretch felt refreshingly good. “Don’t happen to have anything for a headache, do you?” But Thor shook his head.

“We should probably be getting back,” said Daniel.

“Oh? What’s up?”

“I think I’ll let Xander explain.”

Jack stopped and did a double take at his friend who was most definitely sporting a grin and waiting for him to ask. Jack didn’t disappoint him. “Xander is at the SGC?”

“Yep.”

“My Xander.”

“Showed up three days ago.”

“Daniel,” Jack growled at his friend for withholding information.

“Who is Xander?” interrupted Thor. “And why is he yours? Does not your race abhor slavery?”

“What? No,” Jack started, turning to the short alien. “Xander’s not a slave or anything.”

“Then how is he yours?”

Jack stared at him for a long moment then said, “He’s my son.”

“Your offspring?” Thor actually seemed surprised. “I did not realize that you had any.”

“Yeah, well,” Jack shrugged. Neither had he. “And he’s at the SGC?” he turned back to Daniel who nodded.

“I think I would like to meet your offspring,” said Thor.

But Jack still had more questions for Daniel and only told the Asgard commander, “Sure,” before asking his teammate in a carefully deliberate voice. “Why is Xander at the SCG?”

“Well –” was as far as Daniel got when the sound of an Asgard transporter interrupted.

“What the –”

“Are you Xander?” asked Thor. And sure enough, Jack’s son was standing on Thor’s ship.

“Ahhhgg!” Xander jumped back when he caught sight of diminutive Supreme Commander, his hands reaching for his belt, no doubt for a weapon that wasn’t there. Shell shocked by his sudden . . . appropriation, Xander could only stare. Jack didn’t know whether to laugh or jump up and hug him. Or yell at Thor, though he really wasn’t angry at the little guy.

“Thor!” said Daniel at the exact same time that Jack said, “Xander!”

“Jack!” the young man was clearly surprised to see him alive and well.

“Hey, kid. How’s it going?” Jack sauntered over, grinning at the utter confusion on his son’s face as he darted looks from Thor to Jack and Daniel to the sleek grey room they stood in. Numbly he took Jack’s offered hand.

“Okay. Stop.” Xander closed his eye and shook his head, disbelief in every line of his face when he opened it again. “Explanations would be good now. The whole disappearing, shiny room, and you not half dead and crazy, and please tell me I’m hallucinating,” he glanced at Thor.

Jack grinned at the confused string of words. “You’re not hallucinating.”

“Okay. Right. You sure? ‘Cause I’d be happy to be.”

“Xander, I’d like you to meet Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. Buddy of mine, well known for coming and saving our butts every once in a while.” He got another long incredulous stare before Xander blinked and let go of his hand. He eyed Thor up and down warily before glancing back at Jack to see if it was a joke. Jack grinned and nodded back towards Thor who was waiting patiently. Xander took a deep breath and offered his hand.

“Nice to meet you,” he said. “Sorry about all that, just not used to the transporter thing.” And when their hands shook, Xander broke out into a grin. “My friend Andrew is going to be *so* jealous.”

**********************************************************************

By the time Jack and Daniel had finished explaining the healing thing, Xander’s heart was back in his chest. He’d spent half the discussion staring at Thor who had been just as curious about him. Xander found that once he’d wrapped his head around the fact that he was on a spaceship, everything else was easier to accept. Just another factor of weirdness to add to his already weird life.

Thor was nice too. He showed Xander around the control room and answered his half joking questions about ray guns and shields (which he had after a fashion) and photon torpedoes (which he didn’t) with utmost seriousness. Jack and Daniel were amused, both adding comments here and there. “You should see the Goa’uld run in fear of these babies,” Jack said of the ship.

All and all Xander was rather impressed. And a little disappointed. Thor and his ship were pretty cool in and of themselves, but the barrenness of the interior felt cold and hard. Alien. He shook his head ruefully as they reconvened back by the tube bed. That was the point wasn’t it? That this ship and the little person with big black eyes were from another planet. They were not a part of the Earth.

“So why did you bring me up here?” Xander asked once the tour was over.

“I wanted to meet the offspring of my friend O’Neill,” said Thor in his soft and formal tones. Xander looked over at Jack who shrugged back.

“Oh,” Xander didn’t know what else to say.

“So what do you think?” Jack saved him from adding anything else. “Good kid, huh?”

Xander glared. “I’m hardly a kid,” he groused, but both Thor and Jack ignored him, while Daniel gave him a sympathetic smile.

“He possesses your same instinct for humor,” Thor nodded. “And he carries himself well in the face of new experiences.”

“Yeah well,” Xander shrugged embarrassed, “this is hardly the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.” One of the weirdest, but face it, he’d *dated* weirder.

“So what were you doing at the SGC anyway?” asked Jack. He was sitting back on the pod like he had been when Xander had first arrived, reminding him that not four hours ago, Jack had been hooked up to a bunch of machines to make sure he was still alive. It almost bothered him that he’d gone through all the trouble of worrying about him to just find him here on this ship, healthy as a clam. The technology around him a kind of magic in its own way.

“Oh you know, looking for the Earth’s magical energy,” Xander said lightly though he felt anything but. He was rewarded with two incredulous eyebrows rising. “That weapon you used ripped the magic from the Earth.”

“The power source looks like it’s really a conduit for channeling magical power,” said Daniel. “It acts like a magnet – or it enables one – that draws power from the Earth. We tried to ask you about it while you were recovering and you kept repeating ‘One world, one life, one source,’ over and over no matter how I asked the questions. So we went ahead and woke you up.”

“He did?” asked Xander

“I did?” said Jack.

“Those were the only words,” Thor confirmed. “They do not make sense to me, nor does this magical force that Dr. Jackson told me of.”

“It’s like doing stuff with technology without the technology,” Xander tried to explain. “You say some words, sometimes you need a ritual, and you make stuff happen.”

“Interesting,” said Thor, tilting his head slightly. “I would like to see some of this magic.”

“I can’t really do any on my own,” said Xander. “Some people can, the rest of us need the rituals and stuff to help.” He tried to avoid it these days anyway.

“What do you need?”

“I, uh, I’d need a spell book first, so I’d know what to do. Then probably lizard guts or something,” said Xander, not quite sure how to answer. He also had sneaking suspicion that he needed to be on Earth unless he was someone like Willow who had a heapful of innate power.

“Next time you’re on Earth, Thor, we’ll see about getting you a demo,” Jack came to his rescue. “If you have time now . . .?”

“No. I am afraid I do not have much time to spare. I have already stayed too long.”

“We owe you,” said Jack solemnly as he stood.

“I have lost track,” said Thor. He turned to Xander. “It was an honor to meet the child of the great O’Neill.”

‘The great O’Neill?’ Xander glanced questioningly at his father who just grinned and shrugged again then nodded to Thor. “Thanks for having me and showing me around.” Andrew was never going to believe this . . . unless . . . “Do you have a pen?” he asked Daniel who blinked in surprise before patting his pockets and coming up with a Sharpie. Xander accepted it while hitting his own pockets for something to write on, but he didn’t have anything. “Could you, uh . . . sign my sleeve?” he offered the pen and his covered arm to the small alien, vaguely embarrassed for asking but knowing that he’d regret it if he didn’t. He refused to look at Jack who he heard mutter “For crying out loud!” and Daniel who he was pretty sure was snickering.

Thor, while his expression didn’t really change, was obviously confused, but he got the idea when Xander told him to write, ‘To Xander, friend of the Asgard, Supreme Commander Thor,’ in alien symbols on his shirt.

“A peculiar custom,” said Thor as he handed back the pen.

“It’s a reminder that we met,” said Xander. “You know, in case anyone doesn’t believe me.”

“Ah.” Thor nodded. “Then will you write for me?”

Xander looked up from admiring his sleeve. “What?”

“Will you not write for me?”

“Uh, sure,” Xander grinned.

“Hey! How come he never asked me for an autograph?” Jack complained quietly in the background while Thor went and retrieved one of the half-egg things from the control panel.

“Jack, he named a ship after you,” said Daniel patiently.

A whole ship? Xander looked up and wanted to ask but since Thor was handing him the stone, he decided to get it out of him later. ‘To Thor, friend of the Watcher’s Council of Earth, Xander Harris, Watcher, N.A.’

“Thank you,” Thor seemed to smile as he accepted back the stone, though Xander wasn’t quite sure. “I will now return you to your base.”

Another short round of goodbyes and Thor sent them back so quickly that Xander didn’t have time to feel it. Instead, he found himself between Jack and Daniel in the middle of the conference room at the SGC where Dr. Weir, Major Davis, and Sam were all waiting for them.

***********************************************************************************

Jack let his mind wander over appropriate gifts for a twenty-something witch during the briefing that was taking much longer than necessary. For once his post-mission – or he should say post-revival – physical had come with a very nice treat. He’d thought it was a conspiracy at first with his teammates and Xander grinning like that, so he’d followed them warily to the observation room, which, Daniel explained, just happened to look over the quarantine infirmary room, where a certain Vice President was being monitored for a sudden case of boils.

Jack would never forget the look on Kinsey’s face when he’d seen Jack grinning down at him. The obscenities and empty threats just bounced of the glass as far as he was concerned, turning the good Vice President purple with rage. There wasn’t a thing he could do to Jack from his little room. Ever again. It was deeply satisfying.

“How long will the boils last?” he’d asked Xander over his shoulder.

“Oh, there’s no going back,” Xander had said cheerfully. “Vengeance is forever. He’ll probably have an unnaturally long life, too.”

Jack couldn’t think of anyone who deserved it more, which was why he was thinking about Daniel’s suggestion of getting Willow a present. Unfortunately he had no idea what would be a good gift. He needed to ask Xander, but his son was sitting too far away to slip a note, so he would just have to wait for the briefing to finish.

They were still going on about the nonsense he’d spouted while still in Ancient mode. Dr. Weir was interested in implications for future defense and of course, Daniel was no help in wrapping things up, and neither was Carter for that matter. Davis, the lucky bastard, had gotten out while the going was good.

Jack wondered if he could get away with sending Xander a paper airplane note. He could tell his son had no more interest in the briefing than he did. Xander had declared straight out that he had no idea what the phrase meant. But he had put on his guileless face, the one that suggested he wasn’t anymore than a simple man that left all the heavy thinking to others. Jack had a feeling that Xander had a very good idea what ‘one world, one life, one source,’ meant, and he wasn’t sharing. He wondered if he should call him on it, but since Weir wasn’t cleared for the supernatural, he decided to get it out of him later.

Xander only spoke when asked a question and the rest of the time ignored the conversation while he inspected his sleeve where Thor had written his autograph. Jack had no doubt that the first thing Xander would do when he got home was frame it. Jack shook his head just imagining Andrew’s speechlessness.

“Dr. Weir?” Jack interrupted, finally having enough. “Can’t all this be summed up in a report?”

Weir regarded him a moment as a small smile eeked across her face. “Impatient to go home?” she asked.

“When you put it like that . . .” Jack noticed Xander’s head come up at the new direction in conversation.

“Very well, Director Harris, if you have nothing to add?” Xander shook his head quickly, “Then the formal briefing is dismissed. Dr. Jackson, Major Carter, you’re welcome to stay.”

“Thank you.” Jack rose to his feet, Xander and Teal’c doing the same. Happy to escape they made for the doors and as they did, Weir called out,

“Enjoy your visit!”

Surprisingly, it was Xander who turned and nodded. Once they were out the door, Jack asked, “What was that all about?”

Xander looked at him then quickly away, taking two more steps before he answered. “I told her you were my dad.”

Teal’c almost ran into Jack, he stopped so fast. He didn’t know if it was the fact that Xander had told her or that he’d actually used ‘my’ and ‘dad’ in the same sentence. “You did?” he said stupidly.

“You told Thor,” Xander defended himself. “Besides it’s not like it’s a dirty secret or anything.”

“No. No, it’s not.” Jack grinned. He couldn’t believe it. He just . . . it topped seeing Kinsey miserable. ‘My dad.’ He hadn’t heard those words said like that since Charlie. He’d wondered if he ever would again, even once Xander had come into his life. And now he had.

********************************************************************************************

Xander noticed that Jack’s smile didn’t fade on the way to the VIP quarters to grab his stuff or on the elevator ride to the surface. Jack had tried to keep it cool with light questions about Chinese takeout and whatnot, but his underlying happiness was hard for even him to keep in.

Xander just played along. The briefing had given him a lot of time to think, and after the initial reminders to himself to call Giles and see what could be done about getting control of the thing that had caused the magic drain, his thoughts had turned back to Jack.

His dad. He still didn’t know why he had told Dr. Weir. He still didn’t know why he felt weird about telling her. As he’d told Jack later, it *wasn’t* a secret, but at the same time it felt like it was, something only to share with close friends. Family.

Family. It had made him smile. For Xander, family were the people you went to to get away from your relatives.

Most of his relatives were gone now. None of them had tried to find him after Sunnydale, or if they had, he’d never known about it. And he didn’t really mind. He hadn’t been their grandson or nephew or cousin for a long time. Or son.

But he was Jack’s, and more than that, he wanted to be. And despite the universe conspiring against them, he was going to be for a long time.

“So is that a normal week for you?” he asked Jack after they had passed the last checkpoint.

“More or less,” said Jack. “We actually don’t get attacked by Goa’uld in ships that often. And Thor doesn’t stop by that much either.”

“But the whole nearly dying because of alien crap in your head?”

Jack shrugged. “It‘s part of the job. Would the danger make you stop what you do?”

“No, I get it,” said Xander. “Don’t think I really did before.” He really hadn’t. Aliens had been abstract and Jack dying . . . he hadn’t let himself think about that until he’d actually seen him. “Thor’s cool though,” he said to get off that train of thought.

“I can’t believe you asked for his autograph,” Jack shook his head. “And I can’t believe he asked for yours.”

“Well, I am the child of the *great* O’Neill,” Xander glanced at him sideways.

“Thor likes me,” said Jack smugly.

“Did he really name a ship after you?”

“Yep.”

“Cool.”

“Carter blew it up though.”

“ ‘Blew up’ as in ‘kablewie’?”

“Long story.”

“That sucks.” Xander grinned at a sudden thought. “Don’t tell Andrew that part.”

***********************************************************************************

They stopped for Chinese takeout on the way home which had led to an ardent discussion of what was good and what was not. Cashew Chicken turned out to be the only thing they could agree on so they each ended up with a couple cartons of their own, which suited Jack just fine since that meant more of the good stuff for him.

Once they were back at the house, Jack headed immediately to the kitchen for two bottles of beer and a couple of forks. In the den, Xander had thrown his jacket in the armchair and settled down on the couch, pushing magazines around on the coffee table looking for the remote control.

“Here,” Jack handed him a beer and a fork which Xander accepted absently as he clicked on the TV. Jack sat next to him, fishing his Beef with Broccoli out of the bag along with his share of the egg rolls.

“Any channel requests?” asked Xander, one-handedly grabbing the rice and his Spicy Mongolian Beef.

“Twenty-five,” said Jack sitting back. Xander switched it to ESPN.

“I should have guessed,” he said, sitting back himself and plopping his feet on the coffee table.

“Shoes!” Jack elbowed him. Xander kicked his shoes over the opposite edge where they fell to the floor in two thunks.

“So what’re we looking at? Death toll?” he asked.

“Scores,” Jack ignored the sarcasm with the ease that came from putting up with Daniel. The past week had been the last of the NHL regular season. As he read the ticker tape summary of the day’s games he noted that there had been no major upsets.

“I can’t believe you watch this every week,” said Xander. “It’s so boring.”

“You watch sci-fi,” Jack replied. “That’s just plain bad.”

“You just don’t like it ‘cause you shoot aliens for a living. Face it, you might’ve liked it otherwise.”

Jack tore his eyes away from the screen long enough to say, “I didn’t watch *Star Wars* till Teal’c rented it.”

Xander shrugged. “I didn’t watch *Interview With a Vampire* until after I met Buffy. And let me tell you, that movie was crap. Vampires are nothing like that.”

“What about artistic license?”

“Did you like *Star Wars*?” Xander asked pointedly.

“Yeah, it was all right,” Jack admitted. “It’s just a movie. Have you seen the show *Wormhole X-treme*?”

“The one that came out a couple years ago? Once or twice. Andrew doesn’t even like it much.”

“Where do you think they got the idea for it?” Jack asked. That got Xander’s attention and stopped his fork halfway from his mouth.

“It’s based on you? The Stargate thing? No way!”

“I can’t *say* anything, but loosely,” Jack nodded.

“*Wormhole X-treme*?”

“I said loosely,” Jack reiterated. He’d been on set and seen part of an episode himself so he knew it was bad. But Xander was laughing now. “And don’t tell Andrew,” he ordered because he knew that his next visit would be hell if the ultimate nerd ever found out.

“No telling Andrew, got it,” Xander said between snickers. “Until I want something . . . Colonel Ace Danning!”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” Hearing the name of the character based on him, Jack knew he shouldn’t have told him. But his outburst only made Xander laugh harder. Jack tried to ignore him and focus on what the anchor was saying about playoffs while he ate his dinner, relieved when Xander finally started to calm down.

“Does Thor come over for guest appearances?” Xander lost it again.

“Just you wait until there’s a TV character based on you,” Jack grumbled. In need of something more distracting he reached for the remote by Xander’s knee. “And if you kick over the food, you’re cleaning it up,” he told him.

“I won’t kick anything over,” Xander protested, nevertheless stilling his twitching limbs. “Hey, flip to the Cartoon Network.”

Jack obliged, but only after going through ESPN2, CNN, and the local channels first. There was nothing on except the *PowerPuff Girls* and Jack let the episode wash over him, content to sit and eat, drink, and relax. Beside him, Xander chuckled at the cartoon, at home on the couch. He finally seemed to have let the *Wormhole X-treme* thing go, but then he would glance at Jack and snicker. Jack pretended to glare at him which only made Xander laugh harder until Jack felt a contagious grin pull at his own lips. Shaking his head, Jack settled into the show, content to sit a watch and laugh with the young man by his side. It felt good and right in a way that Jack had almost forgotten.

By the end of two episodes, they had finished eating for the most part. Jack gathered together the empty cartons and bottles as the credits rolled, trying to get them together so he only had to make one trip to the trash. Xander helped put things in his hands, his earlier jovial expression giving way to something more serious. He seemed to want to say something, and Jack didn’t think it was the “thanks” he got. Not worrying about it, Jack took his load to the kitchen.

He was just reaching to get to the recycle bin for the bottles when Xander called out, “Hey, Dad, can you grab some napkins?”

Jack stopped. Turned. Looked through to the living room. “What?” It came out shaky. But Xander had just called him . . .

“Napkins,” Xander repeated, staring him back straight in the eye. And Jack knew that Xander knew exactly what he had just said. And that he knew what Jack was really asking. When Jack didn’t move right away, he added, “Like the nickname? ‘Cause it’s either that or ‘Ace’ . . .” his son grinned sheepishly, looking down and away then back, uncertain and almost afraid but at the same time defiant.

“No, ‘Dad’ is fine,” said Jack a smile breaking out across his own face even as he felt like the sun was rising in his chest and he wasn’t big enough to hold in all the love and pride he felt for Xander at that moment.

“Good,” said Xander, breaking out into a relived smile. “Napkins.”

“Right, napkins,” Jack shook away his shock and grabbed some napkins before rejoining his son in the den.


Sixteen Happier Endings

It was like watching chickens run around with their heads cut off, Jack decided. From his perch by the coffee maker and the toaster, he had a prime seat to watch the chaos that he’d come to associate with Cleveland. Since early this morning it’d been one thing after another, plans made and changed as people got up – the arduous task of getting people up – and now rushing to eat and get dressed before having to run out the door.

“Dawn! You’re gonna be late!” Buffy shouted up the stairs at the off beat thumping that thundered down the upstairs hallway and down the stairs.

“There’s goo on my shoes!” Dawn’s strong voice echoed through the house.

“So not my fault,” said Buffy. “Ask Vi. Did you eat breakfast?”

Dawn’s reply was lost to Jack in Andrew’s shouted, “XANDER? Can we afford twenty pounds of flour?” from the pantry.

“Make it ten!” Xander called, coming into the kitchen from the dining room with a handful of papers, a pencil tucked behind an ear. “Buffy!” he said as the two sisters joined them still arguing over the rules of borrowing shoes. “How long are you gonna be here? And I need to know when you’re coming back for the schedules.”

“Xander, Dawn’s gonna be late for rehearsal. No rehearsal, no graduation.” The Slayer grabbed a package of poptarts and shoved them at her sister. “Eat,” she commanded. Dawn wrinkled her nose but accepted them anyway. Buffy rounded on Xander. “And aren’t you taking her?”

The young man craned his head to look at the clock on the stove. “Shit, you’re gonna be late!” he said. Buffy rolled her eyes to Jack at the fact that she had just said that. Xander darted back into the dining room to deposit whatever Slayer Camp stuff he’d been working on, then rushed with Dawn and Buffy to the front hall. He was back a moment later. “Dad, have you seen my keys?”

“By the phone,” Jack told him with a nod in the right direction. A smile played about his lips.

“Wait!” cried Andrew as Xander disappeared again.

“What?”

“Shopping list!” the resident Iron Chef said as he ran by Jack into the hall.

“DIANA!” Buffy shouted. “CAR’S LEAVING!”

“COMING!” the slayer’s voice replied accompanied by a banging door and running feet. “I couldn’t find my shoes!”

The door opened and slammed shut. Quiet. For all of a second.

“VI!” yelled Buffy as Andrew went back to the pantry. Another indistinguishable yell, more running and chasing down of shoes before the two slayers trooped through the kitchen and into the backyard for their training training. Vi was going to help out teaching this summer since Buffy would be absent setting up her own school in Rome.

As the door clattered shut, the coffee maker announced that it was done, and Jack gratefully poured himself a cup. Quiet again settled over the house that in three short days would be invaded by teenagers. He was very glad that he was going to miss that. The place was crazy enough under normal circumstances, worse now with Buffy home, Giles coming, Dawn graduating, and a whole army to prepare for, but for all that, Jack just couldn’t imagine adding sixty girls to the mix. He was here for a nice – well, he wouldn’t exactly call it quiet – vacation before heading back into the shakeup going on at the Mountain. And he had to say, Cleveland was just as good a vacation spot as the cabin in Minnesota.

True, there weren’t any fish, and it was noisy at odd hours of the day, but Xander and the girls he had come to know and the absolute absurdity of youth more than made up for it. Secretly though, Jack was looking forward to Giles’s arrival for another aged adult to commiserate with.

Turning to the window, he watched Buffy and Vi practicing martial arts forms in the back yard. It wasn’t one he recognized, looked like a mixture of a few different styles blended with a grace that Jack envied. He was tempted to join them, but the thought of embarrassing himself kept him where he was. He didn’t want to cramp their style or anything. Stepping away from the window, he shook his head at himself. And he thought Daniel made him feel old sometimes. So Jack did the next best thing and went out to sit on the back porch, settling his coffee on the arm of his chair. Both Buffy and Vi’s eyes flickered to him, the latter flashing him a smile, never once interrupting the smooth flow of their bodies.

He’d never imagined that he’d be gaining more than a just a son when he’d flown out her almost a year before. Like with Cassie, he was now almost an uncle to the other four permanent residents of the house, especially since Xander had come to the mountain. The girls had chatted a little more on the phone over the last two months, and Andrew had positively grilled him on Thor. Xander and his big mouth. And framed shirt. It hung in their room on the wall opposite the door by the window so it was the first thing you saw when you walked in, the autographed sleeve artfully folded over the chest like a left handed ghost pledging allegiance. It was anything but subtle. But then, he thought as he watched the two young women who exuded lethal power like a second skin, little around here was.

Buffy and Vi’s warm up wound to a close and after a few quiet words that Jack couldn’t hear they launched into another pattern faster than the first that added in kicks and spins. They were twin blurs of motion, two fighters in a synchronized dance. It was like a scene from a movie against the backdrop of the summer green of the backyard with the morning sunlight streaming through the clouds. The same sunlight that felt warm and drowsy on Jack’s skin, despite the half drunk coffee. Content, he drifted into sleep.

************************************************

Xander and Diana returned home a few hours later laden with supplies. As the younger and stronger of the two, Diana was stuck with most of the bags hanging off her arms like she’d sprouted wings while Xander cheerfully ignored her grumbling.

“I mean, why can’t they help when they get here?” she was saying as they walked up to the house. “It’s not like we didn’t just finish school either. And we’ve been active all year, too.”

“Using the barracks as a giant storage closet,” Xander replied over his shoulder. He opened the door and kicked it wide open.

“But we’ve already cleared most of it out!”

“Andrew and I’ve already cleared most of it out. Besides you get today off to train,” he led the way into the kitchen, dropping his bags by the pantry door. “Honey, we’re home!” he announced as Andrew emerged. “I’ve marked the things we couldn’t find,” he said handing him the crumpled shopping list.

“Joy. With Buffy,” Diana muttered as she set her bags down, turning to the window as she did. But Xander didn’t miss the slight bounce on her heels that belied anything that came out of her mouth.

“Diana, go get beat up,” he told her, a fond smile emerging as she started to protest. “Training day, remember? Just send Jack in to help me with the rest of this.”

“Fine,” Diana said with a put upon sigh, a grin nonetheless quirking as she reached the door. Xander just shook his head at her and started to put the more immediate things away while he waited for his dad.

“Whoa, successful trip.” Jack came in and set his mug on the counter. “You have enough here to feed an army – oh, wait, you are.” He grabbed one of the nearby bags and started unloading it. “Jesus, how much chocolate did you get?”

“Um, army of girls?” Xander said, looking up. “C’mon. This is just the small stuff. We gotta get the bulkness out of the car.”

“I guess this is about as manly a job as we’ll get around here,” said Jack making Xander smile as they went back out front.

“We’re only stronger when they don’t want to do it,” said Xander philosophically.

Jack snorted. “Next time I need some Marines straightened out, I’m sending them here,” he said.

“Only if they pay tuition,” Xander replied, flashing back to the Initiative and the damage *one* slayer had done to their ranks.

“We’ll write it off as additional Special Forces training,” said Jack. “Uncle Sam will foot the bill.”

“Good, cause we already can’t afford to let the girls come for free,” said Xander. He still had no idea how they were going to make it through the summer. Giles’s rumblings had been a little hopeful lately but as of the last time they’d discussed it, it was all still smoke and mirrors. Xander was still working at Home Depot, but he didn’t know how long he could keep that up once the junior slayers rolled in on Monday.

Monday. It was still too soon for him. Xander felt like he’d been planning for the last month and still there were a million things left to do. Thoughts of schedules and patrol groups flitted through his mind as he opened the trunk and started loading a couple cases of snack food onto Jack.

“Hey, you want to do a guest lecture for me?”

“Lecture? On what?” asked Jack.

“Dunno,” said Xander, hefting two cases of Ramen for himself. “Whatever you want. Leadership or modern weapons or men or something.”

“Xander,” Jack paused to look at him over the top of the Ritz crackers. “I’m not giving the sex talk.”

Xander laughed at the thought of the grizzled old Colonel giving a bunch of girls The Talk. “Don’t worry. Those that haven’t heard it learn all about it after a couple of weeks at the giant slumber party.”

“I really didn’t need to know that,” said Jack, resuming their walk to the house.

“Trust me, it’s scary. They all start looking at you funny, and I mean ‘love spell’ funny. So not a good time.”

“I’m to even going to ask.”

“So you’ll do a lecture?” Xander changed the subject.

“Sure.” They reached the kitchen and dropped the cases to the floor. “As long as I’m not, you know, saving the world or anything,” said Jack.

Xander grinned at him as they headed back out. “I’m sure you can get Thor to cover for you,” he said.

“You know, the whole lecture thing is really more Carter of Daniel’s thing than mine.”

“Right, and when I want a lecture about something useless I’ll let them know,” said Xander. He already had Giles and Dawn for those things as applicable to killing things anyway. “Besides,” he went on coming to a stop by the car and facing Jack, “I’m not going to be able to get out to Colorado for a while.”

“Ahh!” Jack lifted a warning finger. “No guilt carding. That’s not fair.”

“Well, if you’re going to come visit anyway . . .”

“Didn’t I already say I would do it?” He slid the next case toward them and picked it up.

“And then you did a one-eighty retracty dealio with all the not-me-thing talk about your friends,” said Xander as he grabbed a case of his own. When he stood up, Jack was looking at him exasperatedly.

“Did not,” he said.

“Did too!”

“Did not. I said I’d do it.”

“And then you tried to weasel out of it.”

“I did not!”

“Did too!” Xander pushed the ajar door open again. He couldn’t believe Jack. “You were trying to foist it off on Daniel.”

“’Foist?’” Jack gave him a look. “There was nothing foisty about it. All I said was that I’m not a lecture person. I never *said* I wouldn’t do it. In fact, I think I already said yes. Twice.”

“Oh no. That was total foistiness. Doesn’t matter what you said.”

“Xander, would you knock it off already? I said I’d do it, I’ll do it.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Xander set his case down next to the others in the kitchen and watched as Jack did the same. “What?” asked his dad as he straightened. His dad. Xander couldn’t help but grin.

“You got something on your nose.” He half gestured at the guilty fleck of cardboard. Jack went cross-eyed as he took several swipes to get it off, wriggling his nose like a chipmunk.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. Wouldn’t want you walking in public looking like a loser who can’t see the end of his nose.”

“Ah, but I can see past it,” Jack pointed out.

“Just make sure you keep it clean.”

“Me? Always.”

Xander looked over his shoulder as they went back out. “Yeah, I think your nose just grew three feet.”

Jack sputtered in protest and the banter back and forth continued on for the next two loads out of the car and on the trip to pick up Dawn from rehearsal where it had progressed to a criticism of driving styles. But hey, Xander couldn’t help it if he had one eye, and besides, his dad drove worse with two. By the time they headed out to the airport to pick up Giles, Dawn had threatened to rustle up some herbs for a silencing spell. Xander and Jack had of course then teamed up against her.

In the busy bustle of the baggage claim, Dawn was the first to spot the returning Watcher. “Giles!” she practically squealed like a little kid as she ran and wrapped him in a bear hug. “They’re picking on me!”

“What? Hello.” Giles blinked from Xander to Jack wondering what was going on which only made Xander laugh before he claimed his own hug.

“Giles.” Jack and Giles shook hands.

“Colonel O’Neill. Wonderful to see you alive and well.” And the G-man smiled warmly in a way that Xander still found both surprising and heartening. It was like the two parts of his life were coming together at last. “Now what was this about picking?” Giles turned to Xander who held up his hands in their defense.

“Hey, me and Dad weren’t picking and did you know that Dawn went and grew up and learned some naughty words?”

“Xander! You’re just mad ‘cause you didn’t know what some of them meant.” Dawn crossed her arms and arched a triumphant eyebrow. Xander scowled – of course he didn’t know what they meant; they were in some ancient language but he bet at least one meant ‘farthead’.

“Ah, yes,” Giles’s face cleared at their bickering. “That would have been when we were fighting the forces of evil. I take it everything is under control for tonight?” The luggage carrousel turned on with a groan so they moseyed over and edged their way to its side.

“Yeah, Buffy, Vi, and Di went on a rampage last night,” said Dawn. “And I made Buffy promise not to destroy the school, but we haven’t had any inklings since Jack went fudgesicle.”

“Hey, who you calling a ‘fudgesicle’?” Jack turned from watching the carrousel.

Dawn went wide-eyed and blushed. “Maybe I should have kept that thought in my head.”

“Oh God, not you too!” Xander groaned. Because, from his long association with Willow and Buffy, he knew exactly where that thought had come from. “Therapy. Need therapy.”

“Uh, yes, quite,” stuttered Giles, his glasses off and his eyes closed. Jack meanwhile was very carefully not looking at Dawn who was still bright red but beginning to be defiant about it.

“I’ll, uh, take that as a compliment,” Jack managed to say.

“Oh, look my bag!” Giles said a little too loudly. He shuffled forward and snagged a suitcase that was big and brown but apparently one of a kind. Once he had it, they began the journey back to the car. Conversation again turned to the little visit the slayers had paid a few of the seedier demon haunts to ensure that nothing would be going down tonight. Buffy’s visit as the Slayer-that-had-destroyed-the Sunnydale-hellmouth was enough to keep the underworld gossiping for months.

As they entered the parking garage, Giles and Dawn branched off into researchy things while Xander and Jack started arguing over who got to drive. Xander told his dad that he drove like a werewolf on crack. Jack told Xander that he had a fender bender with every car in front of them.

Annoyed when they came to a halt by the car, still arguing, Giles said, “Xander, do shut up and give Dawn the keys. You’re making a nuisance of yourself.”

“Me?” Xander immediately took offence.

“Yes, well, I imagine threatening to take away Jack’s next paycheck would do me little good. Yours, on the other hand –”

But Xander needed to back up a sec. “Paycheck?” he asked, just to be sure. And that was a smile on the G-man’s face. Xander almost couldn’t believe it. Money, money, money! There would be food and he could quit his sucky job and buy equipment and first aid and – his mind rambled on over the possibilities.

“You got the money?” said Dawn equally surprised.

“I did,” said Giles smugly.

“Woo and hoo!” And Xander, suddenly flooded with joy and relief, threw the keys to Dawn.

********************************************************

Dinner that evening was chaotic at best. Dawn had to be at the high school gym earlier than everyone else and the younger slayers were running a quick sweep of the area before the guests arrived. At the house Andrew was so excited about the new funds that he immediately started on a new supply list while Buffy, Xander, and Giles got caught up and talked shop. And somehow, Jack had gotten dragged into the conversation. One minute he’d been sneaking off to go watch TV, the next he was answering questions about Basic Training and how to integrate new troops into existing units.

Buffy was adamant that there would be no ‘maggot yelling’ as she called it while Xander wanted to make sure that girls who were together last summer got split up this year, and Giles wanted solo patrols at least once a week for the older girls. It was rather interesting to see how their definition of training clashed with that of the Air Force.

Around six-thirty, Vi and Diana returned, breaking up the discussion so everyone had time to get ready. The ceremony was at eight, but Jack refrained from commenting when Xander and Giles took it in stride. In fact, Xander rushed off himself to snag a shower before all the hot water ran out.

“If you don’t go now, you’ll have to wait till the last minute to get cleaned up,” Giles warned him when it was just the two of them in the dining room.

“Nah, I’m good,” Jack waved a hand. All he needed to do was change his shirt and throw on his leather jacket, a tactic that he noticed Giles seemed to be using as well. Feeling eyes on him, Giles looked up from the notes he was gathering together, and Jack smiled.

“I’m glad you came,” Giles broke the silence before it became awkward. “It means a lot to Xander.”

Now Jack did feel awkward and he grabbed a loose pen. “It seemed like a good time to visit, before teenage hell broke loose anyway,” he said.

“Colonel. Jack,” said Giles, the use of his first name grabbing the other man’s attention. “Don’t pass it off for what it isn’t. Xander deserves better and so do you.” Giles’s eyes gentled and he added, “He talks about you a lot, did you know?”

“No,” said Jack, startled by this from the man that had threatened to kill him once already. He hadn’t realized that Giles didn’t mind him anymore. Or liked him, for that matter, beyond what politeness required.

“He does. Indirectly for the most part, but you’re always there,” said Giles. “I don’t know how much he’s told you about his childhood – I don’t know much about it myself except for the little things that came out over the years – but it was difficult, vampires and demons not withstanding.”

“He seemed to come out of it pretty well,” said Jack softly.

Giles smiled again. “Yes, he has. I’ve often thought his discovering the supernatural was one of the best things that happened to him as bad as it can be. But honestly, I think your discovery of him was the best.” The other man’s eyes held Jack’s a moment longer then let them go. Gathering his notes, Giles rose and went into the kitchen leaving Jack still surprised at the dining room table.

Who’d have thought that Xander talked about him to Giles of all people? And that Giles was happy about it? And that Giles would tell him? And that he was happy Jack was in his son’s life?

When Jack moved to the den to watch TV until it was time to go, he was still grinning.

***************************************************

The pounding on the door woke Xander late the next morning. He groaned and rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head. Way too early. Way, way too early. The impromptu graduation party last night that they’d thrown after Dawn and the younger girls had gotten back from the official party had lasted well into the early morning. Mostly it had involved wine and video games with a smattering of intelligent conversation. It had been a good time and for the life of him, he couldn’t remember much of it. And would the banging on the door stop?!

“Xander, get your lazy ass out of bed!” His dad yelled through the door.

“Go ‘way. ‘M still ‘sleep!” he replied. Jack just opened the door, came in, and yanked off his blankets.

“Up, up, up! Come on,” he said when Xander half scrambled to get them back. Sighing in defeat, Xander sat up.

“All right, all right, I’m up. What do you want that couldn’t wait till, say, sanity rise?”

“Cute,” Jack told him. “But come on, we’re going out.”

“We are?”

“Yes, so get some clothes on – unless you want to go out like that,” his dad waved a hand at the boxer and t-shirt ensemble. “We’re leaving in five minutes. Coffee’s in the kitchen.”

Xander made it down the stairs ten minutes later. Jack pointedly looked at his watch and sighed but otherwise didn’t say anything about it. “I get to drive,” he said instead.

“Where are we going?” asked Xander. He grabbed the Snoopy mug and poured himself a dose of wake-up juice.

“Surprise.”

“You know, I don’t do so well with surprises,” Xander felt obliged to point out. Living on hellmouths tended to do that to a person.

“Tough,” Jack threw him a smile. “Let’s go, kiddo.” Grumbling, Xander followed him to the car, but Jack only ignored him and started whistling cheerfully. Xander tried to bore holes in the back of his head, but it wasn’t working, and by the time they got to the car, Jack’s song actually had him resenting the whole situation less. He contented himself with asking ‘are we there yet’ at every intersection until Jack told him to shut up or expect to walk home. His dad maintained his serious expression for all of two seconds before they both started laughing. Getting up was definitely worth it.

Finally, they pulled into a parking lot at the strip mall at the opposite end from Home Depot, and Xander cast a glance at the sign before them. “Uh, Dad, you know this is a pet store right?” Xander glanced at the older man as he shut off the engine.

“Yep,” Jack grinned. “Come on, you wanted a dog.”

“I did?” News to Xander.

“Yeah, remember when we first met?”

Stepping out of the car and onto the sidewalk, Xander tried to cast his mind back. “I wanted a car,” he recalled with a quick look at his dad.

“Well, you’re getting a dog,” said Jack. He looked very pleased with himself about the idea, and Xander almost felt bad when he kept arguing.

“But they pee on the floor and chew up shoes and eat lamp shades.”

“Sure they do, they’re puppies,” Jack opened the door and a little electronic ding-dong sounded through the shop. The smell of seed and straw permeated the room along with the chatter of birds and kittens and puppies. A quick glance at the fish reassured him that they at least weren’t talking in anything more than bubbles. From behind the counter, the shopkeeper smiled, and Jack waved back before leading the way to the dogs.

“So why would I want one if they’re so high maintenance? I mean, I’ve got sixty girls coming on Monday. I don’t need another thing to take care of.”

“Xander, dogs are easy compared to girls. Besides, every kid needs a dog.” Jack pronounced the words like a proverb – one that Xander wasn’t sure he got.

“Uh, not much of a kid anymore,” he pointed out.

Jack turned and looked at him. “You’re still my kid,” he said. “Now take a look.”

Grinning, Xander turned his attention to the wriggling puppies in the big playpen box, wondering how he’d gotten here to this point. It still felt strange when his dad said things like that, but it also sent a thrill through him that felt good and right. Belonging.

And he had to admit, the puppies were cute. There were about ten of them – they kept moving when he counted – and all sorts of colors. Two black, one black and brown, one kinda dishwater, a couple gray, but the one that caught Xander’s eye was the mottled black and gray with one black patch of fur over its right eye.

“Hey look, me and this guy make a full set,” he pointed the puppy out to Jack.

“He’s cute. That the one you want?”

Xander looked up. “You’re still serious about this?”

“You betcha. Is that a ‘yes’?”

Still not quite believing that his dad was getting him a dog, Xander nodded.

Half an hour, several forms, and a check to see if it was a boy or girl, and Xander was the new owner of the little, male, black and gray dog. They’d have to come back the next day to pick him up after the vet had neutered him, but Xander still felt kind of giddy about the idea. He’d never had a pet before. Willow and Jesse hadn’t either beyond Will’s fish, so this was new and exciting territory. Even if he couldn’t remember ever asking for one. It had been a year after all.

And that thought brought him up short as the two of them got back in the car. “It’s been a year,” he said, half to himself.

“What’s that?” asked Jack.

“A year. Since you showed up.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. He pulled out and onto the road, thinking. “Been a long year. For a while there I didn’t think we’d make it,” he added softly.

“The universe did try to munchmeat us,” said Xander, thinking back over the demons and chaos and mini apocalypses and even Jack’s alien attack that nearly ended the world. Their family problems and trust issues had seemed so much bigger in some ways and so much smaller and ridiculous in others.

“She always does. But she also works in mysterious ways,” said his dad with a pointed look and a smile.

“’She’?” asked Xander. “Sounds like you’re dangerously close to believing in something.”

“I don’t believe in gods, you don’t believe in religion,” Jack shrugged. “We both believe in magic.”

“But not fairy tale endings.”

“Just happier ones.”

“So does this count?” asked Xander.

“Well, it would,” his dad looked over, a grin playing around his lips, “except it’s not an ending.”

“Good,” Xander smiled too, feeling warm and right and happy. “’Cause when I have puppy problems, you’re the first person I’m calling.”

“Fine, but you only get one middle-of-the-night call,” said Jack.

“One? And what do you mean ‘middle-of-the-night’? You never said anything about middle-of-the-night.”

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll be up anyway. And it’s only at the beginning.”

“Just how long is this ‘beginning’?”

And they spoke of puppies and middle-of-the-night phone calls and beginnings all the way home.

~Fin~