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Episode 3 - Closer
by Kitty Alex
Details: PG-13 | Series | Spike/Xander, Xander/f, Spike/f, other
Summary: Buffy has defeated Twilight and L.A. is finally out of Hell. Everything is back to normal for everyone. Well, everyone except for the now human Spike.
Categories and Warnings:
Developing Feelings, Oblivious
m/f (het content), Sliders
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and my original characters. I bend to Joss Whedon's will and try my best not to murder his characters. None of the events happening reflect actual events happening in Sunnyvale nor is Sunnyvale High reopening for any reason. This is an alternate Sunnyvale. I also don't own Sunnyvale.
Spoiler Warning: This contains spoilers from the comics. If you haven't read the comics, it might still make sense, it will just spoil it for you.
This story is part of the series: After All That's Said And Done - Season 1
Xander knocked nervously on Will's door. Buffy wanted a background check on the guy. What she found on Google, Wikipedia, and basically everywhere else wasn't enough to satisfy that Will wasn't Spike. Why was he calling him "Will"? He was being too friendly. It wasn't like he hadn't seen a manly guy in months. Oh, wait he hadn't.
"Great, making friends with strangers because you're that desperate for male bonding. Score one for Xander Harris' sadly pathetic life with the females." he said out loud.
There was a snigger and the door opened. Alice greeted him. He forgot the girl had super hearing. How great was that?
"Can I help you?" she said. Something was different about her, he couldn't place it.
"Is your dad around?"
"He's busy setting up the training room. Do you want to leave a message or anything?"
"Uh..."
"No? Okay." She smiled viciously and slammed the door. He knocked again. Alice opened it back up, "Hello?" She looked him up and down. "It's my stalker!" She hugged him. "Come on in, Xander! Dad's downstairs getting the training room ready."
"So, I've heard." Was it just him or did he step through a time loop?
"You heard? How did you hear?"
"You said it back at the door. You slammed the door in my face."
She looked at the door then looked at Xander. Worry crossed her face then vanished into a smile, "Sorry. I'm so absent-minded at time. Sometimes it feels like I lose days at a time."
She wandered off, not wishing to peruse conversation with him anymore. Will came out from the door Alice just left through. He had his shirt off. Xander went red. His chest was lot better than Buffy's wallpaper. Did he just think that? He had to think straight thoughts, Baseball, Football, Star Wars, breasts, BIG breast! Once he composed his straightness, he looked at Will trying to keep his blank expression.
"So... Alice is umm... she's..."
"Possessed by a demon. Well, sort of." Will finished for him.
"Oh, well. Kind of explains a few things, maybe. But, well, I'm not an expert on demon possession, but isn't the demon supposed to be in control at all times? It just doesn't seem that way."
"That's where the sort of kicks in." He pointed to the door he just came from. "This one leads to a hallway which at the end somewhere leads to a kitchen. Want a beer?"
Xander could have cried. He hadn't had beer with anyone... okay he hadn't had beer period since the whole Buffy turning into a cave woman incident, but he doubted Will's beer was spiked. "Yeah, sure. Why not?"
He followed Will down the hallway, he shouldn't have been shocked it was so long, but he was. There were so many doors. He wondered what was behind each one. He wanted to check each one, but figured it would be rude or he might find something horrifying behind one. That was his luck; the horror show was always behind the door he picked. Will stopped and opened the door. The kitchen looked like it belonged to a professional chef. Well, duh. Will was a professional chef; of course he had a professional kitchen. Will made his way to the fridge while Xander sat in one of the chairs at the table.
"Do you still cook," Xander asked, trying to make conversation.
"Only for Alice," he pulled out two beers and sat beside Xander. "I'm more of a..." he searched for the words. "special detective now."
Xander fiddled with the tab before finally opening it. Part of him liked Spike better. At least with Spike you knew his background. Killed, then killed some more. With Will, everything was so clouded, like he wasn't giving Xander the full story. He tapped his fingers on the can. Oh, fun. More silence.
"So, my friend. My friend, Buffy, she's still convinced you're Spike."
He nodded vaguely like Xander had just told him the weather was going to be warm tomorrow, "Well, I'm not him."
"Yeah, I've told her that. But, you know, she doesn't listen."
"I think all slayers are like that."
"Yeah, they are so... did I ever mention Buffy was a slayer?"
"Alice mentioned it."
"Oh... how do you know about slayers?"
He swallowed, "My wife was one."
"So that's why she was drained. The vampires finally got her." Xander wondered why he just didn't keep his foot in his mouth. It really seemed to like living there.
"Yeah..." he played nervously with his hair. "When Buffy's done with her slayer business, are you going to go? That's how it was with Marie. She was always flying this way and that. She wasn't much older than Alice when she died. She was eighteen when she had Alice and we were happy. I thought they were her uncles at the time, didn't approve of the marriage and gave us a rough time, but we were happy." Xander watched as his eyes became unfocused like he wasn't there anymore. "She didn't come home that night. The policeman came and we had to go. I didn't want to bring her, but it felt urgent, if we didn't identify the body now, it'd just get up and walk away. Then her uncles came. Told me everything. I had to wait by her grave. Make sure she didn't wake up."
"Did she?"
"I don't know. I couldn't bring myself to go. I left right after she was buried. Never went back. I couldn't go back. Gave everything up because I just couldn't stand that life anymore. Pretending it was okay. Wondering, 'Did this really happen? Is it okay for me to be happy when she's dead?'"
Xander bit his lip, "Like I was saying about my dead fiance. I know how you feel."
"How'd yours get offed?"
"Well, I don't know. I wasn't there. She was killed in this epic battle. I was told she died protecting someone's life, so I guess it makes it okay."
"It makes me wonder how she died. If she was protecting someone. I also wonder if she wanted to die. If it was all getting to her and she wanted to die. If she didn't care about leaving us behind, she just wanted it over."
"The hardest thing about this world is living in it." Will arched an eyebrow at him, "Uh, I heard that somewhere before. I didn't steal the phrase or anything." Okay, why was he defending himself? It's not like he knew he had gotten that phrase from Spike during the musical.
"Right," he said uncomfortably. "Why I'm telling you this, I have no idea."
"Maybe, it's because we went through the same thing."
"Xander... I'm..."
"Dad!" Alice came bursting in the room. "There you are! Connor called and he wants to go out."
"Is he bringing Tracy along?" Xander looked at her as he said it.
She sighed, "I'm just going to go to my room and die of not having a social life."
She left in the same manner that she came in.
"Who's Tracy?" Will asked. Alice obviously didn't talk to dad about the boys she was interested in.
"Tracy is Connor's girlfriend. It reminds me of Buffy, Angel, and me. I was the third wheel."
Will growled. Xander gave him a look. He looked taken aback, "I just don't like it when people use her. She's been through a lot."
"This is why she doesn't tell you anything. She's not an egg. You can't beat up all the guys for her. She's a slayer, she can beat up her own guys." Will chuckled. "Well, that sounded oddly abusive."
Xander's pocket rung. It was Buffy. She wanted to know if he got Will to confess he was Spike. He said no while wondering if Will could hear Buffy and her loud, over exaggerated shock. He hung up and made a face. "Well, the master is calling." He got up and looked at Will. He looked up at him. His eyes kind of lonely. "I think I'm starting to like Sunnyvale. You know, besides the new Hellmouth and all the new demons we'll probably be facing. I'll probably be here a lot. I don't know if Buffy will give the title `Defender of the Hellmouth' to Alice, so we could be here a good while." Why was he saying this? So, they had this big guy moment and bonded and he was probably the closest thing he had to a guy friend since Jesse, but... okay yeah. He just defined why he wanted to stay.
"Well, see you around then." Will said.
-----
Amaria watched Xander leave. She had been spending more time conscious than she would have liked and she felt Alice starting to catch on that there was more under the surface, but when someone especially "The First" tells you that someone you made betrayed is looking for you don't take chances. It was for her own good. If Amaria was killed, Alice would be killed. Let her be aware of Amaria's presence. It didn't matter. She entered and sat at the table where William was. She grabbed the beer Xander had left and sipped it.
"That body's under-aged, you know."
He eyes shifted to him as she continued to sip it, he always knew when it wasn't Alice, "So, your lover left without giving you a kiss good-bye. How sad." She just wanted once for someone to be happy to see her. Slow down, that was too human. She didn't care. "Maybe if you pucker up real nice next time, he'll give you a pity kiss."
"Jealous of him?"
She blushed, how dare he accuse her of being jealous of that lower being! She scoffed, "He's lower than me. Way lower. If you knew the real me, you'd cower in fear."
He got up and took the beer from her, "Show me the real you and I'll think about cowering."
"I could travel to any world I wanted. Time bent to my will. The wind sang and whispered its secrets to me. I have no need to be jealous of that thing!"
"Well, you can't do any of that now, can you? You sound just like Illyria when you get like this. I'm kind of sick of it. Us vampires never bragged about our powers to other demons or humans. Really."
"Illyria is..." she gulped, "awake?"
He nodded, "Yeah. She took over my friend's body few years back. She's practically mortal now. Only at maybe fifty percent of her power now."
"So, she's far away right? Probably in Africa or the North Pole or somewhere far?"
"No, in L.A."
She felt herself grow cold. Oh, this was bad. This was very bad. Illyria was by far the worst demon that she had ever betrayed and she had betrayed a lot of demons. That's why the world didn't know the name Amaria. History just knew her as "the Betrayer". In all the texts, even the summoning ones, her name wasn't mentioned, but "Betrayer" seemed to call her just fine. She closed her eyes. She should have watched the flow of time more carefully, if she did, she would have seen all this coming.
"Are you okay?" There was general concern in his voice.
"I'm sorry." He seemed taken aback. "I'm sorry your daughter had to be stuck with me of all demons. If I could do it without damaging her, I'd remove myself from her now."
She got up and left. Maybe it was time she left this world. There wasn't any room for their kind. They were old. Maybe Hell would be better than this constant feeling of pain. She didn't feel the pain at first, but then it slowly rolled in and became apart of her. No wonder humans had such short lives. How could one deal with such emotions for so long? She touched her face. Tears. She had been in many human bodies, but this was the first time she had cried in one.
------
Connor had his arm around Tracy as he walked into Blood Water. They going to be dusting some vamps and this was the best place to find them. He didn't get why Alice hung out in graveyards. You didn't get all the vampires that way, but no, let's not piss off Daddy. He sighed and Tracy looked up at him.
"Not excited about the raid?" She said pulling a few potion bottles out of her bag. She was still only on potions; she wasn't a casting witch yet.
"Yeah, of course I'm excited," he lied.
When had being with Tracy become such a chore? Why was he so upset that Alice didn't come? Here he was with his beautiful, hot witch girlfriend and all he could think of was his beautiful, sensitive slayer friend. He needed help.
"There are two over there." She said pointing at a guy who was standing at bar with a girl.
"How can you tell?"
She waved her compact mirror that he hadn't seen her pull out, "You're out of it today. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Yeah, God knows the Slayer isn't going to wash her hands in this filthy place."
Tracy put the potion bottles back into her purse, "Slayer this. Slayer that. Who is she and why is she so important?"
"She kills vampires and is supposed to protect the world from evil. But, her daddy won't let her come into places like this."
"You know, that's it Connor. I'm going to find out who she is sooner or later. I want to know sooner so you don't regret it later."
"Alice."
"You mean the brunette you hang out with? The small one. The extremely small, doesn't look like she can lift her own weight, Alice?"
"Hey! She's very strong!"
"That so? Has she shown you her strengths?"
"No, I just went into the graveyard with her a few times. To look out for her. She's still new at this."
"If there's nothing between you, can I meet her?"
-----
Tracy waited nervously with Connor for Alice to arrive at school. She wanted to make a good impression. The slayer seemed like a big title, but the title also worried her. What if it meant Connor was attracted to Alice more than her? Okay, maybe she had given up a few of her vegan ways after becoming a witch, but that didn't make her a bad person? Okay, messing with black magic kind of made her a tiny bit black, but it was just a tiny bit. She smoothed down her black hair and sighed. When she was going to get here?
"Bye, Alice. Have a good day!"
"Thanks, Xander!"
Tracy watched the girl close the door. It was her, small little Alice. What was so great? Her hair was too long and she was all, not big in the right places like she was. And look at the way she ran up to Connor. She looked up at Connor. He made a face and stared lower. Was he checking out her breasts? She looked where he was looking. A small silver cross was dangling around her neck. She noticed Connor's nostrils flare as if there was bad odor coming from it.
"Nice necklace!" Tracy said. Taking it into her hand and inspecting it. "It looks amazing. Who got it for you?"
She blushed, "A friend."
"A friend?" It was obvious the necklace wasn't from Connor. Maybe she wasn't interested in Connor anymore and whoever gave her this was her new boyfriend, maybe the guy who dropper her off. She took Alice's arm gingerly. "Connor tells me you're the slayer." She opened her mouth to protest. "Oh, I have a secret too." She winked at her. "I'm a witch!"
------
Alice ate her lunch slowly, but this time she wasn't alone. Tracy had taken to her for some reason she didn't exactly understand and was now going on about her latest potion to help Alice fight the forces of evil everywhere.
"It's kind of like fire in a jar. I'm working on one that's kind of like the sun."
She nodded and swallowed, "That sounds like it would be a great help! Maybe, you could come over later and convince my dad to let me go to Blood Water. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I had a witch to protect me."
"Aren't you sweet!" She looked at Connor who had already finished his lunch. "Why didn't you introduce me sooner? She's so cute."
Alice blushed and Connor turned his head so Tracy could see him blush too, "Well, I didn't know if you two would get along. I guess I was wrong."
Alice watched Connor with interest. She wondered why he was blushing. It didn't matter. She played with the necklace that Matthew gave her. Something inside had been telling her to go after Matthew instead of Connor. She closed her eyes and tried to recreate him in her mind. All he was, was a shadow in there. She wanted to see him again in the light; she wanted to memorize his face.
"Look at that," Tracy said to Connor. "I bet she's dreaming of whoever gave her that necklace. Was it the guy who gave you the ride to school?"
Alice's eyes snapped open and her cheeks burned, "No! That's Xander. He's my dad's friend! He's not the one that gave me the necklace."
Tracy poked her, "Come on now. Who gave it to you?"
"His name is Matthew," she said dreamily.
"Like the saint?"
Alice smiled and giggled, "Not even close."
"Bad boy, huh?" Tracy put her arm around Alice. "Who knew you were into bad boys."
Connor seemed annoyed and got up, "Well, I have to get to class."
"We're going to meet by Alice's house later."
"Yeah, yeah. I know." He got off and stalked off.
"He's just mad. I think he wanted to keep you all to himself." She tickled Alice and she laughed. Alice felt happy. Maybe Tracy was a bit too friendly, but she was her friend. This was her very first friend.
------
Buffy got off the dance floor and moved towards Xander who was sitting at one of the tables. He sipped on his beer and watched her approach.
"So, about sharing information."
"No, I said no the first time and I'll say it again the second time. We're not involving Alice and Spike. I don't care if she's a slayer, the slayer, or the slayer ruler of the world. She's not helping us take on the Hellmouth."
"If we don't get help, the Hellmouth comes. The Hellmouth comes, the school gets built. The school gets built; we have Sunnydale High part three. We have Sunnydale High part three; see where I'm going with this?"
She did her Buffy face, the one where she knows you're right, but she won't admit you're right. Not even if you held her by the throat and... "You're right." Wow, he wasn't expecting that.
"Maybe the end days are already upon us. You made the face, but admitted I was right."
"Just because I admitted you were right doesn't change anything. Besides, she's a bit..."
"Say young and I'll list every list of big bads that we've stopped before you reached the age of eighteen."
"I just don't..."
"Want her to end up like you?" he finished.
"Yeah."
"There's nothing wrong with you, Buff, or how your life has been going so far."
"Oh, yeah. I fell in love with two vampires. Both of which who died then left me. I haven't been able to get into a decent relationship since. I feel distant from all. My mom died and I couldn't do a thing about it. I died twice. Want me to go on with why someone shouldn't have my life?"
"If it helps, her mom died and she couldn't do a thing about it."
"Yeah, but she was three and her mom was a slayer. I can't let an innocent girl go down my path. I would never let anyone else take my path."
"That's a bit selfish, Buff." He knew what she meant, but still, he didn't think it was right of her. "It's her choice. Maybe she doesn't know that the road ahead is black, and then maybe she does. Maybe all she sees is black, but walks on." He was remembering her forced smiles and over cheerful nature.
"Maybe I should talk to her. Last time, we didn't do a lot of talking. Just a lot of slaying."
"I know. I was there."
He was watching the door now. They were suppose to be "slaying" but it was clear all Buffy was here for was dancing. He hadn't been the social butterfly since Anya died. Okay, he hadn't been a social butterfly ever, but he was even less of one now. He sighed and watched the girls enter. Too young, too chesty, too flat, too everything. He sighed again. Oh, were those lesbians? A black-haired girl walked in with a smaller girl on her arm. She was chatting away and smiling happily down at her. Xander tried willing them to kiss. But, he felt sick as soon as the black-haired girl moved to get them drinks and he saw it was Alice. He didn't know why he felt sick. Alice was of age and if she had that kind of life style choice, it was okay with him. It was kind of like thinking of your daughter or sister kissing someone. It was just wrong. She noticed him and waved at him. He waved sheepishly back.
"Who are you waving to?" Buffy followed where he was looking just in time to see Will walk in. He heard an annoyed sound come from Buffy as Xander waved at him too. "Are they like stalking us?"
"This is the cool place to be at the moment. Just opened up and all that. I'm not surprised they're here."
Alice made her way over to the table, dragging her friend along with her. Her friend seemed less than thrilled to be there.
"This is Tracy." She said waving her hand at Tracy like she was a show prize. She pointed to Xander. "That's Xander. You know, my dad's friend. Then that's..." Her eyes grew wide. "Stay." She said to Tracy as she left and pushed through the crowd.
He turned to look at where she was going but Tracy made him snap his head back towards her, "So you and her dating?"
"Me and who? Alice?"
"No," she pointed at Buffy. "Her. The blonde with the dark roots."
"It's natural!" Buffy said putting her hands over her head before taking them down, realizing how stupid she looked. "And no, we're just here as friends."
Will made his way over to where they were. Xander noticed him trying hard not to look at Buffy. He looked at Buffy. She was death glaring.
"Hey," he said. "Where'd Alice head off to?"
"The bathroom." Tracy said quickly. "She had to pee. I didn't. So, I decided to stay."
Silence. Xander was getting use to this kind of silence. It seemed to happen often.
"Soooo..." he said, trying to break up the death glares. "How'd you meet Alice?"
"She's friends with Connor, and then we had lunch together. Since then, we've been good friends."
"Good friends since lunch. Sounds like how we became friends, sort of. Okay, that's how you and Willow became friends. We became friends once I picked up her stake in the middle of the hallway. Long story."
Xander watched Buffy get up and get back onto the dance floor. Without missing a beat, Tracy took her place at the table, leaving Will to search around for an empty chair to drag over.
"Is Willow the Willow?" Tracy asked with great interest. "As in the most powerful witch to ever live Willow?"
"I don't know about most powerful witch to ever live, I haven't met any of the undead witches, but yeah. That's our Willow."
"That is so cool that you know her. I'd give anything to meet her. I got into magic after I found out about her. I joined this Wicca group, just for laughs, you know? But, then they were talking about her and wow. I just had to be like her."
"I'll pass it to Willow that you're a fan."
"You will? You really will?"
Will finally pulled his chair to the table and sat down, "What will you really do?" He raised one eyebrow implying that he thought it was something dirty.
-----
Across the room, Alice was sitting on a nearby couch with Matthew. He was silent, just sitting there as if he was trying to find the right thing to say and just how to tell her.
"The Hellmouth is going to open here," he finally said.
"It's going to open?" She didn't know what a Hellmouth was, but anything with the word "Hell" in it couldn't be good.
"Yeah, at the site where they are building the new school."
"Why there?"
"Well, it's where he picked. You don't think those killings happened by accident." She nodded. "Besides, what better place than a high school to have an energy sucking hole? All those emotions and all that drama. It makes it strong."
"How do I stop it?"
He seemed a bit taken aback that that was her next question, "You can't. It's pre-destined to open up here at this time." Her face fell. "But you can close it, not forever. But, you can make sure it doesn't let anything out."
"How? I have to do this!"
"You'll need your witch friend. I can't tell you anymore than that."
"Why not?"
He smiled and stood up, placing his hand on her necklace. She watched smoke rise from it as it burnt his hand. "The Powers That Be would be mad if I gave it all away. It's a test for you, Alice. They want you to be their champion."
He removed his hand and faded into the crowd. She sat there shocked. She couldn't move at all.
End of Episode 3 - Closer by Kitty Alex.
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