Wild Horses
Part 10
By Jeconais
Xander picked up the phone and pressed the speed dial button.
"Molly? It’s Xander."
"Xander!" Molly’s warm voice replied. "What can I do for you this morning, dear?"
"Can we meet for lunch? I need to bring you up to date on what happened last night."
"Of course. Why don’t you meet us at the club?"
"Will do. See you later."
Xander hung up, and looked at the pile of paperwork on his desk. It was all very well running XTech while doing his job for PJH, but it sure generated a lot of paperwork.
Angel’s hotel reconstruction was coming along nicely, and would be ready for opening in the New Year. Xander decided to make a change to the building specs, and upgrade it from a standard PJH to an XTech secure location. The difference was that XTech buildings had the aggressive defenses, while PJH were purely defensive. He’d have to offer it as a challenge to Andrew to work out a way that Angel would not set off the alarms.
He was interrupted by a knock on the door. He looked up, and smiled a welcome. "Come in, Brad."
Brad walked in, a little reluctantly.
Xander smiled slightly. "Either I’ve grown a couple of horns, or you’ve got some bad news for me."
Brad took a seat opposite the dark haired carpenter. He’d been volunteered for this mission, after a talk with several of the senior members of XTech.
"You’ve missed training for the past four weeks." He’d decided that bluntness was the best way to handle this task.
Xander winced, and then blushed slightly. "I know," he said with a sigh. "It’s been a bit crazy, recently."
"That’s not really an excuse," Brad pointed out quietly. He simply could not shout at a senior officer.
"True," Xander admitted reluctantly, waiting to hear whatever else Brad had to say.
"Look," Brad took a deep breath. "If you don’t start coming back to the lessons, we will have to revoke your combat status."
Xander blinked at him. "What?"
"Your rules, Xander," Brad reminded him of one of the first rules Xander had established upon for formation of XTech. "’Any XTech member who misses training for a month is not fit for active duty, and cannot return till they have completed a two-week refresher course.’" He quoted the training manual. "You might be the boss, Xander, but that doesn’t excuse you. When we go out fighting, we *have* to know that we can trust you as much as you have to know you can trust us.
"You’ve got a lot of people who are here because of you; you can *not* afford to lose their respect. Everyone knows that you are working several jobs, and that’s fine. If you want to spend your time doing paperwork, no one will think any less of you. Everyone knows it has to be done. But if you want to be on the hit squads, you have to train.
"We know that you have been injured these past few days, but that doesn’t explain the weeks you missed before that.
"We can not, will not, allow you to endanger any of the squads if you are not up to date on the latest anti-vampire weapons and tactics."
Xander nodded slowly, his hands tightly gripping the edge of the table. With a small amount of effort, he swallowed his pride.
"Give my apologies to the guys. I’ll be there for the afternoon session."
Brad smiled slowly, and he switched to a more fatherly mode, aware that his boss wasn’t that much older than his daughter. "You are doing a good job, Xan, but the troops need to know what you are. At the moment, they’re unsure if you’re a desk jockey or part of a team."
Xander let his guard down a little, Brad had been the second person he had hired for XTech, and he was incredibly pleased he had managed to persuade the ex-soldier to work for him. "I know. It’s just hard, sometimes. I mean, I’ve been fighting for seven years now, and been possessed by a soldier spirit - you’d think that this stuff would come easily for me."
"And it doesn’t?"
"I’m pretty good with a gun, point and click isn’t that difficult. It’s the hand to hand stuff I’ve been having trouble with. I’ve had enough of being thrown around by vampires these past seven years."
Xander threw a wry style, "My normal style of attack is usually along the lines off 'let them pommel me while someone better recovers, then saves me’"
"You know that won’t work in a small unit?"
The dark haired man nodded, "I know, I didn’t mean to miss the first one, I got called into a PJH meeting at the last minute. After that, it just got easier to make excuses and not be there." He looked a little guilty as he confessed.
"Xander, you have done an amazing job in a short time."
Brad deliberately kept trying to build up his boss's self esteem, even he could see that it was lower than it should be. "No one here will care if you pull back from the edge. You’ve been fighting a permanent war longer than any of them. You have great planning skills, and show good tactical instincts. You don’t have to risk your skin any more. That’s what you put us together for."
Xander shook his head slowly. "I can’t do that, Brad. I cannot order people to go into hostile situations while I am safe. And I don’t think I can stop fighting."
"Why not?"
Xander frowned. "I’m not sure. It’s just part of what I am. Ever since I found out about vampires, I’ve been keeping myself in the fight. I can’t stop that now."
Brad nodded and smiled. "I’ll see you this afternoon, then."
Xander nodded. As Brad reached the door, he called out, "Brad?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
As the XTech guard left the room, Xander threw himself back into his paperwork, he wanted to get it out of the way before moving on to some research.
Three hours of paperwork and research later, Xander was more than happy to jump into his car and drive to the club. He’d been there once before, back when he had been dating Cordelia. It was an ultra-exclusive country club, where very rich people went to play the occasional game of golf or tennis, and be seen in the bar and the pool.
Molly and Kyle complained about having to go there, but it was the only place to do business with some of the more snobby people they dealt with.
Xander pulled up outside the main clubhouse entrance and jumped out, to let the valet park his car.
"Excuse me, sir, are you a member?" An officious looking man in the club’s uniform asked. He didn’t like the look of the young man, the sort of clientele he was used to getting drove Ferraris and Mercedes, not SUVs.
"Nope," Xander said cheerfully, "I’m-"
"Then I’m sorry, sir," the self-important idiot interrupted him, "I’m going to have to ask you to leave. If you’re a tradesman, the entrance is further down the road."
"But-" Xander tried again.
"Leave, sir, before I call security."
Xander laughed at him, anticipating the reactions that Molly and Kyle were going to have when they learned about this. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number quickly.
"Molly?"
"Xander, where are you?" Molly sounded a little concerned that he was late.
"Stuck outside the door. Some uniformed guard has asked me to use the tradesman’s entrance."
"Did you tell him who you were visiting?"
"I tried, but he threatened to call security on me." Xander’s voice was clearly amused.
"Wait there! Someone will be out immediately to sort this out." Molly’s voice was clearly not amused.
Xander hung up and grinned at the pompous, officious guard. He was exactly the sort of person they would never hire at XTech. Someone who loved the petty powers his job gave him.
Inside the club, Molly hung up the phone and started to growl.
Kyle looked at her, and started to feel sorry for whoever had awakened her ire. "Problem, honey?"
Molly nodded, "Some guard won’t let Xander in, told him to use the tradesman entrance, wouldn’t let him explain he was seeing me, and then threatened to call security."
Kyle frowned, suddenly understanding his wife’s temper.
"Sorry, dear," Molly touched his hand. "It’s my turn. You wait here."
Kyle pouted, and gave in. He reigned in his own desire to avenge the insult to his unofficially adopted son, and settled back to watch the show.
"You!" Molly said loudly, pointing to the senior waiter. "Go and fetch the manager immediately."
"Yes, Mrs. Michaels," the unfortunate waiter said, vanishing quickly. The first thing he had been told, on becoming the senior waiter, was that you did *not* annoy Miranda and Kyle Michaels.
The waiter moved faster than he had in years, breaking into a jog as he headed straight to the general manager’s office. He ignored the secretary and burst straight in, interrupting a staff meeting.
"What is the meaning of this!?" The general manager demanded, shocked at the lack of respect and the interruption.
"Mrs. Michaels wants to see you, immediately, sir. She sounds really annoyed."
The manager went white and gulped. He stood, and told the remaining staff, "Wait here for me. I’ll be back shortly."
He then nervously followed his head waiter back to the dining area. Molly and Kyle were on the Board of Governors, and had arranged for his predecessor to be fired, after the man had made the mistake of insulting one of the waiters in public.
"How can I help you, Mrs. Michaels?" he asked respectfully, as he arrived at their table.
"You can tell me why your security guard is refusing entry to a future partner of PJH construction, the president and CEO of XTech security," Molly’s voice was starting to rise, and she ended on a crescendo, "and my adopted son, Alexander Harris."
The already pale manager lost the rest of his color. He couldn’t imagine a worse scenario.
PJH Construction owned the club, and he had heard many rumors about the fast rising prodigy that was making money for them, hand over fist. The club’s security had been installed by XTech, a PJH subsidiary, on the advice of practically every member, although the personnel running it were under his control, since he hadn’t thought that XTech would have the necessary ability to deal with their clientele. He was seriously regretting that decision now; at least they would have recognized their boss.
"Please give me a few moments to deal with this, Mrs. Michaels. I’m certain I can have this sorted out very quickly."
Molly nodded, once, sharply. She didn’t have to say anything further; the threat was very clear in her body language.
When it came down to the people who frequented the club, money talked. Molly and Kyle had the most, so they talked the loudest. Everyone present was watching the display with avid interest; they didn’t know that the Michaels had adopted, and this was killer gossip. They were extremely curious about Xander as well, everyone in the know had heard about him, the multi-talented, fastest rising star in the PJH universe.
The manager kept his decorum as he walked quickly through the tables to the exit, but as soon as he was out of sight, he started to run. Nightmare scenarios of the Michaels’ adopted son being bundled, or worse, attacked, by over zealous security guards, ran through his mind, as well as the end of the career it would cause him.
"You, come with me," he shouted to one of the valets as he ran through the main lobby.
He took the steps down three at a time, and arrived just in time to hear the guard sneer, "We don’t have any one called Molly on our members’ list, so put the phone away and get out of here."
"Mr. Harris," he called, skidding to a stop. He held out his hand, grabbing the bemused carpenter’s hand and shaking it profusely. "I do deeply apologize for this misunderstanding, sir."
He turned to the valet he had grabbed, and instructed him, "Park Mr. Harris’s car for him. Immediately."
"Yes, Sir!" The valet had no idea what was going on, so he did exactly as he was told as quickly as possible.
The manager then turned to the guard, his eyes narrowed with anger. "Go to my office and wait for me!" The tone of command was absolute, and the guard gulped, suddenly realizing that something had gone very wrong. He’d never before seen the manager personally come out of the building into the Sunnydale heat to meet a guest.
"Please, come with me, Mr. Harris. The Michaels are eagerly awaiting your arrival for lunch."
At the mention of the Michaels’, the guard went white. Like a man walking down the green mile to his execution, he slowly trudged to the office.
Xander follow the manager in, hiding his amusement.
As they reached the table, Molly stood and embraced Xander warmly, before releasing him so that Kyle could do the same. The public display of affection did not go unnoticed by the other members, who were discreetly watching with great interest..
"I do hope there won’t be a repeat of this incident," Molly said, her voice cold enough to chill the entire building in the middle of an autumn heat wave. "Especially as Alexander has two memberships to this club."
"Two?" the manager asked, confused. He hadn’t even known that the young man was a member.
"Yes. As a vice president of PJH and the CEO of XTech, he has a corporate membership. And you will find that he is clearly registered as a member under my family name." She paused, before continuing in a slightly less frigid time. "You will take care of the issue, won’t you?"
The manager nodded fervently; the guard would be fired two minutes after he returned to his office.
"You will, of course, allow me to take care of lunch for you, as a small apology for Mr. Harris’s delay," he stated, attempting to smooth over the massive faux-pas one of his people had committed.
Molly graced him with a regal smile and nodded once, dismissing him at the same time.
He paused on the way out, to ensure that the head waiter would serve them personally, and then popped in to the kitchen to sure their meal would be the very best the kitchen could provide.
It was a very relieved manager, who returned to his office. He hoped that, with the guard gone, this incident would quickly be forgotten. He most definitely never wanted to go through another five minutes like that again.
Out in the dining room, the atmosphere had warmed up significantly.
"Well, that was fun," Molly said with a grin. A grin that was shared by Kyle.
"Since when have I been a member here?" Xander asked, almost as surprised by the revelation of his membership as the manager.
"Didn’t Peter tell you?"
Xander blushed slightly. "He might have, I guess. He told me a lot of things when I was promoted."
"Anyway, you’ve got some explaining to do, Xander. What on earth happened to your eye?" Molly asked, changing the subject as she suddenly realized that her 'son’ was no longer wearing a bandage over his eye, and the said eye now looked completely normal.
"Would you believe that a friendly demon gave me the Orb of Isis as prepayment for XTech protecting Sunnydale’s Demon Council?" the former carpenter asked nonchalantly.
Kyle immediately lifted his hand and caught the attention of the waiter. "Two beers and a coke, please." He knew that Xander was driving and only staying for lunch, as he was due back in the office that afternoon. Kyle had an important meeting later at the club, and decided that he was going to need something to help him and Molly through this conversation.
"Ok," Kyle said slowly as the beers arrived. He took a few deep gulps of the amber liquid before continuing with his questions. "Friendly demon, Orb of Isis, XTech protection and a demon Council?" he repeated the most significant terms he heard Xander mention.
Xander nodded, sipping his coke. "Yep," he agreed, the hint of a grin on his face.
"Don’t be facetious Xander. Details, Son, details. Now."
"Yes, Mom," Xander said, grinning.
Although it was meant as a joke, the appellation went straight to Molly’s heart, one of the biggest smiles of her life lit up her face.
"I got a visit from a Brachen half-demon last night at the complex. They generally appear human, but can easily change into their demon form, which is stronger and more resilient than their human form. When I was in LA earlier this year, Angel told me about a close friend of his, named Doyle who was the same species. They’re pretty much like humans in most things, in that they just want to live their lives, get married, have a nice house and die naturally of old age.
"Simon, the half-demon, runs Sunnydale’s demon council. It seems that there is a new Big Bad in town, who wants to open the Hellmouth, yadda, yadda, yadda. She arranged for Spike to get Buffy to kill a member, as the opening gambit in an attempt to take over the council, and use its influence on our sizeable demon population to force them to join her.
"I agreed it would be best for that not to happen, so I agreed that we’d put them in some of our secure bases and keep them safe. As a thank you, they gave me the Orb of Isis. Dawn was reading a webpage on the Orb, and told me to lift it up to my eye. A few minutes and some extreme pain later, and I had a new eye."
Xander turned slightly, so his back was to the rest of the room, and pointed to his eye.
As Molly and Kyle watched carefully, the eye turned golden, before returning to its hidden state, simulating a normal eye.
As if synchronized, Molly and Kyle both drained their drinks.
"You know," Kyle said thoughtfully, "that’s the first time I’ve ever heard a potential world ending event described with 'Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.’"
Xander and Molly laughed, although Xander did look a little sheepish.
"Sorry," he apologized with a grin, "it’s just that, if we had a dollar for every vampire or demon who wanted to open the Hellmouth, we’d have enough to buy a small car."
"What else does the Orb do?" Molly asked, curious.
"Don’t know, there’s not much information available on it. I did some research on Isis this morning. It’s believed that Isis was the daughter of either Hermes or Prometheus. Her name means Wisdom, and she was known as the goddess of 10,000 applications. To the Egyptians, she represented the female aspects of a deity to mankind; kind of the universal mother to all that lived, as well as the goddess of wisdom, truth and power. The statues that remain of her have her decorated with symbols of the sun, the moon and the stars. Her girdle was joined together by four gold plates, which represented each of the four elements.
"The research I did showed that Hermes taught her as she was growing up, and she used the knowledge to invent the written word, caused men to love women, invent sailing, give mankind laws, ended cannibalism, made justice more powerful than silver and gold, instructed mankind in the mysteries of magic and caused truth to be considered the most precious of all things."
Molly and Kyle both had parental expressions of pride on their faces. They hated that Xander had always been considered the stupid one by his friends. This sort of research proved that he was intelligent, even if you ignored his successful business dealings.
"Isis was married to Osiris, the great and benevolent ruler of Egypt. He was murdered by Set, his jealous brother, and was dismembered and Set spread his brother’s parts far and wide. With her sister, Nephthys, Isis found all of her husband’s body, and used magic to reanimate him, only he couldn’t live on this plane anymore, so he descended to become Lord of the Underworld.
"Osiris and Isis’ son, Horus, who had the head of a falcon, started a war with Set, to reclaim Egypt. During the final battle, Set tore out Horus’ eye and threw it to the ground, but the God Throth restored Horus’ eyesight. Horus then avenged his father by killing Set. Isis thanked Throth by persuading Osiris to give him the job he wanted, that of Clerk of the Underworld, where for eternity, Throth has weighed the hearts of the dead in the hall of the two truths, deciding who goes to heaven and hell.
"After Set was defeated, and after some more of the Deistic unpleasantness that seems really prevalent, Horus eventually presented his damaged eye to Osiris, in the underworld, which restored Osiris to eternal life and became known as the Wedjet-eye, the Eye of Eternity, which protected all from harm. Osiris gave the eye to his wife, no longer needing it, who stored its power into an orb, as a servant of those who would protect the innocent."
Molly and Kyle sat silently, trying to digest what they had just heard. "So you think that the Orb might be the Eye of Eternity?"
Xander nodded slowly, "It would make sense. But I read that recipients of the Eye had to undergo great trials to be accepted. It just jumped into my eye socket."
Kyle slowly started to smile. "Great trials? Don’t you think that fighting on the Hellmouth without any special powers would be a suitable trial?"
Xander blinked. "I hadn’t considered that."
"No, you wouldn’t." Molly said dryly, a small smile of mild exasperation on her face as she looked at him.
They paused their conversation as Kyle ordered club sandwiches for all of them.
"How’s living with Dawn?" Molly asked, as the waiter vanished towards the kitchens.
"Much better than I thought it would be," Xander admitted, settling back in his chair. "She seems to care about what I have to say. We spend most evenings just talking things over. I trust her. She doesn’t seem seventeen, anymore."
Molly exchanged a small smile with Kyle. It looked like Dawn’s plan was proceeding perfectly.
Two hours later, back in his office, Xander continued his paperwork, after arranging for Ian to take Dawn home.
True to his word, he attended the afternoon’s training session, and actually found it felt good to get rid of some of the stresses of the past week on the practice mat.
After showering, he returned to his office, feeling a lot more relaxed.
As the clock ticked closer to six, he called Rob and Joe into his office.
"Guys, we’re having guests at six o’clock. They are the Sunnydale demon council, so I need you two to meet them and bring them into the debriefing room. Then, once we finish, we’re going to need to split them up and take them to our secure buildings. I’ve arranged for apartments to be ready for them. We might have to pick up their families, as well, so make sure all the vans are ready."
"Yes, Sir!" They both saluted and turned, and were out of the door before Xander could object to the saluting.
He walked into the conference room and played with the remote controls, setting up the same film he had demonstrated to the XTech personnel this morning.
Andrew wasn’t due back from College till around the same time that the Council was going to arrive, so this meant that Xander had to set up the digital presentation himself.
As Rob and Joe shepherded the Council in, Xander tried to categorize as many of them as he could. He recognized a few, including one that looked a lot like Lorne, the anagogic friend of Angel’s.
Xander walked over and shook Simon’s hand, welcoming him and the others to XTech head quarters.
After everyone had sat down, Xander said, "Can I offer anyone a drink before we start? I’m afraid that we’ve only got human drinks on hand, although I can order out if necessary."
"Coffee will be fine," a deep gravelly voice came from a being that seemed to be embracing darkness. The other demons followed his lead, so Xander nodded to Joe.
"Before we start," Xander said with a wolfish smile. "I thought you might like a demonstration of the sort of protection we are offering."
He turned and pressed 'play’ on the projector, stepping to one side as the lights automatically dimmed. Unlike this morning, the video repeated itself through all the available angles, showing the vampires being killed with the utmost efficiency.
As the lights returned, the council gave a round of applause.
"Impressive, Carpenter," the gravelly voice said again. While Simon was the head, it was obvious who the most powerful demon was. "What have you got to defend against demons?"
Xander moved back in front of the long rectangular table. "I don’t want to go into specifics, but our anti-demon defenses have been designed by the same person who was responsible for our anti-vampire defenses. We are confident that any demon foolish enough to attack one of our buildings would suffer the same fate."
It was the absolute confidence and coldness of voice that persuaded the Council that Xander meant what he was saying, rather than his words.
Luckily for the brown haired man at the head of the table, he was an exceptionally good liar.
The XTech techies had not managed to come up with any sure fire anti-demon technologies - yet. This was mainly due to the fact that there were so many different varieties and species that they had to evaluate and develop countermeasures against, while ensuring that any human bystanders wouldn’t get toasted, also. The technology to scan and identify demons was pretty well established. A blend of x-rays, infrared, ultra violet and visible light scan beams, combined with a database of body temperatures, bone structures and a pattern recognition system was extremely effective in determining who was or wasn’t human.
The first anti-demon idea had been to use ultra-powerful microwave technology. The idea was to literally pour on the juice, frying the creature from the inside, till they either cooked themselves to death, or went *splat*. The main problem that the techs had encountered with this solution was that Demons liked to carry weapons, and it was felt that all the resultant electrical arcing was too dangerous to any non-hostile in the nearby area.
At the moment, they were reliant on a combination of some very large guns hooked up to the standard cameras as well as petroleum jelly based flame throwers.
The weapons might be crude, but they were surprisingly effective.
"Now," Xander sat at the head of the table, a position he was slowly becoming used to. "I have a few questions for you. How long have you been in Sunnydale?"
Simon, at a nod from the dark demon, settled back in his chair. "Demon’s are attracted to Sunnydale because of the Hellmouth. As well as being a portal to hell, the mouth has two major benefits for demons. First off, it generates a very low level magical field that persuades humans that nothing is wrong. A normally observant human in Sunnydale will see something unusual, and a second later forget about it, deciding that they had been mistaken. As it is not very powerful, if someone has a strong enough mind, and is confronted with proof, the field can be broken.
"The second benefit is similar to photosynthesis in plants. The magic feeds us. It’s like spending your life in the artic, then suddenly lying in a field on a hot summer day, feeling the sun beat down on you. It’s very difficult to explain to a non-demon.
"It can be very addictive, especially to vampires. It’s one of the many reasons they are so keen to open the Hellmouth, so that its influence would spread through out the land.
"When the ex-mayor founded the town, a lot of demons moved in quickly, thinking it would be a perfect place to raise their families. It was a chance to live a somewhat normal life, coexisting peacefully with humans. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay that way for very long, The Mayor quickly stomped down on anyone who stood in the way of him ascending.
"It was only after you and your friends extremely successful defeat of him that the Demon Council was formed, made up of representatives of the major groups who live in, and below, Sunnydale."
"Why haven’t you contacted us before?" Xander asked.
"We did try," Simon admitted, obviously uncomfortable with what he had to say next. "We sent an envoy, but the Slayer killed him before he could say anything. I’m afraid that we decided that it was not worth losing another member."
Xander nodded slowly, "I apologize for your loss. We are halting the 'attack first, maybe ask questions later policy’." He was acutely embarrassed and ashamed that they had lost out on potential allies by Buffy’s acting hastily.
Changing the subject, Xander looked at one of the Demons. "Are you a member of the Deathwok clan?"
The demon smiled widely. "Yes. And to answer your next question, yes, Lorne is my older brother."
"Not a Pylea fan, either then?" Xander said with a grin, referring to the demon’s home dimension.
"Nope, horrid place, a whole planet full of demons with bad dress sense and unfortunate hair."
Xander couldn’t help laughing out loud at that reply.
With a grin, Xander returned to the original subject. "So, it’s the Hellmouth that causes the rank stupidity among the population here?"
"Yes," Simon agreed. "It can be beneficial, but with so many vampires, it tends to be very negative for humans."
"We are trying to stop that," Xander said wryly.
"We know, and it’s one of the reasons for us approaching you, now. Bill," Simon nodded to an inconspicuous looking demon, "gave us a report on the status of XTech, and we were very impressed. Not even the Government program was as well organized. We believe that you are close to arriving at a stage where you will be taking the fight to them?"
Xander nodded slowly, a slight frown appearing on his face.
Simon smiled slightly. "Don’t worry. We have no wish for the Hellmouth to open; it would mean the end of our lives. As renegades from the 'True Demon’ philosophy of killing everyone, we’d be executed pretty quickly."
"I was more concerned about an investigation into us being successful," Xander admitted.
"Ahh, I understand," Simon replied. "Bill, would you mind giving a quick demonstration?"
Bill stood, and seemed to blur. "Of course not, Simon," he said, as he changed into a mirror image of the Brachen, even his voice matched.
Xander looked a little surprised. "A useful talent," he said dryly.
Bill, as Simon, actually laughed, and returned to his normal innocuous form. "I’ve got perfect control over my own DNA. I just insert new sequences, change the balance a little and then replicate it throughout my body."
"Do you want another job?" Xander asked with a grin.
The whole table laughed, understanding where the human was coming from. "Maybe," Bill said. "We can discuss that at a later date."
"Ok, one final thing. Would you mind if we scanned you all? As part of the defenses, we have a demon recognition program installed. It matches certain key elements, such as body heat, bone structure, and blood density against known demons so that we can do a threat analysis. It also helps us fight, if necessary, as we know the weak points."
Xander grinned suddenly. "Such as knowing that a kick in the ass for our well dressed friend over there is a little more threatening that it is for you, Simon."
Again the council laughed, acknowledging the fact that the demon Xander had nodded to had his heart in his left buttock.
"What is involved in the scanning?" Simon asked.
"Nothing," Xander replied. "We can scan all of you where you are sitting now."
Simon looked around the table, and seeing no opposition, he gave their permission.
Xander pulled out his communicator from his pocket, and pressed a button. "Andrew, start the scan."
As far as anyone could tell, nothing happened.
"It’s done, Xander. Could you ask what species the demons in chairs four and seven are, please? The rest we know."
"Will do," he looked at the first demon. "Do you mind telling us what species you are?"
"Groosalugg," he replied. "Retired."
Xander nodded, Andrew would fill him in later as to why the 'retired’ bit was important.
"And you, sir?" Xander paid a little more respect to the dark demon. It was never a good idea to insult someone who scared other demons. While he was pretty sure he was safe, he didn’t want to field-test the rooms anti-demon weaponry unless it was very necessary, since the chances of him getting out alive were slim.
There seemed to be a pregnant pause, as everyone waited to see how the demon would react.
They were surprised when he chuckled. "I like you, Carpenter. I am a freak, a sport. I am the only one of my kind. I am half Pockla, half Nahdra."
Xander bowed his thanks, making another note to ask Andrew what the both of those demons were, and why such a combination would cause such fear and respect in the other demons present
"All right, now, on to more practical matters. How many of you have families that you would like protected?"
Simon looked a little surprised; he hadn’t expected the protection to be offered to anyone but the Council itself.
"You would hardly be protected if our enemies could influence you by attacking your families," Xander explained upon seeing Simon and the others’ reaction to his offer.
Simon nodded, "We all have."
"Ok, I have vans outside. Each of you, please go with the driver, pick up your families and any special food or nutritional supplements that you might need for the first few days. You will then be taken to your new apartments. Each of you will be accompanied by XTech security guards, to ensure that you all arrive safely."
Xander smiled at them. "You are now under our protection, gentleman. I would be very upset if anyone of you were to accidentally die now."
Another laugh swept the table, as the demons and the human stood up.
"Simon, you’re with me. The rest of you, if you’ll follow Brad and Joe, they will take you to your designated vans. Each of you will be given an XTech communicator. Band 1 will allow you to talk to each other; Band 2 will connect you here, in case of emergencies."
As the demons filed out, Simon turned to Xander. "How’s Dawn?" It hadn’t taken Bill long, once he had heard about the young girl living with the Carpenter, to find out everything he wanted to about the girl.
The Council had met before meeting with Xander, and had decided that the girl would be good for him, and would help keep him open minded.
Outside the conference room, Lorne’s brother, Micklornswath, Mick to his friends, said, "I hear you guys are running a book on when Dawn gets Xander. Can I place a bet as well?"
Joe grinned, suddenly losing the slight nervousness he had. It had been a shock for him to find that demon’s existed. He’d only accepted the existence of vampires after losing two very close friends to them, before a lucky strike had impaled the vampire on a wooden fence. The idea that the demons would want to bet on when their boss and his girl would get together hammered home the fact that demons could be like humans…good and bad.
"Sure," he grinned. "How much do you want to get in for?"
Dawn, Ian and Chrissy’s shopping trip had been very successful. Dawn had, with her friend’s help, basically transformed Ian’s wardrobe completely, before the teenage boy had received a call from home, urgently requesting his presence.
A quick phone call to Xander had verified that Dawn was on the company insurance, and so could take the company car. So Dawn had dropped Ian off at his home first, then Chrissy.
She smiled cheerfully at the guard, one she hadn’t seen before, as she carried Xander’s new suits past. They had been ready a day early when she had taken Ian into the same store, so she had collected them for him. She couldn’t wait to see what he looked like in them.
She hung the suits in his closet and wandered into the kitchen. 'Ok, Dawn. Xander’s going to be home late, time to prove your part of this family by cooking for him,’ she thought to herself.
She glanced at the phone, looked through the cupboards and the fridge, then looked at the phone again. She just had one problem with her plan - she didn’t have a clue how to cook.
The fridge was close to being empty, a sign that they hadn’t been shopping in nearly a week. So she threw a couple of large potatoes in the oven, turning it to medium and decided to nip down the store to get a couple of steaks.
Buffy sighed as she looked at her empty fridge; it had an eerie correspondence to her wallet. She decided to go to the store and pick up something for dinner that evening, Spike had left her a couple of bucks on the table.
She threw a coat on and walked out, pretty much ignoring the rain.
Dawn took a deep breath, and then sprinted through the rain to the car. She tapped the button on the key ring, unlocking the car remotely, before slipping into the driver’s side of the brand new Ford Taurus, which Xander had chosen as the basic model for the XTech company car.
She fastened her seatbelt, placed the key in the ignition, and smiled as the two liter Zetec engine roared into life. She floored the gas pedal as she dropped the car into gear, and laughed as the wheels spun wildly on the wet ground for a moment, before biting and pushing her back into the seat from the acceleration.
It was a thoroughly miserable Buffy who eventually arrived, soaked through, at the store. She pulled a wet cart from the cart rack, and shook herself, trying to get some of the surface water off her coat. She couldn’t believe how fast the weather had turned from this morning, when they had been suffering in a heat wave, to this seemingly endless rain.
Dawn laughed to herself as the sporty car splashed through the puddles - its active suspension made taking the corners appear like she was on a train track. She flicked the radio on to 96-Wave, and started to sing along to Meatloaf’s 'Bat Out Of Hell’.
She was enjoying herself so much, she almost forgot what she was out to get, and so ended up halfway across town, in the supermarket that she had used to go to with her mother.
She parked the car, finding it a lot easier to handle than Xander’s huge SUV and hopped out. Her good mood was not going to be ruined by some rain, so she danced across the car park, jumping childishly into some of the smaller puddles, her long hair swinging around wildly.
She threw a huge smile at a store worker who handed her a dry trolley, a smile that was going to be remembered and used by that particular worker at night.
Buffy walked around the store, keeping a close eye on everything she put in her cart. Her normal brands were replaced with cheaper store brands, something that she was extremely depressed about. Heinz most definitely made the best ketchup; nothing else tasted the same.
Dawn bounced down the aisle, still singing to herself. She grabbed some salad fixings as she passed the produce section, deciding that it would be nice to have an accompaniment. She looked at the row of sauces, and grabbed a jar of Heinz mayonnaise, not sure if they had any in the house - mixed with some hamburger relish, it made a great salad dressing. Her mom had used to make it all the time, when she was younger.
She stopped at the meat counter, and waited her turn.
Buffy sighed as she picked up a pack of frozen chicken thighs. It would do for dinner, till they could sort out their finances and afford to get some proper food.
She was interrupted in her thoughts by a familiar voice.
"Can I have two of those sirloin steaks, please?"
Buffy rounded the corner, to see the smiling face of her younger sister. She watched as her sister was handed two expensive looking pieces of meat.
Slayer powers to the fore, she followed Dawn around the supermarket, as the younger girl stopped and carelessly added more stuff to her cart. Her own shopping finished, she watched with a tinge of envy as the younger girl added several bottles of coke, some Pringles, and then spent several minutes looking at deserts.
Buffy took a deep breath and pushed her cart forwards.
"Dawn," she said quietly.
The younger girl looked up, an expression close to fear on her face momentarily, before it vanished as the brown haired girl composed herself.
"Buffy," she replied coldly.
"So, are you enjoying living with Xander?"
"Yes, thank you. How’s your engagement going?"
"Wonderfully."
Their conversation petered out into silence, as they both tried to think of something to say.
"I have to go," Dawn finally said. "I need to get home; I want to get these steaks ready for when Xander gets home."
"Oh," Buffy sniffed. "Making you cook is he?"
Dawn sighed. "Actually, Buffy," she came close to spitting her sister’s name, "Xander has cooked every day this week. He has to work late tonight, so I thought I’d return the favor.
"It was nice seeing you," she said, obviously lying.
"You too," Buffy responded automatically. The Slayer watched as her sister walked off, realizing that she desperately wanted to call her back, but the words wouldn’t leave her mouth. This wasn’t how she wanted the conversation to go. She missed her sister a great deal, but was to proud to admit it. Besides, Dawn had lied about Spike.
She followed Dawn to the check out, and felt a twinge of jealousy as Dawn paid by simply handing the clerk a bank card.
As Dawn took her stuff out to her car, Buffy paid her own smaller bill. She had got her sums right, and had just enough cash.
She picked up her shopping and carried it out the shop.
Dawn sat in her car, and wiped a tear from her eye. She hadn’t meant to snap at her sister, it just happened when she had insulted Xander, yet again. Her sister still didn’t have a clue about who Xander really was, and that annoyed her no end.
The green eyed girl started the engine, and pulled up beside her sister as she saw her walking on the sidewalk. She pressed the button to lower the passenger side window.
"Do you want a lift home?"
Buffy looked at Dawn, and at the brand new car she was driving. "It’s ok, I’d prefer the walk," she replied.
Dawn looked at the rain, and shrugged. She’d at least made the offer. If Buffy wanted to keep on being prissy, so be it. She pushed the button to raise the window and drove off smoothly, leaving her sister to curse her pride and walk home in the rain.
Dawn put the radio back on, and tried to recapture her earlier mood.
Back in their apartment, Dawn unpacked the groceries and made the salad quickly. It was then that something hit her. She had no idea at all how to really cook. Defrosting something and popping it into the microwave was about the extent of her culinary ability.
She walked over to her laptop, and looked at some of the more popular culinary sites, but didn’t know if she trusted herself following instructions like that. She really wanted to get this right.
She looked at the phone, and hesitated.
It took another twenty seconds before she finally picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello?" An extremely cultured voice answered.
"Molly, it’s Dawn."
The tome of her voice changed in an instant. "Dawn," Molly sounded incredibly pleased to hear from her, and the young brunette could practically feel the older woman’s smile. "What can I do for you, dear?"
"Well," Dawn sounded embarrassed, mainly because she was. "Xander’s working late, and I wanted to cook for him. I went and brought some steaks, but I don’t know how to cook them."
"Honey, I’ll be there in five minutes."
"Thanks," Dawn said, a little surprised. She hadn’t expected Molly to come around, she’d just hoped that she’d give her some pointers over the phone.
Molly hung up and smiled brightly at her husband. "Dawn needs help cooking for Xander, so I’m going to help her. Can you be a dear and make sure that Xander doesn’t come home early?" The poor child would be embarrassed beyond words if he walked in while I was helping her make dinner."
"Of course," Kyle said with a smile.
Molly dropped a kiss on his cheek and hurried out, dropping by her kitchen on her way out. She almost jumped into her Mercedes, and, while wearing a brilliant smile, she gunned the engine and took off as fast as she could.
Kyle watched her go with a smile. He couldn’t remember when he had ever seen her so happy. It was an unfortunate coincidence that both of them had been sterile. They’d discussed adopting, but had never gotten around to it. Having Dawn and Xander in their lives showed them a bit of what they had missed, but it also filled the same gap. Molly was off to help someone she loved, and it had taken many years off her. He thanked the heavens once more for bringing first Xander, then Dawn into their lives.
Picking up his mobile, he went out to his own BMW and went to check up on Xander.
Molly swung into the car park at high speed, expertly breaking and parking in one of the visitor slots. She jumped out the car and practically jogged towards the door. She smiled at the guard, who stood and saluted.
"Relax," she smiled at him. "I’m just going to see Dawn."
He nodded and smiled, dropping his salute.
As she vanished into the elevator, he smiled. It looked like Dawn had definitely passed the Michaels’ test.
She knocked on the door to Xander’s apartment, and immediately hugged the brown haired girl as she opened it.
"Come on, honey. We don’t have much time. I brought some 'practice steaks’ for you to try cooking first, first," she said, as she led the girl into the kitchen.
"All right, now" Molly said, lifting herself onto the counter. "I’m not going to do any of the work, that’s your job. I’m just going to tell you what to do."
"Ok," Dawn said, accepting the challenge with a grin.
"First, get out some bell peppers, an onion and some mushrooms. We’ll make a little something to go with it."
Dawn found herself having a great time and enjoying the work immensely as she followed the simple instructions to cut, slice, dice, fry and bake the relevant parts. The instructions were mixed in with a wide-ranging conversation, as Molly discreetly checked out Dawn’s intelligence. She was extremely pleased to find that Dawn was easily as smart as Xander, with a surprising amount of knowledge of the world, considering she was only seventeen.
The young woman’s first practice steak wasn’t a complete success, but by the time she had done her third, she understood the concepts well enough for Molly to give her some praise.
While Dawn checked the potatoes, Molly stuck the 'starter’ steaks into a Tupperware container; her dogs would enjoy the snack later.
A quick heads-up message on her cell from Kyle alerted Molly that Xander had finished with the Council and was on his way home, and would be there in ten minutes.
Molly hopped off the counter. The steaks Dawn had purchased were ready to be cooked, the salad was made and in a bowl ready to be served, and the bottle of wine Molly had brought with her was cooling in the refrigerator.
"Xander’s going to be here soon, so I’m going to vanish."
Dawn walked over and gave her a huge hug. "Thank you, so much, Molly. I really appreciate the help."
Molly smiled another huge smile. "It’s been a lot of fun, Dawn. Please make sure you always phone me when you need anything."
"I will," Dawn said, enjoying the maternal embrace. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed this sort of hug.
With a grin, Molly vanished, pulling out of the car park barely a minute before Xander arrived back.
He walked in and was pleasantly surprised to find the kitchen table set for two. His fatigue instantly vanished.
"Smells really good," he said to Dawn, an incredibly impressed expression on his face. He had been expecting that he would have to cook after he had gotten home, as he didn’t think Dawn could. Yet again, he was forced to reevaluate the girl who was having such a dramatic influence on his life.
"Sit down, and I’ll get the potatoes out of the oven, and start the steaks," Dawn suggested with a small smile as she realized what he had been thinking.
Xander saluted, and sat at the table, eagerly awaiting the food that already had his taste buds screaming for seconds just from the fragrance
Dawn poured him a glass of red wine. He looked surprised, but didn’t comment, not even as she poured herself a glass.
Dawn then checked that the frying pan was as incredibly hot, before laying down the two pieces of meat she had purchased earlier. When they were cooked, she added the sauce to one side, before plumping the potato as she got it out of the oven. She added the salad to the side and brought the larger plate to him.
For once, he didn’t dig in, but waited for her to sit opposite him.
"You look really nice," he said as he noticed her clothes as she sat down.
Dawn smiled widely at him, delighted at the unexpected compliment. She had expected him to be too tired to do anything more than simply eat and try to relax and unwind before going to bed.
"Thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this," he said with a smile at her. Anya might have been extremely proficient at gutting a cheating man, but her ability with food preparation was limited to picking up the phone and ordering take-away. That had meant that Xander had cooked for the two of them more often than not.
"I told you, Xan. I’m an adult now, and I’m going to do my share without complaining."
Xander smiled warmly at her. "I’m glad you’re here," he said simply.
She favored him with another of the smiles that seemed to put the sun to shame.
He took a bite, and his face took on a look of such rapture that she had to giggle.
After complementing her, they both started to eat seriously. The conversation, as it had been every night, ranged from the joking to the serious. And yet again, Xander found himself realizing that there was literally no one else on the planet he would rather spend time with.