Part 14
It was a quarter ‘til two when Xander entered the magic shop. Cordy was just
ending a call on her cellular.
“Anything new?” He asked. As he pushed his sunglasses up onto the top of his
head, an act that held his thick dark hair off his face, he held a long
cardboard tube under one arm and held a clipboard filled with paper. He
consulted the clipboard and frowned.
“Angel and Spike are off shaking down the demon lairs, and Willow and her
friend went to check on a Wiccan group they know. Oh, Willow said to tell
you it’s not the one from campus. Does that make sense?” Cordy asked.
“Actually it does.” Xander laughed. He nodded to Jonathan, who was working
behind the register. Glancing up to loft, where Giles and Wesley were
sorting through the don’t-touch-them books Xander caught Giles eye and shot
him an inquiring look. Giles just shook his head.
“Okay then, Cor I’m glad your here,” he said removing a thick sheaf of paper
from the clipboard. “ I need you to stay here and coordinate operations.”
Cordelia looked puzzled as she glanced over the lists. “Xander who are all
these people.”
Xander laughed again and shook his head. “Most of them went to high school
with you. Don’t worry, it’s not important that you know them, what is
important is they will recognize you. See you were right all those years,
popularity is power.”
“Okay, but what exactly am I going to be doing?” ‘Engaging prom queen
attitude, hand on hip, perfect eye brow lifted and scathing comment prime
and ready, God Cordy I’ve missed you.’
“Sit here.” Xander pulled out a chair from the side of the research table
that faced the shop’s entrance. “When someone comes to you, get their name.
If they aren’t on the list ask who they report to and list anything they
bring under the name, make sure you keep track of the quantities. Then,” he
set down the clipboard and opened the case. Unrolling large detailed maps of
Sunnydale he continued, “go to the list of questions, on the yellow paper,
they apply to the last four weeks; only document positive response. If it is
positive refer them to Giles to get as much detail as possible.” He stopped
and looked up at the loft. “I have a list here on what we need to know on
positive response, but I thought you could kind of play it by ear, the more
information we get the more you may want to narrow the scope. Is that okay
with you?”
Xander added the last as an afterthought. He didn’t want to usurp Giles
authority, but it had been nearly twenty-four hours and all they knew was
Cordy had a vision that the world would soon end. They had known that
yesterday. Xander had spent the last hours calling in favors he didn’t feel
he had earned; he had never contacted these people when he was out of a job.
Now he had called people who had put their lives in his hands once before
and survived, at least most of them had. It wasn’t a position he wanted to
be in again, but he was torn. How could he deprive them of the chance to
fight for their own live simple because he was too much of a coward to risk
them?
“Of course Xander. What exactly are we asking?” Giles seems all right with
this, Xander thought.
“It starts out pretty general, just a list of the ‘normal’ Hellmouthy
activities that make Sunnydale the tours trap of the undead. I figured we
oughta take advantage of this one Starbuck town. You know what people say
about small towns, everybody knows everybody else’s business. Well
graduation punched past the river of denial our neighbors swim in for most
of our class.” Xander rubbed his eyes and looked down at the table. “Guess
we might as well take advantage of that.” He sighed.
Switching gears rapidly he smiled. “I figure if we only refer the ones to
you who have seen or heard about something...., well unusual isn’t a word
that applies to the supernatural in Sunnydale but you get the picture. That
then you could then get some idea as to anything or anyone new in town.
Cordy, once you’ve screen them assign them to quadrants on the maps. They’re
numbered by priority, make sure you send them out in groups of two or more
and tell them to call in only if they find something. They’re to come back
here before sunset unless we notify them of a different location, that’s why
it is imperative we verify their phone info, that’s on this sheet, before
sending them out. Make sure they have the store’s number, it rolls to three
lines. Jonathan, you can stay and run communication?” Xander barely glanced
up and considered the question only a formality.
“Ah...sure.” Jonathan’s wide-eyed nod was hesitant at first and then he
beamed as if the thought of being on the inside of whatever was going on
appealed to him.
“Great.” Xander shuffled though the remaining pages of the clipboard, he
hoped he had covered everything but figured Cordy would be sure to let him
know if he hadn’t.
“And me?” Gunn asked. ‘Someone has had way too much exposure to the Queen C
attitude.’
“You’re with me.” Xander pulled the keys to the truck he had rented out of
his cargo pants.
“What are ‘we’ doing?” Gunn replied.
“Shopping.” Xander smirked. ‘Bad Xander, bad Spike, bad influence now I’m
sporting a smug Spikelike smirk and cryptic comments.’ Xander looked up to
see Giles and Wesley leaning on the railing of the loft. Giles looked a
little smug himself, Wesley just looked confused. Then Xander glanced around
the store, keys in hand he wondered why he felt he was missing something.
“Giles, where’s Dawn?”
“Dawn?” Giles seemed to be having trouble with Xander’s rapid topic changes,
but that was nothing new. “I believe she is still at her friend’s home.
Megan wasn’t it?”
“She hasn’t called? No. Wait. I’m acting freaky and stalkerlike, aren’t I?”
Xander’s confidence faltered for the first time since he entered the shop.
“I would say your acting very much like a parent.” Giles said, sounding too
amused.
“Great, even better.” After his sarcasm, Xander picked his clipboard back up
and sighed. “Listen I need to know she’s okay. Will you call and have Willow
pick her up?”
“Certainly. Anything else?”
Giles sounded sincere so Xander said. “Yeah have the witches scour the dorms
and round up as many hotplates as they can get their hands on, I need them
here in under two hours.”
“Hotplates?” Giles now sounded as puzzled as Wesley looked.
“They’re small portable heating units that” Xander was cut of by Giles’
pained expressing.
“I am well aware of what a hotplate is Xander.” Giles said.
“Oh, I thought it might be a British thing, you people have different names
for everything and all.” Xander shrugged, and still didn’t understand what
Giles had wanted to know.
“Let’s get going with this ‘shopping’ already.” Gunn did not sound patient.
Just before they went out the door, Xander turned and called up to Giles.
“We’ll be back in a couple hours. Can your order pizza?”
“How many?” Giles had begun to rely on Xander’s estimation of the gang’s
appetites ever since he had seen Buffy consumed a large ‘avocado and sliced
cherry tomato’ by herself.
Xander frowned at the floor, then looked up at Giles and said “Sixty?”
~~~~~
Gunn had been quiet as they drove. He didn’t look happy, but Xander didn’t
know the guy, maybe he never looked happy. ‘It must be a bitch getting
dragged to the Hellmouth all because of one of Cordy’s visions.’
“So?” Xander said after the silence became too much for him. “How did you
get into the whole ‘let’s go save the world’ business.”
Judging by the way Gunn clenched his jaw and stared impassively ahead,
Xander thought he might have asked the wrong question. He wondered if Gunn
would answer at all. It had been clear that he had not wanted to be
commandeered for this detail, but Xander need an extra pair of hands. Xander
would have preferred Spike but, well, daylight.
“Sometimes a job just needs to be done.” Gunn finally answered. ‘Wow,
there’s a story there. Funny how I never thought that this shit touched
people outside of Sunnydale. I guess there really is no place to hide from
it.’ “So, what are we shopping for?” Gunn said in a not too subtle change of
subject.
“Groceries.” Xander said. He felt a grin spread across his face. He hoped it
was a goofy grin and not a wild-eyed maniacal grin.
“Groceries?” Gunn asked. Maybe it was a goofy grin, Gunn was now smiling and
didn’t appear as if he were thinking about jumping out of the moving
vehicle.
“Yeah. You might say we’re gonna ‘bake a cake.’” Xander said, and started to
hum the tune he just couldn’t seem to get out of his head.
~~~~~
Their first stop was up a sandy road next to an actual barn. Waiting for
them was a handsome Asian man about Xander’s age and height, wearing dark
glasses and khaki pants with a tight black tee shirt. He was leaning against
a flatbed truck that had a small tarp covered load in the back.
“T.J.” Xander and T.J. grasped forearms.
“Xand-man.” Without another word the young man jumped up onto the truck bed
and began removing the tarp. Underneath were three army green metal lockers.
Xander looked up at the young man standing above him and said. “Have I
mentioned that I want to have your children?”
“Dude. I just wish I could get leave. I can’t believe I’m missing this.” It
took all three of the men to move the lockers from one truck to the other.
“Promise I get an invite to the next war?”
“Thanks man, this is amazing. I don’t know how you do it.” Xander smiled and
when they clasped hands he added. “I don’t want to know how you do it
either.”
Their next stop took them down a long dusty access road bordered by many
rows of orderly plants. Xander backed the truck flush up against a loading
dock. Gunn followed him into the offices of the nursery. A tall black woman
unwound herself from her perch on a high stool behind a well-lit drafting
table.
“Xander Harris, is that you? How have you been?” She came forward and hugged
him.
“Kayla, you look great. I didn’t know you worked here.” Xander was surprised
by the hug. She hadn’t said three words to anyone outside of an Art class in
high school. She had however survived graduation, an event that bound their
class tighter than most.
“It’s a summer internship. I wanted to stay back east where I’m going to
school, but my parent insisted I come home.” While she had spoke she had
crossed to the drafting table. Xander looked down at the precise design,
which resembled the blueprints he used but without the straight lines.
After Xander introduced Gunn and Kayla to each other he asked. “Kel around?”
“You’re the one he’s putting together that order for? I thought it was that
crazy girlfriend of his.” Kayla said with a smile. “I’ll page him.” She
picked up the receiver of a phone and hit three buttons and when she spoke
into the mouthpiece her voice resonated from outside speakers. “Kel come to
the office please.” She hung up the phone and then said, “This is....” She
looked down and them up her large brown eyes filling with tears. “This is
something like Graduation, isn’t it?”
“I’m sorry Kay;” Xander started but stopped to let her continue.
“I was right next to Harmony that day. You know, Kendall, Kendrick, we were
never close, different friends and all. But, my God Xander we had sat next
to each other since kindergarten.” Her eyes seemed focused inward when she
said, “I’d never even been in a car accident. I’d seen violence on TV or in
movies but...it never...I was never touched by it.” Her eyes were dark and
haunted. “Talk about losing your innocents; I picked a school as far away
from here as I could get.” Xander pulled her into another hug, this time as
he patted her shoulder he felt her sob. “I guess I’m not much of a ‘Child of
the Hellmouth.” She said in a small voice.
“You’re the best kind.” He said. “You survived. You haven’t forgotten. You
remember how dangerous it is to pretend that this crap doesn’t exist, but
you moved on, you’ve rebuilt your life.”
Kelly came into the office from a door off the back. Xander introduced him
to Gunn and as they were shaking hands he said to Xander, “Please tell me
Laura did not give you this shopping list.” Xander just shrugged and smiled.
“Alright, I don’t wanta know. I get off at six, any idea where this is going
down?”
“Unless you get a call telling you different, come to the magic shop.”
Xander checked his clipboard and asked, “You want us to call the nursery for
you?”
Kelly gave him his cellular number and the three of them went out to the
loading dock and added several canisters to the U-Haul. Just before Gunn and
Xander got into the truck Kelly said, “Whatever you do just keep Laura out
of the kitchen until I get there.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem.” Xander didn’t think any of them would have time to
cook, which was why he had told Giles to order something.
As they were pulling off the access road out onto the highway, Xander’s
phone rang.
“Xander, its Tara.” She sounded shaken.
He was surprised it wasn’t Willow. “Problem with the Wiccans?” He asked.
“No, no. I called...Xander, I ran into Riley on campus”
“Oh shit. How... I... Tara are you okay?” He gave up trying to voice his
hundreds of questions and frustrations he had regarding Buffy’s former
lover. He had only given voice to his barely suppressed anger to Spike. He
had known that eventually Riley would return, and figured that it would have
to be him or Giles who broke the news of Buffy’s death to him. There was no
way Xander was letting Willow go through that again, not after how deeply
she had been effected by telling Angel; Dawn telling him, and recounting
those last painful days was out of the question.
“I blew it Xan. I... He asked me not to tell Buffy he was back, he said he
wanted to tell her himself. I... I guess just the look on my face.... Then
when he had pulled himself together, he said he wanted to stop by and talk
to Joyce...” Tara sounded like she was starting to cry, her breath was
coming soft and uneven. Xander made soothing noises but before he could say
anything she continued. “That’s not why I called. I mean I do feel wretched
telling him like that and all... but I thought you needed to know. If
Riley’s in town.... maybe his ‘friends’...” The emphasis she placed on the
word reminded Xander that the call just might not be secure. “are here also.
Giles said finish your ‘shopping’ and hurry home.”
“Will do. And T, you did fine. None of us wanted that job, but... Hey is
Wills okay, how did she?”
Tara interrupted. “Thankfully we had split up at the time, to cover more
ground. She should be here when you get back.”
“Okay.” Xander said. “We’ll see you soon.”
Part 15
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