TITLE: ReunificationAUTHOR: WordsmithRATING: NC17PAIRING: Spike/Xander (main but, well you’ll see)DISCLAIMER: Not mine, no malice, no money.SPOILERS: ‘The Gift’WARNING: Long-winded writer. If you think it’s hard to read sentences and paragraphs this long you should try listening to me talk. Oh and for some reason there’s a lot of food in this one. I gained five pounds reading the Mad Poetess’ “Chocolaty Goodness” so if you’re easily influenced like me, do not read this when you’re hungry.ARCHIVE: To the list, anyone else just ask. My page (proud smirk) http://www.geocities.com/firehorse4874/wordsmith/wordsmith.htmlFEEDBACK: wordsmithslash@hotmail.comSUMMARY: The Scooby Gang rebuilds their lives, after the loss of Buffy. This is set between season five and six, it is what ‘should’ happen in the series but didn’t and won’t. If you’re a BtVS fan you won’t need to read ‘Reconstruction’ or ‘Reunification’ first - but those stories will explain how some of the interpersonal relationships have changed since Buffy died. Dedication: Karen is still the best beta - even when I’m slacker girl. ~~~~~~~part one~~~~~~~~ By mid-July, the Children of the Hellmouth had set up an impressive schedule of patrols and observation posts. As a result, the Scoobies were able to wander around the town fair, pointedly not stalking Dawn. Technically Megan’s dad had taken the pack of girls as an unobtrusive chauffer - he hung around the quieter adult tables and avoided the crowd of young people milling around over by the stage waiting for the band to start. Megan’s dad, however, was a moron with absolutely no survival instinct, which was why Xander was lounging on the grass in the park at 10:30 P.M., instead of in bed with Spike taking advantage of a night off. Megan’s family had moved in from the Bay area about three years ago and each Memorial Day weekend since had thrown an open house barbeque with a large banner strung over their door saying ‘everybody welcome’. If they hadn’t lived across the street from the Slayer there would have been a large group of drained corpses that first year. Spike strolled over in a tight black tee shirt and jeans, carrying a cardboard tray of cheese fries and chicken fingers. He leered at Xander’s cut-offs and tank. After setting the food down and joining him on the grass, Spike ran his fingers over Xander’s tanned, well-muscled thigh. “You get us busted for PDAs and we’ll have a hell of a time keeping an eye on the Dawnster,” Xander said but made no move to stop the roaming hand. Spike’s questing touch traveled up to stroke along the zipper of Xander’s shorts “Now, Pet, give daddy some...” “Eww! Yuck! Gross! I can’t stress strongly enough how wrong it is to have the word ‘daddy’ and the concept of sex in the same hemisphere.” Xander sat up, pushing Spike away. Spike snorted, extended a fried peace offering and said, “Dru always liked it.” “News flash: Drucilla is insane.” Xander stayed upright, but tentatively reached for a chicken finger. “You’ve met my father.” Any response Spike may have made was preempted by Willow and Tara joining them. “Oooo, fries!” Willow helped herself as she and Tara sat down next to the men. “Dawn is so on to us, don’t even try to be discreet when you make your next lap. Hey, look, there’s Giles.” Giles and Olivia were even further away from the stage, standing in a crowd near a game of chance. “Xander, go get them.” Xander shrugged and kissed his mate before going to carry out the redhead’s orders. As soon as he was a few yards away Willow leaned in, grabbing Spike’s arm and hissed, “How could you not call? What happened?” At his incredulous look she added, “Dinner! Duh! You had dinner with Xander’s parents, what happened - question mark!” “We had dinner with Xander’s parents. I forcibly restrained myself from having them for dinner. Insert large awkward silence culminating with the Harris himself telling my boy he was killing his mother. Mum got drunk and sobbed thought most of the meal. By the by, how did he grow into such a large bugger eating that crap? There was colorful language, much yelling, and disappointingly, no violence. Xander said we only have to see them about once a month.” “Wait - you’re seeing them again?” Tara asked “Well, I’m family now, aren’t I?” Spike smirked. “Yeah, honey, that’s pretty much how all Harris family dinners go.” Willow put in with a solemn nod. Spike watched Xander break away from the Watcher and his bird, who remained at their game. Xander strolled across the gravel-filled parking area, which had been converted into the midway, toward the grassy park where Spike and the witches waited. He didn’t make it halfway to them before one of his minions bounced up and babbled at him, gesturing toward the carnival rides and then pointing over toward the many parked trailers behind the fair area. Xander listened, hands on hips and scowling off into the darkness. When he turned his attention back to the dark-haired girl he nodded and made a few clipped comments, probably orders and she skipped off now babbling into a cell phone. “Problem?” Spike asked, voicing the concern they all had. “Sunnydale. We have surveillance on it. Nothing definite, someone’s ookie detector when off and they think something’s up with the haunted castle ride - how cliche - and we’re watching the residential area of the staff here - since they're transient. They’ll keep us updated. Oh, Giles said they’d head over as soon as Olivia wins the stuffed Clifford she has an eye on.” “Tara and I will pick up some more food. Spike, you save this spot - it’s perfect. We can see Dawn from here and have dinner. Xander, you help carry.” “Cheese fries.” Xander gestured to his food and looked pitiful. “Xander.” Willow used her mommy voice. “Wiccans. Girl power. Big gun. Hunt, gather, you go you bring-home-the-chili-dogs girl.” The end of his babble was almost incomprehensible as he shoved a whole chicken finger dipped in honey mustard sauce into his mouth. Tara laughed and tugged Willow’s arm, saying, “We can manage. Xander will help save the spot.” ~~~~ The band was bad and the food was nasty - in a good way. They were all heavy-lidded and sprawled on the grass listening to Olivia giggle though an embarrassing story from Giles’ past when Spike sprang up, sprinting toward the rides and shouting, “That was Dawn!” How the vampire was able to distinguish Dawn from the hundreds of kids screaming on the rides and distinguish between her come-help-me scream from a 'this is fun' Willow didn’t know. Nor did she know how Xander had managed to stay right on his lover’s heels as they bolted off to find Dawn. She and Tara ran after them and just managed to keep them in sight as they cut into the line in front of the haunted castle and ran inside it without paying. A quick look over her shoulder showed Giles and Olivia were following at a distance but there wasn’t time - Xander had gone in unarmed. Well, unarmed except for Spike. Tara was breathing heavily and speaking into her phone saying, “The haunted castle; Xander and Spike went in.” There was unrest at the entrance to the ride when the witches arrived and an older man with few teeth and lethal breath was trying to calm down the outraged patrons. “No one else goes in,” Willow said. “Who are you?” the man asked. “I’m the one shutting down this ride. No one goes in until I tell you differently.” Willow put herself in front of the door and Tara moved beside her. The old man blew on a whistle and men jogged over from the surrounding booths and rides glaring at the girls. Surrounding them, out of the darkness, young men with crossbows and staffs stepped up and moved into the tense situation. “Willow?” Jonathan asked. “Keep order out here, Giles is in charge.” Willow nodded to the Watcher, who had just arrived. She and Tara went in, instinctively reaching for each other’s hands. Inside the door of the haunted castle attraction Willow saw a nondescript curtain behind the sign which said ‘This way’ and pointed to the right. She pushed the curtain aside and saw a box of light switches. She pushed each lever from left to right and the lights came on. Together the girls walked warily, as if the lights were still off. The corridors were oddly deserted considering the crowd outside. As they rounded a corner a werewolf sprang from a ledge above their heads and they let out a stereo squeak. The wolfman saw their squeak with a whimper when he found himself slammed into the ceiling instead of plummeting to the floor. The girls exchanged wide-eyed looks and stepped closer to the man pinned to the ceiling. “D..d..do you think he’s an actor?” Tara asked. “He does look kind of fake.” Willow said. “Fake? Fake!” The carney spat out through the false fangs. “Who are you?” “Oops.” The man dropped to the floor. As he picked himself up and pulled off his mask Willow added, “Just go straight out the entrance carefully, with both hands in sight..” “What’s going on? Who are you?” He showed no signs of following her orders. Girlish shrieks echoed from further into the house and Willow leveled a black gaze on him and said, “Just go, now!” The witches hurried into the attraction, stumbling through a nauseating room of black and white squares designed to mislead perspective. Entering a large diorama of the ‘Aliens’ movie queen’s egg chamber they found Dawn cowering with a group of girls under the mock-up of the queen. The last shrieks had been inspired by the thick, dripping, chunk-filled goo the color of dried blood that had splattered the room. The original shrieks must have been brought on by the massive eight-legged spider/turtle demon whose head Spike had ripped out of its shell. Xander was on his cell phone. “Yeah, it’s toast. I got five girls here. I don’t know if a head count at the exit is worth anything since we don’t know how many people were in here. Leave everyone on alert. Send two teams in here, I want every inch checked. Beef up the perimeter patrols and flush out those trailers and the backs of the booths. I noticed they have them back to back with missing space boxed up in there, and I want to know everything that’s being hidden. This thing is too big to have slipped in unnoticed.” He crossed to the witches who had coaxed the girls out of hiding. He gave Dawn a tight hug and kiss on the forehead before handing her over to Tara. He shared a rueful smile with Willow before going over to Spike who by now was jumping up and down on the carcass driving both Doc into a dent he had managed to start in the shell’s shiny coating. “Ah... is it dead?” Considering its head and three of its legs were piled in the far corner of the room Spike snorted and stopped his assault. “Dead, Pet,” Spike said. “Smells better than dragon - but what’s with the chunky blood?” Xander asked. “S’not blood - it’s partially digested prey.” Spike paused to appreciate the chorus of ‘ewws’ and added, “It injects its prey with an acid that turns the insides to mush, then it drinks them.” “Dawn?” Willow and Xander said. “It didn’t touch me! It didn’t touch any of us! But...it was drinking this...person...” She buried her face in Tara’s hair and started to sob. “We couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman,” Stephanie added to Willow. “It heard us and moved so fast to block the doors - we couldn’t get out but it was too big to get at us.” She held a hysterical Megan with one arm and the hand of a quiet girl, obviously in shock, whose name escaped Willow. Willow shared a look with Xander who nodded toward the door and said, “Get them out, we’ll take care of this.” Later that night, the slumber party planned to commemorate the last night before the closure on the sale of the Summers' house - was subdued to say the least. Xander and Spike were not on the scheduled guest list, but Dawn had turned puppy eyes on them and they had caved like well-trained poodles. Since her friends, minus Jenna who had demanded to go home as soon as they had left the castle, seemed to be in shock and two were trying to work the denial groove, there wasn’t much happening in the way of party games. The furniture was all in storage and the carpet had been steamed only two days before. The sleeping bags were semi-circled around the television and videos and cd were still neatly stacked. The events of the carnival had warped the dynamic of this little clique. Willow sighed as Xander tried valiantly to steer the girls back to normalcy, joking and teasing as he had done hundreds of times with she and Buffy and Cordy back in high school. It was different though. It wasn’t reassuring to the girls because he wasn’t goofy Xander to them. He was an outsider to their daytime world of school and boys. He was Dawn’s hot older brother - even though they knew he wasn’t her real brother. The fact that he was talking to them at all just created more tension, since usually he just checked them over for demon possession and told Dawn when she had to be home. Willow wondered if any of them had connected how overprotective Dawn’s ‘family’ was to the demon attack or if like Cordy they had managed to banish their first up-close encounter with the Hellmouth with some not-remotely-plausible excuse. Willow rolled off her sleeping bag and tried to unobtrusively elbow Xander into silence, but she slipped and they both ended up sprawled against Spike who had been sitting against the living room wall. Willow looked at Xander. Xander tried to glare at her, but his eyes were laughing. She giggled. He snickered. They both lost it. The teens were watching them with varying degrees of wariness. Dawn looked worried that they had finally cracked from the pressure. Megan blinked and looked around as if expecting some sort of attack. Stephanie looked pleadingly at Tara as if she was hoping that she would be the one to slap them. The quiet girl, whose name was Mia, bite her lip and divided her attention between the hysterical adults and her friends’ reactions to them. “Egg babies,” Willow said, when she had caught here breath. “Ted’s cookies,” Xander countered. “Hyenas,” Willow tagged Xander to make it a game “Werewolves,” Xander tagged her back. Spike and Tara exchanged a look that spoke volumes and Dawn started to laugh. “Zombies,” Willow said “You never met the zombies,” Xander said. “At the party - Joyce’s mask,” Willow frowned. “Oh, never mind. Love spell.” Xander tagged her “Tart. Mummy girl.” Willow giggled. “Computer geek. Cyber-gypsies,” Xander said pulling back, trying to dodge her next tag. “King of Cretins. Swim team,” Willow laughed. “Witch.” “Demon magnet.” It was fitting that the Summer’s homestead was relinquished with ‘remember whens’ that stretched until early morning. Xander and Willow had started by filling in their lovers on the stories behind their memories. Dawn’s friends sat in awe. They teetered between disbelief and wonder. They remembered Dawn’s pretty older sister but like everyone else had never known just how much they owed her. Hearing the adventures surrounded by stories of her being grounded because she got caught sneaking in after saving the world would have been dismissed if not for the equally unbelievable night at the carnival and the way Willow and Xander finished each others sentences as if these memories were well-worn and cherished.