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Reunions / Part 21

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Willow joined Giles at the window with Buffy and between the two of them they were able to calm her down. Buffy was emotionally exhausted by this time so it was relatively easy to convince her to lie down. Willow used the argument that Buffy needed to rest now so that she wouldn’t fall asleep when she was talking to Spike tonight. Buffy was convinced that it would be impossible for her to sleep, but with the help of a light sleeping spell, Willow had her to sleep in just a few minutes.

When Willow returned to the living room she noticed that the three witches from the Coven were missing. She assumed that they had gone to their rooms to either sleep or meditate. The others were sitting in a group talking quietly. Faith and Robin were sitting closely together on a couch. Faith had a beer in her hands and Robin had some kind of soda. Giles was sitting on a matching couch across from them with a tumbler half full of a dark amber liquid in his hands, a half full decanter was sitting on the coffee table in front of him. Willow walked straight to Giles side, sat down and picking up the decanter took the top off and tilting her head back took a large swallow. When she sat the decanter down she noticed a startled look on Giles face. It took a moment before she realized why.

“Sorry” Willow said with a grin spreading across her face, “been drinking with Spike the past few days, not big on glass ware.” Having said this she reached out and took the tumbler from Giles hand and drained it, then handed the empty glass back to him.

Giles sat for several moments looking at his empty glass, totally at a loss as to what to say. When he finally looked at Willow he could see that she was trying hard not to laugh at him. “Ah, yes, well, ah” Giles mumbled out as he set the tumbler down on the coffee table and picking up the decanter refilled his glass half full. He then picked up the tumbler and took a sip. “Yes, well, traditionally when drinking a scotch of this quality it is consumed a sip at a time so that the full flavor of the beverage can be enjoyed. Obviously, drinking with Spike precludes that portion of the enjoyment.”

“No, the flavors still there” Willow responded with a tightness in her voice that was easily discernible. “But Spikes way you get to drink a lot more and get drunk a lot faster. Saves time if your stressed out of your mind, but need to talk to people you don‘t really know if you can trust or not.”

Giles looked at Willow and could see immediately that she was angry with him, for making a comment that was even slightly derogatory of Spike, but also for the condescending tone of voice he had used. Willow had been to England often enough to know when uppers were putting down the lowers when they talked about them. A flush of shame washed through Giles as he saw the tightness in Willows face. “Yes, your quite right Willow” Giles said in a softer tone of voice. “Sometimes stress can make a person into a bloody arsed wanker if their not careful.” Giles looked at his drink and tilting his head back drained his glass in one long swallow, then set the tumbler down on the coffee table next to the decanter. “Sometimes a friend has to call the wanker on it just to get their head back on straight.”

Willow understood that Giles was apologizing, both to her and to Spike, and nodded her head in acceptance. The tightness left her face and she gave Giles a small smile. “Yeah, I think the stress level around here this past week has hit a major high for all of us” she commented quietly.

Faith had been watching the interaction between Giles and Willow and knew that she was missing something. She knew that there was something going on beneath just the words that were being said. She glanced over at Robin and could see that he knew what was going on and would explain it to her later in private. That was one of the things that made Faith love Robin so much. She knew that she wasn’t as smart as Giles or Willow and there were times she didn’t understand everything they were saying. But Robin did, and he would explain it to her later, but he never made her feel stupid. Robin had shown her over the years that she was a lot smarter that she’d always thought she was, just the fact that she could detect that there was a subtext to the conversation proved that was true. Once Robin explained to her what had just gone on she knew she would understand and the next time it happened she wouldn’t need his help. She smiled at him and he gave her a little nod of his head and smiled back at her.

“Okay, speaking of being in a hurry” Faith said loud enough to gain everyone’s attention. “We need to make a plan and get the ball rolling. How many of us are going tonight? Are we all going? Do we need to set up more transport? Who else is coming that isn’t here yet? When does Angel get here and do we need to make any special arrangements for him? We got a lot of things to work out and not much time so we better get started.”

For the next forty minutes the four of them discussed the points that Faith had already raised and others too. Giles made notes on a little pad of paper while Willow made a list of things that they would need to do. When the decisions had been made and jobs assigned they all stood up together to head out and get things started. While Giles headed for the bedrooms of the witch’s to tell them about tonight’s plans and to start making phone calls, Willow headed for the door to go find her girls and get them started on the things they needed to do. Faith and Robin both had their assignments too and were following behind Willow to the door when Robin reached out and catching Faith’s arm pulled her back to him and wrapped his arms around her for a few moments while he gave her a kiss. When the kiss ended Robin gave Faith a hug before letting her go. He loved it when his girl jumped into the middle of things and took charge.

****

Vi and Sara went to LAX to meet the 3:00 plane from Rio to pick up Xander and Kennedy. Willow had wanted to go, but had other things she needed to be doing, and also was a little concerned about seeing Kennedy. It had been four years since their break-up and neither one of them had seen each other since it happened. Seeing Xander had been even longer, over seven and a half years. When Xander had gone to Africa to help find and recruit new slayers it had been the thought that he would only be there for a few months. Thing hadn’t worked out that way and except for occasional emails and a phone call once or twice a year they hadn’t had much contact. Seeing both of them together, at the same time, was more than Willow thought she could deal with at once without a lot of emotional mood swings and major crying.

Vi and Sara were standing outside the debarkation gate waiting when Vi spotted Kennedy. It had been four years since Vi had seen her, but like the rest of them she hadn’t really changed much. Her hair was cut a little shorter and she had a golden suntan, but other wise she was the same. Vi was also looking for Xander but didn’t see him. Not until a guy that was dressed like a South African Bush Ranger stepped up next to Kennedy and started talking to her as they walked down the hall.

Vi had known Xander in Sunnydale and remembered him as overweight with shaggy hair and really sloppy cloths. The man next to Kennedy had long hair hanging down his back, was suntanned darkly and was wearing a Bush Ranger’s Hat. He was also wearing hiking boots, heavy tan pants, a heavy tan short sleeved shirt and was carrying a heavy canvas dark brown duster over his arm. As far as being overweight, he looked more like a model for a fitness magazine, his shoulders were broad, his chest full, waist narrow, arms and legs muscular, and he walked with a confidence that drew attention from both men and women. The only way that Vi recognized the man as Xander was when he brushed his hair away from his face and she saw his eye patch and when a big smile spread across his face when he spotted her in the crowd.

Sara had never met or seen Xander and had only heard about him from Vi and a few of the older slayers. What she saw was not what she was expecting and she stood there watching him approach with her mouth hanging open. As soon as he reached them he opened his arms and took Vi into a big hug while he kissed her on the cheek. As soon as he released Vi and let her take a step back, Sara moved in on him and wrapped her arms around his waist, put her cheek against his chest and hugged him. Xander was taken by surprise but hugged her back for several moments. When Sara didn’t release him he asked, “Do we know each other?”

Sara rubbed her cheek against Xander’s broad chest and keeping her arms around his waist, said “Not yet, but we can change that whenever you want.”

Xander was surprised at first and then started laughing, “That’s the best offer I’ve had in years. Once you tell me your name I might even be tempted to take you up on it.”

Xander’s come back to Sara was another thing that surprised Vi. The somewhat shy and always awkward jokester she had known in Sunnydale had apparently grown up in Africa and had left his insecurities behind. What she was seeing now was a confident man who knew who he was and was comfortable with himself. She liked this new Xander, a lot.

Sara kept her arms around Xander’s waist, but leaned back a little and told him her name. Xander smiled at her and told her he was happy to meet her. While to two of them continued to flirt with each other, Vi glanced over at Kennedy to see how she was dealing with the situation. Vi remembered that Kennedy hadn’t really liked Xander back in the old days because she was jealous of his relationship with Willow. It surprised her that Kennedy was standing there smiling at both Xander and Sara and their little flirting match. Apparently Kennedy had done some growing up in the past four years too.

When the hug-fest between Xander and Sara finally ended, Vi and Sara greeted Kennedy and exchanged brief hugs. Next stop was the baggage ramp. Kennedy’s baggage consisted of a single suitcase. Xander’s was a large leather duffle bag and a heavy metal foot locker. Xander easily picked up the foot locker and hoisted it up onto his shoulder where he balanced it easily. When he started to stoop to pick up the duffle bag, Sara swooped in and picked it up. Using the leather carrying strap she hung it from one shoulder while she moved in next to Xander and lightly wrapped one arm around his waist. Xander smiled at her and wrapped one arm around her shoulder, giving her a light hug.

When they got to the SUV in the one hour parking area, Sara gave the keys to Vi and got into the back seat with Xander. All the way back to the hotel, as Sara pumped Xander for information about himself and told him about herself, Vi kept looking up at the rearview mirror watching Xander. The thought passed through Vi’s mind that if some kind of hookup didn’t actually happen between Xander and Sara she’d have to see about getting him off somewhere and renewing their past acquaintanceship, maybe on a little more personal level this time.

When they got to the hotel, Vi and Sara led them directly up to the Presidential Suite where the two of them would be staying. On entering the suite it seemed as if the place was empty. Buffy was still sleeping in her room, the witch’s from the Coven were no where to be seen, and Giles was apparently off somewhere else. Kennedy was shown to a room that she would be sharing with someone, maybe one of the witch’s, and Xander was shown to the room he would be sharing with Giles. Vi needed to get on with other things that needed to be done and Sara, reluctantly, needed to go with her. They said their goodbye’s and left Kennedy and Xander to get settled into their rooms.

****

The first thing Kennedy did was to take a shower and to lay down to rest until the others got back to the apartment. The first thing Xander did was to open the metal foot locker and start assembling his weapons. With meticulous care he unwrapped his hardwood stakes, throwing knives, boot knives, hideaway knife, and laid them out on his bed. He then unwrapped the disassembled parts of his pistols and reassembled them carefully. He was still loading cartridge’s into their clips when her heard noises coming from the living room. Xander closed up the foot locker and laid his duster over his weapons to keep them out of site, then quietly left his room and walked up the hall to the living room.

Quietly stepping around the corner Xander saw that there were three people standing together discussing something as they were looking through some papers spread out on the dinning room table. He knew them all and a smile slowly spread across his face. Giles was standing there polishing his glasses with a serious look on his face. He hadn’t changed all that much over the years except that there was a lot more gray in his hair, and he wasn’t wearing tweed, which seemed totally un-Giles. Robin also had a serious look on his face, but other than wearing jeans and a pull over shirt instead of a suit, he hadn’t seemed to have changed either.

The woman with them though, Faith, she was the one that had changed the least. Still wearing black jeans and a black tank-top, faded jean jacket and kick your ass boots, long hair and red lipstick, and a smile on her face. But as Xander studied Faith he realized that there were changes. The pain and the tightness that had so often been noticeable in her smile was gone. The lost and lonely look in her eyes was missing. The defensive way she use to stand, as if she were ready to fight the world, was now relaxed and casual. It took a few more moments to recognize and understand what these changes meant, Faith was happy.

It had been over seven and a half years since Xander had seen any of them. When he had first gone to Africa he had been lost and depressed. The loss of his eye, the loss of Anya, the loss of Sunnydale and everything else that made up his world had overwhelmed him. Giles had been so wrapped up in trying to salvage the Watcher Council and get it reorganized that he hadn’t noticed. Willow had been like a junkie on a high, both from her use of white magic when she gave Buffy’s slayer powers to all the potentials and from her new relationship with Kennedy, she hadn’t noticed either. Buffy had gone into such a state of grief and mourning after Spike’s death that she was barely aware of anyone, and Dawn was so wrapped up in caring for Buffy she didn’t notice anything either.

The only person that seemed to notice the pain Xander was in and how lost he seemed to be was Andrew. Maybe because Andrew was himself an outsider trying to fit in and find a place for himself, or maybe Andrew had depths that no one had ever realized were there, but whatever the reason, Andrew had noticed. When the witch’s from the Coven informed Giles that there were a number of newly emerged slayers in Africa and someone needed to go there and locate them, it was Andrew who had suggested that Giles send Xander. Giles had agreed readily enough, not really giving it much consideration, he had other things on his mind at the time.

Xander had agreed to go, mainly because he had nothing else to do, or wanted to do. The few months that had originally been envisioned stretched out and out. One of the things that had painfully occurred was that Xander was gone for over a year before anyone realized that they missed him. Again and again over the years Giles had tried to talk Xander into coming back to England and helping out with the Council. But Xander had always insisted that he was still needed in Africa because news of young girls with slayer powers was always coming out of hidden corners of the dark continent. Another reason that Xander had refused to return to England was his belief that he wasn’t really needed there. But in Africa he had a purpose and a place, even though it had been over a year since a new slayer had been located anywhere in the world.

The changes that had occurred in Xander hadn’t all taken place at once, and many of them had been extremely painful. But over time and years Xander had found himself and become the kind of man he had always wanted to be, confident and self-reliant. The only reason he had agreed to leave Africa at all was finding out that Spike was alive and that everyone, the survivors of the Hellmouth, were going to go L.A. to meet with him. Xander had immediately agreed to go when Giles called him and explained the situation.

Xander had felt both resentment and pain when he had learned that Spike had died again, fighting against evil in L.A., and no one even told him about it until months afterward. To many nights to remember Xander had laid awake at night thinking about the mistakes he had made in the past. One of the mistakes that had pained him most, once he started dealing with life instead of hiding from it, was the way he had treated Spike over the years. Hind-sight, retrospection, and numerous bottles of beer over the years had eventually opened Xander’s eyes and made him aware of how badly he had treated Spike. Guilt had made him realize that his behavior and hatred toward Spike had been based almost totally on a jealous irrational protectiveness toward Buffy that she had never asked for or needed. Again, to many times to remember, Xander tried to count the number of times Spike had saved his life, or any of the others lives, and never a word of thanks or appreciation had he given to Spike. Xander knew in both his heart and his soul that he owed Spike, more than he could ever repay. But coming to L.A. was a first step toward paying that debt and he intended to try his hardest to measure up.

Eventually someone noticed him standing there, it was Faith. When she saw him she didn’t recognize him at first, but when she did her eyes got round and her mouth fell open in shock. Her behavior alerted Giles and Robin and they turned to see who Faith was staring at. Robin hadn’t know Xander as well as the others, but seeing a man dressed like a Bush Ranger and wearing an eye patch, he put it together quickly and broke into a big smile. Giles was the last to recognize Xander. Giles had known Xander since he was sixteen and somehow had never expected him to change over the years. The Xander he was expecting to arrive from Africa was not the Xander he saw standing across the room from him.

When Giles finally figured it out, and with a smile on his lips started walking toward him, Xander stuck out his hand to shake Giles hand. Giles totally ignored Xander’s outstretched hand and instead stepped up to him and wrapped his arms around Xander, forcing Xander to wrap his arms around Giles in return. Giles then gave him a kiss on the cheek and holding him tightly said in Xander’s ear “Welcome home my son, welcome home Xander.”

When Giles finally released him and stepped back, Xander could see that Giles had tears in his eyes and wasn’t even trying to hide the fact. Xander felt a tightening in his chest and for the first time in years realized that the one thing he had never been able to find in Africa was what he was feeling right now, a sense of belonging, of family.

Faith was next to greet him, but in a way that only Faith would think of doing it. She moved toward him quickly and jumping up wrapped her legs around his waist while she wrapped her arms around his neck and proceeded to kiss him all over his face making big kissy-face sound effects. Xander had been forced to grab hold of Faith and hold on to her just to keep her enthusiasm under control. Xander knew that Faith and Robin were a couple and glanced over at Robin to measure his reaction. Robin was looking at him with a big smile on his face and while Faith was still kissing him all over, Robin walked up to him and shook his hand while patting him on one shoulder. With laughter in his voice he said “Faiths way is a little more enthusiastic than mine, but Welcome Home Xander.”

Faith had just climbed down from Xander, but was still holding one of his hands and smiling at him, when the front door of the apartment opened. Willow walked in, already talking “Giles, that place you called about dry ice can only supply half of what we asked for, we’ll need to get some more from som…..” It was at that moment that Willow saw Xander. For nearly her entire life Willow had known Xander and no amount of time or changes could make her not recognize him immediately. Instantly tears started pouring from her eyes and in a blind rush she ran to him and wrapped her arms around him and burying her face in his chest cried uncontrollably with happiness. Xander held Willow in his arms and whispered quiet words to her as he kissed the top of her head and the side of her face repeatedly. Tears started running from his eye and he could barely see. In a choked voice he said loud enough for the others to hear “This is really messing up the whole manly persona, but right now I don’t really care.”

“That’s were your wrong Xan” Faith said quietly as she stepped up to Xander and put one hand on his arm. “Any man that can cry with the people he loves is a better man for it.” Faith then started rubbing one hand up and down Willows back, while Xander continued to hold on to her, both of them trying to calm Willow down so that she could stop crying.

It took a few minutes to calm Willow down, but nobody minded. When she was finally able to talk her voice was choked with tears. Xander still held her in his arms as she lifted her face from his chest and looked up at him. “Oh Goddess Xander, I’ve missed you so much. I was going to try to be all grown up when we saw each other and not cry, but I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop myself. I mean there you were and there I was and before I knew what was happening it just started happening and I couldn’t stop it and then I didn’t want to stop it cause I’ve missed you so much and I‘m so happy. Goddess, Xander, I love you so much and you’re my bestest boy type friend in the whole world and we haven’t seen each other in such a long time and I’ve missed you so much.” Willow finally stopped talking when Xander gently placed his fingers on her lips. When he took his fingers away he bent his head and kissed her gently on the lips. With his voice also choked with tears and happiness he told her “I love you too Will. I always have and I always will. Best buds are forever and don’t ever forget it.”

Buffy had heard noise coming from the living room and had gotten up to see what it was about. When she came around the corner and saw Xander standing there holding Willow she also recognized him immediately. In a gasp she said “Xander!” and with tears rushing to her eyes she hurried across the room and pressed her face into his chest next to Willows and started crying. Xander wrapped one arm around her shoulders while he kept the other around Willow. Buffys crying seemed to set Willow off again and then both of them had their faces buried in his chest as they cried. Xander stood there holding both of them kissing them both on top of there heads and hugging them to him tightly. Tears were running from his eye again and as he looked down at them he wondered to himself how he could have stayed away from them both for so long.

Giles was the first to notice that someone else was now standing at the hallway that led to the bedrooms, Kennedy. He quickly walked over and taking her hands in his greeted her. He could see immediately where she was looking and didn’t know what to say. “It’s okay Giles” Kennedy said quietly. When Giles looked back at her he could see that she had a tear ready to fall from one eye. “They’ve been apart for a long time now. I’m just happy their together again.”

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