Kin of the Heart

[lit_gal]

In this universe, Xander challenged Angel right up front--called him a pedophile to his face. And from there, everything changed.

Previous parts:
Part one: Bumbling to a Save
Part two: Family Ties
Part three: Devil in the Details
Part Four: Bad Karma
Part Five: Rust Upon Iron
Part Six: Mending Fences... or tearing them down
Part Seven: Quiet Waters Mirroring Undistorted
Part Eight: Bait, Swindle and Self-destruct
Part Nine: Deaf, Dumb, and Destiny-blind
Part Ten: The Road Not Taken
Part Eleven: Full Circle on the Lesson
Part Twelve: The Care and Feeding of Humans
Part Thirteen: A Little Brutal Honesty with Tea
Part Fourteen: A Slippery Leash
Part Fifteen: Flesh and Blood and Heart

Part Sixteen: A Slender Thread of Sanity

Part Seventeen: The enemy of my enemy

When Xander comes back from a week in L.A., he finds things at home weirder than ever.



Xander checked out the library through a partially cracked door before he inched into the room. He was still having trouble getting his head around Giles doing the whammy on Buffy for her eighteenth birthday, and he really had no idea what to say to the man. If Giles had gone and tried to screw over Angel, that Xander would have understood. He would have called it stupid, but he would have understood. But Giles doing the big whammy on Buff surprised him.

He could see the back of Buffy's head bent over the table as she sat on Oz watch, only without much watching of Oz.  He must have fallen asleep in his cage. "Hey, Buff," he said as he got close.

"Xand! Hey, you missed a whole week of English type fun with research, only not so much with fun," she said as she turned and gave him a smile.

"It's funny, but I do better with school when I'm not in school, which makes my teachers happy on two counts because classrooms and me lead to sleeping, no matter how hard I try to not be bored," he admitted. "And I'm really sorry I missed your birthday. I mean, I know you told me it wasn't a big deal, but I'm still feeling the guilt here. I got back this morning and Willow gave me the full rundown," he said before he went to another chair and dropped into it. Angel had been livid... nearly Angelus levels of livid even, and after hours and hours and hours of therapy, Xander was only just now starting to be okay with the fact that Angel had a right to get angry.

"Hey, I wasn't kidding when I said I had a big zero planned. I didn't even do the ice show like I said," she shrugged. Xander grimaced at that admission. She had really been looking forward to some father time, but since she had the functional mother, he guessed she had to have some sort of dysfunction somewhere in the family tree if she wanted to fit in with the rest of them.

Xander gave her a crooked smile. "And here I thought you had scheduled a miss on celebratory weirdness."

"Yeah, so did I," she said defiantly. Then she gave him a wry grin. "Not so much, though."

The library was quiet as Buffy played with a page in her book. The corner finally ripped off in her fingers, and Buffy looked up toward Giles' office with panic, but there wasn't any Giles there. Xander took a deep breath and actually tried to say something real. His therapist told him that he needed to express himself without the jokes when he truly wanted other people to understand his emotions. Xander felt a need to make a therapy joke, but he had promised he was going to give this a try. "Buffy, I'm really sorry I wasn't here. Not that I could have done much, but still, I'm sorry because I guess I figure as a friend, I should have been here to be miserable with you... or cheer you up... or something." Xander just waited, watching as Buffy looked at him in surprise for a second.

"I know you had to do your thing," Buffy said quietly, and Xander squirmed at the strange emotions in the room. He was fairly sure it was sincerity, an emotion he only had a passing acquaintance with.

"I kinda did. Devon with his trick and Angelus with his creepy really did a number on me," he admitted.

Buffy flinched.

"And that came out sounding way too 'I told you so,' because that was not the emotion I was going for," Xander sighed.

"No, you have every right to 'I told you' away," Buffy said as she straightened her shoulders. "Although you were more with the making druggie jokes than actually telling, but I did get the point. I guess I just really wanted to be with someone who knew about me." Buffy leaned back and pushed her hair back from her face with a frustrated sigh. "You know, that whole thing with Owen wanting a good spanking never would have happened if he hadn't caught me with that big old knife. I really need to come up with a better excuse for carrying heavy weaponry." Buffy made a squinch face worthy of Willow.

"But on the bright side, now your mom knows," Xander pointed out. Okay, so Joyce getting kidnapped by some vamp that the Watcher's Council had set up to kill Buffy as a twisted birthday prezzie... kinda not cool, but he figured she had a right to know what happened if Buffy never came home one night the way Jesse had.

Buffy made and even squinchier squinch face. "She was not really with the happy, and I can't decide if it's the slaying or the three years of less than honesty about the slaying," she admitted.

"Ah, an unhappy parental. I'm sorry," Xander offered. Silence fell again as they both just sort of ran out of words. Buffy picked at the edge of the table. Xander tried to come up with an excuse that didn't sound excusy.

"How's Cordelia?" Buffy asked suddenly.

"Cheery," Xander said. "In that she's cheerleading a lot, so I’m not that much with the seeing her. She cornered me in the mall and yelled at me for not bringing her back a bigger present from L.A., so I guess she's good."

Buffy gave him an odd look. Finally she sighed. "Was this always so awkward?"

Xander laughed. "Not so much. I think all the avoiding is making this... really weird," he admitted.

"Oh yeah. So... no more avoidy? I mean, I can handle the big pink elephant if you can."

Xander looked at her and internally groaned at the idea of talking Giles with her. Giles was like her dad, only much more dadlike, so he wasn't sure he wanted to know just how much his betrayal had to hurt. It was weird, but on the phone Willow was way more upset with the Giles getting fired part than the Giles stabbing Buffy in the back. But he could handle this. "Hey, I'm all about dealing with the big ugly," he offered with a smile.

"Thank god," Buffy said with a sigh. "I was about to break my brain trying to avoid you and therapy and Angel."

"What?" Xander yelped. "Me and Angel is an open book in the openness if not the bookness. I was avoiding Giles and his backstabbingly tacky birthday present." Xander crossed his arms and watched as Buffy's eyes went all big.

"Oh..." she said slowly. And then she was just kind of quiet.

"Seriously? You're more with the avoid about my therapy than Giles and his Benedict Arnold impression?" Xander asked softly.

Buffy's lips pulled down into a frown. "I didn't really consider it Benedict Arnoldy until this point," she said. She closed her eyes for a second and then shook her head. "Only you could make it seem like Giles is the bad guy when it was the Council guys who made all these stupid rules."

"And yet Giles is the one who followed their stupid rules," Xander pointed out. He was so not ready to let the guy off the hook. And the fact that he had told Buffy after drugging her didn't erase the whole drugging of Buffy in the first place. And Xander was big enough to admit that maybe he was a little touchy on the subject of drugs these days, but it was still seriously creepy.

"I guess I never thought of it like that," Buffy admitted. "But he told me, and if it wasn't for that Council goon getting himself killed and letting insano-vamp loose, that would have been the end of it. So, I guess me and Giles are still okay."

Xander didn't answer since he wasn't really sure what to say. He knew that Giles had to have something really special and worthy under the tweed and stuffy or else Buffy wouldn't like him so much, but Xander sure didn't see what that something was.

"So, you and Angel? Therapy?" she asked.

Xander nodded. "Yep. The therapist is a little strange, and she has even stranger and occasionally green friends, but I don't know, I think it might help some."

"So, is that why you and Cordelia are kinda...." Buffy brought her two forefingers together and let them slowly drift apart.

"What?" he frowned.

"Drifting. You know, are you and Angel really up for tying the knot?"

Xander stared at her blankly. No. Just no. No way would Giles have said that to Buffy or Willow. No and more no because if he did, Xander was going to have to kill him.

"Xander. Are you okay?" Buffy asked as she leaned forward, waving her hand in front of his face.

He tried... he really tried to do the counting to ten in three different demon languages thing that the therapist had recommended. He tried and failed utterly. "No. Just a big old 'no'!" he snapped. Buffy sat up straight and looked at him with even more concern. "There is no marriage, no consort, no with the gay sex. Oh, sure, there were threats when Angel went all Angelusy, but even Angelus didn't have the gay sex with me. Why does everyone think I'm gay?" he demanded.

The library door came open. "Hey, everything five by five?" Faith asked from the edge of the library.

"I think I broke Xander," Buffy said with a face.

"Hey, if you broke him, you're the one telling the Big A," Faith snorted as she walked in the room.

"I am not gay," Xander insisted as he turned to Faith.

For a half second, she paused, obviously caught off guard by that little outburst, but then she gave a slow, sultry smile and swung her hips as she stalked closer. "You volunteering to prove that?" she asked as she caught her tongue between her teeth and gave him a look Xander had only seen when he had walked in on Spike and some very disturbing porn.

"Okay, ick," Buffy complained.

"Oh, I don't know. Xand's kinda cute. I'd give him a tumble. You wanta watch? Maybe join in?" Faith asked as she gave Buffy an eyebrow wiggle.

"I am officially creeped out by this conversation," Buffy sighed. "Maybe we should go back to the avoidy."

Faith shrugged, all her sexuality falling away in a second as she turned and hopped up onto the circulation counter, her boots kicking the side as she swung her legs. "What are we avoiding?"

"Giles," Xander answered at the same time Buffy said, "Angel."

Faith raised her eyebrows at both of them.

Xander held up his hand. "Okay, Angel going Angelus is definitely freak-worthy, and let me tell you, I did my share of freaking, but at least he had to be drugged into threatening me and even then, his big threats were about the teaching of gay sex," Xander said, leaving out the whole offering to turn part. He really wasn't going there... not until he had a whole lot more therapy. "But Giles went and tried to get you killed when he was sober."

"He's got a point," Faith said with a shrug before she leaned back, bracing her hands behind her on the counter with an expression Xander knew all too well. That was how she looked when she watched Spike and Angel try to kill each other.

"Giles thought he was serving the greater good... following centuries of tradition that is really seriously sucky, but I can at least see the point about not having a stupid slayer," Buffy argued.

"Okay," Xander insisted, "if a stupid slayer is such a bad thing, why test her when she's eighteen? By that time, she's already had three years to both get used to being super-strong and prove she can't be all that stupid."  He stood up and glared down at her.

"Score," Faith offered from the side.

Buffy stood up, crossing her arms over her chest. "And if Angelus is no big deal, why are you always touching that scar he left on your neck?" she demanded. "A week, Xander. You were gone to your therapist for a week, and as a graduate of the 'you can't get back into a public school without therapy' plan, even I know that when a therapist wants to work with you for a week straight, you are not exactly issues-free."

"Buffy one, Xander still at two," Faith said with a flinch.

"Hey, I never said I wasn't issues boy," Xander argued. "I'm all about issues. My parents sold me, which is enough of an issue to drive anyone to therapy, and add in all the demon stuff both with the actual demons in my life and with the assumptions you guys make about the demons in my life, and my issues have issues," Xander admitted. "And yet, we're back to the fact that my issues had to be drugged into even talking about sex with me, and your issues tried to get you killed—no chemical intervention required."

"Point, set, match," Faith offered. "No offense, B, but the G-man was way off base."

Buffy sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm just trying really hard to not think about it too much."

"You want the name of a good therapist?" Xander offered, only half joking. "She definitely would not freak out about the demon stuff."

"Demonic therapy... now that's an occupation that never came up on career day," she laughed grimly. "She isn't actually a demon, is she?" Buffy gave Xander a suddenly uncertain look.

"I don't know. But her secretary... oh yeah," Xander said with a laugh. "She had a cold, and every time she sneezed, all these little spines came out. She almost perforated Angel, and then spent two days apologizing. And Dr. Harrigan went with us for a reading, and all three of us ended up at this nightclub/ karaoke bar with this green demon who makes the best milkshake ever. Oh, and never, ever ask Angel to sing. It's not pretty," Xander said with an exaggerated shudder. If they had to go back to Lorne, Xander was going to develop a case of diarrhea or something until Angel was done.

Buffy stared at him blankly and silence reigned until the library door banged open, waking Oz and just scaring the rest of them.

"Buffy!!" Willow yelled as she came careening through the door of the library. Xander was the only one who didn't have a weapon drawn in less than a second. It took him a good two seconds to draw his sword as Willow just about crashed into the circulation counter.

Buffy stood with the tranq gun in hand and already up. She swung it from Willow to the cage where Oz was suddenly on his feet and throwing himself against the cage. "What?"

"Jenny called. Giles is coming. There are demons coming to open the hellmouth! She said the Sisterhood of Jhe is coming right now," she blurted out as she clung to the circulation desk.

"Well, fuck. Now?" Faith demanded. Xander was already digging his cellphone out. He had a strict rule to call Angel for any watchers, world-endage, or tentacled demons.

"Xander, maybe you should get home," Buffy said as Xander listened to the phone ring. He looked at her incredulously, but he didn't have time to answer as Angel picked up the phone. In the background, Xander could hear Spike complaining about something.

"Angel!" Xander shouted to get his attention.

"Xander?" Angel asked into the phone.

"We have potential world ending here. Willow said that Jenny said that Giles said that the Sister of Gee is on its way," Xander said, and suddenly that didn't sound nearly as dramatic or dangerous as it did like they'd been playing some weird version of telephone. He said that she said that he said. However, from Angel's voice, he was taking it seriously.

"The Sisterhood of Jhe?" Angel asked, putting a different accent on that last word.

The next thing Xander knew, he was hearing Spike. "Bloody hell, what the fuck are you lot mucking around with now?!"

"Get the car," Angel was ordering him. "Xander, get back from the hellmouth and find a defensible position. Spike and I are coming."

Xander thumbed the phone off, and Faith was looking at him. "Well?"

"Well, we find really big weapons until Spike and Angel show up. I don't suppose you have a sword I can borrow, Buff," he asked as she turned to look at her.

"In the cage," she said as she looked pointedly over where Oz was busily tearing away the sheets that gave him some privacy, his growls filling the air.

"Okay, I think I'll pass on the sword," Xander said as he looked at one very seriously cranky werewolf. A twang startled him, and Oz roared as the dart hit him.

"Oz!" Willow called out.

"Sorry, but if there's going to be demons coming through here, we really can't have Oz getting out and attacking us," Buffy apologized. "Willow, Xander, you should get Oz and secure him in one of the basement rooms and then get out of here," she suggested.

"I can help with the magic... that mist spell I've been working on or the line of fire," Willow objected as she turned to look at Buffy hopefully. As the other would-be exile, Xander understood the pain of getting rejected by your friend, and Willow didn't even have an Angel to fall back on.

"Do you have any of those prepared?" Buffy asked.

"Um... no, but I could get something together really fast," she argued. Buffy looked unsure.

"Hey, Will," Xander interrupted, "let's get Oz somewhere safe and then you and I can get back here and do our thing. And Buffy, I want that really big sword... the one with the red hilt," Xander said firmly.  He took Willow by the arm and sort of shoved her toward the cage since she had the key in hand.

"You two hurry up," Faith said, shifting her stance nervously as she headed for the cage herself. "So, Sisterhood of Jhe, any suggestions on weapons, B?"

"I'm going with sword. There's not much a good decapitating won't stop," Buffy said firmly.

Xander exchanged a worried look with Faith. Random attacks with unknown weapons was not really the best way to handle the apocalypse, but then this one had sort of snuck up on all of them. Willow had the cage open now and was checking on Oz, her face wrinkled with worry.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road," Xander said with way more cheerfulness than he felt as he grabbed Oz by one arm and hauled him up. Willow got under his other arm and the two of them started dragging Oz toward the library exit.

"Don't lose any world-ending battles before we get back," Xander called out. Only when Willow gave him a shocked expression did it occur to Xander that not everyone shared Faith and Spike's sense of humor. He was definitely hanging out with the scary crowd too much lately.



The battle was definitely not what Xander had expected. He was used to nice orderly vampires or demons that had body parts you could cut off. The giant multi-headed snake demon... not nearly as fun. Spike had given up on weapons, darting in with claws and fangs, making the beast rear up to try and buck him off. Buffy and Faith were making a concerted effort to hit its heart and Angel and Xander and Giles had been recruited for Jhe duty, killing the members of the Sisterhood that kept appearing in clusters that would charge through the doors and immediately attack anyone in their path.

A mist was slowly filling the room as Jenny and Willow chanted together, and Xander dove for the ground as a demoness grabbed for him. Rolling back to his feet, he brought his sword up just in time to see Angel sink his sword deep into her guts as she caught him across the face with her claws. Giles flew back from another demoness' punch, and Xander could hear Buffy cry out.

He tried to cross over to Giles, and a snakehead caught him in the back, sending him slamming into the wall so hard that he committed the cardinal sin, the sin so great that when he did it in training, Spike took it as permission to draw blood. He dropped his weapon. Xander sprawled on the ground, dazed and not quite able to blink fast enough to understand that a demoness was rushing at him.

Angel roared, and then Giles was there, throwing himself into her side so they both crashed to the ground. She snarled and grabbed Giles by the throat, but Xander scrambled after his sword, shoving it deep into the demoness' back. Before Giles could roll clear, Spike was there, twisting her neck until it snapped.

In all his vampy glory, Spike was a thing of nightmare, all yellow eyes and fangs and a supernatural grace and speed that even Angel couldn't match, and Xander actually felt a little sorry for Giles when Spike seemed to lose track of which side he was on for a second and snarled at Giles. The man went pale.

"Spike!" Angel called, and Spike shook his head, his browridges vanishing although his eyes stayed yellow.

"Smell that?" Spike asked. Angel decapitated another of the Sisters of Jhe and stopped.

"What?"

Xander couldn't smell anything but blood and demon guts, and he was just really hoping that they all got out of this alive.

"Zombies," Spike said as he looked toward the library doors.

Without Spike harassing it, the snake demon took the opportunity to slam down against the floor, nearly squashing Faith and making the whole building shudder as glass tinkled down.

"Bloody fuck, no," Spike snarled before he leapt into the fight again, dodging around a head before grabbing the thing by one of its necks. Another head tried to take a bite out of him, and Spike dropped down and grabbed the main body of the demon just in time to make the demon bite itself.

"I have the zombies," Xander called.  He got a firm grip on his sword and headed for the door.

"Xander, no," Angel yelled, right before two more demonesses came charging through the door.

Giles snatched a crossbow off the floor and wiped the blood from his eyes before firing.

"Hey, you handle the world ending. I can handle a couple of zombies. You trained me," Xander yelled as Angel went down under a demoness and then tossed her off long enough to get a hand around her throat. Xander didn't wait for an answer before darting out into the hallway. Zombies... zombies... if he were a zombie, where would he go?

A snake head crashed through the wall of the library, spraying Xander with drywall dust and debris. "Right, zombies then demons."  He blew his breath out nervously and then hurried off to find whatever zombies Spike had smelled.



"That was too close," Jenny said as she sat on the floor of the definitely disasterized library.

"Quite. Had we been able to deal with either the Sisterhood or the opening Hellmouth separately rather than at the same time, I would have been more comfortable." Giles paused and wiped the blood off his face again. One spot on his eyebrow kept bleeding.

"Bloody good fight," Spike declared as he bounced on his toes right in the middle of the library where the hellmouth had closed again. He was looking down as though waiting for something else to come out and play. Giles looked at him like Spike was some sort of strange alien lifeform that had just beamed in. Xander smiled and then winced as the bruise on his face reminded him that facial expressions bad.

"Seriously though, warning would have been good," Buffy said as Angel felt around her injury for broken or pulled bits.

"I'm afraid that since my employment with the Council was terminated, my sources of information have largely dried up," Giles admitted.

Xander looked at the man. Before tonight, his image of Giles was as the guy who dispensed information, not the one who threw himself into a fight against demons only about a thousand times stronger than him. But for Buffy, for all of them, Giles had done that. Giles had tackled a demon of the Sisterhood of Jhe to save him. Yep, time for the brain to do that freaky rearranging thing again, although Xander was still firmly holding to the belief that Giles had acted like a complete shit with the whole Cruciamentum thing. But then Angel had acted like just as big of a shit when Angelus showed up, and Xander knew full well that his whole hyena infestation had pretty much been him doing what he wanted to do but had the good sense to not do.

"We should have heard something," Angel said. "I don't think you've broken anything, but you have some badly torn muscle. You should wear a sling for a while," Angel suggested. Of course, Angel looked way worse than Buffy. The right side of his shirt was soaked in blood and he looked paler than usual.

"I find it strange that you didn't," Giles said. Xander frowned and turned to glare. "I am not suggesting that Angel or Spike withheld information, only that someone is intentionally hiding information," Giles said, but he actually managed to not sound condescending... much.

"Yeah, well I say we find the source of all this shit lately and shove some of it right down his throat," Faith said. She was back on the circulation desk, but she was too tired to even swing her legs and drive Giles crazy by kicking it.

Buffy nodded her head. "Yep, I’m all for finding and making pay... just as soon as I've had about a week to sleep and get over the ow."

"Oh..."  Xander stretched his legs out in front of him. "There's a bomb in the basement. We should probably do something before Murphy's Law catches up with us again."

"A bomb?" Willow asked, her voice small. Her hair was white with dust from the ceiling tiles... Jenny's too. They were just lucky that the bits of ceiling that had collapsed on them were cheap and light.

"Did anyone else know that Jack O'Toole was dead?" Xander asked the room.

"Mr. 'I have an attitude' O'Toole?" Buffy asked as she cradled her hurt arm with her good one. Angel was in Giles' office, probably getting a sling. Giles kept an amazingly well stocked first aid kit.

"He's the one," Xander agreed. "He and his zombie buddies were trying to blow up the school."

"And ya killed them?" Spike asked. "Good on you, pet. Can't stand those soddin' walking corpses." Not even twitching at the irony of that statement, Spike walked over to the circulation desk and felt Faith up in very inappropriate places, and places she really wasn't very likely to be injured and in need of feeling up.

"Dear lord," Giles sighed.

"Spike, not tonight," Angel sighed as he came out of the office with a sling for Buffy.

"Awww, please can I stay out late tonight, Daddy?" Faith teased, but honestly she looked more exhausted than anything else.

Angel sighed.

"What about the bomb? Is it safe?" Willow asked.

Spike left Faith and walked over to sit next to Xander on the table, which had amazingly enough survived.

"I think. Jack disarmed it," Xander shrugged. Hey, if he shrugged his left arm instead of his right he could actually do it without excruciating pain.

"Why'd he do that?" Spike asked.

"I pointed out that if he didn't, he'd be the kind of dead that janitors swept up instead of the drinking with your buddies dead," Xander said with a vague shrug.  Looking around the room, he was really proud of this group.  Yeah, they probably weren't ready for a sleepover, but they were all accepting each other. Okay, accept might be pushing it a little far, but everyone was in the same room, and there were no threats of violence or dismemberment. He could get used to this.

"Wait," Angel said.  He had finished adjusting Buffy's sling, so he turned to pin Xander with a shocked gaze. "If you told him this, that means you were in the room when the bomb was ticking down."

"Yep. I actually played chicken with Jack O'Toole and won," Xander said proudly. He was so proud, he didn't catch the look of horror on Angel's face until Angel was right there in front of him all vamped out.

"Ye stood there in the room with a bomb?" Angel demanded.

Xander opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"Good thing he did seein' as how we'd all be blown ta hell if he hadn't," Spike pointed out. Angel glared at Spike so fiercely that the other vampire slid off the table and went back over toward Faith. Xander looked to Faith for help, but she was just smirking.

"Xander?" Angel demanded, his voice a growl.

"We're still here," Xander pointed out very reasonably. Angel's low growl didn't sound very happy about that though. "Hey, I was a good eighty... seventy... maybe sixty percent sure that he would not want to blow up, so since I was between him and the exit, I knew he'd stop the timer," Xander defended himself.

"And had he not? What wouldya have done then?"

"Not had to tell you about it," Xander said. "And like I told Jack, I like the quiet. If all of you guys are going up, I'm not going to be the one person walking out alive." Xander just looked at Angel who seemed to have lost all ability to form words. For long seconds, Angel just hovered an inch from him, his face right in Xander's before he started slowly backing away.

Angel closed his eyes, and Xander could tell he was doing the whole counting in at least three demon languages thing.

"And they wonder why we keep accusing them of being affianced," Giles said dryly.

Buffy started humming "I Just Can't Wait to be King," from the Lion King and he smiled over at her.

"Betrothed. Intended. Affianced," Willow added softly.

"Meaning...?" Buffy prompted her with a huge smile.

Willow looked first at Buffy and then at him with an expression that Xander still couldn't read, but she kept the joke going. "One day, you two are going to be married!"

"Yuck!" Xander offered with the required expression of disgust for Angel.

"Ewww," the two girls finished.

Giles and Angel were both looking at the three of them as though they'd caught some weird demon plague.

"Bloody hell, it's from the Lion King," Spike snapped. "You two wankers need to get out more often."

Jenny was smiling as she picked herself up off the ground and offered Willow her hand. "I plan to get out of here before Principal Snyder shows up and threatens to take this out of my salary," she said as she pulled Willow up.

"This kind of vandalism would look really bad on my permanent record," Willow agreed.

Buffy gave a huff of laughter as she started slowly for the door. "Speak for yourself. After burning down a building, this would be a minor incident on my disciplinary file." She looked around. "And guys, thanks," she offered to everyone.

Spike leaned back against the circulation desk and gave her his best calculating look. "Just didn't want all the happy meals getting eaten up by someone else," he said with a smirk. Buffy stopped and looked at him.

"Are you trying to pick a fight because I'm all fighted out tonight."

"I thought slayers were always up for a fight or a fuck," Spike offered, and Xander knew that expression too.

Faith jumped right on in. "You should join us, B. Work off some of that extra energy." She was still sitting on the counter, so she reached out and hooked Spike with a leg, scooting over so she could wrap her legs around him. Spike wiggled his eyebrows at Buffy.

"Giles! The vampires are creeping me out," she complained.

"They do that," he agreed. "And do not expect my truce with you to last beyond this blasted headache of mine," Giles warned Spike with a quick finger poke. Spike didn't look particularly impressed.

Angel reached over and caught Xander by the back of his arm. "Buffy, he's trying to get a rise out of you. If you ignore him..." Angel paused and glanced over at Spike. "If you ignore him he'll do something even more outrageous until you finally pay attention to him," he admitted. Angel helped Xander off the table, his hand under Xander's elbow until he made sure both Xander's legs actually worked.

"Oz," Willow breathed in horror. "Oz was down where the zombies were." She looked ready to go running out after him.

"Wolf went running out a while back," Spike shrugged. "He'll be back after he runs off some of his energy."

Giles waited until Jenny reached him, slipping his arm around her waist even as Jenny kept a hold on Willow. "We'll find him tomorrow," he promised. "Right now, it's time for all good little heroes to go home and get some sleep." Giles smiled at Willow before looking over at the rest of them, but his gaze lingered longest on Buffy.

Xander stood and watched as Buffy headed over to them, the four of them slowly limping their way out of the ruined library leaning on each other. Okay, so Giles wasn't the giant jerk that Xander had been calling him. He was a minor jerk... who really did care about Willow and Buffy.

"Right then, time ta get you fixed up before you bleed out, Peaches," Spike told Angel as he held out his hand for Faith, for just a second looking like the gentleman he used to be.

"I'm not going to bleed out," Angel sighed in his best put-upon voice.

"No pig for you tonight," Xander said firmly.

"No bottled for him tonight. Gut wound like that needs fresh," Spike said as he looked right at Xander. Yep, Xander had become the official keeper of Angel's diet.

"Sounds like a visit to the suckhouse," Xander said firmly.

"I don't need—"

"Hey!" Xander interrupted him. "If Angelus comes out again, I am going to be able to honestly say I held up my end of the bargain and no eating or raping is needed. Go feed, have some sex that I am going to try really, really hard to not think about, come back tomorrow night in one piece, please."

"I don't need to—"

"You always were a randy sod," Spike jumped in. "I'm surprised you didn't bugger the boy when ya had the chance, but if ya want to get all that frustration built up again, you always have that warm body right next door if ya lose control." Spike looked over at Xander with an expression that made it perfectly clear that Spike considered him downright shaggable.

Angel vamped out and might have slammed Spike into the wall if Xander hadn't caught him by the arm. Oh yeah, there would be Spike slamming and human blood and sex that he was not thinking about later, but right now he just wanted to get home. "Home? Please?" he asked with his best hopeful smile. Angel looked down at him for a second before he sighed and slipped an arm around Xander, settling for glaring at Spike.

"Manipulative little shit, isn't he?" Spike asked with a smirk.

"Yes," Angel immediately agreed.  He gave Xander a pointed look, but Xander didn't care because the world was still in one piece and they were all going home.