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Out of Africa
by spikeNdru
Genre: Gen; Action/Adventure
Pairings: Xander and Ensemble; no pairings yet.
Rating: PG-13
Timeline: Two years post-Chosen
Disclaimers: The characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox; they aren't currently using
them so I'm borrowing them for awhile.
Chapter 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
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Chapter Five
They all slept in the next day. Dawn awakened first, but then, she'd missed out on all the excitement last night. She
wouldn't let that happen again!
She tiptoed through the living room, careful not to wake Willow. Willow had been up all night on top of the long flight,
and needed her rest.
Dawn opened the fridge and poured a glass of orange juice as she studied the contents. Today was sort of a re-grouping
day, so they might as well have a good meal before things started to get crazy around here. She put three of the chicken
breasts in a zip-lock bag and poured some Italian dressing over them to act as a marinade. She boiled some farfalle and
steamed the broccoli over the top of the boiling pasta. When the pasta was almost finished cooking, she drained it and
rinsed with cold water. She added the broccoli and put everything back in the fridge. She could heat it up with a quick
lemon-garlic-butter sauce while the chicken broiled and voila! Dinner.
While the others slept, Dawn decided to go to the nearest library and look through last year's editions of the LA papers.
She didn't want to wake Willow to ask to borrow her laptop and there might be other resources at the library that she
might not think of off-hand, but would know when she saw them.
~*~*~*~*~*~
It was mid-afternoon when Xander awakened with a grin on his face. He stretched thoroughly, feeling muscles pull and joints pop—but in a good way. He was eager to get up and get going. It had been a long time since he'd awakened feeling excited and optimistic; he hadn't realized how much he missed the feeling until he had it back.He took a quick shower and dressed in a T-shirt and cargo pants. “Guess I'm the first one up,” he commented. He'd been talking to himself, and was startled to see the pages of the phone book on the bedside table begin to turn. “Or not,” he added. “Morning, Dennis. I guess you were up before me—that is, if you sleep? I'm not sure how things work with you, but nice to see you. Well, not actually see you and it's probably afternoon and not morning anyway . . . Are you trying to tell me something?”
The phone book pages stopped moving and Xander bent to look. The book was open to the page listing the libraries in the Los Angeles area.
“Library?” Xander asked. “You want me to get you a book? No. You want me to go to a library—no. Somebody went to the library?” The phone book closed and Xander figured he'd finally hit upon the correct response. He opened his door and looked into the living room. The lumpy cocoon of blankets on the couch could only be Willow, even though no actual part of Willow was visible.
“Dawn?” he asked. “Dawn went to the library? Thanks, Dennis.” It would have been easier if she'd left a note, but not nearly as interesting as playing Twenty Questions with a ghost, Xander thought, and grinned again as he realized he found the incident charming, rather than annoying.
He went to the kitchen and started the coffee—cinnamon-spice for Willow—and as the aroma filled the apartment, the cocoon on the couch began to stir like a chrysalis breaking open. A tousled red head popped out, accompanied by “Mmmm” noises.
“Oh, you sweetie! You did make coffee! I was afraid I was only dreaming it. What time is it?” Willow fought her way out of the blankets and yawned widely.
“Yep. It's almost ready.” Xander glanced at his watch. “It's almost 3:20.”
“I slept like a log!” Willow exclaimed with satisfaction. “Just let me clean up a minute . . .”
Willow staggered into the bathroom and was reaching for the door of the linen cupboard when it opened by itself and a clean washcloth floated out. She remembered the additional roommate in time to avoid freaking out.
“Thanks, Dennis.” She smiled and then washed her face and brushed her teeth. “Um . . .” Before she could complete her thought, the sense of presence lessened. She should have known that Dennis would have the manners to leave before she used the facilities—he'd roomed with Queen C, after all! Willow flushed the toilet, washed her hands and headed for the coffee.
Xander handed her a mug, fixed just the way she liked it, and smiled at her.
“You look really good, Willow,” he commented. “Happy.”
“You know, I am happy. Happy to be here with you and Dawn, with a big honking mystery to solve. I feel . . . needed. Necessary. Like I'm back where I belong.”
Xander nodded. “Me, too. I feel part of a group again, and it feels good. I know we need to get these guys out of wherever they are as soon as possible, but . . .”
“But you don't want the camaraderie to end.”
“Right! I mean, you've got Kennedy to go back to, but me—”
Willow made a snorting sound. “I'm sure Kennedy is doing just fine without me! She's a Slayer—loves her work—and doesn't really need me to . . . what about you? No one in Africa you were interested in?”
“Nope. I just did my job and did it well, but that was all. The girls—the slayers—they were so young, Will. Most of 'em had no idea what happened to them or why they were different. They're just starting to work through stuff we came to terms with back in high school. Sometimes I wonder if we . . .”
“Did the right thing?”
“Yeah.”
“Me, too. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and even in hindsight I can't think of any other way we could have stopped the Turok Han—although, that was mostly Spike and not the baby slayers, but they bought the time needed for the amulet to work. Still and all . . . we made the best choice we could with the info we had and that's really all you can do, isn't it? You make your choices and you live with them—you can't beat yourself up with 'what ifs'.”
"You're right. I know that. But sometimes . . . it just seems like . . . playing God? I know that sounds stupid, but sometimes I wonder what gives us the right to make those kinds of choices for the rest of the world, y'know what I mean?"
Willow nodded. "Yeah. But if not us, then who? Who else knows about stuff like this? Quentin Travers and the original Council, Angel's team and us. We've all made some bad choices—me more than most—but we've done a lot of good, too. The world's still here, so . . . yay?”
“With great power comes great responsibility,” Xander intoned. “Not that I have any power, but hey, if Spiderman ever had to deal with a galloping case of Chumash-induced syphilis he so would have freaked.” Xander grinned. “A lot more than I did, right?”
“Right. No one can deal with mystical diseases like you can. Hey, maybe that's your superpower—health!”
“I am Healthman! All I need is a pair of blue tights and a big red H on my chest and . . .”
“Speaking of big H's on chests, when are we meeting Harmony tonight?” a voice interrupted.
Xander and Willow both jumped; they hadn't heard Dawn come in.
“Holy moly, Dawn! I'm guessin' cat-like sneakiness is your superpower.”
Dawn grinned. “Hey, I grew up in the Slayer's household where none of you guys actually told me anything. I learned sneakiness as a survival tactic at an early age. But I really wasn't trying to be quiet—you guys were just so into your conversation you didn't hear me come in. When I'm trying to be stealthy, you'll know it—or, I guess you won't, if I'm doing it right. So . . . when are we meeting Harmony?”
“Nine o'clock. Sunset's at 8:27, so that'll give her time to get there by cab,” Willow answered.
“Cab? Angel and Spike always used the sewers to get around town, and you can use them to go places during daylight, too.”
“Harmony thinks the sewers are ookey, and it takes forever to get the smell out of your clothes.”
“Makes sense,” Dawn said. “So I'm guessing we're not meeting her in a crypt or a cemetery or a burned-out factory, either.”
“Nope.” Willow laughed. “We're meeting her at an IHOP—she says the Belgium waffles with strawberries are to die for. I'm hoping she didn't mean that literally.”
Dawn laughed. “Well, I guess we'd better have . . . lunner now, if we'll be eating later.”
“Have what now?” Xander asked.
“Lunner. If brunch is a combination of breakfast and lunch, I figured lunch and dinner would be 'lunner'. I have things all ready; it'll only take a few minutes.”
Xander looked at Willow. “And if we're having breakfast food at night with Harmony, that'll be what? Brupper?”
Willow lightly punched him in the arm and they went to see if Dawn needed any help with lunner.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Harmony seemed thrilled to see them when they arrived at the restaurant. Dawn was a little disappointed to discover that Harmony was wearing a perfectly normal pink sundress. She had been looking forward to seeing the infamous hot pink catsuit. Dawn giggled when she saw an identical brief flash of disappointment in Xander's eye. Harmony jumped up and threw her arms around Dawn.“Ohmigod! You're all grown up! It's been ages since I've seen you!” Harmony effervesced.
“Yep,” Dawn agreed dryly. “I haven't seen you since you kidnapped me, chained me up, tried to kill Buffy and I almost got killed by your minions.”
Harmony looked shocked. “I wouldn't have let them eat you! I told them that, remember? And anyway, that was back when I was still trying to find my purpose. Spikey was always going on and on about killing the Slayer, so I thought it might be fun—oh, well, that was a long time ago and I don't do stuff like that any more.” Harmony smiled brightly. “I'm a Superhero now.”
“Yeah, I heard about that.”
“Ohmigod! Really? Where did you hear . . . oh, from Willow and Xander, I guess. I help the hopeless! Here, I have a card!”
Harmony opened her purse and handed a shocking-pink card to Dawn.
“'Bad Vampire Slayer'?” Dawn bit her lip to keep from snickering. “Does that mean you only slay bad vampires, or that you're not any good at it?” She felt Willow's foot kick her ankle under the table. Willow raised the menu to cover her face, but Dawn noticed her shoulders shaking with mirth.
“What do you mean?” Harmony sounded puzzled. She got out another card and stared at it. “Ohmigod! You're right! It's like that picture that if you look at it one way, it's a beautiful girl but if you scrunch your eyes, you see an old woman! So, what do you think? I should change it, shouldn't I? How about 'Slayer of Bad Vampires'? That's less confusing, right?”
“Much better,” Dawn agreed.
Harmony hugged Dawn again. “Oh, thanks so much! That was so nice of you to point that out, and after I chained you up and everything.”
Dawn flushed. Now she felt bad for making fun of Harmony, and thought a change of subject would be good.
“Harmony, do you know anyone named Connor?”
“Connor . . . Connor . . .” Harmony tapped her perfectly manicured nails on the Formica table. “That sounds really familiar . . . Oh! Do you mean that kid with superpowers?”
A kid with superpowers? That sounds promising, Dawn thought.
All three Scoobies looked at Harmony with interest.
“Yeah. This kid, Connor . . . something . . . was hit by a car or a van or something and he should have been killed, but he walked away without a scratch on him! His parents brought him to Wolfram and Hart and Wesley and Fred ran some tests. He's human, but stronger, faster, has rapid healing and is harder to damage in the first place. There might be some other stuff. He goes to Stanford.” Harmony smiled happily. “Is that who you mean?”
“It sure sounds like it,” Xander said. “You don't happen to have a last name?”
“Let me think . . . Wait! Spike made a comment . . . something about 'no gettin' away from the enormous git' or something like that. Oh! Buffy! That's it!”
“This guy's name is Connor Buffy?”
Harmony laughed. “No, silly! Buffy's boyfriend. I'm pretty sure he was talking about Buffy's boyfriend.”
“The Immortal?”
Willow rolled her eyes. “No, Xander. I think she's talking about Riley. Riley Finn?” she asked, turning to Harmony.
“That was it!”
“His name's Connor Finn?” Xander asked.
“No—Riley! Connor Riley. That's it!”
“You don't happen to have an address?” Dawn asked.
“Sorry, no. I think all the records went kablooey when Wolfram and Hart was destroyed. But he was home from school visiting his family when it happened and they called the police and one of the policemen told them to take him to Wolfram and Hart. So he probably lives somewhere in the area.”
“Do you remember when this happened?” Dawn asked.
“Last year . . . in April? Maybe late March?”
“Thanks Harmony,” Xander said. “That was incredibly helpful.”
Harmony smiled brightly. “Well, duh! That's what I do now—I help the helpless.”
Xander got up and reached for his jacket.
“You're leaving? Already? But . . . we didn't get a chance to visit and we didn't even have dinner yet . . .”
Xander met Willow's eyes and then sat down again.
Harmony's smile was blinding. “I want to hear all about what you've been doing and Oooo! You have to try the Belgium waffle with strawberries. It's totally yummy!”
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Continue to Chapter Six
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