Title: Didn’t See That Coming - Chapter 2 - Granted
Author: Xanfan
Rating: Some parts might be R or NC-17
Pairing: surprise M/M
Summary: My take on the Xander as a baby thing. The Initiative did even more bad things than we knew.
Spoilers: Up to beginning of Season 5 of Buffy and for Replacement; Up through season 3 of NCIS
Warnings: Slash
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.Note: Spike is slightly more part of the gang than he was in canon at this point.
________________________________Last time:
Dawn watched her sister’s boyfriend tenderly sooth her Xander with his voice and touch, smiling when the baby stared at him in wonder and something akin to adoration. She innocently whispered, “I wish Xander could have parents like Riley who would love him and keep him safe.”
The others in the room smiled lightly, thinking nothing of the girl’s use of the ‘W’ word until a voice said breezily, “Granted.”
***********
A demon appeared; as soon as she was fully visible, her demonic face smoothed into that of kindly smiling woman.
“Hallie?” Anya asked.
“Hey Anyanka, how are you doing?” the demon replied.
“Anya, I take it you know this demon?” Giles asked, struggling to keep his voice calm and motioning Buffy not to attack just yet.
“This is Halfrek, Justice Demon over Lost Childhoods. She usually tries to actually help children when they are truly in need,” Anya explained.
“Really? You help, not hurt, them with your wish granting?” Willow asked.
“What can I say? I have a soft spot for children who’ve been robbed of their childhoods and innocence. Xander’s first childhood was… not pleasant. I won’t go into detail, but I have been waiting for him or someone close to him to make a wish for almost twenty years,” Halfrek admitted.
“It was really that bad?” Riley asked sadly.
“Yes sweetie, it was, but now he has a second chance and I’m going to make sure that things are different this time,” the demon said firmly.
“What did you do?” Buffy asked.
“Xander now has two parents like Riley.”
“What exactly did you do?” Joyce asked, her voice edged in ice.
“The Initiative did experiments on more than just demons. They had a back up plan for creating the perfect soldier. They took ‘samples’ from their soldiers and they ‘confiscated’ donations from sperm banks across the nation. They used the stolen DNA to splice together babies and implant them in surrogates. While Xander obviously wasn’t originally a product of the experiment, he is now.” Hallie explained.
The extended Scooby family just stared at her in horror.
“That really happened?” Dawn asked.
“Yes sweetie, it did, as reprehensible as it sounds, it did happen,” Halfrek said in disgust.
“So what does that mean, for Xander?” Riley asked.
“Congratulations, mom, it’s a boy,” Halfrek said to the former soldier.
“MOM?!” Buffy screeched.
“Well, since they spliced together DNA from two males, it isn’t really possible to say who is the mom and who is the dad,” Halfrek admitted.
“Who is the fath… other parent?” Riley asked, not able to say father, because that would make him the mother and he just wasn’t ready to deal with that yet.
Hallie smirked. “I suggest you have his DNA run through the national database to find out.”
“Who was the surrogate?” Joyce asked, because she couldn’t not ask.
“Well, since you all have a connection to the Initiative, I chose Tara to actually have carried him, because she just screams earth mother to me,” Halfrek said. “He doesn’t have any of her DNA, but we do need her for the cover story.”
Tara nodded. She would be happy to help if it meant Xander would have a new life and be safe. And Riley had already shown in just a few hours that he would make a good father.
Halfrek suddenly disappeared, her disembodied voice saying, “Have fun, and get him off the Hellmouth as soon as possible. It’s not safe here for him.”
The group sat in stunned silence.
“But, if Riley’s the… parent and Xander can’t be on the Hellmouth, does that mean Riley has to go too?” Buffy asked.
“Buffy, I can’t raise Xander here and you’ve already said you can’t raise him. As much as I love you, Xander has to be my priority now. I’m sorry Buffy, I wi… had hoped things would turn out for us, but I can’t see being in a long distance relationship and raising a child at the same time, especially when you need to be here to protect the Hellmouth and you aren’t ready to be a parent,” Riley said sadly.
“You’re breaking up with me,” Buffy said, the words a statement, not a question.
“Buffy…” Riley began.
“I understand, I really do, I just can’t be here, right now. You should probably leave tomorrow, just to get him away from Sunnydale. I’m going to go slay something,” Buffy said tearfully before she dropped a kiss on the baby’s head and whispered goodbye to her Xanderfriend.
“Hold up, bint, I’ll come with ya, could use a spot of violence meself,” Spike said. He walked over to Riley and ran a hand softly over the baby’s back, then gave Riley a manful pat on the shoulder before he followed the Slayer out the door.
“I don’t want you to go, but I know it’ll be safer for him if he’s not here,” Dawn said, throwing her arms around Riley and Xander.
“I’ll miss you Dawnie, I’ll miss all of you, even Spike, but don’t tell him I said that,” Riley said with a grin, his eyes suspiciously moist.
“You’ll need a birth certificate and custody papers, you can’t go anywhere without those,” Willow said.
Before the words were fully out of her mouth, an envelope full of papers appeared on the coffee table. Willow opened them and pulled out a birth certificate naming Riley as the father and Tara as the birth mother. There was also paperwork that stated that Tara was a surrogate and the Riley was currently the custodial parent until the other biological parent could be determined.
“Oh,” Willow said, her delaying tactic having been shot down.
The redhead went to kneel in front of the baby version of her best friend and smiled softly as Riley moved the baby off his shoulder and laid him in her arms. She gently stroked the soft cheek and kissed the beloved face. “I’ll miss you Xander. You’ve been the best best friend a girl could have and you made me a better person. I love you and I won’t forget who you were and I’ll pray to the Goddess every night to bless the person you will be.”
Willow handed the baby to her girlfriend and went to the front porch to sob silently and wait for Tara to join her.
Tara cradled the baby against her breast, wondering what it would have been like to actually have carried this baby and given birth to him. She kissed his little nose and tickled his tummy, causing him to make a sound somewhat like a giggle. “I am proud to be your fake mother. In the time that I’ve known you, you acted more like family to me than mine did my entire life. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for being Willow’s friend and helping to make her into the woman she is today. You did good. May the Goddess bless you and keep you.”
The blonde witch handed the baby back to Riley and went to out the front door, corralling her sobbing girlfriend and guiding her towards their home.
Giles coughed lightly. “I trust you’ll do a good job with him. Over the time I’ve known you, you’ve proven to be a good man of integrity.”
The former Watcher leaned over and ran a hand over the baby’s head. “Be safe, dear boy. May your new life treat you with more kindness than your old one did.”
Giles shared a brief sad smile with Joyce before he left the house, mourning the boy who had found a spot in his heart as one of his children.
“You’ll leave in the morning?” Anya asked quietly.
“Probably as early as I can. The sooner we’re away from Sunnydale, the better,” Riley said.
“Will you do me a favor?” Dawn asked quietly with a nod from Anya.
“What, Dawnie?” Riley asked.
“Will you stop in L.A. and let Cordy say goodbye? Everybody probably thinks she wouldn’t care, but I know she would, she does. They were friends again when she left, and they’ve stayed in touch,” Dawn said pleadingly.
“Dawn, I’m not sure, Angel and I don’t have the best…” Riley began.
“It’s not about Angel, it’s about Xander and Cordelia. He was the first real friend she had, she needs to say goodbye. If you say yes, Dawn’ll call her tonight and tell her what happened so you only have to show up and she’ll do her thing and you can go. He really loved her, no matter what Willow and Buffy believe, they were in love. She deserves the chance to let him go,” Anya said, the humanity that Xander had been struggling to teach her shining through.
“She really does care about him,” Joyce added and Riley wasn’t sure if she meant Anya or Cordelia.
Riley slumped in defeat. “Okay, but only for a few minutes, I don’t think L.A. is much safer than Sunnydale.”
Dawn nodded, kissed the Xanderbaby on the cheek. “I’ll go call her now.”
Anya smiled tenderly at the baby, but made no move to touch him, just blowing him a kiss before she left. She managed to catch Giles before he’d pulled away and bullied him into giving her a ride home.
Joyce and Riley were left alone in the room. “Can I do this?”
“Visit Cordelia?” Joyce asked.
“As scary as that idea is, what I mean is, can I do this, raise a baby, raise Xander?” Riley asked, the magnitude of what he was taking on hitting him for the first time.
“Xander pretty much raised himself the first time around, and he managed to turn into to a fine young man with a good heart. With your influence, I think he’ll be even more amazing,” Joyce said confidently.
“What about his other father? What will he think of all of this?” Riley asked, pulling the baby tighter against him, as if to protect him against possible harm from the unknown quantity that was Xander’s other father.
“Halfrek seemed quite certain that you should find him and she wouldn’t have made him Xander’s father if she didn’t think that he would love him as much as you do,” Joyce assured.
“Okay. Maybe I’ll have the tests done in L.A. while I’m there and then take the baby to Iowa to visit my parents. Not sure how I’m going to explain how they became grandparents, but I’m pretty sure they’ll adore him no matter what,” Riley said.
“Of course they will. And I can be an honorary grandmother, if you’d let me,” Joyce offered.
“We’d be honored. I think both Xanders would be very happy at the though of you being family,” Riley assured, reminded of Xander’s obvious admiration of the Summers matriarch.
Joyce smiled in pleasure. She took Xander to hold one last time and cuddled the dozing baby to her, placing soft kisses all over the adorable face. She knew that no matter how little sleep this precious angel let Riley have tonight, the two would be gone when she woke up in the morning. Riley wanted to make the separation as smooth as possible and they needed to get away from the Hellmouth at first light.
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