Title:  Solid Ground – Part 13 – Oh no, it’s up to my thigh!
Author: Xanfan
Rating:  NC-17
Pairing: eventually, X/A
Summary: SLASH - Xander is assaulted by his secret boyfriend and needs to get out of Sunnydale to heal. He and Tara go to L.A. to recover from their screwed up lives. 
Spoilers: Up through most of season six of BtVS, goes AU at end of Entropy. Through season 4 of Angel, Okay, just pretty much anything from all seasons of both shows is fair game.
Warnings: SLASH M/M, violence, description of non-con.
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.

A/N: Anya broke up with Xander after “Once More with Feeling” He began another relationship not long after that. Buffy never told Tara why she wanted to know if she ‘came back wrong’, so Tara doesn’t know about her and Spike. Tara doesn’t die, because she isn’t there to get back together with Willow. This takes place right after Xander & Buffy see Anya and Spike on video, courtesy of spy cams.
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Bad Shit, thy name is Buffy. Or at least that’s what it felt like to Cordelia. She knew the minute she answered the phone and heard Buffy’s voice that they were all about to be hip deep in trouble.

“Cordelia? It’s Buffy; I need to talk to Angel.”

“Buffy, how nice to hear from you, I’m good, thanks for asking,” Cordy said with no small amount of sarcasm.

“Cordy, I’m sorry; I just don’t have time for this right now. Can I please talk to Angel?” Buffy’s voice was laced with frustration.

“Sorry, Angel’s a bit busy right now.  You know, saving lives, fighting monsters, trying not to throttle his son for being a brat,” Cordy replied.

The silence over the other end of the line was deafening. Cordelia tried not to smirk. It’s not like she had intentionally mentioned Connor, knowing how much the subject of Angel’s son, or more specifically the fact that he was proof the vampire had slept with someone else, irked the blonde Slayer. Oh right, yes she had.

“Is there something I could help you with, or possibly a message I could give to Angel?” Cordy asked.

“Fine, could you please tell Angel that the high school we went to so much trouble to blow up, you know the one that was right over the Hellmouth? Well, it’s being rebuilt, on the same exact spot. And Dawn starts 9th grade this year. You know what that means? It means my baby sister is going to high school over a Hellmouth. My sister, who quite literally can’t step foot out of bed without getting into some kind of trouble, the one I take on patrol with me just so I can keep an eye on her and so she won’t burn down the house while I’m gone, is going to go to school in a place that leads straight to hell! It’s a big, freaking, disaster!” Buffy’s voice had started out semi-calm, but had steadily filled with hysteria until she was shouting the last words.

The seer pondered that for a moment, not bothering to try and calm the Slayer down. After a moment, she conceded, “You’re right, that is a pretty big deal. I’ll call Angel on his cell phone. With any luck, Xander will show him how to answer it and he’ll call you back and we’ll figure out if there is anyway to minimize the damage.”

“Thanks Cordy. And Cordy?”

“Yes?”

“…..How is Xander?”

The former cheerleader froze, wondering if Buffy knew something.

“Why do you ask?” Cordy questioned cautiously.

“He’s my friend, and I miss him,” Buffy said defensively. In one of her classically random moments of true clarity and awareness, she said, “And something happened to him that you guys didn’t tell me about and I probably wasn’t prepared to deal with. I’m not sure what, but I know something happened and I know the move out there was as much for him as for Tara, if not more so.”

After a moment of stunned silence, Cordelia responded softly, “He’s doing… better. He’s physically healed, back to the whole demon fighting thing. He says it’s different going out to kick ass with a bunch of guys, instead of girls.  And he misses the cookies and chips, the guys never remember to bring snacks like you and Willow always did. He told this really awful joke the other day about lesbians to Tara, who smacked him upside the head and almost washed his mouth out with soap. He was Xander again, it was nice.  Not the joke, but seeing him being him again, was… really great.”

“It was bad, wasn’t it,” Buffy whispered, her voice so subdued that Cordelia almost missed the question.

“Yes,” Cordy said softly, but bluntly.

“But, it’s better now?” Buffy asked hopefully.

“It’s getting there, he’s getting there.”

“Can you ask him if he has any ideas about how to not get Dawnie killed or kidnapped while going to school on the mouth of hell, you know, before you ask Angel?”

Cordelia smiled. “That will probably thrill him. I bet you miss the Xanderplans, don’t you?”

“I didn’t think I would, but, I was doing it alone this summer, with just Dawn with me on patrol, and I realized how much he always helped, just by being there and coming up with these wacky ideas that somehow seemed to work,” Buffy admitted.

Cordelia couldn’t stop herself from asking, “So, Spike wasn’t around to help out and proclaim his undying love?”

Buffy snorted. “After the whole Anya thing, he just disappeared. Haven’t seen leather nor bleached blond crisply gelled curl of him since.”

After a moment of awkward silence, Buffy said, “Oh yeah, and Dawn told me to tell Tara and Xander ‘Hi.’ She’s kind of been pushing for us to come down and visit, maybe do a little shopping, but mostly she wants to see them, and you, for some reason.”

“That actually might not be a bad idea.  I’ll talk with them, but it might be a good thing and we could brainstorm the whole ‘new high school on the Hellmouth’ thing while you’re here,” Cordelia replied, plans already forming in her head.

“Sounds great, call me when you have an idea of when and stuff,” Buffy replied, happy with the prospect of seeing her friends and even Cordelia.

“Will do. I’ll talk to you later.” 

Part 14

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