Title: Solid Ground – Part 5 - Reactions
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.
___________________________________________
Angel heard the commotion as soon as he stepped off the elevator. He got to Xander’s room as the
nurse left, just as the boy settled down.
He listened to the soft sobs coming from inside the room and his heart ached for the girl who must be
Tara.
Cordelia and Conner caught up with him just as he was about to open the door. Cordy looked a little
winded from chasing after the dark vampire.
“I heard him screaming. I thought…. It sounds like he’s asleep. He must have had a nightmare or
something,” Angel explained.
They both nodded, and he motioned for them to stay quiet as he opened the door to Xander’s hospital
room.
They all filed in slowly.
Cordelia immediately went to the girl curled up in the chair sobbing.
“Tara, honey, it’s me, Cordelia.”
Tara lifted her head and looked into Cordelia’s eyes and said, “H-he’d b-been sleeping since I talked to
you, b-but then he started getting restless and mumbling in his sleep. Then he j-just st-started
screaming and saying 'No!’ I couldn’t get him to c-calm down and I was afraid he was going to h-hurt
himself. They had to sedate him.”
Cordy wrapped her arms around the lovely blonde and said, “It’s okay, it’ll be okay. We’ll take care of
him and he’ll get better.”
Angel and Conner were focused on the young man in the hospital bed. Conner had never met him, but
he had heard so much about him from Cordy. This was definitely not the laughing young man he had
known vicariously through the seer.
Conner was still very confused as to exactly what was going on, but he couldn’t help but feel anger on
this boy’s behalf. He also wondered at the fact that his father, a ‘monster’, was going to be entrusted
with his care and protection. The more time he spent in his real father’s presence, the more he doubted
the veracity of the man who had raised him. Conner decided to use this trip to observe his father a little
more closely. Maybe he would finally get a handle on who the vampire really was.
Angel stared at the boy he had known and realized that sometime in the past few years, he had become
a man. Still, his face held a vulnerability and innocence that hadn’t faded with his maturity. He hoped
that some of that still existed when this was all over.
Cordy forced herself to look at Xander and barely managed to hold back a sob. She hoped that Angel
ripped apart whoever did this to her Xander. If the older vampire got squeamish, she would be happy to
do it for him.
She went back to comforting Tara, patting her back and rocking her a bit. She knew the past several
hours had to have been trying for the young witch and all that trauma needed to be let out, so she was
happy to help in any way she could.
Something was niggling at Angel’s senses. Something familiar. He knew that it meant something, he just
wasn’t sure what.
Then it hit him. His childe. He smelled his childe. He smelled Spike. And since Spike wasn’t here……
Everyone in the room, except the sedated boy on the bed, turned to stare at Angel in apprehension
when he started growling. Their uneasiness grew when his eyes flashed yellow to accompany the
growling.
Tara guessed immediately what was wrong.
“A-Angel, uh, I need to t-talk to you, in the hallway,” she said in what she hoped was a calm voice.
Angel struggled to calm down so he could talk to her. When the growling stopped, he followed her into
the hallway, leaving the others very confused.
“You know?” Tara asked without preamble.
“I smelled Spike, so I guessed. How could he do this?” Angel asked no one in particular. Then another
thought occurred to him, “I was told about the chip, that he couldn’t hurt humans. Did it stop working?”
Tara hesitated for a moment, then answered, “It had something to do with the chip not recognizing
Xander as completely human because of how his DNA was altered when he was on the swim team in
high school. It still works on the rest of us, except I think Buffy, after she came back.”
“Buffy’s not human?”
“No, she is, just the whole bringing her back thing gave her….a sunburn on the cellular level. It might be
enough to fool his chip.”
Angel digested this information for a moment. “Why Xander?”
Again, Tara hesitated, not sure exactly what had happened, but able to guess most of it.
“He and Xander were…..involved. N-no one knew about it, I wasn’t even supposed to know about it.
Xander loved him, and Sp-spike….I’m not sure what Spike felt for Xander, but I think he still has feelings
for Buffy,” Tara said, haltingly.
“I’m going to dust him,” Angel stated plainly.
“I’d be the first to agree with you, but we need to help Xander. That’s our priority. So, can you try and
hold off on the staking?”
Angel looked at the young woman before him who could be shy and retiring one moment and have a
spine and will of steel the next, and smiled slightly as he said, “I’ll leave it be, for now.”
Part 6
Back to Fiction Index
Reviews? Email Me