What comes after

Chapter 12: Communication

As soon as Xander heard the car leaving, he took the phone with him and lay down in the couch next to Buffy, taking her in his arms.

This was his hero, his sister, his friend. He’ll do this for her, and he’ll do this for Spike. He had felt guilt for a long time now about his treatment of the vampire. He had a lot of time recently to think, and some truths had become apparent that he had been unable or unwilling to realize before.

He had loved Anya with all his heart, and had hurt her terribly, out of fear and cowardice. He had yet to forgive himself for that. But he had loved her, despite her past, despite centuries of vengeance.
Why hadn’t he done the same for Spike? He’d seen him change. Seen him struggle to be better, failing some times but trying nonetheless. But he had refused to acknowledge anything good about him.
Xander thought that it was because of Buffy, because he had perceived her as something pure, something that couldn’t be touched by darkness. And maybe all he had accomplished was to force her to deny her nature.

He had done a lot of things he was not proud of, had cost lives to be lost, but the reality was that his greatest failure, besides what he had done to Anya, had been his attitude towards his friend. She had needed him, and he had turned his back on her. He had held her back over and over, instead of freeing her to try to find happiness.

Slayer’s lives came with a short expiration date. She should have been able to enjoy whatever happiness she could find, without her friends judging her and breathing down her neck, trying to keep her in a pedestal she didn’t want to be on.

Laying on his back on the couch and with Buffy’s head resting on his arm, he used the other hand to dial the phone. He had two calls to make, and none would be easy.

“Wolfram & Hart, how may I help you?”

“Put me through to Harmony, please”.

“Angel’s office, Harmony speaking”.

“Harmony, this is Xander”.

“Hi, Xander, is been a while. How’s the Slayer’s gang?”

“Harm, I need to speak to Angel, is urgent”.

“I’ll put you right through”.

“Thanks Harmony. I wanted to tell you its good to know you are working for the good guys now”.

“Thank you, Xander, that means a lot to me”.

“Yeah, next time I’m in LA we’ll have coffee and you’ll tell me how that’s working for you”.

“That’ll be great, Angel’s ready for you. Take care, Xander, bye”.

“Bye Harm”.

“Xander”.

“Angel, we need your help”.

“Is everything Ok, Buffy?”

“Look, there’s no lost love between us, so you know I wouldn’t call if everything was peachy, Peaches”. That one was for you, Spike. “Buffy is in danger and we need your help, we need to locate Drussilla pronto”.

“Drussilla, what on earth could you need her for? What’s going on?”

“When was the last time you spoke to Buffy?”

“She called me after....you know, to say you’ve done it, win I mean. But that was all”.

‘But you saw her before, you gave her the amulet. Did you talk to her then?”

“Some”

From Angel’s tone Xander knew he was paying attention.
“Did she happen to mention Spike?”

“She might have”

“Well, to make a long story short. Spike saved the world, but before that he shared his soul with Buffy. She loves him, he’s trapped in hell. She’s in a comma because she kept being pulled to hell with him and we cannot wake her up. We need to save Spike so he can save Buffy. For that we need Drussilla and you need to help us find her”.

There was a very long silence on the other side of the line. Xander waited patiently. But after five minutes it was enough.
“Look, I know it’s a lot to swallow all at once, but we don’t have a lot of time right now. Do you know where we could find Drussilla?”

“I haven’t heard from her lately, I’ll call around, see if I can dig anything up”.
“No literary, I hope. Look, Angel, we appreciate your help, really, I’m sorry to have to be so… you know, but we couldn’t think of anyone else that may know where to find her. You’ll let me know if you hear anything?”

“Yes, do you want me to drive over, maybe I could help somehow”.

“You are helping. Find Drussilla for us, there’s nothing you can do here. I need to go, I have to call Dawn and tell her”.

“Good luck with that. I’ll call the minute I know something, you’ll do the same?”

“Sure, and thanks”.

The conversation with Dawn was shorter, he told her what had happened and she said she would take the first plane available. Then she called again to say she’ll be arriving the next day in the evening and to come pick her up.

She sounded so mature, and as if she had been expecting something like this to happen.
She said in fact that everything had been too quiet, like the calm before the storm and that she had been hearing the thunder in the distance for quite some time now.

Tasks accomplished, there was nothing else to do but wait and hope. Hope that the others could find the amulet, that Angel could find Drussilla and that Dawn would arrive safely.
Xander had gotten better at waiting in the last few years. He relaxed against the couch and run his hand through Buffy’s hair.