Well I finally got the next part done. Real life reared its ugly head so I
haven't much time to work on this lately. So thanks to everyone who waited
patiently for this.
----
Part 3 – Back to School
Later that day
"Xander let me see if I understand this right." The voice talking to Xander on the phone belonged to Willow Rosenburg, his childhood friend who lived in Sunnydale. "You're in San Francisco and you found your parents' house."
"Right." Was all Xander said on the other end.
"They aren't there because they ran away after being attacked by a vampire."
"Yep."
"You know you're starting to sound like Oz with these one-syllable replies." She mused.
"And has anyone ever told you you're a trouble magnet?"
"Several times Will. Several times. It's like the Hellmouth's following me around the Sunshine State. I mean with all the bad guys Aims and I are running into we shoulda just stayed in Sunnydale."
"Actually it's been pretty quiet here since that fun time we had with Glory. Worst thing that happened was this demon biker gang last week."
"Ouch. Sounded like that was fun."
"Yeah it was touch and go there for awhile but nothing Buffy and Faith couldn't deal with."
"Faith? She's still there? How is the raven haired Slayer getting along with you guys?"
"Oh don't say raven around her." Willow said in between laughs. "That's Spike's new pet name for her and Faith can't stand it. Other than that though she's not too bad. It seems like she knows the difference now between when to get wild and when to get serious."
Willow was still surprised Faith re-integrated so quickly into the Scoobies again. That was a good thing, considering the Wicca would've made Faith pay if the black haired Slayer did anything to hurt the people Willow cared about.
"Now Xander don't get me wrong, I love hearing from you but why did you call?"
After stopping Glory from causing Armageddon, Xander and the core Scoobies – Buffy, Willow, Cordelia and Giles – had reconciled their friendships to an extent and extracted from their friend a promise to keep in touch. He kept it and over the last few weeks Xander had called from time to time. Usually it was just to say hi or tell them what he was up to. But this was the first time he wanted Willow in particular, as every other time he usually called the Magic Box or Angel Investigations when he wanted to chat with his old buddies.
This time he specifically called Willow's dorm.
Xander explained his master plan to his friend. "See here's the thing. Right across the street from where my Mom was attacked there's a school where most of the deaths took place. I'd love to get in there but – problem is – I don't exactly have any qualifications to work at a school…'cept maybe a janitor."
"And this involves me how?" Willow asked somewhat curiously.
"Well considering I can't put 'Demon Hunter' on a resume I was hoping my favorite computer hacker could make up some credentials for me and Amy that would withstand a background check. Nothing major, something decent would be great."
She groaned, "Oh boy. That's gonna be a lot of work. You're going to owe me *big time* Xander."
"Huh? How much work?"
The red head elaborated, "I can't just flick a switch and make you go from dead to alive. It'll take me all night to get some kind of working resume up for the both of you."
"So telling you that you're my bestest friend in the whole wide world isn't going to work?"
That got a laugh out of her but it still didn't change her mind. "Tell you what: I've been wanting shake the bugs out of a teleportation spell I've used a few times…"
The spell Willow was referring to was the one she used on Glory in Sunnydale Hospital several months ago. Not only did the Wicca not know where the intended destination was, it sapped a lot of her strength.
"…and I remember Amy having the book I need to get it working right. Get it to me and I'll make sure you guys have something good."
"Oh boy…". He knew getting Amy to loan one of her magic books was like trying to take a bone away from a Doberman.
No in fact I'd rather try the dog than getting one of her books…
"Okay…I guess I'll get it somehow. It'll be in the mail tomorrow."
"Thanks Xander. Where should I mail the resumes to?"
"Actually there's a drug store with a fax machine down the street. Could you send it there tomorrow morning?"
That was good enough for her. "No problem just e-mail me the number. And Xander, it was good to hear from you again."
"You too. Talk to you soon."
----
Xander was right about one thing, it took quite a bit of bitching and complaining before Amy agreed to loan that spell book out. He couldn't believe how many times he heard 'If she messes up one damn page' and 'I swear this better be worth it."
The young man desperately hoped that 'selective forgetting' he was so good at in high school still worked.
Still, everything went as planned that morning. Willow faxed over two believable resumes for Xander and Amy early the next morning.
Amy went over her 'qualifications' in the drug store. "Wow I'm impressed! I mean she really did a good job! Hey Xand what'd it say on yours?"
"Uh…let's see I have a degree in…Physical Education?!? That's not funny! Gym?!? Do I look retarded or something?" He pointed at Amy and gave her a glare. "Don't answer that!"
The Wicca lost all self-control and started laughing hysterically at Xander's temper tantrum, dropping all her papers onto the ground.
One of them didn't have much on it. Maybe a few lines at most. Xander picked it up and sure enough it was a note from Willow.
Xander,
Hope you guys like the job I did. I get the feeling you won't like the phys ed. thing. Well you pretty much didn't do well in any subject so I had to make ado with what I could think of. ;)
Willow
Oh yeah…if it takes the rest of my life I will get Willow for that one.
Twenty minutes later they were both walking up the steps to J.F.K. High School. Xander had managed to con the principal into an interview. He figured they must be more desperate for hired help then they thought.
"I still can't believe this has gone without a problem so far." He mused.
"Don't jinx it Xander. We're not in the clear yet." Amy was smiling but she wasn't about to declare this a success before it even began.
"Hey you watch. It'll all work out and we'll get away with this scott free! Now whatd'ya got to say about that?"
"He made me do it your Honor." She deadpanned. "What do we do if this doesn't work?"
"You think I know? I'm making this up as I go along."
----
City Coroner's Office
You can see a attractive looking man about thirty or so in a white lab coat reciting an autopsy report to somebody else in the room. "Let's see: Name of the deceased is seventeen year old David Patten. Official cause of death was from severe loss of blood and heavy tissue damage to the neck area from two puncture wounds.
"So unofficially, we have another Nick Knight in town."
"Uh no. He a good guy?"
"He was?"
"Yep."
"Okay another…uh…LaCroix?"
"Yeah that sounds a little better. And this happened how much in L.A. Miss Lochley?"
The woman he referring to was in fact Detective Kate Lochley, now of the S.F.P.D. "A little too much Matt. Any new leads this time?"
"Nah. I was called in to the high school when they found this one. Suspect didn't leave a damn thing on the stiff. I checked at the scene while they were taking David on his free ride here. Came up with nadda."
Whosever doing this isn't making many mistakes. Kate thought to herself. Last year Angel had revealed to the cop that vampires did indeed exist. During her time with the L.A.P.D. she became obsessed with them after they killed her father. Her obsession destroyed her career and she nearly committed suicide if Angel hadn't revived her at the last second.
And so with her life in the City of Angels ruined, she managed to pull some strings with what contacts she still had left and gotten a detective position in San Francisco.
The problem was, her reputation had preceded her even here. So Kate kept a very low profile those first few months she after she started with the S.F.P.D. and did everything by the book. Eventually, the jokes and rumors about her stopped.
Then the rash of killings started at the high school. She couldn't believe how dense the other investigators were. Though conversely if somebody came up to her two years ago and told her that the murderer was a vampire she would've had the person committed.
It was then that she realized something. As much as Kate wished to escape the world Angel had showed her, it was a one-way trip. Once you knew about that, you couldn't go back to the blissful ignorance you once knew.
And Kate's conscious wouldn't let her live with it if she did nothing to try and stop it.
She had tried a stakeout at the high school but came up with nothing. If anything, the vampire or vampires behind it were patient.
Ironically Kate only knew one other person who was convinced vampires were real.
Matt Carsen was a county coroner in the Bay City. He seemed to be the only one of them that put two and two together once the killings started. It kind of helped that he was a huge fan of the show 'Forever Knight'. That meant his obsession with vampires actually gave him a realistic view on what might really be going on with this case.
Kate quietly sounded him out about it after he mused his guesses about the killer while drinking one night with Kate and a few other cops. Once she was sure Matt was being serious and not bullshitting her, she told him that they did indeed exist and separated the real from his TV show.
She wasn't exactly sure whether Matt was nervous or thrilled that they were real.
The two of them had been working to try to find some clue that could break this case wide open but so far nothing had shown up.
"Hey Vetter snap out of it!" Kate groaned. Vetter was Matt's nickname for her. It was taken from Tracy Vetter, the only female cop on 'Forever Knight' who knew about the existence of vampires.
"You know it drives me nuts when you call me that."
He smiled. "I know. So back to the problem at hand, any new ideas on how to stop our friends?"
Kate shook head. "Not a clue. We have a couple of people at the school and I've been checking out some of the local hangouts. I guess we just have to wait and try to get lucky."
"Well best of luck to you Kate. If anything turns up I'll call."
----
Xander and Amy were both being interviewed by the principal at J.F.K. He was a fifty-year-old portly man named Kyle Rhis.
Amy had applied for a spot in the library and Xander went for an open position as a hall monitor (He wasn't about to go along with Willow's little joke).
They told Rhis that they just moved here to be Xander's parents and were looking for work. It was close enough to the truth to sound plausible.
The older leaned against his desk after asking the two the standard interview questions over the past fifteen minutes. "Well you two seemed to be good enough for this. One question though, with everything going here why in God's name would the two of you want to work here?"
I'm looking for a vampire that attacked my mother and sister last week. Then I'm going to shove a rotting piece of wood into the bastard's chest and watch him turn to dust. The young man thought to himself. He almost wondered if the people would believe Xander's story with the way the last corpse turned up.
"I…uh…guess you could say we need the money. We figured with everyone leaving you'd hire us. Besides a lot of weird stuff happened at our old high school" Amy answered.
"Good point." The principal conceded. "I did a little background check on Sunnydale High School. According to what I read, rumors went around the last two principals were both eaten. Strange, huh? Well all this seems to be in order. You're both hired and you can start A.S.A.P. Good Enough?"
"Yeah that'd be great." Xander told him.
"Excellent. Well lemme tell you two a little bit about this place. J.F.K. was built about thirty-five years ago. In '83 they decided to build a middle and grade school on campus as well. So these little shits can do K through 12 on the same location."
"That's convenient."
"Yeah, tell me about it. Thing is with all the bad press over these murders, people are on edge. That means teachers and students are afraid to come here. Rumors are flying around too. Believe me when I tell you it's not good."
Just then Rhis secretary walked. "Excuse me sir. Someone from the school board is here to see you."
"Ah great. Xander, Amy would you two excuse me for a moment."
After he walked out, Xander let out a massive breath in relief. "This might actually work."
Amy was almost convinced. "Yeah they'll actually pay us. We might be able to stop living on Wendy's ninety-nine cent value meal."
"How very true and hey you'll be in the library. Maybe we should call Giles and ask him if you could borrow some tweed outfits."
The Wicca shuddered as Rhis walked back into his office. "God I hate the school board. Anyways, let me take you both to around campus."
He showed them both around the buildings at the High School. They made their way over to the yard on campus and stopped for a minute.
"Xander, why don't you hang around here a little while I bring Amy over to the library. You'll probably be working out here too when the kids are out for lunch."
"Uh okay." Xander told Rhis.
He started thinking to himself after they left. Me and Aims'll stop the asshole doing this. Then I'm going to finally see my folks when they come back. This *is* going to work.
Since Xander was staring off into his own world. He didn't even notice the young woman standing behind him until she said something.
"Xander Harris. Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
That's not Amy….oh crap! Xander froze. Only somebody from Sunnydale, or a handful of people from L.A., would've known that and both towns were half a state away.
He slowly turned around figuring his plan was being shot to hell. There was sweat pouring down his forehead as he faced her.
"Well well. It really is you."
Xander stared at her for a second trying to place this stranger. "Wait a sec. I know you don't I?"
----
TBC
----
Part 3 – Back to School
Later that day
"Xander let me see if I understand this right." The voice talking to Xander on the phone belonged to Willow Rosenburg, his childhood friend who lived in Sunnydale. "You're in San Francisco and you found your parents' house."
"Right." Was all Xander said on the other end.
"They aren't there because they ran away after being attacked by a vampire."
"Yep."
"You know you're starting to sound like Oz with these one-syllable replies." She mused.
"And has anyone ever told you you're a trouble magnet?"
"Several times Will. Several times. It's like the Hellmouth's following me around the Sunshine State. I mean with all the bad guys Aims and I are running into we shoulda just stayed in Sunnydale."
"Actually it's been pretty quiet here since that fun time we had with Glory. Worst thing that happened was this demon biker gang last week."
"Ouch. Sounded like that was fun."
"Yeah it was touch and go there for awhile but nothing Buffy and Faith couldn't deal with."
"Faith? She's still there? How is the raven haired Slayer getting along with you guys?"
"Oh don't say raven around her." Willow said in between laughs. "That's Spike's new pet name for her and Faith can't stand it. Other than that though she's not too bad. It seems like she knows the difference now between when to get wild and when to get serious."
Willow was still surprised Faith re-integrated so quickly into the Scoobies again. That was a good thing, considering the Wicca would've made Faith pay if the black haired Slayer did anything to hurt the people Willow cared about.
"Now Xander don't get me wrong, I love hearing from you but why did you call?"
After stopping Glory from causing Armageddon, Xander and the core Scoobies – Buffy, Willow, Cordelia and Giles – had reconciled their friendships to an extent and extracted from their friend a promise to keep in touch. He kept it and over the last few weeks Xander had called from time to time. Usually it was just to say hi or tell them what he was up to. But this was the first time he wanted Willow in particular, as every other time he usually called the Magic Box or Angel Investigations when he wanted to chat with his old buddies.
This time he specifically called Willow's dorm.
Xander explained his master plan to his friend. "See here's the thing. Right across the street from where my Mom was attacked there's a school where most of the deaths took place. I'd love to get in there but – problem is – I don't exactly have any qualifications to work at a school…'cept maybe a janitor."
"And this involves me how?" Willow asked somewhat curiously.
"Well considering I can't put 'Demon Hunter' on a resume I was hoping my favorite computer hacker could make up some credentials for me and Amy that would withstand a background check. Nothing major, something decent would be great."
She groaned, "Oh boy. That's gonna be a lot of work. You're going to owe me *big time* Xander."
"Huh? How much work?"
The red head elaborated, "I can't just flick a switch and make you go from dead to alive. It'll take me all night to get some kind of working resume up for the both of you."
"So telling you that you're my bestest friend in the whole wide world isn't going to work?"
That got a laugh out of her but it still didn't change her mind. "Tell you what: I've been wanting shake the bugs out of a teleportation spell I've used a few times…"
The spell Willow was referring to was the one she used on Glory in Sunnydale Hospital several months ago. Not only did the Wicca not know where the intended destination was, it sapped a lot of her strength.
"…and I remember Amy having the book I need to get it working right. Get it to me and I'll make sure you guys have something good."
"Oh boy…". He knew getting Amy to loan one of her magic books was like trying to take a bone away from a Doberman.
No in fact I'd rather try the dog than getting one of her books…
"Okay…I guess I'll get it somehow. It'll be in the mail tomorrow."
"Thanks Xander. Where should I mail the resumes to?"
"Actually there's a drug store with a fax machine down the street. Could you send it there tomorrow morning?"
That was good enough for her. "No problem just e-mail me the number. And Xander, it was good to hear from you again."
"You too. Talk to you soon."
----
Xander was right about one thing, it took quite a bit of bitching and complaining before Amy agreed to loan that spell book out. He couldn't believe how many times he heard 'If she messes up one damn page' and 'I swear this better be worth it."
The young man desperately hoped that 'selective forgetting' he was so good at in high school still worked.
Still, everything went as planned that morning. Willow faxed over two believable resumes for Xander and Amy early the next morning.
Amy went over her 'qualifications' in the drug store. "Wow I'm impressed! I mean she really did a good job! Hey Xand what'd it say on yours?"
"Uh…let's see I have a degree in…Physical Education?!? That's not funny! Gym?!? Do I look retarded or something?" He pointed at Amy and gave her a glare. "Don't answer that!"
The Wicca lost all self-control and started laughing hysterically at Xander's temper tantrum, dropping all her papers onto the ground.
One of them didn't have much on it. Maybe a few lines at most. Xander picked it up and sure enough it was a note from Willow.
Xander,
Hope you guys like the job I did. I get the feeling you won't like the phys ed. thing. Well you pretty much didn't do well in any subject so I had to make ado with what I could think of. ;)
Willow
Oh yeah…if it takes the rest of my life I will get Willow for that one.
Twenty minutes later they were both walking up the steps to J.F.K. High School. Xander had managed to con the principal into an interview. He figured they must be more desperate for hired help then they thought.
"I still can't believe this has gone without a problem so far." He mused.
"Don't jinx it Xander. We're not in the clear yet." Amy was smiling but she wasn't about to declare this a success before it even began.
"Hey you watch. It'll all work out and we'll get away with this scott free! Now whatd'ya got to say about that?"
"He made me do it your Honor." She deadpanned. "What do we do if this doesn't work?"
"You think I know? I'm making this up as I go along."
----
City Coroner's Office
You can see a attractive looking man about thirty or so in a white lab coat reciting an autopsy report to somebody else in the room. "Let's see: Name of the deceased is seventeen year old David Patten. Official cause of death was from severe loss of blood and heavy tissue damage to the neck area from two puncture wounds.
"So unofficially, we have another Nick Knight in town."
"Uh no. He a good guy?"
"He was?"
"Yep."
"Okay another…uh…LaCroix?"
"Yeah that sounds a little better. And this happened how much in L.A. Miss Lochley?"
The woman he referring to was in fact Detective Kate Lochley, now of the S.F.P.D. "A little too much Matt. Any new leads this time?"
"Nah. I was called in to the high school when they found this one. Suspect didn't leave a damn thing on the stiff. I checked at the scene while they were taking David on his free ride here. Came up with nadda."
Whosever doing this isn't making many mistakes. Kate thought to herself. Last year Angel had revealed to the cop that vampires did indeed exist. During her time with the L.A.P.D. she became obsessed with them after they killed her father. Her obsession destroyed her career and she nearly committed suicide if Angel hadn't revived her at the last second.
And so with her life in the City of Angels ruined, she managed to pull some strings with what contacts she still had left and gotten a detective position in San Francisco.
The problem was, her reputation had preceded her even here. So Kate kept a very low profile those first few months she after she started with the S.F.P.D. and did everything by the book. Eventually, the jokes and rumors about her stopped.
Then the rash of killings started at the high school. She couldn't believe how dense the other investigators were. Though conversely if somebody came up to her two years ago and told her that the murderer was a vampire she would've had the person committed.
It was then that she realized something. As much as Kate wished to escape the world Angel had showed her, it was a one-way trip. Once you knew about that, you couldn't go back to the blissful ignorance you once knew.
And Kate's conscious wouldn't let her live with it if she did nothing to try and stop it.
She had tried a stakeout at the high school but came up with nothing. If anything, the vampire or vampires behind it were patient.
Ironically Kate only knew one other person who was convinced vampires were real.
Matt Carsen was a county coroner in the Bay City. He seemed to be the only one of them that put two and two together once the killings started. It kind of helped that he was a huge fan of the show 'Forever Knight'. That meant his obsession with vampires actually gave him a realistic view on what might really be going on with this case.
Kate quietly sounded him out about it after he mused his guesses about the killer while drinking one night with Kate and a few other cops. Once she was sure Matt was being serious and not bullshitting her, she told him that they did indeed exist and separated the real from his TV show.
She wasn't exactly sure whether Matt was nervous or thrilled that they were real.
The two of them had been working to try to find some clue that could break this case wide open but so far nothing had shown up.
"Hey Vetter snap out of it!" Kate groaned. Vetter was Matt's nickname for her. It was taken from Tracy Vetter, the only female cop on 'Forever Knight' who knew about the existence of vampires.
"You know it drives me nuts when you call me that."
He smiled. "I know. So back to the problem at hand, any new ideas on how to stop our friends?"
Kate shook head. "Not a clue. We have a couple of people at the school and I've been checking out some of the local hangouts. I guess we just have to wait and try to get lucky."
"Well best of luck to you Kate. If anything turns up I'll call."
----
Xander and Amy were both being interviewed by the principal at J.F.K. He was a fifty-year-old portly man named Kyle Rhis.
Amy had applied for a spot in the library and Xander went for an open position as a hall monitor (He wasn't about to go along with Willow's little joke).
They told Rhis that they just moved here to be Xander's parents and were looking for work. It was close enough to the truth to sound plausible.
The older leaned against his desk after asking the two the standard interview questions over the past fifteen minutes. "Well you two seemed to be good enough for this. One question though, with everything going here why in God's name would the two of you want to work here?"
I'm looking for a vampire that attacked my mother and sister last week. Then I'm going to shove a rotting piece of wood into the bastard's chest and watch him turn to dust. The young man thought to himself. He almost wondered if the people would believe Xander's story with the way the last corpse turned up.
"I…uh…guess you could say we need the money. We figured with everyone leaving you'd hire us. Besides a lot of weird stuff happened at our old high school" Amy answered.
"Good point." The principal conceded. "I did a little background check on Sunnydale High School. According to what I read, rumors went around the last two principals were both eaten. Strange, huh? Well all this seems to be in order. You're both hired and you can start A.S.A.P. Good Enough?"
"Yeah that'd be great." Xander told him.
"Excellent. Well lemme tell you two a little bit about this place. J.F.K. was built about thirty-five years ago. In '83 they decided to build a middle and grade school on campus as well. So these little shits can do K through 12 on the same location."
"That's convenient."
"Yeah, tell me about it. Thing is with all the bad press over these murders, people are on edge. That means teachers and students are afraid to come here. Rumors are flying around too. Believe me when I tell you it's not good."
Just then Rhis secretary walked. "Excuse me sir. Someone from the school board is here to see you."
"Ah great. Xander, Amy would you two excuse me for a moment."
After he walked out, Xander let out a massive breath in relief. "This might actually work."
Amy was almost convinced. "Yeah they'll actually pay us. We might be able to stop living on Wendy's ninety-nine cent value meal."
"How very true and hey you'll be in the library. Maybe we should call Giles and ask him if you could borrow some tweed outfits."
The Wicca shuddered as Rhis walked back into his office. "God I hate the school board. Anyways, let me take you both to around campus."
He showed them both around the buildings at the High School. They made their way over to the yard on campus and stopped for a minute.
"Xander, why don't you hang around here a little while I bring Amy over to the library. You'll probably be working out here too when the kids are out for lunch."
"Uh okay." Xander told Rhis.
He started thinking to himself after they left. Me and Aims'll stop the asshole doing this. Then I'm going to finally see my folks when they come back. This *is* going to work.
Since Xander was staring off into his own world. He didn't even notice the young woman standing behind him until she said something.
"Xander Harris. Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
That's not Amy….oh crap! Xander froze. Only somebody from Sunnydale, or a handful of people from L.A., would've known that and both towns were half a state away.
He slowly turned around figuring his plan was being shot to hell. There was sweat pouring down his forehead as he faced her.
"Well well. It really is you."
Xander stared at her for a second trying to place this stranger. "Wait a sec. I know you don't I?"
----
TBC