Connor walked to the table outside the Tressider student union and sat down. “Mind if I smoke?” He lit the cigarette before the girl could answer.
Willow looked at Connor nervously. “Um . . . how did you know I wanted to meet you?”
“I heard your message on my voicemail.”
“How’d you know what face to put with the voice and name?”
Connor gave Willow an annoyed look and flicked the ashes from his cigarette. “How’d you known who I was? For all you knew, I’m some college kid who was coming over to hit on you.”
Willow looked down, realizing he’d pretty much caught her. “Well, I-”
“What do you want?” he asked in a suspicious voice.
“I-”
“Unless it’s a gadget, forget it.”
“There’s a-”
“But if it were a gadget, Xander or Riley would have called.”
“Will you let me talk, god damn it?” Willow yelled.
“No, probably not.”
“There’s this girl.”
“You flew in from Montana to set me up on a date?” Connor said sarcastically.
“She needs your help.”
Connor shook his head as he put out his cigarette. “I don’t know that world anymore,” he said in a lifeless voice.
“But you make weapons for the people who do?”
Connor laughed. “Stanford’s tuition isn’t cheap.”
“I know you must remember what . . . what happened before,” Willow said, unsure how to discuss such a difficult subject. “But do you remember how it felt. Because right now, there’s a girl who feels exactly the same way you did. She was abandoned and she grew up under hellish conditions. She feels helpless. If someone could have helped you when you felt like that, wouldn’t you have wanted them to?”
“But when I felt like that, no one did help.”
“So you’re gong to do the same thing to someone else.”
“You’re such a hypocrite,” Connor snarled. “This girl’s a slayer, right? And if she wasn’t, would you be here now? Would you care what became of her? Would you even know she existed or what she went through? You don’t want me to help Dana. You want me to help you.”
Connor stood and stormed away from the table.
*
“Hey,” Xander said as he sat on a soft padded chair with no sharp angles. “How’re you holding up?”
Dana laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling. “Nightmares. Things that happened to me. Things that happened to other slayers. Things that never happened at all.” She looked at Xander. “You were in some of them.”
“I didn’t do anything bad, did I?”
Dana shrugged. “I don’t remember. Sometimes, when I dream someone did something bad to me, I wake up angry at the person. I’m not angry with you.”
Dana closed her eyes and started crying.
“Hey,” Xander said, getting closer to her, but fearing to touch her. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to feel like this,” she whimpered. “I don’t want to be like this.”
Xander placed a hand on Dana’s shoulder and she flinched. He knelt by her bed. “Dana, it’s not like before. You’re getting better. Every day.” He looked at the window and saw it was still day. “Why don’t we go for a walk?”
The door opened and Willow came in.
“You’re alone,” Xander said.
“No dice,” Willow answered.
“I hope Connor doesn’t call Riley and tell him you were out to see him,” Xander said. “Why did you ask Riley anyway? I could’ve told you.”
“You were teaching a class and I was in a hurry.”
“Geez, Will. Little patience next time.”
Willow sat next to Xander. “I don’t think he’s going to talk to Riley. I know things he doesn’t want people to know.”
“So you’re going to blackmail him?”
The conversation was interrupted by Dana punching the wall. She cocked her fist again, but Willow put a calming hand on her shoulder. “Shhhh. It’s okay, Dana. It’s okay.”
“Our shrinks aren’t enough for her, Will.”
“No!” Dana shouted. “I’m not leaving! No more institutions!”
“We won’t abandon you, Dana,” Willow said. “No matter who else does, Xander and I will always be here for you.”
*
Connor walked into the Old Union and headed for the Registrar’s office. “Hey, Daniella,” he said, flopping down at the desk of the undergraduate degree progress officer.
“Hey, Connor. You’re not checking up on your GER’s again, are you? Because they haven’t changed since last time.”
Connor laughed. “No, I . . . I have to file a leave of absence.”
“Oh. Is everything okay?”
He shrugged. “Could be worse. I just have this . . . someone needs a favor. A favor I wish somebody did for me once.”
“I guess that’s good,” Daniella said, unsure. “Still, don’t get so caught up you don’t come back. How long do you need?”
“I don’t know. A quarter, I guess.”
Daniella handed him the leave petition. “Fill this out and drop it at the front windows. Make sure you fill in the last date of attendance. We need that to calculate your tuition refund.”
“Thanks.”
****
“This is completely unacceptable!” Giles said angrily.
“You can take over Will’s classes while we’re gone and Riley can handle mine,” Xander said. “Or you two can take them over permanently. Either way, we’re heading off for a while.”
Giles began cleaning his glasses and making his patented ‘clucking nose with his tongue’. He sighed. “The both of you could do so much more good here.”
“Even me?”
“Yes, Xander. Even you.”
“Thanks. But Will and I were talking. And we’re thinking maybe you’re not really looking at the whole picture.” Xander gritted his teeth, realizing he probably should have put that differently. “Remember what happened to Faith in Sunnydale?”
“No, Xander,” Giles said sarcastically. “I don’t remember at all. Must have slipped my mind.”
Xander nodded. “We kind of ignored her pain. And that left the door open for the Mayor to go all Emperor Palpatine to her Anakin Skywalker.”
“Xander, what are you talking about?”
“Sorry. Guess I kind of went all Andrew Wells on you there. The Mayor turned Faith to the dark side because of her pain and the fact that we weren’t paying enough attention to it. Will and I think that, unless we work with Dana bunches and bunches, we could leave her open to the same kind of manipulation.”
Giles slowly nodded. He was simultaneously proud and annoyed. He hated that Xander and Willow had seen a danger that he so clearly missed. Yet Giles had been the major influence in their training as watchers. So their acumen was, at least in part, a credit to his abilities as a teacher.
“One year leave of absence,” Giles said. “Very well. I’ll have Andrew and Dawn pick up Willow’s class under my supervision. Perhaps Riley can recommend someone from the old Initiative to help him with weapons. Give me a week to put things together.”
“Thanks, Giles.” Xander was smiling widely.
*
Riley had a million questions. How had this stranger gotten past security and into the weapons room? Who was he? What did he want? And most importantly, could he sound the alarm before the stranger turned and killed him with one of Riley’s own weapons? At the moment, the stranger was holding the recently purchased wrist mounted rifle that shot stakes.
“I’m trying to figure out how to fit a bigger cartridge,” the stranger said, sensing Riley’s presence and apprehension. “I keep forgetting you’re giving these to women, most of whom have shorter arms than I do.”
Connor turned and tossed the weapon to Riley. “I’m waiting for Xander and Willow. I overheard Xander say he was coming here. Figured I’d get ahead of him and wait.”
“How’d you get in?” Riley asked.
Connor shrugged. “I’m good at stuff like that.”
Riley looked at the weapon in his hand, then back at Connor. “You’re . . . you’re Miracle Child?”
“Let me guess. You thought I’d be bigger.”
“I thought you’d be older.”
“My code name is Miracle Child. Wouldn’t you expect someone youngish?”
“Youngish,” Riley said. “Not young.”
“Not to be rude, but this is getting boring. Do you know when Xander will get here?”
As if on cue, Xander entered the room with Willow and Dana. The slayer let out a whimper and clung to Willow.
“Let me guess,” Connor said. “She doesn’t like crowds. I used to be the same way.”
“You came!” Willow said excitedly.
“Yeah,” Connor said. “I figured . . . I don’t know what I figured. But I’m here.”
Xander looked at Connor incredulously. “This is the guy who’s going to help us train Dana?”
“Don’t worry,” Willow said. “He might not look like much, but he’s full of surprises.”
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