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About two hours out on the open road, Xander broke the
silence, "Wes?"
Wesley glanced over at Xander and lifted an eyebrow.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." Xander said sheepishly,
while stroking the egg under the wet towels.
"For what?" Wesley asked, a little coldly.
"For treating you bad, Wes, I never gave you a chance and
I was awful to you. I don't have any excuses, I was a
jerk." Xander finished quietly.
Wesley continued driving, with no expression. Xander
looked up from his egg, then asked, "Wes?"
"Do go on, I'll stop you when I disagree with something
you've said." Wesley said primly.
Xander stared in shock. Then he turned his gaze back onto
his egg, and continued to stroke while thinking.
[Why should he forgive me?] Xander thought to himself. He
couldn't think of one good reason. He had given Wesley no
reason to ever do anything for him, and yet here he
was.
"If I promise to act better, would you think about giving
me another chance to be your friend?" Xander asked
hesitantly.
"I have no reason to trust in your promises. But be that
as it may, I will offer this in return. You treat me with
respect and I will do the same for you. If we can manage
civility, then perhaps one day, we can attempt
friendship." Wesley said very seriously.
Xander thought about Wesley's offer and was about to
accept when something occurred to him.
"Wesley?"
"Yes?"
"I know it sounds a little weird but, I'm not sure I know
how to be civil. I mean, I know what I think of as civil,
but I don't think it's the same thing that you think of
as civil. Do you know what I mean?" Xander babbled to a
halt.
"Strangely enough, I believe I do. Very well, if you will
try to be civil, I will understand if you slip up, but be
aware that I will bring such occasions to your attention,
privately of course, and if I find that you are not
sincerely trying, the deal is off." Wesley said with
steel in his voice.
Xander thought about it, bargaining for the possibility
of future friendship. Then it occurred to him that Wesley
had already given him what he wanted, in his own way he
had said that they could possibly be friends. Now he just
had to prove to Wesley that he was serious about wanting
him as a friend. Realizing that, he smiled, "Thank you
Wesley, thank you for the offer and thank you for coming
to get me from New Mexico."
"You're very welcome Alexander." Wesley said
formally.
Xander flinched at the use of his formal name but decided
that he could live with it from Wesley.
Another hour of silence passed before Wesley spoke,
"Alexander, do you have any idea what made you able to
conceive?"
Xander thought only a moment before answering, "I was on
the swim team in high school. The coach added something
to the steam in the steam room to change us. The guys
that were on the swim team longest, changed into
monsters, they looked like the creature from the black
lagoon. When we discovered what he did, the rest of us
were taken to the hospital and given transfusions to
remove the poison from our systems. But the stuff was in
the steam, so it saturated our skins and we breathed it
in. Ever since I left the hospital, I haven't been able
to go more than half a day without getting wet or I feel
bad. If I go a full day, I get sick. And seeing as I've
laid an egg, I think I was changed into a sort of
amphibian or reptile."
Wesley thought about what Xander had said for a moment,
then said, "So that's why you made a point of taking a
shower before we left the motel room?"
"Yes, and if we are going to drive straight through it
could be a problem. I mean it won't do any serious
damage, but I'll be sick for a few days after we get to
L.A." Xander said apologetically.
"We can stop later tonight. I'll call Angel when we do to
let him know what's going on." Wesley said evenly.
Xander opened another bottle of water and began to wet
the towels around the egg.
"Why do you feel it is necessary to keep the egg moist?"
Wesley asked with honest curiosity.
"It just seems to be the right thing to do. I suppose I'm
following my instinct, besides, when I have let the egg
dry out a little, it becomes agitated." Xander
replied.
"Do you have any other left-over effects from your
adventures?" Wesley asked.
Xander thought, then began, "Well, I do heal a lot faster
and better than most people. I mean, about 2 months ago,
I lost an eye, it was completely gouged out. It grew
back. I stopped wearing the eye-patch when I left the
others and got the motel room. I think that's part of the
seamonster steam thing. I mean, you know that you can cut
the tail off some lizards and it'll grow back? Oh yeah, I
can see in almost complete dark and smell things better
than most people can. I think that's from the hyena
possession."
Xander stopped for just a second then continued.
"When Ethan Rayne did a spell on Halloween that made
everyone become what they dressed up as, I was dressed as
a soldier. So I have this guy's memories, his name was
Sergeant Christian Allen Milford. He was a munitions
expert..."
"Does Mr. Giles know about all this?" Wesley asked in
disbelief.
"Oh no, I've never told anyone. Giles knows that I
remember the soldier stuff and the hyena possession but
he doesn't know that I have her senses or can hear her in
the back of my mind." Xander said simply.
"Why didn't you tell him?" Wesley asked, concerned.
"He didn't seem to want to know. I mean, he knew that I
remembered the hyena possession but never asked me
anymore about it, and he knew that I remembered the
soldier, but never asked how much I knew about him, never
even asked his name." Xander answered.
"So is that everything?" Wesley asked, a little
concerned.
"Oh no, there's more. When I was split into two people,
Willow broke the spell by saying something like 'undo the
spell'. I became one person, physically, but there are
two of me in here. But it's really okay. The shy, quiet
me likes to stay in the background and he just takes over
when I'm bored. He likes to read and watch discovery
channel. This me, the one who's talking to you is the one
out front most times." Xander said freely.
"Why didn't you tell Mr. Giles and Ms. Rosenberg that you
weren't reintegrated?" Wesley asked, disbelieving.
"Well I, er we, discussed it and decided that we both
want to live. I mean, when the demon split us into two
people, it made us individuals. We LIKE being
individuals, we like BEING. We both have life and enjoy
different things. So whenever I get the chance to do
something one of me likes to do, that one takes over and
does it. We get along and are both fully aware, so it's
not like some Cybil thing happening. I mean, technically
I DO have multiple personalities but they were formed
when I was two separate people so I figure it's okay."
Xander answered, starting to get a little nervous.
"Then that's the lot?" Wesley asked with wide eyes,
glancing at Xander.
Xander shyly looked at Wesley and shook his head.
"I was also infected with every disease that the white
men introduced to the Chumash tribe indigenous to
Sunnydale. Since then, I haven't had any disease. And
when I was in the thrall of Dracula, I... well, that's
more of a preference than an ability..." Xander trailed
off.
Wesley focused back on his driving, and began to process
the information. He had the strangest feeling that these
weren't all Xander's abilities.
Xander was feeling like he may have said too much, and
now Wesley would think he was too strange to be his
friend. So he thought, [time to try out this civility
thing and see how it works.]
"So, do you think I'm a freak?" Xander asked Wesley
quietly.
"No Alexander, I do not." Wesley answered
immediately.
Xander just nodded his head and began stroking the egg
again.
"Alexander, I must say that I am surprised that you
shared all that with me. May I ask why?" Wesley asked
quietly.
"Short answer... you asked, no one ever did before. Long
answer... I trust you Wesley, I mean... I never took the
time to get to know you and I wasn't nice to you but I've
always trusted you. From the little that we worked
together I saw enough to know that you do what you
believe is right and you are loyal. You may have noticed
that I trust my instincts, and my instincts say that you
are someone that I can depend on."
Once again they fell into silence. As the road and the
time passed them by, they were both considering the
things that had been said.
After a while, Wesley inquired, "Alexander, may I ask you
a somewhat personal question?"
"Of course Wesley, but I might choose not to answer."
Xander responded in his most polite manor.
"I was curious about the baby's other parent, simply for
the sake of determining what your baby's genetic make up
is. Was he human?" Wesley asked, trying not to
offend.
Xander gave a gentle smile, "Don't worry Wesley, I'm not
sensitive about my baby's other father. It was
Spike."
Wesley was shocked. The baby's other father was William
the Bloody, the Childe of Angelus. Then he began to look
at all the pieces that went into the making of this baby.
So on top of all of Alexander's physical alterations,
possessions, and magics that went into making this baby,
the other father was a master vampire, which makes the
baby a natural being fathered by an unnatural creature.
That means that human or demon influences could come from
that side of the baby's makeup. [There bloody well has to
be a prophecy about this child.] Wesley thought as he
tried to focus back on his driving.
The mention of Spike seemed to have effectively killed
the conversation. So the two stayed mostly silent for the
rest of the evening, and late into the evening, they
stopped at a motel to rest for the night.