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Life is Change	By : trudyw000 Category: BtVS Crossovers > Misc - Slash - Male/Male Views: 9166 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Sentinel, I make no money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Author's Note : Thank you so much cinder1013 for your review, it's great to finally know that someone here is reading this story. I hope you enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter 5
Xander set out to walk to the Magic Box, enjoying the fresh morning air. "Must track down the car some time" he thought. Still all the walking was good and he enjoyed having the time to think. He thought now about what was going to happen this morning, he was planning to intentionally zone. It was kind of a scary thought but he couldn't see any other way to drive it home for Willow that she couldn't just decide to be his guide, it didn't work that way. Still, Spike was right about one thing, he should have a discreet word with Giles away from the girls to make sure that he would call the vampire when Willow failed.
He turned into the street where the Magic Box stood and started to whistle a jaunty tune. As he passed the coffee shop he remembered that they were almost out of mini marshmallows for Spike to sprinkle on his blood. He turned to ask Spike to remind him to pick some up on the way home and was shocked to see he wasn't there, he had become so used to having his support that he'd forgotten for an instant that he had to do this alone.
"Show time!" he muttered to himself as he pushed open the door and walked into the store. Giles was standing behind the counter working on a large ledger while Buffy, Willow and Tara were sat at the research table all leafing through hefty tomes, further investigating the Sentinel phenomena. Giles, Buffy and Tara all looked up briefly to acknowledge Xander's entrance but it was Willow who leapt out of her chair and rushed over to him.
"Hi, how are you feeling? Did you sleep well? Have you had any sensory spikes? Did you manage to read all the papers I left with you? Are you sure you're OK?" The words tumbled out of Willow's mouth so fast even Xander had trouble keeping up. He held up his hands to ward off the over eager girl and instructed her to "Breathe Willow" and waiting for her to settle down a little before answering her questions. "Hi, I'm fine, yes, no, most and yes." He felt a small qualm at the lie but he didn't want her to create a massive scene, he really just wanted to get this over with but had to hide that from her. She was trying really hard to help him and he felt like he was being horribly ungrateful but the impression he got from reading Blair's papers was that a guide was a very calming person, someone who could stay in control and help his Sentinel to maintain his own control. Willow was just too hyper, he loved her dearly but sometimes he just had to wonder how Tara could deal with that level of energy day in day out.
Willow looked up at him sternly from under her brows, "You're sure you're OK?" she asked.
"I'm fine Willow, honestly, I just need to speak to Giles about exactly what he wants me to do and then I'll get to work." He gripped her shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes. "OK?"
"OK" she replied, and gestured back towards the table, "I'll just get back to work then."
Xander watched as she seated herself back down next to Tara and took up the blonde girls hand to reassure herself. Then he made his way over to lean on the counter next to Giles. "So G-Man, show me what you need in the store room." he asked, dragging the older man out of his columns of numbers, to be honest he looked relieved to be pulled away from the book, that was a first for Giles so far as Xander could remember.
"Of course, this way" Giles led him over to the small store room in question and soon they were deep in discussion working out the middle ground between what Giles wanted and what Xander felt was physically possible. He'd almost forgotten how much he loved this, the self confidence that came with knowing exactly what he was doing and what could and could not be done with the materials available. Giles was just about to leave him to it when Xander remembered that he needed to have a quick word with the older man before he went back out to the girls.
"Oh Giles, one more thing" he was suddenly hesitant, the confidence that came with talking of carpentry evaporating quicker than the morning dew. "I just wanted to ask you" he paused, unsure of himself and then tried again "if anything happens today" this all seemed so much easier in his head on the walk over here.
"Yes Xander? is there a problem, should I call Willow?" Giles sounded very concerned and had started to turn towards the door.
"No!" Xander shocked himself as he snapped out the word. "No, please, just, if anything happens with my senses, please call Spike he'll be able to deal with it. Promise me." Xander heard the rising desperation in his voice and took his own advice from earlier, taking in a deep breath and breathing out slowly to calm himself. "I'm sorry, it's just if anything happens, I know Willow will try to deal with it, but I'm pretty sure she won't be able to. Spike can, promise me you'll call him." There, that was better, much more controlled.
He looked up slowly to see the look of dawning comprehension on Giles' face. "He's your guide?"
Xander could only nod, terrified for a moment that Giles would call the girls in and tell them the truth. An instant later he knew that he was a fool to think Giles would do that to him. Giles nodded and flashed him the smallest of understanding smiles before he went back out into the main floor of the shop, carefully closing the door behind him.
Xander took a deep steadying breath and turned back to the pile of lumber in the room to start work. He worked steadily on the shelving for several hours, so engrossed in his work he hardly registered the passage of time. He was surprised to look at his watch and realise that it was mid-afternoon and he had been working steadily for a good five hours with no sign of a zone out. It was time to change that.
After measuring the next length of wood he needed Xander set it up on the saw-horse and started to cut, he made a few good strokes of the saw, getting a quarter of the way through the plank, then he slowed, moving the saw only enough to keep a gentle cloud of sawdust floating around him. Now he concentrated on watching the dust motes as they danced in the air. This was dangerous, he knew that, trying to bring on a zone whilst working with such sharp tools, but he needed to make this look good. He tried to remember the feel of the previous evening as he had felt himself starting to zone then, slowly he felt that same feeling coming over him again, but this time he did not fight it. No, this time he purposely went with that feeling, letting it drag him down, deeper and deeper until all he could see was the motes of dust floating in the glare from the naked light bulb above him. His hands slowed and finally stopped and he stood there, frozen one hand on the saw, the other on the plank, one knee up to help secure the wood he was working on. Mission accomplished, but Xander couldn't celebrate, he was lost to all external sensation, lost inside his head watching tiny particles dancing in the glaring light.
Giles had been preternaturally aware of the sounds emanating from the store room all day. Several times a silence had fallen for a short time and he had stiffened, wondering if this was the time, had Xander zoned out, it had certainly sounded like Xander expected to. However every time the sounds of sawing and hammering started up again after a few minutes and Giles breathed a sigh of relief and carried on trying to make sense out of his book keeping ledgers. It was with some concern that Giles realised that the current period of silence had lasted over 20 minutes, more than twice the length of any of the previous lulls, and he decided to investigate.
Crossing the shop floor to the storeroom door Giles rapped gently with his knuckles to warn of his impending entrance and then opened the door. There stood Xander, frozen in the act of sawing a plank to size. He stepped up to the frozen figure and checked for breathing and pulse, Xander seemed fine, merely frozen in place, locked up inside his own head. Giles stepped to the door and called for Willow.
Willow was engrossed in her research that he had to call her a second time before she heard him and looked up. Even then it was a moment before she registered where Giles was standing. "Xander! What's happened to him?" Giles simply stepped back and allowed her into the room so that she could see for herself. Buffy and Tara had followed their friend and stood now, peering around the doorway to see what was happening.
Quickly realising that Xander was in a zone out, Willow stepped around to stand in front of him so that she try to see what had caused the zone. She stood quietly for a moment, thinking back over everything she had read in Blair's dissertation. She knew that this was the make or break point for her desperate plan to become Xander's guide. If she could do this, if she could pull him out of this zone then everything would be fine. Of course if she couldn't... No she wasn't going to go there. "Failure is not an option" she muttered to herself, right it looks like he zoned on sight, that was the most common according to Blair. So, use his other senses to draw him back into himself, hearing is one of the strongest so we'll try that.
She stepped up and spoke to Xander, "Xander, come on back to us, Xander, listen to me, follow my voice back to me, Xander, you're worrying us all, Xander, come back to us." She tried for a good five minutes, cajoling, commanding, pleading and finally almost begging Xander to speak to her, but nothing happened, he simply stood there, frozen like a statue in the centre of the room. Eventually she gave up on hearing and moved on to touch. Xander had stripped down to his t-shirt as he worked so she reached out and ran her hands down his bare arms, when gentle rubbing had no effect she hooked her fingers and dragged her nails up and down his arms. There was still no response and so she tried combining the two, speaking to Xander again as she touched him on all the exposed flesh she could reach, running her hands over his arms, round his neck, down his face. Still no response, it had been over twenty minutes now and she was starting to panic, what if she couldn't do this, could he bring himself out of it. Willow was frantic now and then she noticed Giles backing quietly out of the room, Buffy followed him so she crossed to the door to see what was going on.
Out on the shop floor Giles moved quickly to the phone and picked up the handset, but Buffy moved quicker and reached out to press it back into the cradle. "What are you doing Giles?" she asked.
"This isn't working!" Giles practically hissed into her face, a combination of frustration and trying to keep his voice down so as not to disturb Willow from her attempts to rouse Xander. But as he jerked his head to indicate the store room door he saw her standing there, watching the confrontation between Buffy and himself.
"I'm sorry Willow, but it isn't working" he spoke in a softer tone this time, unwilling to hurt the girl but very concerned about Xander.
"Who are you calling?" Buffy asked, her hand still preventing him from lifting the receiver. "This Blair character? He's already refused to help, why would you think he'd change his mind now, he obviously doesn't care!" Her voice rose with the angry words until the last were shouted at Giles.
"No, not Mr Sandburg. Spike."
"Spike, what do we need him for, he doesn't know anything about Sentinels, and Xander doesn't even like him!"
"Buffy, you know that that is not true, Spike has helped Xander before and has been staying with him for the last few days." Giles tried to reason with the angry slayer. "Xander seems to trust Spike, and I really think he can help."
"Why would he be able to help? Willow is Xander's guide, we decided that yesterday didn't we?" Buffy now sounded both angry and confused and Giles truly understood why Xander had felt the need to demonstrate to Willow and Buffy rather than just tell them Willow wasn't his guide. But he also realised suddenly that he was going to have to do the explaining.
"Spike has helped before." Giles repeated himself, stalling for time. "Maybe not just any guide will do, maybe a Sentinel needs his own guide. I've been doing some more reading and it may be that Sentinels imprint on their own specific guide, someone in tune with them. I think that Spike is Xander's guide." Giles braced himself for the coming explosion but was surprised when Buffy just grinned.
"No problem" and Buffy pulled Mr. Pointy out from his holster in her boot. "We can take care of that easily."
"Buffy Ann Summers! You put that away right now!"
Buffy looked around for her mother before realising that it had been Willow who had spoken. She couldn't keep the whine out of her voice though. "Oh, but Willow, please."
"No, there will be no staking of Spike." Willow stamped her foot as she laid down the law. "Sure I want to be Xander's guide. I want to be there for him and help to make this right, but that isn't the way to go about it.” Willow paused, this was obviously difficult for her to say. "What if Giles is right, if Spike is the only guide for Xander? Could you stand to watch him go through that just because we don't like Spike?"
Giles was stunned at Willow's outburst but also so very proud of her. He turned to see Buffy's response and saw her lift her hand from the phone at a slight nod from Willow. He quickly grabbed up the receiver and dialled Xander's home number and prayed for Spike to pick up.
Spike had spent the morning watching Passions, after that was finished some game show came on, he had no idea which one, it just washed over him, until the bells and whistles and inane canned laughter became too much and he angrily snapped of the TV with the remote. Then he settled in to wait with the patience that only came from over 130 years of life coupled with the instincts of a true predator. He lay comfortably reclined on the couch, eyes focussed on the phone, waiting for it to ring. At 12:30 it finally rang and he snatched it up. "Hello".
"Good Afternoon, my name is Mandy and I'm calling on behalf of..."
The caller got no further as Spike turned the air blue with a stream of obscenities to make a sailor blush and stabbed the end-call button before settling back down to wait once more.
At a quarter past three the phone rang again. "Hello"
"Spike, thank goodness, Xander's zoned out, Willow can't bring him out of it, can you get over here." The last was spoken to an empty room as Spike grabbed his duster and headed for the basement of the building. Making his way swiftly through the sewers below Sunnydale he made his way to the alley at the back of the Magic Box. Quickly calculating the position of the sun he decided that the alley should be in deep enough shade this late in the afternoon and he popped the manhole cover and leapt up into the alley and to the back door of the store. As he stepped in to the training room Giles was waiting for him. "This way, he's still in the zone I'm afraid."
Spike followed the ex-watcher and pushed past him as he got to the stock room door. Seeing Xander still frozen in the middle of the room he muttered to himself. "Oh Xander, what have you done to yourself?" Moving into the room he laid a hand on Xander's forearm, "come back pet" was all he said and slowly Xander's stiffened body relaxed and he shook his head as if waking out of a deep trance. Spike quickly grabbed his shoulders to steady him as Xander swayed, his body uncoordinated after the long zone-out.
"Whoa, what happened?" Xander sounded a little groggy as Spike led him out of the small room and to a seat on the main shop floor.
"You zoned out whilst working on the shelving, are you feeling OK now, are your senses playing up at all?"
Xander looked up at Spike, "what are you doing here. You were supposed to stay home so we could let Willow try to bring me out of it."
Hearing the confusion in her friend's voice Willow spoke up. "I tried Xander, I really tried, for almost half an hour before Giles decided to call Spike." Hearing the imminent tears in Willow's voice and knowing that Xander would need to comfort his oldest friend, Spike stepped back. "I'm so sorry." Willow stood there with an expression of such immense sorrow on her face that Xander had to go to her. He hauled himself to his feet, who knew you could ache so badly just from standing still, and took her into his arms.
"Shhhh," he stroked her hair gently, "it's OK, I'm fine. I know you wanted to be my guide but it wasn't meant to be. Spike is my guide and we're going to need your help to figure all this out." He straightened up and looked into her tearful eyes. "Will you help us? Please."
Willow gave a watery smile and nodded, "Of course. What do you need from me?" Now that her friend needed her help she quickly pulled herself together and was ready for business.
"What we really need is to speak to this Blair guy. Have you any idea why he wouldn't speak to you?"
"No, I rang the number and asked if I was speaking to Blair Sandburg, he was very abrupt, asked 'Who wants to know' so I told him my name and told him about you and, well he was very rude."
"OK, so the question is, did you speak to Blair, or was it someone else. Didn't you say he had a room-mate?" Xander tried to think through the problem logically, it was much easier now that he had Spike beside him. He hadn't known how off-balance he'd felt all morning until he had Spike back at his side and suddenly the world stood firmly on all four legs once more.
"Yes! His Sentinel, Jim Ellison, he's a detective in the Cascade Major Crimes unit."
"Ahhh, that could explain a lot." Giles spoke up. "From what I've read Sentinels are highly territorial with a strong need to protect. And I suspect that it may be especially strong in this one, particularly in respect to his guide."
"Why do you say that Giles?" Spike expressed the curiosity that they all felt.
"Well, he's a highly decorated Police officer and before that he was an army Ranger, so he seems to have strong protective instincts. In addition to that it seems that several years ago a rogue Sentinel arrived in Cascade. Mr Sandburg tried to help her but didn't tell Detective Ellison about it. She eventually killed Mr Sandburg and ran off to Peru."
"Blair's dead!" Buffy exclaimed.
"Well no. Detective Ellison revived him. The rogue Sentinel drowned him in a fountain on the campus of Rainier University. He was down for several minutes, the EMT's had given up but Detective Ellison kept trying and somehow he managed to pull him back."
"Yeah Buff, how many times have you died, and you're not dead." Xander gently teased his friend.
"Just twice." Buffy answered primly but then ruined the effect by flashing a big grin that eased the tension in the room.
"Yes, very well. So what we have is a highly protective Sentinel who doesn't want another Sentinel within 1000 miles of his guide if he has anything to say about it. The chances are Mr Sandburg doesn't even know about your telephone call Willow." Giles neatly summed up all their conjectures. "So, where does that leave us?" He asked in closing.
Spike and Xander looked at each other quickly, glee shining in two sets of eyes, before both shouting "ROAD TRIP!"
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Life is Change