Last Call
By Kara

Spoilers: “You’re Welcome”
Rating: PG
Note: In my world, Willow never went to Sao Paolo with Kennedy. She stayed in England with Buffy and Xander and Giles and Dawn and Andrew. Yes, there will be a story about that. Eventually. I just needed closure. So ha.

~*~*~*~*~*

There was one more person she had to see. One last little favor that the Powers owed her before she got her wings and all that crap.

One last visit to assure the first guy she ever loved that he really was of the good.

The eye patch was a bit of a shock. Angel mentioned something about slayers everywhere and Xander’s whole role in the last battle. And about Anya. Xander sitting in a hotel room in South Africa reading a parenting manual was even more of a shock. So maybe Angel’s source over in the Land of the Gileses didn’t know everything.

And to his credit, her ex-boyfriend didn’t even blink his one eye when he noticed her. He did grin that old grin though. Damn, she missed that. Xander grins and Xander hugs were once the best thing in the world—as long as he didn’t give them to her in public. His arms were just as comforting as Angel’s were, even if it was in a different way now. Yeah, Xander Harris was the one responsible for that really ugly scar on her stomach, but he was also someone she loved once. Someone she still loved. He’d been the first, and that would always be special.

“Hey, Cordy.” His voice was soft even if he still hugged with the same end of the world grip.

“Expecting someone?” She nodded towards the Dr. Spock handbook as he pulled away from her. His grin widened into the one she normally associated with his favorite X-men comic book, the one where the Wolvie guy lost his metal stuff.

“We’re expecting someone in a few months. Me and Wills. And Buff. We—“He blushed. “After the Hellmouth...and the Slayers...and Spike—y’know that Sunnydale’s gone, right?”

She sat on the arm of his chair, running her fingers through his familiar dark hair. It still flopped in his eyes, making him look sixteen in spite of the eye patch.

“Angel filled me in. Some guy named Andrew came to visit last week or something.” She stared at her nails, noting the ragged edges and the chipped polish. Spike offered to fix them up for her before she went. Not like it would matter to the Powers what her nails looked like anyway. “They told me about Anya. And...Willow’s girlfriend?”

Two more soldiers down. So much for fighting the good fight. At least that was one good thing—she had a pretty good idea who was waiting for her.

“Yeah. After the whole thing...me’n Wills...and Buffy...and hey, lesbians don’t need birth control, so...” His eyes looked dazed for a minute. “But you’re here, and you’re not—“

You can take the boy out of the Hellmouth, but you can’t take the Hellmouth out of the boy. “Just came to say goodbye. The PTB let me have two calls, so I figured you deserved one, even if you did impale me on a piece of rebar.” Her grin felt forced, especially when Xander took her hand in his. She never noticed how large they were. Her boy grew up. Into a damn fine man.

“Too late to say sorry, huh? I’m not gonna wish that it never happened, ‘cause we know how that ends up.” Xander’s laugh was shaky, but it was a laugh. Even if he did squeeze her hand too tight.

“So whatcha gonna name the baby?” Definitely time to change topics. They didn’t need to go that far into the past. And the redirect worked. Xander’s face looked a little brighter.

“Wynn if it’s a girl. It means Joy in Old English.” His eye dropped to their intertwined hands again. “Or Jesse if it’s a boy. Buffster kept saying we should name him William or Rupert, but I told her she had to wait for her own kid.”

Maybe Doyle wasn’t the first soldier that fell. She hated to say that she forgot about Jesse. He’d never been her best friend, and no one mentioned him by the time she’d joined the dysfunctional little Slayerette gang.

“You’ll be a great dad. It should be a lot easier than a brain-sucking egg baby.” If Angel could be a good dad, there was definitely hope for Xander. In spite of his family. Or maybe even because of it.

He turned his head towards her, kissing her cheek. “You have way too much faith in me, Cordy. You always did.”

“Because you deserved it, dork.” She squeezed his hand again. “Y’know I never stopped loving you, right?”

“I dunno who’s crazier, you or me. Because I never did either. You were the first one. Well, technically Faith was the first one, but you didn’t try to suffocate me, so...” Xander coughed. “Love you too, Cordy. Always.”

She leaned down, lightly brushing her lips against his. “And you’ll take care of them? Cause I’ll give you hell if you don’t.”

Again that pained laugh. “There’s only so many of us left.”

She traced the line of the eye patch with her free hand. “I’ll be watching you.”

He smiled. An honest smile. The old Xander Special Everything will be okay smile. “I knew you would.”

They sat for a little while. When the phone rang, she knew it was time to go.

“See you again?” Xander tried not to look to hopeful.

“Of course. You better go get that. Last call and all that crap.”

At least this was the last one she had to make. She didn’t think she could take it again. With Angel, it was bittersweet. At least with Xander, it put things right—things that should’ve been made right a long time ago.

“Hey, G-man! How’s Wills? Is Andrew still sleeping outside our door? Yeah, I heard about Cordy...”