![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonyphoenix) wrote2015-05-17 10:45 pm
Fic: Shanshu 31 - Are You Ready to Rumble?
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 461 - Leash
Rating: PG
Summary: Another chapter for Shanshu
Word Count: 1159
Note: Note: The opening quote is from a Barney Miller episode in which a mailman hasn't delivered the mail in over 7 years - yeah, it looks like Seinfeld at the start. They get past that:
“The mail, it's all junk anyway. Living outta third class garbage, stupid greeting cards, boring letters … to people I don't even know.”
Okay so they had a ranting mailman this time but it was just him and a guy crashing in the corner. The holding cell had been a lot worse the last time Xander had been arrested. Granted there wasn't much room, but so far Morgan had given Xander, and the other two guys, as wide a berth as he could. He stood as close to the door as he could and had actually called to the guard – Curtis, a nice guy actually – begging to not be left alone with the hoodlums.
“Hoodlums? Really?” Xander asked. “I'll have you know I'm in here for the same reasons you are.”
For a guy who'd been ready to brawl earlier, Morgan was looking pretty pale. “But you knew the guard. You've been locked up before.”
“Hey, you don't know that. I could be a lawyer or a court officer or something. Well, okay,” Xander added. “You got me there. But there was absolutely no body so they had to let me go.”
And that didn't cheer the twit up at all. Good. In the silence that followed, Xander glanced over at the mailman who'd given up ranting to stare at the two of them. Not the best time to bring up Willow's vanishing then. Xander pulled up a bit of bench to wait for the Slayers to bail him out. He'd told them to get Morgan as well. With any luck they'd all be gone before Morgan's crew made an appearance and he'd have Morgan alone in a tiny room, no bigger than this one, where he could ask all the question he wanted for as long as he wanted.
When Curtis came back, it was for both of them which, good, meant the Slayers had gotten in first. “Harris. Teasdale. You're free to go.”
Apparently feeling more manly now that the cell door was open, Morgan glared when Xander snickered. “Teasdale? Really?” And no, Morgan never had to know about LaVelle.
Confident that his Slayers wouldn't let Morgan get far, Xander let him run ahead. When he caught up in the booking area, the girl, talking to Morgan, came as a shock. He'd been so certain it'd be Catalina that he stared at the pale skin and flat mousey-blonde hair, so not Catalina's dusky skin and dark curls, and couldn't jibe the girl he saw with the girl he expected. He knew it was Catalina, she had to be Catalina, but there was something wrong, something very wrong and then reality stepped in and smacked him upside the head. This girl wasn't Catalina. She wasn't a Slayer. Shit, Morgan's friend had gotten to them first.
He stepped forward and held his hand out. “Hi, I'm Xander Harris but I guess you already knew that if you paid my bail. Thank you by the way. ”
And thank you automatic social graces. She took his hand and said, “Millay Adler and you're coming with us.”
Okay, he had a name, well two names given that he knew Morgan's as well. Now all he had to do was contact his Slayers – and really what was keeping them? – and pass the names to his hackers. Xander wondered if he should ditch these two or keep an eye on them. Morgan would be worse than useless in a fight and he could take on Millay so ditching them not so big a deal, but they were his only lead to Willow. On the other hand, getting their names to his own hackers might be important. The girls couldn't do anything with their names if Xander disappeared without sharing them. Stick, he definitely needed to stick. No, go, he should go. Xander was still debating as he followed Millay and Morgan out of the police station. “And don't even think about running off,” Millay said. “I've got friends, see?”
And a bunch of kids skated out of nowhere, or, okay, maybe they weren't kids but they sure as hell weren't adults and none looked anywhere near friendly.
"That's all right. So does he!" And there was Catalina, late but not out, jumping in at just the right moment with the B5 quote, stepping out of nowhere with a good half-dozen Slayers. They were outnumbered, slightly, by Millay's crew but then Millay's kids weren't Slayers.
And maybe they could get out without anyone getting hurt but then Rita, who really needed to tone down on the rage, started in. “You tried to take our Xander?”
Oh God, and now the skaters were getting riled up. “Okay, girls, put a leash on it. Let's not start a rumble right outside a police station.”
“You going to let him get away with that?” Shut up, Morgan. Shut up! “He took Ash.”
“I didn't take anyone, obviously, since I'm right here.”
“Your friend, then, that red head, she took Ash.”
“What'd you do with Will?” And great, the skaters hadn't calmed down at all.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. We didn't take anybody. We were looking for Spike, er Will, when Ash ran off with Willow.” And maybe he shouldn't have mentioned that last bit. So much for keeping the Slayers calm.
“Wait.” Millay raised her hand, palm forward, in a stop position. The skaters didn't really calm down but they weren't charging his Slayers so Xander was calling that a win. “You're saying Ash took Miss Rosenberg?”
How the hell did she know Willow's name? Well, he wasn't giving her any more info, not if he could help it. “Yeah.” One word. Stick to one word. Can't give too much away with one word.
“I left Will with Ash,” Millay said.
Huh?
“Right before he vanished,” she added patiently.
“This is fucked up,” Morgan yelled. “Why would Ash …”
“I don't know,” Millay interrupted. “She said he'd left on his own but his GPS had already pegged out.”
“You're just gonna let them go?”
Millay smirked at Morgan as if that wasn't at all was about to happen. Given that she'd known Willow's name, maybe it wouldn’t. Xander needed his hackers on her ASAP.
“Let's go,” she called out to her crew. Turning back to Xander, she added, “You're right that we can't talk here. I'll call you.”
“Don't you need my number?” Xander called back.
She punched a button on her cell. His phone started ringing. “Not really.”
“Hackers.” Xander spit out the word as if he were swearing. “Hey, ouch. No need to hit me that hard.”
“Don't dis hacking,” Catalina told him. “You got their names?”
“Yeah, but send a couple of your girls to follow them.”
Man could Catalina say 'you are the stupidest person I've ever met' with just an eye roll. “We're already tailing them.”
Oh, of course they were. “Right. Let's get home. I wanna know who the hell they are.”
no subject
Gabrielle
no subject
no subject
And great Xander's POV (as always))
no subject