![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
misseTitle: Getting to Know You, AKA Jack O’Neill Finds His Son
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Stargate SG1
Rating: PG
Length: 2,770
Content notes: It feels a bit Spartan, but I think it makes sense.
Author notes: I wanted to do another 5 Times thing for this prompt, but nothing got off the ground until tonight. I am now four hours after my bedtime, but it’s finished, and I’m posting it.
Summary: The five steps in Jack and Xander’s first meeting, and how it didn’t happen.
1. Congratulations, It’s A Boy!
“Come in, Jack, and sit down,” General George Hammond instructed warmly.
Jack glanced at Janet, the base’s Chief Medical Officer, nodded to the General, and did as ordered. “There a problem, sir?”
George Hammond glanced at his CMO then shook his head, frowning. “Not a problem, Jack, more something of a … personal nature.”
Janet cleared her throat, and opened a folder resting in her lap. “As you know, Jack, your DNA is a matter of record.”
“Know that,” Jack nodded.
Janet gave a brief smile. “Well, an operation in California has just been disbanded, and a check of the database has revealed that one of the contacts has a genetically related profile.”
“A…” Jack prompted.
“You have a son,” George explained.
Neither George nor Janet spoke as Jack stared into the distance, digesting that piece of information.
“A son,” Jack said after a long pause.
“He’s twenty years old,” George added.
“We’re sure about this?” Jack asked.
“I went over their test results,” Janet nodded, “and retested using the sample they’d kept. It’s a first-degree relationship, Jack: son or father.”
“And just how did they get his DNA in the first place?” Jack asked. “Is he in the Air Force? No,” he contradicted immediately, “I would have found out earlier. You said a contact?”
“I’m not exactly sure what the details were,” George frowned, “but he is a civilian who was somehow involved in the operation in his home town.”
Jack slouched in his seat, and scowled at the wall. “For crying out loud!” he muttered. “Did he at least volunteer his DNA?”
“Not as far as we are aware,” George grimaced. He cleared his throat. “It was an NID operation.”
“Ah, hell,” Jack groaned. “My son is going to hate me.”
2. Hey, Kid, I’m Your Dad
Jack looked around the hallway as he waited for the door to be answered, which it quickly was; a very pretty young woman opened the door, and scowled at him.
“Who are you? You don’t look like the pizza delivery person, and I am not handing over my hard-earned cash to just anyone,” she announced.
“Is that the pizza, Ahn?” a man called from inside the apartment.
The woman turned back into the room. “No. It’s some older male person who does not have any pizzas with him.”
Jack frowned. She looked American, and her accent was American, but the last few years with Teal’c had tuned his ears to a certain foreign formality that he heard in this woman’s speech. She disappeared into the room, and was replaced by a tall, young man, and Jack’s heart skipped a beat: was this his son?
“Can I help you?” the dark-haired man asked, frowning slightly.
“I’m looking for a Xander Harris,” Jack announced. “I was told he lived here?”
The young man’s frown deepened, and he glanced down the hall. He stepped forward, and closed the door behind him. “I’m Xander,” he introduced. “Who are you, and why are you looking for me?”
Jack cleared his throat. Great: his son was living with a woman of unknown origin, and was already suspicious of him. “Name’s Jack O’Neill, and I was told you were my son.”
3. Lucy, You Got Some ‘Splainin’ To Do
Xander stared at Jack for a long moment, then opened the door to his apartment. Jack was about to follow him in, but Xander partially-closed the door behind him, discouraging him. “Anya, I’m going out for a while. Call Buffy and let her know I might miss the meeting tonight, okay?”
“Is this about that strange older man that just turned up?” Anya asked, becoming concerned.
Xander shrugged. “He says I’m his son, so we’re going for coffee and a chat. Tell Buffy I’ll call her later to arrange another meeting.” With that, he grabbed his wallet, keys and phone, and walked out to meet his possible father.
Jack was still waiting when Xander closed the door behind him. “Buffy?” he asked, smiling slightly.
“Hey, don’t knock it,” Xander grinned. “My best friend from childhood is Willow, and I went to school with Aura and Harmony. Welcome to California!”
“I grew up in the Midwest, all very normal names there,” Jack offered.
“Yeah, Buffy’s boyfriend is from Iowa,” Xander nodded. “So: you’re my dad. How does that work, anyway. Apart from the mechanics,” he added, rolling his eyes.
“Damn,” Jack muttered, snapping his fingers. He sighed. “Okay, so here’s how it is: I’m in the Air Force, and when the local operation was shut down, certain files got out into the rest of the world.”
Xander tensed noticeably. “Such as?”
“They took a sample of your DNA,” Jack explained, “tested it, and, well, I’m a match. Er, a parental-type match, that is.”
“How the hell?” Xander exploded. “How did they even get my DNA? I was only in there a couple of times, and I know I never gave them anything.”
Jack shrugged. “There’s plenty of ways to get a person’s DNA without having to go through all the hassle of actually, you know, asking them. Did you get anything done at a hospital, or spit out a wad of gum? Hell, they could have broken in and stolen your hairbrush,” he added, waving his hand.
“Shit,” Xander ground out. “I’ve bled on plenty of things. I guess they could have gotten it from anywhere.” He kicked at a pebble. “What about the others? Do you know what they’ve got on my friends?”
Jack snorted. “Kid, all I know is that they got your DNA, and tested it. I don’t even know what the whole thing was about, just that it was an NID op, and that tells me pretty much everything I want to know.”
Xander shook his head, and looked at Jack, curious. “NID?” he asked.
Jack looked at Xander warily. “Uh… You didn’t know?”
Xander shrugged. “It was called The Initiative. I knew what they were doing, how it all went to hell, but I don’t know anything about any NID. Would that be why they tried to get us to sign those big forms?”
Jack paled. “Non-Disclosure Agreements? Did you sign them?”
This time, it was Xander’s turn to snort. “Sign anything they put in front of me? Like hell I did. Besides,” he grinned, “I wasn’t the important one, and the important ones showed the Colonel exactly what he could do with his tree-killers.”
“Huh,” Jack grunted as he considered the possibility of doing just that. He grinned. “Sounds like someone I want to meet.”
4. Fly Me To The Moon
“So,” Xander began as he dropped down into the café seat, “Air Force. Do you fly a jet or a desk?”
“Used to fly jets,” Jack nodded, “but not so much now. I’m on a team that travels to various sites of ‘archaeological significance,’” he explained.
Xander frowned. “How’d you swing that?”
“No idea,” Jack shook his head. “I was supposed to be out, but they dragged me back in for one last mission, and next thing I know, five years have passed, and we’re still working together. Danny’s brilliant,” he added. “No idea what he’s saying, half the time, but there’s no doubting his brain.”
Xander snorted. “Just don’t get between him and his books?”
“Not without full body armour, and back-up,” Jack grinned. “You know someone like that?”
“Oh, our high school librarian was a bit like that,” Xander grinned. “You know, I saw someone actually try to check out a book once? The glare on that man!” Xander played with a sugar sachet. “So what do you really do?”
Jack blinked. “Watch Danny look at his rocks, like I said.”
“Uh huh,” Xander grunted. “So if I happened to know a hacker, and happened to give him your name and rank in the Air Force, what would he find?
“That I’m based out of Cheyenne Mountain, and my unit is called ‘Deep Space Telemetry Project.’”
“Which is a cover for…” Xander prompted.
“Kid, even if I wanted to I couldn’t tell you what I do,” Jack protested.
Xander nodded. “Now, see, the problem I have is that, well, this NID operation that you got your information from wasn’t exactly something that endeared me to the idea of covert military operations on US soil. Or, you know,” he frowned, “anywhere. There was torture, drugging and operating on their own men, and this whole trying to kill my best friend thing. Yeah, not impressed.”
Jack paled. “They what?”
Xander glanced up at the older man. “There’s a reason we took them down.”
Jack gaped. “You what?”
“And they told you jack-shit, didn’t they?” Xander sighed. “They … hunted creatures, inserted behaviour modification chips in some of them and experimented on the rest. They were drugging their own operatives; I know one had to have an emergency heart operation because of it, and that was after he’d been off the juice for a while. He’d also had a chip implanted in him to control him. He had to dig it out with a piece of glass just so he could do anything but just sit there. The woman in charge was doing a Frankenstein in a back room, and, of course, the monster took over. He killed her, then tried do a ‘Pinky and the Brain.’ As you do. So we stopped him. As you do.”
“Do I even want to know?” Jack asked hoarsely.
Xander shrugged. “Even what I’ve told you is probably above your pay-grade. And that’s even assuming a fairly high pay-grade, Mr Deep-Space-Whatever.”
“Honestly, it’s beginning to sound like you and your friends would fit right in with my team, but I really can’t tell you anything,” Jack grimaced.
Xander nodded. “That’s okay. I’ve only told you the easy stuff so far.”
5. Red Pill, Blue Pill
“So where’s Anya from?” Jack asked, a little concerned.
Xander smiled slightly. “What gave it away?” he asked.
“The way she talks,” Jack shrugged. “It’s a little … formal, really.”
Xander nodded. “Yeah, Anya’s from, well, a different culture. Kind of. She’s only been in the States for a few years, and she’s still learning some of our customs.”
“So where’s she from?” Jack asked again.
“What is it you do again?” Xander asked, tilting his head and smiling slightly.
“I could have my people check,” Jack warned, but Xander only grinned.
“Oh, Anya’s got very good records,” Xander dismissed. “Your people wouldn’t find anything wrong with them. According to her file, Anya was born here in the States, and moved to California when we were in Senior year.”
Jack frowned. “How’d that work?”
“Her, uh, employer at the time, I guess you’d say,” Xander considered. “No one I’d ever recommend or have any contact with if I had any say in it.”
Jack huffed, frustrated. “Look, kid, this isn’t easy on me, either. I want to get to know you, but you keep throwing this stuff at me.”
Xander leaned back in his seat. “Look at it from my perspective: we just got over the Initiative, and now another military guy comes around, wanting to poke into my life. I think I have a right not to trust people right now, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Jack sighed. “So what do we do?”
Xander looked at the other man – his father? – for a long moment. “I honestly don’t know. Part of me kind of wants to get to know you. I didn’t have a good relationship with my parents, and… I don’t know,” he sighed. “Maybe you should go back, see if you can find anything out about the NID operation that got us here. If they tell you anything, then maybe you can make your mind up whether or not to come back and see me again. But if you do,” a frown settled on his brow, “I’m warning you, I’m going to need to know about what you do. I can’t have another secret military thing going on in my life.”
Jack looked at his son, pain evident in his eyes. He almost wished he’d never found out. “Fine,” he ground out. “I’ll go back, see what I can do. But don’t you think…?”
Xander shook his head. “There would be too many secrets between us, and I’ve seen where that leads.”
Jack nodded. He stood, and gave his son a final smile. “Well, ‘til next time.”
Xander raised his coffee cup in salute, and watched his probable-father walk out of the café. He sat there, and was not disappointed when Buffy sat down with her fluffy choco-coffee concoction.
“Anya said you’d probably be here,” Buffy greeted.
“Yeah,” Xander smiled.
“How bad is it?” Buffy asked tentatively.
Xander sighed. “He says The Initiative took my DNA, tested it, and he’s my father. He’s in the Air Force, in something called ‘Deep Space Telemetry Project’ and he visits archaeological digs, but can’t tell me anything about it.” He looked at his good friend. “I can’t deal with that level of secrecy, Buff. If he’s my dad, I want to be able to talk to him about things. I don’t want to have to censor every other word.”
Buffy reached over and rested her hand on his. “I know exactly what you mean. At least Mom knows about what I do, so I don’t have to lie to her anymore.” She gave his hand a squeeze then sat back. “So what’s happening now?”
Xander grimaced. “He’s going back to see if he can find out about the Initiative. I figure that if he’s got enough clearance, he’ll find out. Then he’ll make up his mind if he wants to get to know me or not. For real, this time.” He glanced at Buffy. “Tell me I did the right thing?”
Buffy smiled softly. “You did the right thing.”
How It Didn’t Go
Jack checked the apartment number then knocked on the door. After a moment, the door was opened by a beautiful young blonde, who smiled broadly.
“Welcome in, older male person who I have never met before. Would you like a soda or another caffeinated drink? My name is Anya, and I am an eleven-hundred year old former Justice Demon.”
Jack blinked; that was different. Well, at least she said former Justice Demon, whatever that was. “Uh, thanks. And I’ll have a Coke, if you have one.”
Anya smiled, and darted off to the kitchen to fetch his drink.
While she was doing that, a dark-haired young man walked out of the bedroom, and spotted Jack. “Ah, Ahn? Who’s this?”
Anya reappeared from the kitchen, carrying Jack’s drink. “This man knocked on our door, and I let him in because he has friendly eyes, and a nice body for an older man. I was thinking that maybe we could play Stern Teacher and Naughty Students, since you won’t ask Giles to play with us.”
Unfortunately, Jack chosen just that moment to take a sip. It took him a few moments to get his breathing back to normal, with the horrified young man offering a few hearty thumps to his back in-between apologies. Finally, he held his hand up, and concentrated on calming himself. “I’m fine,” he managed finally.
The young man cleared his throat. “Okay, so, uh, sorry about … that. But can I ask: what are you doing here?”
“Well, as it happens, I was looking for my son, Xander Harris,” Jack explained. “I was just informed about his existence, and so had to come meet him for myself.”
“Your son?” the young man gaped. “You’re my daddy?” he squeaked.
“Ah… Yes?” Jack tried.
“Daddy!” Xander greeted, throwing his arms around the older man and enveloping him in a hearty hug. “Tony always said I wasn’t his kid, and now I know he was telling the truth the whole time!” He stepped back and wiped joyful tears from his eyes. “Ahn! Call Buffy and the others, and let’s have a party. We can introduce my dad, and tell him all about vampires and witches, and, of course, Slayers. It’s going to be so cool!”
“Vampires?” Jack asked, surprised. “So that girl really was trying to bit me? I thought she was just trying to give me a hickey. Just as well I’d taken that holy water bath like my friend told me to.”
“Holy water bath!” Xander snapped his fingers. “I knew there was something more I could have suggested to Buffy when she was dating Angel. Anyway, I have to take my dad to get some food for the party. Maybe we can stop by the Magic Box on the way.”
“So… Magic, huh?” Jack asked.
“Oh, yeah. My best friend from Kindergarten is a total witch,” Xander nodded. “So is her girlfriend,” he added chirpily.
“Cool,” Jack nodded.
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Stargate SG1
Rating: PG
Length: 2,770
Content notes: It feels a bit Spartan, but I think it makes sense.
Author notes: I wanted to do another 5 Times thing for this prompt, but nothing got off the ground until tonight. I am now four hours after my bedtime, but it’s finished, and I’m posting it.
Summary: The five steps in Jack and Xander’s first meeting, and how it didn’t happen.
“Come in, Jack, and sit down,” General George Hammond instructed warmly.
Jack glanced at Janet, the base’s Chief Medical Officer, nodded to the General, and did as ordered. “There a problem, sir?”
George Hammond glanced at his CMO then shook his head, frowning. “Not a problem, Jack, more something of a … personal nature.”
Janet cleared her throat, and opened a folder resting in her lap. “As you know, Jack, your DNA is a matter of record.”
“Know that,” Jack nodded.
Janet gave a brief smile. “Well, an operation in California has just been disbanded, and a check of the database has revealed that one of the contacts has a genetically related profile.”
“A…” Jack prompted.
“You have a son,” George explained.
Neither George nor Janet spoke as Jack stared into the distance, digesting that piece of information.
“A son,” Jack said after a long pause.
“He’s twenty years old,” George added.
“We’re sure about this?” Jack asked.
“I went over their test results,” Janet nodded, “and retested using the sample they’d kept. It’s a first-degree relationship, Jack: son or father.”
“And just how did they get his DNA in the first place?” Jack asked. “Is he in the Air Force? No,” he contradicted immediately, “I would have found out earlier. You said a contact?”
“I’m not exactly sure what the details were,” George frowned, “but he is a civilian who was somehow involved in the operation in his home town.”
Jack slouched in his seat, and scowled at the wall. “For crying out loud!” he muttered. “Did he at least volunteer his DNA?”
“Not as far as we are aware,” George grimaced. He cleared his throat. “It was an NID operation.”
“Ah, hell,” Jack groaned. “My son is going to hate me.”
Jack looked around the hallway as he waited for the door to be answered, which it quickly was; a very pretty young woman opened the door, and scowled at him.
“Who are you? You don’t look like the pizza delivery person, and I am not handing over my hard-earned cash to just anyone,” she announced.
“Is that the pizza, Ahn?” a man called from inside the apartment.
The woman turned back into the room. “No. It’s some older male person who does not have any pizzas with him.”
Jack frowned. She looked American, and her accent was American, but the last few years with Teal’c had tuned his ears to a certain foreign formality that he heard in this woman’s speech. She disappeared into the room, and was replaced by a tall, young man, and Jack’s heart skipped a beat: was this his son?
“Can I help you?” the dark-haired man asked, frowning slightly.
“I’m looking for a Xander Harris,” Jack announced. “I was told he lived here?”
The young man’s frown deepened, and he glanced down the hall. He stepped forward, and closed the door behind him. “I’m Xander,” he introduced. “Who are you, and why are you looking for me?”
Jack cleared his throat. Great: his son was living with a woman of unknown origin, and was already suspicious of him. “Name’s Jack O’Neill, and I was told you were my son.”
Xander stared at Jack for a long moment, then opened the door to his apartment. Jack was about to follow him in, but Xander partially-closed the door behind him, discouraging him. “Anya, I’m going out for a while. Call Buffy and let her know I might miss the meeting tonight, okay?”
“Is this about that strange older man that just turned up?” Anya asked, becoming concerned.
Xander shrugged. “He says I’m his son, so we’re going for coffee and a chat. Tell Buffy I’ll call her later to arrange another meeting.” With that, he grabbed his wallet, keys and phone, and walked out to meet his possible father.
Jack was still waiting when Xander closed the door behind him. “Buffy?” he asked, smiling slightly.
“Hey, don’t knock it,” Xander grinned. “My best friend from childhood is Willow, and I went to school with Aura and Harmony. Welcome to California!”
“I grew up in the Midwest, all very normal names there,” Jack offered.
“Yeah, Buffy’s boyfriend is from Iowa,” Xander nodded. “So: you’re my dad. How does that work, anyway. Apart from the mechanics,” he added, rolling his eyes.
“Damn,” Jack muttered, snapping his fingers. He sighed. “Okay, so here’s how it is: I’m in the Air Force, and when the local operation was shut down, certain files got out into the rest of the world.”
Xander tensed noticeably. “Such as?”
“They took a sample of your DNA,” Jack explained, “tested it, and, well, I’m a match. Er, a parental-type match, that is.”
“How the hell?” Xander exploded. “How did they even get my DNA? I was only in there a couple of times, and I know I never gave them anything.”
Jack shrugged. “There’s plenty of ways to get a person’s DNA without having to go through all the hassle of actually, you know, asking them. Did you get anything done at a hospital, or spit out a wad of gum? Hell, they could have broken in and stolen your hairbrush,” he added, waving his hand.
“Shit,” Xander ground out. “I’ve bled on plenty of things. I guess they could have gotten it from anywhere.” He kicked at a pebble. “What about the others? Do you know what they’ve got on my friends?”
Jack snorted. “Kid, all I know is that they got your DNA, and tested it. I don’t even know what the whole thing was about, just that it was an NID op, and that tells me pretty much everything I want to know.”
Xander shook his head, and looked at Jack, curious. “NID?” he asked.
Jack looked at Xander warily. “Uh… You didn’t know?”
Xander shrugged. “It was called The Initiative. I knew what they were doing, how it all went to hell, but I don’t know anything about any NID. Would that be why they tried to get us to sign those big forms?”
Jack paled. “Non-Disclosure Agreements? Did you sign them?”
This time, it was Xander’s turn to snort. “Sign anything they put in front of me? Like hell I did. Besides,” he grinned, “I wasn’t the important one, and the important ones showed the Colonel exactly what he could do with his tree-killers.”
“Huh,” Jack grunted as he considered the possibility of doing just that. He grinned. “Sounds like someone I want to meet.”
“So,” Xander began as he dropped down into the café seat, “Air Force. Do you fly a jet or a desk?”
“Used to fly jets,” Jack nodded, “but not so much now. I’m on a team that travels to various sites of ‘archaeological significance,’” he explained.
Xander frowned. “How’d you swing that?”
“No idea,” Jack shook his head. “I was supposed to be out, but they dragged me back in for one last mission, and next thing I know, five years have passed, and we’re still working together. Danny’s brilliant,” he added. “No idea what he’s saying, half the time, but there’s no doubting his brain.”
Xander snorted. “Just don’t get between him and his books?”
“Not without full body armour, and back-up,” Jack grinned. “You know someone like that?”
“Oh, our high school librarian was a bit like that,” Xander grinned. “You know, I saw someone actually try to check out a book once? The glare on that man!” Xander played with a sugar sachet. “So what do you really do?”
Jack blinked. “Watch Danny look at his rocks, like I said.”
“Uh huh,” Xander grunted. “So if I happened to know a hacker, and happened to give him your name and rank in the Air Force, what would he find?
“That I’m based out of Cheyenne Mountain, and my unit is called ‘Deep Space Telemetry Project.’”
“Which is a cover for…” Xander prompted.
“Kid, even if I wanted to I couldn’t tell you what I do,” Jack protested.
Xander nodded. “Now, see, the problem I have is that, well, this NID operation that you got your information from wasn’t exactly something that endeared me to the idea of covert military operations on US soil. Or, you know,” he frowned, “anywhere. There was torture, drugging and operating on their own men, and this whole trying to kill my best friend thing. Yeah, not impressed.”
Jack paled. “They what?”
Xander glanced up at the older man. “There’s a reason we took them down.”
Jack gaped. “You what?”
“And they told you jack-shit, didn’t they?” Xander sighed. “They … hunted creatures, inserted behaviour modification chips in some of them and experimented on the rest. They were drugging their own operatives; I know one had to have an emergency heart operation because of it, and that was after he’d been off the juice for a while. He’d also had a chip implanted in him to control him. He had to dig it out with a piece of glass just so he could do anything but just sit there. The woman in charge was doing a Frankenstein in a back room, and, of course, the monster took over. He killed her, then tried do a ‘Pinky and the Brain.’ As you do. So we stopped him. As you do.”
“Do I even want to know?” Jack asked hoarsely.
Xander shrugged. “Even what I’ve told you is probably above your pay-grade. And that’s even assuming a fairly high pay-grade, Mr Deep-Space-Whatever.”
“Honestly, it’s beginning to sound like you and your friends would fit right in with my team, but I really can’t tell you anything,” Jack grimaced.
Xander nodded. “That’s okay. I’ve only told you the easy stuff so far.”
“So where’s Anya from?” Jack asked, a little concerned.
Xander smiled slightly. “What gave it away?” he asked.
“The way she talks,” Jack shrugged. “It’s a little … formal, really.”
Xander nodded. “Yeah, Anya’s from, well, a different culture. Kind of. She’s only been in the States for a few years, and she’s still learning some of our customs.”
“So where’s she from?” Jack asked again.
“What is it you do again?” Xander asked, tilting his head and smiling slightly.
“I could have my people check,” Jack warned, but Xander only grinned.
“Oh, Anya’s got very good records,” Xander dismissed. “Your people wouldn’t find anything wrong with them. According to her file, Anya was born here in the States, and moved to California when we were in Senior year.”
Jack frowned. “How’d that work?”
“Her, uh, employer at the time, I guess you’d say,” Xander considered. “No one I’d ever recommend or have any contact with if I had any say in it.”
Jack huffed, frustrated. “Look, kid, this isn’t easy on me, either. I want to get to know you, but you keep throwing this stuff at me.”
Xander leaned back in his seat. “Look at it from my perspective: we just got over the Initiative, and now another military guy comes around, wanting to poke into my life. I think I have a right not to trust people right now, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Jack sighed. “So what do we do?”
Xander looked at the other man – his father? – for a long moment. “I honestly don’t know. Part of me kind of wants to get to know you. I didn’t have a good relationship with my parents, and… I don’t know,” he sighed. “Maybe you should go back, see if you can find anything out about the NID operation that got us here. If they tell you anything, then maybe you can make your mind up whether or not to come back and see me again. But if you do,” a frown settled on his brow, “I’m warning you, I’m going to need to know about what you do. I can’t have another secret military thing going on in my life.”
Jack looked at his son, pain evident in his eyes. He almost wished he’d never found out. “Fine,” he ground out. “I’ll go back, see what I can do. But don’t you think…?”
Xander shook his head. “There would be too many secrets between us, and I’ve seen where that leads.”
Jack nodded. He stood, and gave his son a final smile. “Well, ‘til next time.”
Xander raised his coffee cup in salute, and watched his probable-father walk out of the café. He sat there, and was not disappointed when Buffy sat down with her fluffy choco-coffee concoction.
“Anya said you’d probably be here,” Buffy greeted.
“Yeah,” Xander smiled.
“How bad is it?” Buffy asked tentatively.
Xander sighed. “He says The Initiative took my DNA, tested it, and he’s my father. He’s in the Air Force, in something called ‘Deep Space Telemetry Project’ and he visits archaeological digs, but can’t tell me anything about it.” He looked at his good friend. “I can’t deal with that level of secrecy, Buff. If he’s my dad, I want to be able to talk to him about things. I don’t want to have to censor every other word.”
Buffy reached over and rested her hand on his. “I know exactly what you mean. At least Mom knows about what I do, so I don’t have to lie to her anymore.” She gave his hand a squeeze then sat back. “So what’s happening now?”
Xander grimaced. “He’s going back to see if he can find out about the Initiative. I figure that if he’s got enough clearance, he’ll find out. Then he’ll make up his mind if he wants to get to know me or not. For real, this time.” He glanced at Buffy. “Tell me I did the right thing?”
Buffy smiled softly. “You did the right thing.”
Jack checked the apartment number then knocked on the door. After a moment, the door was opened by a beautiful young blonde, who smiled broadly.
“Welcome in, older male person who I have never met before. Would you like a soda or another caffeinated drink? My name is Anya, and I am an eleven-hundred year old former Justice Demon.”
Jack blinked; that was different. Well, at least she said former Justice Demon, whatever that was. “Uh, thanks. And I’ll have a Coke, if you have one.”
Anya smiled, and darted off to the kitchen to fetch his drink.
While she was doing that, a dark-haired young man walked out of the bedroom, and spotted Jack. “Ah, Ahn? Who’s this?”
Anya reappeared from the kitchen, carrying Jack’s drink. “This man knocked on our door, and I let him in because he has friendly eyes, and a nice body for an older man. I was thinking that maybe we could play Stern Teacher and Naughty Students, since you won’t ask Giles to play with us.”
Unfortunately, Jack chosen just that moment to take a sip. It took him a few moments to get his breathing back to normal, with the horrified young man offering a few hearty thumps to his back in-between apologies. Finally, he held his hand up, and concentrated on calming himself. “I’m fine,” he managed finally.
The young man cleared his throat. “Okay, so, uh, sorry about … that. But can I ask: what are you doing here?”
“Well, as it happens, I was looking for my son, Xander Harris,” Jack explained. “I was just informed about his existence, and so had to come meet him for myself.”
“Your son?” the young man gaped. “You’re my daddy?” he squeaked.
“Ah… Yes?” Jack tried.
“Daddy!” Xander greeted, throwing his arms around the older man and enveloping him in a hearty hug. “Tony always said I wasn’t his kid, and now I know he was telling the truth the whole time!” He stepped back and wiped joyful tears from his eyes. “Ahn! Call Buffy and the others, and let’s have a party. We can introduce my dad, and tell him all about vampires and witches, and, of course, Slayers. It’s going to be so cool!”
“Vampires?” Jack asked, surprised. “So that girl really was trying to bit me? I thought she was just trying to give me a hickey. Just as well I’d taken that holy water bath like my friend told me to.”
“Holy water bath!” Xander snapped his fingers. “I knew there was something more I could have suggested to Buffy when she was dating Angel. Anyway, I have to take my dad to get some food for the party. Maybe we can stop by the Magic Box on the way.”
“So… Magic, huh?” Jack asked.
“Oh, yeah. My best friend from Kindergarten is a total witch,” Xander nodded. “So is her girlfriend,” he added chirpily.
“Cool,” Jack nodded.