Sunnydale, Monday August 28th, 2000
There was a whirl and purple exploded into a flash of colors, the world dropping out from under his stomach with a level of flying and plummeting that he'd never quite experienced when he'd traveled back to Sunnydale before. Xander lost his sense of where anything was, up or down, home or...not, for a moment.
But the sound of rushing wind in his ears, and there he was, his suitcases, trunk, bags, and boxes -- a frog tank the only thing missing out of everything he'd packed to bring home with him -- stacked around him on the floor. The floor of... where, though? Xander looked around, still disoriented. Stairs, clock, carpet, dining room table...
There was a Willow doing that arm-wrappy thing that Willows do, so 'Revello Drive' took a few seconds to filter into his head as he hugged her back. Then his cognitive processes suffered a Buffy-sized setback as she, too, pounced on him. Xander managed to shoot a shaky grin over her shoulder at Joyce Summers, a face he hadn't seen in months and months smiling tiredly at him from the stairs. Tiredly rang in his head strangely, but he put it away for the moment.
Okay, this made sense, this was home. He could feel the ground under his feet, wasn't going to trip over his own shoes if he took a step.
Til the door creaked open behind him and a voice that was familiar enough, but not from here shouted, "Xander!" and the brief lungsful of air he got when Buffy let go was squeezed out of him by a skinny, long-limbed, and oh-so-very-young... Dawn.
Squeezing back was instinctive. Unfortunately, so was staring at her hard enough to make everyone in the room stare back at him. Especially Dawn, though she didn't quite pull away.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
He detached one hand from her grasp, the hand that still had an SPD badge wrapped in it hard enough to leave marks on his palm - and ran it through his hair. "Nothing. Just... that portal was a little weird; I guess I'm still woozy from it." So he knew the answer to that question, at least. He'd have to send an e-mail to his -- to Fandom's -- Dawn and let her know he still remembered a world without her in it.
Willow squeezed his arm. "I'm sorry about Jeremiah. But you can go back and get him again later, I promise. I'll make sure there's nothing weird about the portal next time. Amy and I've been working on a really stable version..."
"You had to leave Jeremiah behind?" Dawn sounded disappointed, and he looked at her in surprise again, because he'd forgotten, somehow, that it wasn't just Sunnydale's past that would be affected. He might have been out of range of her spell in Fandom, but of course she remembered him being there.
"Yeah," he answered, squeezing the badge in his hand. "He's okay, though. Bridge is taking care of him." He detangled the other hand from Dawn's waist and reached into his pocket. "I should call, let him know I made it through okay."
"Say hi for me!" Willow told him, and Buffy added a "me too" even though she'd never met Bridge. Dawn was conspicuously silent, which made something else her older version had said ping in Xander's brain. He gave her a little smile as he punched in the speed-dial for Bridge's number then hit the button that made the phone go looking for it in the right dimension.
"The number you have dialed is out of service, or you have entered an incorrect exchange. Please check the number and try again."
He stared at the cellphone for a second.
"Xand?" Buffy asked.
"I guess I hit the wrong button." He tried again, scrolling manually through the list of numbers and choosing Bridge's.
"The number you have dialed..."
"It's not going through."
He scrolled down and tried Parker.
Then Isabel.
Then Rory.
"The number you have dialed..."
"It's not working." Yes, that'd be panic in his voice, and Willow looking both worried and guilty and like she was trying not to feel guilty.
She grinned brightly and gave him a 'buck up, sport' punch on the arm. "Must just be residual portal energy messing with it. Sometimes it makes my laptop go wonky too, but it always clears up. Give it a few hours. We can check again after new student orientation at the dorms - ooh, and school supplies! Shopping after!"
Buffy made an odd face that Xander suspected had to do with trying to process conflicting instinctive reactions to 'shopping' and 'school supplies,' but reached for her purse.
"Can I come with?" Dawn asked eagerly, and Buffy's "No" was out before she'd quite finished the second word.
Xander was distracted for a moment by Dawn sticking her tongue out and stomping up the stairs, but as he finally followed Willow and Buffy towards the living room, he punched in a number that he didn't have in the addressbook because he'd had it memorized for years.
He hit send, and behind him on the table, the Summers' house phone started ringing. "It works. It's just not getting back to Fandom."
Willow nodded, then gave him a look as if to say 'that in no way invalidates anything I just said, dumbass, and did I mention college ruled paper OMG?' as she beckoned him towards the door.
He walked there, but nothing was steady under his feet anymore, and that falling, flipping feeling hit his stomach once again. Lack of equilibrium, which made him smile. Maybe in his absence, Joyce had glued all the rugs in her house to the ceiling?
Xander looked back over his shoulder towards the dining room for a second, because if everything was upside down and backwards, then maybe the urge to turn around and walk right back into Fandom was the correct one, after all.
But the portal was gone, of course. There was just the backdoor, and beyond it an alley, and beyond that the streets of Sunnydale.
[Aaand Xander's gone from Fandom, for now. Except for, you know, the 5 bajillion SP goodbye-day threads that are still going for much clingy love. See his alumni contact post for further details.]
But the sound of rushing wind in his ears, and there he was, his suitcases, trunk, bags, and boxes -- a frog tank the only thing missing out of everything he'd packed to bring home with him -- stacked around him on the floor. The floor of... where, though? Xander looked around, still disoriented. Stairs, clock, carpet, dining room table...
There was a Willow doing that arm-wrappy thing that Willows do, so 'Revello Drive' took a few seconds to filter into his head as he hugged her back. Then his cognitive processes suffered a Buffy-sized setback as she, too, pounced on him. Xander managed to shoot a shaky grin over her shoulder at Joyce Summers, a face he hadn't seen in months and months smiling tiredly at him from the stairs. Tiredly rang in his head strangely, but he put it away for the moment.
Okay, this made sense, this was home. He could feel the ground under his feet, wasn't going to trip over his own shoes if he took a step.
Til the door creaked open behind him and a voice that was familiar enough, but not from here shouted, "Xander!" and the brief lungsful of air he got when Buffy let go was squeezed out of him by a skinny, long-limbed, and oh-so-very-young... Dawn.
Squeezing back was instinctive. Unfortunately, so was staring at her hard enough to make everyone in the room stare back at him. Especially Dawn, though she didn't quite pull away.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
He detached one hand from her grasp, the hand that still had an SPD badge wrapped in it hard enough to leave marks on his palm - and ran it through his hair. "Nothing. Just... that portal was a little weird; I guess I'm still woozy from it." So he knew the answer to that question, at least. He'd have to send an e-mail to his -- to Fandom's -- Dawn and let her know he still remembered a world without her in it.
Willow squeezed his arm. "I'm sorry about Jeremiah. But you can go back and get him again later, I promise. I'll make sure there's nothing weird about the portal next time. Amy and I've been working on a really stable version..."
"You had to leave Jeremiah behind?" Dawn sounded disappointed, and he looked at her in surprise again, because he'd forgotten, somehow, that it wasn't just Sunnydale's past that would be affected. He might have been out of range of her spell in Fandom, but of course she remembered him being there.
"Yeah," he answered, squeezing the badge in his hand. "He's okay, though. Bridge is taking care of him." He detangled the other hand from Dawn's waist and reached into his pocket. "I should call, let him know I made it through okay."
"Say hi for me!" Willow told him, and Buffy added a "me too" even though she'd never met Bridge. Dawn was conspicuously silent, which made something else her older version had said ping in Xander's brain. He gave her a little smile as he punched in the speed-dial for Bridge's number then hit the button that made the phone go looking for it in the right dimension.
"The number you have dialed is out of service, or you have entered an incorrect exchange. Please check the number and try again."
He stared at the cellphone for a second.
"Xand?" Buffy asked.
"I guess I hit the wrong button." He tried again, scrolling manually through the list of numbers and choosing Bridge's.
"The number you have dialed..."
"It's not going through."
He scrolled down and tried Parker.
Then Isabel.
Then Rory.
"The number you have dialed..."
"It's not working." Yes, that'd be panic in his voice, and Willow looking both worried and guilty and like she was trying not to feel guilty.
She grinned brightly and gave him a 'buck up, sport' punch on the arm. "Must just be residual portal energy messing with it. Sometimes it makes my laptop go wonky too, but it always clears up. Give it a few hours. We can check again after new student orientation at the dorms - ooh, and school supplies! Shopping after!"
Buffy made an odd face that Xander suspected had to do with trying to process conflicting instinctive reactions to 'shopping' and 'school supplies,' but reached for her purse.
"Can I come with?" Dawn asked eagerly, and Buffy's "No" was out before she'd quite finished the second word.
Xander was distracted for a moment by Dawn sticking her tongue out and stomping up the stairs, but as he finally followed Willow and Buffy towards the living room, he punched in a number that he didn't have in the addressbook because he'd had it memorized for years.
He hit send, and behind him on the table, the Summers' house phone started ringing. "It works. It's just not getting back to Fandom."
Willow nodded, then gave him a look as if to say 'that in no way invalidates anything I just said, dumbass, and did I mention college ruled paper OMG?' as she beckoned him towards the door.
He walked there, but nothing was steady under his feet anymore, and that falling, flipping feeling hit his stomach once again. Lack of equilibrium, which made him smile. Maybe in his absence, Joyce had glued all the rugs in her house to the ceiling?
Xander looked back over his shoulder towards the dining room for a second, because if everything was upside down and backwards, then maybe the urge to turn around and walk right back into Fandom was the correct one, after all.
But the portal was gone, of course. There was just the backdoor, and beyond it an alley, and beyond that the streets of Sunnydale.
[Aaand Xander's gone from Fandom, for now. Except for, you know, the 5 bajillion SP goodbye-day threads that are still going for much clingy love. See his alumni contact post for further details.]