Fiction- FaGC06- Settling The Matter

Title: For A Good Cause

Chapter Title: Settling The Matter

Author: Restive Nature

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to BtVS. They belong to Whedon & Mutant Enemy. Nor do I own any rights to other shows represented through the rest of this fictions. All shows belong to their respective owners. No infringement is intended and this fiction is for private enjoyment only.

Rating: Various, up to R

Chapter Rating: PG

Genre: Crossover

Type: BtVS/ Various

Pairing: Various

Summary: When threatened by an old foe not their own, how else can the combined forces of the Scoobies and the Fang Gang respond? By having an auction!

Spoilers/ Time line: This is post series for both Buffy and Angel. Other shows and will be discussed within each chapter that it pertains to.

Feedback: Always welcome!

Distribution: Ask first please.

A/N: This is a response to the Twisting the Hellmouth “The Bachelor/ Bachelorette Challenge.

For A Good Cause

Chapter Six

Settling The Matter

Xander stared down at the piles of papers before him, one hand clenched through his mop of hair. His grip had gone from occasional, momentary clenching as the irritation rolled through him to a now full blown, almost ripping it from his scalp as frustrations in the small room mounted. And it wasn't getting any better.

It was all well and good when Giles had decided that since this entire idea had been Xander's, that the young man in question would spearhead the operation. Basically Giles had paid him back for the suggestion of auctioning their people off, by making it clear that Xander had to handle all the problems that went along with it. And it wasn't just the logistics of setting up a charity auction fund raiser, and finding the place to have it, or the people to invite. No, it was also the fashions and decorations and music and food, not to mention the people who wanted in, those that wanted out, those that wanted to know exactly why... The lists went on and on.

Xander had been handling it with his usual good humor and common sense approach, at first. He had made lists of what needed to be done, talked to the other people working on the project and generally, like a good foreman, kept his crew informed, directed and working. All while doing the other job he had been given, the necessary repairs on the current house, as well as scouting the property Giles had in mind for the new school. Several of his days had been taken up just coming up with budgets on these projects.

But then, when Illyria had cornered him and demanded that he find a solution to remove her from this slave auction, her words, not his, the others started coming forward with their complaints as well. And if there was anything that he had learned in all his years, it was that he was just not as equipped as males loved to think they were, at handling that amount of estrogen at once. At all.

“Get out!” he finally screamed and the response, the sudden quiet was startling. Reacting quickly, knowing that screaming at demanding women was a quick invitation to get his ass kicked, even those that weren't blessed or cursed with Slayer strength or witchy mojo. He pushed himself up from the make shift desk which was really just a rickety old kitchen table. “Everybody out!” he demanded, throwing his arm out, pointing at the door. “I will listen to you all, but not together. I've got a migraine that's not going away and none of you are making this better. For me or yourselves!” he announced over the din that was beginning again.

Dawn, who had been hovering in the doorway, watching him with worry, her lips pressed together until they were white, pushed her way forward and began the necessary physical routine of getting the office cleared. Once the girls, realizing that Dawn meant business and unable to physically hurt her, for varied reasons, filed out, she gently shut the door behind them. She then moved to the desk and began rearranging it.

“So real migraine, or...?” she wondered aloud with a slight hint of amusement.

“Oh so very real,” Xander grunted falling back into his seat and rubbing at both eye sockets. It was almost as if, without his eye there, it had given the migraine more room to move and was pressing, spilling out around his head. “And nothing I take seems to work.”

“Well,” Dawn frowned, straightening up, “how about the universal cure all?”

“What would that be?” Xander sighed, trying to think of what herb or drug she was talking about.

“Some chicken soup, and a quiet place to take a nap,” she smiled gently down at him. “I'll heat some up and you have yourself a twenty minute nap while I take care of some things. You'll feel like a new man.”

“God,” Xander groaned, “sleep. Yes!” With Dawn's direction, he removed his shoes and laid himself out on the third hand sofa that was pushed up along the back wall. It was more of a love seat really, much too short for his height, but at the moment, he didn't care that his knees and calves were hanging off the edge. It just felt too good to get horizontal.

By the time he woke again, it was to see Dawn standing over his desk, going through the various papers she had compiled for him while making occasional marks on a notepad next to them. The smell of chicken noodle soup and bread permeated the air and scrubbing quickly at his face to wake himself up, Xander rose from the sofa.

“Welcome back to the land of the wakey,” Dawn remarked bemusedly. She spared him a quick glance. “Sit down and eat. This last batch of rolls that Andrew made are really good. Then we can get down to it.”

“You are an angel Dawnie,” Xander grunted as she shifted out of the way so that he could seat himself and pull the tray bearing the soup and rolls closer to himself. She grinned happily and while he ate, Xander moved his head closer to see how she was ordering the papers and maybe just a little, curiously, what was on her list. Since it seemed to be all things that were pertaining to his job, she allowed it. Once the papers were dealt with and the soup mostly consumed, Dawn pushed away from the table.

“Okay, I'll go let the first group up,” she announced and separated some of the papers from the pile. “These are all the girls that want to be let out of the muscle portion of the fund raiser.”

“Any decent reasons among them?” Xander wondered. Dawn grimaced and shrugged one shoulder.

“Sounds like,” she hedged. “It's mostly because they aren't so politically correct anymore. Or at least that's what the girls are trying to claim.”

With that, she disappeared our the door while Xander upended the bowl to drink the remains. He'd have to remember to thank Andrew. Who knew how many times he had to reheat that in the, and Xander had to check his watch, to see that he'd slept for nearly two hours. And it still tasted fresh made and not like the canned crud. Finishing off the roll, he glanced through the names of the girls that Dawn would be bringing in.

As it turned out, there was only one girl who, after Xander had carefully explained the overt and public purpose of the auction, that it would be manual labor, not amorous alliances made, that had an allowable excuse. Religious beliefs were still held on to heavily in some of the parts of the world that they had recruited these girls from. And after Dawn had made a note to check into the validity of the girl's argument, Xander agreed that they would not infringe and she would be off the hook. But she was still expected to help out the preparations in some manner. There was no outcry at all about that.

To which he supposed he could find some relief in. Rebbecca had no problem with working, but she had been raised by her family, within their religion all of her life, until about six months ago. She was one of the ones that had been relieved to be brought out of her country, but still held on to lifelong habits. Xander suspected that the longer she was around them, and if she were not deployed back to her country of birth, she might relax some of the strict morals that had been unfortunately, beaten into her. He made a mental note to talk to Giles, Willow and Buffy about that all at some point very soon, down the road.

The upper echelon of the Scooby group had already heard some of the horror stories about families that had allowed a religious leader to try and exorcise the “demon” out of their girls. One they had been unable to rescue because her father had executed her because of her so called uncleanliness when no other solution had worked.

Dawn was back in soon enough with another group of young women lingering in the hall, waiting for her to give the go ahead. She pushed the door mostly shut and leaned in to tell him, “Xand, these are the girls that think they're too good for something like this because of how rich mummy and daddy are.”

“Oh lovely,” he sighed and then perked up slightly. “I suppose I could always excuse them if they bring me a check from said rich mommy or daddy.”

“That's exactly what I was thinking,” Dawn chuckled, beaming at him and then pointed at the desk. “Their names are there. Dollar sign indicates they can hit their parents up for the money. An X means that their parents are into volunteer stuff so they'd back us up probably.”

“And... the question mark?” he asked, swiftly looking over the list of six names.

“Eh, could go either way since we didn't talk to those parents,” Dawn sighed. “Maybe suggest the kids talk to their parents about donating. Or... we could always send them invitations, so they could see the hard work their kids are putting in.”

“I don't know Dawn,” Xander groaned. “The way I see it, if the parents were absentee when we picked their kids up, not likely they'll show up for this. Most likely just throw money at it until the problem... hey!”

“Exactly,” Dawn giggled with a short nod. She ducked back out as Xander started scribbling a few more things down.

It continued like that until, as evening fell, the sun sinking lower in the sky, Xander had a quiet moment and was rifling once more through his lists. He was surprised to see how much had actually been accomplished in such a short span of time. Glancing up to see the door still open a little from when the last round of people exited, he grinned devilishly. “Oh Miss Moneypenny?” he called out in an excruciatingly bad accent and heard Dawn laugh.

“Yes Mr. Bond?” she called back, her voice high with amusement and a slight breathlessness.

“Could you come in here Moneypenny?” Xander asked in his best Connery voice. The laughter continued, but he heard chair legs scratching across the floor and then Dawn was there.

“What did you need Xan?” she asked easily, her eyes still sparkling.

Xander leaned back in his seat, rubbing at his chin before he leaned forward once more. “Don't take this the wrong way, but did anyone ever tell you that you make one hell of a great secretary?”

“It's all in the attention to details,” she supplied. “Although... not so great on the phone still. I guess my voice isn't deep enough.”

“Which means...?” Xander asked, grimacing slightly.

Dawn waved her hand dismissively. “Just that you'll have to call the lumber supply store. I don't think they think I was serious about the amount of lumber we needed. At least from what your estimates said.”

“Did you tell them we were working on two houses plus out buildings?” Xander grinned. He'd run into problems like this before. So it was kind of nice to have something familiar.

“Oh like I didn't try that,” Dawn snorted in mild disgust. “But when I tried to give them the dimensions they wanted to know what we were doing with the buildings and I guess I hesitated too long. Do you want me to try again?”

Xander hesitated for only a moment. It was nice to have Dawn get the ball rolling on a few of these things. “If you could,” he suggested hesitantly and then a little more surely. “Just tell them that you're the secretary and you do as the foreman tells you. These were the numbers you were given and... and if they don't like it, tell them we'll go to Minardi's?”

“But no one goes to Minardi's,” Dawn protested. “But since we're new,” her brain suddenly engaged as Xander grinned, “they won't know that everyone has been losing out business to Minardi and they'll fill the order just so they don't lose out.”

“Yeah, something like that,” Xander nodded.

“Okay,” Dawn nodded as the phone in Xander's office began to ring. He eyed it as Dawn checked her watch. “I'll do that and you should answer that. Lorne's supposed to be calling right now.”

“Ah, okay,” Xander agreed, quickly reaching for the phone. “Hello,” he answered. “This is Alexander Harris' office, Xander speaking.” He had developed that line when he was around the house, since they hadn't quite come to an agreement about what to call the specific house, to differentiate it from other Council holdings. As far as he understood, it was all hinging on the difference between calling their organization blah blah whatever for gifted girls or the more politically correct, gifted young women.

“Xander?” an airy sounding, though pleasant voice asked. “This is Lorne. Someone on down the pipeline told me you were looking for me?”

“Lorne,” Xander greeted expansively, feeling good about all that Dawn had helped him accomplish that day. “Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.”

“Not a problem bubelah,” the demon chuckled. “Just cost a quarter. Well, a little more than that, but the charges were comped, soooo...”

“Great,” Xander nodded. He wasn't really sure where the Pylean empath demon was calling from, but anywhere out of the immediate area was long distance so it was better to get right down to it, comping or not. “Listen, do you mind if I put this on speaker phone on my end? There's too much of an echo if Dawn listens on her set. And she's got all the lists at the moment.”

“Not a problem muchacha,” Lorne chuckled. “I've been looking forward to meeting, or at least talking to that darling little troublemaker.”

“Hey!” Dawn protested with a laugh, since Xander had already made the switch, hanging up the receiver. “I'll have you know that I haven't been in trouble for at least a few months!”

“And this whole genie deal?” Lorne pointed out dryly before chuckling. Both Dawn and Xander were surprised, because no one had gone into details of what they wanted from Lorne to that degree. “Don't be surprised my little crumb cakes,” he soothed. “I just happened to run into a certain someone that is gonna need a little help from some amigos soon. And the Powers that be pains in my hiney decided to give me a little preview.”

“Like... Cordy?” Dawn asked hesitantly, knowing by now, from Angel and the others, the entire story behind Cordy's receiving the visions from their former friend and co-worker, Doyle, before the demon's untimely death.

“Not quite, sweetie,” Lorne assured her. “It was more of a suggestion which path my client should take and why it would pan out. A few hints and I was able to work out quite a bit on my own. Especially with a few of the rumblings I've heard in certain quarters on my trip.”

“Rumblings?” Xander asked quickly, his eyebrows furrowing together. That did not sound good.

“Mmm,” Lorne murmured. “Looks like some rumors are making their way, but they don't know anything concrete. I couldn't say for sure, but some faction might take it in their heads to launch a diversionary assault just to see where the situation stands.”

“Then they'd discover were partially vulnerable,” Dawn sighed.

“More than partially,” Xander agreed. “All our big players were hit.” He sighed, sharing an aggrieved look with Dawn. They were neither one, relishing passing this news on to the others. But at the same time, they had sort of expected something like this might have happened.

“Well then,” Lorne chirped, sounding much more excited than he really should have. “When and were do you need me, my lovelies? It's time for the return of the Green Velvet Fog. Oh, I even ran into Kirstin, one of my old Lornette's and I bet I could even convince them to revive the act with me for one night.”

“So, you'll do it?” Xander clarified, the weight on his shoulders over this one lifting quite a bit. “Even knowing that Angel is going to be part of it?” There was a pregnant pause and for a moment, Xander thought that they had lost the call. But then Lorne heaved a sigh.

“I'll tell you,” he began quietly. “There's one thing that I've been learning on this journey. I knew it already but I guess I forgot. Journeys are meant to move forward, not run away. And I guess, maybe that's kind of what I've been doing up until now. So, don't worry. I'll deal with dealing with Angel. Just make sure you've got everything you need for some pitchers of Seabreezes. They're my favorites, you know.” There was an awkward chuckle and then Dawn leaned forward.

“I'll have it taken care of right away,” she promised, a glow in her eyes. “And of course we'll have a room for you at the hotel we choose to have the auction at. But... there's one other thing.”

“What's that sweet pea?” Lorne wondered, his voice loaded with curiosity.

“Well, you said that you had encountered someone that needed our help,” Dawn began quietly. “So we were wondering... we have some ideas of some mystical hot spots where people would tend to need some of our kind of help. But we have no way of knowing until they ask for said help and-!”

“You need me to head over and get the lay of the land?” Lorne realized astutely.

“It'd be on our dime,” Xander jumped in quickly to assure him. “First class all the way and not with the mojo either. Company jet.”

“Oh well, that's not a problem at all,” Lorne crooned. “In fact, it'd be a nice vacation and help me with my goal to see more than just the great American cities. I presume there will be more cities than American ones?”

“Definitely,” Xander agreed with a grin. “I'll tell you what. How about Dawn and I take a day to get an itinerary written up and organize things on our end, then we can call and figure out when you're ready?”

“I'm ready anytime,” Lorne promised them. “You just call me when you're good to go, cream pie and we'll take it from there.”

“Lorne,” Xander sighed, appreciative despite the other man's tendency to nickname them according to food or flowers. “I can't tell you how great it is you're doing all this for us. We really appreciate it man.”

“Hey, you're doing just as much for me,” Lorne told him with a heavy voice. “It just feels really good to get out there and help the people that really need it and not just the slobs that wanna know the latest stock tip, ya know.”

“Always a noble profession,” Dawn agreed. “Thank you Lorne. We'll talk to you soon.”

“You too cupcake,” Lorne made his goodbyes. “Have a good night and I'll be waiting for your call.”

They hung up the phone call and Xander leaned back in his chair. He glanced up at Dawn and frowned. “Was that too easy?” he wondered, but Dawn was already shaking her head.

“Nah,” she assured him. “We just all happened to be in the right place at the right time. Lorne actually, got there a little earlier than we did and was just waiting for us to catch up.”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, realizing the truth she spoke. Lorne had admitted to having a head's up about this, so he'd already had time to think it through. “Well, stroke of luck or meant to be, I'll take it!”

Chapter Seven- Gathering Storm01