Xander looks up through the windshield of his car at the huge 'Welcome to Gotham' sign, sighing when a fireball comes out of nowhere, burning the sign to ashes as he drives down the road.

Shaking his head, he hears Giles voice the last time he talked to him. "Xander, I want you to head to Gotham, my uncle lives there. Gotham is not a hellmouth, but it is a hotbed for unusual activities. I want you to be there to keep an eye on what is going on in case we ever need to base a Slayer there. The council has brought a building for you to fix up, and there is a booming construction industry for you to obtain employment. My only request is that you attend college while you are out there."

Looking at the map Willow had printed out for him, he follows the instructions to the building on the outskirts of the city. Giles had been right, there are signs of contruction everywhere. Shutting the door behind him of the small apartment at the top of the building, Xander sighs as he looks around his new home. Knowing Giles, there's already a full supply of groceries in the kitchen, and knowing Andrew there's more pots and pans than he will ever need. Dropping the bags by the door, he looks around before walking to the window and looking out.

"Well, look out Gotham, Xander Harris is in town." he says, turning away from the window as a black shadowy figure swoops over head.

Xander wakes up the next morning, looking around the apartment. For the size of the building it's small, but he can knock out a couple of walls to expand it he thinks, grabbing a notebook and a pencil as he goes out the door. Looking around the top floor he makes a note of things he has to do, it looks like the people who had been working there had left one day and never returned.

Rummaging through the entire building takes a couple of hours and he heads back to his apartment, showering and putting on his last set of clean clothes before heading outside. Willow had e-mailed him maps of the city so he has a good idea of where he's going as he heads for the business center of town.

He finds a gas station and fills up his car, picking up a paper inside before heading for the nearest home center. He can't get much in his car, he'll have to see if he can find a small pickup at a reasonable price or rent a u-haul that fastens to the back of his car for the bigger items.

"Contractor?" the woman behind the counter asks, ringing up his items.

"Construction worker, I just moved to town and the building needs a lot of work."

"Well, you'll have plenty of job opportunities here if you don't already have a job." she says dryly as a figure flies over the building, not under his own power by the way he's doubled over. "We got nutzoid idiots who try to take out the Justice League at least once a week, and there's always a lot of cleanup."

Xander nods, takes the purchases out to the car and watches the flying battle overhead for a couple of minutes before getting into the car and heading for the nearest post office to his building. A post office box is rented, and he has his mail forwarded to his new address before walking out. He calls Willow and she soon has all the bills for the building going to the post office box before she hands up.

The next morning has Xander going to one of the ten construction companies in Gotham City, asking the security guard at the gate if they have any job openings.

"We always have job openings, do you have any experience?" the man the guard calls on his radio asks tiredly. Why do these kids always think that construction is a job they can just walk into?

"Three years on a construction crew in California, the last year as crew chief."

"Thank god, somebody who actually knows the construction industry. We get all these kids in who think only of the money that can be made and leave when they figure out it's hard work and not the easy money they were hoping. Why'd you leave California?"

"My town got swallowed by a giant sinkhole." Xander explains as he follows him into a construction trailer. He pulls out his licenses, reminding himself to run to the courthouse to be transferred and is soon filling out the employment paperwork.

"What are you doing in Gotham, if you don't mind my asking. There's got to be better places to be."

"I settled in Cleveland with some friends, but I had some trouble with a young lady."

"Girlfriend?" the guy behind the desk asks with a wince.

Xander shudders. "Eww, Gah No!, She's the girlfriend of my best friend. But she doesn't like me, jealous of the time Willow was spending with me and not her. Her Daddy's rich so she has a good case of I'm better than you. She blew up in the middle of the hallway insulting me, Willow nearly bitchslapped her to death, and since they were both needed there I got the short end of the stick. We had recently brought a building her in Gotham that was up for taxes, so I got 'elected' to come out here."

"Some friends." he snorts as he hands over safety equipment to Xander. "We'll see you on the site Monday, we're going to be starting a new shift then."

"I'll be back, probably tomorrow with my licenses transferred. Any good places where I can find a cheap truck? I've got a car right now and need something bigger to haul stuff to the building. I've got to start hauling the stuff they left behind out of there and do some repairs. And apply to the university, though I don't have a chance in hell of being accepted."

"Go to the community college first." the construction boss says with a grin. "A lot of older students there, and the credits transfer if you do go on to university. And you got more of a chance to be accepted as a transfer student than a new student, less competition."

"Thanks, that was one of the things I was 'ordered' to do when I got sent here, fix up the building in case it's needed, go to school, and go visit the uncle of the guy who sent me here."

"You're going to go visit the uncle of the guy who sent you here?" he asks in disbelief. "Why?"

"Before he got all stupid and chose a girl he'd known for less than six months over a boy he'd known for over seven years, Giles was my mentor."

Xander brushes off his clothes before taking a deep breath and opening his car door, looking at the building across from him in dread. "It's only a college, you're not walking into a den of vampires with only a stake." he tells himself firmly as he walks into the building.

"Can I help you?" a voice asks out of nowhere.

"Gah!" Xander jumps.

"Sorry." The woman in the doorway says with a smile. "New here?"

"Yeah, I just moved to Gotham and my all but father wants me in college. Since he's paying. . ."

"You're going to humor him." she asks with a smile.

"Yeah, there's not a chance in hell I'll be accepted but . . nyeah, I can at least say I tried."

"Okay, do you have your school records with you?"

"Uhhh, small problem there, my old school. . . well actually the entire town got swallowed by a sinkhole last year. I don't know if there would have been any records anywhere else. . . Even then, I didn't have the best grades in school."

"Okay, we have older students come in who haven't been in school in years, you're what, nineteen, twenty?"

"Twenty two." Xander says.

"You would qualify. You would just have to fill out the application," She hands it over and a school catalog. "And we'd get back to you in about a week if you've been accepted. Classes start in about a month, so you should apply soon if you want in this semester."

Xander takes a deep breath and picks up the pen, filling the application out and handing it over along with his debit card for the fee.

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" she pats him on the shoulder. "Now you go home and read the catalog and schedule." she hands over the schedule. "That way when you're accepted, you can come in, fill out a class schedule for the semester, attend orientation, and pick up your books all the same day."

"Do I have to decide what I want to go for right away?"

"No, you can read the catalog, see what classes you need to take for your degree, and get them out of the way first before you start taking classes towards your certificate or diploma. And if you do decide to go on to the university," Xander shudders, "your credits will transfer since we're affiliated with them."

Xander heads back to his car, putting the innocent looking book on the seat next to him and heads back to his apartment. He sits down on the couch and studies the list of items he made yesterday, crossing out look for a job and apply to college.

A week later Xander is pulling into the garage at the bottom of the building, the huge loading door shutting behind him. Getting out and going over to the control panel for the security system he locks the building up for the night, heading to the freight elevator after grabbing his mail out of the passenger seat of the car.

"Oh lovely, my first bill." Xander says sarcastically, looking at one envelope. Sighing he opens it and puts it on the table next to the coffee mug so he can fill out the autpay form later. The last letter he holds at arms length, the return address tells him who it's from. Opening it, he reads the single page letter inside and shakes his head before dialing Willow's number.

He hangs up fifteen minutes, ears ringing from her squeals when she'd found out who was on the other end. Her phone had been passed around like a bowl of popcorn at movie night, he'd talked to damn near every Slayer there as well as his friends. Robin and Kennedy had been noticeably absent, Dawn telling him that the other girls had quote, kicked her spoiled little hiney and Giles had sent her to one of the Slay houses overseas because nobody would work with her. A watcher had not been sent with her because she thought she was so much better than everybody else, a betting pool was being spread on how long it would take her to call up whining that being a Slayer was hard.

Willow had squealed like somebody had goosed her when he'd told her he'd been accepted, she said she'd have money directly deposited up front for his tuition and books, as well as a stipend every month for any other expenses that come up, just like she would for any of the others who was going to school.

Hanging up the phone, he stares at the letter in front of him before shrugging, what can go wrong? It's not like there's a commando base under the school like in Sunnydale. . . or somebody brewing caveman beer.

Sighing he stands up and heads for his bedroom, stripping off his clothes and standing under a hot shower, thanking Willow and Andrew once again for mojoing the hot water heater to never run out. The work isn't any different than he'd done back in Sunnydale, just more of it. Stepping out of the shower, he grabs his dirty clothes and sticks them in the washer and dryer he'd ordered and had delivered to the building. Buffy and a couple of the other Slayers had been brought out from Cleveland by Willow, they'd huffed them over to the freight elevator and up to his apartment where he'd climbed over them to install them. He knew the girls has come to check up on him, but he's not going to turn down Slayer strength just because he's no longer in Cleveland.

He starts his clothes soaking and adds detergent when the first water drains out, setting it on the longest wash cycle and walks back to the bedroom to grab a pair of sweat pants before heading to the kitchen and seeing what he has in the way of food. Opening the refrigerator door, he sighs. "Andrew you geek," seeing all the covered dishes in the refrigerator. Briefly he wonders if getting Andrew the Star Trek cookbook had been a good idea. Sighing, he pulls one dish out blindly, sticking it in the microwave to warm and forcing himself not to look at the food before eating.

"Xander, why haven't you visited my uncle yet? He has been expecting you. You have been there six months after all."

"Umm let's see. Maniacal supervillains attacking Gotham on a weekly basis, the construction company is working crews around the clock and we still can't keep up. We have supervillain drills at work like you would have fire drills at school. I'm working ten to twelve hours a day six days a week, not that I mind the overtime check. I barely get home long enough to collapse in bed and get a couple hours sleep because you wanted me to start college when I moved here.. . . and you want me to meet your tweedy old uncle the one damn day I have free? I don't think so G-Man." Xander snarls into the phone. On the other end Giles blinks and back pedals, he hadn't realized Xander was so busy in Gotham. He'll have to try another way to convince him to visit his uncle.

Xander listens to the voice on the other end of the line. "Okay, Okay, I'll quickly do a load of laundry and go run visit your uncle tomorrow morning. Who needs sleep? With my luck he'll turn out to be yet another supervillain out to try to kill me. And I thought vampires were bad, them I could at least stake. And if I get killed , I am so haunting you!"

"Wooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Giles takes his glasses off and polishes the lenses as he looks across the room at the figure moaning and rattling a set of chains.

"Xander, you are not dead, merely knocked unconscious and are now comatose because you are out of your body. Please get back into your body, your haunting me is getting rather old."

Meanwhile in a room at Bruce Wayne's manor, Alfred looks up from the bed where Xander has been lying unconscious since the attack when a red haired figure flashes into the room. Dr. Fate and Dr. Midnite, who had been trying to find Xander's astral form and taking care of his physical body respectively, push themselves between Alfred, the unconscious young man in the bed, and the figure that just flashed into the room.

The young woman pushes between them so she is standing on the other side of the bed, and glares down at the figure lying there.

"Alexander LaVelle Harris, stop tormenting Giles and get your butt back in your body NOW Mister!! Don't make me pull out the resolve face, buster."

"You know what has happened, young lady?" Dr. Fate asks.

"YesXanderarguedwithGilesaboutcomingtovisithisunclewhenhehadadayoff.Gilesfinallyconvincedhimtogoseehim,XandercomplainedthatwithhisluckGilesunclewasprobablyasupervillainouttotrytokillhim.XanderthreatenedtocomehauntGilesifhedidendupgettingkilled."

Dr. Midnite looks at Dr. Fate. "Did you understand a word of that?"

"I believe she said that this young man had argued with somebody named Giles about coming to visit the other gentleman's uncle. This young gentleman had said that with his luck his uncle was a supervillain out to kill him. If he was killed, he was going to haunt the other gentleman. I believe from her earlier words he is doing just that?"

Willow nods vigorously, scowling down at her friend. Taking a deep breath, she leans close to him and screeches XANDER in his ear.

Xander's eyes immediately fly open, and he winces.

"Wwwwwiiiiiillllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwww!!!!" he whines, "That wasn't nice."

"Neither was haunting Giles for the last week." Willow scowls and taps her foot. "It couldn't have been that bad." Xander scowls and grabs her hand, showing her everything he's been going through the last three months. "I'll go talk to Giles, you try to get some sleep." Willow says before teleporting away.

"Giles, why did you give Andrew, Robin, and the other watchers salaries when they moved to other houses yet Xander has to go out and get a job, fix up the building you brought for him, go to college, and go visit your uncle?" Willow asks when she appears back at the Cleveland headquarters of the Slayers Council. "Xander is exhausted, no wonder he didn't want to go visit your uncle." she glares at him, stamping her foot as the others who adore Xander gather around her asking how he is.

"He's awake, but like I said exhausted. He didn't seem to be in a normal hospital room. . ."

"My uncle said he was in his employer's home when he called me." Giles says quickly, he knows that look in Willow's eyes. Her Xander shaped buddy is hurt and she's out for blood. Kennedy comes near her and she snarls at the other woman, Buffy grabbing her by the arm and sending her out of the room, locking the door behind her. Kennedy had made the major mistake of making a snide comment about Xander in her lover's hearing, and Willow had nearly torn the other woman to shreds for it. Giles had made the mistake of sending Xander away, leaving Kennedy there because she's a Slayer and Willow there because he needed her magical support.

He'd had a revolution on his hands from the rest of the Slayers when he'd announced he'd sent Xander away, the other Slayers had turned on Kennedy and beaten her bloody, forcing him to send her away to one of the newly opened Slay Houses where the others didn't have to deal with her. She'd thought Willow would come with her, because after all she was a Slayer and Xander was just Xander, she'd been stunned when Willow had slapped her in front of everybody before going upstairs and locking herself in her room for three days. Kennedy had been gone when she'd finally emerged from her room.

"Andrew has a job here."

"So did Xander, until little miss 'I'm so much better than anybody else because I'm a Slayer'" Willow says in a mocking tone. "Opened her big fat mouth and you decided that Xander was a liability because he was normal."

Willow goes to the computer, fingers flying over the keyboard before printing a thick pile of papers out she drops onto Giles desk.

"This is a report of every super villain attack in Gotham since Xander arrived." The printout is a good six inches thick. "This is a copy of Xander's paychecks since he was hired." Giles moans at the seventy hour pay periods. "This is a record of every class Xander has taken since he enrolled in college, which you wanted him to do by the way." Giles blinks as he sees twenty to twenty four credit hours for the semester. "Thankfully, you did arrange to pay for college when Xander was accepted, but still . . ."

"I believe he is trying to get as many of his classes out of the way as soon as possible."

"Giles, do you even know what he's going for?" Buffy asks. Giles stops to think a second and shakes his head, moaning. "You know what Dawn is going for, you talk to her every week about her classes and grades, you knew what Willow and I were going for back in Sunnydale. . ."

"I'd like the two of you to go back to school now that we're settled." Giles says automatically. "I fear I made a horrible mistake sending Xander away like that."

"And by not keeping an eye on him after you sent him away?"

"Yes, that as well." Giles says, waving a hand. "I will apologize to him the next time I talk to him."

"Try not to make it another six months, huh Giles?" Buffy snarks, walking out of the room.

"It hasn't been that long since I spoke to him, has it?" Giles asks Andrew. Andrew looks at him. "Get on that blasted device." he waves to the computer and bring up our phone records, Xander's phone number should be in the records." Andrew does as he's told and he looks at him. "No," Giles shakes his head. "No, it could not have possibly been six months since I last talked to the boy."

"No, you talked to Xander a little over a week ago, but other than that? Yeah, it's been six months since you called him." Andrew gets up and walks out of Giles office to start dinner with the help of the Slayers assigned to that chore, leaving Giles taking off his glasses to stare into space.

Alfred looks down at the now sleeping figure on the bed. He had spoken with young Alexander earlier after Dr. Midnite had examined him, giving Alfred instructions on his care and ordering the young man back into bed after he had tried to get up. Briefly he wonders what sort of homelife he had had that would have led the young man to not allow himself time to heal. The scars had been horrifying, Dr. Midnite had told him that some were at least a decade old, much too old to have been from the battles he had found himself in according to Rupert, so they must have been from his parents.

Master Bruce had done some investigating of him when he had first been knocked unconscious, Alfred had shaked his head at the news the poor boy was working ten to twelve hours a day six days a week and attending school full time, when had the boy found the time to eat or sleep? No wonder he had been exhausted. Once again he wonders at the strength of youth, Master Bruce would have done much the same thing when he was younger, training himself for the life he had chosen to lead.

As if his thoughts had summoned him, Master Bruce appears at the door.

"How is he, Alfred?"

"Sleeping normally, Master Bruce. We had a . . . 'visitor' who knew how to bring him back to his body. Dr. Midnite examined him, he is mostly suffering from exhaustion."

"Was he awake?"

"Yes, and tried to get up, like some people I know." Alfred smiles at the man he'd raised after the deaths of the boy's parents. "Also like some people I know, he doesn't want to rest when he is injured."

"I have heard from his construction crew, they are still off for the next five weeks while the city government fusses and goes over their rule books, trying to find a fault with their company. Since it is the government's fault they're off, the company took them to court to force them to pay the wages of all the employees they are putting out of work and any and all fees they will be charged for not completing their projects on time. The city government balked but the judge agreed. With the colleges closed until January for Christmas break, I am sure Alexander will have plenty of time to rest and recover."

"Thank you Master Bruce, I will make certain of that if I have to tie him to the bed to make him rest."

Bruce chuckles softly. "I can stop to the college tomorrow and pick up a syllabus for him if he hasn't already chosen which classes he wishes to take next semester."

"Thank you Master Bruce, if he hasn't already chosen his classes I will run him into college so he can register and pick up his schoolbooks for next semester. But for now, I fear that I have to talk to my nephew for letting the young man he thought of as a son let himself get this run down."

Bruce shudders inwardly, glad Alfred's ire isn't directed at him. He's been on the receiving end of a few of Alfred's talks.

"My dear boy, you are a blithering idiot." is the first thing Giles hears when he answers his phone.

"Hello Uncle Alfred." Giles sighs. His Slayers had already given him hell for throwing Xander away and keeping Kennedy, now it looks like it's his uncle's turn to yell at him. And unlike the girls, his uncle doesn't even have to raise his voice to make him squirm.

"Was it worth it?" he asks quietly. "Throwing the young man you thought of as a son away because a spoiled little brat you'd only known for a few months."

"At the time I thought yes, I needed Willow here for her magical prowess and Kennedy because she was a Slayer. Xander was. . ."

"Xander was . . .? Say it Rupert, Xander was normal, and the young girl in question wasn't. Because she was a Slayer, she was automatically better than a mere normal boy, wasn't she? So, because he was normal, he was expendable."

Giles sighs on the other end of the line. "Yes, Kennedy had always had a problem with Xander, while she might have been Willow's lover, he is her best friend as has been with her longer. I thought that with Xander out of the picture for a while, her attitude might calm down and she would realize she was just being foolish. Unfortunately, when I announced that Xander had left everybody knew why he had been sent away and turned on Kennedy for her part in the incident. A couple of days went by and she became more insufferable, proudly announcing that she had sent Xander away and she was the Slayer, at least until Buffy and Faith took turns kicking her ass in training for her bravado. None of the other Slayers would work with her, so I sent her to one of the newly opened Slay houses overseas to get some peace in the house. She had thought that Willow would join her because, after all she was a Slayer and special, Willow was her lover, Xander had just been Willow's friend, a lover took precedence. Bloody little bitch thought Willow was just going through a phase when she'd threw her belongings out of the room they shared together, once she'd calmed down she'd be welcomed back to their bed."

"I take it the young woman did not get what she had been expecting?"

Giles snorts. "Willow slapped her for her troubles and stalked off to her bedroom, locking herself in for three days. I had thought of bringing Xander back to Cleveland when Kennedy had left, but the boy had already had a new job in Gotham . . ."

"Which you told him to do, unless you wanted him to stay in a cold dark building without any heat, water, or food?" Alfred asks dryly. "Also why you wanted him to attend college while he was here, wasn't it?"

"Yes, he was the only one of the scoobies who stayed in Sunnydale after graduation who didn't attend school. At the time I didn't have the money to put him through school then as I do now. . . And I wanted him to prove himself to Kennedy, that he could have a good job and a degree while she was here on the sufferance of being a Slayer. My only mistake I fear is not telling the others why I had sent him away, and telling him that I was proud of him."

"So you sent him away like a stray dog while the bitch strutted around like a peacock until the alpha bitch of the pack taught her that she was a beta and would never be any better?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so."

"My dear boy, like I said before you are a blithering idiot." Alfred says briskly. "What are your plans now?"

"Besides telling Xander why I sent him away and begging his forgiveness? I need to put him on the payroll as a member of the watcher's council and give him back pay for the last few years since we took over. The others are on the payroll, I have no idea why I did not put Xander on, as Willow reminded me just now, Xander had a job here until little miss I'm better than you opened her big bitchy mouth."

"If I might ask, why did you send him to Gotham?"

"We had brought a building up for back taxes, I know Gotham isn't a hellmouth but you do have your own troubles, including a grown man running around like a bloody overgrown bat. . ." Giles pauses, is his uncle stifling a laugh. "I had thought of maybe putting a watcher council house there in the future, perhaps as a place Slayers could rest and recover from wounds or even have a few stationed there year round. I also knew that you have a flourishing construction industry there so Xander could find work immediately, good schools if he was accepted, and finally .. . you were there, I knew you would take care of Xander. Which is why I had called and asked him why he hadn't come visit you yet, I had no idea he was working sixty to seven hour weeks and taking a full course load at school."

"Did you even bother to ask?"

"No," Giles sighs. "I knew he had been accepted to college, Willow had screeched like a peacock for a week when he'd called her with the news and we had sent him money for tuition, books, and other upfront expenses at the beginning of the tuition, we were sending him a monthly stipend for expenses, and Willow had just given him another payment for spring tuition and books. I could make excuses that I was busy running the council, but still, I hadn't bothered to contact him until you called me asking why he hadn't visited you."

"My dear boy. . ."

"I know Uncle Alfred," Giles sighs. "I'm a blithering idiot."

"Just so we're on the same page."

Xander wakes up what seems like only a few minutes later but from the heaviness in his limbs would have to be hours later. He looks around the room, it's fully furnished but with none the homely touches that means somebody lives in it so it has to be a guest bedroom, it's sure not a hospital room and while the two men who were there earlier had doctor in their names, they sure as hell weren't your regular doctors. A twinge reminds him of what woke him earlier and he pushes the thick covers off of him in order to get up and walk to the bathroom he can see through the open door in the corner of the room.

"And where do you think you are going, young master Alexander?" a voice asks from behind Xander. Xander eeps and looks around, finding Alfred dressed in and old fashioned night shirt and dressing robe he is still pulling on.

"What time is it?" Xander asks, blinking. "I probably don't have a job anymore, not after being gone for a week. And I need to use the bathroom. And I should get out out of your hair, I'm sure your boss doesn't need somebody loafing around his house."

"From the beginning, it is four in the morning. You do have a job, your company has been off since just after you were injured, the city council has their knickers in a twist over the number of contracts your company has with the city and has them shut down while they are going over everything. Personally I think one of the council members is trying to get the city to use their company instead and is trying to find trouble."

"They won't." Xander says firmly.

"No they won't, which is why your company has the best record in the business. Your company went to court to have the city pay the salaries of their employees who are out of work because of the city's actions as well as any fees that will be levied on the company because they are not going to be able to bring their projects to completion by the scheduled due date. The city government is howling but the courts agreed with your company. You will be receiving a regular paycheck while the company is shut down, which will be until the end of January."

"But no overtime," Xander says, still half asleep.

"Young man, you do not need to kill yourself by working yourself into exhaustion. Whyever do you think you need so much overtime?"

"Construction is a seasonal job, the slow time has got to be coming up soon. I haven't been with the company long enough for them to keep me with no work coming in and I don't know if I qualify for unemployment yet. I am not going to go crawling back to Giles with my tail between my legs, not after he sent me away because I wasn't one of his precious slayers." he spits. If he were more awake he'd be shocked to be talking this freely with a man he'd only just met a few hours before he took his trip to la-la land.

Alfred snorts. "Trust me, with the amount of carnage supervillains cause, there is no such thing as a construction slow period in Gotham City." He walks around the side of the bed, helping Xander up to his feet and leading him across the room to the bathroom. Xander feels like he should complain, but his legs feel like two pieces of limp spaghetti.

"As for my employer, while this is his house it is my castle as the old saying goes. He offered to allow you to stay here when you were injured rather than send you to a hospital. Which is rather a good thing when you continued to be unconscious and we found you had been knocked out of your body."

Xander is tucked back into the bed by Alfred, his eyes already closing. He'll have to argue about getting out of here and back to his own apartment the next time he's awake. It's not like he needs anybody to take care of him, does he?

"Yes you do need somebody to watch out for you, if my nephew didn't have his head up his arse when it comes to his Slayers, he would be doing this." Alfred snorts as he watches Xander fall asleep.

The next morning Xander is awakened when somebody comes into the room with a tray of food. The dark haired man isn't that much older than him and he realizes instantly this must the the owner of the house, the multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne.

"Sorry to take up your guest room, but Alfred wouldn't let me leave when I woke up yesterday. " he mumbles not looking up as Bruce puts the tray over him.

"Let me let you in on a little secret Xander. Alfred raised me after my parents were killed when I was a kid, it doesn't pay to argue with him, just let him do what he wants because he'll give you that little 'you are an idiot look' of his and do what he was going to do anyway. And 99.9999 percent of the time? He was right anyway."

"I took the liberty of stopping and picking up your mail, not that you had much to show for a week." Bruce says, "I believe the results of your winter semester was in it."

Xander blinks as he takes the envelope from Bruce's hand, taking a deep breath before he opens it.

"This can't be right, these are Willow grades, not Xander grades." He says stunned.

Bruce takes a quick peek at the grades. "You did very well, do you know what classes you want to take next semester?" Xander looks at him. "I put my ward through school, not here but at Hudson University upstate, I know most students tend to decide what they want to take the second the schedule for the next semester comes out. Alfred has offered to take you to the college to register for the classes and pick up your books before you come back."

"You aren't going to let go back to my apartment any time soon, are you?" Xander asks.

"Tell you a secret, Alfred gets a little testy when he doesn't get his own way. Do you really want to get on his bad side?" Bruce chuckles. "Eat and Alfred will take you to college after you wash up."

"Umm, I need to check and see if Giles and Willow put money on my card for school." Xander says. "And see if my last check was direct deposited. And I need to clean out my refrigerator before something takes it over." Bruce looks amused. "I'm a young guy, working ten to twelve hour days and going to school didn't really give me time to clean the apartment. I had planned on going grocery shopping when I got the call from Giles to go visit Alfred, at least I did my laundry before I left."

"Did your laundry as in everything is clean, pressed, and put away properly or did my laundry as in tossed everything in the dryer before I left so it is undoubtedly wrinkled beyond belief from sitting in the dryer for a week?" Alfred asks from the doorway. He chuckles at the look on Xander's face. "Ah yes, the second 'done'." he chuckles. "Eat young Master Alexander, you have been living on intervenous fluids for nearly a week." Xander's stomach growls in assent. "We can stop to your bank to see if Rupert and your friend put the money for school on your card, if not I have the family checkbook." He chuckles at Xander's look. "What, you thought Master Bruce did the shopping or paid the bills? Finish eating, I have put a chair in the bathroom so you can sit and shower, and I have a wheelchair from when Master Bruce broke his leg if you fear you are not strong enough to walk."

An hour later a clean, shaved, dressed in clothes that are definitely not the ones he had been wearing when he went to visit Giles old uncle, just like the pajamas he'd been wearing when he woke up earlier definitely did not belong to either older man, is sitting in the back seat of a Rolls-Royce, being driven to school by Alfred. Who had been right, he hadn't been strong enough to walk more than a couple of steps, the wheelchair is folded up on the floor next to him.

Alfred pulls into a parking spot close to the door of the administration building but not in a handicapped parking spot, shutting off the engine and opening the back door as people stop what they're doing to turn and stare. Between semesters it's not too crowded, but there are still students around.

Xander puts his hands on the car to pull himself out after Alfred takes out and opens the wheelchair. "Young Master Alexander, I will get you out in a minute, no need to try to hurt yourself." he says in that no-nonsense tone of voice that even brings the mighty batman to heel. Once the wheelchair is open and brakes locked, Alfred moves over to the car, ducking inside and emerging with Xander in his arms.

Xander blinks as he's lifted from the car and placed in the wheelchair, Giles old uncle is pretty spry for an old guy.

"What is our first stop, young master Alexander?"

"There's an atm in the student center, but it's a couple of buildings over that way, along with the bookstore."

"Is that the only atm?"

"The closest one, yeah." Xander sighs. Alfred calmly walks over and locks up the car before walking back to the wheelchair and releasing the brake on the wheels. "Well, the best thing to do would be to go to the student center and check your account balances at the atm, then come back to register for your classes, then pick up your books and whatever supplies you will need, and head to your apartment."

"Does this mean I'm going to be allowed to stay at my apartment?" Xander looks over his shoulder at Alfred.

"Not hardly, young master Alexander." Alfred chuckles. "Where is the student center located?"

"Down in the basement, there's not an elevator but there's an outside entrance with a ramp."

They go around the side of the building to the ramp and head inside, a student worker holding the door open for them when she sees them coming.

"Ohmigod Xander, what happened?" she recognizes him from classes.

"I got hurt last week in a supervillain attack." Xander says, rolling his eyes. "I was unconscious for a couple of days."

"Is this permanent?" she waves at the wheelchair.

"I hope not, I can't do construction from a wheelchair."

"You have only been awake for a little over a day, young master," Alfred says with a sigh. "Give yourself some time to rest and heal." /And I thought Master Bruce was stubborn./

Xander shakily stands up when they get to the atm, checking the balances on his cards before settling back into the chair with a sigh. "Willow put the money in, we can go register for classes." he turns his head to look at Alfred who turns them around and heads back to the outside entrance. She rushes over and opens the door for them again, shaking his head when they are out of sight.

The door to the administration building is held open by a exiting student and they head down the hall to the office, Xander grabbing a form and being pushed over to the table to fill it out by Alfred who calmly reaches into his pocket for an ink pen when Xander looking for a pen.

One of the students working there behind the counter comes out and takes the form from him, registering him for his classes and running the card when he puts it on the counter. Taking the receipt, he puts it in his pocket and allows Alfred to wheel him out of the building, he'd tried wheeling himself when Alfred wasn't looking and had been given a look like he a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar before dinner..

They head back to the student center building, the same worker holding the door open with a grin. "Get yourself all registered?"

"Yup," Xander says.

"Here, give me your receipt and I'll get your books." she takes the receipt and heads to the walls of books, leaving Xander and Alfred to look through the clothing, supplies, software, and other items on the floor. Sighing and wincing at the hit to his balance, Xander has her get him a laptop and computer software when she returns with the basket full of books. Smiling, she rings him up and helps Alfred arrange the bags on the handles of the wheelchair before holding the door open again and waving as they head back out of sight.

"A laptop, young master Alexander?" Alfred asks as he gets him settled into the back seat.

"Willow gave me her old one, it's just not powerful enough for everything I'm going to need for classes." Xander sighs. "I'd been looking at them online for the last couple of weeks, the one they had here had everything I needed and I got a twenty percent discount for being a student. Even with the software, it was still cheaper than it would have been to have one special made by somebody."

Alfred makes a tsking sound in his throat when they pull up in front of Xander's building, wincing slightly when he sees the debris from the old owners still sitting around on the bottom floor before Xander pulls the gates on the freight elevator. "Please tell me you do not live surrounded by this. . . clutter?"

"No, I just didn't have time to start clearing this stuff out, I got hired two days after I arrived in Gotham and it took a couple of days to get new appliances for the apartment." They arrive on the top floor and Xander fumbles with the lock, Alfred taking the keys from his hands and opening the door. He looks around the apartment and sighs, it's not as bad as he had been expecting. There's not the normal detritus one would expect from a bachelor working ten to twelve hour days, Alexander must have been making some effort to keep abreast on the household chores.

"Young Master Alexander, why don't you rest on the couch while I . . ." /snoop around./

Xander blinks, he is a little worn out from the events of the day. Damn it, he's only been awake a couple of hours, he shouldn't be this tired, should he?

Alfred chuckles quietly as he gets Xander settled on the couch, the afghan tossed over the back tucked over him. His breathing soon settles into the rhythm of sleep as Alfred takes off his jacket and opens the refrigerator door.

It wasn't as bad as he'd been expecting, mostly because Xander didn't have that much in the way of food in the refrigerator aside from half full bottles of condiments. The cupboards aren't much better and from the grocery list on the counter and receipts in an envelope on the table, he must only shop every other week or so and stocks up on almost everything when he does go shopping.

His next stop is the small washer and dryer he sees in the corner of the apartment, tsking when he opens the dryer and finds that indeed everything is wrinkled from being there for a week. Shaking some of the clothes out, he realizes that it's a lost cause and piles everything back into the washer and washes them again while prowling around the apartment much like Master Bruce would case a scene.

He shakes his head at Xander's clothes, but he is a construction worker so he wouldn't need much in the way of finery. He is busy folding the now wrinkle free clothes and putting them away when Xander snorts, waking from his nap.

Alfred gets a still sleepy Xander back into the wheelchair and back to the manor, finding Master Bruce waiting for him. Xander is carried back to his room while Alfred gathers his school supplies and brings them up to his bedroom.

"Do I need to check you over for injuries after your battle with the evil refrigerator?" Bruce asks with a slight smile.

"Really Master Bruce, young master Alexander would have had something in his refrigerator to begin with for it to have gone bad and attacked me." Alfred says with a sniff.