Imagine: The List
Fic posted by members of Vo's Imaginings YahooGroup


Xander looked at his guardian a few weeks later, then sighed. David stared back. "Must we?"

"If you want to wear any clothes, you have to buy some, kiddo." He grinned. "Think about it like it's practical therapy. You can get over what those girls did to you."

Xander grimaced. "Not really."

"Yes, really. C'mon. It's painless. Gabriel Brothers is a cheap place that sells the end of season leftovers. So it's a cheap place to get you non-holed underwear and socks. Really." He pointed.

Xander looked around, trying to find any sort of salvation from this torture. Which he did see. He took off running, not pouncing the pregnant woman. "Hi, Miss Jolene." He grinned.

She stared down at him. "I've seen your picture, kid. Which one are you?"

"I'm Xander. Jake's my uncle." He grinned more brightly.

"That's why you look like you're nuts, doesn't it?" she shot back with a grin.

"You bet. My guardian is trying to make me *shop*. I'm not a girl."

She patted him on the head. "Everyone's gotta get clothes sometimes, kid." She smiled at the unamused older soldier coming her way. "I'm Jolene, Pooch's wife." She held out a hand.

"Pooch is part of Uncle Jake's unit," Xander said when David gave her a funny look.

"Oh!" He shook her hand with a smile. "I thought he was trying to adopt you and the kid for me to flirt with. He usually dates dangerous and deadly ones so I was worried."

She giggled, holding her pregnant stomach. "That could be. Jake told me about him." She ruffled Xander's hair. "Trying to make him shop?"

"His former friends screwed him up hard by making him their mule," David agreed. He stopped Xander from moving away from them. He looked over. "You look like Jake," he told the girl jogging toward them.

"That's because that's Beth, his niece," Jolene said. "Beth, this is Xander and his guardian David. Jake told you about them."

"He did. Hi, Cousin Xander." She hugged him.

Xander pulled back. "Only deadly chicks like me." The girl laughed but hugged him again, making him wiggle away. "Hugging isn't manly unless we're dating and we're cousins so we can't do that." David swatted him but Jolene, Beth, and Jake's sister Jennie laughed at that. "We are."

"We are, Xander," Jennie said with a smile. "What're you doing here today?" David pointed at the store. "We can go in there to look for sheets. We were going to hit the grocery store with Jolene but we can make sure things don't go that badly. Jake told us about your former friends being so evil to you about guy things." She rubbed over his hair too. "You need a trim."

"I'm fine," he pouted.

"He's fine," David agreed. "Until it starts to knot and he complains." The women smiled and went with him to help Xander with his practical therapy session. They managed to find the kid's section easily enough. Some nice, plain underwear was easy enough to grab. Some socks that Xander didn't make a face at. And then the power went out. David looked up. "Sure," he decided. "Ladies?" The emergency lights were on and they came closer, putting Jolene and Beth together in the center so they were better protected. David checked, he was almost totally unarmed. What a day for this to happen.

Xander stole David's phone to call 911. He kept from hitting the send button until someone's voice rang out. He hit send and let the phone hear what was going on. "Gabriel Brother's," he hissed into the phone. "Guys with shotguns." He hung up and hit the speed dial for another number because the guy was coming near them. The phone went back into David's jacket pocket with the intake speaker hanging out, getting a nod. Xander looked up at him. "I called Uncle Jack," he hissed.

David stared at the two guys with shotguns. "What do you think you're doing?" he demanded. "There are kids and women in here. How stupid are you!"

"Shut up! We're not here for you!" He looked at the women but Xander got in the guy's way when he reached for Jennie. "You, move, unless you want to die today."

"I dare you to try, mother fucker," he said, staring up at the guy. "You're not touching my cousin or my aunt or Auntie Jolene."

"You can't stop me," the guy said smugly, trying to punch him. Xander got him in the balls, making him scream as he went down. Others came over to help him.

Xander looked at them. "Go. Away," he growled.

"Aww, he's tough. We can take him so he can be trained properly." Xander snorted, shaking his head. "We have guns."

"Yeah," he snorted. "Yay."

"Xander," David warned. "Stand down. You're not an adult."

Xander shrugged. "Oh well. I'll make it to eight and they won't make it to their next birthdays." One of them tried to grab Beth so Xander bit him. "I said don't touch my cousin." He stared at him. "How dumb are you?"

"You're mouthy. We can train you better, boy," the guy said, grabbing him by the hair. Xander fought back and David got to punch someone. Jennie had a taser she got to finally use. The group went down. More rushed back but police were showing up. Xander kicked one on the knee then climbed up on a table to pounce the guy around the neck and bit him hard enough to draw blood. The guy screamed and beat at Xander to get him off him.

"Freeze!" an officer ordered.

"Xander, down," David ordered. "Back. Let the people handle it." Xander spit a few times on the guys but did let him go. "Jolene, can he use your water?"

"Sure," she agreed. "You don't know what sort of strange diseases they have," she complained. "They could give you all sorts of nasty things!"

Xander waved a hand but did rinse and spit onto the same guy. "I didn't swallow any." He looked up at the officer. "I only got one," he said with a point. "And the guy I bit."

"You're a kid," one of the officers snorted.

"And he tried to grab my cousin," he said with a point at Beth. "Be damned if I want something horrifying to happen to her." The officer flinched back.

"He's in my care, people," David said, holding up his ID. "I'm former military and his parents are dead. His former town was horrifying."

The officers nodded and hauled the people up to cuff them, walking them out. One of them stayed to yell at Xander but Xander yawned.

Until Jolene screamed and held her stomach.

Xander looked at her then at David. "We are never shopping again," he assured him. "I knew it was a curse. People, I think that means her baby's coming!" The officers got an ambulance for her and Xander went with her for now. David and the others drove off with David telling Jack to get her husband to the hospital.

***

Jack hung up. "People, get Pooch to the hospital. His wife just went into labor," he ordered. Clay nodded, walking Pooch off with the rest of his team. "Clay, have a talk with the kid later about how to handle a robbery. He bit someone."

"We'll remind the kid he's seven," Clay agreed as they walked off.

"Please. That way I can reinforce it later." He looked at the other soldiers in the team meeting. Who all grinned at him. "Seriously, the kid tried to kick asses. With his guardian, who was one of you, there. Plus two adult women and his cousin." He walked off rubbing his head while texting McGarrett. That way they could reinforce the yelling at the kid time.

The other soldiers got to pay off debts from their betting ring about when the kid would make O'Neill regret being an uncle.

***

Jake walked Pooch into Jolene's room, handing him over. "All yours." He picked Xander up. "We're going to go talk."

"I knew shopping led to evil," Xander complained. "I'm fine. I made sure they're all fine."

Jake looked at him. "What?"

"They were going to grab Bethie," he said, staring at his uncle. "I'll be damned if she gets hurt *that* way by anyone."

Jake hugged him. "I love you being my nephew. Thank you for protecting Jolene and Bethie." He walked him off. "Were you being subtle?"

"I don't say that word," Xander said. "Especially not around women and kids. She needs to be more delicate, like Danny's little girl does."

"True. That's a good reason." He cuddled him as they walked into the waiting room. "They tried to grab Beth."

His sister nodded. "The officers freed six other young girls, young teenage girls, that they had hostage." She looked at the kid. "They nearly took you too."

"I would've driven them fucking nuts," Xander quipped with a smirk. "Just like I do Clay and Roque. Only intentionally."

"They'd probably try to torture you into normality," Jennie said, staring him down.

Xander grinned. "By then I'd hope I'd be rescued. And if not, hell, I'll ask Spike to eat me or something." She shuddered, curling up in her chair.

Jensen hugged him again while looking at Clay. "I would've done the same thing by ripping off something."

"I'm not strong enough to do that yet," Xander admitted. "I need to lift weights. Or start building stuff again."

David stared at him. "You can start doing PT with me for punishment, kiddo." He looked so smug.

Xander shrugged. "I've done that before." David stared at him. "What?"

"You are seven," Clay noted calmly. "Not twenty-two. Not a hunter, but a seven-year-old kid. Can you maybe act like it before we all feel the need to remind you of that fact by beating you?"

Xander grimaced. "I wasn't going to let them take Bethie!"

"We agree with that," Roque said, staring him down. "But you're still a kid. You should've been protecting them from beside Beth, not in front of her."

"Guys like that don't like little boys unless we seem useful," Xander said, staring back. "They wanted her for multiple, bad, icky reasons. I'm not going to let any woman get that done to them."

"We agree with that part," Clay assured him. "The mouthing off...the biting thing...no."

"Not like I had a weapon," Xander complained. "David made me leave the pocket knife at home."

"Yeah, I did," David agreed. "You did good at first, Xander. You called for help. Though they probably ignored you until other people in the store called. You did good until you attacked. That's *my* job."

"You were handling your own," Xander complained.

"Uh-huh. I've faced down and shot some of the most horrifying things in this universe. Some militia people? Not anything to handle. I would've protected you, her, Jolene, and Jennie. That's *my* job. Until you're actually forced to, or you're at least old enough to date, you follow that order. Got it?"

Xander huffed but nodded. "Fine."

"Thank you! I have an ulcer that's your size of body bag, kiddo."

"They didn't want to kill me."

"They would've if you had kept up," he shot back. "They're like that. Like you said, they only like little boys who are *useful*. And you're too tough for them." Xander sighed but nodded, flopping down to curl up in the chair. "Also, I'm going to teach you how to do that correctly. Because your method sucked. It left too much to them getting angry. Trained soldiers wouldn't get mad, they would've just made sure you couldn't handle things." A nurse leaned in. "We're just talking about him mouthing off to someone trying to stick us up earlier," he said with a smile. "If I believed in spanking he'd be wailing by now."

She nodded. "Sometimes you have to correct the harmful behaviors." She smiled as she strolled off.

"You might keep the lady that smells like decomp away from Jolene." Cougar went after her to check on Jolene. The nurse was harassing someone else so he got another nurse to come stop her. The nurse got security to come get her while complaining they were already understaffed. Xander watched them grab her and walk her off. "You might see why she smells like decomp," he called. "One of my other uncles is an officer and he's smelled like that after a few dead body things."

The guard sniffed her then nodded. "That is the unique dead body smell," he agreed. "Thanks, kid."

Cougar came back shaking his head. Jolene was complaining loudly at Pooch about getting her pregnant. Jake went to check on them. "You enjoyed it until today," he quipped. "Except for maybe morning sickness. Why complain now?"

She threw her cup of ice chips at him. "You idiot man. Go away!"

"Sure. We got the bad nurse away from you." He went back to the waiting area. "She's in the yelling at Pooch for having a dick stage."

"If we hadn't been shopping, she probably wouldn't be doing this today," Xander quipped.

"Hate to tell ya, but we're going again later to pick up the socks and underwear you were getting earlier," David quipped. "You're already going commando. Not allowed."

"Sh...oot," Xander muttered. Beth was asleep in a corner. He knew not to swear in front of girls. David smirked at him for that near swearing. "What if they come back?"

"I'm armed better this time," David assured him. Jack stomped in and picked up Xander to walk off so they could talk. Jack's parental nagging was rusty from disuse but it was time to oil that machine again. David smirked as he waved at the kid's back. Jake swatted him but was laughing. "Better his throat getting sore from yelling than me," he said quietly. They heard Jolene yelling at Pooch again. "I know nothing about childbirth but she doesn't sound happy."

"We're brave guys, but not that brave," Clay assured him. He sent a text message to McGarrett's phone. That way it was enforced when he went back to Hawaii.

***

Danny Williams looked at the phone he was holding, opening the text message since he knew who that person was. He stared, rereading it a few times. "Yeah, sure, I can yell at the kid and reinforce that he doesn't do SEAL things yet," he muttered as he typed back that he'd tell Steve when he got off the stand and he was a good fatherly sort so he could easily reinforce that lesson. But if the kid had to, he could help save his little girl. Then he and Steve would save them both. "We really have got to talk to the kid about adult things versus Xander things." Steve came out looking displeased. He held up the original message. "I assured the nice Colonel that I would be yelling at him."

Steve took his phone to read, groaning. "Wonderful." They shared a look. "Don't tell Rachel. She'd be overkill with the nagging."

"If he needs to do it again, so be it. Especially if he's saving himself and other kids. But yeah, he's gotta learn how to do it better."

"I can work on that." He walked off texting that to Clay's phone. He paused then shook his head. "They'll never get him to shop for his own clothes again," he complained. "Pooch's wife went into labor just afterward."

Danny laughed as he caught up. "That figures. Because only that kid could have something like that happen together."

"Yeah. That kid's a bit weird about drawing problems." They went back to the office to deal with the present case. They'd talk about Xander when he was almost ready to come back for his six months on the islands.

***

Xander looked at Jolene and Pooch's son, waving a bit. "Hey, tiny loud thing. You good in there?" The baby grunted and shifted some, not looking happy. He didn't smell happy either. "You need a better bath before you draw something." Pooch swatted him. "He does." He looked up. "It's clear they only did the diaper wipe bath."

"We'll give him one in a bit," Pooch said. Xander was staring out the window but Pooch couldn't see anything. "Jake," he called. Xander waved a hand but was pulling something out from under his shirt. Jake leaned in and walked over when he saw what Xander was doing. He picked up the baby to sit beside Jolene and guard them.

Xander stared at the being he saw. "No. You can't have them."

"They're mine. You're all mine some day."

"I know that. I met you the night I stopped that bomb," he said in Latin. He was being more subtle now. "The baby's still not yours yet."

"He should be."

"Pooch, the baby's sick," Xander said. "Get him checked over."

"Yup. Nurse!" he called, heading for the desk. "The baby's sick. The kid with us somehow knows."

She snorted. "We can check him, sir." She came in and flinched at who Xander was staring at him. "Oh, no. We can't...."

"Shut up and check the baby," Xander said. "He's got time." The spirit of death was smirking at him. He caught his hand when he reached for the baby. "No. Some day he'll be my pack. No."

The nurse trembled. "We can't..."

"Just check the baby," Jake ordered. "Jack, we need a real doc," he called.

"Calling," Jack called from up the hallway.

The nurse checked. "He's got a heart murmur."

"Which is survivable," Xander noted calmly. He stared at the spirit. "See, I told you it wasn't his time yet."

"It'd be easier on him."

Xander shrugged. "Easy isn't always the best way. Easy is only the best way in math class."

"Point," the spirit said. "You are not one of mine."

Xander grinned. "I gave you plenty of work though," he said in Latin again. "When I was a hunter."

The spirit nodded. "I remember. Some day you'll be mine too."

"That's fine. If it's a good time to go so be it. Hopefully it'll be while saving others since I know some higher powers hate me."

"Not all, Xander Harris. Not all." He smirked. "I will let this one go. Another calls me here."

"Another infant?" he asked.

"No. One who's time has come fairly." He walked past them, smiling at the nurse as he went to the oncology ward.

Xander sighed and went limp, being caught by Pooch. "Damn it." He looked at his uncle. "The heart murmur?"

"We can treat it," he agreed. A woman in a doctor's coat ran in. "Xander stopped a spirit of death coming for the baby. The nurse said he's got a heart murmur, Doctor Lam."

"Oh, dear." She checked the baby over. "He does. That's easily treated and watched over." She looked at Xander, who was sweaty. "You good?"

"Tiny bit of shock. He remembered me and said that not every higher power hates me." He sat down, huffing at the baby. "Maybe you're the reason so many bad things happened today instead of the shopping."

Jolene hugged him. "It'll be okay, Xander. You can shop online tonight." He nodded, patting the baby. The baby grunted back, making sucking faces. "Let the doctors look you over then you can eat, son."

The nurse left to call down a specialist. She looked at him. "I saw that spirit again. The kid in there held him off."

"Maybe he'll be a doctor then. Most of the really good ones can see them." He went in there. He smiled at the older boy. "You know, you could be a doctor. Many of us have seen that same guy."

Xander stared at him. "I hate books. And I'm already learning field medic things. But I still hate books."

"That's fine. Maybe you can work on that as you get older." He took the baby with Doctor Lam across the room so they could check him over. "Very minor heart murmur. Easily treated."

"He's got a small hernia too," she said with a point. "An umbilical one."

"That's another problem and we'd probably have to do a bit of surgery but we can do that while watching over his heart. We need to do an ultrasound," he told the parents. Who nodded. "All right, let's get that done. Are you a local doctor?"

She smiled. "Cheyenne Mountain. The father and his team are ours."

"That's fine. Some of you are great doctors."

"I don't see too many babies but the Marines sure act like them sometimes," she quipped, making him smile and laugh.

"Hell, I'll run from you like I'm in the Olympics trying to beat a world record," Xander snorted.

"Yup, me too," Jake agreed. "She's got scary, big needles." The doctors walked out together with the baby. He took Xander to hug. "You did good, Xander," he said quietly. Xander cuddled back because he was falling asleep. "At least it wasn't the first time they met."

"I wondered what the Latin was for," Pooch said.

"The night he stopped that zombie guy, they met then."

"Makes sense," Pooch decided, cuddling Jolene. "The baby will be fine. The guy wasn't even trying too hard. Maybe he came to meet Xander."

She scowled but hugged him. Pooch was just going to have to get used to Xander being around. He'd be a good uncle, like those ones in Hawaii. She really needed to talk to them, make sure they were all on the same page about how to reraise that boy to be sane.

***

Danny looked at Steve's phone. Steve was getting stitches this time and wasn't allowed to answer his phone. He answered the unknown number. "McGarrett's phone. No, this isn't him, ma'am. He's getting stitches. If I may ask who you are?" He smiled. "I met your husband and his team. They seemed more sane than the kid does sometimes." He relaxed, listening to her talk about what they had found out recently and how they really had to make some raising decisions together with the boy's guardian. "Yeah, we heard about the hostage situation from Clay and then the general." Steve walked out. "It's Jolene, Pooch's wife. She wants us to conference about the kid's upbringing."

"The more sanity the better," Steve said, taking his phone. "Ma'am. Jolene then." He smiled. "We heard about the hostage situation. We're already talking about how to prevent the next one." She told him what else had happened that day and he winced. "That's...understandable but freak-worthy," he agreed. "Definitely. He and David will be out here in about another month or so. No, he switches houses every six months. Yes, that's how. We can definitely conference about that. The more united and stable it is, the better it'll be to calm him down.

"He did? I didn't know he was gathering a new pack to protect but that does make sense. We've introduced him to a few children. My partner's daughter and his cousin. No, not that way. In the police sense, Jolene." He smirked at Danny. "We can skype tonight if you want. That's not a problem. I have it on the office computer and the home computer. No, my whole team knows Xander and how cute he can be when he's trying to steal his grenades back." She spluttered.

"He really does love weapons, Jolene. That's something we should talk about, yes. Ask Pooch. They had him for over a week before we got there to talk about him. I'll call tonight. This number or another one?" He wrote the number on his discharge paperwork. "Got it. I'll call around dinner time. Thank you for doing the reasonable thing. Most of us aren't experienced parents outside Danny." Danny shot him a lower powered scowl. "We can both be there tonight. Not a problem. Have a good afternoon." He hung up and looked at his partner. "We're skyping her, the general, all the associated uncles tonight. That way we have a stable base of reasonable thought to bring him back to a normal state."

"That might help. He's doing what now with the others he knows?"

"He's making a pack he can protect."

Danny grinned. "That I might not mind. Gracie would but I wouldn't."

"He bit the hostage taker. Drew a lot of blood when he basically ripped the guy's throat out with his teeth."

"Yeah, we've gotta teach him better." He got up and walked out with Steve, going to the truck so they could go back to the office to tell the others about the upcoming call. Chin and Kono had some great ideas about the kid. They really did need to do more parental oversight sort of stuff with him.

The more of a village to help watch him, the more sane the kid will end up if it managed to make it back to adulthood.

***

A few months after Xander and David got back to Hawaii, Rachel was watching her daughter Grace play with the young little kid they watched over. She frowned, watching them chase each other around the yard. She decided to call her ex-husband about that. It was weird and she was a bit worried after hearing some of the problems he had gotten into in Colorado. She held up the phone so he could watch it.

Danny shook his head. "He's teaching her to get away from shitbags," Danny told her quietly. "I did the same thing with her when she was about Xander's age. It'll be helpful for her."

"Are you sure?"

"I am. We can talk to him later. He's making sure all the little kids around him are protected. He did the same thing to his cousin outta Jake's family and Jolene's new son. He all but scent marked him so he could find the kid if another emergency happened."

"All right. Should we talk to him about that?"

"He's still got all his adult memories, Rachel. He's doing what he can to protect the vulnerable ones."

"I guess that's fine then. He won't promote violence to her?"

"No. He'll only teach her to protect herself. But I'll talk to him later about being more subtle. Before he teaches her how to use a knife to defend herself." She smiled and nodded. "I'll get on that tonight." He looked behind him. "That's Steve about to blow something up." He hung up and ran off to help his teammates.

Rachel sighed, putting her phone back into her purse. The kids came up happy and panting. "Grace, go ahead and get some drinks." She smiled at Xander once her daughter was out of hearing. "Do not endanger her," she warned quietly, staring him down.

"I never would. I'm making sure if another thing comes near me, she's safe."

"Good. I like that but normal parents worry, Xander."

"You keep sounding more and more like Giles when he tried to remind me I was normal and therefore inferior," he said bluntly, walking off. Grace and he went up to watch a movie. Thankfully she liked non-Disney movies at her age so he didn't have to sit through another girly movie for a while. And David was coming soon. Grace cuddled him and he let her because she was tired and she wasn't *too* bad. He heard Rachel complaining and sighed, looking at the girl next to him, who shrugged.

"They did that when they were divorcing too. A lot of fighting they didn't think I heard," Grace told him.

"I can go fix that." She snorted but he got free of her and went down the stairs, staring from the end of the stairs. "You're going to trigger your daughter's minor PTSD about all the fights you and her father used to share," he said bluntly. "Did you mean to make your daughter have a flashback?" Rachel gasped, shaking her head. He nodded. "Also, are you pregnant, ma'am? You're having mood swings." She held her stomach, eyes wide. "Sunnydale was the homeland of teen pregnancies because our life expectancy was about twenty-three," he finished dryly. "We had more than a few in the school." He went back upstairs.

Stan looked at his wife. "That is a good point, you are having some mood swings, Rachel. Perhaps you should get that checked out?"

She nodded. "I was planning on doing that on Monday, when she was back in school." He smiled and hugged her. "He's a bit mouthy."

"You yelling could be a problem for Grace," he reminded her. "She was old enough to remember all the fights you and her father got into." She slumped but stomped off. When David got there, Stan went up to get Xander, nodding at him. "David's here, Xander," he said quietly. He nodded, pausing the movie and wiggling free of the sleeping Grace. He looked down at her. "I realize you'll protect her but try to be easier on her mother," he said quietly, staring at the little boy. "She's a bit panicky at the moment about her safety. Especially with all that her father does at his job."

"I've seen that." He grinned. "I'd never let her get hurt."

"Good boy." He patted him on the shoulder. "Don't encourage her to date either. Her father will have a huge fit."

"Girls are icky," Xander said. "I'm not talking to her about that stuff. That's a mom's job."

"Good." He smiled and let him run down to escape with his guardian. Stan went to check on Rachel, who was resting as well. They could handle the unusual young one.

***

Xander was listening to people scream about things and sighed, rubbing his forehead. David was glaring down at him. He looked up. "I'm going to start a cult," he said bluntly. "And make yelling a forbidden thing." He looked at the yelling adults, and one crying daughter. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he bellowed. "Goddess be damned, people! For people who are *supposed* to care about your daughter, you're making her sob like a teenage girl instead!" He pointed and Danny spotted his little girl crying, moving to pick her up to cuddle her. He walked off talking to her. Xander rubbed his head again.

"Thank you for the lack of headache level noise as well." He blinked up at Stan and Rachel. "How about this, someone totally outside both families raises her so she's normal, smart, caring, and doesn't have to be in the middle of the shitty parent arguments." He stared at her. "She's not a prize in a contest. You don't get more points for having her. You don't get to do more than claim her on your taxes by having custody of her. Is it so damn wrong that her *other* grandparents would like to see her?"

"We've had plans for months," she said, glaring at him. "You're mouthy."

"You're bitchy," he shot back. "And you made the plans to intentionally hurt Danny and you *know* you did. You admitted it while yelling at him over stupid shit." She huffed off. He waved at her back. "You're worse at than my drunk bitch of a mother. At least she didn't *pretend* to give a damn." He glared at Stan. "Be a father," he growled. "It might help if she had a steady parenting influence. Unless you want her to end up like Willow?" Stan slumped but followed to find Danny and their shared daughter. He looked up at Steve, who was scowling. "How do you put up with that?"

"I calm him down after she does it to him," he admitted. "Again."

"Well, maybe the new one will help ease some of that," Xander quipped. He walked off shaking his head, going to climb a tree up the road a bit. It was safe enough here and he was out of range of screaming women. He whistled when he saw Grace starting to run away, waving her up. She climbed up next to him and he let her hug him and cry on him. "What do you want to do, kiddo?"

"I want to see both grandparents." She sniffled, looking at him. "How do we do that?"

"I'd say a layover but that won't be for as long in New Jersey." She nodded, sniffling and cuddling him. "I don't mind being the comforting one but I'm not a teddy bear, Grace." She laughed, letting him go some. He patted her back, calming her down. He spotted it when David spotted him but he just nodded and went back around the house. "We're cool for now. They'll stop the search party."

"Danno will be really mad," she said quietly.

"Yeah, but not at you."

"I ran."

"Not really. You're up a tree and David knows where we are. He just looked and spotted us. You're fine, kiddo." She looked at him. "You are."

"I'm older."

"Only technically," he joked.

"Mom told me. Is it weird?"

"Very." He heard Rachel yell again. He patted himself down then her. She had her phone on her. "We can sneak somewhere safer and away from the screaming that's giving me a headache. Your mom's really shrill." She nodded. He texted Steve's phone number and handed her back the phone, then got them down and across the street.

They could take a city bus, it wasn't that far to walk. Grace laughed, because she had never done this before. The bus driver gave them odd looks but it was fine and they paid the fares quickly then sat down. Xander got them changed to the next bus and then to the warehouse with a stop for sugary goodness and drinks they weren't supposed to have. They settled in his warehouse to look at comics and eat some of his stash of snack cakes for dinner.

***

At the house, Steve looked at his phone, showing it to David, who just nodded he could follow them. Steve watched round two going on and decided it was better if Gracie didn't have to hear this round of argument. He showed Stan subtly, getting a nod. The kids would be fine together and David was sneaking off to watch over them. When he got a text from David saying the kids had taken the bus, Steve smiled, showing Stan. "He's teaching her some skills," he said quietly.

"It's good for her," Stan agreed just as quietly. Danny looked over. "The kids snuck off a bit ago. David's found them."

"Beyond the tree Xander likes to climb to get away from big things?" Danny asked.

"They're heading for the warehouse," Steve said. "Xander got them on a bus and there. David followed."

"It's good she's leaning how in case she needs ta," Danny decided. "Most kids near public transport can use it easily enough. It's a good life lesson and I know Xander won't let her get hurt."

"He's *seven*!" Rachel complained. "What would he do if they're attacked?"

"Last time he bit the living shit outta one of 'em," Danny told her. "They were trying to grab young teen girls from where David was making him shop so he protected his cousin." She gaped, staring at him in horrified awe. "Since then we've pointed out a few more safe ways of defending himself and others. That biting could be dangerous." He looked up then at Steve. "You went over that, right?"

"We all went over that and I've been working on his self defense skills with David this last week," he agreed. Rachel blinked at him. "People who want little kids won't stop if they just kick and scream, Rachel. I've been teaching Grace some too on the weekends Danny has her just in case the unthinkable happens and that softball coach she almost signed up under gets her." He took a drink of his water.

"He's on a watch list, I made sure," Danny told them. He looked at his ex-wife again. "All girls should have self defense in case some boy gets handsy and she doesn't want it that way," he told her when she started to get huffy again. "She shouldn't *ever* have to wait to be saved from something like a boy pinching her against her will. You wouldn't."

"She's nine!"

"Yeah, and two of her best friends were bra shopping the other day," Danny shot back. "Because they needed to. For that matter, she could probably go in about another year. She's in that same growth spurt all the sisters went through right before Mom got teary eyed and they got bras."

She scowled. "She isn't there yet. I should know, I'm the one that takes her shopping!"

"I offered," Danny said patiently. "She's decided that boys don't know what cute clothes are."

"Xander's so traumatized by his friends making him their approval committee he had a panic attack at a mall so he's no help there," Steve said.

"He had a what?" Rachel demanded. "I've seen him shopping."

"No, you saw him looking at catalogs," Danny said. "He'll only order online. The last time they went to Gabriel Brothers for socks, underwear, that stuff, a militia rolled in to capture young women for their camp. Then Jolene went into labor." Steve shook his head quickly. "We're not getting him near a store anytime in the near future."

"That's dumb," she said. "It's just him being a boy."

"No. He had a full blown panic attack at the mall. His former friends were that way. Then again they kept telling him he was normal too." He shook his head quickly. "Glad they're not going to come out here." Steve snorted but it sounded amused. He looked back at him. "Nothing on that end, right?"

"Not that I've heard. I've made contact with our local underground for that problem and they said they hadn't heard anything either. They were watching the kid for strange things and betting on him. He had won someone a ton of cats for the store thing."

"At least he managed to save Jolene's son," Danny said, looking at his ex-wife. Stan looked so confused. "A spirit came for it after it was born because the baby had a heart murmur. Xander kept it from touching the baby." Stan just nodded once at that. "Then he kinda passed out." He looked at Rachel again. "He's not teaching her anything about that. The boy's probably introduced her to ho-hos and twinkies and they're reading his comics collection."

"Probably," Steve agreed. "David will make sure they're safe so you guys can finish that argument without making Grace cry some more."

"She's my daughter," Rachel complained.

"Our," Danny reminded her, glaring at her. "Our daughter, Rachel. Unless you fucked around on me?" She glared back. "Then she's just as much my kid and has just as much right and responsibility to see her other grandparents sometimes. Beyond that, your parents will probably enforce the snotty attitude she's been growing from some of her friends recently. Thankfully we got most of that stopped."

Stan cleared his throat. "Thank you for that. I had no idea why she suddenly turned that way."

"A friend at school. We had a talk about how bitter that kid must be and how nasty she was to others, which was not a trait of either of her groups of relatives. She decided she didn't want to mimic the little one that needs a new family anymore." He looked at his ex-wife again.

"Girls go through those stages."

"Not all of them," he told her. "My sisters didn't. If they were that snotty my mother would've beaten it out of them. Then again, Grace is being raised to be socially responsible and ethically responsible. Which I do approve of. You've done a good job with that." Rachel snorted again and huffed as she sat down. "I don't rightly care that you're taking her for a *visit* with your family, Rachel. I care that you didn't tell me. I care that you disregarded a request from her other family to see her as well, which could've easily been a layover for a few days. I care that you made our little girl sob like she was broken hearted. I care that you're going to be taking her for a month."

"It's a long trip," she complained.

"All the more reason to have a few days of layover in Jersey."

Stan nodded. "That's not unreasonable. It'd probably be easiest done on the way back. We have to layover in New York overnight anyway. I can change it so we spend a three day weekend with her grandparents instead. We can go to a hotel and let them have full visitation," he told Rachel. "That way we get to defrag after the trip, dear. You can go to the spa and all that."

"She enjoys going with me."

"She'll be coming back and have to start school again," Danny said. "Take her that weekend after her first few days back. Those are always tiring."

She swallowed, taking the bottle of water Steve handed her. "Thank you," she said quietly. She looked at Stan. "I suppose," she said in that prim, icy British accent of hers. "That it's not a bad idea but I don't want to hear any fussing."

Danny stared down at her. "I could complain that you're taking her out of the country," he pointed out. "For a month. Thereby cutting my visitation completely." She slumped. "I'm willing to let my parents and family have it for me that long weekend because I know my mom'll be over the moon and my sisters will be spoiling aunts in the extreme." He looked at Stan.

"That's reasonable to us, Danny. Thank you for not thinking we'd keep her over there."

"Oh, no, that comes to be? We'll fix that," he assured him, giving him a pointed look.

Steve nodded to back Danny up. "We would help him fix that situation. That would be kidnaping basically." Rachel winced but drank her water. "He has given up nearly everything in his life to be with his daughter part of the time, Rachel," he reminded her.

"I know. It's not fair but I know." She sighed, looking at her present husband then her ex-husband. "Fine. We can do a long layover in New Jersey so your parents and many siblings can fuss over her. We'll arrange it tonight and let your mother know." Danny smiled and relaxed. "She can tell them what fun she had with my parents. Who will probably take her to museums and the like."

"Probably," Danny agreed. "She should see if she can write reports on them for class or something."

"That's actually a good thing," Stan agreed. "Her social studies grade is a bit low this semester."

Rachel nodded. "It is. I could see her doing that. Thank you for being reasonable."

"I could say the same thing," he told her. "By the way, congratulations on the new one." She winced. He grinned. "I'm happy you're happy, Rachel. The new one will be just as safe around us."

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I've got an appointment in a few days to make sure I am."

Danny waved a hand. "You are. You had the same mood swings when you had Gracie."

"Xander told her the same thing," Stan quipped, walking off to get more water to drink.

"Yeah, his town had some higher pregnancy rates," Steve said. "And a low life expectancy, which probably explains why the other was so high."

"Why?" Rachel asked.

"Lots and lots of problems."

"I looked that town up. Whoever made up those cover-ups was a moron," she said. "There's not that much PCP in the universe."

"No, there's beings who nibble though. Which the kid used to fight," Danny said. "Which is how he'd protect Gracie even if some scuzzy thing came up to them on the street."

"As long as he doesn't teach her how to do that," Rachel said firmly.

"Nah. Self defense only. He agreed she could use it. Said she was pretty and boys were shitbags." He grinned. "Which I agreed with. Teenage boys are often shitbags with ideas they shouldn't have."

She shook her head. "Some day she'll have boyfriends."

"That's fine. They'll be able to hear the word 'not going to happen' and learn to appreciate it until she changes her mind. Because my little girl won't be an easy cheerleader sort."

"No, I'd rather she not," she agreed. She sipped her water. "We'll have to talk to her about that soon."

"Already got one out," Danny said with a grin. "She agreed, boys were still icky for a few years and when she was ready to date, I'd get to do background checks to make sure they weren't into bad boy things like drugs."

She nodded. "I'd expect nothing less from you." She got up and walked off. "Tell them to come back." Steve texted David, who sent back a picture. He nudged Danny to show him. Danny moaned. Rachel stopped to stare at him. Steve let her see the picture. "What is that? Is that a tiger?"

"It's a demonic hunting cat. They belong and are bonded to some types of hunters of huge problems," Steve said. "I'm hoping that means that one's owner or whatever they're called handled whatever problem it was already." He sent back a message to ask about that. One came back. "Oh, an unbonded one. It was sad and came to get petted by Grace, who was sad." Rachel slumped, walking off shaking her head. "She's a good girl."

"She is," Danny agreed. "I'm happy that she is." They shared a look and Steve saved down the picture. David said they'd be coming back soon. "He's bringing them back through a burger place?"

"To soak up the sugar they inhaled. They got donuts on the way to the warehouse and ate most of a box of ho-hos and a few twinkies together," Steve reported, putting his phone up. Rachel came out. "David's getting them burgers on the way back here to soak up some of the sugar since Xander fed her chocolate. He says it's what girls need when they're having moods."

She rolled her eyes. "Only younger ones. The older ones drink wine," she said dryly. Stan hugged her, making her smile at him.

Steve and Danny shared a look, going to sit down and watch the waves for a bit so the couple had some privacy. Not that they thought Stan was the sort to pounce in a kitchen, but you never knew about pregnant women.

***

David put up his phone and looked at the staring cat. "They knew I was here." Xander nodded, petting the purring thing. Grace was giggling as she petted them. "I promised Steve I'd get you guys burgers on the way back to Steve's house. The fight's done with." Grace looked up at him. "I have no idea how it got worked out. Just that it's not going on again." She nodded, going back to petting it. "I don't think it'll fit in the car with us, Grace."

"It's fine," Xander said. "There's got to be a clan member somewhere nearby." One faded out of the shadows. "See?" He grinned at him. "She was sad."

"I saw. It's fine. You both take good care of her." He looked at the cat. "We have meat for you if you want." It nudged Grace with her nose and she went back to petting her. "She's a human," he reminded the cat patiently.

Xander grinned. "She's a girl," he told the cat. "They have all sorts of hair things and ways to dress you up." The cat shrank and climbed up Grace to snuggle on her shoulder. The demon stared at the cat then at Xander, who shrugged. "Will it hurt anything?"

"They're not bonding, so I don't think so. I'm sure it'll be fine for a bit. That one is too young to bond by about ten years." Grace gave him an awed look. "It's a big responsibility."

"You'd have to get vets certificates to take him to London with you," David said. The cat yawned and batted at him but snuggled in. He looked at the demon. "Would that be a problem?"

"No. Not in the least. Many have traveled to find their true bondmate. I will tell her mother so she does not worry." He smiled at Grace. "If you have questions, we can be found online. The one beside you knows of us."

Xander nodded. "I asked if Willow could adopt a kitty once because she needed something to love and care for so she'd quit momming me."

The demon laughed. "We had heard. Pity she did not get accepted."

"Her mother would've thrown a fit. Willow talked about getting a gerbil and her mother had a huge fit about them not being there to take care of it. Willow pointed out if she was responsible enough to take care of herself she could take care of a gerbil. Her mother scoffed and they left again the next day. Thankfully her mother never met Amy the rat."

"That one is thankfully changed back," the demon agreed. Xander grinned at him. "I know of why."

"Us too. Thank you and tell her mother she'll be very safe. Her mother's pregnant so fussing over things but Grace is *very* responsible, more so than her mom is. If not, it can come hang out at my house to be petted if it wants."

"I shall." He petted the cat. "Come home if you want and when you're ready." He disappeared again.

David looked then nodded. "That'll work. C'mon, kids. Let's go get a burger to soak up all the chocolate and sugar, then we'll go back to Steve's house." They nodded, cleaning up the small mess of wrappers and comic books were put back then they trooped out to the car to go back. He paused Grace beside the car. "If you need to run away, you come to the house, kid. You're gonna be safe there. You might not be in a mall." She nodded, cuddling her new cat. He got her in and let her buckle herself in. Xander still had to have a booster seat in this state. David got in to drive. It had been a long, interesting day.

***

Danny stared at his daughter's 'cat', feeling something funny from it. Especially since it was giving him an amused look. He leaned down to get close to it. "If you're not harmful I don't care but you protect my baby girl like I would," he said quietly, staring it down. "Or I'm letting the boy have you for weeks." The cat licked her paw then settled in to nap. "Good. I'm glad we could agree." He walked out, going downstairs. They were at Steve's house, still, because Grace had fallen asleep there. Rachel and Stan had went home but Steve had let Grace sleep over. Steve was giving him an amused look. "I was right, the cat's not normal." Xander shook his head. "Peaceful?"

"Very. Usually they're bonded to warriors but that one just liked her a lot."

"So are we cat sitting while she's in England?" Danny guessed.

"No, she can travel with it," David said smugly. "Just need a vet's orders." Danny nodded once. "It was comforting and the ones that they usually bond to said it was fine if he wanted to protect her for a bit."

"Then I got no problem with her having a cat. Even if Rachel does complain a lot." Xander covered his mouth. Danny stared at him. "Didn't help when I was married to her, kid. Nothing stops the complaining when she's in a mood." David walked off giggling to go to the bathroom. He stared at the kid. "She safe?"

"Of course!"

"Good. Good job letting us know you had 'er. Good job keeping us informed."

"We saw David spot us. Or I did anyway. She was crying on me."

Danny nodded. "That shit sucks to be stuck in the middle of," he agreed. "And hey, she did learn something useful today."

"I kept her out of the weapons. We only read comics and I fed her universal girl food."

"That works. You did good helping her, Xander. I'm happy with that. Nice job telling Steve too, that way it wouldn't make her mother freak."

"I figured."

"Good, tactical thought," David agreed as he came out wiping his hands off on his shirt. Steve looked at him. "Out of paper towels but we're guys. I have a t-shirt." Steve smiled but got some more. "C'mon, not-a-kid. We'll go home. Let them do partner things."

"Not into that," Danny shot back but he was smiling.

"You sure?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, totally. He's got no boobs. Breasts are a requirement in my life."

"If you're sure." He stood up, helped up by David. "We're good, David."

"Fine. You're still tired. You were trying to hide yawns. Remember, they're getting the education stuff set up tomorrow so you'll never have time to be bored again."

"Yay," Xander said sarcastically. "More stuff I'll suck at." David swatted him gently but they went home to leave the partners to talk.

Danny looked at Steve. "Grace really is the best of you and Rachel, and very strong," Steve told him.

"Yeah but watching the fighting is destroying."

"I know. You're doing good helping her."

"Thanks." The cat came down the stairs and trotted outside to use a bush then back upstairs. "That's good, thank you. We'll set up the litter box stuff once she's home. She knows what it is, Stan got her a bunny and they use it too."

Steve was shaking his head but he was definitely amused. If the cat hadn't been mystical, Danny probably would've thrown a fit. Rachel had when the cat unshrank for a minute to sniff her and Stan then went back to kitten sized on her human pet's lap. Thankfully Xander could tell her how protective the cat was of kids. So it was all right now.

For now.

***

Xander looked at his school program then at David. "Why is this shit in math?"

"Because McKay picked it out," David quipped. He came over to look over his kid's shoulder, frowning. "That's calculus. Why are you doing that?" Xander shrugged. "Did you take some sort of placement test?"

"No. I opened it and it was here."

"Let me call Jack," he said. He called him. "For some reason the kid's educational stuff showed up as calculus." He listened to Jack ask someone. "Oh. That. He said it was set so you had to learn something new."

Xander looked at him. "Unfortunately, I flunked algebra and the town only offered to there," he said dryly. "Sunnydale wasn't that good educationally."

David repeated that, making Jack complain about his old school system. "Then look it up, General." He waited while they looked it up. "Yeah, and he wasn't the best student because he does hands-on things better, sir." Jack talked to someone. "Please do, sir. He's not that witch, he's a guy who does things with his hands, like some of us were. Outside you and Sheppard, who has a math degree." He hung up. "He'll be resetting it."

"That might help since I'm not that sort of brainy smurf. Neither was Willow. Calculus wasn't offered. Or at the local college."

"That's stupid, it should've been offered at the college."

"We had a major in tv and movie education," Xander said dryly. "And one in surfing. And we didn't have a surfing beach nearby."

David walked off shaking his head. "At least your town's sunk now."

"Thankfully," Xander agreed dryly. "Now the nibbling ones are out and about to find a new homeland." David shuddered. "Only a few are coming here. It's way too bright."

David looked up. "Thanks, whichever Ancient you are up there."

Xander looked up then at him. "One of these days they're going to answer you back."

"At least I know how to handle egotistical higher ups," David joked.

Xander looked at the being fading in, grinning at her. "Hey, Precious."

She snorted, shaking her head. "Not even close, Xander Harris."

"Say my name, baby. Watch more show up to bow at me. I'm going to start a cult soon."

She stared at him. "Wow. Call your pack, little Xander." He groaned. "She's fine but there's a hell coming later today for her dad." She sighed. "He'll be fine too."

Xander nodded. "We can warn them."

"Won't help and might make it worse."

Xander nodded. "If something does, I'll gladly hover over her."

"Yeah, she's got some bullies."

"They're idiots," Xander agreed. "We can talk to her later."

"Your pack is pretty strong," she told him, giving him a pointed look. "And you're in the wrong area."

"Are they coming after Little Pooch again?"

"No. The Shadow of Death is gone from him." She leaned down. "If you start a cult, it'll be a bad thing."

He kissed her on the nose with a grin. "We'll see. Not like they see the real me anyway."

"They did this time."

"Well, the world will need more warriors someday. After all, how many more potentials are there?" he shot back. "The vision said there's only about fifty left." She winced. "And I'm not about to let the world fall to that sort."

"They're slowing down the line since they're living longer."

"Because the girls got real help and support."

"They saw. They said it involves others."

"The vampires involved me by taking Jesse," he shot back. "Plenty have already been involved. We're going to do it anyway."

"Point. Fine. Just don't start a cult."

"Yup, if you're sure." He smiled a good boy grin. "We'll see what happens when I'm older."

"Someone's going to get you for the weapons if you try. They've already said that."

"I'm a kid. What're they going to do about me inheriting weapons?" He smiled. "And half of the things in that warehouse aren't weapons."

"They won't care."

Xander rolled his eyes. "Thanks for telling me I need to use an owed wish." She flinched but disappeared. Xander sent a text message to someone he knew from David's phone. They agreed they could protect things and move it somewhere closer and safer later today. And he said thank you for the warning that shit was going to get stupid later. Xander handed the phone back and restarted the educational program. "Great, now it's in science that I never will understand." He sighed and restarted it again, but signed in with a different name. "There, now I can take the placement tests." He did that, scowling at most of it. "Hey, I made it out of middle school," he said happily. "I knew the school sucked ass."

David laughed. "Remember to call Grace."

"She can't use her phone in school." He used David's phone to send a text message to Stan, Grace's stepfather. He could help and Stan agreed if higher beings were worried about her dealing with bullies then he should probably ask her about them later. Xander sent back a thank you and got back to his daily dose of educational torture.

David made notes for Jack and Steve later on. That way the 'parental' ones could talk. Then Xander got that look on his face, he was having a vision. With a headache since he was rubbing his forehead. "Kiddo?" he asked quietly. "You good?"

Xander held up a hand until it stopped. He took David's phone again, calling Stan this time. "Get Grace out of that school before the asshole bully's parent runs through the school in his SUV because he's a drunk, bitter, weakling asshole who thinks his kid is an angel but the principal told him he's not. Her classroom is right above the office, Stan." Stan hung up and hopefully was calling someone. He called Danny. "Would you rather deal with the thing that's going to be bad news or the guy that's going to try to slam his SUV into your daughter's school?" Danny spluttered but demanded to know what he meant by that. Xander described the full vision and that he had told Stan. Danny promised he'd talk to Stan and then go get Grace if he had to. They could send someone to watch the school for the next few hours. Xander hung up and put his head on the table, shaking it. "Steve's going to get captured soon and tortured again," he muttered. "This is going to suck huge."

David took his phone, calling the pretty one he'd love to flirt with. "Kono, it's David. Xander's had a vision earlier about Grace's school and just muttered that Steve is going to be captured and tortured again." Xander blinked at him. "Full on in the vision?" Xander nodded. "Because Danny wasn't there?" Xander nodded again. "Yeah, because he told him about Grace's school being driven into. Yeah, that reason. I'm sure you're just as good as both of them together," he quipped with a smile. "So you can stop the other bad one, and then talk Xander out of starting a cult of hunters since the higher beings are taking out part of the slayer line in the future."

"And someone who wants to stop that is who's going to go after the weapons warehouse," Xander said dryly. He got up to get something to drink.

"You can have advil or tylenol, Xander."

"Not like it'll help. It hasn't yet." He sat down and then went to lay on the couch for a bit.

"Yeah, full on vision. Started with a parent driving through Grace's school because he just *knows* his kid isn't the bully the principal accused him of being. He told Danny and Stan that one. Then he got something else that said Steve would be tortured. Thanks. Yeah, he's got a headache. He said tylenol won't help. Thank you, Kono. Let us know if we can help. Xander can be babysat for a few hours while I come help. I am used to the insane battles in the universe." He smiled. "When the program gets unclassified *everyone's* going to be screaming in horrified awe," he assured her smugly. "Thanks." He hung up. "Any other revelations?"

"Yeah. There's hackers who Jensen ran into to block them from blowing open the program. He reported them but there's some good ones still out there that want to make the program ejaculate all over the news."

"Is that the word you really wanted to use?" he asked, dialing Jensen's phone.

"Yup."

"Okay." He listened to Jensen complain. "The kid said that the hackers you stopped aren't the only one and they're going to, and I quote, ejaculate all over the news about the program." He listened to Jensen telling the general there, Landry, that. Landry complained about that phrase but Jensen reminded him he had turned in six hacking attempts he had ended in the last three weeks. The general agreed that was a problem and they'd look at it after that team got back from their mission. Jensen suggested that someone should look before then since one was a kid who was still trying. "You should ask to get Kusangi and McKay back for a few days. They made the system," David told him. Jensen repeated that.

"The teenager that's hacking the program is around here," Xander called. He waved a hand. "I heard the kids at the mall talking about it."

"Xander said he heard some kids at a mall talking about it when he was sneaking into one to get a donut. Because that's the only time the kid will go into a mall on his own," he said blandly. "He's still having horrified reactions at shopping, Jensen. Yeah. That reaction. No, we had a visit by an ascended woman."

"My ex," Xander called.

"Who Xander used to date," David quipped. "Yes, that one. Then he had a vision. Which he told people about. Now he's resting on the couch. All right, call when you get back and be safe."

"Landry's a huge, leaking dick," Xander said, rubbing his forehead again. "Tell him to take extra bullets. Those aren't friends. They don't want to be friends. They wanted to capture some of the others and they won't be impressed about soldiers. And if I get another goddess damned vision, I'm coming up there!" he shouted. "Stop it!" The pain made him pass out but the vision didn't come back.

"And that was him swearing at higher powers right before he passed out," David reported, moving to check on Xander's pulse. "He's just out, Jake. Yup, take extra bullets. That's what he said. Have fun with it too," he said dryly. "Those ones often will take sexual sacrifices instead but don't quote me on that. It's an open secret and Landry's not thrilled with those sort. Yup, be safe, dude." He hung up and got Xander an ice pack for his head and a bottle of water for when he woke up. The doctor appeared and he waved. "At least two visions, Doc."

"I heard. Jake him his phone on speaker and the general is growling."

David shrugged. "Not my fault half the universe is missing out on genetic diversity so they need some. There's a few planets that we know are inbred and will take any outside sperm that comes their way."

"I remember those reports. This one isn't one of those." She grimaced.

Xander blinked at her. "The general hates anyone not like him and I hate to tell him this but his asshole sucking needs to stop around my uncle." She glared. He stared back. "I don't care. I know one of the hackers locally. I introduced myself because he's a half demon. He knew who I was." He grinned. "The general tried to stop supplies from getting to the city."

"Damn it," she muttered. "How did they know?"

"They have *all* the records. From *all* the agencies that have stolen them." He grinned. "Someone really should go remind them that certain portions of humanity will freak out and threaten everyone even more. Before Steve has to run a SEAL style raid. Again."

"I'll let O'Neill know when I get back to base." She took David's phone to call him while she checked Xander over. "Just a headache?" Xander nodded. "Migraine?"

"No clue. Never had those before this. It starts with a brain ripping feeling and eases down to 'oooh, I ripped a muscle' pain. I hope it ends in a few hours like usual."

"That can't be good, kiddo." She scanned his brain, frowning at the readings. "Take the blocking crystal off." He did that and he scanned him again. "No, still swelling. That's really not good."

"That's probably why Cordy's visions killed her," he said.

"It...killed her?" Doctor Lam asked. Xander nodded slightly. "Why?"

"Pain or something. All I know is that they killed her. You can see if she'll come down to talk to you."

"I'll talk to the LA people to see if they know why."

"Tell them to arm up for the invasion."

"Yeah, I can do that." She patted him. "I have something to help you nap." She gave him a shot and he drifted off. She went back to talking to the general about what the boy had heard. David pulled up information on what the kid had stored in his personal notes on the computer. O'Neill promised he'd be talking to those hackers himself and then to Landry. She handed the phone back and stood up. "He should nap for a few hours," she said quietly. "Just let him sleep it off. I'll see if I can get that young woman's medical records. Maybe there's a way to ease them." She went back to the base via the ship.

David smirked at the young kid. "Nice work, kiddo. Solved a lot of problems." He covered him and went to make lunch. He was getting hungry so Xander probably was.

***

O'Neill appeared in the office, looking at the two detectives. "People, is the SEAL here?"

"Danny's rescuing him from the people that captured him while we tell him where they are," Chin said. "He told us not to come help."

"That sucks," O'Neill said. "I can wait a few hours I guess."

"Problems?" Kono asked.

"Teenage hackers who're going to blow my project wide open. Which will cause everyone a lot more work when the riots start."

"Something evil?" she guessed, staring at him.

He grinned. "No, we've been fighting various forms of evil for years now, Detective." She winced. "And it's all Presidential Eyes Only." She winced again. "Xander apparently talked to one of them about not releasing everything yet when he was sneaking off for a donut."

"Great. You can tell the kid that the parental issue was solved by two cruisers that stopped the guy trying to ram the school," Chin told him. "The drunken excuse for a parent was arrested and dragged off. Thankfully his kid was drunk in the car with him so he probably won't remember his father being arrested. He got his son drunk for being expelled for bullying."

"Wonderful," Jack said dryly. Danny called in and Chin told him how to get into the building. Kono hacked into the nearby cameras for them. She took over guiding Danny in and apparently Danny had borrowed a few of Xander's grenades. Or Steve's stash of them. The explosions were handy and Steve got evacuated before the rest of the PD rushed in to arrest people for Danny. She reported the general was there about the hackers. Danny said something smart that the general couldn't hear. She rolled her eyes but they said they'd be in after Steve got dragged to the ER for stitches.

***

Jack got out of the car with Steve, straightening out his uniform jacket. He saw a few horrified looks from the apartment building and smiled at one. "I'm here to recruit our future hackers." That one ran off. He and Steve walked up together, Steve knocking on the door. An older woman opened the door. "Ma'am, I'm General O'Neill and I need to speak to Jackson."

"What did he do?" she demanded, looking at the other one.

"I only drove," Steve told her. "But he's hacking the military, ma'am." She winced.

Jack smiled. "He's good. We didn't realize it for six weeks. Unfortunately he got into some classified things. We need to make sure he's not going to talk about that until it becomes unclassified. I'm not here to be mean, to destroy things, nothing like that. Though if he's that good I might recruit him when he's old enough." He saw the kid leaning around a doorway. "It took Miko Kusangi six hours to find your doorway, kid."

"She's a goddess," he said quietly.

"Yeah, and she said you're good. But we've got to talk about what you found."

"You fight huge evil things," he defended.

"Yes, but think about what others will think when they find out," Steve told him. "How many are going to have fits?"

"Maybe they should know. It might ease up on the demon communities that might be coming out soon."

"Could be," Jack agreed. "Won't make anyone sleep any better at night." He walked in and pulled the kid out to talk to him with his guardian there. "You got a very biased view of things, Jackson. You only got about a fifth of things from those other agencies."

"That's why we went working. We thought it was a hidden program but it's not."

"No, it's not," Jack agreed, sitting down. "There's a lot of real soldiers out there getting hurt to protect everyone but a lot of humanity won't accept it yet."

"If they do it at the same time as demons come out, they won't kill us all," Jackson shot back.

"True," Jack agreed. "And that's a reason I can see. I can't let you put it out there, but I can try harder for things to be hidden about the demon communities. Would that help?"

Jackson shook his head. "A hacker doing this realm's greatest evil planners caught them planning an invasion of LA." His guardian moaned, shaking her head.

"Xander told us about that," Steve agreed.

"You know Xander?"

"I'm his local guardian. This is General O'Neill, his guardian when he's in Colorado." He smiled. "We know Xander, we talk to Xander, we help calm him down sometimes, and today he had visions." The kid winced, shaking his head with a sigh. "Between us and his other uncle, we about take his place in all those things. His other uncle helped Buffy when the town went down the portal."

"I ...we heard about that," he admitted. He looked at his guardian. "The White Knight, Grandma."

Jack nodded. "He's a good kid. A really neat kid. We really adore Xander and I'm hoping we make him a bit more normal of a guy. He's a bit hyper right now to fix things so he's not needed yet and to make sure the higher beings that did this won't use him as a betting board."

"Too late." Jackson grimaced. "He's already seen that way by most of them. They think he's fun."

"He's about ready to go after that sort," Steve said.

"If anyone could, he could," Jackson said with a grin. "He's known for it." He looked at O'Neill. "It could save a lot of lives."

"It could," he agreed. "And I'll take that consideration to the president. But if you or someone leaks it, that's spilling classified information."

"Snowden did."

"And he's hiding in Russia," Jack reminded him. "There were a lot of things wrong with what he did and how he did it. There were better ways of him to have spread that information without causing that much of a problem for himself. He didn't." He stared at the kid. "Spilling it soon won't stop anything. They'll come after the teams and then after your communities for being part of it. It's the wrong time."

"We were going to send it out at the same time as the LA invasion," Jackson admitted. "That way the freaking out would be together."

Jack considered it. "There's people who would send others to stop you."

"I saw about the IOA people," Jackson admitted. "I thought you might be with them. The files didn't come with pictures."

"Then you clearly didn't get fully into the NID files."

"No, that was another of us." He grinned. "She's hiding from them actually."

"Is she old enough to be recruited?" Jack asked casually.

"She's twelve."

"Then no. Probably not. We can use some good computer people so we might've taken her in for a year or so to protect her."

"Is she local?" Steve asked. Jackson nodded. He handed over his card. "You tell us if they show up. 5-0 isn't happy about those things and I personally hate NID more than I would the kraken that tried to eat me when I was surfing last time." The kid giggled but put it into his pocket. "Danny's daughter goes to a local prep school."

"We know. She's nice. We met her on purpose since you were dealing with demon things. That way we knew who to go see."

"Us," Steve agreed. "Not the kids unless you absolutely have to. Even Xander. He's seven and he forgets that now and then."

"I can do that." He looked at O'Neill. "It's not just us."

"I realize that. I'm telling you because we found you." He smiled slightly. "Miko was *very* impressed." He blushed, ducking his head. "So was Jake Jensen."

"He's my sort of guy," Jackson said with a sigh of hero worship.

"He's Xander's other uncle," Steve said dryly. The kid grinned, bouncing some. "If you come to me, I'm formerly Naval Intelligence. I have a high enough clearance to hand off sealed packages to the general."

Jackson got up and hurried off, coming back with his laptop and a portable drive, letting Jack see it. "We found this. That's what started us looking."

Jack took it to look over, frowning. "That's...not quite the Trust crap is it?" Jackson shook his head. "I think that's probably what Xander heard that makes him hate Landry too."

"Ditto," Jackson said. "And he hates demons too, sir."

Jack looked at him. "He's very uptight."

"And then some," Jackson agreed. He frowned, looking outside. "Did you bring backup?"

Steve looked. "Those are army, general." Jack took the drive with a wink, putting it into his pocket on his way out to talk to them. One of them fired on him so Steve went to help. "You two, go hide." They ran to hide in a panic room the kid had set up. They got the team down and injured so Steve called it in. He looked at his phone then called Chin directly. "I just got told that I was delusional and I hadn't taken out a military strike team here to hit a kid and his guardian for the kid hacking, Chin. Yes, there. Please. Thank you." He hung up. "I'll talk to the governor later."

"Will they come near Xander?"

"Not without Xander solving it somehow," he said. "How's Jake? Xander was worried earlier that Landry was sending them on a death trip."

"I hope not. If so I'll be rescuing them later." He looked at the house then at Steve. "Do you know anyone like them that's an adult?"

"I know someone who's very invested in paranoid conspiracies." He grinned. "I told him Xander's name and he had a squee fit about how they took down a military project."

"Yes, they did." Steve smirked at him. "Does he know about us?"

"You want me to ask?" Jack nodded. Steve called. "Jerry, McGarrett. I was asked by a General O'Neill to ask you if you were part of the hacking group that was trying his project." He listened to the panting rash of words. "I knew that already, Jerry. He showed up to talk to a kid hacking the other agencies that would have information." He nodded at the general. "Exactly. And now I was just told by Dispatch that we didn't take out an army unit here to take out the kid hacker. Yes, that one. Please, can you make sure he's safe? Thank you. Yeah, go ahead and call him. They're hiding." Two cruisers parked and officers got out. He put the phone against his shoulder. "We're here talking to a kid who hacked a classified program by accident, people."

"We heard, sir," one of them said. He looked at the general. "Theirs?"

"Air Force," Jack said with a smile. "The kid hacked my classified project. We're just talking about it today. He's too young to recruit full time."

Steve put the phone against his shoulder. "Jerry, the kid has a quandary about protecting others and the timing of when it comes out. Yes that group. I knew about that. That's my nephew Xander, Jerry. Didn't I introduce you two yet?" He grinned. "Later. He's got a headache today from visions. Thank you." He hung up and tucked the phone back into his pocket. "He'll put word out to protect these two, general. The same as they did the other kid that they tried to get, that girl he mentioned."

"Again?" Jack demanded. Steve nodded. "Any idea why?"

"You can borrow our rooms to ask them if you want."

"Yes, I think I do." He frowned at the people being arrested. "Get the kid to safety. I'll be talking to many people tonight I think." He followed. "I'm going to talk to them to see who sent them, boys. Someone's stupid up high and I'm not sure which one it is."

"Take the general and them back to our office," McGarrett ordered. "Let Kono help him." They nodded, doing that for him. He sent Kono a message then went back inside. "They're gone, Jackson," he called. He wrote down a number, handing it to the kid. "Jerry's number. I know you know about him, he knows you."

"Yeah, we know about him from the bulletin boards."

"You let him help you get safe. And next time, don't get caught hacking the government." He gave him a pointed look. "At least until you're old enough to be taken in by one of those projects and protected. Some of them are good and useful."

"I know. I realize that."

"Good." He patted him on the head. "Be safe and call if you're not. The general's going to find out who in the army sent those sort at you and your female friend. Be safe." He left, going back to the office.

"I told you to quit doing that," his grandmother complained. "You're going to get into trouble and a lot of those sort wouldn't care to kill you for it to hide the secrets."

"I know, Grandma, but it's too important."

"It won't be."

"It will be." He let her see something. "Even the top councils are saying it will be."

She read, frowning. "That's science fiction crap!" She swatted him on the head.

"That's what that general does." His grandmother groaned. "Yeah, exactly. Which could protect us all." He packed up things and got a neighbor to take him to meet with Jerry so he could protect his information. The others got called on the way and they agreed. Jerry agreed to meet them and he'd guard their information for now.

***

Jack looked at the screen. "Sir, I'm taking over my fellow guardian's office to talk to you," he said. "McGarrett was not amused when a general that's not even involved in my program sent military teams to stop some hackers trying to hack my program."

The president stared at him. "Seriously? It's that important?"

Jack smiled, nodding. "They have enough information to open the program completely and to get a few of the generals noted for treason as well. Including Landry." The president moaned. "Plus there's another complication. You know what my nephew used to do?"

"Yes, in blunt detail thanks to a program I hope like hell is closed."

"Half of them went to Homeland and the other went to the UN, and if I see them they're dead bodies," Jack said bluntly. "But a group of evil on that spectrum is going to have LA invaded in about a month." He waited while the president winced. "And the hackers were talking about outing my program at the same time to protect the peaceful among the demon communities as well as any peaceful aliens."

"So they were going to go 'look, this program knows and protects us all from the bad things'," the president said, staring at him. "And he probably expected your group to show up for the invasion."

"Yes, sir. That way it'd protect the demon communities from the same sort that'll want to take us out too."

"I can see that being tactical," the president said. He considered it for a moment. "It's not a bad idea. Did they hack your program directly?"

"NID, NSA, FBI, CIA, and Secret Service files on us. One of them was trying to get into our program but Miko's programs mostly kept them out. They got some odds and ends that Jake Jensen found and stopped. By the way, I'd like to be moved back to the Mountain."

"Hank Landry's not bad," the president said.

"Except for the fact that they found out he's part of a conspiracy to take out the project and a lot of others to take over. Including assassinating you after you helped by signing certain bills for them, sir." Jack stared at him. Then he sent over a few files he had printed off that drive. "I believe your secretary has the notes the kids made."

"Children?" he demanded.

"Young teens mostly, sir." He relaxed when his secretary brought in the papers so the president could read them. He was spluttering and choking. "I'd hate to let them win, sir, and I won't let them win. Frankly, I'll bring the city back first."

"They'll never make it back here."

"Yes, they will," Jack said. The president was choking and spluttering again. "They'll be back here within a few weeks actually. McKay is that genius. Sheppard is that good. And with what we sent to them recently they did decimate most of the wraith. There's very few left in the Pegasus galaxy and half of them were heading this way so the city's coming back to fight them for us."

"We can do without them. I'll have them blown out of the sky."

"You do and you'll have a huge problem, sir." Jack stared at him. "Including that the hackers will release all that information as soon as you try. You see, they look up to Miko Kusangi as a goddess." He stared at him. "And I've already alerted my military commander. We talked about the hacking problem a few hours ago, sir. They agreed with the kid's tactical reasons but agreed that we don't want that invasion to happen. They just weren't sure how to keep the kids safe so we could use them when they're old enough to recruit."

"I'll have you arrested."

"You go right ahead, sir. I could use the vacation," he said dryly. "And the head of the Joint Chiefs threatened the same thing for daring to hide what his Marines were doing in my project. Then my Joint Chief shared why and he nearly had a heart attack. He swore up and down that you were the root of all evil." He smiled slightly. "I brought the hacker I talked to earlier to talk to them with me and they were not amused but understood why and they were highly concerned about all that they found." The president hung up. "That was the wrong answer," he said, turning off the computer on his end. "McGarrett, if they kill me for this, I'll try to haunt the kid."

"Sure," Steve agreed. "That'll work well for him and if Jake dies he promised the same thing." He looked at him. "The higher ups wanted to do what?"

"To not blow open the program completely but to out the treason."

"Can it be done?" Steve asked.

"Maybe." He smiled. "Can you talk to your governor?"

He called him on the video conferencing. "I have a general here who wanted to talk to you about some evidence of treason, Governor."

"You're doing what?" he demanded.

"Not us. The president." The governor stared at him so he got out of the way so Jack could talk to him.

"I'm General O'Neill, Air Force. The Joint Chiefs do know but the plot goes all the way up to the president."

"That could be dangerous to me," the governor said.

Jack nodded. "My project is highly classified and it's brain warping. I'm trying to out one and not the other before the US is taken over."

"How bad?" Jack sent over the information for him. He took it to read, frowning as he read it. "Damn it!"

"Yes, sir, exactly." He smiled. "Which needs to be found out, but not outing anything else."

"I see. The military higher ups?"

"Wanted the same thing but not to be involved."

"I do have some press contacts."

"We had teenage hackers," Steve said from behind Jack's shoulder. "We're trying to protect them and the general's program at the same time, Governor. It's important that the general's project get left alone for now."

"Is it doing bad things?"

"We protect the whole earth from some seriously weird things," Jack said. "There's going to be a lot of screaming when we're outed."

"From groups like ISIS?"

"From groups in every religion," Jack admitted. "We have an oversight authority that is world-wide."

The governor winced. "That sounds nasty."

"We do good work. We do necessary, dirty work as well."

"Understood. Um..." He read it over again. "How bad?"

"You know that battle that got shut up as being a training exercise in the Antarctic?" Jack asked. The governor nodded once. "It wasn't and it was my people."

"Oh, dear. All right, this is going to be loud. I can let a contact know I have them." Jack nodded. "Are you on my islands?"

"No. Not at the moment but we have been thinking about using a corner of Pearl for recuperation needs."

"Where?"

"Midwest."

"Better me than them then. Do others know?" Jack shook his head. "Only the president?"

"I had to tell the Joint Chiefs today and they all nearly had heart attacks and all of them did scream, Governor."

"I can see why. I'll let them know. That teenage hacker?"

"We're protecting him," Steve told him.

"Good." He hung up and went to talk to his press secretary. Then he decided to go around them to the man's assistant. He walked into his office. "I got handed this by a general to protect a teenage hacker."

The man read it over and looked at him. "That's treason."

"So I was told."

"My boss is on here."

"Tell someone who isn't."

"Yes, Governor." He hesitated then made a call. "I was handed information from a teenage hacker that found treasonous activity." He nodded. "Please, now." He hung up. "Yes, sir."

"Thank you. Don't include me. We've had a few military teams here to take out the hacker." He left, going back to his office.

The assistant press secretary went to meet his contact at a local coffee shop. She was already waiting. "I'm told that someone sent a team after the kid who found it," he said in her ear before sitting down. He handed it over. "It did not come from us," he said, glancing around.

She looked at him. "This is treason." He nodded. "No wonder!"

"Exactly."

"Be safe," she said. "I can do that." She got up and took her camera man as her bodyguard back to the office. "Mike," she called as she walked in. "MIKE!" Her editor came out of the office. She handed it over. "No one wants involved in what a teenage hacker found."

He read it over, grimacing. "Can we verify?"

"I just received it from Paul." She pointed at a name. "Because his boss is involved. He said no one wants involved."

"Oh, dear. All right. I'll get an agent to come help you."

"If you're sure they're not involved."

"I can make sure. My brother-in-law works over that way." He went to call him. "Go looking. Starting the investigation will help." She nodded, taking the notes back to start searching. Some of them she didn't know. What she found did not amuse her. Some seemed to be talking about aliens but the rest weren't cranks.

***

Danny was waiting on Xander to wake up when the news came on that night. He watched as the local news anchor, who was a vapid little airhead usually, talked about how they had found out the president was part of a treasonous group. "Damn," he muttered.

David looked up, watching the story unfold. "Steve told us that came from the hacker that got into my former program." He went back to reading. "They're trying to protect the demon communities and the program but they can't let that go on."

Danny winced as she laid out what had been found by agents who had worked with her. It showed people being arrested, including the president. "Well, the good guys won I guess."

"Landry was one," Xander mumbled. He flipped onto his side. "That shit was strong."

"I'll let the doctor know," David quipped, handing over a bottle of water.

Danny patted Xander on the leg. "You did good, kid. Officers stopped the drunk idiot and his drunk idiot kid. We stopped the stuff with Steve. O'Neill stopped the military people coming after that hacker kid." Xander looked confused. "The one you met when getting donuts."

"He's trying to protect the demon community when they're outed due to the invasion."

"Can we stop that?"

"Probably not," Xander admitted. "They can do most of it in other places and have it happen here in downtown LA."

"At least you didn't mean here, like downtown Honolulu," Danny quipped. Xander grinned, shaking his head. "That's even better. I don't think we could stand that."

"The kraken out in the water is bad enough," David quipped.

"Steve was shuddering about tentacles," Danny shot back with a smile. "Shows why I don't go swim all that often."

"There's one by New York and New Jersey but it only shows up to get a new slutty toy." Danny stared at him. "They don't eat people. They eat krill."

"Then why do they go after people?" Danny asked.

Xander stared at him. "Anime things."

"Ewww." He shuddered. "That's sick."

"Yup. They won't come near me. They hate mermen. Apparently they fight back a lot so they won't go near me since I slightly smell like one." He grinned.

"I'll let Steve know that," Danny said, patting him on the knee again. "You rest, kiddo. Let us know if you have more." Xander nodded. "Good boy. By the way, we moved all the weapons somewhere safer and your comics are in the garage with all the non-weapon stuff so you guys can sort through them." Xander went to look. "And if you find more of Anya's sex toys, let us know so we can hand them to someone who might use 'em," he called after the kid.

"Sure," Xander called. "I won't need any for a few years."

David blinked at him. "She had that many? We packed up at least sixty."

"There were a few cases of them," Danny told him, getting comfortable. "A few in a carrying case, like a display case for makeup artists. A few more in special boxes. One that was platinum." David gaped. "Yeah. There were at least two hundred in the original stuff. We quit looking at some of the boxes after we got freaked out at the demon model ones. Only so many tentacles you wanna look at before you need a shower."

"Eww."

"We sold the expensive ones on the kid to give him setting up funds. She had a few that had gems and shit."

"Wow," David mouthed, leaning backward to look out there. "Did they leave some of the weapons?"

"No," Xander called. "Stay in there. Giant demonic mice."

"Like hell," David said. He got up and went out there with a weapon. And found military guys. "They don't look like mice, kiddo."

"They should be. They're kinda evil."

"Are they the sort doing their jobs?" David asked.

"No." Xander looked up at him. "If they were doing their jobs, they're still working for torturing assholes."

"You don't know anything, kid," one of them said.

Xander looked at him. "I know I shot at your dumb ass a few years ago," he told him. "Too bad I only hit you on the side when you were in Sunnydale." That one flinched back, shaking his head. "Yeah, me. If you guys were looking for the hacker, I don't do that yet. Jake promised to teach me but I haven't learned yet."

"You're still to be taken in," one of them said, trying to grab Xander. David shot the guy in the shoulder. "How dare you!"

"Shut up, Sergeant. I outrank you," David said smugly. "And you're an idiot." He smirked at the team. "Get out of the kid's house."

"We can confiscate it."

"I doubt that."

"He's a material witness....."

Xander laughed. "No I'm not. I'm still the same Xander Harris I was before, just now I'm shorter." That one guy flinched back, running into the garage door, shaking his head. "Yeah, me, mother fucker." He smiled and waved. "Hi." The others tried to grab him but then there was a demon there with big mouths on its tentacles. Xander had opened a box. "Hey, big guy. These guys are bad military sorts. One of them was Initiative." The demon hummed, pulling them into his box and making the military guys scream. He looked up at David, shrugging some. "I'm all for good military people."

"I don't want to see them eaten," David complained.

"He won't eat them. Today. He's got to let them decompose first." He smiled. "It'll take a few weeks before they die."

"We can turn them over by then," Danny said from the doorway.

"Jack's probably fighting to not be captured by that sort," Xander said. "And Jake's team."

"Jake's team came back earlier," David said. "I had a spy tell me because of what you saw. They said they came back injured but did come back. The two teams that tried to capture them and others went down to other injuries. Doctor Lam was not amused."

Xander nodded. "Uncle Jake probably wasn't either."

"No. Clay and Jake were not amused and others stepped in to help them. And the general. Plus his Space Monkey as he used to call Jackson." He shook his head quickly. "Steve can hand these soldiers over to the base."

"Fine," Xander sighed. "We really should feed the big guy then. He can probably eat fish."

"We can offer him some fish in exchange," Danny said. He came to take the box. "Any more of these sort of items?"

Xander smiled and nodded. "Yup. Though not of him. He's in there so he could heal from what the Initiative assholes did to him. He needed to be contained so he could drool healing drool on himself. It'll take at least a few more years for him to fully heal."

"Sure," Danny agreed. "We can feed 'im fish if he wants. Or cow or sheep or pig or something." He walked off, taking the box to Steve's house. Steve met him at the door but wouldn't let the box into his house. "It's safe."

"I'll take it tonight. Come on." He took Danny with him to the base. The base commander wasn't happy when Steve had the head of the local security team call him. "General," he said, saluting. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett."

"At ease, Lieutenant Commander. What sort of problem had to call me after hours?"

Steve opened the box and looked down in it. "We have pig if you'd rather. Raw or we can find you some cooked. But we need the soldiers back please." The tentacles came out to deposit the soldiers.

"All of them please," Danny ordered. "Even if one of them was what tortured you. You want raw or cooked pork?"

"Raw," it growled. It let out the last one. "Thank you."

"Welcome. You want fish or cow or anything instead of pig?"

"Pig's nice," it said. "Like humans." It withdrew the tentacles. "Thank the young one for protecting me."

"Of course. We like him doing that sort of thing," Steve said. "I'll get you some pig in about three minutes. There's a nice place just outside the base." He put the box back on the table.

"These people came to capture a seven-year-old boy," Danny told them. "I was at his house to talk to him. One of them he noted was Initiative, and was therefore part of a torturing group that was in his former hometown." He stared at the general, who was glaring at his people. "I don't know if they were intending to get the teenage hacker that outed the president doing treason earlier or not, but they were threatening a little boy."

"Damn it," the general muttered. "They're not ours."

"No, sir, but you can hand them over," Steve said. "I can take them into custody for HPD but they'd have to come here anyway."

"True. Someone call CID." He looked at them. "You're HPD now?"

"On detached duty," Steve agreed. "A special task force."

"I heard about that. Thank you for not harming them too much. I'm sure the demon was nice enough to them." He stared down at them. "Nicer than I would've been."

"Nicer than Xander wanted to be too," Danny said. The general flinched, staring at him. "You know about Xander, General?" He nodded slowly. Danny pointed at Steve with a grin. "One of his uncles. We've got oversight."

"Good luck, McGarrett. Harris was a wild card before and even worse now probably. The boy was so weird at times."

"Now he's seven," Steve quipped with a smile. "And still with all his memories."

"You poor uncle. I wish you much luck."

"Thank you, General, and have fun with them."

"You have a good night too." They left, pausing to get the box a good bit of pork. It loved it and thanked the owner of the shop too. Who went to church that night. The general looked at the idiots then at his security team. "Find out who they belong to so I can chew on someone."

"Yes, sir. CID's sending someone from the closest office. It'll be a few hours. Put them in the brig and get them medical checks?"

"Go ahead," he agreed. "Have CID tell me when they get in." He went home to make notes onto his private files. It seemed that there might be some advanced positions opening up above him. With the news coming out of DC, he might get to move up a few desks very fast.

As long as he didn't have to deal with the White Knight of Chaos. Ever.

***

Xander called all the uncles a few mornings later. "The invasion is in about six days unless someone changes when the new moon is. They have to do the final sacrifice that night, at one am LA time, and then the invasion is four days later but twelve and a half hours off."

"That's great news," Jake said dryly. "Describe what you think an invasion is, Xander?"

"Open portal, vomit people eaters. Unless someone's stopped the Black Thorn group and Wolfram and Hart."

"Are they a law firm?" Jake guessed.

"Yes. The first is part of the law firm and part other higher ups."

"Charming!" Jake quipped sarcastically. "Beheading?"

"As long as the head comes off," Xander quipped. "And remember the LA team. If they try to throw it off to discredit people, it'll be next month. The sacrifice can only be held for so long and they have to do a lot of prep work on it first."

"Sheep?" Steve asked.

"Human with at least slight magical potential, has to know about the supernatural, and has to be a virgin."

"Could we have stopped this earlier?" Steve asked.

"I told you guys six months ago and no, they did half the rites they need off-plane," Xander said patiently.

"Okay," Steve agreed. "Where is it going to be?"

"Last we heard, the portal they're using is ancient and heavy so it's in their office building. Oh, and no idea how many of their lower drones are involved and how many are going to be sacrificed without warning."

"We can watch them," Steve decided. "I know someone working in the ATF out of San Diego. I can pass that along. Thanks, kiddo."

"Welcome. Have fun. Don't get eaten."

"We'll try really hard," Steve agreed. They all hung up and Steve called Jake back to make plans. Even with a month leeway it was going to be nasty.

Chin and Kono were searching out rumors since Steve had put the call on speaker since it had come up with David's number. Danny was calling an officer he knew who had transferred out to LAPD a few years earlier. Apparently they had some warnings that something big was going to happen around that day, no idea what, and that if not it'd be a month later so they were all on edge. The officer was yelling about demon things so Danny explained how most of them were peaceful in LA, just some wanted more power and stress from ruling things. Steve took the phone to talk to him, sparing Danny's hearing for a few minutes.

***
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