Nothing Is Of Greater Value...

He'd visited Buffy and her family; he'd visited Willow and Oz; he'd called Cordelia, Wesley and Angel in LA, but he'd never felt as nervous as he did now.

He stood with a hand at the doorbell contemplating whether he should actually make the effort to push the button. He rolled his eyes skyward and berated himself; told himself that he was being ridiculous. He then opened his eyes and pushed the button, and almost laughed at the shrilling jingle of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" blaring out at him. He did not quite manage to lift the smile from his lips before the door was answered, however, it took but a moment for it to disappear when he saw whom had answered.

A woman, perhaps the same age as himself, stood before him. She was dressed in a dressing gown that had seen better days; her hair was askew, though even that description did not come close; her eyes were squinting at him through the small cloud of smoke from the cigarette in her mouth. He vaguely heard a muffled "Yeah...?"

He cleared his throat in an attempt to abate the nerves. 'Perhaps this *had* been an error of judgement' he quickly thought. Instead he asked aloud, "Might I have a word with Xander...?"

For a moment there was a look of confusion on her face, then it brightened, then in quick succession, it scowled at him.

"Right... Xander... You must be one of those highbred, fancy friends of 'is to call him by *that* name." Then she looked him up and down and leered. "Still, gotta say you're some spunk. And the accent..." she sighed, a horrible gravely sigh, then hacked when she inhaled some smoke. "That for me...?" she asked, when she'd managed to stop coughing.

Giles looked to where she was pointing and frowned. He'd forgotten about the present he held under his arm. He then looked up at the woman in front of him and shook his head. "I'm afraid not. This is for Xander."

She scowled again, then took the cigarette from her mouth and flicked it past him onto the lawn, where it melted a tiny hole in the snow that had fallen. "Well, he aint 'ere, 'snever 'ere 'til tomorrow. You can give it to me, though. I'll make sure he gets it."

Again Giles shook his head. "I... er... I don't think so. Um, do you know where he might be...?"

She shrugged. "Thought he'd be with one of you lot. He's not liked it 'ere since you lot came on the scene..." She then stood a little straighter than before, "No' qui'e his cup a tea, ya know..." she accused in a malicious attempt at an English accent. Then she laughed at her own joke.

'Not surprising...' quickly flittered through his mind, before he cleared his throat and answered aloud, "Quite... Well should you see him, could you inform him that I visited and would like to see him...?"

"An' you are...?"

"Oh right, of course. Rupert Giles, Librarian at Sunnydale High, where Xander attends." He plastered a pleasant smile on his face.

He then heard a loud, raucous laugh from behind the woman. "Ru-u-u-upert!!!???? Gees, *you're* the guy that he goes on about...? No shit..." and more laughter followed.

Giles started to feel a little uncomfortable. Not for his sake, he'd heard this before, but for Xander. He hoped that he'd not set something in motion with his visit. "Well, perhaps I shouldn't have come. I apologise for interrupting your festivities. I think I should go."

He caught a flurry of movement in the corner of his eye, then a man suddenly blocked all other view apart from his face. He was unshaven and his breath had the distinct and sickly smell of pungent, stale whisky. His stomach turned once and he swallowed the bile that had risen in the back of his throat. He then felt a shove against his shoulder and stumbled back a step or two. His hand instinctively brushed away the contact and he braced himself for another shove.

It came... along with a barrage of expletives. "Fuck off an' leave my boy alone. 'e was alrigh' til you came along, now he thinks there's something better out there. Well there aint 'n' no matter what you say, my boy's gonna learn that again. You've messed up everything that I've told 'im, you 'n' your fucked up, high 'n' mighty ways. Well, let me tell you something..."

He was shoved again and with each emphasised word from that point on, he could feel a poke in his shoulder.

"Leave him the *fuck* be... He's *mine*... Go get yourself your *own* little *lacky*..."

Giles could feel the anger broil and boil in him, rising swiftly to the surface and before he could stop it, he shoved the man in front of him back. Then he managed to contain it all; this wasn't helping Xander any. "I-I apologise." He finally stuttered, in a forced, unthreatening manner. "Un-unforgivable of me. I shall leave. My apologies, sir." And with that, he turned and left, hearing the laughter behind him and the scrunching of the snow beneath his boots.

When he got into his car, before he turned the key, he slammed a hand into the steering wheel. "Damn!!! You stupid, stupid man." He turned the key and pulled away from the house that Xander had to live in, hoping and praying that he could find the young man before he returned home.

Xander, whom had grown in his affections to the point that it seemed ridiculous not to think of him as he would a son of his own.


The sun had begun to set. He'd searched all day and hadn't had a whiff of where Xander might be. He felt his stomach clench at the fact. He'd almost returned to the Harris' to see, on the off chance, if Xander *had* returned there, but had quickly decided it would be foolish and would only compound things further; if Xander had *not* returned. He thought to ask Buffy or Willow and Oz, but he did not want to interrupt their festivities.

He sighed with frustration, but before he got out of the car, he turned to retrieve the present from the passenger seat; and then stared at it. 'Where are you, my boy...?' He thought. 'Where on earth could you be...?'

In one brief moment he felt and thought of all the things that could have happened and did not like the feeling that crawled up his spine; the feeling that caused him to shiver with fear. He turned back to the steering wheel, rested his forehead on its arc and then came to a decision.

He sat up straight, turned the key and drove off, back towards Willow's home. Her parents were away, again, and though Oz was spending time with her, he could not help that if anyone knew where Xander would be, she would. So he pushed his guilty thoughts of interrupting her fun to the back of his mind and a drove a little faster to what he hoped would be the answer to Xander being missing.


He stood in front of her door. His fingers waggled once with indecision, then they moved forward and pressed the button for the doorbell. He shifted once or twice with nerves. He was hoping that Willow would not mind another intrusion by him.

He looked up when the door was opened and then instinctively grasped the body that had flung itself at him. He opened his eyes to find Willow's red hair in his face.

"Oh, oh Giles. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

At first he was a little bemused as to what she might be thanking him for, then he cringed when she let out a squeal of happiness; then he knew, "Ah!" he chuckled, "You've opened your present." He chuckled some more when she hugged him tighter and nodded against him. He moved her away from him, though still kept his hands on her arms, then with as much strength as he could muster, he scowled at her; though his heart was nowhere near it; and berated her with "Well, I must say, I'm a little disappointed. You're not supposed to open them 'til tomorrow."

At first she looked so crestfallen that his heart clenched at the sight and he thought he might have taken his teasing a bit too far, but then she looked up and he saw her grin.

"Oh, I know that, 'n'-'n' the others are there." She grasped his arm and pulled him in through the front door to the living room and pointed to the bottom of her tree. "See...?" Then she turned back to him, "But-but this one was from you and..." she sighed... "And I couldn't wait."

He looked up to see Oz smirking at him, shaking his head, and then shrug his shoulders, with love in his eyes, as if to say "That's my Willow for you..."

Giles looked back down at Willow and laughed. A quick, full-bodied belly laugh. "It's quite alright, Willow, I was only teasing you. And thank you for the compliment."

She frowned with confusion.

His voice then grew soft with affection. "That you deemed mine too important to leave for when it should've been opened." And he smiled at her with warmth, and with love.

She took a moment to decipher what he had said, then she brightened and splurged. "But you are important. The *most* important." Then her eyes got wide and she turned to Oz. "N-not the most important, but really, really important, cos, well, Oz is the most important..." She turned back to Giles, "but you're important, not the *most* important, cos Oz is, but you're still important. You, Oz and Xander... And Buffy... and-and..."

She looked on the verge of tears, so Giles took a step forward and embraced her. "It's alright, Willow," he whispered. "I get it..." And then he chuckled. "I'm important to you..." He placed a hand beneath her chin and when he'd moved it, so that she could look at him, he added, "As you are to me..." Her face brightened so much at that point, it almost felt as though he were being bathed in sunshine. Willow's sunshine...

They moved further into the room and sat on the couch. Oz clapped his hands together once and asked if there was anything he could get them. Willow wanted a soda; Giles declined.

Giles followed Oz with his eyes as the young man moved off. Trying not to be obvious that his next question was about Xander; that he might still be a taboo subject with Oz. The last thing he wanted was to cause any tension between two people whom obviously loved each other.

Willow broke the silence. "So, I'm guessing that you didn't come back to see how much I liked your present...?"

He chuckled again. He always found himself doing that a lot in Willow's company. Admittedly, not as much as with Xander, but still, quite a bit. The thought of Xander brought forth all the worry he had forgotten for a moment and he frowned. He shook his head at Willow. "No, I'm sorry to say. Perhaps it should have been, but it isn't. Sorry Willow..."

She giggled. "You do the babbling thing almost as good as me..."

He smiled. "Ah, yes, well..." Her eyebrows rose again, her eyes glinting with teasing. He had to laugh. "Right, babbling withstanding for the moment." Her eyebrows rose a little higher and her tips of her mouth lifted into a smile. He sighed. "Willow, how the devil am I to stop babbling when you continue to look at me like that every time I open my mouth...?"

She giggled some more, then straightened, wiping an imaginary cloth across her mouth. "Okay, smirk free... What's up...?"

Giles looked behind him for a moment, to make sure that Oz was not in close proximity, then he turned back to Willow and said, "It's Xander..."

Her eyes lost the glint of teasing and looked seriously at him. "What's happened...? He's alright, isn't he...?"

"I'm not quite sure. I can't find him." His eyebrows furrowed when he heard her sigh heavily. "I'm guessing that this is not too serious then...?"

She looked down at her hands, twisting her fingers this way and that, in ways where he thought were he to do that he would have a hand or two full of broken fingers. Then just as he thought she wasn't going to answer, his ears picked up her whisper.

"He-he doesn't do Christmas well. His Mum and Dad are-are..."

"Yes, I know... Indescribable..." At her look of bemusement he went on. "I visited them... Well, in truth, I was there to see Xander, but he wasn't there. I've spent the day looking for him, but to no avail. I-I was hoping..." Again he looked behind him. "I was hoping that you might know where he'd be...?"

"Oh, Giles, oh bad...You shouldn't've gone there..."

He nodded, "Yes, I'm inclined to believe you..." He sighed, "So now, not only am I looking for him to give him his present but also to warn him that I might have set something unpleasant in motion."

"That bad, huh...?"

He nodded.

"Well, you wouldn't've found him today. He's pretty good at getting himself lost. But I know where he'll be tonight."

"Yes...?" he asked with hope in his heart.

She nodded proudly, "Yep. He'll be outside in a sleeping bag. He doesn't like to be inside on Christmas Eve." Her face scrunched up with disgust. "You've met the reasons why. But he never goes far..."

At first his heart blossomed with unbridled relief, then it came to him. "Outside...? Tonight...? In the snow...?" He stood and started to move towards the door. "Thank you Willow..." Oz chose that moment to come into the front room, "Merry Christmas Oz. I've... er... I've got to go now..."

Willow looked at Giles, back at Oz, then back at Giles. "You'll let me know, won't you, that it's all alright...? Won't you...?"

He felt her fear from across the room and turned back to her. He embraced her hard and whispered a stout promise that he would find Xander, assured her that all would be fine and that 'yes' he would let her know.


He got to his car, almost sliding on the ice that had formed on the pathway; reinforcing his urgency to find Xander. "Where will you be...?" he whispered to himself. "Willow'd said that you never go far..." It clicked and he frowned. "Your own back yard..." He rolled his eyes skyward, "Of course, you pratt" he berated himself, "Stupid..."

He glanced at his watch. Too early... is it...? Yes, it was... He decided to try and pre-empt anywhere else Xander might be... nothing else to do... He thought to go back to his apartment and wait it out, but then he knew that he would not get any comfort there... He would pace until he'd worn a hole in his carpet or that it was time to go looking again. Whichever came first. The way he felt at the moment it would most likely be a hole in his carpet.


He glanced at his watch again. He was pleased to see that several hours had passed since he'd last done so. Time to pay a visit to Xander's back yard. He grinned as he made his way back to his car. All the worry of not finding him dissipated at the thought that he was now very close to finding the sort of runaway.

He pulled up around the corner of the Harris'. He'd thought to park up in front, but having been thoroughly appalled at his last welcome, he knew that being out of sight was best. He carefully made his way to the back fence, his heart alive with relief that it would not be long now, and peered over.

Nothing... No bundle of a boy in a sleeping bag... Not even a suggestion that he might have been covered in snow. The ground was slushy, muddy and covered in footprints... and flat as a pancake.

All the worry he had managed to abate, now forced itself to the surface. The only thankful thing was that he knew Xander had not returned, but the urgency of finding him increased. Sleeping out in snow...? He would freeze to death.

He left the fence without looking back and made his way back to his car; his mind fully occupied on where else Xander could be. So much so, that before he had a chance to react, he was shoved to the ground. He slid to a stop with the breath knocked out of him, his chest hurting with the coldness of air he was trying to force into his lungs. He looked up and saw a vampire looming overhead.

He did the only thing that came to mind and kicked out at it. He got a good hit on its chest and it went flying. He stood and rummaged in his pockets for a stake. His frantic search became more so when he couldn't find one. He looked up to see the vampire had recovered and was launching itself at him. He caught the full force of the lunge and fell again, this time with the vampire on top of him.

They rolled for a moment before coming to a stop at his car. He lashed out with his fists and legs, but soon he felt himself getting weak. The vampire then grabbed him by the throat, shoved a fist in his face and thoroughly shook him, so much so that his teeth rattled.

He could feel the blood from his nose running down his face. Could feel his chest heaving with the difficulty of breathing; he could even feel the coldness of the vampire's fingers as they constricted around his larynx, but all he could think about was Xander freezing to death and he not being able to do anything about it.

The thought seized him, but instead of it paralysing him, he felt a surge of energy run through him. He threw punch after punch into the vampire's face, until the fingers relaxed their hold on his throat. He then shoved as hard as he could with what energy remained. Much to his surprise, he heard a satisfying *Whoosh!*

He raised his tired head, pounding with exertion, and looked to where he thought the vampire had met his demise. What he saw astounded him. "Buffy...?"

"The one and only..." She then stood above him, with her hands on her hips, and scowled down at him. "Don't you know better...?"

"I... Well that is..." He stopped, not because his throat was sore and speaking felt much as it would if someone was scraping it with sandpaper, but more because he really did not have an answer for her.

"Uh-huh, thought so..." She held her hand out to him and as she pulled him to his feet, said, "There *has* to be a good reason for this, so spill..."

He coughed and wheezed for a moment as he stood, fumbling in his pocket for a handkerchief he'd felt earlier on, and then wiped the blood from his face. He then noticed the wet patches of snow on his clothes and found them quite interesting. He brushed at them over and over until his other hand smarted with the coldness... Then he looked up.

Buffy's eyebrows rose to emphasise her question.

He could not help the blush of embarrassment that reddened his cheeks or the stutter of explanation. He took the handkerchief from his face and muttered, "I- I w-was l-looking for Xander. I...I was concerned for him..."

"You find him...?"

He shook his head. "I thought to-to look back here when Willow said that he'd be outside, sleeping in a sleeping bag. That he would not be far from his home. I...hmm, hmm...I was concerned for him, what with it snowing and what not... I... er... I thought to offer him a place to bed down... Somewhere in the warm..."

Buffy's eyes twinkled with affection for her Watcher. "Awww, Giles, that's so neat..." Then she thought about the other stuff he'd said and eventually replied, "If Xander has any sense, and believe it or not, Xander has lots of sense, he'd've found somewhere warm by now. I mean, somewhere other than there..." She nonchalantly pointed a thumb back at the Harris'.

It was as if a light bulb had gone off in his head. Now he knew. He knew, without a shadow of doubt, where Xander would be. He stepped forward and hugged his Slayer with all his might. "Thank you, Buffy." He then let her go and started to open the door to his car. He wanted to say so much more to her, but instead he turned back to her and said, "Merry Christmas, Buffy, and go home. Let me have the knowledge that you are safe tonight and go home." With that said he got back into his car; missing her frown of confusion, her explosive burst of laughter and then eventually her smile of affection; and started off towards the place he knew where Xander would be...


He could hear his own footsteps echo off the walls. They were hurried and anxious; determined to get where they were headed. He knew the feeling. He pushed open the double doors in front of him and entered the Library. He turned and switched on the lights. As they flickered to life he called out to the darkened room. "Xander!"

He heard a groan and called again. He then heard a thud and an expletive soon followed. Though he still stood at the doors, he looked beneath the table and saw a bundle. He sighed with relief. There, seated in a sleeping bag, was Xander, rumpled and ruffled, rubbing furiously at his head, but alive and well. He sighed again and whispered, "Thank God!"

"G-Man...? Gees, what you doing here...? Don't you *have* a home...?"

Giles smiled at that. "I have a perfectly good home." Under his breath he added, "Though I suppose the same could not be said for you..."

He then saw Xander shuffling forwards in his sleeping bag, ducking his head as he reached the end of the table, and then shed the bag as he stood, yawning out a, "So, what ya doing here, then...?"

Giles looked away for a moment, embarrassed beyond belief. Suddenly realising that although he'd been concerned for this young man, he really had no idea how Xander would take being told as much. So he simply said, "Looking for you..."

Xander frowned. "Why...? Have I done something wrong...? What'd I do this time...?"

Giles shook his head at that. "You've done nothing." he quickly assured him. 'Only had me worried frantic with your little expedition, that's all.' he silently added to himself.

Xander's frown deepened; A frown that silently re-iterated his original question...

Giles cleared his throat. "I have a present for you." He looked about his person, before deducing that he'd left it in his car. "In my car..."

Xander's eyebrows rose with surprise. "A pressie...? For me...?"

Giles nodded.

Xander clapped his hands together, all tiredness gone in that moment, and said, with the excitement of a small boy, "Well, let's go get it..."

Giles laughed at that, but then added, "First we have to phone Willow. She was quite concerned for you, young man."

Again, Xander frowned.

"I visited your home earlier, to give you your present." Giles explained, then watched as Xander then bowed his head and shuffled his feet. He felt an immediate urge to explain. In a whisper he quickly added, "I'm sorry, Xander, but I think I might have started something there. Your Father was none too pleased with my visit. Based on their reaction to me, I went in search for you. To warn you of the unpleasantness that I might have caused."

"You didn't cause it, Giles. Not your fault..."

"Well anyway," he continued, "I hadn't a clue as to your whereabouts, so thought Willow would have an idea."

"She told you I'd be here...?"

Giles shook his head. "No, Buffy made it clear to me...She said that you had lots of sense..." He smiled when Xander cast a surprised look at him, but continued on, "and that you would have already found somewhere warm. Somewhere other than at your home..." He let that sink in before finally adding, "I immediately thought of here, and, well, here I am..."

Xander looked up at him with eyes that were bright and whispered, "Is the pressie that important...?"

Giles knew that Xander was fishing for something. It saddened him that the boy felt the need to do so. He gave a heartfelt response, full of truth and warmth. "No... the pressie is a by and by, but you, young man, are *very* important... To me, to Willow and to Buffy..." He placed a hand on Xander's shoulder and squeezed it once to emphasise his words.

Xander blinked back up at him. His mouth opening and closing without a sound. Then he moved forward to hug Giles, and whispered "Thank you..."

Giles cleared his throat before answering, "You are more than welcome Xander." After a beat or two, he added, "So, what do you say... phone Willow, let her know that you are safe and sound, and then back to my place to bring in Christmas Day together, in the comfort and warmth of being inside...?"

Xander moved away from Giles and laughed. He then looked at the clock and saw that Christmas Day had arrived without either of them knowing. He looked back at the profile of Giles, watching as his eyes glinted with amusement and then beamed a smile himself when he saw a tiny smile lighten the features of his friend and Librarian. He blinked once before saying, "Looks like Christmas decided to start without us, G-Man, but I'm more than happy to play catch-up..."

Giles chuckled at him, "Well, shall we get started then...?" And held up the receiver for Xander...

THE END



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