Title: Battered

Author: Tequila Worm

Fandom: Buffyverse

Pairing: Xander/?

Rating: currently, only and R, for the violence...could later change to NC-17, for sex, etc.

Disclaimer: They sure as heck ain't mine. They belong to Joss and Mutant Enemy. Grrr. Argh.

Summary: Xander get kicked out of his home, and a vamipre friend saves him...sorta....

Dedication: I wouldn't have been angry enough to write this if it weren't for my darling mother, so hats off to you, mum. Also, to my love and soulmate, J, for being there for me, always...and for the beta he gave this!!

Battered
By Tequila Worm

Xander fell to the floor, stunned at the force of the blow his father had just laid across his cheek. The backhand had been one of the worst that Xander had ever received, and he could only stare in mute horror at his father who towered over him.

"Get up, boy, or are you too chicken to take me on?" he snarled, grabbing Xander by the hair and pulling him to his knees. He backhanded his son again, this time across the mouth, still holding a handful of dark hair.

Xander's head whipped sideways, a trickle of blood starting from his split lip. His eyes landed on his mother, sitting on the old plaid sofa, drinking a beer and patently ignoring her husband's abuse of her son.

Countless punches and slaps, and eventually kicks occurred, and later, as he lay curled in a ball on the floor, his father spat on him. "You're not good enough to be called Harris. I want you out of this house, and all your crap with you, by the time we come back," and with that, his father and mother had driven away, probably to go get drunk.

Lying still, clutching at his ribs and certain that some of them were broken, Xander never heard the footsteps behind him, nor the rustling of leather and silk when someone knelt by his head. He did, however, flinch, when a cool hand touched his shoulder, curling on himself more, trying to protect his body from further injury.

"Xander, it's me," whispered a quiet voice, the cool hand sliding up and down his arm soothingly. The vampire's demon was roaring with rage at the sight of the one it considered its own lying huddled and broken on the floor.

Xander turned over, staring blearily up into the concerned eyes that quickly slid to a dangerous golden color when the vampire saw the damage to Xander's face - eyes both bruised and swollen, already a deep purple color and rapidly darkening to black, with various cuts and other bruises, including a particularly nasty one across the side of the human's jaw.

"Care to tell me who did this to you, Xander?" he asked in a voice full of steel, fingers dancing lightly across the unblemished skin, careful not to touch any of the bruises marring the beautiful skin.

"The same bastard that told me I had to get myself and my stuff out of this house before he came home," Xander mumbled through his swollen lip. He managed to push himself into a sitting position, only groaning as the shift hurt his ribs. He leaned against the wall he was next to, shuddering, holding his ribs, head bowed away from the concerned vampire sitting before him.

Game face still visible, the vampire reached out a cool hand, gently lifting Xander's chin to look at him. "Then I will get you and your stuff out of here. You can come live with me for the time being. One thing's for sure. You can't stay here." He stood, and held out a hand to Xander, who took it, and used it to pull himself to his feet.

The sharp intake of breath alerted his companion that something more serious was wrong than a few bruises to his face. He found himself wincing as cold hands gently ran down his sides.

"The bastard broke some ribs, didn't he?" asked a seriously pissed off demon, leading Xander over to a chair. At the pained nod, he hissed, the demon inside his body, screaming to kill the man who'd hurt his Xander. "Sit. I'm going to go grab your stuff. Willow once said you had a bag of stuff already packed. Where is it, and do you want anything else?"

"It's under my bed, along with a locked box. There's a wooden crate in the closet, too. That's it," Xander said, closing his eyes against the pain. "The first place we go is the hospital, then you're going to Giles'. While you're there, I'll take your stuff to my place, and I'll see you in the evening,
since it will most likely be daylight by then."

Xander just nodded, head resting against the back of the chair. It was nice to find someone who finally cared, even if he was a vampire.


Chapter Two

Xander sat on the hospital gurney, waiting to be released into Spike's care. His broken ribs were taped, a few stitches held closed a cut on his forehead, close to his eyebrow, and he had a prescription for some pain medication, just in case.

The blond vampire had disappeared after dropping Xander off, presumably to tell Giles they were on their way.The nurse who had been taking care of him handed a form and a pen to him. He looked at it, noticing that the words "child abuse" appeared on it.

"What's this?" he asked, gesturing carefully with the pen.

"Something to make sure that your father never does this to you again, Mr. Harris. It's the form to start the process of getting him arrested for child abuse," she said, bustling around the room, not
looking at her patient.

"Oh. What if I don't want to press charges?" Xander was heartily sick of the pity he usually received from those who knew what was going on. The last thing he needed was more of it when they found out he was now in foster care.

"You don't have much of a choice. Your brother, William, already started the process. He's pressing charges of his own."

Her back was to Xander and did not see the look of utter confusion that crossed the teen's face at the mention of his brother.

"My...my brother?" he whispered, trying to decide why Spike had claimed to be his family.

"Yes, that nice young man who brought you in. We were going to place you with Social Services, but he's old enough to take care of you, so we're releasing you into his custody. Now, please sign those papers, and we'll get you out of here."

She came over to Xander, and took the forms as soon as a limp hand signed them. "William said...oh, here he is, never mind. His forms are all taken care of, Mr. Harris; you may take your brother home with you. Please, remember to get that prescription filled in the morning, or he'll be in a lot of pain.

Spike nodded, his eyes locked on Xander's battered face. "I will, ma'am, thank you very much. I'm taking him with me right now."

Xander swallowed convulsively, staring at Spike, unsure of what was going on, but grateful for the deception nonetheless. Neither really noticed when the nurse left, staring at each other as they were.

Spike was the first to shake himself free. "Right then. Watcher's waiting for us at his place. Ready to go?"

Xander nodded and grabbed his coat, carefully raising his arms to put it on.

In an instant, Spike was at his side, assisting him, then grabbing the paper for the prescription.

"Giles can fill that for me in the morning," Xander said, cursing himself for the stupidity of the words as soon as he said them.

However, Spike only nodded, and lead Xander out of the hospital, his body tense, looking for the slightest hint of trouble.

Chapter Three

Xander lay still in the middle of the big bed, mercifully asleep, unaware of the observations of the two men seated nearby.

"So you went over there why?" Giles asked Spike, still not completely convinced of what was going on.

"Went over there to see Xander. He and I have been trying to learn how to get along. Thought that it might help, in the long run, if I got along with at least one of the Scoobies. Tried to bite Willow, didn’t I? Buffy’s the Slayer, so Xander seemed to be the logical choice. And we’ve been doing pretty well, up until now."

Giles nodded. "Xander’s good for things like that. How was he when you found him? I mean…where was he? Was there anyone else there? Do you think that it’s possible that his parents are going to miss him?"

Spike shook his head. "Xan said that his father had told him that him and his belongings had to be
out of the house before they got back." Spike then proceeded to describe how he had found Xander curled in on himself in the middle of the room, presumably where he had fallen after his father had finished beating him, how Xander had taken a moment to realize that it was Spike kneeling next to him, someone that wasn’t there to hurt him.

"So you told the doctors and nurses at the hospital that you were his brother and that you wanted to press charges?" Giles sounded incredulous and impressed at the same time.

"Yeah, couldn’t tell them that I was the friendly neighborhood chipped vampire, now could I? Besides, the bastard has to pay for what he’s been doing to Xander. Judging by the old x-rays, this isn’t the first time that he’s beaten his son."

Giles sighed and looked at the sleeping man in his bed. "It bloody well had better be his last."

*

Xander was running through a maze, trying to find his way out. He could hear Willow, Spike, Giles, and Buffy all calling to him, urging him to find a way out, telling him that he had to get out of there, or he was going to be killed. He could also hear his father and mother yelling how worthless he was, how he was an accident, and they wished that he had never been born.

Xander kept running, turning left and right through the twisting walls and paths, desperate to get to the voices of his friends, voices that seemed to be fading as the voices of his parents got louder and louder.

"Xander! You’re useless!" His father suddenly loomed up before him, a terrifying figure of gigantic proportions.

Xander fell to his knees, preparing to apologize for whatever imagined slight, misbehavior, or smart ass comment his father was going to lay at his feet, blame on him this time. He bowed his head and closed his eyes, gathering strength of heart so that he could get through this and find his way out of the maze to his friends.

A stinging blow landed on Xander’s cheek, whipping his head to the side. His ears began to ring almost immediately, telling him that this wasn’t going to be any ordinary beating. He attempted to raise his head and look at his father, but a knee to the solar plexus knocked the wind out of him, rendering him unable to speak.

Mr. Harris continued to rain blows down on his son, telling him how useless and stupid he was, how he was a disgrace to the family, and should have been killed as soon as they’d found out that Xander’s mother was pregnant.

"Xander! Xander, you’re dreaming!!" The voice seemed to be coming from his father’s mouth, but it sounded like Spike. And why would his father be saying that he was dreaming anyway, seeing as he was trying to beat him to death.

Xander raised a bruised and bloodied face up to his father’s just in time to see him change to game face. "Now that I’ve beaten you within an inch of your life, I’m going to drain away what little there is left. You’ve been dreaming, Xander, that’s all that’s going on."

Xander looked at his father, first in confusion, then in growing fear as he took in the glowing yellow eyes, forehead ridges, and mouth full of fangs. Mr. Harris smiled evilly and lunged forward, towards his son’s neck.Xander let out a scream and sat straight up in bed, eyes wide and unseeing, panting for breath, his heart pounding so hard Spike was sure it was going to beat it’s way right out of the human’s chest.

He placed cool hands on Xander’s shoulder, only to have the boy pull violently away and scramble backwards across the bed until he was pressed against the headboard.

"Xander!! C’mon, Xan, it’s me, Spike. I’m not here to hurt you. We got you away from your dad who was doing that, remember? C’mon, Xan, snap out of it. It’s me. You’re safe now. You’re at Giles’ place." Spike kept up a running commentary as he crept closer to Xander, one hand out in front of him as if he were attempting to reassure a skittish animal.

Xander was only dimly aware of Spike’s words. He kept seeing his father beating him, then shifting into game face and coming in for the kill. Over and over, the gruesome thoughts played in his head, blocking out almost everything else.

Spike’s unbeating heart ached to see Xander this way. He moved forward a bit more, still murmuring reassurances in a low, almost subsonic voice tone, so low that it almost sounded as if Spike was purring.

Xander was suddenly aware of a caring, powerful presence right in front of him. His eyes fixed on Spike’s face, though the vampire had a feeling that Xander wasn’t really seeing him.

Fortunately, he had a predator’s natural balance, because Xander suddenly lunged forward and
buried his face in Spike’s neck. And proceeded to cry his eyes out.

All Spike could do was wrap his arms around the shaking body pressed against his own, continue his low purring reassurances, and pray to whatever deity there was in the world that Mr. and Mrs. Harris paid for what they had done to their son.

END PART 3