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In the Family; Another Secret, Another Life

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This story is No. 1 in the series "In the Family". You may wish to read the series introduction first.

Summary: Xander is called away by the one woman who knows him best, but home is where you keep your toys. This is a cross over with Dexter and Anita Blake.

Categories Author Rating Chapters Words Recs Reviews Hits Published Updated Complete
Television > Dexter
Anita Blake > Xander-Centered
(Past Donor)lucidityFR13291801010,80023 Dec 0724 Dec 07Yes

Another Face

Xander got back from Anita's world at 2AM on a Monday morning. He would like to say he'd be at work in the morning, but everyone needs to sleep sometime. Living multiple lives takes a lot of energy.

The light on his answering machine was blinking. There were a lot of people in his lives that only had one of his phone numbers. For instance, Anita had his cell. The Scoobies (and everyone they gave numbers to) only had his land-line. It gets complicated when you have to figure out who you are before you answer a phone. Of course, the Miami crowd had both numbers. So he still had to answer the phone carefully. It had been Harry's idea to use a different name in each location. To help him to learn how to hide, how to blend. A practical practice. That alone had helped to mold him into who he was now.

He walked to his room and started unpacking. He would listen to the message tomorrow. There really wasn't anything he wanted to do until he got some shut eye. It was probably just his sister anyway. Maybe she got a new case she was excited about. He should really listen to it - her humanity kept him balanced.

When he was 4, he was pawned off on various family members: his aunt and uncle in Sunnydale were the closest relatives so they got custody. But they had sent him to his second cousin's house in Miami as often as possible - whole summers sometimes. He called them all 'Mom' or 'Dad' (though Harry was always Harry for some reason) or 'Brother' or 'Sister' but when it came down to brass tacks, he was just an outsider to them all. All, that is, except for his sister. His Miami-dad helped him as well as he could - taught him a code of behaviour. Taught him to take the urges he felt and turn them into something useful.

His Sunnydale family was useless, and he always said he would leave as soon as he could, but then Buffy came along. He learned that there were worse monsters out there than him. Then it all fit - like some higher power was explaining to him why he had these urges to kill.

He unpacked his weapons bag. Ax, guns, the works. He put them away with only a moments pause to stroke the closed case of his toys - the toys he only used for his local extracurricular activities. Guns were necessary against the monsters that he fought with Anita and his other extra-ordinary contacts, but not for the more intimate dealings he had.

He was ready to slip into bed when he decided to listen to the message after all. At least to see who it was. So many emergencies, so little time.

His sister's voice filled the room. "Dexter - Just a warning I'll be by at 7 Monday morning with bagels. Hope you had a restful vacation 'cause you will not believe the shit that's been going down here." The call ended abruptly. Guess it runs in the family.


A/N: Please review! The more people that like this, the faster I'll get the next story out to you! The next story will be BtVS/Dexter, with maybe a tiny touch of Anita thrown in.

Thanks for reading!

The End

You have reached the end of "In the Family; Another Secret, Another Life". This story is complete.

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