Fic: There's Someone I'd Like You to Meet...
Author: meagan <nutmeg@serv.net>
Summary: Oz gets email from Xander. Part of my "Return" series (I think it needs a different name, but I can't think of anything. Anyone?). Set a few months after "The Big Day." Short, but this thing just needs to be short.
Spoilers: Nope, but you really need to read the following stories: "A Return," "Getting to Know You," and "The Big Day." Otherwise, it will make absolutely no sense. "The Final Veil Before Joy" is part of the series, but it's not necessary to read that one.
Disclaimer: Of *course* they belong to someone else. I could never come up with characters like this. Specifically, they belong to Mutant Enemy, Fox, WB (even though they really don't deserve it after what they did to us this season), and anyone else I forgot.
Rating: G, I think. Maybe PG, but not by much.
Distribution: Please ask.
Feedback: Yes, please, of course.
Notes: Over Labor Day weekend, I went to a huge music festival. At one point, there was a marching band consisting of little kids playing "drums" and other percussion "instruments" as described below. It was just too cute for words, and all I could think about was making Oz do the same thing. Also, I got email from my brother today. So Oz is getting email from Xander.

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Oz watched the usual madness unfold in front of him with a smile. The kids were really getting into their project: assemble and play drum-type devices out of restaurant-style jugs and buckets. It was a marching band right out of _Stomp_. They had been rehearsing their routine for almost a month now, and he thought they were pretty darned good for five-year-olds. The thought that they just had a really good teacher never once crossed his mind.

The phone rang, interupting his musings. "Oz? Have you checked your email yet?"

"Nah, Will, we're in the middle of practice." He paused. She rarely called him during the time he spent with the kids. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time she had done so. "Is everything okay?"

"Um... Yeah." She sighed. "It's Xander. Just -- Just check it as soon as you can, okay?"

He hung up, thoroughly baffled. She called, so it was something major, but she didn't say exactly why, so it couldn't have been a tragedy. Could it? Now that the thought was in his head, he felt a rising panic. He turned to his assistant. "Heather, I have to go take care of something. Can you handle these kids?" She nodded. Between her sister and Xander's cousin, she had more than enough experience with kids. Quickly, he turned on his computer and connected to his email box.

His connection was slow. And he had a lot of mail to sort through. How the heck did he manage to get fifty messages in just three hours? But he was looking for one in particular. He just wasn't quite sure which one it was.

Then he found it. A huge attachment from Xander's email account. The email subject line was "There's someone I'd like you to meet..." This had to be it. Recalling the assorted traumas they had experienced over the years, he went to work downloading it with a rising feeling of dread. Someone must have broken into Xander's account to send this out. He just *knew* he was going to be looking at someone's innards. It wouldn't be Willow since she had just talked to him on the phone. It couldn't be their son because she wouldn't have been so calm about the whole thing. Josh? The cats? Then he saw the name of the file. "babe.jpg." Great. Porn. Not the innards he had expected, and definitely not something he wanted to have on his screen if any of the kids happened to walk in the room.

Finally, the picture finished loading. It was grainy and in black and white rather than color, but he quickly realized he was indeed looking at someone's innards. Cordelia's innards, as a matter of fact, if the label in the upper left corner of the picture was to be believed. And the next line on the label indicated it was from Sunnydale Radiology. He examined the picture, noting the rest of the text scattered over the image.

He sat back in the chair, doing some quick math.

In seven months, his son was going to have a half-sibling.

~~~ the end ~~~