MCA0, Late Late *Late* Thursday Night

[needsaparrot]

If the apartment where Xander is waiting for a certain ex-jailbird -- no, the other one -- to finally make an appearance smells like leftover Chinese, it's probably the leftover Chinese. Food, that is; the delivery guy from Ching Tai didn't stay. Isabel had, for a while, but when the call finally came through that Bridge was on his way back, she'd taken it as her cue to head home and get some much-deserved sleep.

Xander hadn't had a lot of that himself in the last few days, not the good kind, but somehow he didn't have any problem waiting up.
___

[OOC: For the water-spanning-structure-person. Best Roomie Ever handwavied with permission.]

Comments

[needsaparrot]

"....Road cookies?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Bridge says. "You know, those cookies that come in little packages and are full of like, chemicals and preservatives and stuff?" He rummages through his pockets until he finds an unopened package of the aforementioned cookies. "Oatmeal," he says, handing it over to Xander. "The meal made of oats."

[needsaparrot]

"Oh, road cookies." Xander... doesn't start tearing open the package, or happily take a bite. And then another.

Okay, yes he does.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge laughs at that, and gracefully manages *not* to do so in a way that'd involve noodle-sprayage, because ew. "I did get you an actual present that's not cookies, since I did promise to do that every time I went running off somewhere," he says. "Though I'll admit it was kind of last minute because I didn't even look for anything until after I'd caught up with Z."

[needsaparrot]

"Mmm, preservatives," Xander says blissfully. "Also, you came back and you brought Z back; I'm pretty good with both of those things." He might be understating the matter.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I know," Bridge grins dorkily at him. "But still, a deal is a deal, you know." There were other promises he'd made, too, about things he'd explain once they were back. And, well. They were back.

[needsaparrot]

"Do you see me turning down presents? This is not my turning down presents face." Xander points to his face. Then he adds, "Is she okay? Z?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"She's... well, she's in one piece?" Bridge tries, fidgeting a bit.

[needsaparrot]

"Yeah, that stopped being a synonym for okay right around the first time Buffy came back from the dead."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Should've known that wouldn't exactly work with you," Bridge says, finishing off the rest of his plate and putting it back on the coffee table.

[needsaparrot]

"What's going on, Bridge?" Xander asks, as gently as he's physically capable of speaking.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"You remember when Z and I found out about the accident, and how it had been covered up, and how *that* was supposed to explain how we got our powers and how we ended up at SPD?" Bridge gives a bit of a bitter laugh at that. "Turns out that the accident was just a cover story too."

[needsaparrot]

He does remember, though that was seven years and a lot of cover stories ago. "For what?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"They made us," Bridge says quietly. "Our parents, they were all chosen not just because they were top in their respective fields, but because they were all young, recently married... about to start families."

[needsaparrot]

Xander sits back, quiet for a moment. "Made you. Like, messed with your DNA on purpose? Did your parents know?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh," Bridge nods. "As far as they know, the accident *was* an accident. When really it was just someone high up in SPD playing a game of genetic roulette."

[needsaparrot]

"They didn't even know what they'd get? If it would hurt you?" And that's a little less quiet.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Well, there was a lot of stuff about 'finding the correct energy matrix' that'd affect them in order to get the best possible results- which, I'm assuming, means kids with powers who still look human."

[needsaparrot]

"Oh, good to know they were at least aiming for you not having three heads."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"And they got what they wanted: a bunch of weapons to use against Gruumm."

[needsaparrot]

The wording hits him like a wrecking ball to the stomach, for reasons that have nothing and everything to do with Bridge.

There's an acid taste in his throat when he finally says, "So did I ever tell you about where baby Vampire Slayers come from?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I... no?" Bridge frowns. "I thought it was some sort of mystical thing?"

[needsaparrot]

"Yeah, it gets passed down to the next girl in line, or it did until Willow kind of broke the system. But before I came back here, before Sunnydale went under, we found out how it started." Xander slumps down a little in his seat, trying to remember how the story goes. "First there was the world. Then there were demons, then there were men. The men took a girl, and they chained her to the earth."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Chained her to- they *made* her a Slayer, you mean?"

[needsaparrot]

"Yeah. That wasn't a metaphor. They chained her up, and then called a demon."