Chapter Text
Incarceration
by Scorpio
Xander yanked back the stake seconds before the vampire exploded into dust around him to the accompanied sounds of horrified screams. Turning in preparation for another vampire, Xander was confused to see three young high school girls shrieking and pointing directly at his chest in fear.
"Oh! My! God! You *killed* her!"
And with that, the three young teens turned and ran off into the night, leaving behind one baffled and befuddled Slayerette.
~~~
The police came for him at work. The crew foreman led the uniformed officers and the plain clothes detective directly to Xander and then tried not to look pained and embarrassed as Xander was arrested for murder in the first degree. He was handcuffed, read his rights, and then roughly shoved into the back of the black and white police cruiser in under five minutes. He was horribly
confused and wanted nothing more than for Giles to pop up from somewhere and explain everything to him.
Instead, he got a short silent ride to the police station where he was finger printed, photographed, had formal charges written against him and then he was stuffed into a cell with three other rough looking men.
At first they had seemed to want to pick on him, but when they found out that he was in there on a murder rap, they backed off quickly.
Two hours later when they allowed him to make his single phone call, he dialed the number to the Magic Box. No one answered, so he left a message. It was brief.
"Giles? This is Xander. I'm at the Sunnydale Police Station. They seem to think that I killed some girl and they arrested me. Um?... Help?"
~~~
The very next morning, Xander was woken up in his shared cell because he had visitors. Willow, Buffy and Giles stood in a small room waiting for him. He was led in by a big burly police man in his light gray prison overalls and was handcuffed to the table. The cop said that he'd wait behind the one way mirror.
Willow cried. Buffy paced and looked angry as hell. Giles admitted that he had no idea what was going on. No one would give him too many details, just that there were three eye witnesses who *swore* they saw Xander stab a college aged girl several nights ago.
The connection was made in Xander's brain and he realized what had happened. Unfortunately, he didn't know what to do to fix the mess he was in.
"Giles. I didn't stab any girl a few nights ago. Honest. I *did* however, dust a vamp."
Giles frowned slightly and nodded before he sighed and took off his glasses in order to polish them.
"Well, that would explain why they can't find the body."
With another sigh, Giles put his glasses back on and stood up, gesturing for the girls to head towards the door.
"Don't worry, we'll figure *something* out. They can't hold you for long without proof. And no body equals no proof."
Xander nodded and tried to smile reassuringly at his friends, but he couldn't quite manage it. This was the Hellmouth. Things *always* went wrong.
~~~
Lindsey McDonald *knew* that he was obsessive when it came to Angel. He *knew* that it wasn't healthy, neither physically or emotionally. He couldn't stop himself, however, and that's why he routinely found himself spying on the dark haired vampire. He lusted after Angel, he wanted to dominate him... and sometimes he wanted to be the one who was dominated instead. He hated Angel, feared him, wanted him, *needed* him and was angered and repulsed by his own obsession. But it didn't stop him from following him, listening into his conversations, routing through his trash, spying on him at every opportunity.
And that's how he learned about Xander. Cordelia's old flame. Angel's old rival. A young man charged with a brutal murder. An innocent man. A fighter for the other side and a close personal friend of the Slayer.
Lindsey didn't know what he should do about it. He was very aware of his abilities as a criminal lawyer. Hell, he wouldn't have survived so long with Wolfram & Hart if he wasn't one of the best. That was a given. As such, he knew that he would win the case, no matter which side he choose to be on. Defend Xander and have Angel owe him a favor... or prosecute him and hurt Angel by making sure Xander went to prison for a long long time to come?
Lindsey couldn't choose, so he decided to let fate handle it. He'd flip a coin. Heads, Xander was a free man. Tails, he'd rot in jail with *real* murderers and rapists.
Smiling at the simple solution to his dilemma, Lindsey pulled a shiny new quarter out of his pants pocket and flipped it into the air.
~~~
Xander was shocked and horrified to learn that a dead girl had been found half submerged in the local river by a group of young boys playing hooky from school. He was even more upset to learn that she had been stabbed in the heart with a knife and that several strands of Xander's hair had been found on her clothing.
His first thoughts were that it was Anya, Willow, Buffy or Tara who had died. Then, he found out that it was just some girl that he had not known. She had, apparently, been visiting Sunnydale in order to research the University to see if it was where she wanted to go to school next fall after she graduated highschool.
The police had their "proof" and Xander's court date was set.
He cried himself to sleep that night.
~~~
Xander had been forced to live in Sunnydale's cramped and dingy jail for the three months leading up to the trial. The judge refused him bail and so he sat and waited. The Scooby's stopped by once in a while to try and cheer him up, Willow especially. Anya demanded conjugal visits and mentioned wondering if she should appear on the Jerry Springer show. Spike even stopped by to gloat... and give out some advice. Xander had had nightmares for three days after Spike's little "chat" about prison life.
And now, the big day had arrived. Xander didn't hold out much hope. His public defender wanted to push for a ruling of insanity and the murdered girl's parents had some big shot lawyer from L.A. who had "volunteered" his services Pro Bono.
~~~
The trial was surprisingly short and Xander didn't understand a lot of what was happening. The lawyer from L.A. had a whole bunch of proof that Xander was some dangerous serial killer who had been stalking the streets of Sunnydale for years. The lawyer, Mr. McDonald or something like that, had somehow managed to piece together many of the hundreds of unsolved disappearances and unexplained murders that routinely happened on the Hellmouth in such a way as to make Xander look guilty. He'd even come up with semisolid proof for a bunch of them. The local D.A. just sat back and cheered him on. It was a sore spot with the Sunnydale officials that so many went unsolved.
Xander had *heard* of a scapegoat before, but it had never really sunk in. It had never been a personal thing to him, just an abstract concept. But here he was, suddenly Sunnydale's favorite scapegoat and he found himself being heaped with the blame of the atrocities that demons and vampires had been committing for years.
It was... disheartening.
In the end, despite his own lawyer's best efforts, Xander was charged with 12 counts of murder in the first degree, 4 counts of murder in the second degree, 16 counts of handling illegal explosives and the destruction of government property (for blowing up the highschool during graduation) and oddly enough, 1 count of armed robbery. Xander had *no* clue where that one came from.
~~~
Xander Harris; aka the Sunnydale Slasher, was transferred to Brighten Maximum Security Penitentiary just to the east of L.A. He was shackled at his wrists and ankles and those bindings where chained together as well.
He rode on the armored bus with two other prisoners. He over heard a brief whispered conversation between them and gritted his teeth in frustrated anger and confusion.
"Hey man... is that?... Oh *fuck* it is! That's *Xander* dude, you know... the *Slasher*!"
"No way! Really? Fuck! I hope he doesn't snap his chains and kill us man. I'm not ready to die."
"Shhh.... He'll hear you and you don't want to piss that guy off. I hear he likes to eat people's liver's and shit."
"No way!"
"Way..."
Then, to Xander's vast relief and total mortification, the two other prisoner's had shifted as far away from him as they could get.
~~~
Processing was a nightmare experience of paperwork, delousing, and interviews with the Warden and his battery of shrinks and staff heads. He suffered a physical exam in the prison's clinic and was given a short tour of the cafeteria and work areas on the way to the cell block he was assigned to.
One of the guards smirked at him and told him that it was his lucky day. Apparently his cellmate to be was a total slut. *His* ex-cellmate had been paroled a week ago and that's why Xander was getting his old bunk. Xander was advised to "take charge of the little whore right away" and make him "earn his way on his knees" because "cigarettes weren't free, ya know". All in all, it made Xander want to throw up.
They walked down cinderblock hallways and turned many corners and had to pass through several barred checkpoints. When Xander was thoroughly confused and positive he couldn't find his way back out, they stopped in front of Cell Block D. *His* cell block and new home.
The guards unlocked the barred entryway and led him through to a large two story rectangular room that was open in the middle from floor to ceiling. There was some chairs and tables on one side and exercise equipment on the other. The far right wall and the back wall were lined with individual inmate cells. The wall on the far left held doors that led to the communal showers and restrooms. A set of stairs on either side lead up to a second floor which held cells on all three walls. The forth wall, the one with the entrance that Xander came through, held nothing but the barred door and barred open windows for the guards to watch them through... or possibly shoot them through. It was an ugly place.
And it was filled with ugly people. At first, as he and his armed escort began to walk through the Cell Block, there were cat calls and jeers. Then, Xander began to hear those damned whispers again. He caught snatches of his name and the words "Sunnydale" and "slasher" and "serial killer" and gritted his teeth once again. However, the cat calls died down and the jeers faded away leaving him to walk on in silence.
Then suddenly they were in front of a single inmate cell and the one guard pulled the door open and Xander got his first look at his new cellmate. And felt his jaw drop in total stunning shock.
"Xander? Is that *you*? I mean, really you?"
Xander nodded even as he whispered his own response.
"Devon?"
Then, suddenly he was being wrapped in a huge hug in front of all the other prisoners as Devon, one time lead singer of "Dingoes ate my Baby" tried to squeeze the stuffing out of him.
"Holy *Fuck* Xander! I haven't seen you since before Oz took off to Timbuck-fucking-too!"
Xander felt a little odd about being held so intimately by another guy, even an old party-buddy, in front of so many mean and intimidating strangers, especially when he saw the half-amused and half-startled looks the guard was giving him. But then he remembered what that same guard had said about his new cellmate before he had known it was Devon and a fierce rush of protectiveness washed over him and for the first time he was grateful for his new, if horrendous, reputation as a brutal serial killer. He pulled Devon a little tighter to him.
"So... I take it you two know each other?"
Xander and Devon nodded their heads, but it was Xander who spoke.
"Yeah... I killed someone for him once before, when we were still kids. A guy was mugging Dev, so I stabbed him in the chest and made the badness go away. Then I partied with him and the band for an hour before I went and laid out the C-4 to blow up the highschool. No big..."
The guard's face went a little pale, but Devon beamed happily.
"You remember that?"
Xander gave him a slight smile.
"Yeah, I do."
Devon chuckled in delight.
"Cool."
END: Incarceration
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