Office hours [all day]

[sith_happened]

Anakin had thought he'd hit "post entry" three hours ago was in his office today, rereading "What to Expect When You're Expecting."

He remembered the last few weeks of Rory's pregnancy being, well, more filled with kidnappings the last time.

Weirdly, that wasn't in the book!

The door was open.

Comments

[sith_happened]

Anakin decided to skip the whole "and also I'm a clone" thing. "Well, lightsabers," he said instead. "There's a lot of amputations."

[brat_inslayage]

"Kinda figured," Kennedy replied. "Which is why I was going to ask if you knew who I could hit up to get him a decent replacement."

She didn't say it was because it was basically her fault, but the sense of guilt was fairly readable.

[sith_happened]

"Of course," Anakin said. "I'll put you in touch with my son, who has his own prosthetic hand."

And whose fault was that, Anakin?

[brat_inslayage]

"Thanks... oh my god, it runs in the family?" So not the most tactful thing Kennedy could've said, but at least she realized it and looked apologetic.

For a moment, anyway.

"I remember," she went on, because she'd been thinking this over for a while, "you asking us what we'd do if we knew how someone's future was going to turn out. And I remember you asking me if I'd try to save Tara's life with that knowledge, if I knew something was gonna happen to her. So now I gotta ask if you picked that example at random."

[sith_happened]

Anakin looked slightly abashed. "It might not have been the most hypothetical of scenarios, no."

[brat_inslayage]

"You knew." Safe to say Kennedy didn't sound happy about that. "When you asked me that, you knew. I thought it was harsh hypothetically, but man."

[sith_happened]

"It got you thinking about it without me having to be explicit," Anakin said. "But I'm very sorry it happened in your timeline."

[brat_inslayage]

"Yeah, finding that out was..." Kennedy's jaw tightened for a moment as she looked down at her feet, then back up stubbornly. "Doesn't change my answer, you know. Actually I feel kinda validated."

[sith_happened]

"Good," Anakin said. "I don't try to judge the answers unless it was along the lines of putting babies on spikes. I just wanted you to be able to think before reacting to some of life's more challenging situations."

[brat_inslayage]

As it happens Kennedy had no ambitions to put babies on spikes. Nor did she have any burning desire to work in a shoe shop and discover shoes no one had ever discovered before.

"You know, the whole time I was stuck in Sunnydale, and I was wondering if you knew for real, I really wanted to bitch you out for not telling me. But-- hell of a lot of good that would've done by then, huh?"

[sith_happened]

Now Anakin looked truly regretful. "Exactly. It's the real bitch about knowing all of the possibilities."

[brat_inslayage]

"All of them? Just a couple of them is bad enough. And then explaining to her friends that the version I know is still alive..." Kennedy ran a hand through her hair. "How do you guys do it all the time?"

[sith_happened]

"A lot of pushing it aside and not thinking about it," Anakin replied. "My grandson Anakin is here now...and it's complicated and heartbreaking to meet him."

[brat_inslayage]

Good thing she was starting to learn all about the Scooby repression method of coping, then. "I didn't know you had another--" Kennedy began, and trailed off.

"Oh," she said much more quietly. "Yeah. God, that sucks. My girlfriend now... they were together. Before. When it happened. I didn't find that out until after I was already..." She waved a hand over her head as if to symbolize 'in too deep.'

[sith_happened]

Anakin winced. "I think you've just set a new standard for awkward," he said sympathetically.

[brat_inslayage]

"One achievement I wasn't aiming for," Kennedy said dryly. "But it is what it is, and my head hasn't exploded yet."

She snorted, and half smiled. "I thought about your class a lot during that whole apocalypse deal, you know."

[sith_happened]

"In that it was helpful for you or that you wanted to track me down later and smack me?" Anakin wondered.

[brat_inslayage]

"Yes," Kennedy replied. "Also, all the times I was pretty sure you'd be telling me 'I told you so.'"

Like giving in to her temper. And hubris.

[sith_happened]

Anakin gave her a brief smile. "At least I made an impression?"

[brat_inslayage]

"Congratulations. Most of the teachers I've ever had in my life only wish they'd pulled that off," Kennedy said dryly. "But yeah. Hell of a couple of years for me since graduation. Overall, pretty much worth it, even with the couple of things I wish I could change."

[sith_happened]

Anakin gestured toward the chair across from his desk. "Tell me about it?"

He smiled. "Now that you're a teacher, I won't even give you advice about it."

[brat_inslayage]

"Oh, god, don't remind me I'm all old now." Kennedy hesitated for a moment, then nodded once and dropped into the chair.

"My Watcher-- she's sort of my mentor, she taught me all the tricks of the Slayer trade in case I got tagged for the job-- got killed," she began, because decent story setups were for other people. "By these creepy eyeless monks working for the First Evil-- they were actually looking for me, but I was running late to meet her and by the time I got there... let's just say it was really bad. Tried to get back here to round up the cavalry, you know how Fandom always does?"

Rhetorical question, of course.

"And I couldn't get back; my portal just blinked out. I found out later it had something to do with all the people whose worlds disappeared, but that's how I ended up running for Sunnydale just in time for apocalypse season."

[sith_happened]

Anakin held up a finger. "Quick question: apocalypse season isn't actually a season, right?"

He'd been in Fandom long enough to wonder.

[brat_inslayage]

"Actually?" Kennedy held both hands up and shrugged. "In my world it basically is. Apparently, something tries to end the world just before summer vacation every year. Seems to be a thing."

[sith_happened]

"Huh," Anakin said. "Like the invasion cycle here."