An Oblivious Xander Harris

It was a tired and aching Xander Harris who surveyed his surroundings. Everyone was alive. Which was good. Everyone was beat up. Which was bad.

But thems the breaks when you fight evil, he thought with a smirk.

"Is the bi- uhh -witch dead?" He heard Buffy call out from the corner of the underground tomb she had been throw into. She had gone smashing through the small armoire displaying a man's portrait and his personal effects. He couldn't see much more of her than her feet sticking out of the pile of smashed wood she was stuck in.

"Yes. Very." Xander looked at the head that was lying two feet away from the body in a puddle of purplish blood. "Demon witch is very very dead."

"Oh good. I'm just going to lie here a while." Buffy called back in relief. "Catch my breath."

"Yeah." He replied with a groan. "Good idea."

"Giles?" Buffy called out.

"He's breathing." Xander looked at the older man slumped next to him. "But, uh, hes out of it right now. Landing that killing blow kinda..." Xander scratched his head as he remembered what happened and wondered how to explain it. "Destabilized the resurrection ritual Demon Witch was chanting. The backlash tossed him all the way over here by me."

"Ah." Buffy groaned. "Give me a minute. Once I get my second wind I'll carry him home."

"No rush." Xander looked around at the tomb. All the fighting was done, nothing left to do but go home. No eminent danger hounding them.

Still it wouldnt hurt to take a look around. See what demon witch lady had been upto before they arrived to save the day. "I'm gonna check and see if there's any surprises we should know about."

Buffy acknowledged him with a small grunt as she thrust a hand out of the armoire she was stuck in with it's thumb pointed up.

"You want some help over there?"

"I can manage just fine, thank you."

With a groan he stood up and slowly walked around the shockingly large tomb searching for anything suspicious.

Whole lotta nothing, he mused.

A few clothes, a bedroll, some candles and jars of weird stuff. But nothing that looked ominous. Nothing that screamed captial E Evil to him.

Still... what was that over there?

Xander walked over by the bedroll and saw that close to an old pillow was a little leather bound book. Stooping he picked it up and flipped it open to see chicken scratch writing he couldnt understand. And given the format of the writing it looked like a journal as there was date and time notations at the top of some pages. With a roll of his eye Xander quickly flipped thru the rest of the pages.

Xander's reflex kicked in automatically as something he could barely see slipped out of the book and fell, his free hand jerked up and caught whatever it was. He opened his hand and looked at the ring that was there. Just a plain old ring. Nothing special. No runes or magic enchantments or rubies and gems.

Weird thing for a demon to keep in a... journal? Xander mused as he found the ring was damn near his size.

"Find anything?" Buffy called as it sounded like she was moving around finally, given the sound of wood breaking.

"Uhm... a wedding ring maybe?" Xander looked at the ring and then at the book, "And the demons diary. Apparently. Not a whole lot else."

Buffy snorted, "So when Giles said the demon witch was ressurecting her god... it was her husband?"

"Love makes you do the whacky." Xander shrugged and closed the diary. He eyed the ring.

Im not coming out of this with just bruises. I deserve a little something. How often am I going to get a freebie like this? Xander decided his course of action and rasing his right hand slipped the plain ring onto his ring finger.