The silence in the room was heavy. A soft chatter of confusion was heard from the training room from the main floor of the magic shop.
Katie stood frozen at the cracked open door, unsure what to do.
Buffy stared down at the photograph again then back up at Angel then tossed her gaze to Liam then to Katie before looking back down at the photo once more.
Buffy released a soft breath and began to shake her head leaving the room tense with uncertainty.
The wonderment in their little eyes took Buffy by surprise.
Buffy could do nothing but stare at the child beside her then to across the room to Katie. Buffy felt her breath escape from her lungs. The young girl, she remembered was called, Katie had similar features to hers. They shared the same eyes, nose, and pouting mouth. It could be a mask hiding the monster... Buffy shifted her gaze onto Liam's face. This adorable child's crooked toothy smile could brighten even the darkest hearts. He looks like Angel. She decided as she studied his tiny features. The only demon I feel in this room is Angel. These kids are not demons. Buffy swallowed coming to a conclusion.
I have children? Buffy desperately tried to wrap her mind around that fact. Sometime in the future, if her math was correct, in eight years, she'd be with Angel and they would have a child together. The whole reality of it made her speechless. I have children?
There was a familiar and strange sensation in the pit of Buffy's chest. It was somewhat like the tingle she felt when Angel was near, but this was different. It was easily mistaken as 'feeling Angel' but it was different. She felt it long before she stepped out from the training room with Riley when all of this started. It was familiar and yet, so different, she brushed it aside until now. Now, the tingling sensation in the pit of her chest made sense, she felt the children.
A faint smile tugged at Buffy's lips instantly falling in love with the little faces in front of her. Angel had been right all along.
Slowly, Buffy knelt down to Liam's eye level. She held the tips of her fingers under his chin taking in the lines of his face. Her eyes met his once more and she gave him a soft half smile. "Mommy!" Liam's eyes widened and instantly wrapped his arms around Buffy's neck, hugging her as tightly as his little body could. Buffy released a breath as her hands hesitantly circled his body which only solidified her kinship to the boy.
His little face buried into the curls of her hair, breathing in the floral scent he loved so much. "You're real! You're really real!" Teary-eyed, Liam drew back his head to look at his mother fully, "I've missed you so much, Mommy."
With the backs of her fingers, Buffy ran her hand down his cheek and smiled at him, "I'm… I'm here now." She couldn't stop the words as they entered her mouth. It just felt right to tell him that.
"Kate," Angel softly said her name, gesturing for her to come closer and reunite with her mother as Liam had.
Still wrapped with uncertainty, Katie listened to her father and took the first few steps towards her long-lost mother.
Angel took Liam from Buffy's arms leaving her open for Katie.
Buffy locked eyes with Katie. They both studied one another with hesitancy and caution, neither moved too fast towards each other.
Katie stopped once she stood at arms reach to her mother. She stared up at the blonde Vampire Slayer as if she were the eighth world wonder.
"I'm Katie," she said unsure why she was reintroducing herself.
A soft smile slid across her mother's face. It was a familiar smile Katie had imprinted in her membrane. It was a smile that gave her comfort because it was so distinctly her mother's.
"I know," Buffy said kneeling down to the eleven-year-old's eye level. Without thought, Buffy reached out her hand and tucked a piece of Katie's dark blonde hair behind her ear. It was gesture Katie knew all too well. It was a gesture only her mother would do.
Unable to hold back a moment longer, Katie's arms wrapped around Buffy's neck. Tears escaped from her hazel-green eyes breathing in the familiar scent of her mother's perfume. Her tears came harder when Buffy's arms wrapped around her small body-hugging her as she had with Liam.
Her hugs are exactly the same! Katie buried her face into Buffy's neck overjoyed to feel her arms around her again.
"I've missed you so much, Mommy," Katie muttered into Buffy's neck.
Buffy held her hands around Katie's face, forcing her to look at her face. Gingerly, Buffy brushed away Katie's fallen tears with the pads of her thumbs. "No more tears."
With reddened eyes and a sniffling nose, Katie tried to compose herself and nodded with a Summers girl determination.
"Whoa, Buffy," Riley stood at the training room door with a look of disbelief on his face, "you can't be serious about this? You couldn't have had kids with him." He pointed at Angel. "He's a vampire. And how do we know that they are who they say they are?"
Buffy began to shake her head never tearing her eyes away from her daughter's small face. "They're not demons." Buffy tenderly held her hands around Katie's face.
"How can you be sure?" Riley scowled. "Because he told you?" If it were possible, Riley hated Angel even more so.
"No—" Buffy began to say.
With disdain, Riley shook his head, "It's not true, Buffy. You can't believe a vampire and his gang of dwarf demons."
"That's enough, Riley," Buffy's expression darkened. She rose to her feet glaring across the training room straight at Riley. "They're not demons, they're not from Hell or anything like that… There's nothing demonic about them. They're human. And they're mine… and Angel's."
Angel held the boy tighter in his arms.
The gang stuffed themselves into the training room now backing the small family into a corner.
"I'm…" Standing off to the side, Giles intervened, "I'm sorry but Riley does have a point, Buffy. We don't know anything about them, except, well, you're apparently their mother."
"And that's enough," Buffy said surprising the room. "I don't need anyone to run tests on them to prove to me what I already know. They're mine. I know they are." She glanced in Angel's direction, catching his gaze. "I trust Angel and I..." Buffy looked down at Katie, unconsciously running her fingers through her dark blonde hair, "... I trust them."
From the time she had entered the training room with Angel, to the time she was now standing in front of the gang again, her entire tune had changed.
Katie stared up at her mother in awe. She felt surprised of how shocked she was that her father had been right about her mother the entire time.
Buffy's eyes shifted from her Watcher's to Katie, standing in front of her. "Katie, can you tell me if there's anything about the future that could help us get you and your brother back?"
"You don't want us anymore?" Katie's face saddened with heartbreak.
Shaking her head, Buffy held Katie's hands between her own, "No, no, honey, that's not what I'm saying at all. It's just… you and your brother don't belong to this time yet. I'm sure the people from your life really miss you."
Katie's eyes fell to the ground, "But you're not there."
"And we'll fix that," Buffy said giving the child her word. "But you have to tell us what happened, okay?"
Reluctantly, Katie nodded her head and stepped back into Buffy's body, trying to hide from the group.