Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel. I also don't own any of the characters mentioned in either cannon.

Author's Note: I got pregnant, gave birth to a beautiful little boy, and have been busy with being a mom ever since. Sorry for the long wait guys!

Chapter Ten

1749 - Galway, Ireland

Her Angel.

What exactly did that mean?

Liam pondered the meaning behind his thoughts as he laid in bed with the sleeping blonde. Her soft snoring caused a chuckle to slip passed his lips. She was most definitely asleep; lost in dreams of a time where she loved a man, but couldn't make love to that man.

Slipping from the bed, Liam rose to close the curtains to block out the sunlight. He didn't have the same aversion as Angel, but he had felt the need to do so.

"Don't you want to wake the girl?"

"Not for the world."

Liam's hand paused midair after having closed the curtains. Doyle had known Buffy in this time? These dreams? Memories?

Liam felt more confusion. It seemed the more memories that flooded his mind, the more confused he felt. Weren't they supposed to make it all clear to him?

Rubbing his temples, he barely has time to register the one memory before a more intense one hit.

Liam saw a picture of Buffy sleeping, as he watched her peacefully. As she awoken she spoke.

"What? Do I have funny bed hair or something?"

Easily, he replied, "Or something."

The memory unfolded as she mentioned sleeping too long and him keeping her in bed instead of allowing her to get up to fix her hair.

The conversation continued as the two laid together in his bed. Liam could not help his interest being peaked when it was revealed the two were a couple.

"I mean, that's what couples do, they have drawers."

"That's right."

The end of the memory made no sense to him as it lingered within his mind. What was a prom? What was the electric slide? Why did he run from the sunlight? Why had it hurt him?

Hand sliding down the curtain, Liam fingered it. She had thrown it open only to look sheepish when he had darted to the corner in pain. It was hard to process. All of it left him believing her to be the witch he had originally believed her to be.

The tiny blonde shifting in the bed pulled him from his thoughts. He had slept with her. Surely she was out of his system. The profession of love had been apart of the spell, the love spell. It had been a brief moment of insanity, a moment of weakness. It had been something, but it was not love. He had been mistaken ... Hadn't he? Liam didn't want to leave himself room to doubt. He couldn't love, shouldn't love.

Liam dared not to climb back in the bed to join her, despite the familiar pull to her. Deep down he wanted nothing more than to slip behind her and wrap his arms around her tiny waist. The thought was halted immediately. Love was weakness. Love played no role in his life. He didn't even know the girl.

Something told him otherwise.

Something nagged at him, pulled at the pit of his gut.

Convincing himself that she had placed a spell upon him, Liam then decided the memories were just more of her conjuring. She wanted to confuse him, taunt him, taint him. It was all apart of the game, the seduction.

Hadn't he seduced her? Oh, but it was what she wanted him to think! It was all apart of her plan. She wanted his soul.

The Orb of Thesulah...

The image of it came before his mind's eye and it made him yell out. It was where she would put his soul after she stole it.

Liam stared down at Buffy as she slept, not knowing that he was conjuring up excuses to keep himself from loving her.

He watched her intently. The first time they had made love, she slept and he had awaken.

Liam touched his chest. Despite it being just a memory, he could still feel the pain of his soul being ripped out of his body. She had taken it. The intimacy between the two of them had stolen his soul. In the memory he had loved her, trusted her, lost himself with her, and then he had lost his soul to her.

Her name had been fresh on his lips as he cried out in pain. Was it an accusation? A question? It wasn't clear to him.

Liam wouldn't allow it to happen again. Somehow, someway, she had come back in time for him. Was she a time-traveling gypsy of a witch? His eyes narrowed in accusation. Did she seek him out in every life just to steal his soul?

Determined to flee the room, Liam turned on his heel, but was immediately stopped in his tracks.

"Please don't go."

Three words. They weren't quite the same the words, 'I love you,' but they were enough to make him to come to a stop and leave him frozen just the same.

It had been hard enough to wake up in the bed alone, it was even more so to see him ready to go without a goodbye.

Buffy felt weak, but around Angel that had always been okay. He allowed her to be weak, if only for the moment, and then built her up to be an even stronger version of herself.

The problem was that the man she had believed to be Angel the night before, the man she thought she had been making love to ... wasn't her Angel. She knew. She could tell by the way he had turned to carry himself to the door. There was coldness that reminded her of Angelus. It felt like she was waking up in Angel's apartment alone all over again only to come face to face to the harshness that was Angelus days later.

She couldn't do it again. A reward was promised, not punishment.

Feeling tears begin to build, Buffy open her mouth to say something, anything, but she felt her voice begin to break. She wanted Angel.

Turning to face her, he felt his resolve begin to fade. He cursed himself inwardly. She was so beautiful, looked so pure, so honest in her sadness.

Without realizing it, Liam inched toward the bed. The ideas of her being a witch slowing starting to disappear.

"I was going to get ... breakfast." The lie caused guilt to flash in his eyes and she knew he was lying.

Wrapping the sheet around her body, Buffy sat up. She was completely powerless in every way. Finally she got to be the normal girl with a normal boyfriend and she wanted what she had with Angel. She'd trade it in within a second.

The ring still adorned her finger and she found herself staring down at it.

Chocolate eyes drifted toward her line of site, "... Fits about right then yeah?"

Twisting it, Buffy gnawed at her lower lip. She considered giving it back to him to save him the awkwardness of asking for it back.

"It doesn't belong to me ... Not yet. Not here." The last four words were whispered more to herself than anything.

Liam heard her, the whisper sounding more like a piercing scream than an actual whisper. Thankfully for Buffy, he chose to ignore it. She brought a curiosity out in him that made him want to know more, to know why, but he now feared the answers. It seemed the more time revealed, the less he wanted to fully know. Why couldn't she just be a normal girl? The both of them wondered that, but for very different reasons.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he brushed hair out of her face, the contact providing a deeper connection between the two.

Angelus leaned down and brushed hair out of Buffy's face while she slept, not knowing the monster above her bed instead of beneath it.

Jerking away from the contact, Buffy shivered. She knew that demon all too well. The shivering lingering as she remembered just how close she had been to death, having later awoken to the portrait of her. The message ...

"How did you..." Gripping the cover tighter, Buffy fidgeted, daring to look Liam in the eyes. He looked like he had seen a ghost, no... He looked like he had seen his first demon.

Not able to come to terms with what he felt as Angelus, Liam focused on Buffy. "Ye saw it too?"

Nodding Buffy groaned, suddenly not happy with the 'reward' she was being given. It felt more like a game, one that she had barely made it through once and now had to play all over again.

"Let's just ..." Let's just what ... He didn't know. He didn't know where to go from there. "Pretend like ... No. I..." Growling in frustration, Liam found his footing and carried himself away from Buffy. He paced the room back and forth. They very well could not ignore what was happening could they?

"Are ye a witch?" The question fell from his lips and he didn't know if he regretted it or not or would end up regretting it, but he had to know.

Finding the irony in it, Buffy giggled. "I wish. I have a feeling like this would be a lot easier if I were."

Smiling just barely, Liam flopped down on the bed. He could not sit still. It bounced Buffy and she found herself studying him. He was so much like Angel and Angelus, but so very different at the same time. He had looked so much like Angel when he had forced the smile for her sake and for his. For their sanity really ...

Buffy crossed her legs and stared over at him. "Is this the first time that you ... Saw something?"

Eyes closed, he shook his head no. So they were going to face this after all. "No. It happens quite a lot. A lot more lately."

"Wait... Dumb question. Last night you ... I thought you knew. I mean ..." Pausing she shifted uneasily, "I thought you were him."

Sitting up, he had to laugh, not knowing how close he was about to be to the truth. "Which him?"

Cocking her head to the side, she felt a shiver go down her spine, "So you do know?"

"Know what exactly, lass?" He felt frustrated. Having every right to feel frustrated, Liam continued. "I feel ... I see. I don't know what I know. I am just there and when I was there ... " He waved his hand trying to refer to the last memory before, "It was different. What I felt for ye ... Or he felt for ye was..." It wasn't that he couldn't place it but more so couldn't find the words to describe the intensity.

"Hatred?" Her voice sounded small even to her. "Disgust?"

Those two words only heightened his interest but he quickly fought against that. Clearly it didn't do any good to be curious.

"Yes, but not toward ye. Myself." Turning to face her completely, he reached out to touch her skin. "I hated myself for still loving ye and I don't know why. I felt disgusted for feeling like I needed to be there with you as you slept."

"No." Pulling away, Buffy frowned. "You got it all wrong. Angelus hated me. He had to of ... He..." Her eyes prickled with tears. "In the end, I think even Angel did."

Liam didn't know enough to really defend it, but he wanted to try anyway. Something about the way she looked when she cried bothered him. He didn't ever want to see it again.

"Buffy, I don't know if they are me or I am them or if we're all the same or kin or even three different people ... Or if they even have a tie to me, but I do know that no matter the vision, it's always ye."

"Is there every a moment where you or I am not haunted with my past?" A tear slipped down her cheek and Liam wiped it away.

"Well..." Capturing her lips in a kiss, he pulled the sheet away as his body covered hers. Buffy's back hit the bed, her lips parting to accept the deepening of the kiss.

"Allow me to demonstrate then lass." The gentle command of Liam was followed by her throaty laugh as Liam kissed between the valley of her breasts.

Both desperately needing the distraction, neither dared to ask any more questions of who, when, or why for the rest of the day and night.

FOUR MONTHS LATER - 1750 - Galway, Ireland

Over the next few months the two spent most of their time fooling around. The need to speak wasn't there for the two of them because they both feared what the other might say or ask or even remember.

The only communication was between their two bodies. They were in sync and needed no explanation why. Liam pretend like the memories didn't plague him and Buffy did the same. He had questions, but couldn't face the answers. It was much safer to lose himself inside of Buffy and luckily for him, she agreed. It was when the two fell asleep that reality set in. She'd dream of her Angel and Liam would hear her call for him. The name would fall from her lips as if she were pleading for him to return to her and Liam would fight the urge to wake her out of pure jealousy. He found himself growing attach the petite young woman and so he made sure falling asleep beside her lessened over time until the act was nearly a memory itself.

Buffy pretended not to notice that all vocal communication had pretty much come to a stop. There were words exchanged, but there was no depth to the conversation. They had grown afraid of the other and that only made her miss Angel more. Still, Liam was as close as she could get. It had almost felt like Angel holding her until that too had disappeared.

Leaning down, Buffy splashed her face with water. She felt faint, dizzy even when seated. Holding her middle, she groaned. Liam had helped her get a wardrobe more fitting for a lady in the day and age, but now she felt confined by it. It felt as though she couldn't breathe. Hand slipping from her waist to her head, Buffy sat by the river trying to regain her composure. When had the sickness started?

"Wearing a wee bit more clothing than the first time then lass?" Liam's voice cut through the air as he made his way over to her. Easing down beside her, he nudged her, but immediately noticed her coloring.

"Are ye feeling well, Buffy?" His hand found her forehead and he felt the clamminess there.

Before she could answer, she stumbled forward trying to escape him as she felt the bile rise in her throat.

'Oh no,' were the two words she could think as she emptied the contents of her stomach in front of the man she had been sharing a bed with.

Liam shot forward to help her keep balance, immediately pulling her blonde locks out of her face. He decided not to share the vision of her lying on her bed and him helping her drink contents of some spell that would help her live.

Immediately she thought she had been food poisoned, pregnancy being the last thing on her mind. Ironically enough, it was the first thing on Liam's.

"Ye aren't pregnant are ye, Buffy?" Even as he said the sentence, he found himself taking a physical step back and a few mental ones. The urge to flee was strong. He wanted her to say no. He wasn't the fathering type. He wasn't even ready to court her. It was meant to be a joke, a way to laugh about something and ease his own mind.

Buffy felt Liam pull from her and she knew then if she were, she'd be raising the baby alone. Angel had told her of how he had been as Liam, she should have taken it as a warning.

Wiping her mouth, she came to a stand and felt herself go cold toward him. Was she really one of those women who didn't know they were pregnant until they were on the table having the baby?

"No. I don't think so. No. I can't be." Shaking her head, she tried to remember her last period. Surely stress had prolonged it. If possibly, she paled even more. The last period she remembered was in Sunnydale right before they had faced Glory.

"Holy shit!" Turning she fled, hoping he would not follow her.

A very stunned Liam was left standing by the river. Pale himself, he did the only thing he could do. He got sick.

Bursting through the door of the cabin, she was glad to see Doyle. "I want to go home."

Looking up from his glass, Doyle grimaced. "I just knew ye would say that. Kind of hoping you wouldn't. Had a feeling." The vision had came and gone, but the pain still lingered.

"So you know then ... Am I pregnant?" Plopping down in the chair across from him, she felt her panic grow with each passing second.

"Aye, and before ye ask, it's human. It's a 'gift'." Doyle poked at the situation lightly because the former slayer did not look too happy to be carrying Liam's child.

The only sense of peace that gave her was that it wouldn't be a slayer and it wouldn't have any kind of demonic characteristic to it. It was Liam's and he didn't want it. She could tell that much. Why couldn't he be Angel? But then, she wouldn't be pregnant. Grumbling, she sunk lower in her chair.

"Some gift this turned out to be." She immediately felt bad for saying it and she blamed her raging mood on Liam and on hormones.

"Still want to go home then lass?" Doyle's vision wasn't as clear as he wanted it to be but he had saw the solution for Buffy's problem.

Nodding, she looked up into the blue eyes of Angel's best friend and was surprised to see some relief there.

"Me too."

To say she was surprised was an understatement. She didn't expect Doyle to be ready to go back. Then again, she didn't expect to want to go back either. What would she really being going back to?

The two of them made the short journey to the gypsies and neither of them seemed too happy about needing to use them. It was the vision he had gotten though. The Gypsies had the solution to their not so little problem. Sitting before the gypsy, Buffy studied her carefully. Jenny had been a gypsy. She had played the role of a gypsy for a short while. Maybe they weren't all bad. Still, something felt wrong. Something felt very wrong.

The only thing that kept her there was Doyle sitting beside her and the need to see Angel.

Blood. She had picked up on that word when Doyle handed her the dagger. The blood of the Slayer? No, it couldn't be. She wasn't the slayer anymore was she?

Feeling the blade slide across her skin, she was lost in the soft chanting of the gypsy before them as she watched the cut heal almost immediately.

"Doyle," She felt panic rise in her system despite feeling stronger. "Doyle!"

Buffy let out a piercing cry as felt herself being pulled but the feeling leaving her feeling as she was about to be torn into pieces.

Watching Doyle disappear right in front of her, Buffy clung to blanket beneath her, trying to get some kind of hold on the ground beneath her. "No wait, wait!"

The Gypsy let out a loud cackle and Buffy dove toward her, letting go of the grip she had to keep her there.

Behind them, Liam watched it all unfold in complete horror. When Buffy had told him of the pregnancy, he had decided to drink her memory away, but before he could he realized it had never worked before and never would. Realizing his mistake, he tossed the bottle to the ground and headed to the one place he knew he'd find her. When neither her nor Doyle were at the cabin, he headed for the temporary resting place of the Gypsies. He had to see her.

Doyle had disappeared and Liam feared she would be next. Running toward her, Liam leapt to try to grasp her, but slammed to the ground. "Buffy!"

Face full of grass, Liam coughed, having knocked the air out of himself when he hit the ground.

Eyes dark, he practically growled out, "Where did you send her?"

A slow smile spread across the face of the Gypsy. It gave Liam chills.

"A twist in time, a place where you may never find her."

LOS ANGELES - PRESENT TIME - (Months after Buffy's death when Angel finally returns to Los Angeles)

The sound of a horn had Doyle running in the opposite direction, trying to find safety on the sidewalk. Off all places to come back to, she just had to place him in front of ongoing LA traffic. Looking up, he laughed in relief. "Well Buffy, we're back." He looked around, then turned and looked around again. "Now where in the hell are ye?" Standing in front of the Hyperion Hotel, Doyle felt dumbfounded. Where was the little slayer? "... REALLY?!" He threw his hands up in the hair. How would he explain this one to Angel?

"Doyle?" For the first time in his life, he did not want to hear the sound of his best friend's voice.

Turning to face him, he felt sick. How would he explain he had lost his pregnant mate ... the same mate Angel believed to be dead.

"Heya Angel, how's it going?"

1898 - Borsa, Romania

Buffy dove toward the gypsy but came in contact with a very different build. The two tumbled, her forward and him backward. Landing on top of him, Buffy looked down into his eyes and went cold. "Um, sorry about that ..." Quickly she scrambled off of him and found her footing, waving off any attempt to be helped by him.

"An independent lady then." He chuckled and dusted off his clothing. Eying her appreciatively, he noticed the swell of her breasts before the mixtures of emerald, jade, and amber of her eyes. "What is a lady such as yourself doing out so late all alone?"

Buffy had lost her voice, not quite prepared with a witty comeback. Instead she was mute. The step toward her she took as predatory. Buffy took one back, her hand covering her stomach protectively.

"Aye, and to be pregnant at that and all alone?" Taking her hand, he lifted toward his mouth, but stopped when he noticed the ring. A Claddagh.

Jerking her hand free, Buffy lifted her skirts, ready to flea, "Angelus!" It came out as a cross between a scold and a warning. Leaving a stunned master vampire in her wake, Buffy fled.

Buffy didn't make it far before she stopped running. She had no real direction. How would she get answers now? Where was Doyle? Why had the Gypsy split them up?

"Divide and conquer."

Feeling tears well up in her eyes, she leaned against the stone wall and cried. Once again she didn't know when or where she was, didn't have any money, and now did have any friends. Not only did she put herself in danger, she put her unborn child in danger.

Liam came to her mind. He had tried to save her, had tried even though she was pregnant with a child he didn't seem too happy about. Why had he had shown up?

Crying quietly to herself, she never noticed him until she felt the familiar pull. It was stronger now that he was a vampire again and she a slayer.

"It is you." Angelus didn't know what he felt. He told himself he didn't feel anything, he couldn't feel anything. He didn't have a soul and the love Liam had felt for her had been purely human.

The memory of Liam trying to decipher his feelings as Angelus and Angel's feelings for Buffy came to his mind. Yes, he had hated himself for loving her, but was that him? Was that version of Angelus him?

He felt just as confused as Angelus as he had as Liam.

Head snapping up, Buffy gasped. "What? You know me?"

Angelus closed the distance between them and smiled at her, his face shifting. "All too well, Buffy. All too well."

The memory of loving her as Angelus, Angel, and Liam toyed with Angelus but he made a decision right then. That was then, that was them, and he was an entirely different man in a different time.

Even as he declared it to himself, Angelus looked down at his pregnant Buffy and cursed himself. She looked exactly the same as she disappeared out of Liam's life.

Liam had searched for Buffy and his unborn child until he found Darla at the bottom of a whiskey mug in an alley.

The man had been practically been mad with the need to find her, but he never had. It was the one thing in his life he had regretted the most. He had loved and had lost, but by his dying day had wished he had never loved at all.

Not revealing the details of how Liam's life had gone and ended, Angelus decided to figure out what exactly his plans for the young girl would be. Liam hadn't had it entirely wrong.

Buffy was still as beautiful as he remembered once had in fact remembered.

"You must be starving." His eyes flickered to the vein in her neck and noticed the scar.

Buffy found no reason to protest that. She knew no one else and she knew Angelus well enough to know better than to get too comfortable. She told herself she wouldn't.

"Yes." Giving him a small nod, she hoped maybe he could explain things to her or possibly help her find the Watcher's Council. There had to be one.

Instead of taking her back to Darla, Angelus felt the need to keep her a secret. Adding his 'family' to the mix would only complicate things further. He didn't know much about the girl, but he knew one thing Liam hadn't. She was a slayer and the life Liam had remembered was one where he was already turned into a vampire. What he wanted to know was the difference ... Why did she call him both Angel and Angelus and why did he remember things in so many different ways ? Why did he feel so many different things? What had he been besides a vampire in love with a slayer?

Following him down the street, they soon walked side by side, neither saying a word, but both stealing glances at the other. They both had so many questions, but hadn't she had so many questions before when she was with Liam? Would the confusion never end?

Arriving at the inn, Buffy decided not to say anything about Darla, Drusilla, or Spike. She didn't want to know. The only thing that urged her forward was the fact that the only demon she sensed was the one by her side.

Standing by she watched him thrall the inn to allowing them to stay without paying and ordered them to bring food up to the room and not bother them again until asked. She wasn't sure if that left her feeling relieved or nervous. She guessed it was a combination of both, but she didn't really have a choice. Time-travel wasn't exactly easy on the body and the day had been a long one. It felt like a life time of choices had been made in one day and she didn't know whether to regret them or not, but she knew she had to embrace them.

The sound of them climbing the stairs together seemed to echo throughout the inn. She was rather quiet and it peaked the interest of the master vampire leading the way. Twisting the key into the lock, he pushed open the door and entered it. With him not bothering to hold it open for her, Buffy was faced with the door closing in her face. Cursing quietly, she twisted the knob to open the door and entered the room.

"How nice."

Angelus chuckled at her comment and then took a seat in the chair by the window. Crossing his legs he rested comfortably. "So what do you have to say for yourself?"

That smug bastard ... How dare he?! Buffy felt her hormones rage and she finally lost it.

"Me?! What do I have to save for myself? You inconsiderate prick..."

Before she could continue, Angelus held up a hand to cut her off mid-sentence. "Inconsiderate? Hardly."

There was a knock on the door and his smile was certainly one of smug bastard.

"That would be dinner. You were hungry right? How very inconsiderate of me." Rising to stand, his smiled turned wicked.

Crossing the room, Angelus opened the door, leaving his slayer in shock. He had a point. No one else was going to take her in off the street and feed her.

"I am sorry, it's just .. you're so infuriating." Buffy had no idea why she was apologizing except for the fact that she felt the need to.

The cart was pushed in by the help and Angelus closed the door behind her. He leaned against the door, amused by Buffy, but feeling his appetite grow. She left him feeling ravenous.

Trying to be considerate of others, mainly just to infuriate her further, Angelus waited for the help to finish setting the plate for Buffy and putting the last finishing touches on the food. Pushing himself off the door, he caught the young woman by the throat and sighed. "You'll have to do." And with that he tore the throat out of the young woman, draining her dry as Buffy stood grief stricken, then allowed the body to hit the floor with a thud that seemed to echo on.

"Eat." Wiping his mouth, the order was given to Buffy as she eased down in the chair, never once taking her eyes off him. Just like that. He had drained the woman dry, had taken a life, it was just so easy for him. She had no idea why it shocked and bothered her so. It was Angelus. He made sure to remind her of that.

Her appetite was gone, but the baby's wasn't. It seemed being pregnant as a slayer made everything kick into overdrive. She felt as if her body was starving and it was making sure to remind her to feed the baby growing inside of her.

"I'll be back before morning. Eat. And then I want answers."

And with that, he and the body were gone. It was as if it had never happened. No evidence was left behind except for the fact that she had witnessed it.

Dropping her eyes down, she felt her shoulders slump. She could have saved her. It's what part of her mind told her, but the other part reminded her of her weakened state and the life she and Liam had created together.

Mind on the baby, Buffy pushed Angelus to the back of her mind as she ate and then crawled into the bed. She just needed sleep... sleep and then maybe a nice warm bath in the morning.

Yawning, she rolled onto her stomach as if she were hiding the baby from the world around her and fell into a deep sleep where she was still back with Liam, wishing he was Angel.