Chapter 37

Andrew was still helping Ava with the kids and all of her other job related things. In return she was helping him with a few organizational issues he was having with his files. They said it was an equal trade, but everyone knew that Andrew had tangled up his files on purpose to let Ava help. As long as she felt she was pulling her weight and not taking advantage of him, no one was willing to burst her bubble.

Things were a bit strained at the Rest. Buffy and Xander had appeared one day and stayed nearly a month so far. Vi had come to stay while Spike was off world because she couldn't stand being at the cottage by herself. That upped the number of pregnant women in the house from 1 to 3. Not fun for the rest of the household. Sam had finally stopped hovering around Ava after about 3 weeks, but Andrew was starting to suspect that was because she had accomplished her goal, which would up it to 4.

Dr. Lam had decided that she would monitor Ava's pregnancy through house calls instead of risking someone at the base finding out about what was going on. Now she came by once every evening and stayed for hours getting information on the situation and presumably passing it on to her father: off the record. She was overly interested in what Mitchell was up to though.

Laura and her kids were bored. They missed their lives back in LA, but with Connor in DC it really wasn't safe for the family of a known hunter to be unprotected. So they were staying whether they wanted to or not.

Oh, and Andrew was moving to town permanently.

This all left Dawn with a headache that just wouldn't go away and a house full of people who just wouldn't go away.

Dawn looked over at Jonas as she finished her paperwork for the day. "This is why I moved here you know."

"Really? There are a lot of pregnant women pissy wives and cranky toddlers at the headquarters?"

If he was trying to be cute, it wasn't working. "No. Just the chaos of a group of people that are constantly in each other's faces and taking out their frustration on innocent bystanders. I don't know – "

The ringing phone cut her off.

"Hello" she sighed.

She listened for a moment and then sagged back in her chair. "Oh, thank god. Just have the guys get their shit together and I'll have a portal ready in 10."

"Love you too Will, bye." She squealed as she hung up and ran out of the office and into the family room where Ava and Vi were hanging out while AJ played with Diana and Liam watched cartoons.

"They found them. Search is over, now comes Scout and Take Down." The girls smiled.

Angel sat lazily in his office chair as he finished up his phone call with his son.

"No Connor, I'm not going."

/……./

"All the work you guys have done, in the past couple of weeks since I left, is the work that matters the most. I don't have much to add. Besides which, I promised myself that I'd never go back there, and the reasons I needed to come home are still a problem."

/……./

Of course I'm going to help in the fight."

/……../

He sighed heavily. "Fine. I'll give you the coordinates and you can have Dawn open a portal. Guess I could visit with Laura and the kids if nothing else."

After a couple of minutes they hung up and Angel slammed his forehead down on his desk.

He had spent most of the last couple of months prowling around Washington DC with his son and a couple of other guys trying to find a nest of mind control demons and their alien partners. He had enjoyed the challenge, not to mention spending so much time with his son. After about a month or so, the one guy, Kyle, had gone to a meeting and not returned, leaving him with just Connor and Cameron. Losing the extra man hadn't really made a difference since they weren't really getting anywhere and he started to get frustrated with the whole thing. Then, a few weeks ago, he had received a call from Carrie, saying that she needed him to come home ASAP and deal with some people who were causing a problem at the shelter.

When he got there, he found the place a wreck. A gang had decided to break in and tear the place apart because they didn't like a bunch of kids hanging around their neighborhood who weren't working with them. Half the kids had run off and the other half were too scared to leave the building.

He was still trying to get the place cleaned up, not to mention finding the runners and bringing them home, and now he had to go to Colorado and deal with people who he had hoped never to see again.

After he left there the last time he made a whole new life to wash away the old one. He made new friends, he found a new way to help people that didn't involve them or the supernatural fight that they waged. He even found a new love, after he finally gave up on his old one.

He wasn't hiding from his feelings for Buffy, or avoiding seeing her happy with someone else. He was embarrassed. He had spent years following her around like a puppy dog and watching her move on with her life without him. He had made a fool out of himself with all of them over it. Now that he was past it, now that he could see his behavior clearly, he wanted to forget it had ever happened. And to be fair, he was avoiding Spike.

Spike who had taken his place utterly in the lives of everyone they knew, even if the thing with Buffy hadn't lasted. Spike who had the simple life that Angel just couldn't bring himself to have. A vampire, living with the same human woman for years, RETIRING to the suburbs with a free and easy conscience.

Technically he could have them, he just held himself back. After LA things hadn't really changed for a long time. He had his curse and his burden and he went on as always. But After Connor's wedding Willow had decided to fix him. She had done a complicated ritual and freed him of his curse. His soul was his, free and clear, just like Spike's was. The gang had decided that they didn't want him going on a killing spree because he held his grandson for the first time or something.

That had given him hope that he and Buffy stood a chance. Sure, she hadn't been speaking to him, but he had been convinced that she hadn't really moved on either. The only men she had been with for more than a week since Reilly were Spike and that Immortal guy. He had a shot.

A week later Spike showed up to tell him that, not only was he living it up with a pretty little slayer, but Buffy had moved to Africa to be with Xander, and not as friends.

Well, maybe he had overreacted a bit.

But now he had a life. He had a teen shelter in New York City, where he gave help to kids. He had a girlfriend, Carrie, who understood him and didn't mind his brooding. He had a close relationship with his son and grandchildren.

Why did they need him anyway? Wasn't one vampire enough?