A/N I'm baaaaack! Sorry it's taken me so long to update this. My muse got distracted and I just wasn't feeling the love for writing on any story. Not to mention that this is the fourth draft because my computer decided to hate me and corrupted the file three times before. I ended up writing this on my Google Drive in hopes that it wouldn't corrupt again. It's insanely frustrating to be almost done with a chapter only to be forced to start over again multiple times. Technology, am I right? Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter!

Buffy sat at her and Angel's desk while Angel paced furiously back and forth behind her. Wesley was standing solemnly in front of the desk. Angel had gotten wind of a mission that Wesley had taken Fred on that he had deemed too dangerous for her. He and Buffy had had an argument-turned-screaming match before he'd stormed out to go save Fred. Fred was down in medical since she'd been shot through her right shoulder during the fray.

"She could have been killed." Angel growled.

"Medical seems optimistic." Buffy defended. "She should be up and moving soon."

"That's not the point."

"Then what is?"

"What the hell was Fred doing there in the first place?"

"I needed someone who could explain the weapon convincingly." Wesley said.

"Nobody else here knows how to explain a gun?" Angel asked.

"I needed someone who wouldn't arouse Emil's suspicion. Someone I could trust."

"And so conveniently, the only person who could go with you was Fred."

"What does that…."

"She shouldn't have been there. It was a reckless decision."

"Fred has more than proven herself in the field. There was no reason to think…"
"We found her bleeding to death on the ground! From now on, you clear it with me before using any of my people."

"Your people?" Wesley and Buffy asked in surprise.

"Got it?"

Wesley turned and walked out of the office, ignoring Angel's question. Buffy turned her chair to look up at Angel. "Harsh, much?"

"She could have…." Angel started.

"Been killed. Yeah, I heard you the first thirty times. You do realize that you're making too big a deal about this, right? That whole mountain, mole hill saying. Medical said her wound wasn't that bad."

"You weren't there. You didn't see her."

"I've seen her since she got here and she's fine. Why are you still beating Wesley up about it?"

"He can be careless."

Buffy nodded knowingly. "Focuses too much on the big picture? Overlooks the people involved? Willing to risk anything or anyone for the greater good?"

"Something like that."

"Hmm…. Sounds familiar. Would you like to recap large chunks of our relationship?" Angel shot her a glare, but she didn't back down. "I think there's another reason you're getting so worked up about this." He waited not-so-patiently for her answer. "You don't trust Wesley." Angel deflated some and sat down in his chair. "I get it. He did turn Connor over to your sworn enemy not that long ago."

"He didn't mean for that to happen." Angel said automatically. "He thought he was doing the right thing."

"From where I'm sitting, it all worked out. Connor's happy, you're happy, we're happy…."

"That's got nothing to do with…." He sighed. "I just want to be kept informed. That's all."

"Yeah, I'll believe that never." She watched him for a long moment before it dawned on her. "You're worried about the next time Wesley betrays you trying to do the right thing."

"Stop being so perceptive."

She reached over and took his hand. "I get it. I do. Being kicked out of your own house for making a difficult decision your friends didn't like? It kind of forces some perspectives about betrayal on a gal. I don't recommend my way of dealing with it, though."

"Running off with your boyfriend and signing on to co-run an evil law firm?"

"Yeah. That. It's kind of working out for me since that boyfriend is now my husband and I have a great closet full of shoes, but I'm a special case, I think." She chuckled for a moment before sobering up again. "I'm never going to trust them the way I used to. But I've had a lot of time to think about everything and I've come to the conclusion that I can't spend my life waiting for the next time they decide to stage an impromptu mutiny because they don't like a decision I make. They're my friends. We've been through a lot together. Too much to just throw in the towel when the going gets rough. If it happens again, I'll deal with it then, but right now…. I'm going to look forward to the phone calls I get from them because England is on the other side of the planet and I don't get to talk to them much. Wesley is part of your circle of friends. He's in this with you and the others, shoulder to shoulder. He's here because he believes in the mission and he believes in you. You shouldn't be so down on him like you are."

Angel reached out and looped her hair behind her ear. "I like this wiser Buffy. So very grown up."

"Yeah. I don't know when that happened."

He smiled slightly. "I have a present for you."

"Presents are good, but what's the occasion?"

"It's been a few weeks since we got married and I never got you a wedding present."

"I didn't get you one, either, so…."

"You staying married to me despite the circumstances we got married under was the best present you could've given me."

"Oh."

He took her hands in his and kissed her knuckles. "I know you weren't sure if you were ready and we're still trying to figure out how a marriage between us works, but I am so very happy I can call you my wife." She gave him a smile. "Ok, present." He let her hands go and turned to the larger desk drawer on his side of the desk. Pulling out a beautifully wrapped box, he presented it to her.

Buffy took care to open the muted silver wrapping, not wanting to destroy the beauty of it. Inside the wrapping was a matte, black box that held intricate drawings she recognized instantly. The one on top was a portrait of her mother. She had the same smile on her face that had always made Buffy feel instantly better. The rest of the drawings were recreations of pictures that had been strewn throughout her house. The last picture at the bottom was a colored drawing. It was a recreation of her favorite picture that had been hanging in the living room. Her mother, her sister, and her were laying on a blanket in the sunshine and smiling brightly.

"Angel…." She breathed. The tears that had been welling in her eyes finally spilled onto her cheeks.

"I'm sorry it's not as good as the others. I'm not great with colors."

"No! It's perfect!"

"I remember it was your favorite and I thought doing it in color would make it a little more special for you."

"This whole thing is special. Thank you so much." Buffy wiped at the tears and smiled at him. "I really wish I had some way to repay you."

Angel shook his head. "I told you that staying married to me was enough. Besides, we shouldn't be keeping score. I don't think that's a great thing for any relationship."

"No, you're right. It isn't." She shuffled through the drawings again. "You're the only person I know that has ever given me something so wonderful and meaningful over and over. I don't know how you do it."

"I didn't think you liked 'Sonnets from the Portuguese' that I gave you for your eighteenth birthday."

Buffy laughed. "I wasn't a huge fan of it when you first gave it to me, but as I got older, it started meaning more and more to me. I think it might actually be my favorite book." She paused and her face turned from elated to melancholy.

"What?"

"It's gone. It was in my house in Sunnydale."

"I can get you another one."

"It won't be mine, though."

"Buffy, it was just a book. It can be replaced."

"Sorry. I know. It's just…. There's so much that can't be replaced that I lost." She gestured at the drawings. "But this? It's not a bad start on getting some memories back."

Angel smiled. "We can go shopping for some frames tomorrow."

Connor, Buffy, and Angel stood over the open corpse of one of the cyborgs from the night before. They were down in the lab after Fred had called them. Fred, who had been cleared by medical to return to work, was explaining what she had found.

"We found cybernetics throughout the body, in most cases replacing entire organic systems." Fred said.

"Was it human?" Angel asked, looking at the body with a touch of distaste.

"We think so. The nervous system seems human at least, but the rest of the technology is so foreign to us. We can't be sure of anything right now. This thing really blurs the line between human and robot."

"Aha!" Spike said from across the room where he was running his hand through a glass beaker. "So, you're not ruling out that a human being could've boffed a robot. Sex with robots is more common than most people think."

"You're disgusting." Buffy snapped at him.

Angel looked between Spike and Buffy, confused by her sudden venom towards the ghostly vampire. Connor looked up. "Spike made a sex robot that looked like Buffy. Willow reprogrammed it and used it as a decoy while Buffy was dead."

Angel's eyes widened and then narrowed as he glared at Spike. "You're disgusting."

"How do you even know about that?" Spike asked.

Connor shrugged. "Xander told me."

"Um, the cybernetics require central processing to function," Fred interrupted, getting the conversation back on track. "Which means if we can crack its memory, we may find a record of everything it's done till this point."

"Does that mean we could figure out who or what it wanted?" Connor asked, impressing his father.

Before Fred could answer, Spike managed to knock the glass beaker off the shelf. "Hey! Did you…?" They all glared at him and he held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry."

"Um, so far, we haven't had much luck decoding the encryption." Fred said.

"It seems to be a binary-based system, so we'll get there eventually." Knox added. "We just have to find the right transform variable."

"Fred, can you stay on this till we get some answers?" Buffy asked.

Fred nodded. "You got it."

"Let us know if you need any more resources." Buffy and Angel turned to leave, but were stopped by Wesley and the older man walking in with him.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet my father, Roger Wyndam-Price." Wesley announced.

"Hello." Roger said.

"Daddy, eh?" Spike asked. "I always thought Wesley was grown in some sort of greenhouse for dandies."

"Spike."

"You've heard of me?"

"No. We've met. 1963. My colleagues and I fell upon you slaughtering an orphanage in Vienna. Killed two of my men before you escaped."

"Oh…. how've you been?"

"I didn't know your father was coming to visit, Wesley." Angel said. He held out his hand. "I'm Angel. Pleasure to meet you."

Roger didn't move to shake Angel's hand. "Do you really expect me to shake that?" The vile little man asked.

"I'm not real comfortable with hugging. No. I realize this may be somewhat of a horror show to you, but I hope you can keep an open mind. We really are doing good work here."

"So I'm told. Incessantly, in fact." Roger turned his gaze to Buffy's stony face. "Miss Summers." She cocked an eyebrow at him, crossing her arms across her chest. "There never was a more disappointing Slayer than you."

"Father!" Wesley cried.

"It's ok, Wes." Buffy said. "It doesn't mean much coming from the biggest embarrassment in Watcher history. Remind me, Roger, how long did your Slayer last? Two months, right? I'm working on eight years and counting." Buffy looked at Fred. "Keep me posted?" Fred nodded and the blonde turned on her heel and marched out of the lab.

Angel and Connor exchanged glances and followed Buffy out. "How do you know about his Slayer?" Angel asked as they walked into their office and closed the door.

"A few years ago, I got obsessed with learning more about the Slayer."

"Why?"

"I wanted to be better than them. I wanted to have a longer life than any of the ones that came before me."

"You're doing a pretty good job so far." Connor said.

"Thank you. I didn't think so back then. So, I trained harder than I ever had, pushed myself to find my limits, and I studied. I read the Watchers' diaries that Giles had kept from the Council and the ones Wesley left behind."

"What were you looking for?" Angel asked.
"I wanted to know what they did wrong in their final fights. Why they died. How I could avoid that. I even grilled Spike about the two Slayers he killed. I thought about calling you and asking you about the four Angelus killed…."

He looked down. "You know the number."

"Yes."

"Why didn't you call me?"

"You've never been very open to talking about my death. I didn't think you would even entertain the thought of talking to me about those fights." She shrugged. "Anyway, all that studying is how I found out about Wes' dad. I asked Giles about it since Wes was my Watcher once upon a time. He said that Roger Wyndam-Price was a horrible Watcher and a disgrace to the Watcher's Council. His Slayer lasted barely two months."

"What happened?" Connor asked.

"April's first demon she was tasked to take on. This particular demon was trying to make a name for himself by copycatting Jack the Ripper. Terrorized London for three weeks. Roger sent April out to find it even though she had just been called and had only been a potential for about a year. She found the lair and she begged her Watcher to help her. She wasn't ready to take that thing on. He finally agreed to help her, but he gave her the wrong information on how to kill it. I don't know if it was on purpose as a test or if he was just that terrible. The fight turned ugly fast and April was losing. By his own account, Roger could've gotten her out of there, but he chose to leave instead of risking his own neck. The last words in his official journal were 'there will always be another, therefore this is no great loss.'"

"What did the Council do?" Angel asked.

"They were embarrassed that one of their own failed to identify a demon and lost their Slayer as a result of it. They gave him six month's leave without pay and when he came back, he had to work extra hard to get back in their good graces." Buffy looked at Connor. "Watchers were different from Council members. They go through years of special training and have to pass some crazy tests before they're put on the roster to become the Watcher to a potential Slayer. He was taken off that roster. Trained his whole life to be one just like his dad had and he ended up failing miserably."

"I guess his son is doing a lot better since both Slayers he was Watcher to are still alive and kicking." Connor said.

"And one of them has stopped more apocalypses than anyone in history and changed the game forever with the creation of all those Slayers." Angel added.

"High-five, mom!" Connor laughed and then realized he'd called Buffy 'mom'. "Sorry." He turned and bolted out the door before anyone could respond.

Buffy looked at Angel who was turned slightly away trying to hide a smile. She rolled her eyes at him. "How long has he been holding that one back?"

"Since we got married." Angel said. "He asked me if he could call you that and I told him that was up to you. I guess he hasn't had the nerve to ask you."

"Hmph. Like father, like son."

Buffy and Angel sat side by side behind their desk looking at Fred and Wesley. Spike stood next to them looking eager. An evacuation order had been given and then taken back within minutes. Eve had drug Wesley and Fred up to the CEOs' office.

"What happened?" Buffy asked, confused by the half story they'd been given.

"I can explain." Spike said, stepping up in front of Wesley and Fred. "Apparently, when Percy here was younger, he used to be known as 'head boy.'"

"Spike, shut up."

"Right. I have nothing else to report." Spike walked over to stand near the windows.

"I accidentally tripped the cyborg's self-destruct mechanism." Wesley said.

"Anyone could have made the mistake." Fred defended. "Wesley was just trying to interpret some symbols for us."

"Luckily, my father was there to correct my error."

"Right. Your father." Buffy sniffed.

"Where is he, anyway?" Angel asked.

"Well, Lorne's keeping him entertained." Fred said. "Come to think of it, that's probably not the best idea. I'll go rescue him." She rushed out of the room.

"I'm finished here, too." Spike said. "If you want, I can have someone type up the report about head boy."

"Get out." Buffy and Angel said.

"Suit yourselves." Spike marched out.

"It was a stupid mistake." Wesley said.

Buffy waved her hand in dismissal. "Your dad's visit just threw you off your game. Trust me, I get that completely."

"I find it hard to think straight when he's around."

"Fathers and sons." Angel nodded knowingly. "That can be torture sometimes."

"So can fathers and daughters." Buffy added. She grabbed the folder off her side of the desk and handed it to Wesley. "Check this out. It came from your department. There's been multiple reports of assassins that sound a lot like our cyborg."

"Hmm." Wesley skimmed over the reports. "Group of them took out a demon cabal in Jakarta. Another group destroyed the Tanmar Death Chamber. Sounds like they're doing our work for us."

"These are good guys?" Angel asked, getting up to look over Wesley's shoulder.

"I don't know. I should reference this with the markings we found, find some clues as to their origin."

"Get on it. If these guys are on our side, then somebody should tell them before they start trying to kill us again." Wesley nodded and left the office, closing the door behind him. Angel turned to Buffy and said, "I guess the rest of the good guys didn't get the memo that we're not evil."

"That's what we get for signing on with an evil law firm." Buffy said. She glanced out to see Fred laughing at something Wesley's father was saying before Wesley and Roger went towards Wesley's office. "I guess Fred is the only one who doesn't have daddy issues, huh?"

"Lucky her." He glanced over at her. "Have you told your dad that you're back in LA?"

Buffy snorted. "What difference would it make? He's probably in Spain with his secretary, anyway. Or Greece with his golf instructor. Or Japan with his masseuse. Or Australia with…. You get the picture."
"When was the last time you talked to him?"

"Honestly, I don't remember. I stopped caring when he didn't call after mom died." She shook her head angrily. "He just left us there in Sunnydale to fend for ourselves. It amazes me that he can walk away from his daughters and just pop in randomly when he remembers we exist." Buffy snorted. "He wasn't always like that. I don't know when he changed. When I was little, he was so attentive. I can remember him taking me to the park after Dawn was born for weekly daddy/daughter days to make sure I didn't feel left out."

Angel reached over and took her hand. "Buffy…." Suddenly the lights went out and an alarm started blaring. Buffy and Angel shot to their feet and went out into the lobby. "What's happening?"

"We've lost power, communications…." Gunn said, striding towards them with Connor.

"Can somebody please shut off the…" Buffy started, but the alarm stopped mid-sentence. "That's better."

"Not sure it is. I think that means we lost security, too."

Spike walked through the closed elevator doors. "Uh, something's wrong with the elevator."

"Get security online." Angel ordered. "I need to know if this is a false alarm."

An army of cyborgs appeared in the lobby, attacking the people around them. Buffy, Angel, Connor, and Gunn moved into action as Gunn said, "I'm thinking it's not a false alarm."

"How many of these guys are there?" Buffy yelled as she pummeled two and three at a time. Connor tossed her one and she kicked it into the stair railing. They spotted Gunn having trouble with two of his and fought their way towards him. Connor made it first and Buffy turned to defend them. One of the ones beating Gunn grabbed Buffy around the neck and began to choke her.

"Buffy!" Spike ran up and pulled back his arm.

"Spike…." Buffy struggled to get out of the chokehold.

Spike held his other hand up in a stop motion. "Sorry. I have to concentrate." She rolled her eyes and threw herself forward through Spike. The cyborg flew over her and she popped to her feet. "I was working on it!" Spike protested when she turned her glower on him.
Buffy looked around and realized that Angel was gone, but Fred had shown up. "Buffy!" Fred cried, running over to her and dodging cyborgs.

"What are you doing?" Buffy ushered her out of the way of the fight that was beginning to die down.

"Buffy, Angel's on the roof. Wesley needs help up there. Angel and Roger went up there."

"Ok. I'll go up there and help. Can you help the people that are injured get to medical?"

"Of course." Fred turned and went over to help one of the downed lawyers.

"Oh, uh, Eve's stuck in the elevator." Spike said.

"She can rot there as far as I'm concerned." Buffy said, heading for the stairway. She sighed and turned back around. "So tell maintenance." With that, she raced up the stairs towards the roof. When she threw open the doorway, she found Angel on the ground writhing in pain and Wesley pointing a gun at his father.

"Walk away from this, Wesley." Roger was saying. "You'll never understand what we're trying to do here."

"You're using the Staff of Devosynn to take Angel's will, make him your slave." Wesley said. "Your cyborgs panic a bit too easily."

Buffy rushed over to Angel's side as Roger gestured at Angel saying, "That creature is more dangerous to mankind than you realize."

"Call him a creature one more time and you're getting tossed off the roof." Buffy growled.

Wesley moved a little closer to Buffy and Angel, still keeping his gun trained on Roger. "You're wrong about him. He's not what you think."

"He's a puppet. He always has been." Roger yelled. "To the Powers That Be, to Wolfram & Hart. Now he's ours."

"You went to a lot of trouble to get this staff." Wesley held up the stick thing in his other hand. "You had us attacked, you smuggled in a weapon, you brought in an army so you could escape…. I don't know why you're doing all this, but did you ever once consider there might be another way? Did you ever once consider talking to me about it?"

"No. You've failed me enough for one lifetime. You know what that vampire is and what he's done, and you follow him anyway?"

"Maybe I know what I'm doing. Why can't you trust that?" Wesley retored.

"You disgrace yourself with the council, you join forces with him, and you have the nerve to ask me why I can't trust you?"

"I've done everything you ever asked, and I've done it well."

"I asked for this, hmm? I wanted to be humiliated?"

"You humiliated yourself in your stint as a Watcher." Buffy muttered.

"No, I suppose I don't know what you really wanted." Wesley said, not hearing Buffy's comment. "You never had any use for me as a child, and you can't bear the thought of me as an adult. Tell me, father, what is it that galls you so, that I was never as good at the job as you…." He glanced at Buffy, his onetime charge who was still alive and working at being the best Slayer there had ever been. "Or that I just might be better?"

"You think because she and that other Slayer are still alive, you get some credit for that?" Roger scoffed. "One of them is a murderer and the other is sleeping with the enemy. Yes, congratulations on a job well done."

Buffy rolled her eyes and went to join Wesley, still staying close to Angel. "You may not have been the greatest Watcher then, Wes, but you're not so bad now." She turned to Roger. "And I've got one word for you: April." Roger blinked. "Does she haunt your dreams, Rog? She died in such a horrible way and you let it happen. Do you have any guilt over it?"

"She was a Slayer. You're all expendable."

Buffy cocked her head, hearing for the first time that Wesley's father didn't sound like Wesley or Fred. He sounded like the cyborgs. She hadn't realized it until she'd been surrounded by them and then by just plain humans. Changing tactics, she stepped forward a little. "How did you escape the Bringers?"

"What?"

"The bald guys in robes with carvings where their eyes should be? Worked for the First? Came after the Watchers? How did you escape them?" The First had gone after everyone involved with the Watcher's Council, including Roger. Giles had found out that Roger had managed to escape the bombing of the Council Building by being on a book-buying trip to Egypt. Bringers had raided the house he'd been staying at in Egypt, but they had just missed him. The Bringers had been called off their mission when Buffy had defeated the First. By sheer luck, Roger Wyndam-Price had cheated death twice.

"I killed them of course." The fake Roger said after a moment. "They invaded my home and I knew them to be agents of the First."

Buffy nodded. "So, your memory banks haven't been updated very recently, then?"

"Hand me that staff!" Fake Roger yelled.

A helicopter hovered into view, shining bright white lights on the rooftop. Wesley began shooting the cyborg until his clip was empty. The cyborg dropped to the ground, dead. The glamor spell fell away, revealing the cyborg shimmering with electricity.

Buffy looked up at Wesley. "You ok?"

"I believe so." He looked down at her. "How did you know?"

She shrugged. "Heightened Slayer hearing. Another perk of that spell, I guess. Would you mind fixing Angel, please?"

Wesley walked into Angel's office to find him sitting on the couch, holding his belly, with Buffy sitting next to him wiping his brow with a cool washcloth. "How are you doing?" Wesley asked.

"Well, you know that worst part about losing your free will?" Angel asked.

"Having no control over your body?"

"Well, there's that and…. You get really nauseous."

"The effect should wear off before too long."

"Any idea where these things came from?" Buffy asked. "What they were trying to do with him?" Wesley shook his head.

"Great. Like we don't have enough to worry about." Angel said. "Now the good guys may be after us, too."

"We have to assume we crossed some powerful forces when we took over this company." Wesley offered.

"They're all trying to bring us down. The perception is that we're weak."

"No. The perception is I'm weak. That's why they went for me."

"They're wrong." Buffy reached over and took Wesley's hand. "I meant what I said up there. You're not so bad now. You do what you have to do to protect the people around you. You do what you know is right, regardless of the cost."

"You know," Angel added. "I never really understood that. You're the guy who makes all the hard decisions, even if you have to make them alone."

"That thing knew everything about me."

"You know, if they had access to the Watchers Council's old files, they'd have your background information, character assessments, psychological profiles…. Everything they'd need." Buffy said. "Except the most recent information. I thought it was funny that he never mentioned what happened in Sunnydale."

"You should get some rest." Angel said.

"So should you." Wesley nodded at them and walked out.

Angel looked over at Buffy. "And you should call your dad."

"What? Why?"

"Buffy, he's your father. You only get one in your life. Look, even if he is the biggest jerk on the planet for abandoning the most amazing woman I've ever met, he has memories of your life that no one else does. And you said it wasn't always bad. Maybe now that you're older, it could be good again. You just need to call him."

She sighed. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to try. I mean…. He has a son-in-law now. That's a big deal. If he's feeling fatherly, he'll probably want to meet you." Angel's eyes widened as she stood up. "I'll just go call him now."

He grabbed her hand. "It doesn't have to be right now. It's late." Buffy laughed as he pulled her back down to the couch.