Chapter 10

Buffy woke up to an added weight on her, opening her eyes slightly and looking down, she found Conner using her tummy as a pillow. While his legs were lying on Seeley's pillow next to her head. Smiling at Conner's sleeping face, she was so glad that Conner was comfortable with her enough to get into bed and cuddle into her without having Seeley there. Seeing as she and the team were standing down for the rest of the weekend, and Seeley was busy at work, Buffy decided to join Conner in his slumber.

A few hours later found the two of them in their PJs in the kitchen enjoying a chocolate chip pancakes, that Seeley had made and left in the oven to keep warm.

"You dad is a brilliant cook" moaned Buffy, taking a bite of the chocolate sauce drenched pancakes.

Conner hummed in agreement, clearly too busy enjoying his pancakes with chocolate smeared all over his mouth.

"So, I have an idea for today, I found this really cool game that we could go play"

"What game is it?" mumbled Conner.

"It's an escape room for kids"

Conner looked thoughtful, as he asked, "What's an escape room?"

"An escape room is a game where the people playing are locked in a room and they have to solve clues to get out of the room."

"Will you stay with me?"

"Of course, I will" Buffy promised.

Conner looked down at the chocolate smeared plate in front of him and slowly nodded his head and said, "Yeah let's go."

Buffy smiled and said, "You go get cleaned up and ready. While I clean up the kitchen and get dressed. Then we head off." Conner jumped off his chair and headed to his room to get ready.

Once the two of them were ready they headed out, getting a cab to the games zone. Conner and Buffy took a while to choose which experience, they wanted to try, but Conner choose the end of the world scene, where they had to solve the clues to get to safety. After paying, they were herded in to a room with the other players, the staff explained the rules of the game, then they were shown to the escape room which they chose.

The room was massive, it looked like a lab room, there was a wall that looked like a window that showed the street in total darkness, the houses were destroyed. One of the walls had those hangar doors you see in plane hangars to the side there was a keypad next to it, it seemed that was the door that they had on open. The room had a cupboard that was shoved to the corner, a large coffee table with what looked like puzzle pieces on it. The last wall had a mosaic tile feature which made the number 23 in roman numerals, the tiles were a shimmering blue, that reminded Buffy of the water in the ocean when the high sun hits it. While she and Conner were taking in the room, the attend closed the door behind them, Conner looked back at the door while Buffy pulled him closer and gave a him a reassuring smile and quietly reminded him that she was with him and this was just a game, Conner nodded back and they walked to the middle of the room.

"I think we need to do the puzzle first" Conner said, while looking around the room to see what they have to do first and the only thing that stood out was the puzzle pieces on the table. Buffy agreed and the two of them sat down getting comfortable as possible on the floor.

Together the two them started to find the edge pieces and matching similar pieces together. As they worked, they quickly figured out that the puzzle was a 3D puzzle, after making a dozen mistakes, they were able work out the shape, the puzzle made a 3D rocket. "Wow, that's cool"

"Can you see anything with rockets?" asked Buffy, the two of them gazed around the room looking for anything to do with rockets. Conner was the first to see the poser with a rocket on it, he excitedly pointed it out to Buffy.

The two of them looked over the poster but they couldn't see anything, so Buffy carefully pulled the poster off the wall, so that they could look at the back of the poster, only the back was also blank, causing Conner to groan in dismay. "There's nothing there."

Buffy shrugged lightly and said, "Guess we just have to keep looking, maybe there was something we missed."

For the next 10 minutes the two of them looked all around the room looking for any little clue to do with rockets. Before a huffing and puffing slightly irritated Conner sat down next to the 3D rocket that he and Buffy had made. It was then he noticed the small equation on one of the windows of the rocket.

"Buffy, Buffy, come and look at this" he called out, waving her over. Buffy sat sown next to Conner and looked at what he was pointing at. Buffy smiled and kissed him on the top of his head, before shooing him off to go get a paper and pen. Once he came bounding over with a paper and pen tightly held in his hands, Buffy told him to read out the equation, while she wrote it down, silently cursing maths in her mind. The equation read as 8x9+30+13= then divide by 5. Buffy helped Conner work out the answer, "23" Whooped Conner, before deflating, "Is 23 the answer for the keypad?"

Buffy slowly shook her head, "No I think we need to have a closer look at the wall over there." Gesturing at the wall which had the roman numerals making 23 featured on it. As the headed over to look closer at the wall, Buffy explained to Conner about the roman numerals.

When the two of them examined the wall, looking over the tiles carefully to make sure that they don't miss anything, Buffy was also aware that they had used up more than half of their time up. Buffy noticed the push me button on the middle I. She showed the button to Conner, who instantly turned on his pout that he had inherited from his father and puppy dog eyes and pleaded to be the one to push the button. Buffy huffed I amusement and agreed to let Conner push the button, Conner instantly grinned and pushed the button. Nothing happened for a few moments, when suddenly there was a slight whooshing sound behind them, causing the both of them to whirl around to see the locked cupboard that was behind them opened up slowly, they had checked the cupboard when looking for clues about the rocket. They walked over to the cupboard; it was completely empty inside other than a bunch of letters and a small note on the back of the cupboard. The letters that were at the back were F, O, Z, O, T, E, W, I, V, R, E the note read "unjumble these and make the three numbers that will set you free" Read Buffy.

Conner looked up at her in confusion and asked, "What does that mean?"

"It means that we have to use these letters to make a number in word form" explained Buffy.

"Oh"

Buffy got the piece of paper and pen they had abandoned and wrote the letters on it, the two of them then went and sat down at the table. Together they worked on the unscrambling the letters, it took some time but finally they got there and they figured out that the words were two, five and zero.

"Now what?"

"Now we put push these numbers on the keypad over there" Buffy pointed out the hangar doors and the keypad to Conner.

"Can I, do it?"

"Sure."

Conner ran over to the keypad and on top of it there was another note, which said put the numbers in from highest to lowest and again from lowest to highest to gain your freedom. So, Conner punched the number in first from highest to lowest and lowest to highest. Instantly the doors started to open up making a slight groaning sound.

As the doors opened up fully, Conner and Buffy stepped into the new room, there they found a life size rocket. The staff there ushered Buffy and Conner on to the rocket, where they got to experience a stimulation of them fly to a new planet where they would meet the rest of the people saved and create a new world for their people. Conner was even given a chance to try the controls and explore the new planet.

Buffy's heart started to beat even faster as she watched the excitement on Conner's face as he tried out the controls, she even took a video which she sent to Seeley. She couldn't even put in words how happy she was to be the one to put this look on Conner's face.

After a while they exited the rocket and Conner whooped in happiness, "That was awesome, Buffy" and gave Buffy a hug, surprised Buffy wrapped her arms around him and quietly whispered, "I am glad you enjoyed it buddy."

"Next time can we bring dad with us?"

"Ofcourse we can." Buffy stroked Conner's hair as he pulled away from the hug.

Once they exited the games zone, Conner pleaded with Buffy to go to the park so that he could go meet up with his friends. Buffy agreed and the two of them caught a cab to the park. As soon as they got there Conner, looked for his friends. The moment that he spotted them, his called out for them and without acknowledging Buffy he ran over to the small group playing soccer.

Buffy huffed is amusement as she went to sit down on an empty bench, that overlooked the area the Conner and his friends were in. "Don't worry about him, they all do that when their friends are present" a woman said as she walked upto Buffy.

"Hi I am Macy, Will's mum. You must be Buffy, Seeley's partner?"

"Hi, yes, I am Buffy. It nice to meet you." Buffy said holding out her hand.

Macy shook her hand, "I heard a lot about you, Conner just loves talking about you and how happy you make his dad."

Buffy gave the woman an embarrassed smile, but the woman's comment also made her happy, knowing that Conner was ok with her and his dad's relationship. Slowly she and Macy got talking and Buffy could tell that the two of them would really get along.

An hour later Conner and Will, came crashing next them and slumping into her side, she could see that Will did the same thing to Macy. The two women shared a smile and Macy passed her number to Buffy before she and Will headed home.

Buffy turned her attention to Conner who was looking at her, "I am hungry" he informed her. Buffy looked at him and said, "Well it's a good thing that your dad invited us for dinner at the diner." Conner nodded and the two of them headed to the diner which wasn't too far from where they were.

As they got to the diner, they found Seeley and the rest of his team sitting at the table. Conner instantly ran over to his dad and launched in for a hug, something clearly that Seeley expected as he braced himself for the hug. "Hey Buddy, where's Buffy?"

Just then Buffy walked up behind him and hugged him from behind, "Ah I see," said Seeley. As he pulled Buffy in front of him and hugged her close. "Come and meet the team."

"Guys I would like you to meet Buffy. Buffy this is Cam, Jack Hodgins, Angela and this is Sweets." Seeley introduced them as he pointed them out.

"Hi, it's nice to finally meet you guys" Buffy said as she shook everyone's hands. And waved at Temperance who was standing to the side. The group sat down at the table and ordered their food, while Buffy got to know the group in front of her.

While Conner regaled his adventures to his dad, Hodgins and Sweets. Buffy, Angela and Cam were chatting about the Buffy's life in England and how she was doing after moving here and while Angela entertained her with small stories about all the different places that she lived.

While Temperance listened to all the conversation around her, she watched as even though they were wrapped in different conversations, how aware Buffy and Booth were of each other. If Buffy moved slightly, Seeley would move along with her. Booth had his arm on the back on Buffy's chair and he would stroke the back of Buffy's neck with his finger.

Once they eaten their food, Conner had fallen asleep against Seeley, that they decided to leave. Temperance watched as Booth picked up Conner like he weighed nothing while Buffy gathered their things and the three of them headed out. Seeley kept a arm around Buffy as they walked out of the diner and headed home for the night.