CHAPTER 1
Aurora was frantic. How could this be happening? She played the last 24 hours over in her mind, trying to find something… anything that could get her out of this mess.
Her History class had gone to an archeological dig for a field trip. She didn't much like History or the History teacher, but it was a field trip and anything to get Aurora out of that class and still give her credit was a-okay with her.
She was actually enjoying herself. The diggers had unearthed some ancient slab with writings on it and everyone was arguing over when it was buried. The stone itself was ancient, they all agreed, but the dirt wasn't.
"Nate would just love this," Aurora had thought with a smile.
She had felt eyes on her, and looking around into the surrounding brush, saw a demon stalking her in the shadows. It was the same one that had been tracking her for the last week. Nate, her Watcher, hadn't been able to find out why this demon of unknown origin was stalking the Slayer yet, which made Aurora that more cautious of it. But the fact that it kept hiding just out of sight meant that Aurora hadn't been able to give a detailed description of said demon, making Nate's job nearly impossible.
So she'd decided to do the only logical thing. Aurora went after the demon. Unfortunately Mr Richards, her History teacher and general thorn in her side, saw her ducking into the brush and had decided to follow her. Nothing gave him more pleasure than to make her life miserable and catching her in a suspension-worthy situation was just too good an opportunity to pass up.
The teacher had walked in on her fighting off her demon-stalker. The demon had leapt at the uninvited guest, broke his neck in quick order and tossed the lifeless Mr Richards into the Slayer's arms. By the time Aurora got the dead body off her, the demon was gone.
Then the scream had echoed over the clearing. A young woman, one of the digging crew, had been standing at the edge of the clearing, her face stark white. Her scream had brought the rest of the digging crew and the visiting students, which in turn brought the police with their hand cuffs and their Miranda rights.
Aurora had to spend the night in jail, because her exchange family hadn't been able to pull the bail money together fast enough. Or maybe because they believed she actually did kill her teacher. This wasn't the first time in the last few months that Aurora had gotten into trouble for fighting.
The police kept asking questions she couldn't answer, and her court-appointed lawyer didn't help matters much. At least he did manage to get her bail, but then the Thompsons' told her they couldn't get her out before the next day, because the check wouldn't clear until then.
So now Aurora paced her cell, waiting for morning – and freedom – to come. Never before had she missed her parents like she did right now.
"Oh God!" she cried out. "My parents! What will I tell them?" Aurora's heart sank into her shoes.
****************
3am the next morning, as nightmares jarred Aurora from her restless sleep, Buffy Anne Summers, now Liam, and her husband, Angel, landed their Lear Jet at LAX Airport.
"I'm so worried, Angel," Buffy said, tears of concern close to the surface. "She's all alone in that jail."
Angel took his wife in his arms, trying his best to comfort her when all he wanted to do was rip those barred doors off his daughter's cell and free her. "I know, baby. Aurora will be fine. I promise. Come on, let's go. We should get some sleep before the sun rises."
Buffy let her husband lead her to their waiting car. The driver kept his eyes low in respect for the traumatized parents.
Buffy and Angel sat in silence, watching the quiet city flash by them. It's amazing how little Los Angeles had changed in the last 15 years.
Buffy's thoughts were pulled back to the day she left. Angel had defeated Angelus and had been reborn human. They had left that monument to their pain and loss for the bright future ahead that day.
She had called Giles from the airport, telling him that both she and Angel were alive and well and leaving together.
"After all these years of loneliness, of denying ourselves, we finally have our chance," she had pleaded for her Watcher's understanding. "We have a chance to be together and be happy."
Giles had said he understood and had wished her well.
"I will be back," Buffy had promised the day she had taken Angel's strong, warm hand, had followed him into the sun and never looked back.
They had traveled the world. He showed her his home in Ireland and they were married there on a clear sunny day. Angel had given her the claddaugh ring she never dared wear for fear that the pain and loneliness become too much. That night, their wedding night, Aurora was conceived.
They had traveled over the entire Europe, but the memories of past lives always caught up with them. So they kept moving until they had found the shores of Australia. There they found peace like they've never known before. Here, no-one had ever cared about The Scourge of Europe or the Slayer. They found anonymity. So they stayed.
Angel bought his beautiful wife and baby girl a fabulous house. Buffy had been very surprised to find out that her husband was actually filthy stinking rich. Centuries of collecting art and wise investments had made him a very wealthy man, but Angel had always felt that to indulge in his material gain would lessen his suffering. The investments growing in their international bank accounts gave the couple the freedom to be together without worry about where their next meal would be coming from.
But they were still Warriors for the Powers. And the demons still found them. Aurora was getting bigger and asking questions they didn't want to answer yet. So Liam Corp, a very successful private security and investigation firm was born. Buffy and Angel ran it together, and the business gave them the cover to hide all their secrets from the world at large and from their daughter, whom they felt wasn't ready yet to know the truth about her parents.
They had had no contact with their friends and family in the United States at all. They had rewritten their public past so that no connection could ever be made between Mr and Mrs Liam and the Slayer and the Vampire with a Soul.
Now Buffy was back home, back in the country of her birth and the city of her rebirth. It took her 15 years to keep her promise, but she was finally back. And all she wanted to do was leave, to just pull her family close to her and leave before this city, this country could ruin her life again.
8am was slow to come to the restless couple. Buffy found Angel in the training room, kicking the living hell out of a punching bag. He sensed her presence in the doorway, watching him vent his frustration and anger on the inanimate object.
"I keep wishing this is the bastard to blame for Aurora's trouble," he growled, out of breath. Sweat glistened on his naked, rigid back. He landed a last punch into the bag, ripping it out of the ceiling and turned into his wife's waiting arms.
"I know," she said softly, stroking the tension from his shoulders and back. "We'll find him. He'll pay for messing with our family. I promise."
"What time is it?" Angel asked, stepping back.
"Time to go get our daughter," Buffy answered, handing her husband a towel.
****************
"Mom! Dad!" Aurora launched herself at her parents standing in the waiting area. The policeman escorting her out tried in vain to restrain her, but he was no match for her strength.
"Aurora!" her parents answered, gathering their daughter into their open arms.
The young policeman stepped up and grabbed Aurora's shoulder. "No touching!" he ordered.
A hand clamped down on his wrist, twisting. He looked up into the furious black eyes of the girl's father.
"Touch my daughter again," Angel growled menacingly. "And you will have to pray your buddies can arrest me before I beat you to death with the bloody stump of your arm."
Never before had he seen such fury. The policeman gulped and backed off, nursing his wrist. 'It's broken,' he thought incredulously. 'He broke it with one hand.' Wisely he decided to not make an issue out of it. 'Better for my health, I think, to just let them have their reunion. She's out in any case.'
"I didn't do it," Aurora cried into her mother's arms. "I swear, I didn't do it." Tears cascaded from her dark chocolate eyes, begging her mother to believe.
"I know," Buffy assured her daughter, touching her face to wipe away the tears clinging on her cheeks. "We'll fix this, Aurora. I promise." She pulled the sobbing girl into her arms for a fierce hug. "Mommy's here now."
A bald little man crawled up to the reunited family. "Excuse me," he coughed. "Mr and Mrs Liam?" Angel and Buffy turned their attention to the little man trying to introduce himself.
"This is my lawyer, Mr Crocker," Aurora said bitterly. What she wanted to say was 'This is the idiot that had me sleep in a jail cell for the night.', but she thought better of it.
Her father didn't share his daughter's thought, though. "My daughter slept in a jail cell last night!" Angel spat, grabbing the nervous little man by his wrinkled coat lapels. "You let my baby sleep in a jail with murderers and thieves and thugs!"
"Angel," Buffy warned, not wanting her husband to be locked up too. Angel breathed in deeply and let the blanched lawyer go. He may be human now, but he still possessed the ability to put the fear of death into men with just a glance.
"I'm sorry," Crocker squeaked, battling desperately not to wet himself. "The bail money. We couldn't raise the bail money in time. And the evidence against your daughter…"
Angel's face darkened. His hands itched to ring this little man's neck. "I suggest you stop talking now, Mr Crocker," Buffy interrupted, her own voice clipped with barely controlled anger. "Come on, Aurora. We're leaving."
Angel turned his back on the frightened lawyer. "Have my daughter's files delivered to this address," he called over his shoulder, tossing a card with their Los Angeles home address to the floor. "Your services are no longer needed."
The District Attorney, who'd come to see off the Liam girl and maybe intimidate her into confessing, groaned from his hiding place behind a supporting pillar.
"Aurora Liam is Angel's kid?" Lindsey MacDonald couldn't believe his bad luck. His first case as the new DA for LA County and it had to be Angel's daughter. He groaned again and dragged himself back to his office.
Aurora felt miserable, but with her parents protectively holding her at least it was a happy miserable. "What about the Thompsons'?" she asked, noticing that her exchange family was nowhere to be seen.
"We called them this morning," Buffy answered as she followed Aurora into the waiting car. "They understood that we wanted to pick you up and take you home. We can go over there later to get your things."
Aurora nodded. She was relieved she didn't have to deal with the Thompsons' as well today. But she should call Nate and let him know where she was, Aurora reminded herself. Suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention. Aurora stiffened, scanning the world outside the car windows for the source of her unease.
"Aurora? What's wrong?" Buffy asked the tense girl.
Aurora shook her head, mumbling, "Nothing, Mom."
She didn't notice her father's tense and watchful expression as he joined them in the back of the departing limo, but Buffy did. That look meant one thing. Evil, and it was close by. The older Slayer sighed heavily. 'Welcome home,' she thought bitterly.