At nightfall we all gathered in front of Hyperion. "Wesley, you and Gunn ride in Oz's van. Cordy, Tai, you guys are with me." Angel said. I nodded and went inside Angel's convertible.
"Cool car. Won't you get burned when the sun rises?" I asked. I'm not really sure where Sunnydale is, I mean it might be really really far.
"Don't worry. We'll be there way before the sun rises." He said. "Um, Angel, where will we stay. I mean I don't want to stay with my parents." Cordy said. She was sitting in the front seat and I was in the back. "I think I still have the mansion. Don't worry, if I don't we can always stay in a motel or something." I saw Cordy crunch her face.
I woke up and found that we were at a different town. "Tai, we're here."
I went out of the car and saw a big, gothicky house. "Who lives there? Dracula re-incarnate?" I joked. "You can pretty much say that." I heard oz say.
"I own the house." I jumped and saw that it was Angel who said that. He took my bags and motioned for me to get inside.
The living room was big. A fireplace on the side and a garden on the other. I smiled at Angel. "You need an interior decorator. I can help. My mom always said I have a flair for these things."
Angel's face became sad when I said that, but I guess he didn't want me to see it. Instead he directed me to a room.
"It's really big." I said. Well it is bigger than my room. Angel smiled. "Hope you like it. Sleep. We'll talk to the others tomorrow."
I smiled at him. "Thank you." I said.
"What for?" he asked, confused. "For helping me. You'll come back with me right? To Ayers? That's why I looked for you, so mom could see you, all of you again." He nodded. "Of course. Now rest. You need it." I felt a huge burden lifted off of me. I am so grateful for Angel, but somehow I sense that all of this hurts him. I mean, Cordy said he and my mother had a long complicated history. Great. I'm thinking he's my dad again. Which he may very well be. I made a mental note to interrogate him. Yeah, him and my mom. Interrogate 'em together. I just hope I get home to a mother that I can still interrogate.
My eyes started to water again. Mom, keep holding on. I'm doing this as fast I can.
Sunlight streamed through the windows. It was morning. I went to the kitchen and saw Cordy, Gunn, Wesley and Oz eating breakfast.
"Morning. Where's Angel?"
"He's on the phone. Why don't you get yourself a plate and breakfast doll?" Gunn said. I laughed at his choice of name for me and went and got myself some food.
It was delicious. "Who cooked?" "Angel." they said in unison. I formed an 'o' in my mouth.
After eating I went to the living room and found Angel talking on the phone.
"I know Giles. It's been really long. But I don't know why she only contacted you now. And by her daughter no less. I didn't even know that Buffy left. You never told me that! Nobody did. Look, thing's might be bitter between us, for whatever reason, but we really need to talk. All of us. Tai needs to tell you something. And you have plenty of explaining to do."
He angrily put the phone down. "I'm guessing you and him didn't part to good." He turned. "Mom told me about him. He was like a father to her. That's as far as she would tell."
"Tai, I have some news for you. You're going to meet your mother's old friends."
"Come on Tai, let's go!" I heard Cordy yell. I went out and joined them outside in the car. Angel was notably absent. Probably because the sun is up.
"Wait, how are we going there in a car without Angel burning to a crisp?" I ask.
"Don't worry, he'll be there way before us. Angel knows the Sunnydale sewer-system better than anybody else does. Which is gross come to think of it." Cordy supplied. I laughed a little at what she said. I am so nervous. I'm finally meeting people who meant, still means, a lot to my mother.
We arrived at a Melrose Placey-looking condo complex. Wesley knocked on one unit. A weary-looking fiftyish guy answered the door. "Wesley. Cordelia. Oz." They all got welcomey and started hugging each other. The guy looked at Gunn.
"Oh, Charles Gunn. Call me Gunn, even if you don't like it." He shook the other man's hand. The man stared at me.
"I presume you're Tai." He said to me. I nodded shyly. He gestured us inside. I looked around the room. There were other people inside. Most of them look like they were mom's age.
They all looked at me funny. I sat down meekly on the sofa. Finally, a redheaded woman came up to me and hugged me. "You must be Buffy's daughter. My name's Willow, I am, or maybe now it's was, your mother's best friend. The guy who opened the door was Giles, her watcher." She started introducing everyone. A pretty cute guy with floppy dark hair was Xander. The girl beside him was Anya. A blonde girl was Tara.
All of them then started saying hi to me. It was nice that I'm accepted with my mother's friends. It was then that I noticed Angel wasn't here yet.
I turned to Cordy. "I thought you said he'd be here way before us. Where's Angel?"
A voice rang out behind, "Here I am." it was Angel. He nodded to everyone in the room who regarded him somewhat guardedly. "I suppose you all know why you're all here? But I'm not the one who's going to tell the story. Tai is." Angel said. He then turned to me and told me to tell them what my mother wants.
After I told them the story, most of them had tears in the eyes. Some of them were just plain emotionless. Blank. I heard Willow gasp. "Buffy's dying. I should've been there for her. If only we didn't get her mad. If only we didn't let her leave." She started sobbing. Oz moved toward her and embraced her.
To say I was confused was an understatement. My mother never told me why she left Sunnydale and went Ayers. All she would tell me was, "I just needed to leave that town." And when I pushed her to tell more, she'd shake her head and change the topic. Now here were her friends saying that they shouldn't have let her leave. That they should've been there for her. But would that have made a difference? Would my mother still be up and about and raising Dav and me?
Angel saw my eyes lost and said to the gang, who by now were all crying by the way, "Why did Buffy leave?"
Several pairs of heads turned towards him. "It's a pretty long story man. And I don't think Tai wants to hear it." Xander said. "No. I do want to hear it. Please. Why did my mom leave?" he nudged Willow and told her to tell the story.
"There was this god named Glory who wanted to get back to her own dimension. To do that she needed the Key. The Key was sent to Buffy in the form of her sister. Which she doesn't have. Then her mother, Tai, you're grandmother, developed a tumor on her brain. She died of an aneurysm. A few weeks after she was buried, Dawn, the Key, was kidnapped by Glory. There was this big fight and Dawn went back to where she belonged. This made Buffy really sad that she slowly started to withdraw from all of us. One day she surprised us and told us that she was pregnant. We were all still reeling from the battle that we got mad at her. We told her how irresponsible she was that she let herself get pregnant. We had this big blowout that she just snapped. She told us to leave her alone. That if we don't trust her then why don't we just leave her alone. We told sure, we'll leave you alone, but it's pretty hard since this town is small. She looked at us then turned and ran away. The next thing we knew, she left town."
I didn't know how to react to the news. I was the reason my mother ran away from her friends. I stood up and ran out the door. I saw Angel run after me, but he stopped. It was still light. He'll burn. He shook his head and I saw him go into the light.
"Angel NO!" I heard Cordy yell. All of them came rushing at Angel, but he was out the door. I thought he was dust, then I felt a pair of strong arms around me. Cradling me as I wept because I caused some pain again.
"What the…I'm alive. I'm human. I didn't burn." It was Angel.