Buffy walked through the cemetery, her slayer senses on overdrive like always when she was patrolling. Hopefully everything would be quiet tonight so she would be able to get home and change in time. Xander decided he was going to take everyone out to dinner to celebrate his newfound heroism. Buffy laughed at the thought. The thing with Willow had put stress on everybody, but at last everything was close to being back to normal. Dawn was basking in the glow of being able to help Buffy with kicking the gross skeleton guys asses.
As she walked through the cemetery she came near Spikes crypt. She sadly looked at it wondering what Spike was doing at this moment.
"Hi Buffy," Buffy turned around recognizing the voice instantly. "Angel, what the hell are you doing here?" She said, not trying to hide the shock in her voice. "I heard Sunnydale got a little hectic recently so I came back to find out if everyone was ok, after I escaped from my water prison," he added the last part with his endearing grin.
"Water Prison?" Buffy asked questioningly, noticing for the first time Connor who had been lingering behind Angel analyzing the pretty girl whom his father had taken an interest in seemingly forgetting the boy behind him.
"Yeah, there was a mild misunderstanding between my son and I" said Angel, pushing Connor in front of him.
"Son?" Buffy questioned more confused then ever. "When did this happen, who did this happen with?" Buffy asked glancing between the father and son noticing slight similarities between the two.
"It's a long story in which I'd be happy to explain later" said Angel smiling, "but first, is everything good between everyone?"
"Well, ummmm…" Buffy paused before answering, "to make a long story short, Tara is dead, Willow went all powerful Wicca and killed someone, I was shot, Anya's a vengeance Demon again and her and Xander are not a couple anymore…oh yeah, Dawn's a clepto and Giles is back!" At that Buffy smiled at the now open mouth Angel who quickly recovered and cleared his throat but before he could say anything Connor interrupted, "Sounds like you had more fun then all of us," at that he smiled and glanced at his dad then walked away to investigate some of the cemetery. Angel, knowing full well that Connor could fend for himself looked at Buffy and sighed. "Well, at that, how about we head back, I'd like to say Hi to everyone if that's ok with…" Before he could finish his sentence there was a crash in the bushes. Dawn was running towards Buffy with a vampire chasing her, actually two vampires but Connor had thrown the second one into the bushed and staked him. Before Buffy could intervene Dawn jumped over a headstone, did a double flip backwards in the air and landed behind the vamp chasing her, then she staked him before he had a chance to turn around.
"Well, that was fun" Dawn said, dusting Vamp ashes off her clothes, she smiled at Buffy but it faltered when she saw Angel. Connor who had untangled himself from the bushes was staring wide eyed at Dawn with his mouth gaping open in surprise by what he just saw. Buffy noticed and made a mental note the two men seemed to have that one common trait.
"Uh… H..Hi" Dawn said looking at Angel, then noticing Connor with leaves in his hair and his clothes ripped from the thorns in the bushes she glued on her most flirtatious smile and held out her hand, "Hi, my names Dawn, I like the outdoorsy type, very masculine," with that she turned to Buffy, "I need to go take a shower before we go out to dinner, I smell like Vamp breath, see you when at home." Looking at Connor she added, "It was nice to meet you," at that she ran from the group towards the Summers house a couple miles away.
"Th…That was your sister" Connor asked breathlessly, staring after Dawn even though she had disappeared from sight about 5 minutes ago.
"Yup, that's Dawn. She's matured a lot these past few days." Buffy smiled and started walking the way Dawn had gone.
Angel and Connor followed. "Buffy, I was wondering if we could possibly stay at your house for a week or so while we're here?" Angel looked at Buffy hoping she'd say yes.
"Sure, that's fine with me I guess" Buffy said still walking. Why don't you guys meet me there, I'm going to be late and I still need to take a shower. Hopefully Dawn doesn't take forever." With that she started Jogging towards home leaving Angel and Connor behind.
Arriving home Buffy was annoyed to find out that Dawn had just gotten into the shower meaning it was going to be about 20 minutes before Buffy would be able to take one herself. "Great" she muttered, deciding to call Xander to let him know they were probably going to be late. After she called Xander she went upstairs to pick out her clothes so at least she'd have that part finished beforehand. When she went past Willow's room, she noticed the door was closed and it looked like Willow hadn't touched the food Buffy had put in front of her door before she went patrolling. Buffy knocked on the door not expecting an answer and was right. She shook her head knowing Willow needed time to heal the hurt, confusion and guilt. Heading to her bedroom Buffy closed the door and begin choosing her outfit for the night.
Dawn turned off the shower grabbing the towel on then rack and started to dry herself off. She had been smiling since she came from the cemetery. She couldn't believe how cute that boy was. She had no idea who he was but he seemed to be associated with Angel some way. She walked into her room with the towel wrapped around her whistling to a song from No Doubt. She turned on her light and walked to her closet to get her outfit she was going to wear to dinner, after she had gotten the outfit she turned to lay it on the bed. When she turned around she screamed. Sitting on her bed was Connor staring at her with the most beautiful brown eyes, towel and all.
