A/N: Again, I have done another flashback- you'll find it in the first section of the chapter, up to the line of asterisks. It isn't one from Gracia or Angel this time though, it's a scene from Keisha's past. Later on, I'll do one for Luke. I just though that it might be important to let you all in on some of their back story.

Disclaimer: Does anyone bother to read these? **Sigh** Check the other chapters.

Dedication: All my friends who texted me whilst I was off with what we reckoned was laryngitis. You're lifesavers, thanx!

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She knew of nothing except the white duvet pulled over her head, the pillow clamped partially over her ears. It muffled the noise.

If she stayed here, it would be alright. The rally of screamed insults from downstairs needn't exist if she didn't hear them. Her ten-year-old sister Melindria didn't have to be sobbing in the depths of the bed across the room if she stayed as she was, trying to ignore the destruction of her life.

She couldn't. Some horrible feeling forced her to cast aside the pillow and push back the covers, to rise and scramble out of bed.

Six-year-old Keisha Goldsmith tiptoed past the huddle in Mel's bed and out onto the landing. She pattered along the light-blue carpet, carting her rag doll Stephie with her as comfort.

When she reached the last door of the landing by the stairs, a crash accompanied by a yell rent the air. She leapt, startled, but continued partway down the nearby staircase to peer unnoticed through the banisters.

Her mother and father stood six feet apart from each other, both red in the face and furious. A shattered brandy glass, seized from the drinks cabinet, pattered the carpet near where her dad stood. Her mom had obviously hurled it at him in her rage.

"You're a crazy woman, Shauna!" her dad yelled. "You ought to be locked up in a loony bin!"

"Do I really, Ryan?" her mother shrieked. "I want to see you out of this house and out of our lives right now!"

Keisha had always thought that her mother was the prettiest woman ever. Now, with her face flushed scarlet, her golden hair flying into her wild eyes, her flailing fists clenched as her body shook from the force of her shouts, Keisha wasn't so sure. Her mom really was crazy.

"I love my kids too much to let you poison their minds! I want regular access and my fair share in their lives!"

"You don't deserve this family!" Shauna screamed. She panted for breath, obviously running out of shocking, cutting insults. "I'll-I'll divorce you!"

"You'll divorce me?" Ryan Goldsmith laughed, anger seemingly clearing away. He reached out calmly as if to stroke her hair. Shauna slapped his hand away sharply. "Shauna, the day you divorce me will be the happiest day of my life."

Keisha sat there silently as it dawned upon her young mind that there was more loathing in those few quiet words than there had been in any of the previous barbs.

Baby Charlie began to wail from his cot in the other room. Her mom glared levelly at her dad, eyes brimming with a pure, poisonous hatred.

"Get out." she hissed.

Ryan Goldsmith turned as Shauna Goldsmith did. They stalked off across the room in opposite directions. Shauna went through one door to tend to her baby.

Without a backward glance, Ryan Goldsmith opened the front door and walked out of the house forever.

And nobody noticed little Keisha huddled on the steps, tears silently pouring down her cheeks and dripping into Stephie's brown woollen hair.

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Gracia liked gymnastics. She'd liked it even before she'd become the Slayer and found it a lot easier. It was one of her favourite classes, and she refused to skip it whether Cecelia approved or not. Needless to say, she didn't, grumbling about how maybe Gracia should realise that Slaying also entailed hours of meticulous study to improve her mind as well as training to improve her techniques. Luke had then quipped in that Gracia was still single and perhaps needed to improve her dating techniques. This had earned him a playful slap around the head, a glare, and a "You're really one to talk." from Gracia, Cecelia, and Keisha in respective order.

Gracia didn't even want to dwell on the possible prospect of boyfriends for a second. Ever since a couple of nights ago in the graveyard, she'd been surpressing something in the back of her mind, some thought that she knew she shouldn't be having. If having a vampire as your brother was bad enough, what about a vampire as a boyfriend? It went without saying that Cecelia would probably get carted away foaming at the mouth by the men in white coats if that ever happened. Not that it would. She didn't expect to see him again.

But anyway, at least she had a chance to concentrate on gymnastics for now. It was fine mostly when she was occupied with fighting, lessons, or homework, but whenever she had nothing to do, she'd just begin to drift into the old thoughts again. So whilst annoyed teacher stalked around the room, trying to get the majority of the class (who were standing around in chattering groups) to do something 'constructive', Gracia stood at the end of a fairly wide square beam about five feet from the mats on the floor.

She flipped slowly up onto her hands. Easy. She curved her body over backwards, got her feet solidly on the pole, and came up. Simple. She repeated it, focussed intently on every movement.

Time for the third flip. She pushed off onto her hands. Once she was standing on her hands, however, she realised that she had pushed off too hard unknowingly, and, as a result, was wobbling slightly. She steadied herself, and curved over into a bridge, placing her feet firmly on the bar, and pushed herself gently upright. It was then that she knew something was wrong.

The bar was cool and hard under her bare feet one moment. The next moment, just as a pair of firm but air-like hands collided with her shoulder blades, it wasn't there.

She gave a startled yelp, rocked slightly, and toppled off. She crashed onto the mats heavily, her right ankle curled under her body. A second or so after she struck her head on the mats, she blinked and pulled herself up into a half-seated position. To find the twins hurrying over to her, along with the gym instructor from the other side of the room, and also to find the entire class staring at her.

Luke and Keisha crouched on either side of her. "You OK?" Luke asked worriedly. "Man, that was some fall."

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Gracia groaned as she sat up fully, putting a hand to her lower back. "Think it's just a bruise."

"Careful, careful!" the gym teacher said, kneeling in front of her. "Now, why did you fall?"

Gracia shrugged as best she could with the back pain. "Dunno. Slipped, I guess." Suddenly, her right foot began to burn with pain, and she shifted it gently out from underneath her.

Keisha took one look at the limb and winced away. "Gees, that is gonna hurt."

"Already does." Gracia gritted her teeth as she peered at it herself. She must be heavier than she had thought. It had flushed red, and would probably be bruised and swollen later on.

"Get her to the nurse." The teacher said, shifting the twins out of the way briefly to help Gracia stand up. "Luke and Keisha Goldsmith, you can take her."

Supporting her on either side, the twins helped the Slayer to limp painfully from the gym. The silent, staring class parted like the Red Sea as they came through. Her pale cheeks began to blush when she realised that absolutely everybody had seen her muck up her flips. And of course, Fate had to be extra cruel in securing the fact that Bridget Hadley, complete with nasty smirk and the 'everybody will hear of this before the next class' glint in her eyes, would be the last person between them and the door. She lingered a while longer than she should, not quite catching the triple death glares.

"Miss Hadley, please move yourself." The gym instructor snapped.

The cheerleader gave a little sigh, another smirk at the three outcasts, and drifted slowly back to her little gang. Keisha glanced back to give her an obscene hand gesture when nobody was looking.

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Keisha had been so busy for the last few days, with one thing and another, that she hadn't found the time to read the other book that she had taken from the library. At least she hadn't been having those weird dreams since she met the...ghost. Or whatever it had been.

Still, she had time now. She was hidden in the depths of the bookshelves, where the volumes muffled the sound of Gracia and Luke's chatter from the tables. Cecelia wasn't around. Sometimes she just wasn't. She'd usually appear when they least suspected it, demanding to know why Gracia wasn't training.

Keisha glanced around from where she sat cross-legged on the floor one last time just to check nobody could see her. Idiot, her mind hissed. Of course no one would be watching what she was doing, questioning her choice of reading material. Thank god for that. What would they say? Luke would probably just laugh and joke about it...for the next twenty years of her life. Gracia would want to know why she was reading it, and Keisha didn't want the Slayer to think that she was going mad when her unbelieveable tale was told.

Slowly, she prised open the cover and peeled back a couple of the first pages. The pages, she found, were all full of elegantly shaped script and delicate diagrams, scratched in fading black ink on a parchment like substance. She squinted her eyes towards the first sentence and struggled to decipher the words there.

All...illusions of the...sleeping...mind have some...hidden meaning.

Keisha raised an eyebrow. This could take a lot longer than she had first anticipated. Maybe discovering what her dreams meant wouldn't be so very easy. Why couldn't somebody have used a computer to write this? Was her life always supposed to be this hard?

She had just turned her thoughts back to the book when the quiet level of noise was broken by Gracia, with a "Hey Angel."

Keisha started and almost dropped the book. She hadn't heard Angel come in at all, so how had Gracia? Maybe something to do with not being surrounded by books. Keisha hid the book once again in her rucksack, got up and paced quietly towards the rest of them, tucking stray strands of reddish hair behind her ears nervously. She heard Angel greet her friends, then ask, "What happened to you Gracey?"

Gracey. That was a weird nickname, and Keisha wondered where it had come from. But still, it wasn't really her business. And anyway, it was now completely obvious that Angel had seen Gracia's bare ankle propped up on the table under an ice pack. Keisha was in two minds of what to do- should she stay where she was, not have to face probably making a prat of herself in front of Angel, and curse herself for her shyness for the rest of night, or she could face all of those problems right now.

She took a deep breath and stepped out, walking over to lean on the railing. She studied the scene below- Luke and Gracia were sitting opposite each other at the table, and Angel was standing near his sister, a half worried, half angry expression on his face.

"Hey," she said softly, not wanting to break the quiet. Angel glanced up and gave the very tiniest of hints of a smile. Her heart thudded against her rib cage with the force of a freight truck.

"Hi Keisha." He turned back to Gracia. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

Gracia sighed and raised her eyebrows. "I fell off the gymnastics bar. Or was pushed. Take your pick."

"Pushed?" Luke frowned. "There was no one else up there. Only you."

"That's what it looked like, but somebody gave me a light shove. Just as the beam sorta...I dunno, evaporated under my feet." She looked at their skeptical, confused expressions and sighed. "I know it sounds incredulous, but that's what happened."

"Are you sure?" Keisha asked. "Because Luke's right-"

"Aren't I always?"

"Shut up. You were the only person up there, nobody could have pushed you."

"Gracey, it doesn't matter. So you tripped and fell. Doesn't mean that you're no good at it."

"Unless it was the same thing as happened to Brianna." Gracia pulled a helpless face. "Oh, I dunno. I just know that something's wrong here."

A voice interrupted from the doorway- a voice with a cockney accent.

"Yeah, probably the tall dark poofter standing in the way. Doesn't add a lot to the décor."

Four heads snapped around to see a bleach-blonde vampire dressed in black saunter in with a cocky grin. Angel growled. What the hell was his grandchilde doing here? They hadn't seen each other since Faith's death.

Gracia rolled her eyes as Spike wandered over. "Hello, Spike."

Angel looked at her, a mixture of shock and hurt in his eyes. "You know him?"

Spike directed his grin to the souled vampire. "Hey granddaddy, long time no torture."

Luke was watching silently as usual. Keisha knew that, on some deep level, he was assessing the situation as best he could. She, meanwhile, was spectating with her usual confusion at these scenes, but was more interested in the newcomer. So this was Spike. How? He looked nothing like the picture.

Gracia appeared to be struggling with her explanation. She hadn't exactly practiced it, because she hadn't expected to see Spike for a long time. "Yes. I met him a few nights ago."

"You met him in the graveyard?" Angel's eyes flared at Spike. "You can keep away from her, Spike."

"I'll have you know that she approached me." Spike smirked at Gracia. "Isn't that right, Slayer?"

Gracia became aware of four pairs of eyes staring straight at her as she averted her gaze to her foot. Eventually, she answered, "That's true."

When she looked up at Angel, she saw the pain that was ever-present in his eyes magnified. It was hard to meet his gaze, but she managed it for a few seconds before her eyes dropped again. Then she looked at Spike, who was obviously loving the fact that Angel felt so betrayed.

"What are you doing here?" She raised an eyebrow. "I thought that you didn't need anybody."

Spike seemed to not be able to find an answer for a moment, and he glared at her. Finally, he answered, "So? This could be a social visit." He looked at Angel. "Catching up with old enemies."

Angel now spoke, his voice dangerous and low. "Spike, get the hell out of here before I kill you."

Spike snorted. "That supposed to scare me?"

"No, it's supposed to warn you." Angel advanced. "Get. Out. Now." He picked Spike up by his leather duster, carried him over the room, and threw him out of the low window. Only Spike heard the next words that Angel uttered, as Spike got up from the pile of shattered glass.

"Stay away from my sister."

Angel turned and went back over to the teenagers. Luke's eyes had widened slightly, whereas Keisha's were almost the size of saucers. Gracia, on the other hand, looked guilty, but just raised an eyebrow.

"Wow," she muttered. "Principal Walker is just gonna love us for that window."

"Gracey, we need to talk." Angel interrupted. "Alone."

The twins got the obvious hint straight away. Luke got up and Keisha came down the stairs, and together they walked over to the door. Just before leaving, they turned back.

"Gracia, will you be OK for getting home?" Luke asked.

Gracia nodded. "Yeah, that's fine. I'll be OK."

"Great. See you." They left, and after the door shut, silence reigned unchallenged for a second, a minute, two minutes...

"Why?" Angel eventually asked. "Why did you have to do that?"

"So I tried to get some more help." Gracia stared helplessly at him. "That's all."

Angel lowered his voice. "Do you know what I did to that guy?" he asked.

She nodded, her voice also soft but clear. "Your childe made him what he is."

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Out in the corridor near the exit, Keisha slapped her forehead.

"What?" Luke questioned.

"Damn it, forgot my bag. I'll catch you up, 'K?" Before he could answer, Keisha was sprinting back the way they had come.

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Angel frowned slightly in pain. "I tortured him. I hurt him. I made his existence a misery. And I thought it was great fun."

Gracia was feeling numb with all of this information. She knew that her brother had been one of the most terrible demons around in his heyday, but it was so hard to accept. Even when she had been one of his victims herself.

"I don't care." she whispered. "Not your fault. She," Gracia couldn't bear to even think about Darla, and she spat out 'she' quickly to get the word out of her mouth. "Made you that."

Nobody noticed the door open very slightly and very quietly as Keisha returned. Keisha took the momentary silence as a good sign that she could come in, and opened the door a bit more, but paused when Angel spoke.

"But you don't understand." he said. "I asked her to show me her world. I asked to become a vampire."

Keisha froze when she heard those words, and her heart broke silently.

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Oooh, cliffhanger! Anyways, please review. I'd like you to please comment on the flashback as well, 'cause I'd like to know what y'all reckon. Thanx a lot.