Chapter 5: Lessons

Conner was trying to figure out why Kary would have Angel's sent on her when he walked right into Lorne. "Cupcakes, is something wrong? You look a little confused?" Lorne half sings to the puzzled teen in front of him.

"Uh, yeah." Conner is unsure whether or not to continue, but Lorne has never lied to him, even if Conner had tried to kill him. "I have a question actually, what can make one person smell like another person...like another vampire person." Conner crossed his fingers and hoped that Lorne wouldn't catch on.
"Well, lets see, you could do a spell, that person could have been 'with' the other person Conner coughed on this one or it would be in their blood. Does that help you sweetie?" Lorne looks intently on Conner, with a smile as his thanks, Conner continues his walk.

"Kary? Kary? Are you in here?" Cordy comes barging through the door to room 119, Kary thought it was kind of ironic that Conner picked that room to put her in, but it did bring some hominess to the situation. "Kary I am taking you shopping!" Cordy smiles at the confused girl sitting in front of her.

"Shopping? Why?" Kary didn't really want to be a hassle to Cordy, and in the Lab she only got to go shopping if she had been really good for at least three months.

"Why? Because Gunn can teach you how to fire a weapon, Angel can teach you how to use a sword, Conner can teach you how to fight, Wes can teach you anything about reading, Lorne can teach you how to sing, Fred can teach you science...so I'll teach you how to shop!" She smiles at Cordy and knows she is just trying to be nice.

"Okay, but I have no idea what's in and what's not." Kary gathers her coat and heads for the door.

"No prob. that's my specialty" Cordy closes the door and whisks her sister away to the nearest three malls for the next six hours.

Mean while, Conner approaches Angel, "Dad, I kind of noticed that Kary smelt familiar...what do you think it means?" Conner looks curiously at his father standing beside the weapons cabinet.

"Well Conner, She is Cordelia's sister, so she has her blood inside." Angel comments without looking up from cleaning his sword.

"No, I mean she smells like you." Conner looks at his father for a reaction.

Angel puts down his sword and looks up at his son, "I noticed that too, but I wasn't sure. How do you know?"

Conner hesitates, "Well, when we were fighting she-" but he is cut off before he could finish.

"You were WHAT! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO CORDY'S SISTER? SHE IS WEAK AND YOU COU-"

This time Conner cut in, "I know what you're thinking but listen. We were fighting and when she nearly kicked my ass we collapsed, I happen to be close to her and could smell the blood from her cut - it was your sent and someone else's." Conner shifted uneasily under his fathers stare.

"Well, we'll ask her if she knows anything, but there isn't exactly blood pumping through my veins." Angel turned back to his sword and Conner went to take a shower.

THE NEXT DAY

"You wanna go training Kary?" Conner entered Kary's room without a sound.

"Yeah I'll be right out." Kary called from the bathroom, she emerged in a skin tight blue tank top and black track pants to match Conner's blue pants and white beater. Conner stared at Kary for a moment before realizing what he was doing and then quickly diverted his eyes.
As the two walked down to the gym, Conner could hardly keep his eyes off of Kary. He couldn't believe someone could look that good in such a simple outfit, he had never felt like this before and it was starting to bother him.

As Conner stood pondering the problem, Kary hit him with a roundhouse. Before Conner could react he was on his back. "Not too quick today are we?" Kary teased from above, and so it began, kick-punch-jump-duck-flip-block-punch-etc. Only Kary stopped half way through and came up with an idea. In the Lab, Kary had to play a game called Punch Questions. If you hit the opponent in the chest or abdomen or back, then you got to ask a question...so the real fun began. They started out easy like favorite color and foods, but Conner then slammed her in the back and asked "What's the Lab?". Kary froze. She didn't want to answer that question, not yet, but they had agreed on anything. She sat down and tried to figure out how to answer it.

"Okay, the Lab was where I grew up. It's in Portsmouth, England and is approximately the size of twelve football stadiums." Kary looked up at Conner hoping this would be enough.

"And...what's it to you?" He pushed and she sighed and continued.

"A prison, a jail and a house of lies. For fifteen years I believed that it was a boarding school of some kind. There were no other students, but I was treated fairly and told that I was an orphaned with no other living relatives. On my sixteenth birthday I broke into the office and stole my file. I was called subject 1-19 and they said I had a sister and a father...I had a family. It took me two years to plan my escape, but on my 18th birthday during my training op...I got out. Now let's continue kicking my ass." Kary took her fighting stance and Conner had no choice but to follow.