Chapter 27

Buffy walked through the graveyard towards the grave that she was looking for on Tuesday night. A new vampire was going to rise in Sunnydale and she had to be there to stop him. Her mind wasn't really on the job at hand though. It was more on Cordy and how she was doing. Gunn had called earlier and said that she still hadn't come out of her room. Buffy knelt beside the grave just as a hand popped up.

"Here we go."



Angel sat in the mansion writing. He had started this habit ever since he had found out he was going to be a father. He wanted to write down everything so Conner would know what it was like with his parents when he was a baby. Even after Conner had grown, Angel hadn't stopped. He went to a private spot, pulled out his journal, and started to write. Sometimes he would draw a picture of Buffy or Conner. Maybe even both if he had the energy. Later, Angel was supposed to meet Buffy for coffee at the Espresso Pump. He looked down and started to write.



Dawn and Conner walked into the house and set their bags down. Dawn walked over to a shelf and found the note from Buffy.

Will, Angel, and I are out until late. Here's money for the store. NO PIZZA! Love you, Buffy/Mom

Didn't stop Conner or Dawn. 45 minutes later they had music blaring and a hot pizza laying on the island in the kitchen.

"Anchovies, anchovies, you're so delicious. I love you more than all the other fishes." Dawn sang.

"You're gross." Conner said. "Nothing but cheese here."

"You're too plain. Mama's boy."

"Little girl."

"Jock."

"Where are you going?"

"To look at clothes." Dawn walked upstairs.



Buffy fought with the new vampire. He was pretty strong and a pretty good fighter. No matter, she was NOT going to lose this. She had too much to think about to die. Conner, Angel, Dawn, Cordelia, Faith, Spike, Xander, Willow, Gunn, Fred, and Wesley. They swam through her mind as she fought the vampire.



Dawn and Conner were listening to Mexican music and dancing around the kitchen. Dawn got a jumbo marshmallow out of the cabinet and put it into the microwave on a little plate. While heating up, the marshmallow started to swell and expand. Dawn seemed impressed.

"Cool." She said.

"What the hell?" Conner asked.

Suddenly a noise made them both jump. They both brushed it off and walked into the living room with the phone. Conner turned the TV on while Dawn called Kit. Dawn sat talking on the cordless phone, sitting in front of the television, eating gooey marshmallow with Conner. An old black and white movie was playing on TV.

"Oh, come on. She is so dead. Well, he's clearly a psychopath. Is so. What? No, that is not Tom Hanks. Well, what channel are you on?" Dawn asked. There was a knock. "Ok, there it is again. I keep hearing this, like, thumping." Conner muted the television. Knock! Knock! "No, I-I can't tell if it's.."

The front door flew open. Conner went to investigate and a strong wind was blowing into the house. He struggled to shut the door.

"Kit, are you there? Is there a storm?"

Suddenly, the television was un-muted, playing loudly. Dawn tried to mute it again, but the remote control button didn't have any effect. She tried the power button on the television itself, but it didn't work either. Finally, she tried to unplug it, but the old movie still played with the cord out of the wall. Dawn's eyes grew wide with fear. Conner came over and stood next to her.



'My father would be proud of the family I've got.' Angel wrote. 'I know I've written this thousands of times before, but I have the most wonderfully beautiful and loving wife anyone could ever ask for. Buffy. Just the name sends tingles down my spine and makes my blood warm. Conner is a great kid. He learns quickly. It's amazing how fast he's picked up mine and Buffy's fighting skills. He's better at school than Buffy and I put together. Now, the real reason I'm writing this is to make sense of what happened in LA Friday night and Saturday morning. That was the creepiest thing that has ever happened to me. I was sixteen again! The strange thing was, I wasn't hitting on all of the women. I was smitten with Buffy. It was like seeing her for the first time again. Our souls really are forever bound. I..' Angel stopped writing as he felt a cold breeze run through the mansion.

"Hello?" Angel called. He put the journal down and checked all the doors and windows. They were all cold. Must have been from the fireplace. He came back into the main room and found a roaring fire going that hadn't been there before. "Ok. This house hasn't been haunted ever since I bought the damn thing. Why are you just now starting?" Angel didn't expect an answer, but he got one.

"I'm not haunting this place son. I just came for a friendly visit."

Angel spun and found his father standing by the fireplace staring at the flames. Just then Angel noticed there was no heat coming from the fire. He blinked his eyes hard a couple of times and stared at his father.

"I'm here son. Not in body, but in spirit. I've been sent to warn you."

"Warn me?" Angel asked.

"We'll get to that later. How have you been these past 200 odd years?"



Buffy was still fighting the fledgling vampire. He was dressed in a nice black suit, wearing a light blue shirt and a tie. They were having quite a row, throwing each other against headstones and such. Finally, the vampire pushed Buffy back against a headstone and grabbed her throat, going for the kill, when he stopped and spoke to her.

"Buffy?" he laughed. "Buffy Summers?"

"Have we.." Buffy started.

"Oh, uh. Webs? Holden Webster. We went to school together. European History. I let you crib off my Vaclav Havel essay. You.. you really don't remember me?"

"Sure! Sure."



Dawn and Conner were scared. Mexican music was playing loudly. The television wouldn't shut off and was playing the old horror movie loudly. Dawn smashed the TV with an axe and broke it. She smashed the stereo as well. The music was still coming from the kitchen.

Conner saw the radio sitting there on the countertop, playing Mexican music. He walked further into the room, hoisting the battleaxe, when the microwave oven suddenly came on and Dawn walked in.

"Oh, God. Oh, God!" Dawn mumbled.

She smashed the microwave, causing a tiny explosion and shattering glass on the floor. She backed away from the explosion, but she was bare foot and the shattered glass cut her. She screamed and Conner picked her up. The radio on the kitchen counter was still going. Suddenly, tuning sound came over the radio, causing the music to fade and a voice came over the radio.

"Dawn? Conner?"

"Mom?!" Dawn asked.



"Ok, um, junior year, spring production of Pippin, uh, I did the lighting design." Holden said.

"I didn't see it." Buffy said.

"But you'd helped me move the lighting board, and I dropped it on your foot."

"Right, foot. Yes, of course. History class. It's all coming back. Sorry."

"Well, you know, it's not like I was a big part of your life or anything."

"No, I just.. I didn't recognize you, you know, your face, all demon, and I think you've filled out a lot."

"Oh, yeah, well I got into to Tae Kwon Do in a big way at Dartmouth, so.."

"That's great."

"Yeah."

"So what have you been up to?"

"Well, apparently dying." They both laughed. "Uh, no, but other stuff." They started walking. "Uh, you know, majoring in Psych. Really liking that. Uh, took a year off to do an internship at the Sunnydale Mental Hospital."

"Wow. That's gotta be a popular job INT."

"I.. I keep telling them we ought to get a velvet rope and a bouncer. Hey, you remember Jason Wheeler, you know, 'Crazy J'?"

"Oh, yeah." Buffy leaned on a headstone.

"He always had that shtick of 'Yeah, I'm crazy, I'm crazy.'"

"How is he?"

"Crazy. He's been in the chronic ward since graduation. Not really that funny, I guess."

"Ironic, sorta."

"Yeah. Whoa. Did my face just change?"

"Yeah. You look human now. You can do that.. go back and forth."

"Oh, so I'm a vampire. How weird is that?"

"Sorry."

"No, no. Feels great. Strong. Like I'm connected to a powerful all- consuming evil that's gonna suck the world into a fiery oblivion. How 'bout you?"

"Not so much connected."

"No, no. I mean, with the stake and the cross. You do this kind of thing a lot?"

"I'm the slayer. It's sort of a thing."

"So, what? You like fight vampires professionally? Or.."

"Oh, I don't get paid. It's more like a calling. Since.. even in school."

"I heard a lot of rumors about you back then. You were all mysterious."

"I was?"

"Well, you were never around. A lot of kids thought you were dating some really old guy, or that you were just heavy religious."

"That would be Angel."

"Who?"

"My husband, then boyfriend."

"Older?"

"By about 228 years."

"Wow. You know, Scott Hope said you were gay."

"What? I dated that ringworm."

"He says that about every girl he breaks up with. And then last year, big surprise, he comes out."

"Men. I know how to pick 'em."

"So, all that time, you were a slayer?"

"The."

"'The', like as in 'the only one'?"

"Pretty much. Well, there is Faith, but that's a longer story."

"Oh. So, when you said not connected, that was kind of a telling statement, wasn't it?"

"Ah, Psych 101 alert."

"Well, I'm just saying."

"Yeah, what I really need is emotional therapy from the evil dead."

"Hey, it was your phrase."

"I'm connected. I'm connected to a lot of people, ok."

"No. No, I hear ya."

"I really am."



"Buffy, come on, pick up. I don't know what to do!"

Dawn was on the phone, frantic. She was sitting on the coffee table with her back to the couch, bandaging her feet while she made the phone call. Conner stood over her protectively. Dawn hung up the phone and picked up the radio that was in the kitchen before. She shook the radio. Conner looked over at the couch and found his grandmother lying on the couch in the same position as his mother had told him about when she had found her mother.

"Dawn.." Conner said.

"Do it again! I heard you." Dawn yelled at the stereo.

"Dawn!"

Dawn stopped and turned slowly to look at the couch behind her, but it was empty. The light went out for a second. When they came back on, Conner and Dawn could see that all the dining room chairs had been placed upside down on the dining room table in the next room. The weapons chest had been turned on end, spilling its contents onto the floor. They looked around, frightened, and saw a message written on the wall in blood: 'Mother's Milk is RED Today', and there was a bloody handprint below it. The lights dimmed again for only a moment, and when they came back on, the message was gone and the weapons chest and the dining room furniture were back to normal again. Dawn shivered. The knocking sound came back.

"Why are you doing this!" Dawn screamed. KNOCK! "Why are you.. I don't understand." The knocking continued. "Stop. Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Aah!" The knocking stopped.

"Hello?" Conner called. KNOCK!

"Once for yes." Dawn mumbled to herself. Then she screamed out loud, "Once for yes. Twice for no. Mom?" KNOCK! "Mom, it's you?" KNOCK! "Are you ok?" KNOCK! KNOCK! "You're not. Mom.. mommy.. are you alone?" KNOCK! KNOCK! The house started to shake, like an earthquake, but not. A strobe light flashed in Dawn and Conner's faces. Dawn screamed and Conner grabbed onto her waist. Home decor was falling to the floor everywhere: lamps, pictures, vases, etc.

"Why are you doing this?!" Conner cried.



"That girl of yours.. She's pretty."

"Buffy. Her name's Buffy." Angel said to his father.

"Buffy. Such an odd name. Are you happy Liam?"

"It's Angel now. I haven't gone by Liam since.. Well, Friday actually, but that was for a whole different reason." Angel sighed. "I'm sorry for.."

"It wasn't you. That was a demon. I'm not worried about it because I knew it wasn't you."

"You did?"

"You never listened to me Liam. Even when you were a demon, you didn't listen. I called you a devil to your face and you did not hear it. But I didn't come here to converse about my death. I came to talk to you."

"Why now? Why not all those years before?"

"Because it wasn't as important as it is so now."

"Why is it important now?"

"Your girl, Buffy, she's a Vampire Slayer, right?"

"That's right."

"She's good at it?"

"Yes. The best."

"Good. Wouldn't want you to lose her. She's done wanders for ya."

"I've lost her before?"

"Have ya now?"

"She died. Once, about a year and a half ago."

"Then what are ya doin' married to her?"

"Her friends brought her back. We met up at this place and well.."

"Still satisfying your sinful urges I see."

"No! It's not like that. Not with her. I truly love her. And when I did, it was more to comfort her and to convince myself that it was real."

"You married her because you love her?"

"Yes. Not to mention that she was pregnant with my son."

"Yes, that boy of yours."

"Conner."

"He looks like you."

"He acts like his mother."

"So you married her because she was pregnant with your child and you love her?"

"I married her because I love her. She's the one thing that makes me truly happy. She deserves a family because hers was taken away."

"How?"

"Her mother died, her sister's not really her sister, her father never talks to her. In fact, the only time they ever talk is when Conner and Dawn are going to visit him."

"Horrible."



Buffy was lying down on her back on a stone sarcophagus. There was a carved stone open book at one end that she used as a pillow. Holden was sitting on a nearby headstone, talking to her. She was playing with the cross pendant on the necklace she was wearing.

"So, you meet someone, you form a bond.." Holden said.

"But it never lasts." Buffy said.

"Do you mean in all relationships, or just yours?"

"My parents weren't exactly the paragon of stay-together-y-ness. Maybe that's part of it. I think there're people out there who'd make it. I just.. target the impossible ones.. with deadly accuracy."

"Is Angel impossible?"

"No. I love him with all my heart, but I'm scared that I'm pushing him away."

"How? You both end up together in the end."

"I just feel.. I'm different."

"Afraid of completely committing?"

"I commit. I'm committed. I'm a committee."

"So it's him? You're reaching out, he's just not coming through?"

"It's different. I think you're confusing me because you're evil."

"I just think you're in some pain here.. which I do kind of enjoy 'cause I'm evil now, but you should just ease up on yourself. It's not exactly like you have the patent on bad relationships."

"Wouldn't it be cool if I did?"

"You've settled down already! At 21! You know, my girlfriend at college, she's so sweet. We have this great thing, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna go vampify her just so we can be together forever."

"Sire."

"What?"

"The word.. when you turn a human into a vampire.. it's you 'sire' them."

"Cool."

"It's a noun too."

"Oh, I have so much to learn. Come on, isn't this insane? I mean, I was afraid to talk to you in high school, and now we're, like, mortal enemies. Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we became nemeses?"

"Is that how you say the word?"

"We're gonna have to fight to the death, aren't we?"

"It's the time-honored custom."

"Wow, reality just shows up sometimes, doesn't it? But, you know, I've got the bloodlust pumping, and I kinda get it. I'm looking for a fight. And, oh, it's nothing personal."

"Oh, no, I mean, you've been great."

"And fun catching up. I haven't really kept in contact with many of my friends from high school. Guess I'll be looking them up pretty soon."

"Yeah."

"Hey, I don't mean to be Count Buttinsky here, but you just don't seem as thrilled. Is it because we're gonna fight?"

"It's cause I'm gonna win."

"Hello. Two years of Tae Kwon Do and vampire strength. I think somebody's counting their chickens."

"You're not leaving this graveyard. Can't let you."

"Do the words 'superiority complex' mean anything to you?"

"You think I'm gonna let you go kill a bunch of people? You know I'm sworn to.."

"No, no. I get the battle against evil. That's not the issue."

"There is no issue. Don't issue me."

"Just answer me this: whose fault was your parents divorce?"

"Ok, you know, this is beyond evil. This is insane troll logic. What do my parents have to do with.."

"I'm just curious. Your opinion."

"They both have a lot of.."

"Off the top of your head."

"My dad."

"Uh-huh."

"He cheated. Um, I think he cheated."

"So, are you trying to distance yourself from Angel because he kissed another girl and you're afraid that it'll all crumble to pieces?"

"It's incredibly different."

"I was just wondering, is it possible, even a little bit, that the reason you have trouble connecting to guys in general is because you think maybe they're not worth it? Maybe you think you're better than them."

"Say, there's that bloodlust I was looking for."

"Struck a nerve."

"I'm gonna strike a nerve cluster in a minute, you don't get off this. I don't remember you being this annoying."

"You don't remember me at all."

"Yes I do."

"Yeah, like, after 30 minutes of reminding. And I don't take it personally cause clearly you were in your own little world in high school. All chosen. All destiny. Who could live with that for seven years and not feel superior?"

"I'm not. My God, if anything, I.."

"What?"

"I just.. if you knew what I've done, what I've let myself become. My best friends don't even.. You'd laugh, you heard some of the things I've done to them."

"Buffy, I'm here to kill you, not to judge you."

"Since I came back, I've been nothing but wild. I tried not to have a kid when I was eight months pregnant! I've always tried to keep everyone at a distance since the first time Angel left me. He was the one person I counted on to never leave me, and he did. Even though he's back, with me, I wanna keep him at a distance. It's all because he left me. Sorry. Wow, I didn't mean to get all true-confessions there. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you." Holden hit Buffy in the head with the Mary statue, sending Buffy across the sarcophagus in a flip. He jumped over the tomb and landed in front of Buffy, grabbing her jacket, and talking right in her face in his vampire visage. "Everyone's got issues." He leaned in for the kill.