1 Chapter Three

2 A History Lesson

Disclaimer- The only character I own here is Rowan herself; the rest I borrow. And forgive me if I have Angel's human last name wrong, but I didn't remember if it had ever been given…

Summary- This takes place before Cordelia becomes part demon and before Connor is born.

Angel stopped mid-pace and blinked at Rowan, his eyes gone wide in shock. Grabbing her arms a little roughly, he gasped "What?"

Rowan suffered the too-tight grip for a moment before moving away. He was a very strong vampire, and she rubbed her arms where his hands had held her. She couldn't blame him for his reaction; he has lived for over two centuries believing that he had killed anyone with a blood relation to him. And why should he believe anything she said? As he had said earlier, he didn't know who she was, really. "I know you thought that you killed your whole family, but you didn't. You just didn't know about Sorcha."

Angel blinked like an owl, his eyes wide, glazed saucers of disbelief. Running his hand through his hair in a nervous gesture, he asked for some explanation of her pronouncement. "Sorcha?"

Rowan almost smiled. Over two hundred years old, and she had managed to strike him dumb. Or if not exactly dumb, almost monosyllabic. The scary, ax wielding warrior she had woken up to now looked much more-- human. "Yes, Sorcha. Your daughter."

Angel looked for a chair to sit down on. Rowan followed him, settling in the chair next to him. She waited until he spoke before she continued.

"How?" was all that he could say.

Rowan ran through the story in her head again; she had committed it to memory, but in her nervousness she took care not to mess it up. "Finola Gallagher."

Angel looked lost in thought for a few minutes. Rowan let him think; he was dredging up memories long suppressed and very painful. When he shook his head, obviously drawing a blank, she tried to prompt him. "She was an innkeeper's daughter, with long blonde hair and green eyes. About sixteen when she…uh, made your acquaintance."

He shook his head again, almost embarrassed.

"She worked in her father's tavern. That's how you met." Rowan watched his face for any sign of a reaction or recognition. She wasn't sure what she had expected from him with her news. Rowan hadn't really thought that he would immediately know just whom it was that he had knocked up, but had expected that he would at least remember the girl with some prodding. But, again-- nothing.

Angel looked slightly abashed. "If you know my history, you know what I was like. There were a lot of women."

Rowan considered how to continue. Bluntness would probably be the easiest way; it was hard to imagine offending a vampire's sensibilities. "From what I gather, although you were more than willing to sleep with her, you were less than eager to marry her."

Recognition suddenly flared up in Angel's vacant expression. "She gave me an ultimatum. I refused. I stopped going to the inn and never saw her again."

Rowan nodded and continued the story. At last, some idea of whom her ancestress was. "Finola was pregnant at the time. She didn't tell you when it became obvious you weren't going to marry her. She'd rather bear the stigma of a bastard than live in a loveless marriage. Quite enlightened for the time, I always thought."

"Unusual doesn't begin to describe it. She could have forced me to marry her with the child as proof. She must have went through hell." Angel looked at Rowan with interest now. "Why wouldn't she force me?"

Rowan cleared her throat. "Finola had something of the second sight. When you refused to marry her, she finally Saw you for what you were- and what you would become. Although she wasn't sure when it would happen, she Knew you would be turned. She also Knew that you wouldn't listen to her about this vision. So she went to an aunt's village to have the baby, whom she named Sorcha, and left her with the aunt to raise. Then she returned to her father's inn."

"I don't understand." Angel put his head in his hands. "If she kept the child, why didn't she approach me or my family for help? We were well enough off that a bastard or two could be cared for."

Rowan shook her head. "Finola was gifted with pretty decent second sight. She Saw what you would do to your family. She thought it better to raise the child as a bastard than to put it at risk of 'death by Angelus'."

Angel's brow furrowed in thought. Anger had begun to build in his chest; Rowan could tell form the emotions playing warring across his face. "If she knew what would happen to me, and at one time felt enough for me that she wanted to marry me, why didn't she tell me what was going to happen? Or try to prevent it? She could have changed my whole life!"

Rowan took a deep breath and held it a minute. How much to tell him? It was over two hundred years ago- but all new to him. "She did try, Angel. Finola wanted to explain to you what was going to happen to you- but the second sight is a powerful thing. She also Saw what would become of you once you had your soul back again."

Angel let out an angry breath. "So she decided that I was better off as a vampire, and a warrior for the powers, than a dead Irishman. She didn't even try to warn me!"

Rowan understood some of his anger. His undead life had not been easy for him; he was probably often overwhelmed by the sheer hopelessness of ever making up for all the havoc and hell he had caused. A well-placed warning, and Angel thought he would never have gone into that alley with Darla- and never have become a vampire. But the anger was misplaced. Loving him or not, Finola had served the higher powers in her own way, just as he did now. "Finola thought for a long time about warning you. But trying to change the Sighted visions never works, and she understood that. She couldn't change you; she had already tried once and failed. If you were fated to become a vampire, than you would become a vampire." Rowan paused. " But she thought that she could change the circumstances your turning happened under."

Angel seemed slightly placated but Rowan's comment. Rowan herself was angry that Angel could find fault with her ancestress at all; but he didn't know the whole story yet.

"Finola thought that a different Sire might have kept you from becoming quite so…evil. So she kept an eye on you as much as possible, and looked for Darla to keep you two from meeting. But she found you both too late."

Angel tensed. "Too late?"

"Darla had already turned you, and was waiting for you to rise. Finola was easy to catch- she was no warrior and had no stealth."

Angel closed his eyes. Rowan saw that he had already figured out what had happened to the poor love-struck girl, but still needed to confirm it. "What did Darla do to her?"

Rowan frowned at Angel's stony countenance. He knew what vampires did- but he still had trouble reconciling what he had done in his life with the warrior for the Light that he now had become. "Not Darla."

"I ate her?"

"Your first meal." Rowan

In the silence, Rowan rose and strode across the room. "Finola, simple girl that she was, tried to do what she thought was best for her child and for the rest of the world. She just didn't know how much Power that she was mucking around in. She never stood a chance against the Powers' plans for you. But she still tried because she had loved you."

Angel would have blushed, had he been able to. He was angry at a dead girl, who had loved him and bore him a child, and he hadn't even remembered who she had been. He was still a lout at times. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Rowan shrugged and tucked an escaped strand of hair behind her ear. "You followed your nature. If you hadn't been what you were as a human, you wouldn't be what you are today. It's a whole package; you can't cut and paste together an ideal you and still be you. There's more to the story, anyway."

Rowan played with the claddaugh ring on her finger again as she struggled to explain the rest. This is the part that concerned her. "Knowing that what she did was risky- hunting a vampiress and soon-to-be vampire, she left a journal for her child. She wanted Sorcha to know that had happened to her, if she didn't make it."

"When Sorcha was old enough to read it, the aunt gave it to her. Finola's aunt was a witch- one of the reasons she chose to leave the child with her. The aunt was wise, and had raised the child with knowledge of the darkness in the world. The child not only had the second sight, but was a powerful witch as well. Knowing the story of her father, she wanted to keep an eye on you. Once say you could be told of her existence; she just wasn't sure when. And she wanted you to know of the sacrifices her mother had made."

Angel looked slightly puzzled, so Rowan filled in a little more detail. "The Power runs in the family blood. Sorcha wanted to make sure that you became the warrior you were meant to. So she kept an Eye on you, so to speak, and asked her children to do the same. One of each generation has kept an eye on you, magically speaking, since then. The events of your life- unlife- were watched and recorded." She turned to face him and held out her hands. "I am the latest."