A/N: This has been a difficult chapter to write, and it's getting harder as plot rears its head. So please, keep up the reviews, and stuff, it keeps me going.

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"Mommy, why is the sky?"

Willow turned around, and faced the six year old, a smile hovering on her face. She dried her hands on a tea towel, as she considered her answer.

"Why is the sky what, Izzy?" she asked. Izzy's pigtails swished back and forth as she shook her head vigorously.

"Nope, Mommy. Why is the sky?" she repeated. "Not stuff about it. Why is the sky?"

Willow laughed, and shook her head. "I don't know, sweetie. Some stuff, we're just not supposed to know. We'll find out one day, I guess."

Her little girl looked back at her, her big green eyes full of impatience, and curiosity.

"But Mommy, I want to know now!" she protested. "I want to know everything."

Willow looked across at the paintings stuck to the fridge with brightly coloured magnets, at the clay shapes Izzy had made, and the tiny votive candle she had dedicated to the goddess, her little pink tongue poking out of her mouth in concentration as she did it. 'I don't want you to know everything,' she thought, wistfully. 'I want you to be mine, forever.'

Izzy's giggling distracted her, and she turned back to see the little girl's fork hovering above her plate, jousting with her knife in a mock sword fight.

"Isara Rosenberg!" she warned, but her tone was light, and warm. Izzy looked up at her, and smiled, her milk teeth showing in a broad grin, and Willow felt her heart melt.

'One day she won't be my little girl anymore. But now she is.'

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"Where would they go? Normally, I'm all big with the knowledge, but since Izzy kinda put the onus on reading her mind and all, I have no clue, and I don't like being clueless," Willow said, panicking slightly, as she twisted her hands together, pacing.

"Calm down, Willow. It's okay. I'm sure they're okay. She has Lin with her," Xander put in, sympathetically. "Sure, I'm going to string him up by his little teenage toes when he gets back, but that's just a plus."

"But I like Lincoln's toes," Anya protested. "They're part of Lin. My Lin. My baby."

"I know, honey. I was being metaphorical," Xander answered soothingly, putting an arm around her.

"Metaphors just cause confusion, and lead to annoyance," Anya sniffed.

"Can we get back to the point?" Spike chipped in. "They stole my sodding car. I want it back."

"Would you shut up already?" Xander snapped. "Willow, you don't have a stake around, or anything, do you?"

"Ooh, big bad Xander," Spike jibed, wiggling his eyebrows. Willow shot him a withering look.

"Grow up. My sixteen year old, unlicensed daughter took off to Goddess knows where, with her best friend."

"Where would they have gone?" Dawn asked, curled up on the couch, her feet tucked up under her. They thought about it.

"What did you say to her to piss her off?" Willow asked bluntly. They all glared at Spike.

"We were talkin' about that Gatekeeper thing," he shrugged.

"What exactly, did you say to her? I mean, she wasn't happy, and she wasn't talking to me," Willow admitted, "But she wasn't all running-away."

"Dunno. Why is it all blame Spike now?" he demanded.

"Because it's your fault," Anya shrugged.

"It's always your fault," Xander stated, levelling a scowl at the vampire. Spike sneered at him.

"You know, I never liked you," he said conversationally.

"Back to the point, Billy Idol," Willow said firmly. He stared at her.

"Never knew you had it in you, Red," he said, admiringly.

"Can it. I want to know where my child is. And presumably, something you said told her where to go. So I want to know. Spell it out for me," she ordered, stepping forward in such a way that it made the startled vampire back away.

"She got all het up about you knowin' she was the Gatekeeper," he remembered, scratching his head. "Like it was news. An' I told her about you showing her to Angel."

"L.A. She'll have gone to Angel, in L.A. Why would she go though? I mean, she knew- Oh God," Willow sank down onto the couch, her knees giving way suddenly. "She thinks I don't love her."

"What? That's nuts," Xander exclaimed. Willow lifted her eyes to his.

"She was upset that I hadn't told her. And she'll think, Spike, please tell me you didn't tell me about the search," she begged. Slowly, and regretfully, while considering the punishment the redhead was going to inflict on him, the vampire nodded.

"She'll think that I didn't want her," Willow said. "That I wasn't looking for her."

"She thinks you chose her because of what she is," Dawn spoke up, softly. Willow met her eyes, and saw Dawn's own empathy with the teenager.

"See? All Spike's fault," Xander put in.

"I'll call Angel. Tell him they'll be there," Willow said, standing, and crossing to the phone.

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"Spike drinks too much," she added, in disgust, sifting through the bottles to pick out her backpack.

"You ready to go, string bean?" Lin asked, using the nick name she'd gotten when she was around eleven, and growing so fast, her mom joked about being stuck in a gro-bag when she was little. It hurt now.

"Yup," she said, trying to smile. "Ready. Let's go."

They stepped through the glass doors, and into the lobby.

"Hello?" Lin called, dropping onto the couch, looking exhausted. "Nice couch. Friendly couch."

"Izzy?" She turned around, startled.

"You crept up on me," she accused. The vampire gave a sheepish grin.

"Sorry. You're so.." he considered it a moment. "Tall."

"I've grown," she answered, her arms folded. "You don't exactly sound surprised to see me. Us." Angel looked up, and nodded at Lin. He waved.

"Willow called," he said, evasively.

"Great," she sighed heavily. "My mom screws with my life. Yet again. Hey, at least she didn't lie again. She does that, you know. A lot."

"You two want to crash here?" Angel directed the question at Lin. He looked at Izzy.

"No strings?" she questioned. Angel nodded.

"Sure. Whatever," she answered, yawning. He smiled.

"Hungry?"

"Starving," Lin said eagerly. Izzy nodded.

"Come through," Angel showed them through the lobby, and behind, into a living area.

A couple of couches sat around a TV, with a coffee table between them. A blood encrusted axe lay on the highly polished table, and two people were crouched over it, discussing the red specks. The couches were covered in dark throws, and a kitchen led off the room, delicious smells making their way out.

"Fred, Gunn," Angel coughed. The two people stood up, one slim, with her brown hair tied back in a messy ponytail, glasses on a chain around her neck, and the other taller, black, dressed in a nice looking suit.

"Hi," Gunn said cheerfully. "Guess you two are Izzy and Lin?" They nodded.

"Kitchen," Fred pointed vaguely, and bent over the axe once more. Lin grinned, and shook his head. They'd met Fred on their last visit. The physicist had grown possibly more eccentric as time went by, and they both knew that once involved in something, it took more than someone new saying hi to drag her back to the real world.

"There's food. There are beds upstairs, you can crash afterwards," Angel offered, steering them toward the kitchen. They sat down at a long, scrubbed table, watching him serve up omlette from a pan on the stove. Carefully, he set down plates in front of them, and hungrily, they dug in.

Izzy waited until the vampire had sat down, before she started.

"Angel, Spike said my mom came here when I was a baby. You knew about the Gatekeeper thing, there were prophesies," she strode in. He looked at her, startled.

"Yes," he said slowly. "There were."

"Where are they?" she pressed.

"When we turned over Wolfram and Hart, we left them with the law firm. We'd seen all the prophesies had to offer. We can withdraw them, as we maintained a part share in the company-"

"Can you get them now? Tomorrow?" Izzy asked impatiently. Angel's eyes softened.

"I understand," he began.

"No. You really don't. Being lied to by everyone isn't exactly a normal experience. It's not one I want to repeat. So these prophesies. When can you get them?"

"A week, I think," Angel considered. "You have to do paperwork, you realise there are thousands, millions that we collected while in Wolfram and Hart. There are files upon files of them. Someone has to find the right ones and- "

"A week?" Izzy repeated. Angel nodded.

"Fine," she sighed. She fiddled with her fork a little. "Angel? I'm really not hungry right now. Is there a possibility of sleep?"

"Sure," he nodded. She yawned widely.

"Lin? Are you sleepy?" she addressed him. He gave her a confused look.

"Yeah, I suppose," he answered.

"Lead the way to sleep," Izzy commanded.

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She pulled the shirt over her head, and tugged it down, then braided her hair tightly behind her. She wasn't going to wait a week to find out who she was. She wanted to know. Now.

Hooking one leg over the window, she clambered down the drainpipe, and dropped soundlessly to the street below. Wolfram and Hart, here she came.

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A/N: Next chapter, Wolfram and Hart.

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