Disclaimer: As always, Angel the series and all of its characters belong to Joss Whedon and its various networks and production companies, NOT ME. Please don't sue me, I'm not making any money off of this. It's just mindless fun.

Rating: PG- 14

PS: Again, as with all of my stories, my mistakes are my own. I don't have a beta.

[Thoughts are in italics, speech is in quotation marks, "". Okay?]

Fast Forward

By: Sensue

Chapter 7: Huh?

Robin looked at his wife of less than two days, "What the hell happened while we were gone? Is Nicky okay? I know that Connor was kidnapped, but is my son okay?

"Nicky and Cathy are fine. Well, they're both understandably upset, but they're alright physically. They're sleeping in Angel and Cordy's bedroom right now." Wesley informed the stressed out parents.

"Fucking shit. So you mean Cordy's parents did this? They took Connor? God, They could've taken Nicky and Cathy too. Fucking assholes, I'm going to kill them!" Faith shouted, enraged. Yet, there was a part of her that was afraid. It could've been her son. Guilt shook her, she shouldn't have left, even though it was her honeymoon. She and Robin should've stayed in L.A. and just spent the night in a hotel, this hotel, and had their honeymoon.

"Umm. Honey, speaking of Nicky," Lorne tried to work in the conversation. Both Faith and Robin looked up sharply, their heads twisting in a sharp arc.

"Is he okay? Oh, God, is he hurt? What?" Robin asked, fearful of the answer.

"No, no, no. He's fine, well actually he's really upset because he saw the whole thing, but I just wanted to tell you about, well the easiest way to say it is, his 'gift'." Lorne was attempting to sooth them, but was putting them further on edge.

"What gift?" Robin interjected; he put a hand on his wife's shoulders.

"Well, it seems that Nicky is an Empath, similar to Lorne," Wesley explained. He was hoping to elevate some of the fear by going straight to the point.

Now it was the others turn to be surprise for the reaction that they were expecting didn't come. Faith shook her head and said, "Huh? Oh. We already knew about that. I thought you were going to tell me that he could fly or some crap like that." She seemed relieved that that was all they had to tell her.

"Um, What?" Gunn asked. His brow wrinkled in a frown. "You already knew?"

"Hey, it runs in my family. My grandmother always knew what we were up to. If we were bad, the second we walked through the door, a chair would be already setup in the corner. And if we were sad or really happy about something, she's make us cookies before we could tell her the news. It's in the Davies family genes from my dad's side of the family.  The Evans side, my mom's side, didn't have any psychic ability, I just ended up weird. My half-sister has got the 'gift' too, Lorne. Except she talks to dead people like the freaky kid in "Sixth Sense." I haven't seen her since our dad left. When my mom died, he married Louise, and they had three kids. I was always the fifth wheel; my dad really wanted to start a new life, without me in it, but Louise really liked me and took me in. Then when I was fourteen, Louise was murdered. Right after that, I got all 'chosen' and that's when the shit hit the fan. My dad fell apart completely and Tru, my half-sister, kept saying that her mom talked to her, even though she was dead. I had to leave. I couldn't stay there." 

They stared at her in shock. In all the time that they worked with her, they never knew about her past; that she even had another family. Faith Evans, whoops, Faith Wood now, continued, "It's usually the women in the family who have the gift, but this is the first time a boy got it. I mean, of course we noticed our son was special. I didn't tell you all, because it's not a big deal. Nicky, doesn't even know what he can do, because he thinks it's normal. I mean, come on, I'm a slayer, you all are demon hunters/ Private investigators…we work with two vampires with souls, a green empath demon from Pylea, his god-mother is a part-demon/seer/warrior princess, We're all strange. He's no different than the rest of us."

"We don't care that our son has this gift. He's still our little boy and we love him. I wouldn't care if he turned green and—," Robin's speech was interrupted by Lorne.

"Uh, Hey…talking to Mr. Green here."

"Ok. How about pink? You don't have a problem with pink, do you?" Lorne shook his head no, in acceptance of the color pink. Robin continued as if he wasn't interrupted, probably due to his years of being a high school principal, "I'd love my son even if he turned pink. I love my son and I love my wife." Robin's eyes met his wife's and his eyes promised her forever.

Faith turned to kiss him, still in honeymoon mode, listening in the background as Fred moaned in that girly way, "aww."

Slam. Bang.

The moment was lost as the door to the hotel slammed shut and Angel stormed through hitting everything in his way and throwing aside what wasn't. He was swearing under his breath (figuratively speaking, of course), stomping and running his hands through his short spiky and uncombed hair.

They heard little bits of his muttering, "Fucking powers…screwed…hate them…ass…my son…champion…no longer."

As he paced the halls, Spike jumped in front of him, asking, "Umm. Angel, you okay?"

"What the hell do you think? NO!" Angel pushed him out of the way and continued his mindless pacing. "There really is no hope. Nothing. I'm not going to get my son back. Damn them. I have to try something. Do something. Anything! I can't just sit here while my son's in Hell. I know what Hell's like. It's horrible. God. Someone please help him. Protect him there, until I can find a way." He was now talking to himself. Pleading and praying, yes praying for his son's return. There was no answer to his prayers.

He looked up once more, hoping and praying for that the portal that swallowed his son to come and do the same for him. With one last look around, he gave up hope. His head turned downcast, took an unneeded breath and went up the stairs. Spike and Fred followed him up, making sure that he wasn't going to do anything to hurt himself. Like throw himself on a stake, Spike thought, the princess will be really mad if we let that happen.

They followed him to Connor's room. It was still messy, even though his mother had asked him to clean it before dinner. Toy trucks lined the floor near the toy rollercoaster ramps. The bed was crumpled, as if the little boy who owned it had thrown himself on it. His scent, Spike smelled, still permeated the room. As if he was still there.

Fred waited at the door with Spike, not wanting to intrude, but wanting to make sure that her friend was going to be okay. Angel sat down on his son's bed. As he sat, the covers which contained his scent released microscopic particles of dust into the air around him, in effect surrounding Angel with the scent of his son. That's all it took to release him.

Angel turned his body to lie on the small bed, putting his head on the pillow his son had once put his head on, and sobbed at the atrociousness of losing his son.

Cordy had woken suddenly, at first forgetting that her son was gone. She looked around wondering where she was. The drapes in the room were so thick that no light entered the room. Then she spotted William's jacket in the corner of the room in the chair. How did I get to William's room? Cordy thought.

The memories returned so quickly Cordy cried out at the suddenness. Oh, God. Connor, she thought tears coming to her eyes. That's when she heard the sobs coming from Connor's bedroom. She ran down the hall. She saw Fred outside the door, also crying. She ignored her friend for a moment, prioritizing the need to see who was sobbing like that it the room. What she saw would haunt her in her dreams as long as she lived.

Her husband was sobbing his heart out. Crying uncontrollably, his trembling shaking the tiny bed. William was there; His head on his sire's back, also crying. But, at the same time he was trying to comfort him. He rubbed his hands gently along Angel's back, trying to sooth the pain. It permeated the room. Anguish pouring itself, coming off of the walls, in waves.

Cordy slowed down. She walked over to her husband and brother and sat down on the small bed on the other side. Tears were also streaming down her face. She put her head on the pillow right next to her husband, putting her hands on his face and pulling hers close to his, whispering reassurances and empty promises. She tried to wipe at his tears at first, but found that they kept coming. She abandoned all sense of calming him and joined him in their grief.

Their happy home was no longer.

They all had lost all hope of Connor ever being rescued from the Quar'toth.

He was now living in a hell dimension with that hideous demon, Sah'jan.

They would never see him again.

But now, now, there was the one endless question they asked themselves, "How do we go through life without Connor in it?"

To be Continued…

Chapter 8: Where do we go from here?

This is a short chapter. I needed for Angel and the others to give up hope of rescuing Connor. (Don't worry, I told you he's coming back as a teenager, and he will; I just don't know how to do it just yet. Give me time.)

PS—I think that the majority of you caught the Tru Calling reference. It's the new television show that stars Eliza Dushku, the actress that plays Faith Evans on Buffy and Angel. I know that it's been done before, but if there's enough interest, I'll do a crossover. (It's up to you, the readers, to let me know if you want me to write it though. So email me and tell me to write it.)