Title: Is Daddy an Angel?

Chapter Seven

Posted: March 26, 2004

Author's notes: Ok, this chapter is probably going to be longer than the rest, just because I foresee the resolution of most problems, and there should only be one chapter after this, so once I have that done, I'll post it, k? Meanwhile, off I go to finish!

Reader Responses:

Melluvben: Actually, for all sense and purpose, he DOESN'T know Kathy is his. But he'll figure it out, probably not in this chapter though...there is one more chapter after this, and it's sorta like a prologue, or whatever! I get those two confused, pro and epilogue. And I'm not going to say anything that's a big spoiler, but I am a HUGE Buffy/Angel fan, if that give you any clue to where this story is going...

Bluie: I'm not really sure what Angel's aware of, either. I think when he first saw, no, I know that when he first saw the pictures, he felt a strange connection to the nameless girl, like he had to protect her, but yet again, Spike and Dru had her, if that's anything. Because of Chloe, the waitress at the diner, he knows that Buffy has a daughter, but I don't think he's put the pictures and the fact that she has a daughter together yet. And I think, because of his conviction that vampires can't have kids, that he believes Kathy is not his daughter. But here's your update, after a lot of thinking on my part after reading your review *pouts good naturedly*

Suicide is the only Option: thanks for your review, and can I say, from my goody-goody POV, suicide is never an option! But here's your update!

Bashipper: Yes, Angel is back. Being the Buffy/Angel FANATIC I am, do you really think I'd be so cruel to leave him in hell? Even if living without his Buffy is worse than anything that hell can throw at him...*tear*

spikes-storm- Yeah, but study hall IS my next morning before classes! Lol. Lately I've been lucky, we've been doing trials in English, my second block, and being on the jury, I sit there, and take 'notes' you get a lot of writing done, and French homework...too bad we're all done with trials! And thanks for the review!

And that's it! I hope I got all of your reviews answered! I have this ingenious scheme on yahoo...I flag all of the reviews I have to answer, since I don't tend to answer reviews on stories that I'm done with, unless they really need it, and once I get ready to post...just go and check those! Hehehe...I'm so proud of myself!

But enough of me, here's your update:

For some reason, my email substitutes apostrophizes for these cool little boxes. I'm sorry if I didn't catch them all...

(You read, I'm off to a birthday party! Hehehe!)

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"OoOo." She bounced up and down, "She's here, Spike. She's boiling. I can feel it." She said, her eyes wide and terrified.

"Grab the kid. Go into the other room and keep her quiet." She scurried off, her high heels clicking on the cement floor.

Bang, bang, CRASH. The door was kicked down and he sighed. It was so hard to find slayer-proof doors these days. The petite form of the blond slayer stepped into the sparse room.

"I thought I told you I didn't ever want to see you again, Spike." She spat.

"You're the one visitin' us, luv." He shrugged, getting up from his chair.

"Where is she?"

"She who?" he taunted, feigning ignorance.

"Don't play blond with me, Spike. I'm the real deal here, while that bleached mess on the top of your head...I don't even wand to know what that is. I'm only going to ask you once more, where is my daughter?"

"She and Dru are out, but you're welcome to stay and chat. I'd love to catch up with you."

"I'm so looking forward to kicking your ass." She stepped into a loose fighter's stance.

"Bring it on, slayer." Just then a howl of pain and rage came from the next room, and Kathy came running out the door.

"Mommy!"

"Ah, not so fast, bit." He grabbed the child.

"Kathy." She breathed.

"You were supposed to keep her quiet, Dru." He reprimanded lightly.

"She bit me." She pouted, holding her hand.

"I have sharp teef." Kathy said, showing her small white teeth.

"Well, luv, mine are sharper." With that, both he and Dru vamped, and Kathy screamed. "Now, hold on to her, pet, while mom and I dance." Dru took the wiggling child.

Spike and Buffy squared off. Spike started with a punch to her abdominal. Buffy blocked that and the one towards her face, and backhanded him. She threw a flying roundhouse kick, but he caught her foot and threw her against the far wall.

"Mommy!"

"Shut up." Dru growled, watching the fight with giddy anticipation for what would come next.

"Let go of me! Mommy!" Kathy began kicking and struggling with the vampire.

"Baby, just do what she says, ok? I'm gonna take care of this. Just stay quiet, for mommy, ok?" the little girl nodded, ceasing her struggles, as her mother picked herself up off the floor.

"Do you really want your daughter to watch you die?" Spike taunted as they squared off once more.

"Well, I'd like to hope that she could take time out of her busy schedule to come see me on my dying day. At home, in bed, surrounded by my loved ones. That'd be nice. But to day is not that day. The only death she's going to see is yours." She feinted a front kick at his groin, and at the last moment turned it over into a round house to his head. She then used the momentum of her last kick to send her into a tornado crescent kick, smacking him once again on the side of the head.

He growled at her, and pushed in on her so she couldn't use her legs. But she was ready for him, shifting her weight to her back foot and he impaled himself on her sidekick.

"I'm not the same girl I used to be, Spike. I've changed. And you should have realized that messing with the only thing I've got left was a bad idea."

"Well, I sent the gang some pictures, I would have hoped back up would have been here by now, to see what you've become since you've fled from home." She punched him square in the jaw, and for a moment he saw lights. "Waitressing and stripping, just to be able to survive, what would your friends think, if they saw you now?" She spun and back fisted him again. He was pissing her off, and they all knew it. "What would your mother and your watcher think of your escapades?"

"Stop it! Don't bring them into this!" She cried, ducking his punch and spinning, while grabbing the stake in her boot. She brandished it for him to see.

"Now luv, a child exposed to violence will have a predisposition to it. Do you really want that for your girl?" She quickly looked from him to Kathy, watching her every move, and that was all the time he needed. He threw her against the wall, grabbed the kid from Dru, and slid her across the floor to her mother. He had really liked the kid, but he had learned not to tangle with a pissed off slayer. Especially not this variety. He grabbed Dru and ran off. "This isn't over, Slayer!"

Buffy sat up, and Kathy flew into her arms, sobbing. "Mommy!"

"Shh, shh, baby, everything's gonna be alright, ok? I've got you now, shh." She held her daughter to her, and watched the way the two vampires had gone. It didn't settle well with her that yet again she hadn't killed them. But she had her daughter back, and that was all that mattered right now.

"Mommy, can we go home now?"

"Yeah, baby, let's go home."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

She sat on the bed, after tucking Kathy in for the night, thinking. Ultimately, it had been her fault Spike had been able to kidnap her. Mrs. Smithson hadn't known about the world that she did; the world that she had tried to hide from for so long. But even when she did hide, when she denounced it, and tried to hard not to believe, it found her, and took form her the most precious thing in the world.

"Mommy, what are you thinking about?"

"It doesn't matter, baby, you're safe. Go to sleep now, I promise I won't let anything get you."

"Where's Mr. Gordo?" she asked, and she smiled, grabbing the stuffed pig from the shelf he had been sitting on.

"Right here, waiting for you to come home."

There was that word again. Home. Maybe to Kathy, this tiny apartment with only two rooms, the only place she had ever known, felt like home. But not to her. Home was where your family and friends were, the people that loved you. But did she still have friends? Even if her mother now hated her, she'd still be her mother, but what about Giles? Would he still be there, would he be the father figure that she had needed so much, and still needed? Would Willow still be there, to listen to her complain about the littlest things, and then help her save the world? Would Xander still be there, ready to go out for donuts at the merest mention of the sweet pastry? Would he crack jokes at the most inopportune times, relieving the stress that weighed on everyone? Would Cordelia still be there, snipping at everyone's fashion sense, but always willing to help with research, even if she wouldn't admit it?

She sighed at the melancholy thoughts that ran through her mind, and went to clean up after Kathy's first bath in probably over a week. She had treated them to Happy Meals, with toys, even though she couldn't afford it. It was a day to celebrate, and that's what they had done. Then she put on her pajamas, and slid into bed beside her daughter, who curled up beside her.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

She sat at her desk, reading the reports that had been faxed over earlier that day. She couldn't believe it. She had been certain that that guy was cracked, but he had been right.

Just then her phone rang, and she set down the faxes, and the file that had been in their own records.

"Lockley." She used as an answer.

"It's Anne Sprice. Kathy's mother. I found her. I talked to some people on the streets, and they told me where she was. Once I confronted the guys who took her, they got scared and ran off. She's now sitting here with me, eating ice cream." She could hear the happiness in her voice, but there was something else underneath. A sound that could never be totally covered, no matter how hard you tried. Sorrow.

"We were just about to go look for her. We had a lead, and though the source didn't seem too reliable, the tip looked promising. Something about this couple, Spike and Dru. Odd names, I must say. They didn't show up in any of our databases. But he said you knew them." She tried, waiting for the reply.

She heard an intake of breath, and then the voice said shakily, "Yeah, they had her. They've cleared out of town by this time, though."

"Miss Summers, I have your file in front of me. It's very interesting."

Another sharp intake of breath, "Who-Who told you?"

"It doesn't matter. He was trying to get a hold of you, but I am not authorized to give out that information. But you are a Missing Person." She said.

"I-I know. I just can't go back. Please." She heard something said on the other end of the line, "I've got to go, Kathy needs to use the facilities. I just wanted to let you know she was safe. Goodnight."

"Night. I'm happy you found your daughter."

"Thank you."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

It wasn't a surprise to Kate when she opened her door the next morning, to find Anne and who she supposed to be Kathy standing there.

"Detective Lockley, can I speak with you?" The woman's eyes shifted nervously.

"It's Kate. Detective Lockley's my dad." She said, to put the woman at ease.

"Kate then. This is Kathy." She held up the child's hand in hers. "I wanted to ask you exactly what that guy had said, the one who tipped you off."

"He kept going on about how he really had to talk to you, and you were the only one who could find Kathy. Then when I wouldn't listen, he told me you were a missing person in Sunnydale. He also said your friends missed you."

"W-What did he look like?"

"Tall, dark hair, sad eyes, broad shoulders." She thought back

She had gone pale. She knew one person for sure who fit that, and one who could possibly. She wasn't sure who she wanted it to be more. "C-Can you do me a favor, Miss Lockley?"

"Its just Kate, if I can call you Buffy." She nodded.

"I-I'd like to go back. B-But I was a suspect in Kendra's death." "The Jamaican teen?"

"Yeah. Dru murdered her, but I know that what I did was awfully suspicious, running away like I did. I just couldn't handle it. And then I learned about Kathy...I couldn't go back. And to have gotten her back, only to be thrown in jail...I can't loose her again."

"I'll see what I can do." She promised.