Disclaimers, etc, see part one.

The Return of the Redhead.

* * * * *

I didn't sleep. Angie was still working. I knew her avoidance tactics; she wouldn't finish until I was definitely asleep. She knew I couldn't stay awake past eleven. I slept. When nothing was any different the following evening I rang Willow.

I worked the next two days in a daze, waiting for help to arrive. I tried a couple of times to talk to Angie about Trevor. Most started with "how's Michelle doing?" Angie didn't say much in response. She had never talked much about her siblings after our first night at the bar.

On Thursday afternoon Willow and Kennedy arrived. The resemblance to my wedding day was uncanny. Angie had got home early with the mid weekly shop and I was helping her carry it in from the car. I glanced up to see red hair and dark approaching from the far end of the street. I stared at them until they were close. Angie noticed my stillness and looked up too.

Willow walked up to us and wrapped her arms around me. Sixteen years, and she knew that what I needed was a Willow-hug.

"Too long, Xander," she murmured.

"I know," I murmured back. Her hair smelt just the same as always.

She released me to offer a warm handshake to Angie. Kennedy appeared at my elbow.

"Hi."

"Hey, Xander," she said. And I was reminded of Oz.

Willow dragged Kennedy back to her side. She and Angie were grinning at each other. I don't know how Willow managed to do that. Although Angie did know Willow had given me up.

"Angie, this is my partner, Kennedy. Ken, Angie Harris."

Angie and Kennedy shook hands. I knew they knew that they were the outsiders. Whyever Willow was here, and I didn't know what she had told Angie, it was to do with me.

It was four in the afternoon, so Angie invited them in without asking where they were staying. Lizzie and Sarah were waiting for us inside. Sarah was suspicious and Lizzie nervous of the visitors.

Willow was delighted to see them. I had emailed Willow when each of them was born. And she'd asked endless child rearing questions when I had rung her. Mostly they started with, "Did either of yours ever…."

"Hi, I'm Willow," she said, brightly. "I was at high school with, ah, your dad."

Then she burst into giggles. Kennedy was standing next to me. She leant over to whisper.

"It made sense until her boy was born. After that the idea of you doing it, too, has this effect."

"I'm strengthened by her faith in me," I said.

"Of course you are, she's Willow."

Willow had calmed down enough to be introduced to the girls. She asked them a little about school and was slowly being drawn into an in depth conversation about history. Or possibly she was drawing them into it. Sarah liked her and talking animatedly about her history teacher. Lizzie was just watching the conversation.

"Tea, coffee, cocoa, we've got some of that Deepness-stuff," Angie offered to Kennedy.

I don't why we ever agreed to the strawberry drink in the first place. But Sarah swore by it for all sorts of things.

"Sure," Kennedy said. Willow seemed to go for people who didn't say much. Except that Kennedy was always much more upfront than either Oz or Tara had been.

"Where's your boy?" I asked. Amazed that I hadn't noticed he wasn't there first off. The way Willow wrote about him in her updates it seemed he was tied to her. Although, he was the same age as Andrew.

"Sandy and Michael are looking after him," Kennedy said. "They should be fine."

Willow scowled when she heard what were talking about. She obviously still felt that he should be tied to her. Given the distance of her own parents, I felt for boy.

"Sandy?" I prompted.

"She was having trouble with her parents, and she was fighting, so we took her in. She's eighteen now?" Willow said.

She ignored us then to talk to the girls.

"Yeah," Kennedy agreed.

"So that's three years, she's doing well. And she gets on well with Dan and Michael."

Willow smiled. She was fond of her family in Cleveland; that much was obvious. I had always wondered how she survived the winters. We left her with the girls in the kitchen while Kennedy, Angie and I had biscuits and tea in the living room. It took me a few minutes to get over that they were here, and the problems I was having with Angie were real.

We chatted, somehow for half an hour. Angie talked about work and asked Kennedy about hers. Kennedy talked about Willow, Dan, Sandy and Michael. Angie remembered Willow talking about him and their house at our wedding reception.

At four thirty the doorbell rang. I had no idea who might be coming. I hoped that it was someone I would be able to send away quickly. Willow was talking to my daughters, and I didn't want to interrupt them. I opened the door and found myself confronted by a short, blonde woman with a wide grin. That's all I registered before she hugged me.