Disclaimer: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel are not mine, I'm just playing with them.

Chapter 6: ...The Storm

Buffy recovered fast enough to knock Angel out of the way. The arrow intended for him embedded itself into the wall as Connor hurried to reload. He struggled with the crossbow for a minute before getting the next arrow locked into place. By that time the rest of the group had had time to react. Angel and Buffy were getting to their feet; Angel's face a myriad of emotions. Buffy just looked confused, as did the rest of the group. Wesley and Gunn had moved so they were standing in front of Fred and Lorne, offering them a little protection. Spike had moved so that he was standing directly in front of Connor, and he didn't look happy.

"Well, now." Spike said to Connor, his accent thick with anger and ego. "What have we here." He went on, eying Connor. Connor held the crossbow tightly, as if his life depended on it. Quite possibly, it did, if everything Eve had told him about this group was true. He wasn't so sure this had been a good plan. An hour ago, it'd been a great plan. Now, it looked like sudden death. Ever the diplomat, Wesley stepped towards Connor, who swung the crossbow and pointed at him.

"Stay back." Connor commanded him. Wesley froze. He'd been shot with a gun and had his throat slit with a knife...He wasn't about to rush an impulsive boy with a crossbow.

"We don't want to hurt you." Wesley tried to reason with him. Connor looked at him uncertainly.

"Connor, listen to him." Angel chimed in, sounding very fatherly. Connor's gaze and the pointy end of the crossbow swung back to Angel. "Put the crossbow down." Connor wasn't sure what to do. None of them were doing what he expected.

"We can help you." Buffy spoke up. She moved as if to disarm him and he pointed his crossbow at her. Undeterred, she took another step.

"Stay where you!" He shouted. "I'll shoot, I mean it. I don't care if you're human or not!" He said, clearly upset. She was mere inches from the end of the crossbow, when Dawn popped up behind Connor and whacked him over the head with the bronze statue of a ram Angel had sitting on a table near the wall. The crossbow fired as Connor's finger hit the trigger in a reflex. Connor hit the floor with a thump. Buffy stared down at her abdomen, horrified by the sight of the arrow protruding from it.

*

Dawn was leaning over Connor, wiping off his forehead with a wet cloth. She'd clocked him pretty good, she realized, and for a moment she was kinda proud. Until she realized that she'd knocked him out, that she'd actually hurt him. Then she recalled that he'd actually shot her sister with his crossbow. Dawn knew that Buffy had been extremely lucky. With the fact that she had been standing less than a foot from the tip of the arrow, her wound should have been more serious. For once it was a good thing that her sister was a Slayer. Good reflexes were a benefit. It could have been a lot worse. It was a sobering thought, her hand stilling over his wound as she looked at his face.

When he was unconscious, and not pointing a dangerous weapon at her sister, he appeared very innocent. Sweet, almost. Definitely hot, by her standards. Stop that, she scolded herself. She hadn't begged to be left in here with him to drool on him while he was unconscious. She felt bad for knocking him out cold and had wanted to help him in some way. Of course, Buffy hadn't wanted to leave her in there. Dawn began dabbing at the wound as she remembered the look on her sister's face when she'd said she wanted to stay with him.

"You want to do what?" Buffy exclaimed, grasping her side.

"I want to stay in here and help him." Dawn repeated herself, staring her sister down.

"He's dangerous Dawn." Buffy replied, gesturing to her side as she spoke.

"The only reason he shot you was because I hit him over the head." Dawn retorted, her arms crossed.

"The only reason he didn't shoot anyone else is because you hit him over the head." Buffy said, clearly frustrated.

"Either way, Buffy, I hit him over the head. I know it's not your policy to actually care about the people who attack you, but I'm not like that. He's human, and while I don't agree with his attack on Angel, or even have a clue as to why it happened, I'm responsible for what happened to him." Dawn argued. Buffy sighed.

"Fine...but if you're going to be alone with him, I'm tying him up." Buffy told her.

"Ok, ok." Dawn agreed. Buffy went to the door and opened. Angel was standing in the hall, an odd look on his face.

"We'll get to what's going on in a second." Buffy said to him. "For now, we need some rope."

Dawn chuckled as she recalled the expression Angel wore when Buffy had informed what she was going to do to their 'prisoner'. Buffy had ushered Angel out after making sure that Dawn had access to the boy's own crossbow and her cell phone, in case there were problems. Dawn was sure that Buffy was across the hall in Angel's office, giving him a what for. Sighing, Dawn taped some gauze over the wound. She picked up the weapon from the floor at her feet, and glanced around the office she was in. It appeared like no one had set up shop in there, which was why Angel had put them in here to begin with. Dawn settled herself in an armchair across from the couch were the boy lay, and began waiting for him to wake up.

*

"Let me get this straight, Angel." Buffy began, beginning to pace around a small stretch of his office. "You had a son, with Darla." She said. Buffy turned away from him before he could reply. "When he was just a couple of months old, he was kidnapped and taken to an alternate dimension where he was raised to hate you. After a few weeks, he suddenly reappears, 18 years older, and out to get you. After months of a love/hate relationship, you took Wolfram and Hart up on it's offer to erase his memories and give him a false life." Buffy finished, summing up the lengthy explanation Angel had just finished giving them.

"Pretty much." Angel answered her, looking sheepish. His friends had yet to say anything, and he wasn't sure what their reactions would be when they did. So far, Buffy had been the first to say anything. Spike had smirked through most of it, but he knew better than to say anything because Buffy was in the room. Angel was sure he'd hear Spike's unwelcome opinions later.

"Where the hell do you get off?" Buffy questioned him, her tone angry and deep. She was now facing him, standing right in front of his desk. "Things aren't going well, so you erase his memories and give him a new life?" She went on, upset.

"I did what was best for him, Buffy." Angel defended.

"Like you did for me?" She asked. Her eyes were bright with un-shed tears. Everyone in the room was now hanging onto her every word, including Spike. Buffy and Angel were always so closemouthed about their relationship, and now was their chance to get some answers.

"You deserved a normal life, Buffy." Angel replied, his tone sounding anguished as well. "You know I couldn't give that to you. I couldn't give it to Connor either." He went on.

"He's your son, Angel." She said. "He doesn't need a normal life. He needs his father. He needs you, just like I did." Buffy finished, crying. "What gives you the right to play God with peoples lives?"

Spike felt like someone had ripped open his puncture wound and had played with his insides. He wanted to believe that Buffy loved him, but when it came to the Poof, he knew there was no contest. If there weren't circumstances keeping them apart, he knew that Buffy would be with Angel now, and not him.

"Listen, I don't mean to interrupt." Fred interrupted. "I just have one question." She said. Everyone looked at her expectantly. "If you erased his memories of us and our memories of him, how come he knows that you're his father?"

"I can answer that." A voice sounded from the doorway. Six sets of eyes turned to the voice, and rested on Eve, who was standing there.