Chapter Seven

Layla watched Spike as he got up and went out to the porch to have a smoke. "Is it something I said?" she asked Illyria, the puzzlement very evident on her face. Illyria looked at the other woman with interest.

"You have said nothing that would cause anger. He has been dealt a mighty blow by my hand in the war of cards. He does not accept the loss well."

"Oh...I noticed that too. He is very emotional." Layla smiled a little, and then frowned. "It's so foreign to observe such things, and very disturbing to experience it for oneself." She looked at Illyria. "I have come here to learn, but did not think it would be this difficult. It is very chaotic here. Their emotions hit me like waves. I fear one day I may be pulled under." She looked at Spike again as he smoked for a moment, then turned to Illyria. There was a look of understanding on the demon's face.

"I too have observed this. It was offensive to my senses when I arrived in this world." She seemed to look into the distance for a moment. "I have since learned that though they may pull at you like the winds of a storm, they do serve their purpose. They have much to teach those who would listen."

Layla opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped as Connor and Gunn came down the stairs.

Connor walked straight into the kitchen, while Gunn sat down in an armchair. Illyria rose to follow Connor, but caught Gunn's look and sat back down.

"The boy is in pain. It curls off him like smoke. His fear courses through the earth."

"I know Illyria," Gunn said with a sigh. "But this is something he has to do."

Layla looked like she was listening and seeing something very far away. "Charles is right, Connor has reached a crossroads; the path is one only he can choose. He will need your support and friendship, but this is something he must do alone." She turned her eyes toward the window, and looked out into the evening sky.

Connor walked into the kitchen, and for a moment as he watched his parents, and felt his resolve weaken. 'How do I tell them?' he thought. 'How do I tell them I am not their son.' He closed his eyes, and gathered his strength. When he opened them, he saw his mother looking at him with concern. "Connor, what's the matter honey?"

Steeling himself inside, "Mom, Dad, we have to talk."

Spike knew he was being watched. But there wasn't very far he could go on this porch without being flash fried. True, the sun was starting to set, but there was quite enough light still to make his existence very unpleasant. He also knew it was Layla watching him. He could hear the gears turn in her head as she tried to figure him out. He smirked as he took a long drag. He knew she was failing miserably at it. 'Angel Toes isn't used to blokes like me,' he thought. 'She's used to order and reason. Bloody hell, I must be driving her batty!' He took another drag, and leaned against the wall. He had to admit it though, it gave him a little thrill when she looked at him like that, or the simple knowledge that he could affect her so.

He snuck a look back, and saw she was talking to Charlie and Blue. He wondered about what. 'I should probably go back in there,' he thought, but found himself looking into the tree line. He had never been one to dwell upon the past, yet he found his thoughts looking at the past year and beyond; at all the choices he made and roads he had taken. Everything he had ever done had led him here to this moment, to this porch, to this cigarette, and those pair of blue-grey eyes that were once again burning a hole in his back and peering into his very soul. 'I wish she'd bloody well cut that out!' he thought to himself; but then realized he didn't want that at all, and that was even more disconcerting.

Connor took a deep breath, and looked at the extremely stunned faces of his parents. His mother looked like she'd been run over by a bus, while his father looked quietly floored. He had told them everything; about who he was, where he came from, what Angel had done, and how he'd remembered.

"Mom. Dad. I am so sorry..." but found he had no more words. He just sat there at the kitchen table.

Colleen looked at him. "But I remember...everything...the day you were born, your first step...the day you got lost at the department store..."

"I know," the young man replied in a whisper. "I remember it too."

Laurence looked up, his eyes were miserable. "How long have you been carrying this inside you?"

"About two months, since we left Wolfram and Hart. I wanted to tell you." His words came out in a rush. "But I didn't know how. I didn't even understand everything yet. It was like someone turned a tap on in my head, and then it just kept filling and filling." He got up and started pacing. "I was remembering faces and places, hell even situations I should never even known about. I just knew it was the truth. Just like I know that everything with you is the truth too."

Colleen got up, as her son's pacing grew more frantic and distressed. "Connor, stop, slow down." She took his face in her hands. He looked like he was going to cry. Her heart ached, but she knew what he was telling her was the truth. Mother's intuition, she guessed. Just like created or not, he was their son. Everything screamed it inside of her.

"Do you want me to go?" he whispered. He had never looked so defeated and so helpless.

"What?! No!" She hugged her son with all her strength. "Connor, I don't care ...what I mean is YOU are my son. Memories or no. I have loved you from the first moment I saw you, and will love you till I breathe my last." She looked over at her husband, who nodded.

"Your mother's right. I don't fully understand everything you've told me, but every fiber of my being is telling me you are my son. That is never going to change. I guess it just means your...well...adopted."

Connor smiled a little at that. "Adopted huh? I guess that fits, in an entirely bizarre way."

Colleen finally let go of her son, and sat him down in a chair. She looked a bit awkward. "Um, Honey, can I ask you a question?"

Connor nodded.

"Um...well, your friends out there...they're not all human are they."

Out in the living room, Gunn looked at the clock on the mantle. "They sure have been in there a long time."

Illyria said nothing. Layla closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. "There," she whispered. "The path is chosen. All is as it should be."

Back in the kitchen, Connor had managed to explain that Spike was a ensouled vampire, Gunn was a regular human, that Illyria was some ancient demon trapped in a human body, and Layla...well he didn't know what Layla was, but she seemed as far from evil as one could get.

Colleen, once the shock had worn off, seemed to perk up a bit, and even sighed with relief. "Whew, I thought I was going nuts," she had said. Laurence agreed. "We knew something was up with most of them, but that blue haired one...Illyria?...She made the vampire seem...well...normal!"

Connor had grinned at that, but as the conversation continued his smile lessened and lessened. Now, he had to tell them the part he was really dreading. "Um, Mom...Dad ...there's more." He took a deep breath, and before they could respond, "See, well...they are going to be leaving soon...and I want to go with them."