Gift

Chapter Fifteen

Acceptance

After Spike had exited the room, Connor made his way around the desk to kiss Liberty.  He could hardly believe that after everything that had happened, something good had come of it.  His new relationship with Liberty.  They hadn't really discussed the kiss earlier, but he didn't think they were going to have to.  They seemed to have an unspoken agreement.  Liberty smiled at him brightly, any sign of her previous anger wiped away.  He liked it when she was happy.

"Did everything work out okay with Angel?"

"He told me more about my life before.  And we agreed not to let my parents in on my true paternity.  He also offered me a job as an intern here."

"Intern?  That's wonderful!"
"Yeah, well, I won't exactly be doing a bunch of busy work.  I'll be demon hunting and fighting with Angel.  Like I used to do, apparently."

Liberty nodded while she took his hands in hers.

"I can hold my own in a fight.  Maybe I can go with you guys."

"Hey, the more the merrier.  You'll probably be a good strategist too."

Liberty laughed lightly and squeezed Connor's hand.  "You know, I think things are going to be okay."
"At least for a little while."

"I can deal with a little while."

Connor leaned down to kiss her once more before he pulled her to her feet.  They stood eye to eye, staring intensely at each other as a magnetic force field seemed to pull them closer to each other than either had ever thought possible. 

"I'm going to ask this again, but hopefully there will be different results.  You wanna grab a bite to eat?  After the board meeting of course."

"Sure.  You know why I didn't accept your offer, don't you, Connor?  I thought I was too much of a freak to go out with you.  You didn't know about my gift.  I wasn't sure how you'd take it, either, so I couldn't just tell you and find out.  Besides, you were supposed to be part of my job and I didn't want to mess up my first assignment.  But now I realize that resisting you is futile.  And I'd like to think you feel the same with me."
"Liberty, I don't think I could ever resist you.  Even when you crushed me when I asked you out."

"Well, I think waiting was worth it, don't you?"

"Yeah.  It's definitely worth it."
She giggled sweetly and Connor pulled her into his arms.  "We've got a few minutes until the staff meeting.  What will we do?"

"I don't know.  I think we'll figure something out."  With that, Liberty pulled away from Connor and tossed him a folder off her desk.
"I have a vocab test tomorrow.  We have just enough time to go through the list."

The look on Connor's face was priceless and it made Liberty want to laugh even more.  He sighed in defeat before he opened the folder.  "Ubiquitous."

            Gunn met Lorne halfway to the boardroom.  Gunn looked better without the suit suffocating him, more like himself.  Lorne flashed a sparkling smile, "Hello, sweet cheeks, how are things going?"

"Good.  You know what this meeting is about?"
Lorne shrugged the question off. Angel had probably called the meeting to talk about Connor's true paternity.  It wasn't his place to tell Gunn about it.  After Gunn found out the whole story, everything would be back to normal, according to Angel Investigations.  Things were starting to fall into place, even without Fred.  He missed the little ray of sunshine he'd found in Fred and he didn't know if he'd ever be able to get it back.  But maybe when things started over again, his life would get back to the way it was supposed to be, working with the stars and helping people onto the right path in their lives.  Gunn opened the door to the room and found Angel already waiting for them.  Angel seemed a little perturbed, making Gunn wonder what was wrong.  He hadn't seen that look on Angel's face since Illyria had disappeared off the face of the earth after Fred had died.  Gunn straightened up, waiting for the bad news.

"Gunn, Lorne, come on in.  The others will be here soon.  But they all already know.  So I thought I'd tell you privately before we went on to other business."

Gunn found his usual chair and slipped in.  He kicked it back to a two-legged tilt.

"What's wrong?  No one else is dying, right?"

"No.  No one's dying.  Listen, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but a year ago I made a deal with Wolfram and Hart."

"Not exactly headline news, Angel.  We all did."
"Not the same deal.  I agreed to take over Wolfram and Hart as long as they would put my son into a loving family with no memory of his previous life.  Part of that meant no one would remember Connor, except me and the Senior Partners."
"Meaning what?" Gunn asked as the sinking feeling in his stomach increased. 

"Meaning your memories were tweaked to where you had no memory of Connor or anything that happened involving him."
"You were messin' wit my mind."

"Yes.  I had your mind messed with.  But it was to protect Connor."
"Connor.  Who the hell is Connor?"

"Connor Johnson.  That kid that came in a couple months ago wondering about his enhanced abilities.  He's mine."

"And everyone else knew?"

"No.  They were working on the case and starting putting things together.  They just came to my office today about it.  So they've just recently found out."

"Why would you do this, Angel?"  Gunn looked like he was ready to break the chair into something sharp and pointy, making Angel a little bit nervous.  He wasn't exactly looking forward to being on the receiving end of Gunn's wrath.

"I had to.  Connor was losing his mind he was so confused.  He was going to kill some people before ending his own life.  I fixed that, even though it meant betraying your trust."

"I never used to trust vamps.  I did and look where that got me."

"You can still trust me, Gunn.  I had to do this.  I don't regret doing it.  It saved Connor's life and several others.  And now you know."

"And that should make it all better?"

"No.  You'll probably stay mad for a while.  I know Wesley will be.  And Liberty.  Connor too, probably.  But don't blame me completely for taking Wolfram and Hart over.  You were going to take the position here.  You know you were.  I could see it in your eyes before I announced that I had already accepted the proposition."

Gunn knew that was true.  He had looked into the panther's eyes and he had seen what he could become.  He had seen that he could become an excellent lawyer and be more than the muscle.  That's what he had always longed for and the panther had offered it to him.  Still, Angel allowing the law firm to mess with their brains was dangerous.  Then again, he had let them do it to him of his own free will.  And that had cost Fred her life.

"Whatever.  Is the kid comin' here or something?"
"Yeah.  At the staff meeting."

Angel paused as he felt a weight lifting off his shoulders.  The people closest to him knew the truth and that was all he could ask for.  He wasn't lying to them everyday now.  He wasn't lying to them at all.

"Lorne, you've been awfully quiet."

"Oh, I already knew, Angelcakes.  Ran into Liberty in the hall and she sang a little tune for me.  I think that I have gotten opportunities to meet stars that I never would have before and I can't complain.  I also think that you did what you thought was right.  Maybe it was the right thing.  I miss Fred more than I can ever express, but she's gone.  There's nothing we can do to change that.  In fact, even if we had taken this place over, she may have died.  We'll never know."

"I'm glad you're so open to this, Lorne."
"I just want to meet the tot."
"He's not exactly a tot.  He's 18."
"Well, all the same."

As if on cue, Connor and Liberty walked in, Spike tagging behind.  All that was missing was Wesley.

            "Sorry we're late.  We were…busy."  Wesley apologized as he hurried into the room, Illyria following closely behind.  Angel hadn't expected to see Illyria there.  Only a few hours ago she was tied to a chair and he was interrogating her.  How things change.  Unfortunately, Gunn and Lorne hadn't seen Illyria recently.  The shock was evident on their faces.  Lorne took a long sip of his patented Sea Breeze before looking again at the blue-haired Fred look alike. 

"She looks so much like Fred."
"She is Fred, Lorne.  In every way but the inside."

Illyria stayed obviously close to Wesley as everyone stared at her.  "You mistake me for the shell."
"Yes, I do, sweetheart."

"Sweetheart.  Endearments I will never understand.  Each person has a given name and then humans mix everything up by calling them by endearments."

"Illyria is an inquisitive sort.  I apologize.  She can be a little hard to get used to." Wesley said quietly.

Gunn replied, not nearly as quietly, "And you've had time to get used to it?"

Wesley nodded briefly.  "Illyria has been with me for quite some time.  I have been helping her assimilate into our culture."

"Why do you speak of me as if I am not here?"
"I'm explaining your presence, Illyria."
"You do not have to explain me away to such lower beings."

"I do, Illyria, because they're my friends.  And they were Fred's."

Gunn broke in again, not wanting to hear the explanations.  "Don't we ever kill the bad guys anymore?"  He looked a little put out, but Wesley tried to assuage his anger.
"Illyria's not really the bad guy.  I know she's the one that took Fred from us, but then again, so are you.  Illyria had no control over what happened and she's actually quite interesting."

Wesley glanced at Illyria and sent her a half-smile.  She looked away for fear of returning the sign of liking and happiness. 

Gunn sighed.  "Whatever.  You know what?  I don't know why I bother asking questions."

Angel stood from the table as if to get everyone's attention on him.

"Can I start the meeting now?"

"Go ahead, Peaches.  I'm all ears." Spike said as he pulled at his leather duster.
"Who invited you, Spike?"

"Mini-Angelus."

"You can't call him that."
"Why not?"

"Because it's not right.  For one, I'm not Angel.  And Connor is definitely not a little Angelus.  Even if he does resemble me during my Angelus days."

It was Connor's turn to play peacekeeper.  "Angel, Spike, come on.  Let's go ahead and start the meeting instead of flirting with each other."

The two opened their mouths to protest immediately, but Connor held his hand up to stop the objections.  Angel finally agreed to start the meeting.

 "All right.  First, I want to introduce our new intern, Connor.  He's my son and he's got some excellent skills for fighting demons.  He just needs some refreshing.  Spike, you'll be in charge of his training."
"Lovely.  I'm a baby-sitter."

Angel ignored the comment and continued on with the meeting's agenda.

"As of yet, we have no major apocalypses to avert, so things are calm.  Keep your ear out for any sign of one coming, but mostly enjoy the calm.  It doesn't happen a lot."

Liberty glanced around the table while Angel talked.  Connor seemed content to sit there next to her and study every one of his new co-workers.  She decided to do the same.  Lorne seemed completely interested in his Sea Breeze and not much else.  Gunn was watching Illyria with some kind of morbid fascination.  Illyria was sitting sternly in her chair, looking ready to throttle someone at any moment for her entertainment.  Wesley had a calming hand on her arm as if to keep her there or to stop her from saying something wildly inappropriate.  Spike was trying to catch her attention and as soon as he had it, he started to morph in and out of his vampire face as he mocked every action that Angel made.  And Angel seemed almost oblivious to it all, which was possibly the most fascinating out of all she was seeing.  Angel was hypersensitive to everything.  He had to know what the others were doing.  Liberty glanced back at Spike, who held his hand up with his mouth moving comically.  Liberty suppressed a giggle as the realization hit her.  She had spent her whole life looking for a place that she belonged, at home, at school, in the world.  And even though she had doubted it, she had found that place; the heart of a previously evil corporation with a bunch of misfits.  Her place was with two vampires with souls trying to rid the world of evil, a green anagogic demon with a passion for singing and fixing lives, a fallen demi-goddess trying to find her own place in the world, an ex-Watcher falling in love with the demon that had taken over his previous love's body, and a boy with a current identity crisis after gaining the knowledge that he was the child of two vampires.  In fact, compared to them, she was almost normal.  After all, she could only see people's true nature.  She smiled to herself at the happiness she felt.  She did belong.  And so did her gift.

This is the end of Gift.  I thank everyone for reading it and I hope the end didn't disappoint you!  I loved writing every chapter and I had a ton of fun with all the characters.  I hope you all had as much for reading it as I did writing it.  I'd also like to thank each and every one of my reviewers!  You all mean the world to me.  You make me want to keep writing.  You made me want to sit down and write the last two chapters in two days (though you guys had to wait to read the chapters.)  You also helped me know what I could do to make it better.  And I hope I did just that.  Thanks again!  Sassy