The doors opened and just as Angel and Spike lowered their swords in unison, they stopped a few centimetres short of the necks of... Connor.

'Whoa easy with the swords swinging. You could take someone's head off!' Connor cried.

'What the hell do you think your doing here?!' Angel asked him. .

Spike walked over to the bathroom and opened the door to a very pissed off looking Buffy. She looked him up and down. 'Oh well, its good to see your not dead' She accused him. Spike smiled at her with that cocky, lopsided grin he always did. She melted like butter and took his offered hand. He helped her walk over to where the others were as she rested her head on his shoulder.

'I followed your scent to the alley looking for you and I...' Connor told Angel

'I thought I told you to go home' Angel said.

'I wanted to fight! I still remember everything I learnt from you, before you did the magic mojo on me. I know I was a damn good fighter. I've got the vampire agility and...' he trailed off under Angels glare. 'Just saying is all'

Angel merely shook his head 'well you're here now'

'He's a vampire?' Buffy asked confused.

'Well not technically. I mean, sure he has vampire in his blood.' Angel replied.

'Do you wanna explain a bit more with the fullness. Still no clue as to what's going on.' Buffy asked, still confused. She looked to Spike for some answers.

'Well, the blue haired chick in front of you, that's Illyria. She's an ancient goddess who took over a friends body a few months back, and this is Connor.' He turned his attention to Angel. 'I thought he was just a case you were helping out? Why's he have vampire in him, and why's he here?'

'I'm his son.' Connor replied without realising that neither Buffy or Spike knew about this. Then it clicked. 'Oh, you guys didn't know that. It's a long story but the short version of it would go something like, he and Darla slept together, I was born. Taken to a hell dimension where I grew up really fast, which explains the fact that I'm not like two years old. Came back, tried to kill him countless times. Slept with Cordy, she gave birth to ultimate evil, then he killed me, giving me a new life until that was trashed and, that's it in a nutshell.' Connor looked impressed with himself. 'Wow, I do remember a lot.'

Buffy and Spike simply gazed at him, mouths slightly open, and blank looks on their faces. Both tried to speak a couple of times, but the words wouldn't form.

Buffy finally found her voice. 'Ok not what I was expecting...You slept with Cordy! My god that girls gonna have a lot of explaining to do.'

'Um Buffy' Angel spoke for the first time in a while. 'Cordy's dead.' Angel said simply. Both Connor and Buffy looked heartbroken.

'How, when did she...' Buffy asked.

'A few months back.' Angel said quietly, a single tear fell down his cheek as he remembered how Cordy had kissed him that one last time, and then he had got the phone call...

flashback

Angel picked up the phone

"Hello. Yes, I know. She's... but that's impossible. She's standing right—"
He turned to look for Cordelia, but she's wasn't there; he could almost feel his dead heart break.

"I'm sorry. Yeah."His voice became choked "When did she die? Did she, um... she never did wake up? I see."
He hung up the phone and looked up to where Cordelia was standing moments earlier.
"Thank you." He whispered as he realisation hit him.

End flashback

Angel breathed in a shaky breath and turned away from the group.

This was too much for Buffy to handle. Angel had a son! It didn't hurt her, but weren't vampires supposed to be unable to have children? And Cordy was dead, and no-one had told her. She felt her knees weaken and the floor came rushing to meet her. Before she could greet it fully Spike had caught her and scooped her up into his arms.

'Come on love, don't be fainting on me now, you've just woken up' He told her as he carried her over to the bed. He laid her down and kneeled on the floor beside her. He took her hand and kissed it lightly.

'I'm sorry, it's just, too much information you know.' She smiled sheepishly. She hated looking weak in front of Spike. She wanted to be his strong powerful slayer, not a weak and pitiful one.

'Hey it's alright. I know what you mean. Who would have thought peaches would have offspring eh?' Spike said as he brushed a strand of her beautiful, golden hair behind her ear.

She could see the worry in his eyes. Was she thinking about the child she could have possibly had with Angel. She took his hand and pressed her lips to his palm. 'I don't care about that you know. Angel having a child. That doesn't matter to me. I love you and only you.'

Connor walked over to his father and placed a hand on his shoulder. Angel turned to meet the questioning gaze of his son.

'How did...how did she die?' Connor asked.

Angel took a shaky unnecessary breath. 'um, after she gave birth to Jasmine, you remember her don't you?'

Connor nodded as Angel continued, 'she slipped into a coma after that. A few moths back, she came back, to help me get back on track, but it turned out she never woke up. Some powers that be thing. I never really understood it.

Connor nodded. He could see the pain in his fathers eyes and didn't want to press the matter any further.

'So who's the blonde chick with Spike?' Connor asked Angel.

'That's Buffy' Angel replied. Right about now he thought that he'd probably admitted more in the past five minutes than he had in the past five years.

'Buffy? The Slayer!'

'Yeah. Remember how I told you how I'd been sent to a hell dimension by my girlfriend after you put me in that coffin and thrown me into the ocean.'

'Yeah. Did I mention how sorry I was about that.'

'I don't think so. But its in the past, so lets forget about it huh. Anyway that's her'

'Oh right.'

Buffy had listened in to their conversation up until Angel had explained about Cordy's death. She turned her gaze to Spike, a tear falling down her cheek. Spike wiped it away with his thumb. She brought a hand up to his cheek.

'Don't ever leave me' She whispered

'I won't' He whispered back as she pulled him into a passionate kiss, but broke off suddenly.

'Dawn!' she cried.

Angel looked up and saw the rays coming in the windows.

'Its ok Buffy, the windows are Necro-tempered so the rays aren't harmful' Angel replied.

'Ok I have no idea what that means, but cool anyway. No not that. Dawn, I have to phone her. Tell her everything's ok for now.'

Angel threw Spike his phone. 'Use this in case Wolfram's monitoring the phones.' Spike caught it and handed it to Buffy, who dialled the number. After a few rings it picked up and a male voice she recognised and missed came down the line.

'Hello?'

'Xander? What are you doing there?'

'Buffy. Oh thank god your alright. Dawn phoned me and told me what was happening and I came straight out. Giles still isn't here. His plane got delayed. Are you alright?'

'Yeah, I guess. If you define alright as 'being stuck hiding in a building from an evil bad ass', then everything's ok.'

'Oh right so just a normal life in the day of Buffy Summers then.'

'Indeed it is. Is Dawn there?'

'Yeah hold on I'll just get her'

Buffy heard the phone being put down on the table and inexpressible mumbling coming from the other end when someone picked up.

'Buffy. Oh my god are you ok?'

'I'm fine Dawnie'

'You must have kicked some major ass, cos, well the world didn't end.

'Yeah I guess you could say that'

'Why. What's wrong?'

'Oh nothing. Don't worry about it'

'But your ok right?'

'Yeah'

'Um, is Spike...is he um...'

'He's right here'

'Can I talk to him'

'She wants to talk to you' Buffy said as she handed the phone to Spike. He took it and put it to his ear.

'Hey nibblet'

'Oh Spike, is it really you?'

'Yeah, its me. How've you been?' he was appalled at himself and mouthed silently to himself 'how've you been? God' yeah that was a great way to start a conversation with someone who thought you were dead.

'Ok, but Buffy's been the worst. She seemed ok at first until we got to Rome and everything settled down. She would cry for days at a time. She was like that for months. I heard her talking to you at night, just like you did when Buffy...' she trailed off. 'But it's ok now, cos your back'

'Yeah. You, me and big sis have a lot of catching up to do. We should...'

Then an explosion on the other end of the line stopped him dead.

'lil bit? Dawn? Dawn! Are you there?!' Spike yelled down the line. He looked at Buffy, panic filling every inch of him.

'What is it! What happened!' she pleaded.

Then a voice came down the line. 'Your too late William.'

Spike filled with a blind fury

'Wolfram!'

'You should have stayed put like a good boy.' Wolfram sneered down the line

'You lay one finger on her' Spike yelled. He heard Dawn whimper on the other end of the phone.

'Oh. Looks like I already did. Ta ta!

The line clicked dead.