Title: The First Seconded

Author: Falcon-Rider falcon_rider@hotmail.com

Rating: PG-13 for Angst and ect. And CD

Disclaimer: I own nothing 'cept the plot and Nich. Oh and a few others…

Authors note:  Okay, really sorry about the long wait… school then break for holidays, getting my computer upgraded not having win word, and accidently not saving two parts really screwed me up. I know I said they'd be back in SD in part 30 but its looking like part 32. Anyway sorry and enjoy!

***

Twenty-Eight

Second Chances

41 days

"-Going to paint your nails a nice shiny neon pink," Nich's voce filtered through his dreams as he drifted toward conciseness. "Oh, and I'll even paint nice smiley faces over them and each finger will have a different emotion. Then I'll paint your toes a pretty blue to match your eyes-"

"When are you going to do this?" Spike mumbled sleepily as he rolled over to face her. Nich sat in a chair next to the bed he was sleeping in.

"Oh in about thirty seconds if you hadn't woke up." Nich giggled as her 'big brother' rolled his eyes. Tossing a strand of wavy blond hair over her shoulder she grabbed something off the in table. "Sit up."

Spike slowly did as he was told and was surprised as she set up a tray over his lap and she placed a plate with a large sandwich and hot cocoa with those mini marshmallows on top of it. "You're the best Kat."

"Oh you know I am," Nich smiled. "Don't think this is going to happen every time you let yourself get drained though cause I'm way too lazy to even think about getting up and making…"

*

A bright light filled his vision, though it was a giant blurred light, as he managed to open his eyes. Closing them quickly the dark haired vampire with a soul blinked rapidly several times before managing to clear his fuzzy vision.

"Here, Drink this." A familiar female voice told him, Fred.

Angel complied readily swallowing the entire mug in just a few seconds. Groaning he managed to murmur his thanks.

"You're welcome," She smiled sweetly as Gunn entered the room. "You scared us with the whole disappearing thing, we're all just glad we were able to find you."

"I'm glad to be here," Angel replied hoarsely. He glanced around and attempted to push himself up.

"Hey man, watch it, you're all skin and bones," Gunn placed a hand on Angels shoulder.

Even with the slayer blood Angel still looked anorexic and had very little muscle whatsoever. Angel leaned back as Fred placed a pillow behind him.

"Where's Connor?"

Fred bit her lip and smiled sadly, "He's in his room playing Mario Bro's."

Angel closed his eyes briefly as the pain of his own sons betrayal flashed across his mind. "Fr-"

"We know," She replied fidgeting. "We had a long talk, he realizes now that you're his father… and that you're not a monster. He's kind of out of it now, you know processing all the information at once."

"What Fred's trying to say is he's-" Gunn was cut off.

"Sorry." Connor said quietly from the door. Looking up from his hands to meet Angel's eyes he replied sincerely. "I'm sorry."

*

"I'll miss you!" Giles was on the receiving end of a bear hug from two Wiccans. The three of them were in an airport getting ready for Willow and Tara to board their respective flights to Sunnydale and LA.

Giles smiled and leaned down to kiss both of their foreheads, "I'll miss you as well, it'll be quite boring without our umm fashion shows."

Tara laughed, "You'll have to come visit Sunnydale."

"Oh yes!" Willow agreed. "You can come for Christmas and we can have a big party with lots of goodies and presents!"

"And me coming for Christmas won't be entirely for the extra presents?" Giles asked trying to hide a smile.

"What?!" Willow smiled innocently. "How could you think that Giles, you know we love you!"

"Yes, I know you do," Giles said as the three hugged once more.

"Final boarding call for…"

"You two better get going," Giles told them as they pulled apart.

"We'll miss you Giles," Tara smiled as she reached out to grasp Willows hand.

"I'll miss you two," Giles smiled at them. "Now get going, you don't want to miss you're flight!"

*

He would have preferred a shout, some yelling even an attack to this. This was the most painful thing in the world to him. Silence. Complete and utter silence, so much that his normally cool exterior weakened and broke leaving a teenage boy shuffling his feet as he tried to avoid his father's gaze.

Fred and Gunn exchanged a look and the young texan cleared her throat, "Well we better go check on the others… make sure no ones umm hurt."

"Yah," Gunn nodded following his girlfriend.

Connor watched them go before turning back toward Angel, his eyes still diverted to the carpeted floor.

"You hurt me Connor." Angel said softly causing Connor to move from foot to foot once more. "I trusted you, gave you a chance, and you betrayed me."

Connor opened his mouth to speak as he finally looked up into Angel's eyes. His mouth closed as he saw the look on Angels face.

"I trusted you. We all did." Angel slowly got out of bed. "I should tell you to get out."

Connor nodded slightly his gaze slid towards the door.

" But, from what Fred tells me you are truly sorry so I'm willing to give you one more chance, this time however you'll have to earn my trust."

Connor didn't say a word he just nodded. He started suddenly when he felt Angel's arms encircle him in an awkward hug.

"Now, I have some questions I need answered. So, how about we go find everyone?"

*

Justine slowly awkwardly accepted the envelope Wesley held out for her.

"Thanks," she muttered.

"It's enough to get you to Seattle for a fresh start… I managed to pull some strings to get you a job there," Wesley told her, his voice cold.

"And thanks again, it was about time this puppet became her own puppeteer after all." She smiled as she stared at the bus, "You realize I could just take this money and run off instead of going to 'start a new life' right?"

"Absolutely," he nodded and Justine saw the thin line on his neck, the scar she had given him when she slit his throat.

"Then why are you doing this?"

"Have you ever heard of second chances?"

She laughed, "Sure. Never thought I'd get one."

Wesley shrugged, "Here's yours. You can take it or leave it, you're choice."

 She watched as he turned back to his car and stared down at the small white envelope. Maybe Seattle wouldn't be so bad at all… she always wanted to live somewhere where it rained a lot.

*

Angel opened the door to his room and stopped suddenly as he heard a thump and a yelp from the other side. Slowly opening it all the way he shook his head at Gunn and Fred.

Fred smiled sheepishly as she rubbed her nose, a blush spread across her pale skin at being caught, "Sorry."

Angel nodded then grew serious. "Where is he?"

"He who?" Gunn asked as he helped his girlfriend up, an arm securely around her thin waist.

"Spike." Angel looked back and forth. Through the childe-sire bond all he felt was a shadow, a locked door keeping him from locating Spike.

"Spike who?"

****

Author note # 2: I hope you liked it! And thanks all those who reviewed…also thanks To SLB (Spikes Little Brother) for help getting past the Angel/Connor scene. Go check his story out if you like Spike and Mortal combat… well just go check it out! Also I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to beta for me, just checking for details that don't make sense…ect. It would just require reading over edited parts that I'd send you of the past chapters(not to quickly you can take your time) and then reading over a new chappy once I have it finished…if you're interested email me or post a review doesn't really matter to me, I love to read reviews and they get emailed to me anyway. Thanks for being patient with me!

To be continued in: uuuh… hi?

I love reviews! So if you would just take 10 seconds to review! Please!