A Day with Daddy

Posted: May 9, 2004

Disclaimer: The only character that really belongs to me is Ashleigh Summers. The plot, I guess, you could say belongs to me, but none of this would be possible without the brilliance of Joss Whedon, and the brilliance of GidgetGirl. It was her Legal Challenge that started all this. I'm just giving in to demand.

Author's notes: This is for Gigil13, who asked for this in a review. This is a short story using the characters from Stolen Innocence. You could say it's a sequel, but it's more of a continuation. I hope all of you who enjoyed Stolen Innocence, enjoys this!!!

Spoilers: No spoilers for the shows, BUT THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, STOLEN INNOCENCE. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW HOW THAT STORY ENDS, do not read. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I DON'T WANT ANY NASTY REVIEWS!!!

"Mommy! Come play with me!" The blond haired girl came bouncing in the room at eight am. The sun had risen at five, and she had been up pretty much since then. She couldn't remember when Ashleigh had started calling her mom, but she sorta liked the idea, though she wasn't always comfortable with it, like when Alicia came over, Ashleigh's real mother.

She moaned, trying to roll over, so she could get up.

"Hey, I've got her," he said, sitting up, kissing her softly. She smiled as his lips touched hers. She couldn't believe that all this was actually real, even after so much time had passed. "Mommy's tired," he whispered to the girl, taking her from the room, after pulling on a pair of black jeans, and grabbing a white shirt. He shut the door quietly, and she rolled back over, since she had a very hard time getting comfortable these days, and soon fell back asleep.

"Mommy needs a day off. Why don't we do something together?"

"Just you and me?" She asked, "No interruptions?"

"Of course. What do you want to do?"

"Aren't they pretty?" she asked, staring at the white bears. "They're so....white and innocent. Blank slate."

He nodded, knowing exactly what she was talking about. After all those years of torturing people, and then torturing himself, a blank slate was something to relish. From what they had garnered from her own past, where guilt was something preyed upon, she also needed that blank slate.

"Yes, they are. Are we going to look at the...pretty bears all day, or do you want to do something else?" He asked.

"Could we go to the beach? We haven't gone to the beach in a long time! Not since Mommy started getting big."

"Sure."

"Yippee!" she jumped for joy, and some of the nearby people turned to look at her. Angel just smiled a lit bit embarrassed.

"Baby, we need to wrap it up, ok?" he said, hanging up his cell phone. She looked up from where she was burying his legs.

"Why?" she whined.

"Because something came up at Daddy's work."

"But you promised!"

He thought a moment, "Do you want to come with me? I bet Harmony or Spike would play with you."

"But I want you to play with me!"

"We'll see, girly. Maybe once Daddy's done, we could go out for dinner, or ice cream. How does that sound?"

She thought about it for a minute or two, her six year old face creased in a pondering look. "Could I paint your nails?" He sighed. "Pretty please?! We can do black, or white, or...clear. Please?"

He sighed again, knowing he couldn't come up with something fast enough to make her forget about this. "Fine." she jumped for joy, and he sent her running to the water, to wash off. He sighed as he wiped the sand off of his shorts. He was never going to live this down.

"What seems to be the problem?" he asked, as the clients sat down. Now that Wolfram and Hart had been cleansed of its demons, he was truly trying to clean up the law firm's act. Though they still had to deal with some of the larger demons, to keep them on their feet.

The demon said something, but it was just a bunch of clicking. "It seems they've come across a prophecy, while going through their archives. Has to do with a slayer and a vampire..." some more clicking, and some clucking, and Wesley clucked and clicked back at them, "A vampire with a soul, merging, becoming one, bringing about the apocalypse. Or a Big evil, my language skills are a bit rusty."

"Merging? How?"

More clicking and clucking, from both the demons and the British man. "They're not totally sure. They would have brought the prophecy along, but their ruler forbid it. But they knew of your relationship with the slayer, and came to prevent...whatever's going to happen."

Angel shifted nervously, "But I'm no longer a-"

"Daddy, stop moving!" the voice came from under the table, and the demons looked under the table. Angel clapped a hand to his forehead. The demons were going to have lots of questions about this.

"Buffy need a day off?" Wesley asked, sympathetically. He had babysat for Ashleigh while they had gone on their honeymoon. Angel just nodded, shifting in his chair.

"Daddy! Stop it!" he felt something cold land on his foot. "Now look at what you've made me do!" He felt her fingers trying to wipe the nail polish off his foot. She peeked out from under the table, "You're lucky I don't have to start over!" Ever since Harmony had babysat one night, after hesitation from both Buffy and he, Ashleigh had been obsessed with nail polish. Buffy had assured him that it was a girl thing, and that no matter her sheltered beginnings, she needed to be exposed to girly things, like dresses, and tea parties, and friends. And, sadly, nail polish and other make up items. He shivered at the thought of Ashleigh with one of Buffy's lipsticks.
The demons started clicking and clucking like mad, sending strange and disgusted looks Angel's way.

"Will you please explain to them!"

"Uh..." Wesley began clicking and clucking like mad, but it didn't seem to help. "Opps." He continued clicking.

"What?!"

"I...uh...seem to have mixed up my tenses. And a few verbs."

"Wesley..." He growled.

"I'm trying!" They were all clicking and clucking furiously, the conversation seeming more and more heated. Angel punched a button on his phone.

"Gunn, we need some help here." He let his old friend listen for a few minutes, and then clicking came from the phone. Everyone stopped to listen. After a minute, the demons nodded, and clucked some more.

"There ya go, Boss. Should I come over there, just to keep things under control?"

"No, just stay where we can reach you, ok?"

"Sure thing." The line went dead.

"Daddy, I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Oh, it's ok, baby," he pulled her up into his lap. She looked up at his with tears in her eyes. "It's not your fault. They don't speak English, and...there was a misunderstanding." he hugged her.

"So I'm not in trouble?"

"Of course not." Even though he wanted to ground her, or punish her in some way. She was just to... she had been through so much in her short life...he just couldn't punish her. "What color were you painting my nails?"

This brightened her right up, "Pink! Harmony let me borrow it!" she smiled, and he smiled back, but it was clearly forced, and a bit hesitant. Thank God Spike wasn't coming in today. It was bad enough as it is. "Uh...why don't you go see if Harmony wants you to paint her nails?"

"Ok!" she scrambled under the table, grabbed the polish bottle, and rushed out of the office.

Angel sighed, before turning back to his clients. "Wes, if I have this right, then they're talking about Buffy's junior year." Wesley nodded, thoughtful, "Would you please tell them that it is all taken care of, and it is no longer a threat." Wesley nodded, and started clicking and clucking his tongue, stopping every few minutes to think about the next verb conjugation and whatnot. Angel didn't understand some demon languages. There wasn't any difference between one click and another to him, though he knew that there must be something.

"Can I have ice cream now?"

"What about dinner? Don't you want....a hot dog, or a cheese burger? Or what about Tacos?"

She shook her head. "Ice cream!" she demanded.

"Well, a sundae comes with a hot dog or cheeseburger, or even taco meal." The friendly waitress said, and Angel guessed that she either had kids of her own, or dealt with them on a regular basis.

"Could I eat the sundae first?" she asked, tipping her head to one side.

"Uh...sure, whatever your daddy says."

"Ok! Then could I have..." she looked at the menu she couldn't yet read, "Tacos!"
The waitress smiled, "And what would you like, Sir?"

"Uh..." he had been so occupied with getting her to get a meal, he hadn't looked for anything for himself.

"Ok, lets sit out here, and finish our ice cream cones." he sat her up on the front steps. She nodded, almost asleep, licking her ice cream slowly, letting it drip all over her white shorts and light pink t-shirt. Of course it was chocolate ice cream. "Want me to finish that for you, girly?" he asked, as they sat out in the balmy night. She shook her head. Five minutes later, she held out the cone to him. There wasn't too much ice cream left, but he ate the cone, and made a big deal out of licking his fingers, and then hers, and her arms, getting her laughing.

She lifted her arms out to him, like she had when she was four, and he silently picked her up. She rested her head on his shoulder, and promptly fell asleep, even with all the sugar she had just consumed.

He changed for bed, after washing her up the best he could, and putting her to bed. He crawled into bed beside Buffy.

"How was your day?" she asked.

"Good. Tiring, but good. It was fun."

She slid over next to him, "So, what color are your toes?" He sighed. "That bad?"

He nodded, "Pink." she cringed for his benefit.

"Poor Daddy. Tomorrow I'll help you take it off, ok?" He nodded. "I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too." he placed a hand on her enlarged stomach, somewhere within his child was growing, and had been for eight months. "Did you have a nice relaxing day?"

"Mm-hm." she nodded, "Did some laundry and-"

"What did the doctor tell you? You're supposed to stay off your feet. Avoid stress."

"With a six year old in the house, not cleaning would stress me out, more than cleaning. Don't worry, I'll take good care of your child."

"It's not her that I'm worried about, it's you."

"Her? Do you know something I don't?"

"Not really, just wishful thinking."

"I'm almost hoping it's not a girl. Just think about what Dawn and me were like. These two will be just like us."

He sighed, "Maybe it should be a boy." he teased. She bumped him with her elbow. "Good night, my love." he whispered, kissing her forehead.

"Good night." she dug her head softly into his chest, and he wrapped an arm around her. Life was perfect. He had his one true love by his side, an adopted daughter, and one child on the way. More important than any of that, Buffy loved him.