Author's note: (Does anyone ever read these?) Anyway, some of you wanted to know what the pairing will be. In this part, you will get the answer to that, I think, and one thing is sure: I am not pairing Dawn with Connor. Please, don't ask me to! She's soooo childish, and he's...well...a man, Angel's son. I already found someone for him, too, but I'm not telling who, yet! ( * grin * )

Betas by Sigma- as always you're the best!!!!!

Chapter 8

Anne looked up into the eyes of Angel and froze. What had she done? Angelus, he'd punish her...kill Spike!

"No!" She begged, curling up and reaching out to stroke his thigh. "Please, Angelus, don't hurt Spike! It was all my fault! I won't scream, I won't...please don't punish us." She began to cry silently and rocked back and forth, quietly chanting "sorry" over and over.

Connor looked frightened when he heard the name Angelus. Even though he knew the difference between the soul and the demon, he still feared and hated the demon.

Angel and Spike looked hurt, then looked down at the small girl who was obviously in her own world. They knew perfectly well how Angelus would have probably punished Anne, enjoying her pain and screams. Angel wanted to go to her, comfort her, but decided against it. His face only seemed to bring up all her memories of Angelus.

Spike reached hesitantly for her, and, as his hand gently touched her, she seemed to recognize his touch. Her body relaxed into him as she rested her head in his lap. They leaned against the cold wall, and he cradled her carefully.

He soothed her, whispering words of comfort to her ears as he had done centuries ago with Dru every time Angelus left her broken on the floor. Angel watched from a distance, pain flickering across his face. Her fear made his fate seem inevitable. This girl from the future -- his future -- was terrified of him, of what he'd do to her. He needed to find out what had made him into that kind of monster again.

For now, he could tell that he was no use here. Beckoning to Connor, he silently slipped out of the room. Spike watched him go, then turned back to Anne.

************

"Soo..." Connor hesitated, trying to pick his words carefully. "Mind explaining me what just happened there, and who that girl is? She doesn't look like a vampire to me." He sincerely hoped she wasn't. She was incredibly gorgeous, maybe the most beautiful girl he'd seen.

"She's Buffy, but we call her Anne." Angel managed to say through the heavy lump in this throat.

"O...k..." Connor looked puzzled "As Gunn would say, could you throw me some meat?"

Angel snorted bitterly. "You've been hanging around Gunn too much. Should I be worried?"

"Nah, he's cool, Dad." He grinned for a moment, before becoming serious. "I know it is probably painful for you to talk about it, but I want to help you. I'm here to help you."

Angel nodded and sighed, sitting down on the couch. "It's a long story, Connor. Did I ever tell you about a guy named Whistler?"

*****

An hour later, Anne had finally relaxed into Spike's comfortable grip. She had fallen asleep in his arms, and now she smiled slightly. She almost kissed him, before remembering that he wasn't ready for that yet. She slipped of his lap and looked shyly at him. "I must have given you quite a show there."

Spike grinned, relieved that she was obviously better now. "Yes, you did, luv. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling all better. I'm ready to rock and roll, or just roll."

He smirked. "That's my Buff...I mean, Anne."

"It's ok." She gently brushed the mark Angel had left on him. "You can call me, Buffy. Did...did he hurt you?"

"Who, the wanker? Not bloody likely. I'm fine, luv. Been a lot worse before, trust me."

"I do." She whispered almost silently. "I think I should apologize to him..."

"Peaches? S'ok, don't worry, luv. He understood. You should have seen my nightmares after they stopped airing 'All My Children' on Channel 4. I really liked that Kendall character."

She laughed freely, bringing warmth to his undead heart.

"How 'bout some breakfast, luv?"

"Sure, what have you got to offer?"

*****

Buffy and the rest of the gang sat in the Magic Box, terribly bored, while Giles looked through the books. Anya sat counting her money, and Dawn slipped to the back of the store, looking for some magic books.

"You want to ask me something?" Willow looked at Buffy with concern.

"I...I don't know, Will. I didn't get much sleep last night. I had all this horrible nightmares..."

"Where they prophetic?" Willow sounded slightly panicked. "Because, if they were, then was Angelus in there? Did we die? Did..."

"Hold on for a sec! It wasn't prophetic, just a nightmare. It was about Angelus...but also about me, the other me..."

"What exactly happened?" She ignored the fact that she'd had her own nightmare about Tara.

"I...I really can't talk about it. It's not important. However, I thought of something really disturbing about Anne."

"Really?" Anya looked up from her money in interest.

"Well I thought about her...me...the future me -- sheesh, this feels like Back to the Future or something. Giles, do you think that there might be any danger with me running into me?"

"More then the danger we're already in?" He sighed.

"Well, yeah. The thing is, I noticed something odd. She's from five years in the future, right? Well, shouldn't she look..." She tried to find the right word.

"Old?" volunteered Anya.

Buffy glared at her. "Older."

"Well," Giles began to clean his glasses. "with all that's happened here, I hadn't thought about that. You are quite correct, Buffy. She doesn't look a day older then you."

"Actually..." Anya broke in, but trailed off when she realized that the Slayer was giving her a death-glare.

"Do you have something to say?"

"I'll tell you, but only as a friend. I have tact you know. Xander used to tell me..."

"Anya!"

"Fine, fine. She looks the same age as you, but still very different. Her clothes, did you see how expensive they looked? And her manicured nails, gorgeous skin, and perfect make-up? She screams money, and plenty of it.

Buffy snorted. "I guess being Angelus's whore comes with benefits."

"Oh, would you like to tell me what those are to my face?"

They all spun around to find Anne at the door next to Spike, both looking quite pissed off.

To be continued.