Chapter 10

Angel found Katherine in her room arranging her new clothes on her bed, grouping them by outfits and accessories. Man, she really was turning into Cordelia.

"What are you doing?" he asked her as he came in.

"Nothing much. Just getting everything ready for Aunt Cordy."

"Well, you guys can do that later. Come on in here. I want to talk to you," he said as he walked back in to the living room area.

"What's wrong?" she wanted to know as she sat down on the couch beside her father.

Angel shifted around a little, then said finally, "It's about what happened today with Aunt Cordy. You know, at the pier."

"Is she mad at me?" Katherine asked him.

"No. She's not mad…exactly," he hedged. "More like …concerned."

Katherine picked up a pillow from the couch and put it in her lap. "About what?"

Angel shifted around some more. "Before, when I said it was okay that you wanted to see the juggler? Well, it wasn't okay. The rule is that you don't go anywhere by yourself. You promised me you wouldn't do that again and you broke your promise. That's definitely not okay and if you do it again, there's going to be…consequences," he finished.

Katherine looked at him with concern. "Are you going to spank me?"

He wasn't expecting that. "No. Of course not. Why would you think…" Anger rose up as images of Holtz beating his child flashed in his mind.

He tried to keep his tone conversational. "Did Hol…I mean Daniel. Did Daniel spank you?"

"No."

Angel sagged back on the couch with relief.

"But sometimes Mara did."

Angel sat back up. "For what?" he asked, trying to stay calm.

"Well, one time Lan and me…"

Angel interrupted, "Who's Lan?"

"One of the boys Mara took care of. He was a couple of years older than me, but he was nice. Anyway, one time we tried to throw the torches up into the holes in the barn wall like Mara did. We were never supposed to touch them but…"

"But you did anyway?" Angel finished.

Katherine nodded. "It was awful. We almost burned the whole barn down. Some of the animals got burned and a couple of them died," she said, ashamed.

"Sounds like maybe she had a pretty good reason for spanking you," he said, not quite able to be as angry at this woman as he had firstthought.

"I tried not to ever give her a reason to," Katherine confided.

"Were you…afraid of her?" Angel asked.

Katherine shook her head. "Oh, no. It's just that, it made her so sad to punish us. I didn't like to make her sad."

It was evident to Angel that the woman who had raised his daughter had cared for her a great deal. Katherine obviously had a great capacity to care about others and this woman must have been largely responsible for the kind of child she had grown to be. He supposed he at least had to be grateful to Holtz for that.

He decided to segue into the second reason he had wanted to talk to Katherine. "Speaking of making other people sad…" he began.

He motioned for her to come and sit in his lap. She did so, happily.

"You were really unkind to Lorne downstairs. You probably hurt his feelings," he told her.

"So? He's just a demon," she reasoned.

Angel resettled her on his lap so she was facing him. "No. He's not just a demon. He's our friend."

"He's not my friend," she said with certainty.

"You're wrong," he told her. "Lorne took care of you all the time when you were a baby, and you loved him."

Katherine made a face.

"It's true," he continued. "He sang to you and rocked you and took you for walks in the park. And not because I asked him to or because he had to. He just loved spending time with you. I'm sure it hurts him a lot for you to be so hateful to him now."

Katherine wasn't budging. "I don't remember any of that. You not going to make me be friends with him now, are you?"

Angel's disappointment showed on his face. "No. There wouldn't be any point to that. Friendship can't be forced." He looked her in the eye. "But good manners can. And I do expect you to treat him kindly and with respect, because he is a friend of mine. Understand?"

"How kindly?" she wanted to know.

Angel raised an eyebrow.

"Just kidding," she said, half truthfully.

Angel stood up and held out his hand to her. "Great. Now that we have all of that settled, how would you like some ice cream?"

Katherine liked it very much.