Chapter 16

Angel was in his bathroom brushing his teeth when Katherine appeared in the doorway.

"Hey, babe," he mumbled through a mouth full of toothpaste. "What's up?"

"When's 10:00?" she wanted to know.

He spit out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth. "In about 45 minutes," he said, checking his watch.

The blank expression on her face indicated to him that that number meant nothing to her either.

"Soon," he simplified. "Why?"

"Grandma and Grandpa said we were leaving at 10:00," she explained.

He saw that she had already gotten dressed in a pair of red shorts and a red and yellow tank top. In her hand she was holding a comb, ponytail holder, and bright yellow ribbon, which she held up to him.

"Will you do my hair?"

Angel visibly recoiled. He could not have been more horrified if she had been holding live snakes. "Me?" he croaked out. "Where's Cordy?"

Katie shrugged. "Dunno. Can't you do it?"

Her father tried to psyche himself up for the challenge. He smiled weakly. "Okay, how hard can it be?" He took the comb from her with the seriousness as a surgeon taking a scalpel. "Turn around."

With some effort, he managed to get most of her hair gathered up with the comb and loosely wrapped the ponytail holder around it.

"There," he said, looking pleased with himself.

"What about this?" Katherine asked, holding up the ribbon.

"Oh, right." He took the ribbon and tied it in a knot around the ponytail that had already begun sliding down the back of her head. "How's that?" he asked.

Katherine climbed up onto the sink and looked in the mirror at herself.

"Are you sure that's the way it's supposed to look?" she asked doubtfully.

Angel cocked his head right, then left. "How about you just wear it down today?" he suggested.

"Good idea," Katherine gladly agreed.

As Angel was taking her hair down, there was a knock on the door. Expecting her grandparents, Katherine ran to answer it. She did her best to mask her disappointment when Wesley was revealed to be the one on the other side of the door.

"Good morning, Katherine. How are you today?"

"Fine."

"May I come in?" he asked politely.

Katherine stepped back from the door and called to her father, "Daddy, it's…" She wasn't sure how to finish. "What do I call you?" she asked him.

Wesley came into the living room just as Angel did.

Angel answered for him. "Well, you have Aunt Cordy, Grandma, and Grandpa. How about we keep things all in the family and make it Uncle Wesley, Uncle Gunn, and Aunt Fred, too?"

He looked at Wesley for approval. "If that's okay with you."

Wesley smiled. "I'd be honored." He looked at the child. "Katherine?"

Katherine hesitated. She hadn't quite made up her mind about Wesley yet. He seemed nice enough, but there was something about him, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Not wanting to risk offending her newest relative, she decided to be cooperative. "Okay," she agreed.

"Was there something you needed?" Angel asked Wesley.

"Yes, a personal matter." He looked at Katherine. "But if this is a bad time…"

"Why don't you go down and see if Grandma and Grandpa are ready yet," Angel suggested to Katie. The little girl was delighted to do so and hurried off.

Angel gestured toward the couch. "You want to sit?"

"Yes, thank you." Wesley took a seat on the couch and Angel sat in the chair across from him.

Wesley got to the point. "I was wondering what you had decided to do," he said vaguely.

Angel clasped his hands together and sat back. "About what?"

"About your…revelation the other night."

"Nothing," he said flatly.

Wesley was bewildered. "Nothing? But, why? I mean, you seemed to thinkthis might…change things."

"Well, I was wrong," Angel informed him.

"Did something happen?" Wesley pressed..

Angel got up and picked up a few of Katherine's toys that were lying around. "Yeah. I got smart." He walked into his daughter's room and unloaded his armful of toys.

He walked back into his apartment and leaned on the back of the chair he had just vacated. He shook his head. "How could I have thought for one second that Buffy and I could just live happily ever after now…just because I can make love to her without turning into a monster? It was never just about that. It was never that simple."

He came back around and sat down. "Whether I'm evil or good, I'm still a vampire. She's still human. Nothing's changed."

Wesley leaned forward. "I'm not sure Buffy would agree with that assessment. Don't you think she would at least want to be consulted? To have the chance to tell you how she feels?"

Angel put his elbows on his knees and ran his hands through his hair. "I can't keep doing this to her. She just lost her mother. She has Dawn now. What if I stir up all those feelings and then have to walk away again. It's not fair."

"To her, or to you?"

Angel thought this over. "Both."

"But, there's something else," Wesley speculated.

He sat back and looked at Wesley. "Look, I just got my daughter back and things are going great. Now, suddenly, I don't have that damn curse hanging over my head anymore. It just seems to me I've been given an awful lot lately. I'm afraid that if I start to get too greedy…"

"It might all go away?" Wesley finished.

"Yeah."

Wesley got up to go. As he opened the door to leave, they could hear Katie squealing with delight as her grandparents announced that it was time to go to the circus. She would be gone most of the day.

He turned back to Angel. "Well, it's only my opinion, but…things seem to somehow work out the way they're supposed to. You might consider trusting that."

Angel closed the door behind Wesley and walked back to his bedroom. As he sat down on the bed, he looked at the phone beside it. Should he follow his head, or his heart?