Part 3

"DAD"

"Connor!"

Connor stared at his father in disbelief; here he was stood before him in glorious sunlight. He was alive, and although the fact that he was ALIVE was noted, but it didn't really register, what did however was the man he thought he'd lost was standing there in front of him. Raising his hand, he took a tentative step forward towards a wide-eyed Angel, before months of grief overwhelmed him, and he threw himself into the older man's arms.

"Oh god," Angel gasped before wrapping his arms around the boy 'man. He's a man now, not a boy. My son' Despite his tendencies towards martyrdom, there hadn't been a day he hadn't missed him, longed to know how he was. And now his son was in his arms again. 'My son, my son, my son'. It was all Angel could do not to burst into sobs, his earlier thoughts and his relationship with Buffy temporarily forgotten, in the overwhelming joy of their reunion.

Buffy frowned to herself, Angel had been at the door a long time, well not long, but most salesmen or religious types usually crumbled under the weight of his still intimidating looks, stuttered and beat a hasty retreat. Even the most desperate and hard-core of the door-to-door nuisances, would only try their pitch for a few seconds before turning tale and fleeing. So what was taking so long? They weren't expecting anyone and if it had been anyone that they wanted to come in, well, they'd already be in.

Throwing down her magazine, she climbed off the couch and went to investigate. To say she was surprised at what she saw in the hallway was an understatement. Dawn was stood gaping like a fish, and what she was staring at made Buffy blink; there was Angel, hugging another man, and she couldn't be sure who, but one of them may have been whimpering. She was torn as to what to do next; throw her arms around her sister or try and pry Angel away from, whom she could only assume was, Dawn's boyfriend. There was something else too, like an inch in the back of her head, a tiny spark of recognition. The young man, Angel was currently… 'Hugging, molesting, crushing the life out of?' … Seemed familiar, not in the sense that they'd ever met, but in the sense that she should know who he was.

Realising that Dawn hadn't even noticed she was in the hall yet, she stepped forward in an attempt to either break the two men apart, or at least understand what was going on. Moving forward she went to lay her hand on Angel's shoulder, inadvertently brushing the younger man's arm as she did.

"Angel wha…"

A barrage of images bombarded her at once.

Her and Spike in his crypt, naked, on his bed.

"Got a juicy titbit of Info for you slayer,"

"gee, what now?" Struggling out of his reach, reaching for her cloths.

"About the great soul'ed one, thought you'd be interested… guess not." The stench of cigarette smoke, accompanied by a casual shrug.

"What About Angel?"

"Oh you are interested, well funny thing is, he's gone and done the impossible, dozy pillock."

"Don't push me, Spike"

"Poof's gone and got himself a sprog."

"Huh?"

"a kid, little person, baby... Your precious Angel has a son."

Buffy gasped and pulled away as more images assaulted her, images of her chasing down demons at Willies searching for verification of Spikes revelation. Images of her crying alone in the shower, when the truth of his statement had been confirmed. The despair and anger at the knowledge that Angel had given someone else, what he had said he could not give her, one of the things he had left her for.

She took a step back and raised her hand to her mouth, her gasp had drawn the attention of the two men and they both faced her. But she couldn't care about either right now, the knowledge of Angel's son, rocking her to her core, as it had done three years previous.

"He's your son" her voice was barely a whisper, laced with pain and betrayal. Pain that Angel had had a child with someone else, but betrayal did not come from this insight. No, the betrayal was more recent; for two days she had walked around in an increasing funk of guilt over her actions with Spike, and how Angel had not been able to move past it. But what Angel had done was worse, so much worse; he hadn't even told her he had a son. He had even somehow removed the knowledge from her mind. Rage coursed through her veins as the full implications became apparent. Angel had said to her that they couldn't build a relationship on a foundation of lies, yet he was the prince of lies. He had not only lied, but buried the evidence of his deceit, and it was obvious that he had no intention of ever telling her.

"Buffy…" Angel said quietly, as he pulled away from Connor and turned towards the blonde slayer. His brain caught up with the unfolding events and he hastened to control the damage, reaching out to her.

"Don't… don't touch me…" Buffy said hoarsely,' moving out of his reach, then with one last horrified look, sprinted up the stairs.

Angel looked back and forth between his son and Buffy's retreating back. He was torn; he wanted to stay, talk to Connor, and reacquaint himself with his long estranged son. But he also wanted to catch up to Buffy, explain, or at least try some damage limitation. He could see their new relationship crumbling by the second.

Connor faced much the same dilemma; there was so much he wanted to say to his father, so much he needed to tell him; but as he glanced between Angel and his girlfriend, he saw that Dawn seemed to have gone into shock, she was just looking between the two, her mouth hanging open like a guppy. It appeared that both he and Angel had a lot of explaining to do. Their eyes met and held in a brief moment of perfect understanding, and Angel bolted for the stairs. There would time enough for them later, right now they had to deal with their girls.

Buffy paced up and down her bedroom angrily. No, angry wasn't right, furious was a better description for the blonde slayer. As she paced, Buffy rattled off a long string of curses, and not just directed at Angel. She was angry with herself; she was a grown up woman, yet here she was, hiding in her room like she was 16 again. Funny how it had been Angel she had been hiding from then too. Back then, he had climbed up to her window so they could talk, but in a moment of blinding clarity she realised she didn't even know if Angel would follow her. Why should he, when his long lost son was downstairs?

Brutally, she crushed her jealousy; it wasn't what her internal ranting was about. No, what she was angry about was his lies, his betrayal of her trust. Thinking back, she couldn't remember ever feeling this betrayed; why hadn't he told her? Had Connor not shown up on the doorstep would he have ever told her? Why, when she had shared the deepest parts of her self with him, had he not had the faith in her to do the same? In fit of rage, she picked up a figurine from her dresser and hurled it at the wall.

The release gained by the outburst of violence, made her rage deflate. She stared at the remains of what had once been a present from her grandmother, with a strange sense of detachment; she was still pissed as hell, but the need to pummels Angel's face into a bloody mess had passed, so had the urge to curl up and cry, for which she was extremely grateful. Dropping to her knees, she began the painstaking processes of clearing the porcelain from the carpet.

She had almost finished her task when there was tentative knock on her door. She assumed it must be Dawn; it wouldn't be Angel, what with Connor now here. With a sigh she lumbered to her feet and opened the door, only to be faced with the person she least wanted to see.

"Go away, Angel." She said, and to her own surprise, said calmly, before moving to shut the door. Angel stuck his hand out and to stop it from closing. She was well aware she had the strength to close it regardless of his hand, but she just glared instead.

"Let me explain."

"Shouldn't you be with your SON, right now?" She snapped waspishly. 'Great, way to come off as mature, Buffy.'

"He's talking to Dawn." Angel replied quietly, his eyes lowered, his whole posture begged forgiveness.

"Let me guess," She said sarcastically tilting her head on one side. "She didn't know either? What? is the propensity to lie genetic?"

Angel refrained form asking when Buffy had started using words like propensity, and instead tried to joke in a feeble attempt to win her over.

"Well it sorta comes with the life style, you know what they say, Spies and Super heroes…"

"Of which, you are neither" Buffy's blunt statement made Angel flinch, but Buffy held no sympathy for him in that moment. "I can't do this right now."

As she moved to close the door once again, Angel made on last-ditch effort to reach her.

"Please, let me explain."

With a growl of exasperation, she threw open the door and stalked to the middle of the room, her back to the door. Angel followed, shutting the door softly behind him; once she was sure the door was closed, she spun round and locked her uncompromising stare on the ex-vampire.

"So explain. And this better be dammed good, coz you've pulled some crap in your time Angel, but this really takes the piss."

"I wanted to tell you… I just…"

"Just what? Tell me… tell me why I had to find out you had a son through third parties, not once, but twice!"

"Twice?" Angel repeated, with a confused shake of his head.

"YES TWICE! I remember Angel, Whatever freaky mojo you used to make me forget, has worn off and I remember! GOD! I feel sick, knowing you did something to my head, you used magic on me or… you know what? Forget it, whatever it is you have to say. I don't want to hear it. I trusted you! I trusted you and you violated me!"

"Buffy no…" Angel took a step forward. Buffy's reaction was instantaneous and caught in the heat of rage, she picked up a picture frame, and hurled it at the wall behind his head.

Dawn bit her lip, as she watched Connor's worried face, she wasn't sure how to react, or how he wanted her to. Oh, she had already known he was the child of two vampires, just like he knew she was a former mystical key. She'd lived around the supernatural long enough, to be able to spot preternatural abilities when she saw them, and he'd had to explain. They bonded over debates on the pros and cons of false memories and what it was like living, knowing your past was a lie. But they'd never talked about their families, or how they ended up where they had. She had always assumed that he'd been rescued from his vampiric parents and given his new life to repair damage inflicted by his old one. Well, it turned out she was partly right, only it had been his vampiric father who had given him his new life. His vampiric father who was no longer a vampire. His father was Angel, Angel who had been her sister's long time love. And his mother was Darla, Darla who tried to kill both her mother and her sister at one time. God, could her life be any more complicated?

"Dawn?" Connor asked as gently as he could, his voice laced with fear. He really liked Dawn, if he was truly honest with himself he would note that he was in fact falling in love with her. They'd only known each other for a couple of months, but their connection had been instant, and he would hate to loose her now.

"What exactly do you want me to say? I'm not mad, a little overwhelmed, but definitely not mad."

"So we're ok?"

"Connor, I'm not my sister, I don't run off in hysterics when my personal life throws me a curve ball. If I did, I'd be in a loony bin by now. I mean, it's a little freaky that I'm dating my sister's ex-boyfriend's son, but hey we live in a freaky world."

Connor smiled a smile of pure relief, then frowned as a thought occurred to him, "Your right that is freaky, I'm dating my Dad's ex-girlfriend's little sister." Then he mumbled "Well at least that's not as bad as screwing someone who changed your diapers."

Dawn heard him and scowled. "Connor, I would really appreciate it, if you never talked about Cordelia and what you two… ewww… its too much, just don't, ever again."

"No objection from me."

The two shared a smile and Dawn threw her arms around his neck giving him a kiss on the cheek. Connor moved his head to capture her lips in a deep kiss, to which Dawn eagerly responded. This kiss was cut short however, when they both heard a thump of something hitting the bottom of the stairs, and soft cursing. Looking through the doorway into the hall, they spotted a duffle bag at the bottom of the stairs and Angel half way down.

When Angel reached the bottom of the stairs and looked up at the pair, their arms still around each other. Dawn broke free of Connor and walked over, giving Angel a warm Hug.

"I never had the chance to say hello properly earlier."

Angel offered her a small smile. He was a ball of deeply conflicting emotions. It was pretty obvious how upset Buffy was with him, and he'd taken his queue to get the hell out of her sight. Confused, hurt and guilty he'd simply retreated to his room, and packed a bag. He would leave for a while, let Buffy cool down, and if after that, she wouldn't let him explain, he would respect her wishes, what else could he do?

Having not even a fraction of his previous strength he'd overestimated how much he could carry and had dropped his bag halfway down the stairs. Now he was once again face to face with his son and his turmoil grew.

As Dawn pulled away, Connor looked from Angel, to the bag on the floor and back again. Finally cocking his head to one side, he frowned.

"You leaving?"

"Umm, yeah… but uh…" Fishing into his pocket, Angel withdrew a scrap of paper and held it out to his son. "This is my cell… uh… I don't know where I'll be staying… but call me later… and we can meet up, maybe… and talk?"

Connor's face creased in confusion, not sure what was happening, but he took the paper anyway and nodded.

Angel nodded too and reached for his car keys, but Dawns hand shot out to stop him. When Angel scowled, she back peddled, knowing she had over stepped her bounds with her presumptuousness.

"I'm sorry, its just Buffy emailed me and she mentioned…" She trailed of when she saw a flicker of panic in Angel's eyes, which darted over to Connor and back again. She understood, Connor knew nothing of Angel's illness and surgery and it wasn't her place to spill the beans. Licking her lips, she looked over to Connor and back to Angel. "Maybe we can drive you somewhere? You look tired."

"Thanks." Was all that Angel said in reply, and taking that as an affirmative, Connor grabbed one of Angel's bags and left for the car.

Connor and Dawn stood outside the office, in the parking lot of a mediocre looking motel, not far from the house. Angel was inside getting a room, so the pair leaned back against he car and waited. Connor had been unusually quiet since they'd left the house, and Dawn knew he and Angel needed to talk. But she wanted to get back to the house and talk to Buffy, she and her sister hadn't properly made up yet, but she wanted to know why Angel had suddenly packed his things and walked out, especially given what she knew about his health. She had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with Connor's arrival, but she needed facts.

"Dawn?" Connor said quietly as he watched Angel come out of the office walk towards them.

"Hmm?"

"Why don't you head back, talk to your sister, I want to talk to Dad."

"How will you get back?"

"I've slept rough in this city, I think I can survive a walk." Dawn shot him a curious look, and he shrugged. "The longer part of a long story, I'll tell you later."

"Your sure?"

"Yeah," he cupped her chin in his hand and gave her a soft kiss. Dawn smiled and took the keys from him, moving round to the driver's side and getting in. By the time Angel reached them, she had the engine running and Angel frowned in confusion.

"By Angel!" She called cheerily through the window, before he could say anything, and drove out of the parking lot. Angel shot his son a confused look and Connor shrugged.

"We need to talk."

Tbc