Chapter 4

ring ring ring ring

Wesley reached for the phone and settled it to his ear using his shoulder, he continued flipping through the book in his hands. "Angel Investigations, We help the helpless, Wesley Whyndom Price speaking"

"Hey Wes" A exhausted sounding Buffy came though the line. "It's Buffy, is Angel around?"

"Oh good evening Buffy, I'll just have a look, just one moment." Putting the phone down he headed into Angel's office "Angel, Buffy's on line one"

Angel looked up "Buffy?"

Wesley just nodded before heading back into the lobby, shutting the door behind him.

Picking up the phone Angel put it to his ear. "Buffy?"

"Angel, hi" Was all she had to say and Angel knew something was wrong.

"What can I do for you Buffy?"

"I was just on the phone to Dawn, she's in L.A, she was going to spend the weekend with Dad." Buffy paused.

Angel just waited for her to continue patiently

"He invited her up to introduce her to his fiancé Angel."

Angel didn't need her to continue. He remembered back to when he first started dating Buffy, He'd gone to visit her one night, crawled up to her window like he always did but instead of Buffy in her room he'd found a nine year old Dawn Summers. He was about to leave but she'd already seen him, and gone up to her sister's window. Stopping just inside the threshold, she'd looked up at him with big blue eyes and asked him if he was a friend of Buffy's.

Flashback

"Yes, yes I am" Angel replied looking back at the tiny little girl.

"I'm Dawn, who are you" She asked bluntly.

"I'm Angel"

"That's a pretty name" She said softly.

Angel put on a face of mock hurt. "It is not, you take that back"

Dawn giggled "It is too" She sat down on the edge of Buffy's bed and watched as Angel sat down on the windowsill not wanting to scare her. "Buffy said I'm not allowed to invite anyone in at night time" She said apologetically.

He looked down at her. "Buffy's right, you shouldn't." They both sat there in silence for a few minutes before Angel said. "So how do you like Sunnydale?"

"Oh, we're not staying here." She said confidently.

Angel crunched his forehead in confusion. "Your not?" He asked.

"Nope" she said shaking her head, her ponytails shaking from side to side. "My daddy's gonna come back and take us home again"

Before he had a chance to answer Buffy had come up beside him "Angel?"

End flashback

Turning his attention back to the phone he sighed. "How's she taking it?"

"I don't really know, she was teary on the phone but dad called her out to dinner, I didn't get the chance to say much, only that I'd come and get her tomorrow and that if she didn't wanna stay there she could call you... was that ok" He could practically see her on the other end of the phone biting her lip in worry. While he was now with Cordelia and he loved her, a part of him would always love Buffy and he hated to see her in any kind of pain. "There's no problem Buffy, Dawn's welcome here whenever she likes"

Buffy sighed in relief. "Thank god, not that I thought you would mind but I know I should have checked with you first, I would go and get her now but I have an early shift at the Doublemeat tomorrow"

Angel almost growled at the thought of Buffy working in that place and reminded himself to talk to her tomorrow about his idea. "Really, it's no problem, if you want to give me your father's address I can go around there and see her if you want, make sure she's ok."

Glad that he offered and she didn't have to ask him she told him the address and asked him to call her after he'd seen her.

"Will do Buffy, but I want you to come visit me when your in L.A tomorrow, I have something I want to talk to you about."

"Do you want to talk to me now?" She asked, now curious.

"No, it can wait." He said a smile playing on his lips knowing it would only aggravate her not knowing.

Not willing to rise to his bait she just said "Ok"

"Alright, I'll go see her now"

"Oh Angel" Buffy said quickly before he hung up.

"Yeah?"

Buffy, not wanting to ask for anything more, but knowing she would feel a whole lot better if she did she frowned slightly. "If you get there and Dawn doesn't want to stay, would you take her back with you, I don't want her to stay there if she doesn't want to."

"Sure Buffy, don't worry, I won't leave her there if she's unhappy"

"Thank you Angel"

"I'll call you back soon, bye"

"Bye" Buffy replied softly, hanging up the phone.

Grabbing the cordless phone from the hallway, and realizing she should have gotten it before calling Angel she headed up to her room to get ready for bed and wait for Angel's call.


Angel picked up his jacket off of the back of his chair and entered the lobby to find Wesley seated at the front counter surrounded in books. He headed over.

"Wes, I'm gonna head out, Buffy asked me to check on Dawn, she's in L.A with her father and from the phone call Buffy just received she's pretty upset"

Wesley looked up at him, a concerned frown fell over his features "Is she ok, do you want me to come with you?"

Angel gave him a small smile and shook his head "No, I'm just gonna check up on her, but if she doesn't wanna stay there I'm gonna bring her back here. It will be bad enough getting her out of there with just me, but it will be worse if two adult men turn up on Mr Summers' doorstep to take away his 15 year old daughter"

Wesley smiled in understanding "Got you, is there anything I can do?"

"Yeah actually" Angel replied. "Could you give Cordy a call on her mobile and let her know what's going on, and ask her to pick up an extra pizza, Ham, Pineapple and anchovies is Dawn's favorite if I remember right, and can you ask Fred if she's around here somewhere to set up the suite next to mine and Cordy's room, just incase she does come back."

Wes nodded.

Angel headed towards the door before turning back again. "When you talk to Cordelia can you ask her to ask Conner to head to the supermarket and get as much chocolate as he can find, isn't that what teenage girls like when their upset, chocolate?"

Wesley shrugged "It works for Cordelia"

Angel nods "Well I don't know how long I'll be, so I'll see you when I get back." With that he turns and walks out the door.

End Chapter 4