Okay everyone, here's Chapter 3. I hope you've all liked everything so far. I know I've certainly enjoyed writing it.

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Doyle looked at his wife. "He was trying to take advantage of our baby."

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Who is nearly twenty four. She can take care of herself. Ashling, do you know what the word no means?"

"Yes."

"And are you capable of saying that word when someone asks you to do something you don't want to do?"

"Yes."

"And had you said that word to Hannibal when your father attacked him?"

"No."

"So if you hadn't said no, and he hadn't pressed you despite you having said no to him, then he did nothing wrong, and your father's attack was completely unwarranted. Doyle, apologize to King."

"I will not. How long has he known her, Cordelia? A few hours."

"Three actually." King put in helpfully.

"Three bloody hours! You don't kiss someone after three hours!"

"It's done all the time on dates, Dad." Ashling wasn't feeling too hot, leaned on the desk closest to her to keep her balance. That wound must be a little worse than she'd thought. She was beginning to feel it, and it hurt like a mother. "Look, it's not a big deal. And no offense, even if it was, it isn't your business."

"Don't," Cordelia said when Doyle started to speak. "She's right. She's been out of the house for years. She can take care of herself, and who she is kissed by, kisses, and sleeps with, is none of our business. You certainly wouldn't have taken kindly to my parents telling you that it was inappropriate to kiss me when we first met."

"That's different."

"Doyle."

The warning in Cordelia's voice was enough to have Doyle rethinking his anger over the situation. He didn't want to sleep on the couch. Or the floor, more accurately, since Ashling was sleeping on the couch. "Okay. You win. I'm sorry."

Ashling caught King's gaze. "Hey, you any good at catching?"

He looked puzzled. "Yeah, why?"

"Catch me, please."

King snatched her up barely before she hit the floor. She was light, he easily lifted her, cradling her against his chest. Before either of her parents recovered, he was carrying her into the well-stocked medical lab.

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Ashling regained consciousness slowly, became aware of her surroundings even more slowly. She was lying in bed, covered with a heavy quilt and wearing a pair of boxers and a thick sweater. She wasn't sure who they belonged to at first, but a quick wiggle told her they were too big to belong to her father, and too small to be Angel's. Which meant they were King's. That irritated her.

It made sense though. Doyle's clothes would have fit her nicely, same way they did her mother. But they would have been too tight around the wound in her abdomen, which would have made moving very uncomfortable. And Angel's clothes would have fallen off of her.

She slipped from beneath the blankets slowly, got to her feet. She was feeling much steadier. She made it three steps before the door opened and Angel walked in. "Good morning, sunshine." He said brightly, slipping an arm around her to help her walk. "Feeling better?"

"Much, thanks."

"You gave everyone quite a scare, darlin'. Why didn't you tell anyone you were hurt?"

"I didn't know until King saw it in the bathroom, and then things got a little crazy. I forgot about it until it started hurting, and then I passed out. Why did I pass out?"

"Demon blood mixed with yours. Wasn't a pretty combination." Angel led her to his office. "I heard about what went on around here earlier. Sounds like you had a pretty adventurous homecoming here."

"Well, I hate boring, so I didn't really mind."

"Ash, I hate to approach you when you're down, but if I let your parents get to you first, I know they'll try to talk you out of it. I need a favor."

"Sure. I'm here to help."

Angel sat back in his chair, pushed a button on his phone. "King, could you please come in here?"

"Sure thing, boss. Be right there."

Ashling waited a beat. "What does he have to do with anything?"

"I'll tell you both in a minute."

"Angel, I don't want to spend any more time with him than I have to. Today was a mistake, and it can't happen again. I don't have time for a romance, or even a fling. I have a career that needs to get back on track, and I want to work here for a while, and there're too many things going on."

"Ash, you told me yourself a year ago that you didn't think acting was the right choice for you. You had a great run; you made quite a name for yourself in Indie films and that one horror movie. You were great, but your heart wasn't in it. So don't give me that crap about putting your career back on track."

King leaned against the doorway. "What's up?"

"Come in, close the door, and sit down. I need to ask the two of you for a favor."

"What kind of a favor?"

"A big one." Angel waited until King had sat down. "There's this town, about three hours from here. Summerhaven, I'm sure you've probably never heard of it. Small, about three thousand people and a major demon underground population. There's been a chain of unexplained deaths, people disappearing; a few instances I'm sure are possessions. And no one will talk to an outsider. I need someone to go in, undercover, and find out what's going on."

"Isn't that Mom and Dad's thing?"

Angel conceded the point with a nod. "Normally, yes. But you know, and I think just about everyone but your father knows, that Cordelia is expecting another child. She can't do anything for a while. At her age, rest and as little stress as possible are what she needs more than anything else. Buffy and I can't possibly go, we're too well known. Ash, you have no connections to AI. King, you've only been here a few months. That means you two are our best bet."

Ashling sighed, knew when she'd been beat. "What's our cover?"

"Young couple, newly married, looking for a place to settle down and raise a family. King, you'll be a web page designer. I know you're good with computers, so that'll be easy for you. Ash, I've already arranged for you to take over the theatre program at the local high school. If you know how to do anything, you know how to act."

King stood, "When do we leave?"

"As soon as you can get packed. The house is mostly furnished, but you'll have to buy some things when you get there. It isn't a big deal; I've set up unlimited accounts for you with the local bank there. You two need to manage to make this as real looking as you can. Ash, go by Mrs. King. This is an old fashioned town; they wouldn't take well to a woman keeping her maiden name after being married. And don't, under any circumstances, show your demon face to anyone."

King goggled for a second. "You have a demon face?"

"Yeah. But I'm blue, not green like Dad. Female Bracken's are a little different than males. See, when Mom was a demon for a while, that first time around, she kept her demon genes, so I'm actually about a third demon. It's a long convoluted story that would take forever to explain."

"Okay. We'll just leave it at you have a demon face. Can I see it?"

"No. I've never brought it out willingly. I hate it almost as much as Dad."

"Why? It's a part of what makes you you."

"It's also ugly and spiky. I enjoy having my strengths. I like being part demon. I completely embrace my heritage. I just don't like looking like a walking pin cushion."

"Which is understandable." King relented. "I'm just curious about things like that. Your Dad hasn't let me see his face either."

"He brings it out even less than I do."

Angel cleared his throat. "Can we get back to the matter at hand? King, you, too, need to keep your heritage at bay. No fangs, no super human reflexes. And don't let that tattoo show. Some people will recognize it for what it is."

"I thought you were human."

"He is. But, like me, he still retains some of his advantageous traits. Hearing, smelling, strength, jumping abilities, retractable fangs. Those sorts of things." Angel rose. "Okay, you two need to go get packed. King, take your SUV. I'll have everything you need when you get back here."

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Cordelia paced in front of Ashling as she repacked everything that she had unpacked. "I could kill Angel for asking you to do this so soon after you get back. And you're hurt!"

"I'll be healed by tomorrow, day after at the latest. Mom, there's no one else who can do this. Angel doesn't hardly ever ask me to do anything for him. I'm not about to turn him down on something as important as this. I don't have a right to after everything he's done for us."

"Yes, you do. If you don't want to go, don't go. I don't want this life for you, Ash. For any of my children."

"It's a life that chose us, Mom. We were made to do this. All of us. That's why we can't stay away. Tristan's a Watcher, Quinn's studying to be a demonologist, Gray and Olivia are going to go to school to train in Martial Arts. We all pick different ways, and we all end up doing the same thing."

"I know. And I hate it. I wanted it different for all of you. There's nothing I wanted less for you guys than to do what I've been doing almost all of my life."

"And we wanted to. When you grow up with those around you helping people and making a difference, it more oftentimes than not ends up being what you want to do. Mom, a little advice?"

"Sure, baby, what's up?"

"How long after you met Dad were you attracted to him?"

"It took me a while. A few weeks. I thought he was annoying. He is annoying," Cordelia amended. "But I love him anyway."

"Have you ever had a relationship based on meaningless attraction?"

"How do you know it's meaningless?" Cordelia countered. "Ash, I know what it is to see someone and want them. Don't get embarrassed, we're both females here." She chastised when her daughter blushed. "And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But you can't possibly know whether or not it's going to turn out to be meaningless until you give it a fair shot. You have to give it a chance to be more."

"So I shouldn't balk from the fact that I am attracted to a man I don't think I can even stand to be around?"

"Nope. My advice? Embrace and enjoy it while it lasts. Life is far too short to waste on the safe things, Ash. You have to live a little before you get old."

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Ashling arrived at the office with several boxes and suitcases. Since no one knew how long they were going to be in Summerhaven, both she and King took everything they thought they could possibly need, including quite a few demonology books. By the time King's SUV was loaded, Ashling was wondering how the two of them were going to unload everything by themselves.

"Ready to go?" King asked, opening her door for her.

"As ready as I'll ever be." She looked up at him. "I don't know how to be a wife, even a fake one."

"You're an actress. You can pretend to adore me."

She scoffed. "Why don't we just say I've got you wrapped around my little finger and you do whatever I want you to?"

"Only in your dreams, baby." He climbed in the driver's seat. "Let's get on the road then. We need to get there before dark if we want to get any of this unloaded tonight."

"Nervous?"

"Not in the least. This is what I'm used to doing. How about you?"

"Never done undercover before, so, yeah, I'm just a tad bit nervous. We should be fine though. It can't be that hard. The only difficult thing is going to be pretending that I'm in love with you."

"Ditto, babe. You aren't exactly lovable."

"And you are?"

"I never said that. " King pointed out, turning into traffic. "You do know that we have to share a bed, right?"

"No, we absolutely do not." Ashling shot him a pointed look. "I am not sleeping with you."

"You were singing a different tune this afternoon."

"Extenuating circumstances."

"Right. Feeling better now?"

"Yes, why?"

"No demon blood in you that shouldn't be there clouding your judgement?"

"No."

King pulled over to the side of the road, leaned across the seat to unbuckle her seatbelt and hefted her into his lap. She didn't manage to form a complete thought before his mouth crashed down onto hers.

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Chapter 3 everyone. Still waiting on reviews. I may just stop posting if I don't get any reviews.