Chapter Four

It was a week before either Buffy or Angel saw each other again. Angel had came to school the next day with every intention to talk to her, but the day had gone by and she had never even showed. This was the procedure for the week. Get up in the morning, take Kathy to school, and then wandering his own school grounds hoping to catch a single glimpse of the girl who had been haunting his dreams. It wasn't until the next Tuesday that he finally saw her.

He was standing at his locker at the time, getting ready for another day of hell. His mom had gotten plastered at some bar three hours away and Angel had to drive out and get her. He had just gotten back twenty minutes ago causing him to rush to school and get some of his homework out of the way. He was starting to worry that they weren't going to let him even graduate with the grades he was getting.

She passed him when he was rummaging through his bag trying to find his math book. Not that having it would make any difference. The first bell was going to ring any second now. All thoughts though raced out of his head as he glimpsed her walk past. He was about to raise his voice, call out to her, but something made him stop.

She had her head bent down looking at her shoes, obviously trying to close the rest of the world off as she made her way through the hall. She was walking so fast that it wouldn't have even mattered if Angel had tried to talk to her. She was gone before he could even gather the words to say.

With a feeling of foreboding he looked after her. The bell though rung and he knew that he couldn't do anything right now. He'd be late for first period if he didn't stop staring after the girl that up until a week ago, he didn't even know existed.

The school bell had rung for the end of the day over three hours ago. Angel's plan was to go and pick up Kathy and then catch a couple hours of studying time before he had to head out for work. But he never even left the car. Today had been hell on earth to say the least. Not only did he flunk his end of the semester exam in physics but he'd also been called into the principal's office to talk about him sexually harassing some freshman. A freshman he might add that he couldn't even pick out of a crowd as of this morning. So by the end of the day all he wanted was to get as far away from the school as humanly possible. Closing his eyes for those few minutes when he finally got into his car proved to be a mistake though. Because three hours later he woke up in that same position he had been earlier.

"Damn it!" Turning his keys trying to get the car to start proved to be of no use either. "No no no. Come on." He pumped the gas several times praying that the car would start. Kathy had been left at her school alone for over three hours now. He and his mother were already in enough hot water with the school board and by him not being able to pick her up today it would only just prove in the school's mind that there was no responsible adult watching out for him or Kathy. The car didn't seem to care though about the fact that Kathy and him might just be shipped off to some foster home in the city, because it still refused to start.

"Fuck!" He banged his head on the steering wheel causing the car's horn to go off. Thousands of excuses he could tell Kathy's teachers on why he was so late picking her up started to fill his mind. He didn't know if it was even worth it anymore. This was the third time this month that he had forgotten to pick her up and whenever it was his mothers turn to get her, it usually fell on Angel's shoulders anyways. He could remember countless times just driving by Kathy's school to see her little face sitting outside on the steps, crying because her mother who was supposed to love her so much had once again chosen alcohol over her.

A soft hesitant knock sounded on his window bringing him out of his panic. And there she was. Biting her lower lip Buffy peered into the window. It took him a second to realize that he was just starring at her, and when he finally did he quickly rolled down his window to greet her.

"Need some help?" She asked, holding in her grin at his predicament.

"My car died." He said lamely.

"Well, that's what happens when you start the car after school and just sit in it for three hours." He gave her a strange look wondering how she could possible know what had happened. "I've been in the court yard studying for a while. I saw you rush out of the school and… I didn't think I should come and wake you up. You seemed kind of angry."

"Yeah," He looked down not quite believing that she had even noticed him. "Do you have some cables? I'm really late in picking up my sister and…"

"Look, I'll do you one better. Hop in my car and I'll take you where ever it is you need to go."

"I don't want to be an inconvenience. Jump starting my car is just fine."

"You drove me home last week when I needed it. All I'm doing is returning the favor." He tossed the idea back and forth in his mind. "It'll be a lot quicker then just finding some cables to jump start this thing."

With a slight nod of his head he consented and jumped out of his car, not even bothering to lock it.

"So where am I taking you?" She asked as she climbed into her own car.

"Bright Preschool on third." Nodding her head quickly she pealed out of the high school without another thought in her mind. "Nice car you have here." He said as he looked around the lush interior of the new BMW.

"Thanks. My dad got it for me." She nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear obviously not really wanting to talk about it. This car was just another one of Damon's bribes to get her to come back home. That was her first mistake though.

"What happened?" His hand reached out on its own accord, lightly grazing the bruised flesh around her cheek bone. Involuntarily she flinched away.

"Oh, nothing. I uh… I'm pretty clumsy at times." She furrowed her brow at the lie. But she liked this boy for reasons unknown to her, and if she were to tell him the truth he would just look at her like everyone else did in this town. "So, how old's your sister."

"Four." Angel noted the change in subject but didn't say anything about it.

"Is she your only sibling?"

"Yeah, it's just her me and my mom."

"You're lucky. I'm and only child. It'd be nice to have someone else around the house."

"Anytime you want to take her your more then welcome." He said bitterly. He was still trying to wake up and get past the awful feeling that was starting to take over him.

"You two don't get along?"

"No, it's not that…." He sighed. He loved his sister more then anything else in the world. He'd die for her, he would even kill for her. But at times like this he was sick of being the adult. If it was just him he had to worry about in life then everything would be okay, but he had Kathy to look after also. And taking care of a four year old wasn't an easy thing to do when you were sixteen. "She can just be a handful at times."

"Yeah, but your just the big brother. All four year olds are a handful. I'm sure your mom is the one doing most of the raising. You're mom's probably thankful to have you around to help lighten the load."

"Yeah, I'll bet she's thankful." He said bitterly. The rest of the ride was spoken in silence. Not a single word was uttered from either person until they pulled up to the preschool parking lot.

"Angel!" The little girl yelled as she ran to her brother. He quickly scooped her up in his arms giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I stayed right here just like you told me too Angel." She said, her arms wrapping around his neck in a death grip.

"Yes you did and I'm so proud of you. I'm sorry I'm so late Kath. I promise it'll never happen again."

She squirmed in his arms and pulled back laughing. "Liar." And sadly enough, Angel knew it was true.

"Mr. O'Connel?" A stern woman came walking up to him, Kathy's backpack in her hand.

"Mrs. Kirkland. I'm so sorry. My car died on me and…"

"You could have picked up a phone Mr. O'Connel." She clucked her tongue in a disapproving matter. "I tried calling your house, your place of employment, your mother's place of employment," Angel had to bite his tongue. The numbers that he had given her at the start of the year all led either to his home phone or to either of Sam's private lines. He couldn't give out his work number for legal reasons. "And no one picked up. You can't just leave a four year old sitting outside after school like that."

"Please Mrs. Kirkland, I'm sorry. My car wouldn't start. I had no way of contacting you."

"You look like you just rolled out of bed Mr. O'Connel!" Angel just stayed silent because there was nothing he could say right now to make this any better. "Look at you. You're a mess. No self respecting valuable citizen would be caught dead looking the way you do at the moment. Now I know Kathy's teachers have let this slide before, but since I am the head of this school I personally can not stand by and condone such behavior. Kathy is at a critical age in her life and she needs someone who will be there for her and be responsible for her!"

"I am there for her. At all times. I take care of her. I drive her to school, make sure she has a babysitter when I'm working…"

"I know you have a unique condition with your father being gone and your mother having to work out of town most of the time," Yet another lie he had to tell the school about his family. He couldn't allow the school to come in contact with his mother because they would definitely take Kathy away then. "But it doesn't matter. There are plenty of other students in this school who have the same home conditions and their family still manages to pick them up on time. Now Kathy is a bright young girl, and if you and your mother can't take care of her then I'll have no other option then to call child services."

"No, Mrs. Kirkland, you have to understand that today was just a bad day. I made a mistake. I'm sorry."

"It's seems like you've been having a rather bad year Mr. O'Connel." Her voice started rising to an almost shrill pitch. "Now I took the liberty of calling your school and when I talked to the principle he told me some very interesting things."

He hitched Kathy up on his hip a little tighter, holding on to her so he wouldn't be tempted to hit the woman before him. "You have no right…"

"No I believe I have every right. He told me that you are practically flunking out of school, you are the cause of several fights a week and you are currently being put under investigation for the sexual harassment of a one…" She peered down through her glasses and onto her clip board. "Becky Wellings."

"I didn't touch her." He ground out.

"That proves to be unknown as of yet. But if it turns out that it is true, I guarantee you that you will not be seeing your dear sister again. As it is, I'm going to go inside and notify the city that you and your family might want to be put under strict scrutiny for the next couple of weeks."

"You can't do that! There is no damn proof that I did anything to that girl!"

"Even if you haven't your constant lack of punctuality, your tendency to raise your voice to your elders…" Angel rolled his eyes. "…and your almost non existent care for your baby sister is enough to acquire into a visit from social services. Today was the last straw Mr. O'Connel…."

"Mrs. Kirkland." Angel whipped his head around to see Buffy standing right behind him. She had heard the whole conversation. "I can safely vouch for him that he had no way of getting here today."

"Why Ms. Summers." Mrs. Kirkland's voice softened the instant she realized that the daughter of the richest and the most beloved man in the town stood before her. "I'm sorry I didn't notice you before my dear. What can I do for you?"

"Mrs. Kirkland, don't call child services. I know for a fact that Liam couldn't come and pick up Kathy right after school because I was with him. We were on our way over here to pick her up when the car broke down. Now we tried to get a hold of you but there was absolutely no possible way. He doesn't own a cell phone and mine was dead. Our only possibility was to walk to my house to get my car, and by the time we got there he was so worried about getting to Kathy that we didn't even think about calling. I'm truly sorry for the inconvenience Mrs. Kirkland. But it was an honest accident."

Angel just gaped at her as she flat out lied to the lady in front of them.

Mrs. Kirkland sighed. "Even if it was an honest mistake today, it still doesn't dismiss the fact that him not picking her up has become a habit, not to mention the molestation charges."

"You're right it doesn't. But right now nothing is going to get solved. We're all tired Mrs. Kirkland. All I am asking is for you to forget about that phone call right now and let him take Kathy home. Give him a second chance."

"Alright." She breathed a heavy sigh of dismay. "But if this happens again…"

"It won't." Angel added quickly.

"Thank you Mrs. Kirkland." Buffy smiled and took Kathy's bag from her.

"Just see to it she's picked up tomorrow. And don't you think for one second that I won't follow up on those molestation charges Mr. O'Connel." And she clicked her heals away back into her office.

"Angel?" Kathy who had stayed silent the whole time finally turned to her brother. "What's molelessation?"

He fixed her up in the back seat of the car giving her her teddy bear that was stuffed in her bag. "Nothing you need to worry about." He said smiling and giving her a peck on the cheek. Shutting the door he turned to Buffy. "I don't know how I can thank you."

"Did you do it?" She looked at him sternly.

"Do what?"

"Sexually harass that girl. Tell me right now if you did."

"I didn't." He looked her straight in the eye as he gave her his answer.

With every ounce of her being Buffy held her ground and searched Angel's face for even the slightest hint that he was lying. She didn't find it. "I believe you." She answered shortly before she got into the car.

"Look, I don't know how I am every going to be able to make this up to you. You have no idea what you just did back there." He looked back at his sister playing with her bear, trying not to think of the day that someone like Mrs. Kirkland would finally take her away from him.

"It was no big deal. At least now I know that being a doctor's daughter has some pull around here." She starred at the raindrops that started to hit the windshield. At least one good thing came out of her being born into the family she was.

"Honestly Buffy. If there is ever anything that I can do for you, just tell me. No matter how big."

"There is one thing you can do." She said.

"Name it."

"Let me pick Kathy up from school and take her to the babysitters every day."

Angel was stunned. "What?"

"I'm serious. Let me take this responsibility. I have nothing better to do, and from the looks of it you could probably use that extra hour for studying or even sleeping. It'll be one less worry you'll have on your mind."

He just looked at her not quite sure what to think. His whole day had been hell and then suddenly this girl from his dreams showed up asking to take some weight off his shoulders, to make his life a little easier. "I don't know what to say."

"Say yes."

"Yes." He said quickly, a smile breaking out on his face for the first time today.

As they ran through the rain into the bar Angel waved goodbye to Buffy. He was extremely late for work already so he decided just to take Kathy with him instead of taking the chance that their mother might be at home.

"Angel?" Kathy clutched his big hand in her small one, looking up at him with the eyes of the world. In those very eyes Angel saw the future and every night he prayed that it would be better for her then it was for him.

"Yeah?"

"Are they going to take me away from you?" He just looked at her not quite knowing what to say because the day she was born he promised himself he would never lie to her. His angel.