Chapter Ten

Authors Note: I've been getting a lot of reviews from some of you commenting that this story kind of reminds you of your own life. I never really thought about any of this. Nobody I know has ever been in a situation like this before. All of this is purely written from my own head and things that I can only imagine. For those of you that feel a connection with these characters I bow down to you. Not only for putting up with your day to day hardships, but for still being here today and facing these problems head on. You people, no matter how young or old you are, are definitely heroes in my life. Don't ever lose hope. There's always another bend in the road. This entire series is now dedicated to anyone who has even remotely gone through this tragedy.

Sincerely Your Author

Dana

"Angel. Angel. Angel!"

Angel sat up in bed looking around the room for the source of his disturbance. His alarm sat on the other side of the room beeping heavily. Rubbing his eyes a little bit he looked to his right seeing his sister standing there fully dressed clutching her teddy bear. "What?" He glanced at the clock and realized that it was well passed noon. Buffy hadn't left until around six this morning, the two of them spending the rest of the night talking over music and books, getting to know each other a little better as time went on.

"Moms home." He had never heard Kathy's voice more mature then at that moment. She said it as if she was accepting some sort of bitter fate.

Panic immediately flitted through out his mind. Fear seeming to take control of every single nerve. He would never show Kathy this though, he would die before he let her show how scared he actually was. Pushing his feelings down, taking a deep breath himself he pulled the covers back and got out of bed with dread, picking up Kathy as soon as he was steady enough on his feet. Walking up the staircase in his room he planted her on a rug and gave her some paper and crayons that he kept up here for her. Then walking over to his record player he put on David Bowie in hopes that it would drown out the yelling that was about to come with the meeting between him and their mother.

Kneeling down beside her he put his hands on her shoulders. "I want you to stay up here and listen to the music. Don't under any circumstances come out of this room until I come up to get you okay?"

She nodded her head once. "She has her boyfriend with her." Her words were so soft he wasn't quite sure he had heard her correctly, but knowing the kind of life he had, of course her boyfriend was going to come into play during this fight. It was just another way for some sort of cosmic forces to mess with his life just a little bit more.

Angel just looked at her fearing what would happen when he went downstairs. If this was the same boyfriend that she had disappeared to all those weeks ago, the same one that spent hours with her just shooting up and basking in the feeling of their highs, then things could get ugly really quick.

"Just stay here." He said for a response to her monotone words. Bravely he got up and quickly pulled on a white T-shirt, mentally preparing himself for the task at hand.

By the time he had opened the door to his room he could hear the muffled voices down below. Clearly his mothers laughter rang out through the kitchen and the sounds of the two of them smacking lips lied just underneath. Rounding the corner he got his first glance of them. His mom was up on the counter, the guy that Angel didn't even know the name of standing in-between her legs, his hands lying firmly on her breasts, the two of them sitting in lip lock. His mom murmured something that caused the two of them to laugh quietly, sharing some sort of private joke that Angel was almost positive he didn't want to know. It took a few more moments of this before his mother was even aware that Angel had entered into the room

She laughed slightly and put her hands to the guys shoulders so he would pause his ministrations on her mouth, he just turned to her neck though and kept his hand perched on her breast like no one else was in the room. 'Honey, what are you doing up?"

"It's noon." He responded, not considering the fact that if she hadn't have came home today he would still be lying blissfully unaware of the world around him in the soft comfort of his bed.

"Noon? Already?" She giggled. "Time sure seems to fly around here doesn't it?" She stroked the mans hair lovingly, her eyes closing in half pleasure as the pressure on her neck increased.

"What are you doing home?"

"I live here."

"No you really don't."

"Oh really? Then whose name is this house under?"

"Dad's."

An expression of anger crossed her features and she ignored the man in front of her. "I told you not to say that name in this house."

"It's a title. Not a name."

"Liam Angelus O'Connel…"

"Don't start going all parental on me. I really can't stomach it on four hours of sleep." He uncrossed his arms and went to the refrigerator, preparing himself coffee. There was no way he was going anywhere near his bed today or tonight for that matter, as long as this guy was in the house.

"Don't you dare speak to me like that." Angel didn't answer as he heard her hot temper begin to take her over, it was nothing more then the usual habits with her. He instead poured the water into the coffee machine, getting his mug out of the cupboard. "Angel hon, don't do this." Her voice seemed to soften a little and she actually was able to pry herself away from the who had lightly begun kneading her breast, and come up next to her son, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Don't be mad at me. I came here to share good news with you."

"No, you came here," He shoved her hands off his shoulders. "Because you needed a few hundred for your next fix. What's wrong mom, did you miss relying on your seventeen year old son for you heroin and meth?"

She slapped him so quickly that he didn't even feel it until his tongue licked the blood gathering at the corner of his mouth. "Don't you ever…"

"Speak to you like that again?" He finished her sentence for her. "Yeah, I believe you've already told me that line this morning."

She glared him down. "Here I come with the news of things beginning to look up for the family, for us to get back on our feet, and this is what you greet me with? Angel, things are about to get better for us. Don't you understand that? Isn't that what you've always wanted?"

"Things have been better mom! You've been gone and things have been great! Kathy's happy, I'm happy, we don't have you passed out on the sofa every morning and every night. We don't have the cops showing up at our door at three in the morning because they've arrested you on another DUI! Things have been good since you've went off with your new flavor of the week and started screwing him over instead of us!"

Angel was pushed up against the refrigerator in seconds flat, his feet a good two inches off the ground as he was held up by his shirt. This was the first time Angel actually got a good look at the man before him. Angel was tall, but this guy was huge, six five, six seven even. He looked at Angel maniacally, fitting the typical greaser creep. He was the kind that you see as the wife beaters in all the movies, wearing one of his stained tanks, the five o'clock shadow prominent on his face, the smell of alcohol stenching his breath and everything else around him. But most of all, you saw the blood shot eyes that was full proof to the drugs that were coursing through his system making him feel invulnerable.

"Seth!"

"Leave it alone Kalira. I'll handle him." Seth said, his voice slurred to the point where it was almost comical. Angel kicked out and was able to get Seth to drop him, only to be shoved backward onto the counter, being pinned down by the older mans superior weight. Dishes crashed to the ground breaking loudly enough to alert anyone in a good radius of the house. Angel could only glance upstairs though, praying silently that Kathy headed his words and stayed up in the loft. "You'll be showin' your mother respect now ya hear?"

"What are you going to do Seth?" Angel spit out his name like there was something foul in his mouth. "Hit me?" The guy was mad. Angel needed to keep his mind on the subjects before him before he went looking for more tender flesh to beat.

"I just might."

"I'd have social services back over here in a second flat if you even laid a hand on me."

"And take the chance of being forced into a home? You look smarter then that boy." He grinned showing his yellow teeth, his words actually proving he was a lot smarter then he looked.

"Let go of him Seth." Kalira said softly. "He's not even worth it. He gets like this all the time. It's just his temper. You just have to learn to deal with it."

Angel bit back his words of protestation, deciding it would be much better to just keep quiet. Seth soon let the grip he had on his shirt lesson and then let go, backing away. As he did so though, he made sure to grab Kalira by the waist, showing Angel with perfect clarity that he now possessed his mother, mind, body, and soul.

Angel sat up straitening his shirt and looking at the two people in front of him. "Get out. You have no right to be here." He directed towards his mother. "God, do you even care that Kathy almost got taken away from us?"

"Of course I care. Kathy is my baby girl."

"Then why didn't you come back?" He yelled, he never seemed to be able to hold his temper when it came to his mother. "Social services came and…"

"And what? How did you even manage to get past them without me here."

"It doesn't matter." He said after a moment. "She's safe. For the time being at least. The only question now is, is that if you knew that we would have no chance what so ever with social services if you weren't present, and if you love your baby girl so damn much," He looked at her dead on, ignoring Seth's presence all together. "Why didn't you come back?"

She didn't answer him. This only fueled the fire more and more for Angel. "You don't even give a damn about us do you? We're just there to pick you up when you need…"

"Of course I care about you two! That's why I came back." Kalira said with so much force that for a moment, just one moment, Angel actually believed her, thinking that maybe she had finally changed and was going to be there for the two of them. But that moment was brief

"If you really cared about her," He said, not even mentioning his own name in all of this, his sister was the card he needed to use at the moment. She was the baby of the family, the ones that mothers always seem to have some sort of special place for, "You wouldn't have came back."

His mother didn't really know what to say. Nobody, no matter how horrible of a person, ever wants to hear their children say those words. It doesn't matter what you've done in your life, your kids are your kids. You worry about them, even if you won't admit it or if you don't know it, you still worry about them. It comes naturally. "Get out mom. Please. I don't think Kathy can take it much longer."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that your too late in saving me, you've screwed me up permanently, but Kathy still thinks of you as her mother, as someone she can trust and look up to. She's still naïve enough to carry that kind of innocence. Don't stay here and soil that thought of her. Just leave. If you go now she might still hold to the chance that you're a good person."

Kalira looked at her son, a hint of anger flitting across her gaze. "I've changed."

Angel threw up his hands. "For how long? Until you get bored with us again? I mean seriously mom, how many times have you told me that you were going to change? That we were going to be like a normal family? Let's face it, ever since dad left you've been a mess just waiting for the next male that comes along to promise you all sort's of pretty things and a couple grams up meth. You disappear for a little while and then when they dump you, or they decide to quit drugs, or hey, here's my favorite, when they O.D, you come crawling back here telling me that you've changed and that you're a different now. And every damn time I fall for it and pick you back up and put you back on your damn feet only for this stupid cycle to start all over again. I'm not doing it! Not anymore. Kathy deserves better then to hear us fight and to have the hope that maybe she can tell her friends that her mother is home, that someone can now come to the parents teacher meetings and parent nights, that someone can bring the cookies and juice on her snack day for the daycare. She doesn't deserve to have that taken away from her once again. I don't deserve to have to deal with that. God mom, I'm seventeen and I'm raising a four year old! I'm doing your fucking job!"

"I've never heard you complain before." She spat out.

"Because if I didn't do it then who the hell would?" He said with a deadly calm. "She'd be in a fucking orphanage if it wasn't for me." Seth moved towards Angel again, ready to step in for the whole cussing in front of his mother thing, but Kalira put a hand on his shoulder, motioning for him to stop.

"I'm getting married."

Angel's heart felt like it had stopped as those words were spoken. All he could really do was look between her and Seth. They stood side by side, Seth with a look of utter satisfaction on his face and his mother with that look of superiority that he had stopped listening to a long time ago. "To him?" He knew it was a stupid question but it wasn't really something he could avoid saying.

"Seth's a good man Angel. He'll be able to help us."

"We don't need his help."

"Angel," She tried to pacify. "You can't continue to take care of Kathy, the strain is starting to show. Seth here can help lift that burden…"

"He's not coming anywhere near Kathy."

"Sweetie, you're sick. You can't continue to do this to yourself. The doctors said…"

"What doctor's mom? The ones dad took me too when he was still here? The ones that said I'd only have a year or so tops if we didn't get immediate help? Yeah, look how right they were." He said sarcastically

"You don't have a choice in this. It's happening."

Angel shook his head. "Not if I can help it."

"Angel?" A soft voice came from the doorway of the kitchen. Seth, Kalira and Angel all stood facing each other off, Angels back to the door. Slowly though he turned to the voice and his anger faded somewhat.

"Buffy, what are you…?" He trailed off taking in the cut on the right of her temple. Immediately he was by her side. "What happened?"

She looked at the two other people standing only a few yards away from her. "Am I interrupting anything?"

"No." Angel answered before anyone could really deny it. "Nothing of importance at least." She gave him a look, knowing he was lying because of the bitter anger that was under his soothing tone.

"I could come back…"

"No," He said firmly once again.

Silence overtook all of them as Buffy looked uncomfortably at the faces across from her. She knew she had walked in on something that was important; she also knew that the conversation she had interrupted wasn't really something that needed to continue until all members of said party cooled down. Each and every one of them looked like they were about to pop.

"Angel, aren't you going to introduce us?" Kalira said from the other side of the room, not a hint of friendliness in her voice.

"Wasn't really planning on it."

"Angel," Buffy said softly causing him to sigh.

"Mom this is Buffy. Buffy this is my mother Kalira." With a pointed look from both Buffy and his mother he continued. "Oh, and that's Seth." He didn't offer up the information that he was Kalira's new fiancé.

"It's nice to meet you." Buffy said to the two of them, knowing now the impact of the situation she had stumbled into.

"You too. Are you a friend of Angels?" Kalira asked, giving a pointed look at the word friend.

"Yeah, we umm… we go to the same school together and I help baby-sit Kathy."

"Do you now?" She looked at Angel. "Why isn't the daycare center good enough for looking after Kathy."

"Maybe that's because I work most nights when daycare is over, hence the name day care."

"Well, I'm here now. You can be relieved of your job."

"Yeah, we'll see about that." Angel said just as deadly as his mother. Buffy suddenly knew where the stubbornness came from in this family. "If you'll excuse us, I think I'm going to take Buffy to my room so we can talk."

"Like hell you are." His mother stepped forward, Seth right behind her ready to in force the situation if need be.

"Don't worry mom, I'm not careless like you. I'm a responsible person remember?" He took Buffy's hand and walked off, not even looking back until he shut his door in his room.

"Angel, really, I can come back later…"

"Sit." He instructed her while he went and got some water and bandages. She didn't really feel like challenging him at the moment. Instead she spent her time looking up at the ceiling hearing David Bowie blast from above. He stormed back into the room a few minutes later, wearing a scowl upon his face as he headed towards the staircase, tossing the first aid kit to the bed she was sitting on. A few soft muttered words could be heard above, letting Buffy know that Kathy was safely tucked away upstairs out of harms way, before he came back down, kneeling in front of her.

Taking a q-tip and ointment out he diligently started applying it to her cut. "You gonna tell me what's going on?" He asked as she hissed in pain as the medicine came in contact with her skin. "The truth this time around would be nice."

She looked at him startled slightly. "The truth?"

'Yeah, you know, the opposite of lying." He bit out, placing small butterfly bandages over the thing that would soon scar.

"I know what the truth is Angel."

"Then you shouldn't have asked the question."

She shoved away from him and got up. "I didn't come here for this."

"Yeah, then why did you come here huh? What the hell is going on Buffy?"

"Nothing is going on!" She said as she crossed her arms in defense.

"No, don't give me that bull shit! I've had just about enough of that kind of stuff from my mother today, so I really don't need it from you too. I would like it if someone would finally tell me the truth. Tell me what's really going on with you." She was about to protest. "And don't you dare tell me nothing Buffy because I'm not that stupid. You're one of the most caring loving people that I've ever met. The way you handle Kathy is amazing. And yet I find you in bars with other men getting drunk and high, I have found bruises all over your arms to many times to even count, you come over here with your eyes still red and puffy from crying all night long… These are not things normal people with 'nothing' going on in their lives do!"

She stared at him. "I hit my head Angel that's…"

"You came all the way over here when I know you've only had maybe at the most three hours sleep just because you hit your head?" He quieted his voice not really realizing that he had been yelling until that moment.

"Alright, fine, you caught me!" she threw her arms in the air and spun around slowly. "Take a grand old look Angel, you're looking at the pathological liar of our good old town."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't you know? Haven't you listened to them all talking? I'm sure some old lady's come up to you and has warned you about me looking after your sister, seeing how I beat myself up just to get a little bit of attention around here!"

Angel just shook his head and sat down at the edge of the bed. "Buffy, you're not making any sense."

"I'm a freak Angel! It's really not that hard to understand!"

"Okay," He got up and moved towards her but stopped by the time he was only a few feet away for the look she was currently giving him. "We got off on the wrong foot here. I'm just mad because my mom's shown back up that's all. I didn't mean to yell at you." She just stood and glared at him still though, her arms staying crossed, not really giving a damn what was going through his head at the moment. "Please, Buffy, I'm sorry. Talk to me. Let me help you with whatever it is that's actually going on."

She laughed bitterly. "You know what? Don't bother. You can stop treating me as your own little charity case now."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh look at poor old Buffy, the outcast of the town, look at poor little rich girl, maybe if I befriend her then I can take my mind off my own problems." She said mockingly

He gave her a look of disbelief. "Is that what you think I'm doing? Pitying you?"

"Why else would you stick around like this, let me stay away from home when all the rumors about me are constantly circulating this damn town?"

"Buffy I told you, I don't know a single thing about this town! I'm to busy to even pay attention. If anything wouldn't I be considered your charity case? I mean, I am the one that's raising a kid here on my own with no money! I would think that the town would be talking about how sweet it is that you took pity on me."

"Don't flatter yourself Angel."

"Are you trying to piss me off?"

"Is it working?"

"Buffy what the hell is going on?" He shouted.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." She grabbed the coat she had previously flung off storming towards the door. "You know what, your mom's right. You can find yourself a new babysitter." And the slamming of Angel's bedroom door echoed through the entire house until the screeching from her tires could be heard pulling out of the gravel driveway.