A/N: Thanks so much to those who reviewed. I love reading them.

The penthouse was oddly silent. None of the three people inside spoke. Darla and Angel were staring at their daughter, and avoiding speaking to each other. It was making the child uncomfortable. "Did I do something bad?" she asked.

Both vampires shook their heads. "No, why?" Angel asked.

She shrugged, "I don't know... it's...quiet. No one's doing anything. Is it my fault?" she mumbled.

"No darling. We... we can do something... if you'd like," Darla stuttered in her best attempt to make her feel better.

"Like what?"

"We can play a game," Darla suggested, causing the other two to look at her. She thought about games children play, "how about Hide and Seek?" she suggested, since it was the only game she knew.

"What's that?" little Sarai questioned.

"Well, it's a game that involves hiding. See, you can stand in one place and count as your father and I hide, and when you're done counting, you find us..." Darla explained, which set an alarm off in Angel's head. It sounded too much like a 'game' Sarai once told him about that Holtz made her 'play' when she was younger.

"No!" the child exclaimed, proving Angel right. "I-I hate that game. I don't like being left alone to find peoples," she sniffed. "Don't leave."

Darla was confused. "We won't, don't worry," Angel assured her, "it's not that game. You won't be left." Darla was even more confused by Angel knowing what she was talking about.

"Really?" the child asked.

Angel nodded. "Why don't we play a board game instead? I'll show you how to play. There's no hiding or leaving involved," he said. She agreed and they went to see the selection of games in Sarai's room.

"What was that about?" Darla whispered to Angel on their way to the room.

"I'll explain later."

The three went on to play a game until little Sarai began to rub her tummy. "What's wrong?" Angel asked. She didn't answer, just looked at the floor.

"You can ask for something," Darla told her.

"I- can I have food, please?"

"Sure," both her parents said at once. Angel went to the fridge to see what he had. He removed left over spare ribs, that Sarai and Fred apparently never finished when they order Chinese a few nights before, and heated them up.

"Will she eat that?" Darla asked.

"She will soon," Angel answered as he removed them from the microwave once they were heated, and spread peanut butter over them. Darla was mildly disgusted by it. She was even more disgusted when the child began to happily eat it after the first taste. Angel turned to her and shrugged, "Sarai likes it."

As they watched their daughter eat, the front door swung open and Spike came in. "Got any beer?" he asked as he headed for the fridge.

"Get out," Angel and Darla said at once.

"One sec."

"How'd you get in? I locked that door," Angel questioned.

"Sarai and I exchanged spare keys a while ago. Just incase of an emergency."

Angel knew that was a lie. She gave him a spare key because she knew Angel wouldn't like him entering whenever he liked. "I don't care. Get out! Especially drunk!"

Angel's yelling startled the still eating child. "Now, now, no need to get loud. You're scaring the bit," Spike replied as he found beer.

"Don't tell him what to do!" Darla ordered. "Can't you find another way to waste your pathetic time?"

"I am so happy your back," Spike snarked.

"Hi," little Sarai waved to Spike. Spike waved back.

"Are your mum and dad being good? Cause they can't help it when they're not. You can tell me the truth."

"Spike.." both parents warned.

Spike chuckled, "oh hey now, I'm only joking." He moved to Darla and Angel and put an arm around each of them, "why don't after you put the kid to bed the three of us hang out, like in the old days."

"We never hung out in the old days, we only tolerated you," Angel replied as Darla just flat out said 'no.'

"Fine, have it your way," he said as he left.

With Spike gone, the focus was back on little Sarai, who had a considerable amount of peanut butter on her hands and face. "Great idea giving her that," Darla told Angel.

"I think someone needs a bath," he declared.

Angel proceeded to make a bath. Lavender bubble bath and warm water, it was the Sarai bath of choice, thus for he used it for little Sarai. After all, she liked the same food, surely the bath would be the same. "W-w-w-hat's that?" the child stuttered, pointing to the bath once it was ready. Her parents looked at her.

"What's what?" Darla asked.

"Those," she replied, this time point specifically at the bubbles, "what are they for?"

"They're just bubbles. You bathe in them," Angel explained.

"What will they do to me? Do they hurt? Why are they there? That's not how I get clean," she huffed out nervously.

Angel put his hand in the bathtub to get bubbles on his hand, "they don't hurt, here touch them," he offered her hand out to her. She ran out of the bathroom and attempted to run out of the penthouse. Completely naked. Unfortunately her escape was halted when someone entered the apartment from her exit.

"Bad timing," Ryan sighed out loud.

"Out of my way!" the child demanded.

"Your...your... not wearing clothes," he stuttered, "you should have clothes."

"Yes, yes she should," Angel agreed. Ryan as usual, became slightly afraid. Luckily Angel was too busy to give him a hard time, for once. "Come back in the bathroom for your bath."

"No! You won't take me alive!"

"I got rid of the bubbles," Darla told her, entering the room.

"Bubbles?" Ryan questioned.

"Tried to give her a bath. They scared her," Angel answered.

"Ah, so that's why you were trying to get out of here," Ryan said to the child.

She began to hyperventilate, "they wanna kill me!"

Ryan shook his head, "no they don't. Bubble baths are good, fun, you love them. At least, older you does."

"How do you know that?" Angel questioned. Darla slapped him upside the head for being paranoid, and because Ryan was clearly getting through to the little girl.

"Really?"

"Really."

She turned back to her parents, "I would like to try these bubbles that you speak of," she said.

Darla sighed, and went back to drain the bubble-free water and refill it with bubbles once again. Little Sarai followed her. "Bubble phobic? Didn't see that one coming," Ryan said to Angel.

He nodded, "so naturally we should have."

"Word." Angel stared at him, puzzled. "I agree," Ryan clarified. "So, where's the older one?"

"She's sleeping at Dawn's, she didn't tell you?"

Ryan shook his head. "When you see her tomorrow, tell her I was here?"

"Okay."

Ryan left and Angel went back into the bathroom. Little Sarai was splashing around and enjoying the bubbles very much. He couldn't help but laugh... it was so... Sarai, to him.

Once the bath was over, Angel and Darla helped her into the footie pajama's Sarai purchased for her earlier that day. "I like these," she said, "they make me warm, but not too warm."

"Well, that's just the perfect warm to be," Angel said in a playful voice. "Okay, I think it's time for you to go to bed," he added lifting her up, and putting her on Sarai's bed. Darla put the comforter over her. She squirmed around for a minute as she adjusted to the feeling of the bed.

"I like this too," she declared.

Angel proceeded to go a step further and tucked the covers under the mattress, to ensure she'd be safe and secure. Following that, he lined her body, and the floor with throw pillows. "Angel... I think that's enough," Darla said.

"You don't know that. What if she falls?" he challenged as he finished his pillow set-up. They both leaned over to kiss her goodnight. It made her uncomfortable, she wasn't used to affection. Angel picked up on it right away and backed off, but he didn't like it. That wasn't how it was supposed to be. Certainly not how he pictured it when she was an infant. But it was, and Angel accepted it as is. Darla backed off too, but she didn't take it as deep as Angel did.

They said goodnight and walked out of the room. Darla flopped herself down on the couch, exhausted. Angel sat in his favorite chair and flipped through a book. "How can your eyes focus on words?" she asked, "aren't you tired?"

He shook his head, "nope, I was tired when she stay up for three days straight as a baby. And I was tired after her sugar high of last May. A bubble bath melt down and peanut butter isn't enough to take me out," he replied casually.

"Yeah, well I didn't have that luxury," she replied, sarcastically.

"I wasn't...I didn't mean..." Angel tried to defend himself, but he wasn't sure just want he did.

"Hey, it's fine," she interrupted. "I get it by now. You spent time with her as a baby, raised her for the past two years by yourself. Naturally you're closer to the child in that room sleeping then I am. All I did was carry her around, give birth, give my life. Now I'm just newcomer, intruding on what you've built," she exploded before storming into Angel's bedroom and locking the door. Angel remained in his chair, dumbfounded. What did he say to set her off? Two-hundred-years and he still didn't understand her. Perhaps that's where Sarai inherited it from.

The late the next morning, Angel made little Sarai breakfast, as Darla came out of Angel's bedroom and poured a glass of blood. "Good morning," she said. If she wasn't going to bring up her outburst the night before, then neither was Angel. It was better that way. Luckily, they had a break in the conversations they kept trying to make with their eating child when Sarai came through the door. Dawn was with her.

"Hello peoples," she greeted.

"I'd like just like to say all I did was go along with it," Dawn said right away.

"Go along with what?" Angel asked suspiciously, eyeing his teenager daughter.

Sarai giggled slightly and rolled her eyes, "have I made you so paranoid that you have to automatically assume everything I do when I leave is bad in some way?" she questioned. Angel nodded. "Cool! But... no. See, I actually did something nice. Mother, remember the conversation we had the other day? About relationships? Well, you had a good point. Dad is with Cordelia..."

"Sarai," Angel tried to interrupt.

"No! I want to finish!" she insisted. "So yeah, dad has Cordelia. You two aren't together and as much as I may not like that. I guess I can deal. But it's still not fair to you, so I decided to make it fair."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean?" Darla asked. That very second the answer came through the door. "Lindsey?" she gasped staring at the man who just entered. Angel's jaw dropped. There was silence.

TBC

A/N: The wait is over, Sarai's plan is Lindsey.

Up next: Reactions from Angel and Darla on the Lindsey front. Angel get's mad at Sarai for chartering her own plane and leaving California (as he should) and she defends it in typical Sarai fashion. Maybe a father-to-father chat between Angel and Wesley (if not the next chapter, then the one after that.) And what about those murders? Wait to read and find out. Until then, please review.