Buffy arrived back at the hotel, only to find Dawn seated on the bed, watching TV and looking incredibly frustrated. Although Buffy was grateful that Dawn had obeyed her request to stay within the hotel at night, curiosity over her sister's unhappy expression got the better of her.

"You OK?"

"Huh?" Dawn hadn't even realized her sister had entered the room until she heard her voice. She inwardly chastised herself for not being more attentive to her surroundings. She wasn't sure if vampires needed an invitation for hotel rooms or not, but if they had, she would have been dead before she even realized the demon was there. She made it a point to ask Buffy about hotel rooms later. "Oh Buffy! Did you learn anything on patrol?"

"I ran into Angel." Buffy said with a nod. "He managed to locate the Brillcrall's lair. We're going to get a team together and capture it. See what we can find out from it about the guy pulling its strings."

"Sounds good." Dawn agreed. "Let me know what you find out." She turned from her sister and returned to flipping television channels, entirely sick of the whole situation.

"There's more," Buffy continued. "Angel suggested it might be better if we stay in his hotel until this whole thing is cleared up. So, we're going to check out now and head over there OK?"

"Will Connor be there as well?" Dawn wondered, attempting to keep her voice neutral.

"I was kind of hoping you could tell me." Buffy admitted. "Angel wants him to be on the reconnaissance team when we go to capture the Brillcrall, but from what I've seen, he's not to fond of Angel at all, nor of anyone surrounding him. The only one he seems to listen to at all, is you."

"Yea, well add me to your other list, OK? I'm not really talking to him right now."

"What happened earlier at the daycares?" Buffy questioned, her earlier wish to get to the hotel dwarfed by Dawn's unhappy expression. She was concerned for her sister in part, but also concerned about Connor. If Dawn had somehow gotten on his bad side, would Connor still agree to fight their fight? Especially with his father in their camp? Would Connor make a move against him?

"Nothing big I suppose." Dawn finally admitted with a sigh. "We were talking about you, and then about Angel. Basically Connor said some stuff about how he had it worse than any of you and that it was your fault that he ended up in Quartoth. He said it was your duty to kill Angel and that you should have done it."

"He's right." Buffy agreed, looking at the floor, unable to meet her sister's eyes. Even after so long, the guilt of not being able to kill Angel when he turned on them because of her feelings for him stayed with her. It was her fault that Jenny Calender and all those other people were dead. It had been her duty to stop Angel. Her duty to kill her lover, and she had hesitated. She had allowed her love for him to let the killing continue. She knew it, her friends knew it and apparently even Angel's son knew it. "I know Connor doesn't know me, or you Dawn, but he was right. Once Angel turned evil, it was up to me to stop him. I didn't and people died. Plain and simple."

"He just wants Angel dead because he's a vampire." Dawn sighed. "I know I shouldn't blame him for what he was taught all his life to believe. I just didn't like hearing him say those things about you Buffy. He doesn't even know..."

"Look Dawn, I don't mean to make this seem trivial, but we really need Connor's help on this one. That means I don't have the luxury of caring about what he thinks of me, or of Angel. I just need to know he's on our side."

"He is," Dawn replied reluctantly. "Even after I told him off, he said he still intended to patrol the daycare centers to make sure they were safe. We'll probably find him there. I could talk to him if you want I guess."

"I don't mean to downplay things here Dawn," Buffy told her, seeing the anger still within her sister's eyes and feeling slightly warmed that it was her defensiveness of her that had prompted it, "but we need to concentrate on the mission here, and not our personal feelings OK?"

"Sure Buffy." Dawn replied nonchalantly. "You're the expert of that I guess."