Chapter Eighteen

Max and Buffy stepped out of the elevator at a run but came to a screeching halt in the middle of the garage. They scanned the area until Krit alerted them to the car the others were getting into. Jondy put the car into gear but waited for Max and Buffy. They were only a few feet away when a bright light appeared above them as a portal opened up. It dropped Lindsey, Spike, and Angel right on top of the car.

"Holy crap!" Buffy cried out as she and Max jumped backward in surprise. Jondy turned the car off and got out, followed by Krit, Lorne, and Eve. Spike immediately jumped to his feet in a panic as he began slapping himself in a hurry to get out invisible flames.

"I'm on fire!" Max gently pulled his hands away and tried to hide her amusement. Spike calmed down as soon as she touched him. He looked down at himself and realization dawned on him. "Oh. Never mind."

Eve ran forward to hug a slightly groggy Lindsey.

"What did they do to you?"

"I'll be fine," he answered with a grim smile.

"While we on the other hand got shot at by a juiced up S&M demon. Thanks for asking," Spike added. Eve scowled at him.

"Oh. Poor babies," Buffy deadpanned.

"Come on, let's get upstairs," Angel replied. He and Spike flanked Lindsey, each supporting one of his shoulders as they carried him to the elevator.

"Uh...guys? There's still that guy upstairs. The one chasing after Eve. He's a..." Max trailed off as she looked around, confused. "Um...where's Gunn?" Everyone except Spike and Angel, who couldn't meet anyone's gazes, looked around too.

"He uh...stayed behind," Angel answered.

"What do you mean he..." Lorne began but a pounding on the stairwell door cut him off. The man pursuing Eve punched the door off it's hinges, sending it flying into the garage. When the dust settled, the man walked out and approached the others.

"We already kicked your ass once. Sure you wanna go for another round?" Max taunted, trying to make herself appear taller as she stood in front of the others. Buffy stood beside her with her arms crossed and a determined look on her face. Angel sighed and walked around both women towards the man, inadvertently letting go of Lindsey in the process, who fell to the ground.

"It's alright, I'll handle this," Angel said to Buffy and Max, making them reluctantly back off before he turned back to the man. "Eve is under my protection. You can't touch her."

The man just smiled sardonically and reached into his vest pocket to pull out a pen. Spike stopped trying to help up Lindsey to stare in surprise at the man as he also pulled out a contract and gave it Eve. Eve made another whimpering noise as she took it.

"You know how it works, Eve. Sign here," the man pointed to a spot on the contract. Angel's brow furrowed in confusion.

"What the hell's going on?"

"Oh, sorry for the intrusion. I'm Marcus Hamilton, your new liaison to the senior partners." Angel just stared at him. "Along with her immortality and other privileges, Eve has signed over her duties to me."

"If this is about some contract...why did you tell us you were gonna die?" Jondy asked Eve heatedly.

"Now one day I will," Eve replied, sounding depressed. The others rolled their eyes in disbelief.

"Wuss," Buffy muttered under her breath.

"I'm looking forward to working myself into the mix," Hamilton stated before opening his arms in a welcoming gesture. "Spike, Max, Buffy, Jondy, Krit...Welcome to the team." They narrowed their eyes suspiciously at his retreating back.

"This should be fun," Krit commented sarcastically. The others made huffing noises as they continued to the elevator.


Dawn flopped down spread-eagled on the bed. Her long brown hair fanned around her head, giving her the resemblance of a peacock.

"I'm bored," she moaned. Willow sighed and took a seat in a chair across the room.

"Well it's almost morning," she replied before stifling a yawn. "Maybe you should try going back to sleep. I know I'd like to." Dawn sat back up and Willow noticed she had a strange look on her face. "What?"

"Nothing," Dawn said quickly. Willow cocked an eyebrow at her. "Fine. It's just...I think I want...I mean..."

"Just spit it out, Dawnie. I may be a powerful witch but I still can't read minds," Willow retorted playfully. Dawn laughed despite her troubled expression. She began to trail invisible lines on the bedspread before she actually answered.

"I think...I want to go back home." Both of Willow's eyebrows shot up her forehead in surprise.

"Oh."

"Yeah. I just don't feel useful here. Maybe back in Rome I could help Giles with something..."

"Dawnie, don't say that. You're plenty useful," Willow tried to comfort her. Dawn rolled her eyes.

"Please, all I did was get my arm broken and then worry about everyone else. Buffy wouldn't let me fight, not that I wanted to, though, cuz Max and Illyria could've torn me into little bitty pieces, but..." she trailed off when she noticed Willow had scrunched her nose at the comment. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine," Willow assured quickly. "But the thing we're working on is what the senior partners of Wolfram & Hart are planning. So that might mean you can be research-girl again." She tried to give Dawn a bright smile, but she knew it probably looked forced.

"I appreciate the effort, Will, but my break's almost over anyways. Gotta get that education I hear so much about. I'm still only seventeen."

"Well I, more than anyone, support getting an education," Willow replied before sighing heavily. "Guess you've made up your mind then, huh?" Dawn nodded. "Then at least get some sleep and I'll take you back to Wolfram & Hart later to say goodbye."


"So who's first?" Lorne asked cheerily as he held up a pair of hefty tweezers and a bright yellow towel. Angel and Spike exchanged grimaces.

"You go," Angel said. Spike scoffed.

"Why do I have to get the torture treatment first?"

"Because I have to talk to Lindsey and if Lorne is prying into my back with a pair tweezers that look more like pliers...it'd just be a little awkward, alright?" Spike rolled his eyes, but turned to face Lorne as Angel left the room.

"Just get on with it," he growled as he took off his shirt and sat down in a chair, wrapping his arms around the back of it. Max winced when she saw his wounds. Lorne sighed and set an empty bowl on the table nearby.

"Sorry I don't have Fredikin's gentle touch," he replied as he pressed the towel next to one of the wounds and began to take out one of the bullets. A muscle twitched in Spike's jaw, showing his restraint not to cry out. Max winced again and walked towards Lorne, wordlessly motioning him aside so she could take over.

Quickly noticing that it didn't hurt as much as it did a few seconds ago, Spike lifted his head a little and commented, "Maybe you're getting better at it, green jeans."

"Not very likely," Lorne answered from across the room. Spike twisted his head to look at him in surprise, seeing that he was sitting on the couch with Buffy. When Spike tried to see who was actually taking care of his wounds Max gently placed her hand on his shoulder, stopping his progress.

"It's just me, Spike," she stated softly. Spike seemed to relax considerably and muttered a simple 'oh'.

"Well, the apocalypse is kinda my thing so I'm gonna go hear what Lindsey has to say," Buffy said loudly before gesturing for Lorne to follow her. Then she turned to Max and Spike. "Don't take too long. This concerns both of you, too." Spike just grunted in response, causing Buffy to grin as she and Lorne left the room.

Max continued to take out the bullets in Spike's back and drop them in the bowl in silence. Spike rested his chin on the top of the chair, barely feeling the tweezers as he concentrated on Max's touch.

"All done," Max stated suddenly. "You're completely bullet-free." Spike slowly stood up from the chair and faced her.

"Great. Thanks," he replied. Max gave him a small smile and neither of them found themselves making any motion to leave. Spike broke the eye-lock they were doing as he suddenly realized he still wasn't wearing a shirt. "Um..." Max laughed and briefly placed her hand on his chest.

"I'll get you a shirt," she said before walking past him towards the door. A few minutes passed before Spike realized he had a boyish grin on his face and rolled his eyes.

She takes bullets out of your back and then touches your chest and all of a sudden you're as giddy as a school-boy...Ponce.

Spike gave his head a slight shake but the grin didn't go away. Max reappeared and handed him a black shirt. It had a familiar smell that it didn't take long for Spike to recognize.

"This is Angel's," he stated dryly. Max shrugged and nodded.

"Well you don't have any other clothes here. It was either that, janitor's clothes, your bloodied, tornshirt, or nothing," she replied. As if she just realized what she said, a blush began to show on her cheeks. Spike smirked and put the shirt on.

"Think he'll miss it?"

"Nah," Max made a dismissive gesture with her hands and then turned back towards the door. "If you're still freaking about wearing it, you can just burn it when you get home. Now come on, the apocalypse meeting started without us..." Still smirking, Spike followed her out.


"It's here. It's been under your nose the whole time. You've just been too stupid to see it," Lindsey was saying as Max and Spike entered the room.

"See what?" Angel asked warily. Lindsey grinned.

"The apocalypse. You're soaking in it."

"We've all been through some. We'd know ifan apocalypsewas happening right now," Buffy protested. Lindsey shook his head.

"Not an apocalypse. The apocalypse," he retorted, his grin widening as Buffy's confident expression morphed into a worried one. "Thought a gong was gonna sound or something? Time to jump on your horses and go fight the good fight? The starting pistol went off a long time ago, people. I don't know about the newbies here," he gestured towards Jondy, Krit, Max, and Buffy. "But..."

"We're not 'newbies', monkey boy," Max snapped. "We've fought plenty of evil before. Buffy's a freakin' slayer..."

"I have no doubt that you've battled a few uglies in your day," Lindsey interrupted, still smiling. "But you're playing for the bad guys now. The employees of Wolfram & Hart don't wear white hats and you've been helping them. Everyday you come here and everyday you learn to accept the world the way it is. Here's the rub...Heroes don't accept the world the way it is. They fight it."

"So you're saying everything we've been doing has been a distraction so we don't figure out what's really going on?" Angel asked, slightly dazed as he leaned back in his chair.

"Ding!" Lindsey said, snapping his fingers. "We have a winner! That's exactly what I mean. The world keeps slipping farther and farther into hell and what do you do? You sit in your big poofy chair and sign checks, just like the partners planned. The war's already here, Angel. And you're down two soldiers." Max held up her hands in disbelief.

"Um...He may be down two soldiers, but he's already got eight reinforcements," she pointed out. "And if Wesley can train the Big Blue Ox, he'll only be down one soldier." Lindsey just smiled at her.

"Think that's enough to fight a war?" he countered. Max rolled her eyes and gave him a fake smile of her own.

"We've got connections." Lindsey nodded slowly.

"Right. What're you again? A transgenic?" Max stiffened but didn't reply. "You've probably got a bunch of little friends that are just waiting for you to call 'em in to fight, huh? And you..." He turned to Buffy. "You're a slayer. And so are those two other chicks you brought with you. I'm sure there's more where you came from. Am I right?" Buffy nodded.

"All of that's true. Why do you want to make it sound like a bad thing?" Jondy growled.

"Who said that's what I wanted?" Lindsey countered.


Max walked silently down a hallway. She didn't even know where she was going, but she felt the need to get away from all the Doom & Gloom. Back in Europe, she'd heard stories about Wolfram & Hart. Buffy's gang kept saying how evil it was, and yet Buffy's ex-honey was the new CEO of the place. Now her honey was a part of it, and apparently, so was she, Jondy, Krit, and all the rest. Even Buffy. Max didn't like the idea of helping out the bad guys. Who would? She had her share of evil last week, and she did not intend on revisiting it.

As if on cue, Max found herself standing outside the science lab. Fred's office. She felt something stir inside her and she knew she had to check on the lab's condition, no matter what Angel told her.

Max slowly opened the door and jumped slightly when she saw Wesley standing in the middle of Fred's office, motionlessly staring at something down in the lab. He didn't so much as glance in her direction. Max hesitated, but then decided she needed to see how he was doing.

"Wes?" she asked tentatively. He didn't answer. Max moved closer to him to see what he was looking at through the glass window. "What're you..." She trailed off when she saw Illyria in the lab below, which was actually looking almost as good as new. Max's eyes darkened and her jaw tightened. She was clenching her fists so tightly her fingernails were leaving small, bloody crescent marks in her palm. She made a move to go down to the lab when she felt someone grab her arm.

Wesley still wasn't looking at her or talking, but his grip on her arm spoke volumes. Max narrowed her eyes at him as if it would help her understand him better.

"You don't want me to hurt her," she said bitterly. It wasn't a question. Wesley shook his head and released her arm.

"She's my responsibility," he finally spoke and turned to face her. "Illyria can be...dangerous." Max scoffed and avoided his gaze, choosing to look back at Illyria, who was now facing them.

"Believe me...I know," Max replied, the bitterness in her voice becoming more pronounced.

"That's right..." Wesley agreed, as if just remembering. "You were in her presencelonger than the rest of us. So you would know." Max didn't answer as she continued to glare at Illyria.

"She's the reason," Max stated heatedly, walking closer to the glass window. "She's the reason I murdered people. She's the reason for everyone worrying so much about me. She's the reason Fred's gone. The reason Gunn's stuck in some hell dimension because he can't control his guilt. She's the reason..." Gritting her teeth, Max brought her fist up to the glass as if she wanted to punch through it. But she stopped when it was just an inch away. She spread her hand against the glass. Then she turned to face Wesley, who had tried to stay emotionless during her rant, but his eyes were glistening.

"She's the reason for your broken world," Max continued, her voice barely above a whisper. Wesley closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. When he opened them again, they were almost overflowing with cold, unrestrained fury.

"The woman I loved is gone. I find it excruciating to just get out of bed in the morning...That much is true. But you know nothing about it, so don't pretend that you do," he snapped. Max smiled humorlessly but didn't try to argue. Wesley blinked. "Oh. I'm...I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

"Don't bother, Wes," Max interrupted quickly. "My personal dislike of Illyria is just stronger than I realized." She turned away and the room fell into silence. Then the sound of someone clearing their throat shattered it. Wesley and Max turned to see Angel entering the room.

"How's it going with Illlyria?" he asked, walking over to the glass window.

"She's either counting oxygen molecules, analyzing the petri dish she put in her mouth a little bit ago, or sleeping. I can never quite tell," Wesley answered.

"She put a whole petri dish in her mouth?" Max asked, slightly amused. Angel shifted uncomfortably at the idea and then turned back to Wes.

"If she's gonna be here, we should be doing something...Testing her powers, studying her."

"Testing Illyria might be hard without getting someone seriously hurt," Wesley replied. Max immediately raised her hand and grinned cheerily.

"I'll do it!" she announced. Both men raised an eyebrow at her. "What? I'll be fine."

"It's not you I'm worried about," Wesley commented dryly. Max's grin widened.

"I'll go easy on her. Promise."


"What do ya mean you're leaving?" Spike asked, obviously caught off guard. Dawn laughed and dropped one of her suitcases so she could hug him.

"My break's already over," she replied. "Gotta do that school thing."

"But you just got here!" Spike protested. Dawn cocked an eyebrow at him. "Alright so you've been here for what? Three weeks? That's not really that long..." Dawn rolled her eyes and turned to give Jondy a hug.

"You be good," Jondy told her.

"Aren't I always?"

After Dawn had said goodbye to Spike, Jondy, Angel, Krit, Lorne, Kennedy, and Max, she turned to Buffy.

"You sure you want to do this? Cuz apparently we're in the middle of the apocalypse..." Buffy began.

"All the more reason for me to go back and fill Giles in," Dawn interrupted.

"Sure you don't want one of us to go back with you?" Buffy asked. "Because we could probably at least..."

"I'll be fine, Buffy," Dawn interrupted. "I've flown on a plane alone before." Buffy nodded, resigned, but suddenly stopped and narrowed her eyes at Dawn.

"Wait, no you..."

"Well I'll certainly miss you all!" Dawn said loudly, drowning out Buffy's words. "Wish me luck on all tests that'll decide my future!" She picked up two of her suitcases again and Buffy and Willow picked up the other two. "Since Alec, Faith, and Wesley aren't here...you'll say goodbye for me right?"

Max stared at her for a beat, as if what she just said didn't quite register. Then her eyes scanned the lobby frantically. When she looked back at Dawn her expression had morphed into a worried one.

"Sure, I'll tell 'em that," she said quickly before rushing off, grabbing Spike's sleeve in the process and dragging him along with her. Dawn stared after them for a moment, not quite sure what to think, before Buffy and Willow ushered her towards the elevator.


Spike roughly pulled his sleeve out of Max's grip. Max stopped walking and turned to look at him, exasperated. Spike frowned.

"What're you doing? Why the sudden rush?" Max ran a hand through her hair and bit her lip, not answering him. "Max?"

"Faith's been gone for two days. Alec's been gone since yesterday. And I didn't even notice," Max blurted. Spike's face turned expressionless.

"That's what you're worried about. Alec being gone." His tone was cold, but Max didn't seem to notice.

"And Faith!" she reminded, starting to hurry off again.

"Why does it matter? I'm sure they're just off doing..."

"They had an argument. Faith thought Alec cared more about me than her and Alec didn't handle it well, so Faith left. I didn't realize she was taking it so seriously. Or Alec. Neither of them has called. And I can't just leave them out there feuding."

"They can take care of themselves, luv."

"That's not the point! I know they can. But this is partly my fault and I need to straighten it out. I don't even know if Faith is as mad at me as she is at Alec. There's a lot I don't know. Including wherever the hell they are. But I at least want to fix that. Besides, they should know they're part of the new apocalypse."

Spike caught up with her and looked around the garage, checking out the cars.

"Well I think the Viper might be a good..." Max stopped walking and turned to look at him incredulously.

"What?" she asked, exasperation still showing on her face.

"A car, pet. A Viper's a..."

"I know what a Viper is," Max interrupted. "But we're not taking it. It's easier to look for them on foot. Now come on." She started to go out the door to the outside of Wolfram & Hart. Spike grabbed her arm just as she was turning the knob. "What?"

"It's daylight. Don't think I'd be much help looking through a dustpan. If you want my help, I'll take a car." Max winced, but nodded before turning to go again. "You tried calling 'em on their cell phones yet?" Max halted, rolled her eyes skyward, and made a whimpering noise. Spike smirked. "Judging by that reaction, I'd say no." Max blew out a sigh and took her cell phone out from her jacket pocket.


Faith was just stepping off the dance floor when she heard her cell phone ring. She rolled her eyes and dug it out of her jacket. Not bothering to check who was actually calling, Faith flipped it open and answered.

"Alec, if you keep calling me, I swear the next time I see you I'll..."

"Faith? This isn't Alec, it's Max. I was wondering where you were," Max interrupted her threat. Faith's grip on the cell phone tightened.

"Ah. Max. And how have you been doing? Alec been helping you 'deal'?" Faith figured it wouldn't be that hard for Max to detect the angry bitterness in her voice. She was never one to hide what she was feeling. There were a few beats of silence on the other end and Faith knew she had pushed a button, but she wasn't expecting Max's voice to sound as cold as it did when she finally spoke.

"I haven't heard from Alec since yesterday morning. I don't need him to coddle me. He helped bring me back and I'm grateful. But this isn't about my problems, Faith. You're the one who left Alec right after dropping a bomb on him."

"What bomb?" Faith snapped. "It's not my fault you two are too dense to realize what's been going on right in front of you."

"Right, I know we didn't notice that you and Spike have been exuding jealousy about Alec's and my relationship. But that's your mistake. Not ours."

"How do you figure?"

"Because nothing's been going on between us! So what if we're close? I love Spike and Alec loves you. If anyone's too dense around here to realize something like that, it's you. Now if you really believe you're as grown up and changed as you say you are, go find Alec and work out your issues."

Before Faith could argue any further, the familiar beep of a phone being turned off reached her ears. She groaned and flipped her phone closed with more force than was necessary. She sat for a moment thinking. Then groaned some more as shegrabbed her coat and left.


"So what exactly are we supposed to do?" Kennedy asked. Buffy shifted uncomfortably as they walked down a hallway and exchanged a look with Willow.

"We're not quite sure yet," she answered vaguely. Kennedy scoffed.

"About an hour and a half ago we were told we've been helping out the bad guys and you, self-proclaimed leader of good, don't have a single idea on how we're gonna deal?" Buffy visibly bristled and opened her mouth to retort, but Willow interrupted.

"That's not what she said, sweetie. We do have a few ideas but none are set in stone. And we don't really feel comfortable discussing them in this place. Hence the meeting."

"Yeah. So would you mind going and getting Jondy and Krit?" Kennedy looked at Buffy defiantly.

"What, so now I'm errand-girl?"

"You could be girl-about-to-get-pummeled but gee, I was saving that job for later," Buffy retorted in a sugar sweet voice. Kennedy stared at her angrily before glancing at Willow to see her reaction. Willow was just smiling nervously. With a huff, Kennedy turned on her heel to go find Jondy and Krit. Buffy and Willow continued down to the lobby.

"Sorry about that, Will," Buffy said. "I know she's your girlfriend and all, but she was just being so..."

"I know," Willow interrupted softly. "Don't worry about it, Buffy. Really." Buffy nodded slowly, knowing the expression on Willow's face meant not to push the topic. "Are you going to tell Angel where we're going?"

"No. Unless he chooses to leave this place or something...I don't think we'll be doing any...business with him and his team anymore," Buffy replied hesitantly.

"Are ya sure we shouldn't tell him that?" Willow asked, slowing her walking pace. Buffy glanced at her with a confused look on her face.

"What do you..." Buffy trailed off when she saw the topic of their conversation walking through the lobby towards his office. Buffy opened her mouth to say they can still probably slip by when someone yelled something and Angel froze. Then he slowly turned around and his eyes locked on a boy that looked somewhere between 18 and 20 and had just come off the elevators.

"Did that kid just say 'dad'?" Willow whispered. Buffy just blinked as she felt her insides clench.

"Dad?" the kid called again. Angel's eyes widened as the boy started walking towards him. Buffy held her breath, despite the little voice in her head that kept reminding her that it was impossible for that boy to be...

The boy walked right past Angel and headed for a couple coming out of Wesley's office. Buffy let out her breath in relief. She motioned for Willow to follow her to the elevators but Angel finally noticed heras his eyes locked onto hers. She smiled weakly at him but he didn't return it as he turned towards the couple, the kid, and Wesley.

Frowning slightly and going against their better judgement, Buffy and Willow joined them.

"Buffy, Willow, hello," Wesley greeted. "I was just introducing these people to Angel." He gestured towards the couple. "This is Laurence and Colleen Reilly, and this is their son..."

"Connor," the boy interrupted with his hand outstretched. Buffy and Willow both smiled politely and took turns shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you," they said in unison before giving each other surprised looks. They quickly laughed it off and Wesley took charge.

"The Reillys have some issues regarding Connor that they need to talk about and I thought we could..."

"No," Angel interrupted.

"What?" Wesley asked, clearly startled.

"I'm sorry, but we can't help you," Angel explained curtly before walking away. Buffy, Willow, and Wesley exchanged confused, worried looks as they stared after him. Then Wesley turned to the Reillys.

"I'm, uh, terribly sorry, but my boss seems to think..." Wesley sighed. "I'll try talking to him, but there's no guarantee. You might be better off finding someone else to help you with your...trust fund." The way he said this made Buffy and Willow glance at each other with raised eyebrows.

As the Reilly's were saying goodbye, Jondy, Krit, and Kennedy entered the lobby.

"We're all here, let's get cracking," Jondy stated blandly. "Max is doing that testing thing with Illyria and Alec and Faith are off somewhere but Max supposedly fixed that, right?"

"Supposedly. We'll call them when we get to the hotel," Buffy replied before turning back to Wesley.

"We gotta go...do something. We'll call you later." She waved to the Reillys as she and the others left. "It was nice meeting you. Oh and Wes? Dawn says goodbye!" Then she disappeared inside the elevator.


Alec absentmindedly kicked at the dirt as he settled himself onto a swing. The parks in Seattle were always packed with little kids and their parents at this time of day. The reason he came to hang out in this certain park was for the exact opposite. A few kids were on the slides playing some game called 'Lava Monster', but that was it.

Alec made himself ignore them until one walked over and set herself down on the swing next to his. The kid didn't seem interested in swinging, though. A fact Alec quickly realized when all she did was stare at him.

"Can I help you with something?" Alec asked. The girl stared at him for a few more seconds before she finally responded.

"You have long eyelashes for a boy," she stated, making Alec laugh though she seemed perfectly serious.

"You have short legs for a person," Alec retorted playfully. The girl's bottom lip jutted out.

"I'm not done growing," she protested. "My mommy says I'll be taller than her when I grow up." Alec nodded slowly.

"Well if 'Mommy' says it then it must be true." The girl's eyes widened.

"Do you think I'll be this size forever?" The genuine worry in her voice just made Alec laugh again and shake his head.

"No. I'm sure what your mommy said is true," he replied, knowing the girl wouldn't recognize his sarcastic tone.

"Did your mommy tell you you'd never grow up?" Alec's smile faded as he swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. He blinked and looked at his surroundings, which were flooded with sunlight. The girl was surprisingly patient in waiting for his response. But he didn't give her one as he began to pump his legs, making the swing squeak back and forth. He turned his gaze skyward.

"Hey! You didn't..." the girl began.

"Hey squirt, mind giving up your seat?" Alec recognized the voice immediately and he swiftly brought his feet down with a loud thump to stop his swinging as he locked eyes with Faith. The girl pouted defiantly.

"No. I was here first. And this boy hasn't told me if his mommy told him if he'd ever grow up." Faith glanced back at the girl with a raised eyebrow.

"Interesting question. But this... 'boy'...can't answer it because he has other things he needs to answer first," Faith retorted with a pointed look in Alec's direction. Alec remained expressionless.

"But I asked him first," the girl continued to protest. Faith rolled her eyes. Then she gave her a big smile, seemingly surprising both the girl and Alec.

"That's great, Goldilocks. But if you leave us alone for like twenty minutes I'll give ya a nice, crisp five dollar bill," she replied. Alec let out a snort of disbelief but couldn't help smiling. The girl's eyes widened in obvious wanting, but she shook her head.

"M-my mommy says not to take money from strangers."

"She's got this thing where she thinks mommy knows best," Alec felt the need to explain. Faith raised her eyebrows at him before turning her attention back to the little girl.

"What mom doesn't know won't hurt her. But if you feel the need to spill, my name is Faith and this is Alec. What's yours?"

"Jenny," the girl answered automatically. Faith's grin widened.

"See? Strangers don't know each other's names. So we're not strangers. Now take the damn money and scram," she used a very sweet voice to gloss over the command. Jenny didn't hesitate any longer as she grasped the dollar bill Faith held out, hopped off the swing, and hurried away.

Faith grinned triumphantly and settled down in her new seat, purposefully ignoring the look of disbelief Alec was giving her.

"You just bribed a little kid and swore at her," he finally stated. Faith shrugged.

"My mom used to do the same to me. Got me moving so I figured why not try it on her? It worked and now I'm sitting here so we can have the dreaded chit-chat that couples have to fix their problems," she replied dryly. Alec laughed.

"Well I never knew my mom so I guess I shouldn't judge your maternal skills," he stated glibly. Faith frowned slightly as she glanced at him.

"You never knew your mom?" Alec shook his head, avoiding her gaze. Faith blew out a sigh. "Lucky."

"Not the exact word I'd use to describe my situation."

"Sorry. I just don't like to dwell on my childhood. Though yours keeps sounding drastically worse than mine..." She sighed heavily and threw her hands up. "See? I'm awful at this relationship stuff. I've never really had a real one. I try to sound understanding and I come out all 'pity me or die'."

"That's not how you sound." Faith laughed derisively.

"Please. No need to spare my feelings. This talk will go quicker if you don't." Alec frowned.

"What exactly is it we're supposed to talk about? Our childhoods or my relationship with Max?" Faith rolled her shoulders back and looked away. Alec opened his mouth to repeat his question when he realized she was thinking and quickly snapped it shut.

"Max said...she said you loved me," Faith finally stated after a few beats of silence had passed. She sounded completely vulnerable and uncertain.

"She's right,"Alec replied without hesitation. Faith whipped around to face him and he was surprised to see a smile on her face.

"Then we don't need to talk about it," she stated. Alec's eyebrows shot up his forehead.

"Huh?" Faith sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you like I did. I should have trusted that what you told me about your relationship with Max was true. You did what you had to do to get her back and I respect you for it. But like I said earlier, this is my first real relationship. So I guess you should expect me to make a whole crapload of mistakes." She smiled weakly, waiting for Alec to respond. He grinned.

"That makes two of us." He laced his fingers through hers and pulled her off the swings with him. "Wanna get out of here?"

"Please. Parks creep me out. Too many little creatures."

"You mean kids?"

"Sure."

A/N-Sorry for the slow update. I was having trouble with this chapter, which you can probably tell since it seems to be all over the place...I had a whole other storyline for the Faith/Alec/Max/Spike thing but it seemed pointless and I wanted to get on with the story. It just seemed more appropriate to mend it since Buffy and Angel's relationship is about to messed with...Please Review!

LadyV77-Thanks ;o) I didn't like Hamilton either. Lindsey didn't really have a big part in this chapter but he'll be back later.

Delauro-Thanks ;o) The next update should be quicker, but school's gonna start soon...

meri24-Thanks ;o) Alec did get a little annoyed, but he was more caught off guard.

CharmingAngel-Thanks ;o) I can't answer everything in one chapter, it's just more fun to drag it out...hehe.