Part 1
Time and time has passed, weeds are covering our house, spider webs our love, long forgotten, still believed.
She walked along the street, holding the coat close to her body, though it was a hot LA summer, she felt cold, a chilly wind surrounding her and only her. She felt as if every person passing by her was staring at her and shaking their heads in disbelief. The entire world seemed to accuse her, pointing their fingers at her. She was a bad mother. She had let her past come into the present and haunt her. Literally. She had given up everything for her daughter, her home, her slaying, even her friends. And now, it looked like all of that still hadn't been enough.
She looked up at the building she had stopped in front of. The Hyperion Hotel. It was so big. She had expected something smaller, not something that would strike the eye like this hotel did. 'Wow' she couldn't help herself from thinking. She had never had the chance to see it, but Willow had told her that it was classy. She took a deep breath and entered. The lobby was empty. The front desk had open demon books scattered on it along with a laptop still opened to a web page, a demon dictionary. 'Guess they still have to use books' Buffy thought as she went further inside the building. No one was visible. Then she heard muffled arguing coming closer and closer. She waited impatiently until a door swung open and Cordy, Gunn and Fred, entered the lobby, wet from head to toe, bickering with one another.
"I am so not telling him he has to pay for the plumbing." Cordy said and Fred let out an exasperated sound.
"You two are the ones who blew the pipes cause having sex in the basement was so sexy!" Fred said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"But you're the one who did the permanent damage, playing with his ax!" Cordy defended herself.
"Hey, I'm still trying to learn how to use one of those things. It's not my fault it's too big for me." Fred added, "You know I'm not telling him!"
"Me either!" Cordy said and they both looked towards Gunn.
"No way! He's still pissed at me for blowing his car to kingdom-come!" Gunn said trying to talk himself out of it.
"As if!" Cordy rolled her eyes. "Demons blew up his car, you just happen to be driving it."
"There's no way I'm getting out of this, right?" The two women shook their heads. "Didn't think so," Gunn sighed. "I should at least be... dry," he said gesturing towards his clothes.
Buffy took this moment to step forward from the shadows.
"I like you when you're wet," Cordy said and stepped forward to reward Gunn with a kiss. Fred rolled her eyes and finally became aware of the stranger in their midst.
"May I help you?" she asked, trying to look a little more presentable.
"Mmm, yeah...is Angel around?" Buffy asked.
"I think so," Fred said "can I tell him who's --"
She was interrupted by Cordelia and Gunn breaking their kiss, and Cordy turning her head in shocked recognition of the blonde slayer's voice.
"Buffy! Oh my god!" Cordy let out a surprised squeal before, instinctually moving toward Buffy and hugging her.
"Buffy?" Gunn arched an eyebrow. "As in that Buffy?"
Fred remembered the stories she heard about the slayer who had died and was resurrected only months after her demise.
"It's been like what? 6-7 years? Jesus!" Cordy smiled.
"That long? Oh my God! Next year's gonna be the 10 year reunion from highschool!" Buffy said, the years suddenly pounding inside her head.
"Yeah, guess it's gonna be fun, to see everyone else again. Of course, a large part of them are dead, living on the Hellmouth and all, but who's counting, right?" Cordy said still smiling. "So how's everything with you? And the gang?"
"I...gave up slaying," Buffy told her and Cordy seemed surprised.
"Really? F..." Gunn was suddenly hit by an elbow in the ribs.
"Let him tell her," Cordelia whispered through her big smile.
"Just careful with the ribs, honey. I didn't stay in the hospital for two weeks just so you can break them again," he said between his teeth. "So you gave up slaying... what about Will and Xander... and Giles?" Cordy asked curiously.
"Giles... went back to England. He died about two years ago," Buffy said her voice mirroring the sadness she saw reflected in Cordelia's eyes. Over the years, Angel had managed not to lose anyone from their gang. They, as a matter of fact had even managed to enlarge it.
"I'm sorry." Cordy said, her smile fading.
"It's okay. It's been a while." She lost herself in thoughts of her watcher for a moment, before trying to return to happier thoughts. She was finding it hard to gather much happiness. "Uh... And Will's leading this big-shot software corporation. I'm surprised you haven't seen her in any business magazines." Buffy said. She was quite proud of her former best friend, she had built a company from scratch that was now threatening to overthrow some massive computer companies.
"Well, that's not exactly the kind of magazines we read. We have like this magic magazine from somewhere in Europe, and you know the daily paper, Demons Anonymous, a few fashion magazines, oh and Fred reads physics magazines. " Cordy pointed towards the brunette. "What happened to Xander?"
"Oh, he has his own construction company, he married Anya, has two kids. He's good," Buffy said looking down at the carpet.
"Xander Harris, married with children and a job! Never thought I'd actually see that one!" Cordy said remembering Xander's goofy face. She held on to that picture for a moment, it seemed to exist somewhere, a billion of light years away. "Well, good for them. Guess everyone ditched the demon business," Cordy said leaving the past behind her, where it should be. "Me, I have like a cable vision in my head, couldn't get rid of it if I wanted to."
"How did you quit slaying?" Fred asked curiously. While she could do without the constant life threatening danger, Fred had, over the years, found that she couldn't turn her back on the defenseless, or ignore the demons -- and she didn't even have 'the calling' in her blood as a slayer did.
"Never underestimate the power of denial. You just fake it, like nothing's there. So is Angel around?" Buffy got back to the reason she was in LA in the first place.
"Yeah, he's upstairs. He has this whole apartment set up. It's room 48, just on the first floor," Cordy said pointing towards the stairs. "The elevator has a few bugs."
"Okay, nice seeing you again," Buffy gave her a weak smile. "And meeting you...uh..."
"I'm Gunn," he immediately supplied, realizing no one had introduced them. He shook her hand. "Nice meeting you too."
"And I'm Fred. Short for Winifred," the slender brunette said, shaking the slayer's hand and giving her a warm smile.
"I'll see you later," Buffy said as she climbed upstairs.
"Does that mean she's staying?" Fred asked.
"I don't know about that, but if she's here for Angel, she's got another thing coming," Cordy said looking up as the slayer disappeared upstairs.
"She doesn't know about Wes?" Gunn asked surprised.
"She doesn't know anything about anything," Cordy verified. "As in nada, zip, zero, zilch."
"She's going to be shocked." Fred looked at the stairs absently.
"On the other hand, Angel's going to be so busy with her, he won't have time to be pissed about our little pipe accident," Cordy said with a smile.
Gunn grinned and added: "And once again we escape the wrath of the angry boss."
Fred still watched the stairs with concern.
Buffy advanced on the first floor, wondering if he had changed at all over the years, and what she was supposed to tell him... 'Hi, I know I haven't seen you in more then half a decade, but now I need you to save my daughter, cause I don't know how demons work anymore. So how have you been? That's lame!' she thought, as she stopped in front of room 48. She cleared her throat, trying to make sure she still had a voice, before she knocked on the door.
"Just a sec!" a female voice said from the other side of the door, then the same voice whispered to someone else. "Get the door." After a moment, the door opened slowly and Angel, as beautiful as always, stood in the doorway, half-naked, holding a shirt in his right hand. His body was still as perfect and desirable, as it had been more then 8 years ago.
"Buffy?" he was surprised to see her after so long. She hadn't changed much; only her eyes betrayed her age. "Come in." He stepped away from the door and went inside, turning his back on her as he walked. She caught his hesitant glance towards one of the doors leading to a bedroom, probably.
She stared at his back and his tattoo. She just wanted to reach out and caress it, to see if it was real. He seemed like something that had stepped out of her dreams. After so long, he seemed only a passing creation of her mind. He pulled the shirt over his head. The apartment was massive, the living room area especially.
"God... I don't even know what to say," he said, while he turned towards her again and leaned down on a table. "You look..."
"Old?" she asked, sitting down on a chair, facing him.
"I was going to say ravishing, as always," Angel said smiling.
"Yeah, well I don't feel anything like it," Buffy said, staring at the closed door behind him for a moment. She couldn't help but wonder who was hiding behind it.
"You don't look a day older since I last saw you," Angel told her, and it was true. "You know, they say slayers age harder."
"Probably because they die before turning 20" Buffy suggested.
"No, really. There was this slayer. The oldest one that ever lived. She died on her 27th birthday. She was decapitated, but that's beside the point," Angel said leaving out the fact that he was the one to end her life.
"I'm 27 and five months old" Buffy looked up at him, and Angel realized his mistake.
"Oops," he said putting on a goofy smile.
"God!" Buffy couldn't help smiling, knowing that if she started to laugh she would eventually wind up crying, and she didn't want to cry in front of him.
"So what happened?" he asked, sensing her change.
"I need help," she said, looking back at him, her hands sitting numb in her lap.
"You?" Angel asked, surprised.
"Who was it?" a voice asked from another room, before a child came running in the room laughing, a small, brunette boy. In one quick move, Angel took the boy in his arms. Buffy looked at the boy curiously.
"I'd like you to meet Wesley. Wes, say hi to Buffy," he told the small boy, turning him towards her.
"Hi, Buffy" the small boy said cheerfully, looking over at the slayer.
"Wesley's my son" Angel told her.
"Daddy!" the boy pointed at him. Buffy was shocked as he expected, not understanding how he could have a child, or who the mother was.
"Our son," Angel said, as Faith stepped into the room, surprised by the presence of her former slayer sister.
"B? I mean Buffy?" she corrected herself. "God, haven't seen you since... I went to jail. What've you been doing? You, like, disappeared off the face of the earth."
"I...uh..." she was trying to come to from her shock. "I gave up slaying," she managed to let out, surprising them this time.
"Really?" Faith asked as Wesley reached out for her. "You didn't seem like the type to...give up." She took her son in her arms.
"Well, things change. I changed," Buffy said.
"Cool, so I'm the only active slayer?" Faith asked while her son snuggled to her chest.
"No, there's this new slayer. She'd be around 18 by now. When they found out I was quitting slaying, for good, the Slayer's Council sent in the mob squad, gave me a moment of death so they could have a brand-spanking new slayer. Never seen her," Buffy explained. There was a moment of silence. "How can you have children? You're a vampire!"
"It's a weird story," Angel said.
"I totally freaked when I found out I was pregnant!" Faith added.
"So you two...are...uhm...married?" she asked, not understanding anything. At the same time, Faith and Angel burst into laughter.
"You know if I did get married, in a church, I'd be ashes before I got to say yes," Angel said, stopping his chuckling.
"It was a one night stand," Faith explained. "I'm not sure even right now, what exactly happened. We had one of those big battles, that makes you think about life, and the opportunities you might be missing... so one thing led to another. We thought Angelus wouldn't show, cause he doesn't love me like that."
"We thought wrong. It felt so right, I was actually happy. That's why I hate to think about things, life especially," Angel said, smiling at Faith.
"So he got a little knife-friendly on us, till Wes managed to bribe a gypsy to fax and translate the curse for us. So it sorta ate us out of house and home for a while, but it was worth it. As for this Wes…" Faith looked down at the boy, who had fallen asleep in her arms. "Turns out that demon we chopped had this thing about sending human vibes to non-mortals."
"So we had a baby." Angel smiled at his son.
"And we're both technically single," Faith added.
"Technically?" Buffy asked, not understanding.
"He has this massive crush on...uhm..." Faith stopped herself, not knowing if she should continue, feeling strange. "And I think I'm falling for this guy."
"And she won't tell me anything about him. I mean, I tell her everything, she's so ungrateful!" Angel gave Faith a wicked little smile.
"If you wouldn't have set me up last time, maybe I would," Faith said. "I'm gonna go put him to bed," she said as she disappeared out one of the doors of the apartment.
"Now, what am I supposed to help you with?" Angel got back to their first subject.
"My daughter's gone," Buffy said, sitting down on a chair, looking blankly at the floor.
"Your daughter?" Angel asked, looking up at her.
"Yeah. I'm...not married...he died," Buffy said. "I found out I was pregnant after he died, and I decided to keep the baby."
"The baby...that's why you gave everything up, right?" Angel realized.
"Yeah. You don't know how it feels to think that your life would endanger that little baby, it's..." Buffy started.
"Actually I do know. We thought of quitting, but...we can protect him, with or without demons. Everywhere I'd go, my past would follow me, we couldn't get away. And…I didn't want to leave them in the dark," he was talking about the rest of the gang. "They're my family," he smiled. "Besides, what other kid can brag that he has a slayer for a mother and a vampire for a father?"
"None, or one. I didn't have much of a choice... I just couldn't take it anymore," Buffy said, closing her eyes.
"You don't have to justify yourself to me," Angel assured her. "I understand you."
"You always did" Buffy gave a weak smile. "Tell me, are you happy?"
"As happy as I can get without wreaking havoc," Angel said.
"Maybe I shouldn't have come to you" she whispered to herself.
"What?" Angel didn't understand what she'd said.
"Is Wesley dead?" Buffy asked and Angel was confused, then he realized she meant that his son's name was also Wesley.
"No, no, Wesley delivered him in a demon nest. It's surprising how hilarious a pregnant slayer is to them," Angel said, remembering the laughing demons, even now. "Especially one that's pregnant with a vampire's baby."
"I wouldn't know" Buffy said, she had laid low during her pregnancy, her friends taking care of any vampire or demon problems.
"What's her name?" Angel asked.
"Fatima. Fatima Joyce Summers," Buffy answered him.
"Nice name," Faith said, coming over to join them.
"It just came to me," Buffy told them.
"What exactly happened that you need our help?" Faith asked sitting down across from Buffy, next to Angel.
"Something took her. Some ghost, spirit, something," Buffy said, remembering the ghostly figure from her infinite back yard.
"We'll need a little more then that," Angel said. "Anything stranger?"
"Uhm...it changed form, and I can tell you this, she was not alive, she had this glowing thing..." Buffy tried to remember details, but couldn't remember them straight out, she had been too scared for her little girl to focus on details.
"She?" Faith raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, first it was a little blond girl, and then it was this black girl," Buffy remembered the two figures. "Teenager."
"That's weird," Faith said. "And me thinking we've seen more than half the progenies hell had to throw at us."
"You thought wrong," Angel smiled at her. "Let's go downstairs and gather up the crew."
"Find out what this thing is," Faith said, and stood up from her chair.
"Are you going to leave Wesley alone?" Buffy asked, looking towards the room Faith had taken her son into.
"Oh, yeah. We have Dennis. He's the best babysitter. And he doesn't have to be paid. And, he walks through walls," Faith explained. Buffy looked at Angel, confused.
"Dennis is a good ghost. Use to haunt Cordy's apartment. When she moved here, she managed to bring him with her," Angel explained better then Faith.
"Oh," Buffy said, nodding. "Does everyone who works for you live here?" she asked as she stood up and headed for the door.
"Yeah. We had to make some budget cuts when we restored it...the hotel" Angel said, following her and Faith out the door.
"Well, I'm sure there's enough room," Buffy said as she once again stepped into the hallway.
"Oh, yeah, you can even stay over till we figure this out," Faith said proudly as they went down to the main lobby.
"What happened?" Angel asked, though he already suspected it, when he saw Cordy, her back turned from them, looking through some papers, still wet from head to toe.
"Uh...bathroom accident?" Cordy tried.
"Wouldn't have anything to do with, oh, say, the pipes blowing in my face when all I wanted was to clean a stain?" Angel asked, and Cordy's smile faded.
"Okay, so the water pipes...uh...broke and it's kinda eating away the new paint and in a few hours we'll probably be under water. The lobby, anyway," Cordy said, avoiding what he actually wanted to know.
"And why did the pipes break?" Angel asked.
"It wasn't my fault. It was his bright idea!" Cordy pointed towards Gunn as he came out of Angel's office.
"What? It was your idea!" Gunn defended himself.
"Since you two are together, I have the Home Repair Services on speed dial. Make that go away. Use a bed for once. Be like everyone else for a change!" Angel rolled his eyes and went over to the phone.
"Look who's talking," Cordy mumbled so he wouldn't hear.
"I heard that" Angel yelled from the other room while he dialed.
"So, Buffy, what's the occasion?" Cordy asked, trying to take her mind off her 'incident'.
"My daughter's been kidnapped by big creepy ghosts and I need help" Buffy said it short.
"Oh," Cordy let out, while Angel came back. "So, what are we looking for?" she asked Angel.
"Shape-shifters, maybe even spirits," Angel said, thinking about it. "Maybe female."
"And...uh, I think they can create illusions." Buffy remembered her infinite backyard. "They made my little garden seem as if it was at the bottom of a hill, and a lot bigger."
"I think we can work with that," Gunn said sitting down.
"But first I need to change," Cordy said, heading upstairs before anyone could say anything.
"Where's Fred?" Faith asked, looking around, not spotting the brunette.
"Wes stormed in here a few minutes ago, desperate for some help on some physics thing. They'll be right back. They just went around the corner to that antique store," Gunn explained.
"What? He finally found that portal he was looking for?" Faith asked while she gathered up some books from the front desk.
"Yes, I did" Wesley said coming in, shortly followed by Fred. "And I finally got our client back on his feet and back into this world. And also a paycheck!" He handed Angel a check.
"This is going to cover the plumbing bill," Angel said. "For a moment there, I thought we'd lost him."
"We weren't about to let him live in some twisted grim Pollaca world," Fred said, a shiver racing up her spine.
"Yet he seemed to be enjoying himself when we found him," Wesley reminded her.
"Are you kidding? That thing was about to eat him alive and make drum sticks from his bones," Fred said, rolling her eyes.
"Damn!" Gunn shook his head to get the image out of it.
"Buffy!" Wesley finally saw her. "Well, it's been a while."
"Yeah." Buffy gave him a small smile.
"We were going to go search mode," Faith said. "Care to join in?"
"I'm not exactly coming to from last night's search, but I'm running on caffeine so... have coffee we'll travel?" Fred suggested, as Cordelia came downstairs.
"I'll just get hooked on the net, see if our friends are on-line," Cordy said taking her laptop from the front desk and sitting down in an armchair.
"Your friends?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Haven't been on line for a while, huh?" Cordy asked while her agile hands tapped on the keyboard quickly. "Cause if you had, you'd probably come across this" she turned the laptop so Buffy could see. It was a website, with a dove like symbol and a title that read 'Angel Investigations.' Under it: 'Demon database, mutual help line.' "This is our site. You wouldn't believe how many people have demon problems or run a demon killing agency. It's fun!" she turned the laptop back towards her.
"Okay, who wants the 'Spirits of Amare'?" Gunn asked, as he brought a big stack of books from another room.
"I'll take it," Fred said, reaching out for the book.
End Part 1