Part 5

"Time has past, new times have come,
Suns set down on many worlds
Full moons scattered into eternities of bliss
But past seems to envelop me, and only me
And as I stand, space and time pass by me,
Beside me,
I standalone and quiver.
I, foolish child of forgotten ages."

She stood in front of the door, hesitating. The hard beat of a stereo was coming from inside. The corridors were full of students, talking, going to classes, lovers, friends... The atmosphere was so familiar to her, still so vivid in her mind. She still yearned for it and she wished she could turn back time, turn it back so long that she would reach her happy little existence. She found herself asking a very peculiar question: 'Was I ever happy?' 'I was happy when I found heaven' a little voice whispered in her ear. She snapped out of her torturing thoughts and knocked on the door. There was a shout inside by an unfamiliar voice "Pizza's here! Cecile, move your ass!". There was no movement made inside. "Cecile! Now! Don't make me come outta this bathroom!", then a stumbling sound, followed by footsteps towards the door. It opened, the noisy music filling the corridor, and a blonde was standing in the doorway, with half a head bigger then her, wearing a pair of headphones around her neck.

"Not the pizza guy!" she yelled back in the room before turning back towards Buffy. "Can I help you?"

"Is Dawn around? I'm her big sister, Buffy" she told her.

"Oh, right, she said you'd come. Come in" the blonde said, letting her in and closing the door behind her. "I'm Cecile."

"Where is she?" Buffy asked, not hearing much because of the music. The room was a mess of colors, posters and all kinds of things.

"Oh, sorry" Cecile said, turning down the music. "I doubt you heard what I said. So I'm Cecile. And Dawn's..."

"Probably making out with Todd as we speak." A young black girl said, coming out of the bathroom. "Hi, I'm Merry."

"Who's Todd?" Buffy asked, not recalling Dawn mentioning anything. "Wasn't she seeing…uhm…" she tried to remember the name. "Mike?"

"Oh no, that's history. He cheated, don't ask her, she gets real mad." Cecile said, arranging a few loose strands of hair behind her ears. There was another knock on the door. "Pizza!" Merry and Cecile said in unison. Merry opened the door. She was disappointed. It was only Dawn.

"He is so not getting a tip," Merry said, holding the door open for Dawn to come in.

"I'll starve to death until he gets here" Cecile complained.

"This is one time I wish they'd crank-called our room" Merry said sighing.

"Makes you miss the days we raged war against the guys in 250," Cecile agreed with Merry.

"No way! I still appreciate getting to class un-soaked, thank you very much," Dawn dropped her purse on her bed.

"What ever you say, girl" Cecile said before putting her headphones back on. "Tell me when the pizza guy comes. I have a bone to pick with him" she added, before retiring to a corner of the room and starting to practice some tai-chi moves.

"Hey" Dawn noticed Buffy was there.

"Hi" Buffy said.

"So how'd things go with Todd?" Merry asked.

"Super. Give you the full report later" Dawn said smiling.

"Better be a spicy one" Merry said before retiring to her own bed, plugging in a set of headphones to her noisy music and grabbing a book to study from.

"So how did it go? Did you get Fatima back?" Dawn asked, sitting down next to her.

"No. Turns out I have to wait for the ghost to act again" Buffy sighed.

"I'm sorry," Dawn said, laying a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "They figured out what was after you?"

"Yeah, two ghosts melted into one. Two slayers" she added.

"Slayers?" Dawn asked, intrigued. "How come?"

"Faith thinks..." she started, but was cut off.

"Faith? As in psycho killer Faith?" Dawn asked surprised. "As in Faith who's in jail?"

"Not anymore, she's free and working for Angel Investigations," Buffy said. "Well, she thinks they're mad cause I mocked them when I walked out on slaying. I never meant to."

"I know" Dawn said understanding her.

"So I'm waiting for them to show and tell me what they want." Buffy said, staring blankly at the floor for a moment. Dawn held back the comment 'if they ever will' that had almost escaped her. She didn't want to upset her sister. Strangely, the desperate Buffy reminded her of her sister after her return to the living. Absent, distant, gathered inside herself.

"I'm sure they will," she said instead, trying to comfort her, putting an arm around her and hugging her. "So you saw Angel?" she asked, feeling the need to change the subject, to get her mind off her missing child.

"Yeah. Hasn't changed a bit. In appearance" Buffy said, holding back the tears that had filled her eyes at the thought of her lost baby.

"And otherwise?" she asked. She was torn to see her so destroyed and vulnerable, her big sister, the mighty slayer, that once had given her life for her. She had been all her life, even after she'd left her, her role model. And now she felt so useless because she wasn't able to help her.

"He's... different. He's so open and close to them. They're like a big family. Something that I thought was never going to happen... he's changed" she said looking up, trying to break away from her aching heart and focus on something else. "He and Faith are like best friends. It's all so weird."

"So Angel and Faith are..." Dawn started, but Buffy shook her head.

"They had something a few years ago... even got Angelus back. And they have baby. A boy." Buffy said and Dawn was shocked. "Something about a fertility demon" she explained.

"Oh my god" Dawn let out. "Cordy didn't say a thing. Then again I only talked to her a minute or so" Dawn remembered.

"He's really cute. His name's Wesley. He's four. Wes, the old one, remember the watcher?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, the whinny guy. You mentioned something about him working for Angel" Dawn remembered.

"He sorta delivered Faith's baby in a demon nest, that's why they gave him his name." Buffy explained.

"Oh" Dawn understood now. There was a moment of silence.

"Oh, god," the pain was beginning to be overwhelming, a few loose tears running down her cheeks. "I just want this nightmare to be over soon." Dawn hugged her close, tight.

"It's going to be okay. Angel's going to make everything okay" Dawn tried to assure her as she sighed and Buffy pulled away from her arms and wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her shirt. Dawn pulled her legs up on the couch, under her chin. Gathering herself Buffy noticed her state.

"What's wrong?" she asked, trying not to make such a pitiful image to look at.

"I wish I could help you" Dawn said, rising her eyes from the carpet. "But I can't. I don't live on the hellmouth anymore" she said biting her lower lip. "Where I was afraid every moment that my friends would turn into demons over night. Where all it took was one moment of distraction for my boyfriend to suddenly turn into a vampire or a demon or a werewolf" Buffy wanted to say something, but Dawn put up a hand as a sign for her to stop. "And where a cross in my locker, a stake in my backpack and crossbow by my bed were the best policies" a thin smile crossed her face remembering that period of her life. "Where my big sister was the slayer" she added. "I can't go back there. And I'm angry at myself for being so much of a coward. I'm so afraid that if I do help you, I'll have to go back. And I don't want to go back. I feel that if I do, everything I love now is going to disintegrate into nothingness... but I want to help you..." a soft sob stopped her from continuing.

"Shhh" Buffy put a finger on her lips hugging her. "You don't have to help me. I have enough help. I just want you to be here for me. I love you and nothing's ever gonna change that. You're my little sis. And I know why all this is important to you. Once it was important to me too. And even if you won't believe me, I understand you more then you know. It's hard to break away from something that was a part of you for so long. And I'd know that best. Vampires, demons, the hunt... it was so much a part of me, that at some point that was everything I was. And breaking away... not caring...ignoring... was the hardest and most painful thing I've done in my life. But I did it all for love. For Fatima. And I asked myself so many times 'will one more time matter?' just one time, but I never did, I was too afraid." she confessed.

"I'm sorry" Dawn still felt the need to apologize.

"It's okay, Dawnie, it's okay" she hugged her again. Sitting there, holding her sister in her arms, she felt at home.

"So how was it?" Cordy asked, seeing Buffy coming in the kitchen. "Hot chocolate?" she asked, raising her cup.

"No thanks" Buffy shook her head and sat down at the table.

"Well?" Cordy asked, as she hadn't answered her first question.

"Oh. It was good. Always nice to see her again. It's... comforting" she said, staring at the table for a moment.

"Any word from the ghost bunch?" Cordy asked, taking a sip from her cup.

"Nothing" Buffy said sighing. "I hope they'll show up."

"They will. They don't have any interest in your daughter, just you. Ghosts are twisted like that. Or maybe I'll just get one of those mind-blowing visions," she said, tapping on her temples, she preferred to leave out the fact that she was half-demon, for now. "Why didn't you tell Angel about you and Spike?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly.

"What?" Buffy asked surprised.

"Angel said he told you about Spike being here for a couple of months. I asked him if you mentioned something about Spike's life in Sunnydale. He said you didn't," Cordy said calmly, taking another sip of hot chocolate.

"What was I suppose to say?" Buffy asked, surprised again.

"Oh, I don't know. How about: 'Spike was jumping my bones like crazy back in Sunnyhell'?" Cordy said. "I know it's not exactly the best time right now, and you couldn't tell him straight out today. But c'mon, everybody's been sorta dying to tell him, but no one's really had the guts. Not even Spike, and he hated him. So I was thinking, maybe you could tell him. Now that you're here and everything. Not to be insensitive."

"You know?" Buffy asked looking up at her. Cordy let out a little chuckle.

"Of course we knew. Do you really think Spike would've shut up about it? He was destroyed beyond rational thought. But he never told Angel, I don't know if he would've believed him anyway. He put you up on this high pedestal."

"And you think I have no place being there?" Buffy asked cutting her off, using a harsh tone.

"No, no, that's not what I mean. I think he should know everything there is to know and then he should decide if you still belong there" Cordy said. There was a moment of silence. "You see, we have this whole big family concept going and it's hard to keep something from one another. We're like the Brady Bunch plus a million flaws. And for a moment, even Spike was one of us. If you'd told me that 5 years ago, I would've said get real, but when he came, it was different. He couldn't hurt anyone and he was so destroyed. Angel saw him crying once, I saw him crying more then 10 times in two months. I didn't understand what was wrong with him, he wouldn't tell anyone. Then, one night, I saw him on the roof and I went up. He was drunk and crying. He was a wreck. I asked him what was wrong with him and that's when he told me. He let it all out. About you, Sunnydale, what happened after you came back from the dead, after he got his soul, why he got a soul" she looked up at Buffy. "He felt better after that. He decided to stay for a while, he told Faith about it, he told Gunn and Wesley and even Fred, who he barely knew. He was one of us. Even with Angel. He would tell us stories, keep us up at night, sometimes till dawn" a smile crossed her lips. "Unlike Angel, he liked to talk about his past and the places he'd been to and things he did. Sometimes, even Angel would pitch in with other stories, he didn't feel bad telling them around Spike, 'cause it all seemed natural. Spike made it seem that way. It was fun to have him around. But he left a few months later; he couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to tell him, but he knew any kind of relationship with him would be damaged by it. And when he felt he was about to give in, he left. He went to England" she looked down. "He was loyal to you" she cleared her throat. "He sent us a postcard when he got there" she finished, putting down her cup. She walked over to the freezer; it was full of sticky notes, demon portraits, Wesley's drawings and up, right on the corner, there was a picturesque postcard of London in the winter. She took it, handing it to Buffy.

She looked at it for a moment before turning it to see what was written on the other side.

"You know, they say there's no place like home. It's true, but it's so bloody cold, I can't even feel my hands. Guess I should've waited for spring. At least the pig blood has human taste. Wonder if they combine it. Either that or even my tongue is frozen. Wish I could come back for winter. Spike"

"When did he come here?" Buffy asked. "After he left Sunnydale?"

"No, and thank god he didn't. As I remember that would've been exactly when Angel turned to his gruesome self. He came after Wesley was born. He traveled through the country a bit, went to Mexico, Canada, and couldn't shake off the pain. Then he came to LA. Ran into Angel," Cordy said and took the postcard Buffy had abandoned on the table. She put it back on the freezer. "The postcard, it's from three years ago."

"You haven't heard from him since then?"

"Actually we did. He wrote a few letters. I think he's in some island in the south Pacific right now," Cordy said, coming back to the table.

"And why did you bring this up now?" Buffy asked, staring at her as she drank from her cup.

"It got your mind off Fatima didn't it?" Cordy said smiling.

"Yeah, it did" Buffy said, realizing her scheme. "So do you do this often?"

"Try getting people's minds off their worries? Yeah, it's like a second layer of skin. It grows on you. I mean you can't expect to work around desperate people, no offense, and not develop some kind of desire to make them feel less miserable. Everybody's got their own gimmick. I got all this gossipy concerto, Gunn has his jokes and puns, Faith has her slaying stories - and those things get your mind off absolutely anything - Fred does her nutty theatre, Wes has this whole demon encyclopedia of weirdness that fascinates everyone and Angel..." she chuckled slightly. "Well Angel has this whole attitude that makes people feel better. You know the 'I've been there, I can help you, I'll work this out, Trust me' routine. It takes one look," she snapped her fingers. "The women usually fall for that one. Wonder why. Oh and if all else fails, we send in the last resort. No one can resist an adorable kid telling you everything's going to be okay" Buffy smiled. "As for my bitching, you know, you and Spike, it's water under the bridge. Like Faith and Angel. Well, mostly, like Angel and any kind of relations he had with women in the last 10 years" Cordy added.

"So he had... uhm... relationships?" Buffy asked surprised.

"Not really. You can't really say relationship. It was basically either freaky spiritual relations or hot and heavy one night stands," Cordy said, sitting down opposite her at the table.

"One night stands? How can he... I thought he couldn't..." Buffy started, shocked.

"Have sex?" Cordy asked.

"Make love" she corrected her.

"That, he can't. Sex, yeah. It's the whole moment of true happiness. An orgasm is not a happy in Angel language. It's the whole emotional baggage that comes with it, now that's a happy. That's why he never actually risked more than a one nighter. He discovered this little piece of news back with the whole Darla thing. You know about Darla being back and all, right?" she asked, interrupting her own comment.

"Spike mentioned something" Buffy remembered him saying something Drusilla had shared with him when she had comeback to Sunnydale.

"Thank god! I am so sick of that story! If I could count the times I had to tell it! Just drives me crazy" she said taking a big breath of air, deciding she should leave out the 'Darla's baby' story that would probably take her all afternoon to tell and she had other things on her mind too. "Well, anyway, that's how he found out and got her out of his head, till then he had this whole obsession/revenge thing going, which sorta screwed up his relations with us. It was a scary time. But then he came back. And then she came back again and... to cut the story short she put a stake through her heart" she said sighing.

"So what kind of girls…women does he like?" she asked, though the question sounded a little off base.

"Oh, he had the whole enchilada. He's just attracted to people, demons, that he considers special. And then there's... uhm..." she couldn't find the right words. "Let me rephrase that. When there's like a tiny group of people and they're you know guys and girls, at some point they... combine. Randomly."

"Never happened to us," Buffy interrupted her for a moment.

"You guys were different, even though if you think about it…I was together with Xander, he cheated on me with Willow, and he had a thing for you, and Anya was with him and she had that whole one time thing with Spike and Spike and you…"

"I got, I got it. Go on," Buffy didn't want to hear their whole history laid out.

"Right…so Fred had a thing for Angel, he had a thing for me, Wes had a thing for Fred, Faith had a thing for Angel, I had a thing for Gunn - which I still do- and Gunn had a very deep, long relationship with Fred a while before we hooked up, then Angel had the whole tense sex thing with Faith, then it was my turn and between us, we had our little relationships. Nothing really worked out. Except me and Gunn, and hopefully it'll continue to work out, though I still think he has a big weakness for Fred," she said, hesitating at first to talk about her fling with Angel, even so making sure she said it in a long line, trying not to make it stand out. Maybe it would be lost in the rest. She didn't know if she should've said something. But then she thought Fred, Wesley or Faith could mention something accidentally. It was better if she heard it from her.

"You and Angel?" Buffy asked, shocked.

"Well, you know, it had to happen at some point. The day when I'm mildly drunk and he's depressed beyond thought and it's just the two of us. So basically we just decided to drop it and most likely forget about it. There were a weird couple of months, but we got over it. No biggy" she said hoping she wouldn't get a pained reaction from the slayer. She didn't want her to know the truth unless it was absolutely necessary. And that wasn't going to be the case. After they would find her daughter, and a million thank yous later she'd disappear from their lives as she had 7 years ago. The last thing she wanted was to hurt her right now.

"Yeah, it happens" Buffy said, tugging her shirt in an effort to control her gestures.

"Sorta happened to you and Spike too. But that was lusty needy feelings not a bottle of whisky and an empty hotel" Cordy said, lying again. She looked at her watch and was alarmed at the time. "Uh, I gotta go make peace with the play director. We'll talk some more later. Angel will be back any time now, Fred's upstairs if you need anything and... can't find it. Bye-bye" she said hurrying out the door and grabbing her purse in the process.

"Bye" Buffy said. She stood there in the silence for a moment. It was good to talk to Cordy, having her mind busy with other thoughts was just what she needed. Cordy and Angel? Now that was weird. But then again the thought of her and Spike would've only brought up laughter 10 years ago, but it had happened, so not even Cordy and Angel sounded so absurd anymore.

She sighed, she couldn't take the waiting. It tore her up inside. She looked down at her feet. She had to find something to do. She looked towards the staircase leading upstairs. Should she talk to Fred? She didn't even know her. She decided she should just pretend that the brunette wasn't there. She stood up and looked around. Everything was squeaky clean. So much for taking her stress out on dirt. Just as she was about to go into the lobby, she heard the front door open and shut, then Angel's familiar voice calling out.

"Cordy?" there was no answer. "Gunn?" he called. She wondered why she didn't step out of the kitchen and let him know she was there. She thought she wasn't prepared to face a one on one conversation with him. "Faith? Wes?" he continued to call out. "Fred?" this time he got a weak answer, muffled by doors, from upstairs.

"Here!" Fred yelled followed by sounds of movement from upstairs. Fred was coming down.

"Where's everybody?" Angel asked, relieved to see a familiar face.

"Cordy decided to go grovel back to her play director, big time. She decided he was right after all. Anyway, Gunn went to pick up Wesley from kindergarten, and Wes and Faith ran into a nest down in the sewers" Fred told him. "Oh, and Buffy's with her sister, I think. Cordy mentioned something like that."

"How about you? No demons to hunt?" he asked smiling.

"None besides my own" Fred said. "Those and the ones haunting a certain physics book I've been trying to understand forever."

"I hope your room doesn't smell anymore" Angel seemed to want to apologize.

"Oh, no problem, Wesley did a little spell. It smells pine fresh now," she assured him. "You know she left a weird vibe back there. Something so mingled, electrifying even. Is she like that, electrifying?"

"You could say that" Angel smiled.

"It's all in her past, it shakes," she said absently.

"Shakes?" Angel asked, wondering if this was one of those moments when her insanity made a little comeback.

"Yeah, like something wouldn't be right. It's been giving me a headache all day" she added, rubbing her temples.

"She must've left something like a spectrum back there. You can sleep in another room until it blows off" he said, putting his fingers to her temples and gently rubbing them.

"That feels good" she said, letting her hands slide down next to her body.

"The trick's massaging the right spot" he said, sitting her down on a chair. "Here" he said, pressing his fingers in a certain spot.

"At this moment, you're god to me" she said, closing her eyes.

"Well you get to learn a lot of useful things in 250 years" he said, lowering his hands to her neck.

"So with what exactly did this little trick help you with?" she asked, leaning her back on his body and looking up in his eyes.

"Women mostly" he said, making Fred giggle.

"Well, you got my vote. I could let you do this for hours" she said, closing her eyes again. "So all it took was one little temple massage?"

"You could say that. Then I'd work my way down to the neck, then the shoulders, until I got under their skirts. The End" he said.

"You're not trying that on me, are you?" she said, looking down at his hands that were now rubbing her shoulders. Angel chuckled.

"No" he said smiling down at her.

"Good" she said and sank back down in his embrace, then added: "Besides I'm not even wearing a skirt."

For a moment Angel's hands stopped on her shoulders.

"Don't stop now!" Fred protested.

"I'm sorry" Angel cleared his throat. "I was just imagining something."

With a quick move Fred moved away from his arms and grabbed the nearest pillow hitting him in the face with it.

"You dirty old vampire!" she said laughing.

"Hey, you're the one with the sick mind here" Angel said returning the pillow in her face. A massive pillow fight ensued, both holding on to one and hitting, Fred as hard as she could, and Angel only playfully avoiding hurting her. With a laughed out scream, Angel rose Fred off the ground, squeezing the pillow she was clenching in her arms between them as he brought her up face to face with him, feathers still floating around them. He held her like you'd hold a child up to look at.

"Give up now or face the consequences" Angel told her with a faked serious look.

"What are you gonna do, bite me?" she asked, playfully poking his chest with her finger.

"Actually I had something else in mind" he said, flipping her over his shoulder, the pillow she was holding falling at Angel's feet.

"Angel! Put me down!" Fred yelled laughing, shaking her feet. Trying to stop her from moving, Angel wasn't paying attention to his feet as he walked. He stepped on a toy, tripping over the carpet and crashing down on the floor. His hands instinctively held Fred to his chest, trying to protect her from the fall as much as he could. He landed on the floor, hurting his back, but with Fred safe atop him in his arms, her eyes still shut awaiting a jolt of pain.

"You okay?" Angel asked softly.

Fred opened her eyes carefully.

"I think so" she said, rising herself face to face with him. "How about you?"

"A few bruises, but I think I'll survive" he said.

"So tell me, what exactly did you have in mind?" she asked, looking him in the eye.

"Guess we'll never find out," Angel said smiling.

"Sure I can't change your mind?" she asked, her face inches away from his. Her lips lowered just a little, touching his.

"And we're the ones being immature? Right!" Gunn said startling them. Fred rolled next to Angel, gathering herself, while Angel got up, both embarrassed. Gunn was standing a few feet away from the door with his hands crossed over his chest, while little Wesley stood a step in front of him, with his hands covering his eyes, still peeking between his fingers, smiling.

Fred gave Angel a small smile before moving away from him scooping Wesley in her arms. "And how was your day, little man?"

"Not as fun as yours" the boy said smiling.

"Don't be so sure. I've been hearing voices all day" Fred said, trying to ignore the boy's comment.

"Your head hurts, in the inside. Like tiny bruises?" Wesley asked, touching her temples.

"You could say that" Fred said. "I have a lot of scars inside there" she added, tapping on her head. "But enough about that. How was kindergarten?"

"Good" Wesley said looking over her shoulder. "I'm hungry."

"Me too. Let's go have a snack" Fred said raising her eyebrows.

"Nothing sweet," Angel warned her.

"Your daddy always wants to ruin our fun," Fred said smiling as they moved towards the kitchen.

"Is something wrong with him? He usually talks a lot about his day," Angel said, looking at Fred as she disappeared into the kitchen.

"No... well his teacher said he was acting a little weird after he went to the bathroom," Gunn said sitting down.

"Weird how?" Angel asked.

"Like something happened, something he didn't want to share with anyone," Gunn repeated the teacher's words.

"Did he tell you anything?" Angel asked sighing.

"Nope. Quiet as a mouse" Gunn said then added a little worried: "You think..."

"No. It's not gonna show until he'll be 16, they promised" Angel assured him.

"Good" Gunn said staring at the carpet for a long moment.

"I'll try to find out what happened" Angel said, leaning down into a chair, while Gunn stared at him curiously. "Stop it!"

Fred entered the kitchen still holding Wesley in her arms. She let out a small scream when she saw Buffy. The slayer startled slightly.

"Buffy! Sorry, I thought no one was here. I thought no one was home" Fred added.

"It's okay" Buffy said, feeling awkward talking to her after hearing her and Angel in the other room.

"Hi, Buffy" the little boy said while Fred let him slide out of her arms. He ran towards the fridge.

"Hi, Wesley" Buffy returned the salute, smiling at the boy as he struggled to open the fridge. He finally managed to open it with a little help from Buffy.

"How about pizza?" Wesley asked, taking out a pizza box.

"Well it's not sweet," Fred smiled as the boy clapped his hands over the box before closing the refrigerator. Buffy watched him fascinated. In some ways she seemed to see a small version of Angel: a brown haired boy with chocolate eyes and an angelic face. But there was also a strange resemblance to Faith, a smile, that pseudo-happy smile she had seen only on her sister slayer, the way one of his curls twirled, the way he hung on to some things like they were his life. A vague memory of Faith's knife came to her mind.

"Yay, pizza" Wesley cheered, heading for the microwave. Buffy noticed a feeling of utter joy on the boy's features, one neither of his parents possessed and maybe never would.

"Let me have that. You're way too young to work electronics, baby" Fred said, taking the box from the boy's hands and winking at Buffy in the process.

"You just have to press that button" Wesley said, upset that she had taken away the box from his hands.

"You know what, I'll make you a deal. When you turn 5 the first thing I'm going to let you do is program the microwave, okay?" Fred told him and his sadness immediately washed away. A thin smile crossed Buffy's lips. Fatima use to do the same.

"Promise?" Wesley asked, looking up.

"Hey, did I ever not keep a promise?" Fred asked as she programmed the microwave.

"Yeeeees" Wesley sang. "When you had little demons in your head," he pointed towards her head.

"Darn. I hoped you wouldn't remember" Fred said, looking down at him.

"Vampire's memory" Wesley pointed towards his own head, saying the words Cordy used to describe his brilliant memory. He could remember things from the first year of his life, like the color of his sheets or the songs Faith liked to sing to him. "Just like daddy," he added with a big satisfied smile on his face.

"You bet" Fred smiled. Wesley looked hesitantly at Buffy. The slayer noticed his wondering gaze.

"Something wrong?" Buffy asked looking into his brown eyes.

"No. Everything's okay," Wesley said, changing his mind instantly. "I'm gonna go watch TV," he said, determined and walked out of the kitchen.

"I wish everything was okay," Buffy said looking down.

"It will be. Soon," Fred assured her. "I have to get some of my stuff in another room" she remembered. "Could you please give Wesley the pizza when it's done?"

"Sure" Buffy said watching her hurry out of the kitchen.

Fred climbed up the stairs, hurrying towards her room. She opened the door slowly, only for a hurricane of thoughts to invade her mind the moment she stepped in. Her mind seemed to be more vulnerable then others, probably because of the experiences she had had in Pylea. All the voices whispered in her ears some kind of history. It made her think of the story that had been written on the walls of that room more then 8 years ago. And at first she wondered if the walls hadn't come alive and were telling their story all over again. She felt that way, like history was repeating itself.

Her crush on Angel had silently returned inside her heart, digging deeper under the surface this time. But at least he seemed to share a certain degree of her feelings. And Buffy had shown up now of all times, bringing back all his feelings for her. Even if he still liked to play with her, they'd played over the years for different reasons, it didn't always mean something. Only she had caught him staring blankly out the window, pondering something at times and only she had found a picture of the slayer in his favorite book. She knew sometimes, he thought about his lost love. But he had so many people in his mind that you never knew when or about who he was thinking, his parents, his sire, his love, his first child and the second one fate had blessed him with, old friends and companions.

She sighed. She had tried given up figuring Angel out, but she just couldn't bring herself to let go. It was one of the great mysteries she wanted to solve in her lifetime.

'I told you to get out of my town!' the voices whispered in her ear.

'You can't just… Not after everything...'

'Get out or I swear to god I'll kill you!' the voices yelled, followed by the sound of someone falling to his knees.

'I...I...I...I...I...I...I' different voices repeated and she seemed to recognize some of them. And then the crying started, making her cover her ears and stuff her things messily in a bag and exit the room as fast as possible. Once on the other side of the door she sighed, leaning down next to it.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Faith asked Angel as she put her jacket on. "We don't really have to go, if you need us."

"You promised Wes. I know you want to keep your promise," Angel told her, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Now go have fun and don't let anyone get drunk."

"I'll try" Faith said, just as little Wesley rushed into the room to jump in his mother's arms.

"We're going to see uncle Lorne!" he said happily.

"Yes we are" Faith smiled at him, letting him down from her arms.

"Aren't you coming, daddy?" he asked, looking up at his father.

"Daddy has to stay home and make sure the bad ghosts don't get Buffy," Angel told his son.

"Oh, then you take care of her" Wesley said, before running down into the lobby to join Cordy, Gunn, Wes and Fred. "Bye!"

"Bye" Angel said waving at him. "He's something our son, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is" Faith said and they shared one of those smiles only parents could share amongst themselves. "Take care of yourselves" she said and exited towards the lobby. Angel stood there for a moment, with his hands in his pockets. He smiled and turned away.

"Where's Angel?" Fred asked when she saw Faith coming alone.

"He's babysitting Buffy" Faith said.

"Damn and I wanted to hear him sing Mandy!" Fred sighed.

"Believe me it's not something you want to hear" Cordy said. Angel's singing hadn't improved much over the years, especially that first song he had sung, but it was more like it had to sound as false as the very first time for it to really be Angel's song. "I think we'll just have to settle for Faith's 'Bitch' and your 'Crazy' for tonight." They had made a deal to sing all their first songs that night.

"And your 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'" Faith reminded Cordy.

"Why was I hoping she'd forget about that?" Gunn asked.

"Probably cause we were dead-drunk last time we sang that song?" Cordy suggested. "Remind me again why we had to tell them that story?"

"Because we didn't see this coming," Wesley told her.

"There's definitely not enough tequila in that bar to make me sing again," Gunn said as they were heading for the door.

"Wait, no one's getting drunk tonight!" Faith suddenly remembered her promise to Angel. "Not in front of my baby."

"Aunt Cordy makes a funny drunk" little Wes pointed out.

"Why didn't I just skip that second shot of bourbon?" Cordy asked herself, shaking her head.

"I think the question is why you didn't skip the third and the fourth…" Fred started.

"And the fifth and the sixth..." Wes continued.

"Or the seventh..." Faith joined in.

"Hey, hey, enough with the finger pointing, I was emotionally distressed! I thought he was cheating on me" Cordy said, defending herself and pointing towards Gunn.

"With the demon dance teacher I got so I wouldn't embarrass her at her big theatre bash," Gunn reminded her. "Well, yeah sure, she was pretty hot before she pulled out her three horns, spare leg and gooey surface, but please!"

"Hey, I have major trust issues. Let's not forget my father ran away with the maid and left me and my mom drowning in debt," Cordy said.

"And my mom liked to ignore or beat me" Faith added as they climbed in Gunn's car.

"And let's not forget about my abusive father" Wesley reminded them.

"And my parents who abandoned me and my sis when I was seven" Gunn said sighing. Fred opened her mouth to say something.

"Don't even say it!" a chorus of voices stopped her.

"Sheesh, I was just gonna say you shouldn't drive too fast because there was a squad car behind the corner" Fred rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, girl, but usually you start to complain about your parents" Gunn said as he slowed down his usual high speed.

"Your perfect, sweet, adorable parents" Cordy reminded her.

"Who support you in hunting demons for a living" Wesley added.

"And your mother who bakes those incredible pies." Gunn remembered making everyone sigh at the memory. "Talking about your mother and her pies when is she paying us a visit?"

"This is when I regret everyone adoring my parents. I can't even bad mouth them" Fred shook her head.

"Well?" Gunn ignored her words and still awaited an answer to his question.

"Dad said they're gonna come up to see us next month" Fred said.

"Grandma and grandpa are coming to visit?" little Wesley suddenly asked, obviously thrilled by the news. Fred's parents had become the only grandparents he was ever going to know.

"Not now, next month" Faith told him.

"Oh" little Wes said a little disappointed. He looked out the window of the car from Faith's arms, staring into the dark night. Something seemed to shift and he recognized the shape of the girl he had seen earlier that day. She smiled at him and put a finger on her lips. A shadow suddenly appeared behind her, snatching her away. The girl seemed to giggle. Little Wesley let out a gasp as the two shadows disappeared.

"What's wrong?" Faith asked him looking out the window.

"Nothing" the boy immediately said.

"Are you sure?" Faith asked again. They all knew something had happened that day. He just didn't seem to be himself since he had returned from kindergarten.

"Just a scary man, mom" the child assured his mother, hugging her, but still staring over her shoulder into the night, in search of the golden girl.

Angel closed the door to Buffy's room. She was too tired to even talk. He thought she was trying to avoid him too though. He couldn't understand why. She was probably just scared of how much he had changed since he had left Sunnydale. In some ways even he was scared. He told himself all she needed was sleep. She needed sleep. And he was there to make sure she was going to get it. He went downstairs, sat down on a couch and grabbed a book he was reading the day before, his vampire senses alert to any danger that might come near the hotel. Nothing could escape him, except the shadows climbing up, lurking in the darkness, passing through closed doors, lowering the slayer and her bed into a black aura.

Up in her room, Buffy moved in her sleep to the other side. Something seemed to disturb her dreams, pushing inside her unconscious mind, haunting her.

End Part 5