Angel took an hour dragging out the boxes from the spare room while Buffy looked through her old clothes and sorted them into piles that would go to charity or the stuff Dawn might want. Tia was playing in Buffy's room when she started to also look through the boxes, she found a monkey teddy and she asked Buffy where it was from.
"Granddad got me that when I was ill, I had a few days off school and when he came home from work he brought me my dinner with the monkey on his head, it made me laugh and feel better." Buffy explained.
"Will the monkey make your arm feel better now?" Tia asked lightly running her finger along the sling.
"Not this time I'm afraid, but I'm hoping Willow and Tara will be able to help it soon." Tia nods at Buffy's response. "You can look after him if you want, and I can't remember his name so maybe you need to thinking of one for him."
Tia smiles "Thanks Mommy." and goes back to Buffy's room to finish the puzzle she is doing on the floor.
Buffy opens another box and sees photos albums in them. She opens one and smiles There are many pictures from when Buffy and Dawn where younger, they were pulling funny faces and playing in the garden. Angel moves to sit down next to Buffy for a break.
Buffy shows him the pictures and Tia slowly comes over to look as well.
"Is that me?" She asks pointing to a picture of Buffy holding a new born baby.
"Yeah, that's you. You were two days old. We had just come back from the hospital. On the next page Dawn was holding Tia.
"Can we put the pictures on the wall with the others?" Tia asks.
Buffy looks around and notices how there were only a few pictures of Tia, the ones no one would ask about because they looked like Buffy when she was younger. There were none of Buffy with Tia. Guilt kicked in, Buffy should have told her friends sooner, should have never tried to hide Tia from them. Should have brought her up instead of leaving Tia with her Aunt Lily.
"Choose all the pictures you like and we will put them up." Buffy tells Tia. She smiles and takes the album from Buffy. She takes the picture of Buffy holding her as a baby and of Dawn, then one of Tia making a mess with what looked to be her first birthday cake and a few others of Buffy and Tia at parks, reading stories and playing. Angel smiled as they look at the photos. Buffy picks up a picture Tia hadn't chosen and showed Angel. It was a picture of Tia asleep in a bed.
"I took this, before waking her up on her first birthday. She had slept in that day. It was half 9 by the time I decided to wake her but she just looked so cute and I had to take a picture. I couldn't believe she was one, she was walking and babbling. It all went so fast. I can't believe she is going to be 6 soon."
Angel smiles and kisses Buffy's head then continues clearing the last few boxes. Buffy then grabs the frames at the bottom of the photo box, cleans them and then puts the photos into the frames and lets Tia choose where she would like them put or hung up. Buffy struggles not to use her broken arm but in the end she manages to get the frames where Tia wants them. They then go back to the boxes and ask Dawn to look at the clothes Buffy put to the side and asks if she wants them. Dawn happily says yes and puts them in the wash ready to be worn after being in the spare room for years. The old toys that Tia hadn't dragged out and wanted to keep they have bagged up ready for the charity shop and the photo albums have been placed on a shelf.
"That was a good days work." Buffy says looking at the time. "Lets go get dinner." They all go downstairs and see Joyce in the kitchen cooking spaghetti bolognese. They all sit down and eat at the table. Not much was said but they all laughed when Tia slurped up the spaghetti to leave a bit blob of bolognese on her chin.
"Mommy, when am I going back to school? I didn't go today and I was meant to." Tia asked innocently.
"Ermm... soon, not yet, thought I'd let you have a little break." Buffy says, no one else added anything. After dinner Dawn helped wash up while Buffy gave Tia a bath and put her to bed for the night. She then went back to the living room and sat down to watch the T.V.
"Buffy." Joyce says and Buffy cringes at the conversation that is able to happen.
"Yeah?" Buffy replies looking at Joyce who is perching on the edge of the coffee table.
"About Tia's school, she really does need to go."
"I know mom, but I can't leave her. I won't." Buffy says strongly.
"You need to." Joyce replies calmly but it doesn't keep Buffy calm.
"Do I? Really? I know that if I left her at the school, or with the gang at the magic box or anywhere that isn't with me Kevin will be waiting and he will take her. Do you want that? He wants me dead and most likely Tia too. I'm not going to risk it. She will go back to school when I can guarantee she will be safe." Buffy says firmly.
"Okay." Joyce says and walks back to the kitchen.
Buffy sits and stares at the T.V. Trying to think of a way she can protect Tia but allow her to continue doing the things she needs and wants to do. She couldn't think of a way to make it happen.
Angel sat next to Buffy and asked her if she wanted to go the store and find some paint for Tia's room.
"What about Tia?" Buffy asked, slightly in response to Angel's question but also in general.
"She will be fine with your mom. She is asleep and will stay inside. As for other times, she needs to go to school. The only thing that can be done is to tell the school she he is not allowed near her and get the police involved. He assaulted you and that is enough for the police to step in." Buffy's eyes move away from his in shame. He lifts her chin up. "Hey everything will be okay. Would you prefer me to get Xander over here just in case?"
Buffy thinks for a while. "No, it's okay. He doesn't know where we live. We will just make sure we aren't being watched as we leave or come back."
"Of course." Angel said and squeezed Buffy's good hand, that has been shaking as they spoke.
Five minutes later they were ready to go and Buffy stood watching Tia sleep. "Come on. I promise you she will be fine. You just have to do it."
"What if he takes her while I'm gone." Buffy worries.
"She won't. Trust me. He has no idea where you live. Now lets go. I wouldn't be making you do this if I didn't think she was safe." Angel says sternly.
Buffy nods and closes the door and followed Angel to the door. Her stomach tying itself in knots.
"We won't be long Joyce, maybe if you could just text or call Buffy to let her know Tia is fine she'll calm down a little." Angel says quietly while Buffy is getting her shoes on. Joyce agrees then he goes back to Buffy. "Ready?" Buffy gives a slight nod and follows Angel out the door.
Buffy looks around the darkness but doesn't see or sense anyone. Angel also allows his vampire senses to open up but he felt no one near him other then Buffy.
They walk to the high street and go into the hardware shop.
"I'm just going to call home, make sure she is still asleep." Buffy says pulling out her phone and called her mom.
"Hello?" Joyce answers.
"Hey mom, I'm just checking-"
"She's fine Buffy. Go find some stuff for her room." Joyce cuts across.
"Okay." Buffy smiles and say bye, she then turns and gives Angel a shy smile.
"Everything is okay." Angel smiles and pulls her along with her good arm.
They make there way to the paint section and begin to look through the colors.
"I think this is a nice color, what do you think?" Angel asks, holding up a big pop of peachy pink paint. He then sees Buffy is not paying attention to him but instead looking around.
"Buffy stop." She looks at him. "You're making yourself paranoid." Buffy nods slightly. "Now, what do you think?"
Buffy looks at the pot, "That's nice. She would like it."
"I was thinking we could use this with a boarder of fairies or princesses or something?" Angel suggests. Buffy nods and they walk to the boarders. Buffy looks through them and sees a glittery butterfly one.
"What about this?" Buffy holds up the boarder to the paint pot. "I think it will go nicely."
"Yeah, very nice. What else will she need? We have the paint and board, she'll need a light shade, lamp, bed and bedding of course, wardrobe and some draws."
"A mirror, a dressing table, some hooks on the fall and a toy box." Buffy continues slightly relaxing now.
Angel nods. "Right I saw light shades over there and the hooks are here but we'll go somewhere else for everything else." Buffy agrees.
They choose a nice set of hooks for Tia's coats to go on and a rainbow light shade then bought everything and went back home.
Buffy opened the door and she knew deep down that everything was going to be okay. Angel was right she was making herself paranoid. "We're home. Is she still asleep?" Buffy asked her mom.
"She woke up about 20 minutes ago wondering where you were. She's in Dawn's room having a story."
Buffy nods and jogs up the stairs into Dawn's room.
"Mommy!" Tia jumps up and into Buffy's arms. "Where were you?" She asked.
"Getting some things for your room." Buffy picks her up and walks out the room, mouthing a thank you to Dawn for reading to her. "Now it's time for you to go back to bed." Buffy lays her back in bed and tucks her in. She sits next to Tia and strokes her hair out of her face and runs her finger along Tia's small cheek. "I love you baby girl."
"I love you too Mommy."
Buffy kisses Tia's head and Tia snuggles into the bed more and closes her eyes. She is asleep quickly and Buffy wants nothing more then to go to sleep as well.
Angel enters the room to find a sleeping Tia and a struggling Buffy trying to get out of her top.
"You okay?" Angel whispers.
"My arms hurting and I can't get out of this thing." Buffy whines.
Angel smiles and helps her lift the top over her head and gets her arm carefully out of the top then help her to put on her night shirt. "Thanks. I hope Willow has come up with a spell for my arm soon. Just seems to be hurting more now." Buffy says looking at Angel.
"You need to rest, the stress you've been causing yourself isn't good for you."
Buffy goes to protest but she knew he was right.
They both climb into bed and Buffy cuddles up to Tia.
"I love you Buffy." Angel says but sees she is already fast asleep.
AN: Sorry it took so long to update. Hopefully you like what was written and are looking forward to what is to come. Please leave reviews. Thank you.