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Once he was sure everyone was in bed he slipped out and dressed again before creeping silently out the door and down the hall. He made it safely to the front door and stopped, feeling a little worried. He had no real idea where he was or how to get home. Cordelia had said they were near Dublin but Dublin was all the way on the other side of the country. Still, he couldn't stay. Something was wrong and even though he thought he liked everyone it was beginning to worry him.

He quickly slipped out the doors, through the garden and out the front gates. The rush of traffic blared before him, faster and more hurried than anything he had ever seen before. He took a step back and gripped the gate, suddenly very afraid. Cordelia had said these things were like horseless carriages but they went so fast and were so terribly loud. He crept along the side walk, mindful of the traffic and began looking around him. He had never been to Dublin but he had heard stories yet this was just so much more. Everything was huge and busy and even though it was night no one seemed to sleep. He stopped when he reached a corner and looked back. He could see the hotel in the distance and suddenly felt very small. He had always wanted to see the city but this was just too much.

He stood on the corner for a long moment, wringing his hands. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to cry but didn't. Being hysterical wouldn't solve anything. He bit his lip and stepped away from the street. He didn't know what to do.

He had made up his mind to turn back when a voice called out to him. "You lost kid?"

He wheeled around wide eyed and saw a man standing a few feet away. "N-no." He stammered.

The man took a few steps towards him. "What're you doing out here at night then?" He asked, grinning slightly. He did not seem necessarily threatening but still. . . he had been warned that cities were dangerous places.

He stepped away from the man but was forced to stop lest he step into the street. He paused before looking back at the hotel. The man followed his gaze and then frowned slightly. "You shouldn't be out here alone. Are your parents around?"

Angel shook his head. "I want to go home." He mumbled.

"Alright, alright, where do you live?"

He gave the name of his village.

"I don't quite know where that is." The man said, still grinning. "Are you from somewhere? England? Are you here on vacation?"

Despite his misery hel had just enough of a level head to be indignant about being asked if he was English. Still, this man seemed nice and helpful so he didn't say anything. "County Galway." He mumbled.

"This is L.A. County. I don't really know where that is either."

Feeling quite hopeless he hung his head. The man for his part seemed to find this amusing. "Why don't you come with me?" He offered. "We can find a policeman."

Grateful for the help he followed the man down the street and away from the hotel. If they could find someone important he was sure he would be able to get home. He followed the man for a few minutes before the man turned down an alley. Unwittingly he followed along, surprised when the man stopped suddenly. A second later the man was pinning him to the wall, arms holding him up with unnatural strength.

Shocked he felt his mouth fall open and a weak scream escape his lips. The man's face was contorting into a grotesque parody of it's former self.

"I watched you come form the hotel," The monster snarled, tightening his grip. "You're gonna be a message to that vampire traitor: he can get the hell out of L.A." With that the monster opened it's mouth and Liam closed his eyes, bracing himself. This was it. He was going to die!

A second later a voice called out to them. "Drop the kid!"

He opened his eyes just as the monster threw him aside. It was Gunn and he was holding a giant ax. Grateful he scampered out of the way as the vampire flew at Gunn, swinging widely.

"I knew there was somethin' sneaking around." Gunn muttered. A second later his eyes found Liam's face and shot wide. He obviously had not realized who he was. A look of anger flashed across his face and Angel wondered if he was in trouble but immediately realized the anger was directed towards the vampire.

He crawled behind a dumpster and hid as Gunn battled the thing. He could hear them yelling and fighting and it scared him. He put his hands over his ears and burred his head in his knees. Fortunately it was over soon a moment later the vampire exploded into dust and Gunn knelt next to the dumpster, trying to coax the boy out.

"What are you doin' out here?" He asked.

Liam shook his head. "I- I. . ." He was stunned by what he had seen. Sure he believed there were monsters but it was another thing all together to see one. He couldn't believe it and that Gunn had killed it.

Realizing the boy was scared Gunn tried to come across as less threatening. "Hey, he's not coming back." It was a little surreal. The boy was scared of something he would one day become. But he didn't know that and there was no reason for him too. He grinned a little. "It's okay but we gotta go back to the hotel."

Slowly Liam extracted himself from behind the dumpster and allowed himself to be lead back to the hotel. Gunn kept glancing around as though he expected another monster to leap out but none came and a moment later they were safely back inside the building.

"What were you doing out there?" He asked, once they were back in the lobby.

Liam shrank back., afraid now to answer lest he wind up in trouble. "I wanted to go home." He finally said, hanging his head.

Gunn frowned. "I bet but you're not gonna get there sneaking out like that."

"Everything looks too different." He said. "I don't understand any of it and. . . and. . ." He didn't want to add that he was beginning to doubt them. That he wasn't sure he believed they knew his parents. He looked up at Gunn with tearful eyes and swallowed hard. "Do you really know my parents?" He asked. Gunn hesitated and when he did Angel tried again. "What are their names?" He looked so miserable that telling another lie seemed down right impossible.

Knowing the others would not be pleased he sighed heavily. "Alright, I'm gonna tell you the truth but before I do I just wanna make clear: We didn't kidnap you."

Liam nodded and followed him over to a seat. "You're not in Ireland and your parents didn't send you here. Honestly, I don't even know what their names are. This is the future and you got a spell put on you and it turned you into a kid and now you're here with us. But we're gonna find a way to fix it."

The boy's eyes went wide as the words hit him. He had a spell on him? Did a witch cast it? How old was he supposed to be? His head filled with thoughts and worries and he looked panicked. Instantly Gunn worried that it had been too much. "Hey," he continued. "It'll be okay. I promise. We can fix it."

A second later he regretted everything when Liam burst into tears. "Look, we got lots of cool stuff in the future though." He said, trying to distract him. "It'll be okay." Look, I'm gonna go get somethin' to show you." He hurried into the office and looked around. There had to be something he could use to distract the kid. He snatched up a flashlight, a set of keys and a Walkman, pausing briefly to look at the tape inside. Judging by the taste, it was Cordelia's. He hurried back and found the boy much as he had left him, sitting and crying softly and shaking.

"Hey, hey hey." He said, kneeling down. "Look what I got. Bet you don't have these at home!" He handed over the flash light and showed him how to click on the button. It seemed to work because a moment later the boy sniffed and tried his luck with the button. The light flashed on and then off again and he looked down the lenses at the bulb.

"Is it magic?" He asked in a small voice, sniffing again.

"No see it's. . ." Honestly he wasn't sure how to explain it. "See it's electric. There's a battery in here and. . ." He stopped, everything he was saying was going over the boy's head. "Um it's a contraption." He said dully.

This seemed to make sense to Angel because he nodded wisely, clicking the button a few more times. There were tear tracks on his face but his eyes were now focused. He frowned and shook it, hearing the batteries rattle. He could find nothing particularly magical about it and he began to think Gunn might be right.

Gun for his part sighed in relief. Liam was starting to become sufficiently distracted and he seized on the opportunity to throw him the keys. "These are cool too, right?"

Setting the flash light aside Liam picked up the keys and after another sniff frowned up at him. "We have keys." He said sounding a little indignant.

Gunn winced a little at that. Keys had been dumb but he had been desperate. After a few more clicks of the flash light he handed over the Walkman and showed him how to listen to the earbud. Angel paused for a moment before jumping in surprise. After that it was a very poorly explained summary of how a cassette tape worked which eventually seemed to satisfy. Afterward they sat still, Angel occasionally clicking the flash light and shining it on things. He seemed worn down now and a little defeated.

"You okay?" Gunn asked, relieved that the kid had stopped crying.

"Yes. . ."

"Alright but you can't go outside like that. It's not safe."

Angel nodded, still clutching the flash light. With that Gunn softened a little. "I mean it though. The city is dangerous and not just because of monsters like that. There's bad people out there too. People who hurt kids. You gotta be more careful."

Angel nodded again, this time looking more tired. He sighed after a minute and looked down at the flash light. "Can I keep this?" He asked.

Gunn shrugged. "Sure, it's yours. Now you wanna go on up to bed? It's pretty late."

He watched as the boy hurried off, still clutching the flash light. They had been lucky that night. Lucky that he had known something was skulking around the hotel, lucky he had been going out on patrol at that time. Damn lucky. And it was lucky to that things had worked out so well. That no one had gotten hurt and they'd made it back and even more that he had been able to explain everything so easily. There were questions he hadn't answered and honestly he wasn't sure how to answer them but still, the crying had been done and things would be easier to explain now. He was glad of that. There would probably be more tears along the way but for now he had done his part and he had done it well.

The next morning Gunn told the others what had happened and was met with varying degrees of panic. "Oh my God!" Gordelia shrieked. "Is he okay?"

"Oh yeah he's fine. A little scratched up but he'll be fine."

"I can't believe he would wander off like that." Wesley said, rubbing his jaw.

"I told you he'd think we kidnapped him." Gunn said a little aggressively.

"B-but he's okay with being in the future. I mean the present, right?" Willow asked.

Fred looked her way and then at Gunn looking worried.

"As far as I could tell." He said, waving a hand.

"I guess this makes driving him to Sunnydale a lot easier." Willow added.

Cordelia nodded, arms folded. She knew it had to happen. They had exhausted most of their ideas in L.A. But maybe Giles and Willow would have some remedy for the situation.

At 11:30 Cordelia made sure Liam was packed and ready to go but stopped there, hovering and wanting to keep him with her. She had grown fond of him in the few days he'd been a child and was now sad to see him leave. Wesley and Fred had to practically pry her hands off of him.

For his part, Angel was very sad to leave. He liked Cordelia and everyone else, despite the previous night's escape attempt. Wesley had explained to him that they'd only lied because they hadn't wanted to scare him and even though he wasn't entirely sure that made it okay he had decided it didn't matter. He eventually hugged her and Fred and Gunn goodbye and gave Wesley an awkward hands shake when the man seemed to feel hugging his boss, even in child form to be a little too weird.

After that Willow set him up in the back seat and asked if he wanted some lunch before they headed out. He nodded without really listening. He was craning his head to catch a last glimpse of the hotel. Once it was out of sight he began looking around. The traffic and city looked much less scary in the day time and from an inside view he guessed that cars weren't so scary. In fact they were smoother than a carriage or cart. Willow talked a lot the whole way. She told him about the town he was going to and the people there. She said he would be staying with her friend Buffy and from the sound of her he thought he would like this Buffy person.

They stopped at McDonald's before getting on the highway. It was an easy way to get Angel food and a toy. Cordelia had wanted to buy him some but hadn't gotten around to it. They had made a call to Buffy to get something before leaving. Hopefully she would have everything ready.

So I've gotten a couple of comments about using old fashioned English for Angel/Liam here and I've been doing some reading. I think for the most part I'm not going to go too heavy on it but what I did was apart from reading articles, I went and read some of Robinson Crusoe which was published in 1712 and as far as I can tell the language used in it is fairly simple and easy to read. By the 1700s I know English was transitioning into modern English and had mostly left behind what was called early modern English (Like Shakespeare and the King James Bible) so what he would have spoken would most likely have sounded like more formal sentence structure used today with just a few words that were beginning to die out such as use of yon/yonder to describe distance or Ye instead of you. Use of contractions such as can't and won't in written word arose out of vocal patterns and I think would probably have been in sue but would not have been found in literature unless written intentionally in dialogue. Then again, he's Irish so if you think about it there's a good chance he would have spoken Irish too as the language didn't completely start to decline until the 1800s and held out in western counties with Galway being a strong spot for a very long time because of how rural and far west it was. Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this but I just want people to know that I am putting thought into it. Sorry this is so long, I just get really fascinated by how language developed through history!

Anyway, much more importantly Buffy is in the next chapter. I think this may be set sort of before Dawn not that I don't like her but I've kind of been rewatching the earlier episodes and that's the mindset I've got. Oh well, thanks for reading!