Daddy Dearest

Chapter Four "Something Unexpected"

Disclaimer: If you'd look at me you'd know I don't own this. LOL.

A/N: Thanks for all the encouraging and constructing feedback that I've gotten so far for this … I worked on this almost every chance I had, hope you like the twist, and sorry that it took me a couple of days to update, the next chapter might take a while since it's not nearly done, but I promise it will be worth it... please read the final note on the bottom when you finish reading it will be important. Review please!

Warnings: Angst and Language.

Rating: PG13. (Nothing to worry about this chapter)

Spoilers: If you've gotten as far as this chapter then I guess you don't mind being spoiled, and besides this is totally AU. LOL.

Background: Angel went to get Connor out of jail, but his boy ran away and got attacked by a monster that poisoned him, and now he won't wake up.

Summary: Will Angel be able to save Connor?

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Angel was in agony, but tried to keep himself from thinking the worst. He immediately reached for the phone and dialed Gunn's cell as fast as he could.

"Hey man wass'up?"

"Gunn… Connor won't wake up, I think the venom thing is more serious than what we thought" Angel said desperately

"Well I'm at Wesley's right now, and we haven't really found anything yet, but Wes was asking me if you'd like to bring Connor over in order to get a blood sample so he can check it under the microscope and try to figure out what, exactly, are we dealing with" Gunn said trying to calm his friend down.

"Ok, I'll be there ASAP!" was all Angel could articulate.

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Angel arrived to Wesley's apartment in what could be considered record time and just put Connor in Wes's bed like he asked him to.

"I'm going to take a sample of Connor's blood to see if I can find out what the poison is made of, so we can understand fully what we're dealing with" Wes said.

And so he did, with little effort he took about a full tube of the youngster's blood and went quickly to his homemade lab to examine it.

"What have you found so far?" Angel asked worried.

"Nothing much, most books say it killed everything it bit, but it doesn't say how to stop the venom from acting" Gunn said "I think most creatures it infected died almost immediately, so no one really got a chance to come up with a cure. There are only some theories like the purple algae and the secret spell, which was the one that we found, but even with that we are not exactly sure it would work" he continued.

"I have to find the cure Gunn" Angel said desperate "He is my son, I'm supposed to protect him, I'm supposed to be there for him when he needs it and up to this point I've proven to be the worst excuse of a father ever invented".

"You are not the worst father; otherwise you wouldn't be trying to save him"

"But I feel like I've failed him in every way, I shouldn't have let him get away when we were about to go to the hotel, I just didn't want to push him too hard, and now him being hurt is all my fault"

"You couldn't have possibly known this would happen" Gunn offered.

"No, but I should have protected him, I promise that when he gets back everything will be different, I will protect him no matter what, I will finally be the father he needs all the way"

"I've found something!" Wesley's voice was overheard by the walls.

And Angel went to him almost running, while Gunn's cell phone rang.

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A while before… at the hotel…

"Hello? Anyone here?" Fred asked amazed to find the hotel completely deserted.

I guess I wasn't that important part of a bigger plan they had in mind" Fred sighed a little disappointed.

But then she wondered what would have happened since Connor was supposed to be in bed resting, and neither him nor Angel were nowhere to be found, so she decided to call Gunn.

"Hey honey, where are you?" Gunn answered his phone.

"Where am I? Where is everyone, Angel and Connor are gone!" She said worried.

"They're here" Gunn explained "Connor wasn't waking up, so Angel brought him to Wesley in order to examine him carefully".

"Is he alright?" the girl asked now fully preoccupied.

"We don't know yet, but we're working on it, why don't you come here and help us out"

"I was already on my way" was all Fred answered as she hung up.

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"What did you find?!" Angel was desperate.

"Well it's like nothing I have ever seen before but I think I've read about this somewhere a while ago while I was still a student on an excavation trip we took" Wesley said trying to calm his vampire friend down.

"And do you remember anything else, because frankly that doesn't help us very much" Angel was annoyed, and just wanted full answers.

"Well…" Wesley said a little hurt for being Angel's anger target "The excavation was in Greece and the documents I believe, were in a museum".

"So we have to get those documents?" Gunn asked just entering the room.

"…That are in a Greek museum?" Angel complemented.

"Well I think they should be on the museum's online site" said Wes.

"That certainly sounds cheaper!" Gunn remarked.

"I'll try to find the information on the museum's web and you two go check how Connor's doing". Wes asked them.

Angel and Gunn walked to where Connor was and were glad to see Fred coming through the front door.

"Hey guys! Ever heard of the cell phones to call and let people know when emergencies happen!" Fred was obviously disappointed.

"Honey calm down everything is fine, and trust me we are working on it" Gunn said.

"I go warm some blood because frankly I want to be alone for a minute, Gunn please update Fred on everything" Angel said going to the kitchen.

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"Dad…?" Connor softly spoke, watching Angel warming some blood on Wesley's microwave and noticing that he was almost crying. He completely forgot to say the word 'Dad' with the sneer that he used every time, because he had never seen Angel this way ever.

"Angel what the hell is going on with you?" He asked again; but got the same answer that before: silence.

Angel was crushed, like if he were really dead, well more than he already was. He felt nothing plus he completely blamed himself for Connor's accident, because, truth be told, he was the one that let Connor run away and that simple thing was eating him alive. The guilt was consuming him and the only thoughts in his head where 'Why did I let him go away? I could have prevented it if I were a responsible father! How could I do this to him?'

Connor felt weird, lighter than usual and like he was almost floating, besides he wondered why his dad looked so sad, and why he wasn't answering him.

"Angel, c'mon I know you're angry because I ran away from you back at the hotel, but I'm here and you're not yelling at me, so what's goin' on?" Connor spoke one last time hoping this once to be answered.

Angel bit his lip, feeling full of angst, and then walked to the door, passing through Connor, literally. When his father passed, Con felt like a little shake or some kind of weird giggling and he just couldn't believe it.

He ran to the living room of Wesley's house and saw Fred and Gunn gathered around the coffee table, sadder than he had ever seen them. Fred looked like she was about to cry, and her young face was full of preoccupation. Gunn was holding his girlfriend real tight but looked like when he tried to act brave but was afraid as hell on the inside. They were both looking through some books, readying carefully so they wouldn't miss any important details that might help them find a cure for Connor.

Angel was the worst to see. To watch his father in that shape worried him very much, and it was then that Connor just wanted to cry and scream.

"What the hell is happening here?! Why does everybody look so sad?! Can you hear me???" Connor yelled with all his soul.

The young boy ran to where Fred and Gunn were and tried to touch them, but just like with Angel, his hand passed right through them, like if he were made of smoke or something such as a cloud. Now he was beginning to worry. He didn't understand anything and finally went to his father.

"Dad what's this? Can you see me? Do you hear me? Angel I don't know what's happening!!!" Connor sounded like a little boy who was completely lost, and was trying to find his family. And he forgot that he was angry at Angel like he'd always been; all the nasty thought of hating his father forever and all the feelings of pain and angst just vanished; all he wanted right now was to be with his daddy.

And then Angel opened his mouth. Connor sighed with relief because he thought that his father had heard him. But the vampire said:

"Guys, we shouldn't be like this, there is absolutely nothing that I won't do to make Connor get better, and even though I'm devastated I will NEVER give up" He sounded sincere.

"We are looking in the books and right about now we've found two theories on how to stop the venom, the one with the algae and another one, which is far darker, and of course Wesley is trying to find that ancient document that he mentioned earlier". Fred said sheepishly.

"Let me see" Angel said. Fred handed him the book she was reading and Angel examined it thoroughly.

"So what exactly does this mean?" Angel asked since the reading didn't help him all that much.

"Well, as I understand the poison causes some mystical effects, like to release the soul from the body of the person that it's infected so they get into a vegetative state, where they are alive just not responding"

"So what do we do now?" Gunn asked

"I think it said that the only way to get rid of the venom is that the soul of the person that is in the comma type of thing, finds its destiny, or reaches some kind of goal" The young scientist said.

"So that crazy theory says that there is a possibility that Connor's soul was released and is now trying to accomplish something?" Angel asked, not knowing whether to believe it or not.

"Well, there is a slight chance but there is also the possibility that it is all a lie" Wesley came from his office, and joined them in the living room.

"What did you find about the document in Greece?" Fred asked.

"Nothing really it said that it had been lost in a fire about 17 years ago" Wes answered.

"So there is nothing but the black market algae potion or to believe that Connor's soul is surrounding us and that he eventually will fight his demons and come back, all by himself" Gunn added.

"What if he doesn't want to come back?" Fred said, covering her mouth realizing that she had just said the wrong thing and trying to fix it by adding "You know in case that theory is right"

"Well I guess that's up to him to decide" Wes answered not wanting to immerse more on the subject.

"I DO WANT TO GO BACK, YOU IDIOTS!! BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW!!" Connor was desperate, he had been overhearing the entire conversation and just wanted to be really dead since he had no idea of what to do now.

'Ok calm down, you won't gain anything by crying like a freaking baby, and besides that's not who you are, you are the Destroyer for god's sake! Think, Connor, think… they said that you have to reach some kind of goal or to find your destiny in order to be out of this whole mess… so what could I possibly be looking for?' Connor though to himself.

He began to look for the possible things that might get him out of his current spirit-like situation, but he just couldn't come up with anything at all. The only thing that he wondered was why he had treated those people who now seemed to be all concerned for him so bad, he felt his heart sick just to watch their faces all sad and worried, and he didn't want them to think he was gonna die.

The one that sickened him the most was Angel's face, his father looked older, sadder and his expression was filled with preoccupation, something he swore he had never seen before.

He had to do something and fast. He only needed to figure out what.

"Hey guys, I found something about that soul theory, it says that if the person's soul isn't able to be back in his corporeal form in 7 days it will stay that way, and there will be no possibility to reverse the change" Fred said quite amazed.

"Well, for one we don't know of that is true, so just don't worry about it now" Wesley said being a little skeptic.

All Connor said was "Oh shit…"

TBC

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Thank you so much for reading and I do hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Sorry for all the mistakes, I've never been good in grammar and that's why I'll stick with engineering! (Also I'm not a native English speaker, so sorry if there are things that are hard to understand!) I will bring next chapter as soon as possible, but I had to leave this here (is not as long as it was planned to). But please hang in there, as I said this chapter was already done but the next one, I'm still working on it, sorry, but I promise to bring it as soon as possible.And thanks again to all the people that have reviewed this, since I think I would have stopped a while ago if it wasn't for you guys!

Review please please would ya?

P.S. And also, any suggestions on what will Connor have to do to get back into his body will be enormously appreciated, since I'm not quite sure what to do. XD

lullaby.28 :)