Chapter 14

Wesley felt the rush of air as he flew through the air. The breath was knocked violently from his body as he hit the floor. Before he could put up much a fight, he was being lifted by his shirt collar, a very angry Angel screaming at him in the process.

"Do you know what you've done? Do you have any idea?" Shaking Wesley, Angel threw him again.

He wanted to beat the living hell out of Wesley. The man had stolen his son, screwed up the life of his own wife and child beyond belief and stolen back the memories Angel had sacrificed so much to see locked away forever.

His hand was caught in mid air before his fist could connect with Wesley's head. Turning, he caught Will's arm and pivoted, effectively slamming the other man's hip into the desk. Will winced, but didn't let go of Angel's arm. Instead, he pulled Angel violently, bringing the man closer to him before shoving with all his might. He watched as Angel flew through the window and landed on the lawn.

Will knew he had to get Angel away from Wes. Will wanted to kill Wesley too, and it wasn't his son that the man had stolen. Leaping through the gaping hole in the window, glass flew around him, shards embedding themselves into his skin. There was no time to think about that, Angel's hands were connecting with his organs.

Throwing a punch into Will's liver, he coiled his right leg and unleashed a volley of kicks at the other man's head. Will's head snapped back and his nose started bleeding, but he was still standing.

Spinning, Will leapt into the air and caught Angel on the side of his head with his foot. Even though he was stunned, Angel still reached up and grabbed Will's ankle. Spinning him, Angel let go, letting Will's momentum take him hard into the ground.

Will was on his feet before Angel reached him. They exchanged lightning quick blows that most humans would only recognize as a blur of arms and legs. Angel broke the stalemate with a vicious hit to Will's temple. He watched as Will hit the ground.

Before Angel could advance any more, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun and caught his action just in time. Buffy was staring at him. Her eyes were flashing emotions quicker than Angel could name them. He unclenched his fist and put his arm down. There was no use fighting now.

Dejectedly, he stepped through the broken window and looked at Wesley, who was sitting on the floor, his head in his hands.

"I didn't mean…" He couldn't finish a thought, and he definitely could not finish a statement.

Dawn was staring at the scene, shock all over her features. Xander and Fred were behind her. Fred was still holding Allyson, but she looked pale and as if she was about to be sick. None of them broke the silence for what seemed like a long time.

Looking Angel straight in the eye, Fred lifted her chin in a defiant gesture. "You bastard." Turning on her heel, she was storming out of the room before Angel could react.

His legs felt like lead and he could feel blood trickling down his forehead and into his left eye. His ribs were bruised and his shins ached from blocking a few kicks at odd angles. He was going to be sore for a few days.

Buffy climbed back through the window, Will close behind her. He looked a little worse than Angel, but he hadn't been fighting with the same ferocity. Will opened his mouth to speak, but Buffy beat him to it.

"We need to have a meeting. Now."

Angel nodded ascent once and then disappeared into the hallway. He was in the bathroom before anyone could follow him. He dug the heel of his hands into his eyes, fighting back the tears that had threatened him for so long. He would not cry now, he vowed. Looking at the medicine cabinet, he reached for an object he had not used in some time.

The relief was immediate, as always, but not as intense as it usually was. He made another line, below the first one. The pain focused him again, as the lines of blood running down his arm brought him back to reality with a sharp jolt. Cleaning his head wound quickly, he slapped a bandage on all the bleeding wounds he could see.

When he came into the living room, Fred and the baby were no where in site. The car seat was gone too. Xander was pacing, agitation clear on his face. Will had managed to get Wesley into the living room and seated on a couch, but he doubted the man would be able to complete a sentence that made sense any time soon.

Dawn dabbed a cloth on Will's temple. There was a purple pocket of blood under the open wound and he clenched his teeth and grunted while she pushed some of the blood out. He wasn't happy. He just couldn't decide who he was angrier at. Wes had started a lot of problems, but Angel seemed to have a knack for finishing them. He was, most of all, though, mad he hadn't already dealt with the Connor situation. He knew with certainty he could have prevented all this if he had admitted his knowledge to Angel and forced him to at least tell Buffy.

As it was, they now had multiple crises to deal with. Angel was in deep shit with Fred, and probably Gunn if he remembered. Wesley was close to insane, and Fred and Allie were missing. He clenched his teeth in frustration.

Buffy glared at Angel. She was carefully controlling her anger, because since that blue light had hit her, baby had started doing kung fun inside her. She didn't want to upset baby any more. When she spoke, it was with a forced calm. "Explain."

Taking a shaky breath, he dragged his hand through his hair, which was still stiff and tainted green with demon blood. This was not a good day for him, he thought. "I…had a son. With Darla." He avoided Buffy's eyes while he said the last part.

"When Connor was a few months old, we received this prophecy. Wes interrupted it. He didn't tell anyone what he found. The prophecy said 'the father will kill the son.' We found out later Wolfram and Hart had designed it. A man whose family I killed as Angeles was brought back by Wolfram and Hart for the sole purpose of killing me. Instead, he stole my son. Connor was raised in a hell dimension, and came back a few months later as a teenager…time passes differently in hell.

Connor…was okay for a while, but…he was unstable most of the time. He…well, I had a choice. Kill him, or erase his memories and give him new ones. Wolfram and Hart offered the presidency of the company in exchange for giving Connor a new life and erasing him from existence, as far as anyone but me knew. I took that deal."

His head snapped up to look at Wesley with sudden understanding. A man would do anything for his child. He understood Wesley a little better in that moment.

His thoughts were interrupted by Dawn's voice. "That's…awful. Oh my God." She sat heavily, holding her stomach to keep from being sick. A lot of things about Angel suddenly made more sense. She couldn't imagine what she would have done in his position. Erasing memories was a huge overstepping of boundaries, as far she was concerned, but he had done it to save his son. That was a choice she would not want to have to make.

Before anyone else could react, they heard the front door fly open and an irate Gunn was storming into the room.

"What the fuck! Someone explain to me what just happened!"

"I opened Pandora's box." Everyone's head snapped to look at Wesley. He was still staring at the floor. He remembered everything, the prophecy, his fear, his throat being slit, Angel trying to kill him, Connor sinking Angel to the bottom of the ocean for a summer. It was all flying around in his brain, scrambling his thoughts.

"I…thought you were going to kill him. I thought I was doing to right thing. I didn't think it would happen that way. I just…it shouldn't have happened that way."

The anger in the room was slowly turning into grief. Wes's pain was palpable and contagious. Buffy suddenly felt faint. She excused herself, motioning for Angel to stay where he was, as she made her way upstairs and into bed.

Gunn joined Xander in pacing the room. Gunn's head was swimming. He couldn't quite get everything straight yet, but he had the gist of things.

"Okay," Dawn stood, "we need to stop this. Connor and Angel are secondary to Narsesim and Allyson. Does anyone want to know what I found?"

There was silence for a few minutes, but everyone seemed to recover enough to go into the library. There would time to sort all that out later, was the mutual consensus. There were more pressing things at hand.