Updated, finally! Sorry to make you all wait, I've been suffering from a gigantic writerblock on this, but here it is! Enjoy.

13. My Father

Wesley needed to swallow after hearing that. His little girl, to England, the country he'd suffered in so much. He wished it wasn't true, or that he could stop her, but that just wasn't the case here, it wasn't possible.

'Dad? What do you think?', Gabrielle asked him, not too happy with the silence coming from him.

'I eh… I'm not sure…It's your decision.' Wesley stammered. He wanted to be happy for her, and tell her she made the right choice, but he just couldn't, not yet. Gaby didn't know what to say, but certainly didn't reconsider her choice, she'd done enough reconsidering lately. Her decision was made, and Wesley knew it.

'You're not happy about this, are you?' she inquired, turning her glass around in her hands.

'I'm happy for you.' Wesley honestly replied after a pause long enough to carefully over think his words. 'If this is what you want, you have my support.' he finally said with a small smile.

Gabrielle smiled too, now with her father's approval she couldn't wait to start her new life. She wondered what it would be like in London. Would it be very different from her life here? Maybe Stephanie had been right and it would be awesome with cute slightly sensitive boys and great shopping, but what if it wasn't? Gaby mentally kicked herself and decided not to think about such things, she wasn't even nearly there yet! 'Thanks, dad.' she said. Wesley nodded. 'You're welcome.' he replied, and then got up to open the door for the delivery guy who came to bring their nearly-forgotten dinner. All of a sudden they both weren't so hungry anymore, when they realized it would be one of their last dinners together for a long while.

The next day Wesley went over to the Golden Rose Hotel for a visit to his ex. Strange, a few days earlier they'd still been living together, and now they were as far apart as they'd been when they'd just recently ended their "relationship" so many years ago, or even further. He was just about to pay the receptionist to tell him Lilah's room number when he spotted her in the lobby. 'Lilah.', he called out her name to draw her attention and walked over to the table she was sat at, doing work. She looked busy, but Lilah always looked busy. Sometimes Wesley wondered if maybe she was born that way.

'Hello Wesley. Are you here to tell me what a bad mother I am? If so, you can leave again; I'm aware of that.' Lilah told him, not giving him anything more than an angry offensive glance.

'You know that's not true. I don't think you're a bad mother', Wesley said, and he couldn't help but doubt his words the second after he'd spoken them, after all she'd repeatedly made their daughter unhappy. And though Wesley believed she hadn't done all that on purpose, it didn't exactly make her a good mother. It was hard to say, so Wesley decided to just let his heart speak. 'All right, so maybe you don't deserve the mother-of-the-year-award, but who does? I know you're doing your best.'

'My best?', Lilah snorted. 'I've been doing everything but my best when I was supposed to raise her, Wesley.'

'But that's changed now, you're not that person anymore.' Wesley said, accidentally thinking back to their night together, because that evening, she really changed.

'O no? Have I really changed, or do you just think that because you "want" me to have changed?' she inquired. They sat down on the sofa together.

'You're no longer the person you were so many years ago, Lilah, and you know it whether you like it or not.' Lilah just glared at him. 'Was that it? If you've really got nothing else to say, I'd very much like you to go now, because I've got, you know, a life to lead? My life to lead, to be honest.' she said, glancing at the clock. She'd have to hurry to not be late for work, Lilah hated to be late.

'As a matter of fact, I was actually just here to inquire you about our daughter's plans to attend a school in England.' Wesley said, not in for any more discussion about the Lilah's –change subject.

'She told me about those plans yesterday and decided to go after calling me a bad mother.' Lilah picked up her purse, ready for work. She didn't want to talk about her mother issues anymore.

'It wasn't like that at all. Gabrielle made a very well-considered, mature decision and I'm sure she'll be happy in London. She's very smart, a challenge would be good for her.', Wesley said. He could understand now why Gaby was angry with Lilah; the girl just needed a caring, loving mother, not one who even worked on Sundays and holidays.

'Are you done?', Lilah inquired, looking rather bored.

'Yes, Lilah, I am done.' Wesley got up and left, without giving her another glance. Maybe Lilah couldn't change, maybe what he'd seen that night was wrong; maybe she was gone too far. In that case he'd have to take extra good care of their daughter; someone had to do it, after all.

Time went by real quick, and before Gaby had realized it, it was the Friday night before the Sunday she'd fly to England. Wesley had promised to take her shopping, but knowing her father he was probably hypnotized by all his demon books again and had forgotten about it. She entered his office. 'Dad?' Wesley was, indeed, in the "world of the books" and hardly noticed his daughter coming in. 'Dad?', Gaby repeated, and walked over to his desk. Eventually he looked up, sincerely surprised to see her. 'Hmm?'.

'Hey, it's 8 o'clock, sales night. You said you'd take me shopping, remember?', she carefully reminded him. Wesley scratched his head. 'Was that tonight? ' He'd honestly forgotten that was today already, he'd been working on such an interesting new case.

'Yes, that was tonight. You forgot, didn't you?', Gaby asked timidly. She'd looked forward to tonight. That reminded her of her childhood with her mother; full of disappointments as well.

'Oh, Gabrielle, I'm very sorry. I got so caught up in this case', her father said, feeling very bad about himself.

'It's okay, you don't have to apologize, I'm used to it.', Gaby said, and that was only supposed to make Wesley feel a little guilty; she was making progress, she could be proud of herself!

'Maybe we can go another time. Tomorrow morning, perhaps?' Wesley suggested.

'I planned to start packing all day tomorrow, dad.' Gaby softly replied.

'Ah, yes, I see.' Wesley followed her into the lobby where they ran into Fred. 'Hey there, why the sad faces?', Fred, always lovely Fred, pointed out.

'Dad forgot he'd take me shopping before I go to England and now he's to busy to do so.', Gaby said as she tried not to sound like a spoilt child.

'That's not so smart… But you know your dad; always busy trying to make the world a better place and everything. Let's not blame him for his occasional amnesia. '. Fred paused to smile that sweet smile of hers. 'It's a part of being Bookman.' she continued. Gaby smiled softly, she liked Fred and the way she always had something calm over her, even when she was nervous. It probably had something to do with where she was raised. Where Gaby was raised, in the centre of New York City, was no time to be calm. Pity her and Fred hadn't really had had enough time to get to know each other more.

'I know I'm not as fun as Cordy, but if you'd like I suppose I could take you shopping?', Fred suggested, glancing first at Gaby, then her dad. At first Fred had kind of avoided Gabrielle; she found the girl looked way too much like Lilah to be comfortable with. After a while, though, she'd realized that those "Lilah-looks" were only on the outside, on the inside was besides some Lilah habits, all Wesley. And of course some Gaby-individual too.

'Really? That'd be fun, though if you don't want to I'm fine on my own, too.', Gabrielle said.

'I want to.', Fred replied with a smile.

Some time later the two brunettes had arrived at the mall and were busy shopping while they happily chattered.

'So are you excited about going to England? I know I'd be thrilled! Thrilled, and terrified. Probably mainly terrified..', Fred said with a half smile. Gaby checked out some knee-high black boots; Jimmy Choos. 'Yea, it's exciting. I'm looking forward to it, but you're right, it is a little scary too. I've never been in London before. Just Paris, and Milan, and Rome as well.', she replied, trying on the heels in question. 'What do you think of these?'.

'Wow..', Fred said as she consciously did not look at the price tag. 'Those look really good. You know, Gaby, I can't imagine you being scared. You always seem so self-confident. You're kinda everything I wanted to be when I had your age.', she smiled softly, remembering her own teenage years which had mainly consisted out of school, being scared, and wondering whether her boobs would still grow.

'Really? I'm sure that's not true. Weren't you like, super-smart then?'

'Sure, sure-smart, and super-scared. And by the way, I still wonder what it must feel like to be able to walk on heels like that.', Fred said, admiring the black boots she'd never be able to wear without tripping over herself.

'Oh, it's great, but mainly painful.' Both laughed, and Gaby was happy to actually laugh about something. She wasn't just thinking about her mom and the upcoming trip to England anymore, Fred was distracting her very well. Gabrielle had found another friend, and she could definitely use one.

Sunday arrived a lot sooner than Gabrielle would have wanted it to. She'd spent the weekend packing, and saying goodbye to Nick and Stephanie, the two good friends she'd made during the short time she'd spent here in Los Angeles. The time that was left allowed her to worry about what was to come. After all, moving to the opposite side of the world was something one could worry about. And now here she was, on the airport with Wesley, Fred and Cordy. Angel had wanted to come too, but it was still light outside. No matter what he said or did, Gabrielle knew he didn't like her anyway, she probably reminded him too much of Lilah, but she didn't mind at all. Saying goodbye to her father was hard enough already, she didn't need other people to stand by that.

'You're all ready to go?', Wesley inquired after helping his daughter check in and everything. 'You know what to do?' He never meant to play the worried, overprotective father role but right now he couldn't help it.

'Yes, dad. I know what to do. Once arrived in London and everything I call a taxi, I know how to do so because you've told me that about 1200 times, then the taxi bring me to school where the people will help me further. If anything goes wrong I call you. I don't think a lot can go wrong, dad, we covered the whole thing so often.', Gabrielle said, assuring her father of her faith in the situation. 'After all, I've flown and called cabs a trillion times.'

'Yes, of course. You're practically an adult already, I shouldn't forget that, of course.', Wesley said with a smile. He took her to sit down on a bench.

'She's not here, is she?', Gaby asked softly as Cordy and Fred walked off to buy some coffee.

'No… I don't think so. But she might still come?', he said, obviously referring to Lilah. He'd notified her of the time Gabrielle's plane would leave, secretly hoping she'd get over her pride, and show up, even though Gaby claimed to not want her to. Wesley knew she did want her to be here, because deep in her heart, every girl needed her mother. However, Lilah wasn't here, and despite Wesley's remark both knew she wasn't going to show up either.

'Yea, she might.' Gabrielle replied, because sometimes denial really was the best state of mind. 'We should probably say goodbye now', she suggested.

'Yes, probably. Your plane takes off rather soon', Wesley nodded. They both sat in silence for a little while; Gaby with nerves as butterflies in her stomach, and Wesley slightly too; he was worried about letting her go all on her own.

'Hey, dad?'

'Hmm?'

'Do I actually look like you?' she clutched a small bag that contained some hand luggage in her lap and wondered where that question suddenly came from. Why did she ask it now?

'Hm? Do you look like me?', Wesley glanced over at his daughter. Did she look like him? Of course, he'd seen a lot of things in her that reminded him of himself, but he never thought she would actually be interested in hearing it, because, after Wesley's troubled childhood full of rejections and insults from his father it was quite hard to imagine someone would be happy to look like him.

'I'm asking you. I'm just curious.', Gaby replied. She knew she surely didn't want to look like her mother. She wouldn't mind looking like her dad, though, she was actually quite proud of him. She loved how he always managed to do the right thing, even though it was hard sometimes. She also loved how he was always prepared to help, and always managed to be honest in a way that wasn't painful when it could've been. She just loved her dad. 'So do I, look like you?'

Wesley smiled. The look in her eyes gave him the confidence he needed to understand that she was happy to be his daughter; she loved him for who he was. 'Yes, Gabrielle, you look like me.'

'A lot?'.

'You look like me so much that every time I see you, I recognize myself; the way you smile, the way you talk, and the way you put your head when you're sleeping. On the outside, you're just like your mother, very pretty. But on the inside, in your heart, you're just like me. You're just like me, Gabrielle, it's like I see myself through the looking glass sometimes.'

Gaby smiled. She was his looking glass. His young, pretty, female looking glass. Suddenly there was so much she wanted to say, and she was about to, when she heard it was time for her to enter the plane. 'I guess that's my flight.'

Fred and Cordelia came running over fast. 'Take care, okay?', Cordy said, hugging her quickly. Then Fred pulled Gaby in a hug too. 'It's Christmas before you know it, then you'll come home and we'll go shopping again.' Gabrielle smiled at her. 'I'd like that.', she nodded, and turned to her father at last. Together they walked away from the two others. 'You're going to be okay.', Wesley promised, to her, and to himself.

'How do you know?', she asked, giving him one last hug.

'You're my daughter.', Wesley replied. For a moment, Gabrielle just looked at him, and realized that this was actually the first time he said that straight to her face, accepting her with all her issues and shortcomings, as his child. His only child. And that made Wesley, she realized, her father. The only father she'd ever have. And that moment, Gaby accepted him too. Along with all 'his' shortcomings and traumas and issues. He was no longer dead to her. Gaby looked him in the eye, and smiled. 'Good bye, dad. But not farewell.' Not farewell, indeed. He was the only family she had left now. Wesley was her father, and she loved him.

The End.

A/N: Yes, indeed, the end. But don't cry, there will be a sequel some time. I just figured this had to be the end, because this, Gaby and Wesley truly bonding as father and daughter, accepting each other for the full 100 per cent, and realizing they can love each other, was what the story was about in the first place. The puzzel was just complete. Please review and look out for a sequel or other stories from me! xoxo. Thank you for all the lovely reviews and hits you gave me, I really learned from them!