"So that's him, huh?" Riley asked as he unmade the bed for him and his wife.
"Who?" Buffy responded, combing her hair. Today had been an interesting day to say the least. They buried her mother and the entire world, including Liam, discovered her son's paternity secret.
"Liam's father," Riley said.
"Oh," Buffy put down her hairbrush and averted Riley's gaze. "That him."
"Look, Buffy, I don't expect you to tell me everything. At least not right now, but I hope you could. I just want you to know that I'm here for you if you ever need to talk."
Riley climbed under the covers as his wife sauntered over to him. Buffy wrapped her hand around his neck and kissed him hard on the lips. "Thank you," she breathed as they broke apart. "You have no idea how much I needed to hear that." Buffy cuddled into Riley's chest and lazily drew patterns on his t-shirt. "Today has been such a mess. I just wish Mom's funeral could have gone better without me and my drama messing it up."
"Hey, no one could have known that this was going to happen. It was an accident. I'm sure Xander didn't even check the tape before pressing record."
"You're probably right," Buffy, holding on tighter to Riley, relented.
They laid together in a comfortably silence for a few minutes before Riley had spoken. "Buffy?" He whispered.
"Yeah," Buffy yawned, ready to be taken over by sleep.
"Is he the reason why you insisted that I shouldn't adopt Liam?" That question had been plaguing Riley ever since they got married seven years ago. He had mentioned adoption to Buffy not long after they wed and hadn't dared to bring it up since.
Buffy shot out of bed, stunned at her husband's accusation. "What?! You can't be serious."
"Do you hold out hope that he'll come back and be the dad you always wanted him to be?" This was Riley's biggest insecurity. He was fearful that he wouldn't be enough. He wouldn't be the perfect father Buffy wanted for her precious son. And when Liam had learned the truth, Liam would want his real father over the one who raised him.
"No, of course not." Buffy cupped Riley's cheeks in her hands. She knew she had to tell Riley the truth as to why she dismissed his suggestion of adoption seven years ago, or at least some version of it. "The reason I didn't want you to adopt Liam was not a case of hoping Angel would come back into our lives. I was afraid that if we went through the whole adoption process that the truth would be revealed and at twenty-one I wasn't ready for that."
"Would you be ready now?" Adopting Liam was something that hadn't left his mind. Every day spent with the kid made Riley love him more.
"I don't know." Riley's heart sunk at Buffy's words. "It's not that I don't want you to, it's just that everything has gotten so complicated. With Jenny and Giles now in the picture..."
"And Angel?"
"Angel is none of your concern. He didn't want to be a dad then and I'm sure he doesn't want to be one now, especially to a preteen no less." The sixteen-year-old in Buffy wanted to cry as she spoke to Riley. Riley was right. Deep down Buffy wished Angel would have taken responsibility for Liam and raised him. Maybe that was the real reason she dismissed the adoption, Buffy mused.
"Did you have to send Darla away?" Angel complained running his fingers through his hair. "She's going to be my wife! The least you could have done was let her stay, not force her into a crummy motel for the night."
"The least we could have done? Rupert, do you hear our son? He's trying to teach us how to parent," Jenny said. Giles sat in the nearby armchair, opposite the couch his son was on, nursing a scotch. It had been a long day and his wife was only prolonging it. "Obviously we didn't do a good enough job or else our son wouldn't have abandoned the girl he got pregnant in high school."
Angel knew his mother was bound to blow up. Ever since Xander screwed up the videotape his life seemed to go from thriving to nonexistent in a matter of minutes. Neither of his parents had really spoken to him until that very moment. In fact, they were more cordial to his fiancée more than him. That was until his mom decided it was best if Darla stayed somewhere else for the night. Now here he was sitting on the couch, like a child, being scolded by his parents. "It wasn't like that..." Angel tried to explain.
"Then what was it like? Because I am having a hard time understanding why I just found out I had twelve-year-old grandson," Jenny furiously asked.
"I wasn't ready," Angel merely said.
Giles placed his scotch on the end table and stood with his wife, equally mad. He tried his hardest not to speak up until Jenny had release all of her pent up anger, but Giles could no longer hold his tongue. "And you think some sixteen-year-old girl was?!" Buffy had always been a soft spot for Giles. When Joyce and Hank divorced in Buffy's freshman year, Giles took Buffy under his wing and became a mentor and father figure to the girl. "When Buffy informed us of her pregnancy, she came to us crying and unsure of what to do. And do you know what we told her," Giles paused knowing quite well his son did not know the answer. "We'd always be there for her and her baby. She was definitely not ready to be a mother at that time, but in a few short months she became ready. What's your excuse?"
"I have none," Angel admitted. He didn't have a great reason for leaving Buffy. He was eighteen and didn't want to be tied down to the girl he spent most of his life hating. "I was young and didn't want the responsibility of being there."
"So why didn't you tell us?" Jenny slightly softened. She was still pissed at her son and his actions, but this was the first time in years he was being truly vulnerable with them.
"I was afraid you guys would have made me give up my scholarship to USC and transfer to UC Sunnydale to raise the baby with Buffy," Angel began.
"You're right," Jenny chimed in.
"Not right now," Giles said to his wife, curious as to what his son had to say next.
"Anyway, I didn't want to give up my dream school and potential career as a lawyer for some girl, and Buffy understood that. That's why we agreed to tell nobody that I was the father," Angel explained.
"That still doesn't give you the right to abandon her and your son," Jenny pushed. Angel was always a goal-oriented kid, but that did not excuse his behavior for the past twelve year.
"And who says I did?!" Angel yelled and met his parents eye to eye. He was fed up with his parents and their nagging at him for not being a proper father when they unaware of the entire story. "Buffy called me the moment she went into labor and I hopped on a train, in the middle of the day, ditching my classes and came back when he was born! I even signed the birth certificate before I left! And I've been sending her money every month for the past twelve years! Twice if it's his birthday or a holiday! So don't you dare say I abandoned them. I might not have had the guts to stay and raise him with Buffy, but I tried my best to financially support them."
Jenny and Giles were taken aback by their son's admission. How had they thought so little of him, their own son? "Liam, I'm-" Jenny began, reaching out for her son. Rarely did she ever address him by his first name, only on serious occasions. He always preferred going by his middle name Angelus which quickly turned into his popular nickname, Angel.
"You're what, Mom? Sorry?" Angel left the living room and retreated back to his childhood bedroom leaving his parents alone.
The room was like a time capsule of his senior year of high school. His trophies were all displayed on the shelves with random books scattered on any and every surface. And if the walls could talk, they would regale so many tales of Angel's memories. It was where he had his first kiss. It's where he found out he was accepted into USC. And it's where his son was conceived. All of which was coincidently with Buffy.
Angel laid back on his bed and reached in his front pocket to pull out the object he desired. He never left home with it. An old 4x6 picture of him and Buffy, in the hospital, holding their son.