So much had happened in the past week leading Buffy to the front door of the Giles' house with her husband and son in tow.
After a night of rest following Joyce's funeral, Buffy awoke to being the hottest gossip in Sunnydale once again. The first time occurred twelve years ago, when the town caught wind of the knocked up teenager. Now Buffy was reliving the disappointed and disdained looks from the townspeople all over again.
So Willow proposed that Buffy should take another vacation day off from work and meet up with her, the twins, Dawn, and Cordelia over at Sunnydale Mall. Cordelia was only in town for a short amount of time which ultimately convinced Buffy that one more day wouldn't hurt. Upon meeting up with Willow and the girls, Buffy regretted her decision as Dawn and Cordelia bombarded her with rounds of twenty questions. All Willow could do was mouth "sorry" to her friend.
There was no way to avoid it. It was either answer their questions or be treated like a social pariah. And Buffy preferred the first to the latter; so she proceeded to answer every question Dawn and Cordelia had for her, including the embarrassing and intimate details that Buffy did not want to relive. Her sister and old friend were a persistent pair. Eventually, the two got tired and accepted Buffy's answers. They understood why Buffy had kept it a secret for so long and even apologized for overreacting.
It felt nice getting it out in the open for once. Without the secrecy, it was like a weight had been lifted off Buffy's shoulders. While the girls were left satisfied from that day at the mall, Xander continued to push.
Dawn had relayed the information Buffy had given her to Xander, but he wasn't satisfied. He had to hear the words come straight from Buffy to believe them for himself. After all, the father was Liam Angelus Giles. The same man who made Xander's high school years hell, even if the guy didn't know it.
Buffy was relived when Dawn had forced Xander out of her home. There were only a handful of hours before she had to go to sleep and prepare for her next day at work. Buffy didn't have many vacation days left from work as she had used them up the past week and a half dealing with her mother's death and funeral.
She thought that going back to work as the counselor at Sunnydale's Middle School and High School would limit the gossip Buffy had heard about herself. However, in a town like Sunnydale, word gets around fast. The faculty and staff whispered whenever they thought Buffy wasn't around or looking. Even the students got in on it. One junior, named Kennedy, even had the audacity to ask her what Angel was like in bed. Buffy had prayed for the week to end, then she remembered that it would continue well into the weekend with her dinner at the Giles'.
While Buffy's rough week continued on, Angel fared no better. He was not immune to the same looks and whispers Buffy endured. With everything out in the open, he was as much of a target as she was. That's when he decided to come clean to his fiancée.
He told Darla everything about Buffy and Liam in the dingy motel his mother sent her to. At the end of Angel's speech, he waited for Darla to respond. She had asked him if he was involved in the child's life aside from financials. When Angel replied with a no, Darla wickedly smiled. Stood up and softly kissed her fiancée. "Well, then I think we can work this out," Darla admitted to Angel.
Angel had sent Darla back to LA after that, claiming he had some family things he had to clean up before introducing her to his family. Darla happily obliged. She was thankful to get out of the hell hole known as Sunnydale and back to her half a million dollar penthouse in the city.
With Darla gone and Saturday quickly approaching, he decided it was best to clear the air with his parents. They had tried to apologize to him since his outburst the night he had arrived, but Angel had refused to hear any of it until then.
After much crying, on Jenny's part, the family was able to forgive each other for the most part. Jenny and Giles were still pretty hurt that they were not told the truth sooner which Angel did apologize for.
But that was all in the past, as Buffy arrived with Riley and Liam to the Giles'. Buffy was prepared for the worst. She had been avoiding Jenny, Giles, and Angel like the plague for the last week which was considerably hard seeing as Jenny still taught at the high school and Giles had been promoted from librarian to principal. Riley, on the other hand, tried to think positively. He had to be there to support his wife and son. And if the dinner went well, then it was one step closer to adopting Liam. As for Liam, he wasn't sure what to make of the dinner. He had dinner with Jenny and Giles at least once a month, so this was nothing new. The only thing new was the list of questions his Uncle Xander had him memorize for tonight.
Buffy breathed deeply before knocking on the front door. Not even a second later had it been answered by her least favorite member of the Giles clan.
"Buffy," Angel greeted.
"Angel," Buffy forced a smile whilst ushering her family in. She noticed only six place settings on the dining room table and cocked her head in surprise. "I take it your fiancée didn't take the news very well."
"On the contrary," Angel stated much to Buffy's displeasure. "She was quite fine with it. I just thought this wasn't the appropriate time for her to meet everyone regarding the circumstances." As much as Buffy had the innate response to protest, she had to agree.
"Oh, Buffy your here!" Jenny cheered, wiping her hand on her apron. "Dinner is just about ready. Could you please get Rupert? He's in the study."
Giles had been in his study for most of the afternoon reminiscing with the help of old photograph of his son and newer ones of his grandson. "I think some part of me always knew," Giles admitted when Buffy entered the room. "I mean you can't look at either one of them without seeing the other. The resemblance is quite uncanny. Wouldn't you say?" Giles handed her an old picture of Angel around the same age as Liam.
"Yeah..." Buffy trailed off. It was hard to deny. Angel and Liam shared many of the same features. The same nose, lips, and even the height. "If I hadn't given birth to him I would have doubted that he's mine."
Giles smiled, "But he's got your eyes and your heart." Giles closed the photo album and shoved it back on the shelf. He strode over to Buffy and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I don't know if I have told you this, but you've raised quite a remarkable boy and I'm proud to call him my grandson."
Buffy was on the verge of tears. Giles had complimented her parenting before, but now it felt different. She couldn't explain the feeling that overcame her. All she knew what that she had made Giles proud. "Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me. And I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, it's just-"
"I know," Giles cut her off. He never questioned Buffy's reasoning, not even for a second. Though she had left him and Jenny unaware that Liam was their grandson, that did not stop Buffy from developing relationship between her son and his paternal grandparents. "Now, if I do remember correctly, Liam is one voracious eater. It's probably best if we get down there before he consumes the whole meal."
Buffy grinned at her mentor and father figure and walked with him down to the dining room where the rest of the family had already gathered.
"Took you guys long enough," Jenny playfully commented. "I was just about to give your meals to Liam, if you weren't down in the next five minutes."
Buffy and Giles sat down at their respective seats as everyone ate in silence. While Jenny had been enthusiastic, to say the least, about this dinner, she was at a loss for words, unsure how to approach the topic of her grandson.
Liam found this to be the perfect opportunity to pull out one of the questions his Uncle Xander had for him. "So how did you guys get together?" Liam asked directing his attention to his mom and Angel.
Angel was about to choke on his meal when the kid asked the question out of nowhere. Buffy, who was sitting across from him, equally was stunned. She didn't expect Liam to ask any questions. Normally, he was such a shy kid. Buffy and Angel shared a knowingly look, not sure how to approach the topic.
"Well," Angel began hoping to get some assistance from Buffy, but she was just as curious as the four other people in the room to hear his interpretation of that night's events, especially in a way that was appropriate for a twelve-year-old. "It was your mom's sixteenth birthday and her friends were throwing a surprise party for her at your grandma's house." His parents listened in as they were left in the dark as to what truly transpired between Buffy and Angel. "So your Aunt Willow asked me to distract your mom for a few hours."
Almost everyone's eyes widened at the implication. Buffy read the room and tried to clear up the misconception. "Not like that," Buffy assured. Although it would have been way better than the actual story behind Liam's conception.
"And I was with my best friend, Spike, so we decided to go take the birthday girl to paintball," Angel grinned at the memory. He remembered how angry, Buffy was to spend the day with him and Spike shooting paintballs at each other. "See, your mom and I never really got along, so I would do anything I knew would annoy her. And it just so happened that getting covered in paint was one of the things she hated."
"If you guys hated each other so much, then why did you have me," Liam responded with the most twelve-year-old answer ever uttered.
Buffy held her head down as she continued to eat, waiting for Angel to finish telling the story. "Well...you see, when we finished with paintball, it was my job to take your mom home for the party while Spike was sent out to get the alcohol." Immediately Jenny and Giles knew where the story was going and both prayed that their son could explain it well enough to the preteen. "Anyway, I took her home to the surprise party and that's when it just sort of happened."
"What?" Liam asked confused.
Angel was practically begging Buffy to take over, but she was equally embarrassed herself. "We both had a little too much to drink that night and I took your mom back here to sober up before your grandma got back from her trip and one thing led to another..."
"Ohhh," Liam said, then realization hit him at the implication of Angel's words. "Oh."
"What a birthday gift to give someone," Riley mumbled. Buffy glared at Riley. That comment was out of line, especially in front of Liam.
"Anyway," Liam began, trying to remember one of Uncle Xander's many questions. "Do you know who Anya Jenkins is?"
The name sounded familiar to Angel, but he couldn't place a face to the name. "I'm not sure I do," Angel admitted.
"Apparently, Uncle Xander said she's the girl you stole from him sophomore year," Liam causally said.
"Liam!" Buffy scolded. She was so going to kill Xander when she got home. No wonder Liam has been so chatty. Her friend had been using her son as a spy for him.
Angel gulped. His teen years were not ones he was proud of in retrospect. Some would have called him a player. He dated so many girls that it was hard to keep track of them, but now that Liam mentioned it, Anya did seem familiar. Their relationship had been nothing but purely physical, it wasn't meant to last. They couldn't have been together for more than a week if Angel recalled correctly.
Everyone had finished with their plates by that time and decided to head into the living room for a less formal chat.
Angel ran upstairs to grab the two envelopes he needed to make it through this night. Coming back from his room Angel handed the first envelope to Buffy. "Sorry, I forgot this month, I meant to send it, but I was working on this one case and completely forgot about it. I swear you'll have next months in time," Angel promised.
"Thank you," Buffy said. She was well aware what the contents of the envelope held. It was another one of her secrets that branched off Liam's paternity. Since Liam's birth, Angel had been sending her money each month to help with expenses. It started out as a hundred dollars while he was in school, but significantly increased once he got the job at Wolfram and Hart. Last month she had received two checks, the monthly one and Liam's birthday money.
Riley began to put the puzzle pieces together in his head. Every month, for as long as he has known Buffy, there have been mysterious large sums of money that would go into Liam's bank account. Whenever he would question Buffy about it, she would dismiss him.
"And this is for you," Angel said handing the other envelope to Liam.
Liam eagerly opened the envelope. As the rest of the adults had gathered around him, curious to see what was inside. Liam had pulled a small stack of pictures out. There were only a few photos, but Angel felt the kid deserved to have them.
"Are these pictures of me?" Liam asked. He had never seen these pictures before.
"Yeah," Angel smiled. "Your mom called me the day she went into labor. I skipped my classes at USC and took a train down to the Sunnydale General. By the time I arrived it was the middle of the day and since it was a Wednesday everyone else was stuck at work, except for me, your mom and your grandma."
"Joyce knew?" Riley questioned. He was under the assumption that she hadn't told anybody.
"Yeah. I think she figured it out when Angel arrived. I never told her and she never questioned me after that day. We never even spoke about it," Buffy admitted. They had an unspoken mutual understanding. Her mom had kept her secret and for that Buffy was eternally grateful for that.
Angel pointed down at the first picture Liam had. "That's me in the delivery room, all scrubbed up," Angel explained before he moved his attention to the next few pictures. "And that's me, cutting your umbilical cord. Then there's me holding you. I'm surprised to see how tall you've gotten. You were such a small baby. Buffy and I thought there was something wrong with you, but I blamed her short genes. Thankfully you outgrew those," Angel joked tousling Liam's hair as he chuckled.
Buffy watched as Angel moved in closer to Liam as they looked through the pictures her mom had taken that day. She had her own set of pictures tucked away with Liam's baby things and hadn't looked at them since they were developed.
"And this one's my personal favorite," Angel told Liam. It was Buffy in the hospital bed with Angel as they both held their newborn son. It was the same photo Angel had in his pockets. He even pulled out the copy to show Liam. "I carry this with me everyday."
Liam was amazed. After all he heard, from his mom, Aunt Willow, and Uncle Xander, he didn't think Angel wanted anything to do with him. But those pictures proved otherwise. Liam set down the photos and grabbed the last item from the envelope. When he felt the item touch his fingertips, he perked up in excitement. "Oh sweet! A Claddagh ring!" Liam cheered.
"You know what that is?" Angel questioned.
"Yeah, Mom has one just like it. See!" He pointed to Buffy's right hand.
Angel grinned. "Well, then you must know what it stands for." Liam shook his head no. "First, you need to know that this is an Irish tradition and being a quarter Irish yourself, you need to carry on the tradition." Jenny almost got choked up at the scene before her. She remembered doing the same thing for her son when he was around the same age. "The hands represent friendship, the crown represents loyalty, and the heart represents love. If you wear the ring with the heart pointing to you it means you belong to somebody." Angel demonstrated with his own ring which already had the heart pointing to him.
"So Mom how did you get yours?" Liam asked as he inspected his new ring.
Buffy looked down at her own ring, slightly beat up from years of use, with the heart still pointed towards her. "It was a birthday present for my sweet sixteen."