"I can't believe this." Liam's jaw dropped at the sight in front of him. Angel had surprised Liam by taking him to the LA Rams football stadium to watch a game.

"Do you like it?" Angel asked nervously. Riley's words had set him on edge. Angel knew nothing about his own kid and was fearful that he would mess up the evening.

"Like it? I love it!" Liam cheered. He grabbed Angel by the hand and drug him inside the stadium. Liam was marveled at its size. He'd never been to a professional sports game before.

Angel watched as Liam eyed the people all dressed in their football jerseys and other sports related merchandise. There was a store inside the stadium that had a little bit of everything in regards to LA Rams memorabilia. Angel figured that it wouldn't hurt his wallet if he got Liam something and maybe something for himself. "Go in," Angel nudged. "Pick anything you want."

"Really?" Liam asked wide eyed.

"Consider it a late birthday gift," Angel told his son. And to Liam's knowledge, Angel had twelve years of birthdays to make up for.

Liam's eyes darted to the back of the store to find a jersey in his size. And luckily for Angel, they had the same one in his. So throwing their brand new, matching jerseys on, the guys headed for the food court.

"They have cookie dough fudge mint chip!" Liam exclaimed. That was his favorite ice cream along with his mom's. He thought they only sold it in Sunnydale.

"Two cups of cookie dough fudge mint chip," Angel told the cashier. He enjoyed seeing Liam this excitable. It felt like he was actually doing something right.

"Ice cream before dinner?" Liam questioned. Back home his mom would never let him do this.

"All the time," Angel grinned. "You're lucky this is my favorite kind. And I cannot say no to cookie dough fudge mint chip."

"That's mom's favorite, too." In Sunnydale, he rarely had ice cream at his house. Riley wasn't a big fan of it, especially cookie dough fudge mint chip. While he and his mom liked to pig out, Riley always made sure they ate right and healthily.

"And who do you think showed it to her?" When they were kids, Angel and Buffy rarely agreed upon anything, except ice cream. For the longest time, they could only get along while eating it. "I remember when your mom was pregnant, your grandma would always complain to my parents that all she wanted to eat was cookie dough fudge mint chip. It drove Joyce insane."

"What other stories do you have about mom?" Liam inquired. Growing up with Willow, Dawn, and Xander, he heard a lot of the same stories about Buffy. He wanted something that he never heard before and thought Angel could deliver.

"Hmm," Angel thought out loud as he finished up his ice cream. "Let me think of something." He was sure that Liam must of heard some of Buffy's most embarrassing moments from friends and family, like that one time she tried out for the cheerleading squad. It Angel took some time to think out of the box. "Did your mom tell you about her first kiss?"

"Uncle Xander said it was some guy named Owen in ninth grade," Liam explained, throwing away his ice cream up.

"Uncle Xander doesn't know the whole story." Liam cocked his head in confusion. "Your mom had her first kiss four years before that, with me." Liam's eyes bugged out. Uncle Xander was going to die when he found this out. It was easy for Liam to tell that his Uncle hated his biological dad and it had nothing to do with leaving his mom. "Buffy was ten and I was twelve. Your grandma and her were over for dinner one night and our parents sent us to my room. We were fighting all night, so as punishment we were forced to hang out together until we solved our differences. Let me remind you, we hated each other, always teasing and bullying each other. Our parents were sick of it."

"When did you stop hating each other?" Liam had noticed that tensions were usually high between his mom and Angel, but for the most part, they were cordial to one another.

"I don't know, probably when you came along. We just grew out of it." Angel shrugged. Last week was the first time Angel saw Buffy since Liam's birth. Since then, they had both matured and he had stayed in LA for the past decade. "Now back to the story. Your mom was complaining about spending time with me and I with her. I was busy on my computer talking to Spike and he was all teasing me about the situation. He even dared me to kiss her. I said no, but then my pride got the best of me. You see, Spike had kissed a girl at that point and he had been mercilessly teasing me for weeks about it. So I stood up from my computer, turned on my webcam for Spike to see, walked over to Buffy and kissed her. That's when she slapped me in the face saying I stole her first kiss from her. She kept repeating that it didn't count and that no one was ever going to find out. And that if anyone else besides Spike found out she would kick their ass. Your mom was feisty, even at ten."

Liam could not contain his laughter. It sounded like his mom. She had to be in charge of everything, including her first kiss. "Mom's like that."

Angel looked down at his wristwatch, it was getting late. "How about we move to our seats? The game's gonna start soon." Angel patted Liam on the back and moved them towards the stands. "Have you ever been to a football game before?"

Liam shook his head. "Riley only took me to high school baseball games back in Sunnydale."

The recent calling of Riley by his first name rather than dad by Liam made Angel hold out hope that there was a chance he could take over the position that was rightfully his. "You like baseball?"

"Not really. He just thinks I like it because he takes me to games with him, but I like football better." Liam only went to the baseball games because Riley liked it and his mom liked when Riley and him would spend time together. Ending that would break his mother's heart and he didn't want to break her heart.

"So you would say this surprise was a home run?" Angel joked causing Liam to laugh. Maybe this dad thing wasn't so bad, Angel thought. He just made a dad joke that Liam actually laughed at.

"Yeah, I love football, my mom sometimes takes me to the Sunnydale Razorback games." Football was one of his favorite pastimes with his mom. It felt weird going to a game without her. She was a huge fan of the Rams and would be so jealous to know he was there at the SoFi Stadium. Riley, on the other hand, did not care too much for the sport.

"I used to play for the Razorbacks in high school."

"I know. Jenny and Giles have pictures all over their house." Although Liam technically met Angel the day he was born, Liam had no recollection of the event. He only knew Angel through pictures. Up until last week, the only pictures Liam ever saw were the ones hanging around Jenny and Giles' house. In those photos he learned of Angel as the son of his grandma's neighbors, not his father. "What am I supposed to call them?"

"Who?" Angel asked.

"Your parents? Do I call them Grandma and Grandpa?" The transition of calling Jenny and Giles anything other than there names would be hard for him, but he didn't mind the change. He thought it would be nice to have a set of paternal grandparents that were so local and knew him for his entire life. Riley's parents lived all the way in Iowa and they, ever so seldomly, visited.

"I'm sure that they would like that, but it's all up to you. If you don't feel comfortable calling them that, I'm confident that they'd understand." He knew his parents would be accepting of whatever Liam chose to call them. It may disappoint his mother, but at least their grandson would be in their lives.

"Does that mean I can call you Dad?" Liam waited patiently for Angel's reaction as it was the determining factor for his next step.

"Only if you want." Though Angel wanted to say yes, he didn't want to push the kid. Liam had to come to the decision on his own.

"Is it okay with you, if I call you dad?"

"I'd want nothing else." Angel needed that. After talking to Riley, he seriously began to doubt whether or not he could parent Liam like a father should. Hell, he even debated giving up Liam's parental rights. But in that moment, Angel was Liam's dad and nothing could change that, not even Riley or his insecurities.

"Great, because it sounds better than calling you Angel." Liam had wanted to start calling Angel "Dad" a week ago, but he wasn't sure if Angel was going to stick around and be a part of his life. Now that he's got Angel back in the "Dad Role", Riley could just be Riley. "How come everyone calls you Angel? In that video, Mom called you Liam."

Angel shivered at the mention of the video. "Liam's my legal name. I never liked my first name growing up, so I just went by my middle name, Angelus. Angel's a nickname off that."

"So you don't like the name?" Just when Liam thought they were making progress, Angel had to say something to royally screw up their budding relationship.

"I never said that. I didn't like the name for me. But it suits you. You look like a Liam." The truth was he didn't really care for the name. When Buffy approached him in the teacher's lounge with the potential baby name, Liam, he thought she was joking. Then he was born and they both knew from one look at their boy that Liam was the only name for their baby.

"I look like you," Liam retorted.

"Touché." Angel had to admit that the kid was pretty witty. Being surrounded by Buffy and her friends must have made him that way.

"Peaches!" Called a British man from the crowd. He pushed through the people and took the open seat next to Angel. "You tell me that your going back to Sunnydale for three days and then your gone for another week. You better have a good excuse."

"Spike, it's good to see you too," Angel greeted. Liam poked his head around his father. He'd heard Angel mention that name before. They were friends in high school.

"Who's the kid?" Spike asked while lighting a cigarette.

"My son," Angel said, wrapping a protective arm around Liam's shoulder.

The cigarette Spike had in his mouth fell onto the bleachers as his jaw dropped. "No way," he muttered. "Faith, will want to see this."

"Faith?" Angel questioned. Faith was one of Spike's on and off again girlfriends in high school. When Spike wasn't with Faith, he was with Drusilla and vice versa. Recently, Faith and Spike reconnected and wanted to give their relationship another go.

"That's the name," Faith commented as she approached the stand.

"You will not believe who Peaches brought with him," Spike began.

"Who? Darla?" Faith snickered. She hated Darla with a fiery passion. Darla was too stuck up for Faith's personal taste. A football game was the last place Darla would be.

"Remember Buffy Summers?" Spike reminded her as he lit a new cigarette.

"Wasn't she the girl that Angel knocked up senior year?" Faith replied, confused how this would go anywhere. Maybe they got back together while in Sunny-D, Faith thought. She had noticed the insane amount of chemistry shared between Angel and Buffy back in high school and only imagined it being amplified as they aged.

"That's," Spike pointed over at Liam, "the kid." Though Angel never clarified that Liam was Angel's son with Buffy, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together in Spike's case. While Buffy refused to tell her friends about Liam's paternity, Angel had released his frustrations by telling his closest friend about the entire situation back in high school. In turn, Faith found out the news through Spike against Angel's wishes.

Faith peered over to where Liam stood giving Faith a toothily grin. "Oh my god, I can't believe it. He looks so much like you; it's uncanny. What's his name anyway?"

"Liam," Angel smiled.

"Liam," Spike spat, calling the attention of both Liams. "You named the bloody kid after yourself? That poor child."

"Buffy wanted to name him that," Angel argued. He hadn't opposed the name when Buffy proposed it. In fact, he liked that his son and him shared the same name. Even though they were apart for twelve years, the fact that they had the same name made it personal and close.

"Well, it's good to meet you kid," Spike said holding out his hand. "I'm Spike and that's my girl Faith."

"Hi," Liam greeted, taking Spike's hand.

"He's not a talkative bugger," Spike noticed. He may have looked like Angel, but Liam acted nothing like it to Spike's knowledge.

"He's shy around new people," Angel explained. Spike was intense and that intensity was evident to Liam. Spike was an acquired taste; however, he had made an impression on the kid.

"So you're Dad's friend that took mom paint balling?" Liam asked. Angel immediately noticed the use of the word "Dad" and felt a surge of fulfillment rush through him that had been missing.

Spike cocked his head. "That's all the bloody Ponce told you about me? Peaches, I'm hurt."

"He also told me how you bullied him into kissing mom when he was my age," Liam tried to help out.

Angel flushed red as Spike wickedly grinned. "So much for being shy," Angel mumbled so no one could hear.

"That's it?" Liam nodded at Spike. "We used to be kings in high school. With our good looks and charming personalities, we ruled the school. I was your dad's wingman. Every week he had a different girl on his arm thanks to me."

Angel prayed this moment would end. Despite Spike being his best friend, he never knew when to shut his mouth. Liam was already aware of Angel being a player in high school, but he didn't need to know the extent of it. "Faith, could you and Liam got get something for the four of us to eat?" Angel asked, practically begging for alone time with Spike. Faith took the hint.

"I already ate," Liam countered. He just had ice cream and was not too hungry for anything else.

"Well, then you could help Faith carry," Angel offered. Liam obliged without an agreement and followed behind Faith back to the food court. Angel waited until Faith and Liam were out of range before he spoke to Spike. "You seriously had to bring that up?"

"What?" Spike acted shocked by the hostility in Angel's voice. "I was just trying to tell the kid about all the fun we used to have together."

"He didn't need to know about that!" Angel argued. There were still some things about his past that he wanted to keep hidden from Liam until he was older and they actually had a relationship.

Spike smirked. "Fatherhood suits you well, Peaches. Remind me again why this didn't happen sooner?"

"Because I was selfish," Angel mumbled kicking the ground.

"And do you regret it?"

"I have, everyday for the past twelve years."