"Oh my gosh, Willow! This is so cute!" Dawn cheered, pulling out a baby pink onesie from the large gift bag. She held up the gift for the rest of the party guests to see. Everyone awed at the sight of the onesie that read: Daddy's Princess. "I love it. Thank you."
"It was no problem. Knowing Xander, his daughter is going to have her wrapped around her tiny finger," Willow said as she held her fussy daughter, Tara.
"Speaking of your daughter, are you going to tell us her name yet?" Buffy asked, pouring champagne into the empty flutes around the room as she was the one who orchestrated Dawn's surprise baby shower.
"It's a surprise," Dawn persisted. Her and Xander had decided on the name a few weeks ago, but we're keeping it hush hush from friends and family which displeased the women in the room. "And it's not like you have room to talk. You didn't tell us the name of Liam until he was born."
"For obvious reasons," Buffy argued since her son and his father shared the same name.
"I'm shocked none of us put that together," Cordelia commented, drinking her champagne. "Speaking of which, where is baby daddy? Back in LA?"
"He's actually in this weekend," Buffy brushed off, trying to not act over the moon at Angel's recent involvement in Liam's life. "Angel and Giles took Liam Halloween shopping with Oz, Xander, and Seth."
"And where's Riley?" Cordelia asked. Willow, Dawn, Jenny, and even Dawn's friend Janice avoided eye contact with the two others in the room. Cordelia had caught on that everyone knew something she didn't.
"He went back home to Iowa for the next week," Buffy, slightly embarrassed, admitted.
"Really? Why?" Cordelia pried, now fully invested in her hometown drama.
"A certain tall, dark ex came back into the picture," Dawn said. Like Xander, Dawn really liked Riley. He had been there to help her sister raise her young son when Angel had left. So when Riley left for Iowa the other day, Dawn had silently blamed Angel for ruining the well-oiled machine of the Summers family.
"Riley and I didn't see eye to eye on some matters," Buffy evaded. Everyone raised their eyebrows, knowing there was more to it than a simple fight. "I'm not going into it."
"Oh come on, Buffy, tell us," Janice urged. She was Dawn's best friend, so Buffy had to invite her, despite thinking that she was a bad influence on Dawn. "Was it the sex?" Buffy had to choke on her champagne not expecting that question. "Because I have to imagine that compared to Angel, Riley is not that good."
"I'm not hearing this conversation," Jenny said as she plugged her ears. This was a conversation that Jenny never wanted to hear, especially about her son. Sure she heard girls talk about her son in the past, but that was because she taught at the high school. There the topic was unavoidable it seemed.
"Neither am I," Willow chimed in, still holding her two-year-old. "Baby in the room."
"But we're all curious," Janice argued.
"Yeah, Buffy, who's better?" Dawn asked. She, like Janice, was curious of her sister's answer; because, Dawn had a gut feeling that the answer would not be the man her sister was married to.
"I'm not telling you," Buffy persisted. This was not a conversation she wanted to have with her sister, sister's friend, friends, and of all people, Angel's mother.
"So it's Angel then," Janice surmised by Buffy's avoidance of the question.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "It was a long time ago. I'm not even sure I remember it," Buffy lied. Of course she remembered it. Not only did it happen once, but twice. The first on her sixteenth birthday and the second was on that couch in the teacher's lounge, not an ideal setting for a pregnant girl. "Can we please talk about something else?"
"Like why Riley left?" Cordelia pestered. Obviously everyone there was aware of Riley leaving, except her. She had to get to the inside scoop as to why. Even the other women wanted in; Buffy had just explained that they had a fight and Riley left, only giving the bare minimum. Buffy didn't even elaborate, making everyone wonder what really happened to the happy couple.
"Last week, Liam stopped calling Riley Dad," Buffy said. Everyone in the room, minus Jenny, was in shock. Angel, who had grown closer to his parents since the news broke out, had told her all about this a week prior. Almost immediately after Buffy picked up Liam from LA. "He came home from that weekend in LA with Angel and said he did not feel comfortable calling Riley Dad now that Angel was back in the picture."
"Poor Riley," Willow commented. She liked Riley and thought he was a good dad to Liam. To hear that he was discarded so quickly broke her heart after knowing everything Riley had done for Liam and Buffy. He was an essential part to their friend group. Now with there being trouble in paradise at the Summers-Finn home, Willow worried that the couple's game nights would come to an end.
"It broke Riley's heart. I felt terrible because I had encouraged Riley that Angel and Liam spending time together would be good, but now the dynamics have drastically changed," Buffy explained. "That's when we started fighting more."
"About?" Cordelia questioned, leaning over to Buffy on the edge of her seat.
"How this was all my fault because I had dismissed Riley's idea on adopting Liam," Buffy told the group. Now it was Jenny's turn to choke on her champagne. She had just gotten her grandson and now Riley wanted to adopt him, stripping her of the grandmother title she just got. Her and Giles have done everything they could in the past two weeks to make Liam feel comfortable with them being his grandparents. And he finally started to call them Grandma and Grandpa. If Riley were to adopt Liam, then it would all be for nothing. "And how I've expressed that I didn't want another kid."
"Because the sex was bad," Janice offered.
"It wasn't that," Buffy assured. Lack of intimacy was not a problem for Buffy and Riley. Though they had waited until they married, that didn't seem to stop from having an active sex life. But she would not let the women in this room know that.
"Was it because you couldn't think of having another kid without Angel being the father?" Willow suggested. She had seen Buffy on more than one occasion give Angel the benefit of the doubt when it was not deserved. Buffy was always protecting him.
"I don't know," Buffy answered honestly whilst twisting her Claddagh ring. Liam was such a perfect kid that she didn't want to jinx it. Her entire life had been devoted to her son and she was not ready for another. And each time Riley had asked her to try for a baby, she would try to envision a life with them, Liam, and a new baby. And each time, Buffy could never conjure a picture. "Anyway, Riley had accused me of not being over Angel and that's why we haven't been able to start a family of our own. Because, apparently, I've been holding out hope that I could have the family I always wanted."
"Mom!" Liam called bursting through the front door of his Grandma Joyce's old house. Buffy quickly wiped away a few tears that had started to shed as Liam ran into the living room, interrupting the party. Her marriage was falling apart and the more she thought about it, it was her fault. "Guess what I got for a Halloween costume!"
"I don't know, Spider-Man?" Buffy questioned, knowing that her son would never go as the superhero. He was more of a Captain America fan, but Liam was him two years ago.
"Wrong," Liam said smiling back at his dad who had just entered the door. "Dad, show mom my costume!"
Angel pulled Liam's costume out of the shopping bag and held it up for Buffy. Buffy read the costume and cocked her in surprise. It was definitely unexpected. "A vampire? Since when do you like those?" Buffy asked.
"Since Dad said that you and him were going to be vampires for a matching costume," Liam answered happily.
"We are?" Buffy questioned Angel. That was a discussion she definitely would have remembered having.
"For Willow's Halloween Party. Remember I asked you if you were going and you said that you didn't know and I said that I would take care of it. This is me taking care of it," Angel explained. He really didn't think it was a big deal. And with Riley gone, definitely an interesting piece of information Liam had told him over the phone, Buffy needed a date.
"Please Mom," Liam begged. He really wanted them to do a matching family costume. His dad promised to him trick-or-treating with his mom and all he wanted was them all to be together, enjoying the holiday like a normal family.
"Fine," Buffy relented. Halloween was next weekend along with Willow's party, she couldn't disappoint. It obviously meant a lot to Liam, so it meant a lot to her. "But I'm not going to be a vampire."