"Buffy?" Angel asked, peering out the back door. He found Buffy sitting on the porch with her back to the house. "I brought you some cake."
After Riley left, Thanksgiving dinner had been ruined. No one dared to speak as the tension still remained in the air following the blowout. When they all finished their meals, Buffy didn't even offer to clean up. And no one asked her to help. They left her alone as she went outside and cried.
"Thanks," Buffy said accepting the cake. She had always been a sucker for sweets. As she turned around, Angel took Buffy in. Her eyes were red and puffy from time spent crying in the past hour.
Angel sat next to Buffy on the steps as she ate her cake in silence. "I'm sorry," Angel began.
"Why? You didn't do anything wrong," Buffy countered. Angel could have easily blown up and beaten Riley to a pulp; instead, he showed restraint and let Buffy deal with it. There was nothing he had done to cause Buffy to put up a fight. That was her decision alone.
"I kissed you." Though Liam's outburst was the main cause of the events that had transpired, Angel couldn't help but feel that the kiss they shared was the catalyst.
"That's the only good thing that happened tonight." Buffy relaxed as she leaned her head on Angel's shoulder. Together, they stared out at the lawn in a comfortable silence.
"Mom? Dad?" Liam asked. He didn't want to interrupt his parents, but at the behest of everyone inside the house and his own guilt, he felt the urge to apologize for his actions and own up to his master plan. If he didn't push his mom and dad and Riley, then none of this would have happened. "Can I talk to you guys?"
"Sure, Buddy," Angel said, patting down next to him for Liam to sit. Liam, however, preferred to stand. He moved in front of his parents so they were forced to look at him as he explained himself.
"I'm sorry for tonight," Liam apologized. Just a his mom was about to interject, he shot her down. "It was my fault. You see, tonight I had planned to get you guys back together. That's why I had Aunt Willow drop the cake and Uncle Spike move your phone, so you two could spend time together. I even got Aunt Cordelia to sit you guys next to each other." Buffy and Angel listened patiently as Liam continued to explain himself as the pieces for this evening suddenly began to fall into place. "Then when we were supposed to go around the table saying what we were thankful for, I made everyone come up with an excuse to somehow reference the two of you so we could get it through your heads that you guys were meant to be together. But Riley messed it all up. It's not that I don't want you to have another baby, Mom. I would just rather it be with Dad. I want my parents back together. That's why I freaked out. And that's why I ruined this evening. I'm really sorry."
Liam impatiently waited for either of his parents to speak. He didn't like the staring emotionless at him.
"So you had convinced everyone inside to help you with this master plan of yours?" Angel asked for clarification, trying to comprehend the situation.
"Guilty," Liam admitted. He saw the bafflement on his dad's face while his mom was void of any and all emotion.
"When did you even have time to plan something this elaborate?" Angel questioned. Though Liam was wrong to try to set them up, Angel had to give the boy some props. It was a genius plan that was effective until Riley intervened.
"When Mom and Riley were at therapy," Liam explained. The silence from his mom was killing him. He had seen her mad before like that time he punched Tyler in the face, but this was something completely new. His mom seemed so dead inside, so hollow. Liam just wanted her to understand that everything he did, good or bad, was for her. All because he loved her. "Mom? Please say something."
Buffy took a deep breath. "Well, what do you want me to say. That I'm disappointed in you? That I'm angry with you? I get it that you want your dad and I back together, but you could of handled it differently. Now I have to move us out of our house in two days and we'll probably have to move in here and I'll have to spend money, that I can't afford on my salary alone, for a divorce lawyer." Buffy paused and saw Liam ready to burst into tears. She had to calm him down, it was her motherly instinct. "I love your dad and your dad loves me, but I don't think we can be together, especially now. So I'm going to go inside, help clean up whatever's left, and we are going to go home and start packing."
Buffy stood up and kissed Liam's forehead before heading back inside leaving the father and son to themselves. "Dad, I'm-" Liam tried to apologize once again.
"Don't apologize," Angel said cutting Liam off. "After all, your plan didn't necessarily fail."
Liam cocked his head up at his father. "What do you mean?"
"If you want to find out, check out the kitchen's security cameras your grandpa has installed," Angel said smiling.
That's when Liam knew that all hope was not yet lost.