"Okay, Giles, I'm here!" Buffy announced whilst walking with her five-year-old into Giles' office. They had just been discharged from the hospital when Buffy received an urgent call from Giles, telling her to come down to the station.
"Daddy!" Liam exclaimed as he ran over to his father hiding in the corner of the office. Angel reached down to catch the running child and pulled him into his arms.
"Hey champ, how's it going?" Angel asked, holding his son. Ever since his heart-to-heart with Buffy last week, Angel had been visiting Liam everyday to establish a relationship that should have been formed years ago.
"Good! Mommy signed my cast! Do you want to sign it?" Liam asked. He stole a marker off of Giles' desk and held it for Angel to take.
"Where do you want me to sign?" Angel bent down to Liam's level, getting ready to sign his cast.
"Right here! Next to Mommy," Liam instructed. Buffy and Angel both shared an awkward look at Liam's eagerness. They hadn't told Liam about Kate yet. Though they believed Liam already had his suspicions, neither had told the boy that Angel was getting married and it wasn't to Buffy.
Angel signed the cast as Buffy watched. She knew Angel would be a good father; he constantly doted on Liam when given the chance. It was the job he was meant to have besides being a police officer.
"Buffy," Giles said, snapping Buffy out of her daze. Buffy turned her attention back to Giles remembering that she was there on a mission. "I have a lineup in the other room. We found five women that matched your description of the woman you saw before you were abducted. I would like you to take a look."
"Okay," Buffy nodded. It wasn't like they found the Master, but at least it was something that could lead to him. "Liam, come along."
"Buffy, I think it's best if we leave Liam out of this," Giles suggested. He wanted Buffy fully focused at the task at hand, not distracted by the five-year-old. "I'll get Cordelia to watch him."
Buffy eyes bugged out of her head at the suggestion. She had no doubt regarding Cordelia's maternal instincts, she just didn't trust Cordelia not to call Xander and Willow over. Buffy had been avoiding them all week and planned to see them again on her terms.
"I'm sure Kate would love to watch him," Angel offered. Buffy instantly threw that idea out the window and made it apparent that she was against the notion. Angel moved closer to Buffy so Liam couldn't hear. "Come on, Buff, she's gonna be his stepmother. Might as well start them getting to know each other." Buffy knew Angel's points were valid. Kate would be Liam's stepmother in a few months and Buffy could stop that despite her displeasure. But she wanted to wait a little longer before breaking the news to Liam. When Buffy didn't immediately answer, he took the hint and tried to come up with someone else. "What about Spike?"
As much as Buffy liked Spike, did she trust him with her child? No. But Spike was a better choice than Kate, so Buffy relented. "Fine," Buffy agreed. Angel picked Liam back up and into his arms as he walked them out to the bullpen and towards his platinum blonde friend.
When Buffy saw Liam was safe with Spike, she followed Giles into the other room with Angel. Since Angel was second-in-command, wherever Giles went so did Angel.
"Okay, Buffy, when I turn on this light. Tell me if you see the person you met the day of your abduction," Giles ordered. Buffy nodded and Giles proceeded to flip the switch.
Buffy looked through the myriad of faces and did not immediately recognize anybody. Due to their blonde hair, their faces seemed to all blend together; however, as she intently looked at each woman, Buffy noticed subtle differences. It wasn't until Buffy reached number four did she feel a chill creep up her spine. Buffy stood frozen as memories of her abduction played throughout her head. Angel picked up on the terror in Buffy's eyes and reassuringly placed his hand on the small of her back.
"Number four," Buffy said, trying to remain calm.
Angel looked over at number four and became angered instantaneously. He removed his hand from Buffy's back and went to grab the woman Buffy identified.
"Angel, what a surprise? I didn't except to see you here," she flirted with him.
Angel rolled his eyes. He was quite familiar with her games. At one time he was victim to them, but what she had possibly done to Buffy was by far the worst one she played. "Darla, I need you to come with me."
"Why'd you do it?" Angel questioned as he pressed his arms onto the table. He insisted on being the one to question Darla - due to their history - and urged Giles to stay with Buffy as she watched from the other side of the glass.
"Do what?" Darla answered playing dumb.
"Kidnap Buffy," Angel replied.
"Buffy, Buffy, Buffy," Darla said as she tried to place the name. "Sorry, I don't know a Buffy." Angel went into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He flipped through his cards and money to find what he was looking for. He set down an old picture of Buffy and placed it on the table for Darla to look at. "Oh, Buffy. Now I remember. Wasn't she the girl you dumped me for junior year of college?"
Buffy stood in silence. One, for Angel keeping her old college picture in his wallet after six years and a fiancée later. Two, for the fact she had no idea Angel had dated Darla, the woman who was linked to her kidnapping.
Angel rubbed his neck in embarrassment. "Darla, we weren't working out. You and I both know it," Angel explained.
"So you just happened to ask her out on a date the day we broke up," Darla retorted with venom in her voice.
Angel had to admit that his actions in college were less than noble. Darla wasn't wrong in her interpretation of that day's events. He met Buffy on her first day of college when she accidentally ran into him causing her to spill her coffee all over them. Beneath the clumsiness and beauty, Angel remembered thinking how he felt so connected to this person he had never met. To a young twenty-year-old, it was love at first sight as he became enamored with her from that moment on. He was still dating Darla when he asked Buffy out on a date and when she accepted, Angel broke things off with Darla. Up until that moment, Buffy had been unaware of Angel's overlapping relationship.
Liam sat on the floor next to Spike's desk as he played with Spike's replica police car and toy De Soto. Spike was trying to get work done when Angel handed over the child. Typically, Spike was grateful for any distraction from work, but due to Angel's absences the past week hanging out with said kid, Spike had to pick up his slack. Angel owed him big time.
"Ahhhh! The Master! He's coming to get me! He's coming to get me! Mommy!" Liam screamed through the police station. Spike practically jumped out of his seat at the sound Liam's screams. He looked over at the kid and saw him running to the interrogation room for Buffy. Spike tried to find the cause that startled the boy but came back empty handed.
Spike followed Liam into the room with Buffy and Giles as Liam ran into his mother's arms in tears. Liam's sobs made his crying out incoherent. "Spike, what happened?" Buffy asked as she held Liam close.
"I dunno. One moment he's playing on the ground and the next he's screaming his bloody head off," Spike explained.
"It's the Master. He's here. He's coming to take me and Mommy back," Liam cried. Buffy's blood ran cold at her captor's moniker. Still holding onto Liam, she looked out to where Liam had ran from and recognized the man - her captor - that caused her son to run.
"Giles, he's here," Buffy said.
Giles saw the man who fit the description of Buffy and Liam's abductor. He knocked on the window that led to Darla's interrogation room to call Angel back into the room he was in with Buffy.
Angel was furious with Giles. He was just about to break some ground with Darla until Giles began to persistently knock. Angel's fuming lessened as he saw his son crying in his mother's arms. Though Buffy was trying her best to keep it together, Angel could tell something was troubling her as well. He moved over to his ex-fiancée and son and held them both in his arms. At his touch, Buffy could no longer hold her tears back. Every emotion was coming on fast. "Buffy, please don't cry. You have to tell me what's wrong," Angel urged.
"It's him, Angel. He's here," Buffy cried. Despite Buffy's vague acknowledgment of her captor, Angel knew exactly who she was talking about. It was the man who had taken her away from him. Angel let her and Liam go and placed a kiss on her and Liam's heads before going out into the bullpen to confront the man that ripped his family away from him.
"Heinrich?" Angel called out to the confused man that roamed the station.. This day just seemed to be getting better and better. "What are you doing here?"
"Darla called. What is my daughter doing in police custody. She has done nothing wrong," Heinrich explained. He knew the police's interest in Darla had stemmed from the recent escape of Buffy and Liam.
"Why don't you come with me and we can sort this all out," Angel said, plastering a fake smile. He led Heinrich into Darla's interrogation room, pass Liam and Buffy. The duo held themselves together as Heinrich walked by unfazed by their presence.
"Darla, are you alright?" Heinrich asked as Angel closed the door behind them.
"I'm fine. It's just that Angel is trying to pin Buffy Summers abduction on me," Darla explained to her father. She did not deny her involvement, but did not acknowledge it, especially in front of Angel,
"Angel, what's the meaning of this?" Heinrich demanded. He cared for his daughter deeply and would protect her at any cost. After all, his involvement in the Buffy plot was him being ab overprotective father.
"Buffy identified you both. You two are going away for a long time," Angel explained with a smug look on his face. This would have to be his favorite collar of them all. Justice was finally being served for his family. "But I'm more concerned as to why you two did it."
Darla refused to speak. Though she knew prison was her only option, she would not give Angel the satisfaction to know why his precious Buffy was taken from them. Instead, Heinrich spoke for him and his daughter. "Isn't it obvious? You and Darla were together since freshman year of high school and were going strong until Buffy came into the picture. You threw away six almost seven years of a committed relationship for that little whore," Heinrich spat.
Angel's couldn't control his next movement. No one could have seen it coming. Outraged by Heinrich's comment, Angel slapped Darla's father hard across the face. "Don't you ever call Buffy that again," Angel instructed.
Heinrich shrugged Angel's outburst off and continued on with his story, "Anyway, we find out that only after three years together, you propose."
"When you know you know," Angel remarked. What he felt for Darla was something he never felt with Buffy or Kate. Fatigue, anger, and jealousy were the only things that came out of Darla and Angel's tumultuous relationship.
"That's when we started to formulate our plan. We rigged up a storage unit container with all the essentials. We didn't want to kill her. We simply wanted to hide her, until Darla was able to make you fall in love with her again. We were going to act on your wedding day and make it look like she left you at the alter, but an unexpected surprise came our way. Darla saw Buffy at the drug store buying a pregnancy test, so we decided to act within the next twenty-four hours."
"Do you realize what you two did to my life?" Angel asked the pair incredulously. "I missed the first five years of my son's life because I didn't even know he existed. I never got to see him born, hold him as a baby, hear his first words, or watch him take his first steps."
"If you makes you feel better, she wasn't supposed to carry to term like she did. We tried to get her to miscarry," Darla admitted. She had gave her father some herbal tea - during Buffy's pregnancy - to be fed to Buffy. This exact tea - as Darla had researched - was used in the eighteen hundreds to prompt a miscarriage, but Darla's plans had obviously failed.
"You both are sick. My son has a broken arm and Buffy flinches anytime some opens the door. You've ruined their lives. If it wasn't for you two, none of this would have happened. Instead of coming home to a crime scene that day, I would have been celebrating my birthday and the news of my son, but I never got that," Angel released his bottled up, pent up aggression/anger that surrounding Buffy's current situation. For Angel, it felt good to get it all out. "Rot in jail for all I care."