The Family

"You found Connor's dad."

"Yes."

"Because you recognized his mom from high school."

"Yes."

"Because she was your boyfriend's ex."

"Yes."

"The boyfriend who you got back together with."

"Yes."

"Who had a one-night stand and didn't know he got a kid out of it."

"Yes. Please stop repeating everything I just told you."

Kit groaned. "It's ridiculous."

"Believe me, Angel and I just had this exact same discussion."

Angel. She had known Connor's dad was called Angel, she had just completely forgotten it after six – almost seven – years.

She sighed. "What does he want to do?"

"Obviously he wants to stay in his life."

"Okay, but what about who Connor's going to stay with?"

"One second."

Kit let them talk for a minute before Buffy came back to the phone. "We think he should stay with me, since he's already comfortable here."

"I do hope you know you're never getting rid of Angel now."

"To be fair, I wasn't planning on him leaving before this."

†

The moment Connor left his room and saw Angel sitting in the kitchen, he knew something had happened.

"Good morning, Connor," he said with a hesitant smile.

"Morning." He looked around. "Where's Mom?"

"Here," she said, entering the room. "Angel came over last night," she explained, placing a kiss on his cheek.

"Oh. Why?"

Angel glanced at Mom, before standing up and going over to crouch down next to him.

"Actually, there's something I need to talk to you about."

Fear shot through him. "Are you leaving?"

Angel was caught completely off-guard. "What? No. No, I'm not leaving, not at all."

Connor relaxed. "Okay. That's good."

"Connor…" Angel took a deep breath. "Your mom and I figured something out last night, and I'm so so sorry it took so long."

Connor waited as Angel figured out what he was going to say.

"Connor… I'm your father."

Connor blinked. "You're my…"

"I'm your father," he repeated, looking scared that Connor was going to… he wasn't sure. Maybe yell at him? "Buffy recognized your mom when you showed her the picture you have, and…"
"You're my dad."

Ang– Dad nodded. "I'm so sorry I didn't know sooner."

"Why didn't you know?"

"You're mother – Darla – she never told me."

"My mom's name was Darla?"

Dad nodded.

"And you're my dad."

"Yes."

He was quiet for a moment.

"Are you okay with that?"

Connor just gave his dad (his dad) a hug.

†

"So while you do legally get… first dibs, for lack of a better term, since I'm already approved as his foster parent, he'll stay with me until everything is worked out." Buffy sighed. "This is going to be a nightmare and a half, isn't it."

Angel just nodded.

Buffy started pacing. "I don't know how the judge is going to react, especially since no one else seems to get that the possibility of us splitting up is really really low, but I don't want to move him since he's already comfortable here, and do you even have a second bedroom in your apartment?"

She turned to him, and stopped as she saw an expression of contemplation on his face.

"What?"

He hesitated. "I have an idea, and I'm pretty sure it would make things easier."

She raised an eyebrow. "And what's that?"

He pulled out a Claddagh ring, and her eyes widened.

"It's not as romantic as I was hoping it'd be," he said with a slight laugh. "But I think you've seen this coming for a while."

Buffy smiled. "So, rush the civil ceremony and have the wedding later?"

Angel smiled back. "I love you."

†

Connor lost his mind.

(In a good way. She hoped.)

"You're getting married?" He was jumping up and down, his eyes as wide as saucers.

Angel nodded, and Buffy held out her left hand to show him her ring.

(Apparently left hand, heart facing out meant engaged, and Buffy had made him spend

fifteen minutes explaining all the details he had left out the first time he gave her the ring.)

"Wow," Connor said, looking at her hand.

"We're hoping that being married will make all the legal stuff that comes with Angel being your dad easier, so we're probably going to get married, then have a big wedding later," she said.

"Two weddings?" he asked.

"Probably," Angel said.

†

Probably turned into a definitely after Kit started crying in relief after they told her the news.

"This is the weirdest case I've ever had," she said, blowing her nose with a tissue.

"It's the weirdest thing I've ever done," Buffy said. "And I've done a lot of weird things."

"I don't know," Angel said. "I still think Willow's evil twin was weirder."

Buffy snorted. "Fair."

†

"I think that you need to stop expecting for your life to turn normal," Dawn said from the other side of the phone after Buffy explained the day's revelations.

Buffy laughed. "That would probably help."

"I'm only an hour away, so don't get married until I get there."

"We are having a real wedding later."

"Still not an excuse to miss my big sister's wedding," Dawn replied.

Buffy smiled. "How does Friday at three work?"

†

"Hi Connor."

Connor looked at his Aunt Dawn. It was the first time he had met her outside of phone calls. "Hi."

"Are you excited?"

A smile grew on his face. "Yeah."

Aunt Dawn smiled back. "Me too." Her voice turned to a whisper. "Plus, I think this is growing a bit bigger than your mom and dad expected, so there will probably be food after."

Connor liked Aunt Dawn.

†

Angel had known from the beginning that their 'small' civil ceremony would be bigger than originally planned, but it was actually smaller than he expected.

"How did you keep Willow from bringing in a five layer cake?"

"I told her that since we're having a big ceremony later, we didn't need anything today."

Angel raised an eyebrow, and Buffy relented.

"And I said I'd pick out ugly bridesmaid dresses if she brought anything bigger than one layer."

He chuckled, before Cordelia strode up to him, saying the flowers were all in place, finally, and Gunn was talking to Connor about building weapons out of Legos so go stop him, before messing with Angel's bowtie and going to see what was taking the judge so long.

"I see you have no such sway," Buffy remarked.

Angel shrugged. "It's Cordelia."

†

Technically, Dad was still moving into the house where he and Mom lived, but by the fourth day Connor had stopped being surprised to come out of his room and see Dad cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

"What are you making?"

"Scrambled eggs."

Connor nodded and sat down as Dad finished and put a plate down in front of him. He took a bite and his eyes widened "'his is re'lly 'ood!"

Dad gave a rare, full faced grin as he spooned out two more plates.

"Mom!" Connor exclaimed as she entered the kitchen.

"Morning bud."

"Mom, Dad makes really good eggs!"

"Really?" She smiled and grabbed a fork. "I'm going to need to test this."

"Way better than yours."

She looked at him with an overly dramatic face. "Betrayed! And by my own son!"

Connor giggled as he took another bite of his eggs.

He liked the new normal.

†

"–You shouldn't get any cases that are too crazy for a while," Kit said as she finished showing the newest social worker, Linda, around the office.

"Crazy?" Linda asked. "Like what?"

"Well, there's this one case that I just finished, I couldn't tell you the whole thing without alcohol," she said, snorting. "But towards the end the foster mom realized she was dating the bio dad."

Linda's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

Kit nodded.

"What happened?"

Kit smiled and shrugged. "They got married."

"So it's a happily ever after," Linda said.

"Yeah," Kit replied. "Yeah. I guess it is."