Sorry this chapter's late; I was out of town over the weekend. I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day!

Chapter 4: Relationships

For a few seconds neither Buffy nor Angel said anything.

"Wait," Buffy finally said, "What do you mean your son? Vampires can't have children."

"He-"

Buffy cut him off.

"And why didn't you tell me? Were you just… Did I…"

"Buffy, it's not… It's not like that."

"Like what, Angel? We dated for years! And you never told me about him!"

"Because he wasn't born yet."

Buffy stopped. "What do you mean?" she asked, quietly.

"He was born last November. There was a prophecy, and now I have a son," he said, sounding astonished, even though he'd had half a year to get used to it.

"How is he a teenager?"

"There was a vampire hunter in the 1700s. Daniel Holtz. He made a deal with a demon to get revenge on me and Darla for killing his family. He kidnapped Connor and raised him in a hell dimension."

"And time moves faster there," Buffy added, drawing on her own experience from her summer as a runaway.

The two were then silent.

"Who's… Who's his mother?" Buffy asked.

Angel hesitated. "Darla," he finally said.

"But she's dead." This wasn't a question. "You killed her."

"There's this law firm."

"We have evil lawyers now?"

"Yeah. They wanted to mess with me, so they brought her back."

"And you two..?" she started, hesitant about asking.

Looking down, Angel nodded. "The whole... mess with my head plan? Worked like a charm."

"When?"

"Around a week before your mother's funeral."

The room filled with silence as Buffy tried to sort through the jumble of feelings that threatened to overflow.

"This just seems ironic," she finally settled on.

Angel looked up, surprised by her lack of reaction.

Buffy was self-aware enough to know that if he had told her this last year, she probably would have yelled at him. But this year? No, she couldn't blame him (well, not too much, at least). Not after everything she had done with Spike. She might be upset and slightly angry, but…

"What's ironic?" he asked.

"Wasn't one of your big reasons for breaking up with me the fact you couldn't have kids?"

Angel gave a mirthless chuckle. "Funny how that works."

"Where's Darla now?" Buffy changed the subject, trying to keep her face neutral.

"Dead. Again."

Buffy nodded, strangely relieved. She looked up at Angel, who had a slightly melancholy look on his face. Okay, maybe it wasn't that strange. "And how's Connor?"

"He's pretty good," Angel said with a smile.

"Even with the hell dimension stuff?"

"Somehow," he said.

"Who's Groo?" Buffy asked, fully changing the subject. She didn't want to continue that conversation until she'd had a chance to sit by herself and think. "I mean, other than Cordy's boyfriend."

"He's a champion from a demon dimension that we were in around the time of your fight with Glory. He came here recently and started dating Cordelia." If he had been telling this to anyone else, he would probably have sounded slightly jealous. But this was Buffy. No matter the complicated emotions he had about Cordy, he knew he still loved Buffy.

"Who else is coming to the funeral?" Angel asked.

"Um… Giles, Anya, Oz, some people named the McNallys, and possibly Riley."

"How's, uh… How's Riley doing?" Angel asked, trying not to sound jealous, when he really had no excuse.

Buffy just smiled. "Married."

"Oh."

"Yeah. She's, uh, pretty nice."

"Is Spike going to be there?" he asked, not bothering to hide his disdain, but while remembering that the vampire had been present at Buffy's own funeral.

Buffy tried to hide a cringe, and Angel felt himself freeze slightly. "No."

"What happened?"

"It's… It's nothing."

It wasn't nothing.

"If it is… something," Angel finally said after a few seconds of silence, "You can tell me."

"Thanks."

And with the necessary explanation over, Angel finally sat down next to her. She automatically took his hand, and started telling him about some of her more light-hearted exploits in the past year.

†

Hours later, Cordelia lay awake in her hotel room. Angel and Connor were in their respective rooms, and Groo was lying next to her. She smiled at her boyfriend. He had been so supportive. Her mind turned to one of the topics that she had been thinking about quite a bit since they had started their trip to Sunnydale.

Buffy. Specifically, her relationship with Angel.

Something about it was bugging her, but she couldn't figure out what.

I mean, she thought, it's not like I expected any change. Although, it was the first time she'd seen Buffy since her friendship with Angel had become so deep. But the way she kept thinking of it! It reminded her of the times back in high school, when a boy she liked was looking at ano… Oh, no. She was not going there. Angel was her friend. That was it.

She thought back to that time at the ballet. It was the day Groo had come back, but that was never the first thing she thought of when she remembered that day. She remembered Angel's lips on hers, the way he had held her when they were reliving the scene between the ballerina and her lover.

Okay, fine. He was a great kisser. He was absolutely gorgeous, with the cutest little insecurities that seemed to pop up when he wasn't brooding. But that didn't mean she felt anything more. Just that she had eyes.

Besides, that would mean she was just setting herself up for disappointment. You usually don't want to date someone when you know their ex has literally given them perfect happiness. And she wasn't his type anyway, not short and…

She had dyed her hair blonde during her vacation with Groo. She had never wanted to be blonde before, to add to the valley girl image that had followed her since middle school.

Confused by the direction her brain was going in, she quietly got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. After she closed the door, she turned on the lights and looked at her reflection, messing with a few strands of her hair.

She could not be in love with Angel. Not when his heart still belonged to Buffy. Not when being with him meant either being second best to his ex, or knowingly releasing Angelus.

She wasn't here for this anyway. She was here for Willow.

Just thinking the name sent waves of regret through her. She had never apologized for how she had treated her. By the time she wanted to, it had just been too awkward.

She had never told her she'd forgiven her for what she did with Xander.

Given the fact that they had talked regularly up until the past year, it was probably pretty obvious the grudge was gone. But she wished she had been able to say it out loud.

With a sigh, she turned off the bathroom lights and headed back to bed.

She looked at Groo with fondness, though the topic of her original musings was coming back. Groo's makeover (her makeover) had made him look like Angel. But as much as they were alike (with the champion thing and all that), they were still so different. Groo was just… more open.

But did she even love him?

†

"Dawn, we're going to be late!" Tara called up the stairs.

"Coming!"

Tara sighed as she waited for the teen to finish getting ready. She looked around the living room, glad they'd had the foresight to clean it the night before Buffy got out of the hospital.

As she heard Dawn start running down the stairs, the phone rang. Tara sighed again at the interruption.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Tara?"

She blinked. "Oz?" Dawn glanced over at her.

"Yeah. I was just calling to tell you I'll be in Sunnydale in a few hours."

"Okay," she responded. "Thanks." The two of them didn't say anything for a second.

"W-where are you staying?" she asked.

"My parents' house."

"That's… good." She cleared her throat. "Do you.. I mean..."

Oz gave her a moment to work out her thoughts.

"I invited everyone-everyone who knows about v-vampires- to dinner tonight. W-would you like to come?"

"That'd be cool" he responded.

"Okay," she said. "I've, um… I've got to go now, but… Can you call when you get here?"

"I will."

"Bye."

"That was Oz?" Dawn asked as Tara hung up the phone.

She nodded.

"You two seem to be getting along."

Tara shrugged. "There isn't a reason for us not to."

I'm very happy with how the conclusion of the Buffy/Angel conversation went. Obviously, she's not going to perfectly happy with it, but considering her relationship with Spike, it would be pretty hypocritical for her to be mad at Angel for what happened with Darla, so I think she'll be fine after some time to think through everything. I also doubt she wants to deal with drama on top of grieving for Willow, so there's that too.

As for the Cordy/Angel relationship, I have an annoying problem to deal with. Mainly, it's canon, so it's a thing I have to deal with, but I have no clue what the two of them were thinking during it, so my interpretation might be different than yours, and I'm accepting that now.

Tara and Oz! They're probably the two most mature people in the series (at least in the younger age group), so I can't see them being antagonistic over Willow, especially since she's dead. Obviously, it's a bit awkward, but it'd be weird if it wasn't. We've also got the set up for what I'm mentally calling the Family Reunion Dinner, so that'll be fun.