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Chapter Text

Dawn sat in the living room flipping through the TV, when Willow came in. "Heeey Daaaawnie!" Willow slurred.

Dawn was horrified. "Willow! You went to Rak's?"

"No!" Willow protested. "I had some drinks at the Bronze. Wanna do something?"

Dawn could not tell if Willow was telling the truth about if she were drunk or high off magic. "No. I'm waiting for Buffy to get home." Dawn sighed. "She's closing the magic box."

"Aw, what's wrong?" Willow hit Dawn in the arm.

"Nothing. It's just… Buffy's been so hard on herself about my five finger discounting. I know she does her best. I've made things worse for her."

"Buffy loves you! You're Dawnie!"

"Buffy's life would be easier if she weren't given a sister to support."

"Don't say that!" Willow insisted. Willow said some words and summoned a magic stone. "A little something I learned."

"Willow, you're not supposed to do magic!" Dawn exclaimed. But there was no stopping her, Willow went ahead and said another incantation. The next thing they knew they were in the Summers' home but it was a wreck. There was some kind of sound coming from upstairs. "What's going on?" Willow asked, rhetorically.

A storage bin that looked like a low bench by the entryway opened. "An Wil!" a little girl peaked out and said, in a baby talk voice.

Dawn ran over and picked her up. "Who are you?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

"Get away from-Oh Will!" Buffy breathily spoke stumbling from the kitchen. She was bleeding from her abdomen.

"Buffy! Cathy!" Angel yelled from on the floor of the dining room.

It was all very sobering for Willow. "Oh God. Oh God Buffy, what's wrong?"

"Get her out," Buffy cried. "Before he comes down."

"Dawn talk to Buffy, I'll check on Angel," Willow instructed. "Angel what's going on? What are you doing here? How are you bleeding to death?"

"Humanity's a bitch," Angel huffed. "Get Buffy and Cathy and run."

"Human-you're alive? You're tan."

"Had a good two and a half year run thanks to the Morah, no? Just save them. Willow. Go." Willow spotted a wedding ring on Angel. Angel then died.

Meanwhile Dawn approached Buffy, holding the little blonde girl. "Buffy, Buffy what happened? I'm calling 911. We'll figure the rest out later." Dawn saw Buffy had a wedding ring.

"Save her. Help Willow. Save my baby, please," Buffy begged. "Willow will take her to Giles. Will don't let her slay. Ever. It's Falek upstairs looking."

"MAMA! MAMA! DADA!" the baby cried.

"Mama?" Dawn questioned, as she looked around. "When were you born?" It seemed like the right question to ask the baby.

"September second, two-thousand," Buffy reached a hand to the little girl. "Best day of my life. Mommy loves you. Close eyes, baby." Blood come out of Buffy's mouth and her eyes shut.

Willow stalked over to Dawn. "Dawn whatever I've done, I break this, and it's done," Willow declared, before throwing the stone down and breaking it.

Dawn and Willow were back in the clean version of their living room and were not alone. "What the hell did I do?" Willow cried.

Dawn patted the sobbing child in her arms that they apparently brought with them. "Great question. Don't cry. Uh, that was a bad dream"

The front door opened and Buffy and Spike walked in. "Hey Dawn, you here?" Buffy called.

"Mama!" the little girl squealed.

"Who?" Buffy asked. "Who is she and where's her mom?"

Spike sniffed the air. "What the hell have you done?" he demanded. "Tell me she isn't-"

"How do you know?" Dawn asked. Spike pointed to his nose. "Ew."

"It's not a catch-all DNA test, I'm not about to host a talk show, I just know the two scents well, to be clear. Plus the blood."

Buffy looked around. "I'm clear on nothing. What's going on?"

"MAMA! MOM-MY! MAMA!" Cathy yelled.

Buffy frowned, sad at the thought this little girl wanted her Mommy. "Oh no. We'll find your Mommy, okay sweetheart? There's blood on her clothes. Where'd you find her? Any leads on her Mom? I'll find her."

"I have no idea what these two did," Spike said, pointing between Willow and Dawn, "but you're her mother."

Buffy turned to Spike, dumbfounded. "No I'm not. I'd remember having a kid."

MAAAAAMA! MAMA! MOOOOOM!" Spike groaned and ripped the kid from Dawn and shoved her at Buffy. The crying slowed once Buffy was forced to hold the girl. "Dada?" she then asked. "Want Dada!"

"Who's Daddy?" Buffy asked. "Not that I understand how I can be Mommy."

"Angel," Willow admitted. "Dawn and I went into an alternate reality. You and Angel were dying. I got us out of there and your daughter came with us. You were married, I think."

"You did ask me to save her," Dawn added. "However accidental the save was."

Spike caught Buffy before her and Cathy fell to the ground. Cathy pointed at Spike. "Yucky!" she declared.

"You're welcome!" Spike scrowled. "He definitely taught her that."

Buffy sat on the chair before she fainted. "Explain slowly, one of you, what's happened."

"I wanted to show Dawn a world where she didn't exist-"

"WILLOW!" Buffy snarled. "You went to Rak and are taunting my sister?"

"No," Willow insisted. "No Rak. I had a few drinks and I remembered how to conjure something. I wanted to show her life wouldn't be easier without her, I certainly did not know they'd be that bad. Just a world with no Dawn."

"Why?" Buffy was baffled.

"I thought maybe you would have an easier life if you didn't have me to worry about," Dawn admitted.

"You idiot!" Buffy said with tears in her eyes. "Of course life wouldn't be better without you. How could you think that? For a second?"

"I don't know, okay? But can we discuss that later?" Dawn answered.

"Mama! MOM-MY!" Cathy was unhappy about being ignored. She hit Buffy in the face.

"OW!" Buffy yelled. "That hurt!"

"Hi," she said softly.

Buffy stared at the girl. She was small, blonde, but definitely had Angel's eyes. "Hello," she eventually replied.

"Cathy," Willow said. "Pretty sure her name is Cathy, for the record."

Spike scoffed. "I'd have thought he'd be too ashamed to use that name. How alternate of a reality was it? And was it specially based on sisters?"

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

"The name is familiar," Buffy said. "My brain is frozen."

"Not exactly what bedtime stories are made of," Spike explained. "But once upon a time two hundred and fifty years ago a human named Liam had a kid sister named Catherine- Cathy-"

"OH!" Buffy sighed loudly.

"And Angelus, formerly Liam, reveled in that kill to the point he mocked the fact little sis thought the big brother she adored was an Angel returning to the family for his new name," Spike finished. "No one lived happily ever after. No one lived at all. Darla loved the story."

"OH," Willow and Dawn sighed at the same time.

"MOOOM!" Cathy yelled again. "Hi!" She held Buffy tight. "No boo-boo!"

Buffy awkwardly hugged her. "Uh, hello, again. It'll be okay, sweetie. No one has boo-boos." Buffy swallowed. "We send her back, right? Like with Vamp Willow?"

"Buffy I'm not sure you're getting it," Dawn stated. "You and Angel died. Very much dead. And you said something about not wanting her to slay. Willow and Giles are still alive but that's all we know. Oh there was something called Falek and it may have been upstairs. I think you thought I was a friend of Willow's."

"Angel was human," Willow added. "It's how he was bleeding to death and I guess how you have a kid. He said something about two and half years. Could have been a little off, what with the blood. I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry."

"She was born September Second, Two Thousand." Dawn did the math. "That's about nineteen and a half months ago."

"Anything else?" Spike asked.

Dawn and Willow looked at each other. "That about covers it," Dawn concluded.

"No," Willow corrected. "Angel said something about being human thanks to a Morah. Don't know what that means. Now that's it."

"The thing that crashed through the window?" Buffy said, mostly to herself. "I went to see him in LA after the whole Thanksgiving thing. One crashed into his office and he killed it quickly. Then I left."

"I guess in a world without me, Morah's have other powers," Dawn concluded.

"There are probably many worlds without you Niblet," Spike replied. "There are lots of alternate realities."

"I've been sobered now," Willow answered. "I saw Tara talking to someone and I- there's no excuse. None. I know that." Willow was desperate to redeem herself. "But maybe we saved her? You obviously thought I was Willow in that reality. No telling if I was actually on my way."

"What are you saying?" Buffy asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Willow admitted.

"I'm not a mother," Buffy insisted.

"MAMA!" Cathy yelled.

"Yeah, Hi," Buffy answered.

"WANT DADA!"

Willow sighed. "Doesn't he have a kid drama going on?" she asked.

"What?" Spike asked.

"Well, he's going to be hearing from me," Buffy stated. "Y'know what? I'm not doing phone tag. Nor am I risking Warren and the guys messing with her. Let's just go. I'll explain in the car, Spike. Pack stuff quickly. I'll call Tara on the way about the Magic Box." Everyone could smell Cathy needed to be changed suddenly. "We also need diapers. We'll stop." As they packed they discovered leaving was good because Cathy sobbed seeing the dining room and kitchen.

"We'll figure this out, Slayer," Spike said to Buffy as they prepared to leave.

"I'm not mother material," Buffy answered. Then Buffy looked at Cathy. "Or, this me isn't mother material."

A/N: TBC. I hope any readers liked the first chapter and there will be interest in more. I know Willow was reckless but she'll get better from here, I had to get them to that world somehow. Next chapter the gang arrives in LA. On the other site I've posted this on B/A won out as the preferred pairing, but I'm willing to attempt to work it differently here if B/A is actually unpopular here to lean B/S A/C, it just may take a bit longer between chapters (except chapter 2) if anyone wants to drop feedback on that.

Chapter Text

It was ten to midnight at the Hyperion when Angel was putting his weapons away. "Connor," Angel sighed. "You're not going back out."

"It's early," Connor argued. "And you don't tell me what to do!"

"How about we try something new tonight. You pretend I know what I'm talking about when I tell you to stay in, and do it."

Cordelia sighed from the counter. "Connor, please just stay in?" she asked. Connor began to put his weapon away. She then faced the door.

"Oh Peaches, it's time to get on the pill," Spike laughed from the doorway.

Connor was confused. "Peaches? What pill?"

Angel ran towards the door. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Buffy appeared behind him, holding a sleeping child. "He ran ahead of me," Buffy apologized. "I didn't want it this way." Willow and Dawn came up behind Buffy.

Angel backed away. "What's going on? Why do I smell our blood?" Angel asked. "Wait a minute..."

"Jeez," Dawn sighed. "There should be bomb sniffing vampires, like dogs." She breezed by everyone and entered the hotel. "Oh, hi," she said to Connor.

"Hey," Connor replied, sheepishly.

Buffy walked in and laid Cathy down on the couch. "I was going to call but this seemed like getting right to the point. Dawn and Willow went to another reality," Buffy paused, to gaze at Willow, "and they ended up back at the house with her," she pointed to the girl, "who is our daughter, in that reality."

"Oh Shit!" Gunn yelled from the stairs. "Angel, you gotta start using something."

Spike pointed up at Gunn. "Thank you!"

Angel stared blankly and walked over to the little girl. She woke up. "DADA!" she yelled. Angel stood there, dumbfounded. "DAAAAD-DY! DADA!"

"She's gonna keep that up until you say Hi," Dawn pointed out. "That seems to be her thing."

"Hi," Angel said through his state of shock. Connor only called him Dad three times, since being back and it was when he needed something.

"HI!"

"You said you can't get into other realities?" Angel looked at Willow.

"I said I can't rip into the fabric of reality to dark places. An alternate reality in which Dawn doesn't exist, is different. Which that sounds bad but I was very drunk and it was to prove a well intentioned point," Willow explained. "You're blonde," she added to Cordy.

"For a few weeks. I had it done on vacation."

Angel put a hand up. "Catch up on fashion later. I need more information."

Willow took on the responsibility. "Well, Dawn and I went to a reality where Buffy didn't have her to take care of. And, uh, you and Buffy were bleeding to death. I think you did die in front of me. You thought I had come to save you all, or at least Cathy-"

"Cathy," Angel cut her off to repeat. "Her name is Catherine? Cathy."

"Don't worry, I explained," Spike gloated.

"You turned your mother who-"

"You son of a-" Spike was cut off by Buffy pushing him away from Angel.

"Should I wake Fred and Lorne?" Gunn asked. "Y'know what, no. I'm not missing this." He went unacknowledged and sat at the bottom of the stairs.

"I wanted to get Dawn and I out of there, what with the death, but Dawn was holding her and she came with us. She was born in September, Two Thousand according to what Buffy said to Dawn. I found you bleeding in the dining room and you said you'd been human from something called a Morah. You looked good tan. And she may be a slayer."

Angel sat down on the round couch, looking as guilty as Willow. "Morah made me human." Angel looked around at everyone. "Buffy, can we go to the office?"

"No," Buffy answered. "No point. Everyone's going to find out whatever it is you're hiding."

Angel was grateful Cordelia was actually keeping quiet about knowing. "It did make me human. For a day. Then I took the day back and you think I killed it quickly." Angel stood up and backed away from Buffy. "I was told we wouldn't live long if I stayed human!"

"You took it back?" Buffy spat, getting closer. "What do you mean you took it back?"

Angel took an altogether unneeded breath. "I made you forget it happened. We spent an entire day together with me, human, when you came to LA."

"When I came to LA to yell at you for following me around in the shadows you ended up erasing an entire day of my life?"

"Oh boy," Gunn sighed. "You really know how to step in it."

"It sounds bad," Angel agreed. "But it was to save us. I was the only one who could remember. I guess there's a version of reality where I didn't take it back."

"And," Willow had to point out, "Buffy I'm not saying don't be mad but she was hiding in a bench with you two dying and possibly a demon upstairs. Maybe that's what they meant."

"They told you we have a kid?" Buffy asked.

"No. Not a word," Angel assured her. "Just that if I stay human it would get us both killed. I couldn't do that. Though here you did die sooner if it's the current year there and you're just now dying. Though maybe you can't be brought back there. There's probably several versions of that world?"

"In that world he did say, and I quote, 'humanity's a bitch'," Willow said.

Cathy popped her thumb out of her mouth. "BIIISH" she yelled.

"All the words Spike said in the car and now you try to repeat?" Willow asked the child.

"Yucky," Cathy declared, pointing at Spike.

Angel was suddenly delighted. "I told you he taught her that," Spike snarled, pointing at Angel.

"Clearly, she's just smart," Angel countered.

"Shut up, both of you," Buffy practically growled. "I'm not fully processing what you did but we can focus on the current matter."

"Who are you all?" Connor asked.

Cathy got up and toddled over to Buffy and Angel, pulling a leg of each of there's close to her, forcing them to move. "Mama! Dada!" she happily exclaimed. They both stared down at her. "Hi," she said looking up at them.

Buffy was terrified at the idea of being a mom. Her job raising Dawn apparently had her questioning if Buffy would be better without her. Buffy knew the girl probably needed comfort. Plus she was cute, definitely the child of her and Angel. So she rubbed the little girl's back with one hand. "Hey. That's your favorite word, huh?" Buffy asked, trying her best Mom-ing.

Angel looked at the little girl. His child with Buffy. She had Buffy's hair, but her eyes, most would say were his, but he saw his sister, her namesake, in her. He considered the weight of it. He and Buffy were raising a daughter in another life. She was now in front of them, calling him Dada and showing them affection. He looked over to Connor, the child whose childhood Angel lost. Connor thought of him as a murderer, mostly calls him Angel, only stays there sometimes. Until Liam was turned, the original Cathy was good for him. Perhaps a baby sister named Cathy could be good for Connor, too. Angel bent down and picked Cathy up. "It's okay, Cathy, we're fine. Everything will be fine, baby."

Cathy gave Angel a much needed cuddle and kiss. Angel carried her over to Connor. "Connor, I guess this is Cathy, your sister. Cathy, you have a brother," Angel introduced.

It was late, Cathy had been through a lot and if Daddy said it, whatever it meant, it was okay.

Connor studied Angel's expression and tone towards her that seemed nice. But, still, he doubted Angel should be trusted with a child. He would have to look out for her, she needed him. "I'm not sure I get this, you lost another kid?" he asked Angel.

Angel frowned. "No," he groaned. "It's called an alternate reality. I was human in it and our friends brought her here."

"You were human?" Connor questioned. "So you never killed people?"

Angel sighed. "I became human after I had done things as Angelus. But I'm not him."

Connor scoffed. "You kill children. Girl's like her," he pointed to Cathy. "Girls like Holtz's daughter." Connor looked to the Sunnydale alums. "Do you know that? Are you handing her to him?"

Buffy stormed over to Connor. "You don't know me Connor, but I'm Buffy and I know everything Angelus has done. I'm a vampire slayer and I've killed Angelus-"

"You're bad at it, then," Connor interrupted.

"Angel was brought back because he's good," Buffy argued. "If I thought he would hurt anyone, especially children, I'd kill him again. Now Cathy has been through a lot and she does not need to be hearing all of this." Buffy turned to Angel. "I was going to ask to stay here as we figure this out but is that a bad idea?"

Angel held Cathy tighter. He wasn't letting another kid go. "Stay. She needs us right now."

"My first thought was to send her back. Willow and Dawn think it's a bad idea but what if Giles and Willow, who we know are there, are looking for her and are devastated?" Buffy asked.

Angel kept whatever composer he still had together. "It doesn't sound safe there. It could be fate they showed up when they did. We'll figure this out in the next few days," Angel declared. Gunn briefly wondered if he should warn Buffy under no terms would Angel be willing to send a kid of his away.

"I'll make sure he doesn't hurt her," Connor vowed.

"Great," Angel sighed. On the bright side to that it probably meant Connor wouldn't be running off.

Footsteps came from upstairs. "The worst has happened, kids!" Lorne called. "I think I'm growing a sense when the Champ is in extra emotional turmoil." He headed down and surveyed the newbies. "Oh there's a party and I'm guessing not my kind of party." Angel turned to Lorne, not realizing Cathy would see the green demon as a result. "Aren't you just precious!" Lorne squealed. "I'm nice." Cathay seemed happy to see him.

Everyone looked around at each other. "Better than being scared," Spike commented.

"I'm lovable," Lorne confirmed. "Who is she?" Angel explained. "Ooookay," was all he could think of once Angel finished telling him everything. "I'm up for babysitting again. Oh maybe she knows me?" Lorne asked.

Cathy had fallen asleep so no one could ask if she did recognize any of them. "We get her to bed. In the morning we have to get her new clothes. And then… I don't know," Buffy said.. "Angel, do you have money to buy her clothes?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it," he answered. He was ready to buy another crib and possibly put a tracking device on her. When Buffy walked up with Angel to put Cathy down, Lorne didn't need to be an empath to see the looks on Cordy and Spike's faces said things were going to get awkward fast.

"Come into my room if you need anything," Angel said to Buffy after they put Cathy down. Buffy already said they won't talk about the taken back day yet. "We'll figure this out."

"I don't know what figuring this out looks like, Angel." Buffy answered. "Sending her back? Keeping her? US? She's a baby."

"Our baby," he said softly.

Buffy would be lying if she said that didn't feel something when she looked at Cathy, but worry also came with it. "This whole thing started because apparently Dawn thinks she's a burden. That's my great parenting."

"Dawn doesn't hate you. But we're in this one together. We'll handle it," Angel said confidently.

"Your confidence is almost comforting," Buffy was forced to admit. "Maybe it would be more comforting if you didn't take a day back." Buffy wasn't happy with what Angel did, but she kept picturing the image Willow and Dawn painted of Cathy hiding for her life as they were dying, and kept wondering what it would be like to grow up completely without a mother; she missed and felt she needed her own dead mother at 21. She also considered if that really was the timeline had Angel not taken the day back, Dawn wouldn't exist, it made it easier to accept that reality was avoided here. "For get that last part. I don't like you took my memory of it back along with the day, I can handle things. But… we have to focus on her."

Chapter Text

Cordelia left in the middle of the night and caught her neighbor very early in the morning when the lady went for a walk and said she was babysitting unexpectedly and asked if the woman had any of her granddaughter's clothes to borrow. She also borrowed a stroller and brought it back to the hotel so they could freshen her up. She wanted to be helpful. She could see Angel was going to cling to Cathy, which came with clinging to Buffy, which could mean leaving LA. Spike stayed up all night listening for any Buffy/Angel interaction from his room strategically below Buffy's.

When breakfast was done, it was time to get Cathy some new clothes and other items. Angel knew of a baby store he could get too from the sewer, and he did not want to be left out so he said he'd meet them at the store. Spike insisted on going to prevent Angel/Buffy alone time. Cordy went for the same reason in the car with Buffy and Cathy, also Connor went to protect Cathy and to spend more time with Dawn, and Dawn was going to support Buffy and because someone had to make sure Spike didn't murder Angel in front of a store full of people.

Once in the store, Dawn suggested splitting up but no one could decide on the groups so everyone kind of wandered around together. "A diaper genie?" Buffy questioned, reading the box Angel put in a shopping cart. "Can we just use a garbage bag?"

"We don't know how often she goes," Angel explained. "It hides the odor and that smell can get bad."

"We had one for Connor," Cordy pointed out.

"Hey it's your money," Buffy shrugged. Her mind was racing too much to fully register the intent behind Cordy's 'we.' Dawn picked up on it.

"We probably have a few months before she can potty train," Angel continued. "But we can get a little one. Maybe she'll be advanced." Spike and Cordy bristled at Angel's use of 'we' and long term thinking.

"Why do so many items have animals?" Connor asked.

"Children like animals," Dawn explained. "They're cute to look at. I like animals. Do you?"

"I think some taste better than others."

"Oh. I don't like to think about food being animals. It makes me sad."

/Liam had just snuck into the house just before daybreak and got into bed when his door swung open. "Liam!" Liam!" How does one climb a fence again?" his sister Cathy, 7, came into his room crying and holding a basket.

"Cathy what's this about?" he asked, doing his best not to grumble. He could never stand when she cried.

"These eggs are from the Gallagher's hen!" she cried. Her brother stared blankly at her. He knew who they traded goat milk for eggs with. "The servant took her babies! I must return them to her! Won't she miss them?" she elaborated.

"The hen?" he questioned. "Cathy, the eggs-" he paused and sighed. Telling her would only make more tears. "We must be careful they don't break." He stumbled out of bed. "Let's go."/

Angel's mind wandered off briefly and he came back to reality to hear Spike teasing Dawn about not being sad enough to be a vegetarian. Then Spike elbowed Dawn playfully. It annoyed him endlessly to see them palling around. "I thought he couldn't hit humans?" Angel asked, loudly.

"Yeah, that attack was brutal," Cordy told him sarcastically.

"There's no intent to hurt so it doesn't matter," Spike answered.

Dawn turned to Connor, "He has a chip that makes him unable to hurt humans from the government but we're friends anyway."

"The government does that?" Connor asked. "Why only Spike? Why not Angel and all vampires? That's smart."

Buffy eyed Connor. "Angel's soul is what keeps him from hurting people, just like you, me, and everyone with a soul," Buffy explained. "But Spike fought with me side-by-side saving the world, I trust him." Buffy added, glancing towards Spike.

"Hi," Cathy then said to everyone, from lack of attention.

"Hi," every replied back.

When they moved on to the clothes section, a different battle broke out. "Ooooh these are adorable!" Buffy picked up pink pajamas with teddy bears on the feet, and also a ballerina onesie with ruffled pink crop pants. She then eyed Cordelia's selection. "Cordy, what's with all the party dresses?"

Cordy looked up from her selection of party dresses, mostly pink, some silver, and a white one. "Don't you want her to have style?" she replied.

"I want her to be a kid. A kid doesn't need to have on a fancy dress unless it's to play dress up. She's going to run around. I have a sundress though."

The old Queen C was out in full force. "I wouldn't expect you to know about fashion trends. I was popular since pre-k."

Buffy ripped the dresses from Cordelia. "I should have known you'd try to turn her into a mini-you but it's not happening." Both women were sneering at each other.

Connor, acting only on the instinct he has when he senses a bad situation, picked Cathy up and held her tight in the event Buffy and Cordy get physical. Cathy took it as a cuddle and cuddled her brother back and blew him a kiss. Connor's mouth moved upward in a rare small smile. Connor felt good when Holtz would pat his head or occasionally kiss the top of it and tell him he was good a good boy who obeys. Cathy was small and good and didn't say anything to obey but was trying to give kisses, it made him feel even better. Holtz told him about the affection his oldest showed the baby and the baby liked to be held by her and how wonderful it was. Maybe this is what he meant. Connor placed a small kiss on Cathy's head in return. Angel noticed the whole interaction, which caused him to take his attention off the women.

"I'm here as a favor to Angel, to make sure his daughter has style!" Cordy snarled.

"Hollywood clearly accepted you into its loving arms to show your style off on red carpets," Buffy laughed. "Angel doesn't need your help with our daughter, we're both here." That hurt Cordy more than any insult could. Spike could have done without hearing it. It was after Buffy said that she realized she was in defensive mom-mode.

"What's gotten into Cordy?" Connor asked Angel.

"You haven't seen a nature documentary, huh?" Dawn answered, instead. "This is called marking your territory."

"Why would Cordy think Cathy is her territory?" Connor wondered.

"For her I think it's Angel," Dawn told him, glancing in Spike's direction, looking for a reaction from him. He was wondering if he could use Cordelia for his advantage. "Angel, you and Cordy?"

"We'd been trying to figure it out," Angel answered.

Cathy made it clear she wanted to get down. Connor put her down and followed her to where she toddled off too. Angel took notice and followed to keep an eye, and Dawn followed just because. She went to baby boys' dress clothes and jumped to try to get an item.

Connor eyed the item. "You want a black coat?" he questioned.

"That one is too big," Dawn added.

Angel grabbed a sales woman. "Excuse me, do you have that jacket in 18months? Are the sizes the same for boys and girls?"

"Those are on clearance, the very last of what we couldn't get rid of from our Easter dress items. It's May."

His daughter wanted a coat like he wears and they were discounted. The brood usually on his face was nowhere to be seen. "Do you have it in 18months?" he repeated.

"I'm not sure," the woman said, before looking into the rack. "Oh this a black jacket with snaps," she held up a trench coat looking jacket.

"Close enough," Angel decided. Angel pointed to his own coat. "She wants to dress like her dad," he bragged.

"In May?" the sales woman said without thinking. Then she realized that could be bad customer service. "That's adorable."

Next, Angel found a green outfit with hockey sticks, and one black pair of pajamas that had cartoon monsters on them, among a few other items. Angel was in his glory shopping with his kid who wanted to imitate him. Dawn followed in amusement.

Connor watched Angel and Cathy going off shopping. He felt a need he did not understand to join beyond protecting her. "Hey, what about this?" Connor held up a brown teddy bear outfit. Cathy approved. He was going to pick something with frogs but Dawn stopped him and explained.

"You're going for bitch of the year again!" the group heard Cordy yell. Then both she and Buffy were condemned by a pregnant woman with a baby in a stroller.

"What are those?" Spike asked when the group returned with the coat and a few dark outfits.

"Yeah, what are those?" Buffy questioned.

"Cathy wanted them," Angel bragged.

"It's true," Dawn confirmed.

Buffy held up some of her outfits. "Do you like these though?" she asked. The little girl approved.

Buffy was relieved. Angel brought Cathy to Buffy, seeing she almost felt excluded. "Our girl is the best of both of us," he said. Cathy said Hi to both of them as a response.

"I'll protect her from frogs too," Connor announced.

"He was going to pick out a shirt with frogs and I explained Willow's fear," Dawn explained.

"In the event she's right, I will be prepared as her brother."

As that group's bad luck would have it, there was someone who happened to be in the store, watching in fascination. Gavin Park's spying was interrupted. "Take the highchair to the register. What are you giving?" his mother asked him, with a shopping cart of items.

Gavin Park sighed. "Mom, I was going to give cash. Didn't you buy a high chair? I'll take it in a minute. Head to check-out."

"Gavin, this is your sister's first child, my first grandchild. Hopefully not my last. We need to have the most gifts at the shower. The first high chair was for them, this one is for my house."

"I'm going to give the most cash. I think I'm being good by doing this on a weekday. Look over the toys, see if there's more you would like to get. I'll handle everything." That distracted her enough to make a call. "Lilah you will not believe what I am seeing-"

"Oh, I wouldn't do that," Angel interrupted, coming up behind Gavin. He noticed him right after Connor's frog declaration. Angel grabbed the phone from Gavin, only to find himself hit with a purse.

"Don't touch my son!" Gavin's mom insisted, continuing her assault.

Cathy ran over and jumped, grabbing the purse. "No!" she said. Gavin and Angel were surprised by the inordinate moves by a toddler.

"Hitting is not nice. I'm sorry darling, may I have that back?" Gavin's mom asked. She would never corrupt a child. As far as she knew, her children were good people. Angel took the bag and handed it back to his attacker. Buffy scooped up Cathy, and the others rushed over.

"Mom, it's okay, give us a minute," Gavin said. His mother went to buy more items, like a good grandma.

"Gavin," Angel growled. "If you don't want to end up like Linwood, it's in your best interest for you to tell Lilah to forget this. Though, good to know you can't operate without running to her."

"We're done here," Gavin replied.

"For your sake we better be," Angel's voice was low and threatening, and he gave Gavin's wrist a squeeze.  Once Gavin and his mom were gone, Angel turned to Connor. "Connor, add Gavin and Lilah to your 'protecting Cathy from' list."

Connor was offended. "I did last night. I'm not stupid," he countered. Then he went over to a stuffed lamb. "What's this and what does it do?" he asked. Dawn explained as the adults talked.

"Who are Gavin and Lilah and how big of a threat are we looking at?" Spike asked.

"We aren't looking at anything, they probably qualify as human enough for you to be useless with your chip." Angel replied.

"It'd be an interesting experiment," Cordy had to observe. "Welcome to the world of Wolfram and Hart."

"How bad are we talking? Should we all go back to Sunnydale? I thought here would be safer too because I've been having some guys mess with me magically and there's always threats against me there," Buffy asked.

"They can find us there, I'm sure. We'll stick it out. It'll be okay," Angel vowed.

Before leaving the store Buffy took Cathy in the dressing room to change into new clothes; a pink shirt with hearts, pull-up jeans, and even though it was warm out, Cathy wanted her black coat. Buffy found herself excited when Angel said he was going to take pictures when they got back to the hotel.

"Buffy," Dawn said in the dressing room, "I'm really sorry my worrying about you having too much responsibility with me, now gave you a kid."

Buffy looked at Dawn, then back at Cathy, who she was becoming attached to at an increasing rate, especially when she thought about the little girl screaming for her when she met her. "You didn't do the spell and you took her out of a bad situation," Buffy reminded Dawn. "We'll sort everything out."

Dawn looked through the items and put a headband with a pink bow on Cathy. "I'm gonna help."

Buffy caught sight of something in Cathy's hand, and grabbed her ears to feel, in fact, she was missing an earring Cathy managed to swipe."I'm gonna hold you to that," Buffy said as she tried to get her earring back.

Meanwhile In The Alternate Reality:

Faith stalked around Giles' apartment, waving a knife around. "How do you not know where she is?"

"This is hard on everyone, darlin', they're beating themselves up," Doyle stepped in front of Faith to say.

"Willow, Xander and I were on our way," Giles insisted. "We'll find her. We have to."

"When I get my hands on the scumbags who killed them and took Cathy," Faith jabbed her knife into a wall.

Willow and Tara put the finishing touches on a spell. "I think I have a good locator spell," Willow announced. She said a few words and they weren't taken to her like she thought but a magical window appeared and much to everyone's shock, they saw Cathy with Buffy, who was prying her earring out of the mini-Slayers grip.

Chapter Text

Back at the Hyperion:

The shopping outing concluded and Cathy was showing off her new toys to everyone. "I can make some mean mocktails to put in these!" Lorne observed, picking up the fake tea set.

"Pretty sure they're just for show at her age," Fred giggled. "She's still in the bottle or cup-with-a-top phase."

Angel picked up Cathy and twirled her. "Yes, she is. She's going to have a milk bottle soon, we don't know how much she eats all day or if she uses sippy cups. She's still a baby," Angel pointed out. Fred and Lorne exchanged glances of acknowledgement Angel was projecting his loss of Connor's childhood onto her.

"We have books, maybe we can read," Buffy said, looking at the pile and picking some up. Cathy became very excited about books.

"My money is on Giles' influence," Dawn pointed out.

Buffy looked sad. "Yeah. They might be looking for her…"

"I don't like the idea of another me and a Giles sadly searching for her, either," Willow said. "But I brainstormed with Fred, I'm not even sure how to get back to that specific dimension. I sort've don't remember all of the specifics of the incantation I said."

"Have you told Giles? He could talk to her on the phone as if he knows her if she misses him. Maybe we'll come up with a way to tell them she's safe," Angel said. "We should read a book. Fred there must be work to do, right?"

"I'll see," Fred said, going behind the counter to check some emails.

Buffy looked through the book selection. "We have the Lion King in book form."

Lorne looked through the books himself. "Oh she's probably seen the movie," Lorne dismissed. The last thing that should be read in front of Connor was The Lion King. He still blamed Angel for Holtz dying from Justine looking for revenge on him, even though Connor saw it happen, a part of him wondered if he did it in fear of Angel. "Oh look, Beauty And The Beast, there's a classic. Surely you and the Big Guy like that story." Lorne rolled his eyes at his joke not being appreciated. "Fine, how about Mickey Mouse's picnic?"

"We'll go with the picnic," Buffy decided. She passed the book to Angel. "I want to hear you read about Mickey's Picnic."

"Sure. Hop on the couch."

Cathy jumped onto the couch hard enough to make it move. "Well, I feel better about how long it took to get my earring back," Buffy commented.

"She should start training. It's never too early," Connor pointed out. "I'll do it, as her brother."

"Oh she better not patrol before me," Dawn huffed.

"I could teach you, too" Connor offered.

Angel could feel Buffy's staring in worry Connor might try to follow through. "We're just gonna read this book instead of making training plans," Angel stated. He sat on the couch, with Buffy and Cathy, and began to read. Dawn went over and joined them. As Angel began to read and show off the pictures to Cathy, Connor watched the scene closely. Angel had made no attempts so far to harm her, but it hadn't been long. He was telling her this Mickey story in a way that reminded him of when Holtz would tell him bible stories and various tales of English royalty, but somehow better. Slowly but surely, Connor made his way over and sat on the floor.

"I take it this is huge?" Willow whispered to Lorne, noticing his expression.

Lorne gaped at Connor sitting with the group as Angel read about Mickey gathering his friends. "Would you consider Mount Rushmore moving, huge?" he replied.

Cathy snuggled into Buffy's lap and as Angel read the story, Buffy realized she'd heard it before.

/Buffy, age 6, threw a book onto Joyce's chest. Joyce took her arms out from under her comforter where she'd been covertly scratching the Chicken Pox she caught from Buffy. "Read, please," Buffy requested, wanting to scratch her own Pox.

Joyce sighed. Buffy didn't realize until she was older it had been much worse for Joyce than Buffy, though at the time Buffy thought of it as an itchy slumber party. Joyce thought maybe reading would be a distraction. "Sure, let's see how Mickey's Picnic goes," Joyce replied.

Buffy snuggled under Joyce's arm. "Having the Poxies together is kinda nice."

"I'm not letting you scratch," Joyce replied, much to her daughter's pouting./

Buffy came back to the present and looked down at Cathy, who wouldn't grow up with a mother or father to read to her if she went back to the other world. Then Buffy thought about Joyce, who would have loved a grandchild and must be gone in that world if the other Buffy told Willow to give Cathy to Gles. Buffy looked down at the little girl who seemed to find her to be a good mother- a role Buffy had never considered before- and rocked her.

Over in the office, Gunn sat behind the desk watching as Spike and Cordelia looked over the pictures on the digital camera that were taken when they got home. Cathy had yelled for Mommy and Daddy when they were taking them, so they joined. Buffy insisted Connor and Dawn get in them.

"Spike, are you and Buffy together?" Gunn asked. Buffy hadn't seemed to show interest, but she had him take them to LA and they seemed like they spent a lot of time together.

"We haven't shagged in two weeks but we patrol," Spike answered. "She broke it off but I could win her back. I think she cared when I brought a date to a wedding last week. But then she was distracted by the groom leaving."

"Okay," Gunn muttered. "Look, we don't even know if this girl is sticking around. They may send her back and be on their separate ways."

"Y'think?" Cordy asked. "And Xander really just bailed on his wedding?"

"No. There's no way in hell Angel's sending a kid of his into another dimension," Gunn explained. "You weren't here. He snapped all the way."

"What's that supposed to mean? I've been here for Connor since he was born!" she argued. "Okay, sure I went on vacation but no one called me."

"We just have to remind them they're better apart," Spike theorized. "I mean in a world where they're together they die."

"In which Angel was human and didn't have powers," Gunn pointed out.

"Maybe you should take Buffy upstairs and rock her world?" Cordy turned to Spike. "Lorne has wine."

"Logic is not welcome in this conversation, is it?" Gunn hopelessly asked.

Fred came into the office. "Where's the camera? Connor's actually sitting next to Angel as he reads a book, we need pictures!" Fred looked at the faces of Spike and Cordy. "Well, we do."

"Where's Buffy?" Cordy asked.

"Sitting with them, her sister too. Lorne just left to meet a client."

Cordelia suddenly started to float. "Oh, the floating again."

"Bloody hell?!" Spike questioned.

"I had a vision," Cordy explained, as she came back down. "I'm part demon now."

"So what other power do you have?"

"Ah, none. And as for this vision… uh," Cordy looked at Gunn. "I'm almost tempted to say let's sit this one out. I think it attacks Gavin."

"Oh that is a dilemma," Gunn agreed.

They left the office and Cordelia described what she saw to Angel, who immediately started to sketch what she described. When he was done, he presented the picture to the room of a thin, scaly demon with spikes in its tail. Cathy ran up to the picture and screamed. "No. No. NO!"

Willow ran to the computer. "Yes. Yes. Yes. Unreal. But perfectly real." she said after a few types and clicks, as Cathy screamed. "Guess what Felak looks like according to this demon database? I didn't think to look it up because it was there and I was looking into how to get back there."

"The thing that killed us?" Buffy questioned, for confirmation. "Oh she must have seen it before hiding." Buffy picked Cathy up and hugged her.

"MAMA, MAMA, MAMA!"

Dawn looked around, horrified and guilty. "She saw Buffy die, Angel was in the dining room," Dawn pointed out to everyone. "Maybe kids her age are smarter than I thought and she put it both together. Blood came out of Buffy's mouth and Buffy did tell her to close her eyes but I didn't make sure she did, I just didn't think, I'm sorry."

Buffy's mind flashed to finding Joyce dead on the sofa, a moment that will haunt her forever and she clutched Cathy and stroked her head. "I'm fine, you didn't see anything bad happen to your Mommy," Buffy whispered, the word 'mommy' spilling out without much thought.

Angel went over and patted Cathy's back." You probably saved her," Angel pointed out, to Dawn.

"We don't know Gavin is working with the demon. He was being attacked," Cordy pointed out.

"Yeah, and who do you think he'll trade to save his own life?" Angel asked, going to get a weapon.

The front door to the hotel opened and Angel was ready to throw an ax. "Always nice to see you too, Deadboy. They don't make souls like they used to," Xander said.

"HI!" Cathy briefly forgot her troubles to greet Xander, before going back to burying her head in Buffy's neck.

"Hey there! Guess there's alternate cool Uncle Xander." Xander greated. "Cordelia, your hair is the same color as Buffy's."

"No it isn't," Cordy argued. "Why are you here? I thought you ran away from home?"

"Just the wedding, I guess," Angel pointedly jabbed.

"I got a call explaining this from Buffy last night. Figured I was needed," Xander explained.

Cordelia floated again. "Oh. Oops. We have until Sunday," she announced. "I just saw Gavin had an invitation on top of something he was carrying. He was headed to a baby shower. It's a girl, for the record."

"You float now?" Xander asked. "When did that start?"

Cordy sighed. "A few months ago."

"We're going to research this demon and make an actual plan. We're not storming into some law office half cocked," Buffy declared.

"Law office?" Xander questioned.

"Gavin is connected to the demon. We hit Gavin and he tells us about it, we punish them," Connor argued. "It will work."

"He may not know anything yet. Angel was human but this thing was strong enough to kill me in that world."

"I can kill it. I'm The Destroyer." Connor eyed Buffy up and down.

Spike looked at Connor and shook his head. "And as arrogant as your parents. She's the Slayer, it trumps whatever you've named yourself," Spike stated.

Buffy jumped on speaking before a fight broke out. "Connor, I'm not saying we don't talk to this guy, but we're not making a scene in some evil headquarters and tip our hand beyond this lawyer. If this Falek didn't dimension hop, he's not here for Cathy but any false move could put her on his radar."

"It's the right move, Connor," Angel agreed. "Now isn't the time."

"Willow, Fred, can you research Falek more?" Buffy asked. "We can maybe see when Gavin isn't in his office and talk to him then and approach it as he's in danger."

"I know when he gets off work and his apartment complex has underground parking, I can have a chat with him later," Angel said.

"You know where he lives?" Spike questioned.

"He knows where several of them live," Cordy answered. "They're a threat."

Willow looked through the computer research. "Oh wow. Okay, apparently there's a paper about Falek, and the danger of killing him, you can buy if you have some kind of access code to this information. It's an old dissertation from the Watcher's Files, Giles told me about access once."

"Does this Giles have the code to buy it?" Gunn asked.

Willow looked around hesitantly and said, "Maybe. But… the author…. Wesley wrote it."

"Wesley, good, we can ask him," Xander said. "Can't we?" Xander then remembered what he'd heard from Willow when Angel called her. "Oh, right."

"It doesn't matter," Gunn said. "We can't ask him for favors, I cashed in a 'he owes us one' and he made it clear it was a one time thing."

"I wouldn't bring him in anyway," Angel stated.

Buffy rubbed Cathy's back. "Angel, I get it, but he might talk to me and I have to try. I don't think I should leave her right now but later or tonight, I'm going. My mind is made up."

Angel hated the idea of going to Wesley, but he could tell there was no changing Buffy's mind. "You do what you have to."

Spike jumped at an opening, "I'll go with you," he offered to Buffy. "You need a ride anyway." 

"That works. I'm going to bring her upstairs to see if that will calm her," Buffy said. Angel followed Buffy up the stairs to the room Buffy was using. "She needs us."

"I said I'm not going to fight you on the Wesley thing, though I don't trust him."

Buffy tucked the little girl into her new crib and turned back to Angel. "That's not what I mean. What are we going to do with her? We beat this demon then, what? She's only been here since last night but let's say Willow finds a way back to that world, it would break her heart to be without us, I can feel it, even though she'll have her time split with us. And we won't know if she's okay. But then I think about how she would eventually forget us and what if she's safer in a world where she won't be a target because of us?"

Angel went over to the crib and stroked the little girl's face. "If she's a Slayer she might be a target anyway and can Giles and everyone in that world really protect her?" Angel countered, softly. "We don't live in the same place, but, we're in this together. We'll make it work." Angel's mind wandered off to Connor.

Buffy noticed Angel seemed a little checked out of the moment. "Right. You already missed out on raising one kid." Buffy looked around the room they had filled with stuff from their shopping trip. "We have to make it work, whatever that looks like, she needs -she deserves- that."

Back In The Alternate Reality:

Faith looked at Willow's book where the locator spell came from. "This is a trick, it may not even be Falek, take your pick, the Council, or Lilah, someone who wants us to think she's okay so they can have her."

Willow looked through her magic books, "Everything I'm finding says my locator spell is correct." Willow looked around the room.

Doyle downed his Scotch. "Yeah, because it's just the good luck we all have that Cathy escaped and is just hanging out with an alive Buffy and Angel someplace else," he said sarcastically.

Giles refilled Doyle's drink and poured himself one. He was sure Buffy and Angel were still dead, yet her daughter was someplace else he didn't know how to get her, it'd been a rough twenty-four hours for him. "Willow, I'm sure you want to be with Xander, but Falek is still out there and I have to get to where that place is where Catherine is." Xander who was in the ICU from their encounter with Falek. Giles wouldn't vocalize it to the others but if by some chance Cathy had been brought to a reality where she was safe with Buffy and Angel, who appeared to still be a vampire, it was probably the safest thing for her. But he had to face them himself.

Chapter Text

Later that night, after dinner but before bedtime, Buffy had Spike drive her to Wesley's, and Xander invited himself along. "So, has Anya said anything to either of you?" Xander asked when they walked the halls of Wesley's apartment building.

"You left her, what's to say?" Spike asked, he was annoyed Xander came along.

"Can we do that another time?" Buffy asked, her focus was on Cathy and she didn't have room for anything else. Buffy knocked on the door and she and Xander were surprised to see the former Watcher unshaven and looking rough.

Wesley stared at them for a second, and then glanced towards his bedroom, where Lilah was sleeping. "HI," he said, shocked. "Is that Spike?" he pointed to the vampire.

"The one and only," Spike said.

"Buffy, Xander, you can come in. Spike, excuse me but I'm not in the mood to give a vampire access to my home."

"We're here in spite of Angel," Spike pointed out.

Buffy convinced Wesley to at least leave the door open so Spike could stay in the hall. "So, who's Falek?" Xander asked right away.

Wesley blinked a few times. "Why? Is he trying to attack? Is the Council involved?"

Buffy explained the story of Cathy and the alternate reality. "So Cordy has a vision of this thing attacking someone named Gavin and we don't know if it could be connected to Cathy or what. How is the Council involved?" she finished.

"Gavin Park?" Wesley looked back at the door. "Falek is obsessed with the idea that if he can get his hands on a potential slayer, he's been trying to recreate the original magics that made slayers and thinks he could harness the slayer power and create an army. He's harnessed dark magics inside himself, it's my theory that if you kill him without binding the magic in him, it will be released into the world and probably empower demons of similar origins. Some of the darker aspects of the Council members have considered using Falek to do some dirty work and dangle the possibility of giving him a slayer, but they'd never go through with it. The line is guarded tight. I suppose in the alternate reality a girl born a slayer could be useful, and I know the Council would be interested in her if they're anything like the one here."

"Any idea how that would relate to attacking an evil lawyer at a baby shower?" Xander asked. "And would that mean he isn't here for Cathy, but some other job?"

Lilah Morgan stormed out of the bedroom, in Wesley's robe. "That sonofabitch is going to try to get my job," Lilah announced. "I'm an only child and worked for what I have. Watch his sister's spawn is a potential, Gavin found out, because we have something at Wolfram and Hart to detect if your bloodline will produce someone useful," she went on.

"Hang on," Spike said, "I can't come in but you're sleeping with someone at bloody Wolfram and Hart?"

"Yes," Wesley said, sharply, "Lilah, what are you talking about? How much did you hear?"

Lilah rolled her eyes. "Still trying to hang with the good guys, huh? I happened to wake up, there I helped your image. That Falek guy you mentioned has been trying to get ahold of Wolfram and Hart's employees who do a test to see if they have useful spawns in the family. If it attacks the weasel, he turned him down because he's going to offer her services to the Senior Partners because he must know she'll actually be called. Angel's latest spawn probably isn't a player in this."

"He's going to offer his niece?" Buffy said, disgusted. "And you're the Lilah, Gavin tried to call?"

"Well, they'll pay her well, Barbie," Lilah replied.

Panic set in that Buffy told everyone they shouldn't go to Wolfram and Hart only to let this LIlah find out. "You will not go after Cathy. Do you understand me? You don't want an actual slayer after you."

"Relax," Lilah sighed, "I've given up on getting to Angel through his spawns, it's not worth the trouble. Besides, I'm going to help you get Gavin's sister and the unborn kid somewhere safe where Gavin can't take my job. Use him as bait at the time Vision Barbie says it's going down, you deal with the demon, I'll deal with the family."

Wesley eyed Lilah, "Lilah, if you try anything-"

"Wes, why would I? Nothing means more to me than my job." Lilah stroked his face and winked.

"Well, clearly we've interrupted something creepy," Xander muttered.

"Wesley, I've given you the benefit of the doubt here on the grounds you didn't set out to hurt a child, if you make an idiot out of me, Angel won't be who you have to worry about," Buffy threatened.

Wesley went over to his bookshelf and handed Buffy a book. "See if Willow can make a binding spell out of any here," he said.

"Congrats on Motherhood," Lilah said, "And being Angel's second Baby Mama, as the kids would say."

Xander, Buffy and Spike left Wesley's apartment. "Wesley's sleeping with the enemy, why am I not surprised?" Xander asked.

"Xander," Buffy sighed, eying Spike "sometimes you can sleep with someone because you see something else in them."

Xander got a call from work and walked down the block in the other direction to take the call. "Should I be flattered?" Spike asked, when Xander was gone.

Lilah's words congratulating Buffy on being a Mother, and Wesley's statement that the Council could be after Cathy in her world, which Buffy would never allow, played in her head, she probably was safer here. "Spike, is this really happening? Defeating the demon I'm far more confident about than what will come after. It's really hitting me. I don't think sending Cathy back is right, but is keeping her? If she stays where will she sleep?" Buffy began counting each concern with her fingers, "Where she be when I'm at work? Where will she be when I'm patrolling? What if I die again? How much do diapers even cost per week? Angel and I haven't gone into specifics."

Spike also counted on his hands. "She doesn't take up that much space so you can stick her with you or you can toss Willow out. Make Willow pay more rent, she brought the kid here and the Scoobies will all help you. In this world you come back after dying and if you sent her back you were dead. Make Angel pay a shitton of child support and teach her the toilet. You're not alone in this. For argument's sake, say money wasn't issue-"

"Money is an issue," Buffy interrupted.

"Just say it isn't. There's a world where she can be raised by Giles and Scoobies and a world where she stays with you, which do you want?"

"I want her to have a good life," Buffy replied. "I don't want to be selfish. Maybe it is selfish to want her to stay. I've given zero thought to having a kid before."

Spike shrugged. "Well, the kid seems to think you're qualified."

"She's used to having her parents together," Buffy replied. Spike studied Buffy's face to try to see how much she was picturing a life with Angel as her husband, he couldn't tell.

Spike ran a hand through her hair, "I'm here."

Buffy sighed, she knew he meant it. "I know. I know." Buffy shook her head. "I'm just very confused right now."

"You never look on the bright side," Spike said, hoping to find some levity. "If you're doubting yourself because of Kid Sis' antics, she loves you enough to worry about you and she stole, sure, but she stole you a nice jacket."

Buffy almost laughed. "Thanks," she said dryly. She could count on Spike for some levity when she needs it.

Xander returned back to the two. "What's going on here?" he asked.

"The Slayer's just in a worry about the kid staying here," Spike downplayed it.

"Well, you should get a lot of child support from Angel if he has a hotel," Xander replied. "But, seriously, Buffy, we're all here for you. Spike, spare me the jokes about me running off. Things have been extra hard for a long time for you, Buff, if you want to make a life outside of slaying a priority, I think we all owe you helping you do it."

"Thank you, both of you," Buffy said. /Now I just have to figure out how I want to go about it./ Buffy added in her head.

Back at the Hyperion, Angel was sketching a version of what was taking place on the floor in the room designated as Cathy's; Dawn, Connor and Cathy coloring. Cordy was hanging out, too. Dawn told Connor he should learn to do it with Cathy, because she and Buffy colored and Connor seemed to do anything Dawn said, it reminded Cordy of several guys she had back in Sunnydale. Dawn had her work cut out for her between putting the crayons in Cathy's hands so she could make marks or just roll them round, and answering Connor's questions on top of making her own picture.

"I still don't understand how you just know what colors to use," Connor commented.

"You just pick what you like," Dawn explained.

"I like brown. You said I was using too much and made me use blue."

"I said you were making it look like poop," Dawn clarified. "Do you not like that blue?"

"It's fine. But I thought horses were brown. I've never seen a blue horse."

"You made the whole ground brown so you needed a change. You just use your imagination. The only rule in coloring is to stay inside the lines," Cordy added. "Cathy, you're doing a great job!" she said, trying to get her attention.

After a bit more sketching, Angel got up from his chair and went over to the kids. "How's it going?" He picked up Cathy's picture. "This is great! Look at you making pictures. Can Dad have this one? I'll put it in my office where everyone can see what an artist my daughter is." Cathy was too busy rolling crayons to acknowledge he existed, until Angel captured her onto his lap, which resulted in some cuddling.

Connor watched the display and looked down at his picture that Angel had not yet examined, but was definitely better. "Here," Connor shoved his paper at him. "I made this one. You should keep them together."

Angel eyed his son, and then the farm picture. He did not know what was more surprising, that Connor had essentially given him a colored picture or that The Destroyer clearly had a struggle with staying inside the lines. "I'll be happy to hang them both up," Angel announced. "I love them both."

Dawn ripped the papers from Angel. "Connor needs to sign his. I'll sign Cathy's for her," she declared. "Connor, write your name on it, so people know you made it for your father."

"What color do I use?" Connor asked. You could have knocked Angel and Cordy over with a feather that was Connor's response without some snide comment over Angel not being his father.

"Well, considering who it's for, black," Dawn decided. Dawn handed Cathy's back to Angel that had 'Kathy' and 'Hi' written on it, also in black.

"Dawn, Cathy is with a C!" Angel exclaimed.

"It is?" Dawn was surprised. "How are you sure?"

"Because I wouldn't spell it with a K."

"Maybe Buffy spells it with a K," Cordy said. "She may not realize C is the superior letter."

"It's a C. I didn't spell Connor with a K did I?"

"People don't spell Connor with a K. They spell Cathy and Catherine with a K all the time. Oh, Connor and Catherine, that's nice to have a C thing," Dawn countered, then she took the picture back and crossed it out and corrected it. "There."

Buffy knocked on the door. "Hey guys. What's up?"

"MAMA!" Cathy yelled, as if it were the single most exciting event ever. "HI! HI! MAMA!"

That was a greeting Buffy could get used too. Buffy snatched Cathy from Angel. "Hi baby!"

"Cathy is spelled with a C apparently," Dawn told her. "Did you know?"

Buffy was surprised. "Really?"

"YES!" Angel huffed.

"Color me surprised." Buffy looked at the pictures. "Do I get a picture?" Dawn handed her one with some lines she'd already had Cathy make. Buffy had a realization, building on her thinking of the logistics of Cathy staying. "She has zero documents saying she exists! What's her last name? How do we prove I didn't take her from a hospital?"

"I know someone who can get that, he got Connor, again with a C, ID recently," Angel answered, excited Buffy was talking in terms of Cathy staying. "She can be a Summers. They turn out well."

Cordelia picked up on Buffy talking about staying and kept her composure on her fear that will mean Angel moves to Sunnydale and she's stuck with visions, no Champion for them, and most importantly the guy who she wasn't sure she had romantic feelings for but was definitely her best friend, and someone she felt bonded too, wouldn't be around.

"Are you both Summers'?" Connor asked Buffy and Dawn. "You're sisters and you're both Summers. He forced Angel on me and she's my sister so needs to be Angel with me. We have a C-thing already" he insisted. "I'm doing the sibling thing right, right?" He still wasn't sure completely where he belonged, but, it was working out in his head he belonged with his sister who never used him, was never evil, and now had a C-thing with.

"We'll figure it out later," Angel said, "what happened with Wesley?"

Buffy explained what happened and once Angel and Cordy calmed down from the idea of Lilah being with Wesley, he started to strategize. "Lilah will want to save her job," he pointed out. "We may have no choice but to trust she'll help us in the name of self preservation."

"I gave the magic book to Willow, as much as I didn't want to hand her more magic. But, if we go through with using Gavin as bait in the afternoon, that takes you and Spike out of the fight as back-up," Buffy pointed out.

"We don't need them," Connor pointed out. "You're the Slayer, I'm the Destroyer and I'm going to protect my sister, in case the demon does decide to want her, he won't live long. Dawn told me you saved her lots of times."

Angel could tell Buffy was nervous about just Connor as a super-strength back up, but he pictured Connor's fighting skills, then at the picture he was willing to learn how to color just to be a good brother. "Buffy, I wish I could fight, but I have every confidence in Connor having your back." His only concern was Connor taking the demon's head off before the spell was complete, in the name of being a good big brother. 

Chapter Text

Cathy decided to be restless and Angel offered to take her in his room, his Buffy had her the previous night. They were on his bed and she was tossing a small bear at him repeatedly. "Am I tiring you out or keeping you up, huh?" Angel asked. "I know you don't know enough words to answer that. It's okay, I'm a night owl too. I have to get you a little owl. Would you like that? I think you will!"

There was a knock on the door. Once Angel said to come in, Dawn let herself in. "Hey, I'm not staying long."

"It's fine. Everything okay?" Angel asked, moving to the edge of the bed. "We don't mind Aunt Dawn visiting, do we?" he looked back at Cathy and cooed.

Dawn surveyed the interaction. Angel was giddy, not brooding. Far from the guy she knew in Sunnydale. "Are you really okay that Willow and I basically foisted a new kid on you?" she still had to ask.

Angel was taken back. "It's a surprise, sure, but have I done anything to make you think I'm not happy?"

"No, you seem so happy but… y'know. You're not going to decide she'd be better off with a step father who can take her to the park during the day and you staying away? Hint, hint. Reference, reference."

"No," Angel said right away. "Pretty sure she's going to have a lot of people willing to do that. I spent nearly two hundred and fifty years thinking I couldn't have children. Then Connor came along and it's the best thing in the world. You can ask around how I feel about another man raising my kid. Even if you take out the hell dimension. Now I have a second one and I'm not going to let her go. Maybe it's selfish but-"

"No," Dawn cut off. "I don't think it's selfish, that's what I'm trying to say. I think she needs you; vampire and all."

"She doesn't seem to notice a difference between me and her human version of me. Being colder to the touch doesn't seem to phase her. She hasn't seen my other face yet, though."

"Uh, no offense but that would probably scare any kid. Or maybe not, she's fine with Lorne."

Angel chuckled. "You will never guess what baby used to love it."

"No?" Dawn was shocked.

"Yeah. He was just a newborn but yeah. He loved it." Angel's mood dropped at the memories.

"I bummed you out. You were not broody and now you are."

"You didn't," he assured her. He picked up Cathy, like his own security stuffed animal. "Don't feel bad. And definitely don't worry I could ever possibly give her up."

"Good," Dawn said. "Buffy doesn't need life to be any harder. I just had to check," Dawn stated. She fiddled with her fingers. "Whatever happens, she better not cry. She's done enough of that. I'm going to do better, too, to not cause any problems. I think Willow and I bringing Cathy here was my final act."

Angel stared at definitely wasn't the little girl he had memories of anymore. "Dawn, you've been through a lot, too. So whatever else you did, you're just a kid. Buffy told me you were willing to jump into that portal and she was proud of you. You brought Cathy here because you saw a little girl in trouble and picked her up. So whatever teenage trouble you've caused, it's just that. You're a good person." Angel sighed. "I'm not going to make Buffy cry, however she wants to work this out," he looked down to Cathy, "I'm going to accommodate her."

Meanwhile Buffy was in her room trying to sleep when she was woken up by Willow. "Hey Buffy, you awake?" Willow asked.

"I am now," Buffy mumbled.

"Good because I've been thinking about what you said about what Wesley said about how Cathy could be in danger from the Council in her world. And how you think it could be safer keeping her, I'm going to help you anyway I can. I owe you that," Willow said. Buffy had informed her of the meeting with Wesley when she gave her the book.

"I'm not keeping score, Will," Buffy replied, sitting up. "But I am worried about you. You have to stop."

Willow lowered her head. "I know. I was doing better. Being sad was no excuse. But Angel's friend, Lorne, knows some witches who help with this sorta thing and I took their number."

Buffy and Willow were interrupted by Connor suddenly appearing in the room, startling them both. "It's genetic," Willow muttered.

"Buffy, you're awake, good, do you want to go over fighting styles and train for our fight?" Connor asked, seriously.

Buffy shook her head. Did he ever think of anything else but fighting? "Connor, it's late, tomorrow, okay?"

Connor was disappointed but accepted it. "Okay." He paused and looked at the two women who seemed to know Angel well. "So you two really think he's safe to be a father?" he asked.

Buffy and Willow glanced at each other. "Connor, I've been slaying for a long time, I've seen it so many times, one day you see someone who is completely safe like the check out guy in the food store, or a schoolmate, especially schoolmates, and then something is done to them and they're a vampire who can't control being dangerous because they lose their souls. It's just how it works. They didn't sign up for it. Angel, your Dad didn't sign up for it. But he's not that anymore."

"And when he got his soul back, it wasn't some special soul that would force him to be good," Willow pointed out. "It's his own. There are humans with souls who do bad things all the time. But your Dad's soul isn't that. He's good," she finished.

Connor considered their words. Confronting he could be wrong about Angel was difficult. But a distraction happened. "Cathy's crying," he stated. "I have good hearing."

Buffy felt a need to check on her and Connor and Willow followed. They found Dawn in Angel's room, too. Cathy had stopped crying as Angel was changing her. "Everything okay?" Buffy asked, anyway. She looked over at Dawn. "What are you doing here?"

"Just saying Hi," Dawn answered.

"HI!" Cathy yelled.

"She's just a little fussy tonight," Angel said. He finished changing her and put her on his bed. "I'm going to try to get her to sleep again soon."

Buffy stared at Angel tending to their daughter, it was quite a sight for her to take in. Cathy was a girl on a mission. She crawled over to Angel's pillows, laid in the middle. "Mama, Dada," she called, holding out her arms. "Mama, Dada!"

Willow wasn't a child expert but she had a feeling she caught her drift. "Oh," Willow said, awkwardly, "she maybe wants to sleep with the both of you."

Angel and Buffy stared at each other, feeling Willow was right. "Yeah, she must be used to that," Angel agreed.

"Yeah," Buffy stammered. "With the marriage, and all. Probably a thing."

"What's going on? Everyone is being weird?" Connor said. "If my sister wants to sleep with you two, just do it."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Let's make this easy. I'll get some pillows and blankets and I'll sleep on the floor to make it less awkward."

Willow looked at Dawn and shrugged. "Yeah, just a slumber party. I'm in."

Connor stated at the two girls. "If this is what's best for Cathy, I'm in too."

The three of them went off to get blankets and pillows before Angel or Buffy could say anything. "Good thing it won't be awkward," Buffy said to him, as they approached the bed where Cathy was waiting for them. Cathy gave Angel a soft kiss when he laid beside her, then she jumped on Buffy to give her a kiss. "Why is it me you jump on?" she asked the toddler.

"Because I'm weaker than both of you in her world," Angel pointed out. "Which probably makes for some parenting challenges on my end," he added.

"Great, now I have an image of her running with sharp objects and you being useless," Buffy snorted. "Actually it's not a bad image, since it's just in my head, and there's no actual danger."

As Cathy snuggled in the middle of them, Buffy and Angel both pictured a world where this was probably a regular thing. Buffy assumed she'd be patrolling, then come home to find Cathy already in their bed and she'd slip under her side of the covers and they'd sleep as a family.

Connor, Willow and Dawn returned and took various spots on the floor. "How is this not awkward?" Connor asked. "I've gotten used to mattresses."

"I'll explain it in the morning," Dawn replied.

"Night guys," Willow said. "If there's anything else I can do to help let me know."

Buffy and Angel gently sat up to look at their sleeping friend and relatives, amused, then laid back down. Angel sat up again to look at Connor sleeping in his room and thought about his sleepless nights either watching Connor sleep or dealing with his crying. In another world he shared those 3 am feedings and sleepless nights with Buffy. There were still plenty of parenting moments he could share with Buffy. "Goodnight, Buffy," Angel whispered as he laid back down.

"Goodnight, Angel," Buffy whispered back.

Under the covers, as they were falling asleep, they each slowly moved a hand each to entwine together. When they woke up the next morning their hands were still together and they were cuddling their daughter.

Willow, Connor and Dawn woke up not long after Buffy and Angel, since Cathy was crying to be changed, and left them alone. "Did you sleep well?" Buffy asked, as she laid Cathy on the changing table.

"Wasn't bad," Angel said immediately. Buffy glanced at him with a surprised look on her face. "Oh," Angel realized, "right, of course, you meant Cathy. I knew that." He nervously smiled. "I'm sure she slept well. Do you want coffee? Or breakfast? I can do breakfast!" He was eagerly trying to distract from his blunder.

Buffy shook her head. "Were you always this awkward and I just didn't notice? I mostly remember cryptic."

"I like to keep some mystery," he answered.

Buffy blushed slightly and held back before admitting, "I slept well, too. For the record." Cathy shrieked because her change had been put on hold. "Sorry," Buffy looked at her, stifling a laugh. "I guess you have a right to complain about being dirty." Buffy gave the little girl a kiss before continuing. "This may sound strange but do you think you can feel what the other you did? She's just starting to feel like mine -ours- so much that I wonder if maybe I'm tapping into what the me in her world felt."

Angel approached Cathy and also gave her a kiss. "I hadn't thought of that. But maybe. I've definitely heard of stranger things. I mentioned to Dawn last night that Cathy doesn't seem to notice a difference in the fact that I'm not even a human here. Maybe it's her age but we're just her parents."

"I hope she's not too confused when we separate," Buffy pointed out.

"I'm willing to do whatever it takes to ease into the transition of a separation." Angel moved to throw away some of the used wipes and the diaper for Buffy. "She'll know Mommy and Daddy are still here for her."

"Mommy and Daddy," Buffy whispered. The words hit her. She looked at Cathy, and thought about waking up in bed with Cathy and Angel. They lead separate lives, but she felt an urge to lean in for a kiss. Angel began to kiss her back.

"Hey should I make mimosa's since we have guests?" Lorne barged in to ask. He froze when he saw them kissing. "Oh boy," he avoided the Cordelia aspect of things for the moment, he had no idea where she and Angel stood. Lorne pointed to Cathy. "Well, rumor has it, she likes to sleep with you guys so we all should be safe from Angelus." Lorne looked at the two unamused faces. "Too soon?"

Back In The Alternate Reality:

Willow gathered some ingredients for a spell and called Giles, Faith and Doyle over. "Are you sure you don't want me to go?" she asked.

"We need you here to make sure you can pull us back if I can't do it," Giles answered. He looked at the others, and tucked something in his jacket. Faith and Doyle were needed should things appear in person different from what they'd seemed. He wasn't one to pray but he'd prayed he'd be able to tell if Buffy and Angel were, in fact, loving people in that world. If the others knew Giles was looking to assess if Cathy would be safer there, they wouldn't let him go, but someone in the group had to act with ration instead of emotions, though he was perfectly willing to get Cathy and raise her himself in need be, or if Faith and Doyle kidnap her back anyway.

Chapter Text

Buffy and Angel made a hasty exit from Angel's room, with Cathy and Lorne and joined the others downstairs. When they went down they found out Fred and Gunn had gone out to get breakfast sandwiches, bagels and some oatmeal for Cathy. Lorne dragged Fred away from the food to go into the kitchen to help him make drinks. Buffy was throwing all her attention at Cathy to distract from the kiss. As she fed Cathy her oatmeal, Cathy also tried to put her fingers in Buffy's cream cheese bagel. "Well, now I know to eat after I feed you, not during," Buffy declared moving her bagel away.

"I can do it, if you want to eat," Angel offered.

"Thanks, but no," Buffy replied, she wanted to feed her because it seemed like the kind of Mom-things she should start to do, though Cathy had eating finger food (for the most part it got in her mouth) the day before.

Elsewhere, Dawn popped over Willow's shoulder, who was reading the book from Wesley. "Are you getting anywhere?" Dawn asked.

"I think so," Willow answered, enthusiastically. "This will bind the magic in place, then Buffy can take over and kill it."

"I'll be killing it too," Connor yelled across the room.

Dawn looked over at Buffy and Angel (who also had Spike and Cordy hovering by.) "Too bad that can't be used to bind Angel's soul, just in case," Dawn whispered to Willow. Willow didn't say anything, but looking at the spell, perhaps it could be tweaked.

Breakfast came to a halt when a light flashed and Giles, Faith and Doyle appeared in the lobby. Buffy snatched Cathy out of her chair and held her tight. "Giles? Giles what is this?" It hit Buffy. "Are you the Giles from the other world?" Buffy stared at Faith. "With Faith?" Buffy looked down at the fact that Cathy seemed thrilled to see them all, Faith included.

"Doyle," Angel said, in shock, he hadn't even processed Faith's presence. "You're alive?"

"How?" Cordy asked. "What world is this?"

Doyle gaped at Angel, alive. "I'm alive? Last time I saw you, you were a corpse, and not the kind that talks," Doyle replied. "How did you steal the real Angel's kid? Why? What are you doing with her?"

"I am the real Angel!" Angel insisted.

"Giles, I can explain," Willow spoke up.

Giles was in shock from seeing Buffy and Cathy in person, though he'd been expecting it, even if this Buffy wasn't his Buffy. He ran over and gave Buffy and Cathy a big hug, startling Buffy a bit. "We found you and Angel dead… and Catherine was gone," he explained, composing himself, and backing off. "I thought the worst scenario had come to pass. Then we did a locator spell and she wasn't with a demon named Falek, or the Council or even-"

"The Council?" Buffy questioned, enraged. "They had me killed by the demon?"

"We're unclear as to if they contracted him," Giles replied. "But where we are, Buffy, the Council is obsessed with the fact that a Slayer birthed a Slayer and they have it in their heads that means Catherine would be the best Slayer. There was a prophecy about it but it had never been from reliable translations. They want her, and have gone to great lengths in past attempts."

Buffy held Cathy tighter. Her worries about whether it would be selfish to keep her felt answered, there was no way Cathy would be better in a world where the Council wanted her and she and Angel weren't there to keep her safe. "Over my dead body in this world or any other will they have her," Buffy vowed. "I'm sure you've been worried, but you see, she's fine here. The Giles in this world is in England at the moment, by the way."

"What?" Faith questioned. "We've come to rescue her. We're not leaving her here."

"You came to rescue her?"

Faith looked hurt. "So in this world we never put everything behind us?" She looked over at Angel. "He's still a vampire, here. I guess it makes sense, he became human where we are and the Powers needed someone out for redemption in LA, woke me up, and gave me his gig." Faith pointed at Cordy.

Angel pointed between Faith and Doyle, "so you two and Cordy work together?" That was a bizarre situation to think about, though he liked it.

Doyle pointed at Gunn, "Gunn helps us out. But he doesn't seem to know who we are here. But as for The Princess, she has a minor hit show so-."

"She has a what?" Gunn laughed. "Cordelia's famous?"

"I wouldn't abandon you!" Cordy insisted, she turned to Angel, "Angel, tell him I wouldn't do that!"

"Wait, so you and I here-?" Doyle asked.

"Not exactly," Cordy stumbled. "You're dead. I have your visions."

"In your defense, Cordelia, he's never actually told you how he feels, so you don't know where we are," Faith pointed out.

Giles became impatient, "not to sound cruel, but we need to get back to the matter of how Catherine ended up here."

Willow went over to him. "That's my fault. See, here Buffy has a sister, Dawn and-"

"But I've only been alive less than two years, I was created, it was a whole thing," Dawn added.

"Yeah," Willow continued, "I wanted to show Dawn that Buffy wouldn't be better off if she didn't have to take care of her, so we went to a Dawn-less world, we found Buffy and Angel dying and we were shocked Angel was human and they had a kid, one thing lead to another and Cathy came back with us. We didn't mean to kidnap her but that demon was still around, so it was a good kidnapping."

"They did the right thing," Angel said quickly. "Obviously it's safer here." He didn't want to have to fight Faith, Doyle and Giles in any form, but he was willing too.

Connor went running over to Giles, who he pegged as being the boss since he'd heard Buffy here mention him a lot. "I will not let you remove her from this world."

"This is none of your concern, young man," Giles dismissed, "this is between us and Buffy and Angel. So, Angel never became human in 1999 and that's what spun off this alternate world?"

"No, no," Xander finally spoke up. "You're the alternate world. Apparently Angel was human here then took it back. That's what made your world. And why aren't I here saving Buffy's kid?"

"You're in an ICU on life support from Falek," Giles said, "you did go after him when we arrived at the house."

"I'm told it was very brave and also very stupid," Faith added.

"Oh, we are so going to kill this thing," Xander vowed.

"There's a version of Falek in this world, we're working on a binding spell, he's after someone else who knows his niece will be a Potential Slayer," Willow explained.

"How do you know Angel staying human didn't spin-off your world?" Doyle asked. "We're real and I'm not leaving without Angel's kid."

Giles turned to Faith and Doyle and sighed. He didn't want to give up Cathy, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices for those you love. Giles pulled out a photo book from his pocket. It was a low tech, kind of manipulative test but it was all he could think of to see if Buffy had an emotional reaction to them, he'd hoped would give him a sign that Buffy would care for Cathy the way his Buffy would. "So, you're saying Buffy that even though you just met Catherine, you'd care for her in the way she has been? You too, Angel?" Giles handed Buffy the photo book and reluctantly put Cathy down to look through it. Cathy ran to Faith and Doyle to hug them, and Connor hovered ready to fight them if they tried to make an exit with her.

Angel looked over Buffy's shoulder to take a look. There was a wedding photo of pregnant Buffy and Angel, another wedding photo of them with Willow and Doyle, who appeared to be Maid of Honor and Best Man, one of Buffy and Angel in the hospital holding Cathy, another of just newborn Cathy; Buffy traced the photo of Cathy's little face with her hand and she and Angel were smiling at the photos, from across the room where Spike was sitting unusually quiet, his eyes were locked on Angel wrapping an arm around Buffy. Giles noted reactions. Buffy turned to the next page and almost dropped the book as she gasped at the sight of Joyce holding Cathy. Dawn went over to Buffy at the sight of her almost crying. "Mom's there?" Dawn questioned. "She lived?"

"She passed away a few months after Cathy was born," Faith answered. "I guess Angel being human or a vampire wouldn't change her being sick."

"I'm keeping these and my daughter," Buffy insisted. There were more, but she'd look at them later. "This isn't a discussion. We appreciate you all caring for her but she's ours."

"Faith, Doyle," Giles said hesitantly, "we all know if Catherine isn't on anyone's radar here, she's safer." GIles shook his head. "I am more than willing to take her and go into hiding to keep her safe, but she does have her parents and most of us here. Of course, I will be having Willow keep doing the locator spell where we can see you and we'll be back if we see anything suspicious."

Faith knelt down by Cathy. "C, do you like being here with Mommy and Daddy?"

"Mama, Dad, Yaaaaaay," the little girl jumped up and down.

Faith grabbed her for a hug. "Anything happens and I'll be back," she threatened. "And where am I here?"

"Prison," Angel said softly. "You're still getting redemption, it just looks differently."

Doyle grabbed his head and took in a vision. "Dammit. Lilah and Lindsey are up to something. We have to get back."

"Lilah and Lindsey?" Angel questioned. "They're a problem there?"

"They wanted to make you a vampire again, but bringing Faith to their side and general evil is also a hobby," Doyle explained. "They had interest in Cathy too, they could be trying to look for her but we won't let them get here."

"Why is Spike being quiet?" Giles had to ask. "I take it he's chipped here, too?"

"Just taking this in," Spike replied.

Faith pointed at him, "Yucky, right?" She said to Cathy.

"You taught her that?" Spike questioned.

"Just reinforcing what Angel started."

Giles, Faith and Doyle said goodbyes to Cathy and as Giles started to do the incantation to get back to their world, Doyle darted for Cordelia. "We could have been something here?" he asked her.

Cordelia, lost in the moment, forgetting her almost relationship with Angel, kissed Doyle goodbye; luckily neither of them passed visions to the other, though. Once they were gone Cordy had a realization she still didn't want to lose Angel to him leaving for Sunnydale, but it was very different from how she felt thinking about a lost future with Doyle.

"Glad I did not have to fight anyone to make sure my sister stays," Connor declared.

"Yeah, it's super official now she's here for good," Dawn added.

Angel picked Cathy up and kissed the top of her head. Buffy looked at the two of them and let it sink in that they really did have a child now, and they had a lot they would have to address.

Lorne and Fred emerged from the kitchen with several pitchers of mimosas and also Bloody Mary's and looked around at everyone looking tense and surprised. "Did we miss something?" Fred asked.

Buffy and Angel excused themselves into the office to let the others explain what happened. Once Angel locked the door, Buffy took Cathy from him and bounced her. "You really are ours," she declared. "She's really ours. They were only photos but it seems we had a really nice life, despite everything."

"I know we have different obligations, but that doesn't mean we can't have a nice life, it'd just look different," Angel said softly.

"What are you saying? A few days in Sunnydale, a few days in LA? Meet up a few days a week?" Cathy was squirming in Buffy's arms to get down, as there were so many things in the office for her to explore. Buffy set her down and focused on the conversation. "That's not even factoring in the curse."

"I don't know,'' Angel admitted. "When you kissed me, that felt right. Those pictures feel right." He grabbed Buffy and kissed her. He pushed her up against the desk and Buffy was lost in the kiss until Angel pushed himself off her. Buffy was confused, until she saw what Angel saw; Cathy had gotten hold of a letter opener and tried to stab some books, in a staking fashion.

"Don't touch that," Angel instructed as he carefully pried the sharp object from the toddler, who screamed and tried to get it back.

"Well," Buffy tried to look on the bright side, "at least you're able to overpower her here."

Cathy threw a book, made another grab for the letter opener, crying, and Buffy and Angel couldn't help but wonder if she'd somehow been waiting for her stay to be official before unleashing her inner monster.

Chapter Text

Cordelia was sitting out in the garden crying when all of a sudden she saw someone put a water bottle next to her. "Speaking as someone who recently derailed his life because of an alternative reality, allow me to suggest you not do that," Xander said, as he sat down.

"I'm not in the mood," Cordy sniffled.

"I'm being serious," he answered. "I don't know what the deal was between you and that Doyle- guy, but that's a world where a little girl just had to hide for her life as her parents got murdered, so if you left your friends… that's not a world worth putting too much stock in."

"It's not just that," she replied. "It's a reminder of a missed opportunity." Xander was the last person she'd confess she was jealous over the idea of Angel maybe leaving town because of Buffy and Cathy. "What alternate reality did you derail your life over?"

"Some guy Anya cursed in her demon days showed me a version of our marriage that rivals my parents," he confessed. "Only I had been worried about that already."

"That's why you left? I've met your father, you're not him."

"And I never want to be. I decided to hurt Anya then, there than spare her a potential lifetime of regret. It wasn't all selfless, I couldn't live with waking up day after day wondering if she was thinking about a world where she'd married someone else because I made her miserable."

Cordelia thought about what Xander said, if Angel stayed in LA to work with her, he could end up resenting her and she wanted to hold on to the bond they formed, and she wanted him to be happy. "Yeah, that would suck to live life with someone thinking about another life."

"You're not gonna drag me for leaving her at the altar anyway?" Xander elbowed her elbow. "It may make you feel better."

"Oh, I'll get back to that at some point," Cordy promised with a slight laugh. "Thanks for coming out here."

Xander shrugged. "I don't like seeing you in pain, ironic maybe since I hurt you but… you don't deserve to twist yourself over something that didn't happen here. From what I understand you gave up the idea of being an actress and are some super power vision girl."

Cordy put her hand on Xander's. "And you'd die for your friends and risked your life countless times saving the world; your father would never put anyone first so don't for a second think you have that in you."

Xander squinted. "Is it possible we've grown up?"

After a few minutes, Cordy left to go back inside to catch the end of Cathy's tantrum and when that was over, she pulled Angel aside. "I have to tell you something," Cordy told Angel in the office.

"Cordy-" Angel started.

"No. Hear me out. You want to be with Buffy, you have this kid, I'm fine with you dating her, I've realized the way I love you is being my best friend. I don't want to lose you. I don't know what I'll do with my visions but I also don't want us to stop being real friends because you feel obligated to be here."

Angel reached out and stroked Cordy's face. "I'd never feel obligated to you. You're my best friend too. I don't know how things are going to work with Buffy but I want to continue my -our- mission and I'm never going to let what you've done to maintain the visions be for nothing, and not out of obligation."

Cordy sighed. "Good. We've got that out of the way. You can work on your commute schedule or something now."

"Do you want to talk about seeing other-reality Doyle?" Angel asked.

Cordy wrangled her hands and leaned on the desk. "In time. I don't know. What's there to say? It wasn't really him and we're still never going to see him again."

"Well, if you ever want to talk to your best friend about it, you'll know where to find me."

Over At The Wolfram and Hart Offices:

Lilah found Gavin in his office, as she expected. "I'll give you credit, putting in extra hours even though you're going to cut in line," Lilah said entering the office.

Gavin raised an eyebrow at Lilah. "What are you talking about?"

Lilah shook her head and sat down by his desk. "Don't bullshit me, I know what you're up to. You're gonna take my job not because you earned it but because your sister is gonna pop out a future slayer."

Gavin folded his hands and smirked. "It's not my problem you don't have family to count on. The Senior Partners will pay her more than those Watchers will, I get a promotion, and hey in time maybe I can tell my sister she can brag about her kid being as special as she and my mother are already saying she is."

"When are the Senior Partner's going to take her?" Lilah asked.

Gavin shrugged. "Don't know. I haven't worked out the deal, can't until she's actually born."

"Angel approached me," Lilah announced, lying. "He thinks some demon named Falek is going to attack you," she added, "he thought you two were planning something."

Gavin shifted uncomfortably. "He wanted my niece, don't know how he knew but apparently he's obsessed with potential Slayers. The Senior Partners will offer things Falek can't even fathom."

"Well, two weeks from Wednesday when it goes down, I hope to watch if Vision Barbie is correct and you'll get attacked."

"I'll have it covered," Gavin stated. He didn't know how but he'd never let Lilah know that.

Lilah prevented herself from smirking. Gavin admitted to everything and had a false sense of security that Falek wouldn't attack the baby shower, instead going after Gavin in two weeks to make sure he shows up at the shower tomorrow. "I'll let you get back to cheating," she said as she left.

When she exited the building, she went into Wesley's car and held up the recorder that was in her bag. "Look at me keeping my word," she announced. "I got him on tape saying he's giving the kid to the Senior Partners."

Wesley picked up the recorder. "Now we play it for his sister and hopefully she'll let us get her out of California." Wesley started his car. "Then we can go back to my place."

Back at the Hyperion:

Several hours had passed and Wesley had informed Fred that he and Lilah were covering getting Gavin's sister to safety. With the fight not until the next day, everyone was doing their own thing at the hotel. Willow was researching her spell idea for Angel's soul studiously, this was not something with room for error. She was interrupted at the sight of Tara walking through the doors.

"Tara!" Dawn squealed, running to give her a hug.

"Hi! HI!" Hi!" Cathy wiggled away from Angel to hug Tara's leg.

Tara looked down at the little girl and smiled, "Hi there! I guess we're friends."

Angel got up and went over to Tara. "You must be Tara, can I help you with that stuff?" he gestured to her overnight bad and the bags of magic supplies she'd brought from Sunnydale. Tara handed him the bags to set down.

Willow got up from behind the front desk and shyly approached Tara. "Hey," she said.

"Hi," Tara replied, flatly.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"You were doing so well," Tara paused, "this maybe isn't the place."

Dawn felt a need to jump in. "Tara, Willow hadn't been using magic, she kept her promise, but I was in a bad place and it's my fault."

"No it's not," Tara and Willow said at the same time. "I made my own choices," Willow added. She then pointed at Lorne, who was silently watching on the round couch. "Lorne knows someone who can help me, and I called you instead of doing it all on my own. I'm going to work through this. This time, I mean it."

Lorne sipped his sea breeze and added, "the Wicca I know is a great addiction specialist."

"Willow and Dawn did save Cathy," Angel pointed out. He was always going to owe Willow for his soul for years ago and now for Cathy, he had to try to defend her, even if the summary he had of Willow's addiction was bad.

Spike came up from the basement where some were training. "Yeah, you won't get Captain Forehead condemning Willow's memory wipe," he had to say, as Buffy and Connor were behind him.

"People make mistakes," Angel pointed out, then he looked over at Connor who seemed winded, for the first time. "Have a good training session with Buffy?" he asked.

"She'll make an okay partner in the fight," Connor tried to sound casual.

"She beat his ass," Gunn added, kind of excited, also emerging from the basement.

Buffy looked a bit guilty. "I didn't beat up your son," she told Angel. "It was sparring and he did well."

Angel shrugged. "I'm not offended."

"I want to do it again, later," Connor announced.

"I want to train," Dawn pointed out.

"I'll show you some things when Buffy and Connor have a rematch," Angel told her.

"Is this how it's going to be?" Buffy asked. "You're the fun one who insisted Cathy just needed juice after her tantrum and now you're promising fun training to Dawn?" Buffy trusted Angel with Dawn, though she was not thrilled that LA's Champion pouted more than Cathy did when Buffy put her in her crib for a short timeout after the letter opener fiasco. Dawn was a terror as a toddler, according to Buffy's memories, and her parents always fought about what to do about it, resulting in her usually skating. She wasn't going to go through that with a super strength girl who could do far more damage than Dawn did at that age. Maybe she should thank the Monks for giving her ideas of what not to do with Cathy.

"Until we go back to Sunnydale," Spike pointed out.

"Spike, I need to talk to you in private," Tara announced. They went upstairs to the room Angel told her she could put her stuff in to spend the night. "Don't make this hard on Buffy," she told Spike. "I know about you two."

"Yeah, it's me she's been with," he countered.

"And she ended it," Tara countered. "Spike, I've heard enough of the history of you and Angel from Willow to know you were down this road with someone named Drusilla. Maybe it's time for you to find someone who you won't be competing with Angel for. And it's time to ask yourself if you love Buffy enough to let her do what she wants, even if that isn't being with you."

Buffy suspected Tara wanted to speak to Spike about her, so she'd followed them up. "Thanks, Tara," Buffy said entering, "But I have to talk to Spike." She turned to him. "I've kissed Angel twice. I don't know fully what it means, and I'm not putting you down, but I have to see where that road leads."

"I'm not going anywhere," Spike said, "when he bollocks' it up, I'll be here."

Buffy sighed. "Thanks. But keep in mind you thought Dru was the only woman for you at one point. You do deserve to find someone who can fully give herself to you."

Selflessness was Angel's gig, Spike thought, but that also seemed to be what Buffy wanted. "I'm not going anywhere, though," Spike said. He still wanted to be someone Buffy would want around. "I'll be patrolling in Sunnydale even if you're commuting to figure things out with Peaches; even though that means freeing you up a bit from Sunnydale to go do it."

Buffy knew Spike was still out to impress her. "Thank you. I do want you," Buffy looked at Tara, "and you, and everyone to just be happy after this year." Spike considered her words.

Later That Night:

Angel held Dawn's arm and guided her with sword motions as Gunn countered as the training partner. "Don't drop your shoulders so much," he told Dawn.

"Guys, I got it," Dawn insisted. "Let's go Gunn."

"He's been showing you for five minutes," Gunn pointed out.

Lorne had made margarita's this time for everyone, that Fred took a sip of. "Dawn, Charles is really good, if you want I can go one on one with you," Fred offered.

Angel looked over at Fred, amused, "you've been playing bartender with Lorne all day and seem tipsy."

Fred gestured around to all the people. "It's a party," she defended.

Dawn convinced Angel and Gunn to let her go at it alone and Gunn found himself having trouble keeping up with Dawn. She countered his moves with ease, until he began to go faster and she lost slight control, she picked up the pace and even managed a spin move before she eventually dropped her sword. Angel looked at them "You went for a good amount of time for a first try!" he was impressed, even if she lost.

Angel had set up a mattress on the floor of the hotel for Cathy to play on, and Buffy was sitting on it with her, giving her a bottle of warm milk to see if that would help her get to sleep earlier than the night before, at Lorne's suggestion. She also was multitasking by watching the sword fight from a safe distance. "Since when can you do that?" Buffy asked Dawn.

"I've been fighting you for the remote for years and I've seen you fight enough," Dawn pointed out, "a girl picks things up."

"I can train you more," Connor offered, from where he was sitting with Fred.

Buffy looked down at Cathy, who was an actual baby, then at Dawn, who was actually the same age Buffy was when called and a year younger than Willow and Xander when they joined Buffy's fight, no matter how much Buffy had seen her as her baby sister. Dawn didn't seem so little anymore. "We're going to take it slow," Buffy replied.

"Slow as in not stopping?" Dawn questioned, jumping up and down, "this is so cool, I love it here. Buffy's cool."

"I was cool already!"

Everyone got distracted by Lorne's outburst. "Sweet?! My arch nemesis was in Sunnydale?!" he exclaimed to Xander.

"You have an arch nemesis?" Gunn questioned.

"He weaponizes music," Lorne sneered. "He turns the best thing into burning to death. Of course he's my nemesis. A musical sounds fun though, minus the death, especially since the Big Guy wasn't singing."

"Standing right here," Angel muttered.

"I have to hear you sing," Buffy stated, to protests from all of Angel's friends and Spike.

Angel downed a large margarita, handed Cathy to Connor, and helped Buffy to her feet and twirled her. "Oh Buffy, You came and you gave without taking-"

Buffy put a hand over his mouth. "Okay, that's enough," she laughed.

Spike was sitting behind the counter drinking whiskey and looked over at Cordelia, who was drinking with him. "Spike," Cordy sighed, "let it play out." She clanked her glass to his. "I'll be fine, you'll manage," Cordy looked over at Cathy and Connor, "Cathy deserves a chance at a family that doesn't involve tax evasion or hell dimensions."

"I can't believe you've matured," he retorted, taking a shot.

Xander joined them only long enough to hear Spike's last comment. "Stranger things have happened, but it appears to be true."

"Yeah, now let's see how long it takes for you to get there," Cordy said to Xander with her old school snark voice, though with a wink added.

Tara and Willow looked over at everyone having fun, but zoned in on Buffy and Angel. "So you haven't told them?" Tara whispered.

"I didn't want to get hopes up," Willow whispered back. "But I think we have it and tomorrow I'll break the news to them. And offer to keep Cathy out of their bed if it does work."

"It's nice when people find their way back to each other," Tara said, avoiding eye contact.

Chapter Text

The day of the baby shower arrived and Wesley and Lilah pulled up to a home in Santa Monica and knocked on the how number correlated with the address for Gavin's sister they tracked down. "Gavin's sister?" Lilah asked, when a young pregnant woman opened the door.

"My actual name is Anna," she replied. "But Gavin is my brother, who are you?"

"We need to speak with you, and this may be difficult to hear so maybe we could sit down to talk?" Wesley asked.

Anna crossed her arms. "I'm not letting strangers into my home. I know nothing has happened to him, I just spoke with him so what is this about?"

Lilah pulled out her tape recorder. "Your brother is planning something so we have to take you away, shower canceled," she announced, before playing the tape. Wesley put his right hand over his face from Lilah's lack of tact.

Anna was angry, but did not appear shocked. "I always knew he did not deserve to be the favorite!"

"Seriously?" Lilah asked. "He's the favorite? There's lower than Gavin and you're it?"

"Anna," Wesley cut in, "this all may be hard to process and you're probably wondering what this all means-"

"I work in Politics, I understand the world my brother has gotten involved in," Anna replied. "I'm not sure what a Slayer is, but I know his bosses are demons. But if you know Gavin, you must work with them too, why should I trust you?"

"I don't work for them," Wes assured her. "We have a car that will take you on a plane out of the area until we know Gavin will not make any deals. You're just going to have to trust that we're more credible than your brother."

Anna looked back into the home. "First I need Mother to hear this."

Once Anna and her husband were ready to leave, and Gavin's mother was irate, Wesley and Lilah were headed to the airspace the plane was located. Lilah could tell Wesley looked pensive. "What?" she asked.

"Nothing. I just hope this isn't for nothing and they defeat Falek."

Lilah scoffed. "You want to go play do-gooder and fight with them, don't you? They abandoned you and I'm here."

"Not everything is about you," he countered. "And I'm not you." The former Watcher sighed. "But I'm staying in case the demon ends up coming for Anna and she has to be moved again."

"That's the only reason you're staying?"

He was never going to work for Wolfram and Hart, but he didn't want to part with Lilah, either. "No comment."

A Little Bit Later At The Hyperion:

Buffy, Connor, Xander, Gunn and Cordy left for the fight. Angel and Spike tried to come up with ways to get the demon in the shade, but nothing worked out so they stayed back at the hotel with Fred, who was too hungover to fight, Willow and Tara who were doing their spells from a distance, and Lorne and Dawn who were playing with Cathy. "I should be there," Angel declared.

"You'd fry," Lorne yelled over.

Willow approached Angel and asked him to go to the office. "Is something wrong with the binding spell?" he asked nervously.

"No, we did it," Willow answered. "This is about another spell. I didn't want to get everyone's hopes up but I also didn't want to just do it without asking. See, I was reworking it and, well, I'm confident Tara and I can bind your soul."

Angel was silent for several seconds and blinked. "Say that again?"

"Your soul. If I bind it, it makes the curse part obsolete because I'm just sticking it in place and boom, you can't go losing it anymore no matter how much happiness you have."

"Are you sure?" He was having trouble believing it.

Willow nodded. "About as sure as I am Buffy isn't about to kill a demon that will unleash dark magic into the air." The next thing Willow knew, Angel hugged her tightly and to the extent of lifting her off the ground and spun her. "Ow!"

Angel put her down and smoothed out the wrinkles on her clothes. "Sorry! It's just- y'know- I can't say thank you enough."

Willow gently rubbed her ribs. "Don't mention it. But actually I got the idea from Dawn so she should get some credit."

Dawn was showing Cathy how to play with oversized blocks when suddenly Angel came up behind her and gave her a hug. "Ow!" she exclaimed. Dawn turned around and looked at Angel. "What is this? You hugging me is definitely one of the weirder things to happen to me."

Willow slowly sat down behind the desk in the lobby. "Yeah, right there with ya."

Elsewhere, Cordelia pulled Angel's car with Buffy/Connor/Xander/Gunn up to the restaurant where the bridal shower was supposed to take place, saw the women gathered outside and groaned. "No one told the guests not to come?" she sighed. "I guess wheelwoman just got downgraded to 'get everyone inside' woman?"

Gunn's plan was to have him and Xander shooting tranquilizer guns at Falek while Buffy and Connor faught hand-to-hand, with Cordelia waiting with the car running in the event they needed a quick retreat. "We'll have to do this on foot," Gunn replied.

"I'll get them inside, if anything, you all get the hell out of here and I'll find my way back after I know the guests are safe," Cordy insisted, tucking a covered knife into the inside of her waistband, just in case.

Xander and Buffy exchanged glances; Cordelia Chase just told everyone to save themselves and leave her behind to get others to safety. "You sure?" Buffy asked.

"Definitely."

Cordelia ran up to the restaurant to convince the managers to let everyone in earlier than expected and the others waited in the car to look for Gavin and Falek. "There's Gavin," Connor pointed out. He looked to either side of him in the backseat where Xander and Gunn were getting their weapons ready. "Why did I have to sit in the middle seat?"

"Youngest get's the worst seat," Gunn answered.

Xander spotted a demon approaching Gavin. "Buff, time for you and I to show we can kick his ass and get revenge of Other-Us," he said.

They rushed out of the car, Buffy and Connor grabbed swords and Xander and Gunn darted behind trees and began shooting the guns.

Buffy couldn't believe it while she was gearing up to fight, all of a sudden Warren came running out of a car. "You think you can just leave town and I wouldn't find you, bitch? You thought you could run from me?" Warren yelled. He had been watching the Magic Box and followed Tara in secret to LA. "Hey, big guy," he yelled to Falek, "I'm with you." As Warren approached Falek, he swung his spiked tail and Warren was stabbed in the chest and flung a hundred feet in the air.

Once Buffy and Xander recovered from a quick moment of surprise they got to work. The tranq's had not knocked him out but the darts Xander shot at his spiked tail to prevent another Warren seemed to slow that down and Gunn continued body shots as Buffy and Connor fought hand-to-hand; until Connor suddenly disappeared, but Buffy was holding her own. The image she had in her head of Cathy hiding from Falek fueled a fury she hadn't unleashed in a while.

Gunn took a break from shooting to prevent Gavin from running. Xander continued to try to get a headshot in, to see if that would knock him out instead of slow him down. But Buffy managed to grab her sword and stab Falek in the chest, right as Connor jumped off the roof of a nearby storefront and put his sword straight through Falek's head. "Told you I wouldn't let him get out of this to maybe find out about my sister," Connor declared.

"Well, I stabbed him and we all did the work," Buffy pointed out. "But it's a good move." Buffy wanted to say he fought like Angel, but she wasn't sure if he would take that as a compliment.

Xander stroked his gun. "How about my aim, huh? We got that thing good."

They were distracted by the sounds of Gavin screaming. "You think your family is your property to trade?" Gunn yelled at Gavin, as held Gavin in a position that dislocated his right shoulder. "Your sister is safe from you and I'm gonna personally make sure you don't mess with her or her baby again." People mistreating their sisters really set Gunn off.

Buffy looked around at the sky, if Willow's spell failed a black cloud would have been released. "Willow and Tara did their part, good work team," Buffy declared.

Cordelia saw the fight had ended from inside the restaurant and came running out. "Gunn, I think you can stop now," she said. Cordy then ran over to Warren. "This guy is dead. How was he a casualty?"

"It's the price of wanting to be a villain," Xander answered. He then looked over at Buffy, "sorry, I can't get upset over that one."

"I just want to get back to Cathy," Buffy said. Warren's death wasn't something she had the energy to care about, not when she had a daughter who'd been traumatized by the dead demon. "We're going to do something normal." She wasn't sure what, but Cathy was going to have normal no matter what.

They dropped Gavin at his condo, where he knew Lilah was rushing from the safehouse drop to meet them there to rub in their victory. What Gunn didn't know was Gavin's mother was there and really pissed at her son. He may have fared better with Falek.

The five of them then headed back to the hotel. "We totally kicked as-butt," Xander announced, and amending his words for Cathy's sake. He looked to find Spike downing bourbon like water. "What's with him?"

Buffy was going to go over to Cathy, but Angel, and Willow who seemed to be moving slowly stepped in front of her. "Willow, did the spell injure you?" she asked, noticing she was off.

Angel looked guilty. "It was an accident. I was caught up in a moment."

Buffy was confused. "What happened? You hurt Willow?"

"He was just excited and I'll be fine," Willow excused. "See, I did another spell."

"It was because of my idea," Dawn pointed out. She didn't get squeezed as tightly as Willow had. "Because I'm a teenager and competent and I can help."

"Traitor," Spike grumbled.

"Tara and I did a spell, an altered version of the spell to bind the magic in Falek. It's-"

"They said they bound my soul into place," Angel excitedly cut Willow off. "As in nothing can remove it."

Buffy suddenly felt light headed. Angel's soul in place? She sat right down on the couch. "How? What? Really?" was all she managed.

"Wait," Connor said, "Dawn found a way to defeat Angelus? You do know a lot of things."

Dawn smiled at being appreciated by Connor, even if some of the things he considered smart was knowing what stuffed animals were for. "Buffy, Angel even said he felt different after the spell," Dawn said. "It seems to be legit."

"How can we be sure?" Buffy asked. She couldn't fully let herself believe it.

Lorne finally spoke up. "I read him, his aura is different. The singing's the same."

"If Anya were here, she'd say to use chains just in case and go upstairs." Everyone stared at Tara, who was making tea to bring to Fred ( who was still in bed), and was the one who made the comment. "She would," she added.

"There are chains in the basement," Connor announced. "Who are we chaining, him?" he pointed at his father.

"I'm not touching that one," Dawn said.

"Seriously?" Gunn questioned, ignoring Connor. "No Angelus?" Xander was skeptical but said nothing; if Willow's spell was right, Buffy could have what she wanted and even if that was Angel, she deserved happiness after being ripped from Heaven.

Angel went over to Buffy. "Seriously, no Angelus," he said softly, taking her hand.

Buffy felt a warmth come over her even though Angel's hands were cold. "We can-" she started to say.

Cathy ran in between her parents with rocks she insisted on taking when she and Dawn were in the garden. "Mama," she showed off her rocks. "Dada," she gave one to him. "Hi! Hi! Mama, Dada," she said, excited they were both there.

"Hi." Buffy looked at the rocks "Thank you?" she said, smiling at her daughter but eying Angel. Cathy ran to get toys to bring over. Buffy and Angel looked pensive.

Cordelia had accepted Buffy and Angel were going to try to work things out. "Cathy, do you want to come meet my friend Dennis? He'll love you," Cordy offered, to give them time.

"Dennis!" Angel exclaimed. "He's a fun ghost, Cathy, you'll have fun."

Playing with a ghost was not normal, but Buffy could give Cathy plenty of normal later, especially now that Angelus was likely not a threat. "Have fun!" Buffy said, kissing Cathy's cheek. She then squeezed Willow in a hug that made Willow yell in pain once again; Dawn ducked away from Buffy doing the same to her. Buffy and Angel ran upstairs, but Angel ran back down to the basement to get something…

"I'm staying in case the spell fails," Spike yelled.

Once they were in Angel's room they started to make out. "We still have things to work out," Buffy said between kisses.

"Of course," he agreed, putting Buffy on the bed. Buffy ripped his shirt off

Six hours later, Buffy and Angel were in bed cuddling, kissing occasionally, exhausted. "Still Angel?" she questioned, though they discarded the chains hours ago.

"And very happy."

There was loud banging on the door and Cathy demanding their attention. "We tried for as long as we could," Willow said on the other side of the door. "I can try to take her tomorrow."

Buffy and Angel put some clothes on and Willow let Cathy into the room. Connor came in as well with a stake. "Is it safe?" Connor questioned.

"Yes," Angel replied. "Connor, it's me."

"Good, Dad," Connor replied, shocking Angel. "Dawn says since Cathy calls you Dad and she's my sister and she told Willow how to defeat Angelus, I should call you Dad, too," Connor explained before leaving to go patrol.

Cathy snuggled in between her parents and gave them kisses. She also brought her rock presents to bed for them. Buffy looked down at Cathy, then at Angel, who was beaming. She leaned over and gave him a kiss. "Still Angel?"

Connor called him Dad, he and Buffy had just had hours of sex and now their daughter was in bed with them. "And definitely perfectly happy," he replied. He wasn't just happy, he felt like a person

"So am I," Buffy declared as she stretched her arms out to hug both Cathy and Angel. Angel was still a vampire, but they didn't have to worry about the curse and they were falling asleep with their daughter between them, even though Buffy was pretty sure there was a rock digging into her side, it was enough to make Buffy feel something she hadn't felt in a long time; normal.

Chapter Text

It was Cathy's second birthday and it was certainly her big day but everyone deserved a party. It had been an eventful summer after an attempt by the First Evil to make a return for an apocalypse. Faith, Doyle and Giles really had been checking in on them from their reality along with the others, and made visits with their Willow and found a spell that used Cathy's blood to give the power of the Slayer to every potential. Lilah -in this world- helped stopping The First since it's plans conflicted with Wolfram and Hart's future plans by providing information as to how the Hellmouth could be bound for good using the same spell that stopped Falek, and put Angel's soul back, which Lilah was then rewarded with the position of CEO of Wolfram and Hart's LA branch, much to Angel's dismay. It also made Sunnydale unlivable so the Scoobies moved to LA where Angel Investigations was still in business, but Buffy wasn't burdened with being the only Slayer; Giles and Wesley headed up the task of heading a new Council to inform the new Slayers and Buffy had her own newly activated Slayers to train.

Buffy stepped outside the front doors of the Hyperion, then stepped back inside just to make sure people could leave if they wanted, and surveyed the room for suspicious activity. She made a beeline to Cathy, who was by the counter and immediately fixed the birthday crown atop the now 2-year-olds head and fluffed her frilly pink princess dress. "Are you having fun, baby?" Buffy asked, Cathy said yes. "Good. Now remember if you see any gifts that seem… different or see anything that makes you uncomfy you come and tell Mommy, okay?" Buffy was stressed from worrying about the day but she was still smiling; Cathy had brought her so much joy and non-slaying related memories over the last few months, even at the height of The First's battle.

Angel, wearing a party hat and holding a balloon sword, ran over to them. "Cathy, go play," he told her. "Buffy, you didn't pass on a predisposition for bad birthdays," he told Buffy, and not for the first time that day, or even in the days leading up to the birthday. "Look at this," he held up his sword and swung it, "the balloon animal guy made this, isn't this clever? I can have him make you one."

Buffy grabbed the sword from Angel and used it to knock his hat sideways. "Don't tell me I'm being irrational. You think my bad birthdays only started as a teenager? No. When I was four I had a goldfish that died the same day and when I was six I was looking for more gifts and I found my thank you picture I would send to Santa every year in my Dad's desk and-"

"I know," Angel cut her off, "you've been telling me. But that's not going to happen." He took his sword back and kissed her. Then he grabbed a party hat off the counter and put it on Buffy. "Just have fun!"

"You being giddy is still strange," she observed. He was still broody, but prone to fits of childlike happiness since Cathy's arrival. "None of her friends or their parents seem evil, although, parents are definitely shooting Connor looks," Buffy pointed to Connor seriously advising three of the children playing with balloon swords that they were holding them wrong. Cathy's 'friends' consisted of kids related to her Slayers in training and also kids Cathy would play with regularly at the park, or sit with during a story hour at the library or other activities as Buffy was constantly on the hunt to take Cathy places to ensure her life didn't consist of being in the hotel.

Dawn approached Connor and tried to drag him away from micromanaging the kids' pretend sword fight. "Connor, let them just do their own thing."

"It's incorrect," Connor said. "They're not too young to learn, no matter what the rest of you say."

Gunn had no idea where Angel found a balloon artist, and a place to rent cotton candy and Snow Cone machines on his own -or how he was affording it- but he wasn't complaining since Lorne was topping off adult Snow Cones with vodka in the office. Gunn noticed Dawn holding Connor's arm and got in between the teenagers.

"Sorry, this isn't happening, we've been through this," Gunn stated. Connor and Dawn's friendship had become on everyone's radar as having the potential to be more. "Connor, I get your undead line has all sorts of strange family dynamics mixing," Gunn explained, forever creeped out by the family tree of Darla/Angel/Dru/Spike, "but I can't allow a world where Cathy has to tell people her brother and aunt are dating." Gunn looked over at Lorne, who all the parents assumed was in costume, but couldn't figure out what he was supposed to be, "she's in an uphill battle as is for social acceptance."

Elsewhere, Cordelia was talking to one of the Dad's, Jim, at the party. "Yeah, it's my day to be with the kids, I don't get to take them to the park as much as my ex does because of my schedule so this is the first time I'm meeting they're friends." Jim looked around. "When I looked up the address I thought Cathy's parents rented a hotel for her second birthday, I had no idea Cathy's family had a hotel business. Getting the guests out must have been a project."

"It's a small operation, scheduling was easy," Cordy answered, dodging what the hotel is really for. "So what do you do for a living?"

"I'm a doctor."

Cordy straightened her posture and smiled. Not that income mattered, she'd outgrown defining people by their jobs, but hey he was a doctor who was doing his best to be an involved father, so that meant large income and a decent perhaps. Then she realized he used 'kids' plural. "How many kids do you have?"

Jim pointed to the three getting cotton candy. "I have one older one and them."

Cordy looked over at the kids. "You're the triplet's Dad?" She liked kids, four were a lot of kids, especially as the triplets had been bouncing around all party. "What kind of doctor are you?"

"I'm a surgeon," he replied. Cordy did her best to shake off the old Queen C and not be swayed by the fact that he was probably well-off. "I have six cats, as well."

Xander had been observing the exchange and the change in Cordy's demeanor when she found out Jim had four kids let alone the cats and walked behind her and coughed as he said "Life's a trade-off."

The lobby to the door opened where Clem had walked in, wearing a hat and scarf. He was holding a fairly large fawn colored puppy with a black, wrinkled face and went over to Buffy and Angel as Spike greeted him and joined. "Hey, sorry I'm late," he said.

Buffy and Angel eyed the dog. "Why do you have a puppy?" Buffy asked immediately, as Spike waived Cathy over.

"Some jerk actually tried to put this in the poker game the other day," Clem answered. "Spike said it would make a great gift for Cathy."

Cathy was very excited at the sight of the puppy and even more excited when Clem gave him to her before Buffy and Angel could stop him. Cathy was jumping in excitement, the puppy wagged its tail about and Cathy ran to Connor and Dawn to show them her new friend, who was following behind. "You gave her a dog without checking with us?" Angel questioned through gritted teeth.

"I thought puppies were safe from Angelus, now? And, maybe it won't turn out to be big," Spike said, "or maybe it will be big and it's crap might be big too, enjoy, Peaches," he smirked.

"Well, I can't walk him during the day so I won't be picking it up," Angel countered. They were too far down the rabbit hole of Cathy playing with the puppy to take it away.

Buffy shook her head, "Oh no, maybe I can train him to have a spot in the garden where he can go and you can pick it up at night and a long early morning and nightly walk will do him some good but if he needs exercise during the day, he'll get it."

Angel stammered. "Why are you assigning this to me?"

Buffy shrugged. "Maybe I have some scores to settle." The puppy ran back to them and was running around Buffy's legs.

Spike looked at the dog, "you're supposed to annoy him," Spike instructed, pointing to Angel. The puppy then ran back to Cathy.

"I think we should call him Spike, it's a popular name for a dog," Angel pointed out. Clem and Spike could feel anger coming off of Buffy and Angel and excused themselves so Spike could show Clem the vodka Snow Cones.

"Cheer up, B," Faith said going over to them, "maybe that's the bad thing you've been fearing. As far as bad things go, you can deal."

"Cathy would probably be okay if you take him," Buffy said to Faith. It was the Faith from the other reality, who regularly visited Cathy the most still being they least trusting of leaving her in another world.

"I'm good," Faith looked over at the staircase, "the kids keep trying to go upstairs and I think some parents are mad."

"Yeah. Uh. Baby Proofing is just Cathy kicking gates down. But we should have remembered to get one," Angel sighed.

"One of the Mom's seems annoyed about the puppy because the other kids may want one for their birthdays," Faith added.

"Which Mom?" Buffy demanded. "Because if it's Eric's Mom, I've seen him lick trees and I don't go around saying Cathy will be influenced by him."

"Is there anything we can do to help? Perhaps go get the ice cream? I bought three kinds of ice cream cake," Giles approached them to ask. He took his stand-in grandpa role as seriously as the other Giles did, who was also standing beside him. Cathy's other family was not going to miss her birthday. Cathy didn't seem to be thrown by two of some people, it meant more attention and more gifts.

"Thanks Gileses," Buffy replied, "that'd be great." Buffy looked around at the other parents, who really believed they knew a lot of identical twins. Maybe trying to fit in with other parents wasn't worth it.

Angel put an arm around Buffy. "See? We have ice cream and balloons." Angel looked over at Doyle, who was asking Cordelia for help with the Cordelia in his reality, who he was trying to connect with again. Both Willows and Taras walked by them with Fred, setting up more snacks. "And lots of guests; it's all very normal."

Later that night, Buffy was finishing reading Cathy a story when Angel and Gordo (the dog who Willow determined to be a Boxer via internet searches for look-alikes and Cathy named him after Mr. Gordo) came in and Gordo jumped onto the bed. "Have a good walk?" Buffy asked, smirking.

Angel scowled. "Just what I wanted to do with my night."

"Cheer up," Buffy said, giving him a kiss, "when this becomes less funny I'll help." Gordo jumped on Buffy's lap and licked her face.

"Hey!" Angel huffed. "You can't have me pick up after you and kiss my girlfriend."

Buffy pet Gordo and giggled. "Sure he can. Look at him!" Buffy's attention was turned to Cathy throwing pillows off the bed. "Oh, Puppy Gordo, we're in the Terrible Twos."

"Cathy's not terrible," Angel defended, picking up the pillows.

"Actually I was referring to the both of you, only you've been in them longer and Cathy has a reason to act like a child."

Dawn and Connor let themselves into the room. "I want to try this again," Connor held up a rope toy. Gordo had impressed him earlier with his ability to hold on in tug-of-war. Cathy launched herself at her brother. "I came to say goodnight to you, too," he said, hugging her. "Do you wanna play?"

"You're not playing tug-of-war with your sister," Angel said.

"She's probably really good at it," Connor countered. Dawn picked Gordo up and pet him.

Buffy laid back on the bed and Angel joined her as they watched their family playing. Buffy slipped her hand in Angel's. "See? No disasters," Angel pointed out.

"And we have a year in between birthdays to prepare for the next one," Buffy countered.

Even if he didn't agree with Buffy's superstition around Cathy's birthday, he was just happy to have any mention of future plans with Buffy and their family. Buffy still wanted to find a career but for the first time since she was called as a Slayer, she felt her calling was taking a backseat to her actual life, a nice, though different life she and Angel were making for their family and that was more than enough to be happy.