Prologue
Present Day
Anya had just barely opened the magic shop for the day when the phone rang. Unlocking the cash register at the same time, she answered by rote, not really in the mood to pay much attention. “The Magic Box. This is Anya speaking. What would you like to buy?” There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment. Anya at last actually turned her attention to the phone. “Hello?” she prompted. It was too early in the morning for prank calls...
Finally, the voice on the other end spoke up. “I am trying to reach Rupert Giles,” he said. His voice was not too young or old. And it was slightly familiar, but Anya couldn’t place it.
“This isn’t his shop anymore,” she replied calmly. “I own it now. What can I get for you?”
Another hesitation on the other end. “I really need to speak to Giles,” he said. “I called his apartment, but the phone seems to be disconnected.”
“Of course it is,” Anya said, growing bored. Was the guy going to buy something or not? “He moved back to England.”
“What? But I thought...” The voice on the other end was startled. “Could you give me a number where I could reach him?”
Not a customer, it seemed. “No, I can’t,” she said a bit testily. “Perhaps if you could tell me what this is about...?”
“It’s a personal matter,” the man replied. In the background, a baby started crying. An infant, from the sound.
“Then I can’t tell you,” Anya replied. Who did this guy think she was? “If you think I’m going to give you Giles’ number without....”
The baby fussed even louder, interrupting her. “No, I...” The man was distracted himself now. “Thank you,” he said, and the call cut off.
Anya looked for a second at the silent phone. “Your name, maybe?” she finished her earlier sentence in a soft, annoyed voice.
The door opened with a jangle of bells. Anya grinned, and the brief phone call was completely forgotten.
August 3, 2004
Buffy took a deep breath before she began. “I have an announcement to make,” she said slowly, “and I don’t think anyone is going to like it.”
Her younger sister, her friends...they all looked at her with patient and apprehensive expressions. They sat like they often had, seated around the living room of Buffy’s house, almost like they were stuck in time back when they were in high school together. Except Anya hadn’t been there, then, and in reality neither had Dawn. Still, things were just about to irrevocably change.
“What is it?” Dawn asked, finally voicing everyone’s thoughts.
Buffy swallowed. “I’m not going to come back to Sunnydale after the wedding,” she declared finally. “Once Garrett and I are married, we’re going to stay in his home town. Near his family.”
“But...” Willow sputtered. “That’s...Indiana. I mean, it’s so far away.”
“I know,” Buffy admitted. “And, no offense to anyone, but that’s part of the point.”
They all looked at her blankly, more than a bit shocked. Buffy would never have been expecting to do this herself, several years ago.
Dawn looked the most hurt of all. “But...” she struggled. “Why?”
“Look,” Buffy said gently to her sister. “You’re in college now. You don’t even live with me anymore. You guys...you don’t need me, not really. The Hellmouth has been quiet for going on two years, with fewer demons showing up every day. It’s...I need this. I need some time in my life to be away from Sunnydale. I want to start our new life together really on my own.”
“What about the house?” Dawn asked.
“We’ll have to sell it,” Buffy said calmly. She leaned back in the couch and prepared herself for her next big announcement. “Besides, no matter how quiet the Hellmouth gets, I still don’t want to raise a child here.”
The reaction wasn’t quite what she expected.
“So you are pregnant,” Anya said as if that confirmed something.
The rest of her friends glared at her.
“What?” she asked. “Been there, know the signs, never again. Besides, why else would she be rushing off to marry that nobody?”
Buffy felt herself pale. “You knew? That is, I mean...that’s not why I’m marrying him.”
Dawn rolled her eyes. “Why else would you be getting married so suddenly?” she pointed out.
Buffy looked between them, surprised. “Are you...not happy for me?”
“Of course we’re happy for you,” Willow rushed to assure her. “It’s just...Garrett’s not the kind of guy we ever pictured you with. He’s...well, he’s...”
“Boring,” Anya provided.
Xander nodded his agreement.
“Besides,” Willow continued, “we never thought you’d actually leave.”
Buffy took a deep breath, resolved to her current actions. “There are times for choices, guys,” she said. “This is one of those. And I’ve made my choice.”
Her friends still looked doubtful.
She gave them all a forced smile. “It’s not like I won’t visit.”
March 13, 2006
“Come back in here, now!”
“No!”
Angel took a deep breath and counted to ten in his head. The five-year-old boy in the courtyard was displaying a massive stubborn streak. He also was being quite clever, knowing full well that his father could not chase him into the sunlight.
“Connor,” Angel said as patiently as he could manage, “you need to come inside and take a bath before going to the movies.”
“I don’t wanna bath!”
Angel was at a complete loss as to what to do. He hovered at the edge of the shadows, a bare centimeter from the sunlight that separated him from his child. “Connor...” he said as sternly as he could manage. “You do want to go to the movies, don’t you?”
“Yeah...” the boy said slowly.
“Then you have to get cleaned up first!”
“No!”
The escalating volume drew the attention of others in the old hotel. Wesley took one look at the situation...the vampire on the edge of his patience; the child sitting fully bathed in sunlight...and moved to help. Within moments he was crouching next to the boy. “What’s going on?” he asked Connor gently, as if he was speaking from his ears only but knowing fully well that Angel could hear every word.
“I don’t like baths,” the dark haired boy confided to his honorary uncle.
Wesley nodded as if he understood completely. “Ah,” he said. “And do you like your father?”
The boy blinked at him. “I love Daddy,” he admitted very softly.
Angel had to force himself not to smile at that.
“Then why are you being so mean to him?” Wesley asked.
Now the boy looked truly confused. “I’m not being mean,” he said.
“You’re not?” Wesley asked. “It looks to me like you are. It looks to me like you ran out here to be away from your daddy. And while he might very much want to play out here with you, you know that he can’t. Running out here so that you can avoid your bath...that’s not very nice at all.” He directed the child’s gaze back towards Angel. “I think you may have hurt his feelings,” he said in a whisper.
Connor looked quite dismayed at that idea. Slowly, he walked to the edge of the sunlit courtyard. He looked up at Angel very seriously. “I’m sorry, Daddy,” he said, then wrapped his arms around Angel’s legs in a tight hug.
Angel couldn’t help but ruffle his son’s sun-warmed hair, his previous irritation gone. “It’s all right now,” he said gently. “That is, as long as you go take a bath now.”
Connor looked up at his father, his nose wrinkled slightly at the idea. “Do I have to?”
“If you want to go to the movies,” Angel reminded him.
Connor’s expression brightened. “Yes!” he declared quickly, as if the offer might go away if he waited even a second to answer. “I’m going!” he said, releasing his father and running back through the hotel’s double doors. He looked back at Angel. “You coming?”
Angel chuckled. “I’ll be there in a second. You go get ready.”
Laughing happily, his previous stubborn mood forgotten, Connor dashed up the Hyperion’s stairs.
Angel smiled as he listened to him go. “Thanks, Wes,” he said after a moment.
Coming to stand beside him, Wesley nodded. “Anytime,” he said. “He’s a good kid.”
“Yeah,” Angel agreed. “I couldn’t do this without you. All of you.”
Wesley did not respond immediately to that. In essence, the small company was that little boy’s extended family. “You’ll have to eventually decide what you’re going to tell him,” Wesley said after a moment.
“What’s left to tell?” Angel asked as they walked back inside. He closed the doors behind them. “He already knows his father is a vampire. He knows his mother died giving birth to him, and I’ll tell him that she was a vampire as well soon enough. What else?”
Wesley sighed. “His destiny,” he said calmly. “A child of such...unusual circumstances must have great or terrible things in store. As adorable a boy as he is, we still don’t know...”
“He’ll find out his destiny as he lives it,” Angel declared. He looked sternly at the ex-Watcher. “I won’t write his future before it happens. Let him be a normal boy.”
Wesley just met his look. “As normal as he can be,” he agreed.
On to Part One