Time and Time Again

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Five: A Family Together

By the time that they got to Sunnydale, it was already after midnight and vampires were out on the prowl. Unfortunately, Katie had seen a lot worse in her time, which said volumes to her father about how bad exactly her future actually was.

The first stop was at the mansion on Crawford Street, where her parents had spent so many hours after his return from hell, where they set up refuge before heading over to her mother's house. Every moment that they got closer to the house, Katie felt her heart quicken with anticipation and anxiety. After four years of her being dead, she was going to see her mom again . . . she was going to see both of her parents together. It made a chill go down her spine as she sat in the car, waiting for her mother's house to come into sight.

When Angel finally pulled up to a particular house, Katie stared up at the house anxiously, about to get out when she noticed that her father wasn't moving. She frowned at him. "What's wrong?"

"She's not there," Angel replied quietly. "I don't think anybody's home."

"That doesn't make any sense; why wouldn't they be home?" Katie asked, frowning. It wasn't that she doubted her parents' ability to sense one another; it was just that she didn't understand why nobody would be home. After all, nothing gigantic was supposed to happen for quite some time, not for a few months, anyway.

But then, Katie thought in alarm, what if just by her coming back, things might have gotten messed up already and things were no longer in the order that they had happened in the original history? What if they were completely changed and her mother—

"Somebody's coming," Cordelia observed, nodding towards a car that was pulling into the driveway of the house that they were sitting in and Katie looked around to see where she was pointing at, her heart leaping into her chest as she recognised the passenger, who had grown very still as her head slowly whipped around to look at the Plymouth.

Angel's expression had grown soft the moment that he laid eyes on his soul mate, Katie watched as he climbed out of the car, heading up the walk. Jumping over the door, Katie hurried after him as she saw her mother Buffy Summers, just as beautiful as she ever was.

Her green eyes, which were the shape and colour of her own, were completely focused on Angel, torn between joy and apprehension as she stared into his brown ones, but pulled her gaze away, masking the joy that she felt seeing him there as a blond guy came up behind her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked rudely, not bothering to hide his dislike as he saw Angel.

"Who's that guy?" Katie whispered to Wesley, who, along with Cordelia and Gunn, had walked up behind her and were watching the ensouled vampire and Slayer interact.

"I think that might be Riley Finn," Wesley whispered back, glancing towards the blond guy. "He's—"

"Mom's boyfriend," Katie murmured, recognising the name. She had never met the man, but had heard him talked about enough from Xander and Willow. He'd left her a few months from now, marrying some girl named Sam. "The demon hunter that worked for the government. Great, he hasn't left yet?" she muttered darkly as Angel threw a dark look towards Riley before returning his attention towards his soul mate, giving her a warm smile.

"There's some things that we need to talk about," he told her, glancing towards Katie now, who looked at her mother as Buffy's attention was drawn to the rest of them. "A lot, actually."

Buffy looked annoyed. "Why is it that you never come around unless the world is in desperate need of saving and/or I'm in danger?" she demanded.

Angel looked pained. "Buffy . . ."

Katie, ignoring the imploring look from Wesley to stay where she was, moved forward to go and help out her father, trying to push the memories that went through her mind as she looked at her mother. Memories of seeing her dead at the hands of her enemies . . . there had been so much blood . . . Katie inwardly shivered, trying to shove the images aside as her parents looked towards her.

"Hi," she said brightly, smiling at Buffy, who looked at her in bewilderment. "I'm Katie. You must be Buffy."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed, looking thrown, but she accepted Katie's hand, looking perturbed as she glanced towards Angel now, giving him a questioning look.

"Katie's actually the reason that we're here," Angel explained quietly. "Can we go inside? There's actually a lot that we need to talk about and a lot that we need to tell you."

Riley didn't look too happy about this, Katie noticed, seeing the ugly look on his face as he glared at Angel. "Do you mind?" he demanded. "Mrs. Summers just got out of surgery not even a few hours ago. Do you think that she needs this now? Can't this wait?"

For the first time, Angel acknowledged Riley's words before he turned towards Buffy worriedly, his brown eyes focusing on her green ones. "Your mom was in surgery? Is she okay?"

Buffy's gaze softened and she nodded, smiling gratefully at him. "Yeah, she's okay," she answered. "She had this tumour thing, but the doctors said that she's going to be fine. She's out of danger now."

"Good," Angel said, relieved. "I'm sorry, I would have come before if I'd known and I wish that we'd come at a better time, but this unfortunately can't wait. I'm sorry, Buffy."

Katie watched as her parents looked at each other, grinning behind her father's back as Buffy nodded, motioning them into the house and closing the door behind her.

It was hours later when Katie found herself sitting in one of the chairs in the living room, her hands lying on her knees, which were curled up underneath her as she stared across the room, towards her parents. Buffy was staring at Angel with wide eyes and her eyes filled with a mixture of horror and shock as she absorbed everything that she had just been told. Riley was sitting next to his girlfriend, but it was clear from the look on his face that he was not happy about this situation and every so often, he would throw Angel a jealous look, annoyed that Buffy was paying him so much attention.

"I . . . I died?" Buffy whispered after a long moment, looking stunned. Angel nodded, glancing towards Katie for a moment. Katie shook her head at him, trying to get him to understand her silent message not to tell her about her just yet. Give her a few minutes to pull herself together before they delivered the last piece of news.

"That's what Katie said," Angel answered quietly. "And I think that she's telling the truth."

Buffy frowned. "What makes you so sure?"

"I trust her," Angel said simply. Buffy stole a glance across the room, towards Katie, and her identical green eyes narrowed slightly, clearly wondering what she had done or said to get him on her side. "Buffy, she's come all of this way just to save your life. Give her a break."

With a sigh, Buffy ran her fingers through her blonde tresses. "And your future is a world where demons roam free, humans are forced to fight and defend themselves, and you're a member of this band of rebels who sent you here to try and change the past? It sounds a little bit wonky to me," she said sceptically.

"It doesn't sound it . . . Buffy," Katie said, forcing herself to call her by her name instead of Mom, but it sounded so strange on her town. "It is wonky. Believe me, I didn't even think that my friend was going to be able to pull the spell off, but she managed it. It is literally a war zone. Los Angeles is in shambles, there's no food, no water, people are dying in the streets, families are separated, brother is fighting brother . . . well, you get the picture," Katie sighed.

"Yeah, I get it," Buffy said, shaking her head. "I just can't believe that just because I was brought back from the dead, it caused this big mess."

"Well, the way that future Giles explained it," Katie told her, "the first time that you died, it was natural. I mean, there was no mythical forces that caused you to come back. It was as normal as dying can be. But Willow used a massive amount of black magic and almost reversed the cosmos when she brought you back the second time . . . or will use," she added with a frown, "is going to us? You know, I've never been good with tenses."

"I think any of them will work, but to make things simpler, why don't you just talk in past tense," Wesley advised.

Katie nodded. "Anyway, it caused a disruption of power, which forced the First to regain control and start to grow more powerful. And then it became too powerful. We could hold it bay for only so long before it launched a full-out assault and war erupted throughout the world. There's too much destruction now and the First is too powerful. This is the only way that we can possibly save the future and make it safe for future generations," she said desperately, looking at her mother, whose gaze softened as she realised the weight that Katie was carrying.

Standing up, she moved away from her old and current boyfriends to sit down next to Katie, her arms moving around her in an almost protective way. Katie closed her eyes, relishing the feeling as memories swept through her memory. Her mother, holding her the same way that she was now after a nightmare woke her up, telling her that it was all going to be okay. Even though she was years younger than her mother, she was still Katie's mother.

"It's okay," she said gently, brushing her dark hair out of her green eyes, smiling down at her. "We're going fix it . . . though I don't know how exactly we're going to do that."

"Simple," Katie said, her voice slightly muffled because it was buried in her mother's shoulder. "As long as we can keep you from dying when you go up against Glory, there's no problem. You don't die, you don't get resurrected, problem solved."

Angel chuckled, his brown eyes fixed upon the love of his life and his daughter from the future. "Somehow, I think it's going to be a little bit more complicated than that."

"Tell me about it," Katie agreed solemnly.

"We're just supposed to believe you, just like that?" Riley suddenly spoke for the first time since they had come into the house. Everyone looked around at her. "You just show up here out of the blue and drop this bomb on us and we're just supposed to accept it, just take your word for it?"

"In case you haven't noticed, bonehead, I'm trying to save your girlfriend here," Katie countered, slipping out between her mother's arms and standing up, ready to face off with him.

"Bonehead?" Riley repeated, annoyed. "Who do you think you are?"

Katie stuck her tongue out at him maturely, folding her arms across her chest as he stood up, but even though he was a lot taller than she was, Katie was the one who seemed more imposing.

"Let's just say," she replied, "that I'm a friend."

Out of the corner of her eye, Katie saw her father chuckle quietly, but her mother stilled instantly and as Katie glanced her way, she saw something of suspicion in Buffy's eyes.

"Maybe we don't want friends like you," Riley shot back, aggravation written in his voice.

Katie only shrugged, glaring towards the male blond with cool annoyance. "I never said that I was yours," she pointed out. Riley sputtered a few incoherent words as Katie turned her back on him, looking towards her mother in amazement. "You're actually sleeping with this guy?"

"Watch it," Riley snapped at her. "You're lucky that I don't hit women—human women, anyway," he added under his breath. Katie just rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head as she went to her vacant seat, noting her mother's expression as she did so.

"What?" she asked, looking between her parents in curiosity. Angel said nothing, just kept his head bowed as Buffy looked his way. He nodded once at his soul mate, not saying a word as they exchanged looks. Her mother stood up, taking a few steps towards the window and staring out into the night sky. "Are you okay?"

Buffy turned back around and there was something in her eyes that hadn't been there before, something that Katie couldn't quite recognise, but the look on her face suggested that she was shaken.

"Yeah," she said quietly, "I'm fine." But she never once removed her green eyes from Katie, though she turned her head towards Riley. "Look, Riley, I think that maybe you should probably go home, get some sleep. We'll meet up with Giles and the others tomorrow and plan our next phase of attack. We're gonna stop Glory . . . this time for good." She said this with such firmness that no one bothered to argue with her and Riley reluctantly stood up, though he didn't look at all happy about it.

"Are you all coming?" he asked, looking around at the members of A.I., plus Katie.

"No, there are a few more things that I need to discuss with them, Riley," Buffy said flatly. Riley pierced his lips together, obviously angry, and he strode off towards the door and Katie winced slightly as the door slammed behind him, causing a few of the pictures to shake in their frames.

Buffy said nothing, didn't even react to the way that her boyfriend left as she continued to stare at Katie, who shifted underneath her mother's scrutiny. "What?" she asked, wishing that she would stop looking at her like that or at least tell her why she was.

"You're my daughter?" Buffy whispered, looking as though she might start to cry.

To say that she was shocked would have been the understatement of the century, but Katie stared at her mother in surprise, astounded that she had figured it out without her saying so.

She felt her whole body trembling as Buffy took a step towards her, looking at Katie up and down as the half-vampire slowly slid off of the couch, staring at the face of her long-dead mother.

"Mom . . ." she whispered and without thinking, her arms went around Buffy, holding her tightly and she felt Buffy moving her arms around her. Both mother and daughter held on to each other tightly, both of them waging a war not to start crying as they clung to each other.

Feeling her father's arms moving around the two of them, Katie wiggled one of her arms out of the way to accept him into the embrace and even though her mother hesitated only for a moment, she laid her head onto her soul mate's chest, her eyes closing briefly as she allowed herself to be back into Angel's arms as he held both of his girls.

"I don't believe this," Buffy whispered as she stared at Katie with complete disbelief and amazement. "This is . . . this is incredible. And Giles is never going to believe this one. I mean, I don't think anybody could have ever thought that a vampire could have created a child. Even you said that it was impossible, mister," she said, giving Angel a playful shove.

Angel shrugged. "I thought that it was. There's rumours that half-vampire children can be created with a human mother, but I thought that's all that they were, rumours."

"That's because most half-vampires get themselves killed by the Watcher's Council before the age of thirteen," Katie said grimly.

Buffy laughed as she lifted Katie's chin, staring at her features with an amazed smile. "This is incredible," she whispered. "I mean, how many people can actually say that they've met their children years before they're even born?"

"Five," Katie said simply. "Six, tops."

Her parents laughed and Buffy shook her head, staring at Katie from every angle. "Oh, she looks like you, don't she?" she asked, looking at Angel with a smile. "The hair, the smile, something about the eyebrows . . ."

"A lot of hers you, though," Angel replied, smiling at Katie's embarrassment as she ducked her head, but she was grinning, too, feeling warmer and safer than she had in the longest time.

She had her family back.

And they were together.