Part 5
At eighteen months, Connor's first word was 'shag'. His second was 'duh'. By the time his parent were waiting for his third word, Cordelia and Spike had both been banned from speaking to Connor until they could influence his language with good vocabulary. His third word was demon, which got Gunn and Wesley thrown out because Angel and Darla couldn't be certain who had said it.
Eventually, though, Connor called Angel 'Daddy', and Darla 'Mommy', and they repealed the ban on his bedroom. Darla began to take Connor out to see Buffy with some frequency. It allowed for Buffy to see Angel's son, who she loved, Darla to add Angel's unwitting contributions to the book, and Buffy to be reassured that Angel was alive, well, and that he still loved her.
Connor was close to three by the time the third book in the Kitty series came out. He was a merry child on whom Darla had impressed the importance of never mentioning his 'Auntie Buffy' to anyone but her and 'Uncle Spike'. Angel was now convinced his son was showing an aptitude for art while Darla was certain he was a musician. Everyone withheld from asking where he would get the talent for the latter.
He wound up going to a couple of the book signings in the LA area, and was introduced as William's girlfriend's son. Which was true. Darla had to be placated when she found herself sort of in the news.
"William LaPointe Has New Love Interest?" she queried angrily as she thrust the entertainment section under Spike's nose. "Since when am I new? Since when are you allowed to mention me in any way shape or form to the public?"
"First off, you insisted I take Connor with me. What was I supposed to tell the people there? That he's Buffy's son?" Darla continued to glare, "I had to tell them something. I told them the truth because it's easier not to get caught lying when you haven't been."
"Well I... You should have said something else," grumped Darla.
******************
Spike and Buffy were winding up another, much briefer, book tour, when Fred's birthday came around. That wasn't, in itself, the advent of the crisis. That was two weeks earlier when Trish and Roger Burkle decided to send their daughter the three "Kitty the Demon Huntress" novels as a sort of gag gift for her birthday.
She opened them, read them, enjoyed the books and thought nothing more of them. Cordelia discovered them when she was poking around for something to read at the dentist's that wasn't a three-month-old copy of "Time Magazine". She scooped up the first book and found it absorbing enough reading. She finished it, and borrowed the sequel from Fred. She read that, then reread the bits that interested her, read the third in record time, and went to find Angel.
"Angel?" she asked, coming around the corner holding the second book.
Angel didn't look up from the book he was reading. They were in the middle of researching a particular prophecy, and they didn't have much to go on. "What Cordelia?" he asked her shortly.
"I really think you should read this," she said, holding out the book.
Wesley gave her a look of exasperation, "Cordelia, we don't have time for light reading at the moment. So, unless you have something important to tell us?" Wesley finished questioningly, but didn't give her the chance to respond as he reburied himself in his work.
"I don't have time for a dime store paperback, Cordelia," Angel added.
"Fine," she replied, stung, "I was just wondering if maybe this sounded familiar," she cleared her throat and began to read, ignoring the looks of irritation the others exchanged.
"When her stalker had passed underneath her, she swung down and kicked him in the back. He was knocked to the ground, and Kitty positioned herself above him with a foot on his chest. 'Ah, heh. Is there a problem, ma'am?' he asked.
'Yeah, there's a problem. Why are you following me?' Kitty demanded.
His dark eyes looked as though they could see through her, 'I know what you're thinking. Don't worry, I don't bite.'"
Angel's head jerked up from his book at those words and he stalked toward Cordelia. She ignored him and kept reading over Gunn and Wesley's puzzled queries.
"She backed off and let him get up, but kept her stance battle ready. 'Truth is, I thought you'd be taller, or bigger muscles and all that. You're pretty spry, though.' the man massaged his neck as he spoke, and looked at her with mild chagrin.
Uninterested in his rambling she demanded, 'What do you want?' The answer surprised her.
'The same thing you do,' he was looking at her with all earnestness.
She threw her hands in the air as she asked, 'Okay. What do I want?'"
Angel broke into Cordelia's recitation, speaking from memory, "To kill them. To kill them all."
Cordelia stopped reading the intervening descriptions and stuck to purely dialogue as she continued, Sorry, that's incorrect. But you do get this lovely watch and a year's supply of Turtle Wax. What I want is to be left alone!"
Angel's voice was echoing the emotions of six years earlier as he remembered that first meeting in the alley, "Do you really think that's an option anymore? You're standing at the Mouth of Hell. And it's about to open. Don't turn your back on this. You've gotta be ready."
"What for?" Cordelia's voice echoed with startling clarity the way Buffy had sounded, and Angel was so transported to the moment when he first said those things his voice took on the cryptic character he had been losing during his time in LA.
"For the Harvest."
"Who are you?"
"Let's just say... I'm a friend." A small smirk graced Angel's mouth, and for a moment, Cordelia remembered why she'd had a crush on the dangerously mysterious man back in high school.
Her voice held the precise note of uncertainty that had coloured Buffy's years before, "Yeah, well, maybe I don't want a friend."
"I didn't say I was yours."
Those final words, spoken as they were with an air of menace, snapped everyone out of the trancelike state they had been in watching the strange reenactment. "What the hell was that?" Gunn demanded.
"Excellent question," Wesley said, "Cordelia, where did you find that book?"
Fred hesitantly spoke up, "It's mine." Wesley, Angel and Gunn turned to stare at Fred. She continued saying, "It was a birthday present from my parents, but they're sold all over. I mean the series is a big international bestseller."
"I didn't even realise it was about Buffy until I read the second book and recognised all the scenes with my character in them," said Cordelia, "Anyway, when I noticed, I read the thing over, and the sequel, and I was sure. Someone's been spying on Sunnydale."
Angel promptly forgot about the prophecy which lay half translated on Wesley's desk. "Fred, Cordy, could you guys find out what you can about," he checked the book cover, "William LaPointe and Anne Winters?" He glanced at Wesley and said, "Wes, you had access to the watcher diaries about Buffy, could you look over that first book to see if the story matches what you know?"
"Of course," responded the Englishman, "I would like to take a look at the others when you're through with them though."
He was about to go tramping around issuing more orders when Gunn held up a newspaper. "Guys?"
"What?" asked Angel.
Gunn pointed to the article in the paper and said, "They're gonna have a final appearance on their book tour. They're signing books at the Barnes and Noble by the waterfront tomorrow afternoon."
That decided their activities for the rest of the day as everyone went on a hunt for information on those authors and Angel snarled in irritation over being called, "Our own personal Legna demon," in the dedication.
Darla got back late that night with Connor in tow so she had no notion, as she crawled into bed, that Angel and the others were planning on crashing the book signing. Worse, the A-Team had plans to babysit Connor that day instead of sending him to daycare. That meant they would be taking him with them. Darla's own plans had been to head to a nice spa she knew for a relaxing mudbath, massage, facial, manicure, pedicure, and an all 'round full day of pampering.
****************
So, the next day she took off before anyone could stop her, and the others were forced to take Connor with them to see, "Spike?" Angel said in a dumbfounded whisper.
Cordelia shot him a wide-eyed stare that spoke volumes about how much he was freaking her out, "Please don't tell me you can smell him from here!" she hissed at him.
Gunn overheard and looked at Angel questioningly, "Smell?"
"No," Angel said quickly to forestall any further wandering down that road, "I mean he looks exactly the way he did when Drusilla first turned him. Right down to the glasses." He looked at the other vampire in a brief reappraisal, then said, "Well, the outfit isn't the same, but it's the sort of thing he would have worn." He glanced at the diminutive auburn-haired woman next to Spike, felt that tingling he always felt around Buffy, and found himself meeting his lover's (ex-lover's) eyes.
At the same time, Buffy felt that slightly itchy feeling she always got when... She looked up, and sure enough, Angel was staring right at her. She sharply elbowed her partner-in-crime's ribs, and was rewarded with a, "What's the problem Anne?"
Buffy kept her face calm by pure force of will, and said, "It was to get you back for that whole *Angel* thing." She smiled sweetly and jerked her head in an almost imperceptible motion toward her boyfriend (former), as he kept his son from wandering off into the crowds in the store.
"Oh," replied Spike, who then stood up and said, "I'm just going to take a quick bathroom break," much to the disappointment of hordes of drooling female fans. He hurried off to the bathroom and switched out of his William LaPointe persona, and exited the washroom bearing a bag full of 'William's' clothes.
Walking up to the others, he was greeted by an enthusiastic, "Uncle Spike!" from Connor who finally escaped his father's attempts to corral him and hurled himself at the bleach blonde vampire.
"Hey kid, Angel, everyone," he said, "Why don't we head somewhere we can talk without bein' around three hundred other people?" Then he herded the A-Team out into the mall.
After Connor had been pacified into keeping quiet with an ice cream cone, Cordelia bet everyone to the punch by asking, "What the hell do you think you're doing? And who is that woman anyway?"
Angel answered the second question for Spike, "She's Buffy."
Spike grinned, "Bint's got a damn good hand with the makeup and all. It was her idea for us to wear the wigs as well as the clothes so no one would recognise us."
Wesley shot both vampires an irritated look and said, "I, for one, would still like to know what the bloody hell the two of you were thinking."
At everyone's, except Connor who was trying to get more ice cream out of the cone without having to eat any of the cone, expectant looks Spike started to explain. He was interrupted when Buffy came trotting up carrying a bag of her own, and Connor hurled himself at her calling, "Auntie Buffy!"
"Hey Connor," she said, picking him up and joining the others. Before Spike could ask she said, "We had about five minutes left before our official break. Why do you think those girls were trying extra hard to hurl themselves at you?"
Spike winced, not looking forward to being the subject of teenage hormone-ridden fantasies for more of the afternoon. "I was just about to tell Angel's Scoobies here about why we're doing what we're doing."
"Auntie Buffy?" asked Connor.
Buffy smiled winningly down at the boy, and Angel thought for a moment how right it looked for her to be holding his son. She said, "Yes?"
"Do you have any more suckers for me?" Buffy laughed slightly and caught Angel's shaking head, and thought about how much she had missed him even as she understood the unspoken message.
"No. Besides, didn't you just have ice cream?"
"Yeah, but it's not a sucker."
Buffy hefted the boy slightly and said, "Sorry, you already had a treat, and I can't give you another without your Daddy's permission." Connor whined in response to that knowing that his father wasn't going to give him another treat until at least after dinner.
Spike and Buffy spent the rest of the half-hour break explaining to the others about how the whole 'book thing' had come about. Then they spent the rest of the afternoon developing carpal tunnel syndrome while fending of the advances of mildly loony fans.
Buffy and Angel both wondered quietly if the other had noticed how much they were staring.
*****************
While Buffy and Spike hurried back to Sunnydale to deal with a brand new crisis provoked solely by Dawn and her thrice-bedamned geranium, the A-Team confronted Darla about her role in the books. She confirmed what Spike had said, then promised retribution since both he and Buffy had assured her that no one would figure out the books were even close to non-fiction. Later Angel caught Darla alone in the foyer and pulled her aside.
He glared at Darla, "I can't believe you were using our conversations as fodder for writing material! What I told you was to be kept confidential."
"Of course the fact that you never told the subject of those conversations what you told me has had her doubting that you ever loved her in the first place," Darla snarled back. The direction of the attack was so unexpected that Angel withdrew into himself and left the room.
Darla immediately calmed from her previous rage and exchanged looks with Wesley who had been entering the room just as Darla returned fire. He glanced sadly after the departing warrior and said, "It's just a pity that he can't be with her. He does love her so much."
"It's true," she replied, "The real pity is that there isn't a way to bind his soul properly."
At that Wesley looked rather startled and said, "What?"
"Well," Darla said meditatively, "I mean you must have looked into it and found it's impossible, I can't seen any other reason why you aren't researching it night and day." She shrugged, "More's the pity." Then the vampiress headed upstairs to spend some time with her son.
Wesley just stood frozen on the spot, "Yes," he murmured, "It's a pity." Then he hurried off to begin a search through his books on a brand new topic.
*****************
Buffy was invited out to Angel Investigations about a week later for dinner and to spend time with Connor. Since the discovery of the book, Darla had prevailed upon Angel to let Buffy spend time with their son, Gunn had prevailed upon Cordelia to tell him if what was in those books was really true, Fred had prevailed upon Spike for autographed copies for her parents, and Connor had presided over the madness with the calm only found in a three-year-old surrounded by panicking adults.
Wesley had been barricaded in his office for a week and the only person who had been able to lure him out had been Spike. That had been due to being the only one to tell the ex-watcher that he didn't get to eat if he didn't come out. Everyone harangued Spike for threatening Wes with starvation. Spike just shrugged and said, "It got him out didn't it?"
They had all settled at the table and were waiting impatiently for Wesley to join them when he arrived carrying a large book, four candles, some water, some salt, and a triumphant expression. "I found it! Darla, I can't begin to thank you enough for the idea."
Her face clearly said, *Did I do something?*
"If you'll just sit still a moment Angel," Wesley sprinkled the water and salt into two circles around Angel, placed the four candles forming a square around him, then read a couple passages from the book. When he finished, a wind swirled around the room four times, then blew out the candles, and Wesley said, "There. I can't believe no one thought of this. Angel your soul is bound."
As the room erupted into a babble of voices demanding to know what Wesley had done, why it hadn't been thought of sooner, and what was he talking about that had to do with Angel's soul, Buffy and Angel just stared at each other. Suddenly the pair leapt to their feet and sprinted out of the room. Unmindful of the young child looking after his father and 'aunt' Cordelia said, "Boy, they're in a hurry to get to the se-mmmph!" she finished as Darla put her hand over the brunette's mouth.
And that's exactly what they did.
FIN
At eighteen months, Connor's first word was 'shag'. His second was 'duh'. By the time his parent were waiting for his third word, Cordelia and Spike had both been banned from speaking to Connor until they could influence his language with good vocabulary. His third word was demon, which got Gunn and Wesley thrown out because Angel and Darla couldn't be certain who had said it.
Eventually, though, Connor called Angel 'Daddy', and Darla 'Mommy', and they repealed the ban on his bedroom. Darla began to take Connor out to see Buffy with some frequency. It allowed for Buffy to see Angel's son, who she loved, Darla to add Angel's unwitting contributions to the book, and Buffy to be reassured that Angel was alive, well, and that he still loved her.
Connor was close to three by the time the third book in the Kitty series came out. He was a merry child on whom Darla had impressed the importance of never mentioning his 'Auntie Buffy' to anyone but her and 'Uncle Spike'. Angel was now convinced his son was showing an aptitude for art while Darla was certain he was a musician. Everyone withheld from asking where he would get the talent for the latter.
He wound up going to a couple of the book signings in the LA area, and was introduced as William's girlfriend's son. Which was true. Darla had to be placated when she found herself sort of in the news.
"William LaPointe Has New Love Interest?" she queried angrily as she thrust the entertainment section under Spike's nose. "Since when am I new? Since when are you allowed to mention me in any way shape or form to the public?"
"First off, you insisted I take Connor with me. What was I supposed to tell the people there? That he's Buffy's son?" Darla continued to glare, "I had to tell them something. I told them the truth because it's easier not to get caught lying when you haven't been."
"Well I... You should have said something else," grumped Darla.
******************
Spike and Buffy were winding up another, much briefer, book tour, when Fred's birthday came around. That wasn't, in itself, the advent of the crisis. That was two weeks earlier when Trish and Roger Burkle decided to send their daughter the three "Kitty the Demon Huntress" novels as a sort of gag gift for her birthday.
She opened them, read them, enjoyed the books and thought nothing more of them. Cordelia discovered them when she was poking around for something to read at the dentist's that wasn't a three-month-old copy of "Time Magazine". She scooped up the first book and found it absorbing enough reading. She finished it, and borrowed the sequel from Fred. She read that, then reread the bits that interested her, read the third in record time, and went to find Angel.
"Angel?" she asked, coming around the corner holding the second book.
Angel didn't look up from the book he was reading. They were in the middle of researching a particular prophecy, and they didn't have much to go on. "What Cordelia?" he asked her shortly.
"I really think you should read this," she said, holding out the book.
Wesley gave her a look of exasperation, "Cordelia, we don't have time for light reading at the moment. So, unless you have something important to tell us?" Wesley finished questioningly, but didn't give her the chance to respond as he reburied himself in his work.
"I don't have time for a dime store paperback, Cordelia," Angel added.
"Fine," she replied, stung, "I was just wondering if maybe this sounded familiar," she cleared her throat and began to read, ignoring the looks of irritation the others exchanged.
"When her stalker had passed underneath her, she swung down and kicked him in the back. He was knocked to the ground, and Kitty positioned herself above him with a foot on his chest. 'Ah, heh. Is there a problem, ma'am?' he asked.
'Yeah, there's a problem. Why are you following me?' Kitty demanded.
His dark eyes looked as though they could see through her, 'I know what you're thinking. Don't worry, I don't bite.'"
Angel's head jerked up from his book at those words and he stalked toward Cordelia. She ignored him and kept reading over Gunn and Wesley's puzzled queries.
"She backed off and let him get up, but kept her stance battle ready. 'Truth is, I thought you'd be taller, or bigger muscles and all that. You're pretty spry, though.' the man massaged his neck as he spoke, and looked at her with mild chagrin.
Uninterested in his rambling she demanded, 'What do you want?' The answer surprised her.
'The same thing you do,' he was looking at her with all earnestness.
She threw her hands in the air as she asked, 'Okay. What do I want?'"
Angel broke into Cordelia's recitation, speaking from memory, "To kill them. To kill them all."
Cordelia stopped reading the intervening descriptions and stuck to purely dialogue as she continued, Sorry, that's incorrect. But you do get this lovely watch and a year's supply of Turtle Wax. What I want is to be left alone!"
Angel's voice was echoing the emotions of six years earlier as he remembered that first meeting in the alley, "Do you really think that's an option anymore? You're standing at the Mouth of Hell. And it's about to open. Don't turn your back on this. You've gotta be ready."
"What for?" Cordelia's voice echoed with startling clarity the way Buffy had sounded, and Angel was so transported to the moment when he first said those things his voice took on the cryptic character he had been losing during his time in LA.
"For the Harvest."
"Who are you?"
"Let's just say... I'm a friend." A small smirk graced Angel's mouth, and for a moment, Cordelia remembered why she'd had a crush on the dangerously mysterious man back in high school.
Her voice held the precise note of uncertainty that had coloured Buffy's years before, "Yeah, well, maybe I don't want a friend."
"I didn't say I was yours."
Those final words, spoken as they were with an air of menace, snapped everyone out of the trancelike state they had been in watching the strange reenactment. "What the hell was that?" Gunn demanded.
"Excellent question," Wesley said, "Cordelia, where did you find that book?"
Fred hesitantly spoke up, "It's mine." Wesley, Angel and Gunn turned to stare at Fred. She continued saying, "It was a birthday present from my parents, but they're sold all over. I mean the series is a big international bestseller."
"I didn't even realise it was about Buffy until I read the second book and recognised all the scenes with my character in them," said Cordelia, "Anyway, when I noticed, I read the thing over, and the sequel, and I was sure. Someone's been spying on Sunnydale."
Angel promptly forgot about the prophecy which lay half translated on Wesley's desk. "Fred, Cordy, could you guys find out what you can about," he checked the book cover, "William LaPointe and Anne Winters?" He glanced at Wesley and said, "Wes, you had access to the watcher diaries about Buffy, could you look over that first book to see if the story matches what you know?"
"Of course," responded the Englishman, "I would like to take a look at the others when you're through with them though."
He was about to go tramping around issuing more orders when Gunn held up a newspaper. "Guys?"
"What?" asked Angel.
Gunn pointed to the article in the paper and said, "They're gonna have a final appearance on their book tour. They're signing books at the Barnes and Noble by the waterfront tomorrow afternoon."
That decided their activities for the rest of the day as everyone went on a hunt for information on those authors and Angel snarled in irritation over being called, "Our own personal Legna demon," in the dedication.
Darla got back late that night with Connor in tow so she had no notion, as she crawled into bed, that Angel and the others were planning on crashing the book signing. Worse, the A-Team had plans to babysit Connor that day instead of sending him to daycare. That meant they would be taking him with them. Darla's own plans had been to head to a nice spa she knew for a relaxing mudbath, massage, facial, manicure, pedicure, and an all 'round full day of pampering.
****************
So, the next day she took off before anyone could stop her, and the others were forced to take Connor with them to see, "Spike?" Angel said in a dumbfounded whisper.
Cordelia shot him a wide-eyed stare that spoke volumes about how much he was freaking her out, "Please don't tell me you can smell him from here!" she hissed at him.
Gunn overheard and looked at Angel questioningly, "Smell?"
"No," Angel said quickly to forestall any further wandering down that road, "I mean he looks exactly the way he did when Drusilla first turned him. Right down to the glasses." He looked at the other vampire in a brief reappraisal, then said, "Well, the outfit isn't the same, but it's the sort of thing he would have worn." He glanced at the diminutive auburn-haired woman next to Spike, felt that tingling he always felt around Buffy, and found himself meeting his lover's (ex-lover's) eyes.
At the same time, Buffy felt that slightly itchy feeling she always got when... She looked up, and sure enough, Angel was staring right at her. She sharply elbowed her partner-in-crime's ribs, and was rewarded with a, "What's the problem Anne?"
Buffy kept her face calm by pure force of will, and said, "It was to get you back for that whole *Angel* thing." She smiled sweetly and jerked her head in an almost imperceptible motion toward her boyfriend (former), as he kept his son from wandering off into the crowds in the store.
"Oh," replied Spike, who then stood up and said, "I'm just going to take a quick bathroom break," much to the disappointment of hordes of drooling female fans. He hurried off to the bathroom and switched out of his William LaPointe persona, and exited the washroom bearing a bag full of 'William's' clothes.
Walking up to the others, he was greeted by an enthusiastic, "Uncle Spike!" from Connor who finally escaped his father's attempts to corral him and hurled himself at the bleach blonde vampire.
"Hey kid, Angel, everyone," he said, "Why don't we head somewhere we can talk without bein' around three hundred other people?" Then he herded the A-Team out into the mall.
After Connor had been pacified into keeping quiet with an ice cream cone, Cordelia bet everyone to the punch by asking, "What the hell do you think you're doing? And who is that woman anyway?"
Angel answered the second question for Spike, "She's Buffy."
Spike grinned, "Bint's got a damn good hand with the makeup and all. It was her idea for us to wear the wigs as well as the clothes so no one would recognise us."
Wesley shot both vampires an irritated look and said, "I, for one, would still like to know what the bloody hell the two of you were thinking."
At everyone's, except Connor who was trying to get more ice cream out of the cone without having to eat any of the cone, expectant looks Spike started to explain. He was interrupted when Buffy came trotting up carrying a bag of her own, and Connor hurled himself at her calling, "Auntie Buffy!"
"Hey Connor," she said, picking him up and joining the others. Before Spike could ask she said, "We had about five minutes left before our official break. Why do you think those girls were trying extra hard to hurl themselves at you?"
Spike winced, not looking forward to being the subject of teenage hormone-ridden fantasies for more of the afternoon. "I was just about to tell Angel's Scoobies here about why we're doing what we're doing."
"Auntie Buffy?" asked Connor.
Buffy smiled winningly down at the boy, and Angel thought for a moment how right it looked for her to be holding his son. She said, "Yes?"
"Do you have any more suckers for me?" Buffy laughed slightly and caught Angel's shaking head, and thought about how much she had missed him even as she understood the unspoken message.
"No. Besides, didn't you just have ice cream?"
"Yeah, but it's not a sucker."
Buffy hefted the boy slightly and said, "Sorry, you already had a treat, and I can't give you another without your Daddy's permission." Connor whined in response to that knowing that his father wasn't going to give him another treat until at least after dinner.
Spike and Buffy spent the rest of the half-hour break explaining to the others about how the whole 'book thing' had come about. Then they spent the rest of the afternoon developing carpal tunnel syndrome while fending of the advances of mildly loony fans.
Buffy and Angel both wondered quietly if the other had noticed how much they were staring.
*****************
While Buffy and Spike hurried back to Sunnydale to deal with a brand new crisis provoked solely by Dawn and her thrice-bedamned geranium, the A-Team confronted Darla about her role in the books. She confirmed what Spike had said, then promised retribution since both he and Buffy had assured her that no one would figure out the books were even close to non-fiction. Later Angel caught Darla alone in the foyer and pulled her aside.
He glared at Darla, "I can't believe you were using our conversations as fodder for writing material! What I told you was to be kept confidential."
"Of course the fact that you never told the subject of those conversations what you told me has had her doubting that you ever loved her in the first place," Darla snarled back. The direction of the attack was so unexpected that Angel withdrew into himself and left the room.
Darla immediately calmed from her previous rage and exchanged looks with Wesley who had been entering the room just as Darla returned fire. He glanced sadly after the departing warrior and said, "It's just a pity that he can't be with her. He does love her so much."
"It's true," she replied, "The real pity is that there isn't a way to bind his soul properly."
At that Wesley looked rather startled and said, "What?"
"Well," Darla said meditatively, "I mean you must have looked into it and found it's impossible, I can't seen any other reason why you aren't researching it night and day." She shrugged, "More's the pity." Then the vampiress headed upstairs to spend some time with her son.
Wesley just stood frozen on the spot, "Yes," he murmured, "It's a pity." Then he hurried off to begin a search through his books on a brand new topic.
*****************
Buffy was invited out to Angel Investigations about a week later for dinner and to spend time with Connor. Since the discovery of the book, Darla had prevailed upon Angel to let Buffy spend time with their son, Gunn had prevailed upon Cordelia to tell him if what was in those books was really true, Fred had prevailed upon Spike for autographed copies for her parents, and Connor had presided over the madness with the calm only found in a three-year-old surrounded by panicking adults.
Wesley had been barricaded in his office for a week and the only person who had been able to lure him out had been Spike. That had been due to being the only one to tell the ex-watcher that he didn't get to eat if he didn't come out. Everyone harangued Spike for threatening Wes with starvation. Spike just shrugged and said, "It got him out didn't it?"
They had all settled at the table and were waiting impatiently for Wesley to join them when he arrived carrying a large book, four candles, some water, some salt, and a triumphant expression. "I found it! Darla, I can't begin to thank you enough for the idea."
Her face clearly said, *Did I do something?*
"If you'll just sit still a moment Angel," Wesley sprinkled the water and salt into two circles around Angel, placed the four candles forming a square around him, then read a couple passages from the book. When he finished, a wind swirled around the room four times, then blew out the candles, and Wesley said, "There. I can't believe no one thought of this. Angel your soul is bound."
As the room erupted into a babble of voices demanding to know what Wesley had done, why it hadn't been thought of sooner, and what was he talking about that had to do with Angel's soul, Buffy and Angel just stared at each other. Suddenly the pair leapt to their feet and sprinted out of the room. Unmindful of the young child looking after his father and 'aunt' Cordelia said, "Boy, they're in a hurry to get to the se-mmmph!" she finished as Darla put her hand over the brunette's mouth.
And that's exactly what they did.
FIN