Chapter Text
The silence was making Angel crazy. It didn’t usually but this was just too damn quiet. He looked over at Spike. The blond vampire was sitting in the passenger seat looking out the window. He would turn in his seat now and again to look back at Xander and Beth.
Xander hadn’t spoken since they started driving and Beth had only asked where they were going once.
Angel looked in the rear-view mirror and watched as the little girl took her daddy’s hand and gently stroked her small fingers over his broad palm.
Angel stopped when they reached the ’Welcome to Sunnydale’ sign. Spike looked over at him and nodded, got out and waited for Angel to take the passenger seat. Spike climbed in, buckled in, looked back at Xander and Beth making sure they were buckled in as well.
Spike then proceeded to drive into the sign and back over it a few times just for good measure. Beth giggled and Angel was almost certain Xander smiled.
“Are we there yet?” Beth asked and looked at Spike.
“Yeah, Bit. We’re there,” Spike said.
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They stopped outside the watcher’s house. Angel had called ahead and asked Giles to make sure they would be alone. The watcher had demanded to know what was going on but Angel had simply repeated his request until Giles had agreed.
Angel and Spike got out of the car and both started walking up the garden path to the front door. Angel turned and was about to tell Xander that the rest of the L.A crew would be there in an hour or so. But he was looking at thin air.
“Spike,” Angel said pointing at the car.
Xander was looking at the open car door. He hadn’t moved and Beth was holding on to his hand. Spike walked back to the car and looked in. Xander’s eyes were dilated, he was breathing hard and his body reeked of fear.
“Xander, we won’t let anything happen to ya.” Spike looked at the little girl and smiled “Or Bethm” he reached in and took the boy’s hand “Remember? We promised.”
Slowly Xander got out of the car followed by Beth. She looked up and said
“Can we go home now, Spike?”
“No Honey. Angel says they need us here,” Spike started walking toward the house while he still had a firm grip on Xander’s hand. Halfway to the front door, where Angel waited for them, Xander started pulling away.
“Giles…” Xander whispered.
“There’s no reason to worry…” Spike said.
“Willow…and if Willow then Buffy…” Xander’s eyes started scanning their surroundings and growling. He pulled Beth closer to him.
“Xander, pet, they won’t be here, yeah.” The blond vampire pulled Xander into a hug. “Angel asked the watcher to make sure we could meet without them there,” Spike whispered in Xander’s ear. Beth, who was pinned between the two men, hugged Spike’s legs.
Angel walked over to them. “You’ll be all right, Xander. You and Beth,” Xander nodded, took a deep cleansing breath and followed the two vampires to the front door.
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Angel stood there with his hand hovering in front of the door. He had intended to knock but…
He felt a small hand at the back of his knee and then Beth knocked on the door. Nothing at first. Then the sound of someone moving about.
Xander started whining almost silently and Spike gave his hand a good squeeze. The door opened. Giles. Standing right there. Right in front of him. Xander moved his feet restlessly.
“Angel, Spike,” Giles looked at the vampires and nodded in greeting. Then he looked down “Oh…and who are you?” he said smiling at Beth. He reached out his hand but immediately stopped when he heard a low warning growl. The watcher looked straight at Xander, opened his mouth and said in a gravely voice “Xander? Oh my God! Xander?!”
The watcher reached out and pulled Xander close. Holding the younger man and whispering “Oh God…my boy…thought I’d never see you again…thought I’d lost you.”
Spike moved to get between them but Angel shook his head. Xander answered the hug by putting a shaking hand on the man’s shoulder.
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“When you left town…” Giles began.
“Didn’t leave,” Xander said.
They were all sitting in Giles’s living room. Beth was in Angel’s lap, she looked tired. Xander kept looking over to make sure she was safe.
“You took all your things and your car…you left Sunnydale. We all got letters from you about why you needed to leave and go…Where did you go?” Giles wondered.
“Didn’t go anywhere. Not at first,” Xander’s voice was hoarse “My things were gone?”
“Well yes. We thought that maybe it was a Hellmouth thing and you’d been…but all your things were gone and your mother…she said you left…that she saw you leave,” Giles remembered meeting Mrs. Harris. She’d been so drunk that he hadn’t known what to do.
“You said he left letters for all of you?” Angel asked rubbing a sleepy Beth’s tummy.
“Yes. Well a letter for me and one for Willow and Buffy. The letter for me was about Xander wanting to have a real life. A life like other teenagers. Not to mention that he didn’t - unlike Buffy and Willow - have any special powers. He wrote…” Giles turned to Xander “You wrote that being normal would end up getting you killed if you stayed on the Hellmouth.”
Xander was shaking his head. “But I never…I didn’t write any letters,” he turned to look at Angel “Really Angel I didn’t…”
“I know, Xander. And that means that someone else wrote those letters,” Angel got up and gently put Beth in Xander’s arms. “She’s almost asleep,” Spike ran a finger over the child’s forehead.
“I’m sorry and if I have no right to ask…but the girl…” Giles pointed “Is she yours, Xander?”
Xander looked down at Beth. Her unruly curls cascading over her eyes, her little nose slightly wrinkled and her pale skin. It all called out to the hyena. Pack.
“Yes…she’s mine,” Xander looked at Spike and smiled. Spike was looking at the door. He got up and was about to say something when the front door opened and Buffy and Willow walked in.