by Indie

RATING: PG-13 (yes, I actually wrote something that wasn't dirty)
CHARACTERS: B/A, B/R implied
SPOILERS: BTVS season 4, Angel season 1
DISCLAIMER: Joss, the WB and Fox own everything, I own nothing
SUMMARY: Can Buffy's son stop himself from making the same mistakes as Angel?
DISTRIBUTION: angels_soulmates@yahoogroups.com, buffy_angels_kids@yahoogroups.com, buffy-beta@eskimo.com, soulmateseternal@yahoogroups.com, aubafic@yahoogroups.com, www.fanfiction.net. Sunlight and Shadow. All others please ask
AUTHOR'S NOTES: AU fic. It breaks off after IWRY. Yoko Factor never happened. Buffy never 'fessed up to Riley about Angel. No testosterone poisoning. No school yard B/A throwdown.

Time is currently 2017. No future fantastic, 2017 looks just like 2001. Suspension of disbelief kiddies.

A note to people who may read this story and may be curious about other things I've written. *WARNING* this is the ONLY non-NC-17 piece I've ever written so if you don't like nekkid nastiness, please do not visit my site.

DEDICATION: A big thanks to Shayla for all of her wonderful help with this story. Also thanks to Kim H., Jennifer C., Monica R. and Red for their enthusiasm and inspiration. Finally, to Ducks, Margot, Laure and Harpy for being so damn good.

Winner of the Sunlight & Shadow Reader's Choice Best Children's Fic award!

EARLY DECEMBER, 2017 - HUXLEY, IOWA

Jakob Finn pulled absentmindedly at the strings of fabric hanging off of the old recliner as he took another drink from the slightly warm beer and tried to concentrate on the basketball game blaring on the TV. His dad would kill him for messing with his chair. He loved this recliner.

No, scratch that. His dad *would* have killed him for doing that. As it was, his dad wouldn't be doing anything - ever again.

He was dead.

His death was the reason Jake was hiding out in the garage rather than sitting in a classroom. Jake admitted to himself with disgust that he would rather have been in class, if only so he could play basketball on Friday night. That however, wasn't going to happen. He also knew he would be bombarded with pitying glances from his teachers and classmates if he went to school. Everyone would act weird around him, whisper things behind his back, talk about what a tragedy Riley's death had been and how he'd only made it worse.

Home wasn't any better. The house was swarming with concerned friends and neighbors wishing to offer their condolences. How exactly was bringing by a casserole supposed to make anything better? Jake couldn't sit there like his mother did and accept it all with grace. He knew at seventeen that he was too old to be shirking his responsibilities, but he really didn't care. He'd gone out to the garage to hide. The knowledge that Riley would have been deeply disappointed with his behavior didn't serve to improve his mood either.

The garage had been his dad's safe haven, his private office. The structure's only real allure was the private room in the loft that had been hooked up with cable. The space heater, recliner, dorm sized fridge and TV made it a comfortable hiding place. Its appeal might have had something to do with the fact that no one would look for him here, and his dad couldn't yell at him anymore for messing things up.

The funeral would be held Friday. All of the arrangements were made. They'd been in place for almost a year, ever since his dad's condition had been diagnosed as terminal. Riley had done everything necessary himself, not wanting his wife and son to be burdened with the painful task. Somehow he hadn't managed to die so that his funeral wouldn't conflict with the weekly basketball
game, Jakob noted ruefully.

The former soldier had felt responsible for his own death, and maybe he was. Years of drug therapy, gene replacement and meds that did who knows what, had all taken their toll. His body had just disintegrated while they all watched. Nothing helped. When he'd finally died, he'd been so doped up on morphine he hadn't known what planet he was on. Towards the end, he hadn't recognized either his wife or son.

The last part had probably been for the best. Jakob had always been at odds with his father and as Riley had gotten sicker, Jakob's behavior had gotten more and more out of control. Riley had been so upset by his son's actions that the doctors wouldn't even let him talk to Jake after the boy was arrested for beating up another kid.

The early morning visit from the sheriff notifying them of Riley's death had been a blessing of sorts. At least now he had peace, something that had been lacking in his life for a very long time.

Looking out the kitchen window towards the garage, Buffy sighed heavily. She knew Jake was out there. She also knew that he was probably drinking beer out of the stash he kept in his father's old refrigerator that he didn't know she knew about. She comforted herself with the fact that at least she knew where he was, for once.

Jakob was a good kid at heart, he just had a lot of issues. He got in a lot of trouble, skipped school, drank, ran around with a bad crowd. The saving grace was his obsession with basketball. At least for several months out of the year, Buffy could be assured he'd actually go to school to avoid being ineligible for the team.

"You need help with that?" Willow asked, pointing to the plate, Buffy held in her hand. The former Slayer shook her head 'no' and the witch smiled sympathetically.

"He'll be all right, Buffy. Jake's a strong kid. He'll get through this," Willow said gently.

"I hope so, Will, I really do."

"Have you talked to him yet?"

The former Slayer nodded 'no' again. "I'm going to wait until after the funeral," She said quietly. "It would just be too much to deal with right now."

The dream came to him like all of the others. They weren't normal dreams, more like memories. Over the years, they had become progressively more intense, but the basic theme never changed.

Darkness. Horror. Terror.

It wasn't a nightmare. Nightmares were populated with unknown monsters. In this dream, Jakob knew the monster. It was himself. He heard wailing in the distance, fear. Somewhere people were terrified ... of him.

Inside the dream/memory Jakob looked down at his bloody hands. He was crouched over Riley's lifeless body, the dead man's eyes staring blankly. A disembodied female voice spoke, "He must wake again," or maybe it was "You must wake again," Jake couldn't quite make it out exactly.

Jake woke with a start, sitting up in bed, taking ragged gasps of air until he regained his bearings. Episodes like this had haunted him since childhood, but they still left him feeling deeply shaken and alone. He'd never told anyone about it, afraid people would think he was crazy. How could you explain that you had memories of things that hadn't happened? How could you tell them you knew there was darkness inside of you just waiting to get out?

He laughed hollowly to himself. Sometimes it wasn't *waiting*. Sometimes the darkness inside him was out in full force.

Jakob was thankful that the doctors hadn't allowed Riley to know all the details about what happened the night he got arrested. The odds that his father would have been happy to know that he'd blinded that moron Steve weren't good.

Jake hadn't meant for it to happen, not really. He'd never gotten along with the kid and for some reason the idiot had chosen that night at the football game to taunt him with the gossip that he wasn't really a Finn. Jake had simply stood there while Steve accused his mother of being a whore, his father of being a cuckolded fool, him of being a bastard.

Then all hell broke loose.

Jake wasn't even sure what had really happened, his first coherent recollection was that of two cops and a few guys from the bleachers pulling him off of the bleeding kid. It had been a disaster. His attack left Steven Simms legally blind in one eye. Buffy had pulled in every favor, every bit of pity over Riley's condition to get him off with probation and community service.

Willow picked up the phone in Ames, Iowa. She hadn't been able to find a place to stay in Huxley, so she was in a hotel room thirty minutes away. She hated being so far from Buffy when her friend needed so much help, but she didn't want to add to the Slayer's burden by imposing upon her for a place to stay. Buffy wasn't looking good. She was extremely thin and had an air of perpetual exhaustion. It was time for drastic measures. Well past time, in fact.

The phone was answered on the third ring.

"Why aren't you here?" she asked bluntly, not in the mood for pleasantries.

The silence that followed was deafening. Being a witch gave her a good deal of insight into what people were really thinking. She was sure, however, that even if she'd been blind, deaf, and comatose, she would have sensed the overwhelming turmoil on the other end of the line.

"What makes you think she would want me there?" Angel asked quietly.

"Because you two still care about each other whether you will admit it or not."

"Willow, Buffy and I haven't spoken in more than eighteen years, and the last time we did, it didn't go too well. We agreed to stay out of each other's lives."

"Do you want to hear how awful she looks? Do you want to know about all the awful things people here are saying about her?"

"Don't do this to me," Angel pled on the other end.

"No," Willow hissed, suddenly enraged, "You don't do this to her. Again."

There was only the sound of his breathing on the other end.

"You're not going to come are you?" she asked, defeated.

"You know I can't."

"You're human, Angel. You're just a man ... and Buffy is just a woman now. No Slayer and vampire titles to get in the way."

"Her ... husband ... just died," he said, almost choking on the word. "I can't just show up and expect her to take me back. I don't know if she even wants to see me again."

Willow ground her teeth together. "This isn't about her taking you back," she snapped. "This is about you being there because Buffy needs you."

The defeat in his voice almost made her feel sorry for pressing so hard. "I can't Willow," he said very quietly.

The following evening, Buffy knocked quietly on the door to her son's bedroom. At the muffled reply from within, she pushed the door open, leaning against the frame. Jake didn't look up, trying desperately to appear distracted as he read some sports magazine. At the funeral he'd been forced to socialize with people wishing to pay their respects. When they'd returned to the house, he'd made a hasty retreat to the sanctuary of his room.

"You can come downstairs now," she said quietly. "They've all left."

He grunted noncommittally. She frowned, moving into his room and sat gingerly beside his sprawled form.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked.

He looked at her, his face the usual expressionless mask he tried so hard to cultivate. "Sure," he said, turning his gaze back to the article.

Carefully she extricated the magazine from his grasp, forcing his attention to her face.

"Are you happy here?" she asked him seriously.

"What do you mean?"

"Here. In Huxley?"

Jake shrugged his shoulders, unsure of what exactly she was getting at. Buffy sighed again, afraid of the negative consequences this conversation could bring. She had no desire to uproot her son's life, but she didn't see any way around it.

"You don't seem very ... comfortable here, Jakob. You never have."

"What, you mean in this bustling metropolis of two thousand?" he asked sarcastically. "How could I not *love* it?"

She blinked at him, nonplussed. It was hard to treat him like a man when he acted like a child.

"I don't think I've ever tried very hard to hide the fact that we've stayed here because of Riley. He loved this place so much, this farm, everything. I've never felt ... settled here. I grew up in L.A. and I miss it, a lot."

He looked at her in disbelief. "Are you thinking about moving back to L.A.?"

"I don't know. That all depends on you. I know you're restless here, but you're already a junior in high school. You'll go to college soon. If you want to finish here in Huxley then we'll stay. After you graduate I'll move. It's whatever will be best for you."

"I don't know," he answered truthfully. "I mean nobody *ever* gets out of Huxley. I hadn't considered it. This is where ... he graduated from."

Buffy swallowed. She didn't want to have this conversation, but she knew that though Jakob tried to pretend that nothing ever affected him, he had heard the talk.

"I don't think this is the best environment for you anymore, Jakob."

"What?" he snorted, "just because everybody here thinks I'm nothing but a thug and they all blame me for his death."

Oh yes, he'd definitely heard the nasty gossip.

"It's not true, Jakob. Don't you believe it for one second," she said seriously, looking him directly in the eye. "Riley was sick, very sick, and there wasn't anything anybody could do about it."

"Yeah," he said ruefully, "but I really didn't make it any easier on him, did I?"

"Probably not," she answered bluntly, "but you getting into trouble wasn't what made him sick. I know a lot of people around here thought that you should have spent all of your time playing dutiful son instead of ... "

"Instead of getting arrested and generally being worthless," he supplied flippantly.

She stared at him until the force of her gaze caused him to look away in shame. "You aren't worthless, don't you ever say that. And yes, I'm sure you getting in trouble didn't help the situation, but it sure as hell didn't kill Riley. He and the government took care of that all by themselves."

"That's not what people say. That's not what grandma says, " he answered in a near whisper. He sounded so young that Buffy longed to pull him into her arms. She didn't, knowing it would wound his pride.

"It doesn't matter what people say," Buffy hissed bitterly. She hated her mother-in-law and had tried to keep her son away from the vengeful woman. "None of them know the whole story, not even your grandmother. They don't know about the experiments Riley was involved in. It's none of their damn business. Unfortunately, in a town this small, no one ever minds their own business."

Jakob shook his head, taking in everything. After several long minutes he raised his gaze to meet hers and asked, "You really think moving to L.A. might make a difference?"

"Maybe," she said hopefully, "I don't know, but at this point I don't think a fresh start would hurt either of us."

"What would we do?"

"We have the insurance money and the government settlement. We'd be okay, for a while. You will - of course," she said in a menacing tone, "finish school, and I'm not sure what I'll do yet."

"You really think we could make it?"

"Yes," she said honestly, "we'll have to downsize, but we won't be living on the streets."

Time for the big revelation. Buffy took a deep breath and said, "There's a school in Los Angeles. A private school. They sent a scout out last year to watch you play basketball. They've offered you a full scholarship to play for them."

"Last year?" Jake asked.

"Yes. The coach, Dave Williams, was an old friend of your father's. They were on the team together at Wake Forrest. Riley had a lot of faith in your talent, Jakob. He asked Dave to come down and take a look at you as a favor. He apparently liked what he saw."

Jake forgot himself and smiled, then quickly suppressed it. He had never gotten along with his father, they were total opposites, always butting heads. Basketball was the one interest they shared. They both loved it and were very good at it. The fact that his estranged father had taken the time to call a scout in to look at him smoothed over a bit of the issues he still had with the
dead man.

"Riley loved you, Jakob. He only wanted the best for you. He knew that when he was gone that you and I would probably leave Huxley. He wanted you to have every opportunity in the world."

Jake nodded, but didn't say anything. Leaning over, Buffy ruffled her son's dark hair and placed a kiss on his forehead. She handed him some literature on the school and a video the coach had sent especially for Jake.

"Think about it, sweetheart," she said as she rose to leave.

Jake didn't have to think about it for very long. Within minutes of the offer, he'd made the decision to leave the small Iowa town. He'd left a lot of things unsaid in his conversation with his mother. He didn't see the need to upset her any further, considering she probably didn't know he was aware of just how scathing the local gossip could be.

He'd avoided mentioning the fact that half of Huxley pitied poor Riley not only because his son was such a screw up, but because they didn't believe Jake was Riley's son at all. Jake's paternal grandmother had been that theory's biggest proponent, especially when Buffy had failed to produce any more children after Jakob was born.

Riley had always defended his son's parentage, assuring anyone who had the gall to ask that yes, the boy was his. Whether or not he really believed that, Jake would never know, but publicly he had always claimed Jakob.

The boy's thoughts wandered back to his dream from the night before. The feel of the dream had been the same as the dreams that had always haunted him, but the latest one held a relevance that the others never had. His father's dead body and the echoing words, "He must wake again." Jakob shook his head to clear his thoughts. Riley wouldn't wake again, he was dead. Perhaps if he left this place behind he could leave the dreams behind as well.

FIRST WEEK OF JANUARY, 2018 - LOS ANGELES, CA

Angel stood stone still on the roof of the Hyperion, allowing himself the luxury of watching the sun set. Buffy was near. He could feel her, not her exact location, but a definite sense of her presence. He'd wondered if he would still know when she was near after becoming human, but it appeared that some things never changed.

He wondered where she was and knew that with his connections as a private detective that it would take only minimal digging to find out, but he didn't. He couldn't allow himself to think about her, to wonder if she was alright or not. It was still too painful.

He couldn't bear the thought of visiting Buffy and seeing her there with Riley's son. He knew it was selfish and petty, but he just wasn't that strong.

Jake took a deep breath as he stood on the step of the school administrative building. The incestuous air of Huxley had always driven him nuts. He was intensely private, a loner, but in a town like Huxley, no one had any secrets. You couldn't blend in. There was no crowd to get lost in. Surveying the teeming crowds spread over the large campus that compromised his new high school, he didn't think that would be a problem anymore.

Had Jakob been a bit more objective, he would have found the undeniable truth that he would never be able to blend in anywhere. He was a startlingly handsome young man with dark hair and intense deep brown eyes. He was tall, almost as tall as Riley, standing just over six feet three inches. He was young, but he didn't display the awkward nature often common in boys of his height. He was an infinitely graceful creature, a gift his father assured him was directly inherited from his mother. He still had a very boyish look, but it held the promise of the man he would grow into. His quiet, lone wolf demeanor only heightened his appeal.

It had been these very traits which had set tongues to wagging back in Huxley, but as he stood there in a new city, a new state, Jake promised himself that his mother would never again feel shame on his account.

Buffy spent the first few weeks after the move wondering if she had lost her mind. She was in Los Angeles again, after more than two decades. What had she been thinking trying to start her life over at thirty-seven? She admitted to herself that it wasn't her life she was trying to start over, it was Jakob's. She had hoped that the change of location would help him start fresh, but when he came home at the end of his first day of school, things were exactly as they had always been.

She smiled wryly as she surveyed the pile of homework that he probably wouldn't even start working on until twenty minutes before it was due. Her son was nothing if not a creature of habit. She just hoped they had left some of his less desirable propensities in Huxley.

He still wore the sweat drenched clothes from his first day of basketball practice. She watched as he leafed through the mail for one of the many sports magazines to which he subscribed. Finding one, he read it as he rummaged through the refrigerator for a can of soda and a sandwich.

"Supper will be ready in twenty minutes," she said, watching him stuff half the sandwich in to his mouth.

"I know," he said around a mouthful. "Don't worry. I'll still be hungry. Growing boy."

He placed a quick peck on the top of her head as he walked down the hallway of their tiny apartment to his bedroom. She said a silent prayer to any deity that would listen that Jakob would find some peace in their new life, possibly even put some ghosts to rest.

Jake stared at the stack of books in his cramped locker. The coursework at his new school was challenging, far more so than in Huxley. He didn't mind, he was actually excited about it. He knew he would still excel academically, but at least now he wouldn't be the only one in his class to do so. Not that people tended to make fun of him for being a bookworm, he was too physically imposing to be a target for jest.

"You gonna dig your head out of there sometime today, Finn?"

"Hey, Charlie," Jake said in greeting to the only friend he'd made at school. Swinging his backpack over his shoulder, Jake ran to catch up with the younger boy. School had just ended and if they didn't hurry, they were both going to be late for practice.

After being paired together on Jake's first day of practice for defensive drills, he and Charlie quickly became friends. The lanky freshman was an amazingly talented athlete who could have easily gotten a scholarship like Jake's to play for the school, but it was apparently unnecessary. Charlie's family was loaded. His mother was a successful Hollywood actress - one Buffy had never particularly cared for - and his father was a businessman. Charlie and his two other siblings had never wanted for anything.

The Finns had always been comfortable, a solid middle class family. Riley had never hedged about paying exorbitant prices for Jake's basketball shoes or for a new video game he wanted. They had certainly never gone hungry, but Jake couldn't really imagine the lifestyle Charlie had grown up in. He was well aware that if it weren't for the scholarship, his mother could never afford to send him to this elite school.

Most of Jake's peers were hyper aware of their social status, taking every opportunity to remind him he was not one of them. Charlie didn't do that. He was born into the upper echelons of society, but he had somehow managed to remain unaffected. He treated Jake as an equal.

"Jakob, do you have a calculator?" Buffy called.

She was sitting at the kitchen table paying bills and leafing through the want ads while Jake and Charlie played some obnoxious video game in the living room, working their way through a whole box of Twinkies as well.

"Backpack," came his terse reply. She doubted it took that much brain power to play some stupid video game, but both boys seemed unable to speak and play at the same time.

Charlie wasn't what she'd expected her wild child to bring home. He wasn't like the hoodlums that Jakob had been friends with in Huxley. Charlie was an outgoing, charismatic little flirt, but there was an innocent and playful nature to him that all of Jake's previous cohorts had lacked. He was definitely likeable and very bright, but there was a hint of inner restlessness and adventure that no doubt had been what first attracted Jake to him. She knew her son was in need of a proverbial partner in crime.

At least she hoped it was proverbial, the last thing she needed was Jake getting into more trouble, especially in L.A., where the Finn name would mean nothing to the cops. Then again, Charlie looked mischievous but not necessarily felonious.

Buffy had been surprised at the fact that Charlie was only a freshman. Jake had always associated with a much older crowd. Maybe Charlie could teach Jake to lighten up a little. She smiled as the two boys yelled loudly in the next room, apparently celebrating their victory. A loud knock at the door startled her.

"That's my dad," Charlie announced, throwing down his controller and grabbing his backpack.

Buffy headed for the door. Charlie had been over to the apartment several times, but this was her first opportunity to meet either of his parents. She opened the door, looking forward to possibly making some new friends for herself.

"Hey," a handsome black man said, "I'm Charles Gunn, is my brat around?"

Buffy smiled at his friendly demeanor and nodded, stepping out of the way to allow him to enter the apartment. Out of habit, she did not verbally invite him in, but he entered nonetheless.

"Yes he is. I'm Buffy Finn, it's nice to meet you Charles," she said, firmly shaking his hand.

"None of that," he said with a smile just like Charlie's. "Call me Gunn, he's Charles."

As the two boys made their way towards the front door, Buffy said to Gunn, "I don't believe you've met my son, Jakob."

Gunn stared at the boy for a long moment, cocking his head to the side as if he were trying to decide something. "Uh ... no," he said distractedly, "We've never met. Hello, Jakob."

After shaking the boy's hand, Gunn turned to Buffy and continued, "Me and the wife are throwing Charlie a sort of birthday party in a few weeks, hope you'll both be able to come."

Buffy smiled nervously, she wasn't sure about the look Gunn had thrown Jakob. "Um, I'm not sure right now, I'll see how things work out. Please give my regards to your wife ..."

"Cordelia," Gunn supplied nervously, "my wife's name is Cordelia Chase, or was, that's her stage name now."

Buffy swallowed visibly. She knew without a doubt why Gunn had looked at Jakob so strangely. She also had a pretty good idea of why Charlie had been so friendly towards Jake in the first place. Cordy and Angel were still close friends and she'd heard through Willow that Cordy's husband and Angel were business partners. Fabulous, just spectacular.

Gunn could almost hear her thoughts, and gave her a reassuring smile that Buffy hoped meant he would keep his silence.

"L.A. can be an awfully small place at times," he said quietly.

Buffy nodded as Charlie moved past the pair into the hallway. In a second, Gunn grabbed him by the back of the neck, stopping him.

"What do you say?" he chastised.

Sheepishly Charlie turned around to Buffy. "Thank you for dinner, ma'am," he said, ashamed of his rudeness.

"Kids," Gunn said under his breath, releasing his son.

"Don't worry," Buffy assured him and then looked pointedly at Jakob, "I understand how difficult it can be."

Gunn smiled sadly, "I'm sure you do."

"So?" Charlie prompted his father once they were in the car headed home.

"Yeah," Gunn said, biting his lower lip. "I'll admit I thought you were feeding me a line, but you weren't."

"Do you know Jake's mom?"

"No," Gunn answered. "Your mother talks about her sometimes and Angel has a few pictures of her around the office."

"If Jake - ," Charlie started.

"No," Gunn said sternly. "This isn't our business. It is not our place to go sticking our noses where they don't belong."

"But if he's Angel's son ... "

"No, Charlie. You already told me that the man Jakob considers his father just died, right?"

Charlie frowned deeply. "Yes."

"And now you want him to find out that the guy he thought was his dad for the last seventeen years isn't?"

"Well ... "

"It's not our place. If Buffy wants to tell her son, that's her business. I don't want you mentioning anything about Angel to him, you hear?"

Charlie grunted noncommittally. Jakob hadn't really said anything about his "father", but Charlie got the definite impression that things hadn't been good between the two. His uncle Angel was like the coolest guy in the world and if he really was Jake's dad then surely they both had a right to know.

"Promise me," Gunn said to his son, "you will not say anything to him about Angel, understood? And don't say anything to Angel about it either." He added as an afterthought.

Reluctantly, Charlie said, "Okay."

"Good," Gunn said, then sighed deeply. "Now, how the hell am I going to get your mother to keep her trap shut?"

Buffy began to relax after several weeks passed without Jakob skipping classes or getting into any other kind of trouble. She was glad she'd decided to take the chance on moving so far away, maybe Jakob had just needed a clean start.

When the time for Charlie's party arrived, Buffy begged off, but told Jakob to go and have a good time. She'd seen Gunn several times in the intervening weeks and was fairly certain that he wasn't going to meddle in her or Jakob's lives. She was not, however, prepared to face Cordelia. She also didn't trust Cordelia not to invite Angel along.

Jake had mentioned, however, that Charlie's parents had been fighting a lot. She guessed it was probably due to the fact that Cordelia wanted to jump in the thick of things and Gunn didn't approve. Buffy just hoped Gunn would win.

"How was the party?" Buffy asked, truly curious when her son returned.

"Okay," he said absently. "It wasn't a party. We went to a Lakers game. The game was sort of lame, but Gunn had these great seats, almost courtside and there were all these famous people there."

"That must have cost a lot," Buffy mused wryly.

"I guess," Jake shrugged.

"Were there a lot of people there?" Buffy asked nonchalantly.

"Just Charlie, Gunn and a couple of other guys from the team and their dads," Jake offered quietly.

Buffy wanted to kick herself. She hadn't realized that all of the other kids' fathers would be present. Jakob had undoubtedly been the only one there without a dad. So much for him having a good time.

"I need to do some things," Jake mumbled, clearly wanting to avoid the conversation he could feel brewing.

"Okay, sweetheart," Buffy said, unwilling to press the matter just now.

He was brooding and she knew it would be impossible to talk to him about anything. At times like these, Jakob reminded her so much of his father. Sitting down on the couch, Buffy allowed herself to think of things she always kept buried.

Angel.

Jakob reminded her so much of Angel. She didn't know how or why, but Jakob was definitely the son of her first - and only - love. When she'd found out she was pregnant, she had assumed it was Riley's baby. They were lovers at the time. They had been careful, but nothing was a hundred percent effective. She figured they'd had an accident.

She'd been so horrified by the idea of trying to raise a child on the Hellmouth that she had regretfully but firmly abandoned her calling. Unwilling to risk her son's life or leave him motherless, she'd said yes when Riley proposed. She had moved to Huxley with him to try and build a new, demon-free life.

Everything had gone relatively smoothly until Jakob was born. Though Riley had never let on that he suspected anything, but she had known from the first time she held the babe that he was Angel's son.

Buffy's friends had also known.

The first time Willow had seen the child, when Jake was less than a year old, her jaw nearly hit the floor. Before the witch's visit, Buffy had been telling herself that Jakob's resemblance to Angel was all in her head, a product of her wishful thinking. It wasn't. Buffy didn't have any answers to Willow's shocked questions, swearing that her one and only physically intimate moment with the dark vampire had been on her seventeenth birthday.

When the Finns had returned to Sunnydale just after Buffy's twentieth birthday, for the sad occasion of Joyce's funeral, Giles, and Xander, had similar reactions to Jakob's appearance. The former Slayer had avoided allowing Spike to see her son for fear of what he would do with the information.

As Jakob aged, there was a smattering of gossip in Huxley suggesting that Riley wasn't his father. Buffy knew it was the work of her mother-in-law and largely due to the fact that she didn't get along with the woman. Whether he had any of his own suspicions or not, Riley had valiantly defended his wife and son.

For what it was worth, if any of the residents of Huxley had ever seen Angel, the debate would have been over regardless of Riley's claims. Jakob didn't bear what one would term a "resemblance" to the former vampire. Jakob was his mirror image. At times, Buffy could find bits of herself in her son, his eyes weren't quite as dark as Angel's and his manner was more flip, but she had no idea if that was from her or if Angel had been like mannered in his youth.

As they promised, Buffy's friends had never breathed a word to anyone. As far as the world was concerned, Jakob Finn was the natural, and only child of Riley and Buffy Finn. After Jakob, the couple had attempted to have more children, but it wasn't fated. Riley had accepted it without question saying that if God intended for them to have more children, he would provide.

God didn't provide. Buffy hadn't been so accepting and submitted to a battery of infertility tests without Riley's knowledge. As it turned out, the problem conceiving wasn't hers. In retrospect, Buffy suspected that Riley's guinea pig days had left him sterile.

At times, Buffy was grateful they'd never had anymore children. Riley's relationship with his "son" had always been rocky. When Buffy saw just how much his strained relationship with Riley affected Jakob, she wondered if it might not be time to tell her son the truth. Perhaps Jakob could still salvage some sort of relationship with Angel. Maybe it would comfort him to know just how much like his father he truly was, in all sorts of ways. Jakob had always been painfully aware of how different he was from Riley. She saw the way he looked at Gunn and Charlie sometimes.

Would it help him to know how much he was a dead ringer for his real father? He had Angel's deliberate gentleness, his brooding manner, his intellect, even his uncanny ability to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And then, of course, the fact that he looked just like him. Now that they were living in Los Angeles, Buffy considered it more and more.

In one of his rare forthcoming moments, Angel had told Buffy about his shaky relationship with his own father and about how much trouble he'd caused in his youth. No doubt the former vampire would be able to relate to Jakob better than Riley, the eternal Boy Scout.

She sighed heavily. Jakob was such a complicated kid. He was so closed up most of the time, not due to shyness, but intentionally. He didn't like people getting close, even her. They'd never really talked about the night he got arrested, but it was the first time Buffy had given any thought to supernatural aspects of his heritage. She had been a Slayer, Angel had been a vampire. Jakob was very athletic, and *very* strong, just like his parents. The beating he'd given that stupid child was testament enough to that fact. She doubted he had any idea he could even inflict that level of damage. Surely it had scared him. How could it have not?

Buffy felt like such a failure as a parent. There was so much she should have sat down and discussed with Jakob, but she hadn't. She'd hoped that issues would resolve themselves. They hadn't. She wanted to laugh and cry and scream with the unfairness of it all. She'd done everything in her power to give Jakob a normal life, and it seemed he was fated to end up just as messed up as she was. Buffy wouldn't let that happen, she wouldn't let her son fumble his way through the darkness the way she'd been forced to. Picking up the phone, she decided to get Willow's opinion on how to proceed.

When Jake came out of his room later that evening, his mother didn't hear him. She was on the phone in her room with the door slightly ajar, talking to his aunt Willow. She no doubt assumed he was asleep. Knowing he shouldn't, but not really caring, he listened carefully.

"I know, Will, it's just that sometimes he's so much like Angel," Buffy said, her voice full of tears. "I just wonder if I should tell Jakob, but I don't want to hurt him. I mean, Riley's gone now, and Jake deserves the truth. There is so much about himself that he doesn't know."

Jake froze. Angel? Who the hell was Angel?

Afraid of being discovered, he crept quietly back to his room. Angel. He'd never heard his mom mention that name before, or his dad. What had his mom meant by "Jake deserves the truth"? Truth about what? And what would his father being dead have to do with anything? And what didn't he know about himself?

"So much like Angel", the words rung in Jake's mind. Turning, he looked at the picture on his desk. It was a family portrait of sorts, the last picture they took before Riley got really sick. He picked it up, studying it carefully.

He looked at his image, studying himself minutely. As with every other time he'd done this, he could see hints of his mother in himself. The way his mouth curved, the line of his jaw all came from her. He looked at Riley. They were both tall, but that was the end of the comparison. There was nothing of his father reflected in him.

Nothing.

That concept went so much beyond just the physical. In thinking and temperament he was nothing like his father. Riley had always been outgoing, a team player, a pleaser. Jakob wasn't. Even in childhood he had always held his own counsel, been intensely private, quiet, introspective. As he'd gotten older, his behavior had become progressively more disruptive. It was no great secret that Riley couldn't begin to understand his son.

What if he wasn't Riley's son?

Jakob knew about the gossip that said Riley had been suckered into marriage. His mother had never mentioned any old boyfriends, if that was indeed who Angel was. Jake had done the math once and figured out his parents had been married because they "had" to. Had his mother conned his father into claiming some other guy's kid? Jakob smiled ruefully. That would explain a lot of his
father's animosity towards him.

The dream, but more vivid than it had ever been. Once again, Jakob was crouched over what he *knew* was his father's body, blood on his hands. Only this time, it wasn't Riley who lay on the ground before him. He couldn't see the man's face, he was lying on his stomach, facing away from him. He was bare from the waist up and an intricate tattoo decorated one of his shoulders.

There was more screaming, it echoed off of walls he couldn't see. The darkness pressed around him and the voice said, "He must wake again." That was how his ears heard it, that was the sound echoing off the walls, but in his mind he heard, "You must wake again."

"This is ... nice," Willow said cheerfully.

"It's a crackerjack box, Will," Buffy answered glumly, looking around her tiny apartment.

When they had initially moved in, she had thought it temporary, but money was disappearing much faster than she had anticipated and they couldn't afford to be moving any time in the foreseeable future.

"I take it Jake is still giving you the silent treatment," the witch surmised.

Buffy nodded. Willow was visiting for the week, mixing the small vacation with the first of a series of guest lectures at UCLA. The former Slayer was silently thankful that the witch had opted to stay at a nearby hotel rather than in the cramped apartment, if only because of the current uneasiness between herself and her son.

"Yeah," Buffy said with a sigh, comforted by her friend's painfully insightful nature. "I have no idea what the problem is now, but he hasn't said a word to me in three days."

Patting her friend's knee, Willow assured, "Kids are like that, Buffy. Don't you remember being mad at your mom over stupid little things. He'll get over it."

"I hope so," Buffy said wistfully, feeling a bit awkward about taking child rearing tips from someone without kids, but it was Willow. "He's going through so much and he won't let me in at all."

"He needs time, Buffy. Telling him about Angel when he's already in a state of agitation like this probably wouldn't be the wisest thing."

Buffy nodded in agreement. She knew Willow was right, but Jakob's unapproachable mood seemed to be almost constant. She was never going to find the right time to talk to him.

"You aren't planning on going psycho evil boy again anytime soon are you?"

Angel's pained expression made itself visible as he lifted his face to stare at the dark vampiress.

"Pardon?" he asked, more for a clarification of what she had meant than for a repetition of the painful words.

"You know," Faith said, gesturing wildly with her hands, "evil, psycho, Angelus."

Angel winced as she sat down cross-legged in one of his expensive leather office chairs, the thick soles of her work boots scuffing the supple surface.

"You want to give me some background here?" he asked, trying to avoid looking at the damage she was inflicting on his expensive furnishings.

Faith made a face and then reluctantly explained, "Dru has been-"

"Dru?" Angel yelled, cutting her off. "You're hanging out with Drusilla? Are *you* nuts?"

"No," Faith said sheepishly, "it's just that where Darla is, Dru usually tends to follow."

Angel scowled at his friend. "I warned you about hooking up with Darla, Faith. She's dangerous."

"Yeah ... well ... she's my Sire," Faith blustered. She sighed heavily, dropping her gaze to her lap for several long moments before once again meeting his eyes. "And I'm *bored*! You're such a goddamn stick in the mud, and being a vampire with a soul really cuts down on my choice of friends."

Angel shot her a wry glance.

"Oh, I guess you've been there, huh?" she said meekly.

"Yeah, and I never once went to Darla looking to alleviate my boredom."

"Oh really?" she snorted, cocking an eyebrow. "That's now hot she tells it."

Angel scowled again, "We're losing sight of the subject here."

Faith shrugged. "Okay, so I'm with Darla. I mean we're not like real *buds* or anything, but she knows how to have fun and she's a riot in bed and well ... you know ... *Sire*."

Angel wasn't about to get into a discussion of Darla's bedroom talents with the Slayer turned ensouled vampire, or delve into the Sire/Childe dynamic. "What does this have to do with Angelus and Drusilla?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm here. For the last week or so, Dru has been acting extra nutty. She's been having visions all the time, just ranting about the stars talking to her, yada yada. Anyway when she's at her most coherent, she keeps blabbing about 'daddy' coming home."

Angel listened in silence, his face an inscrutable mask.

"That would be you, right? You're her 'daddy'."

"Angelus, to be correct. I'm nothing to her, especially now. I'm human. I don't even register on her radar except, well, as food."

Faith frowned. "Normally I wouldn't pay any attention to the psycho, but Darla seems to think she's on to something big. She's actually been listening to Dru. I'm worried. Darla is still way pissed at you and if there's any way she can get around the 'no vamping Angel again' clause in your humanity, she'll find it."

Angel smiled. Faith was a grade A screw up, but her heart was in the right place. "Don't worry about me, Faith. I can't be vamped again, The Powers That Be saw to that. I'm human and I'm going to stay human."

Faith smiled, but it was obvious she wasn't completely satisfied. "Just be careful, okay?"

"You have my word."

In the week following Buffy's phone conversation with Willow, Jake had gone through his mother's address book, bank records, even her Christmas card list, and found not one mention of an "Angel" anywhere. As a complete last ditch effort, he started going through a bunch of musty old books that she kept hidden at the back of her closet in an old wooden crate.

He'd discovered the crate as a small child in Huxley. Buffy had ordered him to keep out of it saying he didn't have any business looking at its contents. Well-knowing her son's curious and persistent nature, Buffy hadn't trusted him to do as he was told and she had apparently hidden the crate and its load of books somewhere good. In the intervening decade, he'd failed to relocate the mysterious stash. However, when they had moved, the books had reappeared, and, as luck would have it, she hadn't gone to her previous lengths to keep them hidden from him.

As he started leafing through the tomes, it quickly became clear they were various histories and accounts of demons. Buffy had always reassured her son that there were no such things as monsters, but Riley hadn't been of the same mind. In several of their rare bonding moments, Riley had come clean about his former government involvement. He'd explained how various "monsters" were very real, even given him detailed records and accounts when the boy hadn't believed him.

Jakob couldn't figure out why his mother would have had these books, his father had been the one involved with monsters, not her. As he put the book down and continued to dig through the boxes, he came across a government file similar to the ones Riley had shown him ... only this file wasn't about a monster, it was about Buffy.

Hours later, after he gone through the reports again and again, Jakob still couldn't believe it. His mother was a ... Slayer. He knew that she was strong and athletic, but according to the charts in the file, she was damn near a superhero. Or at least she used to be. Putting the file down, Jakob picked up the books again, looking at them with renewed interest.

It was late when Buffy made it back to the apartment after her extended dinner with Willow who was in town once again. The two had a lot of catching up to do, but hopefully now that they were living in the same state again they could stay closer.

Willow was still with Tara and the two were living in San Francisco where Willow was a professor and Tara ran a book store specializing in occult texts. The two had never had children, but were still as close as any couple Buffy knew, and still deeply in love. Buffy envied her friend's relationship. It would be nice to curl up next to someone you loved at the end of the day, someone who was your other half. Buffy pushed away the thoughts. She had long ago resigned herself to an Angel free existence.

Though the light was off, Buffy slowly opened Jakob's door, smiling when she saw that he was sound asleep. Apparently, happily ever after just wasn't fated for the former Slayer, but at least she had Jakob. Some part of her true love would always be hers.

Jakob was still awake when Buffy opened the door to check on him, but he feigned sleep. He needed to sort out so many things for himself before he could talk to her.

After hours of digging through books, he still hadn't come across any mention of a man named Angel, but found lots of information on Slayers. They were supernatural creatures, tightly associated with demons.

It didn't take a huge leap of logic to figure out that Buffy and Riley had an "office romance", both of them being demon hunters, his father by vocation and his mother by blood. Maybe it had been a similar story with Angel. After all, a Slayer would have trouble dating a normal guy, right? He decided that he'd do a bit more digging into her history.

"I'm being deafened by the sound of you not asking," Cordelia snapped.

Angel regarded her carefully before putting the casefile down and walking over to the coffee pot to pour himself another cup.

Kate raised an eyebrow at the actress. "I know I'm not going to get anything out of him, so why don't you fill me in."

Cordelia scowled. She still wasn't overly fond of Kate, but after nearly two decades of near constant exposure, a tenuous and grudging relationship had formed.

"Buffy," came her one word reply.

"Buffy?" Kate asked quizzically, "as in Buffy the tiny little blonde girl he keeps pictures of hidden in his office?"

"The one and only," Cordelia said with a smile, thoroughly enjoying talking about Angel as if he weren't in the room. It would eventually drive him nuts. It always did. Sometimes, her former boss was just so incredibly easy to handle.

"What isn't he asking you about her?" Kate inquired.

"Anything," Cordelia replied in a completely exasperated tone of voice. "He's known for weeks that she moved back to L.A. and not so much as a peep out of him. He also knows - thanks to Willow - that Buffy's son and my son Charlie are friends, but does he ask? NO."

Kate shrugged, "Maybe he's over her."

"Fat chance," Cordelia spat out. "If he's so over her, then why hasn't he found somebody else?"

Kate's eyes took on a mischievous glint.

"Well, Cordelia," Kate said with mock seriousness, "he's not as young as he used to be. Maybe he's intimidated by women these days, you know." She lowered her voice conspiratorially, "Maybe he has performance anxiety."

Smiling with wicked glee, Cordelia joined Kate's game. "Oh, I hadn't thought of that. You're probably right. He's what ... almost forty now? Could be. Maybe without all that vampiric stamina -"

Angel had finally had it, he slammed the coffee cup down on the desk and glared at Cordelia. "Enough! I'm not a monk, Cordy. I go out on dates, quite a few of them as a matter of fact."

She rolled her eyes at him. "You go out on a lot of *first* dates. You always find something wrong with them. They're too short, too tall, too loud, too quiet. The real problem is that none of them are Buffy. And now she's back in town and she's *single* and you won't even call her."

"Her husband just died!" he exclaimed, obviously irritated.

"Oh, please," Cordelia said, waving off his histrionics. "You're just a coward."

"I'm not a coward!" he said forcefully and then added in a more even tone, "and I'm thirty-eight years old physically, *not* forty."

"What's wrong with you?" Charlie demanded.

Jake looked up from the notebook he was studying, not pleased with having his research interrupted. "Nothing," he grunted.

"Bullshit."

Jake scowled. He really wasn't in the mood to discuss this with anyone. Who the hell was going to believe him anyway? Trying to divert Charlie's attention, he asked, "You ever heard of a store called The Third Eye?"

Charlie gave him a confused look. "The bookstore?"

Surprised, Jake answered, "Yeah." He hadn't actually expected Charlie to have any idea what he was talking about.

"Yeah, I go there sometimes with my dad. Why?"

Jake shot him an incredulous look. "Why do you go there with your dad?"

"Why do you want to know where it is?" Charlie countered.

"I need to ... do some research," Jake said, foundering.

"You researching demons?" Charlie asked flippantly.

"As a matter of fact, yes, and why do you want to know?"

"You're serious?" Charlie asked, sitting down on the step next to his friend.

"Yes," Jake answered quietly. "I'm serious. Now tell me why you and your dad visit that store."

"We don't go there a lot," Charlie answered, "only when he can't find a specific book or something. But between him ... and Wesley, I'd think they have every book on demons out there."

"And why is that?" Jake asked seriously.

Charlie looked around making sure that no one in the lunchtime crowd of students was paying attention. "That's what he does," Charlie explained quietly.

"He does what?"

"He hunts demons, him and Wesley. My mom used to help, but since the acting thing took off, she pretty much stays out of it." He left the part about her not being a seer anymore out. Talk about one supernatural being could lead to talk about another and he had promised his father he wouldn't mention Angel.

Jakob didn't say anything and Charlie wondered if he'd just made a huge mistake. He'd never told anyone before what his dad really did, but he had been sure Jake would understand.

"You don't believe me?" Charlie asked, sure that wasn't the case.

"No," Jake answered. "I believe you. My dad was a demon hunter too."

Charlie startled for a moment and then realized Jakob was talking about Riley, not Angel.

Angel sat in his office after hours giving serious thought to the conversation he'd had with Faith a few weeks earlier. Darla had been pretty quiet for the last couple of years, but he didn't doubt that if she found a chance to get revenge upon him she would take it - at any cost.

He hated the fact that Faith was involved with Darla, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Faith had managed to redeem herself, returning to her calling after Buffy's departure. It hadn't lasted long, the younger Slayer had been killed only a year after taking over. In a rather sick twist of fate, Darla had stumbled upon her death scene. Looking to get back at Angel, and perhaps to amuse herself as well, Darla turned the dying girl. Knowing full well how unstable turned Slayers could be, Faith's Sire had left her to her own devices.

Faith had kept her soul as all turned Slayers did, but unlike her sister Slayer counterparts that had been brought over, the experience didn't crush Faith. She was a great deal more relaxed than most Slayers, with a much more cynical view of life. She accepted her vampiric status in stride, noting that at least she wouldn't age. There was a certain appeal to looking twenty-one for the rest of your unlife.

After her death, a new Slayer was called and Faith turned over the reigns. She'd come to work with Angel for several years and still helped out from time to time as she was needed. Mostly, however, Angel and Faith were just friends. Angel was an expert on being a vampire with a soul and Faith was often in need of guidance. It had wounded Faith deeply when Angel was given his humanity, but they remained close in spite of it.

Due partly to her status as ensouled vampire and partly to her own free nature, Faith saw everything in shades of gray. Nothing was completely good and nothing was completely bad. This allowed her to become Darla's lover with no ill effects to her conscience. That relationship was also facilitated by the natural bond between Sire and Childe. Angel despised the thought of his Sire getting her claws in Faith, but knew that Faith was a big girl and more than responsible for her own actions. Also, the fact that she was occasionally close to Darla gave him the ability to keep tabs on the vengeful vampiress.

As Willow had predicted, Jakob once again was speaking to Buffy, sans explanation for his earlier cold shoulder. However, he still seemed to be withdrawn and rather preoccupied. It had Buffy worried.

Almost to her relief, spring break was upon them and Charlie had invited Jake to stay over at his house on Friday night. In his usual style, Jakob informed her he would be going, rather than asking for permission, but she couldn't really blame him. He was almost eighteen. Almost a man.

Almost.

"Are his parents going to be home?" Buffy asked her son, knowing she sounded like a smothering parent.

"Yes," Jake responded in an exasperated voice. "Of course, they did say that we could go ahead and have a kegger with prostitutes and drugs."

"Very funny," Buffy admonished. "Just try not to be any trouble, Jakob."

"Come on!" Jake barked at Charlie when the younger boy started hedging about walking down the dark alley.

"Are you sure about this?" Charlie hissed in the darkness, apparently unimpressed with his friend's choice of entertainment.

"I already told you that if you don't want to come, I'll go by myself!"

Charlie frowned, thinking to himself that he should have just kept his mouth shut about Caritas. He didn't want to be wandering around in downtown alleys in the middle of the night, but he wasn't about to leave Jake alone. His friend was a hell of a fighter and definitely not lacking in bravery, but he was new to town and he had no idea what he was getting into.

Not that Charlie had much better of an idea, his previous forays into illicit activities included having a few beers, hacking into the school computer system to change his grades, and kidnapping a rival school's mascot. Running, he quickly caught up with Jake.

"This must be it," Jake said with more bravado than he really felt as he looked at the dark stairway leading to the heavy steel door.

"I don't know," Charlie said uneasily. "I don't read Greek." He'd heard his father and Angel talk about Caritas, but he'd never actually been here before.

"Yeah, well, how many bars are there around here with names that look like math problems? Let's go."

The inside of the bar wasn't what either of them had expected. Their imaginations had conjured up an other worldly dungeon, not a ... Vegas lounge. Looking around, Jake decided it looked much more like a motel bar than a demon refuge. Except of course for the fact that it was populated almost exclusively by demons. Luckily, there were enough regular human customers that no one took any notice of the two newcomers.

Almost no one, that is. One of the bar's occupants had been watching the door, waiting for their arrival.

Jake was busy trying to locate the emcee, Lorne, that Charlie had told him so much about, when suddenly his view was blocked by a very large demon. Jake tried to step around him, but the demon mirrored his movements. Looking up, several feet, to meet the demon's piercing red gaze, Jakob swallowed visibly. Beside him, Charlie tensed as well, there was no mistaking the demon's malicious intent. Jakob jumped as the demon was pushed roughly to the side.

"Go away," the petite blonde barked.

Much to Jake and Charlie's surprise, the demon complied wordlessly, intimidated by the woman. Turning his gaze back to the blonde, Jakob found her slowly, blatantly assessing him from head to toe. As their gazes met, her mouth broke into a large smile that for some reason made him shiver.

"Hello," she drawled sweetly. "Why don't you tell me your name, dear boy."

Jakob licked his suddenly dry lips. The voice seemed to curl around his mind. It was the voice from his nightmares, the one that had haunted him for as long as he had existed.

"Jake," he rasped.

"Jake," she said, her voice caressing his name. "I'm Darla."

He looked at her carefully for a long moment and then parroted, "Darla." The name felt funny on his lips and a sense of foreboding surged through his body.

Her lips curled up in a smirk and she asked, "What are you doing here, little boy?"

"L-Looking for something," he stammered.

"And what would that be?" she asked, holding his gaze steadily as she inched closer.

"Jake, man, maybe we should go," Charlie said nervously. This wasn't going well and his dad would probably kill him if he ever found out about this.

Turning to face Charlie, Darla said in a voice that left no room for argument, "Why don't you wait here."

She shot a glance to a woman who was obviously her companion. Faith immediately grabbed Charlie by the arm, leading him towards the bar. Charlie didn't resist, reading the seriousness in the turned Slayer's eyes. He knew Faith. They weren't close, but he knew his father and Angel trusted her and that was enough to ensure his compliance. Turning to face Jake, Darla grabbed him by the wrist and led him over to a booth in a dark corner.

Jake tensed as Darla ran a blood red fingernail along the prominent vein in his neck. She was a tiny woman, much smaller than himself, but for some reason she set him on edge with a confusing mixture of attraction and repulsion.

"What," she prompted sweetly, "are you looking for in a place like this? You don't belong here ... not yet."

"Answers."

"What kind of answers?" Darla asked.

For some reason, Jake responded with total candor, almost as if he couldn't help it. This was a voice he'd known for eternity.

"Answers about who I am."

"Who do you think you are, my sweet little ... angel?" she whispered into his ear, her voice resting heavily on the last word.

Jake pulled back in shock, looking at her.

"I don't know," he answered honestly.

Next Part