"Lynn," I said with raised eyebrows.
Mom tore her eyes from Angel's face to look at me.
"Lynn, what are you doing here?" she asked me. "Weren't you at the Bronze?"
I shrugged. "It was a drag. Plus there was some vamp trying to eat Melissa, and I went to fight him," I added, "Angel beat me to it."
Mom glanced at Angel and then back at me.
"What?" I asked in confusion.
******
"And so, after I left LA, I decided to come see how things were," Angel finished his story. "To tell you the truth, I didn't think you'd still be alive." He turned to look directly at Mom. "I'm glad you are. And hey, you have a daughter." He looked at me with a smile.
Mom looked away from both of us. She seemed slightly angry at Angel, but at the same time hurt. It made me wonder what the story between them was.
Taking a steady breath, Mom turned to look at Angel. "Do the math, Angel," she said.
Angel looked confused. "Pardon?"
"Damn it, Angel, do the damn math!" Mom cried out and stood angrily. She pointed an accusing finger at Angel. "Ask her how old she is."
"She told me she's fifteen," Angel said, still confused.
"And how long ago did you leave?" Mom asked, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.
Angel opened his mouth to answer and then shut it immediately. He glanced at me and then back at Mom. "Fifteen years ago," he muttered.
It was my turn to look confused. "What does that have to do with anything?" I asked Mom.
She turned to look at Angel and pointed at me. "Why don't you tell her," she told him.
Angel shook his head. "So you were pregnant when I left," he said, more to himself than to anyone else in the room. He glanced up at Mom. "Who were you seeing?"
Mom shook her head. "No one, Angel," she said, more calm now. "You've always been the only one for me."
She let the words sink into the room. Almost immediately, both Angel and I stood up.
"Are you implying...?"
"Do you mean to say...?"
We started speaking at the same time and stopped. Mom was smiling sadly now as she glanced at me.
"Do you mean to say that Angel is my father?" I asked incredulously in a hushed whisper. "How old was he when you had me? Fifteen?"
Mom and Angel glanced at each other and then back at me. Angel sat down again and shook his head. "You know I couldn't have children, Buffy," he said, looking at Mom.
With a wave of a hand towards me, Mom spoke. "This little souvenir you left me is living proof that you were wrong, then." Then, as an afterthought, she looked at Angel, startled. "What do you mean by 'couldn't' and not 'can't?"
Angel, or maybe I should refer to him as Dad, stood and walked to my mother. Gently, he took her hand and put it at his heart. The room was dramatically quiet for several moments and then Mom gasped. She glanced up at... Dad... with wide eyes and jumped up from her chair abruptly. She grabbed him in a tight hug and cried into his shoulder.
All the questions that clouded my mind were forgotten for the moment as I watched my parents reunite. I truly had never seen my mother this happy, and I liked it. She really did have a beautiful smile.
The question of what they had been together was answered, though. I rose from my chair and quietly made my way up the stairs. It was late, I was tired, and it was a school night after all.