TITLE: Visiting.

AUTHOR: Kelly Rowe

DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Angel and the gang belong to the evil Joss and I only own the characters I make up. In a perfect world however I would own all of them, Buffy and Angel wouldn't have broken up and Riley would never have existed.

RATING: PG

SPOILERS: General (if any)

TIMELINE: Over 17 years after IWRY

DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it, just tell me where you put it.

The weekend soon rolled around and Buffy was in her bedroom packing for her trip to Sunnydale. She was extremely nervous, especially since Joyce had said to stay with her. Since they had never really got along and their relationship had worsened just before she left, she didn't want to stay there. But it was not like she had a choice, Willow and Oz had a small one bedroom apartment, Xander had moved back into his parents basement after his divorce and it would feel way too weird to stay with Giles. She was so deep in thought that she didn't hear Hope come in.

"Please tell me that I don't have to go too?" Hope begged seeing her mother packing.

"You're not going to Sunnydale with me..." Buffy began.

She was cut off by Hope who was bouncing up and down saying, "Yes!"

"You're going to LA to spend time with Angel" Buffy finished.

"Really?" Hope asked, torn. On one hand, she totally wanted to spend time with her dad there was so much that they needed to learn about each other. On the other hand staying home, meant time with Dev and...

"You're going" Buffy said, making the decision for her. Buffy closed her suitcase, glad to be done.

"Does that mean I have to pack?" Hope whined.

"Yeah, unless you want me to do it for you? I'm sure I could pick you out some *nice* clothes to wear" Buffy threatened, subtlety.

Hearing this Hope started to leave the room. "I'm old enough to pack for myself. Besides if I let you do it, I'll end up looking like a total Melvin".

Buffy watched Hope go and started to feel sorry for Angel and the others, as they had no idea that Hurricane Hope was about to descend upon them. However it would serve them right to think Hope was a nice normal teenager, because she really wasn't. Buffy grabbed her bag and decided to put it downstairs, ready to leave.

A couple of hours later, Angel was pacing his office waiting for Hope to arrive. He was looking forward to spending time with her and getting to know her better. Unfortunately he was also nervous as hell, what did he really know about handling teenage girls? He was in the middle of thanking the PTB that Cordy and Doyle would be around part of the time, when he heard a knock at the door. When he answered it he was disappointed to find Doyle there.

"Hey man. Yer nervous?" Doyle asked, trying to be sympathetic.

"Yes. What if I suck at this parenting thing?" Angel replied, looking totally discouraged.

"Yer won't. You're great with Nick" Doyle answered, reassuringly.

"I know, but a 14 year old boy is different to a 17 year old girl" Angel said, sitting down.

"I sure as hell hope that my son is different from your daughter, or I'll have to start calling him Nikita" Doyle joked. When he saw that hadn't worked, he said, "Look, it's okay to be nervous. But everything will work out in the end".

"Thanks" Angel replied, not feeling at all any better.

Their conversation was interrupted by Cordy, who came rushing in. "They're here" she told him.

Angel quickly left the office and headed outside. He headed to wards Buffy's car and when he got a look at his girls, all his fears seemed to vanish.

"Hey" he greeted them and gave Buffy a quick kiss. "How come you're here so late?"

"Spike" Hope answered, looking at Angel's office building.

Seeing the confusion on Angel's face, Buffy clarified "He insisted at the last minute on coming with her".

Angel scowled and muttered something about Spike being a cretinous toad, as her grabbed Hope's bags. Buffy opened up the trunk and Spike climbed out and immediately started to complain.

"Shut-up" Buffy told Spike, and then she turned to Angel and told him "I'll see you Sunday".

"Agreed" Angel replied, kissing her.

Buffy got back into her car and took off for Sunnydale, before she lost her nerve. This left Angel, Hope and Spike standing on the sidewalk, staring at each other. They went inside and put Hope's stuff in Angel's spare room, he then gave her the grand tour of his apartment, which took about ten seconds. So he then took them upstairs to show Hope the office.

"So what do you think?" Angel asked, nervously.

Hope slowly surveyed the office and said, "I like it, kinda retro".

"Really?" Angel said, pleased that she'd liked it.

"Yeah" Hope replied.

"Well I hate it" Spike said, annoyed at having to share Hope with Peaches.

"As hard as this may be for you to believe Spike, I don't care what you think" Angel told him.

Hope stood back and watched them bickering and she laughed, she was glad she'd come.

Nick Doyle came into the office to meet his parents, when he heard Hope laugh. He thought it was a client since it didn't sound like his mom or Kate the evil cow. That's when he spotted her; she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. He stood there staring at her with a big foolish grin on his face. Angel spotted Nick in the doorway and called him over.

"Hope, this is Nick, he's Cordy and Doyle's son. Nick, this is my daughter Hope" Angel said, introducing them.

"Hi" Hope said, trying not to show the slight jealousy she felt that this kid had known her dad longer.

"H-h-hi" Nick stammered, nervously.

Spike decided to open his big mouth and said, "He's a big a twerp as his dad".

"My dad's not a twerp," Nick yelled.

"No, he's just a pathetic half demon wanna-be" Spike retorted.

"Spike, leave him alone" Hope said, coming to his rescue. It was that second that Nick lost his heart to Hope.

"But Hope..." Spike began.

"Leave it," she ordered.

"Okay" Spike mumbled, trying to figure out exactly when he got hen-pecked.

Hope turned to Nick and said, "Whatever he says, ignore it".

"Sure" Nick replied, staring at Hope with all the love he could manage.

That's when Cordy and Doyle returned.

"Hey kid" Doyle said to his son. "How are you Hope?"

"Fine, thanks" Hope answered, politely.

"Hi" Cordy said, "I see everyone's met".

"Yeah, unfortunately" Spike mumbled.

"How about we get pizza to celebrate Hope's first visit with us?" Doyle suggested.

Everyone agreed, except Spike. Forty minutes later they were all down in Angel's apartment eating.

"Peaches, I need blood" Spike whined, hungry now he'd seen everyone else eat.

"Tough" Angel replied. Then relented slightly, "I'll give you money to get some".

"And wheatbix?" Spike asked.

"Wheatbix? What for?" Angel asked, curiously.

"Texture" Spike said, snickering at everyone's disgusted looks.

Nick positioned himself next to Hope and was watching her eat; he was so preoccupied that he didn't even notice Spike glaring at him. "So Hope...Do you have a boyfriend?"

Spike laughed evilly at Nick's innocent question, while Hope answered, "Yeah".

"Oh" Nick said, disappointed.

"Hey kid" Spike whispered, "Her boyfriend's a vamp".

Nick became even more disappointed, not only was his dream girl unavailable but her boyfriend was a vamp, so he'd be around forever.

After dinner was over Cordy, Doyle and Nick headed home and Spike went out to get some blood and have some fun. This left Hope and Angel alone. It took them a few minutes but they eventually started to talk and kept it up long into the night. As they both went to bed, they realised that they'd survived the first night the worst was hopefully over.

Hope was sitting at Cordy's desk minding the office while Angel finished up some work and Cordy went out for donuts. She was just hanging up a call and pencilling in an appointment, when a bitchy looking blonde walked in and stared at Hope.

"Can I help you?" Hope asked, instantly disliking the blonde.

"Where's Cordelia?" the bitca asked.

"Wherever it is you get donuts around here?" Hope answered.

"Angel?"

"Is busy" Hope answered quickly. She wanted to get rid of the blonde as quickly as possible.

"And you are?" she demanded.

"Hope".

"Well, Hope. I'm Kate Lockley and I'm a good friend of Angel's, so let me through" Kate said, forcefully.

"You know that is so *not* interesting" Hope answered, in her bored voice.

"Who do you think you are?" Kate said, cheesed off.

"Oh, I thought you knew" Hope replied, smarmily. "I'm Angel's daughter".

Kate's jaw dropped in disbelief. "You can't be. I've known him 18 years and he doesn't have one. He would've told me".

"That would've been hard, since he only found out about me last weekend" Hope took great delight in destroying Kate. "My mom, her name's Buffy by the way. She's the love of Angel's life, you have absolutely no chance".

Kate was still reeling from the news, when Angel came out of his office.

"Hey Kate" he said, totally oblivious to Kate's distress.

Kate then slapped him.

"What was that for" he asked, confused.

Instead of answering she left the office.

"What's wrong with her?" Angel asked Hope.

"She didn't take the news of me very well," Hope explained.

"Okay" Angel replied, shrugging off Kate's strange behaviour. "You ready to go?"

"As soon as Cordy returns" Hope answered.

Ten minutes later they left the office.

Angel asked, "So what do you think of LA?"

"I could get use to it. After all it is way more exciting here, more has happened in less than 24 hours than has happened all last year in Oakdale" Hope replied.

Angel smiled, and then noticed the strange look on her face, "What?"

"I'm wondering how mom's faring in Sunnydale" Hope told him.

"I'm sure she'll survive" Angel said. He then grabbed her and dragged off for a day of fun.

The End