AUTHOR: Texas Aries

FANDOM: Angel/Harry Potter/BTVS crossover
RATING: FRAO, GP, SLEX
PAIRING: Connor/Harry, other pairings as the story progresses.

Part 2: A Father’s worry.

A lone man exited the French doors on a second-floor balcony. He was in one of the living quarters of the new Watcher’s Council compound. The man settled at one of the tables with a cup of coffee in his hand to watch the sun rise, breaking the dark of night. Already the sky was lightening the black, announcing the start of a new day.

Special Agent Seeley Booth aka Angel, the ex-vampire with a soul, sat quietly watching as the light slowly grew in strength and color until the sky was filled and he feasted on the sight. Even after six months it still made his breath catch as the sun’s rays reached out with its light and warmth to embrace him and he closed his eyes, just to allow himself to enjoy the moment.

But other thoughts pushed their way through his morning worship of the sun, which brought back the worry and frustration over Connor’s condition; a condition that he and Spike were starting to experience, but they were going to keep it a secret. This would ensure that Connor would be the focus of all the attention.

They could wait.

Connor could not.

Taking a sip of his black coffee, he smiled as the rich taste of the liquid made its way over his taste buds and down his throat. To be able to eat and drink once again, to taste the richness of food and spices that he had been denied as a vampire made him once again give a quick thanks to the creator for granting him this new life.

When the portal had opened, he and the others all figured that this was the end and they were going to go down fighting when the Oracles appeared with two other people. One was a young woman who smiled sweetly at the horde of demons that were about to break into their world, who froze at the sight of her.

Instantly the mood of the demons changed from blood-thirsty anticipation to absolute terror as this woman-child raised her hand and waved good-bye. The portal simply disappeared leaving him standing there, gaping like an idiot as the woman-child turned toward him and his group.

He didn’t notice as Illyria dropped to her knees with the same terror that had stopped the horde. The woman-child walked towards him and had a twinkle in her brown eyes. With a huge smile, she placed a single finger under his chin and with a slight pressure had him closing his mouth with a snap.

He remembered looking into those eyes and finding himself judged, forgiven and embraced by a love that he never experienced in his life. She then stretched up to kiss him on the cheek before turning towards Spike, who was gaping like a fish. She giggled as she caressed his face and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek before moving on to Gunn. Seeing the blood she placed her hand over the wound, healing it instantly. She reached up and encouraged Gunn to lower his head as she placed a motherly kiss on his forehead before moving onto Lorne.

Lorne was staring at her with wide frightened eyes. She simply opened her arms, which made Lorne take one hesitated step before rushing into the arms, crying as his heart was breaking. She held him, rocking him back and forth like a mother would for a distraught child, making gentle soothing noises. Slowly the sobs lessened before they finally stopped, and after a few minutes Lorne stepped away.

The look in Lorne’s eyes had him about to step forward, only to be stopped by the unknown male that had arrived with the Oracles and the woman. The look in the male’s eye stopped Angel from yanking his arm away, as the man whispered, “Do not interfere, human.”

The woman-child took Lorne’s hand before turning and making her way to where Illyria was kneeling with her head bowed. She stood over the demon-lord, her slim finger tapping her lips as a small frown appeared on her face. Time stood still as she surveyed the Demon God before she reached down to tilt Illyria’s face up towards hers. She leaned forward and placed a single kiss on Illyria’s forehead.

Illyria’s back arched, her arms flung wide as she stared up unseeing as a bright light enveloped her. When the light dimmed, her demon visage was gone and she was wearing her shell’s form, but when she raised her head to look around, it was clear that something wonderful had occurred.

Fred looked out at them, but as she was about to speak the woman-child placed the tips of her fingers across her lips hushing her. The being turned to point down the alley causing them all to turn to see a very alive Wesley standing there, a confused look on his face.

Fred whispered, “Wesley” as she rose to her feet. Then screaming Wesley’s name, she launched herself at the newly alive man. He wrapped his arms around her as she captured his face in her hands. Kissing him endlessly as tears rolled down their faces.

Angel’s attention was brought back to the being that had given Fred and Wesley back to them as she made her way with Lorne towards the Oracles and the male that had arrived with her.

The male looked at them, a smirk on his face as he told them in a British accent, “The Creator is well-pleased with all of you, and you have Her blessing.” With that they disappeared, taking Lorne with them.

He didn’t realize at first that he had become human, being more concerned about getting Wesley, Gunn and Fred out of the rain. It was when they were in the hotel that he noticed how cold he felt, and that he was shivering because of his wet clothes. Looking up, he locked glazes with Spike as they realized at the same time.

They were human.

As both he and Spike realized that they had been granted their dream of being human, they were slammed to their knees as the memories of their new lives were inserted.

He became Special Agent Seeley Booth, and for the first time since he opened his eyes after being cursed into sharing this body with an insane Liam and a demon Angelus it was quiet. The other voices were gone and he was alone inside of his head.

He was free.

Free to experience life without the fear of either Angelus or Liam slipping out of his grasp and hurting someone.

He was free!

It turned out the creator not only gave him a new life, but Spike as well. Spike was now Lt. Colonel William “Spike” Luthor, a NCIS agent just assigned to the Norfolk branch, reporting to a Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

He pitied Gibbs.

The others had their old lives. But this time they had a position with the new Watcher’s Council, U.S. branch, which they were very happy about. They were able to still keep a handle on the supernatural but be out of the direct line of fire.

A few days later, Connor contacted him and they had dinner together. He wondered how to tell his son that he had a new life in Washington, D.C. Before he could tell him, Connor had his own news. Connor wanted to get to know him because he realized with the help of his new memories that Holtz was a crazy mad-man that had warped his perception of everything. He wanted to get to know Angel as a friend first and see where things lead afterwards. At the same time, he had news that he had been accepted at Clayton College of Natural Heath in Washington, D.C. where he was going to study holistic medicine.

Angel broke his own news that he had been given a new life and that he would be working out of Washington.

It had taken him only a month on his new job working with Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan to realize that he still wasn’t quiet human. He didn’t notice at first, because he was getting to know his new life. It didn’t dawn on him that things should be different. Then while taking down a bad guy, he realized that he wasn’t out of breath or even had much of a struggle to subdue the man who was physically much bigger and stronger than him. It was then that he realized something was wrong, that he still had his vampire senses and abilities, but in every other way he was human.

After he had booked the suspect he left a message with Spike to see if his ex-grandchilde noticed the same thing. It was a couple days later that Spike called and confirmed that he too had noticed that he wasn’t quite normal, but had been unable to contact Angel because he had been on a mission. They contacted Wesley, who came up with the theory that even though God made them human she didn’t want to leave them vulnerable to any demons or supernatural creatures with a grudge. So to protect themselves, she left them with some the abilities they had as vampires. They had their senses, strength, and speed but minus the rapid healing which made sense. One day they have a broken arm and the next day it was healed, it would bring too much attention to them.

As time went by Connor and he became closer moving from friends to more of a father/son relationship. Then one wonderful day while making dinner Connor called him dad. That was the most wonderful word he ever heard in his entire life.

Then things changed a few weeks later on a weekend fishing trip with Connor. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and it was warm, but not too warm that it made them uncomfortable. They had been out fishing for a couple of hours and the shade from the surrounding trees made it nice and cool. Angel remembered thinking how beautiful the water looked with the shimmers of color that reflected the rays of the sun. He turned towards Connor, but felt his heart skip a beat at how unnaturally still his son was sitting, staring unblinking at the water.

The stillness reminded him too much of Cordy and her coma.

He remembered dropping his fishing pole and scrambling to his son’s side, calling his name. It took him a good five minutes to wake Connor out of whatever spell he was under. Fearing that maybe there was something out in the water that had be-spelled Conner they loaded up their car and returned home, hoping that it was the end of it.

But he was wrong.

It wasn’t the last of it.

As the weeks went by, Connor’s condition got steadily worse and worse causing him to take a leave from his school and move in with him. Both Spike and Angel investigated every lead to see what could be causing these fits when they too started to experience them.

It also became apparent to both of them that they didn’t have as many or were as bad as Connor’s. Spike came up with an idea that maybe it had something to do with the fact that they had been vampires. That it slowed their condition or gave them some type of built-up immunity to whatever was happening to them.

In desperation he had called Wesley, resulting in him and Fred flying out; to see if they could detect anything supernatural in the episodes. It took a few days of testing and observation, but they couldn’t find anything to explain what was happening to Connor. Desperation drove him to contact the New Watcher’s Headquarters in London to see if anyone could help. They suggested that Connor come to headquarters.

It took a few days to arrange leave with the FBI before he was able to take Connor to London to be diagnosed. It had surprised him to see Spike turning up two days later as Connor ran the gauntlet of magic tests, but having him there helped. Especially when the Council experts could find nothing magical to explain Connor’s condition, and it had been decided that maybe the condition was non-magical in nature. So today they going to one of the top diagnostic hospitals in London, so a series of medical tests could be done.

He hoped that they would be able to find something, anything today to help Connor. He couldn’t lose his boy.

He just couldn’t!
 

.... to be continued