Forgiven, Not Forgotten: Chapter: 1

Angel watched, somewhere between stunned and amused as a lanky young man raced up and down the halls of the Hyperion. The thought that a boy this age should be playing with friends and not running around trying to decide which ghost to talk to first floated through the vampire's mind. Wesley and Cordy stood behind him, also staring at the youth. Having just surfaced from the basement to find Wesley's friend, Ceara, already at the hotel, Angel stood at the base of the staircase wondering if he should follow the newcomer since some of the halls upstairs weren't exactly safe.

Wesley glanced back at the boy's mother. Ceara Charging Thunder gave him a quirky little smile. She had been in the Hyperion several months before and had come back to finish her work. Wesley had not counted on the fact his old acquaintance would come with child in tow. He hadn't even known she had a son. While disappointed she had never told him, he suspected he knew why.

"I'm trusting your discretion on this," Ceara said, brushing back her hip-length raven hair.

"Of course."

Cordy's face screwed up. "On what?"

Wesley fiddled with his glasses. "Cordy, Ceara was a Slayer-in-waiting."

"I know that." She rolled her eyes. "She told us last time she was here."

"She also told us that she and Rupert had a relationship once the Watchers decided she was too old to become a Slayer," Wesley said. "Aidan's fourteen. If you do the mathÉ"

"He's Giles' son?" Cordy squeaked. "Oh, that can't be."She waved her hands doing an exaggerated full body shiver.

"No one really knows that, Cordy, but I suspected Wesley would figure it out easily enough," Ceara said. "Rupert has no idea and I'm thinking the Watchers don't know either and nor should they."

Cordy shifted her weight, her heels clicking a bit on the flooring. "What would they care?"

"Cordy, the Council frowns on intimate relations between a Watcher and a Slayer or the Slayers-in-Waiting," Wesley said.

"But it happens. I've seen it," Angel muttered. He leaned in the doorway, glancing up the hall to see where the boy had gone.

"Rupert's the active Slayer's Watcher. He doesn't need trouble with the Council," Ceara said. "They could pull him back to England and try to replace him."

"Again," Wesley said with a vaguely embarrassed look.

Her son came racing back up to them, nearly colliding with Angel as he slid to a stop. He cocked his head back to look at the vampire, his two waist-length plaits swinging wildly.

"I thought you slept in the day," he said finally, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets. He studied the vampire with more intensity than Angel was used to.

Angel nearly smiled, amazed at the mature expression on the boy's tanned face. "Usually."

"Don't be rude, Aidan," Ceara said, her Australian accent much lighter than her son's.

"Sorry." He glanced at his mother contritely then turned back to Angel. "I'm Aidan Charging Thunder. You must be Angel."

"He's a good vampire," Cordy said quickly. She put a perfectly lacquered nailed hand on Aidan's shoulder."You don't have to be afraid."

"Not afraid. I've seen vampires before but not many. They like to hang in Coober Pedy since most of the town is underground but I don't go there often. Mostly I just see ghosts and there're some real rippers here," Aidan said, still studying Angel's face.

"Doesn't that wig you out, seeing ghosts I mean?" Cordy asked.

He grinned like an eager puppy, adoration and desperation to impress her showing clearly in his blue eyes."Nah, always been able to do it. They're usually not scary or anything. We're staying here, aren't we, Mum-cat?"

"Yes, so we'll be good, won't we?" Ceara said, giving him a stern, knowing look.

He rolled his eyes, making the ring in his eyebrow flip. "Crikey, Mum, I'm not a baby. I know how to behave. Can I go exploring some more?"

"If Angel doesn't mind."

"Angel, sir, is there any place I'm not supposed to go?" Aidan turned back to the vampire expectantly.

"The basement springs to mind and it'll be for the best if you stay out of the weaponry. I could take you on a tour if you'd like," Angel said, not sure why he wanted to do such a thing. He had kept quiet while listening to the conversation about the boy's parentage. He couldn't quite picture Giles with a son but after all he had put the man through, he owed it to him to be kind to the boy even if the Watcher never learned about it.

Aidan glanced back at his mother.

"Go ahead. You can trust Angel."

"I'd love a tour, sir."

Angel smirked. "You don't have to call me Ôsir,' Aidan. It's just Angel."

"Righto."

Ceara watched them go then turned to Wes and Cordy. "Anything tremendously exciting happening around here?"

Wesley indicated for her to sit. "Not really. That's why we thought it would be a good time for you to visit."

"Is it safe to assume that we're not talking about what happened in Sunnydale?" Ceara asked, folding her legs up on the couch.

"It would be safe to avoid it. We're all still stunned. It was hard enough to lose Buffy but to have her backÉwe're all still adjusting. That's why I mentioned it to you on the phone just in case you had heard something from the ghost paths." Wesley sat next to her.

"Nothing and this is amazing but I'll keep my questions to myself." Ceara waved a hand to clear away a ghost who flittered too near. Cordy gave her an odd look but Wesley was used to her addressing things he couldn't see.

"Thanks. It seems like you have a very nice son, Ceara," Wesley said.

Ceara shifted and allowed the ghost to sit with her, draping an arm around her. Ceara brushed up against Wes, feeling him tremble a bit. She wondered if he still had the crush on her he had had when they were teens or maybe it was the ghost. His last experience that she knew of had gone badly. He would have died if not for her. "He's a good kid but we're getting into the horny teen-aged years and I'm not sure we'll survive it."

"He's cute but I'm still working on him being Giles' son. I mean how did you find the man under all that tweed?" Cordy wrinkled her nose as she flung herself onto the staircase across from them.

"Tweed? He wears tweed? Are we talking the same Rupert Giles? The man I knew would never wear tweed. Did he lose the earring, too?"

Cordy's chin tucked in toward her neck as her eyes popped. "Earring?"

"Did he turn into his father?" Ceara grimaced.

"I never knew Rupert except by reputation when I lived in England. You would know better, Ceara," Wesley said.

"It would be sad if he did."

"Would you like some tea?" Cordy asked, getting back up, regretting having not thought of it earlier. "You like it as much as Wesley if I remember."

"Thank you. Make a little extra for my son if you would."

Cordy nodded. She only took two steps before collapsing with a scream. Wesley was off the couch and on his knees at her side almost instantly. Ceara, having seen Cordy's visions before, knelt with them. She felt something getting nearer and figured it was Angel running, having been up against enough predators in her day to have a sense about those things.

"Cordy, it's all right." Wesley lifted her, holding her against his chest."What are you seeing?"

The stiffness left her body as her cries died away. Cordy rubbed her eyes. "Children," she mumbled. "They're taking children."

"Where?" Angel asked, reaching her side. Aidan pounded down the steps unable to match Angel's preternatural speed.

Her eyes squeezed tight in pain, separating herself from Wesley."I don't know. There wasn't enough, just faces of the kids."

"That's it?" Wesley sat back, disappointment etched into his thin face.

"I couldn't see who was taking them or whyÉone of the girls, she looked familiar," Cordy said as Angel and Wesley helped her up.

"Can you think as to why?" Wesley asked.

She shook her head. "Give me a minute." She flopped down on the couch, putting an arm over her eyes.Silence hung in the air as they waited for Cordy to recover. Their impatience translated into the soft rustling of clothing and shuffling of feet.

Aidan moved closer to his mother. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Yes, she's had a vision," Ceara said.

"Oh." Aidan observed the pain readily visible on Cordy's pretty face."They're worse than John's."

"John?" Wesley asked.

"John Lays Hard, our cousin. My co-host on Paranormal Investigations. You remember him."

"Ah yes, the young man Cordy was drooling over," Wesley said.

"I never drooled." Cordy overcame her headache enough to glare.

"John's had visions most of his life but they're not painful and debilitating like Cordelia's," Ceara clarified.

"Lucky him," Cordy muttered, forcing herself upright.

"Maybe because his are naturally occurring and Cordy's come from the Powers That Be," Wesley said then looked at Aidan, noting his wide-eyed stare. "Are you all right, Aidan?"

"Scared some poor woman upstairs before Cordy started screamingÉkinda makes you jumpy, you know." Aidan twisted a plait around his fist then caught himself at that nervous habit and scowled at his hand like it had a mind of its own.

"Fred," Angel said. "She's a little jumpy herself most of the time."

"I didn't mean to scare her," Aidan said.

"I wouldn't worry about it. She's easily spooked," Wesley said.

Cordy tapped the newspaper. "This is her!" she cried.

"What?" Angel pressed closer, trying to see what Cordy did.

"This is her! This is the girl I saw in my vision."

Wesley took the paper before Angel could and unfolded it, reading the cover story. "Jessica Blayne. She was found dead last night. They're calling her death ritualistic but they don't give any details."

"Why would I have a vision about someone it's too late to save?" Cordy moaned. Tears welled up. "It's not fair."

"It says here that she was the first of six young teens taken, three girls, three boys, and she's the first to have turned up. Maybe we're to find the remaining children before they share her fate," Wesley said, dropping the paper to rub her back.

"But I don't have anything more to go on," Cordy said, leaning into his hands.

"That could be a problem," Angel said.

"I'm sorry." Cordy's head sagged forward.

Angel put a big hand on her shoulder, "It's all right, Cordy."

"Can't you meditate or use an inipi to clarify your visions?" Aidan asked, sitting on the stairs. He took the paper and ran and hand over the picture of the girl.

"Clarify? You really are Giles'." Cordy rubbed her face again. "What's an inipi?"

"Sweat bath," Ceara offered.

"I like a good sauna but who has the money for that any more." Cordy pouted.

"Cordy's has no control over her visions," Angel said.

"But we've never actually tried to help clarify or control them. There are exercises out there that might help," Wesley said. Excitement at the thought of more research glinted in his eyes.

"I'd be happy if we could find a way to keep me from getting headaches." She pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You could talk to John, maybe he has a trick or two he could teach you for that," Aidan said.

"Thanks, I just might." Cordy said."Or maybe I'll just have him come back and rub my feet some more.That was awfully nice."

Ceara noticed what Aidan was trying to do with the newspaper. "Are you getting anything from that picture, son?"

He nodded, his plaits swinging. "They found her where she was killed, in a park."

"It doesn't say that," Wesley said, glancing at the article, then realized."I guess I should be used to this by now."

"Is there anything I can do to help, Cordy?" Aidan smiled, showing a wide mouthful of very white straight teeth.

Cordy knew flirting when she saw it and smiled back despite her pain. "No, I just have to wait until this headache goes away so I can get back to organizing those four boxes of books Wesley got from that old lady once we drove the Natyly demon from her library."

"She had an amazing collection of spell books and encyclopedias of demons." Wesley's eyes lit up. "They were her great-grandfather's."

"I could do it for you, Cordy." Aidan turned his blue eyes on her, doing his best puppy dog look. "I'm pretty good with the occult stuff."

Cordy, not one to miss out on having a man do her work for her, beamed and pointed to the stack of boxes in the other room. "Be my guest. We're just aiming for alphabetizing them by title, cross-referencing with authors' name and we're writing them in here so Wes can figure out if he wants to keep them all or not." She handed Aidan the tablet.

"Righto, I can do this." Aidan grinned goofily again and dove into the work.

"Now that's a gentleman," Cordy said, giving Angel and Wes meaningful looks.

"No, that's a walking hormone. All you have to do is bat an eye at him, Cordy, and he'll be your slave." Ceara snickered.

"I like the sound of that." Cordy primped her hair.

"Try not to crush my son too badly." Ceara wagged a finger at the younger woman.

"I think I'll see what I can find out about those disappearances since I don't have to worry about those books now," Wesley said.

"Do you need help?" Ceara asked.

"No, you came here to do some more documenting of the haunts in the Hyperion. Angel can give me a hand, so why don't you go do what you came for," Wesley suggested. "There was one with you on the couch, wasn't there?"

"Yes, but I spoke to her the last time. She's just needy. There are some interesting ghosts in the courtyard. That's where I'll be if you need me," Ceara said, taking up her satchel of tablets and taping equipment and head out into the balmy December sunlight.

---

"It was really cool. I mean, it was sad and really spooky. Mental hospitals are always like that. You can feel them even from a distance, like they soak up misery like a sponge and just let it out all over. Anyhow we didn't know how many ghosts were in there. The legends didn't even come close to documenting half of them. The most powerful one was in the chapel. She drew me right in. A nun, she hung herself in there and it was like I couldn't get free not until she had her say and, crikey, she could yabber. I filled half a tablet with all she said and then there was this one who threw himself off the roof and impaled himself on the fencing," Aidan said, practically bouncing in his seat in Angel's office.

"Aidan, breathe please," Ceara ordered, stirring honey into her tea. Cordy sat across from her, sipping at her own tea. "Remind him of that from time to time, Angel, if you're not already tired of his stories."

Angel hazarded a lop-sided smile. "It's all right. It's interesting."

"Well, he's been a yakkabox for four days now. I figured you might be getting tired of him now." Ceara grinned and handed a cup of tea to Gunn who sat next to Angel. He was quietly listening to her son's tale as well. She thought he was mildly amused by Aidan. Fred was absorbed in something she was tinkering with. Ceara couldn't guess at its use.

"Mum!" Aidan groaned, flipping his plaits back over his shoulder.

"Really, it's all right. Let him talk. He reminds me of my sister. She liked to talk," Angel refrained from mentioning he murdered his sister. That memory was like a festering barb under his skin. He noticed Aidan was staring at him. "Is something wrong?"

"Nah, just thinking. The doctors say I'm gonna be real tall and I was just thinking if I do get tall will I have really big feet like yours." Aidan pointed at Angel's boots.

"I don't have big feet." Angel glanced down at them.

"Ah, Angel, yes you do." Cordy said, struggling not to laugh. Gunn couldn't be bothered with that, all but rolling. Fred looked up from her gadget and nodded agreement to Cordy's words. "Too big really. I've always wondered where you found shoes for them."

Angel shuffled his feet. "They are not too big!"

"Don't worry about it, Aidan. You look like you're perfectly proportioned.I bet you'll be really handsome when you're done growing," Cordy said.

He blushed, running a hand along the blue streak that he had put in his hair framing his face. "Thanks."

"If you're done embarrassing Angel, son, would you like to go up to 205 with me and talk to the old man there?" Ceara asked. "It's been sort of slow around here."

"Not so slow any more," Wesley said, coming into the room. He held up the day's paper. "They found two more of those kids."

"Dead?" Angel asked, getting to his feet still looking down at them.

"Unfortunately."

"Strewth," Aidan muttered. "That's bad."

"I tried working with your cousin but I still couldn't get any more than that girl's face." Cordy's gaze dropped. "I want to do more."

"We know, Cordy. We're not blaming you." Wesley took her hand but she pulled away, angry with herself. Wesley stepped back to give her space."Another two children were taken last night as well."

"Could this be demons?" Fred asked. "I mean, there has to be demons who want kids, right?"

"I don't think we have enough information to say but with the ritualistic overtonesÉmaybe not. Maybe someone is trying to raise a demon or could just be the next serial killer out of the box," Wesley said. "We don't really have enough to go on."

"But the Powers That Be want us to do something about this or Cordy wouldn't have had that vision," Gunn pointed out.

"Wes, what do you know about the child that was taken?" Angel asked.

Before Wesley could respond Cordy shrieked and collapsed backwards. Gunn caught her. They rode the vision out with her, it having become an all-too familiar thing. Cordy's thrashings slowly died.

Gunn stroked her hair. "Do you need some aspirin Cordy?"

She pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. "Doesn't help much."

"What did you see?" Angel asked, crouching next to her.

"More kidsÉthey're not here anymore."

"Do you know where they took them?" Wesley asked.

"Yes, it was like a clip show of back home. They're taking the kids to Sunnydale." Cordy looked at them all with horrified eyes.

Angel rocked back on his heels. "Sunnydale."

"I'm sure of it." She sounded almost apologetic.

"I'll call the Sunnydale police and see if there are any children missing," Wesley said heading out of the room.

"How can I go back there?" Angel asked so softly they barely heard him.

"We don't have a choice if that's where they're taking the kids," Cordy said, letting Gunn and Ceara help her up.

"If we're going to go to the Hellmouth, I might be able to help. They wanted my team to investigate some places there. You never know what the ghosts will tell you about what's happening around them," Ceara said.

"It's dangerous there," Angel said. His dark eyes bore into Ceara, giving her warning.

She flipped her long hair out of her eyes. "I'm aware of that. The show would have taken me there anyhow. My cousins' band will be playing some gigs down there before hitting San Diego, too. They obviously have the tour manager from hell. I wasn't going to be able to avoid Sunnydale this time around."

Wesley came back. "They have two kids missing from the junior high. The police of course wouldn't comment. Not so with the local reporters. "

"I guess we're going to be heading for Sunnydale," Angel said, rubbing a hand over his face. "I'm not sure I'm ready for this."

"Mum, isn't Dad in Sunnydale?" Aidan asked. "We're not supposed to let him know about me."

"He was in England last I heard. He went back after Buffy went away. I can double check for you," Wesley said.

"I'd appreciate it. If Rupert is in Sunnydale, we'll just have to find a place for Aidan to stay here in L.A," Ceara said.

"Mum!" Aidan started but stopped when his mother glared. She knew he wanted to meet his father but if that were to ever happen she wanted to prepare Rupert for it.

"He can stay here at the hotel with Fred. She won't be coming with us." Angel said then seeing Ceara's look of horror at the idea, added, "I can have Kate look in on them both."

"It'll be fun. You can help me with my inventions," Fred bubbled.

Aidan gave her a dubious look. "Does it have to involve math?"

"Yes." Fred said, her eyes glowing at the prospect of doing equations. Aidan grimaced.

"Don't worry, kid. I'll be here, too. I'll stick around and see if I can dig up anything else here. Podunk little towns aren't my speed and someone has to keep watch here," Gunn said, chucking Aidan's shoulder. The boy gave him a grateful look.

Ceara gave them all a grateful look. "Thanks."

"Cordy, you might want to give Willow a call and tell her we're coming to town. Angel, we need to figure out a place where we all could stay," Wesley said.

"Of course. If it's in good enough condition still, the mansion would hold us all easily," Angel said.

"Good. We'll try to have an alternative just in case it is not," Wesley said and got to work.