In the morning Dr. Silverstein looked at all three of them. "You seem to be okay with no ill effects from the tranquilizer darts. I'll have these analyzed, but they shouldn't have hurt the baby at all. Kate, don't travel too late in your pregnancy. This is a second child, and it may come quickly. Giving birth on an airplane is not a good idea." He gave Patty a lollipop and shook Lindsey's hand. "Good luck."

Patty had never been on an airplane before, and she was very excited. Lindsey sat by the window with Patty on his lap so she could see. She was fascinated by the clouds and the Gulf of Mexico. After a while, though, she fell asleep in her father's arms.

Although they had planned to take a taxi to the Hyperion, they found someone waiting for them outside the gate. Wesley stood there waiting, a beautiful and very pregnant young woman by his side. "Lindsey! Kate! Over here."

As they approached, Wes held out his hand. "Welcome back to L.A. Sorry about the circumstances, but we'll do everything we can to get your son back." He turned to the young woman. "This is my wife, Fred."

She smiled shyly. "I'm pleased to meet you. I've heard a lot about both of you." She knelt and gave her hand to Patty. "Hi. What's your name?"

"Patricia Mary McDonald. Fred is a funny name."

Fred smiled at the little blonde girl, who was the picture of her mother. "It's short for Winifred."

Winifred! Lindsey thought. His sister's name was Winifred. They had been separated since she was four and he was ten, when the Oklahoma Child Protective Services had taken her and Joey away from them and he and Elaine had gone to live with Aunt Maeve.

"I like that. You're round with a big tummy like Winnie the Pooh."

Lindsey & the rest of the family had called the little girl Winnie the Pooh or just Pooh Bear. What an incredible coincidence—or was it?

Kate bent down. "No, she's pregnant like Mommy." She looked at Fred. "When is your baby due?"

"She should be arriving in about two weeks. And you?"

"Four months."

"You can join our club. Anne Gunn is also pregnant. Angel thinks it's something in the water!" Fred laughed a gentle laugh and Wes joined her.

"We should get going. Shall we get the luggage, Lindsey?" Wes led him to the baggage carousel and then, when they had retrieved their bags, to a black convertible.

"So Angel still has this? I rode in this once, on our way to the body farm. I left L.A. the next night."

"But you came back?"

"There was nothing for me in Oklahoma. Elaine had died years ago, and Dad was dead. I learned Joey had been killed in a convenience store robbery. He had just been trying to buy some soda. And my younger sister was missing." He smiled gently. "I found Kate in L.A."

"I'm glad he came back." Kate had a wistful look on her face. "I don't know what I'd have done without him."

At the Hyperion, Cordelia was amusing her daughter as only she could, floating up and down with her while Groo played with her twin brother.

"Cordelia, come down, please." Cordy gently floated to the ground and handed Mandy to Groo. Then she went over to Angel. "Do you know anything about Kate & Lindsey since they left L.A.?"

"Kate got a job working as head of security for Paul Winters—you know, Mr. Perfect, the star of L.A. Cops. Evidently the ideal husband and father wasn't as faithful to his wife as he pretends to be. He seduced Kate and dumped her when she became pregnant. Somewhere she ran into Lindsey who negotiated a huge settlement for her daughter in exchange for her promise never to reveal the affair. Then they were married. I have no idea where his son came from."

"You amaze me, Cordelia."

"Being a demon has increased my seer powers. But there's some kind of a cloud around the origin of Lindsey's son that I can't penetrate. I know the boy isn't his, but I don't know where he came from. I think that's because Lindsey himself doesn't know."

"Here he comes now. Let's ask him."

Kate and Fred walked in, each one holding one of Patty's hands, while Lindsey & Wes followed with the luggage. Kate's pregnant, too, Angel noticed. Everyone has a child, or will have a child, except for me. Without realizing it, he was humming under his breath.

"Not everyone, Angelcakes." He turned to see Lorne behind him. "I'm sure I'll never have one. I'm afraid it would turn out like Numfar!"

"I miss him so much, Lorne," Angel said so softly that only Lorne could hear. Lorne put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Lindsey, Kate, hello. And hello to you, young lady."

Patty slipped behind her mother. After all, who was this great big man dressed all in black?

"Angel. It's good to see you again," Kate said. "And Cordelia and Gunn."

Gunn, who had been massaging his wife Anne's feet, slid them out of his lap and rose. "Detective."

"No, just Kate."

"Bonny Kate, or sometimes Kate the Curst," Lindsey laughed, quoting The Taming of the Shrew. "But Kate, the fairest Kate in Christendom." He kissed his wife's cheek. Then he turned to Angel. "Honestly, Angel, COPS SUCK? Wasn't that a little juvenile?" He turned to Gunn's wife, "Hi, Anne. You look great. Of course all pregnant women are beautiful."

"I wasn't. I looked like a cow." Cordelia was standing next to a very large and very handsome man who was holding two infants.

"But all humans look like cows," he said, a little bemused.

"No, Groo, not cows as in slaves from Pylea, cows as in the animals in the Gateway commercials." She turned to the newcomers. "This is my husband Groosalug. He's from Pylea just like Lorne. And these are Adam and Amanda, but we call her Mandy after a certain song. . ."

"You'll never let me forget that, will you?" Angel looked down at the ground in embarrassment.

"It was the first song he ever sang at Caritas," Lorne explained. "It was a truly memorable experience, and I mean that in the worst possible way."

Angel gathered everyone around. Patty snuggled up next to Fred. Lindsey took another look at Wes' beautiful young wife. She looked a lot like Elaine. Could it possibly be? He'd have to find out more about her.

"All right, Lindsey. Tell us what happened. We're all part of the Angel Investigations team now."

He cleared his throat. "You know I had gone back to Oklahoma, but there was nothing left there. My brother Joey and my father were dead. My last remaining sibling, my little sister, was missing. So, having nowhere else to go, I came back. I was going to go to San Francisco, but I stopped for breakfast in a diner on the outskirts of L.A. and found Kate. I stayed behind to help her and we fell in love."

"I was desperate. I had just learned I was pregnant and the father was less than overjoyed. Lindsey became my friend and managed to get a settlement out of that lying jerk for Patty's support. I moved in with him and he took care of me, even becoming my Lamaze coach. He didn't ask for anything in return."

"One day when Kate was out shopping, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find Lilah and Linwood Murrow. My first thought was that they had come to take me back to the firm for a torture party. I didn't want to leave Kate when she needed me, and especially now that I had fallen hopelessly in love with her, but I was afraid that it was all over. Can you imagine my surprise when Linwood, who had evidently taken Nathan Reed's place, said they had a proposition for me? If I did one service for them, they'd tear up my contract, which, as I understand Holland told you, Angel, extended beyond death, and I'd be completely free of the firm forever. When I asked them what it entailed, they went to the door and brought in a baby. If I took care of the baby, and took it far away from Los Angeles, not telling anyone where he came from, they'd give me back my life and my soul."

"So you just took this baby without asking anything about him?" Angel frowned at Lindsey. "How stupid are you, McDonald?"

"Of course I asked. They said his parents were dead and it was an inheritance concern. I'd be his legal guardian until they reclaimed him. Linwood gave me a very legal contract and guardianship papers. Everything appeared to be in order. Then I picked the baby up and he touched my face. I fell in love with him then and there. I signed the papers, took my contract (ascertaining that it was the original document I had signed) and burned it, and accepted a large check for travel expenses and for money to get settled until I found a job. I didn't even see them leave. I just sat there, looking at this beautiful little boy. When Kate came home, she was mesmerized by him as well."

"You knew Wolfram & Hart, Lindsey. Surely you had some idea that things weren't what they seemed." Wes looked accusingly at him.

"After they left, Kate and I discussed the situation. She had one or two friends in the LAPD who searched the database to see if there were any missing infants of his age, which was approximately three months, and his description. I called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and asked the same question. We took him to the police lab and had him fingerprinted and footprinted. They took a sample of his blood as well for DNA testing. He didn't match any missing child on their records."

"I thought if we were going to leave, we should do it now while I could still travel. So we decided to go to Florida. We flew to Tampa, had a rental agent find us a temporary place, and settled in."

"I took him to the Missing Children center and did the drill again. I talked to John Walsh himself. There was nothing. He verified that no infant corresponding to Michael, which is what I was calling him, was missing, even going to the FBI database. I've checked in with John on a regular basis. Sometimes people may think that a family is assumed to be traveling or to have moved away or something like that and don't realize that a baby is missing for a while. But there was nothing. Once after I had checked in with John, Lilah called me. ‘Did you really think that Michael would turn up in anyone's database, Lindsey? Good try, though.' Anyway, Patty was born, I found a job with a local law firm, we bought a home, and I paid Wolfram & Hart every penny that they had given me. As Kate had two children six months apart to care for, she became a full-time homemaker. And I finally convinced her to marry me."

"I just had to make sure it was love and not pity."

Lindsey leaned over and pulled his wife close, kissing her. "You know it was never pity, Kate. I hate that emotion. I know what it is to be pitied." Anne materialized at his side with coffee for him, milk for Patty, and a bottle of water for Kate. "Anyway, we became a family. Kate & I had Mike & Patty baptized. I didn't know if they would like it or not, but I hoped it would give him some extra protection. We also started going to Mass again. Mike loved Tampa. He and Patty were in a great nursery school. They had friends. Patty had started ballet lessons. We'd go to the beach a lot. You know it's on the Gulf of Mexico so the water is always warm and much calmer than the ocean. We went to DisneyWorld, Sea World, Busch Gardens, everywhere. And of course baseball games. I was teaching him to play t-ball and Kate was teaching him soccer. . ."

"Until I had this little soccer ball in front of me," Kate said, patting her stomach.

"Every year I kept asking to adopt him, and every year they refused. And then yesterday Lilah showed up with a squad of Wolfram & Hart security. They knocked us out with tranquilizer darts and took Mike."

"Do you have pictures of him, Lindsey?" Wes held out his hand and Lindsey handed him pictures.

"I also have videos of him. He's a wonderful child. You'll see."

Angel took the pictures. He had blonde hair and beautiful delicate features. In fact, he looked just like Darla. "Do you have any of his baby pictures?"

"I have one taken just a few days after we got him." Lindsey removed it from his wallet and handed it to Angel. He didn't see the look on Angel's face darken, as he was lost in his own thoughts.

"Were there any birthmarks or identifying marks?" Angel's voice was ice cold with an edge in it. Everyone except Lindsey, Kate, and Patty looked at him. What did this mean?

"A star-shaped birthmark on his left buttock. That's all. Why?"

Angel jumped from his chair and closed his hands around Lindsey's neck, squeezing with all his strength. "You had my son!!! For five years you've kept my son away from me!!! I'll kill you, McDonald, you son of a b***h!"