Teacher's Pet (Angel/VM Crossover)
Fic Title: Teacher's Pet
Author: total_fangirl
Rating: PG-13 for language
Word Count: 2665
Spoilers: All of “Angel” and everything up to and including “Welcome Wagon” on Veronica Mars
Summary: Veronica Mars can’t stand her TA, Connor Reilly. But a night spent celebrating where he’s at makes her start to wonder if she’s completely wrong about him.
A/N: This is set at Hearst College in Neptune; other than that, very little actual Veronica Mars knowledge is needed. Let’s also assume that Los Angeles wasn’t left in ruins.
A/N2: Written for the cya_ficathon. This was my first ever crossover so please be kind. Also, so sorry that this is as late as it is!
The Request: Veronica Mars gets to college and meets an older student. His name is Connor, and she thinks there's something mysterious about his family.
She had met him in her criminology class; he was the TA to the renowned Dr. Landry. She had hardly given him in a second glance; skeletal with shaggy hair wasn’t her type and besides, she was still with Logan. It wasn’t until after she had solved Dr. Landry’s murder mystery without ever leaving her seat that she realized he was watching her, an enigmatic smile tugging at the corner of his lip. She has given him a challenging look, daring him to say something derogatory to her, but instead he had just inclined his head and turned towards Dr. Landry to accept the stack of papers that the professor wanted passed out.
When he handed her a copy, the still anonymous TA had whispered, “Not bad for a small-town princess.”
Indignation was not a strong enough emotion for what exploded in Veronica in that moment. By the time the shock of his words had worn off, he was already down the aisle and she knew that she was going to have one hell of a semester with that jackass around.
The syllabus said that his name was Connor Reilly and he was a grad student in Criminology that lived off-campus. A little digging revealed that he had graduated early from UCLA, that his ultimate goal was to be a profiler, and he was originally from Los Angeles. It wasn’t much, but Veronica was a firm believer in knowing your enemy in order to defeat them.
“Why did you let this guy get to you?” Logan Echolls queried as Veronica took a seat next to him in the spacious Hearst cafeteria. “He’s just some jerk-off grad student.”
“It was the condescension! ‘Small-town princess…’ He’s lucky I didn’t taser his ass,” she declared taking an angry bite out of her burger.
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Logan said, “I’m sorry that your first class with Landry sucked. I know you wanted it to be awesome.”
Before Veronica could reply, she spotted the man in question entering the food court talking with a brunette that made Logan’s eyes bulge in silent appreciation. Veronica knew the brunette; she was a sophomore in Veronica’s journalism class. Dawn, she thought her name was. But her boyfriend’s interest in the long-legged upperclassman was not what had drawn her attention; no, it was Connor Reilly, who was now eyeing her with no subtlety. And, while Veronica wasn’t upset at Logan gawking at Dawn, he immediately swung a possessive arm around Veronica’s shoulders and declared, “What a punk.”
It was all Veronica could do not to roll her eyes.
* * *
“You know who she is?” Connor queried as he and Dawn Summers took a seat in one of the more private booths.
Dawn twisted her head slightly and spotted the blonde easily. She couldn’t help but snicker; only Connor, the eternally clueless man that he was, would not know who Veronica Mars was. “Are you kidding?”
“Does this look like my kidding face?”
“Veronica Mars,” the younger Summers sister informed him. “She’s a freshman, she’s Logan Echolls’s girlfriend, and she’s big news around here.”
“Why?”
“You are unbelievable.”
“What?!”
“How can you study criminals and not have heard of Veronica Mars? She was Lilly Kane’s best friend; she was the one who caught Aaron Echolls. She also solved the Neptune bus crash last year. Her dad used to be the sheriff and then he got fired during the Lilly Kane case. They run a PI firm now. A friend of mine hired her dad last year. Real nice guy.”
“Interesting.”
Dawn had gotten to know Connor well ever since Angel and Buffy had reunited, and, in that time, whenever Connor said a girl was “interesting,” it inevitably meant that he would be trying to get into her pants in no time flat. For all of his quietness and unimposing presence, Connor had inherited Angel’s ability to charm women with ease. If Dawn had had any even the slightest attraction to Connor-which she didn’t, because, ew, gross, considering he was technically her nephew now-she would’ve fallen for his game.
But Veronica, Dawn was certain, would not. After all, when Logan Echolls is your boyfriend, how do you trade up?
* * *
“This paper is the work of a dilettante,” Connor stated flatly six weeks later as Veronica sat in the chair before Dr. Landry’s desk. “It’s rambling, there’s no clear theme, and I won’t even start in on the mixed metaphors you used.”
“What?!” Veronica exclaimed. “That’s an A paper! I worked hard on that!”
“The amount of work you put in doesn’t necessarily contribute to the quality of the work.”
“Well, thank you for that platitude from Teaching for Dummies, but that doesn’t mean anything! That is an A paper! I did everything I was supposed, proved everything you asked for, the research was flawless-“
“The studies you used were outdated and Dr. Landry has proven with his own studies that they’re wrong,” Connor flatly interrupted, sliding the paper with the bright red C- towards her. “Dr. Landry is allowing you to make the necessary corrections and perhaps we can raise your grade, unless you find that grade acceptable.”
Fury burning through her, Veronica snapped, “Of course this grade isn’t acceptable! This is bullshit! You’re doing this to me because you don’t like me! You think I don’t see through you?”
“Oh, I forgot. You’re Veronica Mars; you see everything.”
Veronica began to quake with anger, every muscle tightening as she spat, “Who do you think you are?”
Rolling his eyes, he replied, “I know exactly who I am, Miss Mars. It seems to me that you don’t. You are the student, and I grade your papers. Maybe if you climbed off your boyfriend every once and awhile, you’d know that.”
Jumping to her feet, Connor following in turn, she got into his face and growled, “Do you even know how inappropriate that was? Can you say sexual harassment? When I tell Dr. Landry-“
The rest of her words were lost as Connor’s mouth covered her own, practically mauling her. Veronica’s first instinct was to raise her knee and make him cry out in pain, but then he pulled back and panted, “That is sexual harassment. I’ll see you in class.”
Veronica stood there, stunned not a strong enough word to describe what she felt.
* * *
She did not want to be intrigued by him. He was cocky and insulting and he thought he was smarter than she was; all of these were characteristics that Veronica just couldn’t abide by in people. And yet…he wasn’t any of those things at all. When she saw him in the cafeteria with Dawn-whom she knew wasn’t his girlfriend because she was dating that older guy with the pirate eye patch and it wasn’t like she cared if Dawn was-he seemed to relax, be someone else entirely. Not that she cared…not even a little…
Wallace told her she was nuts, and Veronica was starting to agree. Even after he had attacked her with that kiss, he still treated her as if he could care less, and it angered her. You didn’t kiss a girl like that and then ignore her…not that she wanted him to kiss her again.
Yeah, and maybe Lilly Kane had died a virgin.
Keith had been the one who suggested they go out to dinner at The Seaside Café in San Diego to celebrate landing a bail jumper that had reaped a $20,000 reward. Veronica had put on the lightweight, red cotton dress with yellow flowers that Logan had bought her last year, and Keith made a big production of tipping the hostess so they could have one of tables on the patio. It was amusing to see her father acting like this, but, ever since her mother had run off with their money, things had been a bit tight. No matter how outrageous it was, Keith wanted to show her that things were okay.
Her father opened the menu and then immediately whistled. “What do you think they do to chicken to make it cost $50?”
“Well, it was probably purebred and, you know, covered in gold dust.”
Keith grinned. “Order it if you want.”
Veronica rolled her eyes. They hadn’t even finished their overpriced drinks and Keith’s oh-so-subtle inquiries into the state of her and Logan’s relationship before his cell phone rang. After a moment, he sighed and began, “Veronica-“
“Go, Dad. Make more money so next time we can order the gold chicken and the diamond encrusted cheeseburger.”
“There’s no reason you shouldn’t get your dinner.” Handing her some bills, he said, “Just call a cab and-“
“Dad, go! The longer you wait, the further the jumper gets.”
Keith Mars grinned, pressing a kiss to her forehead and declaring her the world’s greatest daughter, before disappearing out of the restaurant. With a sigh, Veronica got to her feet, prepared to leave when someone called out, “Veronica!”
Turning, there stood Dawn Summers, draped in a blue dress that was designed to make women that weren’t as leggy as she feel inferior, hanging on the arm of a blonde girl with an outrageously large diamond ring on her left hand.
“Hey, Dawn.”
“Was that your dad?”
“Yeah, he had to go for work.”
“You have dinner yet?”
“No, but-“
“Well, you should have dinner with us! We have the big room to celebrate and a million pounds of food, and the more, the merrier!”
“I don’t want to impose-“
“It’s totally not an imposition, right, Buffy?”
The blonde just shrugged with a laugh. “Of course not.”
“Great!” As Dawn began to head back towards the room that was closed for the private party, somewhat unsteady on her feet, the blonde-Buffy if Veronica had heard correctly-confirmed, “Dawnie’s had a bit too much to drink. I’m Buffy Reilly, Dawn’s sister.”
“Veronica Mars. Dawn and I have class together.”
“She’s mentioned you. You’re a private investigator, right?”
“My dad is. I just help sometimes.”
“Still, it takes a lot to help.”
There seemed to be a subtext to the sentence that Veronica wasn’t quite grasping, so she said, “What’s the celebration for?”
A warm grin slowly spreading across her face, Buffy pressed a hand against her flat stomach before confiding, “I’m pregnant, and my husband…has gone completely crazy in announcing it to everyone we’ve ever met.”
“Congratulations.”
Dawn hadn’t lied; there were dozens of people in the room, most of them female, most of them around Dawn and Veronica’s age. A few looked older, like the redhead who was laughing with Captain Eye Patch and the busty brunette that was engaging in serious PDA with the bald, black man in a corner. Dawn was coming towards her bearing a flute of champagne for her while Buffy went towards a man that could only be defined as tall, dark, and handsome, who greeted her with a hearty kiss, as if she had gone to war instead of the bathroom.
“That’s Angel, Buffy’s husband,” Dawn informed her. “They’re disgustingly in love.”
Veronica smiled. “What, you and your boyfriend aren’t?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“I thought that the guy with the eye patch-“
“Who, Xander?! Oh, god no! He’s Buffy’s best friend and insanely overprotective of me.” Tossing an arm around her shoulders, she said, “Let me introduce you around. I guarantee that we’re way more interesting than any of the Neptune folk.”
Veronica had highly doubted that until she began to meet the others. The redhead was Willow, who smelled like herbs and was dating a woman named Kennedy that Dawn appeared to dislike; the busty brunette was Faith and her partner in tonsil hockey was Robin; Spike, who had a thick accent and a leer that made her simultaneously uncomfortable and a little flattered, had only spoken to them for a few minutes before drawling, “Another mouthy, little blonde…no wonder he likes you.”
Veronica had no idea who he meant until she saw Connor enter the room, looking somewhat uncomfortable in his dress shirt and khakis. He pressed a kiss to Buffy’s cheek, handing her a plush toy, and exchange a cool handshake with Angel. It was only then that things started to click.
“Is Connor your brother-in-law?”
Dawn blinked. “Hmm?”
“Well, your sister’s married name is Reilly, and Connor’s last name is Reilly, and you guys are always together. Is he Angel’s brother?”
“No, his son.”
“What?”
That didn’t make sense. Connor was, at least, twenty-two; Angel was thirty if she was rounding up. There was no physical way that Connor was his son, even if he had gotten started supremely early. It couldn’t have been just a drunken slip on Dawn’s part, not like the way she had slurred in a whisper that Spike was a vampire.
Connor spotted her standing alongside Dawn and grinned, surprise glimmering in his eyes. As he made his way over, Veronica couldn’t help but notice that Dawn immediately went in the other direction, leaving her standing open as the TA from hell came towards her.
“I never figured you for a baby shower crasher.”
“I never figured you for the kind of guy that bought fluffy pink pigs.”
Connor smiled. “Buffy likes pigs.”
Trying not to be obvious about it, Veronica declared, “She doesn’t seem like she’d be a bad stepmom.”
Connor froze. “Who told you she was my stepmom?”
“Dawn said Angel was your dad, so that would make Buffy your stepmom.”
His voice becoming rough, he gritted out, “Dawn shouldn’t have said that.”
Surprised, Veronica pressed, “So Angel is your dad?”
Finally meeting her gaze for the first time since they had met, Veronica saw the vulnerability in his eyes, the way that fear was starting to flood in around the edges. It was as if he was full of stories that he had never dared to breathe, secrets that were bubbling inside of him, wanting desperately to escape but held back from years of practice.
Veronica knew that look; she saw it every time she looked in the mirror.
“I can keep a secret,” she offered.
His smile was anything but happy. “Don’t you get tired of having to?”
“Depends on the secret.”
“You ever tell Logan I kissed you?”
“Did he ever punch you?”
“No.”
“Then I never told him.”
She managed to avoid pulling away as he lifted a hand, gently tracing the curve of her cheekbone. “You would keep my secrets, wouldn’t you?”
Veronica nodded.
Connor moved in, brushing a gentle kiss across her lips. Veronica leaned into, trying to extend the contact despite her relationship with Logan, but Connor carefully moved away, a mask descending over his face.
“Go home, Veronica. You don’t belong in this world.”
And then he left her to stare after him, her fingers brushing across her lips, feeling the ghost of his kiss.
* * *
Connor wasn’t in the next class or the one after that. After not seeing him for a week, Veronica finally stayed after class to talk to Dr. Landry. When she asked where Connor was, he didn’t even cease packing up his lecture materials as he informed her, “He’s decided to take the rest of the semester off, start next semester back in Los Angeles. I’m sad to see him go.”
The next natural step was to go to Dawn, but when Veronica reached the sorority house, she was gone too. It was as if every trace of him had disappeared with no way of finding out what had happened.
She never even considered his and Dawn’s disappearances had anything to do with the three bodies that washed up on the beach with strange wounds or the “terrorist activity” that had causes a small military group to spend a few days in the area, making sure everyone was safe. No, Veronica never considered that had anything to do with their disappearances because after all, Connor had been right.
She didn’t belong in that world.
Author: total_fangirl
Rating: PG-13 for language
Word Count: 2665
Spoilers: All of “Angel” and everything up to and including “Welcome Wagon” on Veronica Mars
Summary: Veronica Mars can’t stand her TA, Connor Reilly. But a night spent celebrating where he’s at makes her start to wonder if she’s completely wrong about him.
A/N: This is set at Hearst College in Neptune; other than that, very little actual Veronica Mars knowledge is needed. Let’s also assume that Los Angeles wasn’t left in ruins.
A/N2: Written for the cya_ficathon. This was my first ever crossover so please be kind. Also, so sorry that this is as late as it is!
The Request: Veronica Mars gets to college and meets an older student. His name is Connor, and she thinks there's something mysterious about his family.
She had met him in her criminology class; he was the TA to the renowned Dr. Landry. She had hardly given him in a second glance; skeletal with shaggy hair wasn’t her type and besides, she was still with Logan. It wasn’t until after she had solved Dr. Landry’s murder mystery without ever leaving her seat that she realized he was watching her, an enigmatic smile tugging at the corner of his lip. She has given him a challenging look, daring him to say something derogatory to her, but instead he had just inclined his head and turned towards Dr. Landry to accept the stack of papers that the professor wanted passed out.
When he handed her a copy, the still anonymous TA had whispered, “Not bad for a small-town princess.”
Indignation was not a strong enough emotion for what exploded in Veronica in that moment. By the time the shock of his words had worn off, he was already down the aisle and she knew that she was going to have one hell of a semester with that jackass around.
The syllabus said that his name was Connor Reilly and he was a grad student in Criminology that lived off-campus. A little digging revealed that he had graduated early from UCLA, that his ultimate goal was to be a profiler, and he was originally from Los Angeles. It wasn’t much, but Veronica was a firm believer in knowing your enemy in order to defeat them.
“Why did you let this guy get to you?” Logan Echolls queried as Veronica took a seat next to him in the spacious Hearst cafeteria. “He’s just some jerk-off grad student.”
“It was the condescension! ‘Small-town princess…’ He’s lucky I didn’t taser his ass,” she declared taking an angry bite out of her burger.
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Logan said, “I’m sorry that your first class with Landry sucked. I know you wanted it to be awesome.”
Before Veronica could reply, she spotted the man in question entering the food court talking with a brunette that made Logan’s eyes bulge in silent appreciation. Veronica knew the brunette; she was a sophomore in Veronica’s journalism class. Dawn, she thought her name was. But her boyfriend’s interest in the long-legged upperclassman was not what had drawn her attention; no, it was Connor Reilly, who was now eyeing her with no subtlety. And, while Veronica wasn’t upset at Logan gawking at Dawn, he immediately swung a possessive arm around Veronica’s shoulders and declared, “What a punk.”
It was all Veronica could do not to roll her eyes.
* * *
“You know who she is?” Connor queried as he and Dawn Summers took a seat in one of the more private booths.
Dawn twisted her head slightly and spotted the blonde easily. She couldn’t help but snicker; only Connor, the eternally clueless man that he was, would not know who Veronica Mars was. “Are you kidding?”
“Does this look like my kidding face?”
“Veronica Mars,” the younger Summers sister informed him. “She’s a freshman, she’s Logan Echolls’s girlfriend, and she’s big news around here.”
“Why?”
“You are unbelievable.”
“What?!”
“How can you study criminals and not have heard of Veronica Mars? She was Lilly Kane’s best friend; she was the one who caught Aaron Echolls. She also solved the Neptune bus crash last year. Her dad used to be the sheriff and then he got fired during the Lilly Kane case. They run a PI firm now. A friend of mine hired her dad last year. Real nice guy.”
“Interesting.”
Dawn had gotten to know Connor well ever since Angel and Buffy had reunited, and, in that time, whenever Connor said a girl was “interesting,” it inevitably meant that he would be trying to get into her pants in no time flat. For all of his quietness and unimposing presence, Connor had inherited Angel’s ability to charm women with ease. If Dawn had had any even the slightest attraction to Connor-which she didn’t, because, ew, gross, considering he was technically her nephew now-she would’ve fallen for his game.
But Veronica, Dawn was certain, would not. After all, when Logan Echolls is your boyfriend, how do you trade up?
* * *
“This paper is the work of a dilettante,” Connor stated flatly six weeks later as Veronica sat in the chair before Dr. Landry’s desk. “It’s rambling, there’s no clear theme, and I won’t even start in on the mixed metaphors you used.”
“What?!” Veronica exclaimed. “That’s an A paper! I worked hard on that!”
“The amount of work you put in doesn’t necessarily contribute to the quality of the work.”
“Well, thank you for that platitude from Teaching for Dummies, but that doesn’t mean anything! That is an A paper! I did everything I was supposed, proved everything you asked for, the research was flawless-“
“The studies you used were outdated and Dr. Landry has proven with his own studies that they’re wrong,” Connor flatly interrupted, sliding the paper with the bright red C- towards her. “Dr. Landry is allowing you to make the necessary corrections and perhaps we can raise your grade, unless you find that grade acceptable.”
Fury burning through her, Veronica snapped, “Of course this grade isn’t acceptable! This is bullshit! You’re doing this to me because you don’t like me! You think I don’t see through you?”
“Oh, I forgot. You’re Veronica Mars; you see everything.”
Veronica began to quake with anger, every muscle tightening as she spat, “Who do you think you are?”
Rolling his eyes, he replied, “I know exactly who I am, Miss Mars. It seems to me that you don’t. You are the student, and I grade your papers. Maybe if you climbed off your boyfriend every once and awhile, you’d know that.”
Jumping to her feet, Connor following in turn, she got into his face and growled, “Do you even know how inappropriate that was? Can you say sexual harassment? When I tell Dr. Landry-“
The rest of her words were lost as Connor’s mouth covered her own, practically mauling her. Veronica’s first instinct was to raise her knee and make him cry out in pain, but then he pulled back and panted, “That is sexual harassment. I’ll see you in class.”
Veronica stood there, stunned not a strong enough word to describe what she felt.
* * *
She did not want to be intrigued by him. He was cocky and insulting and he thought he was smarter than she was; all of these were characteristics that Veronica just couldn’t abide by in people. And yet…he wasn’t any of those things at all. When she saw him in the cafeteria with Dawn-whom she knew wasn’t his girlfriend because she was dating that older guy with the pirate eye patch and it wasn’t like she cared if Dawn was-he seemed to relax, be someone else entirely. Not that she cared…not even a little…
Wallace told her she was nuts, and Veronica was starting to agree. Even after he had attacked her with that kiss, he still treated her as if he could care less, and it angered her. You didn’t kiss a girl like that and then ignore her…not that she wanted him to kiss her again.
Yeah, and maybe Lilly Kane had died a virgin.
Keith had been the one who suggested they go out to dinner at The Seaside Café in San Diego to celebrate landing a bail jumper that had reaped a $20,000 reward. Veronica had put on the lightweight, red cotton dress with yellow flowers that Logan had bought her last year, and Keith made a big production of tipping the hostess so they could have one of tables on the patio. It was amusing to see her father acting like this, but, ever since her mother had run off with their money, things had been a bit tight. No matter how outrageous it was, Keith wanted to show her that things were okay.
Her father opened the menu and then immediately whistled. “What do you think they do to chicken to make it cost $50?”
“Well, it was probably purebred and, you know, covered in gold dust.”
Keith grinned. “Order it if you want.”
Veronica rolled her eyes. They hadn’t even finished their overpriced drinks and Keith’s oh-so-subtle inquiries into the state of her and Logan’s relationship before his cell phone rang. After a moment, he sighed and began, “Veronica-“
“Go, Dad. Make more money so next time we can order the gold chicken and the diamond encrusted cheeseburger.”
“There’s no reason you shouldn’t get your dinner.” Handing her some bills, he said, “Just call a cab and-“
“Dad, go! The longer you wait, the further the jumper gets.”
Keith Mars grinned, pressing a kiss to her forehead and declaring her the world’s greatest daughter, before disappearing out of the restaurant. With a sigh, Veronica got to her feet, prepared to leave when someone called out, “Veronica!”
Turning, there stood Dawn Summers, draped in a blue dress that was designed to make women that weren’t as leggy as she feel inferior, hanging on the arm of a blonde girl with an outrageously large diamond ring on her left hand.
“Hey, Dawn.”
“Was that your dad?”
“Yeah, he had to go for work.”
“You have dinner yet?”
“No, but-“
“Well, you should have dinner with us! We have the big room to celebrate and a million pounds of food, and the more, the merrier!”
“I don’t want to impose-“
“It’s totally not an imposition, right, Buffy?”
The blonde just shrugged with a laugh. “Of course not.”
“Great!” As Dawn began to head back towards the room that was closed for the private party, somewhat unsteady on her feet, the blonde-Buffy if Veronica had heard correctly-confirmed, “Dawnie’s had a bit too much to drink. I’m Buffy Reilly, Dawn’s sister.”
“Veronica Mars. Dawn and I have class together.”
“She’s mentioned you. You’re a private investigator, right?”
“My dad is. I just help sometimes.”
“Still, it takes a lot to help.”
There seemed to be a subtext to the sentence that Veronica wasn’t quite grasping, so she said, “What’s the celebration for?”
A warm grin slowly spreading across her face, Buffy pressed a hand against her flat stomach before confiding, “I’m pregnant, and my husband…has gone completely crazy in announcing it to everyone we’ve ever met.”
“Congratulations.”
Dawn hadn’t lied; there were dozens of people in the room, most of them female, most of them around Dawn and Veronica’s age. A few looked older, like the redhead who was laughing with Captain Eye Patch and the busty brunette that was engaging in serious PDA with the bald, black man in a corner. Dawn was coming towards her bearing a flute of champagne for her while Buffy went towards a man that could only be defined as tall, dark, and handsome, who greeted her with a hearty kiss, as if she had gone to war instead of the bathroom.
“That’s Angel, Buffy’s husband,” Dawn informed her. “They’re disgustingly in love.”
Veronica smiled. “What, you and your boyfriend aren’t?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“I thought that the guy with the eye patch-“
“Who, Xander?! Oh, god no! He’s Buffy’s best friend and insanely overprotective of me.” Tossing an arm around her shoulders, she said, “Let me introduce you around. I guarantee that we’re way more interesting than any of the Neptune folk.”
Veronica had highly doubted that until she began to meet the others. The redhead was Willow, who smelled like herbs and was dating a woman named Kennedy that Dawn appeared to dislike; the busty brunette was Faith and her partner in tonsil hockey was Robin; Spike, who had a thick accent and a leer that made her simultaneously uncomfortable and a little flattered, had only spoken to them for a few minutes before drawling, “Another mouthy, little blonde…no wonder he likes you.”
Veronica had no idea who he meant until she saw Connor enter the room, looking somewhat uncomfortable in his dress shirt and khakis. He pressed a kiss to Buffy’s cheek, handing her a plush toy, and exchange a cool handshake with Angel. It was only then that things started to click.
“Is Connor your brother-in-law?”
Dawn blinked. “Hmm?”
“Well, your sister’s married name is Reilly, and Connor’s last name is Reilly, and you guys are always together. Is he Angel’s brother?”
“No, his son.”
“What?”
That didn’t make sense. Connor was, at least, twenty-two; Angel was thirty if she was rounding up. There was no physical way that Connor was his son, even if he had gotten started supremely early. It couldn’t have been just a drunken slip on Dawn’s part, not like the way she had slurred in a whisper that Spike was a vampire.
Connor spotted her standing alongside Dawn and grinned, surprise glimmering in his eyes. As he made his way over, Veronica couldn’t help but notice that Dawn immediately went in the other direction, leaving her standing open as the TA from hell came towards her.
“I never figured you for a baby shower crasher.”
“I never figured you for the kind of guy that bought fluffy pink pigs.”
Connor smiled. “Buffy likes pigs.”
Trying not to be obvious about it, Veronica declared, “She doesn’t seem like she’d be a bad stepmom.”
Connor froze. “Who told you she was my stepmom?”
“Dawn said Angel was your dad, so that would make Buffy your stepmom.”
His voice becoming rough, he gritted out, “Dawn shouldn’t have said that.”
Surprised, Veronica pressed, “So Angel is your dad?”
Finally meeting her gaze for the first time since they had met, Veronica saw the vulnerability in his eyes, the way that fear was starting to flood in around the edges. It was as if he was full of stories that he had never dared to breathe, secrets that were bubbling inside of him, wanting desperately to escape but held back from years of practice.
Veronica knew that look; she saw it every time she looked in the mirror.
“I can keep a secret,” she offered.
His smile was anything but happy. “Don’t you get tired of having to?”
“Depends on the secret.”
“You ever tell Logan I kissed you?”
“Did he ever punch you?”
“No.”
“Then I never told him.”
She managed to avoid pulling away as he lifted a hand, gently tracing the curve of her cheekbone. “You would keep my secrets, wouldn’t you?”
Veronica nodded.
Connor moved in, brushing a gentle kiss across her lips. Veronica leaned into, trying to extend the contact despite her relationship with Logan, but Connor carefully moved away, a mask descending over his face.
“Go home, Veronica. You don’t belong in this world.”
And then he left her to stare after him, her fingers brushing across her lips, feeling the ghost of his kiss.
* * *
Connor wasn’t in the next class or the one after that. After not seeing him for a week, Veronica finally stayed after class to talk to Dr. Landry. When she asked where Connor was, he didn’t even cease packing up his lecture materials as he informed her, “He’s decided to take the rest of the semester off, start next semester back in Los Angeles. I’m sad to see him go.”
The next natural step was to go to Dawn, but when Veronica reached the sorority house, she was gone too. It was as if every trace of him had disappeared with no way of finding out what had happened.
She never even considered his and Dawn’s disappearances had anything to do with the three bodies that washed up on the beach with strange wounds or the “terrorist activity” that had causes a small military group to spend a few days in the area, making sure everyone was safe. No, Veronica never considered that had anything to do with their disappearances because after all, Connor had been right.
She didn’t belong in that world.