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~*~ CHAPTER 2 - Questions ~*~

When Angel woke up, later that afternoon, he was surprised to find Connor's room empty. Almost every day, when he woke up, he would find Connor in his room, reading one of the books he had given him when he had first moved in. They would sit and talk for a while, and then go train until the sun was down before grabbing something to eat and go help the helpless.

Angel looked for Connor in every room and then went downstairs in the training room. His son was nowhere to be found. Angel went to the lobby where the others were talking leisurely.

"Have you guys seen Connor?" he asked, somewhat agitated.

"No" answered Fred.

"Isn't he upstairs?" Cordelia asked.

"No, and not in the training room either".

"Don't worry, man. The kid probably went out shopping or something. Cordelia gave him the virus," Gunn said with a smile, attracting a glare from the half-demon girl.

"Yes, or maybe he went to buy some books," added Fred.

"I don't know," said Angel, still worried. "For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Don't worry, Angel," said Cordelia gently, walking towards him. "If he was in danger, the Powers would probably warn me."

Angel knew it was probably true but the uneasy feeling didn't go away.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"It's been 24 hours," Angel said the next afternoon. "Something happened to him." Fred, Gunn and Cordelia looked at him in silence. They all knew Angel was right.

It was not like Connor to disappear for that long. Actually, since the 'coffin incident', it was not like Connor to disappear at all.

"We have to look for him. Cordelia, you stay here in case he shows up. Fred, Gunn, get on the streets and check out the usual places we hang out."

"And you? What are you going to do?" Gunn asked.

"Pay a visit to our friends at Wolfram & Hart."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It had been a very long day and Gavin was definitely getting on Lilah's nerves. He was so vain, barely competent, she was surprised he hadn't been fired yet.

Distracted, Lilah walked to her car in the underground garage. She was pushing the button to disengage the alarm when someone grabbed her and slammed her against the car. She dropped the key set and the file she was holding in her hand.

"Angel." She said in a casual tone, like he had politely greeted her instead of strongly holding her by the throat.

"Where is he?" Angel asked through clenched teeth.

"Who?" Lilah's tone was clearly indifferent, almost bored.

"You know who."

"Actually, I don't."

"My son" hissed Angel.

Lilah raised an amused eyebrow.

"What? Did Junior disappear?"

"Where did you take him?"

"Believe me, as much as I would like to claim credit for that, I have absolutely no idea where your son is.

Angel watched her closely for a few second, before releasing her. His guts told him she was telling the truth.

"If I hear that you have anything to do with his disappearance, I will hunt you down. You tried with Cordelia, don't even start to think about this with Connor" he said for good measure.

Without waiting for her reply, he left. He had a lot of places to search for his son.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Angel Investigations, we help the helpless."

"Cordelia? It's Willow."

"Willow, hi! I just got your message and wanted to call you back. We've been kind of busy, here."

"It's ok. How have you been?"

"Good. Somewhere in another dimension.again. Long story. What about you? And Tara?"

There was a silence.

"Tara's dead. She's been shot a few months ago."

"Oh, Willow, I'm so sorry! I knew how much you loved her. Things aren't going too well here either."

"Well, things got pretty ugly in Sunnydale too, partly because of me. It took some time for us to recover. But it's better now. Sort of. That's why I called you."

"How can I help you?"

"Dawn has left. Yesterday. We don't know exactly what happened, but she took her bag, and left Buffy a letter."

"You must be kidding. Connor did exactly the same thing. Only he didn't leave a note. Angel thought it was the evil law firm we're fighting who kidnapped him, but I'm more and more convinced he ran off."

"Wow, Cordelia, hold on a minute. What do you mean, Connor ran off? Isn't he supposed to be a baby?"

"Oh, that's right. You don't know. Well."

Cordelia proceeded to tell the whole story to Willow.

"I can see that life in Los Angeles is far from boring" Willow said.

"It's not really a change of scene from Sunnydale, that's for sure."

"It's a good thing Connor and Dawn don't know each other, otherwise I would think they ran off together. Anyway, we know now that Dawn took the bus to L.A, so I just wanted to let you know, just in case."

"You did well. Gunn and Fred are going to the bus terminal, so I'll ask them to ask for Dawn as well."

"Thank you Cordy. We'll stay in touch. Say hi to Angel for me."

"Sure. Bye."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The last two days had flown by so fast, Connor could not believe the bus was now pulling at the Seattle bus station. He didn't want to be there just yet, he didn't want to leave behind the wonderful brunette sitting next to him.

"I guess this is our destination,» said Dawn with a very serious lack of enthusiasm.

She didn't know where Connor was heading to. Like her, when she had asked, he had been very vague. But the thing she knew is that she didn't want to be parted from him. She really liked his company. He was easy going, rough around the edge but incredibly sensitive and gentle. Dawn was sure he didn't have an easy childhood because of his apparent toughness, but she could also perceive the tenderness of his heart. Wow, she thought, and all of this in two days. Talk about me having a major crush, here.

Sadly, she looked at him.

"This is where we part." she said quietly, standing up.

NO ! yelled Connor's mind.

He didn't want her to leave, he didn't want to be alone again. She was so nice, she felt so right. She hadn't judged him, just accepted him for what he was, even if he had only showed her a part of himself. His heart was craving her presence, his soul was crying her departure.

Reluctantly, he stood up as well and they got out of the bus, grabbing their bags on the way. Once inside the bus terminal, she turned to him.

"We had a great time. I really wish to see you again soon," she said with stings in her eyes. " I've got to go. Take care of yourself."

"You too." he said, his pain matching her own.

Without adding a word, Dawn turned around and left.

Connor looked at her with his heart ready to burst. He couldn't let her go like that, he didn't know how to reach her. Then he remembered all the ugliness that the big city streets could hide, and he got scared for his brunette' safety. In a second, his decision was made. He would follow her discreetly, to make sure she would be safe. He had nothing else better to do anyway.

He followed her for a good part of the afternoon and soon came to the realization that she didn't have any place to go, that she didn't have anybody to visit. She was just wandering along the streets, going from one shabby motel to another, obviously looking for a place to stay. As the evening approached and the sun began to disappear behind the buildings, Dawn was making her way in a more unfriendly part of town and Connor began to seriously fear for her safety. Gunn had shown him how to detect drug dealers, addicts, pimps and prostitutes, and Connor could see signs of all of them in the early evening lights. And some of these people, pimps in particular, were beginning to pay more and more attention to the now jumpy Dawn.

"Hey Sweetie," a white man said gently approaching her.

He was in his early forties, and at first sight, looked rather nice.

"What are you doing here by yourself, at this hour? You know, it's really not safe around here for a young woman like you."

Dawn looked at him frowning, taking a step back when he came too close. He seemed nice and genuinely concerned, but Dawn knew better. This guy was dangerous. She ignored him and tried to walk around, but he grabbed her arm.

"You sure you don't want me to give you a ride?" the man heavily insist.

"Dawn!" said Connor, appearing suddenly from nowhere. "There you are!"

Relief washed over the terrified girl when she saw Connor. Smiling, he took her bag from her shoulder and put it on his.

"I've been looking all over for you," he said smiling, although the smile never reached his eyes. "Mom should have given you better instructions."

He took her arm and they began to walk away. The pimp didn't insist.

As soon as they had turned the corner, Dawn stooped and looked at Connor, not sure if she should be happy or upset that he was there, that he had so obviously followed her.

"You followed me." She said in a neutral tone, her pride almost getting the better of her and fueling her anger.

"Yes, I did." he answered quietly.

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want anything to happen to you,» he answered.

Connor was now relieved and immensely happy he had made that decision, but he kept from telling her that. "You don't have anywhere to go, do you?" he asked gently.

"What about you?" she defensively asked back, without answering his question.

"Me neither." he answered shortly, her aggressiveness starting to get on his nerves. "I ran away," he admitted.

Her eyes softened at his admission.

"I did too." She said shyly.

"Do you have any idea what to do?" Connor asked.

Dawn shook her head negatively.

"Do you want me to stay with you?"

He was pretending he would do it as a favor.only he was probably the one who wanted to stay with her.

"Ok. But only for tonight." she added defensively.

He grinned, the same grin he had made in the bus when she had said something amusing.

"Right. Any idea where we could go?"

He had been shown how to recognize any crook in a city but not really how to find lodging.

"I have an idea but my money is pretty limited." Dawn said.

"I have some. We can share."

She smiled at him and they walked back down the street, towards one of the motel she had visited earlier.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The room was small and smelled of cigarettes. It was far from being luxurious but at least the bed and the bathroom were relatively clean. They were back from getting a quick dinner at a small diner, not far from the motel, and Dawn was now looking through a newspaper she had been given at the restaurant.

"What are you looking for?" asked Connor, intrigued.

"For a place to stay." she answered without taking her eyes off the paper. We can't stay here too long, because we'll run out of money too fast."

We. She had said 'we'. So she wanted them to stay together. Connor's heart swelled with unrestrained happiness at the thought that he was going to spend some more time with her.

Grinning like an idiot, he emptied his pockets and put all the money he had in his possession on the table. Surprised, Dawn looked at him.

"What is that for?"

"Well, I guess it would be a good thing to know how long we can live with what we have."

Dawn smiled and went to her bag to retrieve her money.

Connor still had some problems grasping the value of things, especially since everything he had needed had been provided to him, whether he had been with Holtz, Justine or Angel, and he had no idea how much most of things cost. He knew he had about 400 $, but he had no idea how long that would last him. Dawn sat back at the table and began to count how much they had.

"We have about 726 $," she finally said. "It's not a lot but it can last us for a little over a month if we are careful."

Connor nodded his approval. Not that he had any real opinion, anyway.

"But we have to find a place to stay other than here, because at 25 $ a day, we won't last three weeks, and we still have to eat." She said, putting her attention back to the newspaper.

"Is there.is there something I can do?" Connor asked somewhat uncomfortable.

He had offered to be polite but since he didn't really know what to do, he hoped she would say no.

"Yes," she said, looking up and smiling at him. "Can you find a safe place to hide all this?" she asked, showing the money.

Relieved, he smiled at her. That, he knew how to do. Afterwards, he came back and sat in front of her, just for the pleasure of watching her concentrate. She was chewing her bottom lip and he found that incredibly cute and sexy. She suddenly raised her head and he quickly looked elsewhere. That paint on the wall was really fascinating.

"I've got some place that look ok, but we need a map."

"Do you want to go and get one now?" asked Connor, looking at the darkness outside.

"No," she answered, yawning. "Tomorrow will be fine. Now, I just want to shower and go to bed."

She stood up, took her bag and locked herself in the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later she walked out dressed with a big t-shirt and leggings.

She found Connor standing there, next to the door, completely naked, waiting for his turn for the shower. When she saw his uncovered manhood, Dawn blushed furiously and looked away, embarrassed.

"You - You c-can go n-now," she said. "I.I'll sleep on the floor."

"Please don't," Connor said. "The bed is big enough for both of us" he added innocently.

Dawn was not sure if she should be scared or amused by his comment, and his obvious innocence. But one thing she knew for sure, she didn't want to have sex for the moment, with him or any other guy. She was still a virgin and had every intention to stay that way until she felt ready. And if he thought for a minute she would be willing to let him.

"Don't worry," he said hastily, like he had perceived what was going on in her mind " I'm not going to hurt you." Connor walked rapidly into the bathroom and closed the door to hide his confusion, as well as an uncomfortable reaction growing in his groin.

He didn't understand her uncertainty and fear when at his suggestion they shared the bed. She didn't seem afraid to share a hotel room and stay alone with him, but the idea of sharing a bed had made her clearly uncomfortable. He really didn't want to hurt here, and he had said so. He hoped that it was enough to make her comfortable again.

He walked out of the shower, remembering a conversation he had had with Gunn a few weeks ago.

"Why are pimps dangerous?" he had asked the black man.

"Because they make woman have sex for money."

"Sex?"

"Yes, you know, 'sex' " Gunn had said, punctuating the last word with a synchronized movement of his hips and arms.

Connor had frowned at him, totally at loss for what Gunn was referring to.

"Don't tell me you don't know what sex is? Didn't people had sex on Quortoth?"

"It's a Hell dimension."

"Right. Guess that's not their number one priority, then. Boy, how am I going to explain this.Ok, sex is what happens when a man is with a woman and use this" he said, pointing to Connor's groin.

Connor had remembered waking up a few mornings with this part oh his body erected. He had found out he could get some form of pleasure by touching himself.

"And they use it when they are together?" he had asked, not really understanding how it was done.

"Yes" Gunn had answered, moving from one foot to the other.

"But women don't like it." Connor assumed, remembering how Gunn had referred to those having sex for money.

"They do, but not always, no," Gunn had answered sadly, as if remembering some unhappy event from his past. "You see, for a woman to enjoy it, she needs to do it because she wants to. There are a lot of men in this world that would have sex with women even if they don't want it and that really hurts them.the women, I mean. It's illegal and called rape."

"What about the women having sex for money? Is it rape?"

"No, that's prostitution. But it's illegal too."

"Then why do the women do it if they don't like it?"

"It's complicated, I know. See, most women who are prostitute don't do it because they want to. They do it because they need money. They are generally drug addicts, or they ran away, and prostitution is an 'easy' way to get money. So it doesn't hurt them to have sex, but, in the long run, it hurts them mentally."

Connor had kept quiet for a few seconds, absorbing the informations.

"And the pimps in all that?" he had asked. "Pimps are like vultures. They feed on the weaknesses of people. Most of the time, they will spot a run away girl, be very nice to them for a while, get them on drugs and then put them on the street." Connor had found all this very awful. All the demons and hell creatures he had fought on Quortoth didn't seem that bad compare to some humans and what they were capable of. He didn't understand the specifics of 'having sex' entirely yet, but he knew for sure he didn't want to do it with a woman not willing to do it.

He was not sure but Connor assumed that was what Dawn was afraid of. Gunn had also explained to him that most people had sex in their bedroom while supposedly laying on a bed, so Dawn had probably associated his bed-sharing proposition with that.

The other thing that confused him greatly was the fact that his.thing had begun to erect while he was talking to Dawn about sharing the bed. All of a sudden, he had wanted her hand to touch him. The thought of her hand on him made him become rock hard and he gasped with an incredible want to get a release. He brought his hand to his hardness and began to move it back and forth, closing his eyes, the picture of Dawn's face in his mind. He soon found his climax. Rapidly, he washed himself again and rinsed the shower to erase any evidence of his activity.

Most of the time, he would sleep naked, but considering what had just happened it was probably a very bad idea. He still felt a discomfort in his groin and didn't want Dawn to see him if he got erected again. He took the towel and wrapped it around his waist. Once he was done, he turned the bathroom light off and opened the door.

Dawn was already lying on one side of the bed and shot him a nervous glance. He walked to his bag and grabbed a pair of boxers and put them on. He walked to the bed and laid next to her, pulling the blanket over. He closed his eyes.

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes again and looked at the young woman next to him. She had her eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling.

"Dawn, are you ok?" he asked gently. "If you prefer I sleep on the floor, it's fine."

She turned her head and looked at him. His offer had visibly relaxed the tension in her body.

"No, that's okay," she answered, smiling. "I'll be fine."

That took Connor by surprise. He had totally expected her to accept his offer when he had seen the tension leave her body but no, she had said he could stay. He frowned at the contradiction and wondered if he would ever understand her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was barely dawn when Connor woke up the morning after. Something had awakened him but he didn't know what. He turned to Dawn. She was still sleeping but her sleep seemed turmoiled. Her face was contorted in an expression of pain and fear.

"No." she said, moving her head from side to side, "Don't! Buffy, no!"

Gently, Connor shook her to wake her up. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered defensively, "I'm alright."

Since Willow's episode with black magic, since she had been held prisoner in the hole in the ground with Buffy, Dawn had had nightmares. She kept dreaming that the demons hadn't disappeared and had overwhelmed Buffy, hurting her and sometimes even killing her. That was her biggest fear that Buffy died again. Even if they were not together anymore, Dawn knew Buffy was out there somewhere. That if it was necessary she could get on the first bus back to Sunnydale. But she wouldn't. She had made the decision to leave and to learn how to live on her own.

She hadn't told anyone about her nightmares, she hadn't wanted them to worry. Since she hadn't had them in the past weeks, she had assumed they were gone. Obviously, she was mistaken.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Connor asked again.

Oh yes, she did, but she wasn't ready to show him her weaknesses.

"No, I'll be fine."

She sat and looked around, chasing the sleep away from her eyes with her fists.

"Are you hungry?" she asked him. "We have a long day, today, so we might as well get an early start."

Without answering, Connor followed her suggestion. He sat on the bed, gathered his clothes and began to dress up. Dawn took her bag and went to the bathroom. A few minutes later, she walked out, all dressed and her hair tied up.

"Ready?" she asked Connor.

Connor nodded and followed her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After a quick breakfast at Dunkin'Donuts, Connor and Dawn bought a map and started visiting apartments. Most places were pretty run down and they were now visiting their fifth place. That apartment was very small with only one room that contained the kitchen, a kitchen table and the bed, and a small bathroom with a tub and shower. At least the water was running and sometimes hot. The apartment as a whole was not very clean but it was better than anything else they had visited today.

"I ain't asking a lot for it, but it's a neat little place, let me tell you." said the owner.

Dawn definitely didn't like the way that guy was looking at her and stood closer to Connor. He was giving her the creeps with his fat belly, greasy hair and stinky cigar. And he was looking at her as if she was a naked piece of meat.

"We'll take it," she said nonetheless. She didn't like the landlord but the apartment was the best one they had seen so far.

"Well, lil' lady, if you want it, you got to pay the first month's rent now." said the landlord with a subjective smile.

"No problem," Dawn said with all appearances of confidence. "If you give us half an hour, we'll bring it to you."

The landlord frowned, apparently not convinced and Dawn showed him the best smile she could give. That did the trick.

"Alright," said the landlord. I'm in apt. #12. I'll give you the key when you bring me the money."

The landlord left leaving the door open behind him. Dawn went to close the door and turned to Connor. He was looking around, not sure what to do.

"What do you think?" she asked.

Connor shrugged. This looked like a palace compare to a lot of places he had stayed when he was on Quortoth.

"It needs a lot of cleaning but it is way better than what we saw this morning."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* That night, when they went to bed, they had scrubbed the bathroom, washed the floor, the cabinet, the fridge and the dishes. They had also been to the Laundromat and had washed all the sheets, the comforter and the towels. But despite that, the sheets remained disgusting and stained and Dawn didn't want to sleep in them. The mattress was horribly stained as well, and Dawn had no desire to sleep one sheet away from it. Even if she didn't have anything to cover herself with, she laid on the comforter and tried to go to sleep.

Puzzled, Connor looked at her. He didn't understand why she wouldn't sleep under the sheets. He had seen so much worse, but he guessed it was probably not her case. But they had washed everything, so. With a sigh, he wondered again about the mystery girl lying beside him.

TBC.





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