"There is a middle ground," Giles said calmly, waiting to address the rest of Angel's words. "Write to him. Your son has been adopted, as it were, by a wonderful family, I'm sure. And as the biological father, you have every right to be in contact with your son. And when that contact is too dangerous? Write him a letter. Handwrite it, don't type it out, make it personal, but tell him all these things. Have it held by a lawyer, or a bank, or even his parents, until he's a certain age, and then ask it be handed over. But don't make the mistake that Patrick's father is making, that Wesley's father made, and let your son grow up thinking that he means nothing to you. Knowing that you are loved by the the people who gave birth to you will give that young man a sense of self that nothing else ever can, especially if he knows the truth. And it will be that sense of self that enables him to make the right decision for himself, however happy or unhappy it may make you." Giles paused for a moment, trying to formulate the turbulent churn of emotions that came with the other things Angel had brought up. "I don't think I had ever understood what Buffy meant to me until I'd nearly lost her. You cannot apologize for what Angelus did, because you are not him. Yes, he wore the face of a man we had all come to trust and accept, even love, but it was nothing more than a mask donned by a monster. Buffy, however, is her own woman, and has been since I met her. Who else but Buffy would come in and tell her Watcher off the first day they'd met? How many prophecies has she proven wrong, how many times has she cheated death? Angel, anything that happened between you and Buffy, nobody could have stopped it. Short of killing either one of you, but seeing as how you have both cheated death, I don't believe even that would've stopped you. As a parent? Of course I'd have liked for that to never happen. I'd wish she wasn't even a Slayer, and had found herself a nice high-school boy or even a nice college boy that wasn't a part of a secret military initiative to be her first heartbreak, but that isn't the life or the destiny that Buffy was meant to live. She was meant to be the Slayer, and the life of a Slayer is not an easy one. She was meant to meet you, there was no way around it. As Angel or as Angelus, and on the whole, I much prefer Angel to the alternative. Love doesn't stop to consider what is proper, or what would suit you. Look at me; my first date since I came to the colonies was with a computer science teacher whom I abhorred upon first sight, and she turned out to be a Gypsy from the clan who cursed you." That thought of Jenny still made his chest tighten, and he rubbed it briefly before looking up at Angel. "I'm not going to lecture you, or condemn you, for having the intelligence to fall madly in love with the beautiful young woman that Buffy was and is."