As Clem's name came out of the speaker phone, Buffy jumped up and ran out the door. Angel followed her as they ascended the stairs and she ran to a panel by the front door as Angel tried to avoid the sunnier spots in the house by standing behind the stairs. Buffy opened the panel and Angel saw a bunch of color coded buttons. She pressed the yellow one as a mellow siren started sounding around the base and Angel watched from his vantage point as slayers and doctors exited their homes and ran toward the hospital. As Buffy watched the organized chaos, she turned to explain the panel to Angel.

"The colors on the buttons represent the urgency of the situation with yellow being 3rd from the most severe and is usually pressed during a medical emergency. Orange means there's a possible threat of attack and red is well.....self-explanatory."

"Basically when the shit hits the fan." Angel finished for her as she nodded. Just then Willow came in with some kind of tech gizmo in her hand.

"I've been tracking Connor's ETA and he is still an hour away so we should go prepare the doctors for.....who's he coming with?" Willow asked after a momentary pause.

"A very injured Clem." Buffy replied grimly to Willow's look of shock.

"Oh no! I'll go and tell the doctors ASAP." She said before running from the house and nearly colliding with Fred.

"Hey Buffy, Angel...what's going on?" Fred asked as she entered the house.

"Follow me and I will catch everyone up."

Buffy said; then she turned to Angel and told him to use the tunnels to head to the hospital as she and Fred stepped into the sunlight where everyone was waiting. Buffy gave a succinct explanation of what was happening and where she wanted everyone. The head two doctors quickly ran to the hospital to prepare for an injured demon. They've never treated one before so Willow's magic and Wesley's expertise would all come in handy. Angel had made it to the hospital by then to be met by Spike who had heard the news and looked grim. After all, he and Clem were close in Sunnydale so to hear a pal of his hurt badly wasn't a laughing matter.

Just as the sun set, everyone saw a car driving toward the entrance of SunStorm. People got ready. The slayers were told to hold guard posts just in case. They were safe but Buffy liked to have some form of protocol. Faith stood right near Buffy frowning, with her arms crossed but her eyes peeled. She'd never met Clem but Buffy had filled her in about how sweet and helpful Clem was back in Sunnydale. As Faith said:

"Any ally or friend of yours is cool with me."

Finally a white sedan drove through the front gate; slowing down as it entered the base. Connor was behind the wheel and obviously by the fact that his eyes were the size of saucers, he had no idea where to go. Faith walked up to the car window then and said:

"Hey, so just follow the path and the hospital is on the far right after the library. Park in front and the doctors will do the rest. Just don't run anyone over."

Connor nodded and proceeded cautiously as he was instructed and parked in front of the hospital. The doctors were waiting with a gurney and rushed to the car as soon as it came to a stop. Suddenly there was a shriek as everyone turned to see Dawn run out of the library; horror on her face. She bolted to Clem's side as the doctors tried to slowly get him out of the car. He was bleeding and beaten to a bloody pulp. Dawn nonchalantly shoved one of the doctors away and got on Clem's one side as she and Connor and another doctor got Clem toward the gurney. Connor was very curious as to who this girl was. Dawn meanwhile, didn't care about Connor or anyone else. She was primarily concentrating on Clem whose one eye was swollen shut. The other eye focused on Dawn and he attempted a grim smile as he coughed up some blood and they leaned him forward so he could clear his mouth of the caked blood. Finally he whispered hoarsely:

"Hey Dawnie. I'll be ok. I think."

He then nearly collapsed just as they got him up on the gurney and the doctors ran with him into the hospital with Dawn right behind and Connor not far from her. In the door, Angel grabbed Connor's arm and pulled him aside. Both watched as Clem was wheeled into the operating room with Willow and Wesley close behind. Dawn wasn't allowed so she just slumped against the wall with tears rolling down her face. Connor watched as a blonde walked up to Dawn and hugged her as Dawn clung to her.

"He has to make it, Buffy. I couldn't bear if he died." Dawn sobbed in her sister's arms.

"Shh Dawn, he will. He's tough. Besides both Wesley and Will are in there with the doctors; he has the best medical team both traditional and supernatural. Shhh sweetheart." Buffy soothed her younger sister as she wiped the tears that kept trickling down Dawn's cheeks. Spike then walked up to the two women:

"Buffy's right nibblet. Clem is tough and he has a big heart. He'll be just fine, don't you fret." He then placed his hand on Dawn's shoulder as she attempted a half-hearted smile as Buffy smiled and nodded gratefully at him.

They then noticed Angel and Connor watching them. Spike nodded toward them and walked a little bit away as Angel and Connor approached. Spike watched Buffy discreetly as he from time to time looked toward the operating room. 3 hours had passed since they had entered by this time. Buffy looked exhausted; both Spike and Angel noticed that. Angel couldn't wait till this battle with the Senior Partners was over so he could take her away somewhere. Faith could hold the fort for at least a week. He didn't care if all they did was practice tai chi and play chess; his girl needed a serious non evil break.

"Buffy, Dawn this is my son Connor." Angel said gesturing toward Connor as everyone shook hands.

"Buffy is the first and main slayer and Dawn is her younger sister." Angel explained. Connor's eyes widened as he understood what Faith was talking about before.

"So this is your soul mate? The one you were going to tell me about later right?" Angel looked down hesitantly.

"Uh....yeah." Angel said as Buffy smiled at Connor.

"Don't worry Connor, we'll tell you everything later. Let's do things in order. Don't you have school to get back to?" Buffy wondered.

"Actually not; talk about perfect or bizarre timing. I was going to drop off Clem and go back to class but we had a gas pipe rupture on campus so classes have been cancelled for at least a week. No one got hurt thankfully but the whole campus especially near my dorm is a mess." Connor shrugged.

"Sounds scary." Dawn said.

"It was loud. I wasn't on campus but my classmates were and they told me not to bother returning to the school until they fixed everything. I was at Annie's." Connor explained.

"Annie's?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah; Annie Steel; she runs a youth shelter. Dad you know her I think and she's a friend of Gunn's. I volunteer there sometimes, part of a program for school. That's how I found Clem."

"Ok back up; start at the beginning. What does Anne Steel have to do with Clem? She protects human youths not demons." Angel asked confused.

"Yes that was the case for a while but then after your whole battle with the Senior Partners, it seemed like a lot of demons-good ones like Clem-were being hunted and abducted so she being as kind as she is, found a separate place for the demons to hide but somehow whoever was hunting them, found out and tore the place up. I got there in time to save only Clem. The rest Clem will have to tell you when he wakes up." Connor finished.

"This seems to get more and more confusing by the minute. So whatever the Senior Partners have up their sleeves it has to do with kidnapping demons. Does that make sense to anyone?" Buffy said rubbing her temples again meaning she was getting another migraine. Angel wished so much he could take her frustration and pain away; but this was hardly the time or the place.

Finally, 5 hours after the surgery started, one of the head surgeons came out and told the gang waiting outside that the surgery was a complete success and that Clem was now resting in recovery and probably wouldn't wake up until the following morning and that the group should go get some sleep. Dawn asked if she could sleep on a cot outside of Clem's room. Connor, having nowhere to sleep really, decided to join her. He was also hoping to get more information out of her about her sister and his father's relationship. The rest left them be and went to their respective homes. The night shift of doctors took over and put two cots on opposite ends of the hallway so they were facing each other.

For the first half hour, Dawn and Connor didn't say anything to one another and then Connor finally asked Dawn about her relationship with Clem and slowly Dawn started to open up. She told him about her life in Sunnydale and how she wasn't even human originally much to Connor's shock. So they had a lot more in common than they first thought because neither were supposed to exist. Connor came about due to a prophecy while Dawn was created by monks. They spoke about how false memories were implanted into both of their heads. By 3am both were talked out and fell asleep on their respective cots. Connor didn't get much information about his dad and Buffy but he got to talk to a female who was attractive and younger then him. Plus someone who had so much in common with him; he shared about his life in a hell dimension and that's really the only time Dawn mentioned that Buffy sent Angel to a hell dimension after he became Angelus and how it absolutely destroyed her and she left town for a few months. Connor started then to understand what real true love was like.

Dawn woke up to being shaken awake; it was Buffy. It was 9am and Clem was awake. Dawn jumped off the cot and nearly collided with Connor because she was a bit woozy from the quick get up and he stabilized her as they smiled at each other and both blushed a bit. Dawn then righted herself and slowly walked into Clem's room afraid of what she would see. Clem was lying on the bed, hooked up to every monitor possible. He was awake but was all bruised and bandaged. Buffy and Spike stood by his side.

"Clem what happened? What do you remember?" Buffy was asking gently.

"Oh Buffy it was awful. I never expected to come to LA, but after you guys kinda cratered Sunnydale, I figured ok cool and I heard Spike was here so why not right? I came and found a nice place to call my own and everything was fine for a while. I made friends and lived my life. Then I started hearing stories of demons disappearing or being mutilated and left for dead. One of my friends recommended Annie's Place and I went there to hide after I had seen some really ugly looking demons or something unnatural butcher a good friend of mine while they took his friend into a portal with them." He swallowed hard, as it was hard to talk about.

"It's ok Clem, we are here. No one will ever hurt you again." Dawn spoke up then as Clem looked up then and smiled. His smile faded as he continued.

"One night they attacked while we were all sleeping. 10 demons were killed or kidnapped. They attacked me and started beating and cutting me. I begged for them to stop. When they finally did; the one in charge of the goon squad threw something at me and said: 'Give this to your vampire friends with souls. It's a little message from the Senior Partners.' Then they laughed and started kicking me some more because they didn't think I was injured enough. That's when Connor rescued me and here we are."

Everyone looked at each other. So all of this was connected to the Senior Partners; which meant the war was nowhere near over. And now innocent demons were being tortured and kidnapped. That's when Buffy remembered about the 'something' that was thrown to Clem to give to Spike and Angel.

"Clem, what did they throw at you to give to Angel and Spike? Do you still have it?"

"Yes, it was in my pants pocket, I hope it didn't fall out. I couldn't bring myself to open and look what was in it." Clem shuddered.

Angel went hunting for Clem's pants. He found them in the hospital bag with the rest of his things that were primarily shredded but one of the pants pockets had something in it and Angel took it out. It was a small brown box. Everyone watched as Angel swallowed and opened the box, stared at the contents inside and quickly shut the box and closed his eyes. Spike looked at Angel and asked:

"What is it, mate?"

Angel turned the box over so Spike, Buffy, and Connor could see as he opened the box which contained a green index finger and a piece of paper saying:

We got your flunky.

To be continued....