Discovery

Chapter 20

Willow waited until she and her father were safely inside her house before she let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

In hindsight, the dinner hadn't been the disaster it had the potential to be. Booth hadn't questioned the resemblance, only joking that now he understood why Willow had queried the possibility of them being related.

Joyce had been quite shocked by it at first but had seemed to calm down, and she appeared to have been happy to chat away to Booth at one end of the table while Angel and Buffy quietly chatted at the opposite end. Willow, Xander and Cordelia bounced from conversation to conversation or had their own conversations in between. Willow was pretty sure that Booth hadn't noticed the way Angel had not eaten.

It looked like Sunnydale Syndrome had sort of kicked in to a certain extent and Willow was kind of grateful. It had made everything run more smoothly, at least for Booth and Joyce anyway. Willow had been incredibly nervous throughout the whole thing, even though Buffy had been giving her reassurance throughout the whole ordeal.

"Did you have a nice night?" Booth asked her. Willow nodded.

"Yes, did you?"

Booth shrugged. It had been a bit formal for his liking but the company had been good, except for Willow being incredibly tense beside him the entire time. Booth had forced himself to relax and enjoy himself for Willow's benefit, trying to show her that he approved of the group of people she had integrated herself with.

Joyce had been very nice, but Booth was sure that Willow's tenseness was connected to his and Angel's... resemblance.

Naturally, at the start, it had been unnerving, seeing someone who was almost the spitting image of a younger version of himself, but Booth had found himself picking up on the differences between them (and trying not to focus on how old he felt looking at the younger man, especially since Angel had a teenaged girlfriend).

Booth was more tanned than the other man, which was apparent straight out. Angel was very pale, even compared to Willow, who was fair-skinned because of her hair color, and he looked obviously younger than Booth. Other than that, there was little difference.

Still, Booth got the impression that Angel was more of a scholar than a fighter, because Joyce had made the comment that Angel and Buffy had met when he'd tutored her in history. Booth would never have been able to do that.

Booth privately didn't approve of Angel and Buffy's relationship but he knew he had no real grounds to interfere, other than the obvious age difference. Angel looked to be the more submissive one of the relationship and from what Booth saw, he couldn't picture the relationship moving onto the next base, so to speak, any time soon if Angel had any say in it. As it was, Booth was just glad that Willow wasn't the one in the relationship with the older man. He'd watched Angel and Willow interact throughout the evening and found that he agreed with what Willow had said of the relationship she shared with the older man. Very much one of an older brother and his younger sister, or maybe cousins, a very appropriate relationship as they were possibly related, and after meeting the guy, Booth found that it was nigh impossible that they weren't related.

If it wasn't for the obvious age difference between him and Angel, Booth would have been questioning whether he had an identical twin brother out there.

At least he got the better name of the two; he was never going to whine about being named Seeley ever again.

"Yeah, it was alright. Buffy's mother was nice," he answered Willow's question.

"Yeah, she's very nice. She's been looking after me since my parents left town last time. She makes really good hot chocolate, with little marshmallows." Willow babbled, smiling happily. Booth smiled back; obviously his little girl was feeling a little more relaxed now that she was at home.