Part Four
“Willow, you’re never going to believe who showed up last night.” Dawn was saying rapidly as she opened the door.
“Who?” Tara asked
“Angel.” Willow said as she saw the couple walking down the stairs. Angel’s arm was holding Buffy steady as she struggled to make it to the bottom. When they got there though Buffy ran to give her friends quick hugs hello.
“Hi Willow.” Angel said. He looked at Tara. “Hi, I’m Angel.”
“T-Tara.” She responded with a nervous smile
“Angel, what are you doing here?” Willow crossed her arms over her chest daring him to give her a reason to hurt him.
“I found out the Buffy was pregnant so I came to visit. I thought I might stick around for awhile and help her out.” Willow raised her eyebrows as she heard what he had said. That was not the answer she had expected. She thought that he had come to tell her about a vision or to ask her for some help, and that was the one thing that Buffy didn’t need right now.
Smiling brightly she uncrossed her arms in a more friendly manner. “It’s good to see you again. But, I’m afraid you’re getting more then you bargained for.” They walked into the living room. Willow reached into her bag and pulled out some streamers. “If you’re going to be here, I’m putting you to work. Do you think you can handle that?”
Angel laughed “I think I can manage.” The five of them spent the next hour decorating, waiting for the rest of the gang to come.
“OH! I forgot to tell you guys.” Buffy said as she motioned for Angel to put the streamer higher. “Cordelia is coming down today for the shower.” Wickedly she threw a smile at her vampire “And she’s using your credit card to buy me lots of pretty things.”
“What a surprise.” Angel rolled his eyes sarcastically
“Buffy, are you trying to give Xander a heart attack? First Angel and now Cordy?”
“Xander will just have to learn to live with it.” Buffy scowled.
“Buffy,” Dawn yelled “Giles is here.” Buffy took a deep breath as Giles walked into the room expecting the worse. That’s why she gave a yelp of surprise as Giles crossed the room and embraced her in a fatherly hug.
“Buffy, it’s good to see you. How are you feeling?”
“Fine.” Buffy said, looking at Giles, then Angel, then back to Giles again. “Fine.” She repeated herself looking at Giles like he had grown a second head. Which would actually be less surprising then the way he was acting. “Giles, are you feeling ok?”
“Never better. And Angel, it’s nice to see you again. I’m glad that you came down to help Buffy out. Maybe she’ll listen to you and take things easy for now on. Realize that she can’t do everything.” Giles gave Buffy a pointed look.
Buffy just starred “How did you… I didn’t.”
“Willow called to give me a heads up.” He stated.
“Oh. Well… okay.”
“Angel how are things going in L.A?” Giles laughed at the confused expressions of both vampire and slayer.
The door bell rung just as Angel recovered enough to speak. There was a loud commotion in the other room as Dawn and Cordy squealed. Buffy never understood how Cordy could hate her so much, but absolutely love her younger sister.
“Buffy! God you’re as big as a house!” Cordelia exclaimed as she walked into the room loaded with bags.
“Nice to see you to Cordy.” Buffy gave the May Queen an awkward hug.
“So, where’s Xander.” Cordelia asked timidly.
“He should be here any moment.” Buffy looked down at her hands. She wasn’t looking forward to seeing Xander’s reaction at Angel being here. He had never liked Angel, even before he found out that he was a vampire Xander hated him. Buffy knew that it was all jealously on Xander’s part and he had Anya now, so maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all. But she still couldn’t help the knots that formed in her stomach at the thought of the two of them seeing each other. Angel must have sensed her discomfort because he immediately took her hand in his.
The door bell suddenly rang leaving an awkward silence in it’s absence.
“I’ll get it.” Willow whispered.
Angel squeezed Buffy’s hand and gave her a reassuring smile.
“Hey, I got the cake Buff!” Xander announced walking into the living room. Abruptly he stopped upon seeing Angel. “What are you doing here?” Disgusted rang in his voice.
“I’m here to help Buffy.” He stated coolly.
“Buffy doesn’t need any of your help. She’s got us. Why don’t you just go back to L.A.?”
“Xander.” Anya whispered from behind him. She knew that Buffy loved Angel very much and vise versa and she didn’t want this day to be ruined. Baby showers were supposed to be happy, or so she heard.
“No An, I’m not going to let this guy break her heart again…”
“Xander,” Buffy stood up to stand beside Angel, all the while, still keeping her hand locked in his. “Angel is here to help me. I asked him too. I need him here right now and you may not understand it but you sure as well will respect it. I don’t want to hear any comments about him being here or how you are just worried about me. Now, if you can’t be civil I want you to leave now, because Angel’s staying.”
Everyone was silent, they didn’t dare move. Xander finally looked Angel straight in the eye and said “If you hurt her again, I’ll kill you.” Angel nodded in understanding, and gave Buffy’s hand another squeeze.
After all the presents were opened and all the cake was eaten, people started to head out. Xander, Willow, Giles and Cordelia all went into the kitchen to help clean up a bit, while the others bid good wishes to Buffy and headed home.
Angel sat on the couch in exhaustion as Buffy leaning into his arms. Who would have thought baby showers could be so tiring. Both of them smiled as they looked around seeing all the things that the baby had gotten. Angel said a little prayer of thanks, to a God he had never really spoken to before, that he got to spend this day with Buffy and her friends
“Angel?”
“Hmm?”
“What comes next?”
“What do you mean?”
”With us, what comes next?”
Angel’s arms tightened around her. “I want to be a part of this baby’s life Buffy. I don’t want to be in L.A and miss everything.”
Buffy’s head slowly turned so she could look at him. “Doe’s that mean you’re staying?”
“Only if you want me too.” He said in dead seriousness. If Buffy said the word, he’d leave and never come back, no matter how much it would hurt him.
“Of course I want you to stay Angel, it’s just…”
“Just what?”
“If you’re going to stay, you have to actually stay. I don’t want you three years from now to give me your ‘normal life’ speech. I want this baby to have a father. One that will be here for it. So if that’s what you plan to do, leave now, because I don’t want to…”
She was interrupted with a pair of coo lips pressed to hers. Letting out a little cry of shock her eyes widened as she felt the pressure of his lips against hers. Within moments though she melted into his embrace kissing him back with pent up passion. A kiss that had started out soft and gentle at first had suddenly turned to one full of lust and want. Buffy let out a moan as his tongue entered her mouth. After breathless minutes, they finally pulled away. “You know, that’s how we got the baby in the first place.” She said breathlessly. Angel just laughed and leaned in for another kiss. This one was calmer though, he just held her gently as he poured every drop of love he’d ever felt for her into that one single kiss. “Does that mean you’re staying?” Buffy pulled away just enough to look into his eyes.
Angel’s forehead rested against hers. “Forever.” He whispered, his head dipping down for another sultry kiss.
“Whoa! Can’t we leave you two alone for a minute?” Cordelia walked into the room smirking at catching them in the act. Buffy and Angel broke apart to find the whole gang, the original gang, standing in front of them. Buffy reluctantly untangled herself from Angel’s arms, but still held a firm grasp on his hands.
“I’m glad you guy’s are all still here. There’s something I need to tell you.” Motioning for them to sit, Angel looked at her with curiosity in his eyes.
“You remember how I told you I didn’t know who the babies’ father was?” Buffy started shakily. “Well…”
“Buffy, you don’t have to do this.” Angel said urgently. Not wanting her to do anything that she was going to regret he looked at her trying to tell her that it was okay that no one knew that he was the father.
“I know.” She smiled “But I want to.” Angel’s head went down to look at his hands. Buffy may be ready to tell the rest of the gang, but he wasn’t sure if he was.
“When I went to meet Angel after I came back from… from heaven, we…” Buffy took a deep breath. “We slept together.”
Everyone in the room was shocked. “What?” Xander exclaimed “You slept together, knowing that you would unleash Angelus?”
Buffy nodded.
“Are you insane?”
“Xander!” Willow warned
“You wouldn’t understand Xander. I’m not sure if I even do. We just both needed it. There were things going on in our lives that we couldn’t explain to the rest of you. We needed comfort that you guys couldn’t give, so we sought it in each other.”
“It doesn’t matter that you needed it, you put everyone in danger.” Cordelia stated.
Buffy didn’t know why she expected them to understand this when she couldn’t even understand what had happened that night, why they did what they did. Her anger burst though from the need to defend herself and Angel. That night was held precious in her memory. It was a second chance for the two of them and she wasn’t going to sit here and let them defile it. “I know! God, don’t you think I know that. Can you imagine what it was like for us afterwards? Both of us realizing what we just did! But I’m sorry, I died! I wasn’t thinking really clearly and I just needed to be with him!” She yelled, releasing her anger out on her friends.
Silence followed her outburst. Everyone had a look of disappointment on there face. They all knew what could have happened that night, but they also knew that the man before them wasn’t Angelus now. Giles spoke for the first time. “His soul?”
“I didn’t loose it. I don’t know why.” Angel whispered heartbrokenly as she heard the disdain in Giles’ words.
“After that, both Angel and I decided that it was a gift. After all these years we were aloud to have that one night together. But we never thought to do it again. We wouldn’t tempt fate like that.”
“So you lied to us?” Willow asked, looking more then a little hurt that her best friend didn’t tell her.
“I had too. When I saw the doctor and he told me that the baby was conceived around that time I panicked. I hadn’t slept with anyone since before I died. I wanted to tell you guy’s though! I just couldn’t.”
“Why?” Cordelia asked
“I was worried that you guys would do something to hurt the baby.” Everyone looked on at her in horror. “I mean, it’s the child of a vampire and a slayer, something that I thought was completely impossible up until that moment. I was afraid that if I told you guys you might want to research it when it was born or… or that the council would figure it out and take it away from me. This baby means more to me then anything in the world, I just want it to have a normal life, not one where it’s considered some sort of freak of nature or an omen of some kind. I was afraid that it would get taken away if I said something.”
“We would never do that Buffy!” Willow cried, tears starting to come down her face. “We love you. Why would you think we would do such a thing?”
“Because,” Buffy said “I was scared. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry.”
No one moved as Buffy finished her heartfelt confession. They all sat in silence not knowing what to say to one another to make it all better.
Doing the only thing she could think of, Willow suddenly got up and went over to her friend and hugged her. Cordelia soon joined and the three girls sat there sobbing, rocking back and fourth, while Buffy drew the sort of comfort from her friends that she had needed for the past several months.
Giles stood up. “Angel, may I see you in the kitchen for a moment.” Angel looked up at the watcher. Reluctantly, he followed him and Xander into the other room.
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