A/N: As an apology gift to sugarless5 for being away for two weeks while I should have been at home beta reading her story, I have written a BANGEL STORY! YAY! XD This is an exciting experience for me since I haven't written one in a long time. I hope you like it. I think it's pretty cool… oh, and you can check the dates. Lullaby, Dad, and Birthday line up with Smashed, Wrecked, and Gone. :-/ Creepiness. XD

The Conversation

Buffy paced mindlessly around the kitchen, pausing every few minutes near the drawer containing the steak knives. God, on top of everything else, I'm turning emo, Buffy thought with a frown.

What she was really looking for, though, was a distraction. From herself. She was an idiot, but she didn't want to think about that. She didn't want to think about what other people would think about her idiocy. She didn't want to think about Angel or Riley or Parker or anyone at all. She wanted a cup of hot tea and some X-Files reruns to get her mind off of the predicament at hand. Maybe some Goldfish and Oreos, too.

But then the phone rang.

Great. Just great. Someone who was sure to say something that would remind Buffy of what was happening. She answered it anyway, just in case it was someone important like… no, she would not think Spike.

"Hello?" she said when she picked up the phone.

"Buffy, it's Angel. I need to talk to you about something."

Buffy paused and took a deep breath. Angel was one of the things she didn't want to think about. But he knew only to call in the case of an emergency, so it wasn't like she could just ignore him.

"I've got some time," she said, trying to sound casual and normal. "Shoot."

"I'm just going to cut right to the chase: Darla's pregnant."

There was a moment when Buffy's head exploded with mindless rage. First anger at Angel for doing this to her and then anger at herself for being such a hypocrite. She managed to be so full of outrage silently that Angel actually asked "Buffy? Are you there?"

She took another deep breath and then replied, "Yeah, Angel, I'm here. What am I supposed to say?"

"I don't honestly know. I just thought you should know. Since there are some rumors going around about what happened, I'd rather you heard it directly from the source."

"Okay. I just have one question: do you think you made a mistake?"

There was another silent moment.

"No, I don't. I needed to prove something to myself, and I did. I know that I did the right thing. I know that you probably won't understand; that probably no one will ever fully understand what I did, but I'm completely certain that I was right."

"I get it. I completely get it, actually."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot you were the Slayer and you have to make crappy decisions like that all the time."

"Well, some of them certainly wouldn't come up if I weren't the Slayer," Buffy muttered.

"What?"

"Oh. Um. Nothing. So what are you naming it? Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Darla has a feeling that it'll be a boy. His name is going to be Connor, which is an inside joke. If you ask Spike about it, he'll probably know exactly what we're talking about."

"Fantastic. More Fanged Four inside jokes that I'll never get."

"Buffy - "

"Forget it. I have to go."

"Buffy."

"It's not you. I just have to go." And then, after a slight hesitation - "I love you. I hope Darla's pregnancy goes… well, I guess."

"I love you too. I'll always love you, no matter what happens with Darla."

"I know. Call me once Connor is born. Bye."

Buffy hung up the phone and, for the first time in a week, felt satisfied with herself.