Chapter 12: Offspring/Quickening

Connor's birth story arc begins here. I combined two episodes into one because just doing each chapter an episode would leave them too short. So here's the episode. Enjoy.

Cordy was arranging some flowers in a vase down in the basement of the Hyperion. Delia walked into the training area and saw that there were several vases of them scattered around the room.

"What's this?" Delia asked curiously at the new decorations

"Oh, it's just so dark and lifeless down here, I thought I'd brighten it up a little for Angel." Cordy said. Delia picked up one of the vases. "He can't exactly go out and enjoy the sunny fields of nature, but that doesn't mean we can't bring a little bloom into his darkness."

"They're fake." Delia told her.

"Yeah. You put something real in this hellhole and it dies like that." She snapped her fingers. Delia put the flowers down and looked at Cordy.

"I think it's a great idea Cordelia. Angel will love it."

"Yeah, especially since he has Buffy and Connor on the way. By the way, when is he coming? I really wanna start playing with him."

"He'll be here soon." Delia chuckled. "We just have to be patient."

"Yeah well, I've been patient long enough. Can we do it?" Cordy took a fighting stance. "Hi-yeah!"

"Okay. Last time we were working on not pulling your punches and your kicks. Right? Don't worry about me." Cordy hit her and Delia deflected the punch with her arm. "That's good." Cordy swiped at her again. "Good! Where is your weight?" Delia looked down. "Balls of your feet?" Cordy swung and hit Delia across the face full force.

"Oops! Oh god, you said that..." Delia straightened back up, smiling. "Are you okay?"

"I'm a slayer. You can't hurt me. Good." Delia turned away from her, made a face, and mouthed Ow, while gingerly feeling her nose.

"You're off your game. It's because of the prophecy Liam, Wes, and Gunn are trying to get their hands on. You think that you and Liam won't succeed. You think that your future will stay the same." Delia turned back to face her.

"Liam and I will succeed. Someone is always uncovering some ancient scroll, and they're always saying the same thing: that something terrible is coming. Do you know how many of these things I've seen in the future?"

"Four?"

"Five. But there's nothing to worry about."

"Then why are the boy's breaking and entering right now?"

"Breaking and entering is such a negative term. They are simply retrieving some missing pieces from the Nyazian Scroll. Just to make sure..."

"That the end is coming. - Well, all we can do is live each moment to the fullest and be grateful that we didn't throw too much money at the NASDAQ." Delia blinked her eyes and lifted a hand towards her face.

"Am I swelling?"

Wes, dressed in black, snuck up on a window of a house and looked into the window from outside. Wes motions and Gunn and Liam walked up beside him.

"Step one: Dobermans are happily gnawing on the steak." Wes said. "Alarm and vid lines are disabled" He pulled out a scanner and looked at its display. "no infrared. Caught a break there. Step two: we cut a hole in the glass, snake in the mini-cam and scan the interior." Gunn walked over to look in the glass door while Wes pulled glasscutter with a suction cup out of his duffel bag and attached it to the window. "If it's all clear, we disable the locks and bolts on the side door thus completing..." Gunn tried the door and it swung open. "...step three." Liam patted Wes on the shoulder.

"Not everything that's complicated Wes." Liam told him. Wes nodded and closed up his duffel and moved over to follow Gunn and Liam inside, then hurried back to detach the suction cup from the window and stow it in his bag while others waited for him inside. Wes hurried in and motioned for Gunn to close the patio door. They opened the doors into an adjacent room, in which all sorts of things are on display. Gunn looked around and whistled.

"Can you believe this?" Gunn asked astounded.

"I can." Liam said. "Because I've seen better."

"When?"

"About twenty-seven years from now."

"Oh." Gunn looked around. "But seriously. Some guys collect old cars, some guys collect..." Gunn flinched back as he spotted a misshapen, one-eyed demon head in a glass case. Then he, Wes, Liam leaned in for a closer look. "It's like - the eye follows you wherever you go."

"How about we get back to looking for that scroll." Liam suggested. Wes walked over to a bottle sitting on a pedestal, pulled out the stopper and took a sniff before closing it again.

"Alright. If you were the priceless remnants of the lost Nyazian Scroll, where would you be?" Wes asked himself.

"If I was priceless - I'd be in the vault." Gunn said.

"The vault?" Wes asked sounding surprised. "Your snitch never said anything about a vault!"

"I got a bad feeling about this." Gunn said looking past Wes. Liam looked too.

"Why?" Liam asked. "Because of the man standing behind Wes with the large revolver." Wes turned to see a guy standing in the door aiming a gun at them.

"Move and I'll kill you." The man said, edging into the room and reaching for the telephone with one hand while still aiming the gun at them with the other.

"I hope you're calling the police." Wes said.

"You bet I am."

"Good. You can explain to them why you keep so much GHB on hand." Wes walked over to the bottle on the pedestal. "You know, Rohypnol, the date rape drug."

"What?" the man asked sounding confused. Wes indicated to the bottle.

"Muslok Trancing Amalgam. Under the microscope it's virtually indistinguishable from GHB." The man slowly put the receiver back down.

"Alright. I won't call the police."

"I'm glad we understand each other."

"Until after I kill you."

"Oh." Wes said. His plan apparently didn't succeed. Gunn picked up four red glass balls out of a bowl on another stand.

"Hey, these worth a lot?" Gunn asked looking at the balls.

"Yes." The man replied. "They're Cyopian conjuring spheres."

"How much? Four figures each? Five?" Gunn started to juggle two of the balls with one hand. "More?"

"Stop that!" the man ordered.

"Put the weapon down." When the man hesitated, Gunn let one of the balls drop and it shattered with a liquid splash as it hits the floor.

"Kind of delicate." Liam said smiling. Gunn kept juggling the remaining three with both hands. "Look, we're not thieves, we're investigators. Now, we need to look at your Nyazian Scrolls. Put the weapon down, because – my friend looks like he's getting kind of tired over here."

"Alright!" Man put the revolver down on a glass case and Wes retrieved it. Gunn dropped another ball, the owner let out a fearful gasp, only for the ball to bounce off of Gunn's foot and caught it again.

"Nice." Liam commented.

"I always wanna give them a big finish." Gunn said.

Gunn was throwing darts at a board in the office at the Hyperion. Wes was sitting at the desk, writing. Fred was sitting beside him, working on the laptop. Cordy was at her own desk.

"So, how are you doing there, Fred?" Gunn asked.

"Oh, it's a simple equation, really." Fred said. "The ancient Roman calendar has fourteen hundred and sixty-four days in a four-year cycle. The Etruscan, Sumerian, and Druidian each have their own cycles. You work forward from the presumed day of the prophecy under each calendar, factoring in our own three hundred and sixty-five day calendar and accounting for a three day discrepancy for every four years and...Oh. - That can't be right. - Unless the world ended last March."

"So, are we talking Armageddon - or bad house number?" Gunn said sitting down in the chair in front of Wes' desk. "Is it a bad event - or a bad guy?"

"It's not clear on that." Wes explained. "It predicts the arrival or arising of the Tro-clan, the person or being that brings about the ruination of mankind."

"So it's a two for one. Isn't that nice." Gunn deadpanned.

"And I'm not sure on the translation. Ruination may in fact mean purification."

"Purification? So this Tro-clan is a good thing?"

"I doubt that. But it's purification in Aramaic, ruination in ancient Greek and in the lost Ga-shundi language it means both."

"And you don't want to make the same mistake twice." Cordy said looking up from her desk at Wes, who looked down at his papers.

"No." Wes said.

"What mistake?" Fred asked curiously.

"There was another prophecy a while back. It seemed to be about Angel and contained the word 'Shanshu' which I thought meant to die and I - sort of told Angel..."

"...that we was going to die." Cordy finished quickly.

"Oh, no." Fred said being all worried.

"Then I found out it also meant to live." Wes explained further. "It meant to die and to live."

"So - which is it?"

"Both. In his case it meant that someday the vampire in him might die, but the human in him might live."

"That he would be like a normal man?"

"Yes."

"Wow. What would we do if that happened?"

"I'd buy him some plaid shirts and take him to the beach." Cordy said. "The boy needs some color."

"The only other color you'll see him in is burnt red." Liam said coming into the office with Delia behind him. "What do you guys got?"

"I'm trying to figure out when this Tro-clan is supposed to arrive." Fred said going back to typing on the laptop. Liam looked down. He knew what the Tro-clan was. He knew that it would arrive very soon. But if he needed to stop it, he couldn't tell them anything. Delia saw this and held his shoulder encouragingly. She was the only person he could confide in about what he had to do and what he couldn't tell anyone. "There. That came out better. - Oh. No it didn't. It's still very preliminary, but - if these calculations are correct, this bad thing should already be here." Fred looked around. "Well, I-I guess not right here, but - here in LA." Liam and Delia walked into the reception area. Liam sat down on the settee. Delia joined him.

"Hey." Delia said.

"Hey." Liam said back. He leaned forward and rubbed his face. "When he comes, they're going to turn to me and be all 'why didn't you tell us'."

"I know." Delia rubbed his back. "But you said it yourself. They need to focus on what they need to focus on and so do we. And besides, if we tell them about Holtz now and what happened to Connor, they'll try to kill Holtz. And if you stop them, everything will turn out differently and Sahjhan might kill Connor. You said that we couldn't take that chance."

"I know." Liam said in frustration. "I just don't like some of the things that I have to do so that my family could be safe."

"I know you don't." Liam leaned back and Delia held him. Liam rugged her thigh. "You hate everything about this mission."

"I do. That's why after this, I'm done." Delia looked up at him. "I mean it." He faced her. "This is it for me. For us." Delia smiled at him.

"I love you."

"I love you too." They kissed and hugged each other.

"God knows we've been through a lot together."

"And we'll go through a lot more before we're done. But it'll be all worth it in the end."

"Aww. Isn't that sweet?" they heard a familiar voice say. Liam and Delia turned to the main entrance to the lobby and saw Buffy and Angel standing there looking at them with smiles on their faces.

"Mom. Dad." Liam shot up off the settee and went to hug his parents. "How long have you guys been standing here?" He asked as he hugged his pregnant mother.

"We came in at the part about you thinking of retiring." Buffy said pulling away. Liam hugged his father next. "I personally think it's a great idea."

"Thanks."

"Hi guys." Delia said coming over and hugging Buffy. "How are you doing Buffy?"

"I'll feel a lot better when Connor's born." Buffy said. "Can't you tell us when his birthday is?" she asked Liam.

"I can't really tell you guys anything since I changed when and who dad slept with." Liam said. They were all silent for moment. Everyone was practically looking at Liam for what he just said.

"That really sounded wrong." Angel said.

"I know." Liam said agreeing.

"Why don't we all forget what my husband said and move into the hotel." Delia suggested. Everyone agreed. Angel guided Buffy to the settee. Liam gathered up their bags and placed them on the stairs. "So, why are guys here anyway?"

"I needed a break from Sunnydale." Buffy moaned. "We found out that there is this new evil and they are nerds wanting to make mine and Faith's life miserable."

"Nerds?"

"Yeah. They screwed up a lot of Faith's jobs and then they turned her invisible. Not fun."

"I would think not." Liam said. "So how long are you guys staying?"

"Just for a few days." Buffy said. "We wanted to come and see how you two were doing after your fight."

"We're fine." Liam said smiling. "I'm actually more worried about Dawn."

"She's taking her grounding like a woman." Angel said.

"She's bitchy?" Delia slapped Liam upside of the head for his comment. Liam looked to her and she gave him a look.

"Actually she's taking it well." Buffy said with an amused expression. "What Angel should have said was that she's taking it like a Summer's woman."

"Yeah, that would have been helpful." Liam said feeling the back of his head. Wes and came out of the office looking at papers.

"Liam." He said. "If I could have your assistance with these scrolls. It is very hard to figure out what this Tro-clan is. I was hoping you could give me some future knowledge on the subject." He stopped at Liam and Delia and looked up, seeing Buffy and Angel. "Oh. Hello you two." He said smiling. "When did you arrive?"

"Just now." Angel said. "What scrolls are you talking about?" Buffy shifted herself and looked uncomfortable. Liam noticed this.

"We managed to acquire the Nyazian scrolls and are working hard on translating them. So far they tell us of the coming of a Tro-clan and we don't what it is.

"A what?"

"A Tro-clan. From we'd gathered, it is supposed to be a great evil that will arrive and bring the end to mankind. Born out of light to bring darkness. Of course I could be misreading it. Fred tells us that it is supposed to be upon us right now."

"Well that's bad." Buffy moaned.

"You ok mom?" Liam asked.

"Just Connor kicking." Buffy said. Then she held her stomach. "A lot." Wesley eyed her and looked at her swollen stomach.

"How long has this been happening?"

"A few hours."

"Maybe we should see a doctor." Delia offered.

"I'll be fine. The kicking stopped."

"If you say so." Liam said, but wasn't totally convinced. He knew what was coming. "What do you need Wes? Wes?" Wesley was off in his own little world. He was looking at Buffy and her swollen stomach. Thoughts ran around in his head. Buffy was pregnant and due any day. A Tro-clan was supposed to be upon them now. Could Connor be the Tro-clan? "Wes!" Wesley looked up at Liam who had been calling his name.

"Yes, Liam I'm right here." Wes said. "You don't have to yell."

"What I was saying to you was, what is it you need my help on?"

"Oh. Uh…..I think I figured it out." Wes looked at Buffy for a split second and then back at Liam. "But I might have to double check.

"Please tell me you are not thinking that this Tro-clan is my brother." Liam begged.

"What?!" Angel and Buffy said together making Wes jump.

"You think my son is going to be the scourge of mankind?" Buffy practically yelled. She turned to Liam. "Liam tell him that he's wrong."

"He's wrong." Liam simply said. Buffy leaned back looking relieved.

"See Wes." Angel said. "Our son is not evil."

"Liam, are you sure?" Wes asked for conformation.

"Yes." Liam said. "The Tro-clan isn't a person anyway. It's a serious of events that lead to something in the end."

"And do you know what this thing is?" Everyone turned to Liam for and answer. Liam hesitated before answering.

"Yes."

"Well…..What is it?" Buffy asked. Liam rubbed the back of his head and sighed.

"I can't say."

"Why not?" Angel asked.

"Same reason why I can't tell you guys everything. If I do, I might change the future in worse ways then it already is. I can't risk it."

"But this Tro-clan" Wes said. "Do we stop it?"

"Just have to find out." Liam shrugged. Wes sighed in frustration. "Look, I'm sorry for not being as forth coming as you want. But….."

"Uh-oh." They heard Fred say coming out from the office.

"Uh-oh?" Buffy said. "That can't be good." Fred looked up and saw Buffy and Angel.

"Buffy. Angel." She smiled at the two and ran over to them. "Guys, Buffy and Angel are here." Gunn and Cordy came out of the office and saw the couple and smiled.

"Hey Angel, man." Gunn said giving Angel a handshake. Cordy sat on Buffy's other side and hugged her.

"Hi Buffy." Cordy said. "How are you?"

"Getting through it." Buffy replied. "But I might feel better if Fred would say what her uh-oh was about." She looked to Fred who changed her smile to a frown.

"Oh, right." Fred said. "Remember before when I said I thought that maybe, possibly, perhaps I might have been off in my earlier calculations? And you asked Wes if he thought if the Tro-clan was prophesied to arise or be born and he said it could be both? And we all know that the Latin for arrive is arripare, to come to land or possibly in this instance simply to come to, as from a deep sleep?"

"Fred!" Everyone said together.

"Right. I believe that whatever this thing is, it's arriving right about…" She looked down at her watch. "Three, two, one…..now." Everyone stood still and looked around. Nothing seemed to have happened.

"Liam?" Wes asked looking at Liam. Liam looked back at him.

"Like I said." Liam said. "Serious of events. Looks like the first one started."

"Um….guys." Buffy said. Every turned to look at her. "My water just broke." Everyone stood in shock at her.

"Nice timing." Cordy commented.

In a busy section of town where everybody was crying on with the exciting nightlife that was LA, when deep below something was brewing. There was a chamber supported by pillars and statutes. The demon from Liam's dream, Sahjhan, walked up to the statue and started to chant.

"The weight of time is heavy on the world." Sahjhan began to chant. "And all men born must die. But there are worlds unknown, where dreamers dream and sleepers sleep, and patiently await. As pledged in Caladan by Cod-she, one shall awaken in the first year of the final century. That one, who lived before and joined Cod-she in the great sleep. Arise, as was promised and foretold. Arise. – Arise" At first nothing happened but then after a moment the room begun to shake with a blue light show. The eyes of the statue turned into a living human eyes. The statue cracks and falls to the floor leaving a man in the center. "Welcome to the twenty first century", he greeted. "Angelus is here. You'll see him soon. - You haven't used your muscles in a very long time. It will be a while before you're strong enough to..." The figure suddenly straightened up.

"Just tell me where he is", Holtz spat.

"Who is this 'unidentified, pregnant female'?" Lilah asked looking at surveillance footage of the Hyperion

"I - I don't know." The transcriber said. "Let me play the tape over again." The transcriber rewound the tape in a VCR. On the screen Buffy and Angel walked into the lobby.

"Buffy?"

"Buffy?" Gavin said. "The vampire slayer? That's impossible. Slayers can't go to term!"

"But that's not the wackiest thing." Lilah said looking at the footage. Liam walked up to Buffy and Angel and hugged them both.

"Two Angel's?" Lilah pulled out her cell phone.

"Linwood? It's Lilah. You're not gonna believe what I'm looking at."

Back in the hotel lobby, everyone stood in shock at Buffy who just said she was in labor.

"Well what are we all standing around for?" Delia asked. "Buffy's water just broke. Do you know what that means?"

"We're surrounded by vampires?" Liam answered.

"No idiot. It means…." She trailed off as she looked around and noticed the vampires on the upper balconies and some surrounding them on the ground floor, all looking at them. "Oh. We 'are' surrounded by vampires."

"Ahem," Cordy said getting everyone's attention. "So, who has a plan?"

"Don't let 'em kill us sounds like a good first step." Gunn said.

"The miracle child." A vampire said. The other vampires echo him in a whisper. "For his time has come." All of the vamps bowed down. "Praise be. Praise be. Praise be." The A.I. team all looked at them with looks of confusion.

"Hey, I'm all for being idolized, but - what the hell is going on?" Cordy said.

"What do you want?" Angel ordered.

"To protect the miracle child." The vamp leader said.

"Protect? Ah, that's good. We're all here for the same thing." Suddenly, a man dressed like a ninja came jumping down from the teaching area screaming, "Die!" All the vampires attacked him. He went down with a strangled scream. There was a crunch and then a slurping sound. The main vamp pulled away and looked at Buffy, who was now sitting up to get a better look at the action.

"As it has been prophesied by our great potentate Ul-thar, we vow our lives to protect this special child."

"You hear that? Our kid. Special." Angel said to Buffy.

"Now let us kill the humans so we may use their blood to nourish the mother - and her miracle child."

"What?" Buffy asked.

Linwood was walking down the hallway of Wolfram and Hart talking to his phone, flanked by Lilah and Gavin.

"I don't care how much it costs." Linwood said. "Just find someone who can answer the bloody question." He closed his phone. "Heads are gonna roll if the Senior Partners hear about this."

"They won't." Gavin said reassuringly. "That's why we came directly to you."

"Buffy - pregnant. Two Angel's. How'd we miss it?"

"I'm sequestering the psychics and the mind readers in the conference room." Lilah informed him.
"We will get to the bottom of this."

"Man works hard - builds something - waters it - grows rich and powerful. - Leaves his wife for a younger beauty. - These are the reasons we take certain - blood oaths. - And to have it all vanish because..."

"Sir, I can't stress enough. There is no way we could have foreseen all this."

"She's right, sir." Gavin said. "No one could have known."

"Buffy, you might wanna join the fight." Angel said.

"Sorry, honey. I'm gonna have to be Switzerland and sit this one out. Now, you did say you were just gonna kill the humans, right?" She asked the vamps.

"Mom!" Liam said looking at her.

"What?"

"Yes, just the humans." The vampire leader said. "Then we will nourish you, slice you open, wear your entrails as a belt and consume your eyeballs before we worship the miracle child." Buffy jumped off the settee and went to stand beside Angel.

"Okay. I'm in."

"Gunn, Liam, and I can hold them off for as long as we can." Angel said. "The rest of you, get Buffy to the car."

"Oh, I'd rather stay and fight." Buffy said. "Show these vamps a thing or two about real carnage."

"Like hell you are." Liam said. "I am not risking you and Connor if I can help it."

"Charles, do you have an extra dagger I could borrow?" Fred asked. Gunn pulled out a dagger and handed it to her.

"This okay?" he asked.

"Perfect."

"On my count of three." Angel said. "One, two..." Fred held the dagger against Buffy's belly.

"You freaks make one move and I'll slice the miracle kid into triplets." Liam stared at Fred in shock.

"It's always the quiet ones." Cordy and Delia said looking at Fred.

"Wait!" the lead vampire said.

"They don't know the knife can't hurt the baby." Fred said to Buffy.

"They do now." Buffy said. "Vampires have great hearing." The vamp leader smiled. "Here we go." The vampires attacked and a big fight ensues.

"Get her out of here!" Liam ordered before ripping his short off and morphing into his demon form. He, Gunn, and Angel engaged the vamps. Delia made a be-line for the weapons cabinet where she kept her broadsword. She put it over her back and pulled out the blade. The rest of the gang gathered around Buffy protectively and guided her out of the lobby. Delia protected them all by slicing off a few vamp heads and following them out. Gunn followed after them. Then Angel after he staked a vamp. Liam tore a few heads off before following suit. The rest of the vampires followed after them.

"Commander, this should provide your ops team with a solid tactical base. Plan and elevation drawings of every floor in Angel's hotel. I also have strategic surveillance capabilities, so we can monitor the engagement from here." Gavin said.

"Excellent. I'm confident my men will be able to capture and retrieve the target. The larger question revolves around subsequent extraction of the target's cargo." The commander said. Linwood looked from the commander to Gavin.

"Getting the baby from Buffy." Gavin clarified.

"Of course. And for that we have called in an expert." Linwood said. Lilah walked in with a man dressed in black.

"You flatter me, sir." The man said.

"Gentlemen, may I introduce Dr. Fetvanovich from our satellite office in the Balkans." Lilah said.

Linwood shook the doctor's hand. "How do you do, doctor?"

"Dr. Fetvanovich is the world's foremost specialist in paranormal obstetrics. We are very fortunate he's consented to help."

"It is I who feel fortunate. A vampire/slayer birth is, ah, unprecedented. I look forward to dissecting both the mother and the child."

Cordy, Angel, Buffy, Liam, Delia, and Gunn were in Angel's car while Wesley and Fred were in his car. Gunn was looking out over the back as Angel sped down the road.

"I think we lost them." Gunn said.

"Anybody hurt?" Angel asked.

"Nothing a couple of band aids and a pint of Heathbar crunch can't fix." Cordy said.

"We're good." Liam said.

"Buffy, everything okay?" Angel asked. Buffy was sitting in the back between Liam and Gunn.

"Yeah. Fine." Buffy said.

"You all right mom?" Liam asked.

"It's nothing!"

"Where 'are' we going?" Delia asked.

"Somewhere safe." Angel responded.

"Where's safe?" Cordy asked. "The hotel is definitely out."

"How about if we go to..." Gunn began to say.

"Vegas? Sorry, Gunn, too high profile, but I agree we need to get out of dodge." Angel said. Liam's phone began to ring.

"Hello." He said picking it up. "No I can't….Yeah…alright." Liam hung up. "That was Wes. Since I can't tell you guys about all of this, we have to go back to the hotel and get the scrolls for Wes."

"Why can't you just tell us already?" Gunn complained.

"Not my job to do so. The only thing that can help us is back at the hotel. We can't protect Connor unless we get the scrolls."

"Okay then. Quick stop." Angel said.

Lilah, Linwood, and Gavin all watched on the monitors in the basement of Wolfram and Hart as some guy strolled in.

"Is this man with you?" the doctor asked the commander. A team was at the Hyperion and setting up medical tools when a man had walked in and interrupted them.

"Where is Angelus?" the man asked.

"Who is this pirate with a sword, and what is he doing in the middle of my operation?" Linwood asked.

"I don't know, sir. But he called Angel by his old name, Angelus." Lilah said. The audio started to crackle.

"I need better audio."

"Any second." The transcriber said fiddling with some wires.

"Hand over the vampires." The new arrival said.

"This has gone on long enough." Linwood picked up his radio. "I don't care who that man is. Take him out. Take him out now. Over."

"Take him out!" the commander said on the screen.

The screen went to snow as the commandos closed in and the screaming began.

"This should be sweet." Gavin said.

"Picture?" Linwood said.

"I'm working on it, sir." The transcriber said.

"Burke's never lost." Gavin said.

"I'm sure it'll be over in just a second." Lilah added. There was a long scream on the speakers.

"That should do it."

"Anybody there? Over." Linwood said into the radio.

Angel turned the convertible into a dark alley and brought it to a stop.

"Why're we stopping here?" Cordy asked.

"It's only a couple of blocks from the hotel. I'll go the rest of the way on foot." Angel said.

"No dad." Liam said. "Mom needs you right now. I'll go."

"You sure?"

"I'm faster than you are believe it or not." Lim replied smiling and hopping out of the car. Angel gave a disapproving look. "The scrolls?" Liam asked Wes as he pulled up and got out of his car.

"In the cabinet back in the office." Wes replied.

"If I'm not back in five minutes, leave without me."

"NO." Delia said. "I am not going to leave you."

"I'll meet up with you guys. Just get somewhere safe."

"Liam?" Buffy said.

Yeah."

"Just get back soon."

"I will." Liam said kissing his mother's forehead. "You just hang in there." She nodded back. Liam jumped onto the hood of the car and from there to the bottom rung of a fire-escape ladder and made his way up the side of the building.

Liam ran along the corridor in the Hyperion, dropping down into the lobby and looking around at the destruction of Doctor Fetvanovich's equipment and the bodies of the W&H team. He sees the doctor's body, and chicken feet sticking out of his pants.

"What a fucking mess." Liam said.

"Angelus." He heard someone say. Liam turned around and saw Holtz. "I've been looking for you."

Buffy was still in the back of the car. Wes was sitting on the trunk facing Fred who was standing behind the car. Gunn was sitting on the side of the passenger door. Angel was sitting with Buffy while Delia sat in the passenger seat. Cordy started the car.

"He said five minutes!" Delia said.

"It's been six and a half." Cordy replied.

"That's so typical of him!" Buffy said.

"It probably wouldn't hurt to wait another minute, right? I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen in another minute?" Fred asked. Buffy let out a scream. "Ask a stupid question."

"What are we gonna do? Shouldn't we go somewhere?" Cordy said.

"What's keeping Liam?" Gunn asked impatiently.

"Buffy, what is it?" Angel asked.

"The… The baby." Buffy managed. "I think it might be time." They all just stared at her.

"He said to go without him." Delia said.

"I am not leaving my son." Angel said. "I'll go see what's keeping him.

And this is where I stop for now. Lullaby is next and therefore, Connors birth. I'm getting excited about all this. Even though I know what's going to happen. Tell me what you think. Comment and Review.