Chapter 38

The atmosphere was tense to say the least. Almost everyone had arrived and now all they had to do was wait for a few stragglers to join them. Jon and Spike were back at the base, but didn't know when they would be able to leave, Vicky and Mel, who were very much needed for the meeting to begin, were going to be at least another half hour. That left the assembled party to their own devices for the time being.

There was a group of women in one corner comprised of Ava, Vala, Dawn, Vi, Sam, Buffy, Laura, and Liz. This was the mommy group, and everyone knew it except for Angel. Cam, Andrew, Jack, Xander, Teal'c, and Kyle were standing to one side having a heated conversation about Star Wars. Jonas, Daniel and Glies were in their own little book world. Most of the rest of the group was sitting around the fire in twos and threes, having their own private chats, and Angel was sitting to the side, watching. After a few minutes Faith came over and joined him.

"Hey, Fang, stop with the brooding. There's kids here. Don't wanna scare 'em." She said as she nodded her head torwards where Connor sat with two other guys and a group of four children.

"What are they doing here anyway? I don't think this is a very good place for my grandchildren, or the other two for that matter, to be hanging out right now."

She shrugged. "Their parents and their babysitter are here, and besides, this is the world they are being raised in. No point sheltering them for the safe part. Want 'em to know how we deal with the monster under the bed, ya' know?"

"I guess." Angel watched the group for a moment longer. "Who's the one with the hair?"

"Huh? Oh, Michael. He's one of Willow's team."

"He looks farmilliar."

"He should. You met him a while back. Sent him to us with his girlfriend."

Angel nodded. "Smart kid. Told me something I needed to hear that night."

After a quiet moment the children came running up to them. "Faith! Candy?"

Angel looked between the little dark eyed boy and the Slayer. Faith shifter slightly and pulled four pieces of gum from her pocked. "Angel, this is my little buddy Alex. His mommy and daddy work with me in Cleveland."

"Nice to meet you Alex." The little boy smiled shyly and hid behind Liam, who smiled at his grandfather.

"Hi, Angel" Liam said as he grabbed 2 pieces of gum from Faith and muttered 'thanks' as he and Alex ran back over to their fathers. Faith went to give the others a piece each and then changed her mind at the last second.

"Yo, Dawn, Laura. Is gum cool for the minis?"

The mothers shook their heads and then Dawn said. "There is a bag of marshmallows behind you. Give 'em one of those instead."

Faith nodded. "Cool."

After the kids had run back to their group Angel snickered. "When did you go all 'Auntie Faith'?"

She snorted. "Please. Giving out candy is about as far as I go. 'Sides, known Alex and AJ all their lives. Hard to resist after a while."

Angel nodded. "So, AJ is Dawn and Jonas's son then."

"Yeah, damn cute kid. Hella sweet too. Coures he's an alien, so who knows how he'll be as a teenager."

"Alien?"

"Oh yeah, you missed out on the big alien reveal." Faith smirked and leaned forward a bit on her elbows. It was fun telling the gossip instead of being the focus of it for once. "Turns out that Jonas, Cassie, and the nanny are all aliens of some sort or another. Oh, and Andy and his Star Trek baby momma set off an epidemic."

Angel looked at her. "Huh?"

"Had a rash of pregnancies pop up round here. Turns out that alien girl is giving off, like, vibes or some shit. Like there weren't enough of the Summers' running around."

"So what, Dawn and Buffy got pregnant?" Angel paled slightly. Buffy was pregnant. It bothered him a bit. Not nearly as much as he had expected, but in a kind of distant way.

"Nah. Well, I suppose it's possible, but Dawn hasn't said anything. I meant Buffy and Vi."

Ok, now he was confused. "What does Vi have to do with Summers'. I thought her last name was Roberts?"

Faith was quiet for a minute. She could explain the whole thing, or not. She probably should, just so he wasn't blindsided by it later. "It was, but she got married a while back, to – "

Of course she was cut off by the arrival of Jon and Spike followed by Jack's shout of "Hey, Summers, MiniMe, come over here and help me explain a few things to these guys."

An uncomfortable silence filled the yard. Of course the SGC group had no idea what it was about. Jack was just about to say something when Faith grabbed Angel by the arm and yanked him into the main house and down to the basement, followed swiftly by Vi, Buffy and Spike.

Jack just stared after them for a minute. "Huh."

Angel was reeling. This whole thing just wasn't making any sense to him. "What the fuck is going on Faith? How is Spike going by Summers now, and buddies with the military? He was terrified of them the last time I checked. And Vi? And his hair? What the hell is up with that?"

He was pacing the room like a caged animal. There was something here that Faith obviously didn't want to be the one to tell them. Vi had mentioned kids before. Maybe she got a sperm donor or something. Maybe Spike was using an alias around town and met these guys that way. It wasn't a huge city. Maybe…..

"I changed my hair 'cause Vi said the peroxide didn't look right with my complexion anymore."

"What?"

Buffy came around him and looked at him accusingly. "I thought it was 'cause it didn't look professory enough."

"What?"

Vi came down the stairs and whacked Spike on the back of the head. "I had nothing to do with it. He said, and I quote, 'New life, new locks pet.' And I wish you'd quit telling people I made you do it. It figures, no matter which century you're born in, a man's fall back defense is always 'blame it on the wife.' How juvenile is that, really?"

Faith whistled and yelled, "Hey! Can we get back on track here? Fang here is about to have the very first vampire coronary."

Vi and Spike sobered and Buffy sat down and started to explain. "About 7 or so months after we last saw you Vi made Spike human."

Angel collapsed into a chair. "But the prophecy…."

Vi cut in, "Had absolutely nothing to do with it. We thought it might at the time, but it's totally unrelated. On the up side; it's all you now. Back to the whole one of a kind thing, so you can go for it if you want and don't have any competition."

Angel shook his head. "I signed that away for the Black Thorn thing. How did you do it then? That was supposed to be the only way."

"There was a poker game in town. I won a wish from a girl there. She was apparently owed a favor from Dehofrin and she used it to pay up. I went for it. Worst case, nothing happened. We're still pretty surprised that it worked actually. I wouldn't count on it happening again though. Dude was pretty pissed."

"So, what? You got pregnant because of this alien thing and decided you had to get married?"

Spike chuckled. "Naw. Been married for ages. Baby would have happened soon enough anyway. We were trying for it. The only purely accidental pregnancy, except for Vala anyway, was Ava's."

Angel looked to Buffy, who just shrugged and changed the subject. "So, legally, Spike is now a Summers cousin. He's got a PhD in History and he works at the SGC as a cultural specialist. None of them know about his real past and stuff. And you can't just sign on the dotted line and poof away a prophecy. If it was meant for you, then it was meant for you."

No one was really surprised that Angel never returned to the gathering. The SGC personnel were told that he was reacting to Buffy's pregnancy and he wasn't taking it well. Most knew there was probably more to it, but didn't want to ask.