Chapter Twenty-Eight
The gang from "Angel Investigations" was having one of their many meetings to discuss preparedness a couple of months later.
Susan walked into the office carrying the tray with coffee and some baking. Gunn stood up immediately to give her a hand. "You sure you've still got a month and a half to go. That baby looks like it is ready to burst out of there."
Cordy gave him a slap on the arm. "That's not very nice."
But it was true, Susan was obviously very pregnant. "Well seeing as we've got the actual date of conception I'm sure the date is right." At that moment her top moved with the motion of a foot pushing from inside which could be seen by everyone. Without meaning to they all stared. "But you may be right, she seems to be wanting out."
The last two months had been spent by the group trying to find a cure for the Capro Curse and the evil person who can only do good, but still no luck with either one.
Susan had stayed inside the hotel for the last two months and filled it with music and an overall feeling of joy. Angel and Susy were almost totally inseparable, never being much more than a few minutes apart. The time she spent in the courtyard gardening, Angel spent beside her lying on their quilt reading up on his future endeavour. When he was in the basement lifting weights and practising his moves with various weapons she watched amazed at how easy it seemed. He wanted to be totally prepared for what lay ahead but still worried that his humanness limited his abilities.
Susan refused to let anything worry her. They prepared the room that had been hers as a nursery. Angel wouldn't let her lift a finger to paint or move anything. They ordered furniture over the Internet, and waited for its arrival. It would have been more fun to go out and shop for it but they were taking no chances.
Angel coached her exercises as he read it would make the birth easier. They couldn't go outside so they walked the halls of the old hotel exploring the rooms in the process. The building had been possessed by a Thesulak demon that survived by feeding on people's paranoia for about seventy years since the time it was built to recently when Angel Investigations exorcised it. Back in 1979 the owner took a shotgun and killed almost every guest early one morning. Some people had lived in those rooms for many years, most having no family to claim their possessions and some rooms contained many interesting items. They spent many hours exploring what turned out to be other's lives.
Susan loved to bake and cook much to the enjoyment of the others. Wesley had said that the old hotel seemed to be filled with the sounds, smells and feelings of a happy home. This happiness seemed to be very contagious, spreading itself among the others.
Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn visited any place that could possibly offer them any information but with no luck. There were a few local demon hangouts, supernatural shops, psychics, even local libraries, but they offered no clues to their questions.
Susan had asked them to also check out local plant nurseries to find a white primrose with a cream centre like the ones in England, but like the information they sought there were no flowers meeting specifications. There were primroses of almost every colour, white ones with yellow centres, but none of the ghostly white with cream centres could be found anywhere.
At one nursery Gunn found a statue of a male angel holding a small lamb. The angel looked down at the lamb and his right hand gently touched it under its chin. The lamb in turn looked up into the eyes of the angel showing complete trust. After Gunn showed it to the others they all knew the perfect spot for it, in Susan's garden. It took each of them a few days' wages, but they all knew it would be very special for the couple. Arrangements were made to have it delivered early the next morning.
"You guys making some progress?" Angel asked as he and Susan were coming down the stairs in the morning. "You were here awfully early this morning."
"Not really anything new," Wesley said blocking the entrance to the garden where Gunn and Cordy were finishing unwrapping the statue from the protective burlap covering. They both stepped inside blocking the view even more.
"What are you guys doing?" Susan asked knowing that something was up.
"We've got a surprise for you," Cordy grinned.
"My white primroses?" Susan was anxious.
"No," Cordy continued, "We couldn't find any with cream centres, but this is almost as good.
The three stepped aside, and through the windowed doors the five-foot statue could be seen facing them.
Susan quickly opened the door, "Oh my God," she started, "It's just as I pictured it."
Angel followed her through the doors, "What do you mean, Lamb?"
Susan touched the statue, the cheek of the angel, then ran her fingers over the ear of the lamb and rested them over the angel's hand. She then turned to Angel, a look of confusion on her face.
He put his arm around her and asked, "What is it?"
"Just a minute," Susan said as she went inside and walked over to the desk.
Everyone turned and watched her, they also looked very confused. "That's not quite the reaction I expected," Gunn frowned.
"Not what I thought either," Wes agreed.
Susan returned to them with three sketchpads that she often used when the mood moved her. She fanned through two pads before stopping at the right page. She turned back the pages on the coil binding and after a short pause she turned the drawing to the others. There on the paper was a sketch of the angel and the lamb, the same as the statue. The same look into each other's eyes, the same touch to the chin of the lamb. It was dated three weeks earlier.
Everyone was completely silent. Gunn turned the book over to a poem written on the back, but Susan took it away from him before he could read more than the first three lines:
"Centuries old,
The tale is told,
Of the angel and the lamb."
Susan stood looking at the sketch when suddenly a small drop of blood splattered on the paper. She touched her nose and realized it was bleeding. Wesley rushed to hand her a tissue as she said, "Damn, I haven't had a nosebleed for a long time."
"You better sit down," Angel rushed over to her and directed her to a chair. "We should check your blood pressure."
"I'm okay," Susan said giving him a small push. "You worry too much, besides it has already stopped." She then put her hand over his, "Let's have breakfast, I'm starved." She was obviously directing everyone too change their thoughts of concern. "Thanks for the statue," she added turning to the others, "It is really beautiful and looks great in the garden."
Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn all said, "You're welcome," with weak smiles. After the couple left the room to go to the kitchen they just looked at each other rather puzzled.
"What do you think it means, " Gunn asked.
"It could simply be that she saw the statue before and remembered it subconsciously, " Wesley answered.
"Not too much seems simple where Angel and Susan are concerned, " Cordy observed.
"I agree," Gunn nodded, " and I don't think this is good."
The next three days were quiet, … unusually quiet. They all wondered about the statue, but eventually lost their concern. They saw the way Susan looked at it, like it seemed to mean so much to her. Anyone who looked at it seemed to feel a sense of calm and peace.
There seemed to be little demand at the moment for demon fighters. Usually at least one of the three stayed at night, just in case there was a call or they were needed. With the weekend coming up Angel suggested that they would like a little bit of time alone as soon enough they would have little time to be by themselves. Only after he agreed to telephone one of the three each morning and each evening did they agree. They would each carry their pagers and not go out of town, they informed Angel before being pushed out of the door.
"See you Monday morning," Angel said closing the door.
"I'll talk to you in the morning, "Cordy responded before the door clicked shut.
After everyone left, Angel leaned on the desk watching Susan through the windowed doors into the garden. She had sometimes confided in him how awkward and clumsy she felt in her growing condition, but in his eyes all he could see was beauty. He wondered for a moment how he could ever have forgotten her for even a second. With a heavy sigh he admitted to himself that as a young soulless vampire, his interest was only in evil and therefore his admiration of Darla. Almost one hundred and fifty years of evil thoughts forgetting all that was good.
Susan stepped in through the doors, admiring a small bouquet of flowers she had picked. She glanced toward the desk and caught Angel's look of deep thought. As their eyes met his gaze came back to the present and he couldn't help but smile at his good fortune.
"You looked to be far away," Susan commented, "Hope I was with you."
"Always, love," he replied taking the bouquet and placing it in a glass of water.
"Is everyone gone already?" Susan looked around the room for the others as she tucked herself in under his arm.
"I thought maybe if they had a few days off maybe we could make better progress next week. Besides maybe you'd like a couple of days just to ourselves."
"Alone?" she questioned, "Just to two of us?" Susan gave him almost a shy grin. "Just what do you have in mind?"
Angel ordered out for Chinese Food to be delivered. They enjoyed a candle lit dinner then curled up on the couch together to watch "Titanic" once again. "We should try that," Angel joked when the love scene came on, nuzzling Susan's neck.
"Angel." she protested, "The last time we tried anything on this couch Cordelia walked in."
They decided to retire early that night although neither was very tired. When Angel returned to the bedroom from the shower he found Susan sitting in their bed writing in her sketchbook.
"Got that poem finished yet?"
"I can't finish it until I know how the story ends, but I've got it up to date. How does this sound?
ANGEL AND THE LAMB
Centuries old,
The tale is told
Of the Angel and the Lamb
Finding each other
Continual Lovers
It's only soul mates that can
Find the love
Brought from above
Time and time over again
Hard to believe
Never to leave
Constant and always the same
Evil in the way
A soul gone astray
For years they were torn apart
Not knowing why
Tears she did cry
An empty place left in her heart
Primroses white
Grow where they might
Have come from a ghostly tear
The soul did return
But not to learn
How to love, but only to fear
God from above
Missed how they loved
Insisted they must be one
The work of many
Angels a plenty
Couldn't rest until it was done
The path was long
Attraction was strong
They met under strange circumstance
They knew not why
Their feelings soared high
They were together it seemed only by chance.
Puzzling clues
Clairvoyant view
Gradually showed the truth in the story
Originally ended
Finally mended
That brought the Angel and Lamb their glory
Planets aligned
Precision timed
To complete the life they began
Together a moment
Sealing commitment
Again the parting of a wife and her man
Half a world apart
Place of the start
Northumberland, the site to set the scene
Moment they parted
Immediately restarted
Though two hundred fifty years between.
So what do you think?"
"I think it is beautiful," Angel answered her pulling her close as they lay together under the feather duvet. "And I'm sure the rest will be just as special." After he paused for a moment he added, "We've lived it, and it almost sounds too impossible to believe, I guess this is what legends are made of … and we are already part of one."
Angel awoke later that night to find the room cold and a draught coming from the balcony doors. He turned to reach for Susan but found her place beside him empty. He quickly grabbed his robe and went to the doors and found his Lamb wrapped only in a sheet watching as a storm seemed to be moving into the city from over the ocean. He was startled at first as he saw Elizabeth standing as she did in the drawing room moments before Alexander died. Bruises seemed to mark her face and shoulders, but as she turned he realized it was only the shadows in the moonlight that marked her skin. Susan smiled at him weakly, but he also noticed a tear that glistened on her cheek.
"What's wrong, Susy?" he asked as she turned back toward the storm. He put his hands on her shoulders. "You're freezing," he said as he opened his robe and pulled her inside with him. The robe didn't quite meet over the unborn baby, but Angel wrapped his arms around her chest and put his cheek down against hers. "What's wrong, Lamb?"
"It must have been the sound of the storm in the distance. I was dreaming." She hesitated as more tears fell.
"It might help to talk about it."
"That night," she started, "I was dreaming about that night." Angel held her a little tighter. "When I woke up I was lying on the cold ground. It was dark … very dark, as if the moon and the stars had all disappeared, and it was so cold. I had no energy to move." A shutter went through her body. Angel suggested that they go inside where it was warmer, but Susan didn't move, watching the flashes of lightening.
"There was a little tiny pinhole light so far away. It seemed to be growing, getting closer and closer until it was like the sun – so bright and warm. It sounded like thousands of people talking at once. The warmth felt so good – it gave me energy. I wanted to go toward it … but I turned for you … I couldn't go without you. I turned away from the light and I called you, but you didn't answer. I kept calling you but I couldn't find you, then it went black again … and cold and I was all-alone … two hundred years alone. When I opened my eyes I was standing here and far away I could see the storm.
Susan turned toward Angel and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm here now – I'll never let it happen again," he whispered into her ear.
"But what if we can't stop it?"
"No 'What ifs'. I won't let it happen. I will never forget you again."
They went back into the bedroom closing the doors on the storm. They climbed back into bed with the duvet tightly wrapped around them. Angel spooned in behind her and held her tightly.
"Besides how could I ever hear a love song again and not think of you … or see the blue sky and not see your eyes looking back at me … or smell fresh baking … or see a flower or…"
"Okay, I get the point … I love you, so much it almost hurts sometimes."
"I know …I do too."
They spent the rest of the weekend just being together, not wanting to be apart for even a moment.