Author's notes: Sorry it took me so long to update! I've been very lazy. So sue me. No really, go ahead. It's not like I actually *own* anything. Knock yourselves out. Meh. Oh, and my version of the wedding will be very different than what actually happened. And stay tuned for some major B/S and possible A/C in the next chapter. Thanks for all the reviews! They make me smile :)

Buffy walked with Spike toward main room of Xander's apartment, careful not to trip over the numerous frills on her dress. Just as she was about to come to the end of the hallway, she spun back around, dragging Spike with her.

"Hey! What the bloody hell are you doing?"

"Spike, you should stay back here until we explain your situation to Angel."

"I'm fairly certain he's familiar with my 'situation' pet. Vampire in love with the slayer and all."

Buffy sighed impatiently. "You know what I mean! Your chip." She knocked Spike in the head for emphasis.

"Ow! Was that bloody necessary?"

"Just, stay here okay?"

"Fine," Spike grated out. He glared at her as she left the hallway and went to join the others.

"Buffy? Oh my God!"

Buffy smiled and turned toward the voice she heard.

"Cordelia?"

She walked towards Cordy, anticipating a hug.

"Oh my God! You look so… green!"

Buffy stopped walking and gave Cordelia her patented 'that is possibly the dumbest thing you could have said' smile before noticing Lorne.

"Yes, yes I do. And uh, so does your friend here. By the way, who is your green friend with the horns??"

Lorne stepped forward to introduce himself, "Just call me Lorne. They destroyed my home… twice. I'm part of the team now."

Buffy nodded politely, albeit cautiously, and shook Lorne's hand. "You and Xander must shop at the same clothes store," she said, laughing at her own joke. The two guys in question looked down to examine their equally bright and flashy Hawaiian shirts. Dawn and Willow smirked.

Buffy turned back to Cordy, "So where's uh…"

"Oh! Angel… he uh, he's coming. He had to get someone—something from the van. The others are with him. Oh, except for Wesley. He's over here," she answered, gesturing toward the door.

On cue Wesley walked through the open door. Buffy was surprised. He looked so different. A lot less stuffy. He looked almost… cool.

'Wow. Never thought I'd be thinking *that* about the poster child for the Nancy Tribe,' Buffy said to herself.

"Buffy," Wesley said, smiling, "How are you?"

Buffy smiled back and allowed herself to be enveloped in a hug.

"Oh you know, fine and dandy. Being resurrected has its perks."

She stepped back from Wesley and looked around. Xander was staring suspiciously at Lorne. Willow had started asking Cordelia about the business. Dawn was looking around, for Spike most likely. Anya was still fluttering about, but kept sneaking glances at Cordelia.

A quiet feminine voice caught Buffy's attention.

"Um, hi!"

Everyone turned to see a thin girl with long brown hair standing at the door.

Cordy broke in and introduced her, "Everyone, this is Fred. We saved her from a demon dimension a while back. She's with us now."

"Her name is Fred?" Dawn muttered under her breath.

"Oh, and here's Gunn," Cordy continued as Gunn appeared by Fred's side. Fred smiled up at him and took his hand.

"Hi everyone. So you're the famous Scooby Gang? Wow. Not exactly what I expected," Gunn said. He looked at Buffy, "And you'd be the slayer then? Are you sure about that? You look so tiny."

"Charles," Fred said in a warning tone.

Buffy smiled, "Yup, I'm pretty sure. If I'm not, I'm gonna be pretty pissed about the whole 'devoting my life to slayage and dying twice thing.'"

Fred laughed nervously before turning toward Xander, "Thank you so much for inviting all of us. I mean, I'm sure that you only really wanted to invite Cordelia and Angel and Wesley, so it was awfully nice of you to let the rest of us tag along. Weddings are so exciting aren't they? I bet you guys can hardly wait! I've heard a lot about Sunnydale and I've read a lot about the Hellmouth so it's pretty exciting for me to finally come here… and I'm babbling," she looked up at Gunn, "Aren't I?"

Gunn nodded and Fred smiled apologetically at the gang.

"Angel!" Cordelia exclaimed, breaking the slightly uncomfortable silence that had settled over the room. Buffy probably would have gotten a major case of whiplash if it wasn't for her slayer strength. She turned around at lightening speed to face her ex.

"Hi Ange—what the Hell is that?!!" Buffy stood frozen, pointing at the bundle in Angel's arms.

Angel opened and closed his mouth several times, doing what seemed to be his impersonation of a carp.

"Cordelia… when did you have a baby?!" Willow squealed, smile spreading across her face.

Cordy made a face and shook her head, "The kid's not mine. So not eager to get pregnant. Can we say stretch marks?"

"Oh, I'm sorry! Fred, he's adorable. When did you and Gunn…" Willow trailed off, realizing that the baby couldn't be Gunn's because it wasn't mulatto.

Fred nervously shook her head, "Um, he's not mine either."

"Wesley?! Oh my God I can't belie—" Wesley cut Willow off, shaking his head vigorously.

"Um… Lorne? I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you could have a non-green baby. I'm not up on the demon political correctness as of right now. You'll have to bring me up to date."

"Sorry sweetums, Connor's not my little bundle of joy."

"Well then… I give up." Willow's face had now turned a beet red. She and Lorne would have made wonderful Christmas decorations together.

"Did you find him in an alternate dimension? How cool would that be! Better than a puppy," Dawn offered.

Angel cleared his throat and everyone turned to face him again

"He's mine."

Everyone froze. Well, except for Xander. He fell backwards out of his chair. When he leapt back up he was babbling.

"WHAT? Excuse me but, Vampire! Aren't you supposed to NOT be able to have one of those??"

Buffy looked as if Angel had just tried to explain to her a complex calculus equation. Her face was scrunched up and she was studying the baby in Angel's arms closely.

"I can explain," Angel began "… well actually, no I can't. But I can tell you that he's mine. It really did happen. I don't know how or why, but he's here. He's my son."

"Who's the mother?" Buffy demanded.

"Buffy, it's complicated and I'm not really sure—"

"WHO is the mother?!" Buffy interrupted, clearly not willing to let Angel dance around the subject.

Angel looked down at the baby in his arms for a second and then back up at Buffy. "Darla," he stated plainly.

The Scooby Gang let out a collective, "HUH?!"

Cordelia stepped in to do what she did best. "Long story short, she was brought back from the dead by an evil law firm, she got all evil again, Angel was going through a tough time, he went a little kooky and boinked the blond bitch from Hell, a few months later she's standing on our doorstep looking bloated and unhappy."

"Thank you for that appallingly simplified version of the facts Cordelia," Wesley said, glaring at his coworker. Cordelia mimed a silent "What?" and shrugged.

"Yes well," Wesley cleared his throat before continuing, "After Darla was impregnated, she began to feel the effects of the baby. Angel's child has a soul, and while the soul was inside of Darla, she began to show real human emotions- maternal emotions. As she went into labor, she realized that her dead body was not capable of completing the birthing process and she staked herself to save the life of her child."

Buffy blinked.

"Sounds like an episode of 'Passions.'"

All heads now swiveled to face the speaker of the last comment.

"SPIKE! Oh my God, it's Spike!!" Cordelia yelled, gesturing wildly at the blond vampire standing before all of them, "There he is!! Right there! And why is no one here brandishing sharp pieces of wood?!!"

Buffy glared at Spike and began to explain, when he suddenly wasn't there anymore. He was now on the floor, Angel holding him down, and Wesley and Gunn behind him, ready with stakes in hand.

"Howdy there William. Come to crash the party? I'm sorry, but we have a strict soul-having policy at this event," Angel sneered, twisting Spike's arm painfully.

"Stop! Just stop it. I can explain all of this."

Angel looked up at Buffy, confused.

"Well… get off of him!" she snapped.

Angel slowly got up and backed away, but his eyes never left the younger vampire.

Buffy continued to glare at Spike as well, "Should have let them hurt you. I *told* you to wait!"

"What can I say luv, I'm very impatient. Plus, I wanted to see all of my dear old chums," Spike replied mockingly.

Buffy rolled her eyes and looked back at the apprehensive LA gang. "Spike's not evil anymore."

"I bloody well am!!" the vampire shouted, earning another glare from Buffy.

"What I mean is," she continued, "he's harmless now. The Initiative, those government demon hunters, captured him and put a chip in his brain that makes it so he can't hurt any living thing."

"Yeah, just agitate him real good till he tries attack ya, it's a good time," Xander commented with a grin. Spike growled and stood up, brushing himself off.

"So… what? Now he helps you?" Cordelia asked incredulously.

"Well, sort of, yeah. He's on our side now."

Dawn leapt to Spike's defense, "That's right! Spike took care of me all summer when Buffy was… away. And he helped the gang patrol and stuff!"

Gunn cleared his throat and addressed Angel, "This *is* the same vamp that tortured you a couple of years ago, right?"

Angel nodded and Buffy looked at Spike in surprise, "You tortured Angel? When did you torture Angel?"

Spiked waved his hand dismissively, "It was around the time of that whole 'Gem of Amarra' phase that I was going through. Heh. Just decided to have a bit of fun with good old granddad."

"DON'T call me granddad," Angel growled, causing Spike to smirk.

"Okay people! No bloody fights! We can't get stains on the dresses," Anya interrupted.

"Yes, because we *don't* want to destroy these dresses," Dawn added sarcastically.

"When is Giles coming?" Cordelia asked.

"Well, he's taking a red-eye flight so he'll be here a little before daybreak. Plenty of time to get ready for the wedding."

"Yup. Can't have the wedding without my best man," Xander added, grinning from ear to ear.

"God, it'll be so great to see him again," Willow said, practically glowing.

The two gangs shared a moment of silent reminiscence before turning their thoughts back to the present.

"So what now?" Gunn asked, fidgeting in his seat.

"We'll head back to the hotel," Angel said decidedly, "It was nice seeing everyone… well almost everyone," he finished, giving Spike the evilest glare he could muster. Then he turned back to Buffy.

"You look good Buffy," He leaned in closer, whispering to her, "Although I'm not sure that blinding green is your best color."

Buffy smiled, "You should see me in my Doublemeat Palace uniform."

"What?"

"Nevermind. I'll spare you the boring details of my sucky life."

"Buffy, nothing about you is boring or sucky."

"You've been away a long time. Things have changed."

"Not you Buffy. You'll always be special."

The rest of the gang was trying to unobtrusively eavesdrop on this quiet conversation when Spike, who had decided he'd had enough, interjected.

"Yeah well, isn't it time you should be going?"

Angel closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, willing himself not to smack Spike across the room. Instead he backed the blonde vampire up against the nearest wall and looked down at him with barely contained rage.

"I don't care who's side you're on Spike. You mess with me or mine while we're here, and you're dust."

Spike met Angel's angry gaze and his eyes flashed yellow.

"Listen mate, I am who I am. If the Scoobies can accept it, so can you. And if you do anything to me, I think they'll have a thing or two to say about it."

"Yeah, it'll probably sound a bit like 'Woo hoo!'" Xander commented from the peanut gallery.

Spike growled and lowered his voice, "I think that the slayer would have a big problem with it Angelus. I'm quite helpful to her, in more ways than one."

Confusion flooded Angel's mind. Then suddenly, he looked as if he was beginning to understand something.

"Smell something Peaches?" Spike asked wickedly.

"Okay!! Didn't you say something about leaving?!" Buffy frantically interjected, pulling the two vampires apart.

Angel seemed to lose whatever thoughts he was having as he once again looked at Buffy.

"Yeah, we'll go. See you all later."

Cordelia smiled and took Connor from the cooing Dawn. The LA gang all said their congrats to Anya and Xander and hastily left for their van.

On the way down the hall Fred spoke up, "I think that went well, don't you?"

"About as well as anything in Sunnydale ever goes," Wesley answered simply.

Buffy closed the door to the apartment and looked down at her dress. "It's not easy being green," she muttered.

That's the end of this chapter folks. Now review. Please? *innocent smile*