Disclaimer: see chapter 1
DIMENSIONS: chapter 5 – We are Family
A:
"Buffy's out," said Willow, holding the door open to let him in. "Patrolling. Trying to find Adam with Riley." Angel looked away from her, and the redhead blushed violently. "Colleagues. Professional. You know he's an army guy?"
"Yes."
"Well, then …" blustered Willow.
"Willow, I know they're together. It's not your fault. It's mine."
She stopped talking and gave him a reassuring little smile before sitting cross-legged on her bed and picking up a book. "I found something. At least, I think I did. It could be dangerous, and it doesn't say if it'll work on vampires. It might not."
"I'll take the risk."
"And it needs to be cast by three people."
"Giles?"
"Giles, and Tara." Willow smiled despite herself at Tara's name. "Tara's a witch, a good one. She'll help, I know she will. And Giles is always a good solid third." She picked up the phone. "I'll call her now."
"You don't have to do that …" began Angel, half-turning from the window.
Willow grinned happily. "We were going to meet up to do spells anyway." She dialled, and spoke briefly into the receiver before putting it down. "There. She'll be here in a few minutes."
Angel sat down carefully on Buffy's bed, stroking the coverlet idly with a hand, and faced Willow who had returned to her book.
"You are being careful, doing this magic, aren't you?"
"Course."
"Last year, Giles was there more or less all the time to watch you. Now you're on your own. Are you sure you know what you're doing?" He looked down at his hands. "I know what started you off, and I'm forever grateful, and the last thing I would want is for you to hurt yourself casting a spell."
Willow looked up from the spell and noting the ingredients with surprise. She tried to remember Angel volunteering so much at once before and failed. "Oh," she said, with realisation. "Oh."
"I don't have many friends, Willow," Angel told her gently. "I count you amongst the ones I do have. I don't want to lose you, or that friendship."
She looked at him with wide hazel eyes and then darted up from the bed and gave him a warm hug. "Me too," Willow said. "I hope this thing goes all right, that you and Buffy can …"
"Riley?" asked Angel, surprised and touched.
"He's nice," nodded Willow keenly. "He's nice, but you know I watched her through the beginning of you two too and it's not the same." She stepped back a bit, and then went hurriedly to her computer and starting moving things around, evidently embarrassed. Angel smiled to himself and watched her bustle.
There was a gentle tap at the door, and Willow started and went to open it.
"Hey." The voice was soft and hesitant, but from his vantage point on Buffy's bed Angel saw Willow's face light up at the sound, and he began to rethink things about the redheaded witch.
"Come in." Willow held the door back and let Tara in before closing it again. Looking up, Angel saw a girl with faded blonde hair and a posture that said "nervous", but felt something in the room that hadn't been there a moment before. Power, pure basic power. Willow had power too, but hers was neatly sealed up inside her, to be released through chanting and emotion and anger. Tara's power was tangible and there, and Angel, with centuries of experience in the field, felt a wave of awe sweep over him.
"Tara," said Willow, "this is Angel."
Tara followed her friend's hand to look properly at Angel. She had known, even before entering the room, that whoever Willow had with her, they were decidedly not human. Now, as he lifted his head to meet her eyes, she saw that there was humanity there, but mixed in with it a demon, and torment, and struggling.
"Oh," she murmured. "Hi."
"Angel's …" started Willow, but Tara shook her head.
"No, I can see. You're a vampire."
"Yes."
"But there's something … else inside you. Something's t - trapped." Her gaze shot to Willow. "And you put it there, Will."
Angel nodded, even more impressed. Tara smiled softly at him, and held out her hand brusquely. "Pleased to meet you."
"And I you." He took her hand, and unconsciously bowed his head. "With you two around this college must have a good Wicca group."
"Daughters of the Goddess, blah blah," Willow said, shaking her head. "Newsletters and tea afternoons but no magic."
"Except for Willow," said Tara.
"Except for Tara," said Willow. "I'm just trying."
"No, except for both of you," corrected Angel. "This room's almost buzzing with …"
Tara took the book Willow offered her and read the spell quickly, listening to her friend's explanation.
"We need lots of stuff," Willow added, "and also we need to know …" she peered over the old words again, "the colour of his aura."
"I – I can do that." Tara took Angel's hand again and closed her eyes, concentrating for a second, and then opened them again with a glance of surprise. "That's … it's … You know somebody's aura's like a rainbow, stripy, almost. Your – yours is green for peace and orange for intelligence with a deep violet streak for passion, Willow," she explained. "It's … unusual, but I've never seen anything like A – Angel's before."
"Well?" asked Willow, impatient.
"There's a strong black background," Tara said, "black as night. That means power and power for evil." Angel turned away quickly. "And there's the orange too, and royal blue which means strength of mind. You have a thin violet stripe, but what stands out, in the foreground, is a narrow but very clear and very unbroken line of pure gold."
"Which means?" said her friend.
"It means Warrior for good," Tara explained, "and pure good too. A core which can't be broken. I think Buffy will probably have that gold too."
"But it can be broken." Angel had turned around again, his voice low. "I suppose that part's the soul. And it can be broken."
"No." Tara was certain. "No, it c – can't be. It's not very old. Perhaps a year or a little more. The rest is ancient. I think you've always had the violet." Angel laughed shortly and without humour.
"Passion."
"And the orange. The black and the blue aren't quite as old, but there's not much in it." She blushed and nodded earnestly. "Wh – which means that for the spell we have to get some elixir of phoenix feather and also a – a – ten grams of ebony."
"Eeek." Willow was investigating her purse. "Phoenix feather …"
"I'll pay. I'm asking for this." Angel took some notes from his pocket. "Just don't tell Cordelia, all right?"
B:
It was night. The cemetery was deserted, save for two figures wandering idly amongst the stones, arms linked. In the clear sky above stars twinkled, and there was the rustle of leaves in the gentle breeze.
Buffy sighed happily. "A perfect day."
"Now, if you start singing …" teased Angel softly.
"You'll what?" asked Buffy, turning her face up to his.
"I'll … I don't know. Tickle you?"
"Not ticklish!" she laughed, spinning away from him. "It's such a perfect day!" she belted out at the top of her voice.
"Oh yeah?" Angel ran after her, dodging gravestones and crosses and finally managing to throw himself on top of her, both of them laughing breathlessly. "Not ticklish?"
"Not a bit," gasped out Buffy. "Ow!"
They rolled in the damp grass, each trying to attack the other, and finally rolled apart and lay staring up at the stars.
"It's such a beautiful night," Angel said softly. "Somehow I appreciate it more now I know the sunshine too."
"Oh please!"
The voice acted like a spring on the Slayer, and she was upright with a stake in her hand before Angel had sat up. There was a click from a cigarette lighter, and a puff of smoke, and Spike wandered out of the shadows. Buffy groaned and put her stake away.
"And I hoped I had a real vamp to dust there."
"Ha very ha." Spike put his head on one side. "Tousled look suits ya, Slayer. Making the most of it, are you?" Angel got to his feet and dusted off his jacket, coming closer to Buffy. Spike strolled forward, cigarette in his mouth. "You too, Angelus?"
"Don't call me that."
"Yeah? What're gonna do?" Spike put out his cigarette and grinned. "No more tyrannising your kids, mate."
"What are you going to do?" replied Angel coldly. "Bite me?"
"Don't tempt me. That'd really be poetic irony, now, wouldn't it? He who staked his sire, fell in love, got sent to Hell," Spike ticked the list off on his fingers, "came back, turned into a bleedin' human; drained to death by his childe who ain't really his childe because you had to give a present to Dru that night, but couldn't trust her to do all the teachin' stuff. And they say the family is dead."
"Mine isn't." Angel shot Buffy a look full of love. "I've a new one."
She returned the look before giving Spike quite a different one. "Go and … I don't know, but go and do it somewhere else. Or I'll dust you."
"I'll believe that when I see it, Slayer," the vampire returned, "but I'm gone anyhow. Guy's gotta eat." He bared his teeth in a macabre grin and turned, melting into the shadows. Buffy sighed.
"Why can't he just leave!"
"Because he's Spike," said Angel. "He's mad at us both because he lost Dru. Although that was his own fault. And he's mad at himself because he helped you bring me back, and because really he doesn't want you dead. I think he's fond of you in his own way."
Buffy absorbed the information with a little frown, and then shrugged. "If you say so. I'll believe anything you say."
"So if I said I was going to turn into a slime demon?" suggested Angel, putting his hands in his pockets as they started to walk again. Buffy hit him lightly.
"Not fair. I'll only believe sensible things." She paused. "I think I might be pregnant."
"Now you're teasing." Angel's eyes filled with regret. "We both know that's impossible."
Buffy stopped walking and sat down on a gravestone. "Either it's impossible or it's not. What do you believe in more, modern science or miracles?"
He shook his head. "I know this is a miracle, that I'm here, with you, but I'm not expecting more. I've been dead two and a half centuries, my love, my line died out when I did."
"I'm three weeks late," Buffy said, staring into the darkness. "I thought that too. I was just too happy … to think of precautions, you know? There wasn't anyone else to precaut against."
"Precaut's not a word."
She laughed. "Now you're being Gilesy. I'm serious, Angel. I haven't been more serious since I got you to feed from me. And I don't want to have to hit you again. I think I'm pregnant, and if I am, you're going to be a dad."
B:
"Lie back and relax," the doctor said gently. "And try not to worry. I'm just going to examine you thoroughly, take some blood samples and a couple of x-rays. Nothing will hurt and it'll be over in half an hour."
"Right." Angel put his head back and closed his eyes. Then he opened them again and regarded the doctor. "Will you talk me through whatever?"
"Of course." The doctor pulled out a stethoscope and pressed it on Angel's chest. "I imagine this is familiar."
"About all that is, really."
"Things have changed, eh?" The doctor moved the stethoscope. "Don't say anything for a moment … okay. Your heartbeat is slightly elevated, but I'll attribute that to stress. Sit up, please." He moved round to Angel's back. "I must say Mr Giles's call was a surprise. This has to be a first for me."
"For everyone, I think." Angel lay back again.
"Indeed." The doctor strapped a velcro band around Angel's wrist and started a machine. "This checks your blood pressure. I need some family history. Did your parents have any medical problems?"
"Not that I know of. My mother may have had asthma; that is, she got out of breath easily, but it was put down to a delicate constitution."
"And your grandparents?"
"Never knew them. My father's parents died when I was a baby, my mother's before my birth. In their sixties. It was quite a good age back then, you know."
The doctor noted his blood pressure and removed the band. "Normal blood pressure. Open your mouth and say ahh."
"Ahhh," said Angel obediently.
"And brothers and sisters? Did you have any?"
"One brother and three sisters. Younger than me. I was the oldest."
"Any medical problems there?"
"No. I don't think so."
The doctor scribbled on his pad. "And did they … outlive you?" He frowned. "That sounds rather odd."
Angel gazed past the doctor at the eye chart on the wall. "What did Giles tell you?" he said.
"Just that you were for many years a vampire and now you're not. Close your right eye."
With one eye closed and a light shining in his other one, Angel frowned.
"He left out the details."
"Medically they're not really necessary."
"Doctor, my siblings and my parents outlived me only by a day, and their deaths were far from natural." He closed his other eye. "I, that is, the vampire, I killed them. I daresay they'd all have lived much longer had I not got there first. I'm the last of my family, apart from the baby, if there is one. That's why I wanted this exam."
The doctor nodded, understandingly, and from a drawer pulled out a needle and a small test tube. "I'm going to take a small sample of your blood, and with your urine sample they'll be tested." He passed Angel a little box. "And at your leisure, when you get home, fill this and bring it in. There's instructions inside." Angel slipped the box in his pocket and nodded. "When we have the results of all the tests we'll call and you can come in again to discuss them. Otherwise I think everything's completely normal. Not too painful?"
"Not too painful," Angel agreed.
A:
The magic shop was cool and dark and quiet, and the proprietor welcomed Willow and Tara warmly, straightening up from a book.
"Good afternoon, girls. Come for ingredients?"
"Lots," said Willow. She passed him the list. "I don't know whether you're going to have everything."
The owner got down jars of odd substances and filled packets and bags and piled them on the counter. "Now … elixir of phoenix feather … I don't have that in stock. Nor the ebony. Ebony's difficult to find, and the other – I'll have to send off for it. Is it urgent?"
"Qu – quite," said Tara.
"And expensive. What are you doing?" He packed the rest into a sack. "Something to do with dimensions?"
Willow took the sack and paid with some of Angel's money. "Something to do with them. How soon can we have the rest?"
"Two days. Maybe. I'll pull some strings for you." He cashed the note and gave her the change. "Have a nice day, girls."
They left with the sack and he got on the telephone.
B:
They sat down opposite the doctor, holding hands. Buffy was relaxed and calm in a summer dress, but underneath his new, faint suntan, Angel was as pale as ever in nervous anticipation of whatever the doctor had to say.
"Well?" said Buffy.
The doctor smiled at them both in a warm way. "Good news, you'll be pleased to hear. The blood tests all came out normal – slightly low liver function, however. Were you ever a drinker?"
"Every night when I was young," grimaced Angel.
"Hmm. Curiously whatever damage you did to yourself then appears to have frozen. Didn't get any worse, but it didn't get any better. Just watch what you drink and it'll clear up in time. Otherwise absolutely fine. Your blood group, though, caused us all a bit of a problem."
"Why?"
"Well, I suppose it will have something to do with your diet over the last few years, and particularly whatever you last, erm, ate, before the change happened."
"I've been on supplies from a butcher for the last three years," said Angel. "Pig, mostly. I could have gone to the hospital but I never liked doing that." Buffy squeezed his hand reassuringly.
The doctor made a note. "We did several analyses and finally gave you a fifty-six percent AB group. Have it checked again in a while and perhaps it'll have settled down now your body's working normally again." He glanced down. "Heart, lungs, eyes and everything in perfect order." He smiled warmly at them both. "In fact, everything's in perfect order."
Buffy smiled radiantly. "You mean …?" she asked.
"Congratulations."
Angel took a deep breath and digested the information. "You're sure?"
"Absolutely sure. Have you decided what you want to do about pre-natal care, Miss Summers?"
"I was wondering," Buffy said with her brightest smile, "if you'd let me come here. Because Giles knows you, and because this whole thing's a bit of a miracle. Technically neither of us should be able to have kids."
"I'd be delighted."
"Great!" Buffy shook Angel's shoulder. "You all right, sweetie?"
"I'm just a bit … a bit in shock," he said. "Give me time to absorb the news and I'll be suitably happy." He paused, and then smiled broadly. "I'm going to be a father!"
"We're going to be parents," said Buffy, and then her face fell. "What am I going to say to Mom?"
DIMENSIONS: chapter 5 – We are Family
A:
"Buffy's out," said Willow, holding the door open to let him in. "Patrolling. Trying to find Adam with Riley." Angel looked away from her, and the redhead blushed violently. "Colleagues. Professional. You know he's an army guy?"
"Yes."
"Well, then …" blustered Willow.
"Willow, I know they're together. It's not your fault. It's mine."
She stopped talking and gave him a reassuring little smile before sitting cross-legged on her bed and picking up a book. "I found something. At least, I think I did. It could be dangerous, and it doesn't say if it'll work on vampires. It might not."
"I'll take the risk."
"And it needs to be cast by three people."
"Giles?"
"Giles, and Tara." Willow smiled despite herself at Tara's name. "Tara's a witch, a good one. She'll help, I know she will. And Giles is always a good solid third." She picked up the phone. "I'll call her now."
"You don't have to do that …" began Angel, half-turning from the window.
Willow grinned happily. "We were going to meet up to do spells anyway." She dialled, and spoke briefly into the receiver before putting it down. "There. She'll be here in a few minutes."
Angel sat down carefully on Buffy's bed, stroking the coverlet idly with a hand, and faced Willow who had returned to her book.
"You are being careful, doing this magic, aren't you?"
"Course."
"Last year, Giles was there more or less all the time to watch you. Now you're on your own. Are you sure you know what you're doing?" He looked down at his hands. "I know what started you off, and I'm forever grateful, and the last thing I would want is for you to hurt yourself casting a spell."
Willow looked up from the spell and noting the ingredients with surprise. She tried to remember Angel volunteering so much at once before and failed. "Oh," she said, with realisation. "Oh."
"I don't have many friends, Willow," Angel told her gently. "I count you amongst the ones I do have. I don't want to lose you, or that friendship."
She looked at him with wide hazel eyes and then darted up from the bed and gave him a warm hug. "Me too," Willow said. "I hope this thing goes all right, that you and Buffy can …"
"Riley?" asked Angel, surprised and touched.
"He's nice," nodded Willow keenly. "He's nice, but you know I watched her through the beginning of you two too and it's not the same." She stepped back a bit, and then went hurriedly to her computer and starting moving things around, evidently embarrassed. Angel smiled to himself and watched her bustle.
There was a gentle tap at the door, and Willow started and went to open it.
"Hey." The voice was soft and hesitant, but from his vantage point on Buffy's bed Angel saw Willow's face light up at the sound, and he began to rethink things about the redheaded witch.
"Come in." Willow held the door back and let Tara in before closing it again. Looking up, Angel saw a girl with faded blonde hair and a posture that said "nervous", but felt something in the room that hadn't been there a moment before. Power, pure basic power. Willow had power too, but hers was neatly sealed up inside her, to be released through chanting and emotion and anger. Tara's power was tangible and there, and Angel, with centuries of experience in the field, felt a wave of awe sweep over him.
"Tara," said Willow, "this is Angel."
Tara followed her friend's hand to look properly at Angel. She had known, even before entering the room, that whoever Willow had with her, they were decidedly not human. Now, as he lifted his head to meet her eyes, she saw that there was humanity there, but mixed in with it a demon, and torment, and struggling.
"Oh," she murmured. "Hi."
"Angel's …" started Willow, but Tara shook her head.
"No, I can see. You're a vampire."
"Yes."
"But there's something … else inside you. Something's t - trapped." Her gaze shot to Willow. "And you put it there, Will."
Angel nodded, even more impressed. Tara smiled softly at him, and held out her hand brusquely. "Pleased to meet you."
"And I you." He took her hand, and unconsciously bowed his head. "With you two around this college must have a good Wicca group."
"Daughters of the Goddess, blah blah," Willow said, shaking her head. "Newsletters and tea afternoons but no magic."
"Except for Willow," said Tara.
"Except for Tara," said Willow. "I'm just trying."
"No, except for both of you," corrected Angel. "This room's almost buzzing with …"
Tara took the book Willow offered her and read the spell quickly, listening to her friend's explanation.
"We need lots of stuff," Willow added, "and also we need to know …" she peered over the old words again, "the colour of his aura."
"I – I can do that." Tara took Angel's hand again and closed her eyes, concentrating for a second, and then opened them again with a glance of surprise. "That's … it's … You know somebody's aura's like a rainbow, stripy, almost. Your – yours is green for peace and orange for intelligence with a deep violet streak for passion, Willow," she explained. "It's … unusual, but I've never seen anything like A – Angel's before."
"Well?" asked Willow, impatient.
"There's a strong black background," Tara said, "black as night. That means power and power for evil." Angel turned away quickly. "And there's the orange too, and royal blue which means strength of mind. You have a thin violet stripe, but what stands out, in the foreground, is a narrow but very clear and very unbroken line of pure gold."
"Which means?" said her friend.
"It means Warrior for good," Tara explained, "and pure good too. A core which can't be broken. I think Buffy will probably have that gold too."
"But it can be broken." Angel had turned around again, his voice low. "I suppose that part's the soul. And it can be broken."
"No." Tara was certain. "No, it c – can't be. It's not very old. Perhaps a year or a little more. The rest is ancient. I think you've always had the violet." Angel laughed shortly and without humour.
"Passion."
"And the orange. The black and the blue aren't quite as old, but there's not much in it." She blushed and nodded earnestly. "Wh – which means that for the spell we have to get some elixir of phoenix feather and also a – a – ten grams of ebony."
"Eeek." Willow was investigating her purse. "Phoenix feather …"
"I'll pay. I'm asking for this." Angel took some notes from his pocket. "Just don't tell Cordelia, all right?"
B:
It was night. The cemetery was deserted, save for two figures wandering idly amongst the stones, arms linked. In the clear sky above stars twinkled, and there was the rustle of leaves in the gentle breeze.
Buffy sighed happily. "A perfect day."
"Now, if you start singing …" teased Angel softly.
"You'll what?" asked Buffy, turning her face up to his.
"I'll … I don't know. Tickle you?"
"Not ticklish!" she laughed, spinning away from him. "It's such a perfect day!" she belted out at the top of her voice.
"Oh yeah?" Angel ran after her, dodging gravestones and crosses and finally managing to throw himself on top of her, both of them laughing breathlessly. "Not ticklish?"
"Not a bit," gasped out Buffy. "Ow!"
They rolled in the damp grass, each trying to attack the other, and finally rolled apart and lay staring up at the stars.
"It's such a beautiful night," Angel said softly. "Somehow I appreciate it more now I know the sunshine too."
"Oh please!"
The voice acted like a spring on the Slayer, and she was upright with a stake in her hand before Angel had sat up. There was a click from a cigarette lighter, and a puff of smoke, and Spike wandered out of the shadows. Buffy groaned and put her stake away.
"And I hoped I had a real vamp to dust there."
"Ha very ha." Spike put his head on one side. "Tousled look suits ya, Slayer. Making the most of it, are you?" Angel got to his feet and dusted off his jacket, coming closer to Buffy. Spike strolled forward, cigarette in his mouth. "You too, Angelus?"
"Don't call me that."
"Yeah? What're gonna do?" Spike put out his cigarette and grinned. "No more tyrannising your kids, mate."
"What are you going to do?" replied Angel coldly. "Bite me?"
"Don't tempt me. That'd really be poetic irony, now, wouldn't it? He who staked his sire, fell in love, got sent to Hell," Spike ticked the list off on his fingers, "came back, turned into a bleedin' human; drained to death by his childe who ain't really his childe because you had to give a present to Dru that night, but couldn't trust her to do all the teachin' stuff. And they say the family is dead."
"Mine isn't." Angel shot Buffy a look full of love. "I've a new one."
She returned the look before giving Spike quite a different one. "Go and … I don't know, but go and do it somewhere else. Or I'll dust you."
"I'll believe that when I see it, Slayer," the vampire returned, "but I'm gone anyhow. Guy's gotta eat." He bared his teeth in a macabre grin and turned, melting into the shadows. Buffy sighed.
"Why can't he just leave!"
"Because he's Spike," said Angel. "He's mad at us both because he lost Dru. Although that was his own fault. And he's mad at himself because he helped you bring me back, and because really he doesn't want you dead. I think he's fond of you in his own way."
Buffy absorbed the information with a little frown, and then shrugged. "If you say so. I'll believe anything you say."
"So if I said I was going to turn into a slime demon?" suggested Angel, putting his hands in his pockets as they started to walk again. Buffy hit him lightly.
"Not fair. I'll only believe sensible things." She paused. "I think I might be pregnant."
"Now you're teasing." Angel's eyes filled with regret. "We both know that's impossible."
Buffy stopped walking and sat down on a gravestone. "Either it's impossible or it's not. What do you believe in more, modern science or miracles?"
He shook his head. "I know this is a miracle, that I'm here, with you, but I'm not expecting more. I've been dead two and a half centuries, my love, my line died out when I did."
"I'm three weeks late," Buffy said, staring into the darkness. "I thought that too. I was just too happy … to think of precautions, you know? There wasn't anyone else to precaut against."
"Precaut's not a word."
She laughed. "Now you're being Gilesy. I'm serious, Angel. I haven't been more serious since I got you to feed from me. And I don't want to have to hit you again. I think I'm pregnant, and if I am, you're going to be a dad."
B:
"Lie back and relax," the doctor said gently. "And try not to worry. I'm just going to examine you thoroughly, take some blood samples and a couple of x-rays. Nothing will hurt and it'll be over in half an hour."
"Right." Angel put his head back and closed his eyes. Then he opened them again and regarded the doctor. "Will you talk me through whatever?"
"Of course." The doctor pulled out a stethoscope and pressed it on Angel's chest. "I imagine this is familiar."
"About all that is, really."
"Things have changed, eh?" The doctor moved the stethoscope. "Don't say anything for a moment … okay. Your heartbeat is slightly elevated, but I'll attribute that to stress. Sit up, please." He moved round to Angel's back. "I must say Mr Giles's call was a surprise. This has to be a first for me."
"For everyone, I think." Angel lay back again.
"Indeed." The doctor strapped a velcro band around Angel's wrist and started a machine. "This checks your blood pressure. I need some family history. Did your parents have any medical problems?"
"Not that I know of. My mother may have had asthma; that is, she got out of breath easily, but it was put down to a delicate constitution."
"And your grandparents?"
"Never knew them. My father's parents died when I was a baby, my mother's before my birth. In their sixties. It was quite a good age back then, you know."
The doctor noted his blood pressure and removed the band. "Normal blood pressure. Open your mouth and say ahh."
"Ahhh," said Angel obediently.
"And brothers and sisters? Did you have any?"
"One brother and three sisters. Younger than me. I was the oldest."
"Any medical problems there?"
"No. I don't think so."
The doctor scribbled on his pad. "And did they … outlive you?" He frowned. "That sounds rather odd."
Angel gazed past the doctor at the eye chart on the wall. "What did Giles tell you?" he said.
"Just that you were for many years a vampire and now you're not. Close your right eye."
With one eye closed and a light shining in his other one, Angel frowned.
"He left out the details."
"Medically they're not really necessary."
"Doctor, my siblings and my parents outlived me only by a day, and their deaths were far from natural." He closed his other eye. "I, that is, the vampire, I killed them. I daresay they'd all have lived much longer had I not got there first. I'm the last of my family, apart from the baby, if there is one. That's why I wanted this exam."
The doctor nodded, understandingly, and from a drawer pulled out a needle and a small test tube. "I'm going to take a small sample of your blood, and with your urine sample they'll be tested." He passed Angel a little box. "And at your leisure, when you get home, fill this and bring it in. There's instructions inside." Angel slipped the box in his pocket and nodded. "When we have the results of all the tests we'll call and you can come in again to discuss them. Otherwise I think everything's completely normal. Not too painful?"
"Not too painful," Angel agreed.
A:
The magic shop was cool and dark and quiet, and the proprietor welcomed Willow and Tara warmly, straightening up from a book.
"Good afternoon, girls. Come for ingredients?"
"Lots," said Willow. She passed him the list. "I don't know whether you're going to have everything."
The owner got down jars of odd substances and filled packets and bags and piled them on the counter. "Now … elixir of phoenix feather … I don't have that in stock. Nor the ebony. Ebony's difficult to find, and the other – I'll have to send off for it. Is it urgent?"
"Qu – quite," said Tara.
"And expensive. What are you doing?" He packed the rest into a sack. "Something to do with dimensions?"
Willow took the sack and paid with some of Angel's money. "Something to do with them. How soon can we have the rest?"
"Two days. Maybe. I'll pull some strings for you." He cashed the note and gave her the change. "Have a nice day, girls."
They left with the sack and he got on the telephone.
B:
They sat down opposite the doctor, holding hands. Buffy was relaxed and calm in a summer dress, but underneath his new, faint suntan, Angel was as pale as ever in nervous anticipation of whatever the doctor had to say.
"Well?" said Buffy.
The doctor smiled at them both in a warm way. "Good news, you'll be pleased to hear. The blood tests all came out normal – slightly low liver function, however. Were you ever a drinker?"
"Every night when I was young," grimaced Angel.
"Hmm. Curiously whatever damage you did to yourself then appears to have frozen. Didn't get any worse, but it didn't get any better. Just watch what you drink and it'll clear up in time. Otherwise absolutely fine. Your blood group, though, caused us all a bit of a problem."
"Why?"
"Well, I suppose it will have something to do with your diet over the last few years, and particularly whatever you last, erm, ate, before the change happened."
"I've been on supplies from a butcher for the last three years," said Angel. "Pig, mostly. I could have gone to the hospital but I never liked doing that." Buffy squeezed his hand reassuringly.
The doctor made a note. "We did several analyses and finally gave you a fifty-six percent AB group. Have it checked again in a while and perhaps it'll have settled down now your body's working normally again." He glanced down. "Heart, lungs, eyes and everything in perfect order." He smiled warmly at them both. "In fact, everything's in perfect order."
Buffy smiled radiantly. "You mean …?" she asked.
"Congratulations."
Angel took a deep breath and digested the information. "You're sure?"
"Absolutely sure. Have you decided what you want to do about pre-natal care, Miss Summers?"
"I was wondering," Buffy said with her brightest smile, "if you'd let me come here. Because Giles knows you, and because this whole thing's a bit of a miracle. Technically neither of us should be able to have kids."
"I'd be delighted."
"Great!" Buffy shook Angel's shoulder. "You all right, sweetie?"
"I'm just a bit … a bit in shock," he said. "Give me time to absorb the news and I'll be suitably happy." He paused, and then smiled broadly. "I'm going to be a father!"
"We're going to be parents," said Buffy, and then her face fell. "What am I going to say to Mom?"