"Will, do you have a second?"
Willow looked up at her friend, "Course, I've got lots of them."
Buffy sat down on the corner of Willow's bed. She didn't know what to say so she just held out the little tester. Willow looked up at her with wide eyes.
"Does this mean what I think it means."
Buffy nodded.
Willow bit her lip, "I didn't know you two…I thought he would turn…I mean is the soul what let him have a kid?"
Buffy shook her head understanding how Willow could think that Angel was going to be a daddy or how Buffy could possibly know already, "It isn't his."
"Who?" Willow said afraid to ask, but knowing the answer anyways.
"Spike."
"Buffy vampires can't have children."
Buffy simply went for the most simple of answers, the absolutely bizarre truth, "He was human for about an hour. I saw him in the sunlight."
Willow looked confused.
"There was this warlock we saved and he gave us each a wish. Mine was for normalcy, I think his must have been something about being a man with me. I think this is the twisted reply. I get have the kid and everything. He got to be human just so I would know what it was like."
"So he was human and sex?" Willow's face began to grin, "I thought you guys stopped doing that a year ago. Just too hot to resist?"
Buffy sighed, "It was the morning we left we kind of had 'Relief That Buffy Is Alive' sex."
"Wow. Is that better than the kick each other's ass sex?"
Buffy started to cry as she started to babble, "It was the most perfect moment of my life. The two of us intertwined in the sunlight. It was beautiful. I told him I loved him and I do, but what do I do now? If I love him and I tell him then he is going to have to be with me forever and I don't want to burden him. What if he gets tired of me being old and wrinkly? They always leave."
Buffy cried on her best friend's shoulder. She cried as if her heart was breaking. She had pushed Spike away so many times. She now had the chance and the thought that perhaps she had a future was difficult to take, especially for some one who had been told there would be no future.
Willow held her and tried to figure out how things were going to be okay.
***
Buffy had plenty to think about so she went for a walk. While walking she ran into a tall good looking man and a girl by his side. The man looked like a rock star, full of boyish charm that always seemed to get him in trouble. The girl was wearing leather and was primped to the nines.
"Hello Ms. Summers," he said in a proper British accent, "My name is Wilson Hayden and this is Melinda, we need your help."
Buffy blinked repeatedly. She had never met these people before, no one knew where she was, but they seemed to think it was perfectly natural to find her.
"Ummm," Buffy said, "Do I know you?"
Wilson smiled, "No not really, but we hope it won't make a difference. See we need you to help us. It involves a really ugly master vampire."
"Nope, I'm done with those things. Find another slayer to do the dirty work."
"We did, this is the new slayer. She's just been called."
Buffy felt like slapping herself in the head. Of course, it was glaringly obvious. She had just been too caught up with her own emotions. Buffy eyed the girl.
"The problem is, we're unprepared."
Buffy raised an eyebrow, "Don't you council types beat the boy scouts for preparedness."
"Well we didn't really think Melinda was ever going to be called. She's a wild card, plus Texas isn't known for its vampires, well not in Dallas anyway. So we did some light training, but nothing too much. We kind of got sidetracked." he grinned the smile of a boy who got caught slacking. "I thought it would be fun to put Melinda in the Miss Teen USA pageant. She was Miss Texas two years ago. It just didn't seem likely that I would be given a slayer. I'm not liked very much. So we're under-trained and about to face a master vampire. To say the least we're a little bit buggered."
"What Wilson is attempting to say," the girl spoke up in a southern drawl, "is that I've never seen a vampire, never mind fought one. We're here to ask for your help. You've got almost a decade under your belt we want to know if you'll come with us to help train me for awhile."
Buffy was taken aback, "Do you know that I've died. It's a fluke that I'm still a slayer."
Melinda stepped forward she looked at the older woman in awe.
"You're the best. You never let them control you. If you want to go to the prom you do, if you want to fight in heels you do. I like everything I've heard about you."
Wilson handed Buffy a card, "We're in town until tomorrow night. Please think it over. We need you."
Buffy took the card and watched them disappear into the night.
"Great just what I need, more responsibility," she muttered as she headed back to the hotel.
***
Things got weirder after the Wilson and Melinda encounter. When she walked into her room she found Angel sitting on her bed looking at the pregnancy stick. He just looked at her and offered to take the right road, one that he had denied five years earlier. He had offered to be the father, thinking that Buffy had gotten herself into trouble.
It was then that Cordelia overheard. She looked at the pair and had offered some snippy words. Then she had stormed off. It was then that Buffy and Angel realized what they were doing.
Buffy and Angel stared at each other. For the first time since Buffy had arrived they truly looked at each other, looked at who they actually were. Twenty-five year old Buffy Summers looked at her centuries old ex-boyfriend. They had spent so much time pretending they were the same, they almost believed it.
"Did you mean that?" Buffy asked, wanting to know if he really meant to be the father of her child, not that she wanted him to, but just so she would know how to handle this situation.
"I meant it five years ago. I had to go, but I've always regretted leaving you. There wasn't anything bad between us, but we just couldn't be together."
"Right there isn't anything bad hello - Angelus?"
"Buffy that is just the thing. I can't move on because there is just this well of guilt that I ruined your life."
Buffy laughed, "Angel there was no life ruining from you. It just was a job hazard. You helped me accept that my life was different. It killed me when you left because it seemed like maybe I should have a normal life. I will never have a normal life."
"You have a chance. Take the father and find a picket fence."
Buffy's giggle turned into a full manic session. She was rolling on the floor and crying. It was a while before she recovered. Angel just watched, feeling very numb.
"If you really want to know this baby is your great-great-great grandson. I figured it out right now. I am not meant to have a normal life. I'm having the baby of Spike. Spike's baby."
Angel looked at her aghast.
"Vampires can't have children."
Buffy smiled, she still was a bit hysterical, "I wish people would quit telling me that. Weirder things have happened. You know he turned human at the right moment and now he's gonna be a daddy. If I decide to tell him"
Angel looked straight ahead, stunned. He sat there and when he spoke it wasn't really him, it was the advice that he wished he had been given.
"Don't do what I did, don't think that it is just your decision to make. Give him a choice in the matter."
Angel looked up in alarm, "Did I just advise you to go after Spike."
Buffy nodded and her giggles returned.
"I should feel very angry. I should feel something, but it is more like this is right. Kissing you always made me feel guilty, but you having Spike's baby feels like…
Buffy shook her head, "I think we are over each other."
Angel looked up at her and gave her the strange Angel smile.
"I think so too."
"Well, my ex, since you gave me relationship advice then I am going to give you some advice. Go see the May Queen, I think that there is something there."
Angel got up, "Um, Buffy, I am okay with all of this Spike stuff, but I really do think it is best if I don't' have to see it or really get advice on my relationship."
"Ditto, well if you switch Cordelia with Spike. That just sounds wrong, but you know what I mean. Well anyways. I think I am going to leave, I am going to train a Slayer in Mexico. Figure out how to tell Spike. Think about if he deserves a chance. I don't want to be around to see the two of you hook up."
Angel turned around to leave, then he turned back, "I do love you Buffy. If you need me I will be there for you. Not really for Spike, but if you need me."
"Ditto," she said smiling.
***
Cordelia threw clothes in the luggage like it was her job. She just wanted to leave. She hated Willow for letting herself hope. She was almost ready to leave when she heard the door open. Her heart raced. Only one person had the spare key.
"Cordy," Angel said coming into her apartment.
She turned around at the sound of his voice.
"Why are you leaving?"
"I have to visit my mother."
"You've lived here for five years without visiting your mother."
Cordy smiled, "I think I'm definitely behind then."
"Cordy we're friends. You've never been one to lie to me."
Her smile faded and she walked over to him. She stood right before him and stared.
"We are friends, I'm friends with Angel who has lived in LA and who has been through some big ups and downs since Sunnydale. These ups and downs have been shared by a team here while she has had her own ups and downs with other people. I'm friends with Present Angel. You are Past Angel who I used to hit on when going to the Bronze was my life. I don't like Past Cordelia and I'm not going back. However since you are stuck on being Past Angel I have no place in your life."
"Cordy you always have a place in my life."
She looked up at him, "I can't be by your side if you already have a girl Friday."
"I'll always need you."
"Well you don't right now. You've got her. I'll phone in my visions."
Cordelia broke eye contact and moved to pack. She was going to start blubbering like an idiot. He grabbed her arm.
"She is going through a rough time."
"What about me? I'm going through a rough time. I've been going through a rough time for years. I have been trying to figure out if I could possibly be in love with a stupid gel-haired guy."
Angel dropped her arm.
"You've never said it, you pick now to say it."
"Well there hasn't been much time. There's always something horrible happening. So sue me I've got bad timing. Great reason not to love somebody."
Angel looked at her. He was searching for something to say. She stared at him. Waiting, she would wait forever to hear his answer. Either way she would know.
He remembered. Five years Cordelia had been by his side. Five years she had fought with him. She had given up all of those things that she had thought were her dreams to fight the good fight. She had matured and changed. somewhere along the way she had become part of his life.
She was a part of his life that he didn't want to loose. There was something there, just timing kept them apart.
"Buffy and I talked. We realized I just had a lot of guilt and she just liked a time when it was easy. She's in love with someone else. I'm in love with some one else."
Cordelia looked at him. She was in shock, for the first time in her life she was completely speechless. She had waited for so long for those words. She didn't know how to react to them. Angel took that opportunity and grabbed her. He kissed her with years of repressed feelings. Cordelia was even more speechless.
"I love you Cordelia Chase."
Willow looked up at her friend, "Course, I've got lots of them."
Buffy sat down on the corner of Willow's bed. She didn't know what to say so she just held out the little tester. Willow looked up at her with wide eyes.
"Does this mean what I think it means."
Buffy nodded.
Willow bit her lip, "I didn't know you two…I thought he would turn…I mean is the soul what let him have a kid?"
Buffy shook her head understanding how Willow could think that Angel was going to be a daddy or how Buffy could possibly know already, "It isn't his."
"Who?" Willow said afraid to ask, but knowing the answer anyways.
"Spike."
"Buffy vampires can't have children."
Buffy simply went for the most simple of answers, the absolutely bizarre truth, "He was human for about an hour. I saw him in the sunlight."
Willow looked confused.
"There was this warlock we saved and he gave us each a wish. Mine was for normalcy, I think his must have been something about being a man with me. I think this is the twisted reply. I get have the kid and everything. He got to be human just so I would know what it was like."
"So he was human and sex?" Willow's face began to grin, "I thought you guys stopped doing that a year ago. Just too hot to resist?"
Buffy sighed, "It was the morning we left we kind of had 'Relief That Buffy Is Alive' sex."
"Wow. Is that better than the kick each other's ass sex?"
Buffy started to cry as she started to babble, "It was the most perfect moment of my life. The two of us intertwined in the sunlight. It was beautiful. I told him I loved him and I do, but what do I do now? If I love him and I tell him then he is going to have to be with me forever and I don't want to burden him. What if he gets tired of me being old and wrinkly? They always leave."
Buffy cried on her best friend's shoulder. She cried as if her heart was breaking. She had pushed Spike away so many times. She now had the chance and the thought that perhaps she had a future was difficult to take, especially for some one who had been told there would be no future.
Willow held her and tried to figure out how things were going to be okay.
***
Buffy had plenty to think about so she went for a walk. While walking she ran into a tall good looking man and a girl by his side. The man looked like a rock star, full of boyish charm that always seemed to get him in trouble. The girl was wearing leather and was primped to the nines.
"Hello Ms. Summers," he said in a proper British accent, "My name is Wilson Hayden and this is Melinda, we need your help."
Buffy blinked repeatedly. She had never met these people before, no one knew where she was, but they seemed to think it was perfectly natural to find her.
"Ummm," Buffy said, "Do I know you?"
Wilson smiled, "No not really, but we hope it won't make a difference. See we need you to help us. It involves a really ugly master vampire."
"Nope, I'm done with those things. Find another slayer to do the dirty work."
"We did, this is the new slayer. She's just been called."
Buffy felt like slapping herself in the head. Of course, it was glaringly obvious. She had just been too caught up with her own emotions. Buffy eyed the girl.
"The problem is, we're unprepared."
Buffy raised an eyebrow, "Don't you council types beat the boy scouts for preparedness."
"Well we didn't really think Melinda was ever going to be called. She's a wild card, plus Texas isn't known for its vampires, well not in Dallas anyway. So we did some light training, but nothing too much. We kind of got sidetracked." he grinned the smile of a boy who got caught slacking. "I thought it would be fun to put Melinda in the Miss Teen USA pageant. She was Miss Texas two years ago. It just didn't seem likely that I would be given a slayer. I'm not liked very much. So we're under-trained and about to face a master vampire. To say the least we're a little bit buggered."
"What Wilson is attempting to say," the girl spoke up in a southern drawl, "is that I've never seen a vampire, never mind fought one. We're here to ask for your help. You've got almost a decade under your belt we want to know if you'll come with us to help train me for awhile."
Buffy was taken aback, "Do you know that I've died. It's a fluke that I'm still a slayer."
Melinda stepped forward she looked at the older woman in awe.
"You're the best. You never let them control you. If you want to go to the prom you do, if you want to fight in heels you do. I like everything I've heard about you."
Wilson handed Buffy a card, "We're in town until tomorrow night. Please think it over. We need you."
Buffy took the card and watched them disappear into the night.
"Great just what I need, more responsibility," she muttered as she headed back to the hotel.
***
Things got weirder after the Wilson and Melinda encounter. When she walked into her room she found Angel sitting on her bed looking at the pregnancy stick. He just looked at her and offered to take the right road, one that he had denied five years earlier. He had offered to be the father, thinking that Buffy had gotten herself into trouble.
It was then that Cordelia overheard. She looked at the pair and had offered some snippy words. Then she had stormed off. It was then that Buffy and Angel realized what they were doing.
Buffy and Angel stared at each other. For the first time since Buffy had arrived they truly looked at each other, looked at who they actually were. Twenty-five year old Buffy Summers looked at her centuries old ex-boyfriend. They had spent so much time pretending they were the same, they almost believed it.
"Did you mean that?" Buffy asked, wanting to know if he really meant to be the father of her child, not that she wanted him to, but just so she would know how to handle this situation.
"I meant it five years ago. I had to go, but I've always regretted leaving you. There wasn't anything bad between us, but we just couldn't be together."
"Right there isn't anything bad hello - Angelus?"
"Buffy that is just the thing. I can't move on because there is just this well of guilt that I ruined your life."
Buffy laughed, "Angel there was no life ruining from you. It just was a job hazard. You helped me accept that my life was different. It killed me when you left because it seemed like maybe I should have a normal life. I will never have a normal life."
"You have a chance. Take the father and find a picket fence."
Buffy's giggle turned into a full manic session. She was rolling on the floor and crying. It was a while before she recovered. Angel just watched, feeling very numb.
"If you really want to know this baby is your great-great-great grandson. I figured it out right now. I am not meant to have a normal life. I'm having the baby of Spike. Spike's baby."
Angel looked at her aghast.
"Vampires can't have children."
Buffy smiled, she still was a bit hysterical, "I wish people would quit telling me that. Weirder things have happened. You know he turned human at the right moment and now he's gonna be a daddy. If I decide to tell him"
Angel looked straight ahead, stunned. He sat there and when he spoke it wasn't really him, it was the advice that he wished he had been given.
"Don't do what I did, don't think that it is just your decision to make. Give him a choice in the matter."
Angel looked up in alarm, "Did I just advise you to go after Spike."
Buffy nodded and her giggles returned.
"I should feel very angry. I should feel something, but it is more like this is right. Kissing you always made me feel guilty, but you having Spike's baby feels like…
Buffy shook her head, "I think we are over each other."
Angel looked up at her and gave her the strange Angel smile.
"I think so too."
"Well, my ex, since you gave me relationship advice then I am going to give you some advice. Go see the May Queen, I think that there is something there."
Angel got up, "Um, Buffy, I am okay with all of this Spike stuff, but I really do think it is best if I don't' have to see it or really get advice on my relationship."
"Ditto, well if you switch Cordelia with Spike. That just sounds wrong, but you know what I mean. Well anyways. I think I am going to leave, I am going to train a Slayer in Mexico. Figure out how to tell Spike. Think about if he deserves a chance. I don't want to be around to see the two of you hook up."
Angel turned around to leave, then he turned back, "I do love you Buffy. If you need me I will be there for you. Not really for Spike, but if you need me."
"Ditto," she said smiling.
***
Cordelia threw clothes in the luggage like it was her job. She just wanted to leave. She hated Willow for letting herself hope. She was almost ready to leave when she heard the door open. Her heart raced. Only one person had the spare key.
"Cordy," Angel said coming into her apartment.
She turned around at the sound of his voice.
"Why are you leaving?"
"I have to visit my mother."
"You've lived here for five years without visiting your mother."
Cordy smiled, "I think I'm definitely behind then."
"Cordy we're friends. You've never been one to lie to me."
Her smile faded and she walked over to him. She stood right before him and stared.
"We are friends, I'm friends with Angel who has lived in LA and who has been through some big ups and downs since Sunnydale. These ups and downs have been shared by a team here while she has had her own ups and downs with other people. I'm friends with Present Angel. You are Past Angel who I used to hit on when going to the Bronze was my life. I don't like Past Cordelia and I'm not going back. However since you are stuck on being Past Angel I have no place in your life."
"Cordy you always have a place in my life."
She looked up at him, "I can't be by your side if you already have a girl Friday."
"I'll always need you."
"Well you don't right now. You've got her. I'll phone in my visions."
Cordelia broke eye contact and moved to pack. She was going to start blubbering like an idiot. He grabbed her arm.
"She is going through a rough time."
"What about me? I'm going through a rough time. I've been going through a rough time for years. I have been trying to figure out if I could possibly be in love with a stupid gel-haired guy."
Angel dropped her arm.
"You've never said it, you pick now to say it."
"Well there hasn't been much time. There's always something horrible happening. So sue me I've got bad timing. Great reason not to love somebody."
Angel looked at her. He was searching for something to say. She stared at him. Waiting, she would wait forever to hear his answer. Either way she would know.
He remembered. Five years Cordelia had been by his side. Five years she had fought with him. She had given up all of those things that she had thought were her dreams to fight the good fight. She had matured and changed. somewhere along the way she had become part of his life.
She was a part of his life that he didn't want to loose. There was something there, just timing kept them apart.
"Buffy and I talked. We realized I just had a lot of guilt and she just liked a time when it was easy. She's in love with someone else. I'm in love with some one else."
Cordelia looked at him. She was in shock, for the first time in her life she was completely speechless. She had waited for so long for those words. She didn't know how to react to them. Angel took that opportunity and grabbed her. He kissed her with years of repressed feelings. Cordelia was even more speechless.
"I love you Cordelia Chase."