Title: Family: Forward to LA

Author: victoriamartynne

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Spoilers: None, I think!

Summary: Imagine if Connor had never been taken by Wesley, Xander and Anya had never split up and Angel had told Cordelia how he felt. Sequel to Family: Back to Sunnydale. The Scoobies visit the Fang Gang.

Everyone was downstairs when Cordelia and Angel came down with Connor. They'd gotten a little carried away upstairs. Dawn was planning on going out to meet her father and was trying to get Buffy to go too, but she was sticking firm to going shopping with Willow and Anya instead. Giles was planning to go to a couple of museums to which he got groans from Xander and Dawn. Wesley offered to go with him and Giles accepted. Fred and Gunn were planning on closing a few urgent cases, which left Angel and Spike.

Cordelia said goodbye to Angel and promised to come straight home after the appointment. She kissed Connor on the forehead and then left. Everyone else who was leaving also left.

Angel eyes Spike warily. "You smell like Buffy." He accused.

"So what?" Spike said and circled him. "You have your chit, surely I deserve mine."

"You and Buffy?" He asked incredulously. "Since when?"

"Since she came back." He boasted. "Been on and off for a few weeks now."

"If you hurt her." He threatened.

"Peaches, you need to chill out. I'm not going to hurt her." Spike looked offended.

"If she's got a thing for you then why does she keep going on about the whole me and her thing?" Angel asked and folded his arms.

"That, I don't know." Spike looked sad for a moment and then offered to do some training downstairs.

"Sure." Angel agreed and went to the weapons cabinet.

Cordelia was the last to arrive back at the hotel. She came in and found everyone sat in the lobby with sandwiches and pastries. Lorne was there too. Angel was instantly on his feet. "Well, what did he say?"

"The baby is fine, it's a little small but that's nothing to worry about. He's given me some more vitamins and some more folic acid. I tried to explain to him that it tasted disgusting but he wouldn't listen. I guess it's good for baby. He also told me whether it was a boy or a girl." She bit her lip and looked for his reaction.

"You found out?" She nodded. "Well?"

"We're having a girl." She said and he grinned.

"A girl?" She nodded and he picked her up and twirled her around, both of them laughing.

"Did someone just say a girl?" Gunn asked.

Angel put Cordelia down and answered. "Yeah, we're having a girl."

Fred jumped up to hug them both and Wes shook Angel's hand. Spike congratulated them on a 'job well done'.

Buffy looked down and put her sandwich on the table, unable to eat anymore. She swallowed what was in her mouth and then almost choked on her soda.

"Congratulations." She murmured and then left the lobby and went outside. Willow followed, sensing she needed to talk or vent or need someone to patch up her hand when she'd done hitting the wall.

Cordelia's eyes followed her for a moment but then she concentrated on Angel's happy face. "I got a picture too." She pulled it out of her bag to show him. The AI gang crowded round to look, even Giles got up off the couch to take a look. The curiosity even got the better of Anya, who leaned over Giles' shoulder in order to look. Dawn just sat on the couch next to Spike pretending not to be interested, in sister solidarity.

"I think it's wrong." Dawn suddenly said.

"What's wrong Dawn?" Cordelia said, looking a little hurt.

"That you have to rub it in Buffy's face all the time." She shouted. "She came here to get Angel back and you just show off all the time that you've got him and she hasn't. I mean, you're all happy and everything and you don't notice how unhappy she is. How selfish can you be?"

Before Cordelia or Angel could answer Dawn ran upstairs to her room and they heard the door slam shut behind her. Spike got up to follow.

"Are we selfish?" Cordelia asked Angel, looking slightly worried and confused.

"Don't take offence, Cordelia." Giles said and cleaned his glasses. "Buffy has been through a hard time and her way of coping was to take it out on everyone. I believe she is still being used to being alive and is trying to find her place in the world again. The best part of her life was when she was with you, Angel, and she thinks that if she can be with you again, she can be happy."

Cordelia nodded and Angel just stayed silent.

"I think I'm going to see how Buffy is doing." Xander said and left the hotel.

"Don't let them put a damper on things, girl." Lorne said.

"Yeah, you should celebrate." Fred told her.

"Yeah, celebrate with a glass of water and a sit down whilst trying to avoid an angry slayer." She said and let herself fall back onto the sofa.

"Come on baby." Angel sat down next to her and took her hand. "I know you're frustrated and it's my fault because I invited them here but maybe we could get away from them for a while and go out for dinner or something?" He suggested.

"I'd like that. "She said.

He kissed her cheek. "I love you."

He booked the restaurant for eight and sent Cordelia up for a hot bath at six. He joined her at six thirty and they made love under the bubbles. He let her lay on him afterwards, in between his legs, so he could hold her bump in his hands.

"She's kicking." She told him and moved his hands so he could feel.

"It's amazing." He admitted. "I mean, I've seen some amazing things, but this beats them all."

"You had Connor. You saw Darla pregnant."

"That wasn't the same. I didn't love Darla, I love you. I didn't get the chance to see Connor grow inside of her; I can see our baby grow. Connor is special because he was prophesised, our baby is special because she's a miracle and she's made from us."

Cordelia smiled and then turned to kiss him with tears in her eyes.

"You shouldn't say things like that to pregnant women unless you want to see tears."

He laughed.

When they arrived back from their meal, everyone was once again sat in the lobby.

Although Lorne had gone to open Caritas. Dinner had been perfect, very romantic and Cordy had been sad to leave. "I'm not taking any crap." She warned before they went in the hotel doors.

"I didn't expect you to." He replied and held the door open for her.

"Hey." Cordelia greeted everyone with a smile. "What have you been up to?"

"Nothing much." Wes replied. "We were thinking about ordering a pizza. How was dinner?"

"Perfect." Angel told him and watched as Cordelia went to say hello to Connor, who was sat playing on the floor with Willow and Giles.

"I'm glad." Wes smiled.

"Have we got any cases?" Cordelia asked, holding on to Connor as he tried to stand up and wobble his way to her.

"None that need to be done now." Gunn said. "Relax, girl, we can handle the business without you."

He grinned at her and she had to smile back. "I've got to get out of these clothes." She said and climbed up, letting Connor wobble his way to Giles. "I'll be back down in a minute."

Angel watched her go up the stairs, she looked tired, half demon or not, the baby was taking it out of her.

"She'll be okay, you know." Buffy said scornfully. "You don't need to watch her all the time. She is a grown woman."

Angel frowned. "She is pregnant. I should be worried."

She shrugged and leaned her head on Xander's shoulder.

"What are you up to for the rest of the night?" Angel asked.

"We were thinking about ordering a pizza." Xander said, repeating what Wes had said earlier.

"But then they all decided that pizza in LA is nothing like pizza in Sunnydale. So now I want sex." Anya said.

Xander blushed and Fred giggled at the forward ex demon.

"Lilah Morgan please." The lawyer from Wolfram and Hart said into the phone. "Lilah, great to talk to you. I've got news. There's a slayer in town. Not the one from before. The one that made Angel lose his soul. There's some chemistry there. So, I'm thinking, maybe we could cast a little spell on the slayer, make her want him, make him lose him soul and voila, evil Angel."

"What about the seer?"

"Forget about the seer." He argued.

"She's carrying his child. The one that the Powers That Be decided to give to him as a reward. He's not going to go for the slayer when he's in love with the seer." Lilah knew Angel.

"So, we cast a spell on him too." Gavin Park argued.

"He'd catch on, and there's no guarantee it would work on him."

"It's worth a shot."

"Okay, try it, but I never talked to you." She hung up the phone. Maybe, just maybe, it would work, she mused.