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.

Cordelia woke up and flinched against the harsh hospital lights. Her hand drifted towards her abdomen and she let out a cry when she felt the flatness of it. She tried to move her head but found it difficult. She lay there instead, letting tears trickle from her eyes and down her cheeks. She'd lost the baby, she'd let her baby get killed. Images of Buffy and Angel kissing flashed into her mind painfully. She tried to blink away the tears and then tried to wipe them away with her hands. She realised then that her hand was in someone else's. She recognised the silver ring instantly as Angel's and pulled her hand away.

The movement woke the sleeping Angel and he looked at her bruised face. Her eyes were filled with pain and sadness. "God Cordy, I thought I'd lost you."

"I'm still here."

Her eyes were lowered and she wouldn't look at him.

"Do you want to see the baby?"

Her eyes flew up and looked at him. "What?"

"The doctors thought that the impact of the car was making you lose the baby. They performed a caesarean at the last minute and saved her. She looks just like you."

Angel saw her eyes fill with tears again.

"I thought I'd lost her." She admitted. "Can I see her?"

He nodded and left the room.

She wiped her eyes again and shuffled up the bed slightly.

He came back into the room with a tiny baby in his arms. He placed her in her arms ever so gently and watched as she nestled into her breast. "Hello." She whispered. "I'm your mommy."

She watched the baby's eyes flutter open and shut in amazement. "Is she okay? I mean, she was born so early."

"She has to stop in an incubator for a while but other than that she's fine. It's you we've been worried about. The doctor said he would come in and see you in a few minutes." Angel stood back to let Cordelia bond with the baby.

"Am I okay to hold her?" He nodded. "What's wrong with me?"

"Head trauma. And a little bruising around your stomach from where you were hit. It looks like you're fine though."

She nodded. "Get out."

"What?" He looked at her confused.

"Get out. My head trauma is not that bad so that I can't remember why I was running away from you, now get out." She ordered.

He looked at her for a moment and then complied sadly.

The AI gang and Giles were sat in the hallway. "How is she?" Wesley spoke for them all.

He'd passed them on the way to getting the baby and told them that she was awake.

"She's okay. I mean, her injuries are okay. She's hurt and mad. She thought she'd lost the baby."

"Poor Cordy." Fred exclaimed. "She thought that you'd been cheating on her, she'd lost her baby as well as nearly been killed by a car."

"Can we see her?" Gunn asked.

"I don't know. The doctor said he was going to call round. She told me to get out." He sat down in one of the chairs and ran a hand through his hair. "What am I going to do?"

"Stay here and try to see her. I'll go back to the hotel and research what could have happened to you in the first place for you to have seen Cordelia when you were looking at Buffy. I'll sort this." Giles promised and left.

"Do you want one of us to try and talk to her?" Wesley asked.

Angel just shook his head "I'll go in in a little while."

"You know honey." Cordelia said to her baby. "It's just you and me now. I know you thought you'd have a mommy and a daddy and an older brother but it looks like that isn't going to work out. Bu mommy loves you very much and she'll never let anything hurt you. I love you baby girl." She kissed her sleeping daughter's head and then closed her eyes. Angel watched from the doorway sadly.

"Cor, we have to talk." He said and came into the room.

"Talk to Buffy." She told him sharply without opening her eyes.

"I don't want to talk to her; I want to talk to you." He said stubbornly and sat down in the chair beside her bed. "Someone cast a spell on me. It made me see you when I was looking at Buffy. That's why I kissed her, I was kissing you."

She opened her eyes and looked at him. For a second there was a glimmer of hope in them but the mask quickly fell again. "Is that what you're going to tell me every time you kiss her? Make up some excuse to tell the bit on the side while you make out with the love of your life? I don't need crap from you Angel; from now on we're over. There's going to be no more lies because you're going to have no one to tell them to."

"Cor, I love you. I love you so much and I need you to believe me. We were meant to be. Why else do you think the powers gave you the power to bind my soul when we make love? I don't love Buffy, I love you." His voice broke with emotion.

"Leave me alone for a few days, all of you. I need some time alone." She told him softly, tears in her eyes. "You can come and see the baby but leave me."

He nodded slowly and sadly, sensing her pain and betrayed feeling. "Call me when they let you go and I'll come and pick you up."

He left the room and walked straight to the car, leaving the AI gang wondering what the hell was going on. They followed silently.

"How did it go?" Giles asked as they came into the hotel.

"She wants to be left alone." Angel told him. "She doesn't want me anywhere near her."

"She feels betrayed Angel." The ex watcher said and cleaned his glasses. "It's understandable that she wants to be left alone to grieve. She loves you."

"If she loved me then she'd believe me." He growled.

"Be fair!" Giles protested. "She saw you kissing your ex girlfriend, the woman you loved for years of your life. Granted, you being a vampire and everything, it doesn't seem that long. But for Cordelia it was a long time. It's got to be hard for her to live in Buffy's shadow. She'll come around. We'll find some proof that a spell was cast on

you and then approach her to tell her." He said nothing but Giles felt that his words had sunk in.

Cordelia was released from hospital after a week, because she'd had a caesarean.

Otherwise she'd have been out after a couple of days. The doctor had given her the all clear for her injuries. She had a slight bruise on her head and a couple on her stomach but that was all. True to their word, no-one had visited her, but they had all come to see the baby that she had named Ashleigh. Angel had said he had liked the name so she had named her without asking him. She assumed that he didn't object because he hadn't been to her to complain about it.

She hailed a cab outside the hospital that took her to the hotel. She stood outside, carry cot in hand with a bag over her shoulder. She took a deep breath. She opened the door with her free hand and walked in.

Willow, Giles and the AI gang were congregating around the counter. They all turned to look at her as she walked in. Angel came around the counter to stand in front of her at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hi." He said and looked down to the baby and then back up to her.

"Hi." She replied simply. "Look, I know a lot has happened between us but I have nowhere else to go. If you could let me stop here for a few days then I'll find myself somewhere more permanent."

He nodded. "I cleaned out a room for you. On the other side of Connor's. Stay as long as you want. I'll show you."

"It's okay, I'll find it." She said hastily, anxious to be left alone with him and aware of the faces peering at her from behind him. "But, thanks."

She smiled weakly and then made her way upstairs while he watched her.

"Do you want me to tell her what we've found out so far?" Giles asked from his perch on Angel's desk.

He shook his head and turned to face them. "No, I'll tell her when I've been to Wolfram and Hart tonight. She deserves the full story."