Title: Family: Return to Sunnydale
Author: victoriamartynne
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Spoilers: None, I think!
Summary: Sequel to Family: Back to Sunnydale and Family: Forward to LA. Cordelia receives another phone call that leads her once again to Sunnydale.
Angel woke up after sundown the next night. He looked across into the adjoining room and saw that both children were gone. He pulled himself out of the bed and grabbed the discarded sweatpants that were lying on the floor next to the bed. He pulled them on and made his way downstairs.
Cordelia was perched on the counter feeding Ashleigh while Gunn was trying to teach Connor to hold a baseball.
"When do we leave?" Fred was asking excitedly.
"Not until Thursday Fred, so you can chill for a while, okay?" Cordelia smiled, crossing her legs.
Angel came to stand behind her, resting a hand on the small of her back.
She murmured a quick hello to him and turned to Lorne. "Will you be able to baby sit for me Lorne?"
He grinned. "Sure thing princess."
"Oh, and Wes, Buffy mentioned something about an Amara demon. I think she said it killed the cheerleading coach."
Wes shoved his glasses up on his nose and stood up eagerly. "I'll go and research, see if there's anything I can help them with."
Cordelia laughed at his eagerness. "Oh, and Gunn, can we take your truck? I can go in Angel's car with him and the children. Then Lorne, Fred and Wes can go with you. Oh, you only have three seats; Lorne can come with us then."
Gunn nodded and said nothing; Cordelia was obviously on a roll. "Ok, then we."
She was cut off as Angel's hand clamped over her mouth, shutting her up. "Cor, take a break okay? I'll bet you've been on about this since they got here."
Angel received nods from Fred, Gunn and Lorne.
"Okay, fine!" Cordelia held up her free hand. "But if we get there and we have nothing we need then it's your fault!"
She suddenly began to float off the counter. "Not a vision, I don't want a vision!" She wailed.
"What do you see?" Angel asked and came around the counter to her frowning.
"A group of kids in Hancock Park, they're going to be attacked by seven, no eight vampires. And a yellow demon."
She floated back to the counter, into Angel's waiting arms. "We have to move."
"I'll stay and watch the kids." Lorne volunteered.
Wes made his way to the weapons cabinet and began to hand out weapons. "We'll take your car Angel."
Cordelia kissed Connor and Ashleigh, who were put in Wes's office and they all hurried out of the doors.
They arrived back at the hotel bloodied and beaten. The demon had been harder to kill than it looked. It had managed to get in several good punches to Gunn and Angel before it was killed. Fred had twisted her ankle in a rock while fighting one of the vampires. Wes had been punched in the face and had had his glasses broken, leaving a cut above his eye where the glass had cut him. Cordelia had somehow managed to get thrown in the ornamental fountain, resulting in her getting a bump on the back of her head as well as being soaking wet.
"Princess!" Lorne exclaimed as he saw the shivering and dripping Cordelia. "Take a bath while you were out did you? Fred, honey, you took the whole falling for him literally, didn't you?"
Gunn was carrying her from the car so she didn't have to put weight on the injured ankle.
Cordelia scowled at Lorne. "Go ahead, laugh it up!" She said angrily and squelched across the lobby.
"Hey, Cordy, I was just messing with you." Lorne apologised and looked at Angel in confusion.
She went straight upstairs leaving the gang to look after her in confusion.
"Fred, honey, sit down there and I'll get the first aid kit out." Gunn said and placed Fred gently on the couch. "You two need patching up?" He looked at Angel and Wes.
They both shook their heads. "Are the children upstairs?" Angel asked Lorne.
"I took them up an hour ago. The monitor's on." He unclipped it from his belt and gave it to Angel.
Angel said goodnight. Even though he had only been up a couple of hours, the others including Cordelia had been up since that morning and had spent the day working on their cases. When he'd found out what was wrong with Cordelia he'd come back downstairs and work out or do some research.
He opened the door and heard the shower running. He took off his coat and flinched a little as he felt a wound on his back. He pulled off his shirt and shoes and sat down on the bed to wait for her to finish.
She came out of the bathroom wearing only a towel. Her hair was wet and wild around her shoulders. She jumped when she saw him sat there. "Jeez Angel, couldn't you have whistled or something?"
"I don't whistle." He told her. "What's wrong?"
She sat down at the small dressing table. "There's nothing wrong."
He came over to sit on the end of the bed, just behind her. Looking in the mirror she could see only herself. "Cor, come on, I know you better than anyone. I can tell there's something wrong."
She started to run a brush through her hair. She jumped when she found the bump on the back of her head. "Ow."
He reached forward to smooth her hair out of the way so he could see if she was bleeding. "It's just a bump, no cut. Now talk to me."
She shook her head and looked down.
"Come on Cor, you know you can tell me anything." He urged and stroked her neck with his fingers.
"I know, and it's nothing. I just felt really useless tonight. Maybe it's pent up frustration or lack of sleep but it just felt like no matter how hard I hit that vamp he didn't get any weaker. In the end I just gave up, that must be how I ended up in the fountain. I think being a mom to two children is really taking it out of me. I can't seem to concentrate on my work any more. Maybe last night left me sexually frustrated or something, I don't know." She laughed softly.
He turned her around gently so that she was facing him. "You had an off night, that was all. You're handling everything just fine."
"I'm not." She sighed. "I feel useless, I feel like now that I'm a mom I can't do anything right."
"What do you mean?" He asked, confused.
"I mean, I can't look after them properly because there's two of them and when I'm in the middle of feeding one the other one starts to cry so they both end up being unhappy because I haven't got the time to see to them both. We can't make love because there's always something getting in the way, like the babies or cases or me being tired. It just seems like we're never able to spend any us time anymore. Pretty soon you'll end up going off me. I can't even concentrate anymore when we're working. I just keep expecting one of them to cry, even though they're not with me. That might be why I ended up in the fountain earlier on. I thought I heard one of them crying and I lost my concentration. Everything is just building up right now, there's too much pressure. Everyone is expecting me to be so strong and in control and I'm not." She said sadly.
"No-one is expecting you to be a certain way." Angel began. "You're handling everything brilliantly. At least, that's what I thought. The babies are fine. They're being looked after as well as possible."
"How do you know that they're really happy?" Cordelia asked him and turned around so she could see him.
"Look at Connor, his first word was mama, not daddy or Cordelia, it was mama. And Ashleigh loves you just as much. She smiles at you all the time; I don't care how much you say it's wind." He stroked her face. "You're not neglecting them and thinking you hear them when you're out is natural for a mom. You worry and it's good. If you want more time off work then I'm sure Wes would let you. And if he won't we'll both have to quit."
She smiled slightly, knowing that as the warrior and the seer, they couldn't quit and any demands that they made would have to be met. "What about us? Will you go off me if we don't get to spend any time together to do. stuff?"
"Cor, I will love you no matter what we do together. It's you that makes me love you not the things that we do." He smiled. "I will always love you."
"Besides, you were a eunuch before you got with me." She joked slightly.
He frowned at her but wasn't angry. "You are the person who brought me alive. You gave me the chance to love again, the chance to have children, happiness. You made me smile. You are the strongest person I know and if you are feeling weak right now then I know it will not last long. As for making love, it isn't essential, it's an added extra. I have to admit, a very good added extra, but not one I have to have. Hell, I went without it for long enough."
"I guess." She replied, looking a little less mournful. "But you will tell me if I'm holding you all back at work, right?"
"I promise." He kissed her forehead. "I'll tell you what, why don't we get Lorne to look after the babies tomorrow night in his room and we'll spend the whole night together on our own before we go away?"
"That sounds really good." She smiled.
"I'll sort it." Angel promised. "Now, why don't you dry your hair and then get some sleep. I'll come back and see you in a little while."
She nodded and grabbed her hairdryer as he left to go and talk to Lorne.
By the time he came back upstairs she was fast asleep. He kissed her forehead and then lay down next to her on the bed to read. He'd talked to Wes downstairs, in total confidence of course, about what Cordelia had told him. He'd suggested that maybe she could be suffering from postnatal depression or may just be finding being a mother to two children, not one, more difficult than she had imagined. He suggested that she take it easy at work when she came back from the retreat and take time to bond with Ashleigh and spend time with both of them outside the hotel. He'd also suggested that they should spend some time together outside work hours. He offered to baby sit for them so they could go out or even if they wanted to just stop in. Although he did insist that whatever they did while they were alone must never be told to him.
When Ashleigh cried during the night Cordelia was the one who got up to her. Angel woke as she climbed out of the bed but didn't say anything and didn't move.
He watched as Cordelia lifted her gently out of her crib to feed her. He watched as her silhouette moved towards the window. She sat down and rocked her gently in her arms until she was full and dropping off to sleep again. Silently Angel got out of bed and came to sit behind her, wrapping his arms around them both.
"She really is beautiful, just like her mother." He kissed her shoulder. "She'll be a model one day or an actress."
"I hear that wanting to be an actress is a valid career choice." She whispered.
"I hear it works out well in some cases." He kissed her again, his hair tickling her ear and making her shiver.
She smiled. "These are the moments I like." She whispered. "The ones where the world is so peaceful, there are no helpless to be helped, just us here being happy."
"I like this too." He replied, resting his chin on her shoulder. "The quiet world is the nicest."
Once Cordelia was up and dressed she was banned from the room. Angel and Fred had disappeared upstairs as soon as she had left. Cordelia had remarked how suspicious it had looked but was only teasing.
She called Buffy at lunchtime and confirmed the time she was expected at the retreat.
"You'd better go shopping before you leave." Buffy advised.
"Why?" Cordelia asked, confused.
"Dawn told her friends that you're the image of superwoman." Buffy replied devilishly.
Cordelia laughed. "No chance, she does realise that I just had a baby?"
"I'm sure she couldn't forget that. So, what time will you get here?"
"We're leaving after sunset so we'll be there about eight-ish."
"Okay, where are you staying?"
"Hell, where do you think? The cheapest place in town."
Buffy said nothing and waited patiently for Cordelia to continue. "The mansion."
"Oh my God." Buffy exclaimed. "That place is disgusting!"
"Don't I know that." Cordelia said dryly.
"Oh, I gotta go, Dawn just came in so I'd better go before she realises it's you on the phone. You'll never get away."
They said goodbye and hung up.
Cordelia didn't take Buffy's advice and spend the afternoon shopping for superwoman outfits but she did go shopping for evening wear, insisting that if she was going back to her hometown she was going to go there in style. Angel refrained from reminding her tat they were there only a few weeks back and just let her take his credit card. After trying on countless dresses she decided that she really could pull off a form fitting dress and bought a deep crimson one with matching shoes. She spent a little time browsing through expensive boutiques that she could never afford to buy anything from and then went to have a cappuccino in the park.
She sat near the children's play area and wished that she'd brought Ashleigh and Connor. Ash couldn't have gone in of course, but Connor could have had a go. She watched the playing children for a while as she drank her coffee and then made her way back to the hotel, stopping at a couple more shops and buying a few more things for their 'holiday'.
When she went in the hotel doors it seemed as if no-one had seen her. Wes and Gunn were crawling around on their hands and knees chasing Connor who was tottering around the floor laughing. Fred had Ashleigh in her arms giving her a bottle while Lorne leaned against the counter with a drink in his hand, probably a sea breeze, she thought. Angel was sat on the counter in the corner looking very hot in the leather pants and black sweater that she loved.
"Nice to see you're getting some work done in here." She called out as she came through the door.
Gunn looked up and grinned. "We are working."
"Really?" Cordelia asked sceptically and tilted her head to one side.
"Yeah, Drivers Ed for children." He joked.
She smiled and came down the stairs.
"Hey, have fun shopping?" Angel asked.
"It was okay and no, I didn't spend much. I just bought the essentials."
Wes snorted. "The things you call essentials tend not to be essentials."
She pulled a face. "There was no way you could have gone skiing without that cute visor Wesley, it set off the outfit. And besides, it hid the black eye you had."
Fred giggled.
Angel draped an arm around Cordelia's shoulder. "It was pink."
"So, you had to wear Wes's pink bike helmet that time." She pointed out.
"Can we please not remind me of that every time someone mentions the colour pink?" Angel frowned.
"You mentioned it bro'." Gunn told him from behind the couch where he had followed Connor.
"True!" Fred laughed. "What shade of pink was it?"
She laughed even more when Angel's frown deepened.
"Okay, let's get back to work!" Angel decided and hopped off the counter.
"Close your eyes." Angel instructed Cordelia that night as they approached their room.
She rolled her eyes. "Why do I need to close my eyes?"
"Cordelia." He growled. "Do what you're told for once and humour me!"
She rolled her eyes again but did as she was told and closed her eyes. His arms wrapped around her waist and he directed her through the door. He walked her forward until she was stood in the middle of the room.
"And open." He whispered in her ear.
She opened her eyes and gasped. The room had been filled with tea lights and church candles of all colours sending a multicoloured glow through the room. There was a bottle of champagne next to the bed and a tub of strawberries with cream in a bowl on the side.
She turned to him. "You did all this for me?"
"Of course I did, you said you were feeling down that we couldn't spend any us time together so I thought we could have a special night before we go away." He smiled and stroked her cheek. "You like?"
"I love!" She exclaimed. She looked around the room again. "There are no toys in the bed are they?"
He laughed. "No, I made sure of that. The only things that are going in the bed tonight are us."
She smiled again. "What are we waiting for then?"
They didn't get any sleep at all that night. A wild thought crossed her mind that she wished they didn't have to go but it was quickly dismissed as she remembered what she was going to be doing there. Cheerleading, her favourite hobby. Or at least, it had been.
She sighed as she laid her head on Angel's chest.
"What?" He asked.
"I was just thinking how nice it would be to spend our whole lives like this."
He laughed softly. "That would be good."
She looked at the clock and groaned. "I'm going to have to get up and take a shower. And thanks to you I have to repack my bag."
He'd insisted that she try on her new dress for him which meant she'd had to unpack her bag to find it.
"Sorry." He apologised meekly but she knew he didn't mean it.
She sat up in the bed and swung her legs out of the covers. "Come on, I'll shower and you pack."
He groaned. "You don't want company?" He pouted.
She laughed as kissed his neck. "If you end up in there with me I'll never get ready!"
"True!" He grinned and watched her as she went into the bathroom naked. Thanks to all the training she'd been doing with him since she'd had Ashleigh she'd regained her figure and was more toned than she had been before, if that was possible. She was just glad that she'd developed cravings for lettuce and not something like chocolate or Ben and Jerry's. He heard the shower turn on and decided he'd better get Cordy's bag packed before she got out.
In the end he'd repacked her bag in record time which meant he could join her in the shower. It was afternoon before they got downstairs.
"Had a good night?" Gunn asked as they came downstairs together.
"Better than you by the looks of it." Cordelia commented, noticing the bruises around the black man's eye. "What happened Gunn? Pick a fight with Fred and lose?"
Fred spluttered and then covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm sorry Charles."
Gunn looked at Cordelia again. "Thanks a lot Barbie, make my girl think she can beat me up!"
When she just looked at him he relented. "A girl was getting attacked a couple of streets away from my place. I stepped in to help and found that it was just a domestic. I got punched for attempting to help."
Cordelia looked shocked. "The man punched you?"
"Why do you assume it's a man?" Wes said quietly, which earned him a dark look from Gunn.
"The woman punched you?" Cordelia said, her eyes widening.
"They were both women." He mumbled.
"What was that Gunn?" Lorne asked, smiling.
"Okay, what's going on here?" Angel asked, coming back from the kitchen with a mug of blood for himself and coffee for Cordelia.
"They were two lesbians okay?" Gunn burst out. "I was hit by a lesbian for interrupting a domestic she was having with her girlfriend!"
Cordelia smirked but hid it behind her mug.
Angel decided to change the subject. "Maybe we should get the cars packed up? Or rather you can get the cars packed up in the sun while I stay here, preferably with Cordy, and not burst into flames?"
"Okay." Wes said, getting back in control. "Mine, Fred's and Gunn's bags are in my office. Angel, I'm assuming yours, Cordelia's and the children's bags are in your room. Lorne?"
"In my room, I'll go get it." Lorne answered, standing up. "I'll fetch yours as well Angel Cakes. There'd better not be anything in your room that I don't need to see!" He warned.
Angel looked puzzled and Cordelia promised to explain it later. "He's a vampire!" She shouted up the stairs.
Author: victoriamartynne
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Spoilers: None, I think!
Summary: Sequel to Family: Back to Sunnydale and Family: Forward to LA. Cordelia receives another phone call that leads her once again to Sunnydale.
Angel woke up after sundown the next night. He looked across into the adjoining room and saw that both children were gone. He pulled himself out of the bed and grabbed the discarded sweatpants that were lying on the floor next to the bed. He pulled them on and made his way downstairs.
Cordelia was perched on the counter feeding Ashleigh while Gunn was trying to teach Connor to hold a baseball.
"When do we leave?" Fred was asking excitedly.
"Not until Thursday Fred, so you can chill for a while, okay?" Cordelia smiled, crossing her legs.
Angel came to stand behind her, resting a hand on the small of her back.
She murmured a quick hello to him and turned to Lorne. "Will you be able to baby sit for me Lorne?"
He grinned. "Sure thing princess."
"Oh, and Wes, Buffy mentioned something about an Amara demon. I think she said it killed the cheerleading coach."
Wes shoved his glasses up on his nose and stood up eagerly. "I'll go and research, see if there's anything I can help them with."
Cordelia laughed at his eagerness. "Oh, and Gunn, can we take your truck? I can go in Angel's car with him and the children. Then Lorne, Fred and Wes can go with you. Oh, you only have three seats; Lorne can come with us then."
Gunn nodded and said nothing; Cordelia was obviously on a roll. "Ok, then we."
She was cut off as Angel's hand clamped over her mouth, shutting her up. "Cor, take a break okay? I'll bet you've been on about this since they got here."
Angel received nods from Fred, Gunn and Lorne.
"Okay, fine!" Cordelia held up her free hand. "But if we get there and we have nothing we need then it's your fault!"
She suddenly began to float off the counter. "Not a vision, I don't want a vision!" She wailed.
"What do you see?" Angel asked and came around the counter to her frowning.
"A group of kids in Hancock Park, they're going to be attacked by seven, no eight vampires. And a yellow demon."
She floated back to the counter, into Angel's waiting arms. "We have to move."
"I'll stay and watch the kids." Lorne volunteered.
Wes made his way to the weapons cabinet and began to hand out weapons. "We'll take your car Angel."
Cordelia kissed Connor and Ashleigh, who were put in Wes's office and they all hurried out of the doors.
They arrived back at the hotel bloodied and beaten. The demon had been harder to kill than it looked. It had managed to get in several good punches to Gunn and Angel before it was killed. Fred had twisted her ankle in a rock while fighting one of the vampires. Wes had been punched in the face and had had his glasses broken, leaving a cut above his eye where the glass had cut him. Cordelia had somehow managed to get thrown in the ornamental fountain, resulting in her getting a bump on the back of her head as well as being soaking wet.
"Princess!" Lorne exclaimed as he saw the shivering and dripping Cordelia. "Take a bath while you were out did you? Fred, honey, you took the whole falling for him literally, didn't you?"
Gunn was carrying her from the car so she didn't have to put weight on the injured ankle.
Cordelia scowled at Lorne. "Go ahead, laugh it up!" She said angrily and squelched across the lobby.
"Hey, Cordy, I was just messing with you." Lorne apologised and looked at Angel in confusion.
She went straight upstairs leaving the gang to look after her in confusion.
"Fred, honey, sit down there and I'll get the first aid kit out." Gunn said and placed Fred gently on the couch. "You two need patching up?" He looked at Angel and Wes.
They both shook their heads. "Are the children upstairs?" Angel asked Lorne.
"I took them up an hour ago. The monitor's on." He unclipped it from his belt and gave it to Angel.
Angel said goodnight. Even though he had only been up a couple of hours, the others including Cordelia had been up since that morning and had spent the day working on their cases. When he'd found out what was wrong with Cordelia he'd come back downstairs and work out or do some research.
He opened the door and heard the shower running. He took off his coat and flinched a little as he felt a wound on his back. He pulled off his shirt and shoes and sat down on the bed to wait for her to finish.
She came out of the bathroom wearing only a towel. Her hair was wet and wild around her shoulders. She jumped when she saw him sat there. "Jeez Angel, couldn't you have whistled or something?"
"I don't whistle." He told her. "What's wrong?"
She sat down at the small dressing table. "There's nothing wrong."
He came over to sit on the end of the bed, just behind her. Looking in the mirror she could see only herself. "Cor, come on, I know you better than anyone. I can tell there's something wrong."
She started to run a brush through her hair. She jumped when she found the bump on the back of her head. "Ow."
He reached forward to smooth her hair out of the way so he could see if she was bleeding. "It's just a bump, no cut. Now talk to me."
She shook her head and looked down.
"Come on Cor, you know you can tell me anything." He urged and stroked her neck with his fingers.
"I know, and it's nothing. I just felt really useless tonight. Maybe it's pent up frustration or lack of sleep but it just felt like no matter how hard I hit that vamp he didn't get any weaker. In the end I just gave up, that must be how I ended up in the fountain. I think being a mom to two children is really taking it out of me. I can't seem to concentrate on my work any more. Maybe last night left me sexually frustrated or something, I don't know." She laughed softly.
He turned her around gently so that she was facing him. "You had an off night, that was all. You're handling everything just fine."
"I'm not." She sighed. "I feel useless, I feel like now that I'm a mom I can't do anything right."
"What do you mean?" He asked, confused.
"I mean, I can't look after them properly because there's two of them and when I'm in the middle of feeding one the other one starts to cry so they both end up being unhappy because I haven't got the time to see to them both. We can't make love because there's always something getting in the way, like the babies or cases or me being tired. It just seems like we're never able to spend any us time anymore. Pretty soon you'll end up going off me. I can't even concentrate anymore when we're working. I just keep expecting one of them to cry, even though they're not with me. That might be why I ended up in the fountain earlier on. I thought I heard one of them crying and I lost my concentration. Everything is just building up right now, there's too much pressure. Everyone is expecting me to be so strong and in control and I'm not." She said sadly.
"No-one is expecting you to be a certain way." Angel began. "You're handling everything brilliantly. At least, that's what I thought. The babies are fine. They're being looked after as well as possible."
"How do you know that they're really happy?" Cordelia asked him and turned around so she could see him.
"Look at Connor, his first word was mama, not daddy or Cordelia, it was mama. And Ashleigh loves you just as much. She smiles at you all the time; I don't care how much you say it's wind." He stroked her face. "You're not neglecting them and thinking you hear them when you're out is natural for a mom. You worry and it's good. If you want more time off work then I'm sure Wes would let you. And if he won't we'll both have to quit."
She smiled slightly, knowing that as the warrior and the seer, they couldn't quit and any demands that they made would have to be met. "What about us? Will you go off me if we don't get to spend any time together to do. stuff?"
"Cor, I will love you no matter what we do together. It's you that makes me love you not the things that we do." He smiled. "I will always love you."
"Besides, you were a eunuch before you got with me." She joked slightly.
He frowned at her but wasn't angry. "You are the person who brought me alive. You gave me the chance to love again, the chance to have children, happiness. You made me smile. You are the strongest person I know and if you are feeling weak right now then I know it will not last long. As for making love, it isn't essential, it's an added extra. I have to admit, a very good added extra, but not one I have to have. Hell, I went without it for long enough."
"I guess." She replied, looking a little less mournful. "But you will tell me if I'm holding you all back at work, right?"
"I promise." He kissed her forehead. "I'll tell you what, why don't we get Lorne to look after the babies tomorrow night in his room and we'll spend the whole night together on our own before we go away?"
"That sounds really good." She smiled.
"I'll sort it." Angel promised. "Now, why don't you dry your hair and then get some sleep. I'll come back and see you in a little while."
She nodded and grabbed her hairdryer as he left to go and talk to Lorne.
By the time he came back upstairs she was fast asleep. He kissed her forehead and then lay down next to her on the bed to read. He'd talked to Wes downstairs, in total confidence of course, about what Cordelia had told him. He'd suggested that maybe she could be suffering from postnatal depression or may just be finding being a mother to two children, not one, more difficult than she had imagined. He suggested that she take it easy at work when she came back from the retreat and take time to bond with Ashleigh and spend time with both of them outside the hotel. He'd also suggested that they should spend some time together outside work hours. He offered to baby sit for them so they could go out or even if they wanted to just stop in. Although he did insist that whatever they did while they were alone must never be told to him.
When Ashleigh cried during the night Cordelia was the one who got up to her. Angel woke as she climbed out of the bed but didn't say anything and didn't move.
He watched as Cordelia lifted her gently out of her crib to feed her. He watched as her silhouette moved towards the window. She sat down and rocked her gently in her arms until she was full and dropping off to sleep again. Silently Angel got out of bed and came to sit behind her, wrapping his arms around them both.
"She really is beautiful, just like her mother." He kissed her shoulder. "She'll be a model one day or an actress."
"I hear that wanting to be an actress is a valid career choice." She whispered.
"I hear it works out well in some cases." He kissed her again, his hair tickling her ear and making her shiver.
She smiled. "These are the moments I like." She whispered. "The ones where the world is so peaceful, there are no helpless to be helped, just us here being happy."
"I like this too." He replied, resting his chin on her shoulder. "The quiet world is the nicest."
Once Cordelia was up and dressed she was banned from the room. Angel and Fred had disappeared upstairs as soon as she had left. Cordelia had remarked how suspicious it had looked but was only teasing.
She called Buffy at lunchtime and confirmed the time she was expected at the retreat.
"You'd better go shopping before you leave." Buffy advised.
"Why?" Cordelia asked, confused.
"Dawn told her friends that you're the image of superwoman." Buffy replied devilishly.
Cordelia laughed. "No chance, she does realise that I just had a baby?"
"I'm sure she couldn't forget that. So, what time will you get here?"
"We're leaving after sunset so we'll be there about eight-ish."
"Okay, where are you staying?"
"Hell, where do you think? The cheapest place in town."
Buffy said nothing and waited patiently for Cordelia to continue. "The mansion."
"Oh my God." Buffy exclaimed. "That place is disgusting!"
"Don't I know that." Cordelia said dryly.
"Oh, I gotta go, Dawn just came in so I'd better go before she realises it's you on the phone. You'll never get away."
They said goodbye and hung up.
Cordelia didn't take Buffy's advice and spend the afternoon shopping for superwoman outfits but she did go shopping for evening wear, insisting that if she was going back to her hometown she was going to go there in style. Angel refrained from reminding her tat they were there only a few weeks back and just let her take his credit card. After trying on countless dresses she decided that she really could pull off a form fitting dress and bought a deep crimson one with matching shoes. She spent a little time browsing through expensive boutiques that she could never afford to buy anything from and then went to have a cappuccino in the park.
She sat near the children's play area and wished that she'd brought Ashleigh and Connor. Ash couldn't have gone in of course, but Connor could have had a go. She watched the playing children for a while as she drank her coffee and then made her way back to the hotel, stopping at a couple more shops and buying a few more things for their 'holiday'.
When she went in the hotel doors it seemed as if no-one had seen her. Wes and Gunn were crawling around on their hands and knees chasing Connor who was tottering around the floor laughing. Fred had Ashleigh in her arms giving her a bottle while Lorne leaned against the counter with a drink in his hand, probably a sea breeze, she thought. Angel was sat on the counter in the corner looking very hot in the leather pants and black sweater that she loved.
"Nice to see you're getting some work done in here." She called out as she came through the door.
Gunn looked up and grinned. "We are working."
"Really?" Cordelia asked sceptically and tilted her head to one side.
"Yeah, Drivers Ed for children." He joked.
She smiled and came down the stairs.
"Hey, have fun shopping?" Angel asked.
"It was okay and no, I didn't spend much. I just bought the essentials."
Wes snorted. "The things you call essentials tend not to be essentials."
She pulled a face. "There was no way you could have gone skiing without that cute visor Wesley, it set off the outfit. And besides, it hid the black eye you had."
Fred giggled.
Angel draped an arm around Cordelia's shoulder. "It was pink."
"So, you had to wear Wes's pink bike helmet that time." She pointed out.
"Can we please not remind me of that every time someone mentions the colour pink?" Angel frowned.
"You mentioned it bro'." Gunn told him from behind the couch where he had followed Connor.
"True!" Fred laughed. "What shade of pink was it?"
She laughed even more when Angel's frown deepened.
"Okay, let's get back to work!" Angel decided and hopped off the counter.
"Close your eyes." Angel instructed Cordelia that night as they approached their room.
She rolled her eyes. "Why do I need to close my eyes?"
"Cordelia." He growled. "Do what you're told for once and humour me!"
She rolled her eyes again but did as she was told and closed her eyes. His arms wrapped around her waist and he directed her through the door. He walked her forward until she was stood in the middle of the room.
"And open." He whispered in her ear.
She opened her eyes and gasped. The room had been filled with tea lights and church candles of all colours sending a multicoloured glow through the room. There was a bottle of champagne next to the bed and a tub of strawberries with cream in a bowl on the side.
She turned to him. "You did all this for me?"
"Of course I did, you said you were feeling down that we couldn't spend any us time together so I thought we could have a special night before we go away." He smiled and stroked her cheek. "You like?"
"I love!" She exclaimed. She looked around the room again. "There are no toys in the bed are they?"
He laughed. "No, I made sure of that. The only things that are going in the bed tonight are us."
She smiled again. "What are we waiting for then?"
They didn't get any sleep at all that night. A wild thought crossed her mind that she wished they didn't have to go but it was quickly dismissed as she remembered what she was going to be doing there. Cheerleading, her favourite hobby. Or at least, it had been.
She sighed as she laid her head on Angel's chest.
"What?" He asked.
"I was just thinking how nice it would be to spend our whole lives like this."
He laughed softly. "That would be good."
She looked at the clock and groaned. "I'm going to have to get up and take a shower. And thanks to you I have to repack my bag."
He'd insisted that she try on her new dress for him which meant she'd had to unpack her bag to find it.
"Sorry." He apologised meekly but she knew he didn't mean it.
She sat up in the bed and swung her legs out of the covers. "Come on, I'll shower and you pack."
He groaned. "You don't want company?" He pouted.
She laughed as kissed his neck. "If you end up in there with me I'll never get ready!"
"True!" He grinned and watched her as she went into the bathroom naked. Thanks to all the training she'd been doing with him since she'd had Ashleigh she'd regained her figure and was more toned than she had been before, if that was possible. She was just glad that she'd developed cravings for lettuce and not something like chocolate or Ben and Jerry's. He heard the shower turn on and decided he'd better get Cordy's bag packed before she got out.
In the end he'd repacked her bag in record time which meant he could join her in the shower. It was afternoon before they got downstairs.
"Had a good night?" Gunn asked as they came downstairs together.
"Better than you by the looks of it." Cordelia commented, noticing the bruises around the black man's eye. "What happened Gunn? Pick a fight with Fred and lose?"
Fred spluttered and then covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm sorry Charles."
Gunn looked at Cordelia again. "Thanks a lot Barbie, make my girl think she can beat me up!"
When she just looked at him he relented. "A girl was getting attacked a couple of streets away from my place. I stepped in to help and found that it was just a domestic. I got punched for attempting to help."
Cordelia looked shocked. "The man punched you?"
"Why do you assume it's a man?" Wes said quietly, which earned him a dark look from Gunn.
"The woman punched you?" Cordelia said, her eyes widening.
"They were both women." He mumbled.
"What was that Gunn?" Lorne asked, smiling.
"Okay, what's going on here?" Angel asked, coming back from the kitchen with a mug of blood for himself and coffee for Cordelia.
"They were two lesbians okay?" Gunn burst out. "I was hit by a lesbian for interrupting a domestic she was having with her girlfriend!"
Cordelia smirked but hid it behind her mug.
Angel decided to change the subject. "Maybe we should get the cars packed up? Or rather you can get the cars packed up in the sun while I stay here, preferably with Cordy, and not burst into flames?"
"Okay." Wes said, getting back in control. "Mine, Fred's and Gunn's bags are in my office. Angel, I'm assuming yours, Cordelia's and the children's bags are in your room. Lorne?"
"In my room, I'll go get it." Lorne answered, standing up. "I'll fetch yours as well Angel Cakes. There'd better not be anything in your room that I don't need to see!" He warned.
Angel looked puzzled and Cordelia promised to explain it later. "He's a vampire!" She shouted up the stairs.