THIS
AGAIN
NOTE: I don't own Angel or Buffy but I will gladly take position of them if Joss ever takes the big plunge.
A/N: I came up with this story talking to one of my friends. It just hit me in the head somehow. Anyway, here's the rundown. This takes place during the should be season eight of Buffy and the fifth season of Angel. Angel finally succeeds in saving the world so he is given the chance of a lifetime and I don't just mean W&H law offices. You'll see. Well, please enjoy.
CHAPTER 3Over the next couple of days Angel began to remember more and more about his new life. Sometimes he even remembered things, like certain cases he had been on and a few memories of Rachel growing up. It all just seemed to slowly piece together, like a jigsaw puzzle.
The following Friday after Rachel's party Angel and his family had just finished dinner so Angel had decided to slouch on the couch to watch some old movie. When he started to get into it Buffy entered followed by Rachel.
"Angel, I need to patrol," the slayer told him. "But I really think I'd like to keep you away from the graveyard for a while. A really long while so you get to hang out with Rachel tonight."
Angel looked up. "Sure." He turned to Rachel. "We're gonna have fun, right?"
Rachel bounced over to the couch and hopped onto it. "Yep!" she smiled in a cute little girl kind of way. "Lots of fun."
Buffy looked at Rachel skeptically, knowing that the little girl's idea of fun wasn't always a good thing. "Rachel, you're going to good for Daddy, right?"
Rachel nodded, making her brown hair bounce. "I promise."
"That's my girl," Buffy smiled softly at her. She grabbed a stake then. "So, then, I'll be back later. See you guys." Buffy left out then, half glad that the housewife bit was over for a while.
Rachel turned to her father and got on all fours like a dog, jumping on the couch. "What are we going to do, Daddy, huh?"
Angel smiled as he watched her go up and down. "Whatever you want to do."
Rachel crawled into his lap and started to bounce lightly. "I want to play vampire and I get to be the vampire and eat everybody up."
Angel gave her a mock pout. "That's not very nice."
Rachel giggled. "Don't worry, Daddy. The blood is only cranberry juice, anyway." She made a face. "Yuck! Cranberry juice. I bet blood tastes better."
Angel gave her another smile but wanted to think of a way to distract her from vampire like games. "How about I teach you how to ride that new bike?"
"OK!" Rachel agreed enthusiastically, forgetting about her vampire game.
Angel stood from the couch, holding her in his arms. "But first Daddy needs a snack."
Rachel giggled as Angel carried her towards the kitchen.
Natalie jumped around her house frantically making different noises as she usually did when she was bored and the child got bored quite easily. Fred sat at the table in the dining room trying to do some research. Natalie jumped around the table now making a growling sound.
Fred looked down at her, pretty amused by her antics, yet interrupted by the noise. "Nattie, honey, knock it off."
Natalie sat down at the table. "Why?"
"Mama's busy," Fred replied sweetly.
Natalie looked at the books that were scattered on the table and scowled. "Mama, this is boring," she said, stretching the bore half of the word.
Fred smiled. "Not to Mama."
Natalie rolled her eyes and climbed down from the chair, going back to her noises. Fred groaned, removing her glasses. She loved the little four-year-old but sometimes she could be more like a little pain. Before Fred could say anything about Natalie's noises the girl slapped into Gunn when she was going meow like a cat.
Gunn picked her up. "We're gonna play the quiet game now," he told her simply. "Got it?"
Natalie pouted very cutely. "I hate the quiet game."
"Mama hates the noisy game," Gunn pointed out.
Natalie folded her arms with more pouting. "Daddy..." she said with a groan in her voice.
"Nattie..." said Gunn with the same groan. "Why don't we go play in my room?"
Natalie considered it then nodded.
As Gunn carried her towards the upstairs Fred shot him a thankful smile. Gunn winked in returned and went up with his daughter.
A grumpy Leah sat at the desk in her bedroom, going over her books on Judaism, preparing for her bat mitzvah, which was coming up soon. She just couldn't understand it. Why was she stuck in her house while every other kid in the world was out participating in an activity known as fun? Leah knew exactly why, her father. He had practically ordered her to study for the bat mitzvah. Leah couldn't understand why he cared so much about it. He wasn't even Jewish.
Leah finally stood from her desk and headed out of the room. She looked around the house, assuming that no one was home. She proceeded towards the front door, getting interrupted before she could even touch the knob.
"Going somewhere?" Leah looked over and saw Wesley standing in the living room.
Leah smiled weakly at him. "Hey. Yeah, I was going somewhere. I need to get to a library. I don't have a book I need."
"Really?' Wesley asked, removing his glasses curiously. "Which one would that be?"
Leah fidgeted a little. "Well, you know. It's the one where the people ran and they were like let my people go and then..." As she squirmed it looked like a great impression of Willow.
Wesley had to hide a smirk at his daughter's futile attempts to lie on the spot. "Nice try, sweetheart. Now get back to your room."
Leah rolled her eyes. "Dad, this is ridiculous. It's like you're punishing me and I don't like it. Can't I study for this stupid going into womanhood party later?" Wesley just gave her a look that she knew all too well. Leah folded her arms and formed a cross look on her face. "When is Mom getting home?"
"Later," Wesley replied simply.
"Well..." Leah could not really think of anything sharp to say. "I'm just gonna wait then." She spun around and headed back towards her room.
Cordelia sat on the couch of hers and Xander's living room in their apartment. She coddled over a half of pint of chocolate ice cream, watching Xander fix a broken chair.
"You know, honey, you really should hire someone to do that for you," Cordelia said, interrupting him for the fourth time that night.
Xander sighed deeply. "Cordy, I am that someone. Remember that? I'm the guy with the big, construction worker brain who doesn't need someone to fix all of his little problems?"
Cordelia shrugged, digging through the ice cream with her spoon. "Fine. But I really don't want our baby thinking that her father is just a regular clown in suspenders that goes around and fixes toilets."
Xander released another sigh then turned to her. "And here I thought we were going to teach him the value of hard work." He went over and joined her on the couch.
"Well, she doesn't need to learn that stuff until we get her a brand new shiny credit card," Cordelia smiled proudly.
"Credit card?" Xander couldn't believe her, even if it was Cordelia. "Honey, he isn't even born yet and you're already spoiling him?"
Cordelia shrugged again. "She's worth it."
"Cordy—" Xander started.
"Ooh!" Cordy jumped, grabbing hold of her stomach.
Xander panicked. "Cordelia?" he nearly exclaimed. "Cordy, what is it?"
She looked at him and smiled wildly. "I felt a kick, her first kick."
Xander also smiled, ignoring the fact that she had called what he hoped was their little boy a girl again. "Wow."
Cordelia took hold of his wrist and gently guided his hand towards her belly. "You have to feel it."
Xander held his hand in place for a while until he felt a tiny bump against it. "He did it! He kicked."
Cordelia rubbed her stomach affectionately. "Hello, little baby!" she called to it.
"Hey," Xander also called. "This is your dad speaking!"
"More importantly, Mommy speaking!"
"Hey, hello, son!"
"Hi, daughter."
They continued on like that for a while.
Spike sat alone in the living room of his apartment, in the comfy chair, watching an evening soap opera. The door unlocked then, revealing Anya, who obviously had a key. Spike knew who it was before she even entered the apartment.
"You know, I just don't understand it. I was with a costumer down at the magic charm a couple hours ago and he's like do you know where I can find the orb of Jaha. Then I was like I will be able to offer you this information using the text of a between covers manuscript." She saw that she wasn't getting an answer out of him. "A book. I meant a book."
"Hello, Anya," Spike greeted dryly, his head resting against his fist.
Anya went over and sat on the arm of his comfy chair. "Hello, Anya? That's all I get? Not even a lip to lip, spit exchange of emotion?"
Spike shrugged and continued watching TV. "Well, you never exactly let me get a word in."
Anya softened. "OK." She slid into his lap. "Tell me about the day of my blood sucking, bleached haired lover."
Spike wrapped an arm around her waist. "Drunk some blood, re-bleached my hair."
"Oh, I couldn't tell," Anya nodded.
"Really?" Spike rubbed his hair a little. "Does it have that natural look?"
"Yes. It doesn't look at all like it's been colored through a system of chemicals normally used to put the white back into clothing."
Spike just nodded as they sat in amused silent for a few seconds.
Anya finally spoke up, "I would now like to have a lip to lip, spit exchange of emotion."
"Of course." Spike leaned in towards her and they were soon joined in an adoring kiss.
Angel held onto the left handle bar of Rachel's bike like he had done for nearly three blocks, making sure she didn't fall. Angel noted how cute she looked on the bright pink bike and matching helmet, smiling.
"Daddy, let go," Rachel finally said.
"Are you sure?" Angel asked, obvious concern in his voice.
"Let go," Rachel repeated, amused yet serious.
Angel finally released the handlebars and watched ride down the block by herself. "You're doing it!" he called, going after her.
Rachel looked back at him with a beam. "Yep." She turned her head back towards the front to see where she was going. "Wahoo!"
Angel went a little faster to keep up with the bike. "You're doing great, Chelly." Angel had picked up the girl's nickname quickly. Rachel suddenly turned a corner, speeding up ahead, and taking Angel by surprise. "Rachel!" He ran after her.
Rachel kept going, her face filled with delight, her little body clearly loaded up with energy. She turned another block, once again, taking Angel by surprise. As the five-year-old rode down the new block she thought she saw what looked like something sparkling up ahead. Like any normal curious child she headed in its direction. Rachel made it to an alley, the shadow of blue flashing light came from it.
Rachel smiled in awe as Angel came up. She looked back and saw him. "Daddy, look!"
"Rachel," Angel started off sternly, glad that his chase after her was over. "Don't ever—"
Rachel's attention stayed on the light. "Daddy, isn't it pretty?"
"Isn't what pretty?" Angel looked at her direction but saw nothing.
Rachel blinked her eyes. "Oh... I guess it went bye-bye," she pouted.
Angel picked her up off the bike and made her look into his brown eyes. "You know better than to run off from me or anyone else like that." Rachel continued to pout. "Now come on. We're going home."
"But what about my riding lesson?" Rachel asked in her best baby voice.
Angel sighed. He knew he had to stay firm, at least he assumed as much. "We're going home," he told her again. "And when we get there it is bedtime for you."
Rachel didn't respond as Angel carried her with one arm and rolled her bike with the other. She stayed quiet as they walked along the block and Angel assumed that she was upset like any normal child would be when they were having fun and suddenly it gets taken away from them.
"I'm sorry, honey," Angel apologized to her. "I know you're upset but you can't take off on me like that."
"Huh?" Rachel suddenly responded inattentively. "Oh, I won't. I'm sorry."
Angel kissed her hair and kept walking. Rachel continued to stare at the alley as they left it, wondering about the disappearing light that she had found so pretty.
A/N: It's late night and I'm up finishing this because I am just that bored. Please review.