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I do not own the characters from Angel, the great and powerful Joss Whedon does.

My Blue Heaven

Once again, it started in a place that was not a place, nor did time have any meaning. It merely was. And without going into all the details, it was there that dwelt The Powers That Be.

Citrine: "They seem to be happy enough together, but something seems.., incomplete."

Sienna: "Haven't we interfered enough?"

Cerulean: "This is Rose of which we speak. And no matter how long she is away, she is still one of us."

Violet: "And this is reason enough for us to break precedent, again?"

Viridian: "Since it is Rose, though, perhaps just this once. And then, we really should desist."

Sienna: "If we are going to limit ourselves to a single time, then let it be done well."

Citrine: "One of each?"

&&&&&&&

Rose stuck a cautious toe into the roiling water. "It's awfully hot," she remarked. "Is it supposed to be that hot?"

Spike stifled a sigh. "That's why it's called a hot tub, sweetheart," he explained. He decided to avoid a lengthy debate. He picked her up and stepped into the tub with her in his arms. He settled them down into the steaming water.

"And being par-boiled is romantic?" Rose scooted off Spike's lap to sit on the seat beside him. "I merely ask for information."

"You're supposed to just sit back and soak out all the aches and whatnot," Spike advised. "And it has been known, upon occasion, to put people in the mood."

"When did you ever have a problem with getting me in the mood?" she murmured, snuggling against him despite the heat. It wasn't so bad after a while.

"As I recall, just last night I heard, 'Not tonight please, Spike, I have a headache'," he complained. "I had to spend a whole evening on my own, then you come home and don't even want to..,"

"If you had spent the evening at a Q'xlzr fertility ceremony," Rose interrupted. "You'd have a headache too. The entire ritual is sung. I felt like my ears were bleeding."

"Tell me again why you went to that anyway," Spike asked. "It wasn't even for your demon, was it?"

"It isn't 'my' demon," she said, with traces of exasperation. "It was for its first offspring who just came of age to reproduce. It's a very important event to a Q'xlzr, and it wanted its friends in attendance."

"Just for the record," Spike queried, getting curious despite the fact that the weekend in the romantic hotel in the honeymoon suite, no less, had a much different purpose than discussing the love-life of Q'xlzr demons. "You keep calling that demon an it, so how can it have offspring?"

"They reproduce by fission," Rose explained. "I think the singing has something to do with it. Gets the cells stimulated into reproducing violently, then, it splits in two, and you have two demons where there was one."

"Very enlightening," Spike remarked. He then recalled why they were there, and gave her a long, very passionate kiss, hands groping at her bikini-clad body under the water. "You don't have a headache tonight, do you?"

Rose was about to reply when she heard giggling voices approaching. "Spike, stop, someone's coming," she cautioned.

Spike vaulted out of the tub in a spray of water, and hauled Rose out, then picked her up and headed back to their room. "I'm not yet," he teased. "But I expect to be soon enough."

&&&&&&&&

A few weeks later, Rose was headed for Lorne's office. She was up on the rotation for a mandatory screening. To be honest, she wished that just this once, she could duck out of it. She wasn't feeling her usual self. But, unlike the light of her life, she didn't avoid any of her responsibilities, or even try to postpone them. People often remarked on the radical difference between duty-struck Rose and devil-may-care Spike. There were even a few that were willing to put money down that it wouldn't last. So far though, the two lovers were as tight as ever with no sign of trouble on the horizon.

Lorne glanced down at his appointment book. He was about to heave a self-pitying sigh at the thought of another employee screening until he saw whose name was there. Instead of a trial, this screening ought to be the high point of his day, getting serenaded by his precious Rosebud.

There was a knock at the door. "Come on in, darlin'," he called out, sure that it was Rose. The lady was punctual to a fault. He looked up, and was a trifle alarmed at what he saw. He immediately came up out of his seat and around the desk. "I don't usually suggest singing sitting down," he began. "But you're looking a little green around the gills, lambkin. And to be entirely honest, it doesn't work as well for you as it does for me."

"I think I may be coming down with the flu again," Rose muttered, happy enough to sit down. "I've been feeling queasy for the last few days."

Lorne put a hand to her forehead. "Well, it doesn't feel like you're running a temperature," he remarked. "Maybe it was just something you ate that didn't agree with you."

"Well I wish that whatever it is would get over and done with," she said. "Because I am sick and tired of feeling sick and tired."

"Why don't we get the dirty work out of the way then?" the demon suggested. "What are you going to favor me with this time, blossom?"

"Day is ending Birds are wending Back to the shelter of Each little nest they love," Rose sang, and felt that it left something to be desired. Feeling ill seemed to be having an effect on her singing. But she plowed on through it, knowing that the Pylean enjoyed hearing her voice. "Nightshades falling Lovebirds calling What makes the world go round? Nothing but love."

Lorne listened intently. Rose's voice was just a teensy bit off today. Maybe from singing sitting down, although it shouldn't make that much difference. And the jumbled images he was receiving was like nothing he'd ever picked up from her. In fact, the last time he'd gotten such an indecipherable mélange of images, the woman who had been singing for him had been.., He suddenly sat bolt upright, making the connection. The last time the images had been so scrambled he'd been listening to a pregnant woman sing. He was back up out of his chair, pulling Rose to her feet and into a big bear hug. "Congratulations, Rosebud."

"What are you talking about, Lorne?" Rose hugged back, but was still mystified. Even more so because to the best of her knowledge her green friend had seldom seen anything but gloom and doom in her future.

"You don't know yet?" Lorne held her out at arms length. "Of course you don't, that's why you don't know why your poor tummy's upset. But you need to make an appointment with a doctor right away," he babbled on. "Not a regular doctor, an obstetrician, I mean."

"Lorne, slow down and try to be coherent," Rose begged. "And what do you mean about making an appointment with an obstetrician? Isn't that a doctor who delivers.., oh dear." She slid out of his arms and back into the chair. "But that's impossible. I haven't been with anyone but Spike, and vampires can't..," She looked up at the demon helplessly. "Can they?"

"Sugarplum, I am not all-seeing and all-knowing," he admitted. "Last time I looked, that was your field. But you most definitely have a bun in the oven." He went back around his desk and started flipping through a rolodex. "Just sit tight, punkin. Uncle Lorne is on the job." He found what he was looking for, and dialed a number. "Hey, Michelle, doll." He switched gears to show-biz mogul. "I wanted to ask you a big favor, babe. I've got a good friend here who just found out that she may be expecting a little visit from the stork. Can you clue me in on that o.b. you were raving about? Oh good. Think he'd be willing to take on a new patient? Well, bless your heart darlin', I owe you a big one. And expect a dozen roses before the day is out." He hung up and waited expectantly.

"I thought you were getting the name of a doctor for me." Rose was in the dark again. She had a feeling that it was the beginning of a new trend for her.

"She's calling up the doc herself and putting in a good word for you, blossom," the demon explained. "Then the doctor's office should be..," He was cut off by the phone ringing. "Wolfram and Hart, entertainment division. Oh, thanks a million. Her name is Rose Powers. When? I'll make sure she gets there. Thanks again." He hung up the phone. "Michelle must have worked a spell on them. You're in for a pregnancy test today. Sorry, doll-baby, but you're going to have to give up your lunch hour for it."

"Lunch has very little appeal for me at the moment," Rose replied. "But why do I need a test? Didn't you just see it?"

"Doctors don't generally use seers to tell whether or not there's a baby on the way," the Pylean explained. He handed her the slip of paper he'd been furiously scribbling on during his first phone conversation. "There's the doctor's name and the address. Be sure to let me know how it all goes."

"I will," Rose promised. She didn't see what a test would prove. Just hearing Lorne tell her she was pregnant made her feel like she was getting fat already.

&&&&&&&

Dr. Pratt was a kindly-looking, middle-aged balding man who had immediately put Rose at her ease. It was her first experience with a doctor that didn't work for Wolfram and Hart though, and she was more than a little intimidated by all the medical procedures. And a bit grossed out by some of them. She sat in the waiting room fidgeting, wondering how long it would take.

"Ms. Powers?" A nurse beckoned her to follow, and led her back to the doctor.

"Your guess was right, my dear," Pratt boomed jovially. "You are definitely about to become a mother." He handed her some prescription slips. "See that you get those filled right away, you're going to need them if you want a nice, healthy baby."

"I'm not sure I could even keep a pill down right now," Rose muttered, shuffling the papers in her hands.

"One of those is for the nausea," he replied. "It's important that you eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. Now, more so than ever. See the receptionist on the way out and she'll schedule your next appointment. And if anything at all doesn't seem right, just give me a call. This is your first time, isn't it?"

Rose nodded. "How often will I have to come here?" she asked.

"Once a month for now," the doctor replied. "When you get to the last month of your pregnancy, we'll shorten it up to once a week. For right now though, I advise you not to worry about a thing. You're a young, healthy woman, and there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't have a perfectly healthy baby."

&&&&&&&

Rose took a cab back to the office, it hadn't once occurred to her to ask Angel for a lift in one of the company cars. She was still in a daze, from o.b.'s office to drugstore and back to work. Part of her felt a little warm glow at the thought of her impending motherhood. But there was a little voice in the back of her head that kept repeating, how are you going to break the news to Spike?

&&&&&&&&&&

"There you are, Rose." Wesley was waiting in her office when she returned. But his voice sounded more relieved than angry. "Where have you been?"

"I had a doctor's appointment," she explained. "I was gone a little longer than I thought I'd be. I'm sorry, Wesley."

"I wish that you would get over that desire of yours to apologize incessantly," the Watcher remarked. "Your health comes first. Would I be terribly rude if I asked what the problem was?"

Rose opened her mouth to tell him, then did an about face. "I think I'd better tell Spike first," she demurred. "But you are on the list to find out about it. Was there something that you needed me to do?"

"A red light started flashing over this prophecy," he replied, flipping open a book to the appropriate page. "Get right on figuring out what you can about it, all right?"

"No problem," Rose assured him. A wave of nausea hit her. Maybe she ought to see if those pills would do the trick. She picked up her bag containing the prescriptions and dumped it on the desk. While she was sorting through them, Spike sauntered in.

"See you started panicking too soon again, Watcher," he remarked. Then he saw the pill bottles scattered over Rose's desk. "What's with the drugs, babe? Are you sick?" His face took on an expression of extreme concern.

Wesley quietly faded out of the room. He had a feeling that the two of them were going to need some time alone. And he'd taken a stealthy peek at one of the bottles before it rolled over and hid its label from view. Pre-natal vitamins. He was feeling rather good about the whole thing till he got to his own office and it suddenly occurred to him to wonder how Rose had gotten pregnant.

&&&&&&&&&

"You're what?" Spike's voice rose an octave in shock. "But babe, that's impossible. There's no way I could have gotten you knocked up."

"The doctor says otherwise," Rose replied. "And so did Lorne." She was still looking a little apprehensive. "You do want it, don't you? I mean, you're not upset that we're going to have a baby, are you?"

Having gotten past the first hurdle of disbelief, well, that was the only one there was, really. It didn't once occur to Spike to question Rose's fidelity. He trusted her implicitly. A sappy and very un-Spike-like grin crossed his face. He knelt on the floor in front of her and pressed his head against her still-flat stomach. If he listened very carefully, past the noises of the busy office building, not to mention the protesting gurgles that Rose's queasy stomach produced, he could hear a fluttering beating sound that sounded faster than the tattoo of a hummingbird's wings. "We're going to have a baby," he repeated in awe. "Of course, I'm not upset, babe." He reluctantly lifted his head away from her midsection so that he could hug her. "I'm not upset at all." The grin reasserted itself. "A baby."