Queen D

NOTE: I wish these sweet, wonderful, and oh, so fun Angel characters were mine, but they belong to that Joss guy, who I'd love to slap.

A/N: This is a big, hopping AU. At the end of Hero, when Doyle kissed Cordelia, instead of him just passing his power along to her he impregnated her. The storyline stays the same from there. Wesley shows up, Gunn joins the team, they move into the hotel, Darla and Angel do the big nasty, AI rescues Fred, Darla comes back pregnant, Cordy becomes a demon, but Connor was never kidnapped. Want to find out more? Well, read on.

CHAPTER 4

          "I can find the enemies list we made when Connor was born and see if that leads us anywhere," Wesley said, leading the way into the hotel.

          "Don't even say the word enemy," said Cordelia, walking up behind him. "I just want to get Danny and relax in a nice, cozy mall with—"

          "Xander," Wesley recognized, as he stepped inside the hotel. Cordelia, Angel, who held Connor, Fred, and Gunn came inside next.

          "OK, Wesley, that wasn't anywhere near the area of funny," Cordy said with an eye roll.

          "Missed you bunches, too, Cor." Cordelia and the others looked up to see that Xander was indeed standing in the hotel lobby.

          Cordelia, speechless for probably the first time in her life, turned to Angel. "Xander Harris is standing in our lobby," the brunette said. "Feel free to tell me this statement is a lie."

          "Pretty real from where I'm standing," Angel replied, putting Connor down.

          "Who is he?" Fred asked, as both he and Gunn looked a little out of the loop.

          "Xander Harris, one of Buffy's allies from Sunnydale," Wesley explained.

          "Friend from back in the day?" Gunn asked.

          "Pretty much, yeah," Angel shrugged.

          Connor tilted his head curiously, staring up Xander.

          Xander did the same, looking at Connor. "Uh, does the kid have some type of unknown eye issue?" Xander asked.

          "Connor, stop that. You know it's not nice to stare like that," Angel admonished.

          "Sorry, he just looks... weird," Connor decided.

          "You live with a green, horned demon and I look weird?" Xander seemed insulted by the small child. "Who is this kid, anyway?"

          "That's Connor," Angel spoke up a little awkwardly. "My son."

          Xander chuckled lightly. "No, really. Who is he?" Everyone exchanged a glance, not really knowing what to say. "Wait, you're serious? But how in the name of all that's good and shiny is that even possible? I thought vampires couldn't have little vampires."

          "I'm not a vampire," Connor stated. "But I can bite a lot. Wanna see?"

          "Connor," Angel warned.

          "Kill the small talk," Cordelia said, going down the few steps that led into the lobby to approach Xander. "What are you doing here?"

          "From what the old green ears can hear, there's a brewin' evil coming," Lorne said, walking into the room with a fresh martini.

          "Wait a minute." Angel went down the steps and stood next to Cordy. "Xander, what's going on? Is it Buffy?" Angel's senses perked as usual at the thought of anything that would bring any such harm to the slayer.

          "Shut off the alarm, Angel," said Xander. "Buff's not the one in infinite danger, you are. Isn't that a relief?"

          "Guess that's one way of putting it," Fred said with a slight half smile, linking her arm with Gunn's.

          "What's going on here, Xander?" Cordelia asked, hands on hips.

          "Look, I don't know much," Xander said. "Just being messenger boy really. According to Willow something is coming to LA."

          "Is this somethin' big?" Gunn asked.

          "Don't know," Xander replied.

          "Can we avert it?" Wesley asked next.

          "Don't know," Xander said again.

          "Do you know what it is exactly?" Angel asked him.

          "Not a clue," Xander stated.

          "Could you be more useless?" Cordelia said with an eye roll, heading towards the front desk.

          "Don't- hey!" Xander realized he'd just been insulted. "I'm here doing the warning thing and you can point me where you need me."

          "Thanks, Xander, but around here we do what we usually do," said Cordelia, picking up a large text. "We go research-y until we find something. Wes?"

          "On it," Wesley said, proceeding towards the office.

          "Fred, Gunn, can you head back to the fair in a couple of minutes to see if you can get anything on whatever that was that tried to attack Connor?" Angel asked.

          "Sure," Fred nodded then turned to Gunn. "Crossbows ready?"

          Gunn held his weapon up. "Big, pointy, and ready for the just in case butt whoopin'," he assured her.

          Fred smiled at him then left out of the hotel, Gunn right behind her.

          "Dad, can I go with them?" Connor asked, walking down to his father. "Please? I'll be good and everything."

          "Not a chance, Connor," Angel said immediately. "But feel free to go to your room. You'll be there for most of the day, anyway."

          "That's not fair," Connor pouted. "I said I was sorry." With a simple wave of his finger, Angel gestured upstairs. "Aw, I never get to have any fun." Connor headed up the stairs, passing Danielle, who was coming down. "They're being meanies down there," Connor whispered to her then went by.

          Danielle shrugged and went down into towards lobby. "Mom?"

          "Down here, hun," Cordy said.

          "Mom?" Xander repeated Danielle, completely in shock. "Did that little girl just say—?"

          "Xander, meet my daughter," said Cordelia with a smirk like grin. "Danielle Francis Chase."

          "Who's that?" Danielle asked, making a face at the sight of Xander.

          "His name's Xander," Cordelia explained. "He… we… I… we used to…" Cordy searched her mind for the best way to put it.

          "Yeah, your mom and I used to date," Xander supplied.

          "What he said," Cordy sighed.

          Danielle raised one eyebrow and folded her arms, in a very Chase pose. "Really? Guess what?" she said to Xander.

          "Get the feeling you're going to tell me, anyway," Xander said.

          Danielle wiggled her pointer finger, signaling for Xander to come down to her level. Xander shrugged and knelt down. "My dad was a demon and I'm one, too. I've got super strength, but only with my porcupine face. Wanna see?"

          "Danny," Cordelia said unfavorably. "Why don't we save the porcupine face for later?"

          "Sure," Danielle said, shooting Xander a devious smirk.

          Xander chuckled slightly nervously and patted Danielle on top of the head. "Cute kid. Not at all… terrifying."

          "You should see her when the hotel's out of nutty buddies without backup," Lorne chimed in.

          "Anyway, Danny, it's Saturday." Cordelia smiled from ear to ear. "Shopping day."

          "Oh, Mom," Danielle moaned.

          "No, 'oh, Moms,'  Dan-o," said Cordelia right away. "Going to have to deal."

          "Hey, Cordelia, mind if I tag along?" Xander asked. "You know if the good fight doesn't need me right now."

          "We're good," Angel assured him.

          "I guess…" Cordelia trailed off. "Um, if you don't mind the constant Danielle moaning over the mention of pink."

          "If he goes, I don't want to," Danielle said then quickly added, "Malls aren't for boys."

          "No, honey, you don't get it," said Cordelia. "They're where you find all the boys, preferably the ones with large trust funds and sport cars."

          "Nice prefs, Cor," said Xander as he, Cordy, and a sulking Danielle headed for the double doors. "Hey, did I tell you about the time I saved the world from evil Willow?"

A/N: I know it took me, well, forever to update, but I'm back now. Hopefully you guys are happy about that. You better be, anyway. Don't make me get tough. Please review!