Fic: You Absolutely Sure That's It..?
Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: This is something that came to me... one of several ideas that thinking about a certain species of Demon has given me. Might be continued, might not... will see how I feel.
Rating: 15 probably… mainly for language.
Setting: Season 1 of Angel - hopefully you'll recognise some of the episodes.
A/N: Again sorry for the crappy title.... not put that much thought into this. Sorry... just something my mind grabbed hold of and wouldn't let go.
Fic: You Absolutely Sure That's It..? - Chapter 3
Angel was sitting on the bed holding a crying Cordelia in her arms.
Wesley unsure whether to intrude carefully approached her via the opposite side of the bed. Slowly putting his hand out towards the bump, he caught himself in time before he made contact.
Sensing a brief respite in her tears, Angel carefuly released his hold on her and asked her the question that'd been on both of their minds. "Cordy... what happened?"
Cordelia lowered her head, unable to meet his gaze. "I'm being punished."
Angel put his hands to her face, cradling her head gently as he tilted her to look up at him. "You're not being punished."
"I am." She cried looking into his eyes. "I had sex and now I'm being punished. Just like you were."
Angel paused unsure how to respond to that. "Cordy... having sex ended my curse... it wasn't my punishment... this," He gestured towards himself. "Having a soul... this is my punishment."
"Oh." She quietly responded. "So it's just me that's being punished for sex then."
"Cordelia." Wesley began from her other side. "This is obviously not a normal pregnancy... someone or something did this to you. If you'd become pregnant due to a one night stand, then you'd have options... and it still wouldn't have been a punishment... it would have been..." Wesley trailed off thinking along different lines.
Cordelia looked at him hopefully.
Angel continued where Wesley had left off. "Unfortunate... and the worse you could think is that you'd be careless... you aren't being punished."
"Optio..." Wesley muttered from where he'd started pacing.
"What?" Cordelia turned to face him. "I don't seem to have that many." She informed him angrily.
"Exactly." He paused waiting for it to sink in. The look she was returning persuaded him to continue, "If this had been a normal pregnancy or even a mystical pregnancy designed to look like a normal pregnancy, then there's the risk of someone choosing a termination." He stopped pacing to sit on the bed looking into her eyes. "You became this pregnant overnight so that it isn't a choice, no doctor would ever abort a woman this heavily pregnant."
"Leaving me with no choice but to go through with it." Cordelia finished for him.
"Leaving other people with no choice," Angel corrected her. "We're pretty familiar with weird goings on. We're going to find out what happened to you and how we can stop it."
"The man you were... with last night." Wesley began. "Any distinguishing features... anything that might of triggered he may not be human."
Cordelia shook her head.
"And he was the only one here..?" Wesley asked.
"Just what are you insinuating?" Cordelia snapped at him. "I'll have you kn..."
"Not that..." Wesley quickly corrected his error. "But you've got a ghost sharing your apartment... could he have brought something with him... something you weren't aware of?"
"I suppose." Cordelia looked to Angel for confirmation.
"I can only smell one other person." He informed them. "I'd have to meet them to confirm it's them, but..."
"Wilson Christopher..." Cordelia began. "Some sort of photographer... mainly models, adverts for magazines that sort of thing."
"Okay, I find Wilson." Angel began. "Then I ask some questions."
Cordelia reached into her handbag, pulling out a business card she handed it to Angel. Who quickly moved into the other room to try the number.
"This ghost..." Wesley began.
"Dennis."
"Yes, quite. So did Dennis pick up on anything else in the room?"
"He was acting quite strange." Cordelia admitted. "At first I just thought he was jealous."
"But he could have been sensing something that you couldn't... either about this Wilson or about something that accompanied him."
"I guess."
Angel came back into the room. "Both his cell and his office line have been disconnected."
"Oh God... he lied about who he was... what if he's not successful..? What if I fell for the oldest trick in the book..?"
Angel came over to her. "We're going to deal with this... got me? I called Kate and asked her to run the name. As soon as we get a lead, we'll find him and make him tell us what happened."
Angel nodded his head to Wesley, gesturing they should talk outside. "We'll be in the other room. Dennis will be with you and he'll get us should you need anything."
Cordelia watched them leave and then lay back on her pillow. The quilt being pulled snugly around her, she relaxed into the gentle touch of her room-mate as he stroked her head.
"What is it?" Wesley asked, as Angel put down the phone.
"Kate found nothing on the guy... no identity, no criminal record, no place of residence, no tax records, nothing." Angel sighed.
Wesley paused to consider this, "So we're thinking... what... that this guy lied about his name, everything."
"I'm wondering if this is a 'guy' at all. It could be some demon who can assume human form."
"Cordelia did say that Dennis seemed jealous when Wilson turned up."
"Jealous... or worried?" Angel thought.
"So if it's not human, what could it be?" Wesley thought aloud, scratching his chin as he mentally went through a list of possibilities.
"Only one way to find out." Angel informed him. "You and Cordelia are going in for a check-up."
"Pardon." Wesley asked, bringing himself out of his inner thoughts.
"We find out what the baby is... we find out what daddy is."
"Ahhh..." Wesley said, understanding dawning. "And where will you be..?"
"I'll be locating Daddy... once you find out what it is, tell me how to kill it."
"Kill it..?" Wesley remarked.
"Well... how I can threaten to kill it anyway. Cos until it tells me how to cure Cordy... let's just say I learned a lot about torture from my demon."
La Brea Lounge.
Angel strolled into the club, checking his surroundings in case this is where the demon lived. It's relatively empty. There are a few customers sitting around drinking in small groups.
'Not smelling aything obvious.' Angel thought as he approaches the bar. 'Seems everyone in here now is human. Some lingering scents from previous nights might mean other things frequent the place though,' he figured as he trie analysing the staler smells. 'Vamps. Couple of Vecha demons... standard stuff that hunts humans... nothing that's likely to try impregnating any of them.'
"Hi." He said as he approached the bar.
"Hi." The bartender responded. "What you fancy?"
Angel raised an eyebrow.
"To drink..? What do you want to drink..?"
"Bit early for me." Angel replied. "But I am looking for someone."
"The girls don't normally start showing up til after ten."
"Not that sort of person." He clarified. "A guy."
"Sorry man... should have guessed. To each their own, eh?" The bartender shrugged, continuing to clean some glasses.
"Wh..." Shaking it off, he continued. "This guy... picked up a friend of mine. I need to find him."
The bartender looked at the note, Angel had passed onto the bar. He gave Angel a look til he took it back.
"Sorry..." Angel apologised. "Bet you get that a lot, eh?" Pulling out his wallet, he showed the bartender his business card.
"Detective eh..? What happened..? Some girl get picked up by one of the arrogant assholes in this place... jealous boyfriend pay you to find out who..?" Taking in Angel's build, he added. "Maybe, make sure he doesn't go sniffing around her again..?"
"Something like that." Angel grinned a feral smile. Handing another business card over, this time with Wilson's details on it. "This is the guy I'm looking for."
The bartender shrugged, "Sure no skin off my nose... but it looks like you've got all the details here."
"None of it seems true."
"No shit... so Wilson's a fake eh..?"
"You know him?" Angel asked returning both cards to his wallet.
"Been coming round here for the last few months... semi-regular like. Probably once maybe twice a month max."
Angel thought back to the Burrower he'd discovered when he first met Kate. 'Spreading it around... making the pregnancies harder to track. Dammit, this one's smart.'
"Any idea where he's likely to go next..?" Angel asked, realising it was probably hopeless.
"Anywhere popular man... tell you, the guys have the money and the girls choose where to spend it."
'So it all depends on which girl he sets his sight on next.'
"The group he was with last night... all the girls follow Sarina... she's the leader of that little tribe... she picks where's cool. "Sarina... right." Angel thought back, picturing the girls who'd picked Cordy up from the office.
"Yeah... I think Sarina knows him from somewhere... she's been around with him before."
"Right... thanks." Angel replied, rapidly leaving the bar. 'If Sarina knows him, maybe she's in on it... setting him up with potential breeding stock.'
Pershing Square Hospital.
Waiting Room.
Cordelia was sitting in the waiting room, watching Wesley trying to persuade the nurse there that they needed to see someone urgently.
She suddenly got distracted by a question from the woman next to her. "You having a boy or a girl.?"
"What..?" Cordelia snapped, heading turning to meet this woman's gaze.
"Boy or Girl?" She asked, nodding her head in the direction of Cordelia's stomach.
"We don't know."
The woman nodded understandingly, "Ahh... chose not to find out eh... don't blame you. We didn't want to know for our first either. Turned out to be a girl... three years old now." She rubbed her own stomach gently, "This one's gonna be a boy... We're thinking of naming him Peter. You decided on a name yet?"
"Haven't exactly talked it through, no."
"When are you due?"
"Could be any moment now." Cordelia responded through gritted teeth. 'Come on Wes... get us in. Offer them money, anything.'
"First time mother?" The woman asked, seeing Cordelia's eyes staring into the back of the man that arrived with her, she continued on. "Thought so... I can tell. Pregnancy isn't the end of it you know... sometimes you'll think they're little monsters but other times... you completely recognise the bundle of joy you took home with you."
"Monsters..?" Cordelia whispered quietly, eyes never leaving Wesley and his attempts to gain quicker access.
"It's not his fault deary." The woman said next to her. "You're a little young... I take it, this wasn't exactly planned."
"You could say that..." Watching Wes return to sit next to her, she grabbed him by the collar. "This hurts... when can we go in?"
"It's hurting now..?" Wes asked, unaware of this new situation.
"Yes."
"Right..." He said standing up, helping Cordelia to her feet they made the way over to the nurse. "There seems to be even more of an emergency to this than previously known."
Inside the Examination Room.
Cordelia's sitting on the chair in the stirrups while the Doctor examines her. Wesley standing next to her deliberately looking at her face, and feeling distinctly uncomfortable.
"So... you're eight months pregnant? Eight and a half...?" The doctor asked, standing up and rejoining them.
"That far..?" Cordelia asked in disbelief. "I can't last another week like this."
Wesley quickly corrected her statement. "It's only recently that she's been affected by it... I can honestly say that for the last few months she's been coping as though nothing was wrong."
"You said you were in pain..?" The doctor asked.
"Lots." Cordelia said.
"It only started this morning." Wesley informed him.
"I'm going to do a scan... have their been any other complications with the pregnancy?"
"None." Wesley answered for her.
The doctor continued to work the ultra sound.
"Hmmm...."
"Hmmm...?" Cordelia leapt on his first comment. "What's a hmmmm translate to in non-medical terms?"
"You didn't mention that you were having twins."
"Twins... two of them?" Cordelia turned towards Wesley for advice.
"Ahh... well..." Wesley began.
"Three... four... five."
"Five... fins.. I mean fivetuplets..?" Cordy screamed shocked.
"Quintuplets." Wesley corrected her.
"It better not have fins either." Cordelia glared back.
"Actually, there are seven seperate heartbeats." The doctor stated.
"Seven..?" Cordelia repeated, trying not to cry.
"I can explain..." Wesley began.
"You can explain how your previous doctor, whose name you won't give, managed to overlook six children?"
"We haven't seen a doctor before... we wanted a completely natural childbirth... no scans, no tests, nothing... we only came today because she was in pain."
"In this day and age such steps are considered standard..." The doctor began, but Wesley quickly cut him off.
"And we have a right not to be part of them if we want... now are you going to criticise our choice of lifestyle, or are you going to tell us why these babies are causing her so much pain."
"I need to take some amniotic fluid... the babies heartbeats seem irregular."
"Irregular?" Wesley asked concerned.
"It's difficult to keep track with seven heartbeats, but they seem to be beating too fast. I'll know more as I take further tests."
End chapter 3
