A/N : Finally I got around to finishing the next chapter of this story! For those wondering where I've been for the past week or more, I guess you didn't get my email...I've been working on my Spike website, check it out at But now, I need to thank everyone who reviewed the previous chapter of this fic; Princess Consuela, spikeswife1, slayafreek, kori hime, Freezyboncoolipants, Spuffyluvr, Screeching Dragon, JadedxVampire21, rubi-elektra, MikiBaby, Malfeus, pixiecorn, CraZy4SpikE09, theoneandonlygurl, Kim, Eurika, Moluvsnumber17, ms trick, Artemis Moonshine, Steph, spuffyfan-1, sunnyhell, Rachel, naiya-isis, electricgurl, SinisterChic Heather Martin, velja, Katie, Spuffyfan4eva, bo, susan pero - you guys all rock and I love that you continue to support me and my little fic. Although I say little, I think it's gonna get a lot longer yet. Anywho, hope you enjoy this new chapter!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 19

"Who on Earth...?" Giles mumbled and cursed as he pulled on his robe and made for the front door. The person on the other side was clearly impatient to be let in, which suddenly had him worried. Had something awful happened? Was it Joyce with news about Buffy, or the Slayer herself in heaven knows what kind of condition?

"I'm coming!" he called as another knock cam on the door.

"...faster if you let me kick it down" he heard the tail end of a sentence from a female voice but the opening of the door revealed only Angel at first.

"Giles, where's Buffy?" he asked, a semi-deadly tone to his voice. The ex-Watcher didn't waver though inside he was panicking. It couldn't be Angelus could it?

"I, er..why precisely did you want to know?" the last thing Giles fancied doing was telling Angels evil alter-ego that Buffy was away, busy being pregnant with his grand-childe's child!

"He knows she's having a kid" Faith chimed in, finally coming into view. Giles inched back a little further, now convinced that Angelus stood before him.

"Giles, I'm not gonna hurt you" the vampire shook his head. He could clearly here the man's heart beating far too fast and the smell of fear was very evident.

"You're not Angelus?" he checked, knowing in all honesty that it did little good asking, as he would probably lie just to gain entry to his home...but then, he'd already been invited anyway. Good God, it was getting worse.

It took fully half an hour for Angel and partly Faith to explain to Giles what had happened, from the Rogue Slayer showing up in LA to her wish to atone to Cordelia's vision. Finally, Giles conceded that it really was the souled Angel on his doorstep with a less evil Faith and he let them in to sit down. He then poured himself a large scotch.

"So, now I guess we come back to my first question" Angel asked agitatedly, "Where's Buffy?"

"I can honestly say I have no idea" Giles tried not to smile. In all honesty he never liked Angel all that much, especially since what had happened when the vamp was Angelus two years ago.

"C'mon Giles" Faith rolled her eyes, sitting on the couch with her feet up on the coffee table til the Watcher's look told her to take them down "Buffy can't file her nails without asking for Watcher's permission"

"Whilst I do understand that you wish to make up for some of the evil you have done Faith" Giles told her in a non-too-friendly tone, "I have to say I am far from your biggest fan and have no wish to hear your opinion on Buffy or anything else for that matter"

"Giles" Angel got his attention back, "You must have some idea where she is" his eyes begged for an answer, "Y'know she could be in danger, if what Cordelia saw in her vision is after her..."

"From your description of the demon, I don't believe Buffy is in any danger" Giles shook his head, taking a seat across from the vampire, "Adam, the demon, is in Sunnydale, and from what Joyce has told me Buffy is far enough away for her to be perfectly safe...in any case, Spike is with her"

"Oh yeah, cos that's so comforting" Angel scoffed, causing Giles to roll his eyes. A pair of vampires with feelings for the Slayer now, perhaps he needed another drink, because the world had clearly gone insane when he wasn't looking.

"Hey, without B around you could still use a little help with the demon smack-down right?" Faith asked the Watcher as he finished off his scotch.

"I'm fairly certain we can manage without your assistance" he lied, knowing a Slayer would be of great use if Adam was as dangerous as he was so far appearing to be. Also Angel, with his fighting skills and experience would be a useful ally.

"Giles, I know neither of us is your favourite person but if you need our help you have to admit it, people's lives could be in danger" Angel reasoned. The Watcher hated that he was right.

"I suppose you could join us tomorrow" he conceded, "Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya will be coming here in the afternoon, by the time you arrive at sundown we might have our information organised and we could come up with a plan of sorts when we've filled you in on all the details"

"Why wait?" Angel shrugged, "We're here now, tell us what we need to know"

"Why wait?" Giles echoed in astonishment, "Because it is past midnight and unlike some I am not an animal of nocturnal habits" he snapped a little and the vampire got up from his seat, dragging Faith up with him who seemed in no hurry to move.

When they'd finally gone, promising to return tomorrow evening, Giles sighed. For the first time since she'd gone away, he was really glad Buffy was not in Sunnydale. With pregnant women's hormones as they were, the last thing she needed was to be confronted by a seemingly jealous Angel.

- - - - - - -

"Geez Slayer, who knew someone with super-powers could whine so much about a little backache and such" Spike smirked as Buffy lowered herself onto the sofa, complaining the entire time.

"Yeah, well I may be the first person with super-powers to have to carry this kind of weight around all day" she told him grumpily, one hand on her bump. Spike didn't look amused.

"Hey, that's not just some random weight y'know" he cried indignantly, briefly pausing in his tidying up of the kitchen area "That's our kid in there" he couldn't help but smile ever-so-slightly when he said that. The fact he had made a child was a literal miracle, the fact it was with a Slayer was out of this world.

"Our kid who's grown the equivalent of five months in like three and a half" Buffy complained some more. Spike understood to a degree at least why today was complaint day. She'd been up several times in the night, hungry for things they didn't have in the cupboards. He'd gone out and fetched things but by the time he got back she'd been asleep and he didn't like to wake her. It was all very pointless really and all they really achieved was neither got as much sleep as they ought to.

Now she had some back pains and general pregnant lady symptoms that were getting her down. He was also pretty certain it bothered her that the kid might be different - slightly Slayer-ish, slightly vampy, but that was a subject he hadn't dared to raise yet. They'd just been getting on so well lately.

"You know you're not the first to go through it" he said eventually in answer to her complaining.

"Like that makes it better" Buffy huffed quietly but he still heard her.

Spike made a mental note to call the Watcher in the next couple of days, maybe pop to the library sometime when the Slayer was sleeping. He was certain it'd help if she knew more about the other pregnant Slayer and what she went through. Might make her feel a little less alone. He could be there for her but there were limits to how much he could sympathise, he didn't know what she was really feeling.

"Y'know" her voice brought him out of his thoughts and he looked over at her lying there across the sofa, eyes closed "it's like, I know I should want to go back home, see my Mom and Giles and the gang, do my Slayer duty, catch up at college and all...but mostly I just wanna stay here" she admitted, trying to get comfortable "where it's easy"

Spike smirked at that, finally finishing the tidying and leaning on the kitchen counter as he talked to her.

"Easy now is it?" he checked "Being a pregnant Slayer in a strange town, shacked up with a vampire you can't stand"

Her eyes opened then, a frown evident on her face as she pulled herself up enough to look at him.

"You know it's not like that" she said too quietly, if it wasn't for the vampire-hearing, he wouldn't have heard her at that range "I don't hate you anymore, how could I?"

"Seemed to manage pretty well before" he pointed out, somewhat sadly. It hadn't mattered so much in the beginning, the two of them were supposed to hate each other anyway, but later when he'd started to realise real feelings for his Slayer, still she'd insisted they had little more than a messed up kind of a friendship.

"You hated me too though" she frowned a little, mind whirring as she started to wonder if it were possible, if he liked her before all this?

"S'pose" was the only answer she got as he turned away, not really for a purpose but because he couldn't look at her right now, couldn't explain to her all that was going on inside his head and his heart. She hadn't been too thrilled to hear it last time.

"What's that mean?" he spun round at the sound of her voice and the feel of her hand on his arm. She'd covered the space between the couch and the kitchenette at an alarming speed for someone in pain, but clearly she thought this was important, which had to mean something "You were trying to kill me, of course you hated me" she insisted.

Spike looked down at the hand that remained on his arm when he turned to answer her.

"I hated the Slayer" he admitted "Somethin' I came to realise is, there's a person in there too" he smiled slightly as he continued "When you cut the crap and the holier-than-thou attitude, well, let's just say there's not a whole lot left for the hatin'" he ended even more softly than he'd begun. She was so close to him now, warm hand burning a hole in his cold arm, green eyes searching for something in the blue of his, both of them thinking pretty much the same thing. It'd be so easy, feel so good, just to kiss each other now.

"You think it'd be different?" Buffy's voice came out much more quietly than she intended "If we were like, two normal people?" she just couldn't help but wonder, how simple it might be if she was just a girl and he was just a boy and...

"How'd you mean, luv?" Spike asked, daring to hope she might mean what he thought. She was certainly not as disgusted by his presence as she used to be, seemed to regard him as a friend at minimum.

Buffy swallowed hard and thought about explaining when something in her memory banks rushed forward so fast it made her feel sea-sick.

'I just wish we could be regular kids' 'I'll never be a kid' 'Okay a regular kid and her cradle-robbing creature-of-the-night boyfriend...'

"I..er..I dunno" Buffy shook her head, any excuse to break eye contact "Forget it, it's not important" she said quickly hand coming off his arm, backing up a couple of steps "just crazy pregnant lady rambling again!" she started to laugh somewhat maniacally and Spike frowned. Something in that pretty little head of hers was messing around with the pair of them. He had a pretty good idea she had a Giles-shaped Jiminy Cricket type on her shoulder, reminding her that vampires are for killing not for snogging. Either that or she was remembering times with his grand-sire and the heart-ache that eventually brought.

Right now though, he was in no mood to figure out which had got to her, neither did he fancy an argument. She looked knackered and he didn't feel one hundred percent awake himself.

"Okay then...er, do you want anything?" he checked, as she wandered back to her spot on the sofa, and he followed half way "Cos I was thinking of catching a little shut eye. Didn't get a whole lot last night" he smirked slightly and she almost blushed.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that" she apologised, making no issue about him gesturing towards the bedroom when he mentioned sleeping. Whilst she would be far from comfortable sharing the bed with him, there was no reason why he shouldn't use it during the day.

"No big deal, pet" he shrugged, knowing he'd do anything for her and never complain "Gotta keep Mum and baby happy, don't we? Just try not to have too many weird cravings whilst the sun's up? I'm pretty much over my whole human-torch phase" he smirked and she couldn't help but smile up at him.

"Check" she nodded "No more cravings til it's dark"

They shared a look, a little smile, before he headed for the bedroom door.

"I'll see you in a couple of hours then" he told her. His hand reaching for the door-knob til she called his name.

"Yeah?" he said, turning back. She looked over the back of the couch at him, and opened her mouth to speak but none of what she'd meant to say seemed willing to come out. She wanted to tell him thankyou, for being there with her and helping so much. She wanted to say she was sorry for not being nicer or more grateful before. She wanted to explain that whilst she wasn't sure she loved him, she was fairly certain she liked him a lot, and that maybe one day there'd be something between them.

But stupid fear and worry and panic and a whole load of Angelus-shaped memories blocked everything she wanted to say and she ended up with just three words passing her lips.

"Sweet dreams, Spike" she said a little sadly, wishing more than ever that the pair of them could be normal just so they could see what was between them, if anything at all.

The vampire nodded slightly at her words before disappearing into the bedroom. He closed the door behind himself and dropped down into the bed with a thump. He was almost certain then that she was going to tell him...something. Maybe that she liked him now, maybe that she appreciated him and was glad he was around. He was fairly certain love wasn't going to get mentioned yet but God how he wished it would. He loved her so much it was killing him, everyday the emotion getting a little bit stronger as they spent time together. Sure they argued and bitched at each other but that was half the fun.

As he closed his eyes and let sleep claim him, his thoughts remained with Buffy and their unborn child. Once again, fantasies of how their lives might go from here danced through his mind, and he loved every single one.

To Be Continued...

A/N2 : As usual I'd love to know what you think so review please! Might be a while before I update again, since is going read-only for Monday and Tuesday minimum. Still, I'll try to have some more of this and/or Who's That Guy? by the time the site let's me upload again! :-)

[Extra note for people who have not seen Angel, Season 1, Episode 3 as referred to in Chapter 18 - if you didn't understand that last line, about the pokers and the Mozart music, and you don't mind me spoiling the ep for you, here's a short explanation. Spike followed Oz to LA when he took the Gem of Amarra to Angel (after BtVS ep Harsh Light Of Day). When Angel refused to hand over the ring containing the gem, Spike hired a vampire called Marcus who was a master of torture. The main torture he inflicted on Angel was shoving hot pokers through him, and he found Mozart's Symphony 40 to be very effective background music for the pain he caused. Hope that clears up that slight confusion]