Quote of the chapter:

Cordelia: "I learned that men are evil? Uh, wait, I knew that. I learned that L.A. is full of self-serving phonies. Nope, had that one down, too. Uhh, sex is bad?"

Angel: "We all knew that."

Cordelia: "Okay. I learned that I have two people I trust, absolutely, with my life. And that part's new."

-- From "Expecting" Season One of Angel, written by Howard Gordon

Chapter Three – Best Friends

Cordelia sat in her apartment, which lucky for her hadn't been destroyed, waiting for Angel to come back from some meeting. He was helping with getting rid of the rest of the bad demons in Los Angeles. He and Riley actually made a good team when they got through that anger over Buffy.

No one had rented her apartment after she had been moved out by the gang when she became the higher being. No one wanted to live with a ghost, so it had sat empty for quite some time. Now she was back in familiar surroundings, with people who cared for her. So why did she feel like crap?

Maybe because one out of two of her best friends hated her guts. She had done something stupid, just trying to help. And had bungled it royally. Not that he hadn't bungled things royally either, but hey, this was probably on par with his royal fuck-ups. No wonder Wesley skipped town quickly.

"Hey," Angel called out, scaring her for the umpteenth time in her life. The man moved so quietly, even a mouse couldn't hear him. She just growled at him for the interruption to her thought processes.

"I have good news," Angel told her as he sat with her on the dusty couch.

Cordy hadn't felt too much like cleaning since they had arrived at the apartment. Dennis didn't exactly either, since he wasn't talking to her at the moment for abandoning him for so long. The only thing in the apartment was a few sticks of furniture and a couple changes of clothes for her, Angel, Fred and Gunn. And some food and blood. Otherwise, everything they had owned was gone, burned in the fire.

"Kind of need it right now," she said resigned to her fate.

"Wes found Faith. They went to Cleveland. I got through to Willow finally. That line that Soldier Boy set up works."

"Good. That's good."

Cordy didn't feel that things were good, but at least Faith had been found. And Willow was on the case. Giles would be there soon too. All would be well. So why did she still feel like such a clod?

"You know, this funk that you're in? It's OK. Been there before. Many times. It'll pass. You'll be Cordy again. Fun Cordelia." Helpful Angel. What did she do to deserve this, she thought?

"Angel. I sat up in a higher dimension, watched you guys almost get yourselves killed and any time I tried to do something about it, it went kerplooey. And then some damn stupid ass demon thingy decides that he wants me back, so he pulls me down, makes me human, locks me in a cage for a while and tries to sacrifice me to some god so he can be more powerful. So, here I sit. No powers, no visions, no Wes. I screwed up so big this time, I don't know how to fix it."

Angel looked at her, trying to take her speech in, trying to tell her it would all get better. He was having a hard time with it too. "Well, I'm not sure how to fix it either. We'll figure out together. OK? You're back now. For real. Not some smarmy deity who can take over the world with peace and love and no free will. Just us. We will fix it, but it will take time."

Cordelia thought about how Angel had finally forgiven Wesley for taking Connor. Could Wesley forgive her for connecting Faith to him? Dammit, it was those watcher guys who didn't do the thing in the first place. They screwed it up big time way back when. Probably was Wes's father who decided that their link shouldn't be done.

"I didn't even get to say goodbye to Wes before he left."

"Faith bolted. He had to get to her, I guess. Though I'm not sure why."

"Oh right. You smelled them. You knew they had the hots for each other since Faith took Angelus's ass down. Don't tell me you're not sure why."

"Oh, not that, Cordy. It's just, it's complicated. The two of them I mean. Just plain weird if you ask me."

"What? No weirder than a vampire falling in love with a slayer? Or a child born from two vampires? No, that isn't weird at all." Sarcasm was something that Cordy could latch onto when she didn't want her real feelings to come out.

"So, it's weird to me. OK?"

"What do we do?"

"Let Giles and Willow handle it for now. He'll forgive you, in time."

Cordelia scowled at the thought. It took her a long time to forgive Wes for taking Connor. And he had tried to do what was right, even though he hadn't told anyone of his fears of the prophecy coming true. She was just doing her job, at the time. What couldn't be forgiven? She just hoped they didn't die because of what she did. That would really suck. And she'd never get to tell Wesley how much she missed him.

Wesley fidgeted in the lone chair in the examination room, waiting for Faith to change into the paper gown. The last time he had been to the doctor was when his throat was cut. Not pleasant memories. And before that, when Angel had taken Connor to have him checked out by the doctor. It seemed like so long ago, but it wasn't a little more than a year since that all had happened.

It would take nine months, give or take a few days, for the life growing inside of Faith to appear. Now that was scary. He had created something tangible, something that he would have to take care of for the rest of his life. Now he knew exactly how Angel had felt when Darla told him about the baby.

"Damn, I hate these things," Faith grumbled as she came out of the changing room.

He remembered how before he had left Sunnydale for good, visiting Faith in the hospital to see how she was doing. She had a gown very much similar to the one she had on now. Monitors beeped, tubes flowed, but Faith lay still in that bed. Her coma had taken over. Wesley had wished at that point he could have brought her back, made himself a better watcher, and all would have been well again with the world.

But she had woken up, confused and hurting inside and out. No one was there to help her back to the living. She took out her anger and hurt the only way she had known how. By taking it out on the people she loved the most. Buffy, Angel, Cordy, himself, all the people that could have helped her weren't there when she needed them the most. Until Angel had finally snapped something back into place in her world.

"You think too much," she whispered as she placed a kiss on his head, hugging him tight. "It was you, you know. I was ready to let you go right before Angel came charging through that door."

"What?" was all he could say before the doctor came through the door, ready to get down to business.

Faith turned, blocking him out of the intense emotions that were building inside of her. "Hey, doc. How's business?"

"I hate shot day. That's why I have the nurses take over that task. So, how are you?"

"Not bad. Uh, this is Wesley, doc. He's a friend of mine."

Friend? Was Faith afraid of their relationship?

Behave, you.

Friend?

I can't exactly call you my love. Got to maintain my rep here.

Thanks, a whole lot.

He hadn't meant for the last statement to hurt Faith, but she looked at him warily, with a little pleading in her eyes. He'd play along for a while.

"Doctor Martin. It's nice to meet you, Wesley."

Wesley shook the doctor's hand and returned to his seat.

"So, what's up?"

"Got into a tangle not too long ago. Wicked ass knife wound. It's healed, but I wanted you to check it out."

Chicken.

I'll spill. Just give me a minute.

Faith blushed slightly.

Do you want me to leave?

No. I can do this.

"Also, doc. I think, well, no, I know that I um," Faith stuttered.

Wesley wanted to take control. To ask the doctor a million questions, but he wanted Faith to say it out loud. But it didn't look as if she could.

"Faith, if you want me to," he started.

"IthinkI'mpregnantcanyoucheck." There, she'd said it out loud.

"No thinking about it," Wesley mumbled to no one in particular.

"Sure, no problem. What makes you think?"

"Well, mood swings, eating more than humanly possible, getting up at all hours," Wesley went on.

Faith growled at him to stop talking. He just grinned at her attitude. "Just keep talking, watcher boy."

He also wanted to tell the doctor about her slightly rounded belly, plus her sensitivity in several areas, particularly one of her best attributes, but he knew he might get punched for it.

"Shut it," she repeated, very serious with him now.

"We can check, if your friend would like to step outside," the doctor asked.

"No, he can stay. Since it's all his fault in the first place. Remember what I said, Wes. Every thing you will have to go through."

The doctor looked from one to the other. "That's fine. Just let me go get Sandra and we can get started. OK?" The doctor quietly walked out to find the nurse.

"I was trying to help."

"I know. It's just, it's all too real and these mood swings are really crappy, is all."

"If you really want me to go, I do not mind."

"Nah, that's OK. Just don't drive the doc crazy with all those questions running around in your head."

"But we'll need to know what to do if . . . ."

Faith stopped him with a hand in the air. Too much information for Faith put her in overload. She'd need time to adjust to every little thing the pregnancy was doing to her body.

Neither one spoke during the exam, Faith glaring at Wes to not open his mouth. He found this all fascinating, while Faith just wanted to get it over with.

"So," she asked hesitantly.

"I always say a woman's intuition is right. And you are pregnant. But I still want to do all of the blood tests and such, make sure how far along you are."

Wesley didn't feel all that well, watching Faith being prodded by the doctor at every turn. She seemed to take it all in stride. Since he'd been hospitalized too much, going to the doctor wasn't his favorite activity.

"How far along do you think you are? Any idea?" the doctor asked.

"Maybe eight weeks at the most."

"Umm," was all the doctor would said.

"Umm, as in that's interesting, or umm, there's something wrong?"

Wesley could feel his pulse accelerate at the question. Did Faith think something might be wrong?

"No, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong as far as I can tell. You've gained at least ten pounds though, but you always were slender. When the blood test results come back, we'll know more. Tell you what, let's do an ultrasound. We may not be able to pick up much, since you may not be that far along."

The doctor set the ultrasound up, doing all the things that Wesley had done to Darla the one time they wanted to see what exactly she was carrying. When he had done it himself, it seemed like the most mundane procedure in the world. Now he was worried that it would hurt the baby.

"It's totally safe. So just relax and we'll see what we see."

Faith flinched a little at the cold gel on her abdomen. Then Wesley thought about the time that Cordelia had been carrying those demon babies. The ultrasound had been so helpful to tell them that she was carrying something that would ultimately kill her. His stomach became even queasier with that thought.

"Human here," she whispered to Wesley, knowing his thoughts exactly.

"I know."

"Ah, there it is. See," the doctor said, pointing to the screen.

"It's a blob. I'm having a blob."

"It's not that developed yet Faith. Not a blob."

"Well, that's what I see."

The doctor moved the wand around more, searching for something else.

"Hey, you look kinda pale. You OK?" Faith asked Wesley.

"Yes. Just fine."

"Just what I thought," the doctor pointed out. "Listen." She turned the audio up. It seemed they were listening to a symphony of heartbeats. "There's Mom's heartbeat, baby number one's heartbeat."

"What?" Wesley knew what was coming next. You don't number babies unless there is more than one. "Oh dear."

"And baby number two's heartbeat."

"Oh, shit," Faith responded.

Both Faith and the doctor looked down at the floor where Wesley had sunk. "Yep. Gets them every time, Faith," the doctor laughed.

"You fainted," Faith chided as they stood outside Slayer Central.

"I did no such thing. I was feeling queasy from the food I ate. Just low blood sugar."

"Yeah, right." Faith opened the door. "Dork."

"Bitch."

"Dumbass."

"You know, we are going to have to clean up our language before the babies learn how to talk."

Faith got a little woozy thinking about babies in the plural sense. Damn, why wasn't anything ever easy for the two of them. The doctor was fairly certain there were two fetuses, although she wanted to check the blood tests and have her come back in two weeks.

"So we're overachievers. Look on the bright side." Since there was no other side to look on at the moment, Faith wanted to take the high road.

"Oh, yes. There is a bright side to this. I am currently unemployed, no place to live, our professions are as such that either of us could be maimed or killed at any time, and we have just found out that we will have not one mouth to feed but two."

"You, you, I hate you," Faith screamed as she ran off right in front of Willow.

"What did I say? Faith, come back."

"Hey, Wes. Not a happy slayer I see. Everything go OK at the doctors?"

"Just fine, perfectly absofuckinglutely fine."

Willow snickered a little at Wesley's attempt at swearing. "Don't worry. Faith was just blowing off some steam. She'll be fine once she kills something."

Wesley glared at her, not answering. "Tell you what? You want me to talk to her? Just say the word. Also, I need your help on those texts I was telling you about. Lots of demony languages that I have no idea what they may be saying. You up for it?"

"Sure. Sorry, I don't usually take things out on people. Let's look at what you have, shall we?"

Faith entered the main training room in a huff. Wesley just didn't understand her. She was guessing it was because he had a penis, but that was just a guess. A couple of the girls looked her way, but stayed back, knowing Faith's moods were not to be messed with.

"Faith, I'm glad you're back. There's two more girls to train. And the others that were injured will be coming back soon, so we need to be ready," Robin said as he approached.

"I can't train, Robin. Find someone else," she told him, walking away.

Robin grabbed her arm to stop her forward momentum. "We need to talk."

"No, you need to let go of my arm before I break yours."

Robin sighed, dropping her arm immediately. "You want to tell me what's going on?"

"None of your business."

Robin's eyes widened. "I thought."

"Well, you thought wrong."

Faith could see the anger well up on Robin's face. She really didn't give a shit about how he felt right that moment.

"Faith, I'm your watcher. You need to listen to me."

"What?" she shouted. "You're my what? Where the hell did you get that?"

"The new council put me in charge here, remember? That makes me your watcher."

"Fuck that. I am not one of those teenage girls who needs someone to babysit them."

Robin stood next to Faith, knowing that she could clean his clock at any moment, but choosing to use his size anyway. The need to hit something welled up in her, but she tamped it down quickly. With everything that she had going on, she did not want to get into a pissing match with her former boyfriend. The girls in the room had already stopped what they were doing, watching the proceedings with interest.

"That's not how it works, Faith."

"This is not the time to discuss this, Robin," Faith told him, bringing her voice down so the others could not hear.

"You'll train when I say to train. Got it," he said, wanting to use his authority to get what he wanted.

"What are you going to do, fire me?"

"Just might."

Faith knew he was bluffing. She was the only slayer in Cleveland right now who was fully trained. The rest were just babies. Just like the girls that had been injured or killed in L.A. They'd need someone else to take over for her, like Kennedy or Vi, until she could resume her duties.

"You know what, you training methods fucking suck."

"You are going to take that back."

Robin swung out at her, which she dodged. The freight train that ran right past her and took Robin down though, now that was a surprise.

TBC

Next: You knew it was coming. And also, some familiar faces.

Author notes: I'm updating this fic, because the other is giving me fits. Figures. Hope the fic isn't too fluffy. Hope I'm not being too hard on Robin. He's the fall guy right now.

Thanks to: All the reviewers. Lots of good questions, and hey, you guys are figuring things out from the little clues that I drop. I hope I'm not that obvious. Thanks to tp96 and delta-negative for all of your encouragement. And all the others still reading!!

Slayerfan—some Angel goodness just for you.

Faith5x5 – More Connor/Dawn on the way

Steph – you're right in your observations; and Willow will be the first to know

Keep reading and keep reviewing.