Note: Great, I almost had a heart attack. My computer rebooted for no reason and I thought that I had lost this whole chapter. Well, please read and review. Maybe you'll think that I should have lost the whole thing.
Chapter Ten – Prophecies
Six months later …"Damn," Faith said as she opened the door. "Sorry, I mean, happy to see you."
Faith was trying really hard to change her ways. Cleaning up her language, playing nice with others, and the list went on and on. Not that Wes didn't need some help either. She was still worried she wouldn't get it right and her children would end up like her.
"You're as big as a house," Dawn commented as she walked in the door.
Faith growled under her breath. If she heard that comment one more time, someone was going down. Even if it was a little old lady at the grocery store she talked to yesterday.
Faith sighed though, trying to make sure she didn't go ballistic on the kid. By the look on Dawn's face, that wouldn't be a great idea at the moment. Leading her over to a couch, Dawn plopped down hard and started crying. Why did she have to cry? Faith didn't know what to do.
"I hate him. I hate him. I hate him," Dawn chanted.
Wonder who she was thinking about, Faith thought sarcastically? She so didn't want to track the boy down and slap him around some.
"We know that, Dawn. But what did he do?"
"He's in trouble. And he won't do a damn thing to help himself. Angel just lets him brood. I just want to slap him silly."
Connor in trouble. What a surprise? Since the kid seemed to be always in trouble for something or another, it didn't surprise Faith one bit.
"What'd he do?"
"He killed someone."
Oops, didn't see that one coming, Faith thought. "When? Hasn't he been with you the last six months?"
"No, he hasn't the whole time. And this was a while ago. Back when Cordy was evil. A girl. He actually confessed to killing this girl. Cordy says she did it, and then Connor says he did it. Well, they believed him. Lindsey's trying everything to get him off, but I don't think it's gonna work."
So Connor had crossed that line. Not that he hadn't been under the influence of an evil being at the time. But she knew what it felt like to have to atone for the wrongs that one committed.
"Dawn, if he did this, he needs to do the time."
"But it wasn't his fault," Dawn whined.
It was her fault that the deputy mayor had been killed by her hands. It had been an accident. She didn't mean to kill the guy. It was her reaction to the killing that was wrong. Blaming Buffy for it, and then running to the mayor when things got a little hot, all of that was her fault. And every wrong she committed after joining with the mayor, that was definitely her fault. Lots of people had been injured or died because of her alliance with the mayor. She should have confessed right away. Her life would have been so different if she had.
"He needs to do what's right."
"Yeah, which means to leave me. Dammit, I did not survive the hell that I went through the last year just to have it all fall apart now."
Dawn was working up a full head of steam and Faith just wanted to lie down and sleep. The babies were kicking her bladder something fierce, Wesley had driven into town to pick up a package, and Dawn the whiner child had showed up on her doorstep. What else could go wrong?
Faith sat on her couch, in her little house and sighed. She and Wes had bailed out of slayer central a couple of weeks after the unbinding had been performed. They both wanted some peace and solitude for a while. So they had decided to move to a small town just south of Cleveland. Faith didn't really miss the slaying stuff. She kept fit, walking around the lake near their cottage, she took a class at the local community college, and she took it easy in general. The first time in her life she had time to actually relax. Of course, carrying around two extra lives, in addition to fifty extra pounds, that would slow anyone down.
They had only lived in the place for five months, and one wall was already covered with books. Angel had shipped what he could find that was left in Wes's old apartment. Faith had thought that was enough until packages started showing up from all over the world. But she had gotten used to the clutter and the smell. That smell in addition to the clean air smell and the tea that Wes brewed every day made her calm.
"Would you like some tea?" Faith asked Dawn, not sure where to go next with the teenager.
"Uh, sure. You drink tea now?"
"You learn to adapt. With enough sugar, it's great. Of course, then these two start dancing on my bladder."
Just then the two in question moved around, making her belly look like the alien ready to pop out in that one movie. Dawn's eyes widened considerably.
"Wow. That is so cool. What's it feel like?"
"Like I'm being beaten up on the inside. Hey, stop with the kicking kid so I can breathe," Faith told her stomach, rubbing a spot where it looked like an elbow had emerged.
Faith levered herself up off of the couch very slowly. If she became any larger, the couch wouldn't be an option anymore, unless Wes was there to actually pull her up.
"I can't believe how domesticated you are?" Dawn started, earning a frown from Faith.
"It's OK. Takes a little getting used to."
Faith wobbled over to the stove and turned on the burner to heat water for the tea. Wes had taught her how to make tea the right way. Faith laughed at the memory, since the first time she had made tea for him, she had just stuck a cup of water in the microwave and pushed a button. She thought he was going to have a coronary right there in the kitchen. At least he had been sweet about it, or maybe it was because she could still throw him across the room.
"What am I going to do about Connor?"
"Do you love him?"
Dawn opened, and then closed her mouth several times, like she didn't know how to answer. "I don't know," Dawn honestly told her, starting to shed tears again.
"Let Angel and Cordy help. It'll all work out in the end. I'm sure."
"I'm gonna strangle him, Angel," Cordelia yelled to the vampire.
Angel covered his ears, ready for a full on Cordy screech. With his sensitive hearing, she could make his ears ring for days when she screeched.
"Are you even listening to me?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm listening. It's just, Connor has a mind of his own. He wants to do this, Cordy. He made a mistake."
"But it's not his fault."
Angel knew that Cordy felt guilty, like it was her fault that the girl had died. "He killed that girl."
"Angel, I did. I mean evil Cordy did. Why won't anyone believe me?"
Connor had confessed to killing the girl. Angel knew that Cordy was trying to protect Connor. He just hoped that there weren't some leftover feelings that Cordy had for Connor. Now that would just suck.
"But he said he did it."
"He's just trying to protect me. He couldn't do it. Why doesn't anyone believe me?"
Cordelia sat down on the couch and cried. Angel was getting a little worried that maybe what Cordy said was true. She had sworn up and down that it was her fault. It was until now that he started to believe her. He knew why Connor had confessed, but why was he taking the blame if she really did do the crime?
"Why would he lie?" Angel asked, already knowing the answer to that question.
Was his son still in love with her? He had thought, hoped that Connor would move on. There were indications that he was taken with Dawn. But she had left abruptly, especially after Connor had told everyone that it was his responsibility and he would suffer the consequences.
"Because that evil bitch needed the blood for a ritual. Darla told him not to do it."
"What? Darla was there? She's dead."
This was the first time Cordy had ever mentioned that Darla was there, trying to stop Connor.
"They sent her to try and stop him. And it almost worked. The evil bitch found out and killed the girl. It was me. I killed that girl."
Cordelia sighed, putting her head between her hands. Ever since Connor had confessed a couple of weeks before, she had ranted about how he was innocent. It wasn't until now that Angel believed her.
"Let's talk to Lindsey again. See what we can do."
Angel really didn't want to see Cordelia go to jail any more than he wanted to see his own son go to jail. There was no lesser of two evils in his mind. He had many times tried to kill people just because of his son. What is bad karma coming back to haunt him because of what he tried to do for his son? And Cordelia had suffered so much for him over the years. That's why he chose to believe Connor. The boy had been strong in his conviction that he had done something wrong and wanted to atone for it. But in the end, if he had just been protecting Cordelia, Angel didn't know what to think other than like father, like son.
Wesley strode along the sidewalk to go to the post office, literally giddy at the prospect of the new book that he had bought arriving. It was the last piece of the puzzle that he needed to complete the translation of the book Giles had given him. He had pieced it together slowly, but none of it made sense. The book he had obtained though should be able help him make sense of all the pieces.
What he didn't expect to see was the flash of red hair coming down the street. Sometimes, he wished he hadn't had his eyes fixed, so he could just take his glasses off and act like he'd been blind from about three feet away.
Their lives had been so quiet and idyllic; he knew that at one point that it would end. But the two had needed this time to get to know each other better, and to take care of each other. There was still so much he needed to learn about Faith. She never failed to intrigue him though.
He had even thought how nice it would be to stay in the small town they had found together on a drive one day. It would be a great place to raise the children. But he knew that Faith wouldn't be able to do her job, so he resigned himself to the fact that they would move eventually. But whatever she decided, he would be happy.
The redhead waved at him before he could open the post office door. He should have just looked away and went in anyway. Or maybe they should have moved far, far away from all of this nonsense, never looking back. Don't think that sometimes he didn't think what it would be like to just throw it all away and start over.
"Wesley, I'm glad I caught up with you," Willow started, out of breath from jogging down the street.
"How are things, Willow? Is there an emergency that I should know about?"
"Oh, no emergency. Just wanted to talk to you."
"So, why are you here? I thought that you were in England with Giles?"
Willow's face darkened considerably. "We're not saying that name anymore."
Oh, great, Wesley thought. The two had a tiff. After having a fight with Faith, Wesley would count the number of bruises that he might have. He wouldn't want to be in Giles's shoes though. Willow could literally toss him out a window with the flick of a finger. At least Faith would have to work for it.
"I'm sorry, Willow. I need to retrieve a book from the post." Wesley pointed to the door.
"Oh, sorry. You go right ahead. I'll be right here."
Wesley pulled the door open, and Willow followed right behind.
"Wesley, why are men such jerks?" Willow asked him as they stood in line.
Since he was a male of the species, he didn't exactly know how to answer her other than to shrug his shoulders.
"I'll tell you why they're such jerks. You tell them one thing, they do another. Then they blame you for everything. Not like they're perfect or anything. Then they break up with you, out of the blue mind you. No explanations, no I'm sorry. It's just, I'm breaking up with you. See ya. Adios."
Several people in line were listening to Willow's tirade. Wesley didn't exactly know how to tell her that. He lived in a small town where everyone knew everything. And the post office was the best place for the know-it-alls to hear it. He had figured that out in the first week. That was why so many people were in line at any time of the day. Everyone came to pick up their mail. Which meant everyone talked to everyone else at least once a day. There were upsides to living in a big city, he thought.
"So he broke up with you?" Wesley asked, trying to sound sincere.
"Yeah. Like he's any great shakes."
"So why are you here? Not like I don't like seeing you and all."
"I went back to Cleveland. And who should be there? Kennedy. Just what I needed. So I got into a fight with her too. I just needed to cool off, so I thought, what the hell. I'll visit the two of you for a few days until I can figure some things out. Don't worry. I'm staying at the motel down the street."
Wesley breathed a sigh of relief. Not that he wouldn't have offered to her to come and stay with them. But Faith might not appreciate that.
"So how's Faith? Getting big I bet."
"You might not want to mention that to her. Kind of touchy right now."
"Oh, I get it. Pregnancy hormones. Right. I'll keep my mouth shut. Hey, so when are you two gonna get married?"
The whole room went silent. Wesley could feel the blush creep up his throat and spread all over his face. It would be all over town in about an hour that he and Faith weren't actually married. They hadn't told anyone one way or the other. Now everyone knew that they weren't.
"Not sure," he mumbled back.
"I bet Buffy and that Lindsey character will be married before the two of you are. I can't believe that she's still dating him. Evil lawyer guy. Never would have figured it. At least the lawyer part, I mean."
Wesley reached the counter and asked the clerk for the package that was waiting for him. The clerk handed him a small package, which he signed for quickly, not wanting Willow to give out any more information to the public at large.
Walking out of the post office, Wesley turned to walk down the street to his car. Willow still followed him. "Angel? Does he know?"
"Yeah. A little tweaked at first. I think he and Lindsey had it out. I don't think that bones were broken or anything, just a few scrapes and bruises. Now he's cool. And I think that Angel has enough to worry about at the moment. Connor has confessed to killing some girl."
Wesley halted his progress. "Damn. He didn't kill anyone."
"That's what Cordelia told everyone. No one believed her. She said she did it."
Wesley shook his head. Cordy was trying to take the blame when it was evil Cordy's fault? It sounded to him like Connor was trying to protect Cordelia.
"So what's happening now?"
"Lindsey's trying to get him off, or reduce the time."
Having a formerly evil lawyer on your case helped, Wesley thought. He'd know some tricks to help Connor out, if Connor wanted to be helped. His family sure was a dysfunctional lot.
Just as he was ready to ask Willow to dinner, Faith and Dawn pulled up in a rental car. Since they only could afford one car, Faith had to stay put if he needed to run an errand. Their neighbors weren't very far away in case Faith needed something, which was why Wesley could actually run errands without worrying too much.
Dawn pulled up behind them. Faith tugged her body up out of the car very slowly. Wesley knew not to help her unless she asked. She hadn't been very pleasant the last time he tried helping her out of the car without permission.
"Dawnie. I didn't know you were here," the wicca said as she enveloped Dawn in a bear hug.
"Just arrived."
Wesley could feel the eyes of the town on the four of them, but he didn't care. He took his turn giving Dawn a hug too.
"Hey, what about the pregnant lady here." Willow hugged Faith too. "I was kinda talkin' about him," Faith grinned as Wesley placed a small kiss on her cheek.
"Sorry," Willow said to the slayer.
"Just kidding. I thought you were in England with Giles." Willow's eyes darkened this time. Her usual sunny green disappeared. "Sorry. Not askin'."
"Men are jerks. You know that, Willow," Dawn started.
Willow readily agreed with the younger woman.
"Yeah, most of them are," Faith agreed, grinning at Wesley the whole time. "But they have their uses."
Dawn snorted at the comment. "Who's up for ice cream?"
"We are," Faith said, rubbing her ever-expanding belly.
Faith groaned as she tried to sit up in bed. She really shouldn't have had that much ice cream in one sitting. But she had. Where one scoop probably should have done it, she had ordered a sundae with all the fixings. Add to that a huge dinner. And now she was paying for it with indigestion. There just wasn't any room anymore for organs and breathing and bladders. She was one big, baby making machine. She ate every hour, unless she was sleeping. And she went to the bathroom every hour, but it really didn't matter if she was sleeping. Which was why she slept when she could, because she was always interrupted by the bathroom trip.
The bed was cold beside her. Not like that hadn't happened before. Wes sometimes stayed up late working on some translation. When he got going, she'd sometimes have to strip naked in front of him just to get his attention. Now with her protruding belly, she doubted that would even entice him now. Sure, he said that he loved how she looked. But she really was as big as a house.
Padding down the hallway, she saw the light on in the small den off to the side of the kitchen. It was his space and his space only. Faith tried staying out of that room as much as possible. She was afraid that she'd mess up his system or something. If you could call organized chaos a system.
As she entered the room, Wesley's back was to the door. She noticed that his hands shook a little as he turned the pages of the new book he had gotten from the post office earlier in the day. Hoping that this wasn't another withdrawal symptom, she cleared her throat to get his attention. He'd had a few more episodes after the first two really bad ones, then nothing. And they weren't as bad thankfully. He still didn't turn at her sound.
Slowly she placed her arms around his shoulders, leaning down to nuzzle his neck.
"Hello," he said softly as he finally noticed she was in the room.
"It's late, watcherman. Come to bed."
"I will. Shortly."
Faith could feel how tense his body was at the moment. She didn't need the link anymore to tell that something was wrong. The link may have been great to read his thoughts, but she had learned more from his body language in the past six months to know when he was worried.
"Spill, buddy."
Wesley chuckled a little at Faith. His hand came up to grab hers. He turned in his desk chair to face her, placing his free hand and his head against her belly. His gesture was answered with a well-placed kick from her insides.
"Hello in there. Your mother is a very perceptive woman. Which means you'll not be able to get away with anything when you're teenagers."
Faith laughed at Wesley. He often talked to her belly. And most of the time, one or both of them would answer back in the form of kicks or punches. This one was answered with both, which made Faith wince slightly.
"Hey, guys. No fighting over your daddy."
Wesley slowly got up from his chair, taking his hands up her body until they were behind her head. He pulled her head back for a searing kiss that she felt all the way down to her toes. And she knew exactly what he was trying to do.
"Distraction will get you nowhere. Now, why are you all broody?"
Wesley wrapped his arms around her and held on tight. "Not broody. Just worried."
"About what? If it's Connor, it'll all work out in the end."
"Not that, although I am quite worried about that also. No, it's the translation."
Wesley pulled back to look into her eyes.
"What is it? Another apocalypse, end of the world kind of thingy? Cause we haven't had one of those lately."
At least Faith hoped that wasn't what it was. She really didn't want something like that to screw up her time with Wes.
"I'm not exactly sure at the moment. I need more time."
"Don't try that one on me, buster. Tell me what you've figured out so far."
"Come on. Let's go sit."
Wesley led her into the living room, settling her on the couch next to him. They just sat there for a while, Faith cuddled up next to him. The tension eased in him somewhat, but she still wanted the story from him.
"So?" she finally broke the silence of the dimly lit room.
"I've figured out a way to translate the prophecies in the book finally."
"Oh, goody, goody. And by the sound of your voice, it's not good."
"I'm not sure yet, as I said before. But I now know why my father and Ethan wanted the book."
"Obviously not for the naked girly pictures."
Wesley snickered in laughter. Rubbing her palm slowly, he raised his head to look into her eyes.
"No. No pictures in this book. It talks about you, Faith."
Oh great, she thought. Now what was she gonna do? Prophecies were such bullshit in her book. The ones involving Buffy had always been proven wrong, and the one that Wes translated about Angel proved to be false.
"What? How pretty I am, or how big my belly can get, cause if something doesn't happen soon with these two, I swear they'll come out talking and walking."
"I agree with the first part. On the second part, I'm not the expert."
"No, you're just the expert in making this happen," Faith grinned. "So? Stop changing the subject."
"All right. It talks about a new kind of slayer. Faster, better, stronger. Your name is mentioned. I don't know if it happens to you or not. I haven't put all the pieces together. I'm just worried that it won't be you it happens to."
Now that was curious, she thought. He didn't want something like that to happen to her. Not that she wouldn't love some new, cool power that she could use to kick some demon butt. But she kinda liked what she could do now. Learning to use some other power might not be so much fun.
"OK, so it mentions me. Why don't you think it happens to me?"
"As I said, I'm not done putting the pieces together."
"Is it evil? I mean, it always seems like these prophecies have something to do with evil."
"I'm just not sure yet. I don't know if I'll ever be."
"But it has you tense. Which means you have a theory, right?"
Wesley looked down at her belly and swallowed tightly.
"No. No, no, no, no, no, no. No way."
"Faith, we have no way of knowing what they will be like after they are born. We don't even know what sex either one of them will be. Remember, we wanted to wait."
"What does that have to do with anything? They're babies."
Wesley wouldn't look her in the eyes now. Which made her even angrier.
"Yes, but according to my research, there have only been few instances of slayers ever having children. This is unprecedented. You realize that?"
"Yeah, I kinda knew that. But what about Robin? Slayer's son."
"Yes, he is. I just wished the Council had not gotten destroyed. It would have made this much easier. From what I can gather, when a slayer has had a child, they always have been sons. Of course, most of the records were lost in the explosion."
"So if one of these is a girl, could she be a slayer?"
"There's a good possibility, yes. And with my genes mixed into it, that makes the odds go up even more."
"Now I know why they don't let watchers screw slayers. Might create a superslayer or something."
Wesley winced at her comment. She hadn't meant to make him feel uncomfortable. But he was. He knew what his duty was and even though he wasn't an official watcher anymore, he still was hers.
"From what I can gather, they tried that many years ago. It didn't turn out right."
"Right? As in the baby died, or not right as in it wasn't right. You know what I mean."
"No. It was healthy. The Council back in those days was even scarier than the one we knew. Apparently from the text that I just received, they performed all sorts of tests to determine if the child was a slayer."
"Hey, they're not touching these two. I swear, if any of them come near these babies, I'll snap their necks."
"As would I. And Giles would too. He's in charge for a reason."
Faith was glad that the man was the head honcho. But what if he wasn't? Would that put the children in danger?
"So what's the sitch? There a prophecy about one of them in that book of yours?"
"I've only figured out the part about a new kind of slayer. So I don't know."
"But it worries you."
"I just thought that our children could escape all this nonsense. Be normal, healthy children. Instead, one or both of them could die an early death."
So that's what he was worried about. It wasn't that he knew what would happen to them in the future. He was worried about what they would be. Now so was she.
"So, we'll make it as normal as possible. We can, you know."
"Yes, I have no doubt about that."
"You're just playin' the protective papa. But until we know more, we'll just keep telling ourselves that it will be OK."
"It will be."
"OK, Mr. Sappy Englishman. You need some rest or that translation will not happen. Besides, we're not gonna be alone too much longer. I want to spend all the time I can with you before number one and number two decide they want to come out and play."
Faith pulled him down to a gentle kiss. She slowly unbuttoned his shirt, placing light kisses where her fingers touched his skin. Maneuvering was sometimes hard for her now, but she just wanted to feel him against her for a little while, to take away his worries.
"You know, this couch isn't the best place," he moaned as she jerked the shirt off his body.
"Ouch," Faith groaned as she moved the wrong way. "Yeah, you're right. Help me up so we can go and do this right."
Wesley pulled her up off the couch into an embrace, for which he received a solid kick.
"They never slow down, do they?"
"Oh God, if you could feel all of this stuff inside of you moving around, I'm sure you'd freak."
Wesley nodded in agreement. "Bedroom?"
"Remember when we could do it anywhere? Those were the days."
"I think that's why your belly is sticking out in the first place."
Faith took his hand in hers to lead him into the bedroom. "You talk too much."
TBC
Next: Ahh. Can't have them happy all the time? That doesn't mean that they'll stay apart. So I need to resolve the Connor thing, I need to have Wes look at the text some more, and Giles needs to come back into the picture. Did Giles really tell her adios? And poor Wes in the middle of all of these females?
Author notes: Woohoo, this is fun. I'm not done with this yet. Soon, very soon. Maybe one or two chapters. Did anyone notice the set-up for a sequel? And I had to give you lots more angst with the couples. Faith hasn't been slaying at all and is alright with it. I hope that doesn't make anyone unhappy. She would just be so cute as a protective mother.
Thanks to: pari106, Maineiac, tp96, qkith, shondie (hey, welcome to the craziness known as my brain, nice, new reviewer. I know, don't scare him/her away), Sketchie and everyone else who has reviewed in the past, present and/or future.
Answers to questions: pari106—I live writing Angel a little more goofy, not as dark and broody. Too depressing. Glad you like all the parts too.
Qkith—you did? I know you've looked at some of my other stuff. Thanks a bunch. Yep on the challenge. We'll see how long it takes me on this other stuff though.
Shondie—I happen to like Connor also. Probably in the minority. Even crazy Connor, except for the Connor/Cordy stuff. Eww.
Sketchie—Dawn always gets the shaft. At least she's not Kennedy (I know she gets the shaft too, no offense to the actress because she was fine); the pink and blue thing, Cordy knows way too much about babies. I swear, they've made her pregnant way too many times, although "Expecting" was funny just because of Wes's reactions to it all, especially in the doctor's office. The looks that he gets on his face are priceless and downright hilarious. The story's stupid though.