Note: OK, this is the sappiest, fluffiest chapter that I have ever written, ever, ever. So just deal. I needed a happy ending, OK? And it's also very cliché. Hope you don't mind. Just didn't want to make it easy for anyone.

Chapter Eleven – It'll All Be Worth It

Faith rolled over in bed, watching the sun starting to rise through the window. Her man beside her was snoring lightly, hand tucked under his cheek. It made him look so much younger. She just hoped that one of the children looked like him. Slowly, she raised herself out of bed, going to the bathroom for the millionth time. Her stomach tightened somewhat as she put her feet to the floor. The doctor had called them Brax, something or other contractions. She couldn't remember the real name of them, so she just called them false. Waiting until it passed, she then gingerly walked to the bathroom. She'd been having a bunch of them in the past couple of days, but just ignored them because the pain wasn't so bad.

After doing the business she had to do, she looked in the mirror to brush her teeth. Her stomach was especially queasy that morning. She could see the dark circles under her eyes, since she wasn't getting much sleep. Between the indigestion and the bathroom trips, she was lucky to get a good five solid hours of sleep a night.

As she raised a glass to her mouth to get a drink of water, a pain so intense hit her, she let the glass slip out of her hands. It racked her whole body enough so that the glass hit the sink and shattered before she could catch it. And a dream came along with the pain. A girl, not too much younger than she was, in an alley, fighting for her life. Beside her was someone who looked an awful lot like Angel, but much younger. There must have been twenty, thirty demons surrounding the two. And they weren't winning. They were being overwhelmed. She screamed when she saw the girl go down.

Willow sat in front of the window of the motel's coffee shop, sipping the worst coffee she had ever tasted. But it woke her up. That was all that mattered. She hadn't slept at all the night before, and still couldn't sleep in the early morning hours. So she decided to get up and face the music. The package she had received the night before said it all. A book of poems was inside, with a note attached that just said, "I'm sorry". That was all it said. No signature, no explanation, nothing. She didn't know what to do. Should she forgive Giles and go back to England or should she blow it off, sending the book directly back to him with a note saying "I don't think so"?

Maybe she had overblown the whole thing. Maybe she was wrong to think that he had broken up with her. Things had been going well. Well, things had been going all right. Both had been working non-stop to train slayers, train watchers, train new wiccas. They both were downright tired. Neither had a break in the last six months.

But when she had walked in to tell him that she needed a vacation, if just a couple of days, he had shushed her. Taking a vacation would just not be possible, he told her. They would plan one in the near future, but at the moment, he was swamped. That was when she flew off the handle and told him that he didn't care about her. Then they fought, and both said things they didn't mean. And then he had told her that they should take some time away from each other. Which she interpreted as meaning they should break up. And off to Cleveland she went.

Dawn strode in the coffee shop next, plopping down next to the wicca, a tired look in her eyes.

"So, no sleeping for you either?" Willow asked the younger girl.

"No, not really. I just got a call from Angel though. It looks like they're not gonna charge him with murder."

"But that's good, right?"

Dawn looked at her, shaking her head vigorously. "Yeah, right. But now they're gonna charge Cordelia with manslaughter."

"Oh, boy. Not good."

Dawn laid her head down on Willow's shoulder. "Wes is not going to take it well. We should tell him today."

"So, what are they going to do with her? Put her in jail?"

"No, Angel doesn't think so. Lindsey will probably be able to get her off with probation, maybe some in-house detention, or whatever you call it. I just don't understand Connor."

"What's to understand? He is his father's son."

"You got that right. I just don't know what to do with him," Dawn told her, a tear escaping.

Willow took her hand and squeezed. "You'll figure him out eventually."

"Yeah, right. I wish."

"Do you want it or not?"

"I think I do. I'm scared, you know."

"Me too. I owe Rupert an apology. How do you say you're sorry from half way across the world."

"Well, you pick up the phone, or in this case, you tell him yourself," Dawn said, slowing down on the last words.

She pointed out who had just come into the coffee shop. A haggard-looking Giles, coat over his shoulder, walked over to their booth.

"You look like hell," Dawn pointed out.

"Yes, well, when one has to follow a person half way across the world and has gotten no sleep in the past forty-eight hours, it would make you look a little tired."

Dawn grinned up at the older man, knowing it was now time to make her exit. Waving goodbye to the two, she went back to her room to call Connor again, for the third time, just to talk to him. And to figure out what in hell she was going to do.

"Hello," Giles started.

"I am so busted."

"I don't know about busted, but you left without telling me where on earth you were going."

Giles sat down across from her in the booth. The waitress quickly dropped a cup of coffee his way and left.

"It's really leaded, so be careful. And I'm avoiding your question too, if you didn't notice."

Giles sighed and sat back to look at Willow. "I had noticed. And you also totally avoided me and left the country."

"That you did notice. Very perceptive of you."

"This is not funny," Giles told her, clearly getting annoyed and a little angry.

"Didn't say it was. So what do we do now? Go back to the way it was? If that's the option, then I don't want any part of it."

Giles rubbed his face, trying to wake up and trying to figure out what to do next. "This isn't exactly how I pictured this either."

"It seems that we're at an impasse."

"It does seem so."

Giles looked at her and made her cringe. She hated when he got that look in his eyes, that you ran over my puppy look.

"Why did you come all the way here to tell me this? Seems that you could have just picked up the phone to tell me."

Giles held up her cell phone in his hands and laid it on the table in front of her. "Not if I have no means of contacting you."

"So you fly all the way to Cleveland, and then start hunting me, is that it?"

Giles slammed his hand down on the table, making the cups jump. Silverware clattered to the floor. Most of Willow's significant others had never literally gotten mad at her. Oz was so laid back, and Tara so sweet, both had expressed their unhappiness with her through words. Only Kennedy had gotten mad at her like this, and that was one reason why they weren't together anymore. Oh, and the fact that Kennedy cheated on her and Willow found out, but she wouldn't tell Giles that.

"I know you're angry," Willow started, trying to make him see her point of view.

"Words don't describe what I'm feeling at the moment."

The few people who were in the coffee shop at that very early hour looked over at the scene unfolding.

"Let's go outside," Willow suggested, getting a little angry herself.

"It's raining outside, Willow."

Willow got up anyway, hoping that the rain would cool Giles's jets just a little. And maybe cool her jets too. So instead of asking him again, she got up and strode out the door, pulling on her jacket before she stepped out into the rain.

"You're running again," Giles told her as he joined her.

"Yep. So what? You should know about that too."

Giles stepped in front of her. She thought to get her attention, but he placed his hands around her shoulders and shook her, none too gently.

"Does it look like I'm running now? You scared me, Willow."

Then he pulled her into a tight embrace, nearly smothering her in the process. He loves me, she thought. He really does love me. Enough to drop everything, fly wherever she had landed and trace her to a small town out in the middle of nowhere just to talk to her.

"I didn't mean to," Willow cried. "It's just I didn't know how to talk to you. So I ran. OK? Happy?"

"At the moment, I'm tired and I appear to be getting soaked to the bone."

He pulled back slightly to look at her. Since the sun hadn't risen all the way, it was hard to actually see into his eyes. But she knew now what she would find there.

"Compromise?" she asked hesitantly.

"Compromise. I'm not promising that it'll be easy."

"Easy, shmeasy. When is it ever with us? I was supposed to go see Wes and Faith this morning. Would you like to come with?"

Giles smiled down at her. "That would be lovely."

"Faith's big. It's really amazing. She's domesticated now."

"You don't say."

They walked arm in arm back to Willow's room. She hoped that they could work out their differences. She really wanted to work out their differences. He was right, she thought. It wouldn't be easy. But it just might be worth it.

Coming out of the dream, Faith looked down to the flood on the floor. Wesley came racing in just as she looked up at the door.

"Faith?"

"I think my water just broke," she told him, holding one of her hands that she had cut on the breaking glass.

"OK. Um, we know what to do. But let's fix your hand first."

Faith tried to shake the dream away. There were more important things to focus on at the moment. But she couldn't. She knew that the image was the future. How much in the future was up for grabs. But the pain in her belly took her mind away from it for a while.

Wesley efficiently bandaged her hand as she sat on the toilet.

"Are you OK? You seem to be in a daze," he asked her.

"A little worried. It's too soon."

"Remember the doctor said any time would be fine."

Faith laid her head on his shoulder as he crouched in front of her, wanting to tell him what she saw. She just hoped, no prayed that the two would be boys. Not that she didn't want a girl. But the nightmare that she had just experienced made her hope for the other.

"I had a dream." Might as well tell him. She didn't keep secrets anymore.

"What about?" he asked as he helped her up to go into the bedroom.

"A girl, a boy, an alley. They were fighting. They weren't winning."

"The future maybe?" The lines of worry appeared on Wesley's face.

"I think so. The girl looked a lot like me. The boy, believe it or not looked a hell of a lot like Angel, but younger. Kind of confusing."

Wes threw her the ugliest pregnancy dress that she had.

"It will be alright. Please don't fret," Wesley told her as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Contraction," Faith grounded out.

Wesley held her until it passed. "That lasted almost a minute. And it was five minutes since the last one."

"Yeah, well it ain't gonna get any better. And you get to hold my hand every time," Faith confessed to him, smirking just a little.

"You'll break my hand."

"At least it's not some other body part. Don't be a baby."

Wesley grimaced a little, glad that Faith was still in good spirits. "Let's get ready."

"You should call Willow and Dawn. They'll wanna know."

That's when the chaos started. Wesley rushed around, trying to find his phone, trying to find her suitcase, not succeeding at all. It was like watching that 'I Love Lucy' episode when Lucy was pregnant. That was her favorite show when she was little and she watched it with her grandmother. So she just watched until she couldn't take it anymore. Faith found the suitcase, picked up the cell phone and marched out the door.

"Oh good. You found them," he told her, still frazzled.

"Am I gonna have to drive too, or can you find the hospital?"

Wesley scowled at her. "Of course I can find the hospital. We practiced, didn't we?"

They had practiced. Just to avoid what was happening right then. Wesley opened the passenger side door for her and helped her in. Before he shut the door, another contraction hit. Wes had seen her in pain many, many times. And he had never freaked out, until now.

"Quit staring at me and get in the freakin' car," she growled out to him.

"Yes, quite right," he answered, racing to the other side.

He took off in the car before she could get the seatbelt over her expanded belly. Finally clicking the thing in place, she watched his hands tap nervously on the steering wheel. It was driving her bananas.

"Hands," she told him.

He pulled them tightly against the steering wheel. Another intense contraction hit her, making her clutch her stomach.

"That was only two minutes," Wesley swallowed.

"I know," Faith was able to get out. "We're not gonna make it to the hospital."

"What? How can you know?" Wesley yelled at her.

Faith looked over at him, giving him her best I-know-what-I'm-talking-about look. "Because I have to push right now."

Wesley skidded to a halt on the side of the road. Since it was early in the morning and the roads were wet from the night before, no one was out just yet. And they were miles from the hospital. The doctors had told her it would take her hours, maybe even days before she would deliver and not to worry, since these were her first children. But the children weren't listening at the moment. They wanted to make their appearance way too quickly.

Wesley rushed around to her side, opening the door in a flourish.

"You should get in the back. More room," he squeaked out, voice high.

Faith snarled at him, handing him the cell phone. He took it from her and tried to place a call.

"No signal," he frowned at her. "We're in that black hole."

Faith shook her head. Figures. "Help me up, bozo."

Wesley helped her to the backseat of the car. Before she could climb in, another contraction hit. She doubled over in pain, slipping a little. Wesley caught her before she slid to the wet ground. They managed to get in on the second try after the contraction had passed.

"I don't know what to do," he panted out, tired from helping her position herself in the backseat.

Faith slapped him hard. "Well, figure it out. You were in the same birthing class I was, Mr. Headboy."

"Are you sure? We maybe could make it."

Faith grabbed a hold of his coat, shaking him. "I.AM.SURE," she shouted.

Wesley pulled back slightly, wincing at her tirade. "I suppose you are," he agreed.

"I have to push," she groaned out.

Wesley looked down in between Faith's legs. "I do believe that you're right."

"When we are done with this, we are gonna have words," Faith managed to get out before she pushed.

After the first push, Faith laid back on the seat, panting.

"Wait. We need something to wrap the baby in."

Wesley climbed out of the back and opened the trunk to retrieve the suitcase. He opened it up and took out whatever clothing he could find.

"Not waiting," Faith got out before she started to push again.

Wesley scrambled back inside the car in time to see the head crowning. "Oh boy," he breathed. "It has dark hair," he mentioned.

"No shit, Sherlock."

This was not going well, he thought. This was not how it was supposed to go. They were supposed to go to the hospital, stay for a while, and come out with two little bundles. He should have known that it wouldn't happen that way. Life was never that easy for him or for Faith.

"Quit spacing out. Another contraction," Faith yelled at him, snapping her fingers to get his attention.

This was the part that he never got to experience before. Cordelia never came to term with those demon babies, thank goodness because he and Angel would have had to kill them immediately along with the fact that Cordelia probably would have been dead. And Connor was born only because Darla had staked herself from what Angel had told him. Nothing, even the films, and the child birthing class could prepare him for what Faith was going through right at that moment.

Faith was doing all of the work and he just watched it happen. Thank goodness human males couldn't have children. Faith bore down again, this time with results. The head came out with one huge push from Faith.

"You're almost there, sweetheart. Just one more push," he told her as he helped guide the head out.

Another excruciating push later, the rest of the child literally slithered out into his hands. Faith sat back, breathing a sigh of relief. Wesley quickly wrapped it in the clothes that he had found in the suitcase. The baby cried out, lungs apparently working just fine.

"Well, what is it? Don't hog it," Faith smiled up at him, feeling much better now.

He looked down in the clothing. "It's a boy," he told her, eyes tearing up at the sight.

He had a son. Something he didn't think would ever be possible. Faith grinned up at him, giving him the thumbs up sign.

"Holy shit," Willow called from the car door. "Why didn't you make it to the hospital?"

Thank goodness, he had help now. He didn't know how or why Willow was there. He was just glad she was.

"Not enough time," he whispered as he held his son close, trying to keep him warm.

"What is it? What is it? I can't see," Dawn said from the outside.

"Dawn, drive down the hill there, and get cell phone reception," Wesley told her as he looked down at Faith to see if she was alright.

"Aw, I just wanna see," she whined.

"Now," the three adults yelled.

"I wanna see," Faith told him as she panted with another contraction.

Wesley lowered the infant so she could see him. "See. He's beautiful."

"He looks like my grandpa with that face."

Willow laughed, tapping Wesley on the shoulder. "I am so glad that Giles fell asleep. This is so not what he needed to see. Listen, not to burst your bubble, but I think that number two isn't gonna wait any longer."

"Right, push," Faith moaned out, bearing down again.

Wesley quickly handed his son over to the wicca. "How did you know?"

"What? The fact that there's somethin' going on down there give you a clue."

Willow was right. The next baby was crowning. He was hoping that someone who actually knew what they were doing would show up and take over before that happened.

"You ready, Faith?"

"Do I have much of a choice?" she managed to get out after the contraction faded away.

"I don't think so," he answered, taking her hand in his.

"It can't be a girl," she chanted under her breath.

"It's OK, love. It will be alright," he told her, rubbing her hand gently.

Two more pushes later, the second infant came screaming into the world. Wesley smiled down at her, proud that she had done what she had done. Willow handed him some more clothes, which he wrapped around the second child, who was a bit smaller, but had dark hair also.

Wesley saw tears escape Faith's eyes now. She knew exactly what the second infant was before he could even tell her.

"Let me see her," Faith wanted.

Wesley handed the second infant to her, letting her hold it. Faith kissed the top of her head.

"She's beautiful, just like her mother."

Faith started crying in earnest now. Off in the distance, Wesley could hear the sounds of sirens. Too little, too late now.

TBC

Next: The epilogue. Can you believe this? I walked around with a smile on my face all day, because I actually finished something!! It's been so much fun doing this.

Author notes: Woohoo. So I left some things hanging. Connor/Dawn? Did they work out? They are so early on in their relationship, who knows? And I almost forgot to finish out Giles and Willow because I was so eager to get to the birth. Whoops. That would have been a no-no. And Cordy? I had to do something with her. Lindsey will get her off though. Don't worry.

Thanks go out to: To everyone who has read this and has liked it, reviewed it, not reviewed it, but liked it. I love you guys. It's been so much fun, and hard, and everything in between. This is my happy fic. So thanks go out to pari106, sketchie (formerly known as Insane Sketchbook, kind of like Prince, but not), tp96, Steph, qkith, Maineiac, slayerfan, Mila, Faith5x5, delta-negative, Illyria639akaAnn, and everyone else. I hope I didn't miss anyone. My husband keeps telling me to delete all those e-mails, but then I can't go back and thank everyone who put his or her two cents in. He wants to get me my own e-mail account and a laptop so I won't hog the computer so much. And my answer is whatever you can afford. So review, review. If anyone needs something reviewed, just drop me a line. I only do Buffy/Angel stuff because there isn't enough time in the day to do others. Thanks so much. And on with the Epilogue.