After dinner, Dawn had disappeared into the house to use the phone. She had blown off a date with Jeff to accompany her newly sane sister for a day of shopping and their impromptu barbeque featuring a very much undead vampire turned daywalker. Tha was going to be fun to explain. Jeff knew that Dawn wasn't like other girls, but she had yet to give him full disclosure. She wanted to avoid that for as long as she possibly could.
Buffy curled up on the chaise lounge against her vampire. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so complete in her life. She snuggled into his chest, grateful for the delayed series of gifts from the Powers That Be.
"So, um... where did you go today?" she asked. "While Dawn and I were out? What did you do?"
Spike wasn't sure if she really wanted to know the answer to that. If he went by her reaction to Angel the night before, he'd guess she'd find some humor in it. He hoped he was right.
"I, uh..." He took in an unneeded breath. "I went to visit Peaches," he mumbled.
She bit her lip as a smile spread across her face. He couldn't see her reaction, but she hadn't moved from his chest. He, however, had tensed up in anticipation of a lecture about what it means to be over a hundred years old and how he should be making with the maturity by now.
"I rang him up from the sidewalk. Told him to take a gander out his window," he admitted, sounding a littled shamed by his earlier childishness.
She tried to picture the look on Angel's face when he realized that Spike wasn't bursting into flames. She was sure it had been priceless.
"Stupid git got all shirty with me about how I'd stolen his Shanshu," he continued.
"Shan-what?" she asked, still not looking up at him.
"Shanshu, Pet. Little pass from the Powers That Be that lets Pinocchio be a real boy again," he explained. "'Twas the Cheerleader that got him to calm down. And then he realized that I was just as dead as always. He was all Gem of Amarra! And bloody spell! Like he couldn't believe some formerly evil, soulless piece of shit like me could ever be looked kindly upon by the Powers."
He sounded a little irritated and Buffy was quick to soothe his ruffled feathers. She tilted her head up to look at him. His eyes were a little wounded by his recollection of his run-in with her first vampire.
"He was just jealous, Baby," she told him. "You know that, now, don't you? He thought that he still had a chance. And apparently I hadn't made it clear enough that he didn't. So the Powers did. He's just hurt. He'll get over it."
He knew she was right. Part of him felt bad for his grandsire. And then that other part... well, that other part remembered the years of torture inflicted by same said grandsire. He remembered how he'd always been the one to get the girl. And that part of him couldn't help but beam with peckish pride that he'd been the one to keep the girl.
"Did... did Angel make you stay away from me?" she asked quietly. "You know, before?"
He shook his head slowly. No, he had been the one to make Angel promise to keep his secret.
"No, Pet. Told you last night. I made him promise," he reminded her.
"I... I know. I just wanted to know if I should be angry with him for some reason," she smiled, wanting nothing more than to please him.
He couldn't help but chuckle a little. His girl was doubting the Poof. He couldn't have asked for anything more ironic.
"No, Love. You shouldn't be angry with him," he told her. "If anything, you should be... you should be hopeful for him."
Yes. Hopeful, he decided. He found himself hoping that his grandsire would be able to enjoy at least half the happiness as he was enjoying himself.
"I think something's going on between him and the Cheerleader," he informed her.
"Cordy?" Buffy asked, with a raised eyebrow. "And Angel?"
She started giggling at the thought.
"Not jealous now, are we Pet?" Spike asked cautiously.
"Oh, God no. A world of no," she assured him. "Just a little stunned. I can't picture it. Angel's all... well, he's Angel. Grrr! And blah. And Cordy... she's all.. Rah! And 'let's go shopping!' I just... no. I can't really see it, is all."
"You'd be surprised how much LA can make a prissy little valley girl grow up in a very short time," he told Buffy. "Throw in a star-crossed romance with a bloke who was half Brachen demon, the transferrance of that demon's mind-crippling visions to the girl at the time of his death, a ghosty named Dennis for a roommate and taking on the maternal responsibility for Darla when she died giving birth to Angel's son, Connor, and you've got a pretty jaded and much more mature Cordelia Chase -- not to mention the makings for a Sci-Fi Channel movie of the week."
Buffy's jaw dropped. She had heard every word Spike had said, but the words that stood out the most were 'Angel's son Connor.'
"Back up the train, Bub," she said, her eyes wide. "Did you just say that Angel has a son?"
He was a litle confused. Hadn't Peaches told her?
"He didn't tell you?" he asked, brows furrowed.
She shook her head. "Not a word. Splainy, please?"
"I wasn't around for that stage in his unlife, but apparently Darla returned from the undead and shagged him senseless. Not all that sure how dead seed could create a very live baby, but it happened. The birth killed her. But Connor, he was right as rain. Amazing, but true. The boy was stolen, though. Someone with his knickers in a twist over Angel, prat named Holtz. The boy was returned an angry teenager. You think the Bit pulled some crazy stunts? She's got nothing on this kid. Wanted his father dead, he did. In the dusty sense of the word."
Buffy tried to let it all sink in. Angel was a Dad? And he had a teenage son? And he loved Cordelia? She supposed that she was in no position to cast aspersions. She was in love with a centuries old once-evil vampire who had been part of the Scourge of Europe. Stones, glass houses. Not happening here.
"So, uh... where is Connor now?" she asked, curious about Angel's human progeny.
"The giant git gave him up," Spike sighed. "Went all high and mighty and let the senior partners over at the Evil Empire do a little mindshift on everyone to make them forget the boy ever existed. The cheerleader remembered him, though. Soon as she came out of her coma, that is."
Buffy snapped her head up with a new set of questions brewing in her mind.
"That's another story to tell," Spike told her. "But the boy, he was given to a new family. Human. Angel, he, uh... he wanted him to live a normal life. Pretty sure he would have sold his soul to make it happen. For all practical purposes, he did. The whole mess with Wolfram and Hart. He managed to find a way out, though. Cordelia helped him out of it. Went back to the Hyperion and did some renovations to make it a little more vamp friendly. They've been clamoring around in a state of permanenet sexual tension since."
"How... how did you find out about Connor?" she asked Spike. "I mean, since everyone supposedly forgot."
"Right, uh, the cheerleader blabbed. Somehow, she missed out on the mindshift while she was in the coma. And Peaches, he only had me and her to talk to about it. So, I got filled in right quick on the whole thing and then sworn to secrecy that I wouldn't mention it to the others. Never said I wouldn't tell you, though," he grinned.
Buffy smiled and looked up at him with a renewed hope. He wasn't sure what was going through her mind, but whatever it was made her absolutely glow.
"Love? Something you want to share with me?" he asked, wondering what was making her smile so brightly.
"Let's make a baby."