By Gem
Wesley had begun checking through books on the several demons that Cordy had been in contact with the last few weeks. It had been Angel's suggestion, he thought since Wilson had impregnated Cordy for the demon before – somehow working through the protection Cordelia had insisted they used – then maybe a demon's touch might be all that is needed for certain species.
Angel himself had disappeared to his room as was normal these past weeks, but Wesley guessed that if the vampire knew Gunn had taken Cordelia to be checked out at a different doctors surgery, he wouldn't have anything to hide from in the office.
Angel was just preparing to come into the office in fact, he couldn't sense Cordelia there, but he wanted to be prepared in case the dreams had thrown him off her with all the confusion. He didn't get a chance to go in though, because he suddenly felt some kind of spark shoot through his body – the same which always told him when his seer was around.
Sure enough, with his vamp ears he listened as Cordelia and Gunn came in and started talking to Wesley.
"Yep," Gunn confirmed, "she's knocked up alright. I mean, it's a big enough possibility that one doctor was wrong, but two?"
"It has to be a demon or whatever, Wes. 'Cause what the hell else could it be?" He heard Cordy say.
"We'll nothing I've found so far says that it would be possible to just BECOME pregnant from being in contact with a demon – of any sort."
"What about…," she trailed off.
"What about what, Cordelia? Any ideas would be helpful right now," Wesley encouraged.
"Dreams," she stated simply, and for a second, Angel was sure his heart beat. 'It's just a word she's saying, Angel, that doesn't mean she knows about them…' He managed to calm himself.
"Dreams?" He heard Wesley repeat.
"Is there such a thing as getting pregnant from a dream?" Cordy asked seemingly calmly, but Angel caught the nervousness in her voice.
"Well, not that I know of –" Wesley began.
"Wait a minute," Gunn interrupted, "I might just be the thick one here, but what do you mean pregnant from a DREAM?"
"I'm just asking, HYPOTHETICLY, that if someone where to have dreams of well, sex, then could they get pregnant – or get the female in their dream pregnant."
"Is that possible?" Gunn asked.
"I'll have to research that idea… but there wont be any point unless it's NOT hypothetical?"
"Of course it's hypothetical, Wesley!" She sounded to high pitched to Angel who then presumed that she was lying. "But, you should, y'know, research it anyway 'cause… 'Cause some guy out there could've just seen me the one time and has fallen madly in love with me and is having these dreams and – and eew! – The perv! … Anyway, if it IS possible to get pregnant from a dream then that would be why, right? Some guy impregnated me in dream world… or whatever."
"OK, Cordelia. I'll look into it. In the meantime you should probably go and lie down."
"Wesley, I'm pregnant, but I'm not THAT pregnant at the moment…. And hey! You know what we should do, Gunn?"
"Wha - ?"
"- We should go to that little supermarket down the road, - 'cause me and Angel went there, like, ages ago, and he brought me the most delish sandwich EVER! Of course Mister-I-Don't-Eat-Food-Ever started to order me a cheese, pickle, mayo and banana sandwich, when I wanted a chicken and salad one…"
Her voice got fainter and Angel guessed she was already half way out the door, "Um, maybe I'll try a cheese, pickle, mayo, and banana... what do you think?"
"I think she's THAT pregnant," he heard Gunn whisper to Wesley before his footsteps echoed Cordy's.
Angel had soon gone into the office and sat through Wesley telling him about Cordelia's dream theory.
"Do you think it could happen?" He asked the ex-watcher.
"Well, not that I know of, and the books I've looked in so far haven't – "
"Cordelia, that's gross!"
They both turned and watched as Cordy and Gunn came through the door.
"Is not!" She spat back, taking a bite of her sandwich.
Gunn turned to Wesley and Angel, "do you know what is in that sandwich? – I'll tell you, tuna, banana, tomato, and instead of butter she asked for… wait for it… chocolate spread!"
"Like your sandwich is much better! – He got ham, cheese, lettuce and this gross seafood sauce stuff!" She turned to Gunn, "I'd hate to disappoint you, Gunn, but there's NO SEA FOOD IN IT!"
"So? That doesn't mean I can't have seafood sauce!"
"Ugh! You are sooo annoying!" She turned to Wesley, suddenly beaming, "I got you a sandwich too, Wes!"
She sounded like an excited little kid and seemed very proud of what she had done. Wesley took the sandwich off her suspiciously, "what's in it?"
"Your fave filling of course! Bacon, lettuce and tomato with mayo!"
Angel could definitely see the relief on the guys face, "thanks, Cordelia."
She suddenly turned to Angel, "I would've got you one too, but you don't eat, sooo… I didn't. – And even if you did I wouldn't have gotten you one anyway – 'cause deny it all you want, Broody-boy, but you've been avoiding me!"
Angel could only come up with one thing in his defence, "well you've been avoiding me too!"
"AH-HA! So you admit you HAVE been avoiding me!"
'Uh-Oh, busted!' … "Well, it goes both ways, Cordy! If I'm in a room and you come in you leave as soon as you get the chance too!"
"Yeah, but only if you haven't already rushed out to get away from ME! What have I done that makes you run at the site of me? – It's like you hate me!"
Angel was shocked, "I don't hate you, Cordy."
"Well something's made you not wanna be where I am! It's gotta be something I've done."
"Let me assure you, it's nothing you've done. And I could NEVER hate you, Cordelia." He paused for a second, "and what about the way you run from a room when I enter… do you hate me?"
She shook her head, "of course not. You're my best friend, Angel."
"So what is it that's got you avoiding me?" She flushed a little, "embarrassment."
'Oh, shit! – She's embarrassed because she somehow knows that I've been having these dreams about her… I guess the Powers That Be told her in a vision or something… Or The Host could've told her…'
He didn't get a chance to ask why she was embarrassed, because Wesley - who must've lost interest in the Angel/Cordelia farce had gone back to his book - stood up, "I think I found it!"
"What ya got, English?"
"Oh, no… it's not it at all," he sat back down.
"What?" Gunn asked again.
"This book well, the only way I can describe it is that if someone where to have a sex dream, then the person they were dreaming about could get pregnant – or vice versa – if they were both having these dreams about each other. It's like dream world is in fact another world, and if two people are having such similar dreams about each other – sex or no sex – then to save 'space' in dream world, their dreams would be combined. And two dreams together, would - to a certain extent – cancel each other out, and be a reality within dreaming. This would explain the stories we hear about people having the same dream and then it coming true, as it in fact was made a reality by the people dreaming it because they would be cancelling out each others dreams, making it real."
'If I am pregnant from a dream of me and Angel… and the only way that could happen is if we BOTH dreamed it and cancelled it down to make it real, then…' Her eyes slid over to Angel's.
'I thought it could be just my dream about Cordy that got her pregnant… but for it to be real then we BOTH would have had to have dreamed it… about each other. So…' He looked over at Cordelia to find her staring back at him biting her lower lip and blushing a deep red.
Wesley broke the look they shared, "so unless the hypothetical dreams are real, for both Cordy and whomever she could've hypothetically had with her in her dream, then that's not the case." He looked expectantly at Cordelia.
"So maybe the dreams weren't just a hypothetical discussion," she shrugged, "but I can't be pregnant that way."
"According to this you can."
"But the guy I was dreaming about… well, I know for sure he can't have kids. It's just not possible."
"Infertility or anything else wouldn't matter in a dream world… it's a dream after all."
"But Wesley, as embarrassing as this is for me to admit, it was only ever dreams about sex – and if the two dreams cancelled each other out and became real, how does that make the infertility just go away?"
"The guy is obviously going to make that problem disappear whenever he can, and the only place that can really happen is in a dream… where he can be anything he wants."
"OK, that makes sense… kinda." Suddenly Cordelia looked up alarmed, "what if y'know, the guy I was dreaming about was well, kinda evil after sex… would that be like real too?" She shot Angel a suspicious glance.
Wesley noticed this, and looked between them, "OH… MY… GOD!" He exclaimed, finally all the major clues sinking in.
Gunn slumped in a chair, "I'm being thick guy again… anyone wanna fill me in?" He took a bite of his sandwich.
"It's, it's… Angel," Wesley spluttered, moving away from the vampire.
"Wha' 's?" Gunn asked through his mouthful.
"In Cordelia's dreams!" Gunn spit out his sandwich, "…ugh. – Are you serious?" He looked to Cordelia, "Cordy?"
"OK, so Angel's the guy in my dreams … and how weird did that sound? – But hey! No blaming this all on me 'cause I'm gonna be the one with the lump!" She pointed a finger at Angel accusingly, "he's apart of this too! It takes two to tango, y'know!"
"Cordelia, come here," Wesley ordered, giving Angel a once over.
"What?! – Why?"
"Look, you just practically said yourself – Angel's evil after sex, as in Angelus!" Gunn put in, alarmed.
Cordelia shook her head, "look, I know I just totally gave the game away when I freaked out and remembered that for a sec there, but he's not evil," she took a bite of her sandwich and took a seat next to Angel.
"Cordy, you don't know that!" Gunn said.
"Yeah, I do. Firstly, if he was Angelus we would all have been dead about a month ago – when the dreams first started – and we're not. Second," she reached over and ruffled Angel's hair, "he's too puppy-doggy at the moment to be the big bad."
Angel knocked her hand away, "it took me forever to that this morning!" He complained reaching up to see what damage she had done to his hair. "And I'm not a puppy-dog!"
"He could be playing us along, Cordelia! – You don't know what Angelus is capable of!"
"Wesley, look, working on your infertility theory – which I guess you know isn't exactly INFERTILITY now and more vampire – Angel is what he wants to be in his dreams, right? And we all know how excited Angel got about his shoeshine –"
"- Shansu –" Wesley automatically corrected.
"- Right, whatever. So anyways, in his dreams, at the back of his mind he's like a real guy – a real human guy – right? – With a soul and everything, so no evil Angel. AND no baby vampire. Just a nice normal baby."
She seemed rather pleased with herself, especially for the last part, not that it occurred to her that her baby would be anything but human in the first place.
"A baby," Angel repeated, causing them all to look at him. He focused on Cordelia, "that's what the Host was talking about… the dreams are for a baby and he knew we'd find out soon and then all this about dreams would short itself out. …And oh my God I'm going to be a father."
Gunn looked at Wesley and moved a bit closer, "Angel?" he whispered.
Wesley nodded, "Angel."
Cordelia got up and walked towards them, "I think we need a singy-songy time, 'cause all that Angel just said?" She briefly glanced at Angel who was just sitting there in a daze, "I wanna get it first hand."