Disclaimer: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, and Angel are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and the WB. Not mine, please don't sue.
Chapter 13: This Much I Know is True
They sloshed through the sewers in relative silence. Connor glared at the back of Spike's head, wishing he could off the vamp with just a look. He wasn't sure what it was about him, but something about Spike just rubbed Connor the wrong way. Maybe it was the hair, or the soul. Or maybe it was the way that Dawn was looking him at that very moment. Connor fought back an urge to grab her and drag her off in the other direction, and to find the damn Gateway of Lost Souls by themselves. He shoved his hands in his pockets, one hand wrapping firmly around the stake there. All he needed was a moment...just one moment, and it would be over.
Except Dawn would kill him.
He was trying to understand what the Summers women apparently saw in the vamp, and when Dawn had talked to him about Spike earlier that night...Had it just been a few hours ago? To Connor it seemed as if an eternity had passed since then. Now, though, looking at Spike, he just didn't get it. Not at all.
It had nothing to do with the fact that he was jealous.
Nothing at all.
*
Angel approached Buffy's bed, perched himself next to her on it. She smiled wanly, between contractions. He smoothed her hair back, and the tears that he'd been fighting welled in his as he tried to return her smile.
"You don't have to do this." He whispered. She gripped his hand in hers as another contraction passed over her. Tears coursed down her cheeks and he wiped them away with the thumb of his free hand.
"Yes, I do." She replied when she was able to talk. "You can't choose between us...and you shouldn't have to." Buffy cried.
"I don't want to loose you." Angel choked out.
"You won't...not really." Buffy soothed him.
"I won't let you do this!" He shouted, causing her to let out a sob.
"It's not your decision." She managed to get out, her tongue thick and heavy with emotion.
"The hell it isn't." He refuted, angry. Angry with her, with himself, with the situation. Angry because there weren't any answers, and simple ways of fixing the problem.
"It's my decision, Angel." Buffy chided him. "I've chosen." Her face took on a steely expression, one he hadn't seen since her slayer days. "I'm going to deliver this baby if it's the last thing I do." She promised him.
There was no reason to vocalize that it probably would be, but both of them were thinking it.
*
"I think it's time we tell Buffy and Angel what's going on." Willow said, slowing in her pacing.
"Do you really think that's a good idea, Will?" Xander asked, from where he was sprawled next to Anya on one of the lumpy waiting room couches.
"We can't keep pacifying them. Eventually our not being able to locate Dawn is going to get suspicious, if it hasn't already. Buffy needs her sister, and Angel needs his son. We need to be out there looking for them before they go and do something even stupider than what it took to get in this mess. It may not be the reality we were destined for, but that doesn't mean we stop living in it either." Willow sighed after she finished her speech, as Lindsey enveloped her in his arms.
"We'll find away to make it right." He said, rubbing his hands along her arms. "We just need to get through tonight first." Xander finally nodded in agreement, and stood up. He squeezed Anya's hand quickly and let go.
"I'll go get Angel." He said, disappearing down the hall.
*
"Do we have what we need to do the incantation?" Dawn checked with Spike, showing him the contents of her backpack. She'd grabbed several spell supplies and assorted things she'd thought they'd need before she and Connor had peeled out of Sunnydale. She just hoped it was the right ingredients; otherwise there would be yet another delay in trying to fix the mess they'd created.
"Should work, 'bit." Spike answered. He stared off the tunnel in front of them as they walked. "What kind of trouble is Buffy in, Platelet?" He asked.
"I can't really get into, Spike. Just know that the Oracles are the only ones who can make it right." Dawn explained without explaining.
"It must be serious. Blokes only go and see the Oracles when it's something big. Time reversal and all that rot." Dawn's eyes shifted as guilt flooded through her.
"I know. It's big enough that we can't do it ourselves." Dawn was evasive.
"What's up with Boy Wonder?" Spike asked, catching Connor in another glare. Every minute that he talked, Dawn felt like the old Spike was coming back, and the insane vampire they'd met up on the street was slipping away. Goddess, she hoped so.
"I can hear you." Connor muttered from behind them. He'd been strangely silent, but Dawn had been caught up in finding Spike and setting things right that she hadn't noticed, and fell back a little to walk beside her...boyfriend? Smiling at the thought, she linked her arm through his.
"Why so quiet?" She wanted to know, smiling up at him.
"Nothing to say." He was being monosyllabic, and Dawn knew something was up. She stopped in her tracks.
"What's your problem, Connor?" She demanded, exasperated with his mood on top of everything else.
"I don't have a problem, Dawn, except for the one we're trying to fix right now." Connor shot back at her.
"Why are you acting like this?" Her eyes narrowed, and realization settled in. She clapped a hand over her mouth to hide the laughter, but it didn't work.
"What's so funny?" Connor asked angrily.
"Oh my Goddess!" She chortled, staring up at him. Spike stood a little ways down the tunnel, letting the two teenagers have their spat. He wasn't sure he could go round two with the Boy Wonder, and didn't want to get involved unless he had to. "You're jealous!" She cried out.
"I am not!" He vehemently denied.
"You are! You're jealous of Spike!" She exclaimed. "Goddess, it really does run in the family, doesn't it?"
"I am not jealous!" He shouted, echoing through the sewers. He turned away from her and started to walk away. She put her hand on his arm to stop him and he froze.
"Connor, please." She said, her tone urgent. "You don't have to be jealous. Spike is just a friend."
"It looked more than friendly." He mumbled, ashamed that they were having this out in front of Spike. Goddess, if they didn't succeed in turning time back, then the vampire would never let him live this down.
"Connor, when I told you I loved you, I meant it. It's me talking. The Dawn you met in L.A. and went on this crazy time trip with. Not the Dawn you thought hated you all these years in this reality, but me, who fell in love with you the moment you told me my name was pretty." She whispered to him, her voice heavy with emotion. "There's no reason to be jealous. There's no one that I love like I love you." She reassured him. He turned around, pulled her to him and kissed her soundly.
*
Xander found Angel sitting on the bench just outside Buffy's room, head in hands. He didn't say anything, just sat next to the former vampire in silence. Years ago, the animosity between them would have prevented this scene, but Xander had grown up, and Angel wasn't exactly what he'd used to be either.
"If anyone had told me a few years ago that I'd be human, and have not, one, but two children, I'd have laughed so hard I'd have lost my soul." Angel said, breaking the silence.
"Well, if anyone had told me a few years ago that I'd be sitting here beside you, trying to think of the best thing to I could say to make you feel better I'd have laughed until I threw up." Xander admitted.
"Nice one." Angel complimented.
"Thanks, I've been working on it." Xander replied.
"Dawn here yet?" Angel asked, anxious for a distraction.
"No...and that's what I came to tell you about." Xander said.
"Some thing's wrong, isn't it?" Angel confirmed. Xander nodded. Angel surprised the younger man, letting out a sob. "Sorry." Angel apologized. Xander felt awkward, so he just stared at him. "The doctor's pretty sure that if Buffycan deliver the baby, there's a good chance they can save it." Angel said, wiping his eyes.
"That's good news, man." Xander said, smiling. Angel met his gaze. Xander's face fell. "That's not good news?"
"They're not sure that Buffy will survive the delivery." Angel's voice was low. "She's signed a release that no measures are taken to save her life at the expense of the baby's."
"Oh, man." Xander sighed. "I shouldn't have said anything about Dawn...not with this."
"You didn't know." Angel reassured him. He sighed, and stood up. "Let's go see what Dawn and my wayward son have gotten themselves into." Angel said. "I need to get my mind on something else."