TITLE: The Betrayal of Life

AUTHOR: Carrie

SUMMARY: When Buffy was kicked out of her home in S7, I don't get how she just accepted them all after they let her come back. So this is how I figured it would be, with Angel.

DISCLAIMER: It's all Joss Whedon's.

SPOILERS: I guess Empty Places.

TIMELINE: Season Seven of Buffy and after Home of Angel.

DEDICATION: To Danielle and to Akay because she is so amazing and helped me so much with this fic!

FEEDBACK: I would love some and this is my first fic so please be gentle! And to everyone who gave me feedback, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Part Four

When Buffy had first entered LA, the home of all Angels, she was nervous. Angel had totally different friends and all she could think was what if they didn't like her? When he parked his car in a huge garage she looked at him strangely and all he did was just shrug. But when she entered the huge white building her eyes went wide. Everyone in there seemed to know who Angel was.

Once they were by themselves in a room, he explained everything. How he had gotten this company for giving up his son so he could live a normal life. Of course she was upset at the thought of Angel having a son, but she knew that he needed the comfort now more than anything. And so they comforted each other together.

She and Fred became fast friends and her and Gunn became buddies. Wesley became her watcher. Spike came back three weeks after she had left Sunnydale. He never told her what had happened but she knew that Sunnydale was destroyed and that almost everyone survived. She didn't really care though, when she thought about one of them dying. It didn't mind her much.

She and Spike had become friends and he knew that it was hands off. She belonged to a different vampire. Even though in the first few weeks, for her and Angel it had been difficult, it got better. Wesley informed them at that they were in a huge magic community with a lot of connections and could probably get a spell they needed, and then performed in the next twenty minutes.

Wesley claims there faces when he told them were the most hilarious things he had ever seen. Buffy and Angel say they were real calm. They were locked up in his penthouse for five days. Everyone at Wolfram and Hart learned not to mess with a vampire who hadn't had sex in a long time. Or true happiness.

After Fred had changed to Illyria and Angel had signed off his Shanshu Buffy had almost left. She had told Angel because of his stupid plan she could never be happy and he could never die. She said after the battle she was leaving. After the battle, when Gunn and Wesley had died and she had her bag in hand. Angel had gone on his knees begging her to stay. She had stayed. They were then locked up in his room for six days.

Three years later Angel had received his Shanshu. The explanation, you can't give up a prophecy. They had gotten married three weeks later. She was pregnant two months later. Angel was ecstatic, Buffy thought she was fat. He reassured her she wasn't fat. She reassured him that he was never having sex again. They didn't go out. They had four children, and the fifth on the way.

"Mom!" Alan had yelled at his mother.

Buffy spun around to come face to face with her twelve year old boy. Looking at him she couldn't help but feel so happy and extremely old. Even if she was only thirty five.

"Yeah?" she asked as she and her oldest child looked through the gift shop.

Angel had surprised the family with a two week vacation to Ireland over the summer. Claiming he needed a break and the kids should go somewhere over the summer. But mostly he just remembered when Buffy was pregnant with Jake she said she had always wanted to go to the place were he had grown up. When he had announced it, the vacation, she had given him a secret smile.

"Can I get that cup?" he said pointing to a blue and red cup saying Ireland.

"Why?" she asked as she looked through the store looking for something nice to get Samantha, Buffy's only friend back in LA.

"Because I want it," he said in a high voice.

"Ask your father," she mumbled as she felt her child kick within her. She put her hand over her stomach and smiled down at it. She was starting to show. At five months everything was starting to show. But she couldn't have been happier; she was finally getting her girl. When living in a house with five males she had begged the Powers to give her a daughter.

She watched as Alan run out the shop to Angel who was holding onto Adam, their three year old child and holding hands with there six year old child Ben. She saw Jake, her nine year old, walk in the store to find her. He was her defiant mama's boy.

"Mommy," Jake said.

"Hey? Are you ready, I want to get out of here," she said as she slipped her hand into his.

"Yeah, my feet hurt!" he said looking up at her with his huge brown eyes. She ruffled his brown locks that were all over his face. She had tried numerous times to get him a hair cut but he never wanted to get one.

"Okay, well how about we go back to the hotel?" she said as she and Jake walked outside and she let go of Jake and wrapped her arms around her husband.

"Hey," she whispered.

"Hey back," he said as he put Adam on his feet. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," she whispered as he took her hand and the children ran ahead of them and Angel pulled Buffy and into his embrace, with his shoulders wrapped around her.

When they caught up with their kids and walked into the hotel. Alan, Jake and Ben running to press the button for the elevator first. Adam stopped to stick around with his parents.

When the elevator door opened all Buffy could do was stare as the people walked out of the elevator. She felt Angel put an arm around her and she pulled her children back protectively.

"Buffy," Willow said, surprise written all over her voice.

"Willow," she said, as she looked around the other people. "How are you?"

"Good, we're good," she said nervously.

"That's nice, what brings you to Ireland?" Buffy said, trying to be as friendly as she could be.

She felt Ben grab her shirt and she looked down at him, "Mommy, who is that?"

"These are people from when Mommy was in school," she said, taking hold of her son's hand.

Willow's eyes went wide when she saw that Buffy had a son. Four. With Angel. She looked at the girl she had not seen in so long and then at her… husband? "We thought it would be a good idea."

"Oh, that's nice," Buffy said. "Well we have to go."

Buffy was about to turned around with her family behind her when she heard Willow yell her name. She spun around and looked at her, "What?"

"I'm sorry, we all are."

Buffy looked at the women who hadn't been her friend for an extensive period of time. "I'm sorry to," Buffy replied. "I'm sorry I ever pretended to be friends with you and Xander when it was long over."

Those were the last words Willow had ever heard her best friend say.

Buffy looked out from the porch in the hotel room they were staying in. The sun was rising slowly and soon her family would be awake but at that moment all she could seem to do, as she held her steamy mug of coffee, was reflect on how things seemed to change so much.

She was no longer the slayer that she had once been. She no longer had to force a smile on her face when she was upset. This time people listened to what she wanted and held her as she cried. She didn't have to be the leader and she wasn't forced to not be the leader either. Her life had changed drastically and she never looked back on her time in Sunnydale.

Her time helped her, bring her to where she was now. She was stronger because of it. She didn't regret, though sometimes she wished that she could have ended up with Angel sooner, the time in Sunnydale taught her something. Friends might come and go, but family stays forever.

She sighed when she felt Angel slip behind her and kiss her neck. She snuggled into his embrace and couldn't help the huge smile that formed on her face. They both watched as the sun rose and after it was done she turned around and faced her man. This was her family. He had been her family since he had given her that ring on her seventieth birthday. Her family had come to her rescue.

"I love you."

He kissed her lightly on the lips, "I love you too. Forever and for always, right?"

"Right."

The End