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Standing in the middle of Connor's nursery, wearing a pair of pink pajama bottoms with sheep on them and a white t-shirt, Fred carried a howling Connor in circles around his room. Connor was into his second hour of crying for the night and Fred was positive that she was going mad. In the beginning she and Angel had devised a schedule that would offer one of them some peace and quite for a little while, while the other cared for Connor during his colic stage, however that night was a little different.
Cordelia had had a vision during the evening that sent the guy's out to dust a clan of vampires that had set up shop in a building close to the West Side Clinic, the vamps had been attacking late night patients who were leaving the clinic, so it was important that they be dealt with as quickly as possible.
It also meant that Fred would be home alone with a very colicky Connor.
The infants crying had begun to bother Lorne's hearing and Cordelia just wouldn't put up with it, Gunn was just plain clueless when it came to the baby so it was left to Fred and Angel to take care of him. They had been doing a pretty good job at it, doing all that was recommended by both the pediatrician and Fred's mother yet nothing was seemingly working. They had tried wrapping him in a light blue blanket and carried him around, giving him one of his dummy's to suck on, Fred had taken countless baths with him and Angel tried rubbing his little back, yet it was all in vain.
There was only one option left and that was a ride in Angel's car, the only problem being that Angel had his car with him.
Fred was a little upset with Angel for taking the only other car that was for her to use, he knew that Connor would put up a fuss and that they had yet to try a car ride but he'd still took it instead of hitching a ride from Gunn. At the moment Fred was seriously thinking about taking a key to Angel 'precious' car. The negative thought only raised her agitation and caused Connor to cry even harder.
"Oh I'm sorry baby, I'm sorry, shhh, please, shhh" She cooed into the infant's ear gently on the verge of tears herself.
It killed her to see him like this and feeling powerless to sooth him, he always looked like he was in some sort of pain, his little bitty fits curled around her hair pulling it lightly, his face scrunched up and red from crying was more than enough to tear at the heartstrings of the coldest of the cold hearted people.
Bouncing him on her hip she grabbed his bottle from the refrigerator and popped it into the microwave, when it beeped she tested it on her arm before attempting to feed the formula to Connor. He pulled his little head away from the bottle and pressed his little face into her arm and cried more. Finally she threw the bottle onto the counter and grabbed his blanket from one of the chairs in his nursery, swaddling the child in the soft material she grabbed the phone from next to the door and made her way out of the hotel to the courtyard.
Once they were outside Fred flipped her cell on and hit the third number programmed in, the phone rang a few times before her mother answered.
"Hello?"
"Hey mama, it's me"
"Winifred…is that little Connor crying" she asked, her accent thick with concern.
"Yeah mama it is. Angel isn't here and he just won't stop crying, I've tried everything that I can think of but he's still fussing. I don't know what to do mama" she said, her voice straining more and more with each word.
"Winifred, hunny first you need to calm down ok, now take a few deep breathes" she did as her mother told her and waited for her next instruction "now I want you to call Angel and tell him to get his hinny home right now, understand"
"Yes mama, thank you"
"You're welcome Winifred"
They said their goodbyes and Fred hung up before dialing Angel's cell phone. Talking with her mother not only seemed to calm her down but it helped Angel the times that he had called her mother for advice, once her mother said it was like having a son-in-law call which made both mother and daughter chuckle a bit.
"Hello" Angel's voice brought her out of her reverie and she tried to calmly ask where the hell he was. "I'm two minutes from the hotel, I'm so sorry Fred, I didn't expect the fight to last so long" he told her "how long has he been crying?"
"Nearly two hours" she told him.
"Get his things together and be down in the lobby, we'll take him out for a drive" he said "ok"
"Yeah ok, I'll be waiting" they hung up and Fred returned to Connors nursery and grabbed his diaper bag and a new bottle from the refrigerator. They made it down to the lobby just in time to see Angel pull up in front of the hotel.
Locking the doors behind her she met up with the dark vampire who took the diaper bag out of her hand and gave her a small smile as he guided her to his car. Angel opened the door for her, waited for her to climb in before throwing the bag into the back seat and hopping into the driver's seat of the running car. Slowly he pulled away from the curb. Taking a hold of Fred's free hand he squeezed it gently drawing her attention.
"I am really sorry that I wasn't home to help you" he apologized.
"Its fine Angel, you're here now" she told him letting out with a soft sigh and smiled at him.
Letting go of her hand he flipped the radio on and found a soft song playing, Fred recognized it as a Beth Neilson Chapman song. Closing her eyes she listened to the song and Connors receding cries. The silence and the song slowly put both baby and Fred to sleep.
Angel watched the passing scenes in L.A. with a mild disinterest, glancing at Fred and Connor he saw that the two had dozed off. He really admired Fred for her patience with his son she really loved Connor. Anyone could see it just by looking at the two. Angel continued to drive through the night, not wanting to take any chances with Connor, pulling up to the hotel again just as dawn was about to break through.
Parking the car in the garage Angel carefully picked up Fred, who still held Connor against her breast. Carrying them inside he brought them to her room, he briefly thought of taking Connor to the nursery but decided against it since they looked so peaceful. Kneeling next to Fred's bed he watched his son's back rise and fall with each breath he and Fred took, Connor was truly a miracle. Glancing up at Fred he knew that she too was a miracle, he'd been twice blessed. There wasn't a thing he wouldn't do to protect them and keep them as they are now.
Taking one last look at them he stood up and left the room briefly to retrieve Connors diaper bag and lock up the garage before going to his room and changing into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. When he returned to Fred's room, he found that they were still sleeping peacefully. He crawled in to the bed next to them and rested his head next to the brunettes and closing his weary eyes. Angel had one brief, fleeting thought before he drifted off to sleep…
'At least we found a way to get him to sleep.'
The End...Now Review! Please.