Note: Sorry for the delay, but hey, it was less than a year! Yay for me. I though I may attempt the write 50,000 words in one month thing, but it didn't work out. Then I had some problems with timing with my beta, Anastasia, who you all have to thank for this chapter, by the way, and then school. But the good news is that I have chapter six written already and it will be posted within the next two weeks, I hope. Please leave any constructive criticism, 'cause you know, I like that.
Chapter Five: Three for the Price of One
Charlie blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the light streaming
through the windows. Rubbing her eyes, she yawned, trying to get the
gunk out of the corners. Rolling over, she bumped into something, or
rather, someone. Connor. "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore," she
muttered under her breath.
"Connor," she hissed, shaking him
slightly. "Connor." She said again, this time louder.
There was a grunt from his direction, but other than that, there were no response to her prodding. Charlie tugged at his shoulder harder. "What do you want?" Connor's voice was slurred with sleep; his eyes remained closed.
"Wake up!" She stood. With the sheet wrapped around her, Charlie began to look for her clothes. She had just found her shirt, buttons gone, when Connor sat up. "Moving would be nice. Help me find my bra."
"What's with?" Connor gestured at the sheet Charlie had wrapped around herself. "I saw more than that last night."
"Yeah, and last night you were acting like Mr. Caveman." Charlie rolled her eyes. "So it doesn't count. Now get up and help me find the missing lingerie. She sighed, the banquet was tonight, and there were countless things she still needed to do before six.
"Found it!" In Connor's hands was Charlie's purple lace bra; he threw it at her.
&!&!&!&!
Charlie looked in the mirror. A year ago…well, a year ago was a year ago, she was very tense. Now there were butterflies in her stomach, but that was probably just because this was her last banquet at school. She bit her lip. At least now she knew where she was going at the end of the summer. In that last week she had received her letter from UCLA. Maybe it was really late, but she was in. Adele was staying in Connecticut, choosing to go to Wellesley. She would miss her best friend, but they would see each other during the summer. Greg was going to Georgetown.
In the end, Charlie would miss her friends, but after the past year, she doubted she would ever be the same. A knock at her door, probably Adele, interrupted Charlie's train of thought. "Coming!" she yelled as she put in her earring.
"Bra's showing," was Adele's greeting. Charlie hurried to fix it. "So, last banquet. Who would of thought we'd make it out of here alive?"
"Don't start." Charlie walked back to the mirror. "You're going to make me cry and ruin my make-up. Let's save the tears for graduation, okay?"
Adele nodded, picking up her friend's mascara. "So, is your dad coming?" she asked casually as she touched up her own make-up.
Charlie smiled softly, though it didn't show in her eyes. "Come on, we don't want to be late."
&!&!&!&!
Charlie honestly could saw she liked LA; she had always seen herself as a New York kind of girl, but LA suited her. The weather rocked; there was no such thing as snow, which she was looking forward to in the coming months. Not to say there weren't any bad sides to the City of Angels, she just chose to ignore them.
Her father was touring once more, in Europe this time. Since school was so close, she had elected to take over the condo, Connor tagging along as well. At this rate, she'd get to visit another continent. But that was last on her list of things to do for the night.
Unlocking the door to the condo, she had all but taken over Charlie found it…clean? "Hello?" She called as she took off the light coat she had been wearing and walked into the kitchen. "Connor?" she questioned as she found her boyfriend in there, sitting at the table. "This place is clean. It wasn't when I left. You don't clean. What'd you do?" Embracing her boyfriend around the shoulders, she put her chin on top of his head. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I thought you were all tied up at Wolfram & Hart, impending apocalypse in Brazil or something."
"Taken care of by magic, but we may be in for a couple of tremors tonight." Standing, he walked over to the oven and took out a pizza. "I brought dinner."
"Lunch leftovers?" Charlie guessed, a smirk on her face, but shrugged, taking a piece anyway. To be honest, she really didn't care where the food came from; it was one less meal she had to think about. "So how long until they need you?" she asked, staring at microwave's clock blankly. Another piece of pizza was in front of her.
"Don't know." Connor reached for is third piece. "Cordelia wanted me to tell you that the two of you need to go shopping." Charlie nodded, silently, distracted. "When do you start school?"
"September first, I have a month." Her tone was far off, distant.
"What's wrong?" Connor's voice had a hint of worry.
"I haven't had my period since the
end of April, beginning of May. True, I've never been the most regular
person, but I've never missed two…"
Connor looked around nervously,
Charlie had explained to him the importance of contraception and such,
including periods. Personally, he thought he was better off not
knowing. "But you said you were on the pill…"
"And I'm in that one percentile that it apparently does not work on. Maybe it's super-Slayer fertility or something. Didn't you get Sex Ed?" Charlie snapped. "Hell, I lived in a sexually repressed school and I still know. Granted, the students were anything but repressed." She sighed. "I was also someone who convinced my dad that the pill was to clear up acne."
"So what are we going to do?" Connor asked.
She pulled out a twenty-dollar bill from her pocket. "I can tell you what you're going to do. You're going to go down to CVS and buy me a home pregnancy test."
&!&!&!&!
The next morning Charlie sat on the
side of the tub, too nervous to look at the little stick she had to pee
on. "Connor, get your ass in here!" she yelled, Charlie had never been
a morning person. Her boyfriend stumbled into the bathroom. "What's the
result?" she asked him, gesturing to the pregnancy test.
He looked at it, then at her, then
back at the test. "How accurate are these things?" he asked nervously.
"Fuck," she swore, and then looked at the test herself. "Maybe it's false. Maybe the super-female hormones messed it up." She glanced up at Connor. "Who am I kidding, let me get a number of an OB/GYN."
&!&!&!&!
Karlei smiled softly as she watched her chosen flip through the yellow book. The god knew the girl deep down believed in the little white stick, but what was the harm in double-checking? Everything would be okay; Karlei would make sure of that.
&!&!&!&!
"What if someone sees me?" Charlie sunk lower into her seat, pulling the sweatshirt closer to her body. "A little dignity is all I ask for." She sank even lower.
"If you keep acting like that,
you'll be noticed. Just relax," Connor told her as he pretended to read
the National Geographic in his hands.
Charlie glowered at him. "Easy for
you to say. You weren't the one who had to pee on a little stick, only
to find out that your whole life was about to change." She crossed her
arms over her chest, pouting.
"Would it make your life easier if I peed on a stick as well?" Connor asked.She didn't even giggle.
"Mrs. Angel?" A nurse called from the reception area. Charlie looked over at Connor; he didn't meet her eyes.
A few minutes later Charlie sat on the cold bench like thing most doctors had in the examination room, dressed only in one of the paper gowns they gave. Connor sat off to the side in a chair. "Is it cold in here?" Charlie asked as she crossed her feet at the ankles. "Or is it just me?"
"Just you."
Before Charlie could retort, the doctor walked in. Young, perhaps in her late twenties, early thirties, she had a round face and dark hair. "Hello, I'm Dr. Royan."
&!&!&!&!
"Congratulations, you're pregnant, ten weeks." The doctor smiled at the young couple. "I'm going to want to see you in the next two weeks to see how you're doing, considering your age and this is your first pregnancy." Nodding, she left, leaving Charlie and Connor to talk.
"You know what this means?" Charlie told Connor as she quickly dressed.
"What?"
"We're going to Vegas."
&!&!&!&!
Charlie honestly surprised herself sometimes. They were able to pull off a Vegas wedding. Maybe going during the day helped, or the fact that Paris Hilton had been in town. There had been some scandal involving her the week before. Paparazzi were brutal. Charlie hadn't been looking to increase popularity by being the media's darling by being in the movies or television, or even God-forbid, singing. There were bigger fish to catch as far as the tabloids were concerned.
Now as the memory of the weekend passed her by, she sat in front of the toilet. The contents of her stomach flushed away. Groaning slightly, Charlie leaned back against the wall. "Here." Connor gave her a hand up before offer a glass of water. She simply smiled in thanks, not wanting to talk. "My dad wants us to go out to dinner tomorrow night."
Charlie took a sip of water, and began to speak. "Go out to eat?" Her voice squeaked. "With you family?" Though Charlie was no judge of normality in the family department, sometimes his family…got to be a little too much. Along with his father, a souled vampire, Angel, who she had never really spoken to, there was Cordelia. Connor had slept with the woman, but she had been possessed at the time. Charlie couldn't hold that against her. Cordelia also was the head of Wolfram & Hart's fashion department; Charlie had to love that. The only thing that weirded her out was Cordelia's seer bit, who knows what the woman could see?
Then there was Wesley and Fred. The two of them had her vote for the cutest couple award. Wes had the rough and tumble thing going and, and the accent. Fred was one of the sweetest people that Charlie had ever met, though most of the time she really couldn't understand any of the science babble. She had never been very good at science. There was Lorne, whose appearance Charlie had gotten over. She adored the demon now. Spike was the only one to freak her out, the whole vampire thing; he still kept trying to talk to her. Lastly, there was Gunn, who she had actually never met. Though from what Connor had told her, he was a very good lawyer.
"It would be as good a time as any to tell them about Vegas." Connor shrugged, sitting on the side of the tub.
"Fine." Charlie put down the class of water. "But you're going with me to shop for the perfect dress."
&!&!&!&!
She looked at herself in the restaurant's window, and began to smooth out her dress. "I shouldn't have worn this. I look fat."
"You look fine." Connor took her arm, leading her into the Italian restaurant. "Just relax, and everything will be fine," he whispered in her ear. Grabbing her arm lightly they walked in.
Soon they were seated in a corner booth, Connor on Charlie's left and Spike on her right. She scooted closer to Connor in the pretense of cuddling. Angel was next to Connor with Cordelia on his other side. Gunn sat next to Cordelia, on the end. Wesley sat across from Gunn, with Fred next to him. Spike sat on the other side of Fred.
As soon as the waiter left with their orders, Cordelia put down her glass of water. "The reason we wanted to bring you together was," she stole a look at Angel, "Well, there's no easy way to put this, but I'm pregnant, with Angel's child." Connor didn't even bat an eye at the woman's announcement, and instead kicked Charlie's leg lightly. In response, Charlie stepped on his foot with her stiletto heel.
"Oh my!" Fred's soft voice cried. "Congratulations." She looked at Wesley. "But we also have something to say. I'm pregnant too!" As congratulations went around and Cordelia and Fred began to talk about the shopping they would have to do together, Connor leaned over to Charlie.
"Well?" he asked.
"I don't know," Charlie looked uneasily at the two women." I would hate to ruin their moment."
"If you don't say anything, I will." Connor's voice was still low.
"You do, and my heel in your foot is the least of your worries." Charlie threatened, her voice a hiss.
Connor sat back, his arm around Charlie's shoulders. He would regret this, but it had to be done. "Everyone," he winced as Charlie ground her heel into his foot. "We have an announcement to make."
"Well not to jump on the bandwagon or anything," both Charlie's voice and smile were tight, "but we too have a bun in the oven."