Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Hope, Dominic, and Joyce.
CHAPTER 6-A NEW HOPE
"Hey Wes look, our desks," Faith said with a fake look of excitement as she poked him in the shoulder and then pointed over towards a couple of desks on the far side of the room.
"Somehow this moment is not as thrilling as I had envisioned it," Wesley said with an anxious and nervous tone to his voice as he carried Hope in his arms towards his chair while Faith carried Dominic towards hers.
"They rarely are," Faith said back with a sly wink as she pulled her chair back and sat down, setting Dominic down on the desk facing her.
"Even so we should probably make sure that we have everything that we'll need," Wesley said with an awkward expression on his face as he also sat down, setting Hope down on his lap.
"I think we have enough paperclips and rubber bands here Wes, so just calm down okay, our first official day isn't until next week," Faith replied with a bored sigh as she picked up her towel and wiped away some of the drool from Dominic's chin.
"That wasn't what I meant and you know it, I just though that…I don't know, that we'd have an office of some sort," Wesley replied with a sad sigh before Hope did her best to make a mess of the papers that were already on his desk.
"Hate to break it to ya there lover but if Willow and Oz don't get an office then one is probably not in the cards for us, besides unless Kate can get some federal help we're all going to be stuck in this tiny little room together for a long time," Faith replied with a slightly less joking smile on her face as she scooted her chair up closer to the desk and continued to prop Dominic up.
"I guess that it could be worse, at least Kate is in charge of the unit as opposed to someone that has never dealt with the supernatural," Wesley said with a shrug of his shoulders as he tried to separate Hope from the papers that she had messed up on top of his desk.
"You're right, though she's still got a long way to go before she truly understands the demon world," Faith added with only a slight bit of sarcasm in her voice as she smiled over at Wesley.
"At least she's open to the fact that there's more gray to it than black and white, even if she's still learning to tell the difference between gray and the other two" Wesley said with a concerned look on his face as he pulled a small toy out of his pocket and handed it to Hope.
"We're all still learning that lesson dear, now all that we can do is make sure that Hope and Dominic understand that fact as soon as possible," Faith stated with a sly wink at her husband before she went back to wiping away a line of drool before it dripped off of Dominic's chin and down onto his shirt.
"I don't think that Hope is old enough to begin learning about the demon world, though the few demons that she's seen haven't scared her so maybe we'll get lucky with her, and Dominic's years away from it," Wesley said with a pensive look on his face as he began a light tug of war with Hope for the toy.
"He giggles every time that Angel or Spike slip their game faces on, kind of scary if you think about it, you're supposed to be afraid of them when they do that Dom, not almost bust a gut laughing," Faith said softly in reply, though more to Dominic than to Wesley before she began to smile and make funny faces at her son until his face lit up with a big grin that reminded Faith of the grins that Wesley could produce when he was very happy.
"I can still remember the time that I first saw Angel slip his game face on back in Sunnydale, nearly scared the…scared me half to death," Wesley started to say with a slight shudder that ran through his body before he stopped himself before swearing in front of his children and awkwardly finished his statement.
"But you see kids, the part that daddy's not telling you is that he pissed his pants to," Faith said under her breath with a sly grin on her face as she leaned in a bit closer to Dominic and Hope before Wesley could get a word in edgewise.
"I did not, it was just quite disconcerting at the time," Wesley exclaimed with an embarrassed and upset scowl on his face before Faith mouthed an apology to him from across their desks.
"I'm sure that it was Wesley, thankfully you got used to it," Willow said with a slight smirk on her face as she walked into the room carrying Tara with a frustrated looking Oz at her side.
"Another daycare bites the dust," Faith asked with an amused smirk on her face as she steadied Dominic on the top of her desk.
"Bingo, Tara's not there a week and Will's already pulling her out," Oz replied with a frustrated and anxious expression on his face as he shook his head before he pulled Willow's chair out for her.
"She didn't fit in, all of the other parents were treating her like she had some disease, the moment they found out that she had a witch and a werewolf for parents they wigged out," Willow added with an impatient and upset scowl on her face as she sat down and scooted up towards her desk, refusing to let Tara down to play.
"That's why we don't tell people what we do for a living, they'd freak if they knew to much about us," Faith replied with a nervous smile on her face before she fished Dominic's pacifier out of her pocket, cleaned it off, and then gave it to him and he popped it into his mouth.
"Well now our name is mud in the daycare circles," Oz grumbled with an unhappy shrug of his shoulders as he started to make coffee.
"There are daycare circles," Wesley asked with a surprised and confused look on his face as he turned away from keeping Hope from the papers on his desk for a moment.
"Of course, daycare isn't what it used to be, it's almost as hard to get into some daycare's as it is to get into private school's, there's a waiting list at most of them not to mention the insane dues and hoops that you have to jump through just to have your child even considered," Oz said with an exasperated sigh before he finished the coffee and carefully handed Willow a cup before silently asking Wesley and Faith if they wanted a cup, they both politely declined.
"Ah, the perks of living in a large metropolitan environment," Wesley joked with a sarcastically amused smirk on his face as he pulled Hope off of the desk and into his arms as he leaned back in his chair.
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"How…how long have you known," Gunn stammered out with an overwhelmed tone to his voice as he was doing his best to remain calm after having just been told that he was going to be a father.
"Not to long, I took one of those home pregnancy tests a couple of weeks ago," Fred softly replied with a very nervous but yet also excited look on her face as she clasped her hands together and stared solemnly out of the window. After the initial breaking of the big news Gunn had taken Fred up to their room to talk in private.
"Those can be…," Gunn started to say with a still overwhelmed look on his face before Fred cut him off with a slight turn of her head.
"It was right, after the test came back positive I went to see a doctor, she confirmed it…I'm pregnant," Fred replied with a look on her face that leaned towards that she was terrified of what Gunn's reaction would be.
"How far along are you," Gunn asked with a nervous tone to his voice as he stood up and walked across the room.
"Not to far, it'll be a few more weeks before I start to show, I was going to wait until then to call my mom and dad and tell them," Fred said with a slightly relieved look on her face as she turned back to look up at Gunn.
"Knowing them they'll drive here straight through the night once they find out, it'll be ugly, your father trying to relay old parenting stories while your mother constantly reminds me that this is something special and that it's supposed to be the happiest moment in our lives," Gunn said with a happily sarcastic smirk on his face as he guessed what the Burkle's would do the moment that they found out that their only daughter was expecting.
"They had a bad experience on the way home last time, I think that they'll fly this time, although I doubt that they'd mind it if we went there and told them the good news in person, I think that Angel and Cordy could handle things around here for a week or so," Fred said with a thoughtful look on her face as she went over the numbers in her head.
"Well should we call them first or just show up on their doorstep, completely out of the blue," Gunn said with an amused look on his face as he sat down on the bed beside Fred and put an arm around her.
"Call first…definitely call first, otherwise they could be at the fair or something and we'd completely miss them," Fred replied with a soft laugh as she turned her head and looked up at Gunn.
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"Remember the good old days Wes, when it was just the five of us, you, me, Cordy, Gunn, and Fred, fighting against the forces of darkness," Angel said with a tired and overwhelmed tone to his voice as his shoulders slumped a bit and he sadly shook his head.
"Desperately trying to keep the bank from foreclosing," Wesley added with a sly and smug smirk on his face as he clasped his hands together behind his back and looked around at the expansive room that Cordelia was currently in the middle of remodeling into a sort of daycare for the defenders of the city.
"Good times," Angel said with a sarcastically nostalgic smirk on his face as he crossed his arms and took in a useless breath.
"Very good times," Wesley chimed in with a slightly cheesy grin on his face as he unclasped his hands from behind his back and slid them into his pockets.
"What happened to us Wes, we used to fight evil every day, saving the innocent, helping the helpless," Angel asked with an exasperated tone of voice as he slowly began to casually pace around the room, momentarily stopping at some points to notice the changes in the room.
"Now we change diapers and worry about our approval rating," Wesley replied with a tired sigh as he slowly nodded his head and looked at a set of blueprints that Cordelia had left out on one of the tables.
"Mine did go up a few points yesterday, guess they must have found out about my battle with the Fyarl demons," Angel said with a proud look on his face as he turned back to Wesley and uncrossed his arms.
"That's true, though you still trail Cordelia by about a dozen points right," Wesley said with a sly grin on his face as he half turned back to Angel, just enough to see the look of hurt pride on his face.
"Six…six lousy points, but it's only because she's the one doing the commercials, I offered to do them but she wouldn't hear of it, said that I'd scare children, I'm not scary…right, Hope and Dominic love me," Angel said with an unhappy pout on his face before his face brightened as he turned to Wesley and asked his question.
"They've known you their entire lives Angel, Dominic isn't even a year old, I'm not sure that either knows that your game face isn't a mask of some sort," Wesley calmly replied with later an impish smirk on his face as he saw the look of fear that crossed Angel's face.
"Well better that they learn now while they're young before they learn about it on the streets," Angel said with a desperately trying to bolster his own confidence but it wasn't working to well tone to his voice as he turned back to Wesley.
"And what streets would those be exactly, it'll be years before Faith even lets them out of her sight for more than five minutes without someone else hovering over them like a hawk," Wesley asked with a slightly impish expression on his face as he walked over and picked up a toy of Hope's that had been left at The Hyperion accidentally.
"Was I any different with Connor," Angel reminded Wesley with a slightly cheesy grin on his face as he turns back to Wesley and picks up a pile of newspapers off of the seat of a chair before taking a seat.
"You're right, though as I recall it was only after Cordelia threatened you with something that you let any of the rest of us hold Connor," Wesley replied with a content smirk on his face as he leaned up against the wall beside Angel.
"In my defense I was a new father, and it had been over a hundred years since I had done anything with a child in my arms other than…," Angel started to say with a defensive look on his face before he trailed off rather than complete the scary thought.
"Well then you're going to have to brush up your parenting skills with Connor and Jocelyn expecting," Wesley said with a somewhat proud look on his face as he crossed his arms and looked down at Angel.
"And Gunn and Fred," Angel added with a worn out expression on his face as he flopped back in his seat and lazily gazed up at the ceiling.
"Fred's…pregnant," Wesley said with a pleasantly surprised tone to his voice as he uncrossed his arms and looked down at Angel.
"That's what she said, I've been hearing another heartbeat for a few days but I just though that I was tired and hearing things, guess I was wrong," Angel replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders as he turned his head to look over at Wesley.
"What did Gunn say, he must have been pretty surprised," Wesley asked with a happy smile on his face as he slid down the wall until he was squatting down beside Angel's chair.
"He almost fell off of the couch when she told him, Lindsey had a good laugh about it though, he, Elaine, and Isaac came to see me earlier, wanting me to get fully involved with that rash of unexplained deaths," Angel answered with a short chuckle as he remembered Gunn's startled expression at learning the good news.
"I don't think that they're so unexplained anymore, I have a theory that what we're dealing with are Tavivosh demons," Wesley interrupted with a thoughtful look on his face as he stood back up and started to step away from Angel and the wall.
"Great…just what I needed, another invisible opponent," Angel mumbled with an unhappy frown on his face as he shook his head and sat up in his chair.
"So you've heard of them then," Wesley wondered aloud with a subtly surprised look on his face as he stopped walking away and turned back to face Angel.
"Unfortunately, I fought one about a century or so ago, before I got my soul, it very nearly did me in, the only reason that I made it was because I didn't have a soul for it to take," Angel replied with a very serious and concerned look on his face as he stood up and covered the distance between his chair and where Wesley was standing before Cordelia entered the room.
"There you are Wesley, Faith called and she said that Dawn could baby-sit Hope and Dominic tonight, but only if you drop them off in Sunnydale," Cordelia said with a bored and relaxed look on her face as she walked towards the two and handed Wesley a slip of paper.
"Good…what's this," Wesley said softly at first before taking the piece of paper and turning it around so that he could get a good look.
"A shopping list, Faith said that since you're on your way home that you could stop by the market and pick up a few things," Cordelia said with her usual smart and correct tone of voice as she crossed her arms and looked Angel up and down, taking stock of his mood.
"I should have known, it was stuck on the refrigerator door with a magnet this morning, I was hoping that if I didn't mention it that she'd just end up doing it herself, looks like I was wrong," Wesley said with a slightly defeated look on his face as he shook his head, took his wallet out, folded up the piece of paper and then slipped it in before returning his wallet to his pocket.
"So what else is new," Cordelia said with a triumphant sparkle in her eyes as she crossed her arms and grinned at Wesley.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you Cordelia," Wesley asked with a tired smile on his face as he shook his head and silently bid both adieu.
"Ever so much," Cordelia softly stated back with a little overly excited look on her face as she slowly nodded her head while Wesley walked out of the room.
"Was there some other reason that you're in such a good mood or did you really take that much pleasure in reminding Wesley that he needed to pick up a couple of quarts of milk, some cheese, and formula…okay I peeked," Angel wondered with at first a confidant look on his face and tone to his voice before he saw the skeptical look on Cordelia's face and admitted his being nosey.
"Hey now, can't I just be in a great mood without an ulterior motive," Cordelia exclaimed with an offended look on her face and aghast tone to her voice as she took a step back from Angel and glared at him.
"No," Angel said calmly and clearly with a low tone of voice as he slid his hands into his pockets and shuffled his feet a bit. Cordelia looked ready to fight for a second before everything changed.
"I give up, okay fine, the reason that I'm in such a good mood is that we found the lair of the demon that gave Spike his soul and made it permanent," Cordelia said with at first a frustrated pout before her eyes glimmered with tears as she let Angel in on the secret. At that moment it would have been possible to knock Angel over with a feather as he feverishly dreamt about the possibilities that having his soul becoming permanent could entail.
END OF CHAPTER 6