The Unexpected

Disclaimer- 'Dear, Joss, I'm just borrowing Angel et al. for a little fic. Will return them soon. Willow Fireheart.'
Note- This chapter explains a few things from the first. Sorry about the lateness, life really is a bitch.
xxx

Chapter 2

There are moments in a man's life when something truly shocks them. Suddenly eyes are the size of saucers and jaws have dropped so low it looks to the innocent bystander vaguely like a python unhinging its jaws to swallow something whole. There's an expression on the face; the one that spawned the saying about getting hit with a stunned mullet, or perhaps it's the expression of the mullet who has been stunned and then used to hit some poor person with. Getting told by the woman you had a one-night stand with months ago that she's pregnant? Well, that's truly the mother of all shockers, no pun intended.

Gunn stared fixedly at the swollen stomach Gwen had thrust out in his direction.

"What? Wha- What?" He stammered, feeling light-headed. "How?"

A bark of harsh laughter escaped Gwen's crimson lips. "If I remember correctly you know the how. Very well versed in the how, I'd say."

"You're pregnant," Gunn said numbly.

"How observant of you," Gwen quipped dryly.

"With a baby." Gunn's head started to spin and an incredible wave of heat crept over his body.

"No, with a litter of puppies." Gwen's sarcastic tone had an amused tinge to it.

Spike, having sensed the opportunity to create a bit of chaos, sidled up to Gunn and attempted to slap him on the back. Spike's hand went straight through Gunn. Spike scowled, then shook it off and turned back to Gunn, who was starting to sway on his feet. "Congratulations, mate. I didn't think you had it in you."

"Spike, don't!" Angel's voice was sharp and harsh, holding an edge of authority that he hadn't used in many years.

Spike held a hand to his chest, feigning an innocent, offended expression he couldn't quite pull off. "Me? I'm not doing anything. I'm hurt that you would assume that I-"

"Spike," Angel interrupted, grinding his teeth. "Shut it now."

Spike's eye narrowed and his shoulders tensed. He pointed a finger at Angel. "You can't tell me what to do. I'm not your-"

"Charles? Are you feeling all right? You look pale." Fred broke through the argument, staring in concern at the somewhat pale and shaking man.

"How can you tell?" Spike muttered, stung over the abrupt dismissal.

Gunn stared at Fred dumbly. "Wha-? I feel funny."

Gunn fell to his knees, the shaking joints unable to hold him up. His eyes rolled up in his head and he toppled forward, face first, onto the floor.

Several concerned shouts went up. Gwen rolled her eyes, crossed her arms on top of her stomach. Spike's irritability vanished as he looked down at Gunn and chuckled in amusement, taking great delight in the spectacle Gunn was making of himself.

The last thing Gunn heard before the darkness consumed him was Fred and Wesley's frantic 'Charles.' And then there was nothing.

xxxxx

"Now, Fred, we all understand why you're so angry, but-"

"But what, Angel? She's pregnant, not dying." Fred was incredibly angry and it poured off her voice in waves.

Angel held his hands up in front of him defensively. "Fred, why don't you just calm down a little?"

Fred's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Calm down? CALM DOWN?"

Angel winced as her shrill cry assaulted his sensitive eardrums.

Fred waved a pointy finger at him. "Don't you tell me to calm down! That electro-bitch swans back in here-"

"Hey!" Gwen protested from her chair. "It was more of a waddle, and I've never been here before so you can hardly say that I've come back here."

Laid out on Angel's couch Gunn groaned and stirred. "Too loud." He went unnoticed as the two women in the room faced off against each other, both barely conscious of the eyes that track their every move and gesture.

Fred glared at Gwen, grinding her teeth. "Fine. She 'waddles' in here and starts electrocuting our security-"

Angel frowned, something about that was wrong.

"-and she announces, out of the blue, that Charles is the father of her unborn child. How do we even know-"

Gwen tensed in her chair, eyes narrowing, one hand coming to cover her stomach and the other gripping the arm of the chair tightly, her nails leaving impressions in the heavily glazed wood.

"I know who the father of my child is," Gwen snapped. "Contrary to your opinion, I don't sleep around."

Gunn ground the palms of his hands against his temples; even in his not so alert state he knew this wasn't a good sign. Things had the immense possibility to go down hill from here. Gunn drew in a deep breath and held it, quite content to remain unnoticed rather than have the wrath of these two headstrong women bare down on him.

Fred's anger faltered and she looked stunned; her big eyes widening even further and her mouth hanging open. "I didn't- I wasn't- That wasn't what I meant."

Gwen just continued to glare at her. "When I found out I was pregnant I knew exactly who the father was." Gwen pointed a finger at Fred. "You can think and say whatever you want about me, but don't you dare imply or infer anything that might try to sully my child, or that night." Gwen's arms went around her stomach protectively. "That night was very special to me and I won't have you destroy that."

Fred looked taken back, her hand hovering over her throat. "I didn't mean- that wasn't what I was going to say."

Wesley came up behind Fred, rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly. "We haven't had the best track record with pregnancies."

Angel snorted and muttered under his unnecessary breath. "That's an understatement."

"They tend to be demonic," Wesley continued.

Gwen's mouth dropped open. "My child is not a demon!"

Wesley squirmed under her intense glare. "That's good to know."

Gunn chuckled bitterly, realizing at the last moment that it was a big mistake. A pair of familiar red eyes focused on him.

A corner of Lorne's mouth curled up and he lifted his glass in salute. "I see our Sleeping Beauty has awoken."

Gunn levered himself up, conscious of the stares. "And I see that you've found yourself a sea breeze. Never could figure out where you kept getting them from." He swung his feet onto the floor.

Lorne grinned and tapped his nose. "A good host never reveals their secrets, besides someone has to start celebrating for you, Papa."

Gunn swallowed hard. "Right." His eyes moved to focus on Gwen. "Right." He nodded his head. "Right, so you're…"

"Pregnant, yes." Gwen rolled her eyes, some of her bravado back. "C'mon, Denzel, it's not like you've never seen a pregnant woman before."

Gunn swallowed down the pain, guilt and bitterness that remained from the previous year, now wasn't the time to be thinking about Cordelia. "How far along are you?

"About eight months. What you don't remember?" Gwen asked mockingly.

Gunn's jaw tightened. "Have you been to see a doctor?"

Gwen bristled. "I don't need you questioning me about my child! We don't need you. I don't need your money; I have plenty of my own. If I need help I'll hire a nanny. Coming here today wasn't about you."

Angel crossed his arms across his chest and fixed Gwen with a solid stare. "What was it about then?"

Gwen threw her hands up in disgust and struggled to get out of the chair. Grunting she hauled herself up. "It was about this." Gwen strode over to Angel, striping off one long opera glove and laid a hand directly on Angel's arm.

Angel convulsed as thousands of volts of electricity ran unchecked through his body. He gasped as his dead, shriveled heart was coaxed into giving a few tachy beats and his long dead lungs screamed for oxygen, automatically taking a few gulps of air.

Angel jerked away from her, still breathing heavily even though it was no longer necessary.

Spike stared at them in shock, his eyes darting from Gwen to Angel. He exhaled heavily. "Bloody Hell! That was-" A malicious grin formed on his lips. "That was brilliant! Do it again!"

Fred rolled her eyes at him. "Spike!" The admonishment was far from harsh and Spike just grinned unrepentantly at her and shrugged.

Angel shook his head, trying to uncloud his mind. "That shouldn't have happened."

"No kidding," Gwen said drolly. "That's why I'm here. Something's wrong with L.I.S.A. And I know how Pollyanna here," Gwen gestured to Fred, "likes all that science stuff."

Angel crossed his arms again, still a little embarrassed over the shivering wreck she had reduced him to in such a short amount of time. "And what's the real reason?"

Gwen looked as innocent as she could.

"You've got money, Gwen, as you so kindly pointed out. You've got an array of contacts, quite possibly more than we do, and yet you come to us."

"And here I thought you were you were somewhat intelligent."

Spike snorted.

A smirk curled Gwen's lips. "Stealing L.I.S.A. was a high profile job. I go to someone on my list and I'll be cooling my heels in a military cell faster than you can scowl, pregnant or no."

Angel opened his mouth to protest, but was cut of by Fred.

Scientific curiosity had taken over from the emotional tornado. Fred circled Gwen, her brow furrowed as she thought. "We'll have to take you down to the labs. All my equipment's down there."

Fred prodded Gwen's shoulder lightly, nodding to herself as a small spark zinged and crackled at the touch.

Gwen wisely bit off any retorts and gave a very weak smile, one made all the weaker by glancing at the still, tense and silent Gunn. "Lead away, Polly."

xxxxx

Fred gingerly lifted Gwen's shirt and studied the device threaded into her back, careful not to touch the expanse of bare skin. "Hmmm."

Knox stood before Gwen, running a scanner over her body. His eyes and face were bright with excitement. "This is amazing! I've never seen anything like it before. You're electric. Wow!"

Lorne chuckled.

Gwen sighed and rubbed a hand over her stomach, her back starting to ache from the extra weight. She winced and placed a hand to her back.

Gunn pulled out a stool and placed it down beside her, his jaw still tense and without saying a word.

Gwen smiled gratefully, faltering a bit when Gunn didn't return the smile. She perched carefully on the stool, grateful to at least to be off her feet.

Fred looked up and flushed brightly. "Sorry. My Momma always said I get so wrapped up that I forget my manners."

"I don't care, just figure out what the problem is." Gwen fidgeted on the cold stool, feeling angry and uncomfortable and not really knowing why.

Fred pursed her lips and returned her focus to the small device threaded into Gwen's back. Carefully placing her fingers on the gadget Fred felt the casing, delicate fingers probing the smooth surface, searching for any irregularity. She found it, there was a small patch where the casing was rough, Fred pressed down on it, her muscles tense.

The threads retracted from the skin of Gwen's back quickly and L.I.S.A. disengaged from her back. It would have fallen to the floor and smashed had Fred not placed one hand beneath it and deftly caught it in midair.

"Knox?" Fred asked absently as she examined the casing for damage. "Could you- Knox?"

Knox was stilling talking excitedly to Gwen, so caught up in his ideas that he had barely registered what was happening around him. "This is amazing. I mean the implications of being able to control that much electrical power. Imagine the things you could do." Knox's cheeks were flushed and his eyes were sparkling. Had one Xander Harris been there he would have diagnosed it as a milder form of geeky-er joy.

Gwen yawned blatantly. "Hate to throw a wrench into you clockworks, Buckwheat, but that's the problem. I can't control it."

Knox viably deflated. "Oh… oh, well… we'll try and fix that for ya."

"That's why I'm here."

Knox nodded. "Right, I'll just… help Fred."

Fred looked up at him, the device already lying in pieces on the table in front of her. "Thanks, but I've found the problem, I think."

Knox moved to stand next to her and looked down at the dissembled L.I.S.A. His brow furrowed as he took it in. "Hey! I recognize this. It's a L.I.S.A… aaah, that's a military acronym. It means Localized Ionic-"

"Sensory Activator." Gunn finished, speaking for the first time since Gwen's harsh words.

Knox shifted uncomfortably. "Right, it was developed to be worn by-"

"Black ops." Angel finished, hiding a smirk. That guy just rubbed him the wrong way; his belief that the rest of them weren't aware of Wolfram and Hart's connections within the military wasn't helping his case.

"I believe that it's meant to regulate the wearer's body temperature, their heartbeat and their body chemistry." Wesley completed.

Fred beamed proudly at her friends, her boys.

Gwen laughed suddenly, greatly amused by the show the three men had put on. "I think they already know, Bucky." Gwen cleared her throat. "So, Pollyanna, what's the verdict?" Gwen's bottom lip crept between her teeth and she began to gnaw on it gently.

Fred picked up a pair of tweezers and gently grasped a blackened piece out of the cornucopia of pieces that made up L.I.S.A. "It's this."

"That?" Gwen asked skeptically.

Fred nodded. "Yep, easily fixed, but… Fred paused and bit her lip.

"What?" Gwen asked in a panic, her hand smoothing the material over her stomach reflexively.

Fred put the tweezers and grasped one hand desperately with the other. "I think that the baby-"

Hysteria gripped Gwen's voice. "What about the baby!" Her fingers flexed on her swollen stomach.

Fred's eyes went wide and she reached out to place her hand on Gwen's arm, remembering only at the last minute and quickly pulling her hand back. "Oh, no! There's nothing wrong with the baby."

Gwen looked up at Fred, fear plainly shadowing her eyes. "Really?"

Fred nodded and smiled comfortingly.

Angel sighed. "Fred? An explanation? Any time you're ready."

Fred straightened and cleared her throat, sending an admonishing glare at Angel for being so abrupt. "When a woman is pregnant her body goes through certain changes-"

The men in the room suddenly took a step back, their faces beginning to screw up in expressions of disgust and fear.

Fred rolled her eyes, amazed at the immaturity of them, especially considering that together their ages could be added up to at least half a millennium. "Fine. Basically, I think that the pregnancy elevated the electrical charge that Gwen's body naturally produces. The elevated charge, in turn, short circuited L.I.S.A. Literally fried the circuits."

Gwen looked up at her in alarm. She'd been 'electro-Gwen' all her life, she'd been struck by lightening numerous times, she'd hurt people, and she'd been a thief since she escaped from that school. For eight month's she'd had L.I.S.A. For eight months she'd been able to pretend she was normal, she could leave her room without wearing those long opera gloves, she could dance with other people, hold someone's hand, kiss someone for the first time… Gwen looked at Gunn and a faint blush spread across her cheeks. She wasn't sure she could go back to being that, to that kind of life. Like that, what could she do for her child?

"Gwen? Gwen?" Fred was calling her name softly.

Fred had seen the emotions run across Gwen's face, had seen the veils shadow her eyes. She looked do small, so young, so scared… so vulnerable. And no matter what Gwen had done to them in the past Fred knew she had to help her, her conscious wouldn't let her not.

Gwen shook her hair away from her face and briefly closed her eyes, forcing back the tears that threatened to fall. 'Damn hormones.'

Fred looked her, completely serious and utterly intense. "I can fix it, Gwen."

There was a pause, silence weighing down on them.

"I promise you I can fix it."