Chapter 26

Angel knocked on the door again, but no one answered. He glanced down the driveway, but there was only the Hummer missing. Sighing, he walked around the back of the house and found the back door unlocked. The alarm started to go off and he punched in the numbers of the code to stop it. "It's just me!" He called out to silence. Finally, Angel pulled out his cell phone and turned it on and called Buffy's cell phone. It went straight to voicemail. He called Bam's cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail as usual.

He headed upstairs to Buffy's room and found it in shambles. At first he got worried, but then he noticed that her pregnancy duffel bag was gone. That sent Angel into a frenzy. He ran out of the house and jumped in his car, speeding down the driveway, out into the road, and down to the hospital. The nurse at the reception counter smiled up at him. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"Buffy…. Summers…. O'Donnell…." He huffed, out of breath. "What…. Room?"

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't give that information out."

"I'm… the husband."

"I seriously doubt that. So, you can just turn around and take pictures of the hospital."

"I'm not…. Paparazzi." Angel took and deep breath and sighed. "Look, I'm Angel O'Donnell. I believe my wife is here having our son."

"And I believe you need to turn around and stop trying to get pictures. She's had you people arrested before and I'm sure she won't hesitate now."

"Can you just call up to the room? Please? Bam will tell you."

"Sir…."

"Ma'am, I really don't want to cost you your job, but you are sorely mistaken and if you continue with said mistake, I assure you that's exactly what will happen."

The nurse glared for a moment and then picked up a phone. She dialed a number and waited. "Mr. Margera? Yes, sir. There's a man down here. He insists that he's Angel O'Donnell. Could you come down here and verify for me?" She nodded as she listened. "Yeah. Thank you." She hung up and looked at Angel. "He's on his way down."

A minute later, Bam came bursting out of the elevator. "Hey man! Glad you could make it." He grabbed Angel's arm and started pulling him back to the elevator. "This is the real thing."

"The real thing?"

"The last two weeks, she's had a few false alarms."

"False alarms?" Bam nodded. "Why didn't she tell me?"

"Cause she didn't think anything of it. She watched that fucking movie about the funny dad and his pregnant wife and daughter…. I had to watch the entire thing…. And she thought it was nothing to worry you about since it's her first kid and this sort of thing is natural."

"Oh."

"Anyway, she's almost eight centimeters is what the doctor says."

"Why didn't anyone call me and let me know?"

"Check your messages, dude. Ape's been calling every thirty minutes with updates to your voicemail." Bam opened a door and let Angel walk through.

Buffy was in the middle of a particularly nasty contraction and when she spotted Angel, she tore into him. "Where the hell have you been? You knocked me up and then left me to deal with this shit!" Angel's eyes went wide. "And I told you not to leave me." She growled at Bam.

"Oh shut up and breathe." Bam said with a smile.

"Give me your hand and I'll show you shut up and breathe."

"I'm not that dumb. Besides, he did it, not me. Crush his hand."

Buffy looked at Angel with dark eyes and then the contraction was over. "I'm sorry. Those things just hurt so bad and I need someone to take it out on."

He walked over to her and sat in the empty chair next to her bed. "I'm sorry, baby. I didn't know. My cell phone was turned off cause of the airplane ride, but I'm here now."

"How did you know I was here? Bammie didn't call you."

"No, you're bag was missing. Willow got you that bag so you could have your stuff ready to go when you went into labor."

"I didn't think you'd remember that."

"I remember everything."

"Hey, B, Ville's on his way from Finland. Should be here by tomorrow morning. He just called from the plane. And your mom just got a flight here from Memphis. She'll be here in a few hours.

Buffy started to say something, but another contraction hit her and she squeezed down hard on Angel's hand. He winced in pain, but allowed her to bear the pain on him. He felt he owed it to her.

Two hours later at 4:10 pm, Connor Brandon Summers-O'Donnell was born weighing in at 5lbs 4oz. He was 19 inches long and had a fair amount of bright blonde hair. Bam called in Shit Goose to take as many pictures of Connor and the family as Buffy would allow. Joyce made it just in time to hear her first grandson's very first cry in the world. Now she was helping her daughter get comfortable and showing her how to hold a newborn baby.

The next day, Bam and Angel were asleep in another hospital room that the doctors had offered them. Joyce was with April and Phil at their house getting some rest since everyone had been up half the night. Buffy was the only one awake because of the pain in her hips and she was cuddling her son when Ville and Migé walked in carrying huge bouquets of dyed-blue roses and balloons declaring "It's A Boy!"

"Hey there mommy." Ville said, kissing the top of Buffy's head.

Migé went over to the baby immediately. "He looks just like you."

"For now." Buffy said.

"How are you feeling today?" Ville asked.

"A little sore, but that's what I get for pushing a watermelon through a hole the size of a lemon, right?"

"Well, I hope you've learned your lesson." He laughed and sat down on the bed next to Buffy, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. His free arm snaked out and played with Connor's hair and lightly touched his perfect cheeks and nose and his rosebud mouth. "God, he's beautiful."

"Thank you. He took a lot of work, so he better be." Migé was trying to get Connor to grab his finger and Buffy smiled patiently. "He's not going to be able to do that for a while."

"It never hurts to try." Migé said.

"Can I hold him?" Ville asked.

"No! Me first. You're holding the mother."

"I'm here."

"So am I."

"Shh!" Buffy hissed. "Migé first and then Ville. Alphabetical order."

Ville huffed playfully as she gently handed Connor up to Migé. "You Americans and your order!" He laughed.

"Yes, it's a terrible thing, isn't it?"

"When do you two get to go home?"

"Hopefully tomorrow. The doctor says that even though he's a month early, there's nothing wrong with him and he can go home tomorrow if he passes all his baby tests."

"They're going to make him do math! What a scandal!"

Buffy laughed. "No, you crazy fool."

"I know that." Migé handed Connor to Ville and Ville looked down and whispered, "If they do, just call your uncle Ville. I'm better at math than your mother and I'll gladly write the answers down on your hand."

Buffy giggled. "I'm so glad you came."

"Had to drop a gig for this." Migé said.

"Oh, you didn't have to do that!"

"It's only been postponed." Ville said. "Chris says that all the fans he talked to with the backstage passes were excited and that when the show comes back, they'll have baby presents for you."

"Awe. That's so sweet. Mandy called me and asked if she could start sending things to New York because my fans have sent so much baby stuff and cards and everything else you can think of, that my LA house is full!"

"Well, you wouldn't be anywhere without them and they do care for you."

"Even the stalkers." Migé said.

"I don't think I have any of those."

"Then you're not famous. All famous people have stalkers."

Buffy looked at Ville and he nodded. "It's true. I had a crazed stalker that chopped off a lock of my hair."

"I remember." Buffy giggled. She couldn't believe how natural Ville looked holding a baby.

"What do you think?" Bam asked April. He was showing her the newly renovated Hobbit Hole.

"This is what you were doing down here?" April asked.

"You like it?"

"I love it."

Bam had turned the Hobbit Hole into a 3 room house for Buffy, Angel, and Connor for when they decided to stay at Castle Bam. The inside was decorated just the way Buffy liked it and her and Angel's room was decorated exactly the same as Buffy's room up at the Castle. In fact, the day Buffy had been in labor, Bam had had Glomb and a team of movers move everything from Buffy's room to the little house.

The nursery was the most impressive part of the place. It was done up like a like the inside of a tiny, old world castle where Connor would be the heir to his mother and father's amazing throne. And as an even more special gift for not just Connor, but Buffy as well, Bam had spent a hell of a lot of money on a replica of a Tudor-era royal bassinette. Buffy's favorite era in history was the Tudor era with Henry the VIII and his six wives and his many offspring. So when Bam had found the replica, he hadn't hesitated to drop the insane amount for it.

The crib was another amazing thing. It looked like it was a castle. Bam had had it custom made for Connor. The four points of the crib were four towers of a castle with mystical creatures and a princess poking their heads out of the windows. Over the crib was a black netting that was designed to look like a four poster bed. Since the crib was much smaller than a full sized bed, there was more room underneath the netting, so Bam had put a comfortable, yet old rocking chair in there with it. Three walls were painted to look like the walls of a castle with windows that looked out on Sherwood Forest. The fourth wall was painted to look like a huge balcony that looked out on the whole of an enchanted forest in the middle of winter. Everything seemed to sparkle with the sunlight on the snow and ice. There was even a princess that looked like Buffy skating on a frozen lake.

"And Buffy will definitely love it."

"I hope so."

"Do you think she'll like this indoor barbeque?" April asked her son.

"I know she will. I'll call Glomb and have him set up some cool party stuff."

"Just don't do anything crazy."

"Now why would you say a thing like that?" Bam grinned wide.

"Bam, don't! He's a newborn and she's a new mom and he's a new father…. That's enough stress."

"Nothing I do can stress Buffy out after all these years of putting her through hell."

"But anything crazy right now will."

"I think I'll start working on plans for a really cool tree house for Connor."

"A tree house? He's not even two days old!" April followed her son. "Bam!"