Balance chp 23: Return of the new beginning
Fred hummed as she mixed up some hot chocolate for herself and Willow. The two of them had woken up before anyone else and were chatting in the lobby. Fred had offered to get them both some breakfast. The toaster popped and she pulled out the Pop Tarts. She quickly dropped them onto the plate and brought out the 'food' and drink. Willow smiled as she looked up from the book she was reading.
"Thanks Fred."
"No problem Willow, what are you reading?"
"Oh just a book on possession that Wesley had. I just thought reading up on it might be useful in helping Cordy get through this."
"That's a good idea. I can't imagine what it was like for her, she must have felt so helpless."
"Yeah…" Willow sighed as if thinking about something big.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh just… I guess I'm thinking that in a weird way… Cordy was lucky." At Fred's incredulous look she quickly explained, "I, I mean she will eventually accept that it wasn't her, she had no choice in the matter… unlike me."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well…" Willow was nervous, she didn't want to upset Fred or risk loosing her as a friend, "See last year I, um… I was addicted to magic and when my girlfriend Tara was killed I went a little loopy." Fred looked surprised for a moment then said,
"Well… I'm sure everyone goes a bit nuts when they loose someone important to them. Just how loopy did you go?"
"Uh, ultimate evil, tried to destroy the world kinda loopy."
"Oh!" Fred said in shock. Willow sipped some hot chocolate and in an attempt to distract the other woman said cheerfully,
"Mm, wow, Fred this hot chocolate is yummy, you could open up your own café and everyone would flock to it for Fred's secret hot chocolate delight!" she smiled brightly at her and Fred blushed slightly at the praise. They sat in an awkward silence while both sipped their drinks and ate their Pop Tarts. Then Fred asked nervously,
"Do you mind if I ask what stopped the world from being destroyed?" Willow smiled softly and said quietly,
"Yellow crayons." Fred frowned slightly in confusion but said nothing about the vague answer.
"So you really think I could open a cafe?"
"Yeah, hey, I have a recipe for cookies that would go great with it, and, and you could have a library upstairs and places to sit so people could read and drink chocolaty goodness and enjoy themselves." The two giggled.
"We are cheerful this morning aren't we?" called Xander as he and Gunn came down the stairs.
"Well I can't say I blame them." Gunn grinned, "I mean Cordy's back, and very soon I'd say there'll be two babies for them to coo over!"
"Plus we checked the news and the whole city's quiet."
"Did they have an excuse for the whole light show of Calista's?"
"Yeah, a meteor shower." Fred rolled her eyes smiling at the gullibility of unaware people.
"Ah to be that naïve!" sighed Xander as he sat down beside Willow. "I forgot what that's like."
"Well you make up for it with your jokes Xander." Xander smiled then frowned, unsure if he'd been insulted or not. Fred smiled at him then said,
"Hey you know what?"
"No!"
"We should do something for Calista like have a party or something."
"Like a baby shower?"
"Yeah."
"Let's see what Angel thinks when he comes down."
"He probably won't come down until Connor wakes up. He's probably hungry, I'll bring him up some blood." Fred went and got the blood and brought it upstairs. As predicted Angel was in Connor and Calista's room sitting in a chair drawing something in a sketch book. He looked up at Fred as she came in.
"Hey Fred."
"Morning Angel, I thought you might be hungry, and we all know you're not gonna budge so here." She handed him the glass. He set down the pad and took the glass and sipped at it. She looked at the pad and her eyes widened as she saw what Angel had drawn. "Wow, that's amazing Angel."
"Thanks I didn't have anything else to do so…"
"Um can I borrow that?" she asked as an idea sparked in her head.
"Sure." He passed it to her looking a little bewildered. She smiled at him and then hurried out to the lobby and said loudly
"Guys I just had an idea!" and she held up the pad. The others looked it over and grinned.
"Great idea Fred."
"We'd better get started this'll take a while."
Three days passed and the gang's project was nearly complete with everybody (including the three Potentials that had survived the night after the fight) helping to organise it. Angel was worried because neither Connor nor Calista had showed any sign of waking up. Although concerned this was appreciated by the others because it gave them plenty of time to work and not be caught by either of the two. It was the third night and everyone was eating dinner, exhausted by their work. They'd ordered out and were eating pizza, potato wedges and chips.
"Mm, sweet artery hardening goodness!" said Buffy as she finished off her third slice of pizza.
"I'm gonna feel so guilty after eating this but I don't care!" declared Cordelia as she chomped up some more chips.
"This is fun, everyone just sitting around eating fast food and chatting." said Dawn smiling.
"It'd be perfect if the party was complete." said Lorne.
"Connor!" said Angel
"Yeah and Calista of course."
"Uh Lorne." Gunn said softly looking behind the demon. Said demon turned around and he saw why everyone had gone silent. Connor was standing on the stairs looking a little confused. His eyes narrowed and he asked, his voice a bit raspy from lack of use,
"Dad? What's going on?" He seemed unsteady on his feet. Angel walked over to him and said
"Son, thank God I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever wake up." The relief in his voice was evident and it seemed to make Connor relax.
"Yeah I woke up, but Calista won't, why not?"
"Maybe you should sit down, you haven't been on your feet for a few day."
"Why won't you just tell me what's going on." Connor sounded panicked now.
"Ok, ok look, what's the last thing that you remember?"
"Being with Calista and… realising that the babies weren't dead… that the spell had just cut them off from her. Then… nothing." He shook his head, "There's nothing after that."
"That's alright, listen Connor whatever happened between you two caused Calista to gain her full powers. She became… an angel. The angel of balance."
"What?"
"Believe me I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. She became the embodiment of balance, neutrality. With its powers she stopped the monster controlling Cordelia." Cordelia flinched in remembrance and Connor's eyes flicked to her.
"So you're back to normal?" he asked.
"Yes I am, and Connor I am so sorry for what she did, I tried to stop her but I just…"
"'S ok Cordy, I understand."
"You do?"
"Yeah a heck of a lot better then I thought I would." His forehead creased in confusion at his own words.
"Connor how do you feel?"
"Like my brains stuffed."
"I'm sure that's normal after what happened."
"WHAT HAPPENED!" bellowed Connor in frustration.
"Look you and Cordelia and Calista were all in comas so I asked Connacht and Calida to heal you and they did but they also passed on all their memories and knowledge to you. You have all the information of the ancient world inside your head Connor." Connor paled and he stood up and paced slowly, not saying anything for a moment.
"Can you get rid of it?" he asked shakily.
"Connor why would you want to get rid of it?"
"Because I'm here, and at the same time I'm somewhere else, I, I can see demons and monsters all around me and, and- I can't breath." Connor began hyperventilating and they rushed to calm him down. Once he was breathing normally again he demanded to know what was wrong with Calista, so they told him what they knew.
"So she won't remember anything?"
"Not exactly, from what we figured, she'll be in a kind of daze and just not be able to think about anything bad. It's to keep her stress free during the last few weeks of the pregnancy. After that she'll slowly begin to remember everything."
"Oh." was all Connor said. His stomach growled loudly and in spite of himself he blushed. They smiled and gave him a hamburger and fries. Then Dawn asked him a question.
"Has Calista told you if the babies are boys or girls?"
"Uh no, she said we'll find out when we go to her next examination, that was a few days ago."
"Oh, well have you thought of any names?" Connor paled slightly then shook his head.
"Well if one of them's a boy, call him William after his cousin." grinned Spike. Connor stared at him strangely.
"Cousin?"
"Yeah, see I figured, if you think about it, Drusilla was Angelus' daughter, and that would make me her son and Angelus' grandson, since you're Angel's kid that means that technically you and Dru are brother and sister, which makes me your nephew and makes your kids my cousins."
"And that makes one big weird happy vampire family." crowed Xander with his mouth full. Connor stared at them and then laughed. The sound made Angel smile, when was the last time he'd heard Connor laugh like that? Once he finished eating Connor went upstairs to watch over Calista. Willow watched him go, her eyes narrowed slightly and then said
"Does anyone else think he took that a little too well?"
"A little, but maybe Connacht's memories help reassure him." suggested Fred.
"Yes from what I've read, having another person's memories inside your own head can often cause slight changes in personality, at least for a while." said Giles reassuringly. Wesley nodded in agreement.
Connor sighed softly as he sat down. Despite the fact that he'd spent three days asleep, he felt very sleepy and… woolly or something akin to it. His head felt like it was about to explode from all the knowledge he had in it. He kept being pulled into memories that weren't his own. He felt Connacht's emotions too. He felt the love he had for his people, his hatred for demons and especially vampires and his anger at the Powers that Be. Connor was also having difficulty separating his own love for Calista from Connacht's love for Calida. He knew well now that despite the near identical appearance of the two that they were very different people and it was really driving him mad as he tried to separate the two feelings. Angel had said it would take a few days for him to separate he own thoughts from Connacht's but he wished it would hurry up because it was very distressing. He was also very frightened by the intensity of the emotions Connacht held for his parents. He hated them. They were the core of his hatred. The depth of hatred for them was more then Connor could have believed, even he'd never felt that level of intensity about Angel. Yet, at the exact same time Connacht had loved them, in a strange way, and he'd respected them… for a time. They'd lost his respect when he'd turned sixteen and they'd brutally murdered another child of vampires. They'd done it to maintain their power over their offspring, Connor saw that but the story was much more then that, and Connor hoped he could understand it soon. He sighed and rubbed his forehead tiredly. He looked at Calista, he'd rolled her over onto her side when he'd come back in so when she did wake up her back wouldn't be sore. He rested his hand on her stomach, caressing it gently, wondering. Wondering if, like they'd wanted, the babies would have Calista's hair and his own eyes, even though he still wasn't sure he wanted that. He looked at Calista's face and stroked it softly, her skin felt so soft under his fingertips. They moved to her hair and he touched its silky smooth strands. She stirred slightly, and he held his breath, but she didn't wake up. He yawned broadly and knew he wasn't going to stay awake much longer, so he walked to the foot of the bed and crawled onto it, lying on his side, wrapping his arm around her large waist and closed his eyes, her scent soothing him to sleep.
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Night's Darkness
