Disclaimer: All characters from ANGEL belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. If they aren't on the show they belong to me.

Summary: A different turn of events after Season 1 Episode 12 "Expecting". A/C pairing.

CHAPTER 4

Cordelia was awaken the next morning by the sound of a traffic jam right outside Angel's apartment. She huffed and struggled to get out of bed. She then made her way over to Angel's closet and pulled out a pair of his sweatpants. They were far to long on her but just barely made their way around her huge belly. "Wonderful." She thought to herself. "I gained about 50 pounds in 4 days." She then made her way down the hall and into the kitchen where she found Angel and Gunn sitting at the table.

"Hey Cordy. How are you feeling?" Angel asked as he stood to let her sit down.

"I'm ok." She said simply taking the seat Angel had given up for her. "Good morning, Gunn."

"Morning." Gunn said as he rubbed his eyes.

"You look tired." Cordelia told him.

"I am. Didn't sleep much, or at all last night." Gunn said and then turned his attention to Angel. "Which brings us back to what we were discussing."

"There's no discussion." Angel told Gunn as he began preparing Cordelia some eggs.

"Are you serious? You ain't gonna help a brother out?" Gunn stood. "Man, I shoulda staked your ass when I had the chance."

"Like you could have." Angel turned to face Gunn. "And I'm not helping you out. It's one thing to fight a few vampires when need be, but you're talking about going after an entire clan of them with nothing more then a few humans. Do you know what they'll do to you?"

"Kill a few of us but so what? We'll kill them and that's all that matters. These things need to go down and it needs to happen now." Gunn said getting furious.

"What's with the temper?" Angel asked him. "A temper isn't going to kill them, if anything it's just going to piss them off mo-"

"They killed my sister!" Gunn shouted at Angel. "Yesterday, while I was over here helping you out they came and they took her and they turned her! I had to stake my own sister, man." Gunn said down weakly and covered his eyes so that he could hide his tears.

Angel stood there with his mouth opened and looked at Cordelia who wrapped her arm around Gunn.

"It's alright." She told him. "Everything will be ok."

"No it won't!" Gunn looked up at Angel. "She died because I was helping you out, damn it! And now, all I'm asking is for you to help me out. Help me kill them!"

"Fine." Angel said. "But not tonight."

"What!" Gunn was confused.

"You're bitter and still mourning her. That will only hurt you in the fight." Angel told him. "I'll help you but you have to be willing to do things my way."

"And what way is that?" Gunn asked curiously.

"You, me, and Wesley. No one else comes. You tell your crew to go home, knock off the slaying. They aren't meant for it and it will get them all killed-" Angel was interrupted by Gunn.

"I can't tell them that, they are my backbone! I can't do this alone." Gunn said.

"You won't have to. Wesley and I will be your new backbone. You can work here with us, and I'll help you train and get ready to take these things out, but only if you get ride of that group of yours. This is not the place for kids. Do you follow?" Angel asked.

Gunn nodded and looked at the floor. "Yeah. I got ya."

"Good." Angel moved to the counter and gathered some papers he handed to Gunn. "Now takes these down to Wesley's apartment. His address is here." Angel pointed to a sticky-note on the first page.

"What are these?" Gunn asked him.

"Lease papers. I found an old hotel a few blocks from here. I thought we'd set up shop in there, that way you'd have a place to stay and Cordelia could have her own room, and we'd all be together. I want you and Wes to go down there today and get rid of a demon in there. Wesley knows what to do, I just need you there as muscle, incase something goes wrong." Angel told him.

"Muscle. I can do that." Gunn said as he stood and stuffed the papers in his pocket. "I'll talk to y'all later." And with that he exited.

"A hotel?" Cordelia asked Angel who had gone back to cooking her breakfast.

"Yeah." Angel told her. "I figured it would be best. It gives Gunn a place to stay, and will let me keep an eye on you like I'm supposed to, and, you know, if the babies aren't...well..."

"Evil." Cordelia finished his sentence as she looked down at her stomach.

"Right...if they aren't evil, then it will give us-I mean you, enough room to raise them."

Cordelia got up and threw her arms around Angel. "You're the best!" She leaned in and kissed his cheek, and then slowly moved her lips to his mouth.

Before Angel knew it he was kissing Cordelia back. He swung her up to the table and sat her down and began kissing her more passionately. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her. Then suddenly he pulled away from her.

"Cordy..." He stammered as he saw the hurt look on her face. "I...I shouldn't have done that. That was wrong of me."

"You?" Cordelia looked up as tears formed. "I kissed you, remember?"

"But I kissed you back, and I shouldn't have."

"Why? Because we are only friends? Or because I'm vision-girl? Or because I'm pregnant? Or is it because you're still in love with Buffy?" She asked hysertically and quickly left the kitchen.

Angel heard his bedroom door slam shut and lock. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

Once Cordelia had locked Angel's door and was sure he wasn't coming down to carry on their conversation she made her way over to his bed. She climbed in and pulled the covers tight around her swollen stomach and cried until the pillow was soaked. When she felt she had no more tears to cry she made her way into the bathroom and leaned against the sink. Looking at herself in the mirrow she could see how much she changed. Not just the past couple of days, although those had also contributed majorly to the changes, she thought as she ran her hands over her stomach. No, it was something more. Back in high school Cordelia was a Class-A bitch. She cared for no one but herself, until Xander and his little group of friends showed her a different side of the world, but even Xander didn't care about her. Not enough to not break her heart.

"Why would Angel be any different?" She thought out loud. "Why would you think he'd care about you? Actually want you?" She looked at her reflection and her eyes fell to her enlarged stomach again. "Especially now?"

"That was sweeeet!" Gunn said to Wesley as they entered Angel's apartment. "The way that spell made that thing visable then WACK!" He made a motion with his arm. "That was tight, English."

"Thanks, Gunn." Wesley said as he let them into the kitchen where they found Angel sitting with his head held in his hands. "Angel?"

Angel lifted his head. "Oh, hey Wes. Gunn." Angel stood. "How'd everything go?"

"Great." Wesley told him. "We are ready to move in and all. As a matter of fact, Gunn came over and he and I packed my apartment and brought it over to the hotel. We also took the liberty of going over to Cordelia's place and pretty much packing her up as well."

"You did all that already?" Angel asked.

"We've been gone 7 hours, dead boy." Gunn said.

Angel looked at the clock. "Oh, right." He couldn't believe how much time had passed and Cordelia still hadn't come out of his room.

"Well, now all we need to do is pack up you and we should be ready to go." Wesley said.

"Yeah, I'll do it." Angel told them."You two get over there and unpack and clean the place up so when I bring Cordy over she doesn't have a fit."

"True that." Gunn told them. "You don't want a pissed off pregnant chick. Especially when they're carrying demon spawn." Gunn saw Angel's reaction to Gunn's new knowledge. "Uh, Wes told me all about her."

"Oh. Well, then right. Don't want to piss her off. Why don't you guys get back over there and clean?" Angel stood.

"Angel, is everything alright?" Wesley asked.

"Yeah. Everything's fine, Wes." Angel told him. "Now you guys go on over there. I'll probably bring Cordelia by tomorrow."

"Alright then." Wesley said as he and Gunn made there way out of Angel's apartment.

Once Angel was sure they were gone he made his way down to his bedroom door. He stood there for a moment not sure what to do, then he heard the faint sound of Cordelia crying.

"Cordy!" Angel panicked. "Cordelia Chase open this door!"

"Go Away!" Cordelia yelled from the other side.

"I will, just let me come in. I want to make sure you're ok." Angel pleaded with her.

"I'm fine, Angel! Just go."

"Not until you let me in. And I can stand here all night and all day and all week if i have to! I don't need to eat, remember? I'm dead!"

And with that comment Cordelia flung open the door. "See? I'm fine." She motioned to herself.

"No you're not." Angel moved his hand to brush her hair out of her face. "You were crying."

Cordelia slapped his hand away. "So? What do you care?" She turned and walked back into his room.

Angel followed her. "I care a lot, Cordy." He told her. "Like I said before, you're my best friend."

Cordelia turned to Angel, her eyes beginning to water again. "I know." She looked down. "I'm sorry about before. What happened...I don't know why I did that."

"Everything's a mess right now. Why don't you get some sleep and I'll pack this place up tonight. Tomorrow we will head over to the hotel."

"Everything is ready over there already?" Cordelia asked.

"Yup. Wesley and Gunn even packed up your stuff so we are pretty much good to go."

"Great." Cordelia sat on the bed. "Well you go pack, and I'll sleep."

Angel nodded and exited.

Cordelia kissed Angel passionatly on his cold lips. He felt the warmth of her body as he lay next to her in bed. He loved everything about her. Her smell, her touch, her smile. A smile that could brighten up a whole room. It had brightened up his life. She made him feel whole, closer to humanity then he had felt, even when he was human.

"I love you..." She whispered to him between kisses.

"I love you too." He kissed her back...

...And then he woke up and found himself in a chair in his living room. He took an unneeded breath and relaxed realizing it was just a dream. Then he thought for a moment. Why was he thinking about Cordelia like that suddenly? Had he always had those feelings for her or was it just because of the recent events that he was dreaming about making love to her?

"She has turned into one hell of a women." He said to no one but himself. No, he couldn't think of her like that. Especially not now. It would be taking advantage of her. After all, he decided that the state she was in must have been messing with her mind. She could never love him. What could he even offer her? She could have any man she wanted, he was sure of that. No, she couldn't love him. But, could he love her? Angel knew the answer so quickly it scared him.

"I do love her..." He whispered to the silent room.

Angel carried Cordelia up through the basement of the hotel. They entered the lobby and found Gunn and Wesley sprawled out in sleeping bags.

"Rise and shine!" Cordelia made her presence known as Angel set her down.

Wesley and Gunn jumped at Cordelia's voice.

"Who the hell!" Gunn asked frantically, then relaxed when he saw Cordelia and Angel. "Damn, girl!" He said to Cordelia. "Don't do that to a brother!"

"Sorry, but you guys should have been up by now." She told them.

"Well, we are now." Wesley said getting out of his sleeping bag and putting on his glasses.

"Good, because I need you two to get over to my place and bring all of my stuff over here." Angel said. "I couldn't really bring much with Cordy."

"Not a problem." Wesley said. "You can bring Cordelia upstairs. We brought all her stuff to the second room on the left."

"Alright." Angel said.

"Thanks you guys!" Cordelia called after Gunn and Wesley as they exited.

"Ok, what do you want to do now?" Angel asked her.

"Actually, I'd like to get upstairs and just unpack a few things." Cordelia told him.

"Sounds good." Angel said picking Cordelia up and bringing her to the room Wesley had said.

When they entered they found that Wesley and Gunn had already set Cordelia's bed up and had put most of her clothes in the closet.

"Wow, those two must have worked hard." She said examining the room.

"Yeah." Angel agreed and sat on her bed. "It's nice..." His eyes tracked Cordelia as she made her way around the room.

"Yeah, and look at the view!" She pointed out the window. "Come look! It's amazing."

Angel got up and stood behind Cordelia.

"Isn't it breathtaking?" She asked him.

"It is..." Angel said never taking his eyes off of Cordelia to actually look at the view. "It's amazing..."