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 5Cordelia sighed as Angel carried her back through the sewers to the hotel. Neither had said much since they had left the doctor's office. It was quiet, but not at all an awkward quiet between the two, and that's just how Cordelia liked it. Then Angel broke it.
"So he said everything's looking good. Should be in the next two weeks, right?" Angel asked her even though he had been in the room for the speech Dr. Everets had made to Cordelia.
"Yup." Cordelia said with one hand wrapped around Angel's neck and the other resting on her enormous stomach. "And let me tell you how much I cannot wait for that."
"Uh...Cordy, about the babies-"
"Angel, look, I know they are more then likely going to be little evil mosters and we will have to...you know." She made a chopping motion with her arm.
"And you're ok with that?" Angel asked her.
"Well, no. They are still my babies, but if they are evil demon spawn then I probably wouldn't want them running around the hotel." She smiled and saw by the look on Angel's face that he had taken her words to heart. "Hey, relax big guy. We will worry about it when they get here. Until then..." She grinned widely. "Do you think you can do me a favor?"
"You name it." Angel smiled at her as they made their way into the hotel basement.
"Can you run out and get me some double chocolate ice cream and a jar of those little pickles." She squeezed her fingers together to show what size pickles she wanted.
"Sure..." Angel was confused as he carried her up through the lobby and to her room. "Are the pickles for a sandwich? Because we don't have any lunch meat downstairs and-"
"No." Cordelia told him simply as he placed her on her bed. "I'm just in the mood for them."
Angel smiled. "Ok. Pickles and ice cream it is." Angel looked outside to see that the sun was almost set. "I'll be back as soon as I can." And with that he exited.
Cordelia smiled and picked up the T.V. remote. She flipped through the channels and ended up watching an old movie about a girl who met a guy in high school. The girl was a bitch, and the guy too old for her. The girl never plan on seeing the guy after she got out of school but as fate would have it they met again, became friends, and eventually fell in love. She turned the movie off as she got a sick feeling in her stomach.
"Only in the movies, right?" She asked her belly.
Angel made his way up and down the aisles of the food store. The place was huge and the fact that he rarely, if ever, went food shopping made it harder to find what he was looking for. He had been in there for a good twenty minutes when he decided it was pretty much hopeless to try and find the ice cream Cordelia wanted.
"She'll just have to live with regular chocolate." He said to himself.
"Will she now?" Gunn turned the corner to come face to face with Angel.
"Gunn!" Angel was surprised. "Good to see you."
"Yeah. Hey, I thought dead boys like yourself didn't eat food."
"We don't." Angel told him. "It's for Cordelia."
"Damn, waiting on her hand and foot. You are one hell of a guy." Gunn said as he picked up a bag of cookies.
"Well, she's special."
"I can tell. She's lucky to have you, man." Gunn told him. "Well, I'll see you back at the hotel."
"Why don't you just come back with me?" Angel asked him.
"Uh...nah." Gunn looked at his feet. "I...I gotta just go do something first."
Angel nodded and Gunn could tell he was becoming suspicious.
"Well, you better get that ice cream back to Cordelia before it melts." Gunn told Angel.
Angel looked down at the wet ice cream cart in his hand and when he looked back up to talk to Gunn he found no one in front of him.
"Hey, I'm back." Angel said, entering Cordelia's room, ice cream and pickles in hand.
"Thank God!" Cordelia sat up in bed. "We are starving over here."
"Yeah, sorry it took so long." Angel handed her the food and sat on the edge of the bed. "It's not like I'm exactly used to walking around a food store."
"Oh." Cordelia took a bite of ice cream. "I forgot you're not a foody."
"Yeah well, it's one less thing to worry about, right?" Angel smiled. "So, how are you feeling?"
"Tired and my back is killing me. I wish Dennis were here. Now, that's a ghost who knows how to massage a girls back." Cordelia smiled.
"Here then." Angel moved up next to her. "Roll onto you're side."
"Why?" Cordelia giggled.
"Because, I'll massage you."
"You?"
"Yeah me. I've been around a couple hundred years. I've done this kind of thing before." Angel rolled up his sleeves.
"If you insist." Cordelia smile as she rolled slowly to her side.
"I do." Angel began massaging her.
"That feels so good, Angel." Cordelia said as she began to drift to sleep. "What would I do without you?" And with that she fell asleep.
Angel sat up and watched her sleep for a long time after that. He could hear the beat of her heart and the scent of her shampoo and it almost put him to sleep. It made him feel so comfortable. He loved it. He loved her. He decided at that moment he always would. No one could take the place of Cordelia Chase in his heart. He just wished he could show her what she meant to him.
"No." He whispered to himself. "She can do better then you. She deserves better then you. All you would do is hold her back."
Cordelia stirred in her sleep at these words.
The next morning Angel made his way downstairs and into the kitchen where he found Wesley and Gunn, both holding ice packs to their heads.
"What the hell happened to you guys?" Angel asked them as he got out a pint of blood and heated it in the microwave.
"Long story." Gunn told him as he stood. "Don't wanna talk about it." And then he made his way out of the kitchen.
Wesley sighed. "He went out after those vampires who killed his sister. Luckily I found him and we were able to take a few out before getting smashed around ourselves."
"What? I told him you and me would help him when the time came." Angel growled.
"Well, he seems to think that you are to wrapped up in Cordelia to care about his problem now." Wesley said. "And now that he dismembered his crew and you have been on permanent Cordelia watch-"
"I'm just looking out for her. Like you told me to!" Angel interjected.
"No. I know what I said, but Angel, you have been waiting on Cordelia a little much don't you think?"
"No. She needs someone to be there for her."
"Angel..."
"Wes, you don't understand." Angel sighed.
"No, I understand perfectly, Angel. You love her." Wesley told him.
"I..." Angel was shocked. "I don't...well...I'm not sure..."
"Angel. I can tell. Even Gunn can tell and he's known you a little over a week. And, if you want my opinion, I don't think you should try anything with Cordelia. She is not in the right frame of mind, and what if something did happen? It would only end like it did with you and Buffy, only it would be harder because you can't run from Cordelia. After all, she is your seer." Wesley told him.
Angel looked down and sighed. "Don't you think I know that, Wes? Nothing will happen between us. It's not like I have anything to offer her anyway."
"Angel...that's not what I meant."
"But you did." Angel put his blood down and picked up a box of cereal. "Now, I'm gonna run this up to Cordy because she's been craving dry cereal lately, then I'm gonna come back down here and you, Gunn, and I are gonna have a serious training session. Tell Gunn we are going after those vamps in a week."
Cordelia was sitting up in bed when Angel entered her room.
"Cereal!" Cordelia cried and took the books from Angel's hand. "How did you know I was starving?"
"You are pretty much all the time." Angel grinned.
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Shut up."
Angel smiled at her and then made his way back to the door.
"Where are you going?" She called after him.
"I'm gonna go train with Wesley and Gunn."
"Oh.." Cordelia looked down.
"Why?" Angel asked her; worried that he had upset her.
"Nothing. I'm just bored up here all day. I wanna go do something." Cordelia said rubbing her swollen stomach. "So do they." She indicated to her unborn children. "I think, anyway."
"Well, you're not supposed to be on your feet much, but if you let me go train for a few hours then how about I take you to the movies tonight?" Angel asked her.
Cordelia grinned widely. "Really?"
Angel nodded. "Whatever you wanna see."
"Alright then. Get outta here, tough guy. Go train so we can go out!" Cordelia was excited.
Angel nodded and exited and Cordelia look down at her stomach and began talking to her babies.
"So mommy's got a date tonight! Well...not a date. Actually totally not a date because a date would mean me and Angel would have to be a couple, or at least like each other in that way and he clearly doesn't like mommy that way but a movie is a movie and a night out is a night out, and mommy totally needs one of those." Cordelia smiled and leaned back into her pillow with her box of cereal.
"Training went good." Angel told Gunn and Wesley as the three men exited the basement.
"Yeah, I didn't know dead guys moved that fast." Gunn joked.
"Undead guy." Angel corrected him. "Now if you'll excuse me boys, I've got to go get ready."
"For what?" Wesley asked.
"I promised Cordelia I'd take her to the movies tonight." Angel told them.
"But what about you're destiny or whatever? Don't you gotta go out and, I don't know, save some people?" Gunn asked.
"I...well..." Angel wasn't sure what to say. "I promised her. She needs to get out she said. I can't break my promise." And with that he ran up the stairs.
"Boys got his head in the clouds." Gunn told Wesley. "How is it that a dead man sees more action then me?"
"It's not like that with him and Cordelia." Wesley said.
"Right...and Elvis is still alive and kicking."
Angel knocked on Cordelia's door. "You ready, Cordy?" He asked.
"Yup!" Cordelia said from the other side of the door. "Come on in."
Angel entered to find Cordelia in a chair with her hair pulled back and a pair of his old sweats on.
"You'll have to excuse the appearance. I couldn't find anything of mine that actually fit." Cordelia said.
"You look fine, Cordelia." Angel said, and he meant it. He had never seen something more beautiful in his life. "So let's go see that movie." He picked her up and carried her out of the room.
The movie was boring and Angel fought so hard not to fall asleep. He had let Cordelia pick the movie and of coarse it had nothing to do with car chases, or explosions, or even weapons. He must have looked as bored as he felt because half way through the movie Cordelia pinched him. "Ouch!" He whispered.
"Look." Cordelia whispered as she leaned over. "I can tell you are not loving this movie."
"No, Cordy, it's fine."
"Angel, come on. You're a horrible liar."
"Cordelia, this is you're night out, I'll sit through whatever movie you want."
"Let's go then." She said.
"What?"
"Let's get out of here. I'm not enjoying it because I know how much it's torturing you, and I'm starving."
"I bought you two tubs of popcorn, how can you be hungry?" Angel was shocked.
Cordelia narrowed her eyes at him and pointed down to her huge stomach. "That's how. Now let's go."
Angel nodded and helped Cordelia out of the theater. Once they were outside he scooped her up in his arms.
"Angel, I must weigh like a million pounds. You don't have to carry me everywhere." Cordelia told him.
"Doctor's orders. Besides, I don't mind it. Now where do you want to go and eat?"
"Um..." Cordelia thought for a moment. "How about that diner a few blocks down?"
"Sounds good." Angel said.
When they got to the diner door Angel could tell something was wrong. He set Cordelia down and slowly made his way to the door.
"Angel?" Cordelia called after him. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure." He said stepping into the diner.
The diner had no lights on when Cordelia and Angel entered.
"Ok, if they are closed, why wouldn't they lock the door?" Cordelia asked.
"They weren't closed. Not yet." Angel said flicking on the lights to find dead bodies sprawled out all over the place.
"Oh my God." Cordelia gasped as she raised a hand to her mouth.
"Cordy, I don't want you to see this." Angel said turning to her. "Let me get you home and I'll come back-"
Angel was cut off as his body was tossed up in the air. He hit the ceiling and fell onto the counter. He vamped out and looked up to see a huge demon with two large teeth and a body of pure muscle.
"Vampire..." The demon hissed. "These bodies are mine." The demon motioned all around him. "What do you think you are doing here?"
"Oh, I don't know. Killing you?" Angel charged at the demon, but stopped short as he saw the demon lift Cordelia by her throat.
"Angel..." Cordelia gasped as she struggled for air.
"Put her down!" Angel told the demon.
"Or what?" The demon studied Angel's face. "Do you actually care what happens to this human? You suck them dry for breakfast and eat their children for dinner. You of all people, shouldn't care what I do to this one." The demon looked Cordelia over and his eyes fell on the hump of her stomach. "Or her child."
"Children." Angel corrected him and lunged at the demon, knocking Cordelia out of his hands.
Cordelia fell right into the arms of Gunn.
"Good thing we came to check out this block." Gunn told Cordelia as he set her down. "Wes! Get in here!"
Wesley came running through the door with an axe in hand. "Angel!" He called tossing the axe to him.
Angel grabbed the axe and wrestled with the demon a little while longer before piercing the demons head with the tip of the axe. He stood, brushing himself off. "Well, that was somewhat unpleasant." He looked up to see Cordelia in tears, clinging to Gunn. "Cordy..." Angel moved forward and she fell into his grip crying on his shoulder.
"Angel...I..." She cried, holding him tighter. "He almost killed me. He almost killed you." Cordelia pulled away a little to look Angel in the eye. "You could have died protecting me."
"Nah." Angel tried to laugh it off. "Gunn and Wes had my back, and if that thing was gonna kill me it wouldn't have made a difference if I was defending you or the president."
Cordelia shook her head. "It's my fault." Tears fell from her eyes. "I don't think I should come out with you anymore."
"Cordy..." Angel wiped her tears. "Cordy, don't be like that."
Cordelia pulled away from Angel. "Just take me home...please?"