Angel squared his shoulders and sucked in a deep, unnecessary breath. Just a few weeks ago he had been kidnapped and forced to participate in an illegal demon fight club. Ha hadn't wanted to kill anyone, but at the same time wasn't particularly worried about the matches themselves. Slow and careful torture might hold more appeal (and that fact disgusted him even as he acknowledged it), but violence was a part of him and he was good at it.

Which made it all the more ironic that he was close to terrified at knocking on the door in front of him. Finally, he decided he was being melodramatic and rapped sharply. A minute went by and then the door swung open.

The revulsion was only present for an instant, but Angel still caught it on Giles' face. The two men stared at each other across the threshold. Angel was aware that he could easily out stubborn Giles, he could wait close to forever, but that wasn't the point here.

"Can I come in? I'm here about Buffy."

Giles pressed his lips together, but finally nodded and invited Angel inside.

He wasn't sure if Giles was making tea because English politeness trumped everything else or because Giles wanted to put as much space between them as possible. It didn't really matter.

"I've been researching the demons Buffy came in contact with Thanksgiving week. I didn't come across anything that could explain her --- he hesitated for a moment --- condition." He almost told Giles about the missing day, but decided against it. It didn't seem like the oracles had orchestrated anything. Wes had assured him that it was pretty much impossible and if he somehow was the father, he didn't see how that would be to anybody's benefit. Better to keep searching in hopes of finding out what had actually happened.

"I haven't discovered any demon characteristics that could explain this either.

"Despite it all, she's happy. She's found a kind of normalcy that's she's never had before." Unspoken were the words when she was with you.

"I'm glad." And he was, strangely enough. He didn't deserve happiness. He had thought that long before he had ever met Buffy, and now he knew that his happiness was a threat to the entire world. But Buffy was an entirely different matter.

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWM

"No, no more. Please." even as the words left his lips, he knew begging was the wrong tactic to take. He tried to scramble away, but a hand shot out and grabbed him by the ankle, claws digging deep and breaking the skin. He watched, fascinated as a single drop of liquid splashed onto his shin, leaving behind a tiny perfect circle of burned skin. He flinched but didn't cry out. Another drop followed the same path, widening the edges of the burn and making the hole a tiny bit deeper. By the tenth drop, the skin was gone and the holy water had started to melt away his muscle. He was trembling violently, but he still hadn't made any further sounds, biting his lip so hard that a drop of blood was now present.

He closed his eyes, trying to center himself and will away the pain. Air was moving across his exposed bone and when the next drop hit he couldn't help his stifled cry. Through the haze of pain, a ringing began to sound, effectively drowning out all his thoughts. The sound kept getting louder, pain and noise too much for him to take, finally his body seized and kicked out---

Waking him up from his nightmare. It took a moment to shake off the leftover fear as he realized he wasn't still in a hell dimension, but instead tangled up in his covers. And another second to realize the phone was ringing. He had barely brought it up to his ear when he heard Willow's breathless voice.

"It's Buffy. She's hurt badly." He gripped the phone so tightly that he had to consciously not crack the receiver in half. "There was so much blood."

"Wh---"

"She went into labor while she was patrolling." Giles' voice was clipped and cool. There was something else also, but he couldn't be bothered to determine the other emotion lying right under the surface. His only real concern was getting to her.

"She was only twenty-three weeks. What happened?'

"The baby clawed its way out. Very Aliens." Xander didn't bother to control his anger.

"She managed to call Giles on her cell."

"Don't worry, fang face. We managed to stake it before it got too far. Had your eyes. Yellow."

This time when Angel really woke up, he couldn't stop his violent trembling for close to an hour.