Once again, thank you to all my reviewers and those who have this story on alert. Sorry this update took a while. In the past two weeks, I was without electricity, wound up working 16 hour days and became sick again.

This is the next to last chapter. I'd love to hear what you think.

Cordelia carefully fanned her toes, wiggled them, flexed her foot upwards and finally gave a decisive nod. "Another coat." She plopped her foot back into Angel's lap and he began carefully applying a third coat of burgundy polish.

He didn't mind. Cordy hadn't had a vision in close to three weeks and being relegated to her personal pedicurist at least gave him something to do. And took his mind off of other things.

He had decided to move forward. It's not like he had a real choice in the matter. And besides, life was pretty good, on balance. He was making a difference in the world, each time he stopped some demon. He had a family now that cared about each other. And some day, he would be human again…

Sure, there were things (people. well, a particular person) that he would never have, but she was happy and that was what he had wanted for her.

He motioned for Cordelia to switch feet just as the phone rang. She stretched behind her, careful not to smudge her polish. "Hey, Willow?"

Before she could get out another pleasantry, Angel leaned forward and literally snatched the phone out of her hand. "Rude, much?" she said glaring.

"Is everything all right?" he barked into the phone. And then his skin went even paler than normal as the nail polish fell from his grip, dark red droplets spraying everywhere. He opened his mouth, but his vocal cords didn't work.

Cordelia stared at him, concern etched into her features. "What happened?"

"It's Buffy," he croaked. "She's hurt badly. The baby." He couldn't say anything else.

Cordelia stood up, completely unmindful of the still wet polish and grabbed the phone out of Angel's hand. She asked Willow a few questions, hung up and then dialed Wes. Finally putting the phone down, she turned toward Angel who hadn't moved since he had first spoken to Willow. "Wes is coming right over and we're all driving down to Sunnydale. I'm getting my quilt out of the closet so we don't have to wait until nightfall." Her voice got gentler. "Buffy's going to be fine. You'll see."

When they got to the hospital, Angel raced up the steps without waiting for his companions. It only took him a minute to find the waiting room as he made a beeline for Willow.

"Is she ok? Where is Buffy?" He didn't even notice the others.

"Riley and her mom are with her right now. Wait here and I'll see what I can do." He nodded, feeling a rising panic wanting to overtake him. He looked around, realizing all her friends were here. Xander looked at him with undisguised distaste, while Harris' girlfriend gave him a wink. Willow's girlfriend had nothing but sympathy for him and he gave her a small nod. Giles' face was a stone mask, which was actually better than Angel expected.

It seemed to Angel that hours must have passed until Willow finally came back, trailed by Joyce and Riley. He kept his eyes averted from them as he doubted they were happy he had shown up. He followed Willow down the hallway and then went into the room she pointed out.

Buffy looked so pale, as pale as he was. There was a heart monitor attached to her and the steady beeping comforted him. It was a good sign. There was another wire that snaked underneath the sheet and that was beeping at almost twice the speed. It took him a moment to realize that was the baby's heart. He had no idea if that was normal, but he supposed the fact that doctors and nurses weren't swarming her was a good sign. There was also an IV going into her arm, with several bags hung on the pole.

He sat next to the bed, stared at the rise and fall of her chest. She was thirty-four weeks along now, the home stretch. Assuming that nothing killed her, of course, and that thought made him involuntarily clench the bed frame.

"Angel?" She sounded so tired.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you," he replied guiltily.

"Ess 'k," she slurred. "Been sleeping all day. Gonna yell at me?"

"What? Why?"

"Riley and mom yelled at me. Said I shouldn't have taken Adam down by myself. Too risky."

Angel frowned. He hadn't heard what had happened; he'd been too anxious to see Buffy to wait for details but things were now falling into place. "You could have called me. I would have helped." He held his hand up to stop the protest he saw forming. "But you're the chosen one. Not me. Not Riley. Not your mom. And if you felt this was the best way to take this thing down, then I respect that."

She nodded, he could see her silent thank you in her eyes.

He pressed his lips into a thin line, hesitant about speaking but knowing it was necessary. "About patrol."

She held up a hand, forestalling him. "I know. I can't any more until the baby is born."

"I could help out. Try to get here two, maybe three times a week depending on what else is going on. I'll keep away from the campus. I don't want to cause trouble."

"This means a lot."

He shrugged. "You won't even know I'm in the area." He glanced at the ring on her finger. The diamond caught the light and sparkled.