Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story. Special thanks to all those who take the time to review. I live off of those reviews! I have tried to correct all the spelling and grammar errors for the second part of this story, please let me know if I make mistakes, though, I will gladly fix those that I miss. Thank you so much for the positive feedback and constructive criticism, I greatly appreciate it.

Chapter 49

A puffy eyed and pouting Buffy was curled in the corner of the couch. Fighting to keep from wincing, Angel approached cautiously. Her arms were crossed and the look on her face was very expertly convincing Angel that he should proceed with care.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He sat on the chair catty-corned to where she was sitting. "I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I know that I was wrong. I'm sorry Buffy."

"Why didn't you tell me Cordelia was alive? I went through your credit card receipts this afternoon and I swear, Angel, if Connor hadn't told me what was going on I was going to get on a plane and go to Willow's. I thought you were dating another woman! You paid for her apartment and her clothes and all this stuff. You took her to dinner on the nights that you were supposed to be working late. What am I supposed to think?"

"I wound never cheat on you, Buffy! Do you know how much I love you? Do you have any idea what I would do for you? I promised her not to tell anyone, I thought you would know me well enough to know that I would never hurt you like that!"

"Don't turn this around on me! You were a huge ass for not telling me something was up. I thought you were being all secretive because of something bad. You have been known to do that on occasion, you know. Angel, you have to tell me things! You have to come to when you are hurt or need to talk to somebody. I can't be the person you go to when things are great, that won't work."

"I get that. I screwed up, okay? I get that. Buffy, I love you. I want to be with you forever. I know that I've been a lousy partner lately but I want to change all that. I talked with Cordy and she isn't the person I thought she was and I've been living in the past. I want to live here, with you, right now. No more thinking how great things were and how much I miss them. Things are great now and I know that. I want to be a better man, Buffy! You make me want to be a better man!"

She sniffed and wiped her nose with a balled up tissue she was pretty sure had been in her hand for almost half an hour. Wrinkling her nose in distaste, she threw the offending article to the coffee table. "Connor fixed the table. And a glass guy is coming tomorrow to fix the door."

"That's great. Buffy, I don't give a damn about the door! Do you still love me?"

She looked at him in shock. "Of course I still love you, you idiot! I will always love you. I have loved you since I was sixteen! I will never stop loving you. But sometimes, Angel, I just really want to hit you so hard you won't wake up for a while."

"Okay…I can understand that. If I were you I would want to hit me too. Buffy, I've had an epiphany. Really, I have. Will you…will you give me another chance?"

"Well now that I know you aren't cheating on me, of course I will. I'm just really upset Angel. You should have told me what was going on. I want this relationship to be open and honest and I want us to tell each other things. I don't want to be your wife when you feel like it. I want to be your wife all the time."

"I want that too." Rising, he made his way to the couch and sat gingerly next to Buffy. "I want you, Buffy. I want to watch our baby grow; I want to have a family with you."

"You have a lot of groveling to do, you know. You can start with making me a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Then you have to rub my back."

Smiling, he kissed her hands as he stood. "I can do that. I promise you, Buffy, no more secrets. I'll tell you anything you want."

A strange look crossed her face before she smiled. Following him into the kitchen, she sat at the table and put her feet on another chair. Drying her eyes and wiping her nose with a tissue she found in her pocket, she prepared what she considered his first act of penance. She wanted to make him work for her forgiveness a little, even if she had already internally forgiven him.

"Anything? Okay…Will told me that you two used to, what did he call it? Oh yeah, you two used to 'jam' together. What about that?"

He nearly dropped the knife he was using to spread peanut butter. "I'll kill him. When did he tell you that?"

"Does that matter? I talk to people, you know. Spill."

"He asked me to teach him to play the piano. He taught me some guitar chords."

Her jaw was slack. "You play the piano? Why did I not know this?"

"It never came up?"

Sitting next to her, he pushed the plate in front of her with a hopeful look on his face.

"Uh huh. Seriously, what haven't you told me? I mean, we left a lot unsaid in Sunnydale. We never actually got to move to the whole, get-to-know-each-other-in-depth thing. And we still haven't done it. Why is that?"

He thought for a moment before answering. "Well, I think we just became complacent. I think we thought we knew each other. I mean, we love each other. I would do anything for you, Buffy. But love doesn't mean that we know each other as well as we should. I forgot that." Staring hard into the wood grain, he finally looked up after a few seconds of listening to her chew. "Okay, what do you want to know?"

"What don't I know? What don't I know about you?" She spoke in between mouthfuls of peanut butter and bananas.

"Umm…that's a tough one. Well, I can play the piano. I was alive, well not alive exactly, but I was on this planet for a long time. And for a long time I had a soul and no purpose. I went almost one hundred years just hanging out; I didn't fight the good fight. I had a lot of free time on my hands. A hundred years is a long time to learn new things."

Swallowing quickly, she pointed to her mouth and made a drinking motion with her hand. Angel was up and pouring her milk before she had finished the movement. Drinking the milk, she swallowed again and tried to get the peanut butter off the roof of her mouth before speaking again.

"Okay. You learned things. Like what?"

"I got into music for a while. I still am into music; I just don't have any time to enjoy it anymore. I found out I like to read, I like to draw. I always liked to draw; I was just too busy killing and maiming and do it before I had my soul."

"You never draw anymore."

"I do. I just do it in private. It's cathartic. It's like therapy, and I think that should be private. I draw sometimes for other people; I used to do it when I had Angel Investigations. I would draw what Cordy described in her visions. Now, though, I just do it to relax. I draw what I see or what I'd like to see."

"Show me something."

He paused and considered his response carefully. "Well…I have something for you but I'm waiting until the baby's born to give it to you. It's kind of a vision of the future kind of thing. Not a real vision, just an image. I wanted it to be a surprise. I have others, though. I have a sketchbook I keep in the office."

"Will you show me sometime? I want to know you, Angel. I want to know what you like and what you do."

"Okay. I can show you them tomorrow. After breakfast."

Intrigued, she finished the last bite of her sandwich and rubbed her burning eyes. Crying all day had taken its toll on her. Leaning back in the chair and trying to look impassive, she relaxed her shoulders before speaking. "Keep going. I want to here more."

He laughed nervously and stood to fidget with things in the kitchen. After a few moments, he started making coffee in a very slow and methodical way. It soothed him. "I like cars. I'd love to restore some old seventies hot rods. I don't have time for that, though. I like hockey. I'm a great skater." He paused when he was done preparing the coffee and just watched it start to drip into the carafe. "We never got to go skating," he said in a low and regretful voice. There was a lot he regretted when it came to Buffy.

She looked at the table and felt more tears coming. She had thought she had cried all her tears away earlier in the day, but her body had found a reserve. "Yeah…we never got to do things like that. We never got to be a normal couple."

"We were never a normal couple. Maybe, though, maybe we could do things like that, after the baby's born. We could go on vacations, too. We could be a real family. We'll go skating; we'll go to the beach, the movies, the Alps. We'll do all the things that we could never do before."

"That would be nice." He voice was soft and had a whisper like quality to it as she spoke. "We missed out on a lot, didn't we?"

He finally turned to her and leaned against the counter. "We experienced a lot, too, though, Buffy. We went through things that made us into the people we are today. I'm not sure I would have changed things. Well, I would have changed the whole turning evil and killing people thing, but not mush else.

I think I had to leave Sunnydale. I had to figure out who I was. For all the years I have been on this Earth, Buffy, I have never before now understood who I was and what I wanted. Our time apart made me grow into a new person. And Buffy, if we hadn't have separated, you would have gone through life so differently. Who's to say it would have been better?"

"I can't think about that. It would have been better because we would have been together. I don't want to focus on that, though. I want to focus on now. Let's do something. Let's do something that couples do."

Looking towards the ceiling, Angel cocked his head to the side. "Can we do something families do? I think Connor needs that. I know he needs us right now. Let's do something as a family."

"Is that what we are? I mean, Angel, Connor is a wonderful young man. But, can we ever be a family? Can he ever look at me that way?"

Walking to his lover, Angel sat next to her and put his hands on hers. "He already loves you. There is no question about that. The question is whether you and I can not screw this up. Mainly, if I can avoid screwing it up. I think we can be a family. If you're willing."

"Of course I am. I want that. I want him to be a part of this. I want us to all be good together."

"Good." He kissed her before she could say anything else. Holding her closely, he kissed her passionately, deeply. He wanted to take her upstairs and make love to her, but he sensed she wouldn't be up to the exertion after her emotionally trying day.

Standing, he took Buffy's hand and led her to couch. She wasn't in much condition to go out, and he was in no mood to do so. Calling up the stairs, he waited for a perturbed Connor to come to the top of the landing.

"Come downstairs. Let's do something normal and boring."

Walking down the stairs with a look that was obviously meant to convey he thought Angel was insane, Connor conceded to the request. Looking at a tired and blotchy faced Buffy, he smiled. They were making up, he realized. More than anything, at that moment Connor wanted his father and step-mom to be happy. Sitting in an overstuffed chair, he swung his legs over the armrest and looked expectantly at Angel.

Hading the remote to Buffy, Angel went into the kitchen to retrieve coffee and make popcorn. He could hear Buffy and Connor arguing already over what pay-per-view movie to rent. Smiling to himself, Angel felt as if years of chains were starting to be removed from his ankles. There was a possibility that he was going to have a real, and almost normal, family. Normal, he thought, was optional.