Disclaimer: Don't own anybody but Saoirse

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Doyle walked over to where the other figure lay as Angel slowly made his way down the stairs.

"How'd you...where'd....You're dead." the vampire finally came out with.

"All will be explained in good time Angel-man. Could you give us a hand?"

Doyle was hunkered down beside his companion and had pulled back the hood that had been covering their face. Angel looked down into the face a girl. She was in her late teens. Dark hair spilled to her shoulders. Had she been standing she would have been tall for a girl. Her eyes were closed and her skin was very pale.

"She okay?"

"She should be. Opening inter-dimensional portals sure takes a lot out of ye. Bit o' rest and she'll be grand."

Angel scooped the sleeping girl up into his arms. Blood from her hand dripped to the floor.

"There's a first aid kit in the office."

The Bracken demon nodded and hurried to find it. Now that the shock of seeing a friend he thought long dead had started to fade Angel noticed something else. The coppery tang of blood filled his nostrils. It was intoxicating. He could feel the girl's heart beat against his chest, pumping her blood around her body. He stared down at her cut palm and the redness that was pooled in it. It hummed to him. It sang to him of strength and an overwhelming sense of power.

"Her blood.." he called, looking up to see Doyle standing in the doorway of the office, first aid kit in hand. "She's not human." It wasn't a question.

Doyle shook his head. "I'll explain properly later but no she's not." He grabbed the two rucksacks and followed Angel up the stairs.

Angel gently placed the girl on his bed and stepped back as Doyle cleaned and bandaged her hand. There was something familiar about her but he couldn't place it. Her blood puzzled him. The only blood he'd come across anywhere near that powerful had been Slayer's blood. Yet even that fell short of this girl.

Angel crossed his arms over his chest as Doyle sat on the end of the bed.

"Explanation time right?"

The vampire nodded. "You might wana pull up a chair."

Angel sat in the armchair opposite Doyle, his face a mask. "I saw you die. Years ago."

Doyle looked down at his feet then back up at Angel. "We had to find a reality where either of us didn't already exist or where dead. Else the portal wouldn't have worked and we'd both be dead now."

Angel nodded slowly. He was familiar with portals.

"What reality are you from then?"

"Similar to this one in many ways. Though time moves faster in ours. Eighteen years ago a war started. The forces of darkness slowly gaining ground inch by inch. But we had something they desperately wanted." He nodded at the girl.

"You feel the power that flows through her. You probably more than most. When she was born we put every kind of protection around her. Magical and otherwise. Problem was though they ran out once she turned eighteen. They attacked the day she did. Everyone was killed. Her parents, Willow, Giles, Wes...We're the only two left." Doyle paused for a moment. They were painful memories and still fresh. But Angel needed to know the story.

The girl murmured something in her sleep. Angel's eyes widened.

"Was that Irish?"

"Aye man. We took her to your old home. Back to Ireland where it was easier to keep her safe. And it was good for a few years. All happy families and all that jazz. But the contingency plan was always in place. One day we'd have to use it. And that was today hence the ending up on your hotel floor a short while ago."

Angel studied Doyle. He looked tired and faint traces of grey were beginning to show in his hair.

"What's her name?"

"Saoirse" Doyle replied.

Saoirse. Angel's lips twitched up at that. Fitting to name the child freedom.

"What is she?"

Doyle grinned. "Thought you'd never ask. Our girl's the result of a night of passion between our realties version of one Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer, and your goodself. By all laws of biology she should exist but hey mystical pregnancies are hardly a new thing eh?"

For the second time that night Angel's mouth hung open. His dark eyes bored into Doyle's.

Buffy…pregnant …child…our child….

His brain was putting two and two together and coming up with five.

The shocks just keep on coming… Doyle interrupted Angel's train of thought by handing him an envelope.

"This should explain it to you better. I'm pretty sure that has everything in it and well you did write it yourself so…" he trailed off.

Angel nodded and stood up, taking the envelope from the Irishman. "Doyle, I.."

"Say no more until you read that." He said pointing to the letter. "Me I'm going to find a drink. I'll be downstairs when you're ready."

Angel fell back into the chair and careful opened the letter. His mind spun out a thousand different reasons and possibilities for what he'd just been told. He was already engrossed as Doyle left the room and pulled the door shut behind him.