Chapter Two
The March evening was icy-cold and drizzling, but to William's ears, the scalp-tingling sound of sleet hitting the windows sounded like the sweetest music after his wife Keiko's announcement after dinner of, "I'm pregnant."
At first, William was stunned and he couldn't say anything. His best friend Calder could, though; Calder - who was visiting for the weekend from the city - whooped and yelled and clapped William on the back and hugged Keiko (when had everyone else stood up from the table?) before it finally sunk in for William. Leaping up from his chair with a whoop of his own, he wrapped his arms around both of them, squeezing them hard.
"Man, did I pick the right weekend to visit," Calder laughed as he extracted himself so that William could kiss Keiko properly.
"How far along are you?" William asked breathlessly when he let her go.
As Keiko tapped the bracelet on her wrist to bring up the projection of her Palm screen, Calder commented, "Nice. I'll take it as a sign of a very healthy relationship that you can't guess."
"Nearly a month," Keiko said, ignoring Calder and showing them the results. "I just had a feeling… I mean, I'll have to make an appointment to be sure, but these things are pretty accurate. My friend Sasha tested a false negative at the doctor's that a Preg-i-Known caught."
"Look," William pointed to the holographic image, "estimated due date: November 12-19. Probability of gender: 67% female. We're having a girl!"
"You should name her Calder," Calder said, nodding decisively.
"No," Keiko replied, just as decisively.
Calder looked at William pleadingly. "Will?"
"I'll work on it," William promised idly. He was already digging into his back pocket for his Palm. "I'm calling my mum. Right?" he looked up at Keiko. "I mean, I know it's early, but parents can know right away, right?"
Keiko shrugged. "I'm calling my dads, so do what you want." She beamed, looking more radiant than usual, and pushed herself up on her toes to kiss him again. William pulled her close, dizzy with the sudden twist in their lives, and deepened the kiss to anchor himself. Several moments later, he let her go and she settled back on her heels, her hand drifting off his cheek with a blissful smile.
"Okay, while you two do that, I'm going to call Angel," Calder said, pulling out his Palm. "Since he's basically your dad and you people with happy parental relationships talk forever even when it's not about important things."
Keiko turned her smile on Calder. "Great, so when you're done talking to Angel you won't mind starting dinner cleanup, then? Thanks." Before Calder could respond, she flashed a grin at William and went to call her parents from upstairs.
Muttering something about hoping that Angel was in a talking mood, Calder went to call him from the living room while William sat back down at the table, heart racing with excitement as he called his mother on video.
Most unusually, it took her four rings to answer, and even more unusually, she answered with audio only. She only ever did that if she was out somewhere where it would be rude. Had she gone out for dinner?
"William," her voice sounded a little breathy and high-pitched. "Hi sweetheart, what's going on?"
"Uh-" William took a second to figure out yet another turn in his expectations. "Are you busy? Can you turn on the video?"
"Oh, right-" She sounded distracted and William could hear rustling in the background and what sounded like a man's voice. "Just a minute, let me get somewhere more- Is it important, darling? I could call you back…"
William knew his mother had a life outside of him, of course, but he was always the priority. She'd made sure he'd known that; his whole life. He wanted to tell her about his exciting news, and thought that once she knew, she'd agree that he definitely should tell her that yes, it's very important. Still, he hesitated, wanting the moment to be right, and this didn't feel like it.
"Will?" her voice came through the speaker. "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah," William said quickly. "Everything's great, actually. Are- are you okay? What did I interrupt?"
"Oh, nothing," she replied a little too quickly. "Really. What did you want to say? Oh- What?"
There was that man's voice again. It sounded kind of like Angel's voice; William had heard that cadence of urgency often enough growing up to recognize it anywhere. In the living room, William heard Calder yell, "Holy shit!"
"William?" his mother's voice said into the phone just as Calder came pelting back into the kitchen, his eyes wide with incredulity. "What were you going to tell me?"
"Will!" Calder cried, skidding to a halt next to him. "Did you-"
"-Shh, in a minute, Cal," William said dismissively. "No, I haven't told her yet. Mum? Mum, are you going to turn on your video?"
Breathing heavily, Calder said, raising his own Palm to look at it, which weirdly only showed a blank shadowy-white screen, "A very strong word of caution on that, mate."
"Why?" William asked. "Go back to talking to Angel."
The video finally flicked on, revealing William's mother (whose cheeks looked a little pinker than usual), and-
Angel.
William glanced at Calder, whose eyes were still wide, but he put an arm around Wiliam's shoulders like he was going to need the support. William looked at Calder's screen (still blank) and then back at his own screen. The background was Angel's living room. So...William's mum had been visiting Angel when he and Calder called them simultaneously. Strong coincidence. Not impossible.
...So why wasn't Angel wearing a shirt? And why was Mum's hair kind of messy?
The second bombshell of the evening exploded very slowly in William's mind.
Angel jolted a little. "I should go-" he motioned toward the bedroom and sidled off screen while William's mother tried desperately to look unfazed by everything. Seconds later, the sounds of a drawer being opened came from Calder's Palm.
William's mother cleared her throat delicately. "Will? What did you want to tell me?"
William stammered, the explosion still ricocheting in his mind. "Um. We're having a baby, are you and Angel having sex?"
(The drawer in Angel's bedroom slammed shut extra hard.)
William's mother blinked several times. "What, I- You're what? You're- Keiko's pregnant?"
"Yeah. You and Angel are having sex?"
"Oh my god," Judith's free hand went to her rapidly reddening cheeks.
"Oh my god," William yelled.
"Oh my god!" Calder added, even louder.
"Oh my god," Angel's voice came from Calder's Palm, and suddenly Angel's head appeared on the screen at a weird angle. As he picked up the device, William suddenly realized that it had been looking up at his bedroom ceiling. "Will you people please stop yelling around the guy with sensitive hearing?"
"You're sleeping with Judith!" Calder cried, only lowering his voice a bit (Angel winced as he made his way back into the living room).
"With my mum!" William added.
"I'm going to be a grandmother?"
"Is Angel going to be a grandfather?"
"Okay," Angel said loudly over Calder's last comment, returning to Judith's side, "let's all calm down a bit. Oh, this is stupid-" He abruptly hung up on Calder, focusing on the other screen instead, and this time when he spoke the lack of the echo actually helped dispel some of the chaos from William's head. "One thing at a time: Will. You're having a baby." He grinned. "Congratulations."
William had to shake himself a bit. Was he? Was that a real thing that he'd found out just moments ago? It felt like ages and it didn't feel real. "Y-yeah," he stammered. "I think. I-yeah, Keiko showed us the test result. Right?" He looked at Calder.
Calder looked back at him evenly, "Man, I love you and your unborn child, but that is not the news of the night anymore."
"Yes," Angel said quickly. "Yes it is the news of the night. Right, Judith? How are you doing?" He glanced sideways at her.
Tears were streaming down her red, blotchy face, her expression fractured between horror and elation. She nodded, choking a bit, and said, "Yeah. Yes. Wow. When is she due?"
"Mid-November," William replied, unable to recall the exact dates at this particular moment. "And it's a good chance she's a girl."
"A girl," Judith repeated, beaming. "Our first test thought you were a girl," she said. Then added, unnecessarily, "It was wrong."
Everyone laughed, but it was a tense kind of laughter.
"We were going to call you Eleanor," she continued. "Until we went to the doctor's a few weeks later."
"Yeah, we're not picking out names yet," William said, distracted by how close she and Angel were standing together. Well, they had to be to fit in the frame, but William's mind was having a difficult time picturing them any further apart. What had Calder seen before running back into the kitchen?
"Except Calder," Calder said. No one paid the comment any mind.
In fact, no one said anything. An uncomfortable silence fell. William's mother wiped away the tears on her cheeks, which were still red but at least the tears had stopped. Angel looked like he wanted to bolt but was forcing himself to stay. Calder was tapping his foot on the ground, jaw clenched against saying all the things he wanted to say.
Finally, Judith said, "We were going to tell you. Soon."
With that as all the permission he needed, Calder burst out, "How?! How is this a thing? How long has it been going on? How could you not tell us? Howwww?"
"Breathe, Calder," Angel told him. Then he looked at Judith and they had a silent conversation about who would answer. Apparently, they decided on Judith.
"It's been going on about two months-" she started evenly, but Calder interrupted,
"-Two months!"
"-And as I said, we were going to tell you… We just hadn't decided when. Or how."
"But not like this," Angel added.
William suddenly felt the need to sit down. He fumbled behind him for a chair and plopped gracelessly onto it, resting his arms with the Palm on the table. Calder leaned over behind him, patting his back.
"So, like…" William asked, trying to make sense of this, "...you're dating?"
Both his mother and Angel winced slightly.
"Oh my god," Calder repeated.
"Wait…" William squeezed his eyes shut, trying to process this information. Angel, he expected this kind of behavior from. His mother, though… "You're not dating. You're just-"
"Not just-" Judith said quickly, and William opened his eyes to look at her. "Well, you see it's..."
"It's not romantic," Angel finished for her.
"Right," she agreed quickly. "But that doesn't make it less..."
After a moment, Angel tried, "Meaningful."
"Yes, thank you."
It was rare indeed when Angel had words that William's mother didn't. She was obviously as distraught as William was.
"Oh," William said, a little numbly. "Okay."
"Huh?" Calder added.
"Look," Angel said, looking straight into the little camera on the device, "why don't we regroup on this later? When we've all had some time. Come to town, Will, I'll buy you a celebratory round for your new fatherhood."
It sounded like the reasonable thing to do. Regroup. Process. Drink.
William nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, maybe I'll come back on Cal's train."
Angel nodded also. "Calder?"
Calder shifted behind William and let out a breath. "Yeah," he shrugged with one hand. "Yeah sounds good."
Angel looked at Judith, who was still staring at the screen. She smiled at William, letting her excitement at his news cloud everything else for the moment. Softly, with her voice breaking a little, she said, "I am so happy for you, Will."
William smiled back. "Thanks Mum. Talk to you later."
"Okay," she nodded.
William hung up. Ringing silence filled the kitchen.
Then after several moments, Calder said, "So in conclusion, either Angel's not getting laid tonight at all or he's getting laid really well."
William threw his hand back over his shoulder, shooing Calder away and not caring what part of his face he hit as he did.
Calder jumped away and said quickly, "Yeah… I'm going to get us drinks now." He left William sitting there, still trying to process.
Several moments later, Keiko returned. "What was all the racket down here?" she asked. "Babe? Are you okay?"
William felt her hands on his shoulders. She leaned over to look at him. "What's wrong?"
Coming back up from the cellar where the beer was kept, Calder answered, "We just found out that his mum's sleeping with Angel. And not even in a romantic way."
"What?" Keiko cried. "That's not even- They completely stole my thunder!"
William chuckled at that, and then it became a (slightly hysterical) laugh. "Yeah," he agreed. "They totally did. How?" he asked, repeating Calder's earlier question.
Having found the bottle opener, Calder pulled off the tops of the beer bottles as he replied, "Well, Angel took forever to answer, and when he did, he didn't have a shirt on - which is not that unusual, right? Not if you catch him when he's waking up or going to bed - but then I saw in the background-"
"-Cal, that was not my question!" William interrupted, taking the beer that Calder offered him.
"Well they didn't answer mine, did they?" Calder retorted as he sat down. "Except 'how long'... Two months…"
"Seriously?" Keiko asked as she pulled up a chair next to William to keep rubbing his shoulders consolingly. "And they took this long to tell you?"
"I know," William said weakly. "My mum always tells me what's going on in her life."
"Bet she doesn't," Calder said immediately.
William glared at him. Just because Calder didn't have a good relationship with his parents, he never seemed to believe how good William's was with his mother's.
Calder didn't seem to notice the glare and went on, "There's no way the last person she's been with was your dad."
William wrinkled his nose. He admittedly hadn't thought about it, but that was for the very good reason of not wanting to think about it. "Stop," he said. "I can't right now, okay? My life just turned upside down twice in about half an hour and it turns out that two upside downs don't make a right side up."
Calder's expression fell contritely. "Sorry," he said, and took a long sip of his beer.
Keiko continued rubbing William's back while the three of them sat in long silence. Eventually, the sleet started again, tapping at the windows. William hadn't even noticed it stop.
"Well," he said finally. "I guess if it makes them happy…"
"Almost definitely does," Calder said.
Keiko squeezed the back of William's neck. "Almost definitely," she agreed. "And you have something else to be very definitely happy about. When you're ready, let's argue about how your office is going to be the baby's nursery."
William blinked and looked over at her. "My office? What about your guest room?"
"Our guestroom," she replied firmly, "is for guests. Your office is for games."
"My office is for work!" William cried.
"Your work office is for work! Now when you come home, you'll have to pay attention to your family, can you imagine that?" Keiko grinned at him teasingly. "Come on. Let's go argue about what color we want to paint it." Her hand slid into his, tugging him up.
"You don't like the dark blue?" William asked incredulously, letting himself be towed away. He turned back to Calder and gestured wildly at his beer.
Getting the message, Calder grabbed it and followed them and joined in the argument, throwing out an occasional wild idea like he had a say in any of it. Soon enough, William found his happy mood back and could almost hear the music in the sleet again.
"I'm nervous," William confessed.
"Me too," Calder said. "Do you know what you're gonna say?"
"No!" William replied, "That's why I'm nervous!"
"Oh. I'm nervous because any minute now, Angel and your mum are going to walk through that door, sit down, and talk to us about their sex life."
William let his head fall into his arms on the table. He should have sent Calder straight home after they got off the train and promised to fill him in later. He loved Calder; they had grown up together like brothers, but they sometimes annoyed each other like brothers, too.
It was Sunday night and William had only had about a day to recover from finding out that he was going to be a father and that his mother was sleeping with his vampire father-figure, all in about the space of ten minutes. Keiko had helped him a lot with the first one and he was back to what he thought were probably normal levels of giddy and scared.
On the train into town, though, he and Calder had talked about the second one. Mostly, it was Calder asking things like, "Who do you think asked who first?" and "Did either of them give you any clues about this? Angel has seemed a bit happier lately…" and "At what point do you have to start calling him 'Dad'?"
They were waiting, now, at the Dragon's Crown for that celebratory drink Angel had promised. In many ways, it seemed too soon, but the work week started again tomorrow and William wouldn't get a better chance to celebrate the baby news until next weekend.
"There she is," William said softly as he noticed his mother enter the pub. Calder twisted on his bench to look around the booth.
Judith made her way over to them, unbuttoning her coat and pulling off her hat as she did. William stood up to greet her, and she beamed as she embraced him and kissed his cheek. She said hello to Calder as William sat down again, and as she took off her coat and hung it on the hook attached to the side of the booth, she said, "So how is Keiko?"
Chuckling a little, William replied, "Since finding out she's pregnant yesterday, she's doing about the same, Mum."
"But is she excited?" Judith pressed.
"Yeah, of course," William said. "She's already redesigning my office for the nursery. She says she wants to get it done before she's too fat to help."
Judith smiled at him. "I want as many updates as I can get before I hit the Creepy and Overbearing line, alright?"
Smiling back at her, William nodded. "Of course, Mum."
Marty came over to take Judith's drink order. After she told him her usual, she added, "And Angel should be here in about 20 minutes, so we'll take his usual, too."
"Very good," Marty smiled. "Anything else?"
"Are there any desserts leftover from dinner? We're celebrating tonight."
Marty grinned. "And what are we celebrating, if I may ask?"
Everyone looked at William, so he replied, unable to help his own grin, "We're pregnant."
Ever the voice of calm as the tender of a bar of demons, Marty's smile widened and he said, "Well, that is wonderful news. Congratulations, sir. I'll see what the kitchen might have leftover." He lingered, beaming, for just a moment, and then turned and headed back for the kitchens.
In the silence of his departure, Judith turned back to William and Calder and she let out a settling-in sort of sigh; the kind of thing one uses mostly to fill time but also to prepare oneself for something ahead.
"So…" William said when his mother didn't say anything after her sigh. "Angel's going to be late?"
"Not exactly," Judith replied. "I, er, told him the meeting time was a bit later. I thought it would be more comfortable to get whatever conversation we have about the two of us out of the way before he arrives."
William was relieved to hear it, and apparently so was Calder.
"Oh good," Calder sighed. "Angel's not very good at talking when he's awkward."
"No he's not," Judith agreed with an assuredness that William couldn't help reading into. "So…" Judith lifted her hands, inviting whatever it was they wanted to say. Before either of them could, however, she turned her head to look at William beside her. "I promise we were going to tell you soon. Both of you," she nodded to Calder. "I was going to wait until it could be done in person, though. It didn't seem like the sort of thing one calls about."
William quite agreed, and he shook his head to show this. "I mean…" he shrugged. "It's not exactly our business anyway. Who you want to…" He shrugged again.
"Which is why we didn't tell you at first," Judith said gently. "But now that it seems to be a more...enduring arrangement… Well, it's not exactly irrelevant to you."
William nodded softly as he took that in. Across from him, Calder played with his glass of beer, sliding it gently between his hands on the table as he also thought about that. After several moments, William asked, "Enduring? So...what does that mean, exactly?"
Judith folded her hands on the wood table. "For as long as we wish to maintain it," she replied. "There is no particular condition of time; either to commit or a limit."
Finally, Calder spoke. "What about Cordelia?"
Judith nodded like it was a question she had expected. "I assume you know their status?"
Calder shrugged. "Kind of the same? Together but not committed?"
Marty appeared with Judith's drink and several pieces of dessert. William took the creme brulee, since it looked the most appealing, but he wasn't really in the mood yet.
Judith speared a piece of her key lime pie, but didn't actually eat it before she said, "To be honest, I think Angel's more emotionally committed to her than he's supposed to be, but yes. Together when the situation allows, and leaving open room for other situations to arise."
"Like you and him," William said.
"Yes," Judith agreed. She lifted the piece of pie to her mouth and William marveled that she had the stomach for it at the moment. After she'd chewed, swallowed, and taken a sip of her gin and tonic, she added, "Next time she's in town, we'll see how well that works out on all sides."
William frowned and leaned his head into his hand, resting his elbow beside his creme brulee and beer. "That doesn't seem like you," he said.
Judith gave him a small smile. "Not for a long time," she agreed.
It made William's stomach twist a little bit to think that Calder might have been right about his mother sharing far less about herself than she'd led him to believe. Suddenly, he was questioning how much of his childhood had been half-truths. Would he be crafting similar half-truths in about eight months' time?
Judith's smile faltered. "Are you alright, darling?"
William shrugged. "Yeah," he said half-truthfully. "It's just… I didn't know, that's all. About a long time ago."
Judith's mouth twitched at the corner. "William, there are lots of things you don't know about who I was before you were born. We're all different people before we become parents and it's not like we take the time to sit our children down and tell them our life stories. It comes out in bits and pieces as they need to know." She paused and glanced at Calder before continuing,
"For me, it was challenging because I don't especially like the person I used to be. I was reckless and made a lot of mistakes that aren't especially fun for me to remember. If it would have helped you to know that I used to thrive on uncertainty - especially when it came to sex - I would have told you."
There was a brief moment of silence where William nodded, supposing that made logical sense. He still felt thrown, though.
"Are you thriving on it now?" Calder asked.
"Well, I wouldn't say 'thrive,'" Judith replied slowly. "But I trust Angel, and that helps balance some of the uncertainty."
Silence fell for another moment, William still unable to say anything coherent. He just listened as Calder continued the conversation with, "So how did you start?"
Judith took a moment to answer; long enough that William looked up at her. Eventually, she admitted, "I'm trying to figure out your real question, since I know you know how these things happen."
Shifting in his seat, Calder replied, "Yeah, I mean, I don't want details, I just- We're blindsided, here. Will especially. I guess I just wondered if we missed something or if you were blindsided, too."
"Oh," Judith nodded, relaxing a little. "Yes, it was sudden. Not out of the blue for our topic of conversation that evening, but there was no lead-up prior to that, for either of us."
Calder nodded and William felt a little bit better. At least they hadn't seen it coming, either.
After another moment of silence, Judith asked William softly, "Are you going to be alright, sweetheart?"
"Yeah," William replied, pulling himself together. "Yeah, of course. I'm happy for you guys. I think. Somewhere under all the shock, I mean."
Nodding, Judith said again with a little grimace, "I'm so sorry. I wish it could have been a gentler revelation. For all of us."
Calder nodded emphatically and picked up his beer to take a long sip. William picked his beer up, too, and found he could start thinking about the creme brulee.
"We'll let you know if anything changes," Judith added. "And you know you can ask questions if it'll help you process it."
Both William and Calder nodded. "Thanks, Mum," William said. "I appreciate that." He did have more questions, but even though she had invited them, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to ask them. He wasn't sure what he would do with the information he got. Did he really want to rock his notions of who his mother was any more? On the other hand, did he want to live in ignorance and risk getting blindsided again?
Judith speared another bit of key lime pie onto her fork and William picked up his spoon, tapping it lightly against the hard surface of the creme brulee. Calder reached out for the chocolate cake and shoved a forkful into his mouth.
Deciding that he couldn't get much more rocked than he was, William asked, "Is Angel the first person you've been with since Dad?"
In his peripheral vision, William could see his mother look at him in surprise, but he kept his gaze fixed on the hardened sugar top of his dessert. After a moment, she replied, "No."
William nodded. So Calder had been right. "Oh," he said softly.
After a moment, she asked, just as softly, "Why?"
William shrugged. "I just didn't know. I thought- Well, you always said I should wait for a relationship I'm sure about. I didn't know you'd ever been...sure."
Silence, and then a soft sigh. "I wasn't," Judith replied. "Did I teach you that it's wrong outside of certainty?" She sounded worried about this.
"No," William replied. "Not exactly, you just made it sound...not worth it."
Calder's fork dropped to his plate. "Not worth it?" he said incredulously. "It's sex. It doesn't have to be red hearts and rainbows for it to be worth it."
William looked up at him. "No, I get that," he said, shifting a little uncomfortably. He had found a few one night stands to be worth it. A few others not so much. In fact, he saw both sides pretty clearly. "I just figured since that's what Mum taught me, that's what she thought." He glanced at his mother briefly before looking back down at his dessert again. "I guess I was wrong."
"Will," Judith said gently, sighing like she'd been caught in a lie and wasn't going to defend it. "You only have a few years before you're going to have to start making the same decisions. What are you going to tell your little girl to minimize her chances of getting hurt?"
"I don't know," William admitted. "I guess I'll have to figure it out."
"I thought what Angel told me worked pretty well," Calder said, pausing to take another sip of his beer. "Sex is fun and do it as often as you want, but don't expect it to fill the hole left behind from your parents' lack of involvement and affection. Although…" he nodded toward William, "I guess that doesn't apply so much to you."
"Still sounds like solid advice," William replied. "I guess it all depends on the situation, doesn't it?"
Picking up her gin and tonic, Judith replied, "It's never straightforward."
Both William and Calder shook their heads in agreement and the silence that fell this time was a little more relaxed. William still felt unsettled by everything, but at least he felt like things would start to settle eventually. In the end, his mother sharing a bed with Angel was less life changing for him than his impending fatherhood. If he could get used to the idea of having a child, he could get used to his mother's relationship, too.
William very much hoped he would get used to the idea of having a child. That seemed like one of those things that one might never get used to completely.
Angel arrived a few moments later, spotted them from the door, and made his way over. He looked just as nervous as you'd expect of a man approaching the son of his lover for the first time since the awkward revelation of their relationship.
"Hey Will," Angel said as he got to the table and sat down in the seat next to Calder. He reached his hand across the table and offered a smile. "Congratulations."
"Thanks," William said, taking his hand and gripping firmly.
They let go and Angel sat down and immediately picked up the glass of scotch in front of him. "Thanks," he said to the table in general, clearly unsure who had ordered it for him.
"You're welcome," Judith replied. After a beat she added, "And you're also welcome: I already discussed our situation with William and Calder. Questions have been asked. Answers have been given. The air has been cleared - at least for now. We can move on."
"Oh thank god," Angel breathed out in relief, leaning back in his seat.
"Yeah, Judith made the right call on that one," Calder agreed, and William nodded emphatically. "So Will's going to convince Keiko to name their daughter Calder."
"That so?" Angel asked, lifting his scotch to his lips. "He must really love you."
"Oh, he does," Calder nodded. "In fact, it was his idea. I told him, 'Will, I really don't care what you name your kid, I mean-she's not mine.' But he insisted."
William rolled his eyes and finally broke the shell on the creme brulee, scooping up a small spoonful.
"Well, I'd pay to be there for that conversation," Angel replied. "Have we toasted Will yet?"
"We were waiting for you," Judith replied, reaching for her glass.
A bit embarrassed, William mumbled, "Seems like Keiko should be the one toasted. She's got all the hard work coming up."
"To both of you," Angel said, tilting his glass toward him. "You've both got a lot of hard work coming up."
"To my future grandchild," Judith added with a sparkle in her eye, "and the hard, yet rewarding work of growing up ahead for her. Or him. Or them."
Adding his glass to the mix, Calder finished, "And to all the hard work put into conceiving her. Or him. Or them."
The rest of them rolled their eyes but clinked their glasses together anyway and drank. To hard work, to growing up, and - apparently - to the sex that started it all.
Angel had asked William to stop by in the morning on his way to the train station because he wanted to give him something he'd forgotten to bring from home, so William arrived early the next morning and knocked on Angel's door. Calder was with him, wanting a little action on the free coffee Angel had promised when Calder had pointed out that 7:30am was the middle of the night for vampires. (Apparently, Angel brewed better coffee than the "sludge from the swamps of hell" served in the break room at Calder's work.) The intervening time between parting from the Dragon's Crown and arriving at Angel's door several hours later was just enough for William's understanding of the new situation to coalesce and give rise to a few actual conclusions.
That is, William had formed something of an agenda aside from just picking up whatever Angel wanted to give him.
"So since you're sleeping with my mother, we need to talk."
Angel dropped the ceramic coffee pot with a loud bang on the table and he cursed as dark brown coffee sloshed out onto the laminate. Calder snorted.
Angel cleared his throat and hurriedly went to fetch a towel from the drawer to clean up the mess. William poured Calder and himself a cup of coffee and they shared a smirk as Angel focused all his attention on wiping up the spill. When he was done, Angel tossed aside the towel and looked up.
"Okay. I'm ready. Hit me."
"Literally?" Calder asked. "Because he could, you know. It's in the Bro Code."
"I don't want to hit you," William said quickly (Angel looked relieved). "I just want to straighten a few things out."
Angel nodded solemnly while William took a sip of his coffee.
"First," William said, "what are your intentions with her?"
Angel contemplated William for a moment before he said, "I want to be whatever she needs me to be," he said. "If I can, I want to fill everything she thinks is missing from her life. If I can't, I at least want to make her happy."
William stared at him, smiled, and then nodded. "Then as long as you stick to that, you have my blessing."
"And mine," Calder said, leaning against the back of one of the chairs.
"Thanks," Angel said, breathing out a relieved sigh. "So what's the next thing we have to talk about? The fact that you'll kill me if I ever hurt her?"
"Sounds like you know that one," William said.
Angel nodded. "It's a given."
William gave him a smile. "Then I think I'm starting to feel better about this whole thing."
Angel returned the smile. "Good," he said. "That's good. Me too."
"Good talk," Calder agreed. "Also, good coffee. Can I borrow a thermos?"
Angel went to get one and that reminded William why Angel had asked him there in the first place. "So you said you had something for me?"
Angel chuckled and shook his head. "Right," he said, "of course. The reason you're here at all…" He handed Calder the thermos and went to fetch it.
William sipped his coffee while Calder filled the thermos with what was left in the carafe and stowed it in his bag. Several seconds later, Angel returned and held something out to William.
"Here, I thought you could use this."
It was a book with several pieces of paper sticking out of the top. William read the title. "A spellbook?"
"I marked the ones I thought you could use to make your house safer. For the baby. I used a bunch of them for Connor."
"Oh…" William smiled. "Thanks, Angel."
Angel nodded, and silence fell again. After a moment, William checked his Palm bracelet for the time. "Well, I'd better be off if I want to see my dad before the train leaves."
Calder sighed. "And I should get to work."
"Will you be back in town soon?" Angel asked.
"I'll try," William promised. "Thanks again for the spells, Angel; I'll take a look at those on the train."
"No problem," Angel replied, following the other two toward the front door.
When they got there, William turned to embrace Angel goodbye, and he squeezed Angel tightly. Even as a kid, William had found comfort and strength in Angel that he had never found in his own father; maybe it had something to do with the fact that Angel had saved him from literal monsters about to devour him. That did tend to leave an impression.
Still, even though they appeared the same age now, and even though Angel had repeated on no uncertain terms that he had never sought to be a father to either William or Calder, William felt the strength and pride that a father ought to have through Angel's returning embrace. (He'd gotten much better at the hugging thing over the years.)
When they pulled away, Angel congratulated William one more time. Then he yawned and closed the door behind them as they left.
It seemed that every time William saw his real father, the man's gray hairs had at least doubled in proportion to the thick black mop that he'd had when William was growing up. It occurred to William that his memory might just be reverting back to the clearest mental images he had of his father, so William was perpetually surprised to see the more-salt-than-pepper look his father had now. It also occurred to William that if that were the case, he needed to come see his father more often.
They embraced warmly but briefly, and then Sam asked if William would like something to drink.
"No, thanks," William replied. "I've already had coffee, and I don't have much time anyway."
"When did you get into town?"
"Last night. It was kind of an impromptu visit."
"Ah," Sam nodded. "You stayed with your mum?"
"Yeah…" William nodded too.
Sam shifted on his feet and cleared his throat. "So how's she doing? I had to miss the trip to France last year, so it's been…jeez. Almost two years?"
"She's good," William said, and then automatically corrected his grammar: "Well. She's doing well. Keeping busy, still working at the hospital and everything…"
"Good," Sam said.
"Yeah… So I have some news. It's why I came to town."
Sam raised his eyebrows curiously. William shifted on his feet and grinned.
"We're having a baby, Dad. Keiko's pregnant."
Sam's mouth dropped open in surprise, but it quickly turned into a wide grin, followed by a laugh. "Seriously? You mean… Really?" He laughed again. "I'm going to be a grandfather?"
William nodded, grinning just as broadly. Sam laughed again and hugged his son tightly. "A grandfather! I'm going to be a grandfather!" Suddenly, he pulled back, a look of dawning horror on his face. "Oh my god, I'm going to be a grandfather… Do I look that old to you?"
"No, of course not, Dad," William laughed to cover up the part of him that wasn't quite truthful. "Anyway, you still have to wait eight months for that. We haven't even seen a doctor yet."
"But you'll keep me updated?"
"Of course," William replied, knowing that he would have to consciously remember to call periodically.
"Good, good. Well…" Sam pushed his hands into his pockets. "I wish I had some sort of fatherly advice to give you…"
William shrugged. "It's okay…Ang—uh, Mum says that most people just wing it."
"Yeah, that sounds about right." Sam nudged William jokingly. "I guess we didn't mess you up too much, did we?"
William smiled. "Nope, I turned out alright…" Not that his father had really had a hand in half of William's rearing. After the divorce when he was eight, it had been mostly birthday/Christmas presents, trips to the zoo, and the occasional weekend together.
Silence fell and Sam's grin faltered, but didn't completely disappear. He cleared his throat. "I bet your mother was over the moon," he said.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, she's pretty excited."
Sam nodded knowingly.
"Oh, but we're not going to announce it until the first trimester is done," William added. "Just in case…you know. So don't spread it around just yet."
"Right, right of course," Sam said. "Yeah, we did the same thing with you. Did your mum tell you we almost named you Maggie?"
"She said Eleanor," William said, a bit confused.
Sam wrinkled his brow. "Eleanor? Oh right, I guess it was. Eleanor, yeah…"
They both shifted their weight again, and William looked at his watch. "I should get to the station…" he said.
"Right. Don't want to miss your train… Well, thanks for stopping by and giving me the exciting news…"
"Yeah, of course, Dad."
They embraced again. William felt the pride through the contact, but not so much the strength. Still, it wasn't like Sam was a demon-fighting vampire. "Love you, son."
"Love you, too."
And then William left with an uncomfortable squirmy feeling in his stomach.
