A/N Ah the insanity of Mayor Wilkins, just as much fun to write about as Drusilla's insanity. Which we'll be getting back to soon enough.

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"Science fair, when the science nerds come out of hibernation." Cordelia muttered, making her way through the throng of people in the hall and trying to avoid touching any of them. Some of them smelled...she didn't really know how to categorize the smell. Chemical? Which made sense, they were science nerds, they'd probably perserved themselves for prosterity. She spotted Xander and Faith and made her way over to them.

"Please tell me you haven't decided to become a science nerd." She all but ordered Faith.

"Of course not, I used to shove the heads of people like them in the toilet. Usually after they condescended to me. For some reason being a foster kid meant they thought I had no brain. An observation I took exception to."

"Don't blame you." Xander had been bullied enough by Tony Harris with that particular observation himself. "We're just passing though, not stopping. Willow would have been in Heaven though. Except for the fact that she always came in second to Chris over there." He pointed at a tall boy signing up for the science fair.

"His brother Daryl was a football player, I went out with him a couple times." Cordelia admitted. "Before he died falling off a cliff, he actually thought rock climbing was fun."

"I used to think cliff diving was fun." Faith admitted. "At a quarry south of Boston, now I think I was an idiot. It was beyond dangerous. And what is that smell?" She held her hand up to her nose, it really wasn't doing her morning sickness any good to have that whatever it was smell clogging up her nose.

"Science nerds traveling in a pack. Let's get out of here." Cordelia led the way through the throng of people with Xander running guard as they worked to get Faith passed the group of kids before she threw up. They were well aware of her morning sickness and the fact that smells seemed to trigger it. They didn't make it far before Eric Gittleson jumped in front of them and started snapping pictures of both girls.

"Oh gods, now it's yearbook nerds!" Cordelia exclaimed. "I thought your hibernation period ended in the spring!"

"Just getting a jump on things." He answered before wondering off to snap more pictures. Finally the trio made it passed the hall with the science fair nerds and Cordelia helped Faith into the bathroom while Xander waited outside the door for them.

Cordelia checked to make sure no one else was in the bathroom and Faith darted into the first stall. Faith was able to conceal the small baby bump that had started to form with baggy clothes, but eventually their classmates would know she was pregnant. Cordelia winched at the sound of her friend throwing up.

Friend, that was a new concept for Cordelia, especially since Faith wasn't the kind of girl she'd been 'friends' with in the past. Those had simply been people deemed worthy to be Cordettes, which was not the same thing as an actual friend. When Faith had declared that Cordelia could be the Mom who got to raise the baby Faith was carrying it had, for once, left Cordelia completely speechless. The last couple of weeks through had given Cordelia time to think about it and she'd come to the conclusion that...she'd help however she could. She and Xander were talking, bickering and getting close. She'd seen the same looks directed at her that Faith had and knew that same look was on her own face. She'd have to face the social consequences soon. Apparently she'd very publically done it in the other timeline. But that baby was part of the package of a relationship with Xander and that meant commiting to the baby and her future too.

Unlike Faith though, Cordelia was optimistic that Faith would have a longer life then she was afraid she would. Mason and his team had pretty much emptied the town of vampires, once Faith's compulsion to hunt came back in force she'd have a patrol partner in Xander and Mason for backup, along with all the protections and equipment Mason was teaching them to use and it would just be a matter of keeping the vampire numbers from rising again.

Faith came out of the stall and went to the sink, after rinsing her mouth out and washing her hands she looked at herself in the mirror. "A bit more then halfway through and why the Hell do they call it morning sickness? It's smells that set me off, not morning."

"It's different for everyone, I guess." Cordelia leaned against the corner. "But aside from that, how are you feeling?"

"Tired, all the time. And I've started talking to her. She's got ears already, I don't know if she can hear me, but I talk to her anyway."

"You seem pretty sure it's a girl."

"Two reasons, one, in my nightmare I saw a girl and two, Slayers have their own 'extra' ability. We get dreams, some times about the lives of Slayers that came before us and sometimes about the future. I'm convinced this is a girl. Xander's going to drive her nuts being protective." Faith grinned. "In my nightmare he actually tried to convince her it was his job to scare her date. I'm sure he really believes it too."

"He's got a big protective streak, that's for sure." Cordelia agreed. "Come on, break's over, we've got to get to class."

"Right behind you, Queenie." Faith followed her, friend? yes, friend. Cordelia was becoming a friend, not just Xander's almost girlfriend and the girl who might get to be the Mom that raised this baby. But an actual friend.

Something all three of them very much needed.