"Baby Shopping"

Author: Pamela
Contact: destructo-girl@cox.net

"Angel, you do have to leave the car."

Angel looked at his wife through the window of the driver's side of his 4Runner. She was standing beside the car, her hands on her hips, and giving him a stern look.

Sighing, Angel climber out of the car. "Buffy, you know I hate shopping, why subject me to the torture? It will make me grumpy and you hate that."
Buffy cocked her head to the side. "You expect me to walk around *alone*, lugging around all the packages of stuff for *our* baby for hours when I am six months pregnant?!"

Angel frowned; when she put it that way, he did feel like it was part of his responsibility. "Okay... but can we do this fast?"

Buffy glared at him and held up a notebook, showing him a list two pages long. "The baby will need ALL of this. It WILL take a while. LIVE with it! You aren't even the one that's bloated!"

Angel's shoulders sagged as he followed Buffy into the mall in Santa Barbara. It was a lot bigger then the one in Sunnydale, so it was more adequate for all their baby shopping. Buffy had started school two weeks before and decided that she needed to start on the nursery now, before she was too bogged down with schoolwork.

As soon as they entered the first baby store, Angel felt a bit differently about the whole experience. He watched Buffy pick out a few bodysuits, trying to get colors that would be acceptable for both a boy and girl. All of a sudden, there was a connection. They were buying clothes and bottles and a crib and everything for *their* baby! He felt a rush of enthusiasm at the idea.

He began to look more closely when Buffy asked his opinion about rompers and bibs. He actually began to care and Buffy noticed. She couldn't help but grin as they wandered through the store, picking out their baby's wardrobe.

"Honey, why are we getting everything with ducks on it?" Angel asked, as he realized most of the clothes and other materials Buffy had picked were adorned with fluffy cartoon-like ducks.

"Well, I'm going for things that don't look like they are just for boys or girls. Most of that stuff is yellow, and most of it has ducks. Do you hate ducks?" Buffy replied.

Angel shook his head. "No, I just wanted to know if you had a duck fetish I didn't know about."

"Very funny darling." Buffy grinned at him as he teased her.

Angel smiled back and bent to kiss her head. "According to your list, we have all the bodysuits, rompers, burp pads, caps, blankets, bibs, socks, mittens, sweaters, and" he bent his head to whisper the last item in her ear "nursing pads."

Buffy smiled at his shyness. "Yes, we do. Next we need to get all the little stuff, like pacifiers."

Three stores and two hours later, they had everything besides the furniture, bedding and everything else that would go in the room. Angel had no idea one little baby would need the dozens of packages he felt like he was holding. He'd even rented one of the strollers they provided at the mall because his arms got so tired holding it all.

"Where are we getting the furniture?" Angel asked his wife.

"My mom told me about this store about ten minutes from here that has a ton of baby furniture, along with bedding." Buffy told him as they walked slowly through the mall back towards the car. "The only thing is, we need a monitor and I doubt they carry those."

"That's the thing with the radio so we can hear the baby from another room, right?" Angel asked. He hadn't been around a baby for over two centuries, so his small amount of modern apparatuses was only due to his recent contact with Toby.

"Yeah.. I wonder where Radio Shack is... hopefully not far from here." Buffy replied, looking around for a directory.

"Actually, there was one right across from that first store we went into when we got here." Angel informed her. He remembered how at first he'd only been interested in the golf tournament they'd been showing as Buffy had shopped.

"Really? That's perfect. You're so smart for remembering that." Buffy smiled at him.

Angel smiled back at her, loving the look she was giving him. She was in the mood!

Feeling practically jovial, after all, it had been over a week since the last time they'd made love; he followed Buffy through the mall to the store. He managed to think with the head on his shoulders long enough to try to pick a baby monitor with his wife.

They had picked one out and were about to get a salesman to get them one when something caught Angel's eye.

Babycam.

"Buffy, we have to get *this* one!" He exclaimed.

Buffy looked at him strangely. "Honey, we just need to know if the baby is crying.. a regular monitor will be fine."

"But with this we can *see* the baby, even when we aren't in the room." Angel countered.

"Why do we need to, though?"

"Because!" Was the only argument Angel could come up with.

"Angel it's three hundred dollars."

"Buffy, money is no object. Don't worry about it."

"Yeah, but this is practically a *waste*!" Buffy replied, then seeing the look in his eyes, she sighed. "But you still really want it, don't you?"

Angel nodded. "I really do."

Buffy shrugged her shoulders. "But when everyone gives me a crazy look when they find out, I will make sure they know it was *your* idea."

At Angel's insistence, Buffy sat on the couch and put her feet up while he carried the packages with the clothes, diaper bag, bedding, diapers, wipes, mobile, and about a million other things Buffy would have to go through and put away up in the empty room that would serve as a nursery. He then trudged up the stairs with the unassembled baby swing, bassinet, and changing table. The crib, dresser and rocking chair was due to be delivered in a week.

By the time the car was emptied out and everything was on the nursery floor, Angel was exhausted. He walked into the living room and found Buffy asleep on the couch. Didn't matter, he was too tired to get frisky now.

Buffy yawned and opened her eyes, finding herself laying on the couch in the nearly dark living room. She saw Angel sleeping in the lazy boy and glanced at her watch. They had been sleeping for about two hours.

It took a few minutes and some effort, but Buffy got up off the couch. She was getting very hungry and it was dinnertime. Looking in the refrigerator, she found the leftover pot roast her mother had insisted they take home with them when they had gone over for dinner the night before last. Angel adored her mother's pot roast, so it would definitely do for dinner.

Angel woke up to find Buffy standing beside his chair in the living room. She smiled down at him.

"Wake up sleepyhead."

Angel ran his hand over his face. "Did I fall asleep?"

Buffy nodded. "About two and a half hours ago. Hungry?"

"Actually, I'm starving." Angel answered, getting up from the chair. "Do I smell your mother's pot roast?"

Buffy smiled and nodded. "I reheated it. Is that okay for your dinner? I also cooked some broccoli."

"Sounds delicious." Angel grinned as he took her hand and led her to the kitchen.

They sat down at the table and began serving themselves. Angel watched on in poorly disguised disgust and amazement as Buffy took a slice of the roast and placed it on a piece of bread that she'd spread miracle whip on. Then she spread peanut butter on another slice of bread and put her sandwich together. Buffy saw the look of horror on his face and ignored it. She'd overcome her anxiety of feeling like a pig.

"Don't let me spoil your appetite." She told him as she took a bite of her sandwich.

Angel shook his head and instead focused on his own meal. The food was so good he easily forgot the revolting sandwich his wife was eating across the table from him. As Angel ate the rest of the rather large amount of leftover pot roast, Buffy poured chocolate syrup on her bowl of broccoli.

Half an hour later, they were both done. Buffy rubbed her swollen belly and looked at the plate that formerly held the roast. "I can't believe you ate all that meat."

Angel shrugged as he leaned back in his chair. "It was good."

Buffy smiled and joked. "I think you're having a sympathetic pregnancy. We'll both end up gaining twenty-five pounds by December."

"Will you still love me when I'm all big?" Angel grinned.
"Sure, we can get our liposuctions together after I have the baby."

"Buffy you are not having liposuction!" Angel exclaimed.

"Oh yes I am! It's one thing to be huge and be able to say I'm pregnant, but to not be pregnant and to be twenty five pounds overweight is something else entirely."

"You will lose the weight!"

"I know... when I have the surgery."

Angel sighed. "I don't want you risking your life for something so silly."

"Would you rather I be fat for *months*?!"

"Baby, I don't care! I love you, you could stay fat for the rest of your life and I wouldn't care."

Buffy gasped. "Don't you even dare!"

"I'm sorry!" Angel replied, choking back laughter. "You have months before you need to even worry about losing weight. Worry about the baby's room now."

Buffy nodded, then frowned when she saw Angel yawn. "Are you tired?"

"Not really.. just still waking up from my nap, and you know how I get after a big meal."

"Guess that means you don't want to go to bed, right?" Buffy asked, smiling mischievously as she ran her foot up his leg.

"Au contraire." Angel replied with a grin.

Two seconds later they both stood and rushed from the room.

The End

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