Part Five

"Buffy, over here!"

The Slayer glanced across the crowded cafeteria and saw Willow waving at her from a table near the windows. Cordelia was seated opposite her. She waved back to show that she had seen them and proceeded to wait for the lunch line to pick up the pace. It was the middle of the first day of classes, and the place was packed. She grabbed a large caesar salad, a grilled chicken sandwich, onion rings, chocolate pudding, and a large sprite. By the time she got through the line and over to the table, Willow and Cordelia were already finished eating and were chatting animatedly.

"What's up?" Buffy asked as she sat down beside Willow.

"Turns out we're in the same acting class," the red-head informed her.

"And the teacher is such a super-hottie," Cordelia grinned. "Not to mention an amazing actor."

"We were doing this improvisational exercise today," Willow continued. "Just to get us warmed up and used to each other. There'd be two people on stage, and each time the teacher yelled "change" they would have to start a completely different scene starting in the same position they had been in when the last scene ended. Then they made it more challenging by letting other students call out "freeze." The two people on stage would have to stop, and the other student would replace one of the actors on stage and start a different scene from the same positions."

"It was a lot of fun," Cordelia nodded in agreement. "There was the one guy -Scott- I was doing a scene with. We were pretending to be ballroom dancers, and just as he put me in a dip, the  prof yelled change, and what does Scott do next?" She paused for dramatic effect. "He hisses and bares his canines as best he can and pretends to suck my blood. So I jerked away, shoved him with my foot, and pretended to stake him."

Buffy couldn't help but laugh at the irony in the situation. "I'm sure the look on the guys face was something to see when you responded that way."

"He probably expected you to scream," Willow agreed. "He looked  rather disappointed when their turn ended there."

"Yeah, but after seeing the group that went after me, I know I totally suck," Cordelia lamented.

"No you don't," Willow protested. "You were a little awkward at first, but the moment you forgot to think of it as acting you were very natural."

"Thanks," the brunette smiled. "Of course you were hilarious as a two-ton tap dancing  bunny rabbit!"

Buffy stared at her usually fairly reserved friend. "Do I want to know?" she smiled.

Willow flushed pink. "During Freeze this one girl started to pretend she was Godzilla on ice skates. So I thought I giant hopping, dancing rabbit could take her on."

"Even the teacher was laughing," Cordelia nodded. "My god, did you really eat all that?"

Buffy looked down at her now empty plate. "I know. It's totally disgusting isn't it?"

"Not disgusting," Willow disagreed. "Astounding."

The blonde stuck her tongue out at her best friend. Her ob-gyn had informed her that in the second trimester her appetite would likely reach voracious proportions. It was perfectly normal for a pregnant woman. That didn't make it pleasant, for it meant she was always hungry and thus always eating. "It's not funny," she pouted. "My stomach was growling all through my British Literature Seminar. The people around me kept giving me funny looks."

"I'm sure they were," the redhead giggled. "I've heard you in the morning."

Buffy looked pleadingly at Cordelia. "Isn't someone going to defend me?"

The brunette shook her head. "I would. But you actually woke me up this morning when you were in the kitchen."

Buffy shook her head, pausing momentarily at the feeling of eyes watching her. "Someone's behind me." She watched Willow and Cordelia's faces as they looked across the crowded room.

"There's hundreds of people behind you," Willow commented. "This is a University."

"It was Riley wasn't it?" she confronted her friends. The uncomfortable looks she received told her all she needed to know. At least he didn't come over here. Buffy didn't want to encounter him anytime in the near future. "So, where's Tara?" she said, changing the subject quickly. When she had told her friends about her rather violent and public break up with Riley when she arrived home early two days before they had reacted with shock bordering on paralyzing, but they understood. Willow, Tara, and Anya had seen how overbearing and controlling he had become over the past few months. Cordelia simply trusted their judgement, and had even made Buffy a cup of hot chocolate, decaffeinated of course.

"She's got a class now," Willow replied, going with Buffy's topic change without question. "She's in Plant Biology right now, I think."

"Why is she taking plant biology?" Cordelia queried.

"It's useful for learning about herbs and other plants uses," Willow explained. "It's useful for magical purposes as well as filling a science requirement."

"Sounds like a good idea," the other girl agreed.

Buffy nodded. "That'll be useful. Anyone up for something after classes are done? I think surviving our first day of classes calls for a little celebration, don't you?"

"We could hit the Bronze," Willow suggested.

The Slayer shook her head. "No, I want to try someplace new." Someplace where we won't run into `him.'

"There's supposed to be a good club that opened on the other side of town," Cordelia said. "Someone in my Theater History class was talking about it. Stone's, I think it's called."

"Oh, I heard about that place," Willow said, getting a little more excited about the idea. "They're supposed to have a great band."

"Sounds good then," Buffy smiled, hoping her friends didn't catch her look of relief. If they thought she was actually going out of her way to avoid talking to her now ex-lover, she knew they'd never let up on her. She suspected that they thought this was just a temporary explosion on her part, or that she would at least settle things with him later in a calmer fashion since she was, after all, carrying his child. As far as Buffy was concerned, she'd just as soon prefer she never had to deal with him again. The terror that she had felt when she realized what he really wanted had been overwhelming. She had no wish to ever feel that way again. "I'm going for more pudding," she said with a slightly forced smile as she carefully got to her feet. Her balance had been a little more precarious lately. "Anyone else want some?"

The Slayer smiled. Her ob-gyn was a pleasant woman in her mid-thirties who herself was a mother of two, had light brown hair, and was fairly slender. She could be a bit annoying when it came to her constant questioning to see if Buffy was following her instructions, but all in all she was a nice enough person.

"How are you doing?" Dr. Santner asked.

"Starving," Buffy replied simply. "It's like every five minutes I'm ready for another meal."

The light brunette woman chuckled. "Sounds about right," she commented. "The baby is growing very fast at this point, and taking up a lot of energy. Which means you'll be growing a lot more in the next five months, which stinks, but is usually preferable than having all that extra weight to get rid of afterwards."

Buffy shuddered at the thought. "I think I have to agree with you on that one." She sat patiently through the test for blood pressure and while her blood was taken and whisked away to the in-hospital lab where it would be processed within a day. Then came her least favorite part so far, the measurements of her weight and waistline. It had quickly become the horror of her visits as she was further along.

The doctor smiled. "You're right on schedule so far. So I'd say keep eating whenever you have been. You're doing fine. Now for the fun part."

The "fun part" as Dorothy put it was what Buffy preferred to call "slime time," as it involved cold K-Y jelly smeared across her stomach. She followed the doctor into the other room and lay down on the table and pulled up her shirt, exposing the entire surface of her stomach to the air conditioned hospital room. She braced herself as Dr. Santner smeared the cold goop across her stomach. It was impossible not to shiver slightly.

"I know how you feel," the older woman smiled as she adjusted the fetal monitor. "Now let's see what we find today. You haven't had a sonogram in a while since the stupid machine was malfunctioning last time, so let's see how things are progressing. We may even be able to distinguish the gender for certain this time." She turned on the monitor and moved it around her stomach while watching the screen. "There we go."

Buffy stretched her neck up to see the screen over her stomach. There among all the white static was what was distinctly a baby. With a head, two arms, two legs, and... "What's that?"

"Hmmm?" The doctor looked closer at the image. "Oh my."

"What?" Buffy asked, a sense of urgency causing her throat to constrict at the stunned sound of her doctor's voice. "Tell me!" she said, a slight threat in her voice.

Dorothy looked at her. "Well, Buffy. It appears that your carrying twins."

Twins?! Buffy stared at the monitor. As she watched, the thing she had seen turned into a definite leg shape, followed by another one. Hidden behind the baby they could definitely see was another one. "Twins?" she repeated out loud incredulously.

"It appears so," Dr. Santner smiled. "I can't believe we missed this earlier. Let's see if we can determine a gender for either of these two little miracles."

After several minutes of moving the fetal monitor around to get a good view of both babies, the doctor declared baby number one, also known as the-baby-we-knew-about as a boy, and baby-that-caught-us-completely-off-guard, or baby number two, as a girl. "Of course, I could be wrong about the second," she said. "It's harder to tell with negative four-month-olds than with anyone who's actually been born." Finally she removed the monitor and gave Buffy a warm, wet towel with which to remove the slime from her belly.

Buffy made her next appointment, verified that her first Bradley method class was set for next week, and left feeling much more dazed than when she had entered. Twins! It did explain why at only four months she looked like half of the six-monthers she'd seen in the office. Two children sired by someone as big as Riley in a woman as petite as she was would show rather obviously. Buffy pondered this new turn of events until she got off the bus a block from the apartment. As she entered the building she decided not to tell anyone yet. She wanted some more time to absorb the idea before letting the news out as public knowledge. For the moment a different problem plagued her; how would she tell their father? Would she tell him?

Angel had quickly discovered that filing was not an amusing task. They had been fortunate in that there had been several cases in the last week alone, and all of them had paid fairly well. The vampire fully intended to pay David Nabbitt back at some point, grateful as he was for the multi-millionaire's generosity.

Stretching, Angel stood and walked over to the bookshelf and pulled an old book of Irish folktales off the shelf. He had picked it up in an old book store the week before. It was in an old Gaelic, so it had been cheap. Going into the kitchen he warmed a mug of blood and returned to the old couch to read. He hadn't left the apartment in two days, and so he was still in boxers and an old t-shirt he had bought at a thrift store.

Bring!

Must be Wesley, Angel reached over to pick up the phone. Could be a client. "Angel Investigations."

"You say it like that and they'll assume we're too hopeless to help!"

"Cordelia?"

"So nice of you to remember me," the perky voice chuckled. "You sound like you've been brooding. Do I have to come back and tickle you until you stop being gloomy?"

Angel couldn't help but smile a little. "No, it's okay. I just finished the filing."

"Yuck," Cordelia exclaimed.

"So, how's college life?" Angel asked before his former employee could ask him about what he was doing. He wasn't in the mood for a lecture.

"Oh, it's great," Cordelia practically gushed. "The acting teacher is amazing, and hot, and I'm rooming with Willow, Anya, Buffy and Tara -that's Willow's girlfriend. Yeah, I know I wasn't expecting that, but they're so cute together." Angel just leaned back to enjoy his friend's babbling. " And there's a new club that just opened on the edge of town. Great place. Good music. Pulls in the better crowd that some places I could name. Too bad we had to leave early when we were there earlier this week. But how was Buffy to know pickles and butterscotch wouldn't agree with her stomach. Well, it'll come out of my sweater. It wasn't really her fault, thought I was pretty upset at the time, and-"

"What did you say?" Angel was suddenly alert. "Is Buffy all right?"

"Huh?" Cordelia was already on to Wednesday and it took her a moment to realize what she'd said. "Oh, of course she's all right. Worrying about her again huh? Well it was just indigestion.  Not her fault she got a bout of morning sickness at nine at night. She-"

"Morning sickness?" the vampire interrupted her again. What was going on in Sunnydale?!

"Well of course silly, she is...oh," she cut off suddenly. "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I forgot that you didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" Angel felt a little frantic. "What's wrong with Buffy?"

He heard a sigh from the other end of the line. "Angel, Buffy's pregnant."

Angel felt something slam into his chest. He didn't know what it was exactly, but it hurt. "When?" he choked out. He couldn't ask who.

"Four months," Cordelia replied. "Riley's," she answered his unspoken question. "But...they broke up."

Anger welled up in Angel's center that someone would do that to his Buffy. His Buffy. Not anymore. She had moved on much faster than he had thought. He hadn't even known that they were.... their bond was obviously more closed than he had realized.

"Angel?"

"Cordelia, sorry," he spoke into the phone again.

"I'm sorry you found out like this," she apologized sincerely. "Me and my big mouth."

"No, it's not your fault," Angel insisted. "I just..."

"Want to be by yourself to brood for a while."

Angel snorted a derisive laugh. "You know me too well."

"That's my job," Cordelia replied. "I may still need a job in a few years. It wouldn't do well for me to alienate a possible employer.  I'll go now. Can I call you back in a few days?"
 
"Of course you can," the vampire insisted. "It was...good to hear from you."

"Thanks. Bye."

"Bye," he said into the phone as she hung up. He put it back down and slumped against the back of the couch, stunned. Buffy was pregnant?! And with Riley's child. The thought made him shudder. He didn't like Riley. The boy was too ignorant and cocky. He didn't understand Buffy, obviously, since he had left her in such a state. The demon, and most of the man in him, wanted to wring the military idiot's neck for what he had done. For abandoning her after taking what innocent she had.....just as he had once done against his own will.

Guilt flooded through him, but he pushed it away. He hadn't meant to leave Buffy. That was the demon. It had been him who had taken back the day that had never happened from her. She couldn't know the pain he felt thinking of the feel of her tongue on his chest as she playfully removed the ice cream that had spilled, or the urge he felt running through him as he remembered the electricity between them as they jumped each other, crashing right through his kitchen table. She was the only thing that had made him truly feel human again. That day when he was human had been made perfect by her presence. Perhaps he should have felt good about saving her the pain of knowing that it had never happened. But what he really felt was the guilt that he had cheated her out of the only moment of pure happiness they had ever had that wasn't tainted by the demon inside him, or the curse that came with his soul.

He felt selfish. If the world were fair at all that child would have been his. His and Buffy's. Often, though he had  ever admitted it to her or anyone else, he had thought about what it would  be like to have her. To be with her forever. For her to carry his child. There was something enticing about the images his mind conjured of her strong body, softly rounded by the new life within her, wrapped in his arms and the sheets of their bed after a night of playful loving. The feeling of her head resting on his chest as she slept peacefully. She was a goddess, and he worshiped her in his fantasies and dreams. Fantasies that he had thought put out of his mind ever since he had first gone to LA. For months he had refused to think of them, but now they came back with a vengeance, and he felt more cheated than he ever had in all his life.

Angel hadn't realized he could be more depressed.

"Nothing," the blonde witch sighed. "I've been trying to translate this passage for hours. So far all I know is it is about the Slayer and her child. I'm sure that if I could just figure out the last part we would know exactly what happened and why it happened."

"This book Giles had has been of some use," Willow tried to be positive. The book had several translations of passages in languages similar to -but not exactly like- the one they were attempting to decipher. She turned the page. "Wait! I think I have something. Let me see that passage again."

Tara passed her the old tome. "What is it?"

"Just a second...here!" the wiccan yelped excitedly, then stifled herself. It was late at night and they had been as quiet as possible so as not to wake anyone up. They were still the only two who knew the spell had been cast. They hadn't told Giles more than that they were working on a spell. "Let it be known that the children of the One shall all be of the one who does not breathe. They shall be sired by one who is not like the One, but  yet not unlike her in mission and in heart. He whose soul is not his shall sire all the children of the One without exception.  Let this be known, and let it stand for all time."

"But the baby is Riley's," Tara looked at her girlfriend uncertainly.

Willow shook her head. The one who did not breathe, who fought evil, and did not own his own soul, would be the father of Buffy's child. "Could the spell have been written to make sure that this prophesy came to pass?"

"So that whenever a Slayer was ever pregnant, the father would be-"

"Angel," the red-head cut her off. "It has to be referring to Angel. He's the only vampire who's ever had his soul returned. And it definitely doesn't belong to him with the curse attached."

"Does that mean I've done what I think I've done?" Tara looked frightened.

Willow nodded slowly. "I think so."

"Should we tell Buffy?"

She shuddered. Telling Buffy about the spell would be bad enough. Telling her that Riley's DNA had been switched with Angel's was almost unthinkable. Who knew how she might respond, given her Slayer-strength sized mood swings lately. "Not yet. We could be wrong. This could mean that this baby might not live to be an adult. Or any number of things. I think we should do more research and check on this translation before we say anything to anybody."

Tara looked over the words again, hoping she would catch some mistake in the translation they had done. But she didn't see any.

Neither did Willow. She was worried about what would happen when the baby was born. There was always a chance that its true parentage would be discovered by Buffy, Riley, or the doctors, at any time during its life. Would Buffy be happy? Now that she refused to be within sight of Riley, she might be. Willow knew that her friend still had feelings for the tall, handsome vampire, though she had no idea what they were anymore. She just hoped that her friend would understand when it was all explained.

Go to Part Six