Disclaimer: Buffy and co. own belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. I am doing this for fun only and gain nothing from this. Please don’t sue.
Author’s Note: This takes place five years into the future. Willow’s parents and Buffy’s mom are all dead. Surprise/Innocence and thereafter never happened. Buffy & Angel decided that their relationship would never work and decided to stay friends, and became best friends.
Dedication: To Lynn, for all her nagging and support. She’s a great friend and a true sister.
Part 1
Burning. Everything was burning. She could see a large, beautiful bird inside a familiar building. Willow turned to see her mother. She told Willow to run and to not look back. She ran. Then she did exactly what her mother told her not to do, she looked back. Her mother was gone. Willow knew that that she went into the building. Willow fell to her knees and cried out for her. Deep down inside she knew that her mother was not coming back. Someone crying brought Willow out of her stupor. It was a baby. Her baby. She grabbed the child and ran... ran... ran...
At that moment, Willow woke up with a scream. The man at her side woke up to her crying. He immediately pulled her into his strong arms. She buried her head into his chest as sobs wracked through her small body. He kissed the top of her head and whispered soothing, calming words into her hair. He gave her long soothing strokes her back. They started from her neck to linger at the small of her back. When her sobs finally subsided, he started a slow rocking motion, like a mother would a frightened child. Silent tears ran down Willow's face for the child in her dreams. Her child.
“You wanna tell me about it?” he asked in a voice that caressed Willow soul like a lover would. After she found her voice she told him about her terrible dream.
“I couldn’t find you. You were gone. Don’t leave me ever. I don’t have anyone left but you. Promise me.” Willow started to break-down again. He just sat and rocked her against him, comforting, loving and whispering soothing words to her. When she regained her composure, she remembered. “A-Angel? Promise me you’ll never leave me.”
The rocking stopped. He placed his hand under her chin and made her look into his beautiful brown eyes. “I promise Willow, never.” She kissed him. That was all she could do at the moment. When he broke the kiss, there was a red tear in his eye.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice laced with concern.
Angel smiled down upon her, showing all his love for her in that one smile. Willow couldn’t help but smiling back at him. He blindly reached over to the night stand and got a box out of the drawer, his eyes never leaving hers. “Willow, I promise me that you’ll never leave me either.” She nodded, not being able to find the words needed to answer him. He waited, expectantly.
“I promise,” she finally choked out.
He opened the box. A beautiful, antique diamond ring was inside. Her eyes lit up at the sight in front of her. Gently he pulled the ring out of the box and placed it on her finger.
“It was my mother’s before she died. I was going to ask you tomorrow, at the party, but now is better. Willow, would do me the great honor as to become my wife?” Rendered speechless Willow looked into Angel’s eyes, seeing love and desire and hope reflected back at her, she nodded her head.
They kissed. A kiss full of promises and of things yet to come. A kiss full of love and compassion and love and devotion. A kiss to start their eternity together with. “Willow, I love you. I will for all eternity,” he said after he broke the kiss.
“I love you, too. For all eternity.” With that
said, they laid back down. Content in each other's arms. They went back
to sleep with the knowledge of their eternity being filled with love and
devotion and desire.
Part 2
New Year’s Eve
Angel awoke to something tickling his nose. He didn’t have to open his eyes to know what it was. He could smell that oh so familiar smell of shampoo. Freesia, his favorite. Slowly he opened his eyes to see what he already knew was there. Willow. Well, Willow’s hair. In fact she was using it to tickle him so that he would wake up. Early in their relationship she had found out that he was extremely ticklish. She used that knowledge against him every chance she got. It didn’t help that she was just as ticklish if not worse, and he was a good hundred pounds heavier than her. Most of there tickle-fests, ended with him on top of her one moment tickling her ruthlessly and the next, he was kissing her with great passion that it left her lightheaded.
“Aaaannnngggel. Time to get up!!” she said in a sing-song voice. Angel rolled on top of her, successfully pinning her to the bed. He gave her a sly, trouble making smile. “Maybe I don’t wanna.” With that he bent down and gave her a slow, passionately seductive kiss. Willow’s mind went completely blank. He slowly pulled away. “You’re right we need to get up. We’ll be late for the party.” With that statement he rolled out of the bed and walked naked across the room to their bathroom.
Willow realized he was gone and quickly came back to reality. With a giggle she ran into the bathroom and tackled him. Then, the tickling began.
Two hours later
“DING-DONG”
“I got it!” yelled Xander over the music and people talking. He glanced at the clock on his way to the door. * 8:30, I hope that’s them *
He opened the door to a couple who were completely enthralled with each other. “Ah-hem,” Xander cleared his throat. Not even acknowledgement of him even being there. “Um, guys.”
Willow reluctantly broke the kiss, much to Angel’s despair. “Sorry, Xand. We got a little... distracted.” She said with a shy smile and turning a little pink. Xander just gave them a knowing smile and invited the couple into the house.
Buffy walked up to Willow and Angel. Giving Willow a hug and Angel a kiss on the cheek. She looked carefully at Willow, noticing the flush in her face and neck, the twinkle in her eyes, and the unmistakably brilliant smile on her face. * Something’s up * she thought. “Uh guys could you excuse us, we have things we need to do.” When neither of the guys moved she added, “Women things.” At the mention of those words the guys quickly left the area.
“Sooooo,” Buffy said trying it get Willow to spill. When that didn’t work, she tried a more tactful approach. “What happened? You’re practically glowing.” Willow didn’t reply. She held out her left hand with the ring on it. Buffy looked down. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was a gold band with an intricate Celtic pattern etched into the it. On the top sat a single carrot diamond. “Oh my God, Will. It’s beautiful.”
“I know, he gave it to me last night. I was so surprised. He said that it belonged to his mother,” Willow replied. Buffy was still staring at the ring. “So, Buffy, how does it feel to Mrs. Alexander Harris?” Willow asked, trying to divert the attention away from herself.
Buffy looked up from the ring absolutely beaming. “It’s great, I never thought that I could be this happy. I love him so much. There’s something that I have to tell you and Xander doesn’t know about it yet and I’m kinda nervous about it. Well, you see...” She was interrupted by Angel asking for everyone’s attention.
“I have an announcement to make. Willow could you come up here please?” he asked.
Willow gave Buffy an ‘oh no’ expression and walked over to where Angel was standing at the bottom of the stairs, in the living room.
Angel continued, “Last night, I asked Willow Rosenberg to do me the honor of becoming my wife. She has accepted. We’re getting married!” The room exploded into applause and congratulations.
Then Buffy spoke up, “Everyone, I also have an announcement to make." The room quieted so that everyone could hear her speak. “Xander could you come up here, too?” He slowly made his way up to his wife with a somewhat frightened look on his face, Buffy took his hand and slowly started to speak. “Xander, Angel, Willow, friends: I love Xander very much. We have been married over a year now, as most of you already know. Xander and I are going to have a baby.” Xander screamed, picked Buffy up and started whirling her around and kissing her. Willow was next. She engulfed her best friend into a hug. The night was spent celebrating and planning for the future.
Around 2 o’clock, everyone except Willow and Angel had left the Harris household. “Willow, Angel,” Buffy started, “we are so happy for you.” Xander came over and held Buffy’s hand. “We want to ask you guys for a favor.”
Angel grasped Willow’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Sure guys anything you want you got it.”
Buffy was completely taken aback. “You might want to hear it before you agree to anything.” Willow just smiled and nodded for her to continue. “Well Xander and I decided... Well we wanted to ask you... umm...”
Xander broke in for her. “We would like for you two to be our child’s god-parents.”
Willow was shocked, stunned beyond all words. Then she remembered her dream the night before. The child. That beautiful child in her dreams. She was snapped back into reality by Angel’s hand on her face and him calling her name. “Huh?” Angel looked expectantly at her. She nodded, “Of course, we would be honored to be the god-parents of your child.” Willow smiled at the thought. “Angel it’s late, we need to go home. Buffy, come over tomorrow afternoon and we’ll talk.” She gave Buffy another hug and gave Xander a kiss.
As Willow and Angel walked hand-in-hand Angel asked, “You ok?”
Willow took a deep breath and turned to look him directly in the eye. “What do you think about children?”
Angel nearly choked from the blunt question. He recovered quickly from the shock. He looked at, trying to figure out what she was thinking. “You know I can’t, right?”
Willow smiled and nodded. “I know, we can adopt or, there are other things that we could get done. I want to have a child. I’m just afraid that you won’t want to...” She couldn’t finish here sentence because Angel’s lips were suddenly on her own. He slowly broke the kiss.
“Willow, you know that I love you and will love
anything and everything that comes from you. Mine or not.” Willow smiled
and kissed him passionately. Angel looked down at her and gave her a sly
grin, “We can still practice, right?” Willow grinned and started to run
in the direction of their apartment. Angel smiled and ran after her. There
would be more tickling tonight!
Part 3
Two weeks later
Willow silently crept into the apartment that she and Angel had shared for nearly three years now. Placing her briefcase and laptop on the kitchen table, she went to grab some water out of the fridge. Angel would still be asleep due to the time being three in the afternoon. She just couldn’t wait any longer to get home. She had been researching for the past year and a half for a way for her and her beloved to conceive a child. Everyday and empty search, another disappointment. She never told Angel what she was doing. She could never do that to him. Get his hopes up only for them to come crashing down around him.
Pulling herself out of those kind of thoughts, she wondered into their bedroom. Lying there on his stomach was her lover. His beautifully muscled back lay exposed to her. By now she had every minute detail of him memorized. From the way he smiled at her when she told a joke, to the way he held her when her nightmares became too real. The way he wanted to be held when it was his nightmares that were too real. Every facial expression that he had ever made was memorized in detail in her brain.
His shifting brought her back to the real world. The satin sheet that covered him slipped a little and she can clearly see the curvature of his hips. She walked completely into the room and took off her shoes, and began to undress. She had things she needed to tell him. He could either be happy about the news she was about to tell him, or mad that she didn’t tell him what she was doing in the first place. Either way she knew that he would love her always. There was never any question of that.
She quietly slipped between the sheets behind him, slipping her arms around his waist and hugging him to her. God how she loved him. She silently began to weep. She had lost most of the people that loved her on this day, three years back. That was the day that she found an unexpected but welcomed love. She vowed to never loose that love. The love that she found in the man that she held in her arms.
Angel awoke to a dampness on his back. He rolled over to find his love weeping into her hands. He remembered the day three years ago. The loses and the gain. That was the day they lost Willow’s parents, Buffy’s mom, and Giles at the same time. A freak accident had taken them all away from them at once.
***
Willow’s parent’s had invited the ‘adults’ over for dinner. Everything had gone smoothly. Until a fire had been set around the house. Vampires. They had figured that the slayer would be in there, so they set the entire place ablaze. Willow had arrived home later than usual. She was supposed to be having dinner with them, but was late because she had needed to get out and talk to a few people. She also needed to get things straight in her mind, as well as the two men that it involved.
Willow had gotten pregnant. The child, it belonged to her ex. She had told him about it and he had completely turned his back on her. She had gone to Angel’s seeking comfort. He had done just that. He gave her the comfort and support that she needed to get through that kind of rejection. Together they had decided that they would take care of it, having becoming a couple only a month and a half before. He would be the father to this child. That was their decision. Now all she had to do was tell the four most important people in her life the news.
Willow was driving down her road when all Hell had broken loose. When she first looked she thought her neighbors house was on fire. But, when she got close enough, she realized it was her home. She quickly got out of the car and raced to the front door, only the door wasn’t there anymore. Instead, it was a wall of fire. Hoping against hope that there was no one in the house, she went back to the street. That was when she heard the screams, and caught the unmistakable, stomach turning smell of burning flesh. At that exact moment, the fire department came down the street. She tried to run back into the house, but there were arms around her, holding her back.
Willow died that night along with everyone in the building. Buffy had taken it hard, too, but not as hard as Willow. Her dreams were haunted with the screams of her parents, and those she loved like parents. Willow, having no living relatives left and moved into Angel’s apartment. They had decided to go ahead and raise the baby together, especially after everything that had happened. A couple months after the tragedy Willow was starting to move on and be happy when another tragedy happened.
Willow was driving back to their apartment. She was to meet Angel and they were going to go out for their anniversary and to celebrate their baby. She never saw it coming. The car hit her side. She immediately passed out do to a concussion. She woke up 4 days later to a very worried Angel and Buffy sitting at her sides holding onto her hands. To this day Angel could remember the conversation that followed.
“A-Angel?” Willow asked shakily.
Angel’s head jerked up and there were tears down his face. “Willow? You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay.” Angel said reaching up to stroke her hair.
“No Angel it’s not. I lost the baby didn’t I? Our child is gone. Isn’t she?” From the looks on both Buffy and Angel’s face she knew she was right. She had lost their child. Another casualty in her life. Willow had a breakdown soon after that. No one could reach her except Angel. He was her Angel on Earth. He was the one that brought her out of her depression. Granted it took a year, but Angel was a very patient man.
***
So here he was. With the only one he could ever love, on the anniversary of the day that her life changed forever. He reached over and pulled her over onto he lap. She wrapped her legs around his back and buried her face into his neck, and just let it all out. The sobs came like they always did; in gigantic wails. And Angel, like always, held her, rocking her till she calmed. When she did, he didn’t let go or stop the rocking. He was her rock. Her life line. God, how she loved him.
When she caught her breath, and felt completely relaxed, she remembered that she had to ask him to do the most important thing to her. “Angel, I have to ask you something completely serious, and you have to promise me that you won’t get mad at me.” She lifted her head to look at him directly in his eyes. He nodded, slowing his rocking a little. “Angel, I found a way for you to father children, let me finish,” she said placing a finger over his lips when he started to protest. “I have been searching for over a year, and I finally hit pay dirt today, of all days. I didn’t tell you about it ‘cause I was afraid that you’d get your hopes up only to have them come falling down everyday. I love you and I want this for you and me. What do you think?” By the time she had finished, Angel had stopped the rocking and was staring at her in complete and utter shock.
Disbelief. That was all that was running through Angel’s mind at the moment. * A child. She can have MY child? MY CHILD. * Angel went from disbelief, to shock, to complete happiness. The woman he loved was going to have his child... children. The only question he had was... “How?”
Relief flooded Willow. She flung her arms around his neck with such force, that he fell backwards onto the pillows with her on top of him. She started to place tiny kisses all over his face. “It’s nothing really,” she said between kisses. “Just a small ritual we have to do beforehand, if we want to conceive.” She looked up into his eyes and smiled. “Burn a some herbs. Say a few phrases... I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Baby. I love you so much.” Angel smiled into her hair. He really and truly loved her.
“Angel, come with me tonight. To their graves. I want to tell them about it. They would be so happy if they were...” A small sob broke through her voice.
Angel knew this was coming. He just held her tight and let her let it out. “Of course baby, I’ll go with you. I’d follow you anywhere.” He just held her. He could hold her for eternity.
“Angel?” A beautiful tear-stained face looked up at him. “Make love to me. Please?”
Angel just smiled. He could never deny her anything
that he could give her. “Of course.” He reached up and pulled her down
for a slow, passionate kiss, as he rolled them over. “My love.”
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