"So, what's been happening here?" Buffy asked with a grin.
"Not much. Giles dropped by last week and we talked. Apparently he and his wife are trying to have a baby. Can you believe that? At his age?" Joyce asked with a surprised look on her face.
"Is Xander still staying in Los Angeles?"
Buffy nodded. "Not for much longer. He's been thinking of moving out and leaving town. Being too close to his ex is killing him. I know what that's like."
"Xander, you want a drink?" Buffy asked him.
"You got any Scotch?" Xander asked the both of them.
Buffy looked at him in surprise. "I thought you didn't drink alcohol."
"Well, I figured, why not?" Xander said to the two women.
Giles nodded sadly. "How long are you staying for?"
"I'm not sure yet. I want to make sure Xander's doing okay until I take off. And I need to find work soon."
"Well, I run a bookstore now. I need a new person to run the stocktake and file work orders. What do you say?" Giles asked with a smile.
Buffy was beaming. "Yeah, that would be great."
"Do you know that we have been inundated with calls about you?"
"About me? Who called?" Xander asked as he thought of Cordelia.
Mike looked at the list of names on his desk. "Four from Rupert Giles and five from Willow Osborne. They were extremely worried about you. They thought that you were suicidal or something."
Xander laughed. "Do I look like I'm suicidal?"
"Yeah. I didn't want her to know that I was a demon."
"You're a demon?"
"I'm half-demon. The rest of me is human." Doyle grinned.
Xander was angry. "You're a demon? Cordelia never told me anything. She invited you into my goddamn house when she knew what you are!!"
"Now hold on just a second. I'm not a vampire. I'm a Brachen demon. A good demon. And believe you me, I was just as shocked and outraged when I found out what I was." Doyle said, trying to calm Xander down.
Xander shrugged his shoulders angrily. "I don't care if you're William Wallace's descendant. I WANT YOU OUT OF MY GODDAMN HOUSE!!!"
Doyle flinched as Xander yelled at him with a loud booming voice. "I'm not leaving without Cordelia's things. She needs them."
"They...stay...here. You're the one that's leaving." Xander said as he walked towards Doyle.
Doyle backed up further. "I don't want to fight you, buddy."
"I'm not your buddy." Xander said as he slugged him in the face hard, sending Doyle backwards into the wall. Doyle charged towards Xander and knocked him to the floor. He was about to kick him, when Xander grabbed his leg with one hand and knocked his other leg out from under him, causing him to fall to the floor.
Xander got up off the floor and leaned over Doyle. He hit the Irish half-demon several times in the face, before he stood up and kicked him in the stomach. Doyle lurched inward as Xander winded him. Xander walked away from Doyle and into the kitchen to get a drink from the fridge.
"Take her stuff and get out of my goddamn house. Send Angel my regards." Xander said with a smile as he heard Doyle get up off the carpeted floor and carry the boxes out of the house, where he unloaded them onto the truck.
"Xander's still living at the house he shared with Cordelia. Buffy's moved back in with her mother." Oz explained.
"Buffy's back too? Why didn't anyone call and tell us?" Willow asked in a concerned tone.
"I don't know." Oz said with a shake of his head.
Willow stood up off the couch. "Well, we have to go back."
"To Sunnydale? I don't think that's such a good idea. If Buffy and Xander wanted to talk to you, they would have called." Oz told her.
"I don't care. I have to see them. We can ask your sister to babysit Ruppy, we'll take Priscilla with us." Willow told him.
Oz sighed. "I just hope that you're not getting your hopes up about this. They didn't seem too friendly. Cordelia said that Xander beat Doyle up pretty badly."
"I don't believe that Xander would do that." Willow said indignantly.
Oz sighed. "At any rate, that's something that Angel and Cordelia DEFINATELY do NOT need to worry about now."
"Why? What's going on?" Willow asked with worry.
Xander shrugged as he turned the television off. "I don't know."
"That's okay. You don't have to decide right now. We did miss you. And about Cordelia, there's something you should know."
Xander stopped him with a wave of his hand. "I don't want to know about her, okay? I'm trying to move on without her. And after what she did to save that bastard vampire, I don't want to know her. The Cordelia I knew died the minute she became his bound."
Oz nodded. He realized it wasn't the time to tell him about Cordelia.
'Doesn't the mailman have the weekends off?' He thought to himself. Xander watched as the mailman dropped off an envelope into his mailbox and drove away to the next house. Xander stepped out of his house and walked up to his mailbox. He opened the lid and pulled out the envelope.
After closing the lid on his mailbox and walking back inside his house, Xander opened the envelope and winced in pain.
There was no letter in the envelope. Instead it was a wedding invitation. And it was Angel that sent it.
Willow grinned. "I'm pregnant again."
Giles was shocked at the news he just heard. "Did I just hear you right? You're pregnant?"
"Yep. One month along now." Willow beamed.
Giles shook his head in amazement. "I can't believe this. Oz didn't tell me anything about it yesterday."
"Well, I kinda surprised him when he came back with Priscilla last night. Xander babysat her yesterday."
Willow stared at him carefully. "Are you drunk?"
"Drunk? Me drunk? Oh how very perceptive of you. Could it possibly be that because you see me drinking something that looks, tastes, and smells like alcohol, you assume I'm drinking?" Xander drunkenly theorised with her.
"You are drunk." Willow stated calmly.
Xander chuckled. "Well, you DID go to college. You should know when someone's drunk."
"I can't believe that you of all people would drink. Especially after what happened with your parents." Willow said disaprovingly.
Xander looked at her with a cold look that chilled her to the bone. "Don't you EVER JUDGE ME!!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't stand by and watch you waste your life away." Willow said in defence. She was genuinely worried about her oldest friend. The friend she betrayed.
Xander nodded. "You can't help yourself can you? You can never let me be happy. Not with Ampata, not with Anya and certainly not with Cordelia."
"Ampata was a mummy. Hell, Ampata wasn't even her real name! It was the name of that poor boy the mummy killed." Willow said in anger.
Xander nodded. "Before we knew she was the mummy, you still didn't like her. You were jealous, just admit it."
"Okay I admit it. I was jealous. There... are you happy now?" Willow asked him with tears in her eyes.
Xander shook his head. "I am nowhere near happy, thanks to you. I loved Cordelia and you saw fit to keep us apart didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?!?"
"I think you need to stop drinking." Willow said as she reached for the bottle.
"You think he was telling the truth?" Willow asked him.
"Why would he lie?" Oz asked her.
Willow shrugged. "What Xander told me today kind of put me through the wringer. And the fact that none of us have gotten an invitation to their wedding yet, but Xander did, has me pretty confused."
"So you told Angel off?" Oz asked with a grin.
Willow nodded. "Damn straight. But he swears that it was an accident. I guess we'll never know. Anyway, I'm more worried about Xander right now. He's been drinking a lot according to Giles and what I've heard."
"Weren't his parents alcoholics?" Oz asked her.
"Yeah. They were drunk driving when they died. Before that, they were pretty abusive to him. Xander never had a good childhood. Always stuck in one abusive and neglecting relationship after another. And now I've neglected him in the relationship I have with him."
Buffy walked into Xander's house with Xander right behind her. They walked into the living room and took a look around at the large, empty room.
"You have no idea how glad I am to hear this. So glad in fact, that I'm going to help." Buffy said with a grin.
Xander smiled. "You're going to help me move? Good, because I can't lift the television on my own. I need a Slayer's strength."
"I'm retired, remember." Buffy reminded him.
Xander nodded. "I remember. It doesn't mean you lost your strength though."
"Can I ask a personal question or two?" Buffy asked.
"Sure, go ahead. I can always say 'yes' or 'no', can't I?"
Buffy nodded. "Why do you want to move now all of a sudden? And why the hell is your hair blonde?"
Xander brushed a hand through his blonde hair and shrugged. "I thought it would make a nice change."
"I have an idea. Why don't we make a nightclub?"
"What?" Buffy asked in surprise.
"A nightclub." Xander repeated. "I have the money, and it'll be something to keep us occupied."
Giles grinned and got out of his seat. "To what do I owe this little surprise?"
"Well, as much as I hate to interrupt your weekly 'check the grocery list' time Ripper, but I have something very important to tell you."
"What is it?" He asked her.
Olivia said nothing. She simply grinned at him and patted her stomach lightly. Giles stared at her in shock.
"You're pregnant? Are you sure?"
Olivia nodded. "It's pink. The pregnancy test stick thing is pink."
Giles was grinning from ear to ear. "Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. This is great. Bloody fantastic."
"What about 'The Dark Room'?"
"'The Dark Room' sounds good. We'll have to tell the real estate guy when he drops by again." Xander said as he ran up to the stage and jumped on to it.
"It opens next week. We should be ready by then. Which reminds me... we have to put some kind of security on this place." Buffy said to him.
Xander faced her. "We already have an alarm set up."
"No, no. I'm talking about a mystical security alarm. A spell to keep vampires out of here. It would protect the humans that come in here." Buffy announced.
Penn moved over to the front door and smiled when he realized the door was wide open. He walked to the entrance and was about to step inside, when a barrier hit him full force with a loud bang, sending the vampire hurtling backwards ten feet.
He was flung backwards by the mystical protection barrier and fell to a crumbling heap onto the concrete pavement, impaling himself with a piece of wood narrowly missing his heart. Penn pulled out the piece of wood slowly in excruciating pain. He threw the bloody makeshift stake to the ground. The force from the blast had weakened him completely and had caused him to cough up blood in pain.
Penn cast a glance at the nightclub he tried to get into that was now ten feet away from him. He shook his head in shock and passed out from the brutality he just suffered.
Willow shook her head in sad defeat. "What do you want me to do?"
"I think you've done enough for me haven't you? If you were a guy, I would have hit you a long time ago. Unfortunately for me, I have morals that tell me I can't hit a woman. However, one of the benefits of having female friends is that I can sidestep that certain moral. Buffy would you please?" Xander asked Buffy and pointed to Willow.
Buffy hit Willow in the face, just hard enough to send her sprawling backwards into other shoppers.
"Not to mention his blonde hair. He must have been trying to get away from his persona. He considered himself a loser. This is all my fault," Giles said sadly.
Joyce stared at him in concern. "This wasn't your fault. Xander's most obviously been feeling like this for a long time. And it's only just come to a head now."
"But if I didn't pressure him for details yesterday, he wouldn't have done what he did," Rupert said with guilt.
Buffy shook her head. "Your conversation may have just brought things to the surface. If it didn't happen yesterday, it would have happened sometime down the road. Was there a note?"
"A note?"
"Did he leave a note? A suicide note?" Buffy asked him.
Giles shook his head. "No, no note."
"Then he wasn't trying to kill himself," Buffy said with relief etched in her voice.
"Buffy, I..."
"No! He didn't try to kill himself, okay? Let's leave it at that," Buffy said as she walked away from the two older people.
"Right." Buffy confirmed to the half-demon. "Why are you here anyway? We've never been close."
Angel's best friend shrugged. "I lost a friend of mine recently. We weren't real close, but it was still tough."
"Who was it?" Buffy asked him gently.
Doyle looked at her. "Frankie Tripod."
"Frankie Tripod? The pimp, Frankie Tripod?" Buffy asked him.
The Brachen demon nodded. "Yeah. He was ripped apart pretty badly. We suspect it was vampires from the bitewounds. Angel's looking into it."
Mike shook his head and shrugged. "Okay, okay. What are you going to do then?"
"I'm opening up a nightclub with a friend of mine tonight. It's what I really want to do," Xander told him.
"You're throwing away your college degree, all those years of training and studying for law school, for a nightclub? Are you nuts?" Mike asked with incredulity.
Xander shook his head and stood up. "I don't think it's nuts. What's nuts is doing a job that I only chose because it was supposed to bring Cordelia back to me. THAT is nuts. But this nightclub... this is what I've wanted to do since I was a teenager, I just never told anyone about it. And I can afford it now."
Mike nodded in defeat as he stood up and walked over to Xander. He laid a hand on his shoulder. "Okay. If you need any help with anything to do with courts or anything, I want you to come to us. We're still friends."
Buffy was curious. "What kind of question? I mean, go ahead."
Oz shrugged. "I was just wondering if I could play here with my band?"
Xander nodded. "I don't see a problem with that? How about you?"
Buffy saw that Xander was waiting for her answer and she realized that even though she disliked Willow for what she did, she held no bad feelings toward Oz.
"Sure, that would be great," Buffy said to the two of them.
As the fire continued to burn, Xander decided he wasn't ready to destroy his photos of Cordelia, despite what Buffy told him today. Even though he wasn't in love with her anymore, he still wasn't ready to erase that part of his life. Xander took the surviving photos into the garage with him after the fire in the bin died out. He found a small box with a lock on the front and opened the case.
Xander put the photos into the box and closed the lid, locking it away for safekeeping. He left the box with the photos in the garage as he walked back into his backyard to check on the fire to see if it had completely died out.
Xander turned away from the old woman and focused on Buffy. "I don't think you're going to have to worry about that."
The former Slayer looked up at him. "What are you saying?"
"This," Xander said as he pulled all of his courage together and moved in closer to Buffy and kissed her on the lips. Buffy was shocked at first, but then gave in to the moment. It was at this time that the both of them knew it was right.
They continued kissing as they got lost in each other. Everyone and everything around them disappeared until it was just the two of them.
Xander shrugged. "I've been all over the place. Aren't you going to kill me or something?"
The British vampire snorted. "In case you're going senile or something, let me recap. I have a chip in my head. Besides, I don't want to kill you."
"Why not?" Xander asked.
Spike shrugged. "I don't know. I just don't feel like it. I haven't had one of those Initiative headaches in over eight years."
Willow had a worried look on her face. "I heard about what happened. I want to help."
Buffy shook her head. "I have no time for this. I have to find Xander and the last thing I need is another argument. You want to help? Go home. Leave Xander and I and Sunnydale. You can't make things right. Drop dead."
"He saved me when he didn't have to," Xander told her as he filled her in on everything that happened.
Buffy refused to believe any of it. "There's no way, he has a soul."
Spike cut in. "Hey, hey, hey! I don't have a soul, alright? I don't want a soul either. The last thing I need is to become like that no good ex of yours."
"Fine," Buffy gave in. "But I hear one word of you attacking an innocent person and you won't just have the present Slayers after your blood. You'll have me after you too."
The blonde vampire nodded in surrender. "I haven't wanted to hurt someone for eight years. But there IS something you can do for me."
"I should have known. What is it?" Buffy asked him tiredly.
Spike grinned hopefully. "Could you tell the new Slayer here about me and my predicament? I kinda want to move back in to this town and I don't want to be on the receiving end of a stake, if you catch my drift."
"What's wrong?" Xander asked her.
Buffy shook her head again. "We came so close to losing last night."
"It's okay now. It's over," Xander told her.
The former Slayer stared at him. "I haven't been a Slayer for over ten years. I had no stakes or any other weapons. Neither did you. We have been out of the game for so long, we forgot how it's played."
Xander shrugged. "I don't know about you, but I'm glad you're not slaying anymore. I don't fancy the idea of you going out there facing God knows what. Leave the slaying to the new guys. They seem to be handling it just fine without us for a decade now, let's not disturb it."
"Yeah. It looks like the chip in his head has seriously quenched his violent tendencies towards humans," Buffy told him.
Olivia looked concerned. "Are you sure about that? What if he's pretending?"
Xander shook his head. "I don't think so. He didn't have to rescue me from Penn and his buddies. He didn't even have to come back here. Not to mention that there was this homeless guy that said that Spike volunteers down at some homeless shelter."
"He does what?!?" Giles asked in stunned shock.
Buffy nodded. "Yeah, he kinda shocked us with that too. That chip curbed his demonic rage for ten years. It must have forced his other emotions to the surface. Vampires still have the human emotions they had when they were alive, but the rage quells most of it."
"It doesn't look like they're suffering now, do they?" Willow asked him as they looked at Buffy and Xander holding hands as they talked with Spike.
Oz shook his head. "You should be glad that they're seeing each other. They look happy to me."
Willow shook her head sadly. "Don't you think they're jumping into a relationship too quickly? After everything that's happened, don't you think that it's too soon?"
Her husband turned to her and shook his head. "Are you worried about them or are you worried about yourself?"
Willow didn't say anything as she just stared at the new couple in front of them, before they walked back to their car and drove back to Willow's mother's house.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Buffy asked him with worry.
Xander shook his head as he stared at the three of them with an unfamiliar look in his eyes. "I just got a phone call."
"We gathered that," Buffy told him as she wanted to know why her boyfriend was so upset.
Xander shook his head again and ran a hand through his hair. "It was Cordelia."
Buffy sighed inwardly as she heard Xander's ex's name. "What did she want?"
The former lawyer looked at her in sadness. "She's pregnant."
Buffy nodded as realization set in. The last thing she wanted was to see Xander get hurt by that woman again, after all the progress that he made since moving back to Sunnydale, it was the last thing he needed.
Olivia nodded and Giles shook his head with disbelief. "It isn't possible. Vampires are sterile creatures."
"I know," Xander nodded with awareness. "I'm the father."
The blonde man watched Buffy, Giles and Olivia's mouths gape open in shock as they couldn't believe their ears.
"You're what?!?" Buffy Summers asked aloud in shock as the others processed the latest turn of events.
Xander Harris nodded, dumbfounded. "Yeah. I'm the father of Cordelia's baby."
Buffy shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe this is happening."
The blonde haired man nodded. "Me neither, but it is."
Rupert Giles spoke up. "Did she say anything else?"
Xander shook his head. "No, not really. She said she doesn't know whether or not it's a boy or a girl. They put off their wedding because of it, apparently the wedding was going to be soon. It had to have been when she and I were together, before the whole druid problem."
The former Slayer stood up and walked over to Xander with concern. "What are you going to do?"
Xander thought about it for a minute. "I can't just sit on this information. A baby is going to be born and it's mine. I have to see her."
"How long are you going to be in Los Angeles?" Olivia Giles asked him.
The former lawyer shook his head. "As long as it takes. I need to make sure things are okay and to sort things out. I'm partly responsible for what happens with this baby."
Buffy nodded in agreement, but inside she was worried. She knew that Xander had always wanted a family with Cordelia, and now it was going to happen, but she didn't say anything to him, instead she nodded.
"You won't be alone in this," Buffy told him as she rubbed his arm.
Xander smiled as he took her hand in his. "Thanks, Buff."
Buffy nodded. "Because I'm going with you."
Giles stared at her. "You're going too?"
"Yeah, it shouldn't be long. And besides, our nightclub is in L.A, so it's not like I won't have anything to do." Buffy defended.
The former Watcher nodded. "Yes, but I don't think the two of you are prepared for this. The both of you are going to go back to see the same people that you've spent many months trying to get over. You're just going to open up the same wounds."
"Rupert, I think it's up to them to decide." Olivia told him as Giles saw the worried expressions on Xander and Buffy's faces.
He watched the two of them and took off his glasses. "I know there are some serious issues to consider with the impending baby, but the both of you need to realize what you're getting yourselves in for."
I hate the world today You're so good to me I know but I can't change Tried to tell you but you looked at me Like maybe I'm an angel underneath Innocent and sweet
Willow Osborne sat on the bed and stared out the window at the bright sunny day. She thought about the terror they faced last night and sighed with relief that Xander and Buffy had escaped okay.
Yesterday I cried You must have been relieved to see the softer side I can understand how you'd be so confused I don't envy you I'm a little bit of everything All rolled into one
The bedroom door opened and her husband, Daniel Osborne, stepped in slowly. He looked at her and watched as she turned back to look out the window.
I'm a bitch
I'm a lover
I'm a child
I'm a mother
I'm a sinner
I'm a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I'm your hell
I'm your dream
I'm nothing in between
You know you wouldn't want it any other way
"I don't have those feelings for Xander anymore, you must realize that," Willow told him as Oz sat down on the bed.
Oz shook his head. "Sometimes it's hard to tell. What Xander said was true though. You do concern yourself too much when he dates. At first I thought it was a sisterly protection type thing, but you're even against him seeing Buffy."
Willow looked at him. "Is that what you think?"
"Last night it was obvious that you were jealous. What other way am I supposed to interpret it?" Oz asked her.
The twenty-nine year old woman shook her head. "I don't believe this. We've been together for so long, and you still think there's something between me and Xander?"
Oz scratched his goatee before answering. "Not on Xander's side. But yeah, I think that you get way too interested in what or who he's doing."
So take me as I am
This may mean you'll have to be a stronger man
Rest assured that when I start to make you nervous
And I'm going to extremes
Tomorrow I will change
And today won't mean a thing
I'm a bitch
I'm a lover
I'm a child
I'm a mother
I'm a sinner
I'm a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I'm your hell
I'm you dream
I'm nothing in between
You know you wouldn't want it any other way
Willow sighed with frustration. "Well, I'm heading back home."
Oz looked at her. "What do you mean?"
The redhead shrugged. "I came here to try and make up with Buffy and Xander, but they won't forgive me. There's not much else I can do and besides, I want to go see our regular doctor for a checkup and see Ruppy. I'll take Priscilla with me."
"Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl this time?" Oz asked her.
Willow smiled. "Not sure. It doesn't matter, does it?"
Oz shook his head. "Nope. What do you think Cordelia's baby is going to be?"
The young woman took on a look of horror. "Oh god! Xander still doesn't know."
Oz sighed. "Yeah, you know I tried to tell him, but he cut me off. It was too soon. It still might be too soon."
"When do you want to tell him? When Cordy gives birth?" Willow asked him with sarcasm.
The young werewolf shook his head once more. "He and Buffy just became a couple. The last thing they need is news like this."
Just when you think you got me figured out
The season's already changin'
I think it's cool you do whatcha do
And don't try to save me
Priscilla Osborne opened the bedroom door and ran up to her parent's bed.
"What are you doing in here? I thought you were watching cartoons?" Willow asked her.
The young girl shook her head. "It's all the old, boring Pokemon cartoons. Can I have some cookies?"
Oz nodded his head. "There should be some left on the coffee table."
Priscilla nodded and quickly ran off to get them as Oz turned back to Willow.
"I'm not in love with Xander." Willow told him firmly.
Oz shook his head with a sigh. "You don't know what you are with him."
Willow watched as Oz left their bedroom to join Priscilla in the living room, before facing the window again.
Giles walked to his front door after hearing the knocking. He opened the door to see Oz standing there.
The former Watcher opened the door further and invited the twenty-something werewolf inside.
Oz walked into the living room and shook his head. "Giles, there's something you need to know. Something that Xander and Buffy should know actually. About Cordelia."
"She's pregnant with Xander's child?" Giles asked him as he closed the front door and walked into the living room, watching Oz's shocked expression.
The red-haired man stared at him. "You know? Since when?"
Giles sighed. "Olivia and I went to see them this morning. Apparently Cordelia called and told Xander. We're all a bit surprised actually. How did you know?"
Oz waved his hand in the air. "Cordy called and told me and Willow before we came back here to Sunnydale. I tried to tell him about it, but there was never a right time. He was so upset over the whole Angel issue, I didn't want to add more pressure to the situation."
"You talk more now than when you were a teenager," Giles noted with a grin.
The young werewolf grinned. "I guess that's one of the benefits of being a father."
"I'm sure it's something I'll find out for myself soon," Giles stated with a smile.
Oz sat down on the couch and looked at the older man. "So, do I say anything to Xander about her calling me and Willow earlier?"
"No," Giles said as he shook his head. "It's not necessary. Buffy and Xander should worry no more about this situation than a simple phone call from Cordelia."
Cassie Wilkes pushed the baby stroller back and forth, gently rocking the small child to sleep as she sat in a Los Angeles park. Shading the baby from the bright sunlight, she stared at the child she was babysitting for a young couple.
Seeing a water fountain nearby, Cassie walked over to get a drink.
The young babysitter leaned over the small water fountain and pressed the button, letting the water shoot out.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed her forehead and forced her head back. Cassie struggled when the stranger brought his other hand, which held a sharp knife, to her throat and quickly cut it.
Cassie felt her killer let go of her and she fell to the ground, clutching her bleeding neck and helplessly watching as the killer moved towards the baby stroller.
With her last breath, she watched as the killer picked up the baby from the stroller and ran out of the park towards an unmarked van.
When the killer got closer to the unmarked van, the van door quickly slid open. The killer and the baby disappeared inside the white van and it sped away from the crime scene.
Xander cradled his baby in his arms as he sat on the couch in his house. He smiled down at his child and noticed that Buffy was smiling also.
"It's amazing, isn't it? How a life can be created?" Xander asked with happiness.
Buffy nodded and grinned as she held her hands out to take the baby from Xander. He handed his child over to Buffy and she took his baby into the bedroom.
Xander followed Buffy into the bedroom and froze in place at what he saw. He found Cordelia naked in his bed, with Angel on top of her as they made love. Xander turned away from the scene in disgust, and focused on Buffy.
"Buffy, what are you doing with my baby?" Xander asked her as he watched Buffy put his child back into it's crib.
Cordelia turned to face him as Angel grunted on top of her. "No, it's my baby."
"It's MY baby!" Xander yelled at her.
Angel moved off of Cordelia and laid down next to her in Xander's bed. "Nah, it's my baby. Mine and Cordelia's."
"Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you!" Xander yelled at the ensouled vampire as he and Cordelia had no reaction to what Xander said to them.
Xander watched as Buffy stripped out of her clothes and climbed into the bed, joining Angel and Cordelia.
"Buffy? What the hell are you doing?" Xander asked her with shock.
Buffy looked at him with a smile. "I'm where I belong. Angel's my bound. I belong with him."
"Hey," Cordelia said with a laugh. "I'm his bound too. Imagine that."
"Yeah," Angel said as he mounted Buffy. "Imagine that."
Xander scrunched his eyes up tight and ran towards the baby crib. When he looked down to find his child, Xander's eyes widened in horror when he saw no trace of the baby at all.
"The baby belongs with me. I'm it's bound. It belongs with me." Angel told him with a smirk.
Xander sat bolt-upright in his bed as he awoke from his nightmare. He looked out the window and saw that it was night already as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck!!" Xander raged as he hit the mattress and pillows with his fists as he remembered the nightmare that troubled him.
"Goddamn nightmares," Xander muttered to himself as he got out of bed and went into the living room to call Buffy.
The former lawyer picked up the receiver and dialed Buffy's phone number. After waiting through a few dial tones, the phone on her end was picked up.
"Hello?" A voice was heard from the other end.
"Buffy, it's Xander." Xander answered from his end.
"Are you alright? Do you know what time it is?"
Xander checked his watch and sighed when he saw it was 1:26 in the morning.
"I'm sorry, I called so late."
"It's okay. You didn't miss me in that big bed of yours, did you?"
Xander heard her smile through the phone and decided to play along. "Well, somehow I managed to get by. I had that big bed all to myself."
"You little shit." Buffy said with a laugh.
The blonde haired man remembered why he called. "I just had a nightmare."
"Of what? Of Penn?" Buffy asked with concern.
"No, nothing like that. I dreamt I lost my baby. I lost it to Angel."
Buffy's sigh could be heard. "It was just a dream, Xander. You know it's not true."
"Even still, I'm going out there sooner than I had planned."
"When?"
"Tomorrow. I have to see her as soon as possible."
"Xander, you know I'm with you on this, right?."
"Yeah, I know. This can't be easy on you."
"It isn't, but it can't be easy on you either. Considering who you're child's stepfather is going to be."
Xander paused as he remembered his nightmare. "I don't think you should come with me to L.A."
"Why not?"
Xander could hear her disappointment at being excluded from his plans. "I just don't want you to see that vampire ex of yours. It's bad enough, I'll have to bump into that prick myself, but I don't think I could stomach him looking at you like that."
"That's exactly how I feel about you seeing that woman again. And you need moral support out there. God knows you're going to need it. We ARE seeing each other after all. Aren't we?"
"Yeah, of course." Xander said over the phone with a smile. "So, I guess I'll pick you up at your mom's house tomorrow morning?"
"Yeah. I'll be ready to go."
"Okay."
"Xander?"
"Yeah?"
"Whatever happens out there in L.A., know that I'll be there to help you through it, okay?"
"Thanks, Buff. I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye."
Buffy walked down the stairs in new clothes, after she had her morning shower and found Joyce Summers in the kitchen.
"Buffy?" Joyce called out to her.
The former Slayer walked into the kitchen and saw her mother. "Yeah?"
Joyce turned around and found Buffy staring at her. "Are you still going to L.A.?"
Buffy nodded. "Yeah, I have to be there for Xander."
The older woman shook her head. "I don't know about this. Xander finds out that he's the father to Cordelia's unborn baby, and now the two of you are going up there to face them?"
Buffy sighed. "I know it's going to be rough."
"Rough? Try extremely awkward. Why don't the two of you just wait for awhile. You and Xander just got together..." Joyce started.
The blonde woman held her hand up. "His baby won't be waiting."
"Cordelia's only about three months along. What's the rush?" Joyce asked her daughter.
Buffy shrugged. "I don't know."
"You're not worried about Xander falling..."
"No, I'm not. Xander doesn't feel that way about her anymore. It took him awhile, but he's over the badness of it now." Buffy assured her mother.
Joyce gave her a look. "And what about you? I'm sure seeing Angel again will have the same impact as Xander seeing Cordelia again."
The former Slayer sighed again. "This is going to be hard on both of us, I admit that. But, this is bound to happen someday. And now with the baby coming, it's inevitable."
"How do you feel about this baby?" Joyce asked her.
Buffy shook her head. "I don't know. Don't tell Xander, but I can't shake the feeling that it might have been better for the both of us, had the baby not existed in the first place. Is that a bad thing to say?"
"No, of course not, honey. Noone would blame you for feeling this way. The last thing you'd want when you just got into a relationship with Xander, is an unexpected complication. Especially with all the hell you two have just been in." Joyce reassured her daughter.
Xander put on some fresh clothes after having a shower, the nightmare last night still bothering him. He left his bedroom and headed to the living room.
The sounds of his doorbell distracted Xander as he walked towards the front door and had a look through the window. Seeing it was Oz, Xander opened the door and invited him in.
"What are you doing here this early?" Xander asked him as he walked into the living room, Oz close behind him as he shut the door.
Oz looked around and saw Xander's car in the driveway. "There's something I have to tell you, but Giles said I shouldn't add any more stress on you."
"What is it?" Xander asked with worry as he stepped forward. "What don't I know?"
The young werewolf shook his head. "Cordelia called me and Willow and told us about the pregnancy. That's part of the reason why we came back here."
"You knew?" Xander asked him in surprise.
Oz nodded. "Yeah, but that's only because she couldn't find you. You and Buffy were impossible to track down, remember?"
"I suppose you saw me and Buffy the night where Penn came after us, didn't you?" Xander asked him.
Oz grinned. "Congratulations, man."
Xander nodded. "I bet that congratulations only came from you, right? Willow was against it?"
The young werewolf nodded slowly. "I don't know what goes on in her head sometimes. She's heading back home with Priscilla this morning, which is why I can't stay here long."
"You're leaving too?" Xander asked him.
Oz shook his head. "No, not yet. I still got that gig with the band at your club. But I want to see her off before she goes."
Xander nodded as he grabbed his car keys. "I'm going to see Cordelia. I want to sort this situation out."
"Are you sure that's such a good idea? You starting a new relationship with Buffy and all of that." Oz mentioned to him.
The blonde haired man shook his head. "I'm the father of that child, Oz. I'm not going to palm off my responsibilities. I'm not going to turn into my father."
"Somehow I don't see that happening." Oz stated as he headed towards the front door with Xander close behind him.
Xander closed and locked the front door as he walked to his car in the driveway. "Tell Priscilla, I said goodbye?"
"Yeah, of course." Oz told him as he watched Xander climb into his sports car.
Xander waved goodbye to Oz as he reversed out of the driveway and headed towards Buffy's house, leaving Oz to get into his own car and drive off toward's Willow's mother's house.
"Excuse me? Could you help me with these boxes please?" Mrs. Nguyen asked the teenage boy who was looking at an old magazine in the day care centre.
Derek Simms put the magazine back on the table and moved to help the middle-aged woman with some heavy boxes, side-stepping her young baby in the basinette.
The young man picked up some heavy boxes and followed Mrs. Nguyen into an old storage closet. She walked in first with her boxes, and Derek saw this. He dropped his heavy boxes quickly and slammed the storage closet door shut, blocking it with the heavy boxes.
Mrs. Nguyen ran to the shut door and banged on the wooden door. "Hey! Open this door! What are you doing?"
Derek slowly moved away from the door and walked over to the basinette. He stared at the sleeping baby as he picked up the basinette with the baby inside, and quickly left the Day Care Centre, ignoring the screams and on-lookers who saw the last minutes of the incident.
Hey
If we can't find a way out of these problems
Then maybe we don't need this
Standing face to face
Enemies at war we build defenses
And secret hiding places
I might need you to hold me tonight
I might need you to say it's alright
I might need you to make the first stand
Because tonight I'm finding it hard to be your man
Xander and Buffy sat in his sports car as they parked next to the Angel Investigations office, with second thoughts.
Hey
More than angry words I hate this silence
It's getting so loud
Well I want to scream
But bitterness has silenced these emotions
It's getting hard to breathe
So tell me isn't happiness
Worth more than a gold diamond ring?
I'm willing to do anything
To calm the storm in my heart
I've never been the praying kind
But lately I've been down upon my knees
Not looking for a miracle
Just a reason to believe
"What's wrong?" Buffy asked him as Xander shook his head slowly.
"I don't know if this is a good idea."
I might need you to hold me tonight
I might need you to say it's alright
I might need you to make the first stand
Because tonight I'm finding it hard to be your man
Do you remember not long ago?
When we used to live for the nighttime
Cherish each moment
Now we don't live we exist
We just run through our lives
So alone
That's why you've got to hold me
"I know it's not the sort of problem we should be facing right now, especially with what you went through with the drinking, but it's better now than when your baby's born." Buffy told him as she secretly had fears about it too.
Xander shrugged an okay.
Hey
If we can't find a way out of these problems
Then maybe we don't need this
Standing face to face
Enemies at war we build defenses
And secret hiding places
Xander and Buffy walked up to the Angel Investigations office and opened the main door.
The two blondes found a shocked Doyle, Cordelia and Angel staring at them with surprise.
Xander and Buffy stared at Cordelia's stomach and realized with shock that she looked like she was ready to give birth at any time.
I might need you to hold me tonight
I might need you to say it's alright
I might need you to make the first stand
Because tonight I'm finding it hard to be your man
"Xander? What are you doing here?" Cordelia asked from her seat on the couch.
Xander moved his eyes from her stomach and focused on Cordelia's face. "I came here to talk to you. In private."
"What you came here to say can be said in front of us." Angel interrupted as he pointed between him and Doyle.
The blonde-haired man gave Angel a cold stare before looking back at Cordelia. She got up off the couch and shook her head. "No, Xander and I need to talk."
Buffy gave Xander a silent good luck as she watched him and Cordelia walk into another room and closed the door behind them. She tried to put aside her fears and focused on Doyle and her ex, Angel instead.
"Buffy. Nice to see you again." Angel said as he tried to think of something to say.
The former slayer nodded. "Same here."
Doyle looked between the two of them and winced. "I'm gonna go get some beer. I'll be back."
Buffy and Angel watched as Doyle quickly left the office and made it outside in the sunlight.
"How did this happen?" Xander asked with shock as he stared at Cordelia's pregnant stomach again.
Cordelia sat down on a bed and stared at him. "I think you know how it happened."
"That I know, but Cordy, you're supposed to be three months pregnant. You look like you're about to give birth!" Xander exclaimed with worry.
The brunette nodded with equal worry. "I'd go to the hospital, but we're worried about what the doctors would say, or find."
"What do you mean 'we'?" Xander asked her.
Cordelia looked at him. "Me and Angel."
"Oh, right. The one that has no say in this." Xander reminded her as he sat down in a chair.
The young woman gave him a look. "C'mon Xander, don't start. I called you because you have a right to know that you're about to be a father soon. I didn't expect you to come charging over here. And with Buffy of all people."
"What did you expect me to do? Sit on my hands? Be a deadbeat dad? And what's wrong with Buffy?" Xander asked her.
Cordelia shrugged. "Nothing. Just that she came between me and Angel."
"Like I did, right?" Xander asked her with a quiet voice.
Cordelia shook her head. "Remember what I told you? When we had our breakup, before we went off to fight those druids? I said that I love you. And I still do."
Xander scoffed. "You also said that you'd help me if I was in trouble. That you'd help anyone of us, just like you did Angel. But I didn't see you when I was in the hospital, did I? So, don't feed me bullshit. Because I ain't swallowing it anymore."
"I didn't go because I thought the last thing you wanted to see was me. That was what the attempt was all about, wasn't it? You had trouble letting go?" Cordelia asked him gently.
The blonde-haired lawyer shook his head repeatedly. "I did not try to kill myself! It was an accident!"
Cordelia nodded. "It's okay. Willow called me from her house after it happened. Apparently she couldn't use the phone at the hospital."
"Yeah, poor Willow." Xander said with sarcasm.
The brunette woman stared at Xander's hair. "You dyed your hair blonde?"
Angel stared at the hallway and then turned to Buffy. "Maybe I should step in there."
"No," Buffy said as she shook her head. "Xander has every right to talk to her. It's his baby too."
The ensouled vampire stared at her. "I'm aware of that."
Buffy looked around the office. "Things seem to look the same since I was here."
"Yeah," Angel remarked. "We're looking for this vampire that killed a friend of Doyle's."
The slayer thought about it. "Frankie Tripod?"
Angel nodded. "How did you know?"
"Xander and I were told about that. It turns out that Penn did it." Buffy told him.
Angel stared at her in surprise. "How do you know about Penn?"
"Because," Buffy started. "Penn came after Xander to get to me. If it weren't for me, Xander could have died."
"So, Penn's dead? Are you sure?" Angel asked her.
Buffy nodded. "Yeah, he's dead. I make sure when I kill bad things."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Angel asked with suspicion.
The former Slayer stared at him. "Because you didn't check to see if he was really dead, he decided to come after me. That's why he went after Frankie Tripod. To look for me. Penn thought that if he killed me, it would hurt you."
"It would hurt me." Angel told her.
Buffy scoffed. "Yeah, good thing Cordelia will be there for comfort then."
Cordelia watched Xander as he sat down in a chair and looked at her. "Where are we anyway?"
"Doyle's room." Cordelia told him.
Xander scoffed. "Can't he afford an apartment?"
"He did have one but there was this demon that burned it down." Cordelia told him with a shrug.
The blonde-haired man sighed. "You get a lot of demon problems here don't you?"
Cordelia nodded. "Yeah, it comes with the territory."
"I guess." Xander said with a nod.
Xander's ex gave him a look. "Why did you beat up Doyle?"
"What?"
"You hit Doyle and told him to give Angel your regards. I thought you were okay with this." Cordelia told him gently.
Xander looked at her. "I lose you to someone that doesn't deserve to be in this world, and I'm supposed to be fine about it? What kind of idiot do you take me for?"
Cordelia looked to the ground, but Xander continued. "You want to know why I hit that boozehound? I'll tell you. I walked up to my house and found him inside MY home, rummaging through my things looking for your clothes."
"Doyle told me that he did it, so I wouldn't have to. To spare us both the pain." Cordelia told him.
"To spare us from the pain? Or to stop us from getting back together? In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Angel didn't send him himself." Xander told her angrily.
Cordelia gave him a surprised look. "Angel isn't the bad guy you've made him out to be. Despite everything that's happened."
Xander chuckled bitterly. "Oh yeah? Then how about that wedding invitation I got in the mail that was sent by Mr. Innocent. How do you explain that?"
"What wedding invitation?" Angel asked with surprise.
Buffy gave him a look. "Don't waste time by lying to me. I know when you're lying."
"Okay, alright. I sent it. Are you happy?" Angel asked her as he walked away from the main office after giving a glance towards the hallway.
The blonde woman followed him. "If you're trying to show Xander that you're not the bad guy he's built you up throughout the years, then you've completely destroyed any hope in achieving that."
"What do you expect? He was the main reason why I lost Cordelia. It started with that goddamn kiss at Cordy's cousin's house. If he had moved on and found someone else, we'd be a lot better off." Angel told her harshly.
Buffy shrugged. "What about me?"
"You were marrying that David guy. If Xander hadn't have gone to that hotel room, you'd still be married to him." Angel told her honestly as Buffy sighed.
The former slayer shook her head. "So you sent the wedding invitation out of spite?"
"You're damn right I did. Especially after what he did to Doyle," Angel told her angrily.
The blonde stared at him. "Xander's hurting with all this. So am I. So, maybe you should curb your tendency to be a complete asshole right now. Neither of us need this right now."
"What do you mean by 'us'?" Angel asked her.
Buffy gave him a look. "Me and Xander."
"Oh." Angel muttered quietly.
The dark-haired vampire was about to say something else when his senses picked up the presence of an approaching vampire.
"We got a visitor." Angel told her.
Buffy looked at him. "What? What is it?"
"It's a vampire."
The young woman was handed a stake by Angel and waited near to the front office door.
The door quickly opened and Spike burst into the office, looking around and saw Buffy.
"There you are. I just heard." Spike told her as he pulled off a blanket he was using to shield him from the sun.
Buffy stared at the British vampire in shock. "Spike? What are you doing here?"
Spike shrugged. "I went to visit Giles and he told me the latest. That you and Xander were coming here. I came here to make you see sense. You don't want to get mixed up with these two wankers again."
"It's not that simple anymore, Spike." Buffy told him.
Angel threw glances at the two of them after Buffy handed him back his stake. "Since when are you two on friendly terms?"
"Since I became a good guy, tosser." Spike taunted his Sire as Angel tried to attack him.
Buffy blocked Angel's attempt and pushed him back as she walked over to a chuckling Spike.
"Xander's in there with Cordelia." Buffy told him as she pointed to a closed room.
Spike sighed as he shook his head. "Luv, I hope you know what you're doing."
"What do you mean? I trust him." Buffy asked him.
The chipped vampire nodded as he smirked at Angel. "That may be so, but they were pretty hot back then from what I hear. Very hot."
"You're not helping here." Angel told him.
Spike gave him a murderous glare. "I also came here to see if I can help Xander kill you. Just in case he changed his mind about the whole 'not hunting you down' thing."
Angel chuckled. "You and Xander are friends? That's a new one."
"He and I have a lot in common. Our girlfriends left us for a complete poofter. And if you even think about trying to hurt my bud, you're going to have to go through me first." Spike spat at him with hate.
The sounds of a large metal door being slid across filled the room as a man in a hood and cloak held a baby in his arms.
He walked into the middle of the room and stared out at all the crying babies in the large room. The man carefully placed the baby into an empty crib and stared at the child before heading towards the exit.
The hooded man quietly closed the metal door, cutting off the baby cries in the soundproof room as he walked away.
Buffy walked away from the two arguing vampires and moved down the hallway to the closed door, which had Xander and Cordelia on the other side.
The blonde woman tapped on the door loudly. "Xander, it's me."
Buffy watched the door open and saw Xander's anguished face as he saw hers. "How's it going in there?"
Xander sighed with angst. "Honestly, I don't know. Cordelia's three months pregnant, but she looks like she could give birth at any minute. That's not normal is it?"
The former Slayer shook her head slowly as she rubbed his shoulder with sympathy. "Can I talk to her?"
The blonde man nodded and stepped out of the room, leaving a surprised Cordelia to deal with her lover's ex.
"Buffy." Cordelia greeted her.
"Cordelia." Buffy greeted her back as she closed the door behind her, but not before giving Xander a look telling him it would be okay.
Xander watched his girlfriend close the door behind her and he turned to face Angel, but was surprised to see Spike there as well.
"Spike? What are you doing here?" Xander asked with surprise.
The British vampire threw his hands up in the air as he approached the mortal man. "I found out that you and Buffy were coming up here, and wanted to help."
Angel shook his head. "Since when did you two become friends?"
Xander threw the dark-haired vampire an evil glare. "Stay out of this, Overbite."
"This is no time to get into an argument." Angel told him as he moved to his desk.
The former lawyer chuckled with sarcasm. "Oh what would be a better time? Sending me an invitation in the mail for an argument?"
"You had to tell Buffy about that didn't you?" Angel told him with a shake of his head.
Xander stared at him with hate. "Well, why not? She is my girlfriend now after all."
Angel's facial expression froze as he took in that last remark, leaving Xander to smirk sub-consciously and Spike to burst out laughing at Angel's predicament.
"Boy, that must sting." Spike teased the older vampire. "Good thing you're sitting down huh?"
"Shutup Spike." Angel warned him as he stood up out of his chair, causing Xander to stand his ground.
The dark-haired vampire sighed. "You only said that out of a heat of the moment thing."
"No," Xander said with a visible smirk. "It's real. We're involved. I'm sure Buffy is telling Cordelia the same thing. I wish I could have done this with me and Buffy just in hotel room towels, but this is the best I can come up with in this situation."
Spike cackled with laughter as he took in Angel's pained expression. "Wow, I wish I had a camera right now. You should really see yourself Nancy-boy."
Angel ignored Spike and tried to push the images of Buffy and Xander together out of his mind as he focused on Cordelia's pregnancy.
"That still doesn't change the fact that Cordelia's pregnant." Angel told them.
Xander nodded with determination. "That's right, it doesn't. And I'm not planning on walking into the sunset as some deadbeat dad, leaving a vampire to do my job. Forget it. You couldn't DRAG me away."
"I understand why Xander came here, but why are you here?" Cordelia asked Buffy suspiciously.
Buffy shook her head. "I didn't come here to get Angel back, if that's what you're worried about."
Cordelia stared at her. "Then why are you here?"
The former Slayer stared at Cordelia's pregnant belly. "I'm here for Xander, that's why I'm here."
The pregnant woman nodded. "I had a feeling that the two of you disappeared together. Willow was worried. We all were."
"I'll bet. Worried that we'd try some other way to break you two up?" Buffy asked with distaste.
Cordelia shook her head. "No, that's not why. Willow wanted to make up for what happened."
"Well she can't. She can't undo what she did to me and Xander." Buffy said with a shake of her head.
"Buffy," Cordelia said sternly. "It's not Willow's fault..."
"Yes it is. And Xander believes it too." Buffy told her as she signalled she didn't want to talk about her former friend anymore.
The brunette woman tried to change the subject. "Remember what I told you when you walked away? That we'll be friends?"
"I also remember telling you I needed time." Buffy told her as she looked around Doyle's temporary room.
Cordelia nodded as she tried to think of something else to say. "So... are you seeing someone?"
"Yeah. Xander." Buffy told her matter of factly.
Cordelia's mouth opened with surprise at that revelation, and Buffy remembered that expression for later.
"He's a good man." Cordelia told her with genuine honesty.
Buffy nodded. "No one quite like him."
Kate Lockley got out of her car and had a look at the Mrs. Sunshine Day Care Centre.
The blonde detective walked towards the Day Care Centre and spotted another detective talking to the grieving Mrs. Nguyen.
"Thank you ma'am." Detective Ross told her as he turned to Kate.
Kate watched the woman walk back to her family as Detective Ross spoke. "She says that she was putting boxes into a storage closet and asked this teenage boy to help her. The boy then slammed the door in, locking her inside. When the janitor opened the door, she found that her baby was missing."
"That's the fifth one in four weeks. What the hell's going on?" Kate asked him as she checked the storage room.
Detective Ross followed her. "I don't know. Some blackmarket smuggling perhaps? This is new territory to me. You don't think they've been murdered do you?"
Kate turned around to stare at him. "I doubt it. If that's what the boy's planned, we'd find the body. We haven't found any bodies except for the babysitter in the park."
"Yeah." Detective Ross replied as he walked out of the storage closet. "This teenage boy couldn't have stolen all five babies."
"I think you're right on the first guess." Kate told him. "This looks like some blackmarket goingson to me. And the sooner we find the babies the better."
The male detective followed Kate outside as she went to talk to the security guard to get a copy of the security tape.
If you don't know me by now
You will never, never, never know me
Oz played the guitar along with a couple of his friends while Devon sang a redone song by Simply Red.
All the things, that we've been through
You should understand me, like I understand you
Now girl I know the difference
Between right and wrong
I ain't gonna do nothing to break up your happy home
Don't get so excited when I come home a little late at night
Cose we only act like children when we argue fuss and fight
Xander and Buffy watched from the bar with grins as the Dingoes Ate My Baby band played in their nightclub, The Dark Room.
If you don't know me by now
You will never, never, never know me
Buffy snuck a look at Xander to see if she could read his expression, concerning Cordelia and his baby, but sighed when she realized he was concentrating on the crowd at their club.
We' ve all got, our funny moods
I' ve got mine, woman you' ve got yours too
Just trust in me like I trust in you
As long as we' ve been together
It should be so easy to do
Just get yourself together or we might as
well say goodbye
What good is a love affair when you can't see eye to eye
Oz managed to see his two high school friends in the crowd and smiled as he played along with the band, knowing the song was coming to an end.
If you don't know me by now
You will never, never, never know me
If you don't know me by now
You will never, never, never know me
After the song ended, Oz and the band went off the stage to make way for the Bangles.
Xander and Buffy motioned to Oz that they were heading upstairs to the office, and their friend followed them.
"Hey, great set." Xander told him with a grin as he gave him the cheque for the band.
Oz held onto the cheque and nodded. "This is a great club, guys. The acoustics are real good in here."
"Thanks. Business here is going pretty strong." Buffy said as she agreed with him.
Oz nodded again as he took a spare seat and sat down. "So, I hate to jump straight to the point, but how'd it go with your exes?"
Buffy and Xander exchanged glances as Xander shrugged. "It was pretty rough."
"Yeah, no kidding." Buffy said aloud.
Xander looked at her. "What does that mean?"
Buffy turned to him and shrugged. "It's just that the situation was tough, that's all."
Oz noted the looks that Xander and Buffy tried to hide from each other and secretly hoped that they would tell one another about their worries.
"How's the baby? Is it a boy or a girl? Cordelia didn't say over the phone." Oz told them as he waited for an answer.
Xander sighed. "She said that she wants to be surprised about the sex. So that's two things we'll be surprised about when the time comes."
"What do you mean?" Oz asked him as he saw Xander's worried expression.
Buffy decided to speak up. "Cordelia looks like she could give birth at any time now. Not something someone three months along should look like."
Oz nodded with agreement. "Yeah, I heard about that. Cordy's worried about that too."
Xander said nothing about that and simply stared out at the crowd in the nightclub. He watched the doorway at the entrance glow blue as a vampire must have tried to get in but was flung several feet backwards as a result.
"Xander?" Oz asked him, trying to direct his attention.
The blonde-haired man turned to Oz and they saw he had a worried look on his face. "Yeah?"
"Are you alright?" Oz asked him as Buffy watched his expression.
Xander nodded as he shrugged off his fears. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Don't worry about the baby, okay? I'm sure things will turn out right in the end." Oz said as he tried to console him.
Xander nodded once more as Devon opened the office door and stuck his head in. "Hey guys."
"Hey," Buffy greeted him as Devon walked into the room.
Devon nodded to Oz. "We're packed up and on our way out."
"Yeah, me too." Oz said as he got up out of his seat and handed the cheque over to Devon.
Buffy and Xander walked out of the office with Oz and the three of them made it through the crowd, out of the nightclub and into the parking lot.
"You're going so soon?" Xander asked him as Oz packed up his guitar.
Oz nodded. "Yeah. I got to get back to Willow and check on Ruppy."
Buffy nodded and noticed Spike walk towards them holding his back and head.
"Nice barrier you got on your club there." Spike said as he nursed his wounds, walking up to them.
Xander shrugged and gave him a look. "There's a strong barrier protecting the place from vampires. Good or evil."
"Now you tell me." Spike muttered as he rubbed his head.
Oz shut the trunk of his car and the three mortals said their good byes. The young werewolf opened the car door and got in as he waved a goodbye to Buffy and Xander.
"Bye Oz!" Buffy called out to him as Oz and his band members drove away from the nightclub and into the night.
Buffy and Xander stared at Oz's disappearing vehicle before talking to Spike.
Music blared through the loud speakers as the teenagers danced to the latest band's songs. Buffy noticed that Xander had disappeared to their office again and was about to go up and see him, but watched with surprise as Giles walked into the nightclub.
"Giles? What are you doing here?" Buffy asked him as they went outside so they could talk away from the noise.
The former Watcher shook his head. "I wanted to find out what happened with Angel and Cordelia. Did you sort it all out?"
Buffy shook her head. "If anything it's gotten more complicated. Xander's been all quiet since we left them, and I don't know what he's thinking."
"Is he here? Can I speak with him?" Giles asked her.
The blonde woman nodded. "He's up in the main office. Did you send Spike here?"
"No." Giles told her flatly. "I found out that he came here. He didn't cause trouble did he?"
"No, he didn't. Not really. He actually stuck up for me and Xander. I guess you can chalk that up with feeding the homeless and God knows what else he gets up to these days. He's gone back to Sunnydale now though." Buffy answered with a shrug.
Giles heard the song end inside The Dark Room, and decided to go see Xander before the next song started. Buffy walked into the club with him and watched Giles walk up the stairs towards the office she shares with Xander.
"Xander, I wish you told me what you're worried about." Buffy said to herself, just before a new 80's song started.
Xander turned away from watching the large dancing crowd and focused on Giles, who sat at one of the chairs with a concerned look on his face.
"I can tell that something's wrong. So can Buffy. Why are you keeping this to yourself? Whatever it is, she can deal with it." Giles told him as Xander paced the room.
The blonde-haired man paced the floor. "I knew I was about to become a father, but I guess it didn't gel until I saw her. You should see her Giles. Cordelia's pregnant."
"I know." Giles told him.
Xander shook his head. "Before I saw her, those were just words. 'Cordelia's pregnant' were just words. Actually seeing her with my baby growing inside her, took my breath away."
"Why haven't you told Buffy about this?" Giles asked him.
The younger man sighed. "I don't know. Maybe I don't want to hurt her, I don't know. This can't be easy for her. I don't think she wanted to bump into her bastard of an ex so soon."
"Buffy's a bit worried about you. She knows you're keeping these feelings to yourself. So I think you should tell her." Giles advised him carefully.
Xander looked at him. "Buffy knows?"
"She suspects." Giles confirmed to him.
The former lawyer shrugged resignedly. "This isn't the only thing on my mind anyway. I saw Cordelia and she looked like she was on her due date. This can't be a normal pregnancy."
Giles stared at Xander with surprise as he took in this news.
Angel walked into the bedroom and gave Cordelia a cup of coffee. "I don't think you should be drinking this stuff when you're pregnant."
"Try telling my baby that." Cordelia answered him as she waited for her coffee to cool for a bit.
The vampire gave her a look as he sat next to her on the bed. "Surprising news about Buffy and Xander, wasn't it?"
"Yeah." Cordelia said with a nod. "Well, Xander did have a crush on her when he first saw her, so I know this is a good thing for him."
Angel shrugged. "I don't know. It couldn't hurt Buffy to find someone a bit more stable. Not to mention mature."
Cordelia threw him a look. "Don't put Xander down like that. I didn't spend all that time with him if he was a loser, now would I?"
"I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry." Angel said gently as she drank some of the coffee.
The brunette woman made a face. "Ugh, it's bitter."
"Great," Angel said sarcastically. "That's the last time we send Doyle out on a coffee run."
Cordelia sighed as she felt the baby kick again. "She's a wild kicker, that's for sure."
"She?" Angel asked.
Cordelia shook her head. "Wishful thinking."
Angel nodded. "What does Xander think about the baby?"
Xander's ex shrugged. "He's worried about the birth. Exactly what we're worried about."
"What about after?" Angel asked her. "After you give birth?"
Cordelia sighed tiredly. "I don't care about all that right now, Angel. I love you, but all I'm worried about right now is getting this pregnancy over with. You better be thanking your lucky stars that you're a male."
Angel laughed, but made sure she didn't see his concern over their future and the future of her child. The child she will share with Xander.
If you don't know me by now
You will never, never, never know me
All the things, that we've been through
You should understand me, like I understand you
Now girl I know the difference
Between right and wrong
I ain't gonna do nothing to break up your happy home
Don't get so excited when I come home a little late at night
Cose we only act like children when we argue fuss and fight
If you don't know me by now
You will never, never, never know me
We' ve all got, our funny moods
I' ve got mine, woman you' ve got yours too
Just trust in me like I trust in you
As long as we' ve been together
It should be so easy to do
Just get yourself together or we might as
well say goodbye
What good is a love affair when you can't see eye to eye
If you don't know me by now
You will never, never, never know me
If you don't know me by now
You will never, never, never know me
Xander looked away from the large window and focused back on the older man.
Giles sighed as he was updated with Cordelia's pregnancy. "Did you think of the most obvious answer?"
"What's that?" Xander asked him with interest.
The former Watcher shrugged his shoulders. "Is it at all possible that she may have had an affair when she was with you?"
Xander stared at him. "She wouldn't have done that to me."
"How do you know?"
"Because," Xander stated. "Cordelia's not the type that cheats. At least not physically cheats. I did hear her mention Angel's name in her sleep a few times."
Giles sighed with concern. "Have you considered the possibility that Angel may be the father?"
The blonde-haired man gave him an angry look. "Angel's not the father. I am. Me. Vampires are sterile and dead creatures. There's no way he can father a child."
Giles watched as Xander stood up from his chair. "Where are you going?"
Xander walked to the door to his office and opened it. "I'm going to see Cordelia. There's a few things I want to say that I didn't get a chance to."
The older man watched Xander leave as he shook his head, hoping that Xander wouldn't fly off the handle.
Xander walked up to the front door of Cordelia's apartment and knocked on the door, hoping she was home alone.
"Who is it?" Cordelia called out from inside.
"It's Xander!" Xander called out to her as he held onto a shopping bag.
Cordelia's voice called out again. "The door's open."
The blonde-haired man turned the doorknob and opened the door. He found Cordelia sitting on the couch armed with a crossbow.
"I see you're being careful." Xander said as he showed her the crucifix he was holding with his bare hand as he walked inside.
Cordelia unarmed her crossbow and put it down on her coffee table. "You can't be too careful in this city. It's very hard for a pregnant woman to run, you know."
"Yeah." Xander told her as he thought about her situation. "It can't be easy."
The brunette woman gave him a smile. "What brings you here this late at night?"
Xander showed her the bag he was holding in his other hand as he reached in and pulled out two stuffed toys.
"Seeing as how the sex of our baby is going to be a surprise, I didn't know which toy I should get. A stuffed doll or a teddy bear. So, I got them both." Xander told her as he handed them to her.
Cordelia held the two stuffed toys and chuckled. "Oh Xander. This is too sweet."
Xander shrugged his shoulders. "This is nothing. I plan to be involved in our child's life. I don't want to become like my parents were."
"You won't be like them." Cordelia told him with assurance.
The former lawyer nodded. "You're not here by yourself are you?"
"Yeah," Cordelia answered. "There was a client that Angel and Doyle had to help out with. Normally I wouldn't be alone in my condition. They're real clingy."
Xander sighed as he shook his head. "What if there was an emergency? What if you couldn't get to a phone in time? What if..."
"Xander! Nothing is wrong. Nothing is going to be wrong." Cordelia said with assurance.
The blonde-haired man sighed once more. "I was just talking with Giles..."
"How is Giles?" Cordelia asked him with a grin.
Xander shrugged. "He's alright. But there was something he told me that struck a chord with me. About you."
"What about me?" Cordelia asked with concern.
"That life-risking stunt you did to save Angel's life from the druids three months ago. I'm sure you remember that." Xander told her angrily.
Cordelia nodded carefully. "Yeah, of course. So?"
Xander stared at her as he thought out his words before speaking. "God knows what happened physically to you through all that. What happened physically to my child because of that."
The brunette woman gave him an upset look. "Are you saying it's my fault for our child's 'condition'?"
"Hell yes. I didn't ask you to commit suicide to save that dirtbag. And you put our child's life at risk." Xander told her angrily.
Cordelia stood up with an angry expression on her tired face. "I didn't know I was pregnant then."
"Would you have still gone through with it? Knowing that you weren't just damaging your life, but wrecking a perfectly innocent baby's?" Xander asked her with disgust.
Cordelia slapped him hard and Xander reeled back a couple of steps as he thought about what he said.
"How dare you? You should know that I'm not the type of person that would do such a thing. There's no indication that there's anything wrong with our baby." Cordelia said angrily.
Xander pointed to her ballooned stomach. "Take a look, Cordy. You're three months pregnant. Three. Do you consider this a normal occurence? You said so yourself that you don't want to go to a doctor because of this, surely you understand that this could be a sign of some permanent damage to our child?"
Cordelia stepped forward to him with an unreadable expression. "And you blame Angel for this?"
"No." Xander told her with a shake of his head. "I blame you."
Cordelia watched as Xander left her apartment quickly, wanting to get away from the woman that has hurt him for so long.
By the time Xander made it back to the nightclub he owns with Buffy, the clubgoers were filing out of the large building. He checked his watch and realized that it was closing time.
"Where'd you get off to?" Buffy asked him as he walked towards her.
Xander kissed her on the lips as the last group of teenagers left the Dark Room. Buffy and Xander walked into the empty nightclub and started picking up the garbage.
"I went to see Cordelia. I had to get something off my chest." Xander told her as he quickly picked up an empty bottle.
Buffy looked at him for a few minutes and then asked him another question. "Did you get it off your chest?"
Xander shrugged his shoulders. "I guess. I can't believe she's so goddamn irresponsible."
"Why? What has she done?" Buffy asked him with curiosity.
The blonde-haired man sighed. "What she did to save that ex of yours, may have wrecked my child's chances of having a normal, healthy, human life."
"I know." Buffy told him. "But she didn't know she was pregnant when she was in that mystical convergance. None of us knew."
Xander shook his head slowly. "All I want is for my kid to have as normal a life as possible. Not to be regularly acquainted with demons and other freaks out there. Is it too much to ask?"
"No, it isn't." Buffy told him. "When I found out I was supposed to slay vampires, all I wanted was to be a normal girl."
The young man gave her an apologetic look. "You're not a freak. I was talking about demons and vampires and stuff."
"Yeah, I know. It's just that sometimes you come off as some type of a bigot." Buffy told him carefully.
Xander got angry and picked up the last piece of garbage. "Excuse me if I don't like the demons and vampires in the world. Excuse me if I want the world to be a normal and safe place."
Buffy sighed loudly. "I know you want the world to be a safe place. So do I. But it isn't. And your child is going to be born and raised into this world. I think you should be prepared for this."
"It's my greatest fear." Xander told her. "That someday in the future, I'm going to get a call from the hospital and I find out my child was killed by a vampire or some latest demon."
"We won't let that happen. He or she will know the dangers and be on the lookout for things like that. We'll make sure of it." Buffy assured him gently.
Xander nodded silently and sat down on a barstool at the bar. Buffy sat down next to him and grinned.
"You know what I do sometimes whenever I'm feeling tense?" Buffy asked him as she watched him try to relax.
"No, what?" Xander asked her.
The former slayer gave him a look. "I go to a gym. There's one here in L.A. that's still open. They've got a real good punching bag for you to work out your frustrations on."
"I'm not sure..." Xander started but Buffy got off the stool and pulled him off of his.
"C'mon, we'll use my membership. It's still good there." Buffy told him with a grin as they locked up their nightclub and headed towards Xander's car.
Xander hit the punching bag that Buffy held onto for him, letting him get his frustrations out.
"Is this helping?" Buffy asked him as he hit the sawdust-filled bag several times.
The blonde-haired man shrugged breathlessly. "All I see when I look at this bag is a certain vamp with a soul."
Buffy gave him a look. "You know, I've often hit the punching bag thinking it was Cordelia's face."
Xander chuckled. "Fair enough. It's just that..."
"Just what?" Buffy asked as he hit the punching bag once more.
The former lawyer sighed angrily. "I hate demons."
"Me too." Buffy told him. "I was the Slayer you know."
Xander shook his head as he hit the bag harder. "No, no, you don't get it. I HATE demons. With a passion. I could never stand them."
Buffy let go of the punching bag and Xander stopped hitting it as he watched her reaction.
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked him carefully.
Xander waved a hand in the air. "It's just... that they're evil. Not to mention disgusting. And if they're not being evil, they're still being disgusting and taking away things that belong to humans. I've always felt this way, I guess I've never come out and said it."
The blonde-haired woman stared at him. "I didn't realize you had large bigoted feelings."
"Oh c'mon Buffy. It's not like they're human beings with different skin color or something racist like that. They're DEMONS. Demons. Just another form of animal." Xander reinforced to her as he hit the bag harder.
Buffy shook her head. "Demons were on this planet long before humans."
"Yeah, but humans were created to replace the demons. This whole equal rights to every slime demon with a horn jutting out of it's skull is ridiculous. What I wouldn't give for a normal world. Where the only supernatural thing on this planet is Bob Barker." Xander wondered aloud as Buffy shook her head.
"Well, we don't live in that world. As I said before." Buffy told him with understanding.
Xander shook his head. "In a normal world, you would never have fallen for a vampire, Cordelia would never have done the same, and Willow wouldn't have betrayed us the way she did."
Buffy watched him with sympathy as he hit the punching bag harder than ever as his anger flared.
Angel moved over towards the couch and sat down next to his fiance. "He actually said that?"
"Yeah," Cordelia said with a nod. "But he's not wrong."
The vampire gave her a surprised look. "Of course he's wrong. You weren't to know that you were pregnant during the mystical convergence."
Cordelia shook her head. "Would I have gone through with it though? Sacrifice Xander's baby to save you?"
"You wouldn't do that. This is a baby's life we're talking about here. He's just talking garbage to upset you. I'll track him down and find out what his problem is." Angel promised as he got up off of the couch.
The brunette woman grabbed his arm in a pleading manner. "No, don't. It's not his fault. He's just being protective over his child."
Angel nodded after a minute and then spotted the stuffed doll and the teddy bear. "Xander brought those?"
"Yeah," Cordelia said gently. "It's for the baby."
"I'm sorry I wasn't here for you. But the case was..." Angel started to explain but Cordelia cut him off.
"Important." Cordelia finished. "I know, I know."
Angel stared at her carefully. "Things will change when your baby comes. I'll back away from the job a bit and help you. Doyle can pick up some of the cases by himself, he's become quite the fighter since I first met him."
Cordelia patted her stomach gently. "What if there's something wrong with the pregnancy?"
"Then we'll deal with it. Whether Xander likes the outcome or not." Angel promised her as he caressed her cheek.
Loud music blared through the Los Angeles apartment complex as the muted sounds of babies crying were drowned out by the music.
Two apartment doors opened and two men dressed in black cloaks walked out of the two apartments, both of them holding a crying baby.
"What about the other one?" The tall man asked his shorter accomplice.
The short man shook his head. "He said to only take these two. And these two specifically."
The tall kidnapper nodded in acceptance and they walked down the hallway, away from the loud music from a nearby party.
Xander got off his couch when he heard someone knocking on his front door. He peered through the peephole to see who was on the other side, and was surprised to see Cordelia waiting outside.
The blonde-haired man opened the door and glanced at his ex-girlfriend standing there.
"What are you doing here in your condition?" Xander asked with worry.
Cordelia sighed. "I took a cab over here. There's some things we need to straighten out."
"Well come on in." Xander said as he waved her inside.
The young woman walked inside as Xander closed the front door behind her.
Cordelia looked around Xander's living room and secretly admired his taste of furniture. She watched as Xander walked over to the remote control and turned off his television.
"Before coming over here, I had a conversation with Willow." Cordelia told him anxiously.
Xander groaned. "What does she want now?"
"Nothing, Xander. Apart from being forgiven for something which wasn't her fault to begin with." Cordelia told him sternly.
The former lawyer held up a hand. "If you came over here to get me and Buffy to forgive Willow, then you've wasted your time. She's dead to us."
"She was your best friend, Xander." Cordelia reminded him softly.
Xander nodded sarcastically. "Emphasis on 'was'."
"Well," Cordelia said as she sat down on Xander's couch. "I told her about the argument we had in my apartment."
Xander huffed and sat down. "I haven't changed my feelings on this. It was a stupid choice you made."
"I did what I had to do to save someone that I loved. You would have done the same." Cordelia said to him.
The young man shook his head. "You destroyed your humanity to save a vampire. It's not something I would have done. Or any sane person for that matter."
"Buffy did it once." Cordelia reminded him.
Xander nodded. "And I had problems with that too. She could have died from that, and the whole world would have gone with her. Don't try to cover up your mistake with one of Buffy's."
"The reason I came here today was to sort out our situation. What we're going to do when the baby arrives." Cordelia told him as she rested her hands on her knees.
The former lawyer nodded. "We could have done this over the phone. I still can't believe you're walking around in your condition. Ever plan on putting your feet up and taking things easy?"
Your love is better than ice cream
better than anything else that I've tried
and your love is better than ice cream
everyone here know how to fight
Buffy walked up the driveway towards Xander's house. She wanted to see how he was doing after what he told her at the gym the night before.
and it's a long way down
it's a long way down
it's a long way down to the place
where we started from
Walking up to his house, the former Slayer stopped still when she heard a female voice. Carefully peering in through the living room window, Buffy saw Xander and Cordelia talking in his house.
Your love is better than chocolate
better than anything else that I've tried
oh love is better than chocolate
everyone here knows how to cry
Staring at Cordelia's pregnant stomach once more, Buffy began to feel jealous. Deciding to not interrupt them, she began to walk towards her mother's house.
it's a long way down
it's a long way down
it's a long way down to the place
where we started from...
"They're probably just having an innocent conversation. Xander wouldn't cheat on you." Joyce said as she tried to assure her daughter.
Buffy nodded slowly. "Yeah. It just really irks me everytime I see her. It's probably the same feeling Xander has everytime he has to see Angel."
Joyce nodded in agreement. "Most likely. In six months or less, Xander is going to be a father. I'm not sure if the both of you have really absorbed that information. His life is really going to change from this."
"This might seem petty, but I really don't care. I just wish I were the pregnant one, instead of Cordelia. Is that so wrong?" Buffy asked her mother.
The older woman shook her head. "There's nothing wrong with that. Maybe some day it will happen. You'll fall pregnant. But I'd prefer it if the two of you got married first."
Buffy laughed and nodded. "I was wondering if you were going to say something like that."
"Where's this insecurity coming from? Just try to not be jealous of Cordelia. Because you've got something she doesn't." Joyce told her.
"What?" Buffy asked.
"Xander," Joyce answered. "You've got Xander."
Angel opened the door to his detective agency and walked inside, closing the door behind him.
He froze when he saw Kate Lockley staring out a window as she stood in the main office.
"Kate? What are you doing here?" Angel asked with concern.
Kate turned toward him and sighed. "I'm not here for personal reasons, that's for sure. I'm only here because there's nobody else I know of that's into the supernatural."
"I'm not INTO the supernatural..." Angel started to say, but Kate stopped him.
The detective handed him a crime scene photograph which contained ritualistic symbols.
"Do you know what that is?" Kate asked him anxiously, wanting to leave as soon as she could.
Angel shook his head, sensing her uncomfort. "No, it's nothing I've seen before. I may be wrong, but my co-workers will have to look it up. What happened?"
Kate scratched the back of her neck as she moved toward the window, daylight streaming into the office which caused Angel to keep his distance.
"There have been some abductions lately that are baffling my department. Child abductions. All of them newborns or close to it." Kate told him as she drew the blinds on the office window.
The ensouled vampire glanced at the photograph once more. "And this has something to do with the abductions?"
"It was found at the last crime scene. Right next to the babysitter's body." Kate told him coldly.
Angel gave her a look before replying. "Kate, I know it couldn't have been easy..."
"What? You rejecting me for Cordelia?" Kate asked him sarcastically.
The vampire shook his head. "That's not the way it happened and you know it."
"I know how it happened. But that's all in the past now. And if it weren't for this case, I wouldn't have come here at all." Kate admitted to him.
Angel sat down on a spare seat. "If there's anything that I can do..."
"Did you know that three months ago, Cordelia came to see me? I never could stand that woman. I'm glad to see that you're better now though." Kate told him blankly as she headed towards the door.
Angel nodded as he looked at the photograph once more. "If I find anything about the symbols, I'll call you."
Kate simply nodded and left the office, closing the door behind her and leaving Angel alone.
"Are pregnant women allowed to drink coffee?" Xander asked as Cordelia drank her coffee.
Cordelia gave him a tired look. "I normally dislike coffee. But it's the baby that likes it. So who am I to refuse?"
Xander nodded warily. "Ok."
"Are you sure about not forgiving Willow? You and Buffy are throwing away a perfectly good friendship over something that was out of her control." Cordelia told him gently.
The blonde-haired man sighed. "How many times are we going to go over this? I am never going to accept Willow's apologies. I will never forgive her for what she did. She's just lucky Buffy didn't break her jaw when she decked her at the shopping centre."
Cordelia nodded angrily. "I heard about that. Buffy's lucky Willow didn't press charges."
"Like she would have." Xander said with bitterness.
Cordelia finished her cup of coffee at the same time the horn of the Taxi cab was heard from outside.
"That's my ride. There's some things I have to do at the office." Cordelia told him as she carefully stood up off the couch.
Xander helped her up and walked over to his front door and opened it. "I don't like this. I don't like how you're pregnant and you're still stuck in demon cases."
"Well, there's not much to do about that is there?" Cordelia asked him as they stepped outside.
The former lawyer nodded. "Actually there is. It's something I've been tossing around in my brain for a few days now. But I know now it's the right decision."
"What is it?" Cordelia asked him curiously.
Xander looked at her. "I'm going to apply for full custody."
Angel walked into Cordelia's apartment and closed the door. He sat down next to his soulmate and wanted to know why she was upset.
"What's wrong? You sounded real upset over the phone." Angel told her gently as he stroked her hair.
Cordelia ran her hand over her stomach. "It's Xander."
"What's he done now?" Angel asked, feeling the anger creep back in.
The young woman stared at him and then answered. "He's applying for full custody."
"Can he do that?" Angel asked her in shock.
Cordelia nodded. "He can. I don't know what his chances are of winning, but it's safe to say he's going to have a fighting chance."
Angel shook his head irritably. "Not if I have anything to say about this. You're under enough stress as it is. Now with this pending lawsuit."
"Who's talking about a lawsuit?" Cordelia asked him.
The vampire stared at her. "What are you talking about?"
"I've been thinking about this. Maybe he should have full custody. He'll probably make a better parent than I'll ever be." Cordelia told him with sadness.
Angel held her hand and lightly pressed it on her stomach. "Can you feel your baby kicking, and honestly believe that you're not going to be a great mother? You've got what it takes to be a good mother. Don't let him dissuade you of that."
Cordelia sighed. "I just wish things were so simple. What kind of life am I going to be giving my child?"
"I don't know. But whatever it is, it won't have anything to do with a lawsuit. That's for damn sure." Angel vowed to her.
"Buffy, I'm glad you could make it." Xander told her as he watched her walk into his house.
Buffy nodded and sat down on a couch. "You sounded pretty upset over the phone. What happened?"
"Nothing that I haven't been thinking about for a while. But this would concern you too." Xander told her as he sat down.
The twenty-nine year old woman became wary. "This doesn't have anything to do with Cordelia does it?"
"Yeah, but not in the way you're thinking. I'm going to apply for full custody." Xander confessed.
Buffy stared at him in shock. "What? Are you crazy? You have no idea how to take care of a baby."
"So? Neither does Cordelia. But at least my child will have a more stable life with me, than with her." Xander said with a wave of his hand.
The former Slayer shook her head quickly as she stood up. "Xander, where has this come from all of a sudden."
"I was thinking about this the minute I saw her pregnant. I just... I tried to believe that she could take care of my child, but the environment she lives in... the people she hangs out with... it's ludicrous to let a baby grow up in a place like that." Xander told her passionately.
Buffy sighed. "So, your option is either let Cordelia raise your child in L.A. with all the demons and vampires, or you raise your child in a town filled with demons and vampires along with a Hellmouth."
Xander ran a hand through his hair. "I wish it were a normal world. But I still believe that my baby would be safer with me, than with Cordelia."
The former Slayer paced back and forth. "So, why are you telling me about this?"
"Besides being my girlfriend?" Xander asked with a smile. "I wanted to know how you felt about this. Because this could change your life as well."
Buffy gave him a look. "You want me to be a surrogate mother?"
"You don't want to?" Xander asked her gently. "You don't have to if you don't want to."
The blonde woman shook her head. "I don't know. This is big. I'd have to think about this."
Xander nodded understandingly. "I understand. If you choose not to, it won't change anything between us."
Buffy smiled and kissed him. "I know. I'll need some time to think it over."
"Okay."
Buffy sat on her mother's couch as Giles and Joyce stood in the living room. Giles sat down on a couch and faced the young woman.
"I can't believe this. What did you tell him?" Giles asked her.
Buffy shook her head. "I told him I had to think about it. I really don't know what to do."
"Are you going to say no?" Joyce asked her daughter.
The young woman sighed. "I don't know. I said before that I would have liked to have been the pregnant one instead of Cordelia."
"Yeah, but this is different. There's no guarantee that Xander will win with the application. And even if he does, you'll always know that it isn't your child." Joyce told her sympathetically.
Buffy nodded. "I know the commitment will be long-term. Xander said he won't go through with it, if I don't agree."
Joyce shook her head. "That's a lot of pressure."
"He said it won't change anything between us." Buffy told her.
Giles nodded. "That may be, but there could be some resentment down the road."
Buffy sighed as she hit a cushion lightly. "I don't know about that."
The former Watcher gave her a look. "Are you sure that Xander's not doing this to punish Cordelia and Angel?"
Buffy looked at him. "Xander hates Angel, that's true. And maybe that's a small part of his decision. But I really believe him when he said he wants to protect his child. I think that he might be right."
Giles nodded. "It sounds like you've made up your mind."
Joyce stared at Buffy who smiled. "I guess I have."
Xander stood in the Dark Room office he shared with Buffy, as their customers danced to the music the band played in the large room.
The door to the office opened and Buffy walked inside. She saw him looking out the window.
He turned to look at her and then checked his watch. "Buff, it's nine pm. Where have you been?"
Buffy shrugged as she walked over to the desk. "There was something that Giles needed help with. Sorry about that."
"That's okay." Xander told her. "I just thought something happened. Or you were avoiding me because of what I said earlier."
The former Slayer shook her head. "I'm not avoiding you. I just wanted to think about it."
"Don't feel pressured to give me an answer now." Xander told her as he moved away from the window and sat down on a chair.
Buffy gave him a look. "The reason why you want full custody. It's not because of getting revenge on Angel or punishing Cordelia is it?"
Xander breathed inward. "Nothing would please me more than giving that bastard the staking he deserves. But I'm not using my child as a chess piece. The people they deal with on a daily basis, if you can call them people, are a good environment for a baby."
The young woman nodded. "I've been thinking about this for a few hours. And I think that's all I needed. I want to be with you no matter what, and if that means I get to be a stepmom or whatever, so be it."
"Are you saying..." Xander started and Buffy nodded.
"Lets go for it." Buffy said with a grin.
Xander laughed happily and hugged his girlfriend tight. "Things are going to be so great."
"Well, hold on. Because we haven't gone through the hard part yet. I'm sure Cordelia didn't like your decision." Buffy told him.
"No," Xander stated. "She didn't like it at all. I think she's going to fight it."
Buffy nodded. "And with Angel on her side, we have a fight on our hands."
Xander smiled as he thought about Angel. "Don't worry about Angel. I have him right where I need him."
"Honey, will you get that?" Sharon Davis called out to her husband.
Mike walked towards the front door and turned on the porch lights. Looking through the peephole, he recognized his former employee.
"Xander?" Mike greeted him with surprise as he opened the door.
The twenty-nine year old man stood there with a grin on his face. "Hey, Mike. I'm sorry for dropping by so late."
Mike checked his watch. "It's only ten thirty."
Xander laughed. "Okay, well I'll get to the point. Remember when I quit 'Simon And Finch'?"
Xander's former boss nodded. "Yeah, I seem to remember that."
"Okay," Xander said with a nod. "Well, remember when you said I could come to you for a favour?"
Mike Davis stared at him. "Are you okay? What's going on? Did something happen?"
Xander shook his head. "It's about me getting full custody of my child."
The older man was shocked. "You never told me that you had a kid."
"I didn't know until recently. Cordelia is pregnant with my baby." Xander informed him.
Mike gave him a look. "You want to apply for full custody for an unborn child?"
"I think we have a real good chance of winning this." Xander told him as he sat down on a spare seat on the porch.
Xander's old boss bit his lip. "I don't know about this. It sounds a lot like revenge to me. And that's what the judge is going to see also. Especially once he hears Cordelia's point of view. I'm not sure that this is a smart idea, Xander."
The young man shook his head. "Cordelia is engaged to a private investigator. A private investigator who works with a gambling alcoholic and who also delves into cases that involve some pretty sick people."
"What are you getting at?" Mike asked him.
Xander stared at his friend. "Angel has a lot of enemies. Enemies that wouldn't mind striking at my child to get to him. I'd be a fool to not see that. Cordelia doesn't see that because she's in love with him and doesn't realize how dangerous he is. She works in the detective agency with them."
"I wouldn't want my child to be exposed to that clientele either." Mike said with a nod.
Xander nodded. "So you'll help me?"
Mike waved his hand and sat down. "Yeah, I'll help you. I'll get a good lawyer from my firm to help you."
"No," Xander said with a shake of his head. "I'd prefer it if it was you that did it. I can't have any mistakes with this."
The older man nodded as he clapped a hand on Xander's shoulder. "I'll do it. I'll call you tomorrow morning, okay?"
"Yeah, thanks." Xander told him with a smile.
By the time Xander had gotten back to the Dark Room, the party was over for the night. He had Buffy leave for home, letting him clean up the nightclub by himself.
The young man heard a knocking on the closed metal door that led into the nightclub.
"We're closed!" Xander yelled out to the unknown guest.
The loud knocking continued, annoying Xander as he threw the garbage bag to the floor and walked towards the front door.
"Are you deaf?" Xander asked the unknown caller through the door. "We're closed."
Xander flung open the door and came face to face with Angel. "Well, look who it is."
Angel shook his head as he stared at the mortal man. "Cordelia told me about what you've got planned. You're a real piece of work."
"Listen..." Xander started, but Angel cut him off.
"I think it's time you listened to me. You can punish me all you want if it makes you feel better. It doesn't take a genius to know that you hate me because you think I took Cordelia from you." Angel told him.
Xander raised an eyebrow. "Apparently it doesn't take a genius. You seemed to have cracked the code."
Angel stood outside the nightclub. "You're hurting Cordelia more than you're hurting me right now. She's pregnant with your child, and all you can think of is getting revenge? I've known some selfish people in the past, but you take the cake."
The blonde-haired man snorted with rage. "Are you done? First of all, this isn't to get revenge on Cordelia. Second of all, a thing like you should NOT be around a child in the first place. And third of all, if you think you can intimidate me, then that hair gel you slap on your head must be sapping your brain cells."
"You're not going to get away with this. We're not afraid of any lawyer you throw at us. We've been hassled by the best." Angel warned him.
Xander shook his head. "No. You've been hassled by Wolfram and Hart. And if I recall, it wasn't you that brought them down to their knees. It was the fact that they didn't pay their taxes. All those years of you putting Cordelia's life in danger because of those morons, and all it took was a visit from the IRS."
Angel sighed tiredly. "I will not have Cordelia suffer the loss of her child, just so you can get ahead." "I've heard this one already. What else do you have?" Xander asked with a smirk.
"Invite me in and I'll show you." Angel threatened angrily.
Xander gave him a look and nodded. "Come on in."
The dark-haired vampire lunged at Xander in anger, only to be rebounded by a powerful force that sent him flying backward into the darkened alley. He crashed into an already smashed crate and fell to the ground with a loud thump.
Xander laughed and shook his head. "Oh wait, I forgot. This protection barrier I've got up on this nightclub overrides invitations. It's so odd that I forgot about that."
Angel groaned in pain as he tried to get his bearings, barely hearing Xander close the front door of the Dark Room as the human moved back into the nightclub.
A small group of men holding two babies, walked toward a white van that stood in the parking lot.
They handed the two babies to the woman in the back of the van, who placed the children into two baby baskets.
The woman closed the doors behind her as the driver started the engine on the vehicle.
The small group of men watched as the van drove away from the parking lot, before they headed towards their cars and followed the departed white van.
"Oh my god! What the hell happened?" Cordelia asked with concern as her fiance collapsed into a couch.
Angel sighed painfully. "I had a run-in with Xander."
"He did this?" Cordelia asked him with surprise as Doyle went to get some bandages, letting her rest on the couch.
The vampire shook his head. "Not physically. He just tricked me into walking into this magic barrier that he's got on his nightclub. The force sent me flying."
Doyle sighed with anger as he returned with bandages. "That guy's got one hell of a chip on his shoulder."
"I tried to convince him of the mistake he's making, but Xander wouldn't hear of it. He said that something like me shouldn't be around a child in the first place," Angel told them quietly.
Cordelia shook her head with stunned silence. "I don't believe this."
Angel shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe he's right. God knows I've killed my share of babies in the past."
"That was when you were evil," Cordelia reminded him. "And I'd like it if you didn't mention that ever again."
The dark-haired vampire nodded. "I still think we can settle this without having to get a lawyer."
"I know you have a hangup about lawyers," Cordelia told him. "But if Xander is pushing for full custody, then I think we have to do what it takes to make sure it doesn't happen."
Doyle nodded. "She's right."
"I still think we can convince Xander, without the need of lawyers." Angel told the pair.
Cordelia sighed. "I just don't want to lose my baby."
"You won't," Doyle assured her. "We'll be with you every step of the way. The good guys always win."
Xander watched as Buffy put away some books in Giles' store. He waited until she had some spare time left, before talking again.
"So Angel paid me a visit last night." Xander told Buffy, who swirled around and stared at him in shock.
"What happened?" Buffy asked him with interest.
Xander shrugged. "He basically tried to intimidate me, like he probably does with everyone not wearing a skirt. It didn't work."
Buffy gave him a worried look. "What did he say?"
"Basically that I'm hurting Cordelia. It isn't my intention to hurt her. I truly believe that what I'm doing is right. Cordelia chose to live in that situation, but my baby doesn't have to live the same way." Xander told her truthfully.
The former slayer nodded. "Whatever the outcome, I'll be here. I don't want it to end badly for you. But I don't want Cordelia to become so stressed out, it'll end up hurting the baby."
Xander gave her a look. "You think I should back off?"
"I think you should take it easy with this. Don't storm into it like you usually do with a situation. It might not like good with the judge also." Buffy advised him.
The former lawyer laughed. "Hey, I'm the former lawyer here. But I will try to take things easy."
"Good," Buffy told him. "It's all I ask."
Xander nodded as he watched her deal with a few customers. Deep down, he knew it was the right thing to do. And he was definately sure he wasn't going to let Angel be the father of his child.
Kate Lockley walked away from interviewing a witness as she looked around the parking lot.
"I can't believe this," Kate muttered aloud at the kidnappers' recent crime scene.
Chief Abbott found the blonde detective staring at some tyre treads on the ground and walked up to her.
"Lockley, how close are we to catching these bastards?" Chief Abbott asked her with irritation.
Kate shook her head at her superior. "Forensics pulled different prints off of the crime scene. This is starting to look more and more as some type of babysnatching syndicate. Probably for the black market if it weren't for the weird symbols found at the other crime scene."
Chief Abbott ran a hand across his bald head. "This is really pissing me off, Lockley. The governor has been up my ass about this all week. Imagine how sore he's going to be when he finds out about this new one."
"Sir, I..." Kate began, but the Chief held up his hand to silence her.
"I want you to do whatever it takes to find out who's responsible for this. Whatever it takes. I don't care who you talk to, what type of voodoo you cause, I don't care. Just as long as you find the kidnappers and the abducted babies." Chief Abbott told her sternly as he turned and walked back to his car.
Kate watched him leave the parking lot in defeat. She pulled out her cellphone and dialed Angel's phone number.
"Angel, you better be there," Kate said with irritation as she waited for him to pick up.
Xander heard the doorbell ring as he walked towards it. He didn't know who it could be, so he looked through the peephole.
The blonde-haired man opened his front door with surprise. "Mrs. Summers?"
Joyce stood in front of him and smiled. "Can I come in, Xander? I won't stay long."
"Sure," Xander said as he waved her in. "Is Buffy okay?"
The fifty-five year old woman nodded. "Yeah, Buffy's fine. Physically at least. Which is why I'm here."
Xander watched her with curiosity. "Buffy said she's okay with the child custody suit."
"The thing about Buffy is, she's never been known to see the big picture." Joyce told him. "I don't need to remind you about her highschool years with Angel."
Xander shook his head bitterly. "No, you don't."
Joyce scratched her head. "She doesn't realize what kind of a commitment she's making."
"Buffy's not a kid anymore. She's a grown woman who can make up her own mind. I didn't push her for a decision." Xander told the older woman.
Buffy's mother sighed. "But Xander..."
"No," Xander interrupted her. "Buffy and I have talked about this, about what it could mean. I want to be a full-time father for my child, and Buffy agrees with that. That's all I need to push forward with child custody."
Joyce shook her head. "I just hope the both of you know what you're getting yourselves in for."
Xander nodded. "We know it's not going to be easy. Good things never are."
Angel waited until sundown before he was able to examine the outside of the parking lot.
The ensouled vampire had a look on the ground for clues that the detectives couldn't find. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he walked back to the parking lot.
He walked towards where the van was parked and stared at the tyre marks as his cellphone rang.
Angel pulled out the phone and spoke into it. "Hello?"
"Hey, it's me." The voice said on the other end.
"Doyle. Did you find anything on the database?" Angel asked him.
"No, I didn't. I looked up the symbol on every demon database and came up with nothing. This thing is nowhere to be found." Doyle told his friend.
Angel stared at the ground and walked back towards his parked car. "Then it's not a satanic ritual. It's most likely from the Aramaic language."
"The language of Jesus Christ?" Doyle asked with surprise.
"Yeah," Angel said over the phone. "It's a dead language some religious fanatics use for effect. Which means we're dealing with..."
"Humans." Doyle finished for him.
Angel nodded and hung up the phone as he got into his car and drove away from the parking lot.
Buffy and Xander ushered Mike Davis into their office above their busy nightclub.
"Wow. No wonder you wanted to quit my lawfirm." Mike said as he looked out among the crowd of dancers.
Xander nodded and introduced Mike to Buffy, who shook his hand. "Nice to finally meet."
Mike nodded as he walked towards their desk and placed his briefcase down. "I did some research on your case. As I thought, it's rare for a child custody battle when the mother is still pregnant with the child. Outside of junkies and the homeless that is."
"Can it be done?" Xander asked him warily.
Mike shrugged his shoulders. "It could be. If we're lucky. But this could get pretty brutal. I'm talking real brutal. Your past will come up during court, and it's something I'm sure their lawyer will definately use."
"They don't have a lawyer yet, I don't think." Buffy told him. "If I were you, I'd advise them to get themselves a lawyer. We don't want to come across to the judge as ogres." Mike told her.
Xander sighed with impatience. "Is there a court date yet?"
"No, not yet. But I should hear back in the next few days." Mike answered as he sat down on a spare seat.
Xander nodded as he watched Buffy look out the window of their office. "The sooner the better."
Giles waited until Olivia went to the bathroom before he turned to Xander. "I don't like this."
"I don't like it either," Xander told him. "But there's no other way about this."
The former Watcher sighed. "Maybe it won't be as bad as you think."
"Would you let Angel father your child?" Xander asked him pointedly.
Giles shook his head. "No. But it's not like he'll go evil. His soul was made permanent years ago."
"I don't care about how strong his soul is. My child will be in a steady stream of danger, the longer he stays with Angel and Doyle. Cordelia can't see this because she's in love with that vampire. She's just like Buffy was back in highschool. Cordelia's head is in the clouds when it comes to him. Her judgement is seriously marred when it comes to him." Xander said without taking a breath.
Giles sighed once again. "You'll be taking your child away from its mother. Cordelia won't be a presence in his life, Buffy will. Isn't that what you yourself are worried about with Angel?"
"I'm not stopping Cordelia from visiting our child. She's welcome over whenever she wants to. Buffy isn't the slayer anymore, and we're not in the demon-killing business. Apart from Penn and his cronies, we haven't had a problem like that in over ten years." Xander said as he reminded Giles.
The Englishman nodded. "That's true. Maybe you're right. But it just feels wrong to do this now. Especially when Cordelia's still pregnant with your baby."
Xander scratched his head. "I went through this same argument with Mrs. Summers. I know it looks and sounds callous. But all I'm concerned about is the safety and well-being of my child. Every vampire and demon with a grudge against Angel or Doyle will get my baby to get to them."
"Yeah," Giles said as he thought about it. "You're right. Do me a favor though?"
"What is it?" Xander asked him with curiosity.
Giles looked to the closed bathroom door and then faced Xander again. "Don't mention this to Olivia, okay? She's pregnant herself, as you well know, and I'm worried she might not understand."
"Yeah, okay." Xander said with agreement.
The former Watcher stood up and picked up his address book. "I'm going to pay a visit to Cordelia tonight, and see how she's doing. I'm just worried about the stress she might be having."
Xander nodded as he heard Olivia leave the bathroom and walk towards the two men.
"Well, I'd better be going. I've got a new band starting tonight and I want to get things ready." Xander told the couple as he headed towards the front door.
Olivia smiled at the young man. "Bye, Xander."
"Bye," Xander said with a wave as he left their house and headed towards his car.
"Kate, do you have a second?" Angel asked her as he walked up to her desk.
The blonde detective looked up at him. "If it's anything to do with the babynapping case, then yes."
Angel nodded and gave her a piece of paper with a drawing of the symbol. "We searched through every demon database there is and came up with nothing."
"That's terrific." Kate said with sarcasm.
The vampire nodded. "It is in a way. This symbol appears to be in the dead language of Aramaic. It's the language of Christ."
"I know what it is. Are you saying these people are religious fanatics?" Kate asked him.
"Not only that, but they're also human." Angel told her. "No demon or vampire uses the Aramaic language. They tend to stay away from holy references."
Kate shook her head. "So, it's legitimate human beings doing this."
"If you want to call them that." Angel commented.
The detective turned to her ex. "Have you figured out what the symbol means?"
"No, not yet." Angel told her disappointingly. "But we're still trying. It's not going to be easy tracking down a dead language and transcribing it."
Kate nodded. "Well, try to be as quick as possible. The Chief is becoming a real pain about this."
Angel stared over at Chief Abbott's office and watched the bald man yell into a phone.
"We'll do our best." Angel assured her before leaving the police station.
We walk the narrow path, beneath the smoking skies. Sometimes you can barely tell the difference between darkness and light. Do you have faith in what we believe?
The truest test is when we cannot, when we cannot see.
I hear pounding feet in the, in the streets below, and the,
and the women crying and the,
and the children know that there,
that there's something wrong,
and it's hard to belive that
love will prevail.
Xander drank his drink as he sat at the desk in their office. He looked down at the crowd of dancing regulars and spotted Buffy at the bar.
Oh it won't rain all the time.
The sky won't fall forever.
And though the night seems long,
your tears won't fall forever.
Oh, when I'm lonely, I lie awake at night and I wish you were here.
I miss you.
Can you tell me is there something more to believe in?
Or is this all there is?
Xander smiled as he thought of Buffy. He knew she had been supportive over the situation that has come up, and was very grateful.
In the pounding feet, in the,
In the streets below, and the,
And the window breaks and,
And a woman falls, there's,
There's something wrong, it's,
It's so hard to belive that love will prevail.
Oh it won't rain all the time.
The sky won't fall forever.
And though the night seems long,
your tears won't fall, your tears won't fall, your tears won't fall forever.
He watched Buffy get distracted by the front door to their nightclub. Watching with curiosity, he saw Buffy look up to where Xander was standing and began to wave him down.
Last night I had a dream.
You came into my room, you took me into your arms.
Whispering and kissing me, and telling me to still believe.
But then the emptiness of a burning sea against which we see
our darkest of sadness.
Until I felt safe and warm.
I fell asleep in your arms.
When I awoke I cried again for you were gone.
Oh, can you hear me?
Xander put down his empty glass and left their nightclub office. He walked down the stairs and dodged large clusters of dancers as he met up with Buffy.
It won't rain all the time.
the sky won't fall forever.
And though the night seems long,
your tears won't fall forever.
"Doyle's outside and he wants to talk to you!" Buffy yelled at him over the sound of the speakers.
Xander looked out to the open main doors and found Doyle standing outside. He turned to Buffy and nodded as he walked outside.
It won't rain all the time
The sky won't fall forever.
And though the night seems long,
your tears won't fall, your tears won't fall, your tears won't fall forever.
"I see Angel warned you about the barrier." Xander told Doyle with a smirk.
Doyle nodded and walked over to a more quiet space, ushering Xander to join him.
"I wanted to talk to you about Cordy. What you're doing is hurting her." Doyle said to him honestly.
Xander shook his head. "I'm not going to stop this. What I'm doing is right."
"Angel will stop you," Doyle warned him as he wisely prepared himself for a fight.
The blonde-haired man laughed. "Angel will have nothing to say about this. I used to be a lawyer so I know how the system works. This isn't Wolfram and Hart he's dealing with."
"You think you're better than them?" Doyle asked with surprise.
Xander shrugged his shoulders. "They were after Angel all that time, and they weren't aware of how to get at him. I know how to get at him. What I'm doing is right."
"Right? You're trying to take Cor's baby from her. That isn't right." Doyle said pleadingly.
The former lawyer gave him a look. "What is right? To let my child stay with its mother when she's in a lifestyle of constant danger? When Angel's enemies and your enemies will always go after my baby to get to the two of you? Is that right?"
"No," Doyle said as he looked towards the ground.
Xander nodded. "I know it isn't. Which is why I'm doing this."
"You've seen Cordelia. She shouldn't look as pregnant as she is. What if the baby is born with some sort of supernatural power?" Doyle asked him pointedly.
Xander shook his head. "If the baby is born like that, then it's Cordelia's fault."
"What?" Doyle asked shocked.
"God knows what damage she did to herself to save Angel from those druids. If the baby comes out like that, then it's her fault. I'm not going to mince words. I told her not to do it, but she didn't listen. Now it looks like our child will have to pay for the consequences." Xander said bitterly.
The Brachen demon shook his head. "If the baby is supernatural, maybe it'd be best to stay with people that know how to deal with it?"
"No. I'll figure out how to deal with it, if my child is like that. I have Buffy and Giles to help me, so I'm not on my own on this." Xander told him flatly.
Chanting filled the dark chambers of their underground lair as cultists in their dark robes walked around a baby's crib.
A dark-robed woman leaned over and picked up the crying baby girl, taking the baby with her to another room as the cultists followed.
She knocked on the large metal door several times and waited for the door to slide open. As the door opened, the woman walked inside and approached a man standing over an altar.
"This child is not the one." Priest told her with anger as he motioned for another cultist to run up to the altar.
The woman watched as the cultist picked up the baby boy and carried him away to the place they kept the other babies.
"How about this one?" The woman asked as she offered the baby girl to the dark-robed man.
Priest stared at the baby girl and nodded. "Prepare the altar."
Buffy and Xander laid on top of his bed, kissing heavily and caressing each other as they moved all over the large bed.
The former slayer pinned Xander to the bed with a smile and straddled him.
"This would be a lot better if we didn't have any clothes on, Buff." Xander advised her with a grin.
Buffy looked down at him and smiled. "How much do you love me?"
"I love you. I love you more than words can say. Now give me a kiss." Xander ordered with a grin.
The blonde woman leaned down and kissed him. She moved off of him and laid down next to him.
"More than you love Cordelia?" Buffy asked him.
Xander gave her a tired look. "Where did this come from all of a sudden?"
Buffy shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it's always been there."
"Well, in that case there's something I should ask you. Are you more in love with Angel than you are with me?" Xander asked her in return.
The former slayer shook her head. "I'm not in love with him anymore. I don't feel anything like that anymore."
"Same here. I don't feel like that about Cordelia, either." Xander assured her. "Is this why we haven't had sex for awhile now?"
Buffy sighed. "Yeah, I guess. I don't know. It's stupid of me to think that."
Xander remembered that he still had some photographs of Cordelia locked up in a box. He got up off the bed and motioned for Buffy to join him.
They walked out of his house and into his garage. Buffy watched as Xander pulled out a small box with a lock on the front.
"What's in there?" Buffy asked curiously.
Xander unlocked the box and opened it. "A while back, after I was released from the hospital, I burned all of the photos I had of Willow."
"Okay..." Buffy said with confusion.
"I burned all of those, but for some reason I kept the photos I had of Cordelia." Xander confessed to her.
Buffy shook her head. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I want you to know that I'm over her. Completely over her." Xander said as he took out the photographs of Cordelia and moved over to the old metal bin.
The former slayer watched as Xander dropped the photographs into the charred bin and sprayed the photos with lighter fluid.
"You don't have to destroy your photographs of her. It's good to have some memories of the past. Don't do it because of me." Buffy told him as he picked up a box of matches from the barbeque.
Xander smiled. "I'm not just doing this for you. But for me too. It's time I burnt this bridge."
"Well, what about your child? I'm sure he'll want pictures of his mother when he's older." Buffy said to him.
The blonde-haired man lit a match and dropped it into the metal bin. "He'll get new photos of his mother. Ones that don't have me and her together in that way."
Buffy and Xander watched the fire melt the photos before they walked away from the heat of the flames.
"I want to start over with you." Xander told her as he held her hand.
Buffy grinned at him. "I love you too."
Xander smiled back and they watched the nightsky. "Doyle gave me something to think about. About my baby."
"What is it?" Buffy asked him.
The former lawyer sighed. "He said that maybe if the baby is born supernatural, it would be best that he stays with them."
"What did you say?" She asked with curiosity.
Xander gave her a look. "I told him that if it turns out like that, then it 's something we'll deal with. That I had people in my corner to help. You especially."
Buffy watched as Xander picked up his hose and turned the water on. He walked over to his garbage bin and directed the spraying water inside.
"I still want to have kids with you someday." Xander told her as he sprayed the water into the bin, extinguishing the fire.
The blonde woman grinned. "That's good to know."
Nurse Lyons walked into the maternity ward and had a look around at all the babies asleep in their cribs.
Buffy and Xander were kissing passionately as they managed to move into his bedroom. Buffy kicked the door shut as they tried to undo each other's clothes.
The young nurse heard some footsteps approach and hid in the darkness of the maternity ward.
She watched as a security guard passed by, after looking into the windows and checking on the babies.
Xander pulled off Buffy's top and threw it to the ground as she removed his shirt.
Buffy kicked off her shoes and removed her socks as Xander did the same. He reached into his nightstand and pulled out a condom.
Nurse Lyons scanned the rows upon rows of sleeping babies and looked at their birthdates on each of their cribs.
She found one that was recently born and stared down at the baby boy.
Buffy and Xander's clothes lay on the floor as the couple made love in the large bed.
She kissed him with passion, her tongue slipping into his mouth as he laid on top of her.
The couple moaned as they continued their ministrations.
The young nurse picked up the baby boy and carried him out of the room. She made sure nobody was looking, before she headed towards the elevator.
Nurse Lyons pressed a button and waited for the door to open. When it eventually opened, she walked inside and pressed the button for the parking lot.
Buffy's hands gripped the satin bedsheets as their passionate lovemaking grew. Xander stopped kissing her and they stared into each others eyes as they continued.
"I love you," Xander told her as he moved in to kiss her neck.
One of Buffy's hands released the satin sheet and gripped Xander's neck with a groan.
The kidnapping nurse walked out of the elevator and into the parking lot where she came across Priest.
"Is that all?" Priest asked her.
Nurse Lyons gave him an annoyed look. "If you want to continue following the star charts, then yes."
Priest took the baby from her and his creepy-looking face stared down at the babies, who started crying.
The scary-looking man put the baby in a make-shift cot in the back of his van and turned to Nurse Lyons after he shut the van doors.
Buffy and Xander held onto each other as they reached their climax. Xander kissed her earlobes and nibbled on them gently as he rode through his orgasm.
The former slayer sighed contentedly as she flipped over, pinning him to the bed.
"That was the best one yet." Buffy said with a grin. "Why is that?"
Xander ran a hand down Buffy's naked back, licking away her perspiration as he did so.
"Because," Xander said as he kissed her. "For once, there's no Cordelia or Angel in our way anymore. There's no holding back."
Buffy felt him stir underneath her again and she grinned. "Do you have any more condoms?"
"Yeah," Xander told her knowingly.
"Good." The former slayer answered with a grin.
Priest faced Nurse Lyons and slapped her hard in the face, knocking her to the ground.
"You know how special the child we're looking for is. I will not tolerate insolence." Priest said with venom in his voice.
Nurse Lyons held her burning cheek as she slowly stood up off of the ground.
"I'm sorry," She told him. "But the police have been after us."
Priest stared at her. "We have been kidnapping children. What did you think would happen?"
"I don't know. I..." Nurse Lyons started to say, but Priest cut her off.
"You keep your eyes open for the babies. We must find this child and raise it as our own." Priest reminded her.
Nurse Lyons nodded. "For the greater good."
"For the greater good." Priest repeated as he headed towards the driver's side in his van.
The young nurse left for the elevator in order to continue her rounds at the hospital.
"Doyle didn't have to leave like that." Giles said to Cordelia after the Brachen demon left them on their own.
Cordelia shrugged. "He thinks what he does is subtle. I haven't got the heart to tell him otherwise."
The middle-aged man sighed. "Olivia sends her best."
"How is she?" Cordelia asked with a smile.
"Pregnant," Giles explained. "Apparently there's a lot of it going on in the air. You, Olivia, now Willow again."
Cordelia chuckled. "All we need now is Buffy to become pregnant."
Giles nodded. "How would you feel about that?"
"I'll be happy for Xander." Cordelia answered. "He's always wanted to be a father."
The former Watcher pointed to her pregnant stomach. "I don't think I need to remind you that Xander's going to be a father very soon anyway."
Cordelia nodded as she patted her large belly. "I know. Maybe the thought of him having kids with Buffy will put him off the idea of taking mine."
Giles gave her a sympathetic look. "Cordy, you know he wouldn't hurt you like that. Even if it were to get to Angel."
"I know. He wouldn't have been the man I fell in love with for so long, if he were." Cordelia said as she wiped away tears.
The British man nodded. "He just wants to make sure that the baby the two of you will share, will be protected. Xander didn't have a stable home life when he was growing up. Let's face it, his parents were not very kind."
"Yeah," Cordelia replied anxiously. "I just don't want to lose my baby."
Giles nodded understandingly. "Can I get you something to drink?"
"There's coffee on the kitchen counter. I'm telling you, this kid's going to be a big coffee fan. I can't seem to stop drinking the stuff." Cordelia confessed to him.
The former Watcher chuckled. "I guess it's the way life works."
Cordelia became surprised at something and then held a hand to her stomach. "He's kicking, Giles. Come feel."
Giles moved towards her and placed his hand on Cordelia's pregnant belly. He felt the baby kick with amazement, shaking his head.
"That's amazing." Giles said with wonder.
The brunette woman moved her hand away from her stomach and looked at him. "This still feels like a dream to me."
"Pretty soon, it won't feel like a dream. From what I hear, giving birth can be quite excruciating." Giles said as he walked back into the kitchen to make the coffee.
Cordelia watched him leave for her kitchen with a grin, just as she felt a sharp burst of pain in her stomach. She clutched at the coffee table for support and managed to call out for Giles, before falling to the ground on her back.
"Cordelia!!" Giles yelled in surprise as he dropped the empty coffee cup and ran to her side.
The young woman groaned in pain, as Giles quickly picked up the phone and dialed for an ambulance. Giles hung up afterwards and stayed by her side.
"Something's wrong with the baby." Cordelia admitted, terrified of what might happen.
Giles stood by Cordelia's side as she was being examined by a doctor. He ran some tests earlier, and gave them to the nurse for processing.
"Did you call Angel?" Cordelia asked her former teacher.
Giles nodded. "He and Doyle are on their way. I'm sorry, but I had to take you to the hospital after what happened."
"I know. It's okay. I just hope I don't end up on Guinness Book of World Records." Cordelia joked lightly as she lay on the hospital bed in her gown.
Dr. North glanced at his patient and removed his glasses to clean them. "Do you know how far along you are, Cordelia?"
Cordelia stared at Giles with worry and then turned to her doctor. "Three months."
"You're three months along in your pregnancy?" Dr. North asked disbelievingly.
The young woman nodded. "Yeah, that's right."
The twenty-something doctor shook his head. "There's got to be some mistake. You're too far along in your pregnancy to be three months. You look like you're due anytime now."
Cordelia sighed. "I know, I know. It's unusual."
"Have you been taking any medication during your pregnancy? Steroids? PCP?" Dr. North asked with suspicion.
"PCP? Who the hell do you think she is?" Giles asked him with anger.
Dr. North gave him a look of concern. "It's been known to happen."
"I'm not taking any drugs." Cordelia told him.
The young doctor nodded and wrote something down on his notepad. "My nurse should be here soon with the Ultrasound machine. It shouldn't take too long."
Cordelia and Giles waited for a few minutes until the nurse came in pushing in the Ultrasound equipment.
"This is just a precaution to see if everything is okay with your baby." Dr. North assured Cordelia as they started connecting the machine.
The nurse smiled at Cordelia. "Do you know the sex of your baby?"
"No." Cordelia told her. "I want to be surprised."
Dr. North nodded as he turned on the machine and got Cordelia ready for the examination.
Giles and Cordelia stared into the little monitor and breathed a sigh of relief as they saw a normal-looking baby.
"Oh my god." Cordelia breathed in amazement as they stared into the monitor.
Cordelia's doctor smiled. "Judging by all the readouts, you're carrying a very healthy baby."
"I'm going to be a mommy." Cordelia muttered with tears in her eyes.
Giles smiled happily as they watched the baby move it's legs in the monitor.
"I have to call someone." Giles said to Cordelia as he calmly left for the door.
Cordelia looked at him. "You're going to call Xander, aren't you?"
Giles nodded. "I'm thinking he would want to see this too."
"Okay," the brunette woman answered. "Tell him to come here quickly."
Xander and Buffy had drifted off to sleep when the phone rang, stirring them awake.
"What the hell is it now?" Xander asked irritably as Buffy picked up the phone.
Buffy listened to Giles over the phone with a worried expression. Xander watched her curiously and waited until she hung up the phone.
The former slayer got out of bed and began putting on her clothes. "Get dressed. Quick."
"What's going on?" Xander asked her.
Buffy turned to him as she put on her bra and shirt. "Cordelia's in the hospital. Giles says she was admitted because of stomach pains."
Xander's eyes widened in shock as he jumped out of bed and quickly put on hi s clothes. "Is she okay now?"
"Yeah, Giles says she's fine. But she's having an ultrasound being done." Buffy told him as they left the bedroom for Xander's car.
Xander charged into the hospital as Buffy walked to the main desk and asked for directions.
The blonde-haired man heard a familiar voice as he walked down the antiseptic-smelling corridor. He continued walking until he found Angel waiting outside a waiting room.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Angel asked him angrily.
Xander gave him a tired look. "The mother of my child is in hospital. What did you expect me to do? Stay at home and hope for the best?"
Dr. North opened the door to the waiting room and walked outside with Giles.
"Nurse?" Dr. North called out to Nurse Lyons, who turned to face the young doctor and nodded.
"Yes, Doctor?" Nurse Lyons asked.
"Could you assist me please? It won't take too long." Dr. North asked the secretive nurse.
Nurse Lyons nodded as she walked into the waiting room to see Cordelia as Dr. North closed the door.
Giles turned to face Buffy and Xander as Angel walked down the hall. "Cordelia's doing okay now. She had some stomach pains back at her apartment which were pretty horrifying. If she were home alone when that happened..."
"I'm glad you were there." Xander told him thankfully.
Buffy nodded in agreement. "Did the doctor say what could have caused it? Could it have been supernatural?"
"No," Giles said as he shook his head. "I doubt it. It's most likely stress."
Dr. North walked out of the waiting room and agreed. "Mr. Giles is correct. I assume you're the father of her baby?"
"Yes," Xander answered as Buffy held his hand to comfort him. "I'm the father."
The young doctor nodded. "Ms. Chase was admitted due to stress. I understand that you're applying for custody?"
"Yeah." Xander replied as Angel watched the group from a distance.
Dr. North sighed. "I think it would be in Ms. Chase's interests, and your baby's interests, to not put her through any unnecessary stress. We were lucky tonight. It could very well have been a miscarriage."
"Oh my god," Buffy said with surprise.
Angel shook his head in anger as he thought of Xander hurting his fiance.
Nurse Lyons walked out of the waiting room and left the area to go on her rounds.
"You can go in and see her in a minute. We just have to get the ultrasound going again. There was a problem with it earlier." Dr. North told Xander as he walked back inside the waiting room.
Xander moved away from the waiting room and ran a hand through his hair. He spotted the ensouled vampire standing by himself, glaring at the mortal man.
"What the hell do you want now?" Xander asked him angrily.
Angel rushed him and pinned Xander to the wall with his vampiric strength. "I ought to kill you right here and now."
Buffy and Giles would have rushed to Xander's side, if it weren't for Xander's expression.
"Oh please." Xander said tiredly. "You never could intimidate me. Save it for the tourists."
Angel released his grip on Xander as he walked away from the vampire. "You're going to end up causing Cordy to lose her baby."
"That won't happen." Xander said with a shake of his head.
The ensouled vampire gave him a dirty look. "It will happen. I know it."
"I'll tell you what I do know." Xander told him with rage. "You're a freak. You've turned HER into a freak. And if I find out that my child is robbed of a normal life because of you, you're going to wish those druids finished the job they started."
Angel stared at him in surprise as Xander gave him a dirty look. Buffy and Giles exchanged glances.
"What? You thought I'd buckle in fear because of you? I'm not one of your clients you can easily scare. You may have taken Buffy from me once. You may have taken Cordelia from me also. But I'll be damned before I give you a chance to take my baby too." Xander said through clenched teeth.
The dark-haired immortal shook his head. "You are not going to put her through anymore stress."
"You're right, I'm not. Which is why you're going to help me by convincing Cordelia to give me full custody." Xander said with confidence.
Angel chuckled with surprise. "You're insane if you think I'm going to go along with that."
"You have no choice in the matter. Want me to explain why?" Xander asked as he taunted the vampire.
Giles and Buffy watched the scene unfold carefully, hoping that they wouldn't start fighting.
"Why?" Angel asked with impatience.
Xander stepped towards the vampire with renewed strength. "Apparently back in 1998, there were a string of murders in Sunnydale that still remain unsolved. The police found the same identical fingerprints at each crime scene, but the prints didn't match up in their database. In fact it didn't match up anywhere."
"What are you saying?" Angel asked him carefully.
"Say there was an anonymous tip to the Sunnydale PD. A tip that directed them to a private detective in L.A. whose fingerprints matched those of the killer." Xander told him with a smile.
Angel shook his head. "You wouldn't dare."
Xander stared him up and down. "Wouldn't I? I believe the penalty for murder in the state of California, especially the depraved and sick types of multiple murder in your case, is death."
The vampire shook his head once more. "You know there's no way I'd let myself get captured by police."
"Oh, I know. I don't expect to see them gas you into the next world. But I do expect you to run. Especially when the police, the FBI and the INS are on your ass for the rest of Cordelia's life. It won't be much fun having a relationship with a mortal when the two of you are constantly on the run." Xander said with a sneer.
Buffy decided to speak forward. "The INS?"
"Yeah," Xander said as he moved away from the vampire. "I'm pretty sure Angel isn't here in this country legally. I don't believe vampires get legal immigrant status. There's no record of him in any government database. I don't believe he even bought that flashy car he drives around in, which means it's probably stolen. Is the Private Investigation firm you run all legal? Where do you get all that money? Are you selling drugs? The DEA might want to investigate you also."
Angel glared angrily at him. "You son of a bitch."
Xander chuckled. "You brought this on yourself. You didn't think you can kill all those innocent people and get away with it, did you?"
"And if I convince Cordelia to just lie down and let you get full custody, you won't turn me in?" Angel asked him calmly.
The blonde-haired man nodded. "That's right. I got you by the balls, buddy. And I have no qualms about squeezing hard."
"You won't get away with this." Angel warned him.
Xander shook his head. "I didn't do anything wrong. You did. And if your victims were alive today, they'd agree with me. Something like you should NEVER be around a child."
Dr. North walked out of the hospital room and spotted Xander. "Mr. Harris? We're ready for you."
Xander turned and kissed Buffy on the lips before walking into the hospital room after Dr. North, leaving Angel, Giles and Buffy in shock.
Angel stood with patience as he waited for a door to open. It wasn't long until it opened and a red-haired woman walked out and met him.
"I'm Kristen Waller, how may I help you?" Kristen asked him as she invited him into her office.
Angel looked around at her law office and saw her law certificates on the wall.
"I wouldn't have come here if it weren't necessary. Lawyer's tend to freak me out." Angel told her as she sat down at her desk.
Kristen nodded. "Most people get freaked out by the prospect of lawyers. But this is a child custody battle. Why isn't the mother here?"
"Cordelia is in the hospital right now," Angel told her. "She was admitted for stomach pains, but it turned out to be stress."
"Stress from the court case?" Kristen asked him.
The vampire nodded. "Yeah."
Kristen noticed Angel stay hidden from the sunlight that streamed in her office. "Have you tried convincing the father of the child to drop the case, until a better time?"
"I've tried, but he's stubborn. It's a lost cause." Angel admitted to her.
The young lawyer nodded. "Okay. Well, first thing is I'm going to have to do a full background check on Cordelia and Xander. Just so there's no surprises in court."
"How intense are the background checks going to be?" Angel asked carefully.
Kristen gave him a look. "What do you mean?"
"I have a condition that makes me unable to be in daylight. It's a medical condition." Angel said with a half-lie.
The lawyer sighed. "You are aware that court rooms are always covered in daylight."
"I know." Angel told her. "Which means that I can't be in there with Cordelia."
Kristen gave him a look. "Do you have any idea how that might come across to the judge?"
"I have a fair idea," Angel said. "And I'm betting that Xander knew this would come up."
"Whatever I find out will be confidential. Don't worry about that. Just tell Ms. Chase that I'm going to do this case." Kristen said with confidence.
Angel nodded and walked over to the door and opened it. "Thanks for this."
Xander walked up the hospital corridor and stood outside Cordelia's room, debating whether or not to walk inside. He chose to go in.
"Cordelia?" Xander called out to her as he stepped into the room.
The pregnant woman looked over to her ex and sighed. "Angel told me what happened last night."
"I bet he did. Just don't let it bother you." Xander told her gently.
Cordelia gave him a sarcastic look. "How can I not let it bother me? You threatened to turn him in, causing me to be on the run for the rest of my life."
"It's nothing he doesn't deserve," Xander admitted. "When you kill a whole mess of people, you're supposed to suffer the consequences. Not have a swank job in Los Angeles and have every woman swoon all over your undead ass."
The brunette woman nodded. "So that's what this is all about."
"No, it isn't." Xander told her. "It's about my child growing up in the same house as a brutal killer. That's what it's all about."
Cordelia shook her head as she lay in her hospital bed. "How many times do I have to tell you? His soul is permanently grafted onto him now."
"That excuse wouldn't stand up in a court of law, Cordelia. Trust me on that one. I used to be a lawyer." Xander said with a smile.
The pregnant woman turned away from her ex. "I'll see you in court, Xander."
"Cordelia..." Xander began, but she cut him off.
"I don't want to see you until then." Cordelia said as she turned away from him completely.
Xander felt the sensation of deja vu, as he once again left her hospital bedside.
Doyle and Angel walked through the hospital on their way to see Cordelia, when the Brachen demon brought up what happened.
"So where'd you go that was so important?" Doyle asked him as they walked towards Cordelia's hospital room.
Angel shook his head. "Not where you're thinking. I didn't go to see Xander."
"That's good," Doyle said with relief. "I think the more distance you give him the better."
The vampire turned to his friend. "You think he could do what he said, don't you?"
"I know he can." Doyle told him.
Angel nodded. "And he has every right to."
Doyle gave him a surprised glance. "Because you 'stole' Cordelia from him?"
"No," Angel corrected. "Because I killed innocent people."
"That was Angelus," Doyle reminded him as they stood outside Cordelia's room. "It wasn't you."
Angel shook his head. "That's what everyone believes. That's what I want to believe. But Xander is right. The murders were done by my hands. The fingerprints at the crime scenes were mine. Just because I plead temporary insanity, doesn't mean that I didn't do it."
"Or in your case, the lack of a soul." Doyle chimed in.
The vampire nodded. "Neither of which would stand up in a court of law. Luckily for me, Wolfram and Hart never realized what they could have done to me."
Doyle watched him sadly before walking into Cordelia's room, followed by Angel.
Cordelia turned to her fiance and friend as Dr. North finished looking over his charts.
"Well, Cordelia judging by your improvement, it looks like you can go home." Dr. North told her with a smile.
The brunette woman turned to face him. "Today?"
"Right now, if you want." Dr. North told her as he headed toward the open door. "You can sign out at the front desk when you're ready to leave."
Cordelia smiled. "Thanks."
Doyle and Angel got her suitcase and began to help her pack. "Guess it's a good thing I came with Angel. I don't think even he could handle all these bags."
"Very funny." Cordelia threw back at him as Angel helped her off the hospital bed.
Angel had a look of concern as he stared at Cordelia's pregnant belly. She noticed him staring and sighed.
"It'll be okay," She told him. "Things will work themselves out."
Angel nodded in agreement. "I hope so."
"I can't believe you would do that." Giles said as Xander sat down in a spare seat in Giles' bookstore.
Xander sighed. "I will do anything I can to protect my child from the dangers of the world. Angel, what he is and who he is, represents one of the largest threats to an infant child."
Buffy nodded in agreement. "Xander's right, Giles. It isn't an environment for a baby."
The former Watcher stared at her. "I can't believe I heard that from you. You trusted Angel for many years."
"I could protect myself if anything happened. But a baby cannot do that." Buffy said, trying to convince him.
Xander nodded. "That's right. And what kind of a father would I be if I left my child in the custody of a vampire? I refuse to be that neglectful."
Giles sighed in frustration. "If Cordelia does go ahead with the case, are you going to go ahead with that threat you gave Angel?"
The blonde-haired man shook his head. "I don't know. If I go ahead and do it, Cordelia would definately run off with him. Problem is, she'll take my child with them. Most likely I'll never see my baby again after that."
"That could be a problem," Buffy admitted.
Xander nodded. "Knowing how brainless Angel is, he won't realize that flaw in my plan."
I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord
I've been waiting for this moment, all my life, Oh Lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord, Oh Lord
Well, if you told me you were drowning
I would not lend a hand
I've seen your face before my friend
But I don't know if you know who I am
Well, I was there and I saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off the grin, I know where you've been
It's all been a pack of lies
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord
I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, Oh Lord
I can feel it in the air tonight, Oh Lord, Oh Lord
And I've been waiting for this moment all my life, Oh Lord, Oh Lord
Well I remember, I remember don't worry
How could I ever forget, it's the first time, the last time we ever met
But I know the reason why you keep your silence up, no you don't fool me
The hurt doesn't show; but the pain still grows
It's no stranger to you or me
I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord
I've been waiting for this moment, all my life, Oh Lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord, Oh Lord
Cordelia stared out the window as Angel drove them back to their apartment. Doyle snuck glances at the pregnant woman, to see if she was alright.
Angel kept his eyes on the road, but briefly glanced at his fiance when Cordelia turned towards him.
"Angel, I think we're going to need a lawyer." Cordelia told him honestly.
The vampire nodded. "I know."
"I know how you dislike lawyers, but Xander has left us with no other choice. I don't want to lose my baby." Cordelia told him anxiously.
Angel nodded once more. "I've already been to a lawyer. She said that she'll help us."
Cordelia breathed a sigh of relief as she relaxed in the passenger seat.
Priest finished testing the latest baby and grunted with disappointment before pointing to a man in dark robes to take the child back into the other room. The man in the dark robes, which all have a silver symbol on the front, took the baby and placed it in the other room.
The tall man recognized Nurse Lyons in the background and beckoned her towards him. She walked over to him with a smile on her face.
"We are running out of time, and you're standing there smiling?" Priest asked her threateningly.
Nurse Lyons nodded. "I have good reason to smile, Priest."
Priest looked behind her and spotted Dr. North walk into the dark underground chamber.
He looked at the young doctor with suspicion. "You bring us good news?"
Dr. North nodded. "I believe we've found the miracle child. The chosen one."
"Where?" Priest asked him as he moved forward.
Nurse Lyons spoke up. "One of Dr. North's patients is named Cordelia Chase. She's three months pregnant, but looks like she could give birth at any minute."
Priest gave them knowing looks. "Do you have a photograph of her?"
Dr. North handed the tall man a picture of the pregnant Cordelia. "This may be the one we've been looking for."
Priest smiled as he stared down at the photograph of Cordelia, asleep in her hospital bed.
"Is she still in the hospital?" Priest asked them.
The young doctor shook his head. "Unfortunately she had to check out. If I kept her there any longer, they may have gotten suspicious. But we do know where she lives."
The tall cult member nodded. "Then follow her. Don't lose track of this one."
Xander opened his front door and let Mike walk inside. The young man closed the door and walked into the kitchen.
"You want a drink?" Xander asked him.
"Yeah, thanks." Mike told him as Xander got out a bottle of Scotch.
Xander brought out two glasses and filled them half-way before walking into the living room. He gave one of the glasses to his former boss, before sitting down on a couch.
"So what's the latest?" Xander asked as Mike sat down.
Mike shook his head. "It's not good news, I'm afraid. I just had a conversation with Kristen Waller."
"Who?" Xander asked in confusion.
The older man nodded. "That's right, you wouldn't know her. Kristen Waller specializes in child custody lawsuits. You never dealt with those."
"That's right," Xander commented. "How good is she?"
Mike gave him a look. "Well, I'll tell you this much. She's brutal in the court room. Kristen will find any dark secrets of yours and expose them, if she thinks it will help her case."
Xander sighed. "Well, it doesn't take a genius to know that their lawyer would bring up the drugs incident."
Mike nodded carefully. "There's one more thing that you might not like."
The blonde-haired man stared at him as he drank some of his Scotch. "What's that?"
"They're now applying for full custody also." Mike told him.
Xander hit the coffee table hard with his fist. "Damnit!"
"Now is not the time to lose control. We need to keep a level head about this or else we won't win." Mike advised him as he drank some of his Scotch.
"You didn't have to help me unpack," Cordelia told them as Angel and Doyle unpacked her clothes in the apartment she shared with Angel.
Doyle stared at her with incredulity. "What are we supposed to do? Let you unpack?"
"Yeah?" Cordelia asked with sarcasm in her voice.
The Brachen demon shook his head. "Quit trying to control everything. You're pregnant and you just got out of hospital. The next time you go to hospital should be when you're in labor. Not because of stress from unpacking."
Cordelia sighed as she sat down on the couch to rest. "Okay, you two can do it."
Angel watched her carefully before walking over to her. "Things are going to be okay. Kristen said she's good at this type of suit."
"You won't be able to be there, will you?" Cordelia asked him sadly.
The vampire shook his head. "Courts are usually in a sun-lit room. It wouldn't take long for me to turn to dust in a place like that."
Cordelia nodded. "I bet Xander thought of that already."
"I wouldn't be surprised." Angel commented as he held her hand. "But it doesn't matter. We'll win this."
Xander walked into Giles' bookstore and found Buffy working there, helping a customer as Giles was cataloguing books.
The former slayer noticed her boyfriend enter the store and smiled as she watched him sit down and stare at her.
"What can I help you with?" Buffy asked him with a grin.
Xander shrugged his shoulders. "Do you have any five foot eight blondes available? I need to talk."
Buffy watched him carefully as she nodded. "What happened?"
"I had a visit from Mike." Xander told her as she continued working.
The blonde woman nodded. "Did he have any news?"
"Yeah," Xander answered her. "Cordelia's got herself a lawyer and they're also applying for full custody now."
Buffy turned around in shock. "Are you serious?"
Xander nodded. "I'm afraid so. But I'm not going to give up."
"As well you shouldn't." Buffy told him as she finished helping the customers at the desk.
Buffy walked over to Xander and sat down next to him, holding his hand in hers. "Did he say anything else?"
"Just that their lawyer is real good at cases like this. That she most likely will expose my incident with the pills." Xander told her with worry.
The former slayer shook her head. "If you explain that it was just an accident, maybe they'll accept it."
"C'mon Buffy, she's probably going to paint me as some drug-dependant loser." Xander told her as he ran a hand through his hair.
Buffy leaned towards him and kissed Xander on the lips. He kissed her back as their lips danced.
"Feel better?" Buffy asked him as they broke apart.
Xander shrugged his shoulders. "A little bit better. But there's a better way to make us both feel better."
Buffy grinned. "I finish work here in a couple of minutes. Do you mind waiting?"
"Of course not," Xander told her as he watched her get up. "I'll wait."
Cordelia waited until Angel left their apartment before speaking to Doyle. "Doyle? Is there something going on that I should know about?"
"What do you mean?" Doyle asked as he walked towards her with a glass of orange juice.
Cordelia took the glass of orange juice that Doyle offered her. "Angel's been pretty quiet on the whole lawyer front."
Doyle nodded. "You know how he is with lawyers. After all that hell Wolfram and Hart put him through."
"Yeah, I guess." Cordelia agreed. "This can't be easy on him."
"Who I'm concerned about right now is you." Doyle told her.
Cordelia shook her head. "You don't need to be concerned about me."
Doyle gave her a look. "You're about to give birth and there's a child custody battle in the beginning stages."
"Not to mention the threat that Xander gave Angel." Cordelia said with a sigh.
The Brachen demon nodded. "I asked Angel if he thought Xander would go through with it."
"I know he'll go through with it. But I'm not going to lie down and let him take my child without a fight." Cordelia vowed as she drank the orange juice and put down the empty glass.
"Angel says that this Kristen woman is the best at this type of thing. Hopefully we'll win." Doyle told her.
Cordelia nodded quietly as Doyle stared at her reaction. He sighed. "Xander brought this on himself, you know that. Don't you?"
The brunette woman nodded once more. "It doesn't make this any easier though. I mean, he's my child's father. I don't want to cut him out of his baby's life completely."
Doyle nodded. "Nothing in this situation is easy."
Buffy got out of Xander's shower and wiped the steam off of the mirror. She heard the sounds of a television coming from downstairs as she reached for her clean clothes.
The former slayer walked down the stairs and found Xander in the living room watching the television.
"What are you watching?" Buffy asked him as she hugged him from behind.
Xander looked at her for a brief second before turning back to the large screen. "There's something going on in Los Angeles. It's on the news."
Buffy watched the news broadcast along with Xander, as they realized that babies were being kidnapped in the city.
"How long has this been going on?" Buffy asked him.
Xander shook his head. "I don't know, but it looks like it's been awhile."
Buffy recognized Kate Lockley on television as they watched the screen. "I know her. Cordelia took me to her when Angel was sick from the druids."
Xander and Buffy watched the news storyline continue as they feared for the abducted babies.
You sit in silence in the shadows
You don't complain or criticise
And while the world may see me as a fool
They're not looking through your eyes
No questions asked
You're there
When I need you
With a love that inspires
Me to be
Everything you deserve
Cause you're my
Unsung hero
And I know it's not easy
To walk in your shoes
Day after day
You continue to amaze me
Now I sing this song of love
For you
While other long to steal the spotlight
You work your magic quietly
Cause you're not in it for the glory
The love you give comes naturally
I may not have much
What I have
I give it to you
This song that I sing
Is my gift
And I swear that I mean every word
Cause you're my
Unsung hero
And I know it's not easy
To walk in your shoes
Day after day
You continue to amaze me
Now I sing this song of love
For you
My unsung hero
And I know it's not easy
To walk in your shoes
Day after day
You continue to amaze me
Now I sing this song of love
For you
Now I sing this song of love
For you
Sing this song of love
Sing this song of love
I'll sing it for you baby
Sing it for you
You are my hero
Buffy and Xander walked into the Sunnydale Video Store and went to the Comedy section.
"I don't know if I'm in the mood to see a movie right now," Xander told her. "This whole child lawsuit thing is sapping my strength."
Buffy nodded. "Which is exactly the reason why you should see a movie. To help you get your mind off of this for the time-being. So you can relax a bit."
Xander sighed in defeat and watched as his girlfriend picked up a copy of the Steve Martin movie 'Bowfinger'.
"Bowfinger. Remember we were supposed to watch that before?" Buffy asked him.
Xander nodded. "Yeah. Until I was rushed to hospital. I almost forgot about this movie."
"Why don't we rent it? You said it was funny, and I've always wanted to see it." Buffy urged him.
The blonde-haired man chuckled. "Okay, okay. You've twisted my arm."
"Great," Buffy said with a grin. "Maybe it will keep the angst at the door for a couple of hours. We both need a break."
Xander nodded as he paid for the video's rental charge. "Nothing like a funny Eddie Murphy movie will make all that go away."
"What is it about, anyway?" Buffy asked him as they waited in the queue.
Xander shrugged his shoulders. "It's about this low-budget movie director who manages to make a movie with Eddie Murphy's character, without the Murphy character realizing it. Steve Martin is the director and he has his cast running up to Eddie Murphy's character in the street and saying their lines. I thought it was pretty funny."
Terry Stricter: It seems as though you're doing much better.
Kit Ramsey: Yes, yes.
Terry Stricter: Your paranoia is definately under control, since you came to understand Happy Premise Number One.
Kit Ramsey: Happy Premise Number One. There are no aliens.
Terry Stricter: Happy Premise Number Two.
Kit Ramsey: Happy Premise Number Two. There is no giant foot trying to squash me.
Terry Stricter: Happy Premise Number Three.
Kit Ramsey: Happy Premise Number Three. Even though I feel I might ignite, I probably won't.
Terry Stricter: So, what do we do?
Kit Ramsey: Keep. It. Together. Keep it together, keep it together, keep it together, keep it together, keep it together.
Terry Stricter: And what is it we don't do? Under any circumstances?
Kit Ramsey: Oh, man!
Terry Stricter: What is it?
Kit Ramsey: Look, I have to show it to the Laker girls.
Terry Stricter: You cannot show it to the Laker girls. Keep Mr. Weiney in the pants. Always in the pants. I know you WANT to show it to the Laker girls, but you must never show it to the Laker girls.
Angel moved past several police officers on the streets of Los Angeles as he found Kate Lockley standing by herself, writing down notes. He walked up to her, not noticing the news crews nearby.
"Hey," Angel greeted her as Kate turned to face him. "I don't have good news."
"Nothing new about these kidnappers?" Kate asked him as they turned away from the news crews.
Angel nodded. "They're not just kidnappers. If my instincts are telling me anything, it's that these lunatics are actually in a cult. Some type of religious sect."
Kate sighed with frustration. "That is just great. I'm about to be thrown off this case if I don't find any good leads."
"I'm sorry it's been slow." Angel told her.
The blonde detective nodded. "There was an attempted kidnapping here. A woman managed to fight off the attacker before he could get the baby."
"That's good." Angel replied.
Kate nodded once more. "And lucky. He could easily have killed her. I'm just glad things didn't go that way."
The vampire silently agreed. "Well, the minute I find anything new about this, we'll let you know. Both Doyle and myself are going through this case."
"Good," Kate replied. "We need all the help we can get."
Terry Stricter: Um, what did this alien want from you?
Kit Ramsey: She wanted to inhale my gonads!
Terry Stricter: Say again?
Kit Ramsey: My gonads! My gonads! What they do is, they come down and shake your hand, these aliens, they're pretending to shake your hand, but they're not. They inhale your gonads and take them back to their world for special research.
Terry Stricter: I see.
Kit Ramsey: Oh I did like you said, I got rid of the Sports Channel so I got no imported gamma beams from Jupiter messing with my mind. Keep it together, keep it together.
Terry Stricter: Kit, maybe you should stay with us for a few days. In our special celebrity relaxing quarters.
Kit Ramsey: You think I need that?
Terry Stricter: I do.
Kit Ramsey (turns to friend): Hey, go get my checkbook. Keep it together.
Angel opened the door to the apartment he shared with Cordelia, closing the door behind him. He found his fiance watching the news on television and became worried.
"How long have you known about this?" Cordelia asked him with surprise.
Angel groaned inwardly, not wanting her to be further stressed. "Known about what?"
"This baby kidnapping racket that seems to be going on. Why haven't I known about this?" Cordelia questioned him as she watched Angel on tv, talking to Kate.
The ensouled vampire sighed and sat down on the couch next to her. "Doyle and I have been on this case for awhile now."
"Doyle knows about this too? Why didn't you tell me?" Cordelia asked him.
Angel shrugged. "I just thought that this type of case is not something you should be thinking about while you're pregnant. I didn't want to stress you."
"Well, good job so far." Cordelia threw back at him as she stood up.
Angel gave her a look. "What was that for?"
"Nothing," Cordelia replied. "It's just hormones. I need to lie down."
Angel got up off the couch and helped his fiance to her feet. He watched her head into their bedroom as Cordelia turned around to face him.
"Sorry, I got snippy." Cordelia apologized.
The vampire shook his head. "Don't worry about it."
Cordelia smiled and walked into their bedroom for some rest, closing the door behind her.
"That was real funny," Buffy said as Xander rewound the video. He sighed as they waited for the tape to finish rewinding.
"I got to get a DVD someday," Xander told himself as he sat back down next to Buffy.
The blonde woman nodded. "It's best to come out of the stone age."
Xander grinned and tickled her, making Buffy laugh. "So, you liked it?"
"Yeah," Buffy told him. "I can't believe they almost got away with that movie."
The former lawyer grinned. "Yeah. I like how they ended up almost making Eddie Murphy's character crazy."
"How about when they had Kit's brother run across the highway with all those speeding cars?" Buffy asked him with a chuckle.
Xander nodded, grinning. "Yeah. Poor bastard. He was convinced they were stunt drivers."
Buffy sighed. "That Heather Graham character reminded me of Stacey."
"Stacey? From my old job?" Xander asked her with surprise.
Buffy nodded again. "Yeah, the one you were with."
"I didn't see a similarity between them." Xander told her as he tried to think about it.
The former slayer shook her head. "I guess I was wrong then. The movie was still good."
"Yeah," Xander said as the tape stopped rewinding in the VCR. "If only there were more like them."
Buffy realized that that was the first time in a while that Xander didn't worry or mention about the case.
Giles found Olivia staring out the window as he walked into their house. "Cordelia's left the hospital. She's back home now."
Olivia nodded as she turned around. "I assume the baby is okay?"
"Yes, the baby is doing fine." Giles told her. "It's good news isn't it?"
Giles' wife nodded once more. "Xander's lucky nothing more serious happened."
The former Watcher stared at her carefully. "I admit Xander's been pretty strong-headed about the child custody, but his heart is in the right place."
"Is it?" Olivia asked him.
"Yes," Giles told her convinced. "Lord knows I asked him so many times."
Olivia sighed. "This situation those kids have put themselves in is very ugly. What happens if Xander loses the court case? Will he go back to drinking?"
Giles shook his head. "We won't let that happen."
"A newborn baby needs to be with it's mother. I know I wouldn't want someone taking my child." Olivia told him as Giles stared at her stomach.
The middle-aged man sighed. "What do you want me to do? Tell Xander to throw away his chance of being a father? Tell him to stop protecting his baby from a vampire?"
"I thought you settled those issues about Angel." Olivia asked with surprise.
Giles shook his head. "In most part, it was to ease Cordelia's worries. But choosing to spend the rest of your life with a vampire is beyond normal. Xander's right, it's depraved. But never tell him I told you that. He doesn't need anymore trouble."
Olivia nodded. "I just wish this was all over with."
Angel heard the bedroom door open and turned to see Cordelia stumble out of the room slowly.
"Cordy? What's wrong?" Angel asked as he ran over to her side.
Cordelia shook her head. "I'm having contractions."
"What?" Angel asked with surprise.
The brunette woman stared at her fiance. "My water broke. I'm having my baby."
Angel's eyes widened with surprise as he took in the news.
Angel grabbed Cordelia's hospital bag and slung it over his arm as he escorted his fiance over to the front door.
"Doyle's going to meet us at the hospital." Angel told her as they quickly left their apartment.
Cordelia nodded as she took deep breaths. "Sure, if we make it their in time. I do not want to have this kid in your car."
The ensouled vampire quickly opened the car door and threw Cordelia's hospital bag in the backseat. He ushered his pregnant fiance into the passenger seat and quickly closed the door.
Angel ran over to the driver's side of his car and jumped in, starting the engine and reversing out of the garage. Looking from the corner of his eye, he could see Cordelia do the heavy breathing as she had a pained look on her face.
"I'll try not to hit any bumps on the road." Angel told her as they drove off towards the hospital.
"Yeah," Cordelia answered sarcastically. "You do that."
Angel parked his car outside the main doors to the hospital and jumped out, calling some doctors over for help.
The vampire thanked the Powers for Cordelia going into labour at night, as he opened the car door and helped his fiance out of the car.
"This is killing me!" Cordelia grunted in pain, clutching her stomach before the doctors placed her in a wheelchair and took her in the hospital.
Angel followed them frantically, dodging past several patients and doctors as they headed to the maternity ward.
Doctor North came running up to Angel with a concerned expression. "What happpened?"
"Cordelia's in labor," Angel told Cordelia's doctor with a smile.
The young doctor left the vampire and headed into the emergency room after Cordelia. Angel walked inside as well and watched as the other doctors walked out of the emergency room after putting Cordelia on the operating table.
"You might want to call the father," Dr. North advised Angel as Nurse Lyons came in to assist with the birth.
Cordelia urgently nodded at Angel's questioning glance. "Get him here!"
Angel nodded and quickly left the emergency room, rushing over to the payphone. He pulled out a piece of paper with Xander's phone number on it, and reluctantly dialed the number.
"Hello?"
"Xander, it's Angel."
"What the hell do you want?"
"Believe me, I wouldn't call if it wasn't important."
"Is Cordelia okay?"
"She's having her baby. You might want to get to the hospital."
"We're on our way."
"We?"
Xander ignored Angel's question as he hung up his phone. He jumped off of the couch and ran a hand through his blonde hair, Buffy looking at him carefully.
"What's going on?" Buffy asked him.
Xander ran to get his car keys. "Cordelia's having my baby. We gotta go."
Buffy lurched off the couch and headed to Xander's front door, meeting Xander in the driveway. The former slayer shut the front door and got in her boyfriend's car.
Xander started the car engine and they drove towards the hospital as fast as they could, miraculously not coming into contact with police officers for speeding.
The former lawyer parked the car in the parking lot and they jumped out of the vehicle. Xander and Buffy ran towards the main doors of the hospital, passing Angel's car on their way inside.
"I think we made record time," Buffy commented breathlessly as they made it to the maternity ward section.
Angel walked towards the couple with a surprised look on his face. "How did you get here so quick?"
"We've been practising." Xander told him before he walked into the emergency room to join his ex-girlfriend.
Buffy and Angel stood outside the emergency room as they waited for the inevitable news.
"Don't worry, Cordelia. It's just going to be a little prick." Dr. North assured her as he inserted a needle in her arm, to keep her from feeling any unneccesary pain.
Cordelia scoffed aloud. "Sure, that's what got me into this mess to begin with."
Xander laughed nervously and shook his head as he saw the look on Nurse Lyon's face. "She's kidding. Really. It must be the hormones."
The former lawyer stood by Cordelia's side as she laid down on the table, her legs propped up in the stirrups.
"You had to do it, didn't you? You had to get me pregnant!" Cordelia yelled at him in between pants.
Doctor North gave Xander an apologetic look. "She doesn't mean all that, it's natural."
"I don't know, you don't know Cordelia." Xander lightly joked, as he held her hand tightly.
Cordelia continued to pant wildly as Nurse Lyons wiped the sweat from her brow. "Get this kid out of me!!"
Dr. North looked up at Cordelia's pained face. "It won't be long now, Cordelia. Just keep on pushing."
"We're almost there." Xander urged her with comfort as Cordelia nodded and pushed once more.
Nurse Lyons watched Dr. North carefully as he grinned. "I can see the head. Just keep on pushing."
"I can't," Cordelia said tiredly with tears in her eyes. "It's too hard."
Xander stared her in the eyes. "Giving up when something's hard is not the Cordelia Chase I know. All this time, you've never backed down from a challenge. Why are you starting now?"
"Things change, Xander. You know that." Cordelia reminded him painfully.
The blonde-haired man shook his head. "Things do change. But people don't. You've never given up before, and you can't give up now."
"But..."
"This is our child we're having," Xander reminded her. "Don't you want our baby to know how strong a mother he's going to have?"
Cordelia nodded as Nurse Lyons wiped more sweat from her brow. "Yes."
Xander grinned. "Then you have to keep pushing. For our baby's sake."
The brunette woman gripped Xander's hand tightly as she pushed a few more times, the sounds of a baby crying, disrupting her concentration.
"We're almost there, Cordelia." Dr. North advised her. "Just one final push."
Cordelia screamed with determination as she pushed one last time, the baby finally emerging into Dr. North's waiting hands.
Cordelia slumped back onto the table tiredly as she and Xander heard their newborn baby crying.
"You have a healthy baby girl," Dr. North said as he showed Xander and Cordelia their baby daughter.
The young parents let the information sink into their heads as Dr. North cleaned up their baby girl. Nurse Lyons wrapped the baby girl in a blanket and handed her to Cordelia.
"Oh my god, she's beautiful," Cordelia said with tears in her eyes as their baby cried.
Xander watched Cordelia holding their child with amazement. "Look at what we made."
After awhile, Cordelia handed the baby girl over to Xander, who gently took her in his hands.
"She has your eyes," Xander told his ex as he stared down at his newborn daughter.
"So this is it. The rest of our lives." Buffy told Angel as they stood in the waiting room. "Well, everyone's lives except for you that is."
Angel stared at her. "You're having regrets?"
"I'm just worried about the future. What this all means." Buffy told him as she sat down on the bench.
The dark-haired vampire approached her. "Worried about your place in the whole scheme of things?"
"Yeah," Buffy blurted out.
"Me too," Angel admitted as he sat down.
Buffy shook her head. "I'm glad for Xander, I really am. But I can't help but feel our lives would be a lot more simple without the baby. I know it's bad to think like that."
"No, it's okay." Angel told her. "There's been times where I think like that too. But then I remember that Cordelia's pregnant and going to be having a baby. Something I can never give her. And it makes me glad knowing that she's not going to go through her entire life without knowing what that's like."
Dr. North and Nurse Lyons cleaned up Xander and Cordelia's child, before wrapping her up in another blanket and handing her back to the parents.
"We'll leave you two alone for awhile." Dr. North told them with a grin as he and the nurse left the emergency room.
Xander and Cordelia watched their sleeping baby girl as they were left alone in the emergency room.
"Have you picked a name for her yet?" Xander asked his ex as their daughter stirred in her sleep.
Cordelia nodded. "How about Sierra?"
Xander grinned. "That's very Californian."
"You don't like it?" Cordelia asked with curiosity.
The blonde-haired man shook his head. "No, I do like it. Sierra Harris."
"'Harris'?" Cordelia asked him with surprise.
Xander nodded. "Yeah. 'Sierra Chase-Harris' would be too long a name, don't you think?"
Cordelia grinned. "That does sound too long. Okay, 'Sierra Harris' it is then."
Dr. North and Nurse Lyons peered through the one-sided mirror that faced into the emergency room.
"I can't believe how quick the birth was and that the child is healthy." Dr. North said with amazement as they stared at the infant.
Nurse Lyons nodded as she looked away from Xander and Cordelia's baby. "When can we take the baby?"
The young doctor turned to his nurse with an impatient look in his eyes. "It's too soon to take her now. If the child goes missing, we'll be held accountable. Especially with the police investigating our baby kidnappings."
The nurse sighed. "Priest is going to be upset. Especially when we tell him the miracle child is a girl."
"Granted, that was unexpected. All the prophecies pointed to a boy." Dr. North said as he turned away from the mirror.
Nurse Lyons shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe this is another dead end?"
"No," Dr. North told her. "This pregnancy is very abnormal. Not to mention the child was born around the time of the prophecy. This is no coincidence."
"If we give Priest another child that turns out to be a disappointment, he'll kill us." The nurse told him.
Dr. North turned to her. "This one is no disappointment."
Days had passed and Cordelia was released from the hospital with her baby. She and Xander had agreed that Sierra should stay with her mother for now, while things were being sorted out.
"How long until it's sorted out?" Angel asked her as he opened the door to their apartment.
Doyle walked in after them, holding bags of clothes that Angel took to the hospital. "Probably until after the court hearing, I assume."
"Doyle's right. Xander probably has to childproof his house, if he wants to get full custody." Cordelia told them as she held her baby.
The Brachen demon moved towards Cordelia and smiled at the baby girl. "Hello, I'm your Uncle Doyle."
Angel rolled his eyes skyward. "You're not going to be making those baby voices around us full-time are you?"
"Come here and look." Doyle said as he urged Angel towards them.
Cordelia's fiance walked over to the cooing Brachen demon and had a proper look at the baby.
"She's so tiny," Angel remarked with surprise as Sierra's innocent hazel eyes stared at her mother.
Cordelia smiled at her future husband. "That's because she's new to the world."
"Good thing she's got your looks," Doyle said with a grin as Cordelia lightly swatted him.
"No insulting her father in front of her, okay?" Cordelia asked the both of them.
Angel nodded in agreement. "Do you think she's hungry?"
"I don't know. There's only one way to find out." Cordelia told them as she carried her baby girl with her into the bedroom for privacy.
Doyle stared after her in confusion. "Where's she going?"
Angel gave him a look. "Breastfeeding?"
The Brachen demon nodded after a second. "Right. Stupid me."
A bus from outside L.A. rolled to a stop at a nearby bus stop in downtown Los Angeles, as Xander and Buffy walked into a baby store.
The bus' door opened up and several passengers stepped out onto the sunny street, carrying their luggage.
A mysterious figure dressed in a black cloak with it's face covered with a black hood got off the bus and watched Buffy and Xander look around inside the baby store.
The unknown figure watched the young couple from where it stood, staring after Buffy and Xander with an unknown purpose.
The black-cloaked figure moved to keep it's identity hidden from the young couple, as passersby on the street gave the mysterious stranger odd looks.
"Do little girls like stuffed teddy bears?" Xander asked Buffy as they looked around the department store.
Buffy nodded. "I didn't say no to one."
Xander grinned and picked up a cute-looking teddy bear. "I think she'll like this. It's not scary. Do you think it's scary?"
"Xander, Sierra was just born several days ago. I don't think she's going to be doing much teddy bear playing." Buffy told him as they walked over to the crib section.
The blonde-haired man nodded with a grin. "I know, I know. It's just that I want to be there for her. Now more than ever. I can't believe I'm a dad."
Buffy smiled. "I know. Sierra's beautiful. She's going to grow up and become a real heartbreaker. I can tell."
Xander nodded once more. "As soon as I can get her away from Angel and the crowd he associates with, the better. I just wish I had of thought about all this stuff beforehand."
"You were busy. What with The Dark Room and the custody battle that's bound to be big. Not to mention your high-maintenance girlfriend." Buffy finished with a tease.
The former lawyer threw a fake look of surprise. "How did you find out about her?"
Buffy hit him in the arm gently. "Dork."
Xander was about to comment back, when his cellphone rang, interrupting his thoughts. He picked up his phone and answered it.
"Hello?" Xander asked into his cellphone.
Buffy walked away from Xander to have a look at the assortment of baby cribs the store had to offer, failing to notice the mysterious stranger in black, staring back at her from a distance.
The former Slayer felt someone staring at her and she looked out the window in reflex. By the time she looked out the window, the strange figure had disappeared.
Buffy shook her head in confusion and turned back to face Xander who had hung up his phone.
"Who was on the phone?" Buffy asked him.
Xander pursed his lips. "That was Mike. The court date has been set."
"When?" Buffy asked with wonder.
Xander stared at her with unease. "Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Angel asked Kristen into the phone. "Does it have to be so soon? Cordelia just had the baby several days ago."
Cordelia sat on the couch holding the baby in her arms as she watched Angel talk to their lawyer over the phone.
"I understand," Angel said in defeat. "Just tell me something. Do we at least have a chance here?"
The brunette woman looked away from Angel and stared down at her baby daughter who had fallen asleep in her arms.
"Okay, see you there." Angel told their lawyer as he hung up the phone and turned to his fiance.
Cordelia looked back up at him with resignation in her voice. "That didn't sound like good news."
"It may not be. Kristen seems to think that it is, but I don't know. Xander's been a lawyer for quite awhile before he quit. He may have befriended quite a few judges for all we know." Angel said with cynically.
The young mother sighed. "The court date is tomorrow? Who are we going to get to babysit?"
"Doyle knows someone that could do it." Angel offered.
Cordelia shook her head. "I don't know if that is such a good idea. You know how his friends are."
"I know it's short notice, but we'll find someone." Angel assured her as their front door opened.
Doyle walked inside and quietly closed the door when he noticed Sierra in the room. He gently walked into the room and snuck a peek at the sleeping baby.
"The court date is for tomorrow," Angel bluntly told Doyle. "Do you know of any decent people to watch over Sierra while we go to court?"
The Irish half-demon shook his head. "Decent? No, nobody."
"Well, I'm not looking through the Yellow Pages." Cordelia said as she shook her head.
Angel stared at her. "Well, what are we going to do?"
"We could skip the court date." Cordelia told them.
Doyle scoffed. "I'm sure Xander would love for that to happen. Probably why the court date was pushed up real early."
"How about Giles and Olivia?" Angel asked his fiance.
Cordelia shook her head. "They're probably going to be at the courthouse also. Probably to speak in Xander's defence."
"Oh, you know what? I do happen to know of someone decent. Her name is Marissa and she just finished high school." Doyle told the pair.
Cordelia threw him a weird look. "How do you know her if she just finished high school?"
"She's a sister of a friend of mine. Marissa's a good kid." Doyle told her.
Angel glanced at his bride-to-be. "What do you think?"
"I think we don't have much of an option. How about this thing with Kate? Did you find what that symbol means yet?" Cordelia asked him.
The ensouled vampire shook his head. "No. I'm about to start ripping my hair out with frustration about it. I know it looks familiar."
Doyle sat down next to Cordelia and stared at the sleeping baby. "Look at her. She's so beautiful and pure."
Angel thought about that comment and he finally managed to figure out what the symbol meant.
"I have to go see Kate." Angel told them both before he grabbed his car keys and left the apartment in a rush.
Doyle got off the couch and ran after his friend, leaving Cordelia by herself with her child.
Giles watched as Cordelia changed Sierra's nappy. The former Watcher noticed how playful the baby was as Cordelia cleaned her up.
"They didn't prepare me for how smelly this part is." Cordelia told him as she threw the dirty nappy into a garbage bag and tied it up.
The middle-aged man nodded. "I guess I have that to look forward to when my time comes."
"Yeah, but everything else about having a baby makes up for it." Cordelia told him as she picked up her baby.
Giles left Cordelia's bedroom doorway, with the brunette close behind. They walked into the living room and sat down on the couch.
"Are you going to be at the courthouse tomorrow?" Cordelia asked him.
Giles nodded awkwardly. "Yes, but I'll also be speaking on Xander's behalf."
"I know," Cordelia told him. "Our lawyer already warned us about these types of things."
Giles sighed. "Whatever happens tomorrow, keep in mind that Xander isn't trying to attack you. He's just doing what he thinks is best for his daughter."
Cordelia looked down at her daughter who closed her hand around the brunette's finger. "I know. But that's what I'm doing too."
"Did you find anything new?" Kate asked Angel as he walked into her office and drew down the blinds.
The vampire nodded and handed her a printout of a symbol that matched the one Kate had.
"What does it mean? What type of demons are we dealing with?" Kate asked him.
Angel shook his head. "As I said before, it was a Catholic symbol. And there's no demons involved with this. If history is any bet, all these kidnappers are human."
Kate stared at the symbols. "I don't remember this symbol at Sunday school."
The dark-haired vampire nodded. "I'm not surprised. This is an ancient symbol that was dropped out of the language centuries ago. It's what I thought it was. Aramaic."
"So what does it mean?" Kate asked him impatiently.
"The symbol means 'Purity'. Seventy-three years ago, I ran into a cult of worshippers that lived in an underground basement. They called themselves 'Purity' and had worn dark robes with the symbol on the front of them." Angel said to her as he stared at the symbols on the papers.
Kate looked up at him. "What were they into?"
"They were obsessed with finding a miracle child. Someone they said would lead them into salvation. Anyone that opposed their beliefs were quickly slaughtered." Angel told her warily.
The blonde detective stared at him. "What did you do?"
"It's hard to fight fanatics. Back then, I didn't really care about anything, so I walked away." Angel said regretfully.
Kate shook her head. "So these guys are still in business and have now resorted to kidnappings, because you didn't do anything to stop them?"
Angel nodded and turned away. "It's one of many regrets I have."
"Save the angst and try to help me catch these lunatics." Kate said angrily.
The vampire shook his head. "It's been seventy-three years. Things would have changed since then."
"Then our best shot is to set a trap and catch one of them. Hopefully that will lead us to the babies." Kate said as she thought up a plan.
Nurse Lyons and another woman sat in a parked car staring at Cordelia's apartment.
"Why don't we go now and get the child?" The woman asked Nurse Lyons.
The nurse shook her head. "Because they're watching the baby. It's too soon. Trust me, they're not getting away."
The African American woman sighed. "What are we going to do in the meantime?"
"Nothing," Nurse Lyons told her. "Nothing but wait for the right time."
Xander stared at his reflection in the mirror in his bathroom and ran a hand through his blonde hair.
"It's time to change back," Xander said to himself as he walked over to the shower and turned it back on.
Xander and Buffy walked into the courthouse and passed Angel, Cordelia, Doyle and their lawyer on their way to Mike.
"Hey, I was worried that you two were going to be late." Mike told the pair as he held his briefcase.
Xander nodded. "We wanted to check to see if Giles was coming."
Mike stared at the former lawyer's hair. "You changed back to your natural hair color."
"How very observant," Xander smiled with sarcasm.
Buffy nodded. "Xander thought changing his hair color would give Cordelia's lawyer less ammunition."
"Good move," Mike told them. "Actually before you showed up, their lawyer came over to talk. She offered us a deal."
Xander grew wary. "What kind of deal?"
"Shared custody." Mike answered.
The dark-haired man scoffed and shook his head. "No way my daughter is going to have Angel in her life. I'm trying to spare her from that life, Mike, not dangle her over it precariously."
Buffy and Xander glanced over to Cordelia and the others, noting that Angel stayed in the darkened shade of the courtroom hallway.
"Okay, okay." Mike said with a nod of his head. "I'll be right back."
Buffy saw Giles and Olivia walk towards them as Mike moved towards Kristen to tell her their decision.
"It's going to be brutal in there today," Xander cautioned his girlfriend. "Are you ready for this? Their lawyer is probably going to put us both in the wringer."
The former slayer sighed and nodded. "I'm ready. I've faced demons and vampires aplenty. I can definately handle a lawyer."
Xander snuck a look over at Cordelia's side of the courtroom and noticed Angel wasn't there, knowing that he couldn't enter the sunny courtroom. Doyle sat next to her for support as their lawyer pulled out her papers.
"All rise for Judge George Robertson," the bailiff called out in the courtroom.
Everyone sat down when the Judge sat down behind the bench. Xander and Cordelia unknowingly wringed their hands with worry.
Judge Robertson looked up at the courtroom and addressed the people. "We're here today because of a child custody suit. I've done my fair share of these cases, and there hasn't been any that have ended well. In my courtroom we start our cases with the person that initiated it, so Mr. Davis, if you could address your first witness."
Mike stood up and held a piece of paper. "I call to the stand, Rupert Giles."
Giles sat in the witness stand and watched Mike holding a piece of paper. The former Watcher patiently waited for the first question.
"Mr. Giles, how long have you known my client?" Mike asked him.
Giles leaned into the microphone. "At least thirteen years. He was a student at the high school where I worked as a librarian."
"In those thirteen years, have you known Xander to be incapable of responsibility?" Mike asked him carefully.
The middle-aged man thought back to the things Xander did wrong.
Xander: (realizes he's been found out) Which is another secret to conscientious egg care: pot of scalding water and about eight minutes.
Willow: You boiled your young?
Xander: Yeah! I know it sounds cruel, but sometimes you gotta be cruel to be kind! I mean, you can bet that little Xander here is thick skinned now.
Xander reaches down for the egg and picks it up.
Giles: Technically that would be cheating, yes?
He reaches up to put a book on a high shelf. At the back of the shelf there's an egg.
Xander: No! It's like a short cut. You know, when you run a race?
Buffy: That would also be cheating.
Willow: (shakes her head) You should be ashamed.
Giles: (upset) Xander! Where's Buffy? (starts looking again)
Xander: (to Oz) Amy turned her into a rat.
Oz: (looks around) Oh.
Giles and Xander get on their knees and look around while making squeaking noises. Oz crouches down to look as well.
Giles: I don't see her. If anything happens to her, I'll... (looks at Xander in disgust) Oh, just go home. (stands up) Lock yourself away. You're only going to cause more problems here. Now, Amy, Jenny and I will, uh... try and break the spell. (the women stand up) Oz, if, if you could aid us in, in finding, um... Buffy.
Oz: Sure. Absolutely.
Xander starts to say something, but Giles cuts him off before he can even get out a word, doing his best to control his anger.
Giles: Just go. Get out of my sight.
Xander doesn't take it very well and stares at Giles for a moment with his mouth agape, but then goes with his head hung low.
Xander: (standing his ground) I'm Perspective Guy. Angel's a killer.
Willow: Xander...
Buffy: It's not that simple.
Xander: (disgusted) What? All is forgiven? I can't believe you people!
Cordelia: (gets up) Xander has a point.
Xander: (to Cordelia, in a raised voice) You know, just for once, I wish you'd support me, and I realize right now that you were, and I'm embarrassed, so I'm gonna get back to the point, (to the others) which is that Angel needs to die.
Giles: Curing Angel seems to have been Jenny's last wish.
Xander: Yeah? Well, Jenny's dead.
Giles: (approaches Xander angrily) Don't you *ever* speak of her in that tone again!
Xander: (yells back) Can't you hear what I'm saying?
They begin to argue heatedly.
Xander: Not to freak. I rested my eyes now and then. That's all.
Willow gives him a betrayed look.
Giles: (looks down from the window) How long... *exactly* did you... rest your eyes for? (glares at him)
Oz just stares into space, turning the implications over in his mind.
Xander: A little now, uh, a little then. But I never heard Oz leave, and he was here in the morning when I, um... (searches for words) when I...
Giles: (angrily) WOKE UP!
Xander: You could put it that way if you want to, Mr. Technical.
Suddenly Willow reaches for him, grabs his face and plants a hard kiss on his lips. Xander responds and puts his hands around her to pull her closer. They kiss passionately for a few seconds, when Giles suddenly comes walking by, his attention focused on a book in his hands as he reads. Willow and Xander don't notice him at all.
Giles: Willow, Xander...
They stop kissing and quickly scramble to their feet.
Giles: ...you can stop your, uh, studying.
They wipe and cover their mouths in guilt, but aren't yet sure if they've been caught since Giles is looking at a bookcase.
Cut to Buffy's dorm.
Xander and Giles are walking through the halls.
Xander: Well, I cut her off before the others so I don't think she had as much to drink.
Giles: I can't believe you served Buffy that beer.
Xander: I didn't know it was evil.
Giles: But you knew it was beer.
Xander: Well excuse me Mr. "I spent the sixties in an electric Kool-Aid funky Satan groove".
Giles: It was the early seventies and you should know better.
"As with most teenagers in high school, there were many times Xander was irresponsible. But if you're asking if he's shown anything like that now? No, he hasn't." Giles told Xander's lawyer as Mike nodded.
"Thankyou Mr. Giles," Mike told him as he sat down.
Kristen stood up and stared at Giles. "Mr. Giles, you claim to have known Mr. Harris for thirteen years, is that correct?"
"Yes, it is." Giles told her.
The young lawyer shook her head. "Was there ever a period in those thirteen years where you didn't know where Mr. Harris was?"
"Yes," Giles answered knowingly.
Kristen nodded. "And how long was this period?"
Giles sighed with defeat. "Five years."
"Five years? Five of those thirteen years he's been missing and nobody he knew were aware of where he was?" Kristen asked with mock surprise.
The former Watcher nodded. "They all grew apart after highschool. You can't expect them to stick together after all that time."
Buffy and Xander stood in the courthouse hallway during recess, as Giles paced the hallway.
"I don't believe that woman. This is supposed to be a child custody suit, not a bloody murder trial." Giles seethed.
Olivia nodded. "I expected her to go easy on me, so imagine my surprise."
"Mike said she was brutal. It doesn't matter though. They don't have much on me. Imagine bringing up my irresponsibility at highschool. I was surprised that the judge allowed it." Xander said with a shake of his head.
The former slayer tapped Xander on the arm and pointed his direction down the hall. He turned around and froze when he saw Willow and Oz walk into the courthouse.
"Willow's here. That's just great." Xander said uneasily.
"How's it going?" Oz asked Angel as Willow snuck glances at Xander and Buffy.
Angel shook his head. "I have no idea. I can't go in there because of the sun."
"So far we haven't gone up on the stand. It's just been Giles, Olivia and Buffy." Cordelia told her highschool friends.
Willow sighed when she saw the others walk back into the courtroom, Buffy and Xander pointedly ignoring her attempts at greeting them.
"I'm sorry about that," Cordelia told her.
Willow nodded. "It was my decision that tore up the group. Not yours."
"Mrs. Osborne, do you believe that my client would make a great mother?" Kristen asked Willow as the lawyer stood, Oz sitting next to Doyle.
Willow nodded. "Yes, I do. I honestly believe that Cordelia would make a good mother."
"Do you feel that Cordelia should assume full custody instead of Xander?" Kristen asked her.
Willow sighed. "I wish that it didn't go this far. They're both worthy of being good parents."
Kristen looked at her written paper work. "Were you assaulted a while back by Buffy Summers?"
A surprised Willow spotted the worried glances Buffy and Xander exchanged.
"Yes, but I didn't press charges." Willow told the courtroom.
"Is it safe to assume that you are not on speaking terms with Mr. Harris and Ms. Summers?" Kristen asked her.
Willow looked and down and nodded. "I would do anything to be friends with them again. But I've accepted the past and there's nothing I can do to change it."
Kristen nodded. "Just one more thing. Do you think that Mr. Harris is capable and ready to deal with a child on a full-term basis?"
The red-haired woman sighed and shook her head regrettably. "No, I don't."
Mike stood up and faced Willow in the witness stand. "Mrs. Osborne, was there a time when my client babysat your daughter for a full day?"
Willow remembered the incident and nodded. "Yes, there was."
"Wait a second here, I'm confused." Mike told her. "You just finished telling the court that my client is not capable to deal with a child."
Willow nodded. "I know what I said."
Mike stared straight at her. "So, by your words, you essentially handed your daughter over to an irresponsible man incapable of dealing with children. How do you explain that?"
"I... uh.. I don't..." Willow tried to get her words together.
Mike held up his hand with a smile. "It's okay, Mrs. Osborne. We'll wait here until you carefully string your words together."
"Objection!" Kristen called out to the Judge.
Judge Robertson glanced over at Xander's lawyer. "Let's not get hostile over this, okay Mr. Davis?"
Willow sighed. "Xander's child was just born. She should be with her mother at this early stage."
"The truth is, my client IS capable of taking care of his child full-time." Mike told her calmly. "And you know it."
"I call to the stand, Cordelia Chase." Mike addressed the courtroom.
Cordelia reluctantly got up, moving past Willow, Oz and Doyle and walked towards the witness stand. She eyed her lawyer watching the scene carefully.
Mike Davis put down his written piece of paper and glanced at Cordelia. "Ms. Chase, do you work for a living?"
"Yes," Cordelia said with a nod. "I do."
"What do you do?" Mike asked her knowingly.
Cordelia looked towards the Judge before facing Mike. "I'm a receptionist for a detective's agency in L.A. It's called 'Angel Investigations'."
Mike nodded. "Why is it called 'Angel Investigations'?"
The brunette looked at Doyle before answering. "It's named after Angel. My fiance."
"Your fiance?" Mike asked as he looked over at Doyle, Oz and Willow. "Where is he by the way?"
Oz and Willow exchanged knowing glances as Doyle sighed.
Cordelia shook her head. "He couldn't make it here today."
"He couldn't make it to his fiance's child custody hearing? What kind of a man doesn't show up to support the woman he loves in a situation like this?" Mike asked with genuine interest.
The brown-haired woman sighed. "He's a good man."
"Oh we both know that isn't true." Mike said as Cordelia stared at him with curiosity.
Mike held up several pieces of paper. "I have here in my hand, several files of complaints directed at your detective agency. Almost all of them concern your husband-to-be either beating up client's friends, or in one case, smashing several expensive windows that put your company into debt for quite awhile."
Cordelia shook her head angrily. "There's extenuating circumstances with those."
"Including assaulting the Los Angeles Chief of Police, accusing him of practising Voodoo rituals? Raising the dead?" Mike asked with a smirk as the people in the courtroom chuckled.
Cordelia slammed her hand down on the counter. "We're not here for my fiance's actions. We're here to let me keep my baby."
Judge Robertson turned to Kristen. "Control your client, Ms. Waller."
Mike watched the scene before continuing. "Is it safe to say that your fiance has a long list of enemies?"
"Yes," Cordelia told him.
"Enemies that would even lash out at an innocent child, to get their point across?" Mike asked her gently.
Cordelia thought about it and nodded sadly. "Yes."
Mike pointed over towards Doyle. "Is that Allen Francis Doyle?"
"Yes," Cordelia answered.
The male lawyer nodded. "The same Mr. Doyle that has been accused of occasionally showing up to client's houses drunk and insubordinate?"
Cordelia nodded without saying a word.
Mike sighed. "Does he gamble, Ms. Chase? Is he a heavy gambler?"
"Yes," Cordelia said with regret as she stared teary-eyed at Doyle, who looked down to the floor.
"So, it's safe to assume that he, like Angel, has an equally long list of enemies capable of doing anything to collect their money?" Mike asked her gently once more.
Cordelia shook her head. "That's never happened."
Mike picked up a file from his desk. "I have here a damage report by a contractor who worked in your apartment several years ago."
"What report?" Cordelia asked with irritability.
"Several gunmen shot up your apartment because Mr. Doyle didn't pay his gambling fees. I did my research and found that he owed the local mafia boss a substantial fee." Mike informed her and the others in the courtroom.
Cordelia thought it over with surprise. "That was over ten years ago."
"But it DID happen." Mike told her. "And it could always happen again. Only this time, there will be a child present."
Xander's ex shook her head. "It won't happen again."
"How many bookies died that day? In your apartment?" Mike asked her.
"I can't remember." Cordelia answered grimly.
Mike walked towards her. "Basically, from what I hear, your detective agency is a classic 'shakedown' mafia-style operation. Your boss/fiance running around town beating people up, getting into trouble with the police..."
"It sounds worse than it is." Cordelia replied defeatedly.
Xander's former boss nodded. "I even have reports of your baby's future stepfather causing a steady stream of trouble for a prestigious lawfirm here in Los Angeles. The long list of complaints were enormous."
"Before or after they went down for tax evasion?" Cordelia threw back at him.
"You work all the time for 'Angel Investigations' don't you?" Mike asked as Xander watched.
Cordelia nodded. "The timetable isn't set in stone."
Mike waved a hand in the air. "So, it's safe to assume that you'll be hiring regular babysitters for your daughter. I doubt you'd be that irresponsible to bring your child into a sleazy detective agency."
The twenty-nine year old woman nodded once again. "That's right. I'd have to assign babysitters."
"Do you have any experience with babies? How about babysitting?" Mike asked her.
Cordelia shook her head slowly. "No, I don't have experience."
Mike turned to the Judge and nodded. "That's all I have."
Kristen stood up as Mike sat down and faced Cordelia. "I'll be quick Ms. Chase as I understand you're probably wanting to get off that chair."
"Okay," Cordelia answered.
"Do you have a steady job?" Kristen asked her.
Cordelia nodded. "Yes, I do."
"Do you have friends to help you with your baby if it becomes necessary?" Kristen asked again.
Cordelia grinned. "Yes, I do."
Kristen nodded. "And you're engaged to be married. Seems pretty stable to me. Do you have a problem with drugs or alcohol?"
"No, I don't." Cordelia told her and the courtroom.
The young lawyer nodded again. "Thankyou, Ms. Chase. That'll be all."
Xander paced back and forth in an adjacent room as Buffy, Giles and Olivia watched with sympathy.
Mike entered the room with his briefcase and Xander turned towards him. "What the fuck Mike? I asked you to go easy on her. Easy. Not crucify her on the witness stand."
"That WAS me being easy. Things could have gotten a lot nastier." Mike warned him as Xander shook his head disbelievingly.
The former lawyer tapped his fingers against an ergonomic chair. "Their lawyer is going to eat me alive in there soon because of that fucking stunt you pulled."
"Do you want your daughter to live with you permanently?" Mike asked him angrily.
Xander nodded. "You know I do."
"Then think about it. You used to be a lawyer. You know that to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs. We're almost finished. I know what I'm doing."
"I call to the stand, Xander Harris," Kristen announced to the Judge.
Xander got up and walked towards the witness stand, sitting down in the booth and facing Cordelia's lawyer.
Kristen watched him carefully before speaking. "Mr. Harris, what do you do for a living?"
"I co-own a nightclub with my girlfriend, Buffy." Xander said to her.
The young lawyer nodded. "What did you do before that?"
"I used to be a lawyer. More specifically a legal consultant." Xander admitted to the court.
Kristen shook her head. "That's quite a leap in careers. From being a lawyer to a nightclub owner."
"I got into law for all the wrong reasons." Xander said as he looked over at Cordelia.
"Does this radical change of heart happen to you often?" Kristen asked him seriously.
Xander shook his head. "No, it does not. I know where you're going with this. I will not change my mind about Sierra if I get full custody."
Kristen looked over towards Buffy and pointed to the blonde. "Is this your girlfriend? Buffy Summers?"
"You know it is," Xander told her calmly.
Mike stood up. "Your honor, Ms. Waller is wasting the courts time by asking pointless and obvious questions."
Judge Robertson nodded. "I agree. Ms. Waller, please get to the point."
Kristen nodded to the Judge. "Yes, your honor."
Xander watched the female lawyer carefully. "Buffy's ex-boyfriend, before you that is, was Angel. Was it not?"
"That's right," Xander said as he stiffened in his seat.
Cordelia's lawyer nodded. "Is it safe to say that you don't like Angel?"
"He's not the type of person that should be around a child. Yes, I don't like him. What he stands for, who he is." Xander said with a calm tone.
Kristen walked back to her bench. "So, it's not that far off to assume that you were angry that my client rejected you for him. Another rejection for the same guy by another woman in your life."
Xander stared at her with a steely gaze. "What are you getting at?"
"The point I'm trying to make here, is that you're only after full custody to make Cordelia Chase suffer for making her choice." Kristen admitted to him.
The dark-haired man shook his head. "That is not true."
"Do you have a drinking problem?" Kristen asked him quickly.
Xander sighed. "I wouldn't say I have a problem with alcohol."
"Mrs. Osborne testified that you were under the influence of alcohol when she came to see you a few months ago." Kristen reminded him.
The former lawyer shook his head. "There was that brief period where I drank too much. But I haven't had any alcohol to drink since, and I don't feel the need to do so."
Kristen glanced at her piece of paper. "Did you attempt suicide with pills?"
Xander stared at Cordelia and watched her look away guiltily. He spotted the pained looks on Oz and Willow's faces as he breathed inwards.
"It wasn't a suicide attempt. It was an accident." Xander told her calmly.
Kristen sighed. "Mr. Harris, you're under oath."
"I'm telling you, it was an accident. I was drunk and I didn't know what I was doing." Xander said again with determination.
The female lawyer picked up a medical form. "You were found on the living room floor of your house by Rupert Giles. You were then admitted to Sunnydale General Hospital where your physician, Dr. Gold, found that you had taken ten pills of the prescription drug 'Effexor', combined with alcohol. Are you sure it wasn't a suicide attempt? What is 'Effexor'?"
"It's an anti-depressant," Xander said quietly, but loud enough for the court to hear.
Kristen walked towards him. "Are you still taking your medication?"
Xander shook his head. "No, I'm off it now."
"Why's that?"
"Because I no longer need it." Xander said with irritation.
Kristen nodded disbelievingly. "Have you ever lied or hid the truth to something that serious or life threatening before?"
Xander thought the question over.
He slowly leans his head down to her, and she responds by angling hers up to him. They are soon very close, and kiss gently. The kiss goes on for several seconds before they realize what they are doing and quickly jump apart.
Lyrics: How do you breathe?
Xander: (points at her) That didn't just happen!
Willow: No! (gestures nervously) I mean, it did, but it didn't!
Xander: The band. Yeah. They're great. They march.
Cut below the table. They continue to rub their legs together.
Willow: Like an army. (cut above) (very distracted) E-e-except with music instead of bullets, and... usually no one dies.
Cut below. They rub their shoes against each other with their legs still crossed. Cut above. Cordelia suddenly turns to face them.
Cordelia: I can't believe this.
Cut below. Willow and Xander immediately whip their legs apart. Cut above. They both hit opposite legs of the table and make it lurch with a loud thunk and pray that they haven't given themselves away.
Willow goes along with that, and they kiss. Xander reaches his arm around her as he lies back. She puts her arm around his shoulder to hold him close. Behind them Oz and Cordelia come down the stairs.
Cordelia: Oh, God!
Willow immediately rolls off of Xander, and they see them there.
Xander: Oh, God.
Willow: Oh, God, Oz...
Oz: We have to get outta here.
Cordelia is heartbroken, and runs up the stairs.
Xander: (gets up) Cordy, I...
Xander: (looks at the sword) Now, that's a new look for you.
Buffy: It's a present for Angel.
Xander: Willow. (stops) Uh, she told me to tell you...
Buffy: Tell me what?
Xander: (pauses to think) Kick his ass.
Without a word she continues walking. Xander hesitates a moment and then follows.
Mike got up from the desk and approached Xander as Kristen sat down next to Cordelia and the others.
"Why do you want full custody, Xander?" Mike asked him.
Xander focused on Cordelia and then turned to Mike. "Because I strongly believe that I will make a good father for my daughter."
Mike nodded and waved his hand in the air. "Do you have a stable income?"
"Yes, there's quite a lot of money coming in from the nightclub. Not to mention the money I have saved from my days as a lawyer. So there's no problem with money." Xander told the courtroom.
"Cordelia's attorney asked you about Buffy Summers and the relationship you have with her. But there's one question she failed to ask. Is the relationship between you and Ms. Summers stable?" Mike asked his client.
Xander nodded as he watched Buffy smile at him. "It's very stable. I have no insecurities about that."
Mike nodded with a grin. "If you get full custody and there comes a time where you need help, would you be able to get help?"
The former lawyer nodded. "I have Buffy and close friends to help me if necessary."
Xander's lawyer walked back towards his desk. "One last question. Do you consort with trouble makers in your line of work? Or in your spare time?"
"No," Xander said as he shook his head. "There's nothing like that at all."
Marissa watched over Sierra until the baby girl fell asleep, leaving her in her crib. The highschool graduate heard someone knocking on Cordelia's front door and walked into the living room.
The young girl unlocked the door and opened it. She found the African-American woman that had been talking to Nurse Lyons staring at her.
"We have to take the baby now." The woman told Marissa.
Marissa nodded and invited the woman into Cordelia's apartment. They walked into Cordelia's bedroom and stood over the crib, staring at the sleeping baby.
"Were there any problems?" The woman asked Marissa.
The highschool graduate shook her head. "No, they're too preoccupied with a court hearing."
Sierra woke up crying as the woman picked the baby up and held her in her arms.
"We have to hurry. Priest wants her now." The woman told her.
The two women walked out of Cordelia and Angel's apartment, taking Sierra with them.
The mysterious black-cloaked figure hid from sight as it watched Willow, Oz, Cordelia, Xander and Buffy outside the courthouse.
The hooded stalker stared intently at Buffy and Xander, ignoring the others in the background.
"I wish we could stay for the verdict," Willow told Cordelia apologetically as Oz waved goodbye to Buffy and Xander who waved back.
Cordelia nodded. "I know. But if you have to go, you have to go."
"I'll call you when we get home, okay?" Willow clarified with her brunette friend.
The brunette woman nodded as Doyle stood next to the Osborne's car. "Thanks for coming back for this. I don't know if it helped."
"I wish we didn't have to get this far, that's all." Willow said sadly as she noticed Xander and Buffy walk past her without saying goodbye and heading back into the courthouse.
Willow nodded sadly and headed towards their car. "Goodbye."
"Bye," Cordelia farewelled them with a wave.
Mike walked up to Buffy and Xander and directed them to a spare room. The couple followed their lawyer into the room and closed the door behind them.
"What's going on?" Buffy asked him.
Mike shook his head. "I think you should prepare yourself for the worst. I don't think we're going to win this."
"What?!?" Xander asked with surprise. "How can you say that?"
Xander's lawyer shook his head. "The suicide attempt, the drinking. It's not something this Judge is known for. He doesn't give full custody to a parent that has that on their resume."
The former lawyer sighed emotionally. "I can't believe this. All I wanted was to give Sierra a chance at a normal life. And now it's not going to happen."
"I think we've got it in the bag," Kristen told Cordelia and Angel as they stood in the hallway.
Angel stared at her. "We're winning?"
Kristen nodded. "It looks like it. I've done several trials with Judge Robertson to know his body language. Chances are good that we won."
Angel grinned, but his smile faltered when he noticed Cordelia's grim expression.
"What is it?" Angel asked her.
Cordelia shook her head. "You didn't see his face when the whole suicide attempt thing came up in court. It hurt him. I hurt him. It's something I swore to never do again. He just wants to be a better father than his Dad was to him."
"So what are you saying? You want to give him full custody of your daughter?" Angel asked her carefully.
Cordelia thought it over as she looked towards her lawyer.
"I've been going over that whole incident with the pills," Xander said to Buffy as they sat in the room. "I must have tricked myself into believing that it was an accident."
Buffy watched him carefully. "What do you think it was?"
"Maybe everyone is right." Xander told her sadly. "Maybe it was a suicide attempt. I'm starting to think that it was."
Xander sat at the table with his head in his hands as Buffy comforted him. Mike looked on with sympathy when there was a knocking on the door.
Their lawyer walked over to the door and opened it, finding Cordelia on the other side.
"You shouldn't be here without your lawyer." Mike advised her.
Cordelia nodded. "I'd like to talk to Xander alone. I've already discussed it with my attorney."
Buffy and Xander looked up when they heard Cordelia's voice and thought about what it could mean.
The former slayer got up out of her seat and left the room with Mike, leaving Cordelia alone with Xander.
"I hear you won," Xander told his ex bitterly. "Congratulations."
Cordelia watched him carefully. "I want you to answer a question for me. It's important."
"Go on." Xander told her with resignation.
The brunette woman looked at him. "This whole child custody battle wasn't to get even at me or Angel, was it?"
Xander shook his head tiredly. "No. The lifestyle that you have chosen is not suitable for a child. It scares me to think of what Sierra will be raised up with."
Cordelia nodded. "You love her. I love her too, which is why I'm going to be doing this."
"Doing what?" Xander asked her curiously.
Xander's ex sighed. "I'm going to let you have full custody. I already told Angel and my lawyer."
"What?" Xander asked with shock in his expression.
"I expect to get regular feedback from her though. Photographs, occasional visitation whenever I get a chance to go to Sunnydale." Cordelia told him with a sad smile.
Xander moved away from the table and smiled with a nod. "Thank you."
"I didn't just do this for you. I did it for our daughter." Cordelia assured him.
"Are you sure about this?" Angel asked Cordelia as they walked into their apartment.
Cordelia nodded. "It's for the best. For Sierra's sake."
Angel sighed knowingly. "I'm sorry."
"It's nobody's fault. It's just the way it happened." Cordelia said as they walked into the living room.
Angel and Cordelia looked around for Marissa and failed to find her.
"Marissa?" Cordelia called out to her as they looked around their quiet apartment.
The ensouled vampire instantly had a bad feeling about the situation. "Oh my god."
"What?" Cordelia asked him. "What is it?"
Angel raced into their bedroom and towards Sierra's crib. He looked into it and found it empty. The vampire turned around and found Cordelia standing in the bedroom doorway with a knowing expression on her face.
"Sierra's gone," Cordelia whispered with shock.
Xander and Buffy stood in Cordelia's apartment while she sat on the couch in shock, Doyle watching over her as Angel spoke into the phone.
"Kate, it's Angel," he said into the phone. "There's been another kidnapping."
Xander paced back and forth in Cordelia's apartment as Angel talked to Kate.
"This is exactly the reason why I wanted full custody. Enemies of Angel's wanting to get even." Xander told Buffy.
Buffy shook her head. "I think it was more of a coincidence if anything."
"He just told us that he failed to stop them before. Now this has happened." Xander said angrily.
Cordelia sat on her couch in shock as Doyle comforted her. "I can't believe this has happened. She's just a little baby."
Xander suppressed his anger and moved over to Cordelia. "We'll find her. We'll get her back from these people."
Angel hung up his cellphone and turned to the group. "I told her what happened. They're tracing Marissa's whereabouts as we speak. It shouldn't be long until they catch her."
The former lawyer faced the vampire with an angry look. "If you did your job, we wouldn't be in this situation right now. God knows what those sick bastards are doing to my child."
Cordelia started crying at the mere thought of something happening, as Doyle wrapped an arm around her.
The Brachen demon looked up at Xander. "You're not helping matters."
"If anything has happened to her, I will kill you. Do you understand?" Xander threatened Angel with clenched teeth.
The dark-haired vampire took a few steps back from Xander as he walked towards his fiance.
"We'll find her. We'll get her back," Angel said as he tried to convince Cordelia.
Angel's cellphone rang, causing him to pick it up and answer it quickly. "Yes?"
Xander and Buffy exchanged hopeful looks as Cordelia and the others watched also.
"You got her? That was quick." Angel said into the phone.
Xander and Buffy headed towards the front door.
Angel hung up his phone and looked at Cordelia. "Kate said they caught Marissa. She was trying to abduct another baby when they arrested her. They've got her in an interrogation room down at the station."
Xander opened the door and ran outside, heading on his way to the police station with Buffy right behind him.
The dark, hooded figure stood ontop of a nearby building and watched Buffy and Xander get out of a car and walk towards the police station.
The mysterious stranger glared down at the young couple before moving away from the building's edge.
Xander and Buffy walked into the Los Angeles Police Station and had a look around the large area.
"Which one is Kate?" Xander asked her as they looked around.
Buffy scanned the area and found the blonde detective on the telephone. "That's her."
Officer Lewis walked up to the couple and stared at them. "Can I help you?"
"We're here to see Detective Lockley. It's about the baby kidnapping crimes." Xander told the police officer.
Buffy shook her head as the officer walked over to Kate. "This is wrong. We should have waited for Angel."
"Angel's done enough damage don't you think?" Xander asked her bitterly as Kate walked towards the pair.
Kate recognized Buffy, but not Xander. "Who are you?"
"I'm Xander Harris. The father of Cordelia's baby. Angel called you and you told him you caught the kidnapper. I just want to talk to her." Xander told her quickly.
Kate shook her head. "If you know Angel, then you'd know..."
"Vampire with a soul, wears gay outfits that never fails to attract women." Xander said with irritation. "Can I see her now?"
The blonde woman sighed. "She's being interrogated right now by me personally. There's not much you can do now but wait."
"Can't we at least look in on the interrogation?" Buffy asked her carefully.
Kate considered the question and nodded. "Okay, come on."
Xander and Buffy moved with Kate towards the interrogation room and were directed into the room next door.
"You can see and hear everything from this room." Kate told them before leaving.
The young couple stared into the other room at Marissa, who looked up when Kate entered the room.
"Again? How many times are you going to question me?" Marissa asked with boredom.
Kate closed the door and stared at her. "I'll stop when you start giving us some answers. How about that?"
"I won't betray the group." Marissa said with a shake of her head.
Detective Lockley moved closer to the highschool graduate and slammed her hand down on the desk, making the teenager jump.
"You're facing some serious crimes. One charge of kidnapping, one charge of attempted kidnapping, and ties with a terrorist group." Kate threatened her.
Marissa stared at the detective with surprise. "Terrorists?"
Kate nodded. "Yeah. That's what we've designated them. And with the way this world works now when terrorists are involved, you're looking at a very, very long time behind bars. Probably life in prison."
The teenage girl shook her head. "I won't betray the group for something I believe in."
"'Purity'?" Kate asked the surprised girl. "That's the group you're talking about?"
"The cause they have is a good one." Marissa said in defence.
Kate shook her head. "Kidnapping innocent children? Murdering babysitters in broad daylight? What the hell kind of a good cause is that?"
"It's a cause I've been sworn to serve." Marissa said seriously.
Kate moved in closer with restrained anger. "I can't believe you're human."
The female detective left Marissa on her own as she walked out of the interrogation room, closing the door behind her.
Xander and Buffy watched as Kate walked into their room, looking through the glass at the teenage girl.
"It looks like she's going to go down for the cult she's involved with." Kate told the two regrettably.
The former lawyer sighed angrily. "What about my daughter? Did she say where she took Sierra?"
"No," Kate said sadly. "No she didn't."
Xander held the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger as he let the news sink in. Buffy rubbed his arm with support as she watched Marissa sit in the white room.
The dark-haired man nodded. "I want to go in there."
"What?" Buffy asked him with surprise.
Kate sighed. "That's against police procedure."
Xander turned to her. "This stupid twit knows where my daughter is. And she'll only tell if she feels she's being threatened. I just need to see her alone."
The blonde detective thought it over. "The Chief has been jumping on my back about this case. What harm would it do?"
Xander nodded and opened the door, quickly moving into the interrogation room and closed the door behind him.
Marissa stared at the strange dark-haired man. "Who are you?"
The twenty-nine year old man walked straight towards the captured girl. "I'm Sierra's father."
"Cordelia, do you want something to drink?" Doyle asked her as he tried to cheer her up.
Cordelia shook her head slowly. "Did Xander call yet?"
"We would have heard the phone, don't you think?" Doyle told her gently as Angel watched them.
The vampire paced the room. "I'm going to help Xander and Buffy find Sierra, okay Cordelia?"
Cordelia nodded. "Just get her away from those crazy people."
Angel nodded as he walked away from them towards the door. "Watch over her for me, will you Doyle?"
"Yeah," Doyle told him assuredly. "Be careful."
"I'm not a police detective," Xander said as he pulled Marissa away from the desk. "I'm not associated in any way with the police force."
Marissa watched him fearfully. "I don't know where she is?"
Xander stared at her for a few seconds, before picking her up by her throat and slamming her into the wall.
"Talk now! Before you lose that option!" Xander yelled at her as his grip tightened around her throat.
Marissa coughed uncontrollably as Xander released his grip, causing her to fall to the floor.
Xander watched her cough and sputter on the floor. "They've given me enough time in here to do anything to you. But it will all go away when you tell me what I want to know."
"I don't know where she is," Marissa repeated to him defiantly.
The dark-haired man made a fist and moved in to hit her, when Marissa held up her hands in defeat.
"Okay, okay, I know!" Marissa yelled quickly.
Xander stepped back and allowed the girl to pick herself up off of the floor and sit back down.
"Why did you take my daughter?" Xander asked her slowly.
Marissa shook her head. "For the same reasons why the other babies were taken."
Xander sighed as Buffy and Kate looked on through the glass window. "And why was that?"
"Our group believes because of the way the stars are aligned, our savior has returned to us, reborn." Marissa told him.
The former lawyer took in the information. "Why do you think it's Los Angeles?"
"It says so in the prophecy our leader has. Our Messiah will return to us and lead us into salvation," Marissa said honestly.
Xander stared at her with incredulity. "You think my daughter is Jesus Christ reborn?"
"We have been taking babies that have been born in the timeframe of the stars aligning. So far, they've all failed the tests. But there is a real good chance that your child is the one that will save us and give us our reward for loyalty. Something that I will never receive now, thanks to you." Marissa said with anger.
Xander looked at her. "What's the reward?"
"Eternal life." Marissa said sadly.
"What the hell makes you think my child is your supposed Messiah?" Xander asked her.
Marissa looked up at him. "Because of the way she was born. Her mother's pregnancy was completely abnormal. At least that's what Dr. North says."
"Dr. North? He's involved with your cult? Oh my god, they've been close to my baby so many times," Xander said with stunned shock.
Xander took a deep breath and stared at Marissa with determination. "Where is my daughter?"
The black-cloaked stranger adjusted it's hood as the figure hid from Angel's car, avoiding the vampire sitting in the driver's seat.
The mysterious stranger watched as Buffy and Xander ran out of the police station and towards Xander's car. The dark figure hid in the darkness, the rain spattering the stranger's hood as it watched Angel follow them discreetly with his car.
"How many cultists are we expected to run into?" Buffy asked as they drove towards the compound.
Xander shook his head as he focused on the road ahead. "I don't care. As long as I get Sierra away from those freaks, I don't care."
Buffy looked through the rear-view mirror and recognized Angel's car following them from a distance.
"Detective Lockley should be getting the backup we need anyway. Considering that these cultists are all human, we're going to need those cops. I don't want these creeps to come after my daughter again." Xander told her as they drove through the rainy night.
Xander sighed angrily as he tried to look through the rain, impatient to get to the cultists hideout.
"We'll get there, okay? Just don't speed in the rain." Buffy warned him as she looked behind her and still saw Angel's car.
The dark-haired man looked at his girlfriend and noticed her looking elsewhere. "Do you see something out there?"
"Angel's following us." Buffy told him truthfully.
Xander nodded and sighed with impatience. "No doubt trying to get in my good books again. Somebody should tell that idiot that brooding only gets the girls."
Buffy sighed. "I know you're pissed off, but lets focus on those kidnappers first."
"He..."
"I know. It turned out the way you said it would." Buffy told him. "I know. Cordelia realizes that now too, which is why she gave you full custody."
Xander quietened as he knew that Buffy recognized the danger Angel posed for Sierra.
The young couple found a large compound hidden among a row of trees. They pulled to a stop, hiding the car behind some large bushes.
Xander and Buffy got out of their car and began to move stealthily towards the cult's hideout.
Cordelia came out of her bathroom and went into the kitchen. She poured herself a glass of orange juice after seeing Doyle had a glass of his own.
"I shouldn't be here drinking," Cordelia told him. "I should be out there with the others, finding my baby."
Doyle sighed sadly. "There's not much you can do right now. If there's any change, Angel or Xander would call here. But there's been no calls because nothing's happened."
Cordelia tapped the floor with frustration. "I can't believe this is happening."
"I'm sorry," Doyle told her as she looked at him. "If I hadn't have got Marissa to babysit Sierra, maybe this wouldn't have happened."
The brunette woman shook her head. "I thought you were comforting me? And it's not your fault. Those weirdos would have found another way to get to her, if they were determined."
Doyle nodded. "You shouldn't be going out there to search anyway."
"Why's that?" Cordelia asked him.
The Irishman looked at her. "Because it wasn't that long ago that you gave birth. You should be getting as much rest as you can. That custody battle sure as hell didn't help matters."
"Xander did what he thought was best for Sierra," Cordelia told him. "I see that now."
Doyle nodded. "And you're still going to give him full custody?"
"Yes," Cordelia answered grimly. "He can offer her a normal life. Something I don't think I can do anymore."
Xander and Buffy stood outside the entrance to the compound and looked through the hole in the cave wall.
"Good thing you've still got your slayer powers," Xander commented as they heard chanting down below.
Buffy looked down into the dark cavern as rain fell on them from above. "There's no telling how many freaks are down there. We'll have to be careful."
"You two aren't going in there alone," Angel told them as they turned around and found him.
Xander shook his head. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Doing something I should have done years ago," Angel told them.
The former lawyer scoffed. "Save the act for the ladies. You're not coming in with us. There's only two people I trust right now. And that's me and Buffy."
The vampire shook his head. "You need all the people you can get on your side right now."
"The last person I need to help me is the likes of you." Xander said as he picked up a crucifix from near the entrance of the compound and threw it at him.
Angel caught the cross involuntarily and dropped it in pain when it started to burn him. He vamped out in reflex and stared at Xander.
"Take a good look," Xander said as he pointed towards the cave opening. "It's full of crucifixes. Probably to keep things like you away from them and the babies."
Buffy walked into the cave opening, passing the hundreds of crosses to get a closer look at the chanters.
Xander walked into the opening and turned to the vampire. "If you're as good as you say you are, then why is it that crosses still burn you? Why is it that holy water still burns you? Why is it that sunlight still burns you? I'll tell you why. Because you're a demonic vampire and that will never change. No matter how much you and your groupies try to sugarcoat it."
Angel watched Xander disappear into the compound and sighed as he looked at all the crucifixes surrounding the opening.
Xander walked through the dark cavern on the way to an area lit-up with candles. He found Buffy looking down at a small group of cultists as they prayed in a circle.
"What did you find?" Xander whispered to her as Buffy pointed down to the cultists.
"There's four of them down there," Buffy told him. "It's been awhile since I did any fighting, but I think I can take them."
"Penn and his cronies didn't count?" Xander whispered with a grin.
Buffy shook her head. "I'm going to need your help down there."
"You got it," Xander said as they found their way down towards the four cultists.
The small group stopped their chants and ran towards Xander and Buffy. Buffy grabbed a worshipper by the front of their uniform and hit the woman hard in the face, sending her flying back towards the wall.
Xander punched a cult member in the stomach, before hitting him in the face, knocking out the cultist easily.
The former slayer kicked another cultist in the head, sending him reeling backwards to the floor. Buffy watched him slump to the floor in an unconscious state as she turned on the last Purity member.
Xander watched as the member tried to escape. He grabbed a thick book and threw it at the cultist's head, knocking him out with the one throw.
"I improvise too," Xander told her as they approached the metallic door in front of them.
Buffy cautiously grabbed the handle of the metallic door and waited until Xander was ready, before opening it.
The young couple instantly heard the sounds of babies in the large room as they walked inside.
They froze when they saw row upon row of babies in cribs, some were crying, others were wide awake and looking up at the roof.
Xander ran into the middle of the rows, looking at the nametags on the cribs to see if one of them held his daughter. Buffy checked the other rows and failed to find one marked 'Sierra Harris'.
"Where is she?" Xander asked aloud as they looked around the large room.
"Oh my god," Giles breathed with surprise as Doyle filled him in on what happened.
The middle-aged man scratched his head. "I came here to see how you were doing after the court case. This is the last thing you needed."
"Tell me about it," Cordelia told him as she waited by the phone.
Giles watched her. "They haven't called you back yet?"
Cordelia shook her head. "No, not yet. But it should be soon. I should be with them."
"How many times do I have to say it? Angel asked me to watch over you, because you're not well enough to be running after cult members yet. They'll call when there's something new." Doyle reminded her.
The phone rang, startling the trio. Cordelia quickly picked up the phone and spoke into it.
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's me."
"Angel. Did you find her?"
"We found the cultists' compound. Buffy and Xander have already gone inside to find Sierra, but I can't go in."
"Why not?"
"Well, funny thing about religious fanatics. They're very big fans of crucifixes. They've got them plastered up everywhere around the entrance."
Cordelia nodded as she held the phone. "Does Kate know about where they are? They could send the police as backup."
"I'm just about to call them. I just wanted to keep you updated."
"Okay, thanks."
"We'll get her back. Xander will make sure of it."
"Call me when you find her, okay?"
"Okay."
"Bye."
Xander ran down the aisles, checking the cribs for the one that held his daughter.
"She's not here," Xander told Buffy worriedly.
Buffy looked up at him from her row of babies. "She's not here either."
Xander sighed heavily with frustration as he looked around the large room. He found a wooden door on the far right of the room and walked over toward it.
"I didn't notice this door," Xander told her as Buffy headed over towards him.
Buffy and Xander opened the wooden door, only to find a group of cult members on the other side, waiting for them.
"Great," Buffy breathed.
The cult members charged at the young couple, as Buffy and Xander backed away from the door. They hit the first cultists that ran towards them, Buffy kicking two other kidnappers in the head.
One cult member picked up a large knife and headed towards the former slayer.
Buffy shook her head. "Human, demon, they always go for a weapon."
The Purity member ran at her with his knife pointed towards her. Buffy dodged out of the way of the blade and broke the cultists' arm. The man screamed in pain as she sent him to the floor with a painful thud.
Two other cult members watched Buffy and Xander take on the other worshippers and win. They gave each other looks before running away from the couple and out of the cave.
"Kate, it's Angel. I followed Buffy and Xander to where the Purity cult is located. We're at the..."
"I know, I was there when Xander got the information out of your babysitter."
Angel looked down at the grassy ground where the two cult members that tried to escape, lay unconscious.
"There appears to be a lot of them. You're bringing backup?"
"We're on our way now." Kate told him over the phone before she hung up her cellphone.
The vampire stared down at the two unconscious cultists and hoped that they would find Sierra safe.
Xander and Buffy walked through another chamber after going through the wooden door. They found Dr. North and Nurse Lyons kneeling before an altar.
The nurse turned around and recognized Xander. She tapped Dr. North on the arm and he turned to look.
"I hope this doesn't come as a surprise," Xander told the doctor. "But I'll be taking my baby to a more competent doctor."
Dr. North stood up and shook his head. "You have no idea what you're doing."
"We know what you're doing." Buffy told him angrily. "Kidnapping babies to meet your own idiotic means. The only long life you'll be seeing will be behind bars."
Nurse Lyons moved towards Buffy, not knowing how strong the former slayer was. "There are more of us down here than there are of you."
"This baby, your baby, is our Messiah reborn. The birthmark she carries will verify it," Dr. North told Xander as he walked over to Xander warily.
Xander shook his head. "Wake up, buddy. There is no rebirth of the Messiah. My daughter has no birthmark that I'm aware of. Now there's two things I want to know. One, where is my daughter? And two, every cult has a leader. Where's yours?"
The young doctor picked up a large knife. "They're around. But you won't be around to see them."
Nurse Lyons attacked Buffy, but the blonde woman grabbed the nurse by her blouse and punched her hard in the stomach, followed by several hits to the face.
Dr. North swung his knife at Xander, who ducked out of the way. He grabbed the doctor's knife-wielding arm and headbutted him hard. The doctor moved backwards dazed and charged forward with the knife, yet again.
Xander jumped out of the way, just in time to plunge the blade deep into Nurse Lyons' chest.
Buffy and Xander stepped back in shock at the accidental killing they witnessed, before Buffy came to her senses and knocked out the dazed doctor.
Xander checked Nurse Lyons' pulse before turning to Buffy. "She's dead."
The blonde woman recognized an open chamber door, lit by candles. "Sierra might be down there with the leader."
Several cult members came running into the room, staring at Nurse Lyons' dead body and Dr. North's unconscious one. They looked up at Buffy and Xander angrily.
"Go now!" Buffy told him. "We can't keep fighting these losers while they have your baby."
Xander trusted Buffy's capability of taking on the small group of humans by herself, as he ran through the open door and down the row of steps.
Buffy turned towards the small group of cultists and shook her head. "Who's first?"
A woman ran towards her as Buffy jumped into the air, kicking the woman in the head and sending her flying backwards into the others.
Two men started to attack her as Buffy punched one hard in the stomach, and the other in the neck, sending him to his knees. She kicked him in the groin for effect, as the man fell backwards in pain.
Buffy grabbed the other man by the head and slammed his head into the cavern wall. She released her grip on him, and the man fell to the floor unconscious.
"LAPD! Drop your weapons! This is the Los Angeles Police Department!"
The cultists turned around as the SWAT team burst into the underground room and grabbed the cultists, arresting them easily.
Kate came running into the room with her gun drawn. She saw Buffy looking at the police with surprise.
The blonde detective walked over to the former slayer and looked around at the unconscious bodies. "Is that your work?"
"It was self-defence," Buffy told her worriedly.
Kate nodded. "I thought it might be. What about the dead woman?"
"That doctor murdered her," Buffy said to her. "Xander's gone down to a lower level to find his baby."
Kate looked at her. "We found a large room full of babies. She wasn't in there?"
"No," Buffy answered. "She may be with the cult leader right now."
Xander heard the sounds of a baby crying and his fatherly instincts kicked in. "Sierra."
The young man ran through the candle-lit cavern and found himself in a large room, spotting his daughter lying on the altar.
"Oh my god," Xander breathed as he ran towards the altar. He checked his daughter for injuries and was relieved when he found none.
He held his crying daughter in his arms as he kissed her head. "It's okay. We're getting out of here now."
A tall shadow appeared on the wall in front of Xander, getting the former lawyer's attention.
Xander turned around quickly and found Priest staring at him with hate. "She's not going anywhere."
The young man stepped away from Priest who held a cleaver in his right hand.
Priest ran toward Xander and his daughter, with his cleaver pointed straight at Xander.
Three gunshots ran out in the large room and Priest stopped in mid-swing. He stared at Xander and his crying daughter before crumpling to the ground, his dead eyes staring up at the ceiling.
Xander looked over to where the shots were fired and found Kate standing there with a smoking gun. He saw Buffy standing next to her and was relieved as he held onto his baby.
"It's okay," Xander said to his crying daughter. "We're leaving this place."
Cordelia, Doyle and Giles parked outside the Los Angeles hospital, on their way to Sierra and the others.
The trio failed to notice the black-cloaked stranger had followed them to the hospital, watching from a building top opposite the large hospital.
The mysterious stalker watched them run into the hospital, before looking down at Xander's car.
"Xander," Cordelia said as she found him and Buffy in an observation room. She walked in and found a middle-aged doctor staring at her.
"Dr. Stafford, this is Cordelia. Sierra's mother." Xander told her.
Cordelia and the doctor exchanged nods. "What's going on? What's wrong with her?"
"Nothing's wrong," Xander said to her. "It's just for precaution. You can't be too careful."
The brunette nodded and moved towards her baby girl. "I'm so sorry we lost you."
Buffy and Xander exchanged sad looks as Cordelia talked to her infant child. Angel appeared in the doorway and watched the scene.
Dr. Stafford finished his examinations. "Well, there's nothing wrong with her. She's a normal healthy young baby."
Xander and Cordelia sighed with relief. "That's great news. Thank you doctor."
'Late breaking news. The missing babies that were abducted in what looked like a massive conspiracy were found alive and well tonight. A strange cult calling themselves 'Purity' were allegedly responsible for the mass kidnapping and several killings that were related to the abductions.' The reporter said on television.
Xander and the others watched the television in the hospital waiting room as Cordelia held onto her daughter.
'Thankfully, every single cult member has been caught and arrested. None of this would have been possible had it not been for a hot lead given to a Detective Kate Lockley, we're going to her live now.'
The group watched as Kate spoke on television, reporting that the babies have been checked out at the hospital and are now in the care of their grateful parents.
Xander watched Cordelia hold their daughter, before turning to her ex. "I don't want to be forgotten in Sierra's life, okay?"
Xander nodded as the others watched. "She'll know who you are. And you're always welcome over to see her."
"A constant part of her life?" Cordelia asked him for clarification.
"Yeah," Xander told her with a grin.
Cordelia handed over their child to Xander, who took the sleeping baby in his arms.
"I think we've seen enough of hospitals to last a lifetime, don't you?" Giles asked Xander, who nodded.
The large group headed on their way out of the hospital, ready for the next dramas in their lives.
A recently born baby lay in his crib at the maternity ward in the Los Angeles hospital. While the babies around him cried, the newborn son looked around at his surroundings.
The baby boy moved his leg and a significant birthmark was visible on his ankle. The infant cooed as his parents looked at him happily through the observation window.
Angel, Doyle and Cordelia watched as Giles handed Sierra over to Buffy as she sat in the passenger seat. Xander got into the driver's seat and looked out at Cordelia.
"Remember what I said, okay? Anytime you want to see her, just come on over." Xander told her as Buffy smiled down at Xander's daughter.
Cordelia smiled at him. "Thank you."
Buffy looked up at Giles. "Are you going to follow us back to Sunnydale?"
"Yes, I've got my car here." Giles said as he pointed to his vehicle.
Xander watched as Giles said goodbye to Cordelia, Doyle and Angel before heading towards his car. The former lawyer nodded as he looked out at Cordelia.
"Well, I guess this is it." Xander told her.
The trio waved goodbye to Buffy and Xander as he started his car. Xander and Buffy waved goodbye also as they drove away from the hospital parking lot. Giles followed them from behind with his car.
Cordelia watched the car drive away with her daughter inside, and brushed away a few tears.
"Are you going to be okay?" Angel asked her as he wrapped an arm around her in a concerned way.
The brunette nodded. "I will be eventually. It's for the best."
The strange hooded figure watched Angel, Cordelia and Doyle walk back towards their car. It then turned to see Xander and Giles' car drive off back to Sunnydale.
The mysterious figure watched Buffy and Xander drive away. It's hands moved up to it's black hood and pulled it back, revealing the shadowy figure to be Faith.
Faith watched Buffy and Xander drive back towards Sunnydale with an unemotional look in her eyes and a large jagged scar on her right cheek.
Buffy Summers
Xander Harris
Rupert Giles
Olivia Giles
Willow Osborne
Daniel Osborne (Oz)
Priscilla Osborne
Cassie Wilkes
Cassie's Killer
Cordelia Chase
Angel
Joyce Summers
Mrs. Nguyen
Derek Simms
Allan Francis Doyle
Spike
Kate Lockley
Detective Ross
Devon
Tall Kidnapper
Short Kidnapper
Sharon Davis
Mike Davis
Chief Abbott
Purity Cult Member Woman #1
Priest
Nurse Lyons
Dr. North
Kristen Waller
Sierra Harris
Mysterious Figure / Faith
Purity Cult Member Woman #2
Bailiff
Judge George Robertson
Marissa
SWAT Team Member
Dr. Stafford
Rupert Osborne
Penn
Frankie TripodBarker
The Governor
Steve Martin
Eddie Murphy
Heather Graham
Stacey Griffith
Dr. Gold
"The Next Best Thing" BTVS fanfic written by The Slayer
"Chances Are" BTVS fanfic written by Melissa Flores at mistyjox[at]hotmail.com
Pokemon distributed by Nintendo (1995)
"Hold Me" performed by Savage Garden (1999)
"If You Don't Know Me By Now" performed by Simply Red (1989)
BTVS episode "Graduation Day Part 2" (Season 3, Episode 22)
"Ice Cream" performed by Sarah McLachlan (1993)
"It Can't Rain All The Time" performed by Jane Siberry (1994)
BTVS episode "Innocence" (Season 2, Episode 14)
"In The Air Tonight" performed by Phil Collins (1981)
"Unsung Hero" performed by Tina Arena (1997)
Bowfinger distributed by Paramount (1998)
BTVS episode "Bad Eggs" (Season 2, episode 12)
BTVS episode "Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered" (Season 2, Episode 16
BTVS episode "Becoming Part 1" (Season 2, Episode 21)
BTVS episode "Beauty And The Beasts" (Season 3, Episode 4)
BTVS episode "Revelations" (Season 3, Episode 7)
BTVS episode "Beer Bad" (Season 4, Episode 5)
Angel episode "The Bachelor Party" (Season 1, Episode 7)
Angel episode "The Thin Dead Line" (Season 2, Episode 14)
Angel episode "Room With A View" (Season 1, Episode 5)
"Table Etiquette" BTVS Fanfiction written by Melissa Flores at mistyjox[at]hotmail.com
Effexor Anti-Depressants created in (1993)
BTVS episode "Homecoming" (Season 3, Episode 5)
BTVS episode "Band Candy" (Season 3, Episode 6)
BTVS episode "Lover's Walk" (Season 3, Episode 8)
BTVS episode "Becoming Part 2" (Season 2, Episode 22)