Meet the Rest of the Family

Title: Baby Daddy

Chapter Three: Meet the Rest of the Family

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine, obviously. BtVS/AtS is easy – Joss Whedon’s of course. Dark Angel – James Cameron

As always, thank you to MaraLiz and Rorylondra for your lovely beta assistance!

Timeframe: Post-Season 5 AtS (Note: Cordelia didn’t die. When Connor killed Jasmine, Cordelia miraculously came out of her coma!); S2 DA (Note: The Pulse happened and CeCe didn’t die.)

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Angel’s POV

I’d really like to kill him, Angel thought, glaring at the Transgenic as he escorted Cordelia out of the room again. First he sleeps with Cordy, gets her pregnant and leaves without so much as a ‘here’s my number, call me sometime,’ and then he has sex with her again, in the bathroom! Yeah, I think I’ll kill him…except, Cordy will be pissed and she’s pregnant and that wouldn’t be good for the baby. The baby. There’s a whole other can of worms. I don’t know how we’re going to manage that one. We don’t live here. We live in L.A. We have people counting on us. I mean, I suppose there are helpless here in Seattle, too…actually, quite a few of them if the smells we encountered mean what I know they mean. But, still, it’s not like I can just close up shop and re-open here in Seattle…

Angel’s brooding, er, musings, were interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. He looked at the Caller ID and flipped the phone open quickly, answering, “Connor, is everything okay? What’s wrong?”

“Way to over-react, Dad,” Connor replied with a snort, one that was echoed by Spike, who sat on the other end of the worn couch, apparently having a conversation with Max.

“That’s it. Spike is not allowed to teach you any more language skills,” Angel admonished him, but he really couldn’t put as much ire into it as he usually would.

Angel would be hard pressed to admit it, but Spike’s arrival had a big impact on his son’s mental stability. Every time Connor seemed to be about to step off the deep end, Spike managed to bring him back, usually by doing something so off the wall himself that Connor was distracted from whatever self-destructive act he was about to embark upon. Eventually, Connor simply started seeking Spike out and, surprisingly, while Spike still enjoyed torturing Angel to no end, he never did anything that would put Connor in danger. He treated Connor like a younger brother, often being the only one of them who could get through the boy’s fractured psyche. And, when the team saved a psychiatrist from some vampires, Spike was the only one Connor would let go with him to his therapy sessions. Now that Connor had become healthier, he and Spike got along even better than they had before. Now, Spike often had a partner in crime for his antics, although after the verbal thrashing Cordelia had given them, he only had to bail them out of jail that one time. He focused back on his telephone conversation with a shake of his head.

He could hear the smile in Connor’s voice as he asked, “How is Cordy?”

Angel sighed, “She’s holding her own, as usual.”

“Good,” Connor replied, before taking a deep breath. “Look, we got the supplies you needed, but we’re having difficulty getting everything loaded into cars that we can get out of the city easily. Wolfram & Hart has had their flunkies—I mean sector police—out everywhere looking for us.”

Everything about Connor’s sentence confused him. What supplies? I didn’t give him a list of supplies? And, why would I want him to bring them here? He’s supposed to be keeping watch over L.A. while we’re out of town. Before he could even get one question out, Connor continued…

“But, when Willow showed up, she said she could just teleport us all to Seattle, but she wasn’t sure if she would be able to pinpoint exactly to Terminal City unless she was sending us to someone in particular, so she wanted me to check to make sure you were still in Terminal City so she could send us, and the supplies, to you.”

“Willow? What’s Willow doing there?” Angel ground out, feeling the familiar headache he associated with trying to decipher his teenage son’s words and meanings.

“I called her,” Spike answered and Angel swung his head around toward the other vampire.

“What? Why?” Angel asked, wondering when he stopped being in charge of his own P.I. firm.

“After he called me to say that we needed to come up to Seattle because Cordy was going to stay there. He arranged to have the Slayers open up a branch of The Council in L.A. so we could set up shop in Seattle,” Connor informed him.

Damn it! I hate it when they do these things! It makes me crazy when I’m the last to know anything! Angel ranted in his head for a moment, but outwardly, all he said was, “I see.”

“Yeah, Faith said she would personally pack up your belongings and have them sent up to you. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know what she’s planning to do to them,” Connor commented and Angel could hear the shudder in his voice.

Well, the decision apparently had been made and people called and arrangements taken care of, so no sense in arguing. Suddenly, Angel latched on to one last piece of information in Connor’s information. “Wait, why are Wolfram and Hart looking for you?”

“Well, I was kind of with Faith last night when she um…blewupthebuildingandkilledthismajorbadguydude,” Connor replied before putting on the fake cheer, “Okay, gotta go. Stay in Terminal City. See you soon.”

Connor ended the call and, without his son to yell at, Angel turned toward the other occupants of the room and growled, “Spike!”

“Hey, what’d I do?” Spike asked with mock innocence.

Max laughed and shook her head at Angel, saying, “You are in for it. He’s got that same ‘I didn’t do it’ look that Alec thinks works when I know he did do it.”

“Tell me about it,” Angel grumbled then turned to Spike, “What supplies did you tell him we needed?”

“Whatever supplies are usually needed for a pregnancy. Max said they didn’t have much by way of medical equipment and it’s not like Cordy can give birth in a hospital, so when I went out for a smoke, I called Connor,” Spike answered.

“You called Connor to bring medical supplies?” Angel questioned, not liking the sound of this.

“Yeah, well, I couldn’t exactly go out and get them. It’s starting to get a might bit bright outside. Even with the rain, it probably wouldn’t be good for my complexion,” Spike returned with a shrug.

“Let’s find out!” Angel barked, ready to grab Spike and throw him out the window onto the quad below.

“Hey, now!” Spike tried to placate him. “It had to be done.”

“You sent my son to go pilfer medical supplies from a hospital! He could have gotten arrested! He could have gotten shot! What were you thinking?” Angel glowered.

“Calm down, Peaches,” Spike told him. “I didn’t send him in alone. Gunn said Gwen owed him a favor, so I called in his marker. Um…remind me not to tell him that.”

“Oh, great, Gwen!” Angel barked. “Good, cause she’s the epitome of ‘stable’! What if she had electrocuted him?”

“Didn’t seem to do Gunn any harm,” Spike replied, and then ducked as Angel made a grab for him. “Okay, okay. No more ‘B&E’ for Broody Junior.”

“I take back everything good that I said about your influence on him,” Angel continued.

“You never said anything about…hey, wait a minute!” Spike rounded the couch to stay out of Angel’s reach. With a grin, he needled Angel, “You thought about me being a good influence on Connor. Admit it!”

“No!” Angel denied.

“Yes, you did!” Spike laughed with glee. “You did! You did! You di—”

Suddenly, Spike was on his back with a black boot pressing into his chest. He had been having so much fun mocking Angel that he failed to notice Max reaching the end of her patience and when he was within her reach, she had pounced. Unfortunately, Angel knew that she had likely just made him fall in love, or at least in lust, with her. He watched as Spike’s bewilderment turned to anticipation as ran a hand up her jean-clad leg.

“You’ve got some good moves there. I can definitely work with you,” Spike commented, giving her calf a good squeeze.

Max huffed in disgust and started to stalk away. Angel couldn’t tell if Spike hadn’t learned his lesson or if he had and just wanted to see how far he could push her, but he couldn’t believe it when the bleached-blond vampire sat up and turned to him.

“Peaches, don’t you want to find out just how flexible Catwoman over here is? I know I can think of a few…”

Spike fell back to the floor, unconscious, after Max’s boot made contact with his head. She looked over at Angel and back down at the body at her feet.

“Why the hell would you ever think that he was a good influence on anyone?” she asked him incredulously.

“Momentary lapse in judgment,” Angel replied with a scowl on his face. “And, he keeps my kid from going on a rampage through the city most days.”

“What the hell is wrong with you people?” Max demanded then narrowed her eyes at him, “Wait! Cordelia doesn’t share DNA with you all, right?”

Before he could answer her, a large flash went through the room and when it withdrew, Connor, Gunn, Wesley, Lorne and a lot of medical equipment were all now in the room. Unfortunately, since Willow had ‘sent’ them all to Angel, they actually all landed in a heap on top of him. He groaned as someone elbowed him in the ribs as they tried to get out of the pile.

Security quickly flooded the room, adding to the already cramped space. They were ready for battle, but relaxed after Max waved them off.

Ten minutes later, yet more introductions were made and a game plan was formed. Angel and Spike were going to borrow some accommodations for the remainder of the day since they couldn’t step outside until dusk. Although Max insisted that it wouldn’t be a problem for them to stay in Terminal City, Angel was insistent that they needed to set-up their office outside of the formerly toxic area. Since the residents of ‘T.C.’ as they preferred to call it, were not thrilled with too many fully-human people entering their territory, Gunn and Wesley were going to scout some locations for their office. A few of the residents of T.C. had heard that there was someone who Max and Alec trusted working in the infirmary and, once Fred was done with the preliminary work-up she was doing on Alec and Cordelia, she found a line of Transgenics and Transhumans had formed. Apparently, they had been waiting for additional personnel to staff the infirmary because the lone Transhuman with formal medical training was pretty overworked. As a result, Fred, Cordelia and Alec—because he wouldn’t leave Cordelia’s side—were going to stay in the infirmary and help where they could. Connor was going to move all of the medical equipment into the infirmary and Max assigned three Transgenics to help him. Max wanted ‘all of their crap’ out of her office by 1500 hours.

Before Angel excused himself to get some sleep, he pulled Connor aside to check on his son. He asked him, “Everything is happening pretty fast. Are you okay with this?”

Connor looked pensive for a moment, then shrugged, “Life is change, right? That’s what I keep hearing. I’m sure there will be things to kill here and maybe it will okay. You know, like a fresh start.”

“I like that idea,” Angel told him. “I think we could all use a fresh start.”

At that moment, the three Transgenics that were going to assist Connor walked in and Angel saw Connor stiffen next to him. He glanced over at the door and then back to his son and tucked a smile away. One of the Transgenics was blond and petite, but looked like she could do some serious damage if she wanted to. I guess he takes after the old man after all, Angel thought ruefully as he clapped Connor on the back and left the room in search of his quarters for the remainder of the day.



Connor’s POV

Angel was still speaking when the doors opened, but he stopped hearing him when she walked into the room. She was a little shorter than me and her black tank-top tucked into cargo pants showed off her sinewy muscles and slim figure. And, he could smell the predator in her. She flooded his senses and the small growl she let out when their eyes met caused him to smile in anticipation. Out of the corner of his eye, Connor saw Angel leave. The other two Transgenics rolled their eyes at them and began carrying the equipment to the infirmary.

She was the first one to come back to reality. When she looked away, although the attraction still hung in the air, the spell seemed to have been broken and Connor shook his head to clear it.

“I’m CeCe,” she told him, moving toward one of the larger pieces of equipment. Connor didn’t know what it was called, but it was clearly something that they would have to work together to maneuver out the door and down the hallway. She motioned for him to join her, “I wouldn’t trust Frick and Frack to carry this one, so we’d better do it ourselves.”

He joined her and they lifted the piece of machinery in unison. She’s just as strong as I thought she would be, Connor realized with satisfaction. I wonder how hard she hits, he thought with another smile. He remembered that he hadn’t yet introduced himself and decided to remedy that immediately, “I’m Connor. It’s…um…nice to meet you.”

I’m talking to a girl, like a regular boy. My therapist would be so proud! Except, she’s part-cat and I’m part-vampire. Well, maybe he’d be proud anyway.

He was busy with his internal dialogue and missed what CeCe was saying, but she was looking at him expectantly. She asked, apparently for the second time, “So, do you agree?”

“Agree?” he questioned, wondering what on earth he would be agreeing to.

“That it could never work out for us,” she replied and his heart sank as she continued, “I mean, it’s like I said. There’s so much going on and we’re all barely surviving as it is. This isn’t exactly what I’d call a life, so it’s not like it’s possible to contemplate a relationship.”

“We have a relationship?” Connor interrupted, a small smile still playing at his lips. So I wasn’t imagining it. She wants this, too.

“No…I mean, we can’t,” CeCe protested, stopping in the middle of the hallway and putting her end of the machine on the ground lightly. She slid down to the floor with her back to the wall, knees pulled up to her chest. She looked so much smaller, so unsure of herself.

Connor hated that he somehow had made her feel that way, so he sighed and mimicked her actions, sitting down next to her. He took a deep breath, “I didn’t mean to sound flippant. I understand what you are saying, but maybe that’s exactly why it could work between us…if we want it to.”

He reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing lightly. “You felt something before,” he stated, certain that he wasn’t the only one feeling the pull. He pressed her, “You feel it now. I don’t know what it is. I don’t have the right words…I’ve never felt anything like it before. I want to know what it is. I want to keep feeling this.”

“It’s nice,” she admitted, glancing at him quickly, “exhilarating.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, turning her hand over to look at her palm. It was calloused and a bit rough, just like his own, but he hoped that hers had been formed by hard work rather than the continual weapons-handling that he did. And, yet, even as he thought it, he knew that it wasn’t true. Her eyes held battle scars as deep as his own.

“But, it still isn’t a good idea,” she told him, pulling her hand back and running it through her hair.

“Why not?” he challenged her. “Are you attached to someone else?”

“No,” she responded immediately. “No one here…”

“Well, that’s not true anymore is it?” Connor asked, holding his hand out for hers. He wouldn’t reach for her hand again now that she had pulled away from him, but he could at least let her know that he was still open to the idea of being with her. Open to the idea, he snorted to himself. Hell, I’d vacation in Quartoth if it meant being with her! He didn’t understand why he felt so incredibly attached to this woman so quickly, but he had never felt anything close to what he was feeling now. The rightness of how her hand felt in his own lingered in his mind. Somehow, he had to convince her. “Look, you said that your world doesn’t really let you have a life, but maybe this is its way of giving you one. I haven’t had a real chance at happiness either. Things are always moving too fast and all I can do is hold on or I’ll get dragged under. That feeling goes away when I touch you and I think you feel the same way. We both know that neither one of us is one hundred percent human, so maybe this is our way of finding someone we can be with without being afraid of being found out or kicked aside.”

“Maybe so, but really, I’m not good for you,” she argued, but Connor could see that she was trying to argue with herself at the same time. “I was made in a lab…in a Petri dish! Some people really hate us for that. You don’t deserve…”

“You were created in a test tube. Big deal,” Connor cut her off with a shrug. He adopted an air of self-deprecation as he continued, “I was created by prophecy.”

“What?” she asked, incredulously.

“I’ll tell you about it,” Connor told her, then moved to his feet quickly as Frick and Frack went past them, glaring down at them on their way for another load of medical equipment. Connor stood up as he continued, “While we move this stuff. If, by the end of my story, we can both agree that neither of us is more trouble than we’re worth, we give this a shot.”

She hadn’t moved, so he held out his hand to her again and asked, “What do you say?”

TBC

Up Next: Moving In

P.S. So, what does she say??? Please review!