TtH • Story • Miracle Girl

Categories	Author	Rating	Chapters	Words	Recs	Reviews	Hits	Published	Updated	Complete
BtVS/AtS Non-Crossover > Action/Adventure > Cast: Angel Investigations	LilyErisCullen	FR18	2	8,600	0	5	837	29 Jan 11	1 Feb 11	No

Chapter Two: Dad

Miracle Girl

Chapter 2: Dad

It has been a full day since the babies had been born. Katherine and her brother were cute babies though the team had a time clawing the babies away from Angel who was throwing off some major mama-bear vibes, or so Lorne had said. Now night had covered then Hyperion once again and everyone was trying to calm down and figure out ways to protect the twins. Wesley walks into his office, sighing before looking up noticing Angel.

"Angel, we could use your help when you're finished - changing the baby - who is being changed on my desk," he said, giving the baby and Angel and frustrated look.

"Sorry. I needed the space.

Wesley nodded, and with a bit of sarcasm responded. "Of course. And seeing as you once nearly had sex on my desk I shouldn't be surprised that now there is a baby on it."

"Hey! First of all that wasn't me, that was some guy who switched bodies with me. And second of all -" Angel cups his hands around the baby's ears, and drops his voice to a whisper. "can we keep the S E X talk away from the baby?" he asked. Wes steps closer and picks up the pack of diapers.

"Right, because the baby knows what that means...and I've been spending to much time around Cordelia." Wesley looked slightly put out at this and then shook his head to clear it before he looked over at the baby, the one without a name as of yet and then at Angel.

"Do you need help?" Angel looked at him nervous and shook his head.

"Ah, no, Wes. I know how to change a diaper - a normal one with pins. It's these newfangled fasteners," he said, glaring at the offending diaper.

"Did you know these diapers are lined with a space-age material originally designed for NASA astronauts? Hmm, interesting." Wesley puts the pack of diapers down. "Though now I'm picturing grown men in nappies and am rather disturbed."

Angel nodded and then smiled at his son clearly accomplished by his feet of fastening a diaper. "Ah, okay, got it," he says, then turns to the baby.

"You're all ready aren't you?" Angel wraps the baby back in its blanket and drops the bundled up, used diaper into Wes hand. Wes looks down at it. Angel picks up the baby and places him in a bassinet beside the desk before turning to Kitty and taking off her old diaper.

"Right. How's the list coming along?" Angel asks as he looks over at Wesley before returning to Katherine. He is much quicker with the diaper this time, understanding better how to put it on now. He smiles at the young girl who unlike her twin seems to have darker hairs sprouting and darker blue eyes. Possibly a sign they will eventually turn a dark brown like his own.

"Wes will you get him for me?" Wesley looks at the man he's known for over three years and nods before getting the baby boy out of the bassinet and placing him in Angel's willing hands. It's amazing how the master vampire can be so at ease with not one baby but two in his arms. They move out into the lobby where the others are waiting in front of a dry erase board. Wes drops the diaper on the counter top as he walks past.

"We've divided it into two categories. Column one groups or individuals that we know pose a threat to the baby: Holtz, Wolfram & Hart, the vampire cult that attacked us at the hospital. Column two those that could pose a threat once they get wind of the baby." Angel nods and read aloud and raises a eyebrow.

"Order of Phillius, Beltar the Cremator, - Frank?" The list also has a 'Piper Beast' and 'The Scourge' as potential threats.

"Local mobster, specializes in kidnapping," Gunn explains.

"Ah." Baby Connor begins to cry and Angel watches as Kitty looks over at her brother with a look he has seen on her mother, at least a baby version of it. He smirks inwardly but turns his attention onto Connor. "What, what, what? What is it? You can't be wet again. I just changed you. Ah-hmm, are you hungry? I got a bottle all ready for you." Angel walks over to counter and looks around.

"Where did I put his bottle? I had a bottle all ready for him!" Angel cries, looking around at his friends with wide eyes. Cordelia sighs and hurries over, picks up the bottle and hands it to him.

"Really Angel, how about you let me have the quiet one and you can feed the little one. Maybe we can attempt to feed her," Cordelia suggest. Angel looks down at his children and realizes with a pang of regret that he can't feed Connor with Katherine in his arms as well. He nods and hesitantly lets Cordy take Kitty away from him before taking the baby bottle.

Cordelia grabs another bottle and tries to coercer Kitty into drinking. While Angel struggles with Connor.

"Okay. Here's your babba. Take your babba. You just take it like this" Angel lifts the bottle and makes sucking noises while everyone else tries to keep from laughing. "- and you drink, and you're happy." The baby continues to cry. Gunn comes over a grin on his face.

"Angel, why don't you let me take him for a little while. I helped raise my cousin since she was about a week old." Cordy throws up her free hand as the baby spits the formula all over her shirt.

"This child is evil, this is dry clean only!" Cordelia announces and Angel looks over with the rest of them. He shakes his head.

"She isn't evil! Maybe she just doesn't like it?" he suggests. Cordy looks at him and sighs.

"I didn't mean it like that Angel. She won't eat though, there has to be something..." Wesley hmm'd and left the room before Cordelia could finish and Cordy sighed and rocked Kitty in her arms.

""I-i can handle it." Angels walks away from Gunn, clutching Connor to himself. "Alright, so we got a list. All we have to do is erase everyone on it." Fred picks up a dry eraser.

"I can do that for you," Fred says, smiling.

"Ah, Fred..." Cordelia says, a amused smile on her face but it was wiped off once Kitty began to cry.

"What?" Fred asks as she stops erasing and turns to look at Cordy.

"Oh, you meant erase in a squish and kill violent kind of way. I'll just put that back." She chuckles and writes Holtz name back on the list. Angel, pacing and holding the bottle out to the crying baby while looking at Cordelia who is trying to get Kitty to stop crying as well.

"Come on, it's a nice babba. You wanna stop crying and take your babba, yes you do – please?" Cordy sighs as Angel attempts once again to get Connor to eat and almost smiles when he accepts if it wasn't for Katherine crying loudly and refusing to eat she just might.

"I have a suggestion. It may sound outlandish and gross but it may be what she needs," Wesley announces as he enters the room with a baby bottle in his hand, wrapped in a washcloth so they could not see what was inside it. Everyone looks at Wesley in suspicion.

"I was thinking about what Angel said that Darla told him about Katherine. We all can assume the twins are half vampires and it can be assumed they got all the strengths, and none of the weaknesses. In his case I think this is true -" He nods in Connors direction and then turns back to Cordelia and Kitty. " - but not so much with Kitty. It is possible that while in the womb Katherine may have taken those weaknesses onto herself to save her brother. In other words while her brother for all intense and purposes may seem human except for the strength and the skills..."

"Kitty is a little vampire baby?" Cordy asks.

"She needs blood," Angel finishes for Wesley sending a agonizing look at his little girl. He couldn't help but blame himself, it must be hard for the young baby to be held by Cordy if what Wes said was true. Wesley nodded and removed the washcloth showing a thick blood red liquid inside the bottle. Everyone blanches and Angel sighs as Kitty looks at it and stops crying. He walks over to Cordy and smiles at her.

"Here finish feeding him and I'll handle Kitty." Cordelia smiles grateful for her friend and takes Connor at the same time as he takes Katherine. Angel takes the bottle from Wesley and hesitantly gives it to Kitty who's eyes turn gold like a vampires as she drinks.

††††††††††

"Well that was a thrilling evening. It's not like I've been waiting two hundred and fifty years for you to take your blood vengeance on Angel to have you just stand there and let him walk away!" Sahjhan raged. Holtz narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"Why didn't you tell me Darla was pregnant?"

"Didn't matter. You were supposed to kill them both before she could have them."

"She sacrificed herself to save the child." It was something Holtz didn't think Darla was capable of, but then his own mother had done the same for him when he was born. The difference being his mother had died of natural causes in birth, Darla had staked herself.

"Yeah. Darla did your job for you. Well, at least one of them is dust."

"She got off easy. Angel's demise will be a great deal more painful." Sahjhan smirks at Holtz and chuckles bitterly.

"You know you throw around a lot of big words like death and pain and no mercy, but so far I haven't seen bupkus," he declares.

"Listen to me, Holtz, we got prophecies to fulfill. We don't need some deep, dark plan for Angel. You put a stake in him, you watch him go poof! It's a classic."

"Step one is getting rid of these minions," Holtz replies, smirking to himself. His plan would not only kill Angel in the end but but both emotionally and mentally if things went to plan.

"No. Step one is poof. And then there are no more steps. And we can't get rid of the Grapplars. I signed a two-week contract. - Trust me, you don't wanna piss these guys off."

"They're soulless beasts bred only to maim and kill." Sahjhan laughs, and nods.

"Ah! Maim and kill. Two more words I like. You're gonna need these guys - unless you're plan is to kill Angel with candy clowns and marshmallow pies." All the Grapplars are making choking noises. Sahjhan looks at them.

"What's happening?" he asks.

"I need more than mere fighters," Holtz answers, smiling in amusement.

"They're choking! Do you know the Heimlich? I can't do it in this dimension. My arms will go right through them. What did you do?"

"I poisoned their drink."

"Why?" Sahjhan yells, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Because I don't need mercenaries who will kill for anyone willing to pay their price. I need warriors who will die for my cause..." One remaining Grapplars charges Holtz from behind. Holtz kills him with a backwards thrust of his sword without ever taking his eyes off Sahjhan. "...like that," he finishes.

"Great. So step one is I'm stuck with four costly and dead demons. What's step two?" Holtz smiled slightly and continued walking, Sahjhan following behind him.

"Revenge," he states.

††††††††††

"They finally asleep?" Cordy asked as Angel came back into the lobby of the hotel. He nodded and sat down on the couch, running a hand through his hair. She chuckled.

"Harder then you expected huh?" she asked. Angel smiled and nodded as a blue flash lights up the hotel and everyone looks around.

"What was that?" Fred asks, looking around. Angel blinks and shrugs just as Lorne walks in.

"Oh, just listening to those Furies gives me whiplash! Thank god they finally left. My head was about to pop off. Which, granted, not that big a deal."

"That flash was their spell kicking in?" Wesley asks and Lorne nods.

"Yeah, they put a force field over the entire hotel. No one or thing can get in or out," he replies. Angel nods, breathing in and sighing in slight relief. For now everything was fine but how long would this keep his friends and children safe?

"So, the babies are safe? We're all safe. Right, Lorne? I-I mean unless one of those killers decides to throw in a fire bomb in at us like they did at your club, which had a similar safety spell around it as I recall. - Sorry," Fred stammered out blushing softly. Angel sighed and closed his eyes before opening them and looking at his green friend.

"She's right. they won't be safe here for long." Lorne sighs and speaks.

"Well, we can get out if we have to. I installed an emergency exit down in the sewers. A-a mystical barrier, opens and closes with a password." he turns to Fred. "Pylean word for hedgehog."

"Oh. - Oh!" Fred says and starts to laugh.

"I'm guessing it means something very different in English?" Gunn asks. Fred smiles and shrugs, a almost mysterious vibe coming from her.

"Well, we'll have to use it. The babies need to see a doctor," Cordy said, nodding as if agreeing with herself. Angel looks at her in shock, his brown eyes wide.

"What? They're not sick! Do they look sick?" he asked, almost hysterical. Cordelia sighed and shook her head, but raised a little baby book from where she was sitting.

"No. But they need their newborn checkup. The baby book says that he's supposed to have a vitamin K shot and a PKU test after he's born. Uh - are you gonna circumcise?" The baby starts screaming loudly from upstairs. Gunn chuckled.

"I think he heard you. Poor buddy boy," Gunn said. Angel smirked and shook his head amazed at the hearing rang of his son.

"From that distance?" Fred asked. Cordy laughed and shrugged, what she she really expect from Ange's son.

"Speaking of hearing things - are there any fluorescent lights in here? I keep hearing this hum. Plus, fluorescent - green light, green skin - it's all bad. - I'll take the blank stares as a big fat no." Angel continues to look at the weapons cabinet.

"Gunn? I'm gonna need some firepower," Angel says. Gunn looks at him and smiles wide.

"I'm getting the impression we're talking explosives here," Gunn stated more then asked. Angel smirked and nodded.

"No problem, I know some guys. Leave it to me." Angel nods and turns to Fred

"We get into the websites?" he asks. Fred looks at him with wide eyes and shakes her head.

"Not yet. Normally all we would have to do is hack into the e-mail and track the relays but - they're using re-mailers." Angel looks at her in confusion before asking.

"Which means?"

"Which means there is no direct id, it's going to take a little time..." Cordy trails off and Angel shakes his head realizing that Connor had stopped crying. Not that he had not realized this before, he had noticed Lorne had left to check on him moments before. Angel sighs and rubs his temples, wondering how much more stress he could take before the headache made his head explode.

"We don't have a little time. Are those all the names up there on the board?" Angel asks. Wesley nods from his place and looks from the white board to Angel.

"Working on some other leads. We all want the same thing, Angel. We're doing the best we can." Angel, looking down at his hands and then at the ceiling where directly above him his babies slept he gritted his teeth and replied.

"Do better."

"Angel!" Wesley cried, shocked.

"I promised their mother. No one is gonna put their hands on these children. No one," Angel promises before he turns to walk up the stairs. Cordelia sighs but claps her hands together and smiles at her friends.

"Well you heard him guys, chop chop!"

††††††††††

Holtz looks at the building as he holds a obituary in his hands. The first phase of his revenge is coming along, and only a part of him wonders if he is doing the right thing. The faces of his children and wife though leave him with little doubt. He was doing this to avenge their deaths, to let Caroline, Sarah, and Daniel Jr. finally rest in peace. A girl looking exactly like the picture on the obituary walks out, squinting at the bright sunlight. She lights a cigarette and walks off. Holtz follows after her. He turns a corner to see a barely smoked cigarette lying on the ground. He raises his hand to catch the girl's fist as she swings at him, having barely looked up in time to see or notice the girl's attack.

"Your punch could have been quicker - without so much to drink," Holtz told her.

"It's kind of a trade-off, because without that much to drink." The girl head-butts Holtz. "hurts a lot more," She finishes. Holtz sighs and tosses her against a nearby, parked car.

"You stick to the shadows."

"I'm not much of a day person." The girl takes a hold of a wood 2x4 lying on the ground next to her as she picks herself back up.

"I'm not here to fight," he says. The girl shrugs.

"Your bad luck." She swings at Holtz, but he easily evades her attack, and pushes her up against the wall of the building, his hand around her throat.

"I know you're in pain. I know what it's like to grieve." Holtz lets go of her. She lifts up a finger and taps him on the chin.

"Nice goatee. Kind of rounds out the whole creepy stalker look. I'll be moving on now." She turns to go.

"Justine!" he calls and she turns bck to face him. "I'm not finished."

"You know my name?" she asked. Holtz nods.

"I know everything. You live at seventeen twenty two Spaulding. You stay out all night. Sleep all day. Ever since your sister was murdered six months ago." Holtz unfolds the printout of the obituary and hands it to her. "Your twin. - It wasn't a mugging like the paper said, was it? Major blood loss, two unidentifiable neck wounds."

Justine looks at the picture of her sister and looks up at the man with cold eyes. Refusing to cry again.

"So?"

"My name is Holtz. I want to help you."

"I'll tell you what I want. I want you to stay the hell away from me," she says, getting into his face. Holtz watches as Justine walks off.

"Even if I knew the person responsible, who killed her?" he called after, smirking inwardly when she stopped abruptly.

"Who?" he smiled.

"His name is Angelus, but he goes by Angel now." What's a little white lie between allies?

††††††††††

"Get any sleep?" Cordelia asked as Angel came down the stairs. He was holding both babies in his arms, secured tightly to his chest. Angel, never taking his eyes off the baby replied.

"Nah, I was up all night watching them." Cordelia nodded. She was happy to see him taking his new found fatherhood seriously but she was worried he might end up hurting himself by not taking care of himself as well.

"You know, if you'd let us take shifts we could..." she began but was cut off by Angel.

"No, I wasn't watching them like that - I was just - watching them." Cordy smiles at her friend as he continues. "They look a little bit like me, don't you think?"

Cordy chuckles and nods. "Oh, yeah. Look at that brow. He's a miniature you, the girl more so. Why don't you hand them over for a while, catch some shut eye," she suggested. She wasn't at all surprised when he shook his head, refusing and holding them tighter to him but she could see he was very careful with his strength as not to crush them.

"No. I'll sleep - when I know they're safe." Cordelia sighs.

"Which will be when? Around never? - Angel, I understand you wanna protect them - but you gotta let go a little. Share part of the responsibility. You can't be everything for them," Cordelia says, giving him a pitying look. She knew how hard this was going to be for Angel to realize but he had to. He was a vampire, he had limitations and his children did not. At least the boy didn't she wasn't so sure about their little blood drinking princess.

"I'm their only family. My job now is to be everything for them," he replied, a stoic expression on his face.

"Really? - Okay. Follow me. Come on." Cordelia takes a hold of Angel's elbow and leads him towards the garden court. Angel, never taking his eyes off the babies in his arms speaks.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see." Cordy leads him out of the Hyperion. Angel stops before they leave the shadows of the building.

"Cordelia..." Angel trails off shocked that she had almost led him into the sunlight.

"We're going outside, where your son and daughter is gonna wanna go play. Where you have to rush him or her to the hospital if he or she gets sick in the daytime. But I see your point. You can't go outside during the day like other parents because - you're a vampire. And even if you weren't - you can't do everything for him." Cordelia looks sadly at him and Angel, looking down at the babies, he positions them into his left elbow and arms, thanking god they were small babies, as he stretches one hand out into the sunlight.

"If they need to get to the hospital at noon - " Smoke starts to rise from his hand. "- on the sunniest day of the year, they'll get there -" Angel Looks at Cordy, his hand still smoldering in the sunlight. "even if I don't." Cordelia looks at him in slight horror and sighs.

"Angel -" She pushes his hand down into the shadow. " - stop, Angel..." Angel turns away and walks back into the Hyperion.

††††††††††

Angel gritted his teeth in anger as he walked into Linewood's Office. He walks up to Linwood, slices him across the cheek with a knife and then makes a bigger one and a bit deeper along his arm before he pushes him face down against the table.

"My son has a tiny scratch on his cheek and my daughter has a cut on her little arm, and now, by extraordinary coincidence so do you. I'm holding you personally responsible for anything that happens to them whether it's your fault or not. Cold, sunburn, scratched knee, what ever happens to them, happens to you, and then some," Angel announces and pulls Linwood back up, pushes him back into his chair and leans over his desk.

"For not only are you not coming after them, your gonna make sure that he lives a long, healthy life. You just became their godfather, understand?" he sneers, glaring. Linewood gulps slightly and nods.

"I believe I do," he replies. Guards come in in response to the alarm that had went off before he had come into the office.

"Sir?"

"It's all right." Angel starts to leave but turns back around before he reaches the door.

"Oh, and one more thing: College fund? Start saving. I got my heart set on Notre Dame." Angel leaves and Linwood pulls himself back upright in his chair. Lilah pulls the handkerchief out of Gavin breast pocket and goes to dab at the scratch on Linwood's cheek – they both had been standing back and observing the interaction. Lilah couldn't help but feel amused as Angel took his frustrations out on Linewood. Linwood grabs the cloth from her and throws it down.

Angel didn't take much time to get to the hospital, but doesn't feel the need to rush to much as he knows his friends will take care of them. He couldn't help but feel Cordy had been right, he couldn't be everything for them and he had to let his friends help.

The doctor and two nurses' carrying the babies come back out into the waiting room as Wesley, Cordelia, Fred and Gunn all sit.

"I'm happy to report you have a healthy baby boy and girl. I did notice that the girl had a slower heart and lower temperature but as long as they don't get any lower then she should be fine. I would request that you monitor the heartbeat and temperature and if they get any lower then they already are then to bring her in for a check up."

"Oh, great. But I'm not the mother," Cordelia said, feeling a bit sad at this fact.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The Doctor turns to Fred. "I'm happy to report you have two healthy babies." Fred looks at him with wide brown eyes and shakes her head.

"Oh. I'm not the mother either."

"I'm afraid the mother is, ah, no longer in the picture," Wesley answered, looking slightly sad, wondering what the Doctor would assume.

"I see. Well, their height and weight are in the ninety percentile. We gave him his vitamin K and his PKU and he's doing very well. We don't seem to have their - what's their name?" Doctor. Higgens asked. Cordy and Wes look at each other, but were saved from answering when Angel walking in.

"Connor and Katherine. Their names are Connor Liam and Katherine Anne," he answers.

"Connor and Katherine. Thank you. Mr..." he looks at his papers and then back at the man. "...Angel. And congratulations." The nurse hands the babies to him and he smiles.

"Thanks." The Doctor and the nurse leave, as Angel smiles down at Connor and Kitty.

"Hey..." Angel looks up. "Mr. Angel?" Fred laughs nervously.

"Your first name is Liam," she answers.

"We had to tell them something," Cordelia told him, and he nodded.

"I don't know what to say," he said, smiling at his friends.

"How about thanks. I appreciate it. You guys rock. Way to go?" Cordelia asked, grinning. Angel looks up from Connor and Kitty's faces. "What she said." The double doors behind them open and Gunn comes back in in pushing an empty stroller.

"Got the best one a very small amount of money could buy," he said. They all 'ah.' and Angel hands Connor over to Cordy who puts him in the stroller. Angel them places Kitty beside her brother, thankfully they were small babies.

"Good thing they are small babies," Fred said smiling at the two babies. Angel nodded.

"Connor. That's a lovely name. I don't suppose you ever considered Wes..." Wesley began but Angel, Gunn and Cordy all turned to him and in unison spoke. "No!"

"Not to be negative or anything, but - we're okay, right? Nobody else is coming after Connor, Kitty or us?" Fred asked.

"No. We're safe for the time being. - Let's go home. Nice stroller," Angel said, nodding at Gunn.

"Thank you." They walk out together, Fred and Gunn on the left, Cordy and Wes on the right, and Angel, pushing the stroller in the middle, both babies awake and making happy baby faces at nothing. What they didn't realize was the babies were giggling happily at something. That something was the lingering spirit of Darla saying goodbye to her children before passing on to the afterlife. Her one good deed earning her redemption.

"You'll do a fine job, my darling boy," Darla whispered before fading to nothing.

Miracle Girl

Chapter Two: Dad

The End?