It took quite a while to tell the whole story.  Willow told a lot of it, but Xander and Dawn spoke as well.  They tried not to get into the real personal issues too much.  Josh, Sam, and Donna listened raptly, and the Scoobies explained life on the hellmouth.  Willow skipped the last part of her story-the night she was attacked-she just couldn't deal with telling it, and quite frankly, she didn't really think it was any of their business.

    There was a long silence afterwards.  Then Donna spoke. "How do you deal with this? I mean, you are so young."

    "We have to deal with it." Dawn answered. "I mean, we couldn't exactly know what we know, and chose not to fight."

    "You saved Sam and me." Josh said. "Thank you." Josh cleared his throat and looked at Sam.

    "Yes.  Thank you all.  Ummm...especially...you...umm..thank you Willow."  Sam finally managed to spit out.

    "This is the guy you decided to sleep with, Wills?  What were you thinking?"

    "XANDER!"  Willow's face turned bright red.

    "Wait a minute," Sam's voice rose, "you told them?"

    "I'm sorry, Sam. I know C.J. said not to.  But I felt the need to confide in them."  Willow genuinely did feel bad.

    "Look," Sam asked, "can I talk to you in the kitchen?"

    "Fine."  Willow headed to the kitchen, and Sam followed after her.

    "I'm sorry. Sam, I just needed to tell them. I don't keep secretes from them."

    "That's not what I wanted to talk to you about. I mean, I want to talk about what happened, but it's fine that you told your friends.  I understand why you did. I don't want us to keep hating each other, Willow.  We have a lot in common.  We're both passionate about what we do, and we both try to stick to our ideals, even though it's hard in politics.  I really regret what happened last night, but...." Sam trailed off.

    "But what?"  Willow was starting to wonder if maybe she had misjudged Sam.  Maybe they could work things out.

    Sam sighed, "I think that maybe something good can come of it. Maybe it will make us work through our dislike of each other. Maybe it will force us to learn to get along."

    "I really hope that we can." Willow agreed.  Neither thought that it would be easy, but they were both willing to try, and that was a start. "All right," Willow said. "Why don't we rejoin the others?" 

The two went back to the living room, to find Dawn and Xander explaining to Josh and Donna the best ways to deal with vampires. Willow had to admit that everyone was taking it rather well.

 

-Several weeks later-

 

    Things were going fairly well for Willow.  The remainder for Dawn and Xander's visit had gone well.  They had promised to return soon with the rest of the gang. No one in the press had found out about her dalliance with Sam, and C.J. had stopped shooting them death-ray looks.  Sam and Willow were starting to get along better. They had a few fights, but they weren't as personal. They focused on politics, instead of attacking each other directly as they had before.

    But not everything was going well.  Angel had updated Willow, telling her that he hadn't found any trace of Spike, but that he would continue to search. That had been 3 weeks ago. Willow hadn't heard from him since, she was trying not to get too worried about it.  Right now she had more important things on her mind. She was expecting a call from her doctor anytime now.

    Willow's cell phone rang, and she answered. It was her doctor. Hopefully the news would be what she wanted. She paced her office as she waited for Dr. Sherman to tell her the news. She felt the blood drain from her face when he told her the results of her tests.  She hung up the phone and sat down in shock.  What was she going to do?

 

 

   Willow knew what she had to do.  She was out of her office, and into Sam’s in seconds.  Finding it empty, she rushed to Toby's office.

    "Where's Sam?"  She asked, sticking her head in.

    Toby looked up from his work. "He's in a meeting with Leo."  Toby studied Willow's face in concern.  "Is something wrong?" But Willow was gone before he even finished the question.

    Willow practically ran to Leo's office.  She stopped short at Margaret’s desk.  "Is Sam in there?"

    "Yes."  Leo's assistant answered. "But they should be about done, Leo has another meeting in a few minuets.  Is anything wrong, Willow?"

    "I just really need to talk to Sam."   Willow sat down in a chair by Leo’s door.  She couldn’t sit still.  Her foot was tapping on the floor, and her hands were shaking.  Finally after what seemed to Willow to be an eternity, the door opened, and Sam stepped out.

    "Sam!"  Willow leapt from her seat.

    Sam looked at Willow in surprise.  "Willow?  What's wrong?"

    "We really need to talk."  Willow grabbed Sam's arm and pulled him out of the office, and down the hall.  She found an empty conference room, and dragged him inside.

    "Willow, what the hell is going on?"  Sam was getting worried. He’d never seen Willow like this before.

    Willow took a deep breath. "I just got off the phone with my doctor."

    "Yeah?"

    "Sam, I don't know how to tell you this. I really don't think there’s a good way, you know?  For a moment I thought about not telling you. But you deserve to know. And besides that I mean; it's not exactly something I could keep secret forever.  You'd find out eventually. And really you have a right to know. So I have to tell you, I'm just kinda scared and all that, and I don't know what's going to happen, because this could change everything, and it could cause all kinds of problems. But at the same time, part of me is happy about it you know?"

    Sam just looked at her. "I think in that stream of babble, you said 'you know' about 10 times, but I have no clue what you're talking about."

    "Sam," Willow tried to keep her voice calm.  "I'm pregnant."

    There was a long silence.  Finally Sam spoke.  "No, you're not."

    "Well, three store-bought pregnancy tests, and my doctor disagree with you."  Willow almost smiled.

    "Wow.  This is bad on so many levels."  Sam grabbed a chair, and sunk into it.  "What are you planning on doing?"

    Willow shook her head. "I don't know. I mean, I am going to keep the baby, but apart from that I don't know what to do.  I guess I have to talk to Leo, and to C.J."

    Sam looked up at her. "We.  We have to talk to them."

    Willow smiled softly, "Yes, we.  Thank you. I mean I don't know what to do. I'm really scared. I'm turning 22 in a few weeks, and I'm pregnant.  This is really bad, and it's going to cause a lot of trouble.  I mean when the press gets a hold of this....” Willow trailed off, "But at the same time, a part of me is really excited and happy. I mean, I’m going to have a baby."

    As nervous as he now was, Sam's eyes shone brightly. "I'm going to be a father."  Sam stood up and took Willow in his arms. Before he knew what was happening, they were kissing.

    Just then the door to the conference room opened.  Sam and Willow didn’t even notice. Not until a familiar voice rang out.

    "What in the hell are you two doing?"

    Willow and Sam immediately broke apart.  Willow swallowed nervously. "Hey, Toby.  How's it going?"

 

    Toby ignored Willow's question.  He just glared at them.  "Are you two insane?!  When Kathy told me she thought she saw the two of you duck in here, I wasn't expecting to see you with you tongues down each other's throats!"

      Sam grimaced.  "Toby, I'm sorry. It just kind of happened.  We didn't come in here looking for a place to make-out or anything"

    "Well regardless of what you meant to do Sam.  This kind of thing cannot just happen. You're lucky that the press didn't find out about what happened between you guys the first time.  Are you hoping that a reporter catches wind of this or something?"

    Willow spoke up, "The thing is, Toby, the press is going to have to find out." 

   Toby looked at her. "What are you talking about? Tell me you two aren't planning on starting dating or anything."

    "Toby," Willow sighed, "I'm pregnant.  Sam's the father."

    "Oh, Jesus." Toby rubbed his eyes. "Have you told C.J?"

    "Toby, she just told me." Sam explained. "I got a little excited thinking about being a father.  That's why we were kissing.  It was just the excitement."

    "This is really bad."

    "Thanks for the support, Toby."  Willow rolled her eyes.

    "Are you keeping it?"  He asked.

    "Yes, we are," Sam answered.

    Toby stared at Sam, then at Willow, then back at Sam.  "Are you two together?"

    "No," Sam replied. "But we are having a child together. And who knows what the future may hold."

    Willow glanced at Sam, shocked, "You mean that?"

    Sam shrugged. "Well, we do end up together in various situations. There's got to be a reason for that."

    "You should get married."

    "What?"  Sam looked at Toby in disbelief.

 

    "Well, it'd make it a lot easier." Toby explained.  "We'd be able to spin two staffers getting married a lot better than a young staffer getting pregnant following a one-night stand with her boss."

    "We're not going to get married just so our baby is easier to spin!" Sam yelled.  

    Despite herself, Willow almost smiled at Sam's outburst.  It made her happy to see him stand up to Toby.

    Toby looked at his deputy appraisingly. "I know.  I know.  Look, you two have to talk to C.J. And would it kill you to at least be dating or something?"

    Sam studied the woman who was carrying his child.  A few months ago he had hated her.  Now...now he really wasn't sure.  They had slept together, she had saved his life. He had learned things about her, and what she had gone through living on a hellmouth, that had given him great respect for her.  She had fought evil for years, though she had no duty to, she had risked death countless times to help save others. And now, she was carrying his child.  He wasn't even really sure why he had hated her. Yeah, they had disagreed on some things, but they shared the same ideals.  The fire that she had was usually something that drew him to women. But for some reason he hadn't been able to see past what he had interpreted as an arrogant little girl who was out of her depth.  Now he knew that she hadn't been out of her depth.  That's probably one of the things that had made her fight him so hard. Maybe she had been trying to prove herself since he had dismissed her the first time they met.  Sure, they had still had arguments these past few weeks, but there was something there that hadn't been there before: respect.

    "No." Sam said, answering Toby's question. "I suppose it wouldn't."

    Willow looked at the floor. "Sam, don't feel that you have to date me just because I'm pregnant. What happened was my responsibility just as much as yours, more even."

    "That's not why I want to date you."  Sam locked eyes with her.

    Toby sighed uncomfortably, "Dear God you two have problems.  Talk to C.J. and work out your feelings later.  Let's go to her office."

 

TBC

Next part: Now we kinda know how Sam feels, so how about Willow?  And how will C.J. react?

Coming soon: Angel returns!  More vampirey stuff.  And how much does the President know about Willow?