PART 10

Cordy snuck back into her and Doyle's room and was shocked to find him awake and waiting for her. "Hi," she said, "Why are you still up?"

"I needed to talk to yer" Doyle replied looking at her suspiciously, "About yer schemin'."

Cordy feigned innocence, "What scheming? I have never in my life schemed."

Doyle almost choked when she said that. "I know that yer up to somethin'. I heard yer talking to those Scooby people earlier… about Kate."

Cordy sighed, knowing that she had been caught. "It's for Angel's own good. He's the one who's all whiney with 'I want Buffy, I love Buffy'. I just thought I'd give him a hand. And Dawn… well she just wants Buffy to be happy…"

"Wait a second. The little one is in on it too," Doyle said in disbelief. "Yer corrupted her."

"I *so* did not. Dawn said she was trying to push them together anyway," Cordy defended herself.

"Did yer have to involve Kate?"

 Cordy sat down on the bed and looked at her husband. "She's the only girl Angel knows… besides me."

"It's not a good idea," Doyle warned.

"Doyle, everything will be fine," Cordy assured him.

Doyle kissed her quickly on the lips; "I hope yer right, Princess."

Hank couldn't believe what he had just heard. That nice Cordelia had been making up all that stuff about Angel having a girlfriend. That of course meant that his best chance for survival, his protection from Wolfram and Hart would probably want his eldest daughter in payment. Although it was tempting to just give him Buffy and walk away, there was still enough paternal feeling left in Hank for him to balk at the idea. Hank decided that the best course of action would be to tell Buffy what he had just heard and then sit back and watch her kick all their butts. He knocked on Buffy's door and waited until she answered.

"Daddy… what do you want? Are you okay?" she asked wondering why Hank was at her door at two o'clock in the morning.

"I need to tell you something," Hank replied, "Can I come in?"

Buffy moved out the way and after he was inside asked, "What?"

"Angel doesn't have a girlfriend."

Buffy looked at him, "I know. Cordy made it up."

Hank just stared at her, "Why haven't you hurt them? You can right… you're a slayer or something? You hurt things."

"Mom told you about the slaying?" Buffy asked in disbelief.

"When you were missing she blurted it out," Hank admitted. Suddenly Hank's decision to hide in Sunnydale made sense. Buffy decided to ignore it; he'd just deny it anyway.

"Since it was Cordy and not Angel, I figured I'd wait until morning to kill her," Buffy said turning the conversation back to the previous topic.

"Okay," Hank replied.

"Goodnight," Buffy told him as she pushed him out of the door.

Once he was in the hallway, Hank happily went back to his room secure in the knowledge that there was going to be bloodshed in the morning.

When Buffy walked into Angel's kitchen the next morning, she couldn't believe her luck. Cordy was there… all alone. "Good morning Cordy," Buffy said smiling evilly.

"Hey Buffy. I was just about to call Kate… to see when she was coming down," Cordy replied not noticing the evil smile she had shot in her direction.

Buffy simply walked over and took the cell phone off Cordy. "What gives you the right?"

"Huh?" Cordy said distracted by the sharp pain in her back.

"The Kate thing," Buffy elaborated. "Why are you trying to mess with my life? It’s not as if we were ever friends."

"But I am *his*," Cordy answered wincing, "How did…"

"Angel told me, but even if he hadn't Hank knew" Buffy cut her off.

In reply Cordy winced, obviously in some pain.

"Cordy? What's wrong?"

Cordy rode out the pain and said, "I think I'm in labour."

"I'll get Doyle and Angel," Buffy said panicked, running from the room.

"Okay," Cordy said trying to endure the pain.

Five minutes later Doyle was by his wife's side with everyone else looking on. "We have to get her to the hospital," Doyle told them. "I need someone to come with me. To keep her calm while I drive."

"I'll go," Dawn volunteered picking up Ricky. Then she turned to Buffy and Angel; "You two are the strongest. It's better that you stay with Hank."

Buffy nodded, "Okay." She hadn't wanted to go anyway because she felt guilty about yelling at Cordy.

Angel helped Doyle get Cordy into the car and then they all watched as they sped off towards Sunnydale General.

Lilah Morgan was panicked. She knew that her department's failure to rectify the Hank Summers situation was bringing her unwanted and unwelcome attention from the senior partners. If that despicable Hank Summers didn't die soon, she was sure that she'd be the one to go, the senior partners did not tolerate failure and the stories about their punishments were legendary. She pulled up another file, this one pertaining to property owned by Angel and discovered something that had been either overlooked or dismissed as unimportant. It seemed that Angel owned several properties in Sunnydale, some of which could be immediately discounted as his hiding place by being either too small or a business. However there was one property that seemed to be perfect, a mansion in one of Sunnydale's quieter parts. Lilah picked up her phone and dialled Adler's extension and when he answered started speaking.

"I know where he is," she told him.

"Who?" he replied sleepily, secretly wondering if she could tell he was slacking off.

Lilah sighed at his immense stupidity, "Hank Summers, you moron. Get word to Greltar and tell her, the mansion on Crawford Street."

She then hung up and sat back, relaxing. {Soon} she thought {I'll be free of Hank Summers and able to return to my normal life}.

Dawn hated hospitals, especially this one. It was this very hospital in which she and Buffy sat and waited for news on their mother, only for them to say she was fine and send her home to die. So while she was sitting in the small waiting room looking after Ricky, waiting for Doyle or someone to tell her what was going on, she thought about her mother. It was something she didn't allow herself to do often, it was just too painful, but with Hank suddenly showing up she began to wonder what would've happened if her mom was still alive. Would she have let Buffy help him? Dawn just couldn't think of the answer, but she decided that Joyce probably would've given him a chance and that's what she decided to do. From now on she was going to *try* to be nice to Hank.

She looked up and saw Doyle walk in with a big smile plastered across his face, "Well?"

"It's a boy," he told her.

Dawn smiled, "Great. When do I get a look?"

"After Cordy lets them take him, she's possessive," Doyle said sitting down.

When Dawn looked at him he asked, "What?"

"Aren't you going to call Angel and Buffy?"

Doyle stood up, "Oh crap, I forgot about them."

Dawn laughed as she watched him sprint from the waiting room and spared a moment wondering what they were doing in that big mansion… almost all alone.

Buffy, Angel and Hank were slowly going insane. Not only hadn't there been any word from Dawn or Doyle on Cordy's condition, but also they were all on edge waiting for the assassin's next move. After a couple of hours of sitting in Angel's living room staring at Angel and Buffy, he headed off to his room, leaving Buffy and Angel alone together. They just sat there staring at each other and not actually knowing what to say to each other, just when Angel was about to say something his cell phone rang. Angel immediately answered it and hoped that everything was okay. It was, Doyle was just calling to tell him that Bradley Jacob Doyle had arrived and to explain that he and Dawn were going to stay at the hospital for awhile longer to keep Cordy company.

As soon as Angel hung up, Buffy bombarded him with questions. "Who was that? Boy or girl? And how long are they going to be if it was them?"

"It was Doyle and they had a boy," Angel told her. "He and Dawn are going to stay with Cordy for awhile."

"Wow," Buffy said letting the news wash over her, "Cordy's a mommy… again. Even now I have trouble picturing it."

Angel smiled, "I guess this means I'm an uncle again."

"In that case… congratulations," Buffy told him leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.

At that exact moment Angel turned to face her and their lips met. Instantly they pulled apart and just stared at each other in shock, but something drew them back together and they kissed again. It had been such a long time for them, for their bodies and hearts to be deprived from their other half and now they had the chance nothing was going to tear them apart. Suddenly Buffy stood up and Angel growled at the loss of contact, but instead of running away she held out her hand and they ascended the stairs together.