An Angel and a Baby
by Scribs

It was long after dawn when Angel crawled into bed. He had spent all morning tracking down a group of demons that had kidnapped three baby girls from a family. He had found all three of them, but the last one he had found was the one that haunted his mind. Her eyes especially. Her eyes were Buffy's eyes. Her shining hazel eyes studied him with the exact same wonderment that Buffy's had the night they met. For a moment his mind had led him to believe that he was looking at Buffy's child. His child, too. A creation of their love for one another. When he and Cordelia had brought the babies back to their parents, he had been almost reluctant to let her go. That was when his mind reminded him that he had no right to the child. And he never would. He was just falling into blissful unconsciousness when he heard it. Crying. It was a baby, too. Getting out of bed, he followed the sound of crying to the large door that led to the sewers. Opening the slowly, not knowing what to expect, he saw nothing until he heard a pitiful whine come from near his feet. He looked down and was shocked to find the hazel eyed baby girl he had saved that morning laying in a basket near the door looking up at him with her luminous hazel eyes. And hastily stuck in the basket with beside her was a note. Kneeling down, he took the note in one hand and gently placed the other in the basket where the baby could play with his fingers. The note read: "Angel, it seems as though friends of the monsters you saved the babies from earlier have found us. And like the first ones, they're trying to take the girls away from us. The girls are not related we're not their parents. Three different teenage girls are their mothers. They didn't know what to do with the babies so they gave them to us to take care of. What these monsters want with the girls, I don't know. But hopefully they will never have to find out. I'm splitting them up, sending them to different people in different parts of California. People who showed an interest in adopting them. I'm giving this baby to you because when you brought her back, you seemed like you didn't want to let her go. She's yours now. Take good care of her. Sincerely yours, Mrs. Winston"

Angel looked at the baby, who had been running her tiny hands over his one large one the entire time. He sighed and watched her hands move in-between his fingers. "What am I going to do with you." He whispered. The baby just smiled and cooed at him. He grinned. "that's what I thought." He gently picked up the basket and backed into his apartment.

The first thing he had to decide was where she was going to sleep. She very well couldn't stay in the basket. That he knew. He went into his bedroom, set her down on the floor and made a little nest in part of the sheets. When he looked down at her again, he could have sworn he saw Buffy looking at him.

Shaking his head, he reached down and picked her up into his arms. He sat down on his bed and gently placed her in the nest of sheets he had made for her and covered her with the top sheet. He watched her wiggle around and fiddle with the soft material that surrounded her for a minute before shedding his shirt and slowly climbing in beside her.

"What do you mean he hasn't come up yet?" Wiesley demanded as he and Cordelia faced off in the main entrance to the office. "Just what I said. He hasn't come up all day." Cordy answered. Wiesley frowned when he heard classical music floating up from the apartment. "Do you think we should check up on him?" He asked. "He's probably in another one of those brooding-over-Buffy moods so we might as well." Cordy said as she stepped into the elevator. When the elevator reached ground level, the only light that allowed them to see was coming from candles strewn about the apartment. Both of them frowned. Where was Angel? Then they heard giggling coming from the kitchen. And it wasn't the sound of adult giggling. It was a baby's high pitched gales of laughter that they heard. As they poked their heads into the kitchen, all they could see was a bare-chested Angel leaning over the sink. If Angel was all alone, where had the giggling come from? "All right," Angel said to something in the sink as he reached for a towel. "Up we go!" That's when their jaws hit the floor as the baby came into view.

Angel had just finished wrapping the baby in the towel when he heard the gasp and the 'oh my God' come from behind him. He turned around to see Wiesley and Cordy staring at him with wide eyes and open mouths. "Morning guys." He said. "um....Angel, why do you have one of the Winston babies here?" Cordy asked. "She lives here now." Angel replied calmly. "Since when?" Cordy demanded. "Just after dawn." He answered simply. Cordy shook her head. "How exactly did she come to live here?" As Angel explained the situation, he quickly dried and dressed the baby. "So, you don't know why these demons would want these kids." Cordy said as she watched Angel. "I have a few ideas, but none are really standing out." He replied. Cordy sighed. "Well, if she's going to live here, she might need a name." Angel studied her for a moment, watching the way she studied things, the way she smiled. "Caitríona." He finally said. "Catra-what?" Cordy asked. "Cat-REE-ona. It's Irish for Catherine." Angel corrected her. "So you're naming her after cop-lady?" Cordy huffed. "Actually my sister. Though everyone called her Katlyn, Caitríona was her real name." Silent o's were the only responses he got from either Cordy or Wiesley.

Over the next few months, life was never boring around the office. Whenever Angel went out to hunt demons, Caitríona was always left in the care of either Cordy or Wiesley. But they always seemed to do something that would make her cry just minutes before Angel would walk in the door. Upon hearing her crying, Angel would scoop Caitríona into his arms while asking Wiesley or Cordy what they had done to upset her that time.

Sometimes, around an hour before dawn, Cordy would poke her head into Angel's office and see him with his feet up on his desk, with Caitríona on his chest. Both of them sound asleep. But the time that effected her the most, was when she made an unexpected visit to Angel's apartment long after she and Wiesley had gone home for the night. Not sure if Angel was asleep and knowing if Caitríona was asleep, that the elevator would wake up and upset her, Cordy had used the stairs. The sight that greeted her was one that she hadn't expected to see. Angel was in the living room with Caitríona in his arms with her head on his shoulder. A country song was playing on the radio and Angel was swaying slowly back and forth to the music.

"Sometimes late at night. I lie awake and watch her sleeping. She's lost in peaceful dreams so I turn out the lights, and lay there in the dark. And the thought crosses my mind, if I never wake up in the morning. Would she ever doubt the way I feel about her in my heart?"

Cordelia sat down on the stairs and watched Angel "dance" with Caitríona. He absolutely adored her. That was certain. That was when Cordy noticed something. Caitríona looked a lot like what she always thought Buffy and Angel's kid would look like. Angel's head, Buffy's eyes, lips and hands. "If tomorrow never comes. Will she know how much I loved her? Did I try in every way, to show her every day. That she's my only one. And if my time on earth were through. She must face this world without me. Is the love I gave her in the past, gonna be enough to last. If tomorrow never comes."

"Wait a minute." Cordy thought. "Angel said that all three children had come from teenage moms. And Buffy's still a teenager. And Buffy and Angel spent all that time together when he was human. Could Caitríona be Angel and Buffy's daughter?"

"Cause I've lost loved ones in my life. Who never knew how much I loved them. Now I live with the regret that my true feelings for them never were revealed. So I made a promise to myself. To say each day how much see means to me. And avoid that circumstance where there's no second chance, to tell her how I feel."

Cordy carefully crept back up the stairs and to her desk where she checked the clock. 2:30 in the morning. Too early to call Willow. She looked back at the elevator and sighed. The nagging question in her head would have to wait. Back down in the apartment, Angel continued to sway back and forth. He knew Caitríona had long since fallen asleep, but he liked the song. It reminded him of himself ever since Caitríona had come into his life. With his new life in LA, Caitríona was his saving grace. She was a year and three months old now. And so completely precious to him. Before she had come along, Angel seemed to find himself on a one way street to oblivion after he left Buffy. Helping those in need helped to keep his mind off of her, but after he got back, he would have to deal with the overwhelming sadness that would come with the realization that Buffy wasn't coming over after patrol. She was two hours away in Sunnydale. Getting on with her life. Finding comfort in another man's arms.

He came back to reality when Caitríona moved closer to his neck. Her warm breath made the tiny hairs on the back of his neck rub against his skin, teasing him. As he gently ran his hand up and down her back, the song kept playing.

"If tomorrow never comes. Will she know how much I loved her? Did I try in every way, to show her everyday, that she's my only one? And if my time on earth were through. She must face this world without me. Is the love I gave her in the past, gonna be enough to last. If tomorrow never comes. So tell that someone that you love, just what you're thinking of. If tomorrow never comes." He stopped swaying and could feel Caitríona's strong, steady heartbeat beating against his chest. Smiling, he quietly walked back to the room adjacent to his that served as Caitríona's room. Ever so gently, he held her to him with one arm while pulling back the covers of her bed with the other. After he tucked her in, he kissed her forehead, and was walking out the door when she softly called out to him. "I love you, Daddy." His heart clenched. He hadn't been able to say those words to anyone except Buffy. But his Cáit held his heart in the palm of her little hand. Just like Buffy had when they were together. He couldn't say those words to anyone else. Not even little Cáit. "Ditto." Was all he could say. That seemed to satisfy her and he heard her sigh before snuggling down deeper into the covers.

When 11:00 rolled around the next morning, the first thing Cordy did was find an excuse to get out of the office in order to call Willow. She quickly told Angel that she was going home for lunch and he just nodded his head in agreement while he kept his eyes glued to Caitríona, who was playing on the floor with some blocks. She just shrugged and silently thanked Caitríona for keeping him so occupied.

Instead of going home, Cordy walked a few blocks away from the office and found a payphone. "I'm glad Willow gave me her number." She thought as she punched in the numbers. The phone on the other end rang and rang. "Come on, Willow. Pick up please." She mumbled. "Hello?" Came a breathless reply.

"Willow?" "Yes?" "It's Cordelia." "Cordy hi!! How are you?" Asked the breathless red-head. "Doing good. Listen, I have a couple questions to ask you about Buffy. And since you are her best friend, I thought you might be able to help me out."

"Sure. I'll try to help you the best I can." "Wil, you remember after she came back from LA after Thanksgiving?" "Yeah." "Did she start getting sick in the mornings about a month or two after?" Willow thought for a moment. "Yeah. Come to think of it, she did. Why?" "I'll cut right to the chase, Wil. Angel has had a little girl in his care for over a year now. And she looks a LOT like what Angel and Buffy's kid would look like. Angel's hair and head, Buffy's eyes, lips, and hands." "What are you getting at, Cordy?" "What I want to know is, did Buffy have a baby nine months after she came back from LA?"

There was silence on the other end of the line. "Wil, you there?" Cordy asked. "Buffy didn't know what to do when she found out she was pregant. She had slept with a man, Parker, before she went to LA. She thought it was his. She was so scared, Cordy. She didn't want to have the kid of a guy that didn't care for her. She was considering getting an abortion, but I convinced her not to. I told her that it wasn't the baby's fault, and it deserved a chance at life. She carried it the whole nine months, and I was with her when she delivered. She gave it up for adoption that day. But I still don't get it, Cordy, what does this have to do with Angel?" "I'm sure if Angel knew about this, he would be forever grateful to you for convincing Buffy not to get that abortion." "Why?" "It's his child, Wil. Not this Parker guy." "How? I thought that one moment of happiness would turn him evil and that he couldn't have children." "He was human then, Wil." WHAT!?! HOW?!?!"

Willow listened quietly as Cordy told the tale of Buffy and Angel's time together the way she had heard it from Doyle. "Wow." Was all Willow could say when Cordy was through. "I know. I found it hard to believe when I first heard it." "Well," Willow said brightly. "What did Angel name her?" Cordy smiled. "Caitríona." "Ohhhhh, Irish for Catherine. I love it." "So do I. But he calls her Cáit." Willow giggled. "How cute! What does she look like?" "Absolutley precious. And like Buffy, has Angel wrapped around her little finger." Willow and Cordy chatted for a few more minutes before Cordy looked at her watch. "Listen, I need to get going back to the office. I'll send you a picture of Caitríona when I can. I'll talk to you later."

As Cordy hung up the phone, a man in the office building of Wolfram and Hart a few blocks away from Cordy pulled a pair of binoculars away from his eyes. He reached down on his desk and picked up his phone. "Move tonight. Yes. She will be there." The man hung up the phone and ginned evily as he thought of what he would soon have in his posession.

Caitríona shrieked with delight as Angel spun her around on his shoulders. He reached up and grabbed her waist and pulled her off his shoulder and into his arms. That made her laugh harder. But her laughing stopped when she heard a grating sound coming from the living room. "Daddy what was that?" Angel had heard it too. He knew it was no good because Cordy and Wiesley had gone home for the day and they certainly wouldn't come up through the sewers. Angel kept her in his arms as he cautiously walked toward the living room where they could look in on the floor that held the door that went to the sewers. What Angel saw struck fear into his heart. A clawed hand attached to scaley red skin was trying to grab the bolt of the door. The whole apartment erupted in noise as six more of them made thier presence known and Caitríona screamed in fear and clung to Angel for dear life. "Cáit, go to your room and bolt your door. Don't unlock it till I come and get you. Understand?" Cáit nodded. Angel gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Be brave, my sweet." He whispered as he set her down on the ground. Tears welling, Cáit nodded again before running as fast as her legs could carry her to her room.

Just as she bolted her door, all six demons gained enterance to the apartment. With ear piercing roars, they attacked Angel all at once. Angel noticed one of them head off in the direction of his bedroom and tried to get in a position to stop him, but the other five prevented him from doing so. As he punched one in the face, another punched him and sent him flying through the coffee table. As soon as he got up, a heavy mesh net was thrown over him and pulled tight around his ankles, sending him crashing to the floor. That was when he heard the sound he so didn't want to hear. Cáit's screams of terror. "No. NO!! Cáit!!" He screamed as he saw one of them come back into view with a shrieking Cáit in his arms, failing her arms and legs wildly in an attempt to get away. "DADDY!!' She shrieked. "Cáit no!!" Angel tried with renewed efforts to get loose, but the net held fast.

"DADDY HELP ME PLEASE!!" Cáit shrieked again as the demons walked out the door. Blood tears streaked down Angel's face as he heard her heart breaking pleas for him to help her, but he couldn't. He curled up into a ball and screamed his rage to an empty apartment. "CAITRIONA!!!!"

The End

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