chaptertwo

Willow awoke from her exhausted slumber to the wonderful smells of cinnamon and sweetness. She rolled over to see Xander was also arousing to the same wonderful smells. Hunger, far from the one they had sated last night, called them out of bed when nothing else would have ever done so.

Coming down stairs the smells even got better. Cinnamon buns could be smelled wafting out of the kitchen mixed with the salty aroma of sizzling bacon. Several of the other watchers had followed the olfactory call of their noses to the kitchen. They entered to find Angel making breakfast.

“What is going on?” Giles asked Willow and Xander softly as he came up next to them as they took in a sight they never thought they would never see; Angel being domestic. Fresh orange juice filled a pitcher next to cinnamon rolls, which filled a plate as Angel was dribbling the frosting on them. Many of the watchers were just standing in the kitchen enjoying the wonderful smells of the meal hoping something would be offered to the general group..

“I dunno. I guess Angel is helping the cook make a treat.” Xander said as he smiled. The smell was making his stomach growl and his mouth water.

A short woman looked at The Slayerettes. "He isn't helping the cook. It is scavenge Tuesday. Tuesday is the cook's day off. We have to fend for ourselves. No one fends so well though…"

Giles looked at her. "Then he cooked all this? I was unaware Angel could cook." He never thought a 254 year old vampire would know how to cool with modern appliances.

Xander was zeroing in on the food like a prowling beast. He looked up at Angel hopefully. "Anything the rest of us can eat Angel?"

Angel looked at him. "Yeah Xander, there is food here for every one after I take Buffy's food you all can have the rest. I figured it would be welcomed." He looked at Giles. "I learned a long time ago to cook, Giles." He stood and took off the apron as he finished was he was doing.

The watchers, clustered abound the table their mouths watering. He must have been up nearly all night cooking. They smiled at him. This was a good day to hit the books. They wouldn't have to figure out what to eat either. Angel fixed Buffy a plate placing orange juice, buns and eggs and bacon on a tray he left the room. Jody watched him walk away with a plate for Buffy's breakfast. She was curious; there wasn't enough food there for two.

~~~~~~~
Angel walked in the room turning on the light to fight the gloom of the room, the tightly pulled curtains barring the deadly sun from him. "Hi there, baby I got you some food before the vultures below ate it up." He smiled at her with love and passion. His heart got tight. He nearly lost her, and he knew if he had then he knew he would greet the next day's the sun. He closed his mind to the fact that he knew one day, he would. Because one day she *would* die. He pushed such morbid thought aside.

Angel setting down her food he reached over and stroked Buffy's face. "I love you so much. Buffy you need to eat baby."

Buffy rolled over and looked up at Angel. He still looked haggard and pale even for him and that is saying a lot of a vampire. The food smelled wonderful. She feebly tried to sit up in bed and collapsed, her body weak and decimated by her trials.

Angel easily lifted her up and tucked pillows behind her to where she could sit-up and eat. "Here now, eat baby I'm right here." He never took his eyes off her. She glanced up into his eyes and she reached up trying to pull him into a kiss. She wanted something from Angel, no needed something from Angel, and it wasn't breakfast food.

Buffy was irritated. She got her bumps and usually could go to school the next day. This galled her. "I want you angel. I need to feel your arms around me, baby please?" She craved his touch for ages and it galled her she was treated like glass.

Angel sighed and slid behind her and wrapped her in his arms. "There. Now eat Buffy." She smiled and leaned back into him and started to eat. She relaxed enjoying the cool skin against her back and her skin.

She looked down at what once was a lovely teenage body now marked with scars, bruises and a protruding tummy of pregnancy. She never really knew how bad she had looked, but she had a clue. Her skin still had a slight yellow cast to it. She didn't like to think about it, she just knew it had been horrible.

She tired extremely quickly and dropped the fork to the plate resting her head against Angel. They had beaten the odds and won again... but this time she had been beaten absolutely to HELL. The simple act of feeding herself was almost more demand than she could believe.

"I'm so... so ... oh god Angel how can you stand to even look at me?" She blurted in her pain and frustration. She was used to being the beautiful one. Now she couldn't bear to look at herself.

Angel snuggled into her hair taking in the scent of HER. "Because I love you. It doesn't matter what you look like. You're still the woman I love. Besides, you know I'm not so great looking in game face."

"Yes you are!" she grinned. She had acknowledged to herself and him that she found his game face erotic, and even the thought of it made her instantly aroused. Her body was whipped and beat but the thought of his power and grace all at her command made desire flood her body.

Angel smelt her arousal and his erection pressed into her back. "Buffy your too weak for that right now. The babies, think of the babies."

She sighed. She took a few more halfhearted bites and pushed the plate away. She shifted to try to get her left leg comfortable. The cast annoyed her. Angel picked up a roll and brought it to her mouth. "Come on, eat." She bit and chewed enjoying his holding her and feeding her. She felt loved and if he wouldn't make love, this was pretty damned close. Angel picked up some fruit. "Here, eat this." She nibbled it and then licked his cool fingers

"I like that holder..." she teased as she snuggled into him. She could feel his erection. She reveled in the fact that he still wanted her. Battered beaten and bulging, he still wanted her.

Angel smiled. "Well it's a good way to get you to eat, and well it has other advantages." She kissed him as she he nuzzled her for her warmth…

A few days passed and Buffy was more alert and more irritable. She didn't do sick well, and she was still being treated like glass and Angel hadn't touched her the way she needed and she was ready to scream! Angel walked into there room smiling at Buffy. "How are you feeling today my love?" He asked gently as he stroked her cheek. She had scared him and he didn't want to push for anything. Her Slayer healing was showing up in her rapid increase in strength, increased mobility and the healing wounds and incisions on her body. Her Cast itched her like crazy and Angel had ended up taking every wire hanger out of her reach.

"I feel better, and I am frustrated for being stuck in bed. Everyone treats me like glass and I'm bored! No one will discuss the battle after I went out!" She complained petulantly.

Angel sighed. "We won. What is there to talk about Buffy? As for the other, you scared us all badly Buffy. You could have died and no one wants you to over do anything. You pushed your Slayer healing to the edge and almost over…"

She patted the bed next to her in blatant invitation as she looked up, her eyes brimming with tears. She knew horrible things happened after she went down, and the only person able to tell was Angel, and he wasn't talking. "Hold m Angel I miss you. You never touch me anymore!"

Angel lay down next to her and looked at her with love in his eyes as he pulled her gently to him. "I'm sorry baby, I just don't want you to hurt yourself or the babies. I can't believe that after more than 250 years I'm going to be a father."

She smiled up at him looking at his rugged good looks and the alabaster skin. He would make a beautiful child. In her minds eye she remembered him playing with his children in the sun and laughing in a away he had never laughed with her. She ached to see him doing such again. "I know. I can't believe it either. I wanted your babies so much, but after my class project with the eggs… you told me… well you said you couldn't have kids. So I gave up the thought..."

Angel snuggled into Buffy more. "I love you Buffy, so much, and you scared me so bad. I was so worried that us touching would hurt you further and you get hurt more. Call me over protective." He held her just thanking the powers that be she was alive.

She started to play with his cheek. "Kiss me angel, kiss me and make love to me... Please..." She stroked his hard on thrusting toward her in the pants that confined him. She knew he wanted her, and she wanted to feel it inside her!

Angel looked at her the agony of denying her on his face. "Buffy you're not up to that. We can kiss and snuggle, but no loving making yet. You have to let your body heal more first. She rolled her eyes and kissed him her hand undoing his shirt. She needed to feel his skin. Angel moaned at the feeling of Buffy touching him as he kissed her neck. "I love you so much. You have made me so happy Buffy. You know that what The Lady Tirla did about Angelus and me, it is forever. He'll always be apart of me now. He is in me but I am with a soul…"

She smiled up at him. "Yes I know Angel. She explained how you're both now. You'll have to fight a little harder to control, but your both, a blending. But I love you and I want to feel you hands on my skin!"

Angel stroked her and smiled. "You know he loves you, even if he is an ass at times."

She licked his neck knowing it drove him insane. "Yeah, he is an ass at times and I find he is highly erotic and I love it when he bites…" He hopped to entice Angel to stake a claim. She purred as she rubbed against him and made sure to rub his engorged cock.

That was it, Angel's eyes rolled up in his head and when he focused on her once again, it was Angelus that purred. "Oh you do lover? Mmmm have I turned you into a naughty girl?" He stroked, her rubbing her breasts gently and playing with her sensitive nipples and she moaned. Angelus smiled, prim and proper Angel would have never touched her like she wanted.

She smiled knowing she touched Angelus. "Yeah you did. He won't touch me! He won't treat me as anything other than a statue of glass!"

Angelus grinned a wicked smile. "Oh come on Buff. You scared the poor boy to death. Even I was scared, but I knew you would make it. It's not that he doesn't want to touch you, he does but he is scared he will hurt you. Now me? I know better. I know your limits, and your slayer power is healing you just fine."

She looked up at him. "I don't remember much, I remember waking up in the hospital room, talking with the Lady Tirla. She gave me something to drink before I went back to sleep. Later I remember waking and he looked like absolute shit. Mom said dad had been there and gone. I remember flashes but nothing specific."

Angelus pulled her into his grasp and let his hands have free rein on her body as he talked to her. "Well you where badly hurt. You had a few surgeries done on you. You spent most of it in ICU on some machine and not awake. It was not fun. You didn't miss anything in not remembering." He closed his eyes. He remembered Angels' terror and his fear.

She looked at him. His hard cold eyes that held… love? "I really almost died? I was that close, for real?" It started to sink in. She had been on deaths door.

"Yes, you were that close for real. I know that he told you that I love you as well Buffy. I show it in my own way. I'm not him, but I'm not who you faced when he lost his soul either."

"I know your blending more and more. I like it… It will hurt him. But I do, as long as you don't go warm hunter on me." She looked terrified at the thought she would have to hunt and kill her lover.

Angelus didn't relish her hunting him. "I won't feed on the living humans Buffy, but I need a bio-kill sometimes. There are animals I can kill. Do you mind that?" He asked hesitantly.

She looked up at him. "No as long as your conscientious" she pulled him into a kiss. "Make love to me Angelus. I need to feel you inside me"

Angelus looked at Buffy. "I love you but you are not up to that yet my pet, lets just enjoy stroking, kissing and hugging."

She opened his shirt and stroked the alabaster skin cool and delightful to the touch. She saw the healing wounds on him and realized that he took a hell of a beating. "Is thus another reason why Angelus? You got the shit kicked out of you too?"

"Yeah. I'm still healing. They are not as bad as they were." Just the look in his eye as he avoided her steady gaze told her more than she wanted to know.

She looked at the damage realizing just how massive it must have been to still be healing after all this time. "Oh god I was out a long time.... Wasn't I?" She started to shake as the horror started to sink in....

He pulled her into his embrace kissing her forehead. "Yes you were." He said it calmly and simply and that scared her most of all.

He closed his eyes. Of all the people in her life these shouldn't come from a fucking demon! "Yes, the babies are fine Buffy. The twins are fine and doing well."

Buffy looked at him in confusion. "Twins? I have triplets. Damn it Angelus! I had triplets! Where's my baby?" she looked at him in horror remembering the prophecy. "It died... Oh God, my baby died..."

Angelus felt the pain more than he would ever let on. "I'm sorry Buffy, It died. They had to take the third one, or lose you and the other two babies."

"Oh god, Oh god my baby…" She rocked in his arms as she cried her agony for her lost child. She was awash in her pain leaving a completely lost Angelus with a devastated slayer.