Title: Afterlife
Part title: Jealousy

Author: GMB loves Angel

Spoilers: Iwry (as always), the last four eps of Angel season 2, the bachelor party, Hero, the gift... that's kinda it...

Rating: PG-13

Timeline: A few months after the gift...

Authors notes: This fic series will go between two worlds. Here's my version of what happened after the gift... I admitt it I'm completely hung up in Pylea... Iwry happened a season after than it did in the show...

Dedication: To Dawnie, for her wish for a new part...

A wail broke through the pleasant silence in the room, forcing Angel to wake up. He groaned. Still hadn't quite gotten used to the baby in the house. But, it only took him seconds before he completely placed his focus with the baby lying in the crib he'd got Cordelia to buy for him the day after he'd got the baby. Her face was red and crunched with her crying-face. He had never ever seen such a beautiful thing before. It was weird how she had adjusted. It had only been two weeks and she stilled the moment she saw his face over her crib. She recognized him and knew that when he was there everything would be all right.

As she had stilled he took a moment to take a good look at his daughter. He could see so much of Buffy in there. He could also recognize a few features he knew he had. The chocolate brown eyes, he knew came from his side. But the lip was Buffys. The creamy skin was hers, even though he knew that babies always had such soft skin. She had Buffys nose he was sure she had inherited Buffys petite form. That moment he wondered where she was, how she was doing. He knew she was suffering now, which was something he hated more than anything. Why did the oracles have to do something like that against her? She didn't deserve it. He would do anything to be the one suffering instead of her. If he only could find her, but with a bit of investigations, Wesley had told Angel that there were thousands of dimensions and to search everyone of them would be a total waste of time, but Angel didn't want to hear it. He would turn every brick in every dimension, fight every beast there were to find her. If there had just been some way to track her essence or something…

The baby had been lying there for a while and nothing had happened, so she decided to state her presence by giving an other loud wail. This snapped Angel out of it and he picked up the little form. He made his way downstairs to get a bottle ready. Surprisingly he found Cordelia downstairs already ready with a bottle.

- Cordy, how…?

- Angel, don't you hear how loud she can get? I swear, the gang in Sunnydale can hear her when she's hungry and I know you. You always do this little stroll down memory lane, before you pick her up and if we don't make the bottles ready, she'll starve…

- Thanks Cor.

- No problem. Now over to an other subject… someone hold me…

Cordy fell backwards, but with luck, Angel managed to free one hand to grab her, so that she wouldn't smash her head on the floor. After ten seconds she got back on her feet.

- Ow, ow… ow… Painkiller would be nice…

- Wes? Can you get some painkillers for Cordelia?

- Thanks for your help, she said, sarcastingly.

- Hey, holding a baby here…

- Yeah, sure…

- What did you see?

- A nest of vampires. Pretty stupid ones. They have two captives.

- How many?

- Seven. They are in an abandoned warehouse two streets away from Gunns hood. With our advantage of daylight I'd say Gunn could take them on by himself.

- Good to hear, but just to make sure, I want someone to join him.

- Me and Fred can do it…

- What about Wes?

- Wes is in a deep research mode. And not just because of you, but he's fascinated with it, Cordelia said, making a face.

- Is something wrong Cor? You wanna talk about it?

- Innocent lives to save now, she answered.

- Sure, we'll talk when you get back.

- Yeah right, she muttered before leaving through the door.

Angel couldn't believe her mood. She'd been walking around this angry ever since Angel learned about the whole other aspect of Buffys death. She did the same amount of work and was just as dedicated to it, only without her usual smile. He couldn't understand what he'd done to make her this angry. He didn't get time to think much about it as he had to take care of his daughter. Time passed by pretty quickly. First he fed her, then he changed her, then rocked her for a nap, which lasted for about an hour before she started to demand something again. He kept his attention focused on her. Wes was reading 8 books at the time, or so it looked like with him cross-referencing something all the time. An hour and a half after leaving Cordelia, Fred And Gunn returned with news that yet an other nest had been cleared out. Remembering Cordelias mood earlier in the day, Angel got Fred to watch the baby, while he took a chat with Cordy.

- Can you tell me what's been bothering you?

- Nothing, it's just that everyone's been so hung up with Buffy lately. She's not the only person in the world you know.

- Cordelia, how can you say something like that? She's the love of my life. She died, and now I've found out there's a chance I might actually get her back…

- She's not the only one who's died! Sure, you lost the love of your life, but so did I. Remember Doyle? Bad dresser, drunk as a skunk all the time, our friend? I loved him. We were going on a date. We'd just cleared out every secret there was. We were going to start a life, then he had to jump. You got years with Buffy, I only got a kiss. Now all of a sudden you're sent a baby, a baby from Buffy, showing you that she's alive in some other dimension. I didn't get anything like that from Doyle…

- Cordelia… A baby from Doyle would be a medical and mystical miracle…

- Jokes don't suit you, Angel.

- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… You know I tried to get Doyle back. I went to the oracles and begged them to send him back. And don't say he didn't leave you anything. Your visions are a proof of that.

- Yeah, mind cracking, flashes of images that'll make you crazy… what a gift…

- I'm sorry… I want to find him too, you know. I want to have us all back together as a big family…

He could see tears jumping out of the corner of Cordys eyes. He had never realized how much Cordelia missed Doyle. She had grieved, but she had moved on. He guessed she had kept the grief inside. He pulled her to the crook of his neck and held her while she cried.