:::RING, RING, RING:::

Willow wiped the tears from her face. "I'm not answering it. I don't care who it is," she said to her empty apartment. "The only person I want to talk to would be Angel, and he wouldn't call right now, cause Buffy should be here. Well, I'd talk to Spike too, but he hates calling here. Again, I stress the problem is Buffy. Why is it that my closest friends hate my best friend? Why am I talking to myself?" She pulled her knees to her chest and put her head on her knees, crying harder.

"Hey!" The answering machine clicked on. "This is Buffy!"

"And Willow!"

"We aren't home right now!"

"Probably out saving the world!" Willow giggled.

"Or having delusions of grandeur, since we tend to be prone to that."

"Buff's at Riley's, I'm sure!"

"And Will's hanging out with Spike. . .why I don't know, but to each her own. . ."

"So just leave a message, and we will call you back!"

"Bye!"

:::BEEP:::

". . . " There was silence. Then, "Willow?"

Willow's head shot up. Angel *never* spoke on the machine. He always had Cordelia talk for him if he called. Usually he would either email the redhead or she would call him. She reached over and snatched the phone off the cradle. She hit stop on the machine to stop the recording. "Angel?" she sniffed.

"Willow, I know I don't usually call. . .but. . .I figured you were back from the doctor, and I wanted to see what was wrong with you." Willow had been sick the last couple of weeks, and Angel had insisted that she go to the doctor. "Are. . .you ok?"

"Three months," she whispered.

Angel's heart dropped. "Three months? You only have three months to live? Oh, my god. Wills, I. . .I don't. . .oh god. What will they do without you? No, that can't be right, it can't be your time yet. . ."

Despite herself, Willow started giggling. Her tiny giggles turned into all out laughing. She had to lie down on the bed she was laughing so hard.

"Oh, Willow, you are delirious! Is there anything I can do? Are you in pain?" Angel asked.

Willow's laughter finally died down to a sob. "Angel, I'm not dying," she said sullenly.

"Oh, thank god. Then. . .what happens in three months?"

"Nothing, Angel. It's not three months till something happens, it's three months since. . .since something happened."

Willow could hear the gears in the vampire's head turning. "What? What do you mean?" he asked.

"Angel, I'm. . ."

"Oh, bloody hell," Angel said, using his favorite childe's most used curse. "You aren't. . ."

"I am."

"Is it Oz's baby? I know. . .I know that you two slept together when he came home a couple of months ago. . ."

Willow snapped at him. "Of course it is! I haven't fucked anyone else, Angel," she snarled angrily.

"Willow. . ."

"I'm sorry, Angel." Willow started crying. "I'm so scared. What am I going to do? I'm too young to have a baby! What am I going to do? I don't even know where Oz is, and even if I did, I don't want to have anything to do with him. It hurts too much to have him around. And what if the baby is half werewolf? That's not even fair to my child. And. . .I don't even know if I'm going to be a good mother, and I live on the Hellmouth, and what if someone tries to hurt my baby? I'm in school and I don't have a job and how am I going to afford having a child? There's so much I haven't done, Angel. . .I've only slept with one man my entire life! Who is going to want a woman who's 21 and has a baby?"

Her words were running together and only broken up by her sobs. "Shh. . .baby, it's ok. I have a job opening here at the firm. . ."

"What?" Willow cried. "My life is falling apart and you are telling me about a job opening?"

Angel ignored her interruption. ". . .for a Technical Advisor. She would hook up and run the computer systems, mainly office work. There will be some fieldwork with Wesley, Cordelia, and I, but for the most part, it's a cushy office job. I'm mainly interested in finding someone who is going to school also, because I can't promise that there will always be something for her to do, and I don't want her to get bored. She will be paid for a full week though, forty hours on every check. If I like her enough, I'm even willing to turn the top floor of the building into a living area for her. It's nice, has two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room. Just enough room for a person, and perhaps a child, if she had one."

"Angel, I -" She paused. "Are you asking me to come to LA?"

"What?" he asked innocently. "I would never ever suggest something like that. I was only telling you about the opening we have at the Agency. . ."

"Can I think about it and call you back?"

"That would be fine," he said. "Let me know."

"Angel, thank you."

"Willow, you know that I'm here for you. You've done so much for me, and it 's the least I can do."

Willow smiled, feeling better than she had since the doctor told her she was pregnant. "Thanks. I'll call you later."

"Bye, Will."

Willow hung up. "Gotta go see Spike." She sighed.

*-*-*-*

Willow had a key to Spike's apartment. She quietly opened the door and walked in, shutting the door behind her. She smiled softly at the blond vampire who was asleep on the couch. He had his black jeans on, the top button unbuttoned. His pale muscular chest was bare, and his arm was slung over his eyes. She went to him and ran her fingertips over his arm.

"Pet," he said, without moving, "why do you have two heartbeats?"

She paled, sitting on the couch next to him. He shifted, turning to his side. He curled around her, putting his hand on her thigh possessively. "What's going on, Red?"

"I'm pregnant, Spike."

She felt his body tense. She didn't understand why he seemed to be angry about it. She sighed. < Wait till he finds out I might go to LA. >

"Who does it belong to?"

"Oz."

Blue eyes opened and looked up at her. "Dogboy? When did you. . .you slept with him when he was here? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to kill him."

"I wouldn't have killed him," Spike said sullenly.

"Yes, you would have. You would have assumed that he took advantage of me, or some crap like that. Do you know why I did it? I was lonely. I missed his touch. I missed. . .I missed being with someone. I didn't want him to stay, I didn't want to have anything to do with him after the fact. But for that one night, I wanted everything to be perfect."

"And now you are pregnant."

"Yeah."

"What are you going to do, pet? You know the Slayer and I aren't going to let you patrol now."

"It won't matter," she whispered.

He sat up. "It won't? Why not? What are you going to do?"

"I'm thinking of leaving."

His eyes grew wide. "Leaving? No, Red, you can't leave. You need to be here where your friends can take care of you."

Willow laughed bitterly. "Like Buffy can pull her pelvis away from Riley long enough to put up the pretense of taking care of me. And Xander? He can barely take care of himself. You will hate the baby, just because you hate all the rest of us." She looked down, tears filling her eyes. "My parents are never home, and won't come home for this. I'm going somewhere that I know I will be taken care of, and I can raise my baby in some semblance of peace."

Spike narrowed his eyes. "You are going to let bloody Peaches play daddy, aren't you?"

Willow opened her mouth, then shut it. She nodded her head yes.

"No," he growled.

"What?" she asked, looking at him. "I can go to LA if I want to. I can go to UCLA there, and he's going to give me a job, and I'm going to rent the top floor of his building from him and. . ."

"I'm coming with you."

Willow blinked in shock. "What?"

"I'm coming with you, pet. I hate Sunnydale. And you need someone who can take care of the baby." Willow opened her mouth to speak, but Spike held his hand up. "And when he loses the soul and goes all Angelus on you? What then? He will hurt the child."

"Spike, he's not going to go Angelus -"

Spike laughed. "You have no idea, do you?"

"What?"

"How much he cares about you. With the two of you being in such close quarters. . ."

< I could never love him like I love you, stupid demon, > she thought. "Yeah, whatever. Like I ever want to have sex again."

Spike smirked at her. "I've known pregnant women, pet. Their hormones go out of control. They tend to get. . .well, let's just say you will want sex." He shrugged. "And my Sire, you know he's a beautiful man. So if I come, then either A. I can protect you and the baby when you sleep with him and he looses the bloody soul or B. You can just sleep with me and we can forget about the whole Angelus angle."

"You. . .and me?" Willow asked. "I. . .I don't know if. . ." She blushed, looking down.

Spike chuckled. "Pet, let's leave tonight. I can't get out of this town fast enough."

"But I have to. . ."

"Nope. Go get the most important things. For now, we are just taking a vacation. We will come back later and get everything else."

"What do I tell everyone?"

"That we are taking a vacation to see Peaches." Spike smiled. "I will even grumble and tell them that I hate him and don't want to go, but you are forcing me." He slipped his hand under her shirt. His fingertips danced on her spine. "We will have a good time, and you can decide if you want to move there with him, or if you want the two of us to go somewhere else."

"Why are you doing this, Spike?" she asked softly, trying to ignore his hand on her skin.

Spike shrugged. "Gives me an excuse to get away from Slutty. Plus, you fed me all those times. Payback, I suppose." < Because I've fallen in love with you, and I want to make sure you are taken care of, witch, > he thought.

"Yeah," she said. "Guess it's a good thing that I'm the nice one." < Why couldn't it be because you love me? > she thought dejectedly.

"Go on, pet. Go get packed. Do what you gotta do, and I'll meet you back here in a couple of hours."