"Eternity"

By Kat

Disclaimer:

Buffy and co. own belong to Joss Wedon and Mutant Enemy. I am doing this for fun only and gain nothing from this. Please don’t sue.

Rating: PG-13

Author’s Note:

This takes place five years into the future. Wollow’s parents and Buffy’s mom are all dead. Surprise/Innocence and thereafter never happened. Buffy & Angel decided that their relationship decided the their relationship would never work and decided to stay friends, and became best friends.

Dedication:

To Lynn, for all her nagging and support. She’s a great friend and a true sister.

Chapter 1

Burning. Everything was burning. She could see a large, beautiful bird inside a familiar building. Willow turns to see her mother. She tells Willow to run and to not look back. She runs. Then she does exactly what her mother told her not to do, she looks back. Her mother’s gone. Willow knows that that she went into the building. Willow falls to her knees and cries out for her. Deep down inside she knows that her mother is not coming back. Someone crying brings Willow out of her stupor. It’s a baby. Her baby. She grabs the child and runs...runs...runs...

At that moment Willow woke up with a scream. The man at her side wakes-up to her crying. He immediately pulls her into his strong arms. She buries her head into his chest as sobs wrack through her small body. He kisses the top of her head and whispers soothing, calming words into her hair. He gives her long soothing strokes her back. They started from her neck to linger at the small of her back. When her sobs finally subsided, he started a slow rocking motion, like a mother would a frightened child. Silent tears ran down Willows face for the child in her dreams, her child.

Lover would. After she finds her voice she tells him about her terrible dream.

"I couldn’t find you. You were gone. Don’t leave me ever. I don’t have anyone left but you. Promise me." Willow starts to breakdown again. He’s just sits and rocks her against him, comforting, loving. Giving soothing words to her. When she regains her composure, she remembers. "A-Angel? Promise me you’ll never leave me."

The rocking stops. He places his hand under her chin and makes her look into his beautiful brown eyes. "I promise Willow, never." She kisses him. That’s all she could do at the moment. When he breaks the kiss there’s a red tear in his eye. "What’s wrong?" she asked, her voice laced with concern.

Angel smiles down upon her. Showing all his love for her in that one smile. Willow couldn’t help but smiling back at him. He blindly reached over to the nightstand and got a box out of the drawer, his eyes never leaving hers. "Willow, I promise me that you’ll never leave me either." She nod, not being able to find the words needed to answer him. He waits, expectantly.

"I promise," she finally choked out. He opens the box. A beautiful antique diamond ring was inside. Her eyes lit up at the sight in front of her. Gently he pulled the ring out of the box and placed it on her finger.

"It was my mother’s before she died. I was going to ask you tomorrow, at the party, but now is better. Willow, would do me the great honor as to become my wife?" Rendered speechless Willow looked into Angel’s eyes, seeing love and desire and hope reflected back at her, she nodded her head .

They kissed. A kiss full of promises and of things yet to come. A kiss full of love and compassion and love and devotion. A kiss to start their eternity together with. "Willow, I love you. I will for all eternity." he said after he broke the kiss.

"I love you too. For all eternity." With that said, they laid back down. Content in each others arms. They went back to sleep with the knowledge of their eternity being filled with love and devotion and desire.

End Chapter 1

Chapter 2 New Year’s Eve

Angel awoke to something tickling his nose. He didn’t have to open his eyes to know what it was. He could smell that oh so familiar smell of shampoo. Freesia, his favorite. Slowly he opened his eyes to see what he already knew was there. Willow. Well, Willow’s hair. In fact she was using it to tickle him so that he would wake up. Early in their relationship she had found out that he was extremely ticklish. She used that knowledge against him every chance she got. It didn’t help that she was just as ticklish if not worse, and he was a good hundred pounds heavier than she was. Most of there tickle fest's, ended with him on top of her one moment tickling her ruthlessly and the next, he was kissing her with great passion that it left her lightheaded.

"Aaaannnngggel. Time to get up!!" she said in a singsong voice. Angel rolled on top of her, successfully pinning her to the bed. He gave her a sly, trouble-making smile. "Maybe I don’t wanna." With that he bent down and gave her a slow, passionately seductive kiss. Willow’s mind went completely blank. He slowly pulled away. "...You’re right we need to get up. We’ll be late for the party." With that statement he rolled out of the bed and walked naked across the room to their bathroom.

Willow realized he was gone and quickly came back to reality. With a giggle she ran into the bathroom and tackled him. Then, the tickling began.

Two hours later

"DING-DONG"

"I got it." Yelled Xander over the music and people talking. He glanced at the clock on his way to the door. * 8:30, I hope that’s them *

He opened the door to a couple who was completely enthralled with each other. "Ah-hem" Xander cleared his throat. Not even acknowledgement of him even being there. "Um, guys."

Willow reluctantly broke the kiss, much to Angel’s despair. "Sorry Xand. We got a little...distracted." She said with a shy smile and turning a little pink. Xander just gave them a knowing smile and invited the couple into the house.

Buffy walked up to Willow and Angel. Giving Willow a hug and Angela kiss on the cheek. She looked carefully at Willow. Noticing the flush in her face and neck. The twinkle in her eyes, and the unmistakably brilliant smile on her face. * Something’s up * she thought. "Uh guys could you excuse us, we have things we need to do." When neither of the guys moved she added, "Women things." At the mention of those words the guys quickly left the area.

"Sooooo," Buffy said trying it gets Willow to spill. When that didn’t work, she tried a more tactful approach. "What happened? You’re practically glowing." Willow didn’t reply. She held out her left hand with the ring on it. Buffy looked down. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was a gold band with an intricate Celtic pattern etched into the it. On the top sat a single carrot diamond. "Oh my God, Will. It’s beautiful."

"I know, he gave it to me last night. I was so surprised. He said that it belonged to his mother." Willow replied. Buffy was still staring at the ring. "So, Buffy. How does it feel to Mrs. Alexander Harris?" Willow asked, trying to divert the attention away from herself.

Buffy looked up from the ring absolutely beaming. "It’s great, I never thought that I could be this happy. I love him so much. There’s something that I have to tell you and Xander doesn’t know about it yet and I’m kinda nervous about it. Well, you see..." She was interrupted by Angel asking for everyone’s attention.

"I have an announcement to make. Willow could you come up here please?" he said. Willow gave Buffy an ‘oh no’ expression and walked over to where Angel was standing at the bottom of the stairs, in the living room. Angel continued, "Last night, I asked Willow Rosenberg to do me the honor of becoming my wife. She has accepted. We’re getting married!" The room exploded into applause and congratulations.

Then Buffy spoke up, "Everyone, I also have an announcement to make." The room quieted so that everyone could hear her speak. "Xander could you come up here too?" He slowly made his way up to his wife with a somewhat frightened look on his face, Buffy took his hand and slowly started to speak. "Xander, Angel, Willow, friends. I love Xander very much. We have been married over a year now, as most of you already know. Xander and I are going to have a baby." Xander screamed, he picked Buffy up and started whirling her around and kissing her. Willow was next. She engulfed her best friend into a hug. The night was spent celebrating and planning for the future.

Around 2 o’clock everyone except Willow and Angel had left the Harris household. "Willow, Angel," Buffy started, "we are so happy for you." Xander came over and held Buffy’s hand. "We want to ask you guys for a favor."

Angel grasped Willow’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Sure guys anything you want you got it." Buffy was completely taken aback. "You might want to hear it before you agree to anything." Willow just smiled and nodded for her to continue. "Well Xander and I decided... Well we wanted to ask you...umm..." Xander broke in for her. "We would like for you two to be our child’s god-parents."

Willow was shocked, stunned beyond all words. Then she remembered her dream the night before. The child. That beautiful child in her dreams. She was snapped back into reality by Angel’s hand on her face and him calling her name. "Huh?" Angel looked expectantly at her. She nodded, "Of course, we would be honored to be the god-parents of your child. Willow smiled at the thought. "Angel it’s late, we need to go home. Buffy, come over tomorrow afternoon and we’ll talk." She gave Buffy another hug and gave Xander a kiss.

As Willow and Angel walked hand-in-hand Angel asked, "You ok?" Willow took a deep breath and turned to look him directly in the eye. "What do you think about children.?" Angel nearly choked from the blunt question. He recovered quickly from the shock. He looked at, trying to figure out what she was thinking. "You know I can’t, right?" Willow smiled and nodded. "I know, we can adopt or, there are other things that we could get done. I want to have a child. I’m just afraid that you won’t want to..." She couldn’t finish here sentence because Angel’s lips were suddenly on her own. He slowly broke the kiss.

"Willow, you know that I love you and will love anything and everything that comes from you. Mine or not." Willow smiled and kissed him passionately. Angel looked down at her and gave her a sly grin, "We can still practice, right?" Willow smiled and started to run in the direction of their apartment. Angel smiled and ran after her. There would be more tickling tonight!

End Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Two weeks later

Willow silently crept into the apartment that she and Angel had shared for nearly three years now. Placing her brief case and laptop on the kitchen table she went to grab some water out of the fridge. Angel would still be asleep due to the time of three in the afternoon. She just couldn’t wait any longer to get home. She had been researching for the past year and a half for a way for her and her beloved to conceive a child. Everyday and empty search, another disappointment. She never told Angel what she was doing. She could never do that to him. Get his hopes up only for them to come crashing down around you.

Pulling herself out of those kind of thoughts, she wondered into their bedroom. Lying there on his stomach was her lover. His beautifully muscled back lay exposed to her. By now she had every minute detail of him memorized. From the way he smiles at you when you tell a joke, to the way he holds her when her nightmares become to real, to the way he wants to be held when it’s his nightmares that are to real. Every facial expression that he has ever made is memorized in detail in her brain.

His shifting brings her back to the real world. The satin sheet that covered him slipped a little and she can clearly see the curvature of his hips. She walked completely into the room and took off her shoes, and began to undress. She had things she needed to tell him. He could either be happy about the news she was about to tell him, or mad that she didn’t tell him what she was doing in the first place. Either way she knew that he would love her always, there was never any question of that.

She quietly slipped between the sheets behind him. She slipped her arms around his waist and hugged him to her. God how she loved him. She silently began to weep. She had lost most of the people that loved her on this day three years back. That was the day that she found an unexpected but welcomed love. She vowed to never loose that love, the love that she found in the man that she held in her arms.

Angel awoke to a dampness on his back. He rolled over to find his love weeping into her hands. He remembered this day three years back. The loses and the gain. That was the day they lost Willow’s parents, Buffy’s mom, and Giles at the same time. A freak accident had taken them all away from them at once.

Willow was driving down her road when all Hell had broken loose. When she first looked she thought her neighbors house was on fire. But, when she got close enough, she realized it was she home. She quickly got out of the car and raced to the front door. Only the door wasn’t there anymore, instead was a wall of fire. Hoping against hope that there was no one in the house she went back to the street. That was when she heard the screams, and smelled the unmistakable, stomach turning smell of burning flesh. At that exact moment, the fire department came down the street. She tried to run back into the house, but there were arms around her, holding her back.

Willow died that night along with everyone in the building. Buffy had taken it hard also, but not as hard as Willow. Her dreams were haunted with the screams of her parents, and those she loved like parents. Willow, having no living relatives left, moved into Angel's apartment. They had decided to go ahead and raise the baby together, especially after everything that had happened. A couple months after the tragedy Willow was starting to move on and are happy when another tragedy happened.

Willow was driving back to their apartment. She was to meet Angel and they were going to go out for their anniversary and to celebrate their baby. She never saw it coming. The car hit her side. She immediately passed out do to a concussion. She woke up 4 days later to a very worried Angel and Buffy sitting at her sides holding onto her hands. To this day Angel could remember the conversation that followed.

So here he was. With the only one he could ever love, on the anniversary of the day that her life changed forever. He reached over and pulled her over onto he lap. She wrapped her legs around his back and buried her face into his neck, and just let it all out. The sobs came like they always do, in gigantic wails. And Angel. like always, held her, rocking her till she calmed. When she did he didn’t let go or stop the rocking. He was her rock. Her life line. God how she loved him.

When she caught her breath, and felt completely relaxed, she remembered that she had to ask him to do the most important thing to her, for her. "Angel, I have to ask you something completely serious, and you have to promise me that you won’t get mad at me." She lifted her head to look at him directly in his eyes. He nodded, slowing his rocking a little. "Angel, I found a way for you to father children, let me finish," she said placing a finger over his lips when he started to protest. "I have been searching for over a year. We finally hit pay dirt today, of all days. I didn’t tell you about it ‘cause I was afraid that you’d get your hopes up only to have them come falling down everyday. I love you and I want this for you and for me. What do you think?" By the time she had finished, Angel had stopped the rocking and was staring at her in complete and utter shock.

Disbelief, that’s all that was running through Angel’s mind at the moment. * A child. She can have MY child? MY CHILD. * Angel went from disbelief, to shock, to complete happiness. The woman he loved was going to have his child... children. The only question he had was.. "How?"

Relief flooded Willow. She flung her arms around his neck with such force, that he fell backwards onto the pillows with her on top of him. She started to place tiny kisses all over his face. "It’s nothing really," she said between kisses. "Just a small ritual we have to do before, if we want to conceive." She looked up into his eyes and smiled. "Burn a some herbs, say a few phrases. You know the usual, I love you so much."

"I love you too, baby. I love you so much." Angel smiled into her hair. He really and truly loved her.

"Angel, come with me tonight. To their graves. I want to tell them about it. They would be so happy if they were..." A small sob broke through her voice. Angel knew this was coming. He just held her tight and let her let it out. "Of course baby, I’ll go with you. I’d follow you anywhere." He just held her. He could hold her for eternity.

"Angel?" A beautiful tear-stained face looked up at him. "Make love to me, please." Angel just smiled. He could never deny her anything that he could give her. "Of course." He reached up and pulled her down for a slow, passionate kiss, as he rolled them over. "My love."

End Chapter 3

Chapter 4

5 months later

Willow could feel someone looking at her. She knew who it was, so she kept her eyes closed. She could feel Angel’s cool hands on her stomach. He gently caressed her pale skin. The attention he was giving her made her remember the happiness she had giving him after telling him they could have a child together. After hours of lovemaking and talking, they had agreed to wait till after they got married to concessive. He told her that he had waited for over 200 years and that he could wait a few more months.

"Willow." Angel was trying to wake her up. "We’re going to be late for our own rehearsal."she knew that he was right, but still lingered on the thought of going back to sleep. After an inner war, the part of her brain telling her that she had to get winning, she opened her eyes. As she did, she looked down to find Angel gently resting his head on her abdomen. It looked as though he was trying to see inside of her. She smiled gently at him, loving the way he thought about the baby that would soon be in there.

"What are you doing?" She couldn’t help but ask. Angel gently leaned over and brushed his lips across her belly. "I’m imagining how beautiful you are going to be pregnant." willow laughed.

"Well first we have to get through tonight and tomorrow night. Then, we can talk babies." It took all of Willow will power to get herself out of the warm bed, and Angel’s arms. They had a wedding to get through and she was going to do it with her Angel by her side.

***

Despite a very gropey Angel and a long shower, Willow and Angel arrived early at Buffy and Xander’s. "You ready?" Angel asked. Willow just rolled her eyes and knocked on the door. Followed shortly by a very happy and very pregnant Buffy.

"You’re early, for once!" Willow acwardly hugged her friend, Buffy was looked beautiful pregnant. "We know. How’s the baby?" Angel asked as gently patted Buffy’s growing stomach.

"He’s a kicker. Literally, I think he broke a rib. Anyway, come on in." She motioned for them to enter. "Come on Willow, we’ll go put your stuff upstairs. Angel, Xander’s in the kitchen ‘cooking’. Go make sure he doesn’t burn the house down." With that said, the girls went upstairs.

"So, has he told you where he’s whisking you away to for the honeymoon?" Buffy asked with a sly grin plastered on her face.

Willow smiled dreamily and shook her head. "Nope. No matter how hard I try, he won’t tell me. All he told me was to pack warm clothes, and my passport. I also packed a little something extra. Other than that, nothing." Willow started putting her bags in the spare bedroom. It had been decided that she would stay there till the wedding. "Is my dress in the closet?" she asked. Buffy nodded. No one had seen the dress that they had purchased. They had decided that they wanted to surprise everyone.

MEANWHILE

"Xander, what exactly are you supposed to be making for Buffy?" Angel asked as he looked on curiously as Xander maneuvered around the kitchen.

"Well she told me that she wanted a grilled cheese sandwich with peanut butter." Angel just looked on with an unspoken question in his eyes. "I learned not to complain. I did that at the beginning, but after a night on the couch and not in that bed with her, I just did whatever she wanted. You would do well to remember that when Willow gets to experience the wonderful world of mood swings." Xander said with a wink.

Angel got this dazed expression on his face as he imagined making love to a pregnant Willow. With her long red hair fanned out upon the pillow and her creamy skin, with her swollen abdomen and breasts. She would be beautiful and he would tell her that all day everyday. He then turned to Xander and said, "I can’t wait."

Xander turned to regard the man next to him. After Willow’s world fell apart, these men had held the pieces of her mind and heart together, and through all the nightmares and tears, they had become friends, almost brothers. Xander new Angel had dreamt of the day that he and Willow would be man and wife, let alone when he would become a father. He knew that Angel would cherish every moment he would spend with his wife and child. "I know you can’t, and when it does happen you will be the happiest man on Earth." Xander pulled the concoction from the stove and put it on a plate just as Buffy and Willow entered the kitchen. He brought the plate over to his wife and handed it to her. "Your weird food for the moment, your royal heinous." He said with a mock bow.

Buffy, in reply, lightly slapped Xander on the shoulder. He in turn walked around and pulled her into a hug from behind. The whole scene going unnoticed by the couple next to them. Willow walked over till she was standing in front of Angel. Then she reached up and put her hand under his chin and raised it till he was looking at her in the eye. "Hey," she said quietly. She saw the unshed tears in his eyes and pulled him in for a tight hug. "What’s wrong, baby?" She asked quietly.

"I was just thinking of how lucky I am that I get to have you and children. It makes my head spin at the thought of YOU loving ME. You are going to have my child. We are going to have that happily ever after, and I’m just in awe of it all." He gazed lovingly into her eyes. The tears that were threatening to over flow finally did. Willow just smiled and kissed his tears away.

"I love you and we’re going to have this baby and we’re going to spoil her in every way possible." She tightened her hold on his waist and buried her head into his chest.

"I know, and we will spoil all our children." He kissed the top of her head and they turned back to their friends who were in the middle of arguing. Buffy was trying to get Xander to eat her sandwich, which he refused. "She huh?" Angel asked, teasing. To which Willow hit him on the butt.

End Chapter 4