Sunnydale, California was not exactly where Buffy planned to be. She had grown up here, she had graduated from high school, and had never been happier than to move out of the small town and take on the world. She had moved, she had been in her second year of college, she had made wonderful new friends, had so many great memories in the time she was away. Coming back just made her feel more dread than ever.

Xander and Anya had been amazing, they didn't think twice about offering her their guest room, offering to help even get her back to Sunnydale, back to California. She knew they didn't exactly have loads of money laying around so that only made her appreciate them more.

She drove almost straight through until she saw the familiar streets and felt dead on her feet when she finally got to their small house. She'd eaten dinner with them then quickly passed out after thanking them probably five thousand more times.

It wasn't until the following morning when she got around to trying to unpack the car, the piece of junk that she still couldn't believe even made the trip here. It barely had. One of the top things on her list was finding a mechanic to hopefully help out with the damn thing. Buffy began carrying bags and boxes from the trunk, the back seat, the front seat into the house. She hadn't brought a lot but a few of them were on the heavier side and walking back and forth in this heat wasn't exactly her favorite things in the universe at the time.

She had just about finished and was grumbling a few curses about the largest ones still waiting to be brought in when she realized someone was beside her. Stepping back, she looked until she spotted the stranger, which didn't take much effort. "Hi?"

He nodded as a greeting first. "Hi. Do you need some help?"

"Um. No. No, I don't think so."

"You sure? I'm Angel by the way, sorry, don't know where my manners went. I live on the next street over and was coming to return a welder I borrowed from Xander the other day."

"Oh. Well, he left maybe fifteen minutes ago or so but Anya's inside."

"Okay, well thanks."

"Buffy, my name is Buffy. Sorry."

"Buffy. Okay. You sure you don't want help?"

Buffy told him no but when she started trying to get a box to budge she sheepishly called him back. He traded the welder into her hands and easily got the cardboard box from where it was partially wedged in the trunk and carried it behind her. She pointed to the guest room when he asked where to put it then asked her if she was moving in. "Um Temporarily."

"Okay. Well, it was good to meet you, Buffy. Maybe I will see you again soon. And Anya, lovely as always, please pass along thanks again to your husband for me."

OoOoO

The next time she had seen this Angel character was a few days later when she was visiting Giles, a family friend and her old librarian from when she was in high school. He'd shown up and Giles tried to introduce them but she butted in to explain they had technically met before. He spoke a little more about the younger man before excusing himself on a phone call, leaving the two of them alone together in his living room.

"How do you know Rupert?"

Buffy smiled a little. "I grew up here, my first year of high school was Giles' first year as the librarian. We had a strange friendship," she said with a shrug. "He also dated my mom for a little while before they realized they were probably better off as friends."

Angel's lips made a line and his head nodded a little. "I moved here about a year ago. I work in LA but rent is out of control so..." They made small talk for a few minutes before he surprised her. "Would you go out for drinks with me sometime?"

Buffy's eyes popped out of her head. "Um... I'm sorry, I can't." She was sure at any other given time or situation in her life she would have fainted, jumped for joy, something if a man who looked as good as this particular one did had asked her such a thing.

"You can't?" he question.

"N-no."

"Can I ask why not?"

Buffy's mouth opened then closed fast. She blinked and looked away from him. "Um. I'm pregnant," she blurted out. "I don't think that would be a good decision for me."

Not missing a single beat, Angel continued. "Drink doesn't have to mean alcoholic. Do you drink coffee? Hot chocolate? Milkshakes?"

Buffy's head turned back toward him and all she could do was stare for the longest time. "I'm pregnant," she repeated. "That's not a good idea."

Thankfully, Giles returned from his phone call before anything else could be said about it.

OoOoO

Sighing, Buffy made a pouting face at the shelf in front of her. Being short had its perks, not being able to reach things on high shelves at the grocery store was not one of them. With another sigh, she decided to give it one more go... and when she did she suddenly felt a body very close to her. Her eyes drifted upward to watch long fingers grab her desired product and began to pull it down.

"Here."

Of course it was him.

Buffy felt those butterflies kick it into high gear once more as she turned to face him. She swallowed and took the spaghetti sauce from him. "Thank you. The one I wanted was a little out of my reach and I was getting real tired of waiting for an associate to grace me with their presence."

"You are welcome."

He kept staring at her as she went to put the jar in her cart and it made her all the more nervous. "I, uh... Xander is very sweet. Does not cook, Anya either. They pretty much live off of anything you can put inside a microwave. I'm not a great cook myself but real food sounded good."

He looked at the items in her cart, then back at her. "I cook."

"Of course you do," she said before her brain could stop it.

"I could make you dinner sometime. Or, alternative take you to dinner sometimes. Somewhere where they make real food."

"Still pregnant."

"Still asking. Dinner, drinks... a movie, go to a park, have a picnic... monster truck show, football game..." he trailed off.

"I can't."

"Are you married?"

"No."

"Boyfriend?"

"No."

"Girlfriend?"

"No."

"Just don't like me?"

"I... I don't know you."

"And I'm trying to let you?"

"And... I... that's very sweet of you but again... I'm pregnant. Very unplanned. Very... unpleasant currently. The guy is a jerk. My mother is a jerk. My father is a jerk but not due to this, he's been one for a very long time. There's a whole... thing... going on here and I don't think it's a good time to be dating."

OoOoO

Buffy found herself wanting to date Angel O'Roarke. The more she happened to think about him or the few times she had been around him only made her like him more and that only made her angry. She couldn't like someone now, it didn't feel right to be dating one man while another man's child was growing inside of you. Even if that moron was a useless piece of crap.

She'd literally had a two-night stand. She had lost her virginity to someone she liked and she'd found herself pregnant weeks later. He was a tool, he had ruined her whole life at the school after trying to tell him about the baby and made her want to literally be anywhere else on the planet. Dating was not her strong suite. Never had been, the few boyfriends she had in high school sure weren't much of anything either. Parker took the damn cake, though. That was for sure.

And why in the hell this seemingly perfect Angel character was interested in her at all, let alone when he knew she was pregnant bothered her in countless ways. He flirted, he asked a few more times and she had a harder time telling him no each and every single one of them. One day she pretty much snapped on him, way more than she'd intended, and he done his best to avoid her since. And she'd done the same when it came to him.

OoOoO

Standing on the side of the road, Buffy slammed the hood of her car down. She propped it back open then slammed it down again, then repeated one more time for good measure. Her piece of shit car had survived a lot but today of all days it wanted to really break down on her. She wanted to scream, cry, curse... Her hands were shaking as she reached into her purse and pulled her phone out, almost dropping it in the process. She dialed the number for a cab company and then another and another... all telling her they'd come get her but none would be out in time. Not even close to in time.

She was about to go sit in the car and just cry for a moment when a large truck pulled up behind her. She could see who it was before he got out.

"You want me to look at it?" Angel cautiously asked as he walked the short distance from his truck to her.

Buffy ran a hand angrily through her hair. "No. No, I mean I would at any other time probably but whatever is wrong is highly unlikely to be a quick fix and what I need is to get somewhere," she vented.

His forefinger ran over his lips for a moment as he looked from her to his truck. "I could give you a ride."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to ask for one I was just mad and venting."

"I can give you a ride," he repeated. "It's no trouble. Nothing more than that."

She sighed heavily. "I have a doctor's appointment. And I have to be there. I've been late their max amount of allowed times and I have had to cancel before a few times and if I'm late today then they don't want me to be their patient and I really do like them," she rushed out. "And they are the only option that's less than like an hour and a half away and that makes me very nervous and-"

"I will take you. Just... get what you need and I'll be waiting in the truck."

She watched as he simply turned and walked away. She wanted to cry even more right now. She grabbed her purse and locked the car up before rushing to jump in his passenger seat.

"Where to?"

"Um. Here I'll get the address," she told him then looked it up. She knew how to get there on her own but knew she'd suck at trying to remember street names and pay attention enough to get him there. She watched him put it into his navigation system before pulling back onto the road. "I called a tow truck to come get your car," he told her.

"Th-thank you. For... both, for everything."

He nodded. Her heart as she noticed him trying to look anywhere but at her. The silence in the vehicle didn't help either so she'd been very thankful when he told her she could turn the radio on if she wished. And she very much did wish that and reached over to fiddle with it until she found a song she liked.

When they got to the office, Buffy breathed a sigh of relief. They had made it on time, actually with a handful of minutes to spare. She began thanking him again but found her words trailing off as he shut the engine off and started to get out. "Wha... what are you doing?"

"I figure you'll need a ride home. Thought I'd wait."

"I-in there?"

He shrugged.

"Y-you don't have to do that."

"It's fine. You're wasting time worrying about it. Just go... get checked in. I can find a corner to sit in."

And sure enough that is what he did. He found a corner, grabbed a couple of magazines and sat there reading them as she got checked in. She chose to not sit by him once she had checked in, peed in the cup, and all of that business and opted for her regular seat by the doorway. Every now and then she would glance over but he never returned a look. She was glad her wait was a short one and a nurse came to fetch her soon.

OoOoO

"Are you hungry?" Angel asked her as they settled back in the truck.

She looked over at him and shook her head. Truth was that she was but didn't want to bother him more than she already was.

His hands lingered on the keys before he turned it over. "There's a little diner at the end of the road. I used to stop with my sister after each of her appointments that I wound bring her to back when she was pregnant. It's not the best food I've ever had but it is pretty good."

Buffy's stomach growled and she blushed. She'd been there the last time she'd come out here herself. "I'm fine. Really."

He sighed, starting to pull out of the parking space. "I'm very sorry for pushing myself on you, I wasn't trying to be rude or make you uncomfortable or whatever else. I was interested in you and was just trying to, I don't know, flirt, play around, get to know you. And I am sorry for that. I have been happy to leave you alone and stay out of your way the best that I could, today all I wanted to do was help. You looked like you needed some and it really was no bother. Now, maybe I'm right back to square one and being heavy handed but you sounded like you were hungry the whole way here and that obviously hasn't changed. Now me, I actually haven't eaten all day yet my own self so... there's the diner," he said along the short drive from the office to the diner. He pulled into one of the free spots. "I'm going to go in and make an order, I can get it to go. I can get you something to go if you want. My treat, nothing more than that, doesn't mean anything, life goes back to exactly as it was. Or, if you want to go in and have a meal that is fine, too. I will sit at the counter and will leave you be, won't talk to you or look at you or whatever else."

Buffy let out a huge breath of air she'd been holding in for far too long as she watched him walk from the truck to the door. She really hated this day.

The little bell on the door rang out much louder than she remembered as she stepped inside. Angel was at the counter, looking over a menu and chatting with the woman on the other side. One of the waitresses smiled big at her, waving her toward one of the tables. As promised, he never looked her way and she wondered if he even knew she was there.

At least she did until the waitress came over. She handed a menu and napkin wrapped silverware over and pointed toward Angel. "Honey, the man at the counter let me know on my way over here that he would be paying for your meal and to let you know you can get anything you wanted and not to worry over it." She thanked the woman for that, the menu and gave her drink order before starting to look over the menu.

Her eyes kept drifting to Angel though, watching him ignore her as he drank his cup of coffee on the stool.

After she got her meal order out, Buffy slowly stood up and walked over to Angel. Her hands were tugging on her shirt as she made the short walk over there, nervous habit. You could just barely see the changes in her body right now from the baby growing inside. If you didn't know her or you weren't looking real hard you probably wouldn't notice, if she had on a baggier shirt you wouldn't notice, but she was well aware of the small change. She was nervous as she walked and as she got to him, nervous as she quietly told him it would be okay if he sat at the table with her. "I'm sorry I have been a jerk, not you. You haven't done anything wrong," she told him first. After the invite she tugged at her shirt a little more as she turned, walking back to her seat.

Buffy was sure he was just going to continue sitting there and pretend as though he hadn't even heard her and follow through on the whole won't even acknowledge her presence thing but he wound up standing, one hand going to his cup and he spoke again to the lady behind the counter before coming to join her. He slide easily into the booth seat across from her and stared at the dark liquid in his cream colored mug.

"Thank you again for driving me out here today. And thank you for lunch."

"You are welcome."

"Again, I am very sorry that I haven't exactly been the nicest person in the world to you. It seemed easier... being rude and avoiding you."

"Easier than what?"

Buffy swallowed. "Getting to know you. Liking you. Thinking with the more I knew about you or was around you that the more perfect you kind of seemed."

"And... this is a bad thing?"

She swallowed hard again. "The last guy I liked unfortunately got me pregnant, either the first or second time I'd ever even had sex. With protection by the way, twice over. And yet... here I am. That guy went from a very sweet and charming young man to a total dick before I even knew I was carrying his child and there are no words to describe the level he landed on when that news came out."

"Why am I being lumped into a group with this guy exactly?"

"You're not," she hurried out. "I am sure you and many, many, many other guys out there are not like that. This isn't a whole all men are dogs nonsense talk. It's just... that is a little scary. But more than that, while he is worthy of awards for his doucheness, I am still with his child. I am not happy with who the father is but I can't change that and I found myself in love all the same. And... at the end of the day I think I'm actually happy he showed his true colors and he's made it one hundred percent clear that he is not interested. Like, not only not interested but refuses to even believe it's his and disowns the whole idea of what is happening. And something just... didn't feel right about liking someone in this situation, or dating, or... you know... whatever things a relationship may lead to."

He took a sip of his coffee. While you're pregnant or... like a lifelong thing? Because the baby comes out and it's still another man's."

"I know. Maybe it's all in my head. I'm hoping that once we're not sharing a baby that it won't be so weird and maybe someday I could find someone and settle down and whatever..."

Another sip. "Well, I hope so. I hope someday you find someone good for you, for both of you. It's not on me to tell you your feelings about any of it are right or wrong, I am sure it's a confusing time and again I am sorry if I made that worse."

"You're fine, Angel," she told him just before their food arrived. They both thanked the waitress as she sat their plates down.

"I still think you're interesting. And I still wish I could have the chance to get to know you better. Maybe one day. I'm not a terrible friend to have." Angel shrugged.

"I think that might be nice," she told him softly.