It was the night before the move. Ashling was asleep in her room, Quinn was sleeping with her, though he thought his parents didn't know he was out of his room, and the baby, Tristan, was sound asleep in the bassinet beside her parent's bed. She was just eight weeks old.
It had been four years since Ashling's birth, and four years had equaled two more kids for Cordelia and Doyle, and one child for Buffy and Angel. They still weren't married, and were in no hurry to make it down the aisle. That didn't matter to them.
Angel Investigations was still open and running, though now it was filled with at least three kids every day. Ashling went to pre school four days a week, but was there on Friday's. Logan, Buffy and Angel's son, was Quinn's age, two, and they were constantly getting into trouble together.
Fred and Gunn were married, though planned on having no kids for at least a couple more years. Wesley was still single, and had no plans to change that. He was happy being by himself and spoiling his nieces and nephews. He was much like Giles in that respect.
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Doyle's eyes opened when he heard his infant daughter begin to fuss. Cordelia had heard it too and rolled over. "Is it your turn or is it mine?" she asked, and he sat up.
"I'll get her."
Doyle walked to the bassinet and picked Tristan up. The crying ceased almost immediately. It was time for her bottle. He carried her down the hall to the kitchen and got a bottle out of the fridge. He sat it in the microwave and heated it for thirty seconds. Soon after, Tristan was drinking greedily, her tiny hands trying to wrap around the bottle.
Tristan had given them all a scare. She'd come too early. Cordelia had barely been seven months pregnant when she'd gone into labor. All the kids had come early, but two months early was way too early. The doctor's hadn't been able to stop the labor, and after only eight hours, his second daughter had been born. She'd weighed in at a little under five pounds though, so she'd been rather healthy. She'd only had to remain in an incubator a week before they'd been allowed to take her home. She'd almost doubled her weight in the seven weeks since then.
He and Cordelia planned to have one more baby, though not for a year or so. She hadn't been anxious to get pregnant again after Ashling, but that hadn't lasted long. Her maternal instincts had kicked in, and she'd gotten pregnant a little after Ashling's first birthday. She'd been ready to have Tristan about a year after Quinn.
And Doyle wasn't objecting. He loved kids, wanted a big family. He'd thought they'd have one. Cordelia was brave and beautiful, but she didn't like to willingly submit herself to hours upon hours of pain. But she had. Three times, refusing to take the easy way and have a C-section.
Tristan finished her bottle, and Doyle sat down to burp her. He was rocking her back to sleep when Cordelia walked in wearing her robe and carrying Quinn. "He had a bad dream." She said, sitting down in the rocker right across from where Doyle sat. "And Mama promised she'd put him back to sleep."
And as they sat there, Cordelia rocking their toddler, and Doyle with the infant in his arms, neither thought it was possible to be any happier. Quinn went to sleep first, Tristan right after her brother. The parents rose, carried children off to respective bedrooms, and then Cordelia returned to her bedroom where Doyle was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching their daughter sleep.
"She's perfect, isn't she?"
Doyle took his wife's hand and kissed her palm. "Perfect. Are you ready to move?"
Cordelia looked around at all the boxes. "It's gonna be hard. I've lived here for nine years. We have so many memories here. But at least Dennis found a way to move with us. I would've missed him and he's great with the kids."
If the kids thought it was weird that they had a ghost for a babysitter, they'd never let on. Neither had they told any of their friends. At least, Cordelia hadn't gotten any calls about Ashling telling her classmates about the ghost. That was a relief. Ashling had had a hard time learning not to tell all her friends about the things she had learned.
Most had been normal. Don't invite strangers into the house, don't go outside at night by yourself. Some had been a little abnormal. Whatever you do, don't say the spells in Daddy's books, don't give any crosses to Uncle Spike, and don't under any circumstances, play with Uncle Angel's battle axe.
"Well, he gets to come." Doyle said wearily. He and Dennis had had a colorful history. Namely, ghost and man hadn't liked one another very much when he had moved in. "And I guess I'm glad. Ash never would've forgiven me if we would've left him here."
"Nope. He's her favorite hide and seek partner. Though how she ever manages to find him is beyond me."
"She's a quarter demon, darlin'. She finds him the same way I do. She senses him."
Cordelia shrugged and got back into bed. "Oh. Well, I guess it doesn't matter how she does it, just that she does it. What time do we have to be to work tomorrow?"
"Eight hours. Angel doesn't want us to come in until ten. That way we can get the stuff packed for the movers to get it tomorrow afternoon." Doyle said, lying down beside his wife. She rolled onto one side to face him.
"It'll be at least four hours before Ashling decides we need to get up for the day." She told him suggestively. And then she was giggling because he'd rolled her underneath him and kissed her. "I love you, Doyle."
"I know darlin'. And I love you too. Now, let's get started on that fourth baby, shall we?"
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THE END
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Okay, that's all folks. I have had a blast writing this story, and I will soon be working on Second Chances again, and maybe I'll even start a new fic. Let me know if you'd like to see a sequel to this. I've never done sequels in the past, but I'd consider it for this one if there was interest. So, let me know. And stay tuned, I'll be writing a lot more now that summer's coming and I'll be out of school for three months. Thanks again to Darla56 for Ashling's name, I appreciate it. Please let me know what you'd like to see me do. The input of my reviewers matters a lot in deciding what projects I start on.
Thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed the story.
Sirena