Title: Deceptions and Betrayals 6/21
Author: Ness
Contact: sessa1_2@yahoo.com
Written: 09/08/2003
Spoilers: Nothing after "Wrecked" in season 6 on BtVS and anything before "Sleep Tight" on AtS. But this is completely AU.
Summary: This one is a sequel to "When You Least Expect It". If you didn't read that one, this will probably confuse you.
Pairings: Cordelia/Giles and Buffy/Wesley
Rating: PG most of the time but there are NC-17 parts.
Distribution: Anyone that already has permission. Anyone else, please ask first.

Disclaimer: We all know who owns 'em and it ain't me. Joss and Co. are gods in their universe, I'm just a peon in mine.
Thanks to Suzanne for the beta. It is much appreciated, Chica. *G* A/N: I did a bit of juggling with this after Suz saw it, so any and all mistakes are mine--as usual. ;-)
Dedication: This one is for Kerrie. She gave me the idea that ended an almost six month block. She read this puppy even though she didn't normally read these pairings. Now, I've corrupted her or that's what she says anyway. *G* Thanks darlin', you're the best.

Buffy knocked on Giles' door Saturday afternoon. She heard someone moving around inside, but no one answered. She tried the doorknob--it turned easily in her hand. She entered cautiously, unsure what was going on, but not taking any chances. If there was something bad in here, she wanted to take it by surprise. Hearing movement upstairs, she headed in that direction. When she got to the top, she stopped and listened. The sounds were coming from the bathroom. She pushed the door open slowly--Cordelia was on her knees in front of the toilet.

"Are you all right?" Buffy came into the bathroom.

"Aarrgghh!" Cordelia jumped. "God, Buffy! Why don't you just shoot me with a crossbow next time? It'd be quicker." She slumped down on the floor.

Buffy ignored her tone as she wet a washcloth and handed it to her.

"Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay? I've been puking for the past ten minutes."

"Are you sick?" Buffy had no idea how, or why, she was ignoring Cordelia's bitchy tone, but getting mad didn't seem to be an option right now. What happened next almost stunned her speechless.

Cordelia looked at her for a minute before she burst out crying.

"Cordelia? Cordy, what's wrong?" Buffy fought the urge to panic. She wasn' t good with tears.

"I'm not sure, but I think--I think--." Cordelia couldn't get anything else out. The tears were making speaking almost impossible.

Buffy sat down beside her and took her hand. "Okay, take a deep breath and tell me what's wrong?"

Cordelia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Buffy watched as the self-assured woman that she knew her to be slowly came back into control. It was as if the crying spell of minutes before hadn't happened.

"Can you tell me what's wrong now?" The Slayer prompted.

"Just let me get this taste out of my mouth first." Cordelia stood and rinsed her mouth out at the sink before she sat back down on the floor.

"I'm late, Buffy."

Buffy couldn't believe she was having this talk with Cordy, of all people. "How late?"

"Two weeks." The brunette leaned her head back against the tub and closed her eyes. "I think I'm pregnant," she said softly.

Buffy wasn't sure what to say, but for some reason, she didn't think congratulations was what Cordelia wanted to hear. "Does Giles know?"

"No." Cordelia replied, not adding anything else.

Buffy wasn't really sure what to say to that quiet answer. But she asked the question that she knew her Watcher would. "Why haven't you told him?"

Cordelia looked to be close to tears again, but she sucked it up and managed not to cry. "Because I don't know how he'll react."

"Come on, Cordy. You know that Giles would love any child you two brought into this world." Buffy protested.

"I know he'd love our child. He doesn't have it in him not to." Cordelia sighed. "That's not what worries me."

"What exactly has you so worried?" The Slayer couldn't understand why Cordelia was so scared to tell Giles. "You know he loves you--you know he' ll love this child."

"I know he loves me and he'll love this baby." Cordelia closed her eyes again. Being nauseous always gave her a raging headache. "But I also know that he's going to worry about something happening to the baby. I mean, the biggest arguments we've ever had have been about the danger we put ourselves in. How much more is he going to worry when there's a baby to think about?"

"Cordy, you'll work it out." Buffy patted her hand awkwardly.

"How do you know that?" The other woman desperately needed reassurance.

"Cordelia, I've never seen Giles happier than when he's with you." Buffy gave her a small smile and half-shrugged. "I wasn't sure that you *would* make him happy, but I bit my tongue."

"I noticed." Cordelia observed wryly.

Buffy gave her another small smile.

"I'll always regret that I made him choose between me and Jenny." Buffy scrubbed her hands wearily over her eyes. She was not proud of how she'd acted then. "It was small, selfish and totally unfair to him. I promised myself that I wouldn't do that again. When he told me that he was in love with you, my first reaction was 'Cordelia?!'. But I didn't interfere." She dropped her hands to look at the dark-haired Seer. "I've never been so glad to be wrong. You make him happy, Cordelia. This baby will make him happy." Buffy grinned. "You may have to pick him up off the floor first, but he will be happy."

"I hope so." Cordelia sighed. "Of course, I'm not sure I'm pregnant yet."

"Do you have a home pregnancy test?"

"No."

"Why not?" Buffy asked.

"Because I'm not sure how the demon aspect of my body chemistry with react with something like that. I could get a false reading, or no reading at all."

"I hadn't thought about that." Buffy admitted.

"Yeah, well I kinda have to." Cordelia replied in as patient of a tone as she could manage. "I'm going to see Lorne and find out if he knows anything."

"How long will that take?"

"I don't know. I'll go see him today while you're with Giles." Cordelia glanced at her. "Buffy, please don't say anything until I find out for sure." She looked at the Slayer with pleading eyes. "Please?"

"You're asking me to lie to him?" Buffy shifted uncomfortably.

"No. If he asks you if you think I'm pregnant, tell him what you know. All I 'm asking is that you don't volunteer and you make him ask the exact right question before you tell him."

"You're splitting hairs, Cordelia." Buffy insisted. She didn't want to keep anything from her Watcher.

"Just give me until after Dawn's birthday party. I'm sure I'll know something by then," She pleaded.

Buffy was torn. She didn't want to lie to Giles, but she knew that Cordelia was just trying to find out for sure before she told him anything.

"I tell you what--if I don't know anything by next Saturday, I'll tell Giles anyway."

"Okay. You've got until then. I promised him no more secrets."

"Deal. I'll tell him one way or the other next Saturday." Cordelia promised.

"Okay." Buffy stood up and offered her a hand up. "Let's get you cleaned up. Otherwise, Giles is going to think I'm abusing his wife."

"We can't have that." Cordelia gave a soggy chuckle as she let Buffy pull her to her feet.

****

When Giles got home a little while later, Cordelia and Buffy were sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee and chatting like old friends. It never ceased to amaze him that they got along so well now. He kissed Cordelia and greeted Buffy with a hug.

"Hello, Buffy."

"Hey, Giles."

He poured himself a cup of tea that Cordelia had made for him and sat down opposite his Slayer.

"I've got to run some errands." Cordelia said as she stood up. "Buffy, I'll see you next week?"

"Yep." The Slayer nodded.

Cordelia gave Giles a quick kiss goodbye and left.

"So, what did you need to speak to me about?" He asked as he heard the front door close behind his wife.

"Actually, I wanted to tell you something that I had been keeping from you," Buffy said with more than a little hint of nervousness.

"What kind of thing?" He asked carefully.

"The kind of thing that would hurt your feelings if you heard it from someone else." Buff couldn't meet his eyes.

"What is it?" Giles kept his tone neutral.

"I called Wesley for help."

"And why would that hurt my feelings?" Giles asked patiently.

"Well, part of it wouldn't." Buffy admitted. "I needed Wesley's help discouraging a guy at work that doesn't understand the word no."

"Just for curiosity's sake, how did he help?" Giles interest was peaked. The thought of Buffy going to Wesley for a favor was definitely unusual.

"He pretended to be my boyfriend."

Giles couldn't help it; he laughed. The thought of her asking Wesley Wyndam-Pryce to pose as her significant other amused him.

"Ha, ha." Buffy, however, was not amused. "You think it's funny, but we pulled it off. I think a couple of the girls at the museum even have crushes on him now," she informed her Watcher haughtily.

"I apologize." He got himself under control. "But that doesn't sound like something that would be such a burden on your conscience."

"That's not the part I kept from you." She was nervous again.

"Then what?" Giles was getting a sense of forboding.

"I was about to lose the house." She held her breath and waited.

"You were WHAT?!?" Giles stopped himself from yelling--barely.

"Mom took out a mortgage on the house that I didn't know about." Buffy explained quietly. "She had most of it paid off, but there was still a little left and the bank was going to foreclose because of nonpayment."

"How much?" He asked tightly.

"Eight thousand dollars," was the soft answer.

"Are you still in danger of losing your home?" Giles asked evenly.

"No. Wesley helped." Buffy was unaware of how amazed she sounded. She still had trouble believing that Wesley had done.

"And how, pray tell, did he do that?" On one hand Giles was happy that Wesley had been there for Buffy and Dawn. But on the other, he was disappointed, and hurt, that Buffy had felt she couldn't come to him. Neither feeling showed on his face or in his voice.

"I'm not sure exactly." Buffy replied, unaware of her Watcher's thoughts. "I think he asked his family."

"Surely not his father?" Giles asked. He was so surprised by that little announcement, that he momentarily forgot his ire at her.

"No, I don't think it was his dad." She paused for a moment. She didn't know what the deal was with Wes' family, but apparently even Giles knew that he didn't get along with his father. "He said he talked to his mother."

"His mother?" Giles was even more surprised. From what he had heard when he was in England, Wesley had less contact with his mother than he had with his father.

"That's what he said." Buffy shrugged.

"Why didn't you come to me?" Giles asked, Wesley's familial troubles put aside.

"Because you've already had to bail me out of so many messes that I didn't want to ask you to do it again," she said as if that explained it perfectly.

"But you were willing to ask Wesley." This time he was unable to keep the hurt out of his voice.

"No." She had to make him understand. "I didn't ask him. In fact, I told him I didn't want his help with the mortgage."

"But you told him about it?" He prompted.

"It came out, Giles. I was asking for his help with Jason and it slipped out." She sighed and blew her bangs out of her eyes. "I started crying and when he asked what was wrong so I told him."

"You were crying?" Giles could count on one hand the number of times he had seen his Slayer upset enough to cry.

"Yeah, the frustration got to me and I started crying." She was still disgusted with herself about that.

"And he offered to help?"

"Yes. I told him no."

"But he ignored you?"

"Well, I thought at the time he hadn't. But after we did our thing with Jason, we were going to dinner and that's when I found out what he'd done."

"And?"

Buffy flushed. "I told him to take it back."

"I take it he refused?" Giles raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah." She laughed. "He said that he didn't think the bank would give the money back just because I didn't want to take a loan from him."

Giles chuckled.

"Anyway, I thanked him and told him I would pay him back." Buffy finished.

"I'm glad he was able to help you, Buffy," He said. "But I do wish you had come to me."

"I told you. I didn't want you to bail me out," she insisted again.

"What would you have done if Wesley hadn't aided you?" Giles asked, wondering what her answer would be.

"I don't know." She sighed. "I probably would have ended up coming to you anyway, even though I didn't want to."

"I am relieved to know that," he replied as he sipped his tea. "I would never want you to feel as though you were imposing."

"It's not that I thought you would mind. It's just that--" she trailed off.

"I understand." He nodded. "You wanted to prove that you were an adult and could handle things on your own."

"Yeah, not doing a very good job, am I?" she said morosely.

"As a matter of fact, I think you are doing very well," he assured her. "Just know you can come to me for *anything*."

"I know." She looked at her watch. "Oh man, I've gotta go. I promised Wesley I'd meet him for dinner tonight."

"You're meeting him for dinner?" This day was just full of surprises.

"Yes. I wanted to thank him for everything he did."

"That is very--kind--of you." Giles wondered just what was going on between his Slayer and Wesley.

"Not really. Jason would still be giving me grief if it weren't for Wesley. Taking him to dinner is the least I can do." She hugged him and was out the door before he could say anything else.

Giles sat down on the sofa with a huge sigh.

"Dennis?"

Papers fluttered on the coffee table.

"I wanted to be certain I was still in the same dimension." He shook his head ruefully. "Wonders will never cease."

****

Cordelia looked for Lorne at the café where they had agreed to meet. She *really* didn't want to have this conversation at the hotel. She saw him sitting at a table in the corner. It was just as well, even in L.A., he sometimes drew stares.

"Hi, sweetums. What's the secret powwow about?" Lorne asked her as she sat down.

"I've got a big problem and I need your help."

"What kind of problem?" He asked with unease. He knew the kind of problems this group of people could come up with.

"I think I'm--I mean I need to find out--." She broke off in frustration.

"Sweetie, spit it out."

"I think I'm pregnant." Cordelia said in a rush.

"You're pregnant?" He was stunned.

"I think," she clarified.

"What exactly do you want from me?"

"I don't know how my demonness is going to react to any conventional test. Do you?"

"Gynecology is not exactly my area of expertise," Lorne replied carefully.

"I know that." Exasperation with him was inescapable.

"Why me?" he asked, thoroughly confused.

"You're the only one I know that I can ask." She said it as though it made all the sense in the world.

"What about your husband?" he reminded her. "He's the Yoda of research."

"I don't want to say anything to him until I'm sure." Cordelia hedged.

"Cordelia?" Lorne asked suspiciously.

"It's true!" She defended herself. "I don't want to worry him needlessly. Anyway, I already promised Buffy that I would tell him next Saturday no matter what."

He looked at her for a long minute before shaking his head. "Fine. I'll see what I can find out."

"Thank you!" She hugged him.

"You're welcome." He hugged her back and wondered what he'd gotten himself into.

NEXT