Author: Circe, circex@netscape.net Title: Lover Lay Down Part: 6 Disclaimer: If I owned them, Doyle would never have died. Ever. 'Nuff said. Disclaimer for story title at the end. Rating: Umm, well go PG-13 on this one. Some kissing, etc. But not much of the etc. stuff. Status: The story is complete, the series is too. Summary: Pairing D/C. Set after ‘Once More, From the Top’. Just a quick look on what Cordy and Doyle’s life is like after their talk. Other: Feedback cherished. Dedicated to…aw heck, it’s the end of the series. Dedicated to everybody who’s read the whole thing! The sound of a baby’s cry roused him, as it often did. Doyle’s feet hit the floor before his eyes had even fully opened. He didn’t need the clock to tell him that his daughter wanted her breakfast in the wee hours of the morning. In the bed, Cordelia barely stirred. Doyle took a moment to stare and marvel at his sleeping wife. Curled on her side in sleep, she looked no different than she had the day he’d first met her. And she was his. The familiar feelings of love and happiness stirred within his heart as he made his way to the kitchen for a bottle. Life was a wonderful thing. A bottle full of baby formula floated past Doyle and down the hall to the nursery. Dennis. Turning, Doyle followed the bottle and the invisible ghost down the hall. His daughter’s cradle was gently rocking and the bottle hovered above her when he entered the room, as he watched the bottle lowered to the baby’s lips. She ate in fast, greedy gulps. “Shhh, now.” Doyle soothed, running his fingers over the dark, downy hair on his child’s head. “It’s alright, Da’s here.” He didn’t dare pick her up; knowing from experience that if he did she could well be awake until the sun came up. His child’s blue eyes popped open, and she watched her father seriously for a moment. Doyle smiled softly and ran his fingers over her cheek. “Go back to sleep, sweetlings.” He murmured, hushed. As the bottle grew empty her lids lowered and her breathing grew even again. The baby rolled over in her sleep, settling on her stomach and Doyle wasn’t certain if it were the baby’s doing or the doings of the ghost who was now patting her back in an attempt to get her to burp, which she did a few moments later. “I don’t know how we’ll manage without you when we move, Dennis.” Doyle sighed, settling into the rocking chair. He set it to rocking in time with the rocking of the nearby cradle. “I mean, aside from getting up for the two a.m. feedings, you’re a whiz at diaper changing and getting a crabby little one off to bed.” He sighed deep in his chest and looked at the empty space beside his child’s bed. “And Shannon is going to miss you something fierce, Din.” The cradle stilled and Doyle wondered if he’d said the wrong thing by bringing up the current move. But facts were facts; Cordelia’s old apartment was just too small for the all of them. “You don’t have to, you know.” Startled, Doyle jerked his head in the direction of the voice. He’d heard Dennis speak before, of course, it was just that he’d thought the ghost had left. That and Dennis very rarely spoke to anybody. His voice, it seemed, was reserved almost exclusively for singing his daughter to sleep. “There’s probably a spell that you and Angel and Cordelia could work to bring me over to your new place.” The ghost continued. “I’m not tied to this place, really. I could move on if I really wanted to. Once you leave, I probably will.” Touched Doyle reached out a hand to the invisible being. “Din, I don’t know what to say. Why would you want to stay?” And he really did wonder. The apartment was the scene of the most horrific event of Dennis’s life, and the start of his un-life. What in the world could make the ghost want to stay? His and Cordy’s, mostly loving, bickering? Their arguments. The baby’s midnight screams? Tantrums? His emotions must have showed on his face because he heard the phantom laugh. “It’s not all bad. Even when it is bad, it’s good.” Dennis explained. “Being here, with you and Cordelia and your family and friends, it’s like having a chance to live the life my Ruby and I never got to have. I’ve missed life, both the good and the bad. And I like you, so I stay. Once you’re gone, I don’t know if I want to try to live with anybody else. So I’ll go.” The ghost paused. “Unless you meant what you said, about missing me. If you want to bring me with, I’d love to stay with all of you.” The spirit’s eloquent speech and the very real feelings behind the words that he had spoken moved Doyle. “Of course, Dennis. Of course we’d love to bring you to the new place. Angel and I’ll start looking for a spell tomorrow. Heck, Angel might already know one.” Excited and a bit relieved Doyle continued. “Wait until you see the new place! It’s got these huge windows upstairs, and the basement has a opening into the sewers for Angel to use whenever he wants to come over…” The spirits laugh cut short his ramblings. “I know, Allen Francis. You and Cordelia have talked about little else since you decided to move.” Doyle felt a soft shove at his shoulder. “Now, you should go back to bed, your daughter will be waking you up soon enough. And I need to rest yet tonight.” Doyle felt Dennis leave the room, to go to wherever it was that the spirit went when he was not in the apartment. Smiling and feeling as though he’d settled something very important Doyle went back to his bed and his wife. “Mmhh,” Cordelia sleepily rolled over to face her husband, “You give Kelly her bottle?” Doyle wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “Din gave it to her.” He placed a small kiss on her forehead and settled onto his back. Cordelia snuggled into his shoulder and threw a leg over his. He yawned, contented. “Checked on Shannon?” Doyle sighed, an earthquake had once failed to wake their firstborn child, and her sister’s crying certainly had not and probably would never wake her from her sound sleep. He often thought, affectionately, that Shannon took after her mother in that respect. “I didn’t have to. She never stirred and even if she had, Dennis would have put her back to sleep. The man has a magic touch.” Doyle paused, and took a mental plunge, only now realizing that he hadn’t consulted his wife on Dennis’s moving in with them. “Oh, and Dennis said he’d like to move to the new place with us. I told him we’d love to have him.” Cordelia sat bolt upright, the blankets falling around her waist, and stared down at her husband. “Dennis is moving with us? He’s going to live in the town house with us?” Doyle was fairly certain that he was dead, Cordelia would surely kill him. But his wife surprised him yet again. “Good, once we get settled into the new house, and Kelly starts sleeping through the night, we can start trying for that boy.” She leaned over him a glint in her eyes that never failed to thrill him. Their soft laughter filled the midnight stillness as he tugged her mouth down for a kiss, pulling her flush against his body. She pushed away from him, still laughing and playfully thumped his shoulder. “Next time you want to invite a ghost to live with us, find out if he baby-sits first!” Doyle rolled until he was braced over Cordelia and had her pinned beneath him. “I already knew Din baby-sat.” He nuzzled his face between her neck and shoulder, placed a soft kiss at the curve there. “Doesn’t that earn me some kind of reward?” She moaned softly and arched into him. Doyle drew back and rested his forehead against hers, a familiar gesture. “I love you, Princess.” “I love you, too.” She tipped her head and kissed him softly, just a brush of lips. She glanced at the clock and then wound her arms around her husband’s neck. “We have at least two hours before Shannon decides it’s time to be awake for the day and about four before Angel expects us in for work.” She arched one eyebrow, “We could try to go back to sleep, or…”She moved her hips against his. Doyle laughed again at the amazing woman below him and kissed her hard and deep. And as they laughed and made love in the early morning quiet, with their children asleep and their friends safe for the moment, Doyle was never more certain that life was a wonderful thing. Not the End. ________________________________________________________________________________ Author’s Notes, part two. I used to hate the Dave Matthew’s Band. Couldn’t stand ‘em. Then I listened to the song ‘Crash Into Me.’ I still didn’t like the band, but I kinda liked the song. So I listened to it again. And again. Until I realized that I was in love with the Dave Matthews Band. I love the song ‘Lover Lay Down’ from their cd ‘Under the Table and Dreaming’. It’s the song that inspired this fic and if you’ve heard it you probably know why, is’t also why I ended the story with the words ‘not the end’ even though it’s the last in series. So, here’s the words for everybody else. Spring sweet rhythm dance in my head Slip into my lover’s hands Kiss me won’t you kiss me now And sleep I would inside your mouth Don’t be us too shy Knowing it’s no big surprise That I will wait for you I will wait for no one but you Oh please lover lay down Spend this time with me Together share this smile Lover lay down Spend this time with me Walk with me, walk with you Hold my hand your hands So much we have dreamed And we were so much younger Hard to explain that we are stronger A million reasons life to deny Let’s toss them away See you and me we Lay down look see She and he By my lover’s side Together share this smile Each other’s tears to cry Together share this smile Lover lay down Oh please, oh please lover lay down Oh please, lover lay down And you weep Lover lay down Cause it’s over Lover lay down Say love, say love, say love, say love, say love And it’ll move you Could I love you, could you love me Could I love you, could you love me Could I love you, could you love me Could I love you, could you love me Darling it’s all the same All the same ‘Til we dance away Until we dance away ‘Til we dance away ‘Til we dance away Chasing me all around Leading me all around in circles Chasing me all around Leading me all around in circles Say…