Title: What Comes First
Author: Sharon Lent/Circe
Rating: PG
Summary: Six months have past...Doyle comes home to find things have changed.


Doyle was going home. After nearly three days in a demon
dimension being questioned by the powers-That-Be about his
intentions for the rest of his life, Doyle was going home. To
fight the good fight, not because he had things to atone for but
because the fight needed warriors, of any kind. Even the score-
keeping Doyle kind of warrior.

"Cordy." Her name was an exhalation of breath and need. It had
been three days since that incredible kiss. He'd give his life
all over again for another kiss like that. Doyle smiled to
himself. He didn't need to forfeit his life. He was going to the
office, and then he and Cordelia Chase were going out for a night
of dinner and romance. And maybe, just maybe, a goodnight kiss
too. Still smiling, Allen Francis Doyle stepped into the
dimensional portal and out into the street in front of Angel
Investigations.

To say that Angel and Cordelia were stunned to see him was an
understatement, a comparing-the-Atom-bomb-to-a-firecracker kind
of understatement. They were sitting behind Angel's desk,
flipping through books. Research. Doyle hoped that it wasn't too
important.

"Doyle!" They spoke at the same time; Angel sounded shocked and
happy, Cordy sounded shocked, confused and something else.
Something that Doyle couldn't quite put his finger on. And then
she was rounding the desk, coming toward him. Doyle opened his
arms wide for her embrace.

He ended up reeling from her resounding slap. "Aye, now that's
familiar." He muttered to himself. "What was that for?" He
demanded of Cordy. She stood just outside the reach of his arms,
hands on her hips, her eyes bright with anger and…tears?

"Aw, Princess," He murmured, moving to lay his hand on her cheek
"I'm sorry. So sorry. There wasn't any time to contact you." He
leaned down, preparing to kiss her again.

"Sorry!?" Cordelia's voice was incredulous as she pulled away
from him. She turned to face Angel. "He's sorry! Well, that
changes everything doesn't it!" She threw her hands up in the air
and made her way back to the desk. "He's sorry." As she was
walking away from him Doyle took in what she was wearing. Black
pants and a man's button down shirt, one of Angel's button-down
shirts. Well, hell.

Angel came around from the opposite side of the desk. "Doyle,
man, it is so good to see you, I can't believe you're back!"
Angel reached out to hug him. And ended up reeling from the punch
Doyle launched at him. "Damn, that familiar." The vampire
muttered, picking himself up from the floor. "Doyle?"

"What kind of scum are you?" The half-demon, totally pissed Doyle
shouted. "A man is gone three days and the first thing you do is
take his girl to bed!" He moved toward Angel and raised his fist
again. Angel backed away from him, hands held up in a placating
gesture. "Doyle, please, you don't understand…" From behind him
he could hear Cordy, mutter something that sounded like ' girl'.
But Doyle was beyond listening. "Stand your ground so I can hit
you again, you bloodsucking bastard!"

It was right about then that Harry entered the room. "You've been
gone more than three days, Francis." It was Doyle's turn to stand
speechless now. One, his ex-wife was in Angel's office; two, she
was walking around like she owned the place; and three…more than
three days? "Huh?"

"Try six months, Francis." She nodded at his dazed look. "And a
lot has changed since you've been gone." She followed his angry
gaze over to where Cordelia and Angel stood. "And it's not what
you think, either." Harry said gently and walked into the other
room.

"Six months." Doyle looked at his best friend and the girl he had
desperately wanted to sweep off her feet. Swallowing hard he
managed to ask, "What's changed?"

It was Angel who answered him first. "Well, Harry works here
now."

Doyle felt his eyebrows come together in a deep frown. "Works
here, with you and Cordy, works here?"

"That's right, Francis." Harry re-entered the room, carrying a
heavy tome. "They needed a demonologist and I needed a job. And
you can't beat this opportunity for research. Three days, you
said?" He nodded bemusedly and she smiled into the book. "There
are only a handful of dimensions where time runs slower than
here. This should be easy." Cordelia had been watching the
exchange with a disbelieving expression. They were all acting so,
so normal. Well things sure as hell weren't normal.

"And I'm pregnant, you jerk!" Cordy shouted, enraged. She
couldn't have got a better response if she'd suddenly announced
that she was a demon herself. Angel turned to her telling her,
"Cordelia, you need to calm down, this can't be good for the
baby." Harry turned to Angel in exasperation; "I'm not going to
be able to work if you're all going to be shouting at each
other." Cordy swung to face Harry, "That's what you get for
ignoring my situation to focus on his." She said, still shouting,
jerking her head to indicate Doyle who was also facing his
ex-wife. Doyle couldn't stop the breaking of his heart, or the
next words out of his mouth. "Oh, yeah, that's not what I was
thinking." He spat, "No, I didn't think they were screwing at
all." The last two words were bitten off sarcastically. He turned
to leave.

"You, you…." Cordelia couldn't seem to think of a word nasty
enough to call him. She finally settled on "Bastard!" I'm
pregnant and it's all your fault and the first thing you can do
is accuse me of sleeping with Angel! I don't believe you!" Doyle
whirled back around and Angel flinched back into a corner. He
needn't have worried.

"My fault, Princess? Mine?" Doyle couldn't contain his disbelief.
Cordy folded her arms under her breasts and Doyle finally took in
her protruding stomach. The place where she said his babe lived.
It was impossible. "The only thing I did was kiss you, Princess!"
She tilted her head and her eyes gleamed triumphantly. "Exactly!"

"I don't know who taught you the facts of life, Princess, but
even my third graders knew that you didn't get pregnant from
kissing." Suddenly tired Doyle sank down on a corner of the large
desk; a book dropped to the floor. 1001 Names for Your Baby, it
hadn't been research after all. Doyle wanted to cry. The girl he
was fairly certain that he was madly in love with said that she
was pregnant with his child after one mind numbing kiss and was
looking up baby names with the demon he called his best friend
because in the three days he'd been gone, he'd been gone for six
months.

"Your kind does." Harry's voice broke the abrupt quiet. Doyle
snorted, "If that were true, why didn't you get pregnant." He
looked up at his ex. She shrugged. "Possibly because I was on the
pill." She shrugged again "It might also explain how your mother
got pregnant." She got a far away look in her eyes, already
exploring the possibilities. "We should ask her…"

Angel interrupted her musings. "Now is not a good time, Harriet."
He tugged her arm gently trying to lead her out of the room.
"Maybe Cordelia and Doyle need some time alone to talk…" It was
Cordy who cut Angel off, both figuratively and literally,
stepping between Angel and the open doorway to the front of the
office and its door to the street.

"Oh, no. No. The time for 'alone time'" she mimed quotation marks
"was before I got pregnant. Like on a date. Or something. Alone
time before I got knocked-up would have been good." Doyle, Angel
and Harry all flinched at her razor edged tone of voice.

Cordelia turned to face Doyle. "It would have been nice" her eyes
started to tear "to at least go on one date before you left me
pregnant and alone…and pregnant."

Doyle couldn't keep the amusement at bay. "You already said
'pregnant'." But Cordy didn't smile.

"That's because I am really pregnant. It would have been nice to
know if I wanted to go on a second date with you before I spent
the rest of my life bearing and raising your children." Cordy's
voice broke and the tears started to slip down her cheeks.
"Alone." And Doyle finally got it. The emotion that had been in
her eyes when he had first walked in the door. Fear. She was
scared.

"Oh Princess." His voice was sad, awed. He reached for her and
this time she let herself be wrapped in his arms. Angel and Harry
slipped out, unnoticed. "Shh, Princess. It'll be okay. It'll all
work out, it always does." And Doyle rocked with Cordy in his
arms and the life that they had accidentally created between
them.