Chapter Text
Prologue
“Oh thank you, Angel!” The princess squealed. She looked like she wanted to hug him, but Angel leaned back out of her reach. “I can't wait to begin this healing-”
Angel held up one of his upper hands. “Wait a minute, Princess. I ain't in this for redemption.”
The one eyed woman with the dumb name started grumbling in Spanish about a waste of time.
“And I ain't wasting your time!” Angel snapped. He was speaking English but Vaggie looked shocked that he understood her. “If you must know, I'm a single mother looking for a safe place for my kid.”
Charlie burst out laughing, while Vaggie still looked sour. After agreeing he would be at the Hotel tomorrow, they let Angel out of the limo, with a generous amount of money that would hopefully placate Val. He really hadn't been in a good mood lately (understatement of Angel's entire life and afterlife).
When Angel arrived back at Val's penthouse, Val wasn't there, just Kitty. Normally this would be a relief, but under the current circumstances...
Angel hurried to one of the smaller rooms in the penthouse. It was red like every other room, though there were blue flashes from that stupid disco ball mobile. A room full of faces, faces of ugly stuffed animals. One animal was not stuffed, a spiky multi-eyed little hell-pig dutifully curled up under what looked like a weird mix between a fancy cage and a bed.
“Good boy, Nuggsie,” Angel whispered, petting his pig. “At least someone is responsible.”
A high little cry came from the room, not from the pig. Angel reached down and picked up a fluffy purple caterpillar in an impractical silk nightie. He held her close and she quieted. Angel glared at the bottle in the crib. At least it clearly had not been filled with chocolate milk this time; that made his poor bambina puke. Even though Kitty was not programmed to be a nanny, she was still better at childcare than Val, though that was a very low bar considering all of the horrible things Val had done over the past five months. Angel looked ruefully at the leftover webbing on the door frame, a reminder of just three nights ago when he finally accepted his child would not be safe here.
“It'll be okay, bambina,” Angel whispered, before taking out his phone. Thankfully Val had “allowed” him to have it back, and he speed-dialed the first number. “Hey, Cherri, ya wanna blow stuff up?”
He avoided swearing around the baby, unlike Val. Hopefully the little one's first words would not be a mix of the profanities she heard from her father, and if things went right tonight, they wouldn't be.”
“Comin' right over, Mama!” Cherri said with a laugh, as Angel began to pack the baby's things. He only picked up essentials, and his poor baby had never cared for the stuffed animals anyway.