Title: One Night, Nine Months, & Two Years 8/?
Author: DeeBeth
Feedback: there are worse things in life then flames, and not many better things than praise, but I'll settle for professional criticism.
Disclaimer: all characters, except the few I will make up as the story progresses, belong to UPN, The WB, Mutant Enemy, and of course Joss Whedon, not to mention the countless others that I don't know or have never heard of. The only thing I know for sure is that the shows (BtVS & AtS) aren't mine and I have no control over what the characters do, no matter how hard I wish, pray, and dream!
Buffy and Willow had gone to the doctor. Willow said that the doctor would be more accurate than just trying lots of home pregnancy tests. But now they knew, Buffy was defiantly beyond a shadow of a doubt pregnant. Twenty days pregnant, which was exactly how long ago she had gotten drunk and slept with her watcher. What was she going to do, Buffy told Willow it was just a one-night stand with some guy and that they were both drunk. But what would happen when they had to tell the others, not to mention Giles, he would know it was his, or would he think her sluty enough that she actually slept with another guy since him? She had been putting off going to the Magick Box as long as possible but knew that sooner or later she would have to go back. "Buffy? Hey, Buffy? Hello zone out girl, are you with me?" Dawn asked taking two pop-tarts out of their package and putting them in the toaster. Buffy was standing in the kitchen looking in the direction of the refrigerator without actually seeing it. "Oh, hey Dawn. Do you want something?" Buffy asked walking over to the refrigerator getting the orange juice out and pouring some into the glass she was holding. "Yes, I want answers, why have you been so out of it lately? Not to mention sick, I mean you can’t keep anything down the way it seems. And you haven’t been out of the house since you and Willow went some where, you still haven’t told me where, and that was three days ago." Dawn said obviously annoyed, with being kept out of whatever loop Buffy and Willow were in this time. "Dawnie, its just Slayer stuff with a little but of Heaven stuff thrown in for good measure. It’s nothing to worry about, I’ll be fine." Buffy said as she took a sip of orange juice, she hated to lie but was not willing to tell her the truth, yet. "Really? Do you still wish you weren’t back?" Dawn asked not really wanting to know, but this time it wasn’t there, that look that crossed her face for a split second until her perfected ‘happy-to-be-home’ smile masked it. This time it was just the smile. "I have never been happier to be alive." Buffy answered knowing for the first time that it was the truth. She knew it was the baby that suddenly made her out look on ‘life’ change, but what about the father? Dawn watched as something akin to desire and then despair flashed across Buffy’s face, but she knew that it didn’t have to do with Heaven this time, something else must be causing her pain after she finally excepted her life. But what? Dawn reached for Buffy and hugged her and gave her a quick peck on her check, "I love you Buffy, whatever you’re going through remember that." Buffy was so over whelmed with emotion that she thought she would cry but didn’t.
She couldn’t have another emotional outburst of tears after yesterday, when Dawn accidentally spilled her chocolate milk. Dawn asked what was wrong and all Buffy could think of was that it was the last of the chocolate milk. Then Dawn gave her a strange look and put a hand on her shoulder and said, ‘don’t cry over spilled chocolate milk’, yep that had really happened, of course as soon as the words left her mouth she and Buffy started to laugh uncontrollably. Then Willow walked in and started cleaning up the ‘spilled chocolate milk’ and started muttering about clumsiness when in a fit of laughter and was trying to figure out how or why your muscles don’t work when laughing. Before it was over all three were draped over each other laughing through tears, which is how Tara found them a good ten minutes later.
The sound of the front door shutting brought Buffy back to the present she had a goofy smile on her face that faded as she realized Dawn wasn’t there anymore, she ran to the front door and hollered out to the retreating teenager, "I love you too!" Dawn turned and waved with a huge smile and then continued on her way to school. Buffy shut the door and went to make herself some breakfast. She never was big on the breakfast thing, but being pregnant changed her mind about proper eating habits. Pregnant. She was pregnant, she was going to have a baby. It would depend on her for everything, and to add to that joy was the fact that the Father was the man she loved. But then again the Father was the cause of the numb pain she felt whenever she thought about telling everyone. There was no way Willow could keep this a secret for much longer, and her body would soon be telling everyone for her, not to mention the tell-tale symptoms of a pregnant woman. It was actually hard to believe that Tara or Anya hadn’t picked up on them yet. But she would wait at least one month before she told everyone. The doctor told her that after the first two or three months the baby was almost defiantly on the way. And because of her hectic life, there was I pretty big risk that the baby could miscarry. Buffy wanted the baby, but didn’t want everyone, especially Giles to find out about it until she knew that the baby would be all right.
Buffy had not gone on patrol for about nine days, which was when she started feeling horrible and couldn’t keep anything down. She still couldn’t believe how much better she was feeling, no nausea or shortness of breath or anything, the doctor didn’t know why the symptoms stopped but said everything was fine. Willow thought that the Slayer part of her was adjusting to being pregnant, which made since.
"That reminds me…" Buffy whispered to herself as she rinsed out her bowl, she hoped that cold cereal was nutritious enough. She decided to have a talk with Spike about helping out with everything Hellmouth related, maybe even have him come with her on patrols. There was nothing on the news about any possible vampire ‘deaths’, but she still felt guilty for not contacting Spike sooner, but guessed he must have been picking up the slack.
Buffy grabbed her jacket and went out the back door, making sure it was locked she started at a jog toward the cemetery. As Buffy came closer to Spike’s crypt she thought she saw a girl in a distance heading toward the new Sunnydale High School. "No, that can’t be Dawn…" Buffy whispered under her breath. But as she got closer she recognized the red sweater that Dawn had been wearing that morning. What could she have been doing with Spike?
As Buffy pushed opened the stone door to the crypt, Spike jumped aside and out of the stream of light that came in, "Bloody hell, you could kill a guy just swingin’ doors open like that!" Spike yelled as the Slayer made her way inside and closed the door behind her. "Who says I wasn’t trying to kill you? And what was my sister doing here?" Buffy said angrily gesturing to her surroundings and then to the offending vampire. "Who?" Spike asked as if he didn’t know what Buffy was talking about. "You know exactly ‘who’ I am talking about, Dawn, how many sisters do you think I have?" Buffy said pushing Spike against the stone wall holding a stake in the other hand, which was not lost on Spike. "Oh you mean Nibblet. She stopped by to let me know you were feeling better and would probably start patrolling again." Spike said quickly hoping her presence meant that she was coming here to say just that. "I should stake you right now." Buffy said raising ‘Mr. Pointy’. "Yes you should, I’m evil remember, the Big Bad, me vampire you slayer and all that rot." Spike said masking his uncertainty that she might actually go through with it this time. "Your right, but I’ll let you ‘live’ as long as you continue helping with patrol and anything else that the Hellmouth decides to throw at us." Buffy said hoping he would take her up on the offer and not ask why. "So does that mean I’ll be helping ‘you’ out or you’ll be helping ‘me’ out, because I have to tell you I don’t appreciate being forced to take over Slayer duties whenever you’re not feeling well." Spike said sliding along the wall and away from Buffy to sit in his worn out recliner. "What do you mean ‘forced’," Buffy said pocketing the stake as she walked closer to Spike. "I ‘mean’ your bloody Watcher marching his pansy-ass-self in here and demanding that I take over patrol until you come back," as Spike takes in the shocked look on Buffy’s face it registers, "You didn’t know did you? What are you and Mr. Likes-to-Watch not getting on then?" Buffy snapped back to the distasteful ‘thing’ addressing her. "Uh, no I didn’t, I thought you were helping out of the evil of your heart," Buffy replied in what she hoped sounded like a sarcastic manner. Even as she said it she knew it was what she thought, man this pregnancy thing must really be messing with her logical thinking.
"So will you keep helping or will I have to pay the dry cleaners to get dust out of my favorite sweater," Buffy said gesturing to the light blue sweater Giles gave her for her twenty-first birthday last month. "Use your money for something more profitable, like giving me some bloody compensation this time." Spike said lighting up a cigarette. "What? You mean you’ve been helping without pay?" Buffy asked amazed. "Don’t look so surprised, you know how Ripper gets when some one he loves needs help." He said releasing smoke in the direction of Buffy. She waved the offending toxins away saying, "What would you like for your ‘bloody’ compensation?" Thinking instead that Spike knew that Giles loved her, but how did he think Giles loved her? "Well, money, blood, cable? All of thee above." Spike listed smugly. Hoping Spike didn’t notice her delayed reply, Buffy answered quickly, "No to the blood unless it’s pigs, and no to the cable because as far as I know cemeteries don’t have access to it." Grinding his cigarette into the armrest of the tattered recliner, Spike replied, "So that leaves money then, fine by me."
"I guess we can work something out, but you’ll have to wait until I get some cash." Buffy said turning to leave. "When ‘you’ get some cash? Why not have your Watcher shell out the dough?" Spike said switching on the TV, flipping through the channels in search of a Passions rerun. When he didn’t get a response he looked up in time to see the heavy stone door close. "Wonder what’s going on between Watcher and Slayer now." He muttered finding Passions and settling in until Dawn got out of school.
Buffy walked out of the cemetery in turmoil, she needed to get a job. The bills were piling up, not to mention the bank was going to take away the house unless she paid the mortgage. And now there was the small matter of paying Spike, and Lord knew that wouldn’t be cheap. This time she couldn’t go running to Giles for help she would have to figure this out on her own, this thing called life.