Title: Tomorrow Chapter 18
Author: Madsdog
Rating: PG-13
Site: http://www.geocities.com/madsdog13

The scream was panicked and painfilled, and when everyone had turned back, Willow was on the floor, propped against the shelves. She moved and Giles ran forward, noticing something on the floor where she'd been, he ran a finger through the substance and brought it up to his face before it registered.

"Blood."

"What?"

"She's bleeding- call an ambulance." Everyone remained immobile for a moment, before Dawn ran to the counter and began dialling, and Anya moved forward toward the couple on the floor. Giles' head turned and gave her a hard stare.

"I was trying to help Giles, really I was."

"Well you didn't. Now leave."

"No."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said no- I promised I'd be there for her, I'm not going to stop just because you're here being all macho." Willow's hand crept out and took a hold of Anya's on the floor beside her as another scream left her throat. Putting on a brave face, the retailer assumed nothing was broken and ignored the pain.

"It hurts."

"I know honey, the ambulance will be here soon, don't worry."

By the time the paramedics did arrive, the bleeding was accompanied by even more painfilled cries from Willow, and Anya had given up on the hope that her hand might survive in one piece.

After they'd loaded Willow into the back of the ambulance and allowed both Anya and Giles in with her- him because he was the father and her because Willow wouldn't let go- although technically it wasn't allowed, the ambulance took off, leaving Dawn, Buffy and Wesley on the pavement behind them.

"I hope the two of you are happy with what you've done." Dawn growled.

"Dawn, I didn't-"

"Maybe you didn't mean to almost get her killed- but just now, in the shop, that was wrong- why couldn't you just leave her alone?"

"Daw-"

"I'm going to find Xander, get him to give me a lift to the hospital. Think about it Buff." The teenager took off at a run.

"You know, she might have a point. Ahh!" Buffy's fist connected with the ex-watcher's face before she too, sped off.

***

"Mr Giles, I'm pleased to announce that you have a healthy baby boy." Flabbergasted, Giles' mouth opened and closed as he was handed the infant in a hospital gown.

"And Willow?"

"The anaesthetic will wear off in half an hour or so, when she'll have to feed your son. It's very important that a child gets its first feed from its mother."

"Anya?"

"Ms Emerson is sat with your partner- she's dedicated that one. I think she deserves to see the little man." Nodding, the Englishman walked towards the room the doctor had pointed at and looked in the window. Willow, unnaturally asleep, was lying in the bed while Anya sat beside her, holding one of Willow's hands to her face and talking softly to the patient. Then he looked down. Silently, his son looked back at him, tongue out, blue eyes wide. He recalled from somewhere that all babies' eyes are blue before they changed colour and he hoped one day he'd have another pair of greenish-hazel ones to look into.

"Well- here's a how-de-do. You must have had quite an eventful nine months, but you're lucky, you have one of the best mothers in the world, who appears to have one of the best friends in the world," he looked up once again at Anya before returning to his son, "I wonder if the two of them have come up with a name for you yet. I came up wit a few- Colin, Stephen, Matthew- all good names. But seeing as you're a mini-scoobie, I figure you'll have to have something much more unique- Nathaniel, Wade, Frances- something like that. What do you think?" He looked up again through the door and this time his gaze was met. Smiling, he nudged the catch and pushed the door open.

"You look tired Anya." She ignored the implied question and nodded to the bundle.

"Is he okay?"

"He's fine- thanks to you." He crossed the room and offered the baby to her. "Thank you." She took the boy, smiling radiantly.

"He's so beautiful."

"Isn't he just."

"We missed you- all of us. Even Xander I think."

"I wish I hadn't gone, but-"

"Yeah. There's always that 'but'." They were quiet for a moment.

"Do you want to tell me why you're not a married woman?"

"Long story. Xander left."

"It's not that long then. He's gone?"

"No, he's around- he left me, left the wedding."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay- I had Willow. She knew what I was going through."

"But still..." He stepped up to her and put an arm over her shoulders before pulling her to him into a hug, mindful of the precious bundle between them and they stood there for a minute, silent until they were interrupted.

"Aren't I meant to be in that picture?" The pair raised their heads to see Willow, lying on her side, smiling at them.

"You're not supposed to wake up for another," Giles glanced at his watch, "twenty minutes."

"Sorry- I always was impatient when it came to seeing you." He smiled, somehow reminiscent and awkward at once, before looking back at Anya.

"We have a son." Taking her cue, she walked over to the bed and handed the baby to Willow. Immediately he started crying.

"Hey, hey... what's up? You're not supposed to start crying just cos I've got you."

"The doctor said he'll want feeding." Willow looked up, terrified.

"I have to feed him?"

"Yes Willow, all human beings need nourishment- otherwise they die." Giles shot Anya a withering look.

"But... but I don't know how. They didn't give me lessons on that back in high school- or if they did I missed it, which never happened, so no... they mostly focussed on how to not get pregnant, not what to do when you did."

"It's easy, all you have to do is-"

"You had lessons on breast-feeding?"

"Willow, I never went to school, they weren't really invented for women eleven hundred years ago- but what there *were* lots of then was babies. So, if Giles could give us some privacy..."

"Oh, um... yes, I'll just go find Dr Drayman, let him know you're awake."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

*** THREE HOURS LATER ***

"I come bearing coffee."

"Oh Anya, you are the new goddess."

"I know." The two women smiled at one another, the elder moving to sit at the head of the bed with the other, facing the room and Giles, who was in a chair in the corner, watching both the bed and the door.

"Do you think that breast-feeding and caffeine mix? The last thing we want is a two day old boy on a high."

"He'll survive."

"It's not him I'm worried about." There was silence for a moment, the baby asleep, the women drinking and Giles just watching. Eventually Willow looked up and asked the question she'd been avoiding.

"Are you going to tell us at some point why you're back in America?"

"Isn't it enough that I am?"

"I wish it was, but..."

"When I spoke to Buffy, I realised something must have happened for her to know about us, I kept running all these scenarios through my head, none of them very good and... I realised I couldn't lose you, if any one of the things I thought of were true, then I wouldn't have survived, so, I looked into some Council records and discovered the truth... it's taken me since then to get here."

"You're so melodramatic." Willow rolled her eyes.

"How so?"

"'If anything had happened to me you wouldn't have survived'?"

"It's true Willow." She looked down at her hands, awkward, playing with the rings there. The fingers of her left hand settled on the twisted band that had been padded to fit her thumb.

"How long are you here for?"

"Until Travers tracks me down and hauls me back to England I expect."

"I have to ask, you know I do. If he wasn't here," she indicated the crib by her bed, "would you be here?"

"Y-"

"Honestly- think about it, don't just answer." He was silent for a moment, then;

"I still love you, you know."

"That wasn't the question Rupert." He sighed internally- but he also smiled: She'd called him Rupert, as long as she called him that there was hope.

"To be honest, I don't know. If you hadn't been pregnant then when I spoke to Buffy and, later, Dawn, they wouldn't have said anything to make me suspicious and made me look into it. But at the same time... you don't know how much I've missed you Willow..."

"I can guess." His smile was bittersweet.

"I'd have come back... somehow, at some point. Knowing all this was happening gave me extra motivation."

"How did you manage it?"

"With difficulty."

"You got here though- when it mattered."

"Do you want to tell me what all that was about? In The Magic Box."

"It was probably just my maternal madness pills kicking in. It was nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing that has to be dealt with now. And you're changing the subject." Sighing the ex-watcher stood and moved to Willow's side, perching on the edge of the bed before taking her hand in his.

"Willow-"

"Sorry- can you just move about a foot to your left?" He did so, slightly puzzled. "Sorry, I just couldn't see him." She nodded to the crib again, smiling slightly at her sleeping son.

"Willow, I would do anything to stay here with the two of you, but I don't think I can, I think that Travers and E-" Her hand covered his mouth before he could finish.

"Don't say it, I know. And I know we're not safe, but there's nothing I can do about either except keep trying to fight it as it comes. One day I'm going to lose and either me or my son will be gone, if not both of us. It's no good planning, promising, because it's too unpredictable. I just... I wish that the three of us could be together, that I knew who to trust, that Travers and the Council weren't trying to kill him, that Eliza didn't want you as her husband anymore, for any reason..."

"Done."

***

Somewhere over The Atlantic Quentin Travers looked down at his notes: 'Retrieve Rupert Giles' was written across the top of today's page in his diary.

"Retrieve Rupert Giles? Honestly, I'm in charge and I'm going to LA- hang Rupert Giles, I'm going to have some fun." He said to himself.

He stood and took his hand luggage from over his head before going to the plane toilet to change. He returned to his seat five minutes later in shorts, sandals and a bright orange hawaiian shirt.

***

"And all I have to do is sign here?"

"Yes Mrs Giles." Eliza picked up a pen.

"How blonde am I?"

"Your hair is brown Mrs Giles." She rolled her eyes.

"I've been wanting to divorce this man, like, forever, and all that time I only had to sign and send it to him. Gawd. Maybe I can marry the man I want to now."

***

"Anya?"

"Yes."

"What does 'done' mean?" Giles' eyes were wary.

"I thought you two were the brainy ones. Wish granted, your will be done etc. etc."

"You're a demon again?"

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"Since... Xander?"

"When else?"

"Oh." Willow seemed to come out of her state of shock then to ask;

"Are there going to be any horrid side effects from this, any vamp-mes or exploding heads?"

"Nope."

"None?"

"No- you worded your wish in the present so nothing previous can change, plus I like you- and D'Hoffryn likes you, we're not going to cause chaos for you. From now on everything will be as it was- except Giles' divorce papers ar in the mail, Travers has some other insignificant detail to focus on, the two of you stand a chance and little Jack isn't going to have every mercenary in the world after him." giles and Willow looked at each other before both saying;

"Little Jack?"

"Hey! I didn't mean- I mean... Jack for a boy, Jill for a girl until you give them a name. That's what I was always taught."

"He's safe?"

"Well, not safe, but he's got the same chance as any other male infant."

"Oh Anya!" Willow flung her arms around the blonde who smiled awkwardly and patted her shoulder. "I love you. If I hadn't just had Giles' baby I'd marry you here and now. Why did you never tell us?"

"It's not easy: 'Hey everyone, I just thought I'd let you all know that I've reverted back to my evil ways. Don't slay me.'"

"You weren't evil- annoying as hell and manipulative, but not evil."

"Sure, if you say so."

"You weren't!"

"You just hated me for the hell of it?"

"Well no- but I'm not perfect either."

"Course you are. Anyway, I'd better go speak to Buffy, Dawn, Xander and Oz."

"They're here?"

"Dawn wouldn't leave and Oz is looking after her- they were both asleep last time I checked though. Not that I blame them- the amount of time it took you to give birth to one little baby..."

"Hey! You try it."

"No. Thank. You. I'd rather give up sex. Maybe."

"Well then." Anya smiled then walked to the door.

"And you two work things out. At least one, well, two of us deserves to be getting orgasms." She exited the room, leaving the remaining couple in awkward silence.

"Should-"

"Are-" They spoke at the same time, then laughed.

"You first." Willow said. giles cleared his throat.

"I was just... I mean should..."

"Just ask me Rupert."

"Is it worth me renewing my green card?" She looked at him, thinking, and he waited a good minute before his heart sank and his head followed. "Well, in that case I should just..." He stood, the five paces to the door feeling like a mile as he tried to make his escape. His hand was on the handle before he heard it.

"Wait." He froze, hoping beyond hope that her next words would be- "I thought we were going to live in England." Giles spun, thinking he'd heard her right, but not daring to believe that...

"What?"

"We always said that if we had a family we'd raise it in England, in London or Bath. Possibly Norwich."

"You want to move?"

"Not at all, but it's what we always agreed- and away from the hellmouth will be good." His face broke out in a grin and he took a step back into the room.

"Bath, Norwich and London are worlds apart you know. Kind of like saying New York, New Orleans and Sunnydale."

"Huh. What do you think of Richard?" Giles looked over at the sleeping baby.

"You want to name your son after the mayor? My vote's on Colin." Willow grinned.

"As in Colin Firth?" He remembered the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice he'd shown her a year or so ago, and the fixation she'd suddenly had on Mr Darcy. His child was not going to be called the same as some ponse she fancied.

"Okay not Colin. How's Gareth." She made a face.

"Zane."

"Because that won't lead to ridicule."

"So I've been reading Anita Blake- shoot me." Giles sat on the end of the bed. This was going to be a long conversation.

***

"Veritae."

~?~?~?~

"Wesley I need your help."

"Willow's in trouble."

"Goodbye William."

"Oz, can you help us?"

"No magic on or around Will, I'm serious."

"I told you no magic."

"I love you Will. Please be alright."

"Is she okay?"

"It's a boy?"

"Can I see them?"

~?~?~?~

"Goddess Buffy, I'm so sorry... I don't know, I think I went crazy."

"It's okay, I shouldn't have pushed you, it's just... I think it's that I've been such a bad friend recently- I was over compensating, I was almost desperate for you to be okay with me."

"So... friends again?"

"You betcha. So long as we make certain promises about keeping secrets."

"Like the fact you slept with Spike?"

"Hey! That was... nothing compared to you being engaged to Giles for three years. And how did you know anyway?"

"Buffy, you just had me perform two truth spells on you. How do you think I knew?"

"So we're good?"

"We're good."

"Good. So where is he?"

"Who, Giles?"

"No- your son." Willow grinned at Buffy giddily for a moment. "Hello? Earth to Willow?"

"Sorry, but... I have a son." And Giles chose exactly that moment to walk through the door, followed by Xander, Anya, Dawn and Oz, with said baby. Instantly Willow sat up, holding her arms out and the father crossed the room to place him in them. "Look at him. This is my baby." Buffy smiled at her.

"He's beautiful."

"Really?"

"How could he not be? Look at the raw material." Willow, still beaming, adjusted her hold and extended a hand out to Giles. He took it and she pulled him over to stand by the bed next to her. Together they faced the rest of the gang.

"Guys- I'd like you all to meet Christopher Giles."

SPOILERS FOR SEASON SEVEN FINALE- don't worry if you don't want to read it 'cos of that, it's nothing vital, just an extra little bit that the last episode *ever* [sobs] of Buffy inspired me to write.

EPILOGUE (Spoilers for S7 Finale)