Title: The Assistant, part 58
Author: Sweetdoggie (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: R
Summary: Merrick didn’t die. AU
Spoilers: season 4
Disclaimer: No permission has been granted to use the characters.. They are owned by their creator, Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, WB, and Mutant Enemy. This story is non-profit and is intended solely as entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.
Buffy passed through the morning sickness stage of her pregnancy with great relief. She hated vomiting; it made her feel resentful of her condition. She had given up patrolling and had been stuck on the research side of the desk for months now and it wasn’t something designed to make her a happy camper. Giles had insisted that she spend her usual training sessions working on the mental disciplines that she had neglected before.
She learned how to enter a state of mental relaxation despite distractions which, she grudgingly admitted was kind of cool. He showed her how to block pain, something that she hoped would come in handy at the actual birth of her child.
When Merrick, Joyce, baby James and Anna had come home followed shortly thereafter by Anna’s new field Watcher, Thomas Paine, the house, which had felt empty for so long began to feel uncomfortably full. Giles was toying with the idea of moving to a larger establishment.
“At the rate we’re growing, we need dorms,” Buffy joked.
Merrick just rolled his eyes. “We have plenty of room, Rupert. You just got out of the habit of being around other people.”
The former librarian sighed. “I suppose.”
Anna’s new Watcher was a young man fresh from the Watchers’ Academy. He had some very strict ideas of what was proper and what was not and the strange household he found himself living in upset him in some sort of strange way. He was, to his surprise, jealous of Buffy and Giles’ bond. He had not yet formed that connection with Anna and it bothered him.
Wesley had counseled him that it was just as well that they hadn’t bonded yet as the girl was simply too young.
Thomas had nodded. “I understand that, but then I see what Buffy and Giles and you and Faith share and, well, I feel jealous.”
Wesley patted him on the shoulder. “It will come in its own time. Frankly, it’s not that comfortable a feeling, belonging totally to someone else.”
The Hellmouth had been suspiciously quiet. Buffy guessed that something particularly nasty was just around the corner and mentioned this at dinner one night.
“What makes you think so?” Merrick asked her curiously.
“Because that’s always the way. We get a little bit of a lull and then whammo. Some new big bad comes ricocheting out of nowhere.”
Merrick smiled indulgently, but the three Slayers exchanged glances of concern. They could feel something, something big.
Anna tried to explain. “It is just that we have all had the same feeling. It is as if there were an uneasiness. I feel as if I am waiting for something.”
Buffy and Faith nodded. “Me too,” Faith said.
It was enough to send the four Watchers into research mode. Joyce simply rolled her eyes and gave the baby a cracker to mush. She was glad to be reunited with her daughter but the communal aspects of living with this many other people was odd for her. The men trooped as a unit back into the library, each offering suggestions for books that they wanted to examine.
Buffy stood and began to clear the table. She paused to stretch and rub her lower back.
“You OK, B?” Faith asked.
“Yeah, just a backache. I’m getting really tired of feeling ooky.”
Joyce slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Not much longer now, honey. In a couple of weeks, you’ll have had the baby and be back up to snuff.”
“I hope so. It’s not that I’m not looking forward to having the baby, but I just feel stuff has happened so fast…I mean, I feel like since I was fifteen I’ve been on a very slippery slide. First, I find out I’m the Slayer, then Merrick got hurt and we moved to Sunnydale, then I start bonding with Rupert, then we get married, and then suddenly, I’m pregnant. I just wonder, what’s next?”
“Momdom?” offered Faith with a grin.
“Yeah, like I know beans about that!” Buffy retorted.
“I imagine you will find out soon enough,” Anna commented wryly.
Buffy just snorted and started filling the industrial sized dishwasher they had purchased to accommodate their growing family. She rubbed her back again. “You know, I think I’m going to go lie down. I feel weird.”
The others watched as the Slayer limped from the room, holding her lower back. Faith finished with the dishes, washed her hands and said she was off on patrol. Anna went with her.
The men were deep into research as they walked through the house to the front door. Anna told Giles that Buffy had gone to lie down. It actually pulled his attention away from his book for a moment. “I really should go check on her.”
“Just let her rest,” Anna advised. “She’s tired is all.”
Giles nodded his thanks and then Thomas showed him something in a large, leather-bound book and his attention was captured by the problem at hand. The youngest Slayer grinned and caught up with her Slayer sister.
The girls patrolled all over town that night. They had found a man wandering, lost in an alley downtown. He was acting demented, mumbling strange nonsensical things, and clearly not in touch with reality at all.
“What do we do with him?” Anna asked Faith, frowning in concern.
“I dunno. If we just leave him, he’ll be vamp bait in about ten minutes.”
“Should we, perhaps, take him to the hospital?”
Faith nodded decisively. “That’s about all we can do with him.”
The two girls steered the man down the street. Luckily, the hospital was only a few blocks away and the man was very cooperative. Faith noticed that he was clean and his clothing was in good condition. He wasn’t homeless or a vagabond. This was worrisome. He looked as if he had been simply out walking when his mind slipped away.
They got to the hospital and helped the man inside. A young intern greeted them at the desk. Faith liked the looks of him, handsome and clean cut. Oh well, she thought, I have my Wes.
“Hi. We were downtown and found this guy wandering around. We don’t know who he is, but there seems to be something really wrong with him,” Faith explained.
The intern stepped away from the desk with a frown of concern. “Hi. My name’s Ben. I’ll take care of him for you. He’s the fifth this week.”
The girls looked surprised. “What’s wrong with him?”
“We don’t know. All the victims have been found wandering around, mumbling and talking nonsense. We’ve set up a ward. They aren’t any trouble, just…lost souls, I guess.”
“That’s so…sad,” Anna remarked.
Ben nodded. “Now, do you two girls want me to call you a cab? It’s not safe to wander around town at night.”
“Uh, no. We’ll be fine. We, uh, we’re meeting friends,” Faith improvised.
“Well, be careful.”
They quickly made their way to the exit. “That was very strange,” Anna remarked.
“Yeah. The guys are going to want to know about this,” Faith replied.
“Have you ever heard of any sort of demon that makes people crazy?”
“I’m not exactly book girl, you know,” Faith chuckled meaningfully.
“Well, the sooner we get home, the sooner we can tell what we’ve found.”
Faith nodded and they set off at a brisk jog.