Title: Let that be a Lesson to you…part 8/11
Author: Sweetdoggie
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.
She decided that she’d pick the kids up at daycare before bringing Giles his lunch. That way, she wouldn’t have to come back to campus again today. Xander was tired out from his naughty behavior. He had tried to look up one of the monitor’s skirts. When Buffy asked him why, he told her that one of the other kids at the park had told him that’s where babies came from and he wanted to see. Of course, what he actually said wasn’t nearly so verbal, but she got the idea. Sighing, she apologized to the woman and hustled the kids out. They were exhausted from their big day and fell asleep in the car. That was good, she reasoned. Pulling into the drive through window of a local fast food restaurant, she got three kid’s meals and two adult combos. The kids didn’t so much as stir.
Parking the car in front of Giles’ store, she began unloading babies and by the time all four children were out of the car, Giles had come outside to give her a hand. He took Xander and the baby and carried them inside. Buffy grabbed lunch and let Tara and Anya run after him. She set the food down on the table and got everybody situated. The girls sat on phonebooks and Giles held Xander on his lap. After she had wiped off their sticky hands and faces and sternly cautioned them to touch nothing, she turned to Giles.
“How was business today?”
“Luckily, quite slow. I had several customers this morning, but nothing one person couldn’t handle. How did the daycare business go?”
She went off on a tirade about the price of childcare. “God, now I realize why politicians are always talking about this sort of thing. It’s an outrage, Giles. I don’t know how people afford this on a regular basis.”
He hid a grin behind his hand. Poor Buffy was getting an introduction into real life that she might otherwise have missed entirely. He didn’t think she was enjoying it all that much either.
“I told them they were my cousin’s kids and she and her husband had to go to England for a family emergency but didn’t want to take the kids.”
“Why did you tell them that? Why not just go with the story that they belong to us?”
“Because they expect me to know all kinds of stuff like inoculations and what childhood illnesses they’ve had and besides, I plan to continue to attend college after the kids are grown again and I don’t want to take the chance of somebody checking to see why I no longer have children.”
“Very practical. What are you going to do for the rest of the day?”
“I got Willow and Tara’s homework for the next two weeks. I thought I’d try to do enough of it so that they don’t miss too much school. The teachers said that if they miss more than two weeks they’re going to need doctor excuses to come back.”
Giles shrugged. “I’m sure I have some letterhead around with a doctor’s name on it. We can easily forge papers for them, especially if nobody bothers to check up and takes the note at face value.”
“You’re pretty good at this underhanded stuff, aren’t you?” She was curious. “Did you learn that at Watcher’s school?”
“They do teach us that we might have to compromise our principles on occasion. The Slayer must be protected from intrusive and unknowing officialdom. If faking a doctor’s note is necessary, then I have no qualms about writing one.”
“Even though this isn’t strictly to protect your Slayer?”
“Well, by extension, it is, you see. These people are our friends. They help significantly in the battle to keep you alive. By helping them, I ultimately help you, therefore, it’s worth it to me.”
She leaned over and kissed him right on the lips. “I just love you so much, Giles. You are the absolute best man I have ever met in my entire life.”
He smiled down at her. “Hardly, Buffy. I am merely practical.”
She snorted. “If more people were practical like you, the world would be a much better place to live. Now, I suppose I had better get these rug rats home.”
He helped her gather up the children and put them back in the car seats. Buffy was getting pretty tired of this little ritual but knew it had to be done. She didn’t need a ticket from the cops on top of everything else, plus, it did improve the kid’s safety and most importantly of all, it tied them down for a few minutes so they couldn’t climb all over the place.
When she got home she made everybody use the potty seat then cleaned that up. After that, she grabbed a ball and a textbook then ushered the children to the back yard. She gave them the ball, picked up the first textbook and began reading. Since her back yard was fenced, she wasn’t deeply concerned about them getting into anything dangerous and took her attention off them for a few minutes at a time. She scratched a few notes onto a tablet as she read. Suddenly, the air was split with a shrill scream. Buffy dropped her book and stood up.
Little Tara stood at the edge of the flowerbed and screamed in terrible pain. The other children stood around her and Anya patted her on the back. Xander was frightened and started crying. Buffy raced over and knelt by Tara.
“What’s wrong, Tara! What is it?”
The little girl continued to shriek and held out her hand. It was formed into a fist. Buffy pried open the little fingers and saw that the girl had apparently grasped a bumblebee that had promptly and efficiently stung her. It was still deeply imbedded in her hand. Buffy ripped the brightly colored bee out of her palm and quickly searched for the stinger, which she also removed. She pulled the little girl into her arms and comforted her. “Let’s get that bad bite washed off,” she told the child.
All of them trooped back into the house and Buffy found some calamine lotion to soothe the sting. Tara’s hand was seriously swollen and obviously very painful. Buffy was unsure what to do. She had never seen so severe a reaction to a simple bee sting before. Finally, she settled on calling a doctor’s office and explaining the situation.
“OK,” the nurse said calmly. “Here’s what you need to do. Did you get the stinger out?”
“Yes, right away.”
“Good. Now, do you have any meat tenderizer?”
Buffy looked through the spice rack and pulled a bottle of the stuff out. “Yeah.”
“Good. Now make a paste of some of the meat tenderizer and water and put it on the sting. Only leave it on for thirty minutes or less; the enzyme in the tenderizer will break down the chemicals in the bee venom. It could burn her skin if you leave it on too long. After that, you can use ice and calamine lotion. Do you have any Benadryl? Give her one of those and one tablet of acetaminophen; Tylenol or a generic is fine. Watch to make sure the allergic reaction doesn’t spread. She might be sore for several days especially as the swelling is so intense. If she develops a rash, difficulty breathing, severe fever or vomiting and abdominal cramps take her to the emergency room—don’t wait.”
“Thank you so much,” Buffy told her as she hung up the phone. She followed the directions completely and got Tara settled comfortably on the couch. She then took turns comforting the other children who were acting subdued and frightened. She explained that although some bugs were pretty they didn’t like being picked up and it wasn’t a good idea to touch them, ever.
Xander had cried till he couldn’t stop easily and his gulping, shuddering breaths broke her heart. Buffy turned on the TV and found some cartoons and soon everyone was calm again. Tara fell asleep after the Benadryl and Buffy used the opportunity to call Giles at the store.
“Hello, Magic Box,” he answered.
Buffy told him the story of the bee sting.
“Do you want me to come home, love?”
“No, I just needed to talk to somebody taller than three feet. It really scared me, Giles. I didn’t know what to do.”
“It sounds to me as if you did very well indeed, Buffy, and now, if that ever happens again, you know exactly how to counter it.”
“You make it sound like Slayer training.”
“It’s training, just not specific to Slayers. I suppose all mothers learn this sort of instant first aid. Little Tara was lucky. What if she had picked up a scorpion or a stinging centipede?”
Buffy shuddered. “Way to give me nightmares, Rupert.” They talked for another few minutes, but he had to leave to tend a customer and so rang off.
She decided that since the children were occupied, she’d use a few minutes to start a roast for supper. Anya stayed in the living room alternately watching TV and Tara while Xander followed Buffy to the kitchen. She showed him what she was doing and explained why. Having had a rather steep learning curve about cooking after her mother had passed away, she decided that a child was never too young to learn something about food preparation.
She popped the roast, complete with quartered potatoes, onions, and carrots into the oven and then picked up the curious little boy and went back to the living room. The TV was still on but Anya had fallen asleep curled up next to her temporary sister on the couch. Her little arm was draped protectively around Tara. It was one of the sweetest things Buffy had ever seen and she got the camera out and took a couple of shots.
Giles arrived home from the shop several hours later. The children, awake by that time ran to him and were enveloped in hugs. He carefully examined Tara’s swollen hand and kissed it to make it better. He carried her into the kitchen, trailed by Xander and Anya. Leaning over Buffy, he kissed her softly. “How was your day?”
“Other than the bee sting, uneventful. I did as much of the girl’s homework as I could, but some of that stuff it just beyond me. Oh, I finally remembered to call Xander’s boss and told him Xander had been called out of town for a family emergency. At least he’ll still have a job when he grows up again. By the way, any luck on that front?”
“Nothing useful. I have finally found several mentions of the artifact but nothing about reversing it’s effects.”
“Damn.” She was faintly depressed. It had already been an incredibly long three days.
“Yes, I concur.” He smiled down at her and sniffed the air appreciatively. “Something smells rather good.”
“Roast beef, with all the trimmings.”
“Mmmmm. Lovely. Would you like me to watch the children for a bit while you take a bit of a break?”
“Thanks,” she replied gratefully. “It’s not that they aren’t good, sweet kids, but…”
“I understand perfectly. It would be different if we had come by them naturally and in their proper time, but I think we have done remarkably well for having this situation thrust upon us.”
Buffy nodded, kissed him softly and went upstairs for a few minutes of time not involved with babies. She looked at her hair in the mirror and nearly shrieked. God, it was all over the place. She brushed it carefully thinking that in all the years of fighting evil, she hadn’t been this much of a mess. Children were much harder to deal with than vampires. If she had been a normal girl, like she was always moaning about in high school, she might have babies of her own by now. The thought chilled her. She might be fated to die young, but at least she wasn’t going to be bound to decades of childcare. Maybe being the Slayer did have some unexpected perks, after all. It wasn’t that she didn’t want children, she supposed, but she would have doled them out, one at a time, not four at a go.