AUTHOR: Goddess Isa
EMAIL: goddessisa@aol.com
SUMMARY: Willow and Xander get a surprise out of their prom night escapades. Alternates in Xander and Willow's POV It ends corny and I don't care =)
SPOILER: My prom night story, A Night At The Bronze available at - http://www.members.fanfiction.net/index.fic?action=story-read&storyid=273888
DISTRIBUTION: Sure, just email me & lmk where it's going - I like seeing my name in print =)
FEEDBACK: Please, I'd hate to have to Slay for it. =P
RATING: TV-14
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, Joss Whedon does. If he ever decides to give them to me, that would be nice. =) 'In Your Room' is a kick ass tune by The Bangles & you know, I can't find my 80s collection with them on it anywhere. Totally depressing.
I never thought of Willow's bedroom as a battle station.
However, the day after graduation, that was what it became.
"There are only three more months before I move," she said quietly.
"We move," I reminded her. "We said we'd go together."
"Whatever," she muttered, under her throat. She threw a plastic package at me. I picked it up.
Why on Earth was she throwing me Stayfree Ultra Thin?
"Oh, gee, thanks honey, but my time of the month was last week."
"Really. Mine was the week before the prom."
I believe my heart stopped, my voice box broke and my knees gave out as soon as she uttered those words.
"Xander!" she slapped me. "Xander get up! I'm the one who's supposed to faint!"
"You're pregnant?!?!" I demanded.
"I don't know yet!" she yelled back. "I was too scared to buy one of those home pregnancy tests. I've been to Rite-Aid a hundred times. Each time I go there, I wind up running out fast with something I never needed in the first place, like black nail polish--"
"You could give that to Buffy."
She shot me a Look. "Or hairspray or a teen music magazine or something." she sighed. "You know Xander, I truly don't feel pregnant."
"That's because if you are pregnant, you're not even a month along."
"Xander. Don't you think before you speak?"
"My mother never taught me to!" I said defensively.
She rolled her eyes. "The prom was at the end of April. Today is June third. Do the math."
I paused. "Like five weeks?"
"Bingo."
"So we go get one of those home pregnancy things and we stop stressing."
"Easy for you to say," I heard her mutter.
It was sometime between then and the sex in her bathroom that the war broke out.
*****
"Why do I have to run in and buy it?"
Willow was shivering in the front seat of 'my' car. "Because you're the guy and you're the one who did this if this is a this. Actually, it's not a this, it's an it. Well, no, I hate when people refer--"
"I'll be right back." I ran out of the car as fast as I could and into the 7-11.
The clerk was smoking something that wasn't nicotine in the back of the store and didn't even notice me. I picked up a couple of movie magazines, a bag of Ruffles and a Big Gulp before I got down to business. I picked out the cheapest one, still nearly twenty dollars, and went up to the register.
The guy didn't move from his corner. "Twenty dollars."
I took the bargain and ran.
"You got other stuff?" Willow asked, glancing in the bag. "Movieline magazine?"
"I was nervous."
She shook her head but opened the Ruffles.
"Oh no. Cravings?"
"Nausea."
I said silent prayers as we drove back to her place.
*****
"So do your parents just want to live in India now?" I asked. They'd been there at least two months, maybe more. They'd just sent for Willow to pack more of their things and ship them over there to them.
"I guess so. It's a big enough deal to them that they missed my graduation, I'm assuming they like it there."
"I thought they were researching some group for a thesis or something."
"Even I don't know anymore." she came out of the bathroom and set the box on her dresser.
"Well?"
"I didn't do it."
"Why not?"
"It says you have to do it in the morning for accurate results."
I glanced at my watch. "It's after midnight."
"Yes, late, and I'm tired." she came over to me and kissed my lips. "Good night. I love you. Now go sleep on the couch."
"Why?"
"Xander, we can't keep our hands off of each other in the bathroom for God's sakes. Do you really think we could keep our hands to our selves if we were in bed together?"
"I wouldn't want to try," I muttered. Still, I took the sheets she gave me and the final kiss and went to the couch. At least I could dream about her from there.
*****
"Well?" Xander kept saying.
"Can you pee under pressure?" I asked. I didn't mean to snap at him, but I was frustrated. I'd been sitting in there for fifteen minutes, and I hadn't been able to pee three frickin' drops on a stick. Nerves are a killer.
"I've never tried," he admitted.
"Not even for a school physical?"
"The peeing part never made me nervous. I always freak when they want to listen to your heart."
"Why?"
"What if there's no heartbeat?"
I rolled my eyes. "Try singing to me."
"Willow...I love you, but..."
"We're going to be here all morning and if it's not morning it won't be accurate and if it's not accurate we'll have to do another one and you will have to buy it."
He sighed. "When you wish upon a star--"
"Something current!"
He paused. "What was that song at the prom?"
"There were many. I don't remember any of them."
"How about the Beatles then?"
"The Beatles didn't play at our prom." I paused. "Did they?"
"No, I don't think so, but I like that song they sing a lot."
"Fine, sing the Beatles." h "Well, we were just seventeen, you know what I mean, and before too long, I fell in love with her....."
*****
Ten minutes later, I was back in the bedroom with him. We were watching the stick anxiously. I was also listening to the ticks of my clock. If there was no colour change in five minutes, we weren't pregnant. Which actually means I'll need to figure out exactly why I couldn't keep any food down other than Ruffles yesterday.
"Maybe we shouldn't watch it," Xander suggested. "You know, maybe it's like the pot."
I looked at him blankly.
"You know, a watched pot never boils. Buffy used to wonder what would happen if no one was watching Giles. Get it? 'Cause he's her Watcher?"
I rolled my eyes, which made him smile. I set the stick on my nightstand and laid down on my back. Xander laid next to me and took my hand in his. "Xander?"
"Hmm?"
"You never said what we would do if it was blue."
"I thought it turned pink for positive."
"Same difference. The ones on TV turn blue."
"If it's purple or green, it doesn't matter, I'll do what you want to do."
"What do you want to do?"
"I want to not be pregnant," she whispered. "If I am though, I'm going to accept my responsibility and have the baby."
"Our responsibility," he said softly. "I'll help you take care of him. Or her."
"When I was little, I used to play with my Barbies and Kens and pretend they were us."
"Hense the Barbie with the Crayola hair."
I laughed, remembering the doll I'd ruined with my red finger paint in an effort to make her hair look like mine.
"I used to stick Kleenex inside the one doll's belly to make her look pregnant, and then she and the Xander/Ken doll would have their baby and it would be a boy and you'd want to name him Harris."
He gave me a very strange look. "Harris Harris?"
I laughed. "I was six."
The alarm on my clock went off. That blasted Bangles song was playing.
//I love it in your room at night
You're the only one who gets through to me\\
I slammed it off and then looked to Xander. I took the stick off the night table and together, we looked at it.
Two lines.
One white.
One pink.
*****
"What are we going to do?" I asked her in a voice just above a whisper. I never really thought it would be pink, so I never thought we would have to worry.
"We're going to get another test later, and take it tomorrow, to be sure." she stood up. "I have to go puke now."
I waited until she was gone to start crying, because I truly didn't know what else to do. Don't people usually freak out when they find these things out?"
*****
I know it's going to sound absolutely ridiculous, but I was almost....happy, when I got into the bathroom. Hidden in the sanctuary of its white walls, I threw up, and then I washed my face and thanked God. I guess for making me lucky enough to get pregnant. I told myself I was going to tell Xander I really, really wanted to have this baby, if I ever got up from the toilet. I had another wave of nausea everytime I tried to leave the bathroom. That may have been psychological.
*****
"It's okay that you can't eat," Xander said later that night. "I'm hungry enough to eat the whole thing."
The pizza came, and I stayed in the living room while he ate it because the smell was getting to me. I sipped my flat Sprite, leftover from the Big Gulp last night, and watched the Blame Game on MTV. The couple was about two seconds away from making out to prove a point when Xander popped back in and shut the set off.
"I was watching that."
"Time to discuss the baby."
I sighed. "I wanna have it Xander."
"So we get married."
"I'm not ready. I know my father's goal for my freshman year of college wasn't a shotgun wedding and a new baby."
"Can I say something corny?"
"What's stopping you?" I smirked.
He made a face. "One time, Buffy told me that sometimes Fate deals you the crappiest cards because only you know what to deal with them. I'm not saying the baby is a crappy card, but he or she is a fork in the road we weren't counting on, and maybe this is a sign."
"Of what? That I shouldn't be a doctor? That we shouldn't move? What?"
He sighed. "I think it's a sign that we were meant to be."
"I didn't need a sign to tell me that."
He moved closer to me. "Really?" He leaned in to kiss me but I pushed him away.
"I'm sorry honey, it's the garlic from the pizza."
"I'll go brush my teeth." he headed for the bathroom.
"Be sure to rinse all the minty smell out of your mouth before you come down. That bothers me too."
*****
Willow has always been bad at hiding things from people, but she kept her pregnancy from everyone but Buffy and I until we moved to Boston in late August. She informed the rest of the gang that she was expecting and that we planned on tying the knot on New Year's Eve, a month before the baby's due date. I'm sure they were suspicious that we must've known about the pregnancy for some time, but they never said a word.
We didn't tell either of our parents about the wedding. It just would've been too hard to explain it all to them. My father would've accused me of being lazy and just like him - which I'm not sure, but I don't think those things constitute as insults in his book - and my mother would've wept uncontrollably. Willow's mother would've tried to write a paper on our relationship and its effect on her relationship with us, while her father would want to kill me for taking his little girl away.
The whole ceremony was very romantic. We got married right on the campus, in a covered garden. It was freezing, but we had the time of our lives, just me, her, Buffy, Angel, Giles and the judge. Cordelia had actually made her a wedding dress and sent it since she couldn't get out of school to attend the ceremony herself. The dress was gorgeous, and I'm not sure Willow and I will ever be able to thank her for it.
I honestly don't think the baby is what made us get married though. We've been in love since we were five years old. It was only natural that we'd get married after graduation. Don't all high school sweethearts do that? Well, they did in the 60s, that's good enough for us.
*****
Harris Christianne Elizabeth Harris was born a year ago. I'm not sure she'll ever forgive us for her name, but Tiana, as Xander likes to call her, is a little doll. She's a good girl about going to sleep at night so I can study, and she loves that Xander watches her during the day when I'm at class. She's the light of our lives.
I didn't tell my parents about Tiana until she was six months old. They were disappointed in me, but when they saw their granddaughter, their attitudes softened and they've been spoiling her - and us - royal ever since.
I'll never admit it to anyone, but I know the baby isn't what brought us together. It was something far more powerful. I wish I knew exactly what to call that force. Xander always says 'Fate', but I've never liked that word.
I'm getting ready to walk down the aisle again - as a matron of honor. Buffy is marrying Angel today. Xander is Angel's best man, if you can believe that.
It's funny. I'm not the one getting married, but I have jittery feelings in my stomach. Maybe it's because I'm so happy for Buffy. Maybe it's because I haven't yet told Xander that we're going to have another baby in eight months.
I told Buffy today though. When I was fixing her hair. And I told Tiana. And even though she's a baby, I could tell she understood. She squealed and clapped. She'll be a great big sister.