Sometime Around Midnight
by: Tropicwhale
Disclaimer: You know this part...I'm not the owner.
Author Talk: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH. So, James Marsters and Sullivan Marsters have a YouTube account. SO CUTE! JamesMarstersandSon. Look them up. Also, I was doing a Zombie movie, math homework, working my own novel, and working. Sorry it took me so long to get this up. I'm in the middle of writing chapter 3 and have up to chapter seven outlined out. This was a long chapter. I'm glad I'm updating the story though!
Chapter Two: Patricia's a Mom
I take a taxi to the hospital trying to convince the Romany driver that 'no I didn't want to take the scenic route because a) I wasn't a tourist and b) my friend's having a baby'. Evenually I cursed him out in Romanian, Spanish, and French to convince him I wasn't some hapless American tourist. I told him the name of the hospital again, and told him very clearly, in French, that my friend was in labor and I needed to be there five minutes ago.
It was amazing how fast and dangerous taxi drivers become when you promise a tip the size of…nevermind. Anyway, did you know Spike's gutter mindset is contagious? Because it is. The taxi's wheels squealed as it braked in front of the hospital. I threw most of the bills in my wallet at him which was waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too much for a four mile drive (two from the slayer safehouse cuz, well, uh, thirteen slayers in a single house…stuff gets broken, ya'know?). I bolt to the front desk and as for the maternity wing…in English. The woman on duty looks at me blankly. I repeat the question, in French, and ask after Patricia. She checks the computer and points me in the right direction. I thank her and bolt. She yells after me that this was a hospital, not a racecar track. I slow down and bolt as soon as I turn the corner. As a result I nearly collide into Beledia LeBrun, offical Watcher of the Paris squad. Oops.
"How is she?" The black Frenchwoman smiles at me.
"Last I heard, fine. Where's Spike?"
"Sewers….he got a college acceptance letter." Random. My mind goes weird places when stressed.
"He got in? Oh good." I blink at the den mother.
"You knew?"
"I helped him apply. There was a good bit of…shall we say wheels to grease?"
"You forged papers for him?"
"Actually, no. He had proof of life already."
"Wait. What?"
"Spike has a birth certificate saying that he was born in London to a midwife in 1962 to a pair of unmarried hippies, a British social, a French work visa, a passport and, strangely enough a valid French driver's license."
"How'd he manage all that?" Beledia shrugs that wonderful Gaelic shrug that means nothing and everything.
"How should I know? You need to ask him." Just then the core Paris squad turns the far corner as one and moves with purpose toward me. Alex and Kenya, Beledia's daughter, were at the head of the group with the bubbly brunette Canadian slayer, Mary, and the Spanish slayer, Cal, behind them.
"XANDER!" my name was called in four different tones, dialects, and levels of warmth. I give each girl a hug, even Calida. I pull back and look at the Spanish slayer.
"You cut your hair." Calida runs her fingers through her short cropped hairstyle with a fringe that went to her chin absently. We started to walk down the hallway and turned the corner they had appeared down.
"Do you like it?"
"Well, yesterday you had hair down to here." I indicate her waist "And now it's all gone."
"It got in the way during patrol. I'm not sure about the bangs though." The small red-head, Alex huffs and rolls her eyes.
"It's called a fringe. Bangs stop here." She draws a line across her forehead with her finger. "You look cute, Cal." Calida looks at me.
"You do." I assure her. There's a flash in her eyes before her face closed itself off. Calida was every inch a soldier. The main thing with her was trying to get her to open up and trust the members of her squad. So far, she trusted…me, Xander LeValle Harris. Which doesn't sound like much but it was an improvement that took a year of being puppy-friendly, older brother-Watcher, pastry-bringing Zeppo me to get her to give us that much. Cal turns on her heel and marches away to the waiting room and sits down stiffly. Mary and Alex both made sounds of annoyance. I fold my arms around their shoulders. "Girls…she's coming along."
"She's still a bitch." Alex says. Beledia shoots her an angry look. "She is."
"Alex. Compassion."
"Tell that to Calida." The small redhead shoots back.
"Alex." I say, quietly as we reach Calida. We all sit down and a nurse looks over at us suspiciously. "So where's Oz?"
"He's in there with her. He wanted to be there for the birth of his child." Kenya explains. I nod.
"At least it's nothing serious. Usually when we're in here it's because of…" Mary was silenced with a look from Beledia, Calida and myself. I smile tightly at the eavesdropping nurse and she walks away. "I'm just saying that it's not the ER, it's the maternity ward."
"Yeah. Okay." I say and start tapping out a rhythm on the arm chair.
"Where's Spike?" Mary suddenly asks.
"Day."
"Oh."
"He got into college." See what I mean about randomness and stress?
"Then that means you don't have an excuse, Xander." Kenya says. I flip her off.
"Hey, I barely got enough SATs to get into a community college and I never had the money…I'm not even sure how he can afford it."
"He's Spike. Pretty sure he can do anything when he sets his mind to it." Kenya says.
"That is if he's doesn't get bored first." Alex adds. She looks at me sideways. "You're worried about it." I shove my hands into my pockets. "You're worried about Spike going back to school!"
"Awww, that's so cute!" Mary bounced in her seat and clapped her hands. The other women (minus Cal) made cooing noises.
"Shattap!" I collapsed further into the boney plastic and metal chair.
"Oooh, now he's pouting."
"Who's pouting?" I turn and we all look up. Oz is standing at the start of a branching hallway, dressed in blue scrubs, his red and blonde hair hidden under a cotton mesh cap.
"Xander." Alex said.
"Spike got accepted into college." Kenya explained. Oz reared his head back a little.
"Really?"
"Yeah. He got a letter of acceptance in the mail this morning." I confirm. Oz frowns a little.
"Huh."
"What?"
"I'm just….trying to imagine Spike in Professor Walsh's Psych 101 class. It's surprisingly easy."
"Yeah…if you ignore the fact that that bitch was the reason why I ended up falling in love with a slayer and living with Xander in the basement of hell." Spike says as he stalks down the hall toward us. "How is she?" he nods at Oz.
"She's fine. Resting right now. The doctor has her on drugs for the pain."
"Good. You'd be surprised how fast you can cover four miles underground." The vampire collapsed in a chair next to me. Oz sat down as well. The nosey nurse made another pass, shooting a sharp glance at Spike. Spike caught the glance and gave her a two finger salute. She blushed and hurried away.
"I wished you wouldn't do that." I whisper as I slouch further into the chair and let my left leg touch his right leg.
"What? Flirt?" I huff in annoyance. "Don't worry, mate…I'm yours." That made me slouch further in embarrassed. "Cute blush, Xander." I'm practically horizontally on that horrible metally plastic chair.
"I should get back in there." Oz stood. I go to stand to show him solitary and fall because my weight distribution was off. I ended up tipping the chair and sprawled on the floor. Everyone laughed. "You okay, Xander?" the werewolf ask, whereas my boyfriend just laughs. I stand, right the chair, apologize for accidently (I swear!) hitting Spike's shin with the metal leg of the chair, and clap Oz on his shoulder. My high school buddy nods, looking decidedly shaken, then he turns and walks back down the hallway. It then occurs to me that Oz was the first of my friends to have children. I collapse back into the chair.
"Xan?" Spike lays a hand onto my forearm.
"It just hit me that my friends are all having kids. When did we get so old?" Spike chuckled and kissed me on my cheek just as that nurse walked by again. There's a brief stab of smug, vindictive jealousy in my chest when she picks up her pace as she catches sight of his hand on my thigh which settles again when it reoccurs that Oz is having a kid!
"What's amatter, Xander?" Beledia asked, looking up from her knitting.
"He just realized that he and all his friends are getting old." Spike chuckled evilly.
"You'll get used to it." Beledia said. "Right around when your child is a teenager and they start to use your age as a weapon against you."
"I don't plan on having kids, Beledia." I tell her.
"You're having a child with your witchy friend." The Watcher said. uhhhhhhh. Spike started to chuckle then laugh hysterically.
"YOU SHOULD SEE YOUR FACE!" He falls of the chair onto his face, laughing. "Ow, I urt my noshe" The girls giggle except for Cal who raises her eyebrow.
"Well, it's a good thing we're in a hospital." Mary giggles. I chuckle too and help the vampire up. Spike collapses in my lap, still laughing. He rolls to look up at me and points at my face. I get cross-eyed looking at his finger
"You're going to be a daddy." He chuckles.
"And think, you didn't want that to happen." Spike snuggles, even though his back is arched over the arm of the waiting chair.
"Yeah, but I folded like a cheap date on prom night." The girls and I groan.
"Spike, that was inappropriate." Beledia says. Spike rolls his head to look at her and falls to the floor again. He bounces up and nods at the dark skin woman.
"Sorry Beledia." he says sincerely. He turns back at me, pointing again. Is it wrong I want to break my boyfriend's finger? "You're going to be a daddy."
"I'll be sure to call Angel and ask for tips." Spike sat down at that, pouting at the low blow. "As it is Dru was calling me her son-in-law."
"What?"
"Didn't I tell you that?"
"No. You didn't." Spike looks wary.
"Huh. I'm sure I did at some point." Spike's looking seriously freaked by what I was saying. "Hey. It's okay. She meant it in a good way…she also called me burning fish…and her kitten….I think that was a compliment." Drusilla's weird. Yeah, I know. Hard to believe, isn't it? She seems like such a stable, down to earth, sane person.
"Xander. Dru-"
"You don't have to tell me that she's dangerous. I know she's dangerous. She also likes me."
"Yeah. For food."
"Actually for you." That stopped him short.
"Wot?"
"She said she turned you for me….something about true love and shining knights and kittens and burning fish around your head and destiny. She sort of talks in metaphors…did you noticed that?"
"No."
"I'm sure I mentioned it before."
"No, Xan. You didn't." Kenya stood suddenly.
"I want coffee. Anyone else want coffee?" There was a chorus of 'yeses' from the females who quickly disappeared.
"Are you sure?"
"Xander, I would have remembered if you told me that Drusilla took that much of an interest in you."
"She rescued me from being raped, drained and torn apart."
"Yeah, but Dru was always doing weird things like that. Well, watching things like-or nevermind."
"I know. Crazy vampire chick probably had an alternate reason for saving me….but so not going to question it when it works out in my favor-" Spike gave me a look. "eventually." He raises his eyebrow. "It did." The other eyebrow crept up his forehead. This calls for drastic tactics. I glomp him. "I love you." He rests his forehead against my shoulder and sighs.
"Xander." I grin because I won. He knows it. I know it. We both know it. "How many times has that nurse walked by?" He's peaking at the woman from my shoulder as she sped past again.
"I don't know. A few times. Why?"
"She's giving you and the girls the evil eye."
"I didn't notice."
"Yeah well, you wouldn't." I snuggle into him.
"You have twice the eyes I do to see stuff like that." He chuckles at that.
"Eyuck! Cute couple cuddling." Alex flopped on the other side of me with a cup of hot chocolate and handed me a cup as well. I sip at it then hand it to Spike who took a gulp.
"Triple C's" Beledia said.
"That's bad." Kenya said.
"C-C-Contagious." Mary sing-songs, quoting a popular song from the radio. Cal, Spike and I groan.
"Lame." I proclaim. Spike brushes his nose against my neck.
"There she goes again." he whispers. I look over at the nurse…she was carrying the same file as last time and she was definitely look at us with suspicion. I nuzzle him back.
"Maybe she's upset because we're gay."
"Was she stalking us before I got here?" That's an interesting point. I lean over to Alex and ask her about the nurse as she passes by us again.
"Yeah." the red-head answers. "She was eavesdropping too. What do you think? Twilight groupie?"
"I don't know. Try to be subtle about telling the others." I whisper. Spike lays his head on my shoulder and partly closes his eyes. Alex nods and announces she needs to go to the bathroom. Kenya and Mary go with her. I motion Beledia over. "Hey, so how do you like our old room?" I ask her. She had moved into the safe house with the girls after Spike and I moved out. She was officially their den mother and Watcher.
"I like it very much…of course it isn't as dark as when you two lived there."
"Well, yeah. No heavy curtains." She and I laugh as Spike shifts to get more comfortable. I can tell he's watching the nurse. I lower my voice as if I don't want to disturb my boyfriend's nap.
"How long has that nurse been spying on us?" I say once the woman was out of earshot. Beledia seemed to know exactly what I was talking about.
"Ever since we got here. I think she knows that the girls are slayers."
"Do you think she could be a threat?"
"Maybe…nothing we can really do about it, though. Ever since that Harmony killed that slayer on television…if we do anything….there could be a major problem on our hands."
"Alright. Stay alert. Go see if you can see Patricia and Oz and tell them about it. I'll tell Cal." Beledia sighs and stands. She stretches and announces that she's going to check in on Patricia and Oz. I bob my head and give a short wave as she walks away. "Hey, Cal." She looks up at me. I wrap my arms around Spike's shoulder and he shifts again to get more comfortable.
"Hola Xander."
"Come're." She stands and sits down next to me. "How are you progressing with your training?"
"I'm progressing well. Training with you and the vamp-" I give her a look. She knows that I hate it when she or anyone doesn't call Spike by his name. "-and Spike has greatly improved my fighting technique…Unfortunately, Patricia can still….."
"Kick your ass?" Cal didn't like using cuss words or the fact that a woman who was nine months pregnant could hand her ass to her. It was something we were working on.
"Yes."
"Hey…you count stuff."
"What?" She turned her head to look at me.
"You see details. How many times has that particular nurse walked by us." I indicate the nurse.
"Twenty times since we sat down. She came on duty about twenty minutes after we arrived."
"See?"
"Twilight?"
"A slayer is giving birth to a werewolf's baby…could be anything. Be ready to run interference when the baby is born."
"Why me?"
"Because…you're the best soldier I have." She smiles at me, really proud of herself. "Spike?" I whisper to my boyfriend who is being a dork and drooling on my shirt, pretending to be asleep. He 'snorts' himself awake. The big faker.
"yeah?"
"I'm going to need you to attack Cal if it comes down to it okay?"
"kay." and he promptly 'passes out' again.
Several hours went by and the squad reassembled in the waiting room. Beledia, Alex and Kenya were playing a hand of Go Fish with a pack of cards bought in the gift shop, Calida was watching the nurse run back and forth pointedly. The Spanish girl made it clear she was aware of the nurse's attention and didn't like it. Now the nurse passed by as quickly and infrequently as possible. Mary was sleeping, curled up in a chair, with Beledia's jacket as a pillow and Spike's trench covering her when Oz came out into the waiting room again. I was partly snoozing against Spike who has well and truly fallen asleep out of boredom when the werewolf appeared and pulled off the cotton cap. His hair was a sweaty mess but he looked really happy. He was smiling and everything. I sat up as did everyone else. Oz took a deep breath and so did I. "They're moving Patricia to a room and they went to clean up Estella." I blink sleepily at the musician and shift to wake up Spike.
"Estella?"
"My grandmother's name. We decided to name our daughter after my grandmother and Patricia's mom. Estella Rose Kelly-Osbourne. She's five pounds eleven ounces, has ten fingers and ten toes and my red hair." He collapses into a chair. "I'm a dad." he looks dumbstruck.
"When can we see her?" Beledia asks.
"Patricia wants for her to meet you all at once so a nurse should come and tell us when they're ready for us." Oz said, then lays his head back against the top of the chair.
"Tired?" I ask.
"Remember staying up for a week studying for finals and trying to stop the ascension of the Mayor?"
"Yeah. That was intense."
"I'm that wiped out."
"Damn."
"Yep. But it's cool though…no fire or giant snakes but this little living thing that…" He gives me this grin that says it all.
"I'm happy for you, man."
"I'm happy for me too." A nurse comes over and smiles at Oz. "Mr. Osbourne? Patricia and Estella are ready to see you now." She said. Oz stood and Spike sat up from his fake sleep. I chuckle quietly at how quickly he loses interest in what he was suppose to be doing when Patricia is mentioned.
"Can we see them too?" he asks.
"Oui" The nurse replies and Spike bounces to his feet. The girls and I pull ourselves up and follow the nurse and Oz down a hallway with Spike and Beledia in the lead and Cal and I bringing up the rear. The nurse stops and opens a door to a semi-private room then walks away. We enter the room to see Patricia laying in bed holding her baby and looking exhausted and happy the way Oz looks exhausted and proud. Her long, brown hair was in a low ponytail cascading over her shoulder in a sweaty, tangled mess. She looks up and smiles when she sees that it's us coming through the door.
"Hey." she says softly "She's sleeping." We all crowd around the bed trying to get a look at the tiny new life. Spike sort of drifts back toward the wall. Oz takes his daughter into his arms and grins at his girlfriend.
"Who wants to hold her first?" he asks as the women group around him, leaving Spike to edge closer to the mother. "Spike?" the vampire's head snaps up, startled.
"Yeah?"
"Wanna hold Estella as her godfather?" Oz asks.
"I-uh-well-I uh uh…" My mind flashes onto William Pratt and giggles just a little bit. It's adorable...just don't tell Spike about it. "What about Xander? He's a godfather too." Whoa, curveball.
"Beledia!" I pass the buck. Beledia takes Estella out of Oz's arms.
"You boys are impossible." The French woman said. I caught Patricia laying a hand on Spike's hand that was clenched around the railing on the hospital bed. She and I both knew how much Spike was terrified of being a parent. His concept of a newborn was a midnight snack for over a hundred years. The girls were passing around Estella and making cooing noises at the sleepy infant. I sneak over to Spike and Patricia and lay my hand on top of hers that Spike's clasping in both of his hands. Spike looks up at me with wide blue eyes. I give a small smile and Patricia squeezes his hand. It was a comfort to know that Spike, badass extraordinaire, was apparently as freaked out by the baby as I was. Next thing I know I am being handed Estella by Alex and there's this tiny little live thing in my hands. I am reminded, unnecessarily, to support her head and then she moves! My guy instincts kick in and I hand her off to the nearest possible person…who, unfortunately, was Spike.
He blinks at me then looked down at Estella who he had cradled against his chest, shell-shocked. She was wrapped up in those hospital-issued pink blankets and she reaches out of it with this microscopic fist and grabs the front of the red button-down shirt he's wearing over his habitual black tee shirt. I watch, bemused, as Spike's face transform from terrified shock to absolutely smitten. He adjusts so that he can pull Estella's finger off his shirt and smiles when she wraps them around his finger instead. He's so besotted and it's so cute. My cell phone rings. I flick it open. "Hello?"
"XANDER!" I hold the phone away from my ear.
"Hello Andrew. Lower the volume."
"Oh." I sigh.
"Your vocal volume, Andrew, not the Britney Spears." Spike gave me a look, bouncing Estella gently to get her to fall back asleep. I grin at him and make a face. He smirks back.
"Oh."
"Better. Now what is it that you wanted?"
"Uh….Willow said something about a book that you were looking for….last time I…uh…talked to her."
"Yeah. What about it?"
"I…uh…located it." I blink.
"You located the Grimmoire of Morgan Le Fay?"
"Yeah. It's in Romania."
"Alright, listen to me, Andrew. The vampire that has it is called Aneirin. You can't go near her. Or let any slayer near her. She's more than your group can handle."
"Oh. No. I have it."
"What?"
"But I'm not allowed to leave the country…uh Xander? I'm sort of in trouble….can you come and…er…bail me out?" I sigh.
"This isn't a good time, Andrew."
"Yeah. I know…but I wouldn't call if I didn't need-"
"Alright. I'll get a plane to Bucharest in the morning. I'll be there no later than tomorrow evening."
"Thank you, Xander! I owe you one! I-"
"Okay, Andrew. It's fine. I'll see you tomorrow." I shut the phone. "Hey, Spike…wanna go to Romania?"
"You do realize that Romania is a bad place for my family, right?"
"You already have a soul." His response was a dry sort of look that was sarcastic and questioning my intelligence all in one slight raise of the eyebrow and a slightly open mouth. "I'm going to shut up now." Spike gave me another look that clearly said that he didn't care. So, ignoring him. "Hey, Cal, want to go to Romania?"
"HEY!" Alex exclaims. "What about me?"
"Or me?" Mary adds.
"Yeah. Why does Cal get an invite?" Kenya asks.
"Do you really want Cal around Estella the first week she's alive?" Spike says suddenly. "Or me or Xander for that matter?" The girls and Oz all take that in.
"Yeah."
"Okay."
"I can see that."
"It would be kinda bad for the baby." Oz says. I sigh. The confidence in our childrearing abilities is overwhelming and touching.
Author After Talk: Need food. Write later.
Tropic