A\N: Prepare for angst and the mother of all bombshells...


Buffy doubled over as the pain surged through her head. The moment Spike had heard her cry, he flew into the main room to see her on her knees, bashing the ground with her fists by the open front door. He tried to lift her face up to speak to her but she refused to move from her kneeling position. Instead, he rolled her onto her side in his arms.

"Buffy what is it!?", he asked, soothingly stroking her hair.

"She's in my head! Make it stop!", she screamed.

"Who's in your head baby?"

"She won't leave! She's sending me pictures. Pictures of Illyria, pictures of us, pictures of our baby! It's too painful! I can't focus on them!"

"Who is she? I can't help if I don't know!" Buffy shrieked again but this time clutched her stomach as the baby began to react to the discomfort and distress too.

"No! She's hurting her!" For the first time in his existence, Spike felt totally and utterly powerless. All he could do was watch as the woman he loved and their precious child suffered. He had no idea what was causing it or what was happening.

"Right, I'm phoning an ambulance."

"No!", she yelled.

"They can't help. They'll only think I'm crazy. Take me away. Take our little girl."

"Ain't gonna happen love. Trust me." Buffy wasn't making any sense. She seemed to know what was going on but at the same time couldn't explain to him what she was feeling or seeing.

He cradled her in his arms, praying that her pain would stop soon.


She was still murmuring and twitching well into the night but it seemed less extreme. Half of the things she said he couldn't make out. The things he could make out were her going on and on about this mysterious 'she' and what she was showing her. The frustrating thing was that Buffy never mentioned a name. Spike had managed to carry her to the bedroom when she relaxed from her tuck position but was he still adamant that she should go to hospital. However, he did nothing, and complied to her wishes. If she knew that doctors couldn't help, he believed her.


At about 1am, he would've gone as far as to say that she was peaceful. Both mother and child. He hoped to get answers from her in the morning but wasn't banking on it.


At about 3:30, she opened her eyes for the first time and was beginning to act like herself again when she snuggled closer to him, gliding her hands and cheek across his chest to get some relief from the scorching Mediterranean heat. However, when he had tried to speak to her, she only stared at him blankly.


Spike had finally dropped off by 6 but woke at 7 to find Buffy not lying beside him anymore. He was immediately alarmed, not knowing how traumatised she had become from her 'experience'. His panic faded however when he looked outside to see her paddling in the ocean. Luckily, the sun hadn't hit their private beach yet so he was still able to go outside. She seemed to try and swim out further when she heard the sliding door open. Spike hadn't realisd that he had reached the water's edge and his toes were soon dipping in the sea. The tide had gradually pulled Buffy back in so that she was now waist deep in water, facing away from him.

"Bit early for a swim?" There was no reply from her. She only swivelled her head to face him, followed by her body. She ran her options over and over in her head. She could ignore him and pretend like everything was normal, which she knew for a fact he wouldn't accept, or she could try and translate into words what she had gone through in the last 12 hours.

"Acchurra", she croaked. He was shocked at the state of her voice. All that screaming and crying had made her dehydrated and her throat red raw.

"It was Achurra in my head. I know it was. I felt Illyria's fear. She kept showing me things. She was trying to tell me that Illyria would hurt our child if we didn't get rid of her." Buffy paused and looked down at her stomach.

"And you..", she stared at Spike.

"I'll burn her ashes and lock them in a box before I let her hurt either of you!", she almoat shouted, straining her voice even more. Yesterday's mascara was streaming down her face now and the sea water had nothing to do with it. Spike didn't hesitate to push through the waves to reach her and soon had his arms wrapped around her shaking body.

"From what it sounds like, she's trying to scare you into helping her little vendetta against blue. You need to focus on you and the little niblet. Let me and watcher boy deal with the rest. Think you can that for me?" He clearly emphasised his second to last sentence.

"Promise that we'll get to Achurra and find out exactly what her game is but can't do that if I'm worryin' about my best girls." Buffy didn't say anything.

"Come on. Let's get you dry." They began to walk back up towards the beach when they saw someone waiting for them on the sand. It was a woman. A woman with short, curly brunette hair styled into a sort of bob. She suddenly called out to them.

"You guys really have to learn to start figuring things out for yourselves soonish!"

"Cordy?"...


"Yeah? Who else would it be?" Spike and Buffy hadn't moved from the water since laying eyes on her.

"Where have you been? I thought you were in LA with Angel?" Cordelia gave Buffy a pitiful look, realising that the slayer hadn't heard the news of her death.

"Oh..yeah. The thing is, I sort of slipped into a coma about a year and a half ago and died? But that's not important now. I don't have long and The Powers That Be sent me to get you guys back on the right path."

"The Powers That Be?", Spike interrupted.

"What the bleedin' hell do they want?" Buffy gawped at him.

"Did you not just hear Cordy? She says she's freakin' dead!"

"Woah! Woah! Language Buffy! Y'know, junior can you hear you right?" She pointed to Buffy's bump.

"Congrats by the way. Can't say I predicted you two like, together together but man, nothing's ever been ordinary right?" Buffy and Spike looked unimpressed

"Look, can we just forget the fact that I'm dead please. There are more important things we need to talk about. I was sent to help you find Achurra."

"What's the price Chase? Like The Powers want to help us out of the goodness of their hearts" he snapped as he lead both himself and Buffy out of the ocean.

"Illyria is causing mayhem for them too. They want her out of the way. They know you do too so that's why I'm here." Spike wasn't convinced.

"We're hardly fighters right now so what do The Powers expect us to do?" "You don't know it but you have a direct link to Achurra. That's why you had those visions last night Buffy." Cordelia was starting to scare her.

"They were Achurra's visions? She wasn't just sending them to me?", she asked.

"Yep they were hers. Plain and simple." Spike didn't like where this was going at all and stopped Cordelia in her tracks.

"Will you stop scaring her woman? She's terrified enough!"

"She needs to hear this Spike. You're both gonna have a big problem if your baby's born and you don't know what I'm about to tell you."

"Just spit it out Cordy 'cause I don't know how much more of the secrecy I can take." Cordelia suddenly struggled to find the words to explain it in a simple way.

"You want the simple version? Your baby is..Achurra."