Title: Living In Danger
Author: MSKBSwedish
Rating: Mature
Summery: Set four years after the first story 'Midnight Sun'. Buffy and Spike's daughter Linn is now four years old and it's up to Spike and Buffy to protect their little girl from demons and other sorts of evil when the word gets out that the Slayer and the Slayer of Slayers have a child together. Set as M for heavy adult themes at times.
Note: I own nothing of the Buffyverse.
Chapter Ten – Pins and Needles
"Stop! Please! No!" Linn cried out as she tried to shield her body from the wretched Drusilla. Dru stopped and pushed the little girl down on the ground, smacking her little cheek hard with her cold and hard hand.
"You need to learn a lesson, pretty girl. You never attack me! You never shout at me! Do I make myself clear, child?" Dru's voice was full of anger and disdain for the the half-breed laying on the floor in a fetal position.
Linn sobbed into her knees before trying to move further away from Dru. "I'm sorry!" Linn cried out. "I just wan' my mummy!" Linn cried out, trying to actually crawl for her recent cage.
Without a word, Angelus picked the child up and forced her back into the cage. He locked the padlock on it and glared at her. "Shut it up, right now. Your insistent crying and moaning for that slayer you call a mother is beginning to be rather taxing." Angelus growled through gritted teeth. "One more peep out of you and you'll become my dinner like that puppy was for you."
Linn shook, tears silently falling down her cheeks. The salty tears had dripped down into the cuts on her arms where she had struggled with Dru. All Dru wanted to do was scare the child but she would move and the knife would cut her. Linn cried harder from the pain and buried her face in her knees.
It was moments like this that she would think back to Buffy and Spike to help calm herself. She would squeeze her eyes shut and think about mummy and daddy. She could hear daddy's deep comforting voice when he would wake her in the morning if she wasn't already in bed with her parents. She remembered the sound of mummy's laughter when they would play on the floor in the living room with her toys. She remembered the feeling of daddy's strong arms when he lifted her into his embrace. She remembered the smell of mummy's long silky blond hair when she would want to cuddle with mummy and she had to push her hair out of her way and she got a waft of the sweet smell. She remembered the way daddy's skin felt cool to the touch when she had been outside too long and he hugged her. She remembered the way mummy sounded when she cried.
Linn didn't mean to think about the last part. She could only imagine her mummy's cries of pain. Of course Buffy didn't want her daughter to know what it was like to hear her mother cry but it was almost impossible.
Linn's mind thought back to a memory that seemed to stick out.
It was late at night when Linn woke up. She couldn't seem to sleep as the rain pelted at her windows. The thunder crashed down and the lightening crackled in the sky which made the newly four year old jump. She quickly hurried down the hall to find her mummy and daddy's room. When she threw open the door, to her surprise, she found the bed empty.
Gripping Mr. Teddy tightly in her arms, Linn walked out of the room and looked around. Aunt Dawn's room was open and the light was out which meant she wasn't in her room either. She wondered where everyone had went. She was scared and frightened not only by the storm but now the thought that everyone was suddenly gone and that she was all alone.
Linn held onto the rail as she tiptoed down the stairs. When she made it to the bottom, the lights were on. Mummy and daddy's shoes were missing from beside the front door. She didn't pay attention to see if aunt Dawn's was there.
Instead, the little girl opened the front door and was quickly blasted with a gust of wind and rain.
Linn put her arm up to shield her eyes from the rain and the wind and crept further out onto the porch.
"Mummy?" Linn called out. "Daddy?" She called out once more.
As if on cue, Spike was hurled toward the bushes on the front lawn by a strong demon.
"Daddy!" Linn cried out. She had recognized her dad's jacket immediately.
"Malin! No!" Buffy cried out when she spotted her daughter running across the lawn toward her father.
Linn was almost to her father when someone suddenly had picked her up by her arm. The person turned her to face him. It was a monster with horns and a face like a cat. It caused Linn to shout out in fear.
"Mummy! Daddy!" Linn cried out just as she dropped Mr. Teddy.
Hands found her waist and someone had hit the demon in the back of the head with the hilt of a sword.
"I've got you." Buffy said as she pulled Linn into her arms. She swooped down to grab her daughter's teddy bear and ran for the door.
"Get inside!" Spike yelled out at Buffy and Linn. Buffy was three steps ahead of him and was almost to the door.
Linn watched over her mother's shoulder in shock and horror as her father took the sword and beheaded the strange monster. She buried her head in her mother's neck and closed her eyes tight in horror.
Once inside, Linn and Buffy were both soaked from head to toe. Buffy ran up the stairs with her daughter in her arms and into her daughter's bed room. Buffy was mad.
Buffy put Linn down onto her feet and knelt in front of her daughter. She gripped her daughter's arms and looked in her eyes. "Don't you ever, EVER, run outside like that again, do you hear me?" Buffy demanded of her daughter. Linn nodded her head as fresh tears fell from her face. "You could have been hurt! You never leave this house without an adult again. Do you understand?" Buffy demanded once more and again, Linn nodded as she cried.
"I'm sorry, mummy." Linn howled. She didn't mean to make her mummy mad.
Buffy however, couldn't stay angry long when she realized how hard she was being. "Come here." Buffy sighed. Linn walked right into Buffy's arms and buried her head in her mother's chest. "I'm sorry, moonshine." Buffy whispered as she kissed Linn's head. "I don't know if I could live knowing you were hurt, baby." Buffy explained as fresh tears fell from her eyes and into her daughter's already wet hair.
"I didn' mean to make you mad, mummy." Linn cried into her mother's chest.
"I know." Buffy lifted Linn's chin to look up at her. "But if you get hurt, I will never forgive myself, Malin." Buffy's eyes were full of tears that matched her daughter's. "Daddy and I can only do so much and it's up to you to make sure you do everything we say. We don't want you to get hurt like daddy got hurt out there tonight. There are things you don't know yet, moonshine and you need to listen to us." Linn nodded her head and sniffled as her mother explained her reasoning.
"I won' leave the house alone 'gain, mummy." Linn said between her little cries.
Buffy kissed her daughter's face a few times before pulling her back into another comforting embrace. She breathed a sigh of relief and sniffled knowing that Linn was safe.
Suddenly a loud bang came from the door, throwing Linn from her memory. She quickly looked up and watched as Angelus and Dru looked back and forth at one another.
"The slayer." Angelus growled, his voice dripping with anger.
"How did she find us?" Dru asked worridly.
"I don't know. Grab the child. Go into the sewer. The smell will throw them off. I will hold them off." Angelus demanded.
Without another word, Dru ran over to the caged little girl. She threw open the cage and forcefully yanked the child from the cage.
"LET ME GO! MUMMY! DADDY!" Linn cried out, hoping her parents would hear her.
Drusilla picked the girl up and wrapped her hand around Linn's mouth to keep her quiet even as she cried behind the hand.
On the other side of the door, Buffy and Spike stopped banging the door with the large hammers and looked at one another. They both heard their daughter's cries for them. This only made them bang harder until finally the heavy metal door shot open from the sheer force of the parents anger.
Buffy and Spike both ran in and looked around. "Where is she? Where is she Spike?" Buffy cried out as she frantically looked around once they stepped inside.
"Well well well, look who we have here." Angelus laughed as he stepped out from the shadows.
Buffy wrenched her head around. "Angel." Her eyes narrowed and she slowly shook her head. "Angelus." Her blood boiled. He had taken her daughter. He was the one who kidnapped Linn with the help of Dru. It was beginning to make sense.
The others came into the room, weapons drawn and slowly spreading out to surround him.
"Oh you figured it out. Yeah Cordelia was nice enough to bring me back to my senses." Angelus laughed evilly.
"Where is my daughter?" Buffy asked, demanding an answer. "I know she was here." Buffy drew her sword and twirled it once before aiming it at the soulless vampire.
Spike slowly inched toward the smell of his daughter. He could see the cage was open and her scent was all over it.
"Well that's none of your concern. Her new mother has taken her to be further away from you." Angelus' eyes narrowed at the slayer in anger. "She's going to be such a ruthless killer you know." His frown turned into a malicious smile.
"She will never be a killer." Spike spat toward Angelus. Angelus jerked his head to the side and laughed.
"Says the "daddy" who is known as the slayer of slayers." Angelus growled. "How do you think she'd feel growing up such a lie. You trying to raise her like the humans. Trying to give her a "normal life". News flash! She's a killer! A cold, blood sucking, killer! You should have watched the look in her eye when she sucked the life out of that dog!" Angelus snickered while pointing to the lifeless corpse of the dog in the cage.
This only angered Buffy further.
That was when Spike jumped. Quickly he pounced on Angelus. "Go get, Linn!" Spike cried out as he tossed Angelus against the wall. "There's a trap door under the cage. She's down there!" Spike demanded Buffy. He didn't want to put her in danger for if she was pregnant, he was going to do anything in his power to keep her from losing a child. Born or not.
Without another word, Buffy ran towards the cage. She kicked it aside with as much force and power as she could to reveal the trapped door beneath the cage. Spike was right.
...TBC...