A/N: Just to clear up possible confusion, it is now March 2007. Buffy and Spike have been together for roughly 2 years and Alice is 14 months old.
Buffy and Spike were greeted by a series of shouts and party popper explosions as they walked in through their front door, 3 days later. Willow, Xander, Giles and Dawn were all gathered around the entrance, Alice also standing but with her Aunty Dawn's assistance. Buffy looked to her sister and then her husband, assuming their guests' arrival was down to them. Spike tried to look innocent.
"Surprise?"
She couldn't keep the smile off her face then. Alice began to walk, wobbily, towards them. She was a keen learner but she couldn't walk long distances yet. She called out to her dad and he wasted no time in sweeping her up into his arms.
"How you doing, kitten?"
She knew several basic words but mostly pointed and crawled, to what she was thinking about, to communicate. In this instance, she clapped her hands to show her excitement.
"Now, me and mom have got an important job for you. You're gonna be a big sister."
Alice clapped her hands again, not really aware of what was being said to her. Of course, she'd noticed that something hadn't been normal about the size and shape of her mother's belly, over the past few months but it hadn't quite occurred to her that she had a sibling on the way.
Spike carried her over to Buffy and the squirming bundle in her arms before letting Alice take a minute to overcome her shyness. She'd always been a bit anxious when it came to meeting new people. She started to stare down at the baby in fascination after a while. She'd never seen someone younger than her before.
"He's your little brother, princess."
"Br..." She started trying to repeat the word but experienced some difficulty.
Willow, Xander and Giles were touched by the affection shown in the close knit family. They'd all come so far in the past couple of years.
The little boy's eyes fluttered open and he gazed upon his sister for the first time. Alice buried her face against Spike's shoulder when he did this, coming over shy again but looked back when her father took her hand.
'It's alright, sweetie." Buffy tried to reassure her daughter.
Alice looked to Spike for reassurance again and he nodded. She looked to her baby brother again before reaching out and touching his hand, hesitantly. The newborn squeezed her finger in return and she giggled.
"We gonna let your mom sit down now, yeah?"
He put Alice down and accompanied her as she waddled back to Dawn. In the mean time, everyone else's attention went back to Buffy and the baby.
"Oh, Buffy he's beautiful!" Willow interjected.
Xander nodded in agreement. "Spike was right about him having your smile, Buff. And he's got Dawn's round nose."
Dawn scowled at him. "Hey!"
"I meant that it was cute!" He tried to defend himself, quickly.
Giles had stayed quiet up until that point.
"He's the spitting image of his father."
It warmed Buffy's heart to hear her watcher say something like that. Never in a million years did she expect him to be so accepting of Spike. Even the ex vampire turned his head round fractionally as he overheard the observation.
"Isn't he just," Buffy agreed.
"Do you wanna hold him?"
Giles looked a bit apprehensive at first, not wanting to keep apart mother and child, but she was insistent and placed the baby in his arms.
"Beware of Willow," she whispered. "She'll have fighter off of you in a heartbeat."
"Fighter?"
Only then did Buffy realise that her son's nickname didn't make sense to anyone but her and Spike.
"Oh. Right. Yeah. We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl so we thought a nickname was fitting. We decided that he was our little fighter. That he would fight to stay with us."
"Have you decided on a name?"
She shook her head. "Nope. None. God knows we've tried to think of some ideas but nothing's seemed right."
"Well, there's no rush." He began to rock the child back and forth as he started to become fidgety again. Xander knew that he had a long wait for hugs, with the baby, so had started up a conversation with Dawn and Spike was playing with Alice, by her playpen, just across the room.
"How about Trystan?" Willow suggested. Buffy looked back to the wicca.
"He looks like a Trystan, don't you think?"
Buffy coughed low in her throat. She wasn't sure Willow was the best person to talk to about normal baby names.
"I think I should talk to Spike first. He might have some more ideas."
Dawn ushered Spike and Buffy to the couch, before heading upstairs, insisting that they sit and relax. For once, Buffy was all too happy to let the others tell her what to do. She was still in pain from her surgery and was incredibly exhausted. She moulded into the couch, as she sat down and closed her eyes, her baby boy still resting peacefully in her arms. She could sleep right here and now. But she had guests to entertain and two children vying for her attention.
"Hey," Spike started, slipping an arm around her shoulders.
"If you need the rest, go to bed. Don't worry about Alice or fighter. We've got 'em."
The slayer looked at the tiny child in her arms and brushed his cheek with her thumb.
"But what if he needs anything..."
"I'll wake you," Spike finished for her, recalling the drill from last time. The slayer breathed a sigh of relief. She was more tired than she was letting herself believe.
"Thank you," she whispered, so quietly she might as well have mouthed it. Spike pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth, his warm breath still surprising her even after all these months. She twisted her head to face him so that their lips met fully. She smiled against them.
"Never gonna get used to this."
"Tired of what?" he mumbled, very gently nipping her bottom lip.
"This," she started, bringing one hand to touch his cheek. "You. Really, genuinely warm with a heartbeat." Her hand moved down across his chest.
"You're tellin' me?"
Willow arrived back, from the kitchen, with a tray of drinks, letting out a gasp.
"No smooching in front of the baby! They pick up on everything!"
Buffy reluctantly pulled away from her husband, enjoying the moment.
"He's too little to understand, Will. Relax."
Willow didn't seem to be listening.
"You never know..." she continued, placing the tray down, Xander and Giles now also emerging from the kitchen, to see what all the commotion was about.
"Sleep," Spike interjected, suddenly. Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Okay, bossy." She planted a kiss on her son's forehead before placing the newborn in Willow's arms.
"Be good, you."
Her husband accompanied her to the bedroom, half tempted to join her in a mid afternoon siesta.
"Think Dawn can cope with a house full of people on her own? Could do with some kip, myself."
"I'm sure she'd love to play hostess," Buffy responded, kicking off her shoes and crawling under the covers. She let her eye lids flutter shut and sighed into the pillow, finally able to relax in the comfort of her own bed. Her painkillers were beginning to kick in too. She underestimated the extent of post cesarean pain before her epidural wore off. Spike suddenly slid in next to her, pulling her close and kissing her throat.
"Could stay here for days," he admitted. Buffy mumbled in response, half asleep yet deep in thought.
"James," she whispered. Spike lifted his head.
"What, love?"
"We should call him James."
The ex-vamp slowly brought his head back to the pillow.
"James."
"Do you like it?"
He smiled.
"Yeah. Yeah, I do."
"It's so simple, so normal. I can't believe we never thought of it before. Alexander's a nice middle name too."
Spike looked partially horrified.
"You wanna name our kid after the whelp?"
Buffy swatted him lightly on the arm.
"That wasn't the idea. But even if it was, there wouldn't be a problem with that. Right?" The tone in her voice took a slightly serious tone.
"Guess not."
The slayer sighed.
"Xander knows what you'd do for me, what you'd do for the kids. You guys need to let go of the past and get along! I know you can."
Spike pulled the covers over her head and pinned them there.
"Thought you were here to sleep, woman,"
Buffy pulled the sheets back down again.
"Fine, be like that. But just think what it would mean to Dawn. And Alice! Her daddy and Uncle Xander getting along!" She fluttered her eyelids as she snuggled up to her husband.
"Nope, don't bring the squiblet into this. Me and Harris do get on now, but we're hardly the best of pals."
"I'm not asking you to be. Maybe just go out for a drink or something."
Spike shot her a glare, feeling uncomfortable with the idea.
"I'll think about it."
She smiled and rewarded him with a kiss.
"Thank you. It means a lot."
He began rubbing a tender spot, at the base of her spine, through her shirt.
"I know, baby. Whelp ain't that bad, anyway."
She laughed softly. The couple's eyes slowly began to flutter shut when Dawn walked in with a tearful James.
"Sorry, guys but the baby won't calm down. We've tried everything we can think of."
Buffy whimpered into Spike's shirt.
"No rest for the wicked, hey, love?" he reminded her, heaving his heavy bones up.
"Think we'd forgotten what the first few weeks were like..."