OF THINGS TO COME
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created, like Billy and Zarathos.
CHAPTER 38
After a quick discussion about the beginnings of a plan to both rescue Willow and stop the world from ending Buffy and Spike had finally ventured to the hospital and relieved Xander and Anya. Xander and Anya had been relieved to hear that Willow had been located, with even Xander giving Spike a congratulatory pat on the back, but Anya was concerned as to exactly how the rescue would work. But after a quick talk with Buffy Anya had at least begun to agree with the plan before she got called away on some secret vengeance demon business. The stay for Spike and Buffy didn't seem to take as long as they had expected it to. To pass the time they had talked about anything and everything, by the end of their time there Buffy knew everything about how Spike had gotten his soul back and how Willow had played into the ordeals. By the end of their tenure at the hospital Buffy was lying down on one of the couches with her head, lying on a small pillow, in Spike's lap as he gently ran his hands through her hair and softly caressed her cheek. Buffy had continued to ask him very pointed questions about what he had said earlier that day while they were dancing in her room but Spike had been able, but only barely, to keep her off course. But try as he might he could sense that she was getting close to the truth, and it sent a wave of joy through his heart that it seemed she wanted that truth as much as he did.
"Whatever you're up to Dawn put you up to it right," Buffy asked with a very demanding look on her face as she turned her head slightly and gazed up at Spike. At her demanding question Spike seemed to stiffen a bit, but only for a few seconds.
"What gave you that idea luv…," Spike asked with a hint of fear in his voice, fear that she knew what he was planning to do.
"I've seen you two talking to each other lately, and every time I come around you two clam up like I'm a spy or something," Buffy replied with a slightly confused look on her face as she turned her head and looked up into Spike's baby blues.
"Your minds playing tricks with you again pet, we were just having a friendly conversation that the Bit would like to keep private," Spike said with a bemused smirk on his face as he lightly ran the back of his hand along Buffy's jaw.
"Is something wrong…," Buffy asked with a worried look on her face as she started to get up but Spike lightly pushed her back down.
"Don't worry Buffy…nothing's wrong, you know how Dawn is, likes to keep things private, not worry everyone else with her problems," Spike said with a calming look on his face as Buffy reluctantly complied and laid back down.
"That's gotten her into a lot of trouble before if you'll remember," Buffy said with a look of some concern on her face as she turned her head back to stare at the small table in front of her.
"No trouble this time, just a little something that she needed my help with, you shouldn't worry your pretty little head about it," Spike said with a sheepish grin on his face that he was glad Buffy didn't notice.
"My pretty little head…have you and Dawn been watching old movies on cable again," Buffy shot back with a demanding look on her face as she looked back up at Spike. Spike swallowed hard and thought for a moment before responding.
"Would you believe that she forced me to…," Spike said back with as sincere a look on his face as he could muster at that moment.
* * * * * * * *
It was only a couple of hours away from sundown and to say that Angel was getting restless was an understatement. The two and a half century old vampire had paced back and forth in the basement for the past two hours after getting into a disagreement with Giles as to how exactly to extricate Willow and kill the demon that was obviously holding her without ending the world in the process. The two had agreed to go to opposite corners to try and calm down. Giles had gone out into the back yard to stand by the tree that Spike favored as his old stalking spot. Against his parents wishes Billy had snuck out again and showed up just in time to give Dawn the support that she needed as she felt that everyone in the room was ignoring her. Although in truth it was Gunn and Fred's turn to go and stay at the hospital to watch over Cordelia it was Faith and Wesley who returned to the hospital to relieve Spike and Buffy. Around dinner time Faith had begun experiencing some sharp pains in her stomach, fearing that something was wrong with the twins Wesley and Faith had readily decided that since they were obviously going to the hospital anyway that they'd take the next watch. After they had left Fred had begun drawing one map after another of the surrounding area. She was intent on putting on either some type of presentation when the entire group would be assembled again or the maps could be used for planning the rescue, but without the presentation.
"She's really that powerful…she can really raise the temple," Connor asked with a look of unbelief on his face as Faith and Wesley walked out of the door and got into Wesley's SUV.
"For the thousandth time yes, if I hadn't stopped her with the yellow crayon story last summer she would have raised the temple already," Xander answered with a frustrated look on his face as he ran a hand through his hair.
"Then why not just destroy the temple, why can't we just do that," Connor asked, seemingly growing more and more frustrated with every passing moment.
"It's not that easy…or at least I don't think that it is…yeah we could do that…wait…I'm not sure," Anya said quickly, alternating between an excited look and one of the complete confusion and concern.
"That made absolutely no sense at all," Gunn said with a thoroughly confused look on his face, on that Xander pretty accurately mirrored.
"That's Anya for ya…," Xander said with a small chuckle that ended rather abruptly when Anya angrily slugged him in the shoulder. "Sorry…," he continued with a very apologetic frown on his face.
"That's better," Anya exclaimed very triumphantly as she crossed her arms and smiled widely as if she had just won the grand prize.
"If we're done with the childish talk can we please get down to business," Giles said appearing in the doorway with an unhappy scowl on his face. Everyone in the room, save Connor, shrugged their shoulders and seemed ready to talk. Connor however seemed ready to get angry and fight for his suggestion but he almost instantly changed his mind and mood when Angel came back up from the basement.
"We're only going to get one shot at this Giles, we have to be sure about everything, nothing can be left up to chance," Angel said with a very grim look on his face
* * * * * * * *
"We're almost there Faith…," Wesley said very nervously as he pulled into the hospitals parking lot and began the immediate search for a parking space. After Faith had begun having the pains in her stomach he had been worried that perhaps something was wrong with the twins and they would have to be delivered early. Faith had mirrored that concern and pushed Wesley until he had called the hospital and told them that they were coming in and what the problem was.
"That supposed to make me…happy…ow," Faith started to say with an angry scowl on her face as she glared over at Wesley before she cried out in pain and grabbed her stomach. Wesley slammed on the brakes and a car behind them almost rear-ended them.
"Faith…what's wrong…the pains are back aren't they," Wesley asked with a very worried look on his face as he completely ignored the profanity laced tired aimed at him by the driver of the car behind them. Faith started to reply but then grunted in pain, but lesser than the time before, as she doubled over as best she could in her seatbelt and then tried to calm down.
"What the fuck is going on…I feel like my…ow…insides are on fire," Faith cried out in a combination of anger and pain as she clutched her stomach and looked to Wesley for help. In a desperate attempt to help Faith Wesley quickly pulled into the first open parking spot that he saw and shut the car off before he shoved his keys into his pocket and turned to help Faith get out of her seatbelt.
"I don't know…but we're going to find out," Wesley replied with a very serious and worried look on his face as he opened his door and quickly slipped out before shutting it and rushing around to the other side of the SUV to help Faith out.
"Well we'd better find out fast…I don't know how much more of this I can take," Faith said with a pained and frustrated scowl on her face as Wesley helped her out of her seat and then towards the hospital.
Faith and Wesley entered the hospital and Wesley was quickly able to find a doctor to help Faith. It had been greatly because Faith had grabbed a passing nurse and almost broken her hand when the nurse had been unable to help them. On the way to an examination room they had bumped into Buffy, who had gone for a walk and was on her way back towards the waiting room and Spike. After some thought Buffy had rushed away and gone and told Spike what was going on before she came back just as Faith and Wesley were entering the first open examination room that they could find. About an hour later, and after so many tests that Faith's questions had become quickly laced with every profanity that she knew of, the doctor came back into the room with the results of all of the tests. Much to Wesley's chagrin the doctor didn't look to be very emboldened by the results of the tests, if anything the doctor seemed to be thoroughly confused and even a little scared. When he had entered the room he had been sure to stay as far away form Faith as he could without letting it become apparent.
"Well doctor, what's going on," Buffy asked first before either Wesley or Faith could ask the question that had been on all of their minds.
"Well…the good news is that the twins appear to be fine…they don't seem to have suffered any ill effects from…whatever this is," the doctor replied with a sheepish smile and shrug of his shoulders as he looked around the room.
"And what's the bad news…," Wesley asked with a growing look of concern on his face as he gingerly took Faith's hand, hoping that she wouldn't tense up and smash every bone in his hand.
"Well…the bad news…is that after looking through all of the test results…I have no idea what's causing your pain, everything checks out normal," the doctor said with a very fearful look on his face as he slowly began to inch his way towards the door, all the while keeping his gaze fixed on Wesley and Faith.
"But then how do you explain…," Buffy interjected with a confused and worried look on her face as she stepped in between Faith and the doctor.
"I can't…I'm sorry," the doctor said before making a hasty retreat out of the room, leaving Buffy and Wesley to try and calm a very agitated and nervous Faith. Who even through the passing bouts of pain seemed ready at a moments notice to charge out of the room and attack the first doctor that she saw.
"Faith…calm down…," Wesley began to say with a combination look of fear and worry about the condition that things were in before Faith interrupted him.
"Quit telling me to calm down…would you be calm if you felt like someone was setting off fireworks inside your body," Faith growled angrily as she looked ready to rip the iv out of her arm and leave the hospital. For a second or two the room was silent before Buffy stepped in as Wesley was about to respond.
"Maybe this has something to do with the fact that she's a slayer…there's been so few slayer pregnancies that for all we know this could be normal," Buffy said with a fake look of hope on her face as she looked back and forth between Faith and Wesley.
"This is not fucking normal…," Faith yelled so angrily that both Wesley and Buffy cringed and both half expected to have to physically restrain her.
"Maybe it's so bad because you're having twins…the pain could be a way of telling you that your twins are special," Buffy continued with a worried and frustrated look on her face as she quickly walked over and made sure that the door was shut and locked.
"That's possible, with one child the pain might be manageable enough…more like just an advanced level of discomfort, but with twins it would be…much worse," Wesley said with a very scholarly look on his face, one that reminded Buffy of the look that he had been wearing the first time she had seen him. Now that she took a moment to look she realized just how much her former short term watcher had changed. Gone was the geeky and completely terrified innocent that had first arrived in Sunnydale. In his place was a battle and life hardened man that was fiercely holding on to his only anchor in the world. Beside him Buffy took in how much Faith had changed. Gone was the slayer that had cared almost solely for herself. She had been transformed into a woman that Buffy thought that she'd never see. While the old Faith was plainly still there in being quick to anger and easily jumping to conclusions the new Faith, the one that cared more someone other than herself, was also shining forth.
"Well thank you for the analysis professor, now how's that supposed to help me," Faith asked angrily as she grabbed Wesley by the collar of his shirt and pulled him close.
"I'm not sure, but if that's true then at least we'd know what was causing it," Wesley answered with a worried look on his face as he was able to slowly extricate himself from Faith's grasp.
"Well now…that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside," Faith said with a very sarcastic look on her face and tone to her voice as she shook her head and leaned back in the bed while Buffy sighed deeply and shook her head.
* * * * * * *
"What about us Giles, what do you want us to do," Billy asked the former watcher with a look of great anticipation on his face, a look that was mirrored by a very close by Dawn. Giles studied the two teenagers before him for a few seconds before he responded.
"Well…I have a very important job for the two of you…I want you two to go to the hospital and stay with Faith and Wesley and watch over Cordelia," Giles said with a very watcher like frown on his face as he took his glasses off and began to slowly clean them. He didn't have to wait very long for Dawn's expected rebuttal.
"But Giles…," Dawn began to reply with a very frustrated and defensive frown on her face as her hands went to her hips and suddenly Giles noticed that Buffy had acted in the exact same way many times before. The thought brought a quick smile to his face.
"Don't but Giles me Dawn…neither one of you is ready for this kind of operation, we need the two of you to be somewhere safe and out of the line of fire," Giles explained with a very fatherly look on his face as Billy looked over at Dawn.
"Do you think they'll attack the hospital," Billy asked Giles with a somewhat concerned look on his face as Dawn gave him an odd look.
"What…oh uh…I don't know…they'll probably be to concerned with the raising of the temple, but they could attack the hospital to try and draw our fire…a kind of diversionary tactic that would force us to split our forces up as they'd know that we would never allow them to attack the hospital," Giles then said with a look on his face as if the thought of the hospital being attacked had just occurred to him and he was angry at himself for not thinking of it earlier.
"Especially with Cordelia there, and there's still Faith's condition that we need to know before we finalize any plans, and we have to wait for Buffy and Spike to get back as well," Angel said with a very serious look on his face as he leaned up against the wall and made sure to stay out of the few remaining areas of the house where the sunlight filtered in and danced across the floor.
"Yeah, Wesley did look pretty worried when he took her to the hospital, I don't know if he'll want to leave her side right now…and if something happened to him I don't think that I could tell Faith…she'd probably kill me," Fred said meekly in agreement with a thoroughly scared look on her face as she leaned into Gunn for support.
"She might think about hurting you Fred, but in her condition I highly doubt that Faith would be up to killing anyone, let alone you," Giles said with a tired sigh and shrug of his shoulders before he sat down in one of the empty chairs.
"So then what are we up against, demons and vampires…that doesn't sound so hard," Connor asked with a less than worried look on his face as he leaned back in his chair and looked over at Angel, who looked grim and solemn.
"A few vampires and demons are easy yeah…but in the numbers that we're talking about here it changes everything," Angel said with a very solemn scowl on his face as he slowly walks towards the Giles.
"Then we'd better have one hell of a plan or we're not even going to have a chance," Gunn said with a grim look on his face as he slowly put an arm around Fred and pulled her close.
"And we'd better think of it fast, because the sun's starting to go down, and we all know what that means," Dawn interjected with a very worried look on her face as she inched closer to Billy, who slipped a supportive arm around her and squeezed.
"That unless we rescue Willow tonight the world is going to end," Buffy said with a very serious look on her face, with an equally serious Spike at her side, as she walked into the living room.
END OF CHAPTER 38