Author's Note: I tried to make the baby-bits of this story as baby-like as I could. Seo's gotten to that stage where she repeats the same syllable over and over and over again.

Remember, of course, that Seo's World is a timeline trapped in the Axis, and what that means. You might want to reread "Your Nature" again, to refresh your memory. Because you'll see more and more bits of this story drawing on that background.

(Chapter 31 of Your Nature is the chapter with all the answers, in case you've forgotten.)

And so Seo's World grows a little bit darker.

Enjoy.


Seo's World:

After the Glory attack, Buffy had been busy. Really busy. But she finally got the chance to get a small nap in, after hours of tireless work trying to make sure her daughter was safe and her Boyfriendish was recovering.

When she woke to a scream.

Buffy jumped to her feet and bolted towards the noise, to discover…

Seo, sitting on the just-woken Doctor's stomach and thrusting the Dracula doll stubbornly into his face. The Doctor panting, trying to calm down.

God — it must have been the first thing he saw, waking up! The face of the vampire who'd nearly buried him alive.

No wonder he'd freaked.

"No, Seo, don't do that," Buffy said, picking her up. "That's your toy. Not Daddy's toy."

Seo seemed utterly bewildered. She looked down at Dracula. Then back at the Doctor.

"Da!" said Seo. "Da! Da! Da! Da! Da!"

Buffy gave a long, weary sigh. Then turned to the Doctor. "You all right?"

"Fine," the Doctor said. Trying to stumble to his feet. "Perfectly fine. Just…" He shuddered. Looked around himself. "It's clear. Finally. So clear. Trapped. Flies in a jar. No way out. Circling, spiraling, all loops round again. Forever."

Oh, no. Another bout of insanity.

"Doctor, just take it easy," Buffy urged, trying to get him to lie down. "You said this brain thing would take a while to get over, and—"

"TARDIS," the Doctor said, managing to stand despite Buffy's insistence. "Have to get to her. Have to see…"


He stood there, in the doorway, staring at the destroyed innards of his ship.

Buffy standing just beside, baby Seo in her arms.

"I'm sorry," said Buffy.

The Doctor had an expression of the deepest pain on his face. The deepest sorrow imaginable.

"And so it all falls to dust," the Doctor whispered.

Buffy bit her lower lip. There was nothing she could say to this.

Seo, staring at her father, seemed very worried. Then she tried thrusting the Dracula doll out at him, a little more determined.

"Da!" Seo said.

The Doctor didn't even seem to notice. Just entered his ship, walked towards the smoldering console. "I… need to be alone," the Doctor told them. "Please."

Buffy nodded.

Shut the double doors, behind her.


Standing in the middle of his ruined ship, the Doctor looked around him. His mind in turmoil. His thoughts all a jumble.

Dare he…? Should he…?

Then he thought of Buffy. Of Seo. Of the world, and everyone in it who'd been so kind and wonderful and brilliant.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor told his ship. "I am so, so sorry."

He leaned down, beginning to grab up bits and pieces of the central console.

"But I have no choice."


"I just think… it'd be better if she didn't see the Doctor, for a bit," Buffy told her friends, when she dropped Seo off at the Magic Box. "She keeps trying to cheer him up by giving him her Dracula doll."

Seo was sitting on the table. Her eyes still confused, fixed on the Dracula doll in her hands.

"The Doctor woke up, earlier today, and the first thing he saw was Count Dracula's face," Buffy said. "And with his brain still kind of scrambled, he seriously freaked."

"Wow," said Willow.

"I guess… she doesn't get that what makes her happy… doesn't make everyone else happy," said Tara.

"Just… keep Seo here," said Buffy. She turned, to leave the shop. "I have to go check on Mom and the Doctor."

Seo looked up at the Scoobies, as Buffy left. Showed them her Dracula doll, her face still creased into a deep frown. "Da?"

"No, don't show that to Daddy," Willow told Seo. "Daddy doesn't like Dracula."

Seo seemed completely unable to grasp this concept.

"Dracula…" Willow hesitated. Then turned to the others. "How do you explain to her that Dracula hurt the Doctor, just like Glory did?"

"You don't," said Giles. "She's a child. Far too young to absorb any of this."

Seo looked down at Dracky, again. Frown spreading. "Da."

"Daddy's going to be okay," said Tara. Giving the girl a soft smile. "Don't worry."

Seo didn't seem to worry.

But when Buffy woke up, the next morning, and checked on Seo, she found the Dracula doll ripped into a thousand tiny pieces, all across Seo's crib.

And one very angry baby.

"Da," Seo growled.


A week later, the Doctor seemed to be doing a lot better.

But, as he did better and better, he spent more and more time alone in the TARDIS. Door locked.

Trying to heal his ship, Buffy figured.

His ship. His one constant companion — he'd told her. Losing that… would be devastating. Even just coming this close to losing the TARDIS…

It'd be like nearly losing a parent.

Buffy went to find her TARDIS key, so she could go check on him. Comfort him, as he fussed over the shattered remnants of his ship. Be with him, in case his ship… didn't make it.

But… for some reason… she couldn't find her TARDIS key.

"I think Seo's swallowed my key," Buffy told the Doctor, the next time she saw him. "I can't find it, anywhere."

"She hasn't," said the Doctor, opening up one of the cupboards, and taking out a jar of marmalade. "I destroyed your TARDIS key."

Buffy stared at him. Her jaw dropping open.

"Why?" she demanded.

"Don't want you inside the TARDIS," the Doctor replied, taking the marmalade with him, as he left for the basement. "Ever again."


Seo had always been a troublemaker. A mischievous baby, either running away or stealing things she couldn't have.

But she'd still always been kind of happy. Easygoing. Care free.

Not anymore.

It was like… watching Glory hurt her father… had changed Seo completely.

She didn't laugh, so much, anymore.

Her large, brown eyes had turned cold. Angry. Accusing.

"Sometimes, it feels like she's… blaming us," Willow whispered. "For not stopping it."

No one knew exactly how much Seo understood about what happened. But it had changed her. Deeply, deeply changed her.

"Coo!" said Seo, to Willow and Tara, as they were watching her while Buffy was on Patrol. She reached for the cookies that were on the counter. "Coo! Coo! Coo!"

Xander had once given her a cookie, when he realized she had enough teeth to chew it with. A very soft, chocolate flavored cookie, easy to chew.

That had been a mistake.

"No, Seo, these are hard cookies," Willow tried to explain. "You couldn't eat them."

Seo's eyes went dark. "Coo," she demanded, her voice an icy growl.

Willow and Tara exchanged a look.

"Seo, why don't we find you something you can eat?" Tara proposed, kneeling down. "Wouldn't you like—?"

Seo screamed.

Punching and kicking out against the ground, with a force and violence that seemed to make the whole house shake. Her hand punched right through the tiled floor, and Willow and Tara ducked as shattered tile flew everywhere.

Then, a week later, Giles had been babysitting Seo, when he noticed it was bedtime. Time to go to sleep.

Seo didn't want to go to sleep.

When Giles picked her up, she struggled, clawed to get free, then she kicked him in the stomach hard enough that he doubled over, and squirmed out of his grip.

She toddled across the basement, glaring at him.

"Seo, I'm dreadfully sorry," Giles tried, catching his breath. "But you really must go to bed. It's—"

The stake that Seo hurled only barely missed him.

A few days after that, Xander had nearly been knocked out by the bathtime-floating-kiddie-play-castle that was chucked at his head, when he tried to give Seo a bath she hadn't wanted to take.

"Buffy," Xander said to her, after he'd managed to lock Seo inside the bathroom, his face white as a sheet. "Your daughter is really, really scary."

Buffy wasn't sure what to say.

If Seo was acting this badly, now… what would she be like in the terrible twos?

Buffy had no idea.

But she was starting to think she wouldn't survive it.


Seo didn't stop running away to Spike's crypt, though.

And she kept bringing more and more toys along with her. Toys that she would play with, by herself, in the corner. Whether Spike was there or not.

Spike was starting to get seriously annoyed.

"I'd kill her if it wasn't for this bloody chip in my head," Spike told a demon, once, as he sat drinking at Willy's.

"Let me come over, and I'll do it for you," the demon replied.

Spike gave a soft laugh. "Nah, don't bother," he said. "Her mum'd make a mess of you before you even got close."

He definitely didn't like Goldilocks Junior. And he certainly wasn't getting attached to her.

The toy chest he'd gotten for her to keep her toys in, at his crypt, had nothing whatsoever to do with his feelings towards the little blighter.

"You just remember that I'm evil," Spike told her, helping her put her toys in the chest. "Got that? Because I am. I'm bloody terrifying, you know."

Seo looked up at him. A sad sort of loneliness in her eyes.

A single tear dropped down onto her cheek.

Spike sighed. "Oh, come here," he muttered, sweeping her into a hug. Seo hugged him back, very tightly. Incredibly tightly. Babbling baby-speak into his leather coat.

Nope. He definitely didn't feel anything towards the runt.

Nothing at all.


The moment the Doctor heard that Warren's deranged robot girlfriend was on the loose, he'd immediately wanted to come with Buffy, and do something sciencey to stop it.

"No," said Buffy.

Buffy could deal with this robot thing on her own.

"What?" the Doctor cried. "But… it's a robot! Course I'm helping with a robot!"

"You're still getting over that whole brain-sucking thing," said Buffy.

The Doctor tapped the side of his head. "Fit as a fiddle, now." Winked at her. "Time Lord."

"And you're still going all major freak-out with the TARDIS," Buffy continued. "And, anyways, one of us has to stay here and look after Seo."

"Just drop her off with your friends," the Doctor said, tugging on his coat. "No problem."

"She's been nearly killing my friends," Buffy pointed out to him.

"Then you look after her, and I'll deal with the robot!" the Doctor replied, with a grin. Raising up his sonic screwdriver.

"No," said Buffy, sternly. "And if I have to knock you out and tie you up to make you stay here, I will."

The grin fell from the Doctor's face.

"Look, you just take care of Seo, while I sort out robo-mania," Buffy told him. "I'll be fine."

What she didn't tell him was that she was terrified that he still wasn't all right. That she just wanted him to take it easy, for a little while, before he launched himself into mega-danger type things, again.

Which is why she'd asked Mom to come by, later, just to check in and make sure things were okay. Make sure that the Doctor wasn't having one of his insane moments, or that Seo hadn't randomly started peeling off drywall, again.

The Doctor would be in a huff.

But he'd get over it.

Buffy grabbed up her coat.

And left, to go deal with Warren's robot.


The moment Joyce showed up, the Doctor was absolutely livid. "I am fine!" he snapped. "There is no reason that you could possibly have for—"

"Hello, there, Seo," Joyce said, brushing past him and picking up the little girl.

Seo beamed at Joyce.

For whatever reason, Seo was still all smiles and laughter and eager hugs around Joyce. Even if she wasn't around the rest of them, anymore.

"Right, well then!" the Doctor said, putting back on his trench coat. "You're here. That means I'm off to deal with the robot!"

But Joyce had been expecting that.

And was, apparently, under strict instructions from Buffy to stop the Doctor from leaving.

Joyce shot him her best scary-mum look, advanced on him, eyes narrow. "Listen, bud. If you set one foot out that door…"

The Doctor backed away, hands raised, eyes wide.

Joyce Summers was far more intimidating than any vampire Buffy had ever faced on Patrol.

"Right," the Doctor said. "I'll… just…"

He hesitated.

Then fled, down into the basement, and shut himself up in his TARDIS.


Joyce hadn't seen the Doctor for about an hour. But it was naptime for Seo. So Joyce brought Seo down to her crib, and tucked the girl in. Giving her a large, gentle smile.

"Good night, little Seo," said Joyce. She pulled the blanket up around Seo, who snuggled into her nap. Then patted the little girl's hair. "I love you."

Then Joyce went upstairs.

Lay down on the couch, staring at the ceiling, musing over everything that was going on, in her life, right now.

Then there was an aneurism in her brain.

And she died.


Buffy entered the house, after the thing with Warren's robot got resolved. She locked up the front door, then dropped her coat and bag. Mom was on the couch.

"Hey, Mom," Buffy called, strolling over. "Any problems with…?"

She stopped. Stared.

"Mom?"

No answer from Mom. Who was lying with her eyes open, staring straight ahead, her body stiff and unnatural.

A chill ran through Buffy.

"Mommy?" Buffy whispered.