Chapter 19 Baby Blue
"Good heavens woman, I'm not sure I'll be able to move tomorrow after all that," Giles was saying as he and Zara got off the elevator back in the entryway.
"Just think, I used to get paid good money for services like that," she grinned. Zara had put him through his paces on the stairs and gave him some exercises to do to help him with his recovery.
"What ever made you leave physical therapy in the first place? Clearly you were good at your job."
"I changed a lot of things after my husband died. I loved PT, loved helping people but I just needed something different. The music shop might have its slow days but I do well enough. I love the sense of community I get where I'm at. Heck I even love the tourists who come in and clean out my shelves. I do online sales too and it's more than enough to keep me above water. Especially since my daughter is still hanging on for the time being. She's saving up for a place of her own. If she keeps booking appointments the way she has been she'll have it in no time."
Zara was just about to leave when the front door opened. Faith and Callum walked in.
Callum was a little taken aback to see Zara there, "Mrs. Cambell? What are you doing here?"
Zara laughed, "Bloody hell Callum. How many times have I told you to call me Zara."
"Sorry ma'am old habits. I was just surprised to see you here."
"Likewise, I'm here visiting a friend, what are you doing here?"
Callum hesitated and looked at Faith, "My girlfriend lives here," he said a little bashfully.
Zara eyed him approvingly, "I see. Nice choice Faith."
Faith adjusted the large paper bag in her arms to shake Zara's hand, "Good to see you again," Faith glanced at Callum, "Yeah I kinda think I might keep this one."
"Had a rough start, but he's really turned himself around. Grown into a fine young man now."
Callum laughed, "Oh come off it, Mrs— eh, Zara. You know you love me."
"Aye, the son I never had."
"So who's at the shop? Is Gemma watching it for you?" Callum asked.
"Oh aye," Zara looked at her watch, "Speaking of Gemma, I really must be off. She has an appointment and I need to get back to the shop before she has to leave."
Callum moved from in front of the door inadvertently pulling Faith with him, "Alright then, tell her I might have some work coming her way."
"Is that so Callum? I thought you decided you were done after that last one."
"Oh I am done for now, this is for the Lass here. She's got one started, she wants to have finished."
"He showed you my daughter's handy work did he?" Zara grinned mischievously.
Faith nodded, "She's an amazing artist. I'm pretty sold, I want her to finish this one."
Giles looked puzzled, "You don't mean the one on your arm do you?"
Faith laughed, "Nah, this one isn't anywhere I'm advertising to you."
"I'm sure I don't want to know."
"Oh Rupert, as much as I like you now, sometimes seeing a little hint of the old 'Ripper' wouldn't be such a bad thing," Zara grinned. Then she straightened up, "Alright children, I'll tell Gemma to expect your call. I'll see you later, Rupert. Don't forget what I said about that leg."
"Don't worry about me. Thank you for the torture."
"Not in front of the kids," she winked, kissing him on the cheek. Soon Zara was back in her car heading into town.
Callum followed Giles into the living room. While Faith put the bag of blood in the refrigerator next to the smaller one Ursula had gotten earlier. In the living room Giles settled himself down on one couch and propped up his leg.
"I trust you two had a good evening," Giles said a little dryly.
"The best. She's quite a woman."
"Yes she is. She has grown to be quite important to us here."
"Faith told me how you've become like family to her. That's important, family is everything."
Giles smiled, "Well if Zara approves of you I can certainly give you a chance."
"Not sure Faith would give you a choice on that. Not sure I would either come to that."
Faith came back in and sat down next to Callum on the other couch.
"So Zara is your friend Gemma's mom. Crazy," Faith said, turning to Callum.
"I'll say. Mrs. Cambell is one of my mum's closest friends. She's bound to tell her I was here. Gemma and I were thick as thieves when we were young, still are really."
"I bet she's got some stories."
"That she does."
"So is this friend, just a friend or—"
"Never serious if that's what you're getting at. We grew up together, tested the waters when we were teenagers but that's about it. We're much better as friends."
"She was your first wasn't she?" Faith punched him lightly in the arm jokingly.
"Well yeah, course she was, not like it's a big deal now though."
"Oh I really need to talk to this chick," she laughed.
"Oh God, I am definitely in trouble now," he laughed.
Faith patted his leg and turned to Giles who was laying with his glasses off and his arm over his eyes, "How was your visit with your special friend, Giles?"
"She reminded me she had originally been trained as a physical therapist."
Callum laughed, "Oh, she got you didn't she? She worked with my dad when he hurt his back. The doctors told him he'd need to walk with a cane after his surgery. Mrs. C, worked him hard but he'd be the first to tell you it was worth it. He's still working and plays with his grandkids without a cane."
"And can pick you up."
"Never know he ever had a problem at all."
"Oh I'm sure. Right now my whole body hurts."
"Do you need one of your pain pills?" Faith asked.
"No, no. I'm alright. I'll be fine with a little rest."
"Where's the baby?"
"We didn't want Zara seeing him so Buffy had the girls take him upstairs. I think he's in the fourth room."
"And Buffy and Spike?"
"Probably upstairs, I haven't seen them since Zara got here."
"Alright that's fine. Is there anything you need before we head up there ourselves?"
"I think I have everything I need at the moment. That little session with Zara reminded me that I really must be getting things for myself as much as possible. I'll call out if I need help with something."
"Might have to call loud. Come on Cal, you want to see what a demon baby looks like?"
Giles clicked his tongue, "Now really Faith the child is not a sideshow freak."
"Never said it was, just thought Callum might like to see one. I'm kind of curious myself. I haven't seen too many. They're usually pretty gnarly."
"Most demons don't reproduce in what we would call 'the traditional way', but these ones do. The child is actually kind of cute."
Callum turned to Faith looking at her a little confused, "Do I even want to know what he means by that?"
Faith took a moment before she answered, "Honestly, no. I really don't think you want to know."
"Fair enough. Alright, let's see the little dude."
"What are we calling the kid anyway?" Faith interjected.
Giles raised his eyebrows a little and replaced his glasses, "I'm not sure we are calling him anything."
"He's with the girls, you know he's got a name by now. We'll go check it out. This sounds like a nice easy introduction for Callum."
"Much easier than most, I should say."
Faith led Callum up to her room checking in on the girls along the way. Callum set down the canvas messenger bag he had with him on the chair. Although he had been upstairs a number of times in a professional capacity this was the first time he had been on the third floor, and in Faith's room.
"Buffy wasn't kidding when she said you liked weaponry," he said, taking in the decor. He raised his eyebrows as he spied the crossbow and swords above the bed, "Those secure?" He asked.
"Oh yeah they're secure, but you can check them out. I mean I've never tested them out with a guy in my bed, I got the swords after my ex split."
Callum walked over and examined one of them, "I'd say they should hold."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Anyway, business first, then we can settle in." Faith strode out into the hall and knocked on the door. A moment later the door opened a crack revealing Spike's pale form. His hair was disheveled and he was only wearing a pair of boxer briefs with little battle axes printed on them.
"What is it, Faith?" Spike grunted.
"Sorry to wake the dead. Where's Buffy?"
"We were both trying to get some shuteye before taking a shift with little-boy-blue. Oh hey Cal…." he trailed off as he turned his head towards the bed distractedly, "Look I'd better get back over to her. I think she's having another blasted nightmare. We've got an alarm set. Come get us if things go sideways or if Peaches calls."
"Go get your girl, I'll check on stuff here."
"Cheers, love," Spike said, closing the door on them.
"Peaches?"
"He means Angel," Faith directed him towards the stairs.
"Peaches though?"
"Yeah I never got that one either. Captain Forehead I get..."
"Takes talent to come up with a good nickname, some of the best don't make sense to the rest of the world."
"Are you developing a little man-crush?"
"No, I just appreciate a good nickname, is all."
"Xander is another one who's got a knack for it."
"Now who's that?"
"Buffy's Mr. Fix-it."
"Your construction guy, yeah?"
"I might've popped his cherry, but he's her construction guy," she gave him a wide grin. "Except that Giles has him chasing down a bunch of old safe houses looking for books and artifacts that might help us out. Word is that he is returning to Europe any day now, today or tomorrow maybe. I forget what she told me."
"The travel bit sounds exciting."
"I think he just needed some time after everything happened. His girl didn't make it."
"Was she a slayer?"
"Nah, ex-vengeance demon. Used to annoy everyone with sex stories about her and Xander."
"Seriously?"
"Everytime she did, I just shut her up by reminding her who had him first. Got her every time. Kinda feel bad about it now…"
"Still though, doesn't sound like she had much of a filter."
Faith shrugged as they reached the top floor, "Ready for this?"
"Ready as I'll ever be."
Faith knocked lightly on the door before letting herself in. The baby was making loud screeching sounds as Ursula was struggling to change his diaper as little blue feet kicked around wildly. She didn't even notice Faith and Callum in the doorway.
Addison came from behind them from the elevator and rushed into the room "Sorry it took so long, Babe, I almost forgot about the goat's blood and sort of had to start over to add it," she said in a rush.
Ursula finished changing the little blue baby and put him over her shoulder as Addison handed the bottle over to her along with a quick kiss. They both sat down with him. Ursula adjusted him in her arms, offering the bottle to him tentatively. The baby took the bottle immediately, happily sucking away.
"Aww look, mein Schatz, he is doing just fine now."
"Looks like the goat's blood is a big hit," Faith interrupted.
Both girls looked up, "Hey Faith, we didn't think you'd be back until tomorrow," Addison said.
Faith shot Callum a rye look, "Yeah I wasn't going to, but figured I should be closer to the action."
"Not really much action, just baby care. Never thought we'd be doing this during training."
The baby finished the bottle in record time. Addison draped a burp cloth over her shoulder and took him from Ursula. She patted his back and the baby let out a little burp with a tiny fireball and a puff of smoke.
"Never saw a baby do that before," Callum said wide eyed.
"You want to hold him?" Addison asked.
Faith stepped up taking the baby, "Give him here. Ok this is by far the cutest demon I've ever seen. Just don't grow up to kill people ok? I'd hate to have to chop off your head little man."
"Don't think that will be a problem with this guy. His kind pretty much avoids human contact altogether according to the books. Although they have been known to drown people and can defend themselves pretty effectively on occasion. Sinking ships and stuff. But you know, most of that is from the olden days. Any more they don't seem to pop up unless it's self defense."
"See I don't have major problems with that. Kid got a name yet?"
"Yeah, we've been calling him Alun, he seems to like it. Don't you Alun?" Addison crooned.
Faith raised an eyebrow, "Do you mean Alan?"
"Nope, Alun."
"It's one of ours, Lass."
Faith raised an eyebrow.
"Celtic, Lass. Not unheard of."
"Oh, ehh ok. Alun it is then," she said bouncing him a little she turned to Callum, "Do you want a turn? This is the tamest first demon encounter you could hope for. Unless you count Spike, but he's only seriously dangerous to other demons nowadays."
"I'll start with the wee one before I get hit with the real thing."
"You hang around us long enough and you will," Faith said dryly as she passed the baby to him.
"Hey there buddy-boy," the baby scrunched up his little face and gave him a dubious look, "Not much different than my nephews really." With that, Alun started fussing, "See, just like my nephews when they were this young," he said as he handed the baby back to Addison and Ursula.
The minute Alun was back in Ursula's arms he settled down and started to giggle, "Sort of makes me think we should do this for real someday, you'd be a great mom," Addison said as she fixed a strand of Ursula's chin-length auburn hair.
"You too…" She said leaning in for a kiss.
"Gotta say, looks like you girls got it handled. Buffy and Spike are up to bat next. We're going to disappear for a while after I check things out around here."
"I'd say don't do anything we wouldn't but you kinda already are," Ursula smirked.
"Yeah, yeah, we get it. Keep it clean in front of the kid. Oh, where are Zari and Wendy?"
"Crashing in with the level threes. Kinda keeping this baby-vill for now."
"Alright, we're out."
"Night, Faith."
The two of them made their way down to the fourth floor, "Now this looks familiar."
"You spent enough time up here working on the bathroom. If I hadn't been so wrapped up in Slayer stuff I probably would have been up here watching you work more."
"I seem to remember you checking in pretty frequently."
"Couldn't exactly jump your bones while we were both working."
"Especially with Angus there the whole time."
"Might have enjoyed the show," Faith teased as she checked the rooms. Satisfied that all the girls were present and accounted for within the castle, Faith turned to Callum, "You hungry?"
Callum crooked a smile, "Is that a trick question?"
"I could use a little something, now you mention it."
Callum bent down to kiss her, pinning her against the wall at the end of the quiet hall. Faith pushed him back a little, "Technically, I'm not even supposed to be back yet," she grinned.
It was Friday morning when the phone rang. Callum automatically reached out an arm and grabbed the phone. Without looking, he answered gruffly "Hello."
"Eh— Hello?" Angle hesitated, and checked the number he had dialed, "Is Faith there?
"Who the ruddy hell is—" He started to ask before cutting himself off and looking at the phone in his hand. He put the phone back up to his ear, "Sorry about that, mate. Picked up Faith's phone by mistake. You must be, Angel, her American friend coming to visit."
"Ah, yeah… her American friend. Is Faith there?"
"Course, she is. I'll get her," Callum moved the phone away from his face and rolled towards her, "Faith, wake up, Love. Phone for you."
Faith moaned sleepily, "Tell'em I'm busy… unless it's Angel."
He chuckled, "It is Angel, Lass."
Faith moaned, turning towards Callum, "Shit, I feel like we just went to sleep."
"Could have stayed at mine, Love."
"Like we would have slept any more there than here?"
"Fair enough, Lass. Don't leave your mate hanging on the line there," Callum smirked. Angel rolled his eyes as he listened to the two of them talking.
Faith took the phone from Callum, "Hey man, what's up?"
"Making my way to you and Buffy I'm guessing. She sent me a '911' text saying to get to Edinburgh and now she's not answering her phone. I'm almost to Edinburgh but I don't know where I'm going from there. There's also a sunlight issue in play here that's going to make things tricky if I don't figure something out quick. Who the hell is that with you anyway?"
"That's Callum, my guy, you'll meet him. I bet Buffy and Spike are tied up with the situation we have going on here. We've been going in shifts and it's their turn. We need you to put a stop to it and set things right. Just tell me when and where and we'll come get you. I'll bring a blanket."
"Eh sure, thanks… eh Faith?"
"Yeah?"
"Spike… is he— are they—"
"Yeah man… real serious too. Are you going to be alright man?"
He was silent for a moment, "Is she happy?"
"Any more and I'd barf; no joke."
"I huhh—" he cleared his throat, "What's the problem? Sounds like she's got all the help she needs, why do you really need me anyway?"
"Kinda a long story, some demons called Minch or something. I'll fill you in when I see you. Now, when and where?"
"Oh, great… this should be loads of fun," he grumbled.
Angel leaned forward from the back seat of Faith's blue vintage Volkswagen. "So basically you needed me because Spike is a sucky diplomat?" he said sarcastically, once Faith had filled him in on the situation.
"Well, yeah that and he doesn't speak the language."
"He was always a subpar student."
"Learned plenty from you from what I hear," Faith snipped.
"Man enough to call for help when he knew he couldn't do the job himself," Callum interjected.
Angel sighed, "Look, Callum is it? I appreciate you seem to have something super-duper-special going on here with Faith. But you don't know me well enough or lived long enough to teach me life lessons. I've got 250 years worth of life experience, and you don't know Spike like I do," he growled the last sentence.
"Knock it off. He's not wrong, Angel. So you have history with the guy and can remember when women couldn't own property, so what?."
"Or when George II was King."
"Sure, that too… Angel, man. I love you like family and we need your help with this, so I'm just going to say it. Get your head out of your ass. Maybe learn a new life lesson here since you're so good at dishing them out. And for the love of sanity remember that zero of this is about Spike and your ex getting it on every chance they get. They're in love with a capital 'L', you need to let it go man. Let her go, because she's already gone."
Angel sat back in his cramped seat in the back of the little car, crossed his arms and mumbled something incoherent under his breath. The rest of the drive back to the castle was a quiet one. Callum rested his hand on top of Faith's, interlacing their fingers on top of the gearshift. She glanced at their fingers and back up at the road with a grin on her face she couldn't describe. It was simple but powerful and unlike anything she'd ever experienced.
It was late afternoon before they got back to the castle. As promised, Faith had supplied Angel with a blanket to protect him from the car to the door.
"Come on in, Angel. Welcome to Slayer Central."
Angel stepped over the threshold and murmured his thanks. Once inside, Faith eyed Angel critically as he took in his surroundings.
"Angel?"
"Faith?"
"We good?"
Angel bobbed his head, "You and I are good. I can't make any promises about Spike. We had come to sort of an understanding in LA…"
"And then he and Buffy got together. You must've known."
"I knew he was freaking out because of some nightmares he had about Buffy. Started insisting he had to go find her. I thought he was going nuts the way he was acting, but I probably would have gone with him, if I'd been able to. Sort of hoped that even if he did find Buffy she'd just say 'thanks for the help' and send him packing."
"Like she did with you in Sunnydale?"
"That was a totally different situation—"
"Yeah whatever you got to tell yourself. So you got your choice, you can either crash on the couch down here or the one up in Giles's room. Personally I would take Giles up on his offer, you'd get a lot less teenage girls wanting to watch TV."
"I'll take the quiet one."
"Good choice."
"So where is everyone?" Angel asked.
"Probably outside or upstairs. Grab your gear and I'll give you the dime tour."
Spike stood in the doorway watching Buffy as she laid the baby down for a nap. The little guy had fallen asleep clutching a lock of her hair. Buffy had to carefully pry his little fingers off of her hair to free herself. Once she was free of his tiny grasp she was able to lay him down in the makeshift bassinet and back quietly out of the room. Spike moved into the hall, still watching her as she closed the door quietly.
"Is there anything you can't do?"
"Drive and work retail for starters," she smirked, "Ballroom dancing?"
"I've seen you dance and I've seen you fight. I bet you could handle it if you tried."
"Says you."
"I'm serious, you're really good with the little tike."
"Funny, considering the only baby experience I have is from when Dawn was a baby… which didn't actually happen, so that's just weird."
"Better than mine."
She raised an eyebrow and moved towards him, "I am going to pass the baby baton to the next lucky contestants. I think I need some food, are you coming?"
Spike raised a hand caressing her hair, "Love to. Little tike spit up on me earlier. I smell like sodden bloody-vomit and formula, it's revolting."
"I was trying not to say anything."
"You go down, I'll be along after I take care of this and change."
Buffy kissed him, "You weren't so bad in there yourself, you know. I mean yeah there was the puke, and the thing with the fire… but you got it under control."
"Oh yeah, fire burping baby and you got your hair down."
"I didn't have a problem. Maybe he just likes me more."
"That's probably it," he continued looking at her for a long moment.
"Earth to Spike. You didn't go catatonic on me did you? Because I'm pretty sure we haven't got this mind thing figured out enough for that."
Spike chuckled, "I just love seeing you like this, is all. Just want to commit it to memory."
"I'm not going anywhere without you," she reached up to kiss him, "Even if there is another super hot vampire staying with us."
Their lips met and Spike began to deepen the kiss when Buffy started to pull away, "Umm, Honey, yeah. You were right about the bloody-vomit and formula thing. Super gross," she patted him on the chest, "I'll meet you downstairs."
"Tried to warn you," he smirked. He continued to watch her as she headed downstairs.
A/N: To be continued... Please Read and Review!