CHAPTER THREE: PROMISE
"Three days left." Angel said.
"The changes have already begun. Ice caps reforming and such. It's actually kinda cool, in a Armageddon-y 'We're-all-gonna-die' kind of way." Willow said.
"And we still have this demon to worry about." Dawn added.
"She needs to find another. That'll take longer than three days." Angel said.
"Another Slayer?" Buffy asked. "That's Faith. She's in jail, an enclosed area. An easy catch."
"It's not a Slayer she needs." Angel said, looking out of the window at the sunlight as it fell upon everything outside. Perfectly normal, as if nothing at all was wrong. No death, no danger. Just peace. It was actually quite idyllic. Perfect place to raise a child.
"Than what does she need? A stressed-out blonde?"
"No."
"Well...?"
Angel turned to face the group, who was listening rather intently now. "She needs a pregnant girl."
"Excuse me?"
"A pregnant girl. A girl with child. A girl who's expecting a bundle of joy."
"Thank you, Mr. Obvious." Buffy said. "But what does that have to do with me?" Her face settled with realization, her expression suddenly calm. And then...she smiled. "Oh."
"You mean, Buffy's pregnant?" Willow said, smiling excitedly. "By who?"
Angel stared at Willow, smiling sheepishly and raising both eyebrows.
"Oh." Willow said. "Oh! Right. Well, congratulations!"
Buffy stood up and walked over to Angel, slipping her hands into his own, lifting them and kissing them softly. She stared up at him, smiling as she once again became lost in his eyes. All she ever wanted was coming true. "We...we're having a baby..."
"You'll be doing the having," Angel said, kissing her lips gently. "I'll be doing more of the watching."
"I don't know about that, maybe Willow could-..."
"No thank you. I've been to Hell before. Earned my badge for pain."
"You ever birthed a child?"
"Well, no."
"Then you haven't earned anything." Buffy smiled, kissing him tenderly.
"That's great." Xander said, holding an ice pack on his nose. "He knocks me unconscious, but evades scolding by conceiving a child. Slippery devil, he is."
Buffy smiled up at Angel. "No kisses for a week."
"A week?" Angel asked. "Could either of us endure?"
"A day?"
Angel shook his head.
"An hour?"
Angel shook his head again.
"Five seconds?"
"It'd be torture." Angel said, grinning. "But I think I can manage. Barely."
"Good. Consider yourself scolded." Buffy said, kissing him again. She turned and looked at Xander. "You're taking this remarkably well."
Xander sat up. "Even I know when to restrain my sarcasm. This is a happy moment, and those are few and far between lately."
Angel raised an eyebrow, then smirked slightly. "You know you want to."
"Okay," Xander took a deep breath. "It's nice to know when the world's about to end in a flurry of torment and anguish, not to mention a lot of fire, you can take time out of your busy schedule to boink and bring yet another life into this world to be irresponsibly taken."
"Not your best work, but it'll do."
"I'm still a little shaky from your left hook. Which, by the way, wouldn't have done any damage had I not been caught off guard. I laugh at your puny attempt to subdue me."
"Xander. You were looking right at me. And you were unconscious for fourteen hours."
"It's a small laugh."
"Okay," Buffy said, looking around at her friends, "the demon issue is pretty much null and void, and I'm having a baby. Now what do we do about this pesky world destruction thing?"
"Well," Willow said, "I found the reversal to the spell. Not exactly a reversal, just a separate spell to restore the balance of time."
"I asked Anya to get a few things from the Magic Box for us." Tara added. "She made me pay for them."
"Okay, what'll happen to Angel?" Buffy asked. "And the baby? And...Spike?"
"We don't know." Willow said. "We could do separate spells for them after the restoration spell. Maybe do an enchantment to protect them from the effects until we can find suitable spells to do on them."
"You need anything from me?" Buffy inquired.
"Nope." Willow said. "You've been through enough. And you being a mother and all now, it's probably better that you rest. So go and relax. We can handle it."
"Relax? Handle it? How can I relax when the world is going to end in sixty hours?"
"Probably with Angel."
"But-..."
"This is my resolve face. Well known to all. There's no arguing. Go rest."
"What if-..."
"Resolve. Face."
Buffy sighed. "Okay, you win."
"Always do." Willow said, smiling.
Buffy smiled, making her way upstairs to her room, Angel following.
Dawn walked over to Xander, placing a fresh ice pack on his face. He winced sharply.
"I wasn't looking directly at him. More...sideways. And I was out for thirteen and a half hours."
"Thirteen and a half?" Dawn asked. "Good. Then your manhood is still intact."
Xander smiled. "Close one."
-----
"It's just crazy, you know?" Buffy said, entering her bedroom. She'd changed into a white baby tee and gray sweatpants, sitting on her bed. She nestled her head onto Angel's chest as he sat next to her, his arm curling around her waist affectionately.
"Isn't it always?" Angel retorted softly, smiling slightly in his simple wisdom.
"I mean, here's everything I ever wanted. No vampires, no slaying, you, and now a baby. A chance at a relatively normal life and the world's going to be destroyed in just days." Buffy sighed, nuzzling deeper into the broad expanse of Angel's chest, comforted by the steady pulsation of his heartbeat.
"Allow me to reiterate my previous statement." Angel said, kissing the top of her head gently. "Isn't it always?"
"Point taken." Buffy said, closing her eyes as she immersed herself in the growing warmth of his body as it touched hers. "Can't we just have a normal marriage for one day where an Apocalypse doesn't threaten the Earth, my husband doesn't turn evil because a curse was taken off of him, and struggles for redemption aren't interrupted by some impending doom causing mass brooding and a feeling of helplessness?"
Angel smiled. "If you want a honeymoon in Hawaii, all you have to do is ask."
Buffy grinned, opening her eyes and looking up at her Angel. This was happiness. This was the way things should be. "I know. But I like being the opposite of cryptic. Not that that's a bad thing."
"So," Angel said, kissing her forehead lightly, "you like talking about random things, or you like elaborating on one subject?"
"Yes. Exactly."
"What?" Angel raised an eyebrow, looking down at her with a puzzled expression. "You lost me..."
"Then my work is done." Buffy said, snuggling back into his chest and giving it a light kiss. "Now, which hotel are we staying at?"
Angel smiled faintly, which was an all out grin considering it's owner. He tightened his embrace around her, resting his head atop hers like he had done so many times before. "I love you, Buffy."
"I love you too," Buffy said, smiling as she closed her eyes again. "But don't think just because I'm getting comfy and preparing to fall asleep in your arms that the hotel discussion is over."
"Wouldn't dream of it." Angel said, closing his own eyes. A few moments passed, then Angel decided to break the silence. "Love's a funny thing, isn't it? It makes you blissful and miserable. It's frightening and healing. It's physical and spiritual. It's incredibly fragile and yet so strong it seems deathless. Love is a potent puzzle we'll never solve."
Buffy smiled and looked up at him adoringly, her eyes glistening with tears. "I suppose it is." She lowered her head, blinking the tears away. "That was beautiful. Did you write that?"
"Nope." Angel said, looking down at her, his smile somewhat bigger. "Fortune cookie."
"You'd think that would cheapen the effect," Buffy said, leaning closer into him. "And yet, here we are." She kissed him softly on the lips before once more resting her head upon his chest. "I'm tired of giving things up, Angel."
"I know the feeling." Angel said, kissing her head again softly.
"I gave up any sense of normalcy in my life. My mother is gone. Giles is gone. I had to sacrifice you so many times it doesn't make any sense. When have I lost enough? When I just snap and decide it's not worth it anymore? Because I am seriously considering doing that if I have to watch you walk away one more time."
Angel lowered his own head at her words, feeling the compulsive urge to brood. He felt her move up into his lap, her arms coiling around his neck tightly. He felt a dampness build on his shoulder and knew it to be from her tears. She was crying, but so softly he could only hear a few whimpers. His arms found their way around her firmly, trying to comfort the sobbing girl. Never had she looked so innocent as she did now, a young girl caught in the crossfire between good and evil as their battle raged all around her. He never knew just how much he alone had injured that innocence until now.
"Promise me." Buffy said haltingly, struggling to fight back the onslaught of tears that was coming. "Promise me you won't leave me again. Promise me you'll stay." Then it happened. All the emotions building up in the Slayer over the past years, from death and bloodshed and loving and losing, surged forth. Her weeping became very audible, her form shaking in Angel's arms from her crying. "Promise me!" she exclaimed, clutching his body as if he were the one thing on Earth that kept her alive.
"You expect me to leave everything behind to be with you because you're carrying my baby," Angel said, closing his eyes, "you know what we have to do."
Buffy nodded in his arms, her voice timid. "Goodb-"
"Marry me." Angel said, offering a slight smile as he held her. Buffy began crying again, but this time her tears were shed for a different reason. Angel swallowed hard, seizing the petite figure in his arms tightly, rocking her back and forth slowly. His own tears fell on her hair as he held her. He whispered but one word, low enough to escape Buffy's ears. "Forever."
-----
"Okay," Willow said, closing a book of ancient text and incantations Anya had brought her and placing it on the coffee table. She looked up at the group, wiping sleep from her eyes with the back of her hand. "The good news is, we may not have to protect Angel and the baby from the time restoration spell. It's like, going back in time and changing something. It starts a chain reaction. So, the baby should grow inside Buffy normally. That is, if you don't count the sudden lunge into the age of seven."
"Ouch." Xander said, sitting across from Willow. "That's gotta hurt."
"Right." Tara said, looking down thoughtfully. "So someone has to be there to help her with the labor. It'll go pretty fast, but still, ow."
"I elect Angel." Xander said. "He made his bed and laid in it with the Buffster. Let him get his hand crushed by the angry pregnant Slayer as she's enduring body ripping pain."
"Good point," Willow said, tapping her fingernails on the book. "But there's a problem. I know Angel is human now, but I don't know if he'll age ten years or two hundred. He could die."
"That is a problem." Dawn said, looking towards the staircase as she thought of Buffy's reaction. She looked back towards Willow. "Maybe it's best we don't tell them that."
"Maybe you're right." Willow said. "Another good thing is that Spike should be around when time is restored. But...the chip thing is an issue. Since technically we'll be resurrecting him as time is rebalanced, the chip will be gone."
"Bad to worse, eh?" Xander said. "If it's not the world preparing to melt down to it's doom, it's demons losing their military-implanted chips for behavior control. Funny how Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen missed these little circumstances in their many delightful sitcoms and movies."
They all stared at him.
"What?" he asked. "And I suppose no one here has seen Full House?"
"Anyway," Willow said, "back to the world ending."
"Two of a Kind?" Xander continued.
"Let it go." Dawn said, patting him on the back.
"I do not copulate with him, I swear." Anya added.
"I thought Passport to Paris was a well-known film." Xander said, talking to no one in particular.
Willow stared at him for a moment before turning to Tara, who sat next to her. "You got the orb, right?"
"Yep." Tara said, holding the crystalline ball to the light. "I'm all set."
"An Orb of Thesulah?" Anya asked. "Who's soul are we restoring?"
"Spike's." Willow said. "Just in case. I'll be doing the soul restoring spell, and Tara will do the time restoring spell."
"I'll need some help." Tara said, looking over at Dawn. "How about it?"
"Sure." Dawn said. "But what do we do about Tabitha? If she tries to interfere?"
"We'll have to figure it out as we go along." Willow said. "It's better we get started now. You know, before we all become submerged in molten lava."
"I'm telling you," Xander said, "this would make a great TV show."
-----
"I can't believe this." Buffy said, her head on Angel's chest once more as they laid in her bed, nothing but a thin blanket covering their naked bodies. Angel was stroking her hair, moving his fingers delicately through each strand lovingly.
"Can't believe what?" Angel asked.
"I think I've lost the desire to make love to you." Buffy said, shame in her voice as she nestled her head further into his chest.
"Well, considering the fact that you're pregnant and we just made love eight times, I wouldn't blame you in the least." Angel said, kissing the top of her head, not bothered in the least by the sweat-dampened locks of hair as they spilled onto his chest. "Maybe I should put my clothes back on."
As he went to get out of the bed, Buffy grabbed his arm. "Let's not be too hasty. After all, this is a serious condition that needs to be analyzed and diagnosed properly and promptly."
"The simple words, 'Let's play doctor' would have sufficed." Angel said, settling back into both the bed and her arms.
"Ready to examine me? I mean, you are the most qualified for the job." Buffy said, smiling coyly as she nipped at his nose with the tip of her tongue.
"In a better mood, are we?" Angel said, smiling as he kissed her lips softly.
"Making love to you always brightens my mood. And eight times makes for an extremely happy Buffy. But," she said, kissing his cheek and teasing his earlobe with her tongue, "I'd like to be an exceedingly happy Buffy. Want to go for Number Nine?"
"You're never satisfied, are you?" Angel said, smirking at the blonde as she lightly mewed in his ear, for his fingers had somehow slipped past her defenses and were now playing gingerly upon her folds, content to merely tease and toy with them.
Buffy nearly purred at his touch, her back arching slightly from the sensations. "With you? Always. I just like to stay satisfied for hours at a time." She kissed his chest lightly, determined to be the seductress as she trailed kissed up his neck and to his lips. "Problem?"
"What Buffy wants, Buffy gets." Angel said, kissing the top of her breast softly.
"Glad you finally noticed." Buffy said, giggling between soft whimpers as he consumed her right nipple, sucking gently on the bud as it grew under his attentions.
"Um, excuse me?"
Startled, Buffy, brought the blanket over Angel and herself to hide their activities. She blinked before realizing who was at her doorway. "Dawn! Don't you knock?"
"Sorry. Just, Willow needs you guys to go patrolling, just in case any teenage vampires are wandering around. After all, can't be too careful."
"Oh. Um, okay." Buffy said, looking down at Angel. "Tell Willow I'll be right down."
"Okay." Dawn said, turning for the door. She stopped, turning back to face them in the doorway, smiling a bit. "By the way, Ms. Walters, the old woman who lives six houses down, wants to know when you became so devout."
"What?" Buffy asked, confused.
"Well, she heard you yelling 'God!' and 'Angel!' for the past five hours, so she assumed you'd found the Lord. Should I tell her what you actually found?"
Buffy felt her cheeks grow hot as she blushed, smiling down at Angel. "That won't be necessary. You mind, oh, I don't know...leaving?"
"Sure." Dawn said, making her way to the stairs. "What are sisters for?"
Buffy sat up, picking her clothes off of the floor. She tilted her head towards Angel. "Raincheck?"
Angel nodded with an amused smile as he kissed her. "Sure."
Suddenly, they heard Dawn yell downstairs.
"Willow! You were right! They were shagging again!"
Buffy rolled her eyes, smirking as she looked behind her to watch Angel getting dressed. "She's just jealous that she doesn't have someone to have what we have with." She blinked. "She does...not...have someone...right?"
Willow had just left the kitchen when she noticed Buffy and Angel coming down the stairs, her expression becoming more anxious as they approached her. She fidgeted a bit as Buffy spoke, her voice snapping her out of her nervous trance.
"Okay, what's the plan?" Buffy asked.
"I thought I told you to go rest," Willow said, shifting her eyes between them rapidly. "You know, relax."
"I did." Buffy said. "This is me rested. Witness me in my relaxed state. Now what's going on?"
"Well," Willow said, uneasily fiddling with her hands, "we've sort of been delayed in coming up with a course of action." She noticed Buffy's slightly annoyed questioning look. "We would have had a perfectly good plan by now, but we were...interrupted."
"Interrupted?"
"We have a visitor." Willow said, shifting her glance to Angel.
"Who?" Buffy asked.
"It's better you don't know, because we're still trying to figure stuff out." Willow said, fidgeting a bit more. "A developmental stage, if you will."
Buffy narrowed her glance. "Who?"
At the lack of response from her friend, Buffy simply walked around Willow into the kitchen, Angel firmly behind her for support. Nothing could prepare her, however, for what awaited her inside. As soon as her eyes fell upon the visitor, her heart might as well have stopped cold.
"Oh my God." she said, unable to think of anything else to say as Willow slipped quietly back into the kitchen behind her.
At those words, Riley Finn stood up from his seat, tense as he placed his hands into his pockets. He was younger, of course, and dressed in bluish-gray military fatigues, but he was unmistakable.
"Hey Buffy."
The next sound heard was that of Angel's right fist being smashed into the left side of Riley's face with demolishing force. Riley's head rocked back, his feet stumbling an involuntary withdraw. He nearly fell, but gradually regained his composure, though not his dignity. He rubbed his left cheek tenderly, surprised at the strength of Angel's punches even as a human.
"Okay," Riley said, "I deserved that." He glanced over at Buffy. "You told him about the vampires, didn't you?"
Angel looked back at Buffy hesitantly. He hadn't struck Riley because of any vampires. It just seemed the thing to do at the time. "Vampires? What vampires?"
Buffy looked at Riley with scorn. "Riley here used to have female vampires suck off him. He seems to get a real kick out of it. It's one of the many reasons we broke up."
Angel looked back at Riley, anger brewing in his eyes, pleading for an excuse to let it loose. "You had vampires suck off you and then break Buffy's heart, and you think notifying me of this information won't cause me to hit you again, preferably until you lose consciousness?"
"Okay, look," Riley said. "Before you start hitting me again, I came here to help, okay? When this thing went down, I figured you guys might know something about it. So I came down here to help you out or get assistance, and find out what's going on. Willow already explained the situation to me, and I think I have a solution."
"Oh, you do." Angel said, crossing his arms and stepping back to Buffy's side. "This should be interesting."
"We don't need your help, Riley," Buffy said, glaring at his audacity. "We don't want your help."
"Maybe," Riley said, "I think I can be useful somehow. I mean-"
"'Don't want' means 'don't want.'" Buffy said. "We don't need it. We never will. Just do back to Central America or wherever the hell it is you came from."
"Buffy, I don't mean to interrupt," Angel said, his eyes cast down in thought. "but maybe we can use him. He's military personnel. He might have something for us. He is practiced with demons. He might be able to devise a way to fight this thing."
"You're on his side?" Buffy asked, blinking.
"No, I'm not on his side," Angel said, "I'm just saying, we need all the help we can get at this point. The world is going to end in a very short time. Now is not the time for personal differences. I mean, we can wait until it's over to start assaulting him, can't we?"
"I hate your rational thoughts," Buffy said.
"So," Xander said, "how useful is Riley?"
"Well," Willow said, calming down a bit at the newfound unity, "That's what we're trying to figure out."
"You were trying to incorporate Riley into the plan already?" Buffy asked, irritated that she hadn't been notified. Willow nodded. Buffy calmed herself down a bit. "How'd it go?"
"Not good." Willow said, looking down at an old text on the kitchen table. "You see, this is a mystical thing, with really only one demon that we know of involved. And all Riley knows how to do is combat demons physically, which really won't do any good against a presumably immortal demon."
"Okay, who's for assaulting him now?" Xander asked, raising his hand as if to ask for a vote.
"Xander." Tara chided.
"What?" Xander said, shrugging his shoulders. "His worth has been established, and, lo and behold, it's remarkably low."
"Hold on a second," Riley said, lifting a finger to hush Xander's bickering. He looked at Willow. "You said this witch or whatever was trying to gain immortality. That means she's not immortal yet. So, she can be hurt. I think we should just blow her up. I mean, I can get some charges. Someone can distract her while they're being set, and boom. End of story." He noticed the blank stares of the Scoobies directed at him and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"That's actually a good idea." Buffy said, gaping at her ex.
"Words escape me." Angel retorted, his look one of awe.
"Okay, but what if she has some sort of protection spell set up?" Dawn inquired. "What do we do then?"
"Me and Tara are working on a kind of binding spell to prevent her from doing harm." Willow spoke up.
"Plan on doing it now?" Riley asked.
"The thing is, we don't know what kind of immunities she has. Although she and us," Willow said, gesturing her hand to indicate Tara, "are powerful witches, she has had a couple more centuries practice."
"I see your point." Buffy said.
"So we try the binding spell." Angel said, his arm going around Buffy's waist, his hand falling on her partially exposed belly in a moderately possessive manner. "If it works, we don't need to kill her. Incapacitation works pretty well."
"Question." Riley said. "What if, years from now, she finds a way to get her powers back, and tries to do this again?"
"Riley is actually making sense to me." Angel said, curling his arm a bit and drawing Buffy closer to him. Buffy lightly nuzzled the side of his neck with her cheek. Even with a crisis about to befall them, she still couldn't think of anything else but him. She finally had him, their love renewed in a way she'd never felt before, and now a life was growing inside of her. She'd be damned if some witch would take away all she had. Buffy Summers was through with losing everything good in her life.
"The world really is coming to an end." Xander retorted, smirking snugly.
"Well, I try." Riley said, uncertain if this meant he'd been accepted for the time being into their circle.
"Okay, so we do have to kill her." Angel said, smiling a bit at Buffy's affectionate touch before regaining his sense of seriousness. "How do we go about it? I mean, what if blowing her up doesn't work? We should be working on some failsafe plan, just in case this demon she's summoning happens to surface."
"If the demon emerges, she'll be immortal." Willow said, glancing to her left at Tara and Dawn. "But it has to be birthed into the world. So it would be vulnerable as it was being born."
"We have to kill a baby?" Dawn asked, her voice a bit shrill, showing she was obviously uncomfortable with the idea. "That seems wrong."
"Hopefully, it won't come to that." Buffy said, turning to face Angel. Much to her delight, though she didn't show it, his arms circled around her waist as she did, keeping her close. He didn't want to lose her any more than she didn't want to lose him. That made her happy. "Like you said, she'll be hard-pressed to find a pregnant girl in the world's current situation."
"This just isn't the time for pregnancy," Xander said, settling down into his chair in an attempt to get more comfortable in the hard wooden frame, "besides Buffy."
"Excuse me," Riley said, shock washing over his face. "Buffy's pregnant?!?"
Angel smiled, chuckling to himself at Riley's reaction. "What, they didn't tell you?"
"But I thought the youth spell turned ages back, and I'm pretty sure she wasn't-" Riley paused, his expression changing to that of utter horror. "Oh my God. You and him?"
"Yeah." Buffy said quietly, snuggling into the broad, cozily warm breadth of his chest as if it were the most natural thing in the world, a smile forming on the lips that Angel would be certain to kiss many, many more times in the future.
"Okay, could this be more awkward?" Riley said, taking a seat beside Xander and staring blankly down at the table, his mouth agape.
"I feel fine," Angel said, a rare grin of untold elation gracing his sculpted features. "Actually kind of ecstatic."
Riley had nothing more to verbally contribute. And if he had, they didn't wait to find out. Willow started leafing through the text, stopping to scan a passage handwritten in Latin. "We'll start the binding spell."
----------
"Three days left." Angel said.
"The changes have already begun. Ice caps reforming and such. It's actually kinda cool, in a Armageddon-y 'We're-all-gonna-die' kind of way." Willow said.
"And we still have this demon to worry about." Dawn added.
"She needs to find another. That'll take longer than three days." Angel said.
"Another Slayer?" Buffy asked. "That's Faith. She's in jail, an enclosed area. An easy catch."
"It's not a Slayer she needs." Angel said, looking out of the window at the sunlight as it fell upon everything outside. Perfectly normal, as if nothing at all was wrong. No death, no danger. Just peace. It was actually quite idyllic. Perfect place to raise a child.
"Than what does she need? A stressed-out blonde?"
"No."
"Well...?"
Angel turned to face the group, who was listening rather intently now. "She needs a pregnant girl."
"Excuse me?"
"A pregnant girl. A girl with child. A girl who's expecting a bundle of joy."
"Thank you, Mr. Obvious." Buffy said. "But what does that have to do with me?" Her face settled with realization, her expression suddenly calm. And then...she smiled. "Oh."
"You mean, Buffy's pregnant?" Willow said, smiling excitedly. "By who?"
Angel stared at Willow, smiling sheepishly and raising both eyebrows.
"Oh." Willow said. "Oh! Right. Well, congratulations!"
Buffy stood up and walked over to Angel, slipping her hands into his own, lifting them and kissing them softly. She stared up at him, smiling as she once again became lost in his eyes. All she ever wanted was coming true. "We...we're having a baby..."
"You'll be doing the having," Angel said, kissing her lips gently. "I'll be doing more of the watching."
"I don't know about that, maybe Willow could-..."
"No thank you. I've been to Hell before. Earned my badge for pain."
"You ever birthed a child?"
"Well, no."
"Then you haven't earned anything." Buffy smiled, kissing him tenderly.
"That's great." Xander said, holding an ice pack on his nose. "He knocks me unconscious, but evades scolding by conceiving a child. Slippery devil, he is."
Buffy smiled up at Angel. "No kisses for a week."
"A week?" Angel asked. "Could either of us endure?"
"A day?"
Angel shook his head.
"An hour?"
Angel shook his head again.
"Five seconds?"
"It'd be torture." Angel said, grinning. "But I think I can manage. Barely."
"Good. Consider yourself scolded." Buffy said, kissing him again. She turned and looked at Xander. "You're taking this remarkably well."
Xander sat up. "Even I know when to restrain my sarcasm. This is a happy moment, and those are few and far between lately."
Angel raised an eyebrow, then smirked slightly. "You know you want to."
"Okay," Xander took a deep breath. "It's nice to know when the world's about to end in a flurry of torment and anguish, not to mention a lot of fire, you can take time out of your busy schedule to boink and bring yet another life into this world to be irresponsibly taken."
"Not your best work, but it'll do."
"I'm still a little shaky from your left hook. Which, by the way, wouldn't have done any damage had I not been caught off guard. I laugh at your puny attempt to subdue me."
"Xander. You were looking right at me. And you were unconscious for fourteen hours."
"It's a small laugh."
"Okay," Buffy said, looking around at her friends, "the demon issue is pretty much null and void, and I'm having a baby. Now what do we do about this pesky world destruction thing?"
"Well," Willow said, "I found the reversal to the spell. Not exactly a reversal, just a separate spell to restore the balance of time."
"I asked Anya to get a few things from the Magic Box for us." Tara added. "She made me pay for them."
"Okay, what'll happen to Angel?" Buffy asked. "And the baby? And...Spike?"
"We don't know." Willow said. "We could do separate spells for them after the restoration spell. Maybe do an enchantment to protect them from the effects until we can find suitable spells to do on them."
"You need anything from me?" Buffy inquired.
"Nope." Willow said. "You've been through enough. And you being a mother and all now, it's probably better that you rest. So go and relax. We can handle it."
"Relax? Handle it? How can I relax when the world is going to end in sixty hours?"
"Probably with Angel."
"But-..."
"This is my resolve face. Well known to all. There's no arguing. Go rest."
"What if-..."
"Resolve. Face."
Buffy sighed. "Okay, you win."
"Always do." Willow said, smiling.
Buffy smiled, making her way upstairs to her room, Angel following.
Dawn walked over to Xander, placing a fresh ice pack on his face. He winced sharply.
"I wasn't looking directly at him. More...sideways. And I was out for thirteen and a half hours."
"Thirteen and a half?" Dawn asked. "Good. Then your manhood is still intact."
Xander smiled. "Close one."
-----
"It's just crazy, you know?" Buffy said, entering her bedroom. She'd changed into a white baby tee and gray sweatpants, sitting on her bed. She nestled her head onto Angel's chest as he sat next to her, his arm curling around her waist affectionately.
"Isn't it always?" Angel retorted softly, smiling slightly in his simple wisdom.
"I mean, here's everything I ever wanted. No vampires, no slaying, you, and now a baby. A chance at a relatively normal life and the world's going to be destroyed in just days." Buffy sighed, nuzzling deeper into the broad expanse of Angel's chest, comforted by the steady pulsation of his heartbeat.
"Allow me to reiterate my previous statement." Angel said, kissing the top of her head gently. "Isn't it always?"
"Point taken." Buffy said, closing her eyes as she immersed herself in the growing warmth of his body as it touched hers. "Can't we just have a normal marriage for one day where an Apocalypse doesn't threaten the Earth, my husband doesn't turn evil because a curse was taken off of him, and struggles for redemption aren't interrupted by some impending doom causing mass brooding and a feeling of helplessness?"
Angel smiled. "If you want a honeymoon in Hawaii, all you have to do is ask."
Buffy grinned, opening her eyes and looking up at her Angel. This was happiness. This was the way things should be. "I know. But I like being the opposite of cryptic. Not that that's a bad thing."
"So," Angel said, kissing her forehead lightly, "you like talking about random things, or you like elaborating on one subject?"
"Yes. Exactly."
"What?" Angel raised an eyebrow, looking down at her with a puzzled expression. "You lost me..."
"Then my work is done." Buffy said, snuggling back into his chest and giving it a light kiss. "Now, which hotel are we staying at?"
Angel smiled faintly, which was an all out grin considering it's owner. He tightened his embrace around her, resting his head atop hers like he had done so many times before. "I love you, Buffy."
"I love you too," Buffy said, smiling as she closed her eyes again. "But don't think just because I'm getting comfy and preparing to fall asleep in your arms that the hotel discussion is over."
"Wouldn't dream of it." Angel said, closing his own eyes. A few moments passed, then Angel decided to break the silence. "Love's a funny thing, isn't it? It makes you blissful and miserable. It's frightening and healing. It's physical and spiritual. It's incredibly fragile and yet so strong it seems deathless. Love is a potent puzzle we'll never solve."
Buffy smiled and looked up at him adoringly, her eyes glistening with tears. "I suppose it is." She lowered her head, blinking the tears away. "That was beautiful. Did you write that?"
"Nope." Angel said, looking down at her, his smile somewhat bigger. "Fortune cookie."
"You'd think that would cheapen the effect," Buffy said, leaning closer into him. "And yet, here we are." She kissed him softly on the lips before once more resting her head upon his chest. "I'm tired of giving things up, Angel."
"I know the feeling." Angel said, kissing her head again softly.
"I gave up any sense of normalcy in my life. My mother is gone. Giles is gone. I had to sacrifice you so many times it doesn't make any sense. When have I lost enough? When I just snap and decide it's not worth it anymore? Because I am seriously considering doing that if I have to watch you walk away one more time."
Angel lowered his own head at her words, feeling the compulsive urge to brood. He felt her move up into his lap, her arms coiling around his neck tightly. He felt a dampness build on his shoulder and knew it to be from her tears. She was crying, but so softly he could only hear a few whimpers. His arms found their way around her firmly, trying to comfort the sobbing girl. Never had she looked so innocent as she did now, a young girl caught in the crossfire between good and evil as their battle raged all around her. He never knew just how much he alone had injured that innocence until now.
"Promise me." Buffy said haltingly, struggling to fight back the onslaught of tears that was coming. "Promise me you won't leave me again. Promise me you'll stay." Then it happened. All the emotions building up in the Slayer over the past years, from death and bloodshed and loving and losing, surged forth. Her weeping became very audible, her form shaking in Angel's arms from her crying. "Promise me!" she exclaimed, clutching his body as if he were the one thing on Earth that kept her alive.
"You expect me to leave everything behind to be with you because you're carrying my baby," Angel said, closing his eyes, "you know what we have to do."
Buffy nodded in his arms, her voice timid. "Goodb-"
"Marry me." Angel said, offering a slight smile as he held her. Buffy began crying again, but this time her tears were shed for a different reason. Angel swallowed hard, seizing the petite figure in his arms tightly, rocking her back and forth slowly. His own tears fell on her hair as he held her. He whispered but one word, low enough to escape Buffy's ears. "Forever."
-----
"Okay," Willow said, closing a book of ancient text and incantations Anya had brought her and placing it on the coffee table. She looked up at the group, wiping sleep from her eyes with the back of her hand. "The good news is, we may not have to protect Angel and the baby from the time restoration spell. It's like, going back in time and changing something. It starts a chain reaction. So, the baby should grow inside Buffy normally. That is, if you don't count the sudden lunge into the age of seven."
"Ouch." Xander said, sitting across from Willow. "That's gotta hurt."
"Right." Tara said, looking down thoughtfully. "So someone has to be there to help her with the labor. It'll go pretty fast, but still, ow."
"I elect Angel." Xander said. "He made his bed and laid in it with the Buffster. Let him get his hand crushed by the angry pregnant Slayer as she's enduring body ripping pain."
"Good point," Willow said, tapping her fingernails on the book. "But there's a problem. I know Angel is human now, but I don't know if he'll age ten years or two hundred. He could die."
"That is a problem." Dawn said, looking towards the staircase as she thought of Buffy's reaction. She looked back towards Willow. "Maybe it's best we don't tell them that."
"Maybe you're right." Willow said. "Another good thing is that Spike should be around when time is restored. But...the chip thing is an issue. Since technically we'll be resurrecting him as time is rebalanced, the chip will be gone."
"Bad to worse, eh?" Xander said. "If it's not the world preparing to melt down to it's doom, it's demons losing their military-implanted chips for behavior control. Funny how Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen missed these little circumstances in their many delightful sitcoms and movies."
They all stared at him.
"What?" he asked. "And I suppose no one here has seen Full House?"
"Anyway," Willow said, "back to the world ending."
"Two of a Kind?" Xander continued.
"Let it go." Dawn said, patting him on the back.
"I do not copulate with him, I swear." Anya added.
"I thought Passport to Paris was a well-known film." Xander said, talking to no one in particular.
Willow stared at him for a moment before turning to Tara, who sat next to her. "You got the orb, right?"
"Yep." Tara said, holding the crystalline ball to the light. "I'm all set."
"An Orb of Thesulah?" Anya asked. "Who's soul are we restoring?"
"Spike's." Willow said. "Just in case. I'll be doing the soul restoring spell, and Tara will do the time restoring spell."
"I'll need some help." Tara said, looking over at Dawn. "How about it?"
"Sure." Dawn said. "But what do we do about Tabitha? If she tries to interfere?"
"We'll have to figure it out as we go along." Willow said. "It's better we get started now. You know, before we all become submerged in molten lava."
"I'm telling you," Xander said, "this would make a great TV show."
-----
"I can't believe this." Buffy said, her head on Angel's chest once more as they laid in her bed, nothing but a thin blanket covering their naked bodies. Angel was stroking her hair, moving his fingers delicately through each strand lovingly.
"Can't believe what?" Angel asked.
"I think I've lost the desire to make love to you." Buffy said, shame in her voice as she nestled her head further into his chest.
"Well, considering the fact that you're pregnant and we just made love eight times, I wouldn't blame you in the least." Angel said, kissing the top of her head, not bothered in the least by the sweat-dampened locks of hair as they spilled onto his chest. "Maybe I should put my clothes back on."
As he went to get out of the bed, Buffy grabbed his arm. "Let's not be too hasty. After all, this is a serious condition that needs to be analyzed and diagnosed properly and promptly."
"The simple words, 'Let's play doctor' would have sufficed." Angel said, settling back into both the bed and her arms.
"Ready to examine me? I mean, you are the most qualified for the job." Buffy said, smiling coyly as she nipped at his nose with the tip of her tongue.
"In a better mood, are we?" Angel said, smiling as he kissed her lips softly.
"Making love to you always brightens my mood. And eight times makes for an extremely happy Buffy. But," she said, kissing his cheek and teasing his earlobe with her tongue, "I'd like to be an exceedingly happy Buffy. Want to go for Number Nine?"
"You're never satisfied, are you?" Angel said, smirking at the blonde as she lightly mewed in his ear, for his fingers had somehow slipped past her defenses and were now playing gingerly upon her folds, content to merely tease and toy with them.
Buffy nearly purred at his touch, her back arching slightly from the sensations. "With you? Always. I just like to stay satisfied for hours at a time." She kissed his chest lightly, determined to be the seductress as she trailed kissed up his neck and to his lips. "Problem?"
"What Buffy wants, Buffy gets." Angel said, kissing the top of her breast softly.
"Glad you finally noticed." Buffy said, giggling between soft whimpers as he consumed her right nipple, sucking gently on the bud as it grew under his attentions.
"Um, excuse me?"
Startled, Buffy, brought the blanket over Angel and herself to hide their activities. She blinked before realizing who was at her doorway. "Dawn! Don't you knock?"
"Sorry. Just, Willow needs you guys to go patrolling, just in case any teenage vampires are wandering around. After all, can't be too careful."
"Oh. Um, okay." Buffy said, looking down at Angel. "Tell Willow I'll be right down."
"Okay." Dawn said, turning for the door. She stopped, turning back to face them in the doorway, smiling a bit. "By the way, Ms. Walters, the old woman who lives six houses down, wants to know when you became so devout."
"What?" Buffy asked, confused.
"Well, she heard you yelling 'God!' and 'Angel!' for the past five hours, so she assumed you'd found the Lord. Should I tell her what you actually found?"
Buffy felt her cheeks grow hot as she blushed, smiling down at Angel. "That won't be necessary. You mind, oh, I don't know...leaving?"
"Sure." Dawn said, making her way to the stairs. "What are sisters for?"
Buffy sat up, picking her clothes off of the floor. She tilted her head towards Angel. "Raincheck?"
Angel nodded with an amused smile as he kissed her. "Sure."
Suddenly, they heard Dawn yell downstairs.
"Willow! You were right! They were shagging again!"
Buffy rolled her eyes, smirking as she looked behind her to watch Angel getting dressed. "She's just jealous that she doesn't have someone to have what we have with." She blinked. "She does...not...have someone...right?"
Willow had just left the kitchen when she noticed Buffy and Angel coming down the stairs, her expression becoming more anxious as they approached her. She fidgeted a bit as Buffy spoke, her voice snapping her out of her nervous trance.
"Okay, what's the plan?" Buffy asked.
"I thought I told you to go rest," Willow said, shifting her eyes between them rapidly. "You know, relax."
"I did." Buffy said. "This is me rested. Witness me in my relaxed state. Now what's going on?"
"Well," Willow said, uneasily fiddling with her hands, "we've sort of been delayed in coming up with a course of action." She noticed Buffy's slightly annoyed questioning look. "We would have had a perfectly good plan by now, but we were...interrupted."
"Interrupted?"
"We have a visitor." Willow said, shifting her glance to Angel.
"Who?" Buffy asked.
"It's better you don't know, because we're still trying to figure stuff out." Willow said, fidgeting a bit more. "A developmental stage, if you will."
Buffy narrowed her glance. "Who?"
At the lack of response from her friend, Buffy simply walked around Willow into the kitchen, Angel firmly behind her for support. Nothing could prepare her, however, for what awaited her inside. As soon as her eyes fell upon the visitor, her heart might as well have stopped cold.
"Oh my God." she said, unable to think of anything else to say as Willow slipped quietly back into the kitchen behind her.
At those words, Riley Finn stood up from his seat, tense as he placed his hands into his pockets. He was younger, of course, and dressed in bluish-gray military fatigues, but he was unmistakable.
"Hey Buffy."
The next sound heard was that of Angel's right fist being smashed into the left side of Riley's face with demolishing force. Riley's head rocked back, his feet stumbling an involuntary withdraw. He nearly fell, but gradually regained his composure, though not his dignity. He rubbed his left cheek tenderly, surprised at the strength of Angel's punches even as a human.
"Okay," Riley said, "I deserved that." He glanced over at Buffy. "You told him about the vampires, didn't you?"
Angel looked back at Buffy hesitantly. He hadn't struck Riley because of any vampires. It just seemed the thing to do at the time. "Vampires? What vampires?"
Buffy looked at Riley with scorn. "Riley here used to have female vampires suck off him. He seems to get a real kick out of it. It's one of the many reasons we broke up."
Angel looked back at Riley, anger brewing in his eyes, pleading for an excuse to let it loose. "You had vampires suck off you and then break Buffy's heart, and you think notifying me of this information won't cause me to hit you again, preferably until you lose consciousness?"
"Okay, look," Riley said. "Before you start hitting me again, I came here to help, okay? When this thing went down, I figured you guys might know something about it. So I came down here to help you out or get assistance, and find out what's going on. Willow already explained the situation to me, and I think I have a solution."
"Oh, you do." Angel said, crossing his arms and stepping back to Buffy's side. "This should be interesting."
"We don't need your help, Riley," Buffy said, glaring at his audacity. "We don't want your help."
"Maybe," Riley said, "I think I can be useful somehow. I mean-"
"'Don't want' means 'don't want.'" Buffy said. "We don't need it. We never will. Just do back to Central America or wherever the hell it is you came from."
"Buffy, I don't mean to interrupt," Angel said, his eyes cast down in thought. "but maybe we can use him. He's military personnel. He might have something for us. He is practiced with demons. He might be able to devise a way to fight this thing."
"You're on his side?" Buffy asked, blinking.
"No, I'm not on his side," Angel said, "I'm just saying, we need all the help we can get at this point. The world is going to end in a very short time. Now is not the time for personal differences. I mean, we can wait until it's over to start assaulting him, can't we?"
"I hate your rational thoughts," Buffy said.
"So," Xander said, "how useful is Riley?"
"Well," Willow said, calming down a bit at the newfound unity, "That's what we're trying to figure out."
"You were trying to incorporate Riley into the plan already?" Buffy asked, irritated that she hadn't been notified. Willow nodded. Buffy calmed herself down a bit. "How'd it go?"
"Not good." Willow said, looking down at an old text on the kitchen table. "You see, this is a mystical thing, with really only one demon that we know of involved. And all Riley knows how to do is combat demons physically, which really won't do any good against a presumably immortal demon."
"Okay, who's for assaulting him now?" Xander asked, raising his hand as if to ask for a vote.
"Xander." Tara chided.
"What?" Xander said, shrugging his shoulders. "His worth has been established, and, lo and behold, it's remarkably low."
"Hold on a second," Riley said, lifting a finger to hush Xander's bickering. He looked at Willow. "You said this witch or whatever was trying to gain immortality. That means she's not immortal yet. So, she can be hurt. I think we should just blow her up. I mean, I can get some charges. Someone can distract her while they're being set, and boom. End of story." He noticed the blank stares of the Scoobies directed at him and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"That's actually a good idea." Buffy said, gaping at her ex.
"Words escape me." Angel retorted, his look one of awe.
"Okay, but what if she has some sort of protection spell set up?" Dawn inquired. "What do we do then?"
"Me and Tara are working on a kind of binding spell to prevent her from doing harm." Willow spoke up.
"Plan on doing it now?" Riley asked.
"The thing is, we don't know what kind of immunities she has. Although she and us," Willow said, gesturing her hand to indicate Tara, "are powerful witches, she has had a couple more centuries practice."
"I see your point." Buffy said.
"So we try the binding spell." Angel said, his arm going around Buffy's waist, his hand falling on her partially exposed belly in a moderately possessive manner. "If it works, we don't need to kill her. Incapacitation works pretty well."
"Question." Riley said. "What if, years from now, she finds a way to get her powers back, and tries to do this again?"
"Riley is actually making sense to me." Angel said, curling his arm a bit and drawing Buffy closer to him. Buffy lightly nuzzled the side of his neck with her cheek. Even with a crisis about to befall them, she still couldn't think of anything else but him. She finally had him, their love renewed in a way she'd never felt before, and now a life was growing inside of her. She'd be damned if some witch would take away all she had. Buffy Summers was through with losing everything good in her life.
"The world really is coming to an end." Xander retorted, smirking snugly.
"Well, I try." Riley said, uncertain if this meant he'd been accepted for the time being into their circle.
"Okay, so we do have to kill her." Angel said, smiling a bit at Buffy's affectionate touch before regaining his sense of seriousness. "How do we go about it? I mean, what if blowing her up doesn't work? We should be working on some failsafe plan, just in case this demon she's summoning happens to surface."
"If the demon emerges, she'll be immortal." Willow said, glancing to her left at Tara and Dawn. "But it has to be birthed into the world. So it would be vulnerable as it was being born."
"We have to kill a baby?" Dawn asked, her voice a bit shrill, showing she was obviously uncomfortable with the idea. "That seems wrong."
"Hopefully, it won't come to that." Buffy said, turning to face Angel. Much to her delight, though she didn't show it, his arms circled around her waist as she did, keeping her close. He didn't want to lose her any more than she didn't want to lose him. That made her happy. "Like you said, she'll be hard-pressed to find a pregnant girl in the world's current situation."
"This just isn't the time for pregnancy," Xander said, settling down into his chair in an attempt to get more comfortable in the hard wooden frame, "besides Buffy."
"Excuse me," Riley said, shock washing over his face. "Buffy's pregnant?!?"
Angel smiled, chuckling to himself at Riley's reaction. "What, they didn't tell you?"
"But I thought the youth spell turned ages back, and I'm pretty sure she wasn't-" Riley paused, his expression changing to that of utter horror. "Oh my God. You and him?"
"Yeah." Buffy said quietly, snuggling into the broad, cozily warm breadth of his chest as if it were the most natural thing in the world, a smile forming on the lips that Angel would be certain to kiss many, many more times in the future.
"Okay, could this be more awkward?" Riley said, taking a seat beside Xander and staring blankly down at the table, his mouth agape.
"I feel fine," Angel said, a rare grin of untold elation gracing his sculpted features. "Actually kind of ecstatic."
Riley had nothing more to verbally contribute. And if he had, they didn't wait to find out. Willow started leafing through the text, stopping to scan a passage handwritten in Latin. "We'll start the binding spell."
----------
