Disclaimer: Don't own any of the original BtVS characters. Joss Whedon and ME do, lucky bastards. I do own Rosaline, Arden, and all the other people I make up.

A/N: Yes I posted this under PG-13 but later it may get into the R rating, because of violence and language. Also Buffy is not the only person who will be coming back. At least two others from the past will be coming too.

Thank you all for the reviews!!! *sniff* You like me! You really like me! ….Well my story anyway….

* * *

It was three days later. They were all attending Magnolia's and Gallan's funeral. Jessica had been buried the day before, out in the country near the old Delilac Manor.

Rosaline stood in a coma like state, dressed all in black. She wasn't listening to the priest's words. William was standing next to her, even though it was 11 o'clock in the afternoon. The sky was thick with black clouds, which blocked out the sun. It had been raining for three days straight. Rosaline knew it would not stop. Hers and the other witch's pain were to great. She had cried so hard, for so long. Now it seemed that she was always crying. Not big, hot tears, not screaming. The tears just seemed to spill from her eyes without stopping. The priest finished the service and the coffins were lowered into the ground.

The people began to break up. Rosaline fell back against William. "You okay, luv?" he asked. She nodded. She felt sick, like she could throw up. She had thrown up last night, and the day before that. It was probably just the grief. 

She saw Arden standing a little ways away. She patted Will on the arm, not having to use words to tell him what she was doing. He nodded and took out a cigarette and lit it.

He looked up at her as she approached. Neither of them knew what to say. He spoke first. "I….Proctor called a meeting. Important you know."

Simon Proctor was the new head of the council.

She nodded. "Council things. Think I'll just….mediate…"

She had caused the entire building the ritual took place in to catch fire. Several people had not been able to get out in time; witches and demons. Witches usually do not use magic to harm others unless necessary. In the old days, when one was grieving or in emotional pain they were sent away for a time to be alone. Rosaline held her stomach. She felt sick again.

"Are you okay?" Arden asked. He cupped her face in his hands. She nodded.

"I'm fine, and if I have to say I'm fine one more time somebody's head is going to explode," she gave a small smile.

"Want me to take you home?" he smiled at her.

"No, I can hitch a ride with Will."

Arden frowned. He could see the vampire behind them, smoking a cigarette and paying his respects to the dead. He did not like William. Rosaline said it was only because he was a vampire and he didn't want to get to know him. Part of that was true. He was a vampire, and vampires were evil and could not be trusted, even if one of them had a soul. Humans had souls and they were still able to do horrible, unforgivable things.

"It's okay," she assured him. "He's a perfect gentleman. Unlike some Watcher I know who uses foul language."

"Fine, I'll talk to you later. I promise. Just don't…..invite him in or anything."

Rosaline almost laughed. For one thing William already had admittance to the coven's manor. For another Arden actually thought he could tell her what to do.

"I'll talk to you, later," she said, bending and kissing his cheek. Arden patted her hair down and touched her face again before turning to walk to his car.

Rosaline let out a sigh. Suddenly she grabbed her throat. She was going to be sick! She bent over and puked behind a near by headstone.

"I'm sure uh….Mr. Liam Red is going to appreciate that," came a voice behind her. Rosaline looked up at Will. "Don't get witty with me," she said, grabbing his arm to help her up.

"Sure you're okay?"

"Will everybody stop asking me that?!"

Will snatched his arm away and she lost her balance and slipped on the wet grass.

"Now how are ya'?"

"Shirt irp…" she said through clenched teeth.

"What was that?"

"I said shut your bloody trap and help me up before I puke again!!"

The vampire laughed.

"It's not funny….." tears began to well up in Rosaline's eye again. William stopped laughing.

"I'm sorry, pet. Really I am. Here," he held out his hand and helped her up. "Maybe you need a doctor?"

"I'm not seeing a shrink. You need one more than me anyway."

"I meant a physician, you stupid git," the vampire started towards his car, which was handsomely paid for by the council as was hit flat. After all the help he had done for them over the last 12 years it was the least they could do. He punched the code into the key pad on the side of the door. The doors slide open. Rosaline slid slowly into the passenger seat.

"Are you going to be sick again?" he asked.

"Just shut up and drive."

* * *

Arden really didn't want to be here right now. He knew it was his duty and job as a Watcher but right now he didn't care. He has a migraine the size of Europe and had only gotten at most 6 hours of sleep in the past four days. First there had been the news of the Marane demons congregating, then Magnolia's disappearance, and finally, today, her funeral. It was just a little too much to handle. He really couldn't take this stupid meeting. It was mostly due to the fact that he felt that the others blamed him for what had happened. And why shouldn't he be blamed? He was Magnolia's watcher after all.

"We have to face facts," said Proctor. "We are without a slayer. We will be without one for a very long while. The spell the Marane demons cast was powerful. It will be hard to break, even for a powerful coven like the Delilac's."

"The demon population will begin to multiply," Janet Mitchell, an older council member, said. "We can help. Most of us are trained demon fighters—"

"And many of us will be killed," Graham Jones said. "We're not a replacement for the slayer. We're a little better informed and trained than rouge demon hunters, but right now that really means shit."

Arden smiled at his friends comment. Arden had first joined the council when he was twenty-two. Over the last six years Arden had gotten a good impression of his co-workers. Arden thought most of the council members were pompous, egotistical puffs. Graham was only a year older than him. They had both joined the council at about the same time. Graham was the only one of them Arden would really trust with his life, or anything for that matter.

"He has a point," another woman said. "Though there are others out there who fight the demons and vampires, it doesn't mean much. The Slayer was the big one. The great warrior. A leader of a pack. If she is dead the demon population will keep growing, no matter what we do."

Arden looked at this girl. He thought her name was Zenia. She was a beginner, so to speak , having only been with the council a few months. She was from Greece and she spoke with wisdom which seemed beyond her years.

"So to speak, ladies and gentleman, we're screwed," Graham said leaning back in his chair.

* * *

Rosaline sat up in bed. She threw the covers off and tried to make it to the bathroom. Too late, she hunched over on the floor and retched. Funny, I don't remember eating that.

She walked into the bathroom. "Light on!"

The lights came on full…stinging her eyes.

"Down! Put them on 40."

The lights dimmed some. She looked in the mirror. Her hair was matted down and wet with sweat. She wetted a cloth and dabbed her face and neck with it.

She had been dreaming. Of someone she didn't even know. A girl…a slayer. She had been blond and strong, very strong. Not just in physical strength, because all the slayers had that. Her spirit, it was so strong, and her aura, it glowed so bright. She felt her abdomen. It felt bloated and she was sick. She sat down on the toilet and leaned back against the wall. "Just great…"

* * *

It was four nights later, Rosaline was at Arden's flat. It was big, spacious, paid for by the council. Three rooms. Magnolia had actually lived with Arden before….before. The third room was their training room. Arden had lived in a small place before for this, paying for it with his salary, Mags had stayed at the council house, but she had hated it, she had done some damage to the weapons room, so they moved her and Arden.

If Rosaline came over in the day or early morning, Magnolia would be sleeping or studying. Later in the day she would be training, oddly enough William would sometimes fight with her. Mags liked Will, because he was different, something the council had never told her about; that there were vampires that were good, if they had a soul. She also liked him and invited him over sometimes because she knew Arden hated him and she couldn't help but watch her mentor squirm.

"Hello, you," Arden smiled as he came in, handing his coat up. He stopped as he locked the door behind him. "I know I locked it. That's called breaking and entering you know."

"I didn't break the lock, and it doesn't count if I'm your girlfriend," she smirked.

"I guess not. Music on....." And music started to pour from the various speaker units in the flat.

"You always did like the oldies," Rosaline said, smiling as a song by Coldplay came on.

"Don't insult my tastes, Miss Tibetan pipes and reeds," he said from the bedroom, his voice a little muffled as he was taking his shirt off to change.

"I suppose it wouldn't help to ask how your day was…" she spoke as she moved towards the door to the bedroom.

He pulled a night shirt over his head. "What'd you mean?"

"I don't even know…." She sighed and moved to lie down on the bed. Arden watched her. She was so pale, lately her brown eyes always seemed to be red, and there were dark circles under them. She looked more tired then him, but he thought that couldn't be possible.

"Have you been working hard?" he asked sitting on her side of the bed, laying his hand on her leg. "You been helpin' to try to the reversal spell?"

"What reversal spell?!" she laughed bitterly. "They destroyed the original spell, and there is no reversal spell, but if there is it would be in the book they used. But that……burned."

The book had burned down in the same building the ritual had taken place. No one said it was Rosaline's fault for starting the fire, they didn't have to. No matter what they said she would feel guilty for what she had done for the rest of her life.

"Aren't you going to patrol?" she asked, giving a fake smile.

"No, not tonight," he replied. "I mean, what's the bloody point anyway. They're multiplying, rapidly. Twelve council members died in the last two days, twelve!!! We're enlisting the help of some rogue demon hunters, but it doesn't matter. Nothing matters right now…Just you and me….and sleep," he sighed. Rosaline burst into tears.

"What? What is it darling?"

She almost wanted to laugh. He never used such sentiments usually, especially one like darling! But she couldn't laugh, not now when she had started crying. The best she could manage was a smile.

"It's not just you and me…." she wiped away some of the tears.

"Ummmm….okay. I guess it is the rest of the world's problem if we don't figure something out….." he really had no clue what she meant.

"Not that, you git!" Men could be really thick sometimes. Not that he should know what she was talking about. "I'm pregnant!"

Arden couldn't have looked more stunned if she had hit him. "Preg-pregnant? Like…with a child?" Off her look, "Right…yes…I mean how….I mean not how. I know how. I guess….well…how?!"

Rosaline did laugh this time. Arden was becoming more flustered. Like most Watchers he tended to babble when he was vexed by something.

"Well," she smiled, feeling a bit better, "You know I was feeling kind of sick the last few days–"

"Which is natural, I mean your sister….." Arden stopped. He didn't want to bring that up, or the death of Magnolia. God help him if he could ever forget them though.

"Yes, it wouldn't seem out of the ordinary that I would feel a little peeked. But I was nauseous a lot," she explained. "And….I felt…different. Around here," she placed his stomach on her abdomen. "I took a home pregnancy test and it came up positive, so yesterday I went to the doctor and he confirmed it. I'm going to have a baby. We're going to have a baby."

She waited a minute. Arden appeared to have the look of a little lost child on his face. Please say something, her mind pleaded.

"So…..when's it due?"

"Well, its August now….about May."

He nodded. "If you're tired we could always talk about this tomorrow," she said.

"No," he shook his head. He just didn't know what to say. Where to begin. He knew he was probably coming off like an ass right now. He grasped Rosaline's hands in his.

"I promise I will not let anything happen to you or this baby. Not as long as I'm still breathing. I'm going to be the best father I can. And husband! I'll marry you, Rosaline. Right now, tonight if you like! We just need—"

She cut him off, "You don't have to marry me just because I'm pregnant. Who says I even want to get married."

Arden gave her a sulking look. She patted his hand. "It's not that I don't want to marry you. In particular anyway. I just don't want to get married at all. I don't think you need a piece of paper and some priest or judge swearing you in for you to be able to spend the rest of your life with one person. I think if you love someone you love them; you stay together and that's that."

"Yes, well, you're a witch. They usually have different traditions—"

"You say that like its bad," she dropped his hands, pretending to be angry. "Besides, my parents were never married in a church or court of any kind, and they stayed together until they died."

"I know that," he sighed. He was trying to come up with a counter attack. "It's just; I want to know that you're mine. Not in the whole possessive, macho sort of way. I just want to know that I have you with me, come good or bad; and you can't run off."

Rosaline rested her hand on his cheek, "Arden James Davis….you have me. This I swear on our unborn child and all that is holy on this earth. You have me."

He took her hand from his face and kissed it.

* * *

2 months later

Rosaline was sitting at one of the long wooden tables in the library of the Delilac manor. She was hunched over one of the many volumes of books. The smell of leather and paper mixed with that of dust as she turned a page. Two months. Two long and grueling months and still nothing. The demon population had quadrupled and a reversal spell was still unknown. Rosaline laid her head down on the open book. It seemed hopeless. Her head hurt from reading and translating, she couldn't sleep at night because of the side affects of being pregnant. She felt like just giving up. But no, she couldn't. Her hand moved to rest on her abdomen. There had to be a way. There had to be something that could be done. If they couldn't break the spell surely they could do something to stall until they could.

Rosaline closed the book she had been using as a pillow. She reached over and grabbed another large, leather bound book from a stack. It was one of the volumes of the Watcher's Diaries. She had borrowed it from the council. She opened it to a random page and began to read. "Boy, some of these blokes really liked to hear themselves talk, or write I guess."

She read a few pages then stopped. She reread the sentence over again and again. She looked up at the clock. A little past 10 pm. She grabbed two more books and flipped through them. She continued to work through the night.

* * *

"Not that I don't mind being woken up at 4 am and having to come down here," Graham said sarcastically between yawns, "But I would like to know why the bloody hell we are here!!"

Arden rolled his eyes at his friend. Sure he wanted to know just as bad, but he could wait a bit. What he wanted to know was why was the mother of his child out of bed at 4 am! Plus she was partly ignoring him. She was talking with Ingrid and Proctor the whole time. Arden turned his head and could see Will standing a few feet away. If he was curious about what was going on he didn't show it.

"Alright, alright," Proctor's rich, deep voice boomed out over the hall, quieting everyone. "I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here. Well, frankly so am I."

He stopped speaking and sat down. It was obvious that it was Ingrid's turn to speak. The old woman stood. She appeared frail, but was far from it. Her long, white hair was down, almost reaching her knees.

"We are here, ladies and gentleman, to bring back a slayer.

Part 3 coming soon