Disclaimer: All the characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox,
etc... except of course the ones I make up.
Summary: Spike and Buffy are going to have a baby together!!! I know, I know, it's been done about a million times but I promise that this one is different. Anyway, it also deals with all different types of families that could exist in the Buffyverse.
Spoilers: None really
Continuity: It's the sequel to "Apocalypse now... Again". However, you don't really need to read it to understand this fic. It picks up a few weeks after where "Apocalypse Now... Again" leaves off. Also, I just thought I'd point out that Tara is alive and with Willow, both witches are living with Buffy. Also, Xander and Anya are married.
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FAMILY
Chapter 31: Pure Delight
Seventeen hours and counting.
It had been seventeen hours since Buffy's first contraction and she was still only seven centimeters dilated. It had been so fast at first, it seemed. She went from two to six in just a few hours and the doctors had all told her this would be a relatively quick birth, especially considering it was her first. But they were wrong, of course. It was just Buffy's luck that she should be in a hospital bed for what felt like forever, constantly being told "soon." What was a doctor's definition of "soon" anyway?
"What if something's wrong?" Buffy suddenly blurted out, startling everyone in the room. Xander and Willow had been playing cards quietly while Giles read the paper. Hank and Tara, meanwhile, were both with Dawn. Spike was holding Buffy's hand while resting his head down on her bed. He was just beginning to drift off when Buffy suddenly shouted out, startling him awake. His head shot up as he blinked the sleep from his eyes.
"What?"
"What if- what if- when Connor was born, Darla wasn't able to give birth or something. What if that's happening to me? And I can't even stake myself or anything so-"
"Buffy," Spike interrupted her with as calm a voice as he could maintain in his exhausted condition. "Look, pet, you are not Darla. This has nothing to do with her or anything of that sort. These things take time so just relax and stop overreacting."
"Easy for you to say!" Buffy uttered angrily.
"You'd be surprised," Spike mumbled under his breath, his patience waning.
Buffy rolled her eyes and paused for a moment, trapped in thought. "Spike?"
"Yes, love," he replied with as much composure as he could.
"I don't know if I'm ready."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know if I'm ready to be a mom. I mean, I'm barely an adult myself. What if I can't handle it? What if I'm not ready enough?"
"That's just nerves."
"Well I think I have every right to be nervous about now." Buffy lowered her voice dramatically. "Do you have any idea how terrified I am right now?"
Spike moved his face in so that it was less than an inch from Buffy's. "Yes," he whispered, his cool breath tickling her lips. She tilted her head forward so that it rested against Spike's forehead and she remained there silently for a few moments. She wanted to ask Spike to tell her that everything would be fine, that this would all be okay, but she knew he couldn't. She knew that everything wouldn't simply turn out all right just because. Slayer or no slayer, living in the world was a hard enough task as it is, and Spike couldn't make any promises for any child.
Besides, Buffy reasoned, she didn't want to risk being cliché.
She leaned back against the pillow and closed her eyes as she felt Spike's lips press against her palm in a tender kiss. "I have so much faith in you," he told her quietly.
Buffy's lips curled up into a warm smile, one of the few since she had come to the hospital. "That means the world," she said, her hand slowly moving his over her stomach. "The world and then some."
"I was hoping it would," Spike grinned. "Feeling any better?"
"Yeah, I think I am. I just wish..." Buffy shook her head at her words.
"What?"
"It's a little selfish, I know that. She needs her rest and all but I wish that Dawn could be here for this."
"You may just get your wish yet," a cheery voice announced from the door. Buffy looked over and saw Dawn being rolled in on a wheelchair by their father, Tara following closely behind. The younger slayer's lips were turned up in a confident smirk that lit up her whole face.
"Dawnie?"
"The one and only."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Buffy asked, her voice thick with shock and her face mirroring that excitement.
Dawn raised an eyebrow at her sister. "That's how we say hello?" Dawn asked, her barely there smirk widening into a broad smile. Buffy put out her hand and Hank wheeled Dawn forward so that she could take it in her own. Buffy squeezed it gently but just enough to show Dawn how glad she was that she was there.
"I just..." Buffy stammered, not sure how to express her joy. "I didn't expect to see you here. I figured you'd be recuperating."
"Yeah well, the doctors always tend to overcompensate for recuperation time when it comes to slayers."
"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "You know them doctors."
"I do, I do."
"I'm just so happy that you're here."
Dawn put Buffy's hand on her cheek, careful not to aggravate her bruises. She held it there for a few moments before sighing loudly and smiling broadly.
"Me too."
~*~
Kaitlin Joyce Wyatt was born on Monday, June 7, 2004, at seven twenty-two in the morning.
Buffy was taken by surprise when the warm and writhing body was dropped onto her stomach after hours of anxious anticipation. She thought she would be more tired than this after everything. She thought that after all these months of pregnancy and all these hours of labor she'd simply pass out for hours from exhaustion. But all she felt was exactly the opposite. She was more alive than she ever had been and her only desire was not to eat, or sleep, but just to have her baby placed into her arms.
Kat was taken off of Buffy almost as quickly as she had been put there. The slayer felt a strange and inexplicable comfort in the sound of the baby's cries as she was carried away to be cleaned and measured. Spike found himself following the doctor mindlessly as Kat was taken from Buffy, any thoughts he had just had were gone, replaced by a simple and calm blankness of mind that came from seeing his child for the first time.
The doctor turned to Spike and held out what looked like a pair of scissors. "You wanna cut the cord?"
Spike could barely drag his eyes away from Kat upon hearing the doctor's voice. "Huh... what?"
The doctor smiled kindly. "I asked if you wanted to cut the cord."
Spike looked at the surgical scissors that were being pressed into his right hand. "Oh. Yeah."
He listened intently to the doctor's simple instructions before cutting his daughter's umbilical cord with the utmost care and precision. He was so afraid that he might do it wrong or hurt her that his hands were still shaking slightly when the nurse took the sliver tool from him. The smell of blood was still so thick in the air that his head was spinning, and he though he might faint. He was brought back when Kat's small body was pressed gently into his arms. He fidgeted slightly with the bundle of blankets and warm flesh until she was situated comfortable in his arms, and her cries became nothing more than a gentle hum.
Though it had taken hours for her to be born, and he had had almost nine months to prepare, her coming into the world seemed so very sudden. Nothing could have prepared him for what he was feeling at that moment. No amount of time, or preparation, or pep-talks about being a father from Xander could have demonstrated the way he felt at the moment his daughter was first placed into his arms.
The powerful warmth of her small body so contrasted the coolness of his own flesh that it made him shiver. Her eyes were already slipping closed from the exhaustion of the trauma she just experienced. Spike could tell that being born took a lot out of her. He thought it had been amazing to hear her heartbeat through Buffy's skin, but it was nothing compared to the explosion of beautiful sound coming from her tiny chest as he held her closely against his.
Spike took a moment to have her all to himself. To have her be his and his alone for just a few minutes so that he could listen to her breathing, and the drumming of her tiny heart before carrying her over to her eager mother.
Buffy's own heart was beating faster than she thought it ever had before in her life as Spike approached her, holding their newborn daughter. When he reached the side of the bed, he didn't hand Kat to Buffy immediately. He simply stood there, staring into the small face of their child.
Buffy had never seen anything so beautiful.
Spike's cobalt eyes traveled from Kat's face to Buffy's slowly but steadily. Upon meeting Buffy's tired hazel eyes, he felt tears come to his own. He had never in his life felt such an amazing and powerful range of emotion, he thought he would burst. With his head still spinning slightly from the smell of the blood in the air, he placed Kat into her mother's welcoming arms.
Buffy wasn't quite sure what to do with her newborn daughter at first. For a few brief moments she was afraid to move, not knowing the limits of the baby's delicate body. But it didn't take long for Buffy to feel Kat melting into arms, already falling asleep. Buffy didn't want her to though, not yet. She wanted to be acknowledged by the new life lying in her arms. She shifted the baby slightly so that she would rile her just enough to open her eyes. Kat seemed to understand this and without any fuss, reopened her tiny blue-gray eyes and looked up at her mother.
Buffy felt as if the small child were looking right through her. She had never in her life felt anything so intense. It was almost spiritual how she and the baby connected at that moment. Buffy realized that she was now holding a human being that had grown inside of her, and had been created because of the love she shared with Spike. She took that moment to break her eyes away from the baby's and look at Spike who was smiling down at her. He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, whispering "I love you."
"I love you so much," she told him as they ended their kiss. She looked back down at Kat once again, who had fallen fast asleep in her arms.
~*~
"I can't believe that she's finally here," Dawn admitted excitedly as she held Kat in her arms. The baby's head and most of her body was resting delicately in Dawn's uninjured, uncasted arm. She had just been fed by Buffy and was once again falling soundly and easily asleep. It was just after five in the afternoon and Buffy had found that the day had passed faster than she expected. It was somewhat shadowy in the room due to the blinds being drawn. That last thing Buffy wanted was to become a single mother on account of the sun.
The new mother watched the scene around her with tired but happy eyes. She loved the sight of her sister holding her daughter with her father hovering lovingly over the two. Willow and Tara had both gone home to shower and eat and finish up any last details for the baby's nursery. Xander too had gone home for the time being to check on Anya and his own young son. This left Spike, Hank, Giles, and Dawn, who hadn't yet been discharged by a doctor, at the hospital with Buffy. Spike, though, had left the room to hunt down some neglected blood; he hadn't eaten since the night before.
While Hank and Dawn were distracted with fussing over Kat, Buffy called Giles over to her side.
"What it is Buffy?" He asked as he sat in the chair by her bed.
Buffy smiled warmly and placed her hand on top of his. "I just... well... I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know how much you mean to me, and how much your support of me has meant to me. I don't know if you can even understand how important you are in my life."
Giles's cheeks turned a light shade of pink as he smiled and removed his glasses. "Well it's only because, I think you know, how much you mean to me."
Buffy nodded and continued. "I also wanted to let you know that, though I love my father, you have been, in every sense of the word, my father for the past seven years. There's no way that I could ever repay you or thank you enough for how you've done everything to take care of me, and Dawn, over the past few years. Especially after Mom... anyway, I think you know what I'm saying. The point of all my ramblings is that, after Spike and I talked the issue over, we decided that we wanted Dawn to be Kat's godmother, and for you to be her godfather. If that's all right."
Giles was too choked up to reply right away so instead he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and proceeded to wipe his glasses for a few long moments. After he had put the frames back on his nose and tucked away the cloth, he nodded profusely and took Buffy's light hand in his own.
"I would be honored."
Buffy ginned widely. "I thought you might."
Giles didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around Buffy's shoulders and she happily accepted his gesture of gratitude. Giles was one of the few people in her life that had always been with her and she was sure would never truly leave. In the most important and pivotal years of her life, he had raised her and brought her into adulthood. She couldn't think of better any way to thank him than this.
Spike reentered the room with renewed energy. He had found an overlooked bag of O-positive and was feeling rather refreshed. He smirked at the scene he saw before him.
"I'm sorry, did I miss anything especially mushy or is it still coming and should I leave?"
Buffy glared at Spike who pouted apologetically as he walked toward her and pressed a kiss against her rosy cheek.
"You all right, love?"
She ran her hand though his dirty blonde curls and smiled pleasantly. "Am now."
"And notice how, ironically, the mushy didn't start till you entered the room, Spike," Dawn informed him with a cocky grin spread across her pretty features.
"And notice how I can always count on you to say something rude and obnoxious," Spike said with mock-annoyance in his voice. The mood of the room was so light that nothing could possibly change it. Even when a nurse came in to take the baby to the nursery, everyone remained relatively relaxed, except for Buffy, of course, who didn't want Kat out of her sight. But the nurse insisted that it was, really, a good idea because that way, both Buffy and the baby could get a decent rest.
Just over an hour later, Willow and Xander had returned to the hospital while Hank had gone home to freshen up. Buffy was still fretting over the baby not being by her side.
"What if something happens?" Buffy asked for, what felt like to everyone, the millionth time. Dawn, who had been stretching her legs now that she felt well enough to get out of her wheelchair, stopped so that Buffy could see her rolling her eyes.
"Buffy, the baby's going to be fine," Dawn insisted. "She's in the nursery for God's sake. What could possibly happen to her there?"
"Uh... hello? Am I the only one who remembers band candy night when three little babies were stolen right out from under the nose of the attendants by three large and scary vampires?"
Xander nodded profusely and Willow raised her hand. "That was unfun," she told them, wrinkling her nose.
"I thought that we agreed to never, ever discuss that night, ever," Giles told them as he reddened.
Buffy coughed the word "stevedore" and Giles glared at her, obviously embarrassed. Buffy responded by simply smiling innocently.
Dawn, who mostly didn't understand what they were talking about just laughed. "See, Buffy? Nothing bad is gonna happen. Everything's gonna be f-"
Dawn was interrupted by all the lights in the room going out as the hospital turned black as night.
~*~
TBC...
~*~
Summary: Spike and Buffy are going to have a baby together!!! I know, I know, it's been done about a million times but I promise that this one is different. Anyway, it also deals with all different types of families that could exist in the Buffyverse.
Spoilers: None really
Continuity: It's the sequel to "Apocalypse now... Again". However, you don't really need to read it to understand this fic. It picks up a few weeks after where "Apocalypse Now... Again" leaves off. Also, I just thought I'd point out that Tara is alive and with Willow, both witches are living with Buffy. Also, Xander and Anya are married.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
FAMILY
Chapter 31: Pure Delight
Seventeen hours and counting.
It had been seventeen hours since Buffy's first contraction and she was still only seven centimeters dilated. It had been so fast at first, it seemed. She went from two to six in just a few hours and the doctors had all told her this would be a relatively quick birth, especially considering it was her first. But they were wrong, of course. It was just Buffy's luck that she should be in a hospital bed for what felt like forever, constantly being told "soon." What was a doctor's definition of "soon" anyway?
"What if something's wrong?" Buffy suddenly blurted out, startling everyone in the room. Xander and Willow had been playing cards quietly while Giles read the paper. Hank and Tara, meanwhile, were both with Dawn. Spike was holding Buffy's hand while resting his head down on her bed. He was just beginning to drift off when Buffy suddenly shouted out, startling him awake. His head shot up as he blinked the sleep from his eyes.
"What?"
"What if- what if- when Connor was born, Darla wasn't able to give birth or something. What if that's happening to me? And I can't even stake myself or anything so-"
"Buffy," Spike interrupted her with as calm a voice as he could maintain in his exhausted condition. "Look, pet, you are not Darla. This has nothing to do with her or anything of that sort. These things take time so just relax and stop overreacting."
"Easy for you to say!" Buffy uttered angrily.
"You'd be surprised," Spike mumbled under his breath, his patience waning.
Buffy rolled her eyes and paused for a moment, trapped in thought. "Spike?"
"Yes, love," he replied with as much composure as he could.
"I don't know if I'm ready."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know if I'm ready to be a mom. I mean, I'm barely an adult myself. What if I can't handle it? What if I'm not ready enough?"
"That's just nerves."
"Well I think I have every right to be nervous about now." Buffy lowered her voice dramatically. "Do you have any idea how terrified I am right now?"
Spike moved his face in so that it was less than an inch from Buffy's. "Yes," he whispered, his cool breath tickling her lips. She tilted her head forward so that it rested against Spike's forehead and she remained there silently for a few moments. She wanted to ask Spike to tell her that everything would be fine, that this would all be okay, but she knew he couldn't. She knew that everything wouldn't simply turn out all right just because. Slayer or no slayer, living in the world was a hard enough task as it is, and Spike couldn't make any promises for any child.
Besides, Buffy reasoned, she didn't want to risk being cliché.
She leaned back against the pillow and closed her eyes as she felt Spike's lips press against her palm in a tender kiss. "I have so much faith in you," he told her quietly.
Buffy's lips curled up into a warm smile, one of the few since she had come to the hospital. "That means the world," she said, her hand slowly moving his over her stomach. "The world and then some."
"I was hoping it would," Spike grinned. "Feeling any better?"
"Yeah, I think I am. I just wish..." Buffy shook her head at her words.
"What?"
"It's a little selfish, I know that. She needs her rest and all but I wish that Dawn could be here for this."
"You may just get your wish yet," a cheery voice announced from the door. Buffy looked over and saw Dawn being rolled in on a wheelchair by their father, Tara following closely behind. The younger slayer's lips were turned up in a confident smirk that lit up her whole face.
"Dawnie?"
"The one and only."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Buffy asked, her voice thick with shock and her face mirroring that excitement.
Dawn raised an eyebrow at her sister. "That's how we say hello?" Dawn asked, her barely there smirk widening into a broad smile. Buffy put out her hand and Hank wheeled Dawn forward so that she could take it in her own. Buffy squeezed it gently but just enough to show Dawn how glad she was that she was there.
"I just..." Buffy stammered, not sure how to express her joy. "I didn't expect to see you here. I figured you'd be recuperating."
"Yeah well, the doctors always tend to overcompensate for recuperation time when it comes to slayers."
"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "You know them doctors."
"I do, I do."
"I'm just so happy that you're here."
Dawn put Buffy's hand on her cheek, careful not to aggravate her bruises. She held it there for a few moments before sighing loudly and smiling broadly.
"Me too."
~*~
Kaitlin Joyce Wyatt was born on Monday, June 7, 2004, at seven twenty-two in the morning.
Buffy was taken by surprise when the warm and writhing body was dropped onto her stomach after hours of anxious anticipation. She thought she would be more tired than this after everything. She thought that after all these months of pregnancy and all these hours of labor she'd simply pass out for hours from exhaustion. But all she felt was exactly the opposite. She was more alive than she ever had been and her only desire was not to eat, or sleep, but just to have her baby placed into her arms.
Kat was taken off of Buffy almost as quickly as she had been put there. The slayer felt a strange and inexplicable comfort in the sound of the baby's cries as she was carried away to be cleaned and measured. Spike found himself following the doctor mindlessly as Kat was taken from Buffy, any thoughts he had just had were gone, replaced by a simple and calm blankness of mind that came from seeing his child for the first time.
The doctor turned to Spike and held out what looked like a pair of scissors. "You wanna cut the cord?"
Spike could barely drag his eyes away from Kat upon hearing the doctor's voice. "Huh... what?"
The doctor smiled kindly. "I asked if you wanted to cut the cord."
Spike looked at the surgical scissors that were being pressed into his right hand. "Oh. Yeah."
He listened intently to the doctor's simple instructions before cutting his daughter's umbilical cord with the utmost care and precision. He was so afraid that he might do it wrong or hurt her that his hands were still shaking slightly when the nurse took the sliver tool from him. The smell of blood was still so thick in the air that his head was spinning, and he though he might faint. He was brought back when Kat's small body was pressed gently into his arms. He fidgeted slightly with the bundle of blankets and warm flesh until she was situated comfortable in his arms, and her cries became nothing more than a gentle hum.
Though it had taken hours for her to be born, and he had had almost nine months to prepare, her coming into the world seemed so very sudden. Nothing could have prepared him for what he was feeling at that moment. No amount of time, or preparation, or pep-talks about being a father from Xander could have demonstrated the way he felt at the moment his daughter was first placed into his arms.
The powerful warmth of her small body so contrasted the coolness of his own flesh that it made him shiver. Her eyes were already slipping closed from the exhaustion of the trauma she just experienced. Spike could tell that being born took a lot out of her. He thought it had been amazing to hear her heartbeat through Buffy's skin, but it was nothing compared to the explosion of beautiful sound coming from her tiny chest as he held her closely against his.
Spike took a moment to have her all to himself. To have her be his and his alone for just a few minutes so that he could listen to her breathing, and the drumming of her tiny heart before carrying her over to her eager mother.
Buffy's own heart was beating faster than she thought it ever had before in her life as Spike approached her, holding their newborn daughter. When he reached the side of the bed, he didn't hand Kat to Buffy immediately. He simply stood there, staring into the small face of their child.
Buffy had never seen anything so beautiful.
Spike's cobalt eyes traveled from Kat's face to Buffy's slowly but steadily. Upon meeting Buffy's tired hazel eyes, he felt tears come to his own. He had never in his life felt such an amazing and powerful range of emotion, he thought he would burst. With his head still spinning slightly from the smell of the blood in the air, he placed Kat into her mother's welcoming arms.
Buffy wasn't quite sure what to do with her newborn daughter at first. For a few brief moments she was afraid to move, not knowing the limits of the baby's delicate body. But it didn't take long for Buffy to feel Kat melting into arms, already falling asleep. Buffy didn't want her to though, not yet. She wanted to be acknowledged by the new life lying in her arms. She shifted the baby slightly so that she would rile her just enough to open her eyes. Kat seemed to understand this and without any fuss, reopened her tiny blue-gray eyes and looked up at her mother.
Buffy felt as if the small child were looking right through her. She had never in her life felt anything so intense. It was almost spiritual how she and the baby connected at that moment. Buffy realized that she was now holding a human being that had grown inside of her, and had been created because of the love she shared with Spike. She took that moment to break her eyes away from the baby's and look at Spike who was smiling down at her. He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, whispering "I love you."
"I love you so much," she told him as they ended their kiss. She looked back down at Kat once again, who had fallen fast asleep in her arms.
~*~
"I can't believe that she's finally here," Dawn admitted excitedly as she held Kat in her arms. The baby's head and most of her body was resting delicately in Dawn's uninjured, uncasted arm. She had just been fed by Buffy and was once again falling soundly and easily asleep. It was just after five in the afternoon and Buffy had found that the day had passed faster than she expected. It was somewhat shadowy in the room due to the blinds being drawn. That last thing Buffy wanted was to become a single mother on account of the sun.
The new mother watched the scene around her with tired but happy eyes. She loved the sight of her sister holding her daughter with her father hovering lovingly over the two. Willow and Tara had both gone home to shower and eat and finish up any last details for the baby's nursery. Xander too had gone home for the time being to check on Anya and his own young son. This left Spike, Hank, Giles, and Dawn, who hadn't yet been discharged by a doctor, at the hospital with Buffy. Spike, though, had left the room to hunt down some neglected blood; he hadn't eaten since the night before.
While Hank and Dawn were distracted with fussing over Kat, Buffy called Giles over to her side.
"What it is Buffy?" He asked as he sat in the chair by her bed.
Buffy smiled warmly and placed her hand on top of his. "I just... well... I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know how much you mean to me, and how much your support of me has meant to me. I don't know if you can even understand how important you are in my life."
Giles's cheeks turned a light shade of pink as he smiled and removed his glasses. "Well it's only because, I think you know, how much you mean to me."
Buffy nodded and continued. "I also wanted to let you know that, though I love my father, you have been, in every sense of the word, my father for the past seven years. There's no way that I could ever repay you or thank you enough for how you've done everything to take care of me, and Dawn, over the past few years. Especially after Mom... anyway, I think you know what I'm saying. The point of all my ramblings is that, after Spike and I talked the issue over, we decided that we wanted Dawn to be Kat's godmother, and for you to be her godfather. If that's all right."
Giles was too choked up to reply right away so instead he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and proceeded to wipe his glasses for a few long moments. After he had put the frames back on his nose and tucked away the cloth, he nodded profusely and took Buffy's light hand in his own.
"I would be honored."
Buffy ginned widely. "I thought you might."
Giles didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around Buffy's shoulders and she happily accepted his gesture of gratitude. Giles was one of the few people in her life that had always been with her and she was sure would never truly leave. In the most important and pivotal years of her life, he had raised her and brought her into adulthood. She couldn't think of better any way to thank him than this.
Spike reentered the room with renewed energy. He had found an overlooked bag of O-positive and was feeling rather refreshed. He smirked at the scene he saw before him.
"I'm sorry, did I miss anything especially mushy or is it still coming and should I leave?"
Buffy glared at Spike who pouted apologetically as he walked toward her and pressed a kiss against her rosy cheek.
"You all right, love?"
She ran her hand though his dirty blonde curls and smiled pleasantly. "Am now."
"And notice how, ironically, the mushy didn't start till you entered the room, Spike," Dawn informed him with a cocky grin spread across her pretty features.
"And notice how I can always count on you to say something rude and obnoxious," Spike said with mock-annoyance in his voice. The mood of the room was so light that nothing could possibly change it. Even when a nurse came in to take the baby to the nursery, everyone remained relatively relaxed, except for Buffy, of course, who didn't want Kat out of her sight. But the nurse insisted that it was, really, a good idea because that way, both Buffy and the baby could get a decent rest.
Just over an hour later, Willow and Xander had returned to the hospital while Hank had gone home to freshen up. Buffy was still fretting over the baby not being by her side.
"What if something happens?" Buffy asked for, what felt like to everyone, the millionth time. Dawn, who had been stretching her legs now that she felt well enough to get out of her wheelchair, stopped so that Buffy could see her rolling her eyes.
"Buffy, the baby's going to be fine," Dawn insisted. "She's in the nursery for God's sake. What could possibly happen to her there?"
"Uh... hello? Am I the only one who remembers band candy night when three little babies were stolen right out from under the nose of the attendants by three large and scary vampires?"
Xander nodded profusely and Willow raised her hand. "That was unfun," she told them, wrinkling her nose.
"I thought that we agreed to never, ever discuss that night, ever," Giles told them as he reddened.
Buffy coughed the word "stevedore" and Giles glared at her, obviously embarrassed. Buffy responded by simply smiling innocently.
Dawn, who mostly didn't understand what they were talking about just laughed. "See, Buffy? Nothing bad is gonna happen. Everything's gonna be f-"
Dawn was interrupted by all the lights in the room going out as the hospital turned black as night.
~*~
TBC...
~*~