FUTURE IMPERFECT

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the new ones that I've created, like Hope, Nick, and Callie.

CHAPTER 3-Sleepy Saturdays and Early Arrivals



Peaceful and serene. Those two simple words very easily described the day that Faith, Wesley, and Hope had after such a promising start. After finishing his class work Wesley had turned off the television and spread some of the various toys that he had bought on the floor for Hope to play with. In their intense fervor to raise their daughter right, free of all of the fears and dangers that had faced them during their own childhood, from the intense pressure that Wesley had put under to begin to learn the ways of the Watchers Council and for Faith the nightmares of watching her mother drink herself into a drunken stupor, Wesley and Faith had tried to keep from repeating their parents mistakes. But his Watcher training had gotten the better of him and Wesley had purchased a great deal of toys that were specifically educational toys while Faith had tried to balance those out with fun toys of her own, which ended up being toys that she had wished that she could have had as a child. It ended up that Hope had more toys than she knew what to do with, as on more than one occasion Faith had noticed that for several minutes at a time Hope would just sit in front of her toys, unmoving, as if trying to figure out just which toy to play with. Like most sleepy Saturday's Faith had curled up on the couch beside Wesley and watched as Hope play with her toys close by. She had to remain on alert however as from past experience she had discovered that Hope could get herself into trouble in almost the blink of an eye, much to Faith and Wesley's chagrin. Hope had to be saved more than once from sticking one of her saliva soaked fingers into a light socket or falling down the stairs. But for Wesley and Faith they were glad that problems such as these were the ones that they were facing in the raising of their child instead of demons attacking the house at all odd hours of the night and vampires lurking about the premises, just waiting for a chance to drain the daughter of a former slayer and watcher.



They spent a good portion of the day snuggled up together on the couch, Wesley reading one of his ancient texts while Faith alternated between watching Hope and knitting. At first Faith had vehemently refused when Wesley had asked her to get a hobby that didn't include wielding sharp objects and putting her life in danger every night. She had struck upon knitting by pure happenstance, originally intending to take a random computer class Faith had wandered into a knitting circle. From the get go Faith had denied any interest in the activity but after awhile Wesley had begun to find balls of yarn and other knitting supplies stashed around the house. When he had finally confronted Faith about she had confessed and admitted that for some unfathomable reason knitting helped calm her down and that she actually kind of liked it, plus of course there was the added bonus of working with sharp objects, for Faith still had to have that sense of danger, however small, in her work.



As the day wore on and morning became afternoon Faith picked Hope up while humming the beginnings of a lullaby and after a quick nod Wesley's way she slowly trekked back through the house to their bedroom. Continuing to hum the soothing tone she laid Hope down on her back in the middle of the bed before carefully sitting down next to her, with one leg carefully left hanging off the edge. As Faith continued to hum the lullaby and watch her daughter drift off to sleep her mind began to wander. Who would ever believe that Faith, the slayer that used to make picking up men a game, would ever settle down, let alone raise a family. There had been one that although he had never admitted it truly wanted her to be happy, or more truthfully the best that she could be, he had seemed to actually care about her, and after his death he had been the only one to reassure her that it wasn't her that was crazy but the world. To this day she still kept a small picture of him on the dresser that sat against the wall just off the foot of their bed. He had intended to ascend to a higher form, and had done it for a brief time, before Buffy and her friends had blown the school up, right along with him.



She could still remember how it felt after waking up from the coma and walking around wandering if she truly was awake or whether the world had gone crazy, or perhaps she was hallucinating. She had felt like a small dingy in a hurricane whose anchor chain had been broken, sending her into the maelstrom. Her actions soon after figuring out what had happened still screamed at her from the shadows, intending to never let her past ever truly slip away, no matter how much she wanted it to. A lone, solitary tear slid down her cheek as she turned back to watch Hope's small chest rise and fall. "I'm going to do better by you," was the thought that flashed through Faith's mind before settling fully into her consciousness. As gently as she could, hoping not to wake Hope, Faith began to lightly and gently run her finger over Hope's tiny hand, trying to keep from tearing up at only the third right thing she had ever done. The two previous things that she had done right were when she had turned herself into the police and then fallen in love and married the man that she had almost killed. A voice from behind soon snapped her out of her musings.



"Is our little princess asleep," Wesley whispered as loudly as he dared from the doorway as he hoped to not wake Hope, because he knew that while it was easy to get their daughter to sleep she had apparently inherited her hearing from her mother and would often wake up at the slightest sound. Faith had once even bet humorously that while sleeping Hope could hear a pin drop and wake up to see what had happened.



"She's sleeping like a little angel," Faith whispered back over her shoulder as she cast Wesley a welcome and happy smile.



"She is a little angel, one that we will spend the rest of our lives wondering how we ever were deemed good enough to have her in our lives," Wesley whispered sweetly with a hint of a smile on his lips as he lightly stepped into the room and walked over to stand beside the bed. With another step he was situated directly behind Faith.



"I keep thinking that one of these days.," Faith started to say in a somber whisper before she felt Wesley's hands reassuringly on her shoulders.



"That'll never happen dear, we're her parents and we'll protect her from making all of the mistakes that we made," Wesley whispered back supportively before he leaned down and softly kissed the top of her head, taking in the many pleasant scents that greeted him.



"Are you still going to tell her about the beasties that go bump in the night when she's old enough," Faith whispered with a forlorn look on her face and in her eyes as she lifted her chin and gazed up into her husband's eyes.



"Faith.we agreed on this, we'll tell her all about vampires and demons.when she's old enough, I don't want her to run into a vampire or demon someday and be completely ignorant about it, plus there's the possibility that she could be a potential slayer," Wesley whispered back with as forceful yet lovingly as he could.



"I don't want our daughter to be the slayer, she deserves a better life than that," Faith whispers sadly as she gently slides off of the edge of the bed and turns into Wesley's waiting arms. "And I don't want to turn out like Joyce, always worrying about whether or not her daughter's going to come home at night," she continued with a slight look of guilt on her face before she buried her face into Wesley's chest, glad that he was there.



"Don't worry Faith, whatever comes our way, whatever apocalypse rears its ugly head, whatever problem arises.we'll get through it, together," Wesley softly whispered back as he held Faith close, glancing briefly out the window at a world that was far more dangerous than most people even knew.



* * * * * * * *



The small plane taxied down the runway before coming to a stop within a short distance of a waiting car. When the door opened two people stepped out, or more correctly one two hundred and fifty year old vampire with a soul and a woman that could be described as a human lighting bolt. Because they had arranged everything well in advance they had arrived in New York shortly after the sun had gone down, thus allowing Angel to move about freely without having to run from one ever growing shadow to another or make a mad dash to the care with his coat pulled up over his head. Angel and Gwen made their way to the car and Gwen got in and Angel was about to get in when he stopped, turned back to look towards the city and stared with a reminiscing look on his face, as if he was remembering events of days gone by. "What is it, what do you see," Gwen stubbornly exclaimed as she noticed that Angel hadn't immediately followed her into the car. With all of the trouble with Connor and Cordelia Gwen had been overjoyed at the chance to spend so much time alone with Angel, hoping once and for all to win the tug of war match between herself and the former cheerleader, with Angel as the prize.



"It's just.it's changed so much, all the skyscrapers.," Angel started to say with a far off look of fondness on his face before his gaze fell on the giant black hole that had situated itself in the place where two great glistening towers had fallen and so many innocents had died. He fought hard to keep from letting the sadness that was consuming his soul consume him as well, but had Gwen been paying close attention she would have seen his knuckles become even paler than they already were, if not become a sickly shade of white. He tried to look away but Angel felt his gaze seemingly locked onto those two empty spaces in the sky, his memories of that day suddenly came flooding back.



He had just barely beat the sun back to the Hyperion, after a long night of beating information out of every contact that he had, when he had walked in with a large grin spread across his face. All that was before he caught sight of Cordelia, looking very small and defenseless, with a sad faced Wesley by her side, as she sat by the radio with tears streaming down her cheeks and the most lonely and vulnerable look on her face. He had quickly rushed to her side, fearing that either a demon must have attacked and someone was hurt very badly or that she had been turned down for another movie role. Through her sobs she guided him to listen to the radio broadcast, and after turning it up and listening for a few excruciating seconds Angel felt the demon in him jump with joy and begin to silently celebrate, but his soul had begun to weep for the innocents lost and Angel quickly retreated back to his room before the sadness had overtaken him.



"Hey.Angel.c'mon we don't have all night," Gwen suddenly shouted as she reached over and after removing her glove sent a powerful enough jolt into Angel to shake him out of his stupor.



"Gwen..," Angel shouted back as the pain of the jolt began to quickly subside before he reluctantly got into the car and shut the door. "Was that really necessary," Angel started up again with a subdued look of anger on his face as he glared over at Gwen, who started the car and then took off.



"Got ya in here didn't it," Gwen shot back with her classic smirk etched onto her face as she sat back in her seat and pressed the accelerator down even farther.



"Just drive," Angel muttered with his usual brooding scowl etched on his face as he thought about it for a second before putting his seatbelt on and then staring out the window.



"You're loads of fun ya know that.I thought getting you away from the bitch queen would loosen you up a bit.silly me," Gwen said back with an uncaring mask on her face. But Angel had known Gwen long enough to know that usually when she made a remark like that she hid the hurt and the fear behind that mask. A mini debate raged on in his mind as to exactly what to say back to her, if anything, before he finally settled on what to say back, something along the lines of an apology that would get a dialogue going between them. He hated to admit it but between himself and Gwen there stood none such relationship roadblocks that stood between himself and Cordelia. No Connor, no Liam, and certainly no old feelings of needing to protect the friend of a past love. But when he finally opened his mouth his pessimistic nature over rid his apology speech and all that came out was, "Just drive."



* * * * * * * *



Since becoming human Spike, who now went by William when he met someone new, had only had a few cigarettes. Mainly because every time he got even the inkling, let alone a craving, for a cigarette Buffy seemed to be able to read his thoughts and would just turn and look at him with a particular look on her face that told him that the possibility of him getting one was next to nothing. Most of those that he had smoked had been ones that he had borrowed from people when Buffy wasn't with him, but try as he might she had seemed able to tell if he had smoked and the look on her face made him uncomfortable. Shortly after the defeat of the First Spike had permanently moved into Buffy's house, starting out with a cot in the basement before finally after many months moving upstairs to share Buffy's room with her. During that time he had taken it upon himself to completely alter the bathroom where he had tried to force himself on Buffy. He had changed almost everything about it, right down to the different colored tiles and different wallpaper.



With now two, three before Dawn left, slayers in town the vampire and demon population of Sunnydale had diminished considerably and Buffy had been able to take nights off and relax. Spike had ended up getting a job as a writer, which fit his schedule perfectly because he could write whenever he wanted and still be there for Buffy and Dawn when they or anyone else needed him. He had been prodded into it one night after Kennedy had made a remark, after listening to him share a memory from his past, about how well he told the story and that he should write some of his adventures down. Buffy still worked as a guidance counselor at the high school, but with the reducing numbers of vampires and demons in town she had been able to take on more duties such as teaching a self defense class for women at the local rec. center and helping out with the cheerleading squad, thinking of it as a way of giving back to her former pastime.



Shortly after he had begun to start writing Spike had prodded Giles into getting him the paperwork that he'd need to have an identity other than as a century and a half old vampire with a soul. Giles had returned to England to restart the Watchers council and had, on a rare occasion, asked for Buffy and Spike's assistance with a problem that he was facing. That assistance had even gone so far as Buffy and Spike actually flying to England and joining Giles in his pursuits, leaving Dawn, as the new slayer, back in Sunnydale to watch over the hellmouth. Luckily for everyone concerned nothing yet had come about that Dawn and the few friends of hers that knew what was really going on couldn't handle. Once Spike and Buffy had been at the airport about ready to board a plane back to Sunnydale to help Dawn with a problem when she had called them and told them that the problem had been taken care of and they no longer needed to come. For his part Giles had begun to think of Spike almost as the son he never had, being influenced greatly by the affects that the vampire later turned human had on Buffy.



While in England the last time Spike and Buffy had spent some time checking up on Molly and the other slayers in training that had accompanied Giles back to England, making sure that everything was going okay. By the time that they returned home both Buffy and Spike had seen enough to feel that if anything happened to either Buffy or Dawn that the world was in good hands. And so that judgment had made it easier for them to leave Sunnydale and make the trek to New York to help Dawn get settled into college life.



By the time Gwen and Angel's plane landed in New York Spike and Buffy were still headed east and had made as few a stops along the way as they could, trying to not stay anywhere to long and to get to see Dawn before anyone could spoil their surprise. Neither had any inkling or indication that the small trip of surprise that they had embarked on would end up once again deciding the fate of the world.



* * * * * * * *



Saturday nights were not open for Faith however, as it was one of the nights that she made the short trek into the city to do her radio show. While she was doing the show it fell to Wesley to watch over and care for Hope and Wesley didn't take his duties lightly. Often time Faith would come home only to see Wesley sitting either at the computer with Hope in his lap regaling her with one bit of information after another or else she'd find the two asleep on the couch. In the case of the former she'd jokingly scold Wesley for trying to scare their daughter by filling her head with useless knowledge, and if that didn't work she'd go to the old standby and remind him that she was barely a year old and wasn't ready for all that information. In the latter case she'd have to decide whether or not to wake them or just put a blanket over them and then head off to bed herself.



On Sunday mornings the Windholm family always went to church, partially to keep up their public image of a regular run of the mill family, with absolutely nothing to hide. Faith had never really cared very much for religion but had to admit that while at church she did feel abnormally calm and the usual urges that she got were oddly quiet. Wesley on the other hand enjoyed the time as a place to calm down, cool off, and to if nothing else, get a load off of his mind and think things through. After church they almost always ended up being asked out or in to lunch by one couple or another, as the new couple in the church, which was a large one, and area everyone wanted to get to know them. And later that day when Wesley made a quick stop by the market to pick up some more diapers for Hope and a few knickknacks for Faith and himself to use both at work and at home he failed to notice the finely dressed woman that walked out just as he was walking in. Had he been closer to her he most likely would have heard her mumbling about how angry she was at a certain two hundred and fifty year old vampire that had barely said two words to her since they had arrived in New York the night before. And that evening, when he and Faith caught a lucky break and Nick and Callie were able to watch Hope, he only rolled his eyes as a group of ecstatic young woman, bubbling over about the movie that they had just seen and how the lead actor reminded her of and old friend that would watch over her when she was younger and had an addiction to the soap opera Passions.

END OF CHAPTER 3