9
At first, Rose was merely relieved that Spike wasn't disappointed at the thought of a baby. But then, she began to worry, because he seemed to be rooted to the spot, staring at her stomach.
"Spike?" she said tentatively. No response. She leaned forward to touch him, see if she could get a reaction that way, when he blinked and surfaced from the daze he'd been in.
"Should you be doing that?" He reached out to touch her, then pulled his hand back, as if he was afraid he'd break her.
"Doing what?" As far as Rose knew, she wasn't doing anything.
"Well," Spike floundered. "Bending. At the waist like that." He looked worried.
Rose groaned inwardly. Spike had always been very protective of her, but she had the feeling now, that she hadn't seen the half of it. "The doctor gave me a whole list of dos and don'ts," she said soothingly. "And I'm pretty sure that leaning forward wasn't on the taboo list."
Spike looked relieved. "I'll want to be having a gander at that list myself," he remarked. "Sometimes you don't think, sweetheart."
Rose just stared at him, jaws agape, not believing what she'd just heard. Spike was accusing her of being irresponsible? "Darling," she said, forcing her voice to remain calm and even. "Why don't we continue this discussion when we go home? I've got a lot of work to get done here."
"Now wait just a bloody minute." Spike realized that kneeling on the floor at her feet probably didn't offer him the strongest position in an argument, so he stood, looming over her, hands planted on the armrests of her chair. "You can't be working. You ought to be at home resting, luv."
"Actually, the doctor said that working shouldn't be a problem," Rose replied. Good grief, what had gotten into Spike? "In fact, since my job is so sedentary, he suggested that I get up and take a walk during my lunch break, just for the exercise."
"What kind of idiot doctor did you see anyway?" Spike growled.
"One who's been delivering babies for more than twenty years," she snapped. "So forgive me if I'm willing to believe that he knows what he's doing."
Spike was taken aback momentarily. Rose seldom snapped at anyone, most especially him. "I'm just concerned for you, babe, that's all."
"It's not an illness, and I'm not an invalid," Rose said slowly. She had an idea of how to get him out of her hair so that she could get some work done. "Why don't you go tell everyone the news?" she suggested.
What an excellent idea. Spike wondered that he hadn't thought of it first. He started towards the door. Then, he remembered something, and turned back to give Rose a kiss. Back out the door.
Rose sighed. If this was a foretaste of what the next few months were going to be like, then pregnancy was going to be a lot more of a trial than just dealing with the nausea.
Spike moved at a fast clip down the hall before it occurred to him to wonder just where he was headed. He stopped in his tracks for a moment. Who to tell first? Angel, he decided. Keeping it in the family, as it were. Yes, he'd go tell Angel first.
&&&&&&&&&&&
"Knock, knock." Wesley peeked around the door to Rose's office. Spike had left it open in his haste to tell the news. "Is the coast clear now, Rose?"
"Come in, Wesley." Rose was staring at the computer screen as if waiting for a revelation. As if she hadn't had enough of those for one day. She felt like someone had unhooked her brain.
"How did Spike take the news?" he asked.
"What news?" Rose was feeling very disconnected at the moment, and she'd forgotten that she'd promised to tell Wesley what was going on.
"I saw the label on one of those pill bottles, Rose," the Watcher replied. "And I don't believe that doctors are generally in the habit of prescribing pre-natal vitamins to someone who isn't pregnant."
"Oh, that." Rose's lips curved gently upward. "Spike is.., very pleased," she said guardedly.
"Why do I feel that there is a 'but' in the offing?" Wes inquired. "And by the way, just how on earth did the two of you manage..," He stopped, blushing. So much for professional curiosity, but it did seem more than a bit rude.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Rose admitted. "Do you think that it had anything to do with that Q'xlzr fertility ceremony that I attended?"
"That only works on Q'xlzrs," he pointed out. "You're human, Rose. You didn't cast a spell or something, did you?"
"Of course not!" Rose was appalled that he'd even think she'd try something that foolhardy without his backup. "I don't know how it happened. It just did. But according to the doctor, it must have happened sometime around the weekend after I went to that ceremony."
"I'll certainly have someone look into it," Wesley said. "But did I guess correctly that you had some reservations about Spike's reaction?"
"Should you be bending at the waist?" Rose muttered. "You can't be working. You should be home resting. What kind of idiot doctor did you go to anyway?"
Wesley burst out laughing, as much at Rose's imitation of Spike's accent as the phrases she'd been repeating. "So Spike wants to wrap you in cotton-wool, does he?" He gave Rose a look and saw that she was far from amused. "We'll get around Spike, Rose. No need to worry." He frowned a moment. "Do you want to take the rest of the day off?"
"Not you too," Rose moaned. "I am perfectly fine, Wesley. I do not need to go home, I do not need to be cosseted. I do not need to be treated any differently. Are we clear on that?"
"Perfectly clear," he replied, a bit stunned at the outburst. Then, as Rose suddenly got to her feet, he asked, "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to throw up, thank you," she replied, and bolted from the room. She really hoped those nausea pills worked.
&&&&&&&&&&&
Spike was whistling merrily as he sauntered down the hallway. He spotted Harmony just coming out of Angel's office. He grabbed her around the waist and spun her around and planted a kiss on her cheek. "We're having a baby, Harm," he crowed, all cock-of-the-walk.
"Who's having a baby?" Harmony was confused. And Spike hadn't been this friendly to her since, well he hadn't, ever. Even when they'd been together, he'd usually treated her like an annoyance.
"We are," Spike failed to explain. "Me and Rose. We're having a baby." Before Harmony could formulate a reply, he released her and breezed on into Angel's office.
"We're having a baby," he announced fatuously.
Angel looked up from his paperwork, his brow furrowed in mystification. "You're what?" he asked.
"We're having a baby," Spike repeated slowly. Had to take into consideration that you had to speak slowly and clearly when addressing a half-wit. "Me and Rose are having a baby."
"How did that happen?" Angel wasn't any closer to enlightenment.
Spike just gave him a dose of the trademark smirk, but it rapidly degenerated into the same sappy smile that he'd had earlier in Rose's office.
Angel sighed. He wasn't sure how it could have happened. But he was sure that there was no way that Rose had ever cheated on Spike. It simply would never occur to her. "Vampires aren't known for being able to father children," he pointed out. "So there had to be something else that caused it." He felt a pang, thinking of Connor. An evil god had taken hand in his conception, and he just hoped it wasn't something like that now.
Spike deflated like a balloon that had been stuck with a pin. "What are you trying to say?" he asked in accusing tones.
"I'm saying that the dead can't create life," Angel said bluntly. "Look, I think it's great that you're happy about it, but..,"
"But what?" Spike demanded. He sat down in the nearest chair. He was feeling more shaken now than he had when Rose had first broken the news.
Angel sighed again. Painful as it was, he'd better tell Spike the whole story. Him, Darla, Cordelia, Connor. "This is going to take a while."
&&&&&&&&&&&
Rose dragged herself back to her office. The first order of business was to take one of those pills. Right now, she felt all weak and wobbly from her bout of vomiting. She read the instructions, popped the pill into her mouth and chased it down with a sip of water. "Please, please, let it work," she muttered.
"Let what work, blossom?" Lorne poked his head inside her door. "You promised to give me an update when you got back from the doctor's, sweetpea."
"The pills for the nausea," Rose explained. "I've just been sick, and I really don't recommend it. The doctor confirmed your reading, though. It wasn't nearly as pleasant an experience. I dread the thought of going through all that again next month."
"Sugarplum, I've been doing some thinking since you left," the demon started out. "And far be it from me to cast aspersions, but just how did you get into your current condition?"
Rose shrugged. "Wesley asked me the same thing," she muttered. "And if everyone else asks me, I think I'm going to start screaming. I don't know. I just know that I'm going to have a baby and that Spike and I are both happy about it."
"And I'm thrilled for both of you," Lorne broke in. "But you have to admit that it is a little out of the ordinary."
"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe I'm just a little frustrated because I don't know." Her hands went to cradle her stomach protectively. "I want this baby, and Spike wants it too."
"Well then, that's all that's really important, isn't it?" he asked. "Spike didn't have a problem with it at all?"
"It was something of a shock to him," Rose confessed. "But then, that seems to be going around. But after that, he was fine with it. More than fine. Smothering might be the best word."
"Best get used to it, Rosebud," he advised. "Because I have the feeling that by the time the news gets around, everyone's going to be jumping on the bandwagon."
&&&&&&&&&&&
"You and Darla had a baby," Spike repeated as if he were reciting lessons. "Who was spirited off to a hell dimension and came back a week later as a teenager who hated your guts. Then junior sleeps with Cordelia, gets her in the family way. She gives birth to an evil god which turns Cordy into sleeping beauty. Did that cover the high points?"
"How about you getting the point that it took the intervention of a god for vampires to have a baby?" Angel queried. "I hope that there's nothing evil behind Rose's pregnancy, I really don't. But the fact remains that you simply couldn't have gotten her pregnant just by sleeping with her."
"We weren't sleeping," Spike remarked with a smirk. "What is your problem with this? Are you just jealous or what? Can't stand the thought of me bein' happy?"
"If that was the case I would have chased you out of here ages ago," Angel replied. "Be happy all you want to. But be careful too." He stood up and went to the window, not wanting to face Spike at the moment. "Cordy was.., a good friend," he muttered, stopping far short of the mark. "And it half kills me to think that I might never get to see her open her eyes, talk, laugh, even make sarcastic remarks. I don't want to see anything like that happen to Rose, and I'm sure that you don't either."
Spike frowned. "Of course I don't," he averred. "I'd rather cut off my arms than see something like that happen to Rose. Do you really think it's likely?"
Angel shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just advising caution. But Cordelia went through her pregnancy in a matter of a few weeks. I think that if Rose's progresses normally, there'll be less to worry about."
Spike chewed his lip in indecision. "Does Rose know about this?" he asked.
"I honestly don't know," Angel confessed. "And no one else remembers Connor, so I'd appreciate you not talking about it with them."
"But Rose might know from before," Spike pressed. "From when she was a Power."
"She might," Angel conceded. "But if she does, she never let on to me about it. Listen, I hope I'm just being overly cautious. I hope that there's nothing nefarious in the works and that she has a perfectly normal, healthy baby." He decided to cheer himself up a bit by taking a shot. "Although I do feel kind of sorry for the kid, having you for a father."
Spike flipped him the two fingered salute and left.