Part 9: Pretty Soul

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No one I know, imagined we would make it
But it only matters that we both believed

--Christina Aguilera, We're A Miracle

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"Wait just a minute! Are you saying that Spike not only got a soul but he's also able to get you pregnant?" Angel asked.

"As it turned out-- yeah." Buffy replied.

"I can't believe this."

"Well, I guess it must be." Spike said.

"Are you saying that you believe you, a vampire, can impregnate women? That's just not possible Spike."

"Are you implying otherwise? That Buffy would lie about something like this?" Spike asked, his voice was laced with malice, but he tried his best to hold his anger at bay. "I mean, can't you see what's in front of you, or is your sensational bloated ego in the way?" Spike inquired. "The proof is right here bouncing on my lap."

"But I thought he was Xander's."

"Mine?" Xander asked in surprise from his seat in the overstuffed chair near Buffy. "Why does everybody think that I'm the father? You just played audience to the whole 'I'm a father, we have a son' scene, featuring Spike, Buffy and their little bundle of joy."

"Yeah but…but I thought that since you weren't…" Angel glanced around the room and gave up, shrugging his shoulders, "I thought Spike was just trying to help her out, in that kind of…uhh…sense. Since maybe she needed… help. And you know how Spike gets, he's dramatic. I--"

"Dramatic, please, since when-- never mind. Why don't you just get it through that thick skull of yours and see for yourself?" He turned Alex in his lap so that Angel could get a better look. "Now tell me, does he look like Xander to you, or does he look like yours truly?" Spike raised an eyebrow and couldn't wipe the growing grin off his face.

"Hello? Still here." Buffy said, annoyed that they were talking as if she wasn't in the room. She felt the hand on her arm give a comforting squeeze. "And I thought I told you, I can take care of myself and Alex. You think I would go around telling people that Alex is their son for the fun of it?" Buffy said, looking at Angel. Her first thought was to be angry at him for thinking she would actually think of doing something like that. But the defeated look on his face just made her feel sorry for him. She opened her mouth to say something else, but couldn't think of what it was.

Spike gave Buffy's arm another squeeze when he saw a note of confusion wash over her features. "Something on your mind, Love?"

"It's nothing I guess. I just had a feeling… like I'm forgetting something."

Angel had taken notice of the baby's eyes for the first time that day and he was too stunned to say anything. "How could I have missed that? It just can't be." His next thought was spoken out load. "This can't be normal."

"Since when do you bloody think that things are ever normal?"

"So… how is this possible?"

The question was in the air, and Spike was in the process of piecing it all together from what Buffy stated earlier. "Well like she says, or what Rupert thinks, I was able to ever since I got my shiny soul back. It makes sense. I asked the demon to make me what I was so Buffy can get what she deserves. She deserves much more."

Buffy was going to say something but before she could get the words out, Angel had already spoken, "And you? You think you deserve this?" Angel asked Spike, there was nothing hidden in the question, no anger, not even spite, just morbid curiosity.

Spike looked at Angel, if it had been any other day he would have scoffed at the question. But the way Angel said it, almost as if he was already defeated; he knew it was asked merely out of interest. Spike leveled with him, not really knowing the answer himself, he considered the question carefully.

A few moments passed and Xander who was also curious as to whether Spike would answer the question or not, sat up and studied the vampire's movements. He wasn't really surprised to see how he handled Will so carefully. He almost expected it. He had to admit, he had misjudged the vampire numerous of times. And during the time he had thought Spike was gone, he regretted what he did to him. He decided to wipe the slate clean. When he heard Spike clear his throat he leaned back in his chair but kept his attention on Spike.

"Don't really know. Maybe I don't deserve all of it. Any of it." looking down at Alex, then at Buffy. "Hell I thought I was already just playing my odds when Buffy forgave…look, it's none of your business, that." He looked at Angel. And Spike had tensed up at the thought of what led him to go to Africa in the first place, but when he felt Buffy's hand slide into his own, he continued. "What I do know, I wanted it enough. I sought it out. Went though the trials. Would have done more… anything… whatever I needed to get back… what I lost. In the end I got it fair. Somebody out there thought I-- we deserve it, that's all that matters."

"What about that plan of yours? Does she know about it?" Angel asked. "Because I think Buffy aught to know the details, don't you? Why don't you tell her why you didn't want to see her?"

Buffy, who was leaning into Spike and feeling comfortable with his arm around her, sat up straight, and looked at Spike questioningly, "Yeah, why did you run?"

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TBC...