Chapter Seven

"Let's do it." Piper said as she ran the comb through her dark hair for the last time.

"No." Faith replied without even a moment's thought.

"Come on, honey. Living together is the next step." Piper insisted.

"I see no use for it. I am here as often as you want me to be, and what harm is my little crib doing to you." Faith once again dismissed Piper's thought.

"Nothing but, it's like making it official." Piper added to her argument.

"Uh huh." Faith was now rumbling in the closet looking for clean clothes.

"Well, think about it at least." Piper said as she left the room to make some breakfast.

Down in the kitchen, Phoebe was making a quick breakfast for herself.

"You are up early?" Piper asked when she saw her sister gulp down some oj.

"Yeah, I have a deadline so I am going to work." Phoebe replied.

"I thought you were writing your column last night." Piper asked her little sister who was now becoming a fairy well known advice columnist.

"Yeah, I couldn't something came up." Phoebe answered hurriedly.

"Hey Faith." Phoebe greeted her sister's partner.

"Hey, where are you off too?" Faith was as surprised as her girlfriend.

"To work." Phoebe replied once again. "So how did it go with the queen of vampire last night?" Phoebe asked half interested.

"You know the usual, overpowered, and outnumbered but the bad guy always how do you call that, oh yeah, poofs." Faith replied as uninterested as Phoebe and took a bite of the pancake that Piper had put in front of her.

"Good job." Phoebe looked up and gave a little made up smile at the slayer. "Before I leave, Paige called; she said she is going directly to work from Greg's place so she won't be home until after work."

Phoebe got up and gave a quick kiss to her sister then Faith then rushed out waving goodbye.

Leo orbed right in front of the door and cautiously tried to hear for noises from inside. When he heard nothing and was satisfied that it was safe, he knocked awkwardly and waited for response. After few seconds he knocked again, and looked behind him to make sure no one in the house had noticed.

"Come in." He heard the voice from inside.

He opened the door quickly and closed it behind him.

"Hey! Leo." Tara said a little surprised at seeing her fellow whitelighter.

"Good I caught you before you left." Leo said relieved.

"Go where?" Tara was clueless as to Leo's worries. Before Leo could answer they both heard the chime that meant the elders were calling.

"There." Leo replied right after.

"You look worried. What is it about?" Tara asked her former mentor.

"Buffy." Leo replied.

"Buffy!" Piper exclaimed at the blond slayer who was standing on her door. "What a pleasant surprise. Come on in."
Buffy stepped inside rather timidly. "I am sorry to bother you all so early, but this was really important and I wanted to talk to you and Faith before either of you went to work."

"Hey you don't have to apologize. You know you are always welcome here. Is something the matter?" Piper asked leading Buffy to the living room where Faith was sitting on the couch.

"Wow B! Is that you?" Faith didn't hide her shock at Buffy's appearance, while Piper eyed her from behind the blond woman and signaled her to be polite. Realizing that Faith was sternly looked at, Buffy turned to the charmed one to answer, "Its ok Piper. I am allowed to be fat as I am pregnant."

"Buffy is PREGNANT!" Tara repeated Leo's statement.

"Yes, and not just pregnant, she is five months pregnant." Leo reconfirmed his news.

"Five months. Are you telling me she was pregnant when we saw her at her birthday?" Tara asked a little confused by Leo's revelation.

"No, she wasn't pregnant then." Leo answered.

"How is that possible?" Tara had to ask even though she knew in the world that they lived in, many impossible was possible.

"You better sit down."

"You better sit down." Buffy told the two women who fought vampires and demons but were now astound by Buffy's five months' pregnancy.

"After Kennedy died in the closing of the hell mouth, no new slayer was called. As you all know, Wesley with the help of Giles reformed the watcher's council, but there was no slayer which of course didn't mean that there was no other evil to fight. There is still evil in the world, a slayer who follows the line have to be there so they decided to do what the ancients did to form the first slayer." Buffy paused to take a breath.

"They decided to conjure up the next slayer as baby inside of me using the text of the ancients who empowered the first slayer. She is growing at a rapid rate, because of which even though I was impregnated only five weeks ago, the baby is already as big as five months old." Buffy explained as simply as she could.

"Wow, I guess congratulations are in order." Piper said as soon as she recovered from her shock, and went over and hugged her pregnant friend.

Faith remained silent and refused to show any kind of reaction.

"But there is more to it?" Piper asked.

"Yes."

"Yes." Leo said and stood up. He just could not tell the rest of the story sitting down.

"The baby is dying inside her." Leo told now spellbound woman. "There is no other way to say it, so here goes. The first instinct of a slayer's body is to kill evil, and Buffy's body is reacting to the same instinct."

"You mean that at some level in her mind she thinks the baby is evil." Tara asked for clarification.

"Yes, in her mind but not at all in her heart. That is why she has gone to Faith for help." Leo said which only prompted Tara to ask,

"What can Faith do?"

"It is only Faith who can help." Buffy turned to the woman that once was her love.

"You have the slayer body, hence the strength to carry a slayer baby. My body is already attacking the baby, but if she is transferred to your womb and you carry her for the rest of the term. We can save the baby."

"Whoa! Wait a minute here, me carrying a baby!" Faith exclaimed at Buffy's suggestion.

"Faith please you have to understand, there is no other way. You alone possess the strength for it." Buffy begged.

"I get it B but I don't even understand how a baby can be transferred into me, wait let me answer that myself. Red said she can do it?" Faith asked even though she knew the answer herself.

"Yes." Buffy said softly just to reconfirm.

"Even though B…"

"Please don't say no, Faith. I have asked nothing of you till today, I beg you for this favor." Buffy's eyes were filled with tears as she spoke.

"Buffy there is no guarantee that Faith's body won't kill the baby." Piper thought aloud.

"Well, it took my body five weeks, I am pretty sure Faith's will take around the same time, but before that she will be delivered." Buffy voiced her reasoning hoping that it would convince the couple with whom she was begging for a very impossible favor.

"Please Faith!" Buffy cried one more time to reach the dark slayers heart.

"B, there is nothing more I want than to help you right now, but…" Faith stared at the woman that once was the reason for her existence.

"NO."

Both the slayer stared at the charmed one who spoke the word.

"What I don't understand is why they needed another slayer?" Tara asked as she had been a little out of touch with her slayer friends.

"What was the council to do with no slayers? Buffy and Faith both were not the ones needing the council. And even if they died no other slayer would be called." Leo explained.

"Then why was the council formed? The hell mouth was closed, it was over." Tara countered back.

"Because there are still other evil in the world." Leo tried to explain.

"Agreed and there are other good forces at work for them. Everyone has their destiny and the slayers were to close the hell mouth, that's why it engulfed Kennedy to balance the good and evil." Tara recalled the past year.

"I know but Wesley and other surviving council members decided against it. They thought that conjuring up a slayer was their only chance to stay in business, if we can call it that." Leo told Tara.

"And Buffy actually agreed to it?" Tara asked even though she already knew the answer.

"Yes, and I am just hoping that Piper can persuade Faith not to agree with it." Leo hoped.

"No, Faith will never say no to Buffy." Tara said.

"She has to. If Faith loves Piper she cannot help Buffy." Leo told.

"I know but does Faith even know what position Piper will be in if she agrees." Tara asked.

Faith walked in slowly and closed the door behind her. Even though she had told Buffy not to leave San Francisco and that she would try and make Piper understand, she had no idea what she could tell her girlfriend to let her carry her ex-girlfriend's baby. It was an impossible favor enough to ask without the baby being slayer and the whole good verses evil interfering with it. But she had to convince Piper, she just could not not-help Buffy.

"Faith please, don't try to convince me to agree to what Buffy asked of you." Piper said as soon as she saw her girlfriend approach slowly as though she was contemplating what to say.

"Perfect you know I would never even consider it if there was any other alternative. Think about it, it's not like she can walk into a hospital and put the baby in the tube for the rest of the term. Like she said there is no other way, and we are talking about a life here. An innocent life." Faith walked over and held Piper's hand to make her point.

"That baby is any thing but innocent." Piper retorted helplessly.

"Perfect, you don't believe that." Faith said to calm her lover who was on the verge of crying.

"You don't get it." Piper blurted out just before bursting in tears and hugging Faith with all her strength.

"Hey hey hey…. Don't cry. There is nothing to cry about." Faith soothed Piper as she wondered why Piper was panicking.

"If you do this. I'll loose you." Piper said in between her sobs.

"You do understand why?" Leo asked.

"Yes, Piper would have to make the same choice that I had to between my destiny and Willow." Tara answered.

"Yes." Leo replied when Tara paused.

"But they let me retake my destiny." Tara tried to find a solution for the charmed one that wasn't as dire as her own.

"Only when Willow let go of your heart." Leo certainly didn't want to dampen her spirit but he knew that with the way Faith and Piper loved each other, it would mean that very difficult choice had to be made.

"Elders know that Piper will have to make the choice." Tara asked.

"Yes. They already talked to me, but they want to talk to you too, as you are close to them." Leo replied.

"What do you want me to do?" Tara asked her mentor.

"They can't ask you what they have asked me to do. But they might want you to stay out of it. Even though you may have to promise them you would do so, I want you to let them know that if anything happens to me, you would be here to help the charmed ones. Help Piper. Please I don't want them to trap you in your words if something were to happen." Leo begged.

"I promise, I will not abandon the charmed ones no matter what happens or what they decide." Tara promised.

"Perfect, the elders have interfered with your life before and you have fought them before. So please don't tell me that you are scared of what they might say. That certainly is not the Perfect I know." Faith said wiping away the tears.

"Perfect I love you more than I can ever be able to tell you or prove it to you. So, there is nothing that can happen to loose me. Are we five by five on that?" She asked the woman who was trying to hide her tears.

"Faith I don't doubt your love, but you have to understand. Do you even know how the first slayer got her powers?" Piper asked more confident than she had been a little while ago.

"Yes, I know. The ancient put the powers of the evil inside a slayer to fight on their side." Faith replied.

"Then you know that the baby is conceived of evil powers." Piper made her point.

"Yes, but Perfect, you can't possibly believe a baby who hasn't seen the light of a day can be evil." Faith tried to take away Piper's fears.

"I don't believe it, but certainly Buffy's body does. That's why it's killing the baby inside of her." Piper said it even though she didn't want it to be true.

"That is understandable as the powers is conceived by evil and B's body is just reacting." Faith said and held Piper's face in her hands. She looked into the eyes of the woman she loved and asked, "Look at me Perfect and tell me that I should not save this baby. Tell me you want me to kill this baby by saying no."

Piper looked into the dark eyes but she had no answer.

Phoebe got up and walked to her sister. She Pipers head to stare into the eyes that were covered with tears. Paige sat next to her sister and hugged her. The three sisters sat in silence as they tried to come to terms with what they all had just remembered from their past.

"Piper there is no way that we would ever have believed the baby to be evil." Paige broke the silence and spoke. "I mean look at me, I was adopted…"

"Exactly, even though you were adopted and brought up with no knowledge of your destiny, look at you now. You did end up being a witch." Piper answered as though she had said those words before.

"But, no one is born evil or good. Regardless of the destiny people choose their path. Hello people am I the only one who believes the nurture plays a great deal on who people are." Words escaped Paige's lips like she was in a dejavu. She closed her eyes and shook that feeling out and continued, "I just refuse to believe that we would kill a baby for being conceived of evil."

"I agree. That's why you didn't Paige. I did." Piper replied.