A/N : Wow, I had no idea this fic would be so popular! 39 reviews on just the first chapter! So here is a big thanks to everyone who reviewed, deep breath for this lot; fischergirl, zanthinegirl, Mari, kori hime, Spuffyfan4eva, Bridget, rubi-elektra, rrca, uandme4eternity, Lady Starlight, B/S Rox, Samolly, Willow Fireheart, Harm Maries, Tharpdevenport, Azrielle, Kimberly, Thursday Next, sunnyhell, helaine, adpi24, Spikes-gal787, Mita427, BunnyKat, Selena , Freezyboncoolipants, Alec Star, Moluvsnumber17, kate, Spuffy-Fan, RedsLover03, artemis moonshine, Rachel, AraelMoonchild, SouthernRain, Cocktailpk, msu, MaidenRo, tink36. I really hope I didn't miss anyone out. All the questions you had will be answered, all the ideas you had may or may not appear, but all this in good time. Methinks we have a long way to go yet...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 2

When Buffy opened her eyes she wasn't entirely sure where she was. In front of her Spike paced up and down the room and she suddenly remembered what was going on. She'd passed out in Xander's basement whilst she should have been making sure Spike left quietly. But why had she passed out again?

"You're awake" Spike commented pointlessly, finally standing still and looking down at her still lying on the chair, "Was beginning to think you'd sleep the night away"

"What did you do to me?" Buffy asked, looking around warily as she immediately took up a seated but defensive type stance.

"I didn't do anything you daft bint" he complained at having been accused, "Cute little government chip stuffed up my brain, remember?" he gestured to his own head and Buffy was just sick of playing games. Her eyes darted around as if checking the place for traps and Spike rolled his eyes.

"What is it you think I've done?" he asked her loudly, "Wired up the place while you were out of it so you can't leave without getting fried? Or maybe you think I've got a couple of demon mates hidden behind the door to do you over for me when you try to leave? News flash, pet" he said right in her face, "My world does not revolve around you"

"I've had enough of this" she shook her head as she stood up, thankfully feeling quite a bit better now, "Just get out already!" she yelled.

"I got something to say first" he shouted back angrily, standing right up close to her. Determined not to back down and look weak for a third time in his presence, Buffy stood toe-to-toe with the vampire, knowing he couldn't physically harm her at least.

"Then say it" she said dangerously low, "and get the hell out of this place and my life"

Standing there, looking down on her from his few inches of extra height, Spike was struck by how young this girl looked, how young she truly was. Just nineteen years old and already she'd taken on the world and won more than once, both with his help and without, but now she was taking on a whole different world and he guessed that she probably had no idea, he'd have heard about it otherwise.

"Buffy" he said stance and face softening along with the tone of his voice, "did you know that you're pregnant, luv?"

He waited for a reaction, unsure whether it would be tears of a smack in the face or something else. It turned out to be the last thing he would have expected - she laughed.

"Oh that is just..." she choked out through breath-stealing giggles, "Is this part of some master plan to make me laugh myself to death cos that has to be the funniest and possibly stupidest thing I ever heard" she continued to force out her sentence around hearty chuckles that just wouldn't stop coming.

"I'm glad you find it so bloody amusing!" Spike yelled over the din of her laughter, "But you'll be laughing on the other side of your face in a few months time when you have to force the sprog out of you!"

Buffy stared up at his face and the look on it sobered her up. He seemed so serious, and suddenly things started to make sense. The feeling faint, the throwing up, the feeling that she may have put on a couple of pounds in the stomach area.

"This can't be happening" she said flatly, turning to stare at a spot on the wall that wasn't there" tears of shock and terror formed where those of laughter had been just moments before a she sank back down to sit on the edge of the chair.

"Look at the evidence, pet" Spike implored her, "The fainting, the heaving...not to mention the fact you haven't bled since I've been here" he added the last part, more quietly, almost loathed to admit that he knew.

"What?!" she gasped suddenly and he was unsure whether she was shocked by what he'd said or if she just didn't understand. He decided to make his answer cover both forms of the question.

"I'm a vampire, pet, blood is my thing. When it's coming from a person I know about it. I've been back in Sunnyhell for weeks now, seen you almost everyday til these past few, and I know you haven't..."

"Just stop!" Buffy interrupted, wrinkling her nose in disgust and holding up a hand to silence him, "I don't need to hear this from you!"

"Yes you bloody do!" he yelled back, "Even if you don't accept the rest of it" he pointed a finger at her fiercely "you can't argue with a living heart-beat and you've got two inside of you, I heard them!"

Buffy's eyes went wide as one hand landed automatically on her stomach. Spike had heard a second heartbeat from within her, and as much as she hated it, she knew he was right when he said she hadn't had a period in while. She felt stupid for not realising quite how long it had been, but her body often got itself all out of synch and she'd been so stressed out lately, she'd just put everything, all her 'symptoms' down to that. The only other option was that Spike was telling the truth, and she truly was pregnant.

"But it's impossible, how can I be?" she rambled more to herself than to him but he answered her anyway.

"You're a big girl, and your pregnancy won't affect your memory. Don't tell me you need a diagram, luv" Spike smirked, earning himself that smack in the face he'd been due for a while. Buffy couldn't take all this in. She admitted to herself that it made sense but she and Riley hadn't gone far enough to make a baby yet and the only other person she'd slept with was...

"No, oh God no, no, no, not you, it can't be" she stammered out as she got to her feet, shaking her head and gaping at the vampire in disbelief. Spike wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand and shook his head too.

"We both know I can't" he snapped, wondering why it hurt to admit that. It's not as if he wanted to be fathering the Slayer's offspring, but it did feel a little less than manly when he had to bring up the issue of his firing blanks.

He was fairly surprised that she'd even mention their little time together, it had just been the once, well technically twice. They'd snuck into Giles' bedroom when he'd fallen asleep on the couch and then...Spike had never felt anything like the feelings she'd evoked in him, as they touched and kissed and made love, because that was what it had been, not just shagging like it'd been with others, they really had been in love. But it was all a spell and now it was over and there were bigger things to think about.

Spike shook his head to clear his thoughts and focused his eyes back on the Slayer who now had her head in her hands, rocking back and forth slightly on the chair. She was crying he realised, as he bent down to her level, residual feelings from the spell of a couple of weeks ago and memories from right now making him act more kindly than he would have usually.

"Pet, it must be your boys" he told her gently as he could, there was enough wooden stuff in the basement to sink a battle cruiser and he really didn't fancy a sharp pointy piece through his chest just because he wasn't polite enough to a hormonal Slayer, "It must be Riley's"

"It's not" she sobbed, the truth having dawned on her moments ago during Spike's bout of thoughtful silence, "it can't be, we haven't..." she seemed totally oblivious to whom she was divulging her secrets but right now all she could think of was the fact she was having a baby, and that she was going to have to tell her friends, and Giles, and her mother! And worse than all that, the father of the child, for whom there was only one candidate left.

"Oh bugger" Spike looked heavenward and sighed, "Someone up there has really got it in for you, don't they goldilocks?" she didn't move or say a word as Spike got back to his feet, "It's that stupid lunk-head you jumped the night before we fought, ain't it?"

"Parker" Buffy spat, "he's the only one" she added sadly, head still down, face hidden in her hands. It had been bad enough when she'd slept with him, only to be told the next day that it had all been for fun and that in the grand scheme of things she meant no more to him than one good night of passion. She'd tried to put it out of her head and move on, it had taken a while but she was finally dealing. Now she had a permanent reminder of what an idiot she'd been, inside her was a child made of herself and a man she'd come to loathe.

"I'm such an idiot" she started to cry again and Spike wasn't sure what to say or do next. He ought to be laughing at the pathetic-ness of the Slayer's situation, rejoicing in the fact she was emotional broken now and in a few months time would be in all kinds of glorious techni pain as she brought her squalling brat into the world. But he couldn't laugh, not when she was sitting there sobbing her heart out. He couldn't love the idea of her pain like he should, and he knew at least one of the reasons why.

Dru always had a thing for children. She used to reckon the blood tasted sweeter because they were pure, like sherbet and candy floss and such. Spike himself never had the stomach for it. Despite the demon within, the idea of slaughtering children, draining the life from such helpless and purely innocent beings, it made his stomach tighten to the point where he couldn't even consider feeding. Angelus would go with Dru when she fancied a tasty toddler and he'd find himself a grown up to play with.

There'd been once or twice when she'd had one of her crazy idea moments and tried to turn the kids she fed from - that never worked out. Child vamps were even more twisted and frightening than adults in some ways. Spike didn't like to think about it, even now.

"Er, I was supposed to be going" he stammered, picking up his coat and putting it on, checking one final time that he had everything important in the pockets - cigarettes, lighter, car keys, ridiculously small amount of cash, a couple of photos...he mentally went through his list and nodded to himself when he found every item present and correct, "Guess I'll see you around, Slayer" he attempted to be nonchalant and uncaring as he strode over to the door, leaving Buffy sobbing into her hands, but he couldn't help staring at her just a little longer than was necessary before he left.

As the door clicked shut behind the vampire, the Slayer seemed to come out of some kind of daze. She looked around the basement, rubbing at her eyes and cheeks with the backs of her hands. Spike had left and she'd barely noticed, not that his stealing of Xander's stuff was the highest priority in her mind right now.

Her mind was whirring with so many scary thoughts. What would her friends say when they found out she was having Parker's baby? Willow might be okay, Xander was always hard to figure, Giles would be disappointed in her and her mother would be worse. Angel would hit the ceiling, after he'd finished passing out from shock, and then there was Riley, what the hell was she supposed to say to him? And the father of the child himself, that was a whole other thing to deal with. Could she continue to slay in her condition? Should she? What would happen with her studies and college?

Upstairs a bottle hit the wall and shattered. Xander's parents were having another drunken bout, the yelling started up right after the crash of the glass, and soon there was the slamming of doors and general cursing filtering through the ceiling above her.

Buffy couldn't think in this place, she needed to get away. Pulling herself up she ran out of the door and pounded down the street. Willow had said she might not come home tonight and Buffy only hoped that were true. She needed to be alone to think right now, though she doubted it would do any good. She'd got herself into an awful mess and no amount of thinking was going to fix it, no amount of crying either, but as she entered her dorm room and collapsed on her bed, she knew she hadn't cried her last tears for tonight, not even close.

To Be Continued...

A/N2: Still like it? Let me know and I'll try to write more asap, but I think I should also write some more on my other WIPs too!