A/N : Wow, it still amazes me that this fic is so popular. I literally started writing this on a whim, not really sure if it would be very good or not and suddenly bam! more reviews than I ever got before! You guys are just so awesome giving me all this support and taking the time to make a comment after each chapter.

Thanx to; Spuffyfan4eva, zanthinegirl, Freezyboncoolipants, rubi-elektra, kori hime, Screeching Dragon, Bunny, Harm Marie, Moluvsnumber17, books41, Spuffyluvr, Samolly, scruffybunny, MetChick01, MaidenRo, Willow Fireheart, Z, Alec Star, Artemis Moonshine, ms trick, naiya-isis, Kelley, Malfeus, kransp, spuffyfan-1, msberry, CraZy4SpikE09, Charlene, Fearlessbuffy, spikeswife1, Victoria Michael, fischergirl, little-lost-one, Eurika, Katie, hells child, Angelscribe, Mr Lennox, libraflyter.

You guys all rock so much! I hope that you'll all like this chapter, I have this sneaking suspicion that you will... ;-)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 10

"Buffy" Giles got the Slayer's attention back as he and the rest of the Scooby Gang stood around her "is there something we should be told?"

Buffy looked to Spike for salvation, but he wasn't even looking at her, his head was clearly still hurting from his attack on Faith. Besides, what could he say to make it better? It was bad enough that her friends had just found out she was pregnant. Add to that the fact Spike knew before them and she just couldn't take what their reactions might be.

"I'm sorry" she said finally, tears running down her cheeks as she got up from her seat, "I can't..." she cried as she pushed past her friends and ran out of the door. Spike considered going after her but refused to show these losers that he might actually care! Besides, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to have to cope with a blubbering Slayer right now. After all she'd been through, would she really want his company? He guessed probably not.

"The Buffster" Xander frowned, "She's not really...I mean with the baby have-age..."

"It's certainly what Faith implied" Giles frowned even deeper than the boy. How could this have happened to his Slayer, to the girl he saw as a surrogate daughter?

"But Faith lies" Willow jumped immediately to her friends defence, "I mean, Buffy would be careful and stuff, she doesn't just...oh God" her hand went to her mouth as a thought occurred to her.

"What is it, sweetie?" Tara asked, concerned by her girlfriends expression.

Willow surveyed the room and tried to decide if she should admit what she'd just realised. There was no backing out now. Bringing her hand away from her face she sighed.

"Buffy dated a guy named Parker" she said quietly, "It didn't last, he kinda dumped her after..." she couldn't say it, there was no way she could mention it in front of Giles, even if she could have said it with the others looking at her.

Spike stifled a smirk. The little Red witch was a smart one alright, figured it all out in record time. His expression was soon serious again as he took in the gang's reactions. Giles went down into the armchair with a thump, immediately removing his glasses and polishing them til Spike was sure he'd wear the lenses down to sand. Xander's mouth open and closed like a gold-fish but no sound came out at all. The witches held onto each other hands, both clearly feeling bad for the Slayer and her situation whilst the demon-girl didn't really seem to give a stuff as she picked at her nail polish and looked thoroughly bored with the whole thing. He wished he could be so calm about it all. Right now he was itching to go towards the front door and chase the Slayer down. He wanted to be there to comfort her, he wanted to tell her it'd all be okay, put his arms around her and...

"Well, as much as fun as it is watching you ponces sit around doing landed fish impressions" he announced as he got up and headed for the door, "Some of us have better things to do" he told the group, though they were scarcely paying attention.

Spike was glad the sun was no longer in the sky, instead the moon was rising above him, bathing the world in silver light. Now he could find the Slayer, and it shouldn't be that complicated. He was almost certain she'd have gone back to her dorm. Even though her mother knew the truth about the baby, Spike was pretty sure she'd want to be alone right now, which begged the question why was he going to look for her? But Spike was one to follow his blood, not his brain, and that was singing out for him to find his precious Slayer. He lit a cigarette as he set off in the direction of the university, thinking that maybe on the way there he'd be able to figure out exactly why Buffy meant so much to him of late...

- - - - - - - -

Buffy didn't stop running until she was practically to the door of her and Willow's dorm room, and even then she only came to a halt because her body hit another.

"I'm sorry" she mumbled, moving to side-step the man before she glanced up and realised who it was.

"Hey Buffy" Riley said flatly, not sure what to say after that. He really wanted to hate her after what he'd found out but she looked so upset and he ached to hold her and make it all better. They'd come so close to being close but the last few days he hadn't even seen her. Though it wasn't an official break-up, it was more than clear they were over, especially after the following exchange...

"What's the matter?" he asked, pretty sure he already knew. With tears streaming down her face and no thought for who might hear, she blurted out the truth - that she was pregnant. With that she collapsed into Riley's arms and cried some more. He awkwardly held her in the dimly lit corridor, absently rubbing her back.

"I know" he said quietly, wondering what her reaction would be "Hostile 17's baby"

"What?!" Riley was fairly certain the entire campus heard Buffy yell as she backed up a couple of steps from him "Spike?!"

"Don't deny it Buffy" Riley shook his head, understanding why the Slayer might, but knowing it would do her no good "The Initiative know all about it"

"Well then they've got it wrong" Buffy exploded, pacing up and down the corridor, her mind whirring with the possibilities.

"The Initiative doesn't do wrong" Riley pointed out to her, arms folded across his chest in a defensive stance - no-one questioned the wonder of his precious Initiative friends "You were scanned by our sensors when you visited last week. You're pregnant and it's DNA has strands that matched our databanks" he told the now still Buffy, she was too shocked to moved as the information hit her like a punch in the face. Could it really be true? Could it be Spike's child she was carrying?

"I've already said more than I should" Riley said quietly, knowing that was only half the reason he was going, the other thing being he couldn't stand to be around Buffy for too long. Liking her so much when he wished he could hate her, and seeing her cry when there was no way to help, it tore him up inside.

It took a moment for Buffy's brain to register that he was walking away, but as soon as she did she strode after him, grabbing his arm and spinning him back towards her dorm room. She pushed him through the door and pinned him to the wall by the throat, kicking the door closed again so no-one would see.

"No way are you walking away from me now" she told him in a dangerously low tone.

Riley had the courtesy to look a little worried by their current position and held up his hands as if to surrender. She released her grip on him but stood by the door, daring him to try to leave. Resigned, he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Now you start over" Buffy commanded, pointing her finger at him "and you tell me everything you know...I'm serious Riley"

Of course he knew she was serious, and hormonal, and possibly had a demon child growing inside of her. He knew Professor Walsh would be mad that he was telling the Slayer classified information, but he also knew the assumption had been made that these were facts she was already in possession of. Add to that the fact she could probably kill him five different ways before he even made it to the door and it seemed safest just to give up the info.

"You're having the hostiles child" the Iowa boy sighed, hating having to repeat such revolting facts "The DNA matches"

"But vampires, they can't..." Buffy frowned, not quite managing to finish her sentence with Riley looking at her.

"Vampires being sterile is a myth Buffy" he would have laughed at her naivity if the situation hadn't been so grave "You being the Slayer, I figured you'd know" he shrugged, before bitterly adding "but then I never thought you'd be stupid enough to sleep a demon"

The blonde sat down heavily in the chair by the desk. If not for the astounding news about her child she might have felt worse about Riley's 'stupid to sleep with a vampire' comment, given that she'd now given herself to two of them! But the revelation that she could be having a child that was the spawn of Spike was making her feel too many kinds of weirdness for anything else to register in her mind.

"This can't be happening" Buffy shook her head, causing more tears to fall from her eyes that stared blankly at the wall "Me and Spike, it was one time, and it was two months ago, I am way more than two months pregnant...right?" she addressed the final word to Riley, as she started to wonder if she was wrong about all this. She'd assumed she was a little less that four months since that was how long it'd been since her night with Parker, but no doctor had ever confirmed anything and she wasn't the world's biggest brain when it came to pregnancy or even her own body. It had been Spike that told her she hadn't had a period in quite some time, she might not have noticed so quickly if not for him. But still, she had to be more that two months pregnant - didn't she?

"The sensors put you at fifteen weeks when you visited last week that'd make you almost four months now" Riley agreed that Buffy had made a correct estimation. She made the mistake of sighing with evident relief. The commando hadn't finished yet, "but there's no denying that it's the Hostile's child. Maybe the pregnancy's faster cos you're the Slayer or because of what he is, I don't know..." he told her as she put her head in her hands and cried some more.

Riley was really feeling bad for her now. As disgusted as he was to think she would willingly giver herself up to an HST, when she'd barely let him touch her, he did really like her. For a while there he believed he loved her, but Professor Walsh had helped him out a lot, reminding him of what was important and right now his confused feelings for Buffy Summers just weren't as big a deal as the Initiative.

The Professor had a special project she was going to let him in on soon. Riley Finn was about to embark on a new adventure - Project 314, and he wasn't going to jeopardise his chances of doing so well just because of a Slayer who liked to bang vamps!

"I should go" he said eventually, though she barely noticed he'd spoken or moved. Her mind was in a whole other place of babies and dates and consequences to actions. When the door clicked closed behind a man who was effectively her latest ex, she just cried harder and there was no one there to comfort her.

- - - - - - - -

Spike had worked himself up into a frenzy by the time he reached the campus. He needed to know Buffy was okay. He wanted to be there for her when she needed him, and there was really only him she could turn to. Sure, her mother knew about the baby now, but as accepting as she'd been, both Spike and Buffy knew she wasn't one hundred percent comfortable with the idea of her little girl having a child of her own, at the age of nineteen and by a man she'd only slept with once!

The vampire was not amused when a boy and girl came crashing down the corridor, so interestedd in kissing and groping each other that they were bumping into every available thing in the building, including Spike. He rolled his eyes as he pushed his way around them and the girl giggled insanely before going back to kissing her man.

"Oh Parker" she sighed, and Spike whirled around in fury.

This little git standing a few feet from him, clearly planning on getting Little Miss Giggles out of her knickers tonight, was the same sod that had violated his precious Buffy and dumped her the very next day?! There wasn't time to wonder about the use of the phrase 'my precious Buffy' in his own mind because he was already moving towards the boy who'd caused so much trouble. He wrenched him off the girl with one yank on back of his jacket. Spinning him round, Parker barely had time to look shocked before he was struck across the face by Spike's fist.

Pain shot through his head, but the vampire barely felt it, the electric shocks were nothing compared to what he'd like to do to this kid. He was a special kind of scum that needed killing in a nice long painful way, Spike reckoned. Every time Parker made a valiant attempt to stand he was knocked back down, until the vamp was sure the boy was out cold.

All credit to the lad, he had some stamina to stay awake so long, but he might be unconscious for a couple of days the beating he'd just received. The girl he'd been with had run away, Spike realised probably because his game face had slipped into place as he released his anger on his prey.

When he finally came out of the bubble of pure anger, he felt the pain in his head and smelt his own blood as it ran out of his nose. The impact of the chip firing over and over had probably burst a blood vessel somewhere. It didn't matter, he couldn't worry about it now, there was far too much worry in him for Buffy, he didn't have any left for himself. Concentrating, he pulled his human features back into place and headed for her room.

- - - - - - - -

The Slayer's mind was in a complete whirl, with the possibilities and implications of what Riley had just told her. She sat with a calendar in her hands counting days and weeks, trying desperately to remember the exact date she'd last bled and comparing it with the date she'd slept with Parker and the day of Willow's Will Be Done spell when she and Spike had been together. Now that she looked at it, she realised a small mistake. If she was having Parker's baby, she would be seventeen weeks pregnant now, if it were Spike's she'd be eleven. Yet Riley told her the Initiative sensors had picked up she was fourteen weeks, last week. The explanation that her pregnancy could be faster due to her superpowers or indeed Spike's was plausible enough, but the whole thing was making her head spin and she desperately wished she had someone she could talk to about it.

A knock on the door made her jump. Maybe it was Willow, she could talk to her, although she'd have to start from the beginning and she wasn't sure she could manage it...

"Who is it?" Buffy called, sniffing and wiping her face with her hands. Depending on who it was she'd rather not look like a blubbering mess.

"It's me" came the English-accented reply and Buffy sighed. She wasn't sure if it was relief but it certainly felt like it and before she knew what she was doing she opened the door for him.

"You okay, luv?" he said as soon as he saw her. She was frowning hard but he didn't realise it was his own appearance causing that look until she told him.

"What happened to you?" she asked, guessing it was something supernatural and so grabbing his wrist and pulling him into the room away from prying ears and eyes.

"Oh, the blood" he realised what she meant and wiped his hand under his nose to remove some of it, "S'nothing really, chip just fired a little too much, probably burst a vessel" he explained, hovering in the middle of the room. Now he was here he didn't know where to begin and she seemed to be having the same problem.

"Sit down" she said after a while and he took a seat on the edge of the bed as she grabbed a box of tissues from the desk and came to sit beside him. Pulling a wad of tissue from the box she put her hand towards his face and he flinched away.

"What?" she asked, more harshly than she meant to, but he was being annoying and she really wasn't sure how to act around him right now.

"I dunno" he shrugged, "I came here to make sure you're okay and you wanna clean up my bloody nose?" he frowned "Used to be we were the first in line to see each other suffer" he told her.

"Things change" she said quietly, turning away from him, holding the tissue in her lap and looking down at it as her fingers ripped it to shreds of their own accord.

Spike didn't know what to make of that. Things change. Well, of course they did, nothing stayed the same forever, but what did it mean for them, him and the Slayer.

"Look, Buffy" he started awkwardly, not daring to look at her either, "Your mates, they'll be okay with the whole baby thing, same as your Mum was and..."

"Why did you tell her?" Buffy interrupted him, still staring at her own hands and the shredded paper between them, "Why did you tell Faith I was pregnant?"

"Only way I could think of to get her back here and have the spell done willingly" he explained, "Seems she gets most of her info from unsuspecting blokes anyway. She knew about my chip too. I called her on it, seems some of the Initiative boys were at a club just outside town, getting loose lipped after a few too many beers, mentioned yours truly and his affliction...speaking of, it's a bloody pain when you want to smack certain humans who deserve it. That git Parker was in the corridor, I gave him a bit of a going over..."

Spike was surprised to find his little ramble interrupted by Buffy sobbing her heart out.

"Hey now, Slayer, what did I say?" he asked somewhat worriedly. Buffy didn't have an answer, she could only cry and like an instinct reaction, Spike put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her too him. She went willingly into his embrace, feeling strangely warm and safe in the cold arms of her supposed enemy, but then there was apparently every chance he was also the father of her child.

"Come on, luv" he whispered into her hair, "S'not as bad as all that"

"Spike you have no idea how bad it is" she sobbed into his coat, making his dead heart clench in his chest.

"So tell me" he urged her, leaning away until he could see her face. She looked so young and innocent and terribly lost. If her next words hadn't been so important he might have kissed her then...

"Spike, the baby, it...it might be yours" she admitted in a tiny voice before crying all over him again.

A hundred emotions shot through the vampires body as he held the Slayer tighter and rocked her gently. He'd got her pregnant, or there was apparently a distinct possibility of it. That meant the 'vampires are impotent' thing could well be a myth. It also meant he might be a father after all, an idea he'd had to give up when he'd been turned, or so he thought. Finally it meant he may be the cause of so many of Buffy's tears these passed weeks. For that he hated himself, more than he thought possible. Somehow this girl had gone from enemy to friend to someone he loved dearly, and right now, though he'd never admit it, he was too afraid to say a word to her about any of it.

To Be Continued...

A/N2 : Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? All are welcome! :-)

[A new chapter of Life's Full of Surprises has also been posted tonight]