A/N : Y'know I didn't realise quite how long this chapter was til I finished it AND I managed another chapter of Who's That Guy? too AND I posted a One-shot AU Season 6 piece yetserday! I've been busy like a bee - bee-like actually! ;-) It's all those wonderful reviews inspiring me to be a speedy little writer! Thanx to; libraflyter, kori hime, kargrif, La Diosa, Slayergirl1212, BiWiccamPrincess, Lady Savage, Princess Consuela, Screeching Dragon, pixiecorn, blackcherrymeg, Kari Mouke, SSWBA, spikeswife1, vixen21, naiya-isis, Amandamanda3, Spuffyfan4eva, lindsay, rubi-elektra, Charmed-angel4, MikiBaby, Moluvsnumber17, velja, Cady Monroe, theoneandonlygurl, and also Spikes Bint who is working her way through from the beginning and reviewing at intervals! You guys are all so patient and you say such nice things, I feel so loved! ;-) Here's the new chapter...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 27
The past two weeks had been pretty crazy and Buffy was glad everything was finally settling down. After spending the evening reconciling her differences with Spike, she'd woken up the next morning to find the world was a whole different place. For a while she'd wondered if she'd dreamt Jonathan's time as a superstar, but Spike assured her she hadn't, and when they called the gang in Sunnydale the whole situation had been explained to them - it was all a spell.
"Do a lot of bloody damage these spells" Spike had cursed, though he had to thank the little geek to certain degree. His advice had helped Spike and Buffy to become friends again, even if the vamp would never admit he needed any help in fixing things, "These pratts shouldn't be allowed to mess with mojo that they can't control" he had complained anyway, but Buffy had just smiled.
"I dunno, sometimes even when spells go wrong, good things come out of it" she'd told him, the hand on her stomach giving away her meaning.
It was moments like that, when both Spike and Buffy hurt the most. Both of them wanted the other, that much was clear, and he definitely loved her. She liked him, as a friend at minimum, but she'd never admitted to anything more than that and the fact she found him physically attractive. Words of love had never passed her lips and Spike was getting to the point where he was almost certain they never would, but a tiny corner of his heart, the part that remained of that ponce William that he used to be, that part would never give up hope of the happy-ever-after ending he so craved. For now he could deal with the set-up they had. During the day it worked just fine and he could almost pretend they were a real little family, it was only his sleeping on the sofa at night they spoilt the effect and the fact he couldn't be closer to her in the ways he really wanted to.
"Oh, look at this" Buffy pointed to something in a baby magazine she'd bought and Spike moved closer to her on the couch to see.
"Very nice, pet" he smiled and nodded like always, though he really could not see the difference between this fuzzy pink baby outfit and the last one, "Though if it's a boy it's gonna look like a bloody poofter kid"
"Well, obviously we'd get a blue one for a boy" she rolled her eyes at him, "Has that chip fried your brain completely?" she joked.
"I'm not even gonna dignify that with an answer" he told her with a look as he got up from the sofa and headed for the kitchen, "You want anything to eat?" he asked her as he went. It was starting to get dark out and he fancied some blood before he popped to the shops. He figured Buffy would be hungry again by now too.
"Right now I think I'm in a sandwich kind of a mood" she considered, "Maybe tuna-fish...oh, and some of that pancake syrup please"
Spike made a face but made no comment about her dodgy eating habits of late. He knew it was all something complicated to do with the baby, cravings were just a normal part of pregnancy, but the vampire had a new respect for any ordinary human male who could stand to prepare the foods their women asked for. He was lucky in that he didn't have to breathe around any concoctions that smelt bad, and he was hardly ever made queasy by the thought or sight of the dishes. He'd spent the past century and more around mutilated corpses and the nastiest looking demons you could imagine. A tuna and golden syrup sandwich was nothing to him, and at least Buffy had never craved blood after that one incident which he'd sooner forget.
"One sandwich" he said, handing her the plate. She thanked him, before grinning as she tucked into her food with vigour.
Spike warmed up some blood in his favourite mug and came to sit with her again.
"You think everything's okay in Sunnydale?" Buffy asked him as he did so.
"Why'd you suddenly ask that, pet?" he frowned, hoping she hadn't overheard any of his 'secret' conversations with Giles. The Watcher wouldn't tell him much just that a Big Bad got loose from the Initiative and they were dealing, but they both knew if Buffy found out she'd want to go back and save the day and neither were willing to let that happen.
"I was just thinking" the Slayer sighed, picking up the remaining crumbs off her plate, not wanting to waste any, "I mean, it's May now, and something always goes wrong in a major apocalypsey way in May. I mean, the Master killed me, I had to kill Angel, the Mayor attacked us, I guess I'm just wondering what awful thing is happening now and how will the gang deal if I'm not there"
"Contrary to popular theory, luv, you're not the centre of the universe" Spike smirked, "Maybe the centre of mine" he admitted quietly, knowing he shouldn't bring all that stuff up again but having trouble stopping himself, "but the Scoobies, they're not completely stupid, well, maybe Xander, but they can deal. If they couldn't they'd call"
"I guess you're right" she admitted, putting her now empty plate down on the table, "I hate that" she joked.
"So you tell me, and very often at that" Spike smiled, finishing up his blood and putting the mug down beside her plate.
"You going out tonight?" she asked, as he got up and walked to the window, peaking through the blinds to see how far the sun had gone down.
"We need a few bits from the store" he told her, "Why'd you ask?"
"No reason" she shrugged, and was glad when he believed her lie. In truth she'd found she liked spending evenings with Spike, a lot in fact, and when he went out he was often gone for several hours though she had no idea what took him so long. Sometimes she felt like asking but then she reasoned it was none of her business and she didn't want to seem too interested, besides they were trying to keep their relationship platonic...trying being the operative word.
When Spike stayed in they'd watch TV for hours. Sometimes it'd be one of his shows like Passions or Dawson's Creek that he'd have to explain to her, and usually they'd sit close with his arm around her as he explained who the characters were and all their complex relationships. Other times it'd be stuff she liked to watch and he'd spend his time making fun of it til she yelled at him to shut up, but it was still fun, just to share time with someone, with each other specifically.
Tonight if Spike was going out, Buffy would probably head off to bed ridiculously early, because at least when she was sleeping she wouldn't feel so alone. She had no idea that he went out like this because being so close to her, knowing he'd never be closer, was slowly killing him.
- - - - - - -
The past two weeks had been pretty crazy and Faith knew it was not likely to settle down just yet. The whole Jonathan thing had really pissed her off, making her think some stupid geek was a god amongst men, still no real harm had been done, much to her disappointment. Faith had so wanted to beat the little idiot into submission, but he was already so pathetically sorry and, as Angel reminded her, she was trying to atone for past crimes, she didn't need to add anymore to the list.
Faith had to admit she was grateful for one thing about Wonder-Jonathan's trip. During his time as the resident Superman he'd come to some useful conclusions about Adam, the most important part of which was that Adam's power came from a resevoir of uranium that was located in the centre of his body. This meant he could technically live forever and that simply beating on the hybrid, removing a limb, or chopping off his head wasn't going to cut it. He needed completely obliterating or they had to find away to get to his innards without him noticing - yeah, because that wasn't impossible at all!
Angel had headed back to LA a week ago. Cordelia had called with a crisis in the city that she and Wes just couldn't handle without the vamp, and off he'd run like the big hero type that he was, and though she'd never admit it Faith was sort of missing having him around.
The Scoobies really did not like her, and only put up with her presence because she was going to help beat Sunnydale's latest Big Bad. She couldn't really blame Willow after her attempts to kill her during the whole fiasco with the Mayor, or Xander since she was his first ride and she wouldn't let him forget it, just because it made him squirm in front of that Anya, who therefore also didn't like Faith. The new girl, Tara, she seemed decent enough but she was Willow's girl so by association she saw Faith as an enemy. That just left Giles, and he was far from the second Slayer's biggest fan either.
She'd been in favour when she defeated the beast that broke Jonathan's spell, and she'd got bonus points for rescuing Xander and Anya from a possessed house that was running all it's scariness off of the power of their sex have-age! But when it came to Adam, there was very little anyone could do and it was putting them all into a bad mood.
The Initiative records were all very helpful, and Jonathan had a couple of break-throughs two weeks ago when he was all-powerful, but since then the Scoobies had been struggling to know what to do next. That's what this latest meeting was about.
"I'm been investigating what Faith told us about the decrease in other vampire and demonn activity that is not linked to Adam" Giles told the assembled Scoobies and the Slayer, "and I have come to the conclusion that it may be to do with him after all"
"Okay, rewind there for a sec" Xander frowned, "The stuff that isn't connected to Adam is weird because it is actually connected to him?" he checked he'd heard that part correctly, since it seemed to make the kind of sense that's not.
"That's more or less it, yes" the Watcher nodded, "I've managed to translate some of the more complicated passages that were stored on Maggie Walsh's computer" he told them, "Her ultimate aim seemed to be to create a whole army of creatures just like Adam. If this were the case there would be facilities in the Initiative for such a plan to be carried out"
"What does that have to do with less vamps and stuff around?" Willow asked with confusion evident on her face, "Are the other demons afraid of what Adam's trying to do?"
"Quite the opposite actually" Giles shook his head, "Adam is like a God amongst demon society, and if he is talking of carrying out his creators plans of making a complicated race of his kind, I imagine the other demons would learn of this and clearly want to be one of these higher beings"
"So they're lettin' these commando guys catch 'em and lock 'em up in the place when Adam will make his plan happen, right?" Faith took a shot and hoped she'd got it right. She was sort of pleased when Giles smiled and told her she was correct.
"There is abundance of both humans and demons now in the Initiative" the Watcher continued to explain, "I have a theory that Adam plans to start a war down there. There would be so many casualties, both of the human race and many demon breeds, forming his new army of hybrids would be a simple task"
"Th-that's horrible" Tara look scared and disgusted at the thought of a whole army of creatures like Adam. The rest of the gang sympathised, since they all felt much the same, except Anya who had seen so much carnage and so many kind of demons, even been one herself for a thousand years, that these kind of topics had little effect on her constitution.
"So the big question now is how do we stop Frankenstein the Second from creating mayhem in the GI Joe camp?" Faith wanted to know. Of course when they hit that point, no-one had an answer. It was going to be another long night.
- - - - - - -
"What are you still doing up?" Spike frowned as he came in the front door at almost midnight and found his heavily pregnant house mate still lying across the couch where he'd left her.
"Just thinking" she shrugged, not really even paying attention to the fact he was there. Spike rolled his eyes as he dumped the groceries he'd bought on the counter and took off his coat.
Since he and Buffy had taken up temporary residence in this Santa Monica apartment, the Slayer had partaken of several bouts of 'thinking' and none of them ever led to good things. Usually her thinking was a disguise for feeling sorry for herself because she considered her pregnant self to be fat, ugly, and unattractive, which he always assured her she wasn't. The other option was thinking that led to panic, all what-if's about the pregnancy and the labour or bad things that could happen once the baby was born. Either way it meant calming her down and reassuring her for a few hours before either of them would get any sleep.
"Come on then" he said, moving her feet to make room himself on the couch, holding her ankles on his lap since there was nowhere else for them to go, "what have you been thinking about that's got you all sleepless?" he wanted to know. She looked at him seriously when she answered.
"Our baby doesn't have a name"
Spike looked thoughtful and then he frowned.
"Luv, our baby isn't born yet" he pointed out, "Why does she need a name right now? At midnight" he said pointedly, but Buffy didn't notice the time reference so much, she'd stopped listening before then.
"She?" she repeated and he looked at her strangely asking what she meant, "You said she. She isn't born yet. How do you know the baby is a girl?" the Slayer wanted to know.
"I don't know" Spike shrugged, starting to wonder himself why he'd said it. Maybe because whenever he dreamt of a perfect future it was always him, Buffy, and a daughter, but he didn't know why it was that way, "Just got this feeling we're havin' a girl" he told her.
"Well, she'll need a name if she is a girl, or if he's a boy" she considered, "and it got me thinking is all"
"You don't wanna name her Buffy?" he asked, trying to stifle a smirk. He knew she'd defend her name no matter what, it was her mother's choice after all, but she'd never subject her own child to such a title.
"A world of no" came her response, "I think one of me is enough...and that means if it's a boy we don't call him Spike" she added quickly, just in case he was getting ideas.
"Given how I came by this little nick-name of mine, pet, I promise you the thought never entered my head" he told her honestly, making for an awkward pause in the conversation as they were both forced to remember the violence of his past.
"I could maybe deal with having a son called William though" Buffy said after a while, "I mean, that is your real name, right? William..." she stopped when she realised she didn't know the rest, "That's so weird" she almost laughed as she said it and Spike looked at her with confusion.
"What's that then?" he wondered.
"All this time I've known you" Buffy smiled still, "and we've fought and been friends and...everything" she said awkwardly, "and I don't even know your last name"
Spike knew she was correct. He really didn't use his last name for any purpose, he didn't need to. Vampires rarely used their real names. Sure, he'd been William the Bloody, but Spike soon caught on and his old title was lost in time. Drusilla wasn't her human name, and of course Angel was not his, Spike suspected not even Darla was her true name. He was surprised that after a century of no use he could still remember his old last name!
"Vamps don't have last names" he told the Slayer, really not wanting to get into this with her. His time as a human he would mostly like to forget, he certainly didn't want Buffy to know what a ponce he used to be.
"Everybody has a last name" Buffy rolled her eyes, "Just cos you don't use it doesn't mean you don't have one"
He sighed as he saw the determined look on her face. She was not going to let this one go and if either of them were going to sleep at all he'd have to answer her.
"Back in my human days" he gave in and told her, "I was William Blackwell"
"Blackwell" Buffy repeated it in her own voice, "William Summers-Blackwell, wow our son is gonna sound really stuck up" she laughed.
Spike was more than a little surprised to notice he got two parts in the title, but it was pleasant enough to hear his old name beside Buffy's own.
"And if we have a girl?" he asked so softly he wondered if it was really him that spoke, but he couldn't help but feel moved by her wanting to include him in this.
"I dunno, something different" Buffy considered, "How about Serenity?" she suggested, "Like the ship in that weird space-cowboy show. That's pretty"
Spike's eyes looked like they would pop out of his head.
"No kid of mine is gonna be named after a soddin' space-ship in a TV show that some bloke with a daft imagination wrote!" he protested and Buffy burst into fits of giggles. Truth was she did think Serenity might make a pretty name, but she'd never seriously consider calling a child of hers that, she just knew Spike would go crazy if she suggested it.
"Relax Spike, it was a joke" she told him between fits of laughter, before the giggles subsided into a large yawn.
"Well, I think that's enough jokes for one night" the vampire told her, "Even super-Slayers need some shut eye of a night, especially the ones carrying kids around all day" he told her, expecting her to take the hint and move.
"But I'm all comfy here" she told him, pouting like a child. God he wished she'd stop being so cute, it was bad enough trying not to grab her and snog her face off half the time anyway without her being all adorable like that.
"You'll be more comfy in bed" he pointed out, moving her legs a little so he could vacate the couch, "Come on now Slayer, off you go" he urged her when she didn't move a muscle.
"You can't make me" she said, still in her sulky child's voice, forcing her eyes shut as if she were asleep. Spike wondered what to do next, then he had an idea. He crouched down to her level and leaned in close to her ear, her heart-rate speeding up audibly because she could feel him getting closer..
"Don't bet on it" he whispered as he slipped one arm round her back ad the other under her legs. He stood up swiftly, sweeping off the sofa in one move but careful not to drop her. Instinctively she wrapped her arms round his neck and leaned her head on his shoulder as he carried her to the bedroom and laid her down on the bed. He pulled the covers up around her and the Slayer sighed contentedly as she snuggled down beneath them.
"You wanna stay?" she asked as he went for the door, and he glanced back with a strange look on his face. It was only then she realised how much it would hurt him, to be so close to her and yet be denied what he really wanted. Deep down she really wanted to be so close to Spike, and yet it was over-ridden by her common sense and practicality telling her it would never ever work, it hadn't before after all.
"I'm sorry" she shook her head, "We already deja'd this vu and it doesn't end well, right?"
"Right" Spike nodded, smiling just slightly at her special way of phrasing it all, "Goodnight, pet" he said as he closed the door.
"Goodnight" she replied only when he was gone, "William Blackwell"
To Be Continued...
A/N2 : We all remember that reviews are of the good, right? ;-) Oh and for those who were kinda sad to hear this fic has to end soon, there may be a short sequel to follow...