Howdy, all!
Well, I thought I was only going to have time to release a chapter of *either* MtB or Vacation, however, my Muse was in a good mood, so I squeezed out both. To be honest, I am amazed as I dislocated my knee Friday and feel like someone is driving white hot steel through the middle of my leg.
The bad news is that next week will probably be devoid of both stories, as I will be in Nashville at the convention this weekend and won't have much time to write. I will, however, put out a con report next week, which should at least entertain you.
And there is always *some* sort of ficlet going on at the LJ. *SO* many of you tell me that you read about something on my LJ, but I've never seen you post! For goodness sake, stop and say hi! Friend me! I'll friend ya back! The link is below. We have tons of fun over there during the day while I'm pretending to work!
So, without further ado, here's MtB chapter 14, No Way Out. Please let me know how you feel.
Vacation 3, which is kinda. kinky. will be out on Vamp Sundae on Thursday :::crossing fingers::::
Enjoy!
Happiness,
~~@ Nimue @~~
"And though she be but little, she is fierce." ~ William Shakespeare ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream
Title: No Way Out (Chapter Fourteen - Meant to Be)
Author: Nimue
Rating: PG-13
Pairing Buffy/Spike. Most major characters included.
Feedback: Yes, please
For instant notification of fic releases, straight to your mailbox, please visit Always_Everyday@yahoogroups.com
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, UPN, Fox... Just Borrowing. (With, of course, the exception of Emma and William, who belong to Buffy and Spike)
The rest of the story can be found at:
and present chapters are being posted on my live journal at:
Summary: Wesley gives his take on the prophesy. The small group in the know develop a last ditch plan. Buffy and Spike reclaim their brood, almost finding out what they are not meant to know. At least not yet.
No Way Out
The morning droned on. The sun began to creep through the blinds of the dining room where Wesley worked. The smell of coffee and bacon and eggs was barely enough to keep his tired mind awake. It had been a long time since he'd worked in the company of so many. Even with Angel, he basically was alone. To this day, even once having been a part of it, he still didn't understand the concept of a Slayer having a family. And in this case, being part of a vast extended family.
A mug appeared in front of the man, steaming and emitting an amazing aroma. "Coffee?" A cheerful voice asked.
Wesley looked up to see Willow once again. My how she had changed. Her hair was still the strawberry red he remembered; her eyes still sparking with the same intelligence and youth as always. But everything else about her had become a woman.
Willow's hair was cut in a long bob, her face leaner and less cherubic, yet still somehow soft and sweet. Her body was thin and curvy at the same time, and her eyes showed just a little of the fatigue of years. She smiled under his gaze, no doubt appraising him in the same way.
"Thank you," Wesley answered, a smile lighting his rugged face. She returned it brightly.
"You all right?" She asked.
"As well as can be expected," he answered, running a hand through his already mussed hair.
"Wanna take a break for a shower and some yummies?" Willow asked, gesturing towards the kitchen. "I mean, you do still eat."
"On occasion," he answered with a smile. "Thank you, Willow. Possibly after I've cracked this bit in the middle."
"Suit yourself," she answered cheerfully, setting a plate of cookies nearby and taking one for good measure. "But mi casa es su casa. Or something like that. Never good at the Spanish."
Wesley smiled. "Willow?"
"Yeah," she answered, still chewing and half way to the door.
"Before I leave, do you think you could catch me up a bit about what's going on here? I mean, I've heard the stories, mostly from Angel, but you know how biased he can be." His intense eyes stared at the girl for a moment and she was trapped in them. As if he exuded some tractor beam from his beautiful eyes.
"S.Sure. You mean, whose kid is whose and who's-my-baby-daddy?" Willow asked, trying to break herself from the gaze.
Another quirky smile from the ex Watcher. Willow found it so . disconcerting?... that he had this really rough and handsome exterior now, but the same soft voice. "Something of that nature."
"Sure," Willow repeated, her smile returning, studying the man in the loosely buttoned oxford. "Better bring a notepad though."
With that, she bounced out of the room.
~~~~~~
It had been hours. It felt more like days, the Watcher thought as he strode out into the living area in his stocking feet, looking impossibly more mussed than he had when he arrived. The entire group of them, all save for the children and, presumably Oz, were sitting on the couches and chairs in the living room, a fire burning in the hearth. Some of them were reading. Some were just sitting and thinking. But they all looked like they had experience in hospital waiting rooms from their demeanor.
Anya, he thought, turned around first. She was sitting next to Rupert, a small child, *his* child, stretched across the other Watcher's lap. It made matters real to Wesley. No Watcher was destined to be a part of this kind of life, yet Rupert Giles had. He'd followed his charge's lead and not let the destiny rule him, but rather had learned to rule the destiny.
"Wesley?" Anya asked, standing. "Wow! I mean, who'd have thought you were hot under all those suits?"
Wesley blushed a bit as the rest turned around. He stood there, his corduroys a bit rumpled but still managing to look crisp, his white shirt still loosely covering lean muscle and sun darkened skin. "Hello, Anya."
Giles craned his neck. "Have you had any luck with the translation?"
Wesley nodded, and then realized that, from the angle in which Giles was sitting, he couldn't see. "Yes," he answered, solemnly. "But I think I'd like to clean up a bit and mull it over before we discuss it further."
"Oh!" Tara blurted, standing, her skirts grazing her ankles in an almost floating, angelic fashion as she walked towards the former Watcher. "I... I can show you to the bathroom, if you like."
Wesley flashed her a fragile, yet warm, smile, understanding what it was that Willow saw in the girl as soon as he got a good look at her beautiful eyes. There was something deep there. Something benevolent and kind and loving that one couldn't find in this world. He wondered, for a moment, if she were an angel or a fairy or something equally as surreally beautiful. But as she tugged his hand and he collected his overnight bag, he realized that she was a human just as he. A human who had remained unjaded despite this world in which they had come to live.
~~~~~~
As the water ran over his back, Wesley thought. These people, people he had known now for years, but had been estranged from, had managed to create something of a family from the rubble of what had happened to their own. They worked as a unit, as they always had, but rather than the rag tag team of children with their frustrated yet loving guardian, they were now a well oiled machine. One in which they each had a place. The One had become greater than merely Buffy and Spike.
It had encompassed them all.
So how, he thought as he shampooed his hair and began to work the soap over his tired body, how was he going to tell them? He'd read the Prophesy. It hadn't been that hard once the alphabet had been deciphered and the order of words had been re-arranged using a more colloquial template. But what was contained within was exactly what Rupert had been dreading.
And that would put the rest of them on guard and defensive against a threat to one of their own. He was bound to be an unpopular man for what he had to say.
His brain searched for a way out. A way to avert the Prophesy, as the Slayer had averted so many before. When he'd become a Watcher he'd thought that these things were carved in stone. That once a Prophesy had been written, it *was* and there was no stopping it.
But were that true, Buffy would have fallen to the Master. And Faith, his own former charge, would never have been in existence simultaneous with her Californian counterpart. And Angel would be human, or at the very least, have been the other half of the One.
Some things were never as straightforward as they seemed.
No one had counted on Spike. No one in the Watchers' Council, at least then, had even bothered to look at William the Bloody as the one whose heart would be enough to make him good without a soul. To make him seek out one because of his love for the Slayer. They had always assumed it would be Angel. But it wasn't meant to be.
A flicker of hope lit inside Wesley as he thought of all of the Prophesies that they had confounded in the years in which they had been a part of this cosmic soap opera pitting good against evil. Maybe there was a way around it. Maybe there would be a way to circumvent it.
But, alas, that wasn't the duty near at hand. What he had to do next, share his findings with Rupert and the rest of the group, would likely not garner him favour in their ranks. He had to do it anyway. And then try to get to work helping them. He hadn't intended on staying past the one night, but he knew he could not leave, to allow them to fend for themselves, without at least trying to assist.
Buffy and her unborn child might not be part of his family, however, they were important to her, and thus to Rupert, and thus to them all. And he owed it to his kind to help out.
The water clicked off and he shook his head, clearing his mind and letting the water fly off of him in huge droplets. Grabbing a towel, he emerged from the shower, dressing in snug blue jeans, a hunter green button down, and a tan belt with a shining silver buckle. As he looked at his reflection, he considered shaving, his hand running over the few days of stubble grown there, and then decided that it was a waste. Not important today. He brushed his teeth and towel dried his dark locks, and then padded back into the living room barefoot to meet his doom. ~~~~~
"No," Willow said firmly. "I can't buy that anyone would do that! That anyone would will a child to . No!" Her face was flushed with anger. Tara raised her hand to Willow's shoulder and rubbed softly to soothe her.
Wesley swallowed, looking down at his translation. "I'm afraid this is what the Prophesy states."
"Are you sure?" Giles asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes.
"It states that this child, if born, will be set against its family by the forces of Darkness. That the child, once it reaches the age of maturity, will kill both parents and then the Peacemaker," Wesley repeated, his fingers drumming the edge of his notebook.
"Leaving only Will," Anya answered, wrapping her hands around her self, wishing this all to go away.
Wesley nodded. "Most likely, as Will was never meant to be. He was a."
"He's a child," Willow blurted. "A little boy. A normal little boy."
"And that is why he'd probably be spared," Wesley stated. "No known supernatural abilities for the child of doom to be attracted to. The third child would be focused, drawn to the abilities of his or her parents, and older sister. Like a beacon."
"There has to be a way around it," Tara said quietly. "I. I mean. We've always found a way."
"I suppose it's fair to say, in present company, that nothing is carved in stone, however, this seems to be a fairly straightforward message, as far as Prophesies go. Not much room for interpretation." Wesley stopped, staring at the empty faces around him. "It . it also indicates that this has come to pass twice before."
Giles closed his eyes. "The pictures. "
"Exactly," Wesley stated. "The documentation in two different eras of human existence implies that this event has occurred or almost occurred in the dawn of human existence, as well as around the time of Arthur, in the early 600's AD. That either the Slayer and her paramour were brought together as the One and then killed by this child, or that they were prevented from coming together at all because of this Prophesy."
"I'm so sick of Prophesies," Anya stated flatly. "I mean, what's the point? They're old, they're outdated, even the demon population doesn't abide by them and Buffy never seems to let them."
"But they always happen," Giles interrupted quietly. "It's just that Buffy has been lucky enough to overcome their words so far. But every last one of them has come to pass."
"Like Emma," Tara whispered, still rubbing Willow's shoulder.
Giles nodded. "Like Emma."
"So what do we do?" Anya interjected. "I mean, we can't."
"I think we'll have to tell her," Giles explained. "Let it be her choice."
"*What* choice?" Willow asked, narrowing her eyes at the Watcher.
Giles looked at Wesley, and then down at the table. Wesley cleared his throat, saving Giles the horror of having to save it. "The only way we can ensure the safety of the Peacemaker, and the One, is to strongly advise that..." he swallowed, not wanting to go on, but knowing he'd have to. "That they terminate the pregnancy."
"What?" Willow exclaimed. "You're going to ask Buffy, ask *Spike*, to kill their child?"
Wesley looked away, feeling like a baby murderer, even though he wished upon all stars at once that this were not true. "To save the One and their first child, they may have to."
"No. "Willow's eyes were wild with fire. "There has to be another way. Can we. what if we call a meeting, a truce, between the forces of light and of darkness and see if we can negotiate? Give them something in return for letting this child be."
"Like what?" Anya asked. "The blood of the innocent?"
Again, Willow narrowed her eyes, her body tense and feeling like it might explode. "I don't know what, Anya. But it wouldn't hurt to ask."
It sounded far-fetched, but as far as plans went, it was all they had. "We should tell them," Giles said softly to Willow. "And we can move from there. But I don't discount your idea, as incredible as it may sound."
"What's incredible?" A chipper voice called from the doorway. They had been so involved in their conversation, that they hadn't heard the door click open and Buffy walk in, Spike at her heels.
"No...Nothing," Willow covered, brightly, hopping up and running over to her friend. She wrapped her arms around Buffy and hugged her hard.
"Enough with the love, Will," Buffy giggled. "Came to get my wee 'uns."
"They're at the park with O."
"What's *he* doing here?" Spike snarled, staring over at the table as Wesley stood. They stared each other down a moment, studying the other's stance.
"Wesley?" Buffy asked, appraising the former Watcher. She gulped as she looked at him. No more geeky seersucker suit Wesley. No. This one was. damn. She gulped again, wondering whether or not Faith, wherever she was, had seen the new look on her old boss.
Wesley nodded at Buffy as Spike came up next to her, wrapping his arm possessively around her waist. "And I'll say *again*, what's *he* doing here?"
Okay, thought Giles. Maybe not quite the best time to speak to them about this. He'd have Spike and Buffy to the pub later, and bring Willow along for the support. But, for now, they needed to separate the more roguish portions of this get together before blows were exchanged.
"He's come to help me with some translation for the Council," Giles covered. Then, watching Spike's eyebrow raise, he remembered that Spike had been doing that for him since the One had been created. Bugger. "And. and to document scientific time lines on the evolution of some Jaxar demon populations."
"Sounds riveting," Spike commented, pulling Buffy closer. "Our brood around?"
"Oz took them to the park," Tara answered, coming to them and kissing first Buffy and then Spike on the cheek. "No . no doubt they had ice cream for break.breakfast, so why don't we go find them and take them all out for something healthy."
Spike nodded at the sweet Witch. "Right then. Should collect them. Promised Will I'd take him to the toy store anyway."
"Yeah," Buffy agreed, her mind elsewhere. She could sense something amiss, but couldn't figure out quite what it was. Not yet, at least. "We should. we should go find them."
Tara slid on her jacket and herded Buffy and Spike from the entry hall without another word. They knew, she thought. They knew that it was all about to come crashing down.
Again.
But she might as well try and buy them a little more time before all hell was unleashed.
To be contd.
Well, I thought I was only going to have time to release a chapter of *either* MtB or Vacation, however, my Muse was in a good mood, so I squeezed out both. To be honest, I am amazed as I dislocated my knee Friday and feel like someone is driving white hot steel through the middle of my leg.
The bad news is that next week will probably be devoid of both stories, as I will be in Nashville at the convention this weekend and won't have much time to write. I will, however, put out a con report next week, which should at least entertain you.
And there is always *some* sort of ficlet going on at the LJ. *SO* many of you tell me that you read about something on my LJ, but I've never seen you post! For goodness sake, stop and say hi! Friend me! I'll friend ya back! The link is below. We have tons of fun over there during the day while I'm pretending to work!
So, without further ado, here's MtB chapter 14, No Way Out. Please let me know how you feel.
Vacation 3, which is kinda. kinky. will be out on Vamp Sundae on Thursday :::crossing fingers::::
Enjoy!
Happiness,
~~@ Nimue @~~
"And though she be but little, she is fierce." ~ William Shakespeare ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream
Title: No Way Out (Chapter Fourteen - Meant to Be)
Author: Nimue
Rating: PG-13
Pairing Buffy/Spike. Most major characters included.
Feedback: Yes, please
For instant notification of fic releases, straight to your mailbox, please visit Always_Everyday@yahoogroups.com
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, UPN, Fox... Just Borrowing. (With, of course, the exception of Emma and William, who belong to Buffy and Spike)
The rest of the story can be found at:
and present chapters are being posted on my live journal at:
Summary: Wesley gives his take on the prophesy. The small group in the know develop a last ditch plan. Buffy and Spike reclaim their brood, almost finding out what they are not meant to know. At least not yet.
No Way Out
The morning droned on. The sun began to creep through the blinds of the dining room where Wesley worked. The smell of coffee and bacon and eggs was barely enough to keep his tired mind awake. It had been a long time since he'd worked in the company of so many. Even with Angel, he basically was alone. To this day, even once having been a part of it, he still didn't understand the concept of a Slayer having a family. And in this case, being part of a vast extended family.
A mug appeared in front of the man, steaming and emitting an amazing aroma. "Coffee?" A cheerful voice asked.
Wesley looked up to see Willow once again. My how she had changed. Her hair was still the strawberry red he remembered; her eyes still sparking with the same intelligence and youth as always. But everything else about her had become a woman.
Willow's hair was cut in a long bob, her face leaner and less cherubic, yet still somehow soft and sweet. Her body was thin and curvy at the same time, and her eyes showed just a little of the fatigue of years. She smiled under his gaze, no doubt appraising him in the same way.
"Thank you," Wesley answered, a smile lighting his rugged face. She returned it brightly.
"You all right?" She asked.
"As well as can be expected," he answered, running a hand through his already mussed hair.
"Wanna take a break for a shower and some yummies?" Willow asked, gesturing towards the kitchen. "I mean, you do still eat."
"On occasion," he answered with a smile. "Thank you, Willow. Possibly after I've cracked this bit in the middle."
"Suit yourself," she answered cheerfully, setting a plate of cookies nearby and taking one for good measure. "But mi casa es su casa. Or something like that. Never good at the Spanish."
Wesley smiled. "Willow?"
"Yeah," she answered, still chewing and half way to the door.
"Before I leave, do you think you could catch me up a bit about what's going on here? I mean, I've heard the stories, mostly from Angel, but you know how biased he can be." His intense eyes stared at the girl for a moment and she was trapped in them. As if he exuded some tractor beam from his beautiful eyes.
"S.Sure. You mean, whose kid is whose and who's-my-baby-daddy?" Willow asked, trying to break herself from the gaze.
Another quirky smile from the ex Watcher. Willow found it so . disconcerting?... that he had this really rough and handsome exterior now, but the same soft voice. "Something of that nature."
"Sure," Willow repeated, her smile returning, studying the man in the loosely buttoned oxford. "Better bring a notepad though."
With that, she bounced out of the room.
~~~~~~
It had been hours. It felt more like days, the Watcher thought as he strode out into the living area in his stocking feet, looking impossibly more mussed than he had when he arrived. The entire group of them, all save for the children and, presumably Oz, were sitting on the couches and chairs in the living room, a fire burning in the hearth. Some of them were reading. Some were just sitting and thinking. But they all looked like they had experience in hospital waiting rooms from their demeanor.
Anya, he thought, turned around first. She was sitting next to Rupert, a small child, *his* child, stretched across the other Watcher's lap. It made matters real to Wesley. No Watcher was destined to be a part of this kind of life, yet Rupert Giles had. He'd followed his charge's lead and not let the destiny rule him, but rather had learned to rule the destiny.
"Wesley?" Anya asked, standing. "Wow! I mean, who'd have thought you were hot under all those suits?"
Wesley blushed a bit as the rest turned around. He stood there, his corduroys a bit rumpled but still managing to look crisp, his white shirt still loosely covering lean muscle and sun darkened skin. "Hello, Anya."
Giles craned his neck. "Have you had any luck with the translation?"
Wesley nodded, and then realized that, from the angle in which Giles was sitting, he couldn't see. "Yes," he answered, solemnly. "But I think I'd like to clean up a bit and mull it over before we discuss it further."
"Oh!" Tara blurted, standing, her skirts grazing her ankles in an almost floating, angelic fashion as she walked towards the former Watcher. "I... I can show you to the bathroom, if you like."
Wesley flashed her a fragile, yet warm, smile, understanding what it was that Willow saw in the girl as soon as he got a good look at her beautiful eyes. There was something deep there. Something benevolent and kind and loving that one couldn't find in this world. He wondered, for a moment, if she were an angel or a fairy or something equally as surreally beautiful. But as she tugged his hand and he collected his overnight bag, he realized that she was a human just as he. A human who had remained unjaded despite this world in which they had come to live.
~~~~~~
As the water ran over his back, Wesley thought. These people, people he had known now for years, but had been estranged from, had managed to create something of a family from the rubble of what had happened to their own. They worked as a unit, as they always had, but rather than the rag tag team of children with their frustrated yet loving guardian, they were now a well oiled machine. One in which they each had a place. The One had become greater than merely Buffy and Spike.
It had encompassed them all.
So how, he thought as he shampooed his hair and began to work the soap over his tired body, how was he going to tell them? He'd read the Prophesy. It hadn't been that hard once the alphabet had been deciphered and the order of words had been re-arranged using a more colloquial template. But what was contained within was exactly what Rupert had been dreading.
And that would put the rest of them on guard and defensive against a threat to one of their own. He was bound to be an unpopular man for what he had to say.
His brain searched for a way out. A way to avert the Prophesy, as the Slayer had averted so many before. When he'd become a Watcher he'd thought that these things were carved in stone. That once a Prophesy had been written, it *was* and there was no stopping it.
But were that true, Buffy would have fallen to the Master. And Faith, his own former charge, would never have been in existence simultaneous with her Californian counterpart. And Angel would be human, or at the very least, have been the other half of the One.
Some things were never as straightforward as they seemed.
No one had counted on Spike. No one in the Watchers' Council, at least then, had even bothered to look at William the Bloody as the one whose heart would be enough to make him good without a soul. To make him seek out one because of his love for the Slayer. They had always assumed it would be Angel. But it wasn't meant to be.
A flicker of hope lit inside Wesley as he thought of all of the Prophesies that they had confounded in the years in which they had been a part of this cosmic soap opera pitting good against evil. Maybe there was a way around it. Maybe there would be a way to circumvent it.
But, alas, that wasn't the duty near at hand. What he had to do next, share his findings with Rupert and the rest of the group, would likely not garner him favour in their ranks. He had to do it anyway. And then try to get to work helping them. He hadn't intended on staying past the one night, but he knew he could not leave, to allow them to fend for themselves, without at least trying to assist.
Buffy and her unborn child might not be part of his family, however, they were important to her, and thus to Rupert, and thus to them all. And he owed it to his kind to help out.
The water clicked off and he shook his head, clearing his mind and letting the water fly off of him in huge droplets. Grabbing a towel, he emerged from the shower, dressing in snug blue jeans, a hunter green button down, and a tan belt with a shining silver buckle. As he looked at his reflection, he considered shaving, his hand running over the few days of stubble grown there, and then decided that it was a waste. Not important today. He brushed his teeth and towel dried his dark locks, and then padded back into the living room barefoot to meet his doom. ~~~~~
"No," Willow said firmly. "I can't buy that anyone would do that! That anyone would will a child to . No!" Her face was flushed with anger. Tara raised her hand to Willow's shoulder and rubbed softly to soothe her.
Wesley swallowed, looking down at his translation. "I'm afraid this is what the Prophesy states."
"Are you sure?" Giles asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes.
"It states that this child, if born, will be set against its family by the forces of Darkness. That the child, once it reaches the age of maturity, will kill both parents and then the Peacemaker," Wesley repeated, his fingers drumming the edge of his notebook.
"Leaving only Will," Anya answered, wrapping her hands around her self, wishing this all to go away.
Wesley nodded. "Most likely, as Will was never meant to be. He was a."
"He's a child," Willow blurted. "A little boy. A normal little boy."
"And that is why he'd probably be spared," Wesley stated. "No known supernatural abilities for the child of doom to be attracted to. The third child would be focused, drawn to the abilities of his or her parents, and older sister. Like a beacon."
"There has to be a way around it," Tara said quietly. "I. I mean. We've always found a way."
"I suppose it's fair to say, in present company, that nothing is carved in stone, however, this seems to be a fairly straightforward message, as far as Prophesies go. Not much room for interpretation." Wesley stopped, staring at the empty faces around him. "It . it also indicates that this has come to pass twice before."
Giles closed his eyes. "The pictures. "
"Exactly," Wesley stated. "The documentation in two different eras of human existence implies that this event has occurred or almost occurred in the dawn of human existence, as well as around the time of Arthur, in the early 600's AD. That either the Slayer and her paramour were brought together as the One and then killed by this child, or that they were prevented from coming together at all because of this Prophesy."
"I'm so sick of Prophesies," Anya stated flatly. "I mean, what's the point? They're old, they're outdated, even the demon population doesn't abide by them and Buffy never seems to let them."
"But they always happen," Giles interrupted quietly. "It's just that Buffy has been lucky enough to overcome their words so far. But every last one of them has come to pass."
"Like Emma," Tara whispered, still rubbing Willow's shoulder.
Giles nodded. "Like Emma."
"So what do we do?" Anya interjected. "I mean, we can't."
"I think we'll have to tell her," Giles explained. "Let it be her choice."
"*What* choice?" Willow asked, narrowing her eyes at the Watcher.
Giles looked at Wesley, and then down at the table. Wesley cleared his throat, saving Giles the horror of having to save it. "The only way we can ensure the safety of the Peacemaker, and the One, is to strongly advise that..." he swallowed, not wanting to go on, but knowing he'd have to. "That they terminate the pregnancy."
"What?" Willow exclaimed. "You're going to ask Buffy, ask *Spike*, to kill their child?"
Wesley looked away, feeling like a baby murderer, even though he wished upon all stars at once that this were not true. "To save the One and their first child, they may have to."
"No. "Willow's eyes were wild with fire. "There has to be another way. Can we. what if we call a meeting, a truce, between the forces of light and of darkness and see if we can negotiate? Give them something in return for letting this child be."
"Like what?" Anya asked. "The blood of the innocent?"
Again, Willow narrowed her eyes, her body tense and feeling like it might explode. "I don't know what, Anya. But it wouldn't hurt to ask."
It sounded far-fetched, but as far as plans went, it was all they had. "We should tell them," Giles said softly to Willow. "And we can move from there. But I don't discount your idea, as incredible as it may sound."
"What's incredible?" A chipper voice called from the doorway. They had been so involved in their conversation, that they hadn't heard the door click open and Buffy walk in, Spike at her heels.
"No...Nothing," Willow covered, brightly, hopping up and running over to her friend. She wrapped her arms around Buffy and hugged her hard.
"Enough with the love, Will," Buffy giggled. "Came to get my wee 'uns."
"They're at the park with O."
"What's *he* doing here?" Spike snarled, staring over at the table as Wesley stood. They stared each other down a moment, studying the other's stance.
"Wesley?" Buffy asked, appraising the former Watcher. She gulped as she looked at him. No more geeky seersucker suit Wesley. No. This one was. damn. She gulped again, wondering whether or not Faith, wherever she was, had seen the new look on her old boss.
Wesley nodded at Buffy as Spike came up next to her, wrapping his arm possessively around her waist. "And I'll say *again*, what's *he* doing here?"
Okay, thought Giles. Maybe not quite the best time to speak to them about this. He'd have Spike and Buffy to the pub later, and bring Willow along for the support. But, for now, they needed to separate the more roguish portions of this get together before blows were exchanged.
"He's come to help me with some translation for the Council," Giles covered. Then, watching Spike's eyebrow raise, he remembered that Spike had been doing that for him since the One had been created. Bugger. "And. and to document scientific time lines on the evolution of some Jaxar demon populations."
"Sounds riveting," Spike commented, pulling Buffy closer. "Our brood around?"
"Oz took them to the park," Tara answered, coming to them and kissing first Buffy and then Spike on the cheek. "No . no doubt they had ice cream for break.breakfast, so why don't we go find them and take them all out for something healthy."
Spike nodded at the sweet Witch. "Right then. Should collect them. Promised Will I'd take him to the toy store anyway."
"Yeah," Buffy agreed, her mind elsewhere. She could sense something amiss, but couldn't figure out quite what it was. Not yet, at least. "We should. we should go find them."
Tara slid on her jacket and herded Buffy and Spike from the entry hall without another word. They knew, she thought. They knew that it was all about to come crashing down.
Again.
But she might as well try and buy them a little more time before all hell was unleashed.
To be contd.