Well, hi there!
After an extended hiatus, due to a little surgery and a tiny little move down the street (okay, a street 3,000 miles away!), I'm back. At least I think I am!
Although I am still working on settling in and job hunting, I did manage to knock out a chapter of Meant to Be for your reading pleasure. I will hopefully be able to finish the half done chapter of Vacation this week as well.
Please let me know what you think. I need some encouragement now more than ever!
I'm sorry for the delay, but hope the story has been worth the wait.
Thank you for reading!
Happiness,
~~@ Nimue @~~
"And though she be but little, she is fierce." ~ William Shakespeare ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream
Title: Veritas (Chapter Sixteen - Meant to Be)
Author: Nimue
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Spike/Buffy (Most major characters included)
Feedback: Yes, please
For instant notification of fic releases, straight to your mailbox, please visit Always_Everyday@yahoogroups.com. Also, please visit Always_Everyday's sister group How to Make a Vampire Sundae for fiction with adult content.
The rest of the story can be found at:
And present chapters are being posted on my live journal at:
Disclaimer: All characters (save for the ones I made up) belong to someone other than me; they belong to Mutant Enemy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, Fox, WB, their affiliates, lawyers and all sorts of other folks that aren't me. :::sigh::::
Summary: Angst Warning. Buffy and Spike find out the truth about the Prophesy.
Veritas
"You know," Buffy commented, her small hand wrapped in Spike's far larger one. "We won't be able to avoid that question by stuffing their faces with cheese forever."
Spike walked along, shaking his head. "'Void it as long as we can, Love."
"What are we going to say? I mean, the stork was sort of played out even back when I was a kid."
"All those many years ago," Spike chided in return, rolling his eyes. "Dunno. We'll figure it out."
"When?" Buffy asked, obviously bothered by the concept.
"When Emma's entered the convent and Will's taking his holy orders," the Vampire added, his face determined.
Buffy smiled, chuckling under her breath. No point in fighting. He'd come to terms with the growing up of their kids when he was ready. But he was right. Didn't have to be today.
"Wonder what Giles wants to see us about?" Buffy queried, looking up as they walked in the evening twilight towards her Watcher's new establishment.
Spike furrowed his brow. "Not sure, Pet. But seems awfully planned. Mean, it's not often we get home to find Xander waiting to watch our tots without bribing or at least asking nicely."
"And he didn't even insult you once," Buffy added.
Spike raised an eyebrow. "Must be an Apocalypse."
"Must be."
~~~~~
Spike pushed open the heavy mahogany doors of the pub, letting Buffy enter before him. He watched her in amusement as she took in the richly appointed room; the dark leather and deep reds and glistening wood paneling.
"Really. guy-ish," she commented, regaining Spike's hand as they wound through the round, dark wood tables.
"Sort of old-style men's smoking lounge," Spike commented. "Gentlemanly."
Buffy smiled. "William flashbacks?"
A little growl came out of her lover's throat. "Git never got invited to places like this."
"'Git'", Buffy growled back, "was you. And *is* your son."
"Not the same, Pet."
"How?"
"Buffy!" A familiar, nervous voice chirped from a booth in a dark corner of the room. The whole area was vacant of customers, despite the fact the entry room was buzzing.
Buffy looked up at the sound and saw a large, leather appointed booth, big enough for ten people, in the corner. Giles and Wesley sat next to each other, a folio between them, and Willow and Tara next to them, trying to smile, but only succeeding in looking nervous.
Spike looked down at Buffy. Buffy looked up at Spike. Her stomach did a little flip flop. The hairs at the nape of his neck stood on end.
Something was wrong here.
Very wrong.
~~~~~
"Right then, you've got us here and from the stack of tomes in front of you, it isn't a pleasure call," Spike growled, his hip flush to Buffy's and her fingers still twined through his beneath the table. "What is it that you want?"
The four of them sat across from The One, all of them suffering a different reaction to Spike's request. Giles took his glasses off, wiping them with the white linen napkin on the table. Wesley fidgeted with the papers and books, eyes flickering from the pair across from them to the pile in front of him as if he could tell them with eye signals rather than words. Willow told them slightly more of the nature of their business as she hung her head, her hands coming up to cover her face. But Tara was the only one who would look them in the eyes.
And those eyes conveyed more emotions than either of them could bear. Concern, compassion, torture of secrets kept and truths yet to be told. Love and honour, a need and desire to help, and a million other things that they couldn't describe.
Spike felt his heart sink as he looked at those pretty, soft eyes. Buffy stared at Willow, wanting to help and be helped at the same time. Slowly, she reached her hand to her best friend's, bringing the redhead back to her.
"Will, what is it?"
Spike tore his gaze from Tara's and looked at Buffy, his hand clenching tight around hers as if to anchor her in a storm. Still, no amount of weight could hold him steady in the tempest ahead.
"I." Will began, at a loss for words, even before she began. Her head shook back and forth as she tried to speak, tears beginning to slip down her cheeks like silver ribbons.
"Will?" Buffy asked again, her heart beginning to race, fight or flight kicking in. "Will?"
The Witch dropped her head once more and Buffy turned to Giles. "Giles? What's going on?"
Giles opened his mouth as if he were going to speak, and then closed it again, deciding that his glasses were still not quite right and needed some more polishing.
Spike felt Buffy begin to panic, sensing the enormity of things. "Right. Time you told us what this is about," he ordered, his voice gruff, but his mind and heart terrified. He felt it too. Saw it in Tara's eyes. Instinct told him that this was more than just a social visit.
Maybe even more than an Apocalypse.
It was Wesley that broke the standoff, his soft voice sounding like a lion's roar over the absolute silence of the booth. "We've brought you here to tell you of a Prophesy," he began.
Buffy sighed, her hand sliding over her heart in relief. Spike settled a bit as she relaxed. "Prophesy, schmophesy. Bring it on."
"Don't say that Buffy," Willow muttered. "Please."
The Slayer stiffened again, watching Willow's heart break as if it were a film playing across her features. Spike let go of Buffy's hand and wrapped his around her waist, pulling her impossibly close.
"What Prophesy?" The Vampire forged on.
Giles and Willow looked down again. Tara stayed silent, her eyes windows to her tortured soul. Wesley inhaled slowly.
"About the child you are carrying, Buffy."
Spike stiffened like a cat about to pounce. "What about our tot?"
Another deep breath and Wesley spoke again. "This is not easy for any of us. Certainly not for those closest to you. Not for me. And, I'm afraid, it will be devastating ."
"Enough with the set-up, *Wes*," Buffy hissed. "What the hell is going on here? What about our baby? What are you talking about? Willow?"
"Buffy, I can't." Willow stuttered, still in tears.
Giles looked up, his face lined with years and fear. "But I must."
The group around the table quieted again as Giles searched for words. "I'm your Watcher, Buffy, even though you've long outgrown that need for me. And I feel as though you are my own flesh and blood. My child. A need which I, and I hope you, will never find obsolete."
Buffy shook her head, worrying her lip as Spike held her tighter. "I won't," a childlike voice whispered in response.
"And as your Watcher, and thus the guardian of your welfare as well as that of the One, it is my duty to see you through all trials you may face. As your surrogate father, it is my need to do so. Do you understand?" Giles fought back tears as he tried to form words that would not startle, but would not hide the gravity of the situation.
Buffy nodded. Spike felt his heart sink lower, listening. Giles knew how to talk to Buffy in a way that even Spike could not. He was the only authority that she respected. The only voice she answered to. It was not a place he wanted in her life, but one he appreciated.
The Vampire nodded for the Watcher to go on.
Giles breathed deeply, steadily, all gazes boring into him, save for Willow's, who had closed her eyes and lowered her head once more. "Buffy, we have been warned of a Prophesy recently. One which we felt the need to research prior to advising you, or Spike, of its content. Not for lack of respect for your integral place in this unit, this family of sorts, but because it is not something that we could take lightly-an emergency that could be thrust upon you without forethought."
Spike lifted an eyebrow. "Thought it was your job to suss out the danger and ours to fight it off."
"And you would be correct, for the most part," Giles countered, continuing to take deep, even breaths. Almost pushing himself into a meditative state. "However, the content of this Prophesy is very sensitive, especially to the two of you."
"Which is why you asked Watcher Junior here to do the translation rather than asking me," Spike deduced, nodding, his fist clenching and unclenching to release the tension building in his body.
Wesley nodded. "I'm quite sure you'd have been capable of reading the text, Spike. Far more easily than I, with the gifts bestowed upon you by the union of The One. However, the text was fairly straightforward, even for me."
"And," Buffy began, her voice thready. "And it's about the baby?"
Giles nodded. "Yes."
Buffy closed her eyes, breathing slowly, trying to stay calm. Trying not to panic. Trying not to lose control. She could feel Spike tense as wire next to her. Ready to pounce. To throw himself across the table and attack anything that would harm her or their child. She had to stay calm.
"What. what is it?" She sounded more like the child Giles once knew, rather than the woman, the Slayer, she had become.
Another deep breath and the Watcher began again. "We have found that there have been two other instances where the union of the One had either been consummated or had been a possibility. In the first, the union was incomplete. Forces beyond the control of the parties tore them asunder before the One could be fully created."
"Another Slayer and Vampire?" Spike questioned, his fist still working his tension under the table.
Giles nodded in response. "Yes. The second time, apparently, the union was complete and a child, presumably the Peacemaker, was brought into the World."
"How... how is that possible?" Buffy asked. "I mean, I thought that the Council, the Prophesy said."
"That this union had been millennia in the making," Wesley interrupted. "True. Apparently, however, there is more than just the birth of the Peacemaker to the equation."
"Like?" Spike asked.
"In the second situation, the child of Peace was born, as was a second child, another girl," Giles continued.
"Girl?" Spike asked.
"William, your son, was a gift. His soul, his spirit, requested rebirth before Buffy's second child had been granted an essence. The Powers that Be granted that request," Wesley explained.
"Or he would likely have been the true second child of the One," Giles went on. "The female child."
"What of her?" Spike asked, half intensely curious, half horrified by the conversation. "What about her?"
"The second child in the second union was born of," Giles stopped, trying to think of the best way to explain the inexplicable. "She was born into the world as a normal child, but her soul was controlled by the forces of Evil."
"What?" Buffy asked, incredulous. "I mean, that can't happen. Spike is good now. He has a soul. And I'm still a good Slayer. Not all evil- worshipping."
"Not possible," Spike countered, refusing to believe where this was going.
The Watcher nodded. "It is, unfortunately. She, this child, has a destiny of her own. A duty, much like Emma's, but with far darker consequences."
"Like?" Spike asked, not sure if he even wanted to know, but knowing he had to.
"Her fate, her destiny, is to destroy the Peacemaker and the One," Giles said quietly. "To kill Emma and then the two of you."
"What?" Buffy asked, despite the fact she heard every, horrid, word. "No."
"No," Spike repeated calmly. "Nothing, NOTHING, born of love, born from HER," he continued, his voice rising, his eyes focused only on Buffy, "could possibly be anything less than good. Can't be, Mate. Not buying it. 'Nother one of your dime store Prophesies, read by an inadequate louse that couldn't even keep his own Slayer."
Wesley winced at the words, but understood the anger was not at him, but rather that Spike, in his heart, knew that he was right. That Giles, if not himself, would never tell him such a thing without being bloody well sure. "I've brought the Prophesy for you to confirm, of course," Wesley said calmly, pushing the pile of books and papers across the table at Spike. Spike snatched the papers, shuffling madly though them, reading them as one might skim a magazine. Buffy watched him, terror building, her eyes flickering back and forth between his hurried hands and the four forlorn faces in front of her.
"Spike?" Buffy asked after a few minutes of watching. "Spike, please? Please tell me. please?"
The tears began to roll down her face as his hands began to move slower, his eyes wide and horrified as they skimmed the pages, his knuckles turning white as the edges of the papers folded under the weight of his tightening grasp. "No," he whispered under his breath.
Buffy tore away from him, spinning in her seat to fully face him, watching his eyes, his hands, the tears that began to well in crystal pools just before they spilled onto the pages.
"No!" Spike shouted, pushing the papers onto the floor with a crash and leaning across the table, taking Wesley's collar into his grip. "You did this. No, not you. You're just the bloody patsy. *Angel* did this. It isn't real. This is rubbish created by the one . *thing*. that can't accept that."
"Spike!" Buffy screamed, as if it weren't the first time she'd said it. "Spike! Stop!"
His head turned to look on his love, tears rolling down her face, her eyes pleading with him to tell her it wasn't true. That this wasn't really happening. That this was a blessing not a curse.
Spike stopped in his tracks, drowning in her eyes, strangling on her plea for mercy. He dropped the former Watcher, sliding back down into the leather chair to face her, his eyes full of tears, his heart breaking in two as he stared at the hope that he could make it better, that he could make it all right, began to fade in her green eyes.
"Love," he began, trying to touch her, to bring her closer. She backed into the corner like a frightened animal. "S'alright, Love. Just a paper. Not going to happen."
"That's what it says though?" Buffy asked, her voice shaking, her body rolled into a tight little ball, knees drawn to her chest. "That the baby is supposed to kill Emma? Us?"
Spike stared at her, begging her wordlessly not to make him confirm it. Not to make him *say* it.
"Spike!"
He nodded, swallowing. "It does."
The words fell like shattered glass tinkling to the floor.
"Oh, God," she whispered, her teary eyes growing huge. "Oh, God."
Before he could reach her, she leapt over the back of the chair and ran.
To be contd.
After an extended hiatus, due to a little surgery and a tiny little move down the street (okay, a street 3,000 miles away!), I'm back. At least I think I am!
Although I am still working on settling in and job hunting, I did manage to knock out a chapter of Meant to Be for your reading pleasure. I will hopefully be able to finish the half done chapter of Vacation this week as well.
Please let me know what you think. I need some encouragement now more than ever!
I'm sorry for the delay, but hope the story has been worth the wait.
Thank you for reading!
Happiness,
~~@ Nimue @~~
"And though she be but little, she is fierce." ~ William Shakespeare ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream
Title: Veritas (Chapter Sixteen - Meant to Be)
Author: Nimue
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Spike/Buffy (Most major characters included)
Feedback: Yes, please
For instant notification of fic releases, straight to your mailbox, please visit Always_Everyday@yahoogroups.com. Also, please visit Always_Everyday's sister group How to Make a Vampire Sundae for fiction with adult content.
The rest of the story can be found at:
And present chapters are being posted on my live journal at:
Disclaimer: All characters (save for the ones I made up) belong to someone other than me; they belong to Mutant Enemy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, Fox, WB, their affiliates, lawyers and all sorts of other folks that aren't me. :::sigh::::
Summary: Angst Warning. Buffy and Spike find out the truth about the Prophesy.
Veritas
"You know," Buffy commented, her small hand wrapped in Spike's far larger one. "We won't be able to avoid that question by stuffing their faces with cheese forever."
Spike walked along, shaking his head. "'Void it as long as we can, Love."
"What are we going to say? I mean, the stork was sort of played out even back when I was a kid."
"All those many years ago," Spike chided in return, rolling his eyes. "Dunno. We'll figure it out."
"When?" Buffy asked, obviously bothered by the concept.
"When Emma's entered the convent and Will's taking his holy orders," the Vampire added, his face determined.
Buffy smiled, chuckling under her breath. No point in fighting. He'd come to terms with the growing up of their kids when he was ready. But he was right. Didn't have to be today.
"Wonder what Giles wants to see us about?" Buffy queried, looking up as they walked in the evening twilight towards her Watcher's new establishment.
Spike furrowed his brow. "Not sure, Pet. But seems awfully planned. Mean, it's not often we get home to find Xander waiting to watch our tots without bribing or at least asking nicely."
"And he didn't even insult you once," Buffy added.
Spike raised an eyebrow. "Must be an Apocalypse."
"Must be."
~~~~~
Spike pushed open the heavy mahogany doors of the pub, letting Buffy enter before him. He watched her in amusement as she took in the richly appointed room; the dark leather and deep reds and glistening wood paneling.
"Really. guy-ish," she commented, regaining Spike's hand as they wound through the round, dark wood tables.
"Sort of old-style men's smoking lounge," Spike commented. "Gentlemanly."
Buffy smiled. "William flashbacks?"
A little growl came out of her lover's throat. "Git never got invited to places like this."
"'Git'", Buffy growled back, "was you. And *is* your son."
"Not the same, Pet."
"How?"
"Buffy!" A familiar, nervous voice chirped from a booth in a dark corner of the room. The whole area was vacant of customers, despite the fact the entry room was buzzing.
Buffy looked up at the sound and saw a large, leather appointed booth, big enough for ten people, in the corner. Giles and Wesley sat next to each other, a folio between them, and Willow and Tara next to them, trying to smile, but only succeeding in looking nervous.
Spike looked down at Buffy. Buffy looked up at Spike. Her stomach did a little flip flop. The hairs at the nape of his neck stood on end.
Something was wrong here.
Very wrong.
~~~~~
"Right then, you've got us here and from the stack of tomes in front of you, it isn't a pleasure call," Spike growled, his hip flush to Buffy's and her fingers still twined through his beneath the table. "What is it that you want?"
The four of them sat across from The One, all of them suffering a different reaction to Spike's request. Giles took his glasses off, wiping them with the white linen napkin on the table. Wesley fidgeted with the papers and books, eyes flickering from the pair across from them to the pile in front of him as if he could tell them with eye signals rather than words. Willow told them slightly more of the nature of their business as she hung her head, her hands coming up to cover her face. But Tara was the only one who would look them in the eyes.
And those eyes conveyed more emotions than either of them could bear. Concern, compassion, torture of secrets kept and truths yet to be told. Love and honour, a need and desire to help, and a million other things that they couldn't describe.
Spike felt his heart sink as he looked at those pretty, soft eyes. Buffy stared at Willow, wanting to help and be helped at the same time. Slowly, she reached her hand to her best friend's, bringing the redhead back to her.
"Will, what is it?"
Spike tore his gaze from Tara's and looked at Buffy, his hand clenching tight around hers as if to anchor her in a storm. Still, no amount of weight could hold him steady in the tempest ahead.
"I." Will began, at a loss for words, even before she began. Her head shook back and forth as she tried to speak, tears beginning to slip down her cheeks like silver ribbons.
"Will?" Buffy asked again, her heart beginning to race, fight or flight kicking in. "Will?"
The Witch dropped her head once more and Buffy turned to Giles. "Giles? What's going on?"
Giles opened his mouth as if he were going to speak, and then closed it again, deciding that his glasses were still not quite right and needed some more polishing.
Spike felt Buffy begin to panic, sensing the enormity of things. "Right. Time you told us what this is about," he ordered, his voice gruff, but his mind and heart terrified. He felt it too. Saw it in Tara's eyes. Instinct told him that this was more than just a social visit.
Maybe even more than an Apocalypse.
It was Wesley that broke the standoff, his soft voice sounding like a lion's roar over the absolute silence of the booth. "We've brought you here to tell you of a Prophesy," he began.
Buffy sighed, her hand sliding over her heart in relief. Spike settled a bit as she relaxed. "Prophesy, schmophesy. Bring it on."
"Don't say that Buffy," Willow muttered. "Please."
The Slayer stiffened again, watching Willow's heart break as if it were a film playing across her features. Spike let go of Buffy's hand and wrapped his around her waist, pulling her impossibly close.
"What Prophesy?" The Vampire forged on.
Giles and Willow looked down again. Tara stayed silent, her eyes windows to her tortured soul. Wesley inhaled slowly.
"About the child you are carrying, Buffy."
Spike stiffened like a cat about to pounce. "What about our tot?"
Another deep breath and Wesley spoke again. "This is not easy for any of us. Certainly not for those closest to you. Not for me. And, I'm afraid, it will be devastating ."
"Enough with the set-up, *Wes*," Buffy hissed. "What the hell is going on here? What about our baby? What are you talking about? Willow?"
"Buffy, I can't." Willow stuttered, still in tears.
Giles looked up, his face lined with years and fear. "But I must."
The group around the table quieted again as Giles searched for words. "I'm your Watcher, Buffy, even though you've long outgrown that need for me. And I feel as though you are my own flesh and blood. My child. A need which I, and I hope you, will never find obsolete."
Buffy shook her head, worrying her lip as Spike held her tighter. "I won't," a childlike voice whispered in response.
"And as your Watcher, and thus the guardian of your welfare as well as that of the One, it is my duty to see you through all trials you may face. As your surrogate father, it is my need to do so. Do you understand?" Giles fought back tears as he tried to form words that would not startle, but would not hide the gravity of the situation.
Buffy nodded. Spike felt his heart sink lower, listening. Giles knew how to talk to Buffy in a way that even Spike could not. He was the only authority that she respected. The only voice she answered to. It was not a place he wanted in her life, but one he appreciated.
The Vampire nodded for the Watcher to go on.
Giles breathed deeply, steadily, all gazes boring into him, save for Willow's, who had closed her eyes and lowered her head once more. "Buffy, we have been warned of a Prophesy recently. One which we felt the need to research prior to advising you, or Spike, of its content. Not for lack of respect for your integral place in this unit, this family of sorts, but because it is not something that we could take lightly-an emergency that could be thrust upon you without forethought."
Spike lifted an eyebrow. "Thought it was your job to suss out the danger and ours to fight it off."
"And you would be correct, for the most part," Giles countered, continuing to take deep, even breaths. Almost pushing himself into a meditative state. "However, the content of this Prophesy is very sensitive, especially to the two of you."
"Which is why you asked Watcher Junior here to do the translation rather than asking me," Spike deduced, nodding, his fist clenching and unclenching to release the tension building in his body.
Wesley nodded. "I'm quite sure you'd have been capable of reading the text, Spike. Far more easily than I, with the gifts bestowed upon you by the union of The One. However, the text was fairly straightforward, even for me."
"And," Buffy began, her voice thready. "And it's about the baby?"
Giles nodded. "Yes."
Buffy closed her eyes, breathing slowly, trying to stay calm. Trying not to panic. Trying not to lose control. She could feel Spike tense as wire next to her. Ready to pounce. To throw himself across the table and attack anything that would harm her or their child. She had to stay calm.
"What. what is it?" She sounded more like the child Giles once knew, rather than the woman, the Slayer, she had become.
Another deep breath and the Watcher began again. "We have found that there have been two other instances where the union of the One had either been consummated or had been a possibility. In the first, the union was incomplete. Forces beyond the control of the parties tore them asunder before the One could be fully created."
"Another Slayer and Vampire?" Spike questioned, his fist still working his tension under the table.
Giles nodded in response. "Yes. The second time, apparently, the union was complete and a child, presumably the Peacemaker, was brought into the World."
"How... how is that possible?" Buffy asked. "I mean, I thought that the Council, the Prophesy said."
"That this union had been millennia in the making," Wesley interrupted. "True. Apparently, however, there is more than just the birth of the Peacemaker to the equation."
"Like?" Spike asked.
"In the second situation, the child of Peace was born, as was a second child, another girl," Giles continued.
"Girl?" Spike asked.
"William, your son, was a gift. His soul, his spirit, requested rebirth before Buffy's second child had been granted an essence. The Powers that Be granted that request," Wesley explained.
"Or he would likely have been the true second child of the One," Giles went on. "The female child."
"What of her?" Spike asked, half intensely curious, half horrified by the conversation. "What about her?"
"The second child in the second union was born of," Giles stopped, trying to think of the best way to explain the inexplicable. "She was born into the world as a normal child, but her soul was controlled by the forces of Evil."
"What?" Buffy asked, incredulous. "I mean, that can't happen. Spike is good now. He has a soul. And I'm still a good Slayer. Not all evil- worshipping."
"Not possible," Spike countered, refusing to believe where this was going.
The Watcher nodded. "It is, unfortunately. She, this child, has a destiny of her own. A duty, much like Emma's, but with far darker consequences."
"Like?" Spike asked, not sure if he even wanted to know, but knowing he had to.
"Her fate, her destiny, is to destroy the Peacemaker and the One," Giles said quietly. "To kill Emma and then the two of you."
"What?" Buffy asked, despite the fact she heard every, horrid, word. "No."
"No," Spike repeated calmly. "Nothing, NOTHING, born of love, born from HER," he continued, his voice rising, his eyes focused only on Buffy, "could possibly be anything less than good. Can't be, Mate. Not buying it. 'Nother one of your dime store Prophesies, read by an inadequate louse that couldn't even keep his own Slayer."
Wesley winced at the words, but understood the anger was not at him, but rather that Spike, in his heart, knew that he was right. That Giles, if not himself, would never tell him such a thing without being bloody well sure. "I've brought the Prophesy for you to confirm, of course," Wesley said calmly, pushing the pile of books and papers across the table at Spike. Spike snatched the papers, shuffling madly though them, reading them as one might skim a magazine. Buffy watched him, terror building, her eyes flickering back and forth between his hurried hands and the four forlorn faces in front of her.
"Spike?" Buffy asked after a few minutes of watching. "Spike, please? Please tell me. please?"
The tears began to roll down her face as his hands began to move slower, his eyes wide and horrified as they skimmed the pages, his knuckles turning white as the edges of the papers folded under the weight of his tightening grasp. "No," he whispered under his breath.
Buffy tore away from him, spinning in her seat to fully face him, watching his eyes, his hands, the tears that began to well in crystal pools just before they spilled onto the pages.
"No!" Spike shouted, pushing the papers onto the floor with a crash and leaning across the table, taking Wesley's collar into his grip. "You did this. No, not you. You're just the bloody patsy. *Angel* did this. It isn't real. This is rubbish created by the one . *thing*. that can't accept that."
"Spike!" Buffy screamed, as if it weren't the first time she'd said it. "Spike! Stop!"
His head turned to look on his love, tears rolling down her face, her eyes pleading with him to tell her it wasn't true. That this wasn't really happening. That this was a blessing not a curse.
Spike stopped in his tracks, drowning in her eyes, strangling on her plea for mercy. He dropped the former Watcher, sliding back down into the leather chair to face her, his eyes full of tears, his heart breaking in two as he stared at the hope that he could make it better, that he could make it all right, began to fade in her green eyes.
"Love," he began, trying to touch her, to bring her closer. She backed into the corner like a frightened animal. "S'alright, Love. Just a paper. Not going to happen."
"That's what it says though?" Buffy asked, her voice shaking, her body rolled into a tight little ball, knees drawn to her chest. "That the baby is supposed to kill Emma? Us?"
Spike stared at her, begging her wordlessly not to make him confirm it. Not to make him *say* it.
"Spike!"
He nodded, swallowing. "It does."
The words fell like shattered glass tinkling to the floor.
"Oh, God," she whispered, her teary eyes growing huge. "Oh, God."
Before he could reach her, she leapt over the back of the chair and ran.
To be contd.