Hey everyone, it's me, Erin, AKA buffygirl52789 again. I had a blast writing this chapter, I think you won't be disappointed. Many thanks to everyone who has gone before me, especially appledude for giving me such great material to work with! And good luck to Martin and everyone who is following me! Also, my apology in advance to any Spuffy fans...I just couldn't help myself. XD Please review!
Chapter 12
The two sisters sat there on the dewy grass outside Giles's trashed apartment, staring at each other. Dead silence filled the air.
"Dawn, what did you say," Buffy said, trying to remain calm, dried tears coating her face.
"I said that I'm pregnant," Dawn said loudly, still sobbing.
Buffy pulled her arms away from her sister. "Is it...it's Connor's?"
That caused Dawn to sob harder, while giving her sister a dirty look. "No, it's Xander's," she said spitefully. "Yes, of course it's Connor's! I LOVED him!"
Buffy sat there, shock still, unable to believe what was happening. This whole day just seemed like a horrible nightmare. She tried to compose herself. "You...you slept with him?"
Dawn nodded, her breathing ragged from crying. "Yes. For almost a week now. Please don't be mad at me, I loved him, and he loved me, and I swear that we were careful, we used protection every time! I suspected it, so I took a test this morning, and it was positive, and now he's gone, gone forever and I never even got the chance to tell him," she sobbed. "He left, and now I'm all alone."
Buffy started to cry again. "No, you're not alone, we'll deal with this, we'll deal with this together."
Dawn pulled herself to her feet. Her hair was sticking out, and her face was tear streaked. "You don't understand, he's GONE Buffy!" She shook her head. "You can't possibly understand." She turned and ran away towards the house.
Buffy sat there in the grass, still in shock. She blinked, looking around at the neighbors, who were gathered on their lawns and had watched the entire scene. "What are you looking at?" she yelled. "Go back to your houses! Leave us the hell alone!" The shocked bystanders began to gravitate back inside, whispering to each other.
She stood up and ran her fingers through her hair. How could this be happening? This morning they had just been making breakfast, hanging out, and in just a few minutes everything had gone so horribly wrong.
She wiped her face, not wanting the others to see her so shaken. She began to walk slowly towards the house, thoughts flowing through her mind. What am I going to tell the others? They're going to find out. But I shouldn't say anything until Dawn calms down, until I can talk to her. And Angel. Oh God, Angel.
She entered the house, moving very slowly. Everyone looked at her as she walked into the living room. Willow, Tara, Xander, and Anya were sitting together on one of the couches, looking sad and uncomfortable. Wesley was talking quietly to Giles in the corner. Spike was sitting in a chair, staring at the ground, Gunn was sitting opposite him looking equally dismal. Oz and Faith were standing near each other across the room, the two outsiders. Illyria stood in the corner, seeming to be very fascinated with a blank spot on the wall that had miraculously remained intact. Angel was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Dawn. Buffy just looked around at everyone, not knowing what to say.
"Dawnie ran upstairs. She's really hurting Buffy," Willow said sadly. "Do you want me to-"
Buffy shook her head. "I think she needs to be alone for a few minutes."
Wesley slowly approached her. "Buffy, Angel disappeared upstairs. He's been up there for over an hour. Maybe you could talk to him, I think he would...respond best to you."
Buffy stared at Wesley. "Angel just lost his son. Can't you let him grieve?"
He took a step closer to Buffy. "Buffy, what happened to Connor is a terrible tragedy. And we are all hurting. But we need to face the fact that his death was the direct result of a vampire attack, most likely the same group we have been dealing with for the past month. We still don't know what they want, and for all we know they are going to strike again while we are off our game. We can't afford to waste time."
"Well you know what, sometimes family has to come first. Connor was the only family that Angel has! You can't expect him to just forget about it, because there's a job to be done," she yelled. "You can't have any idea what Angel is going through right now! None of us can. So he is going to have to take a break from all of this fighting evil crap, and if the rest of you don't like it then that's just tough." Silence filled the room as everyone stared at her in embarrassed shock.
"Buffy, no one expects him to-" Giles interjected.
She held out a hand to silence him. "Don't. Just don't. You guys can deal with the evil, do whatever the hell you want. But Angel and my sister are grieving, and I am not doing anything else until they do." With one last look around she climbed the stairs, leaving everyone staring after her.
Wesley cleared his throat, feeling a little ashamed. "She had a point. We shouldn't expect them to want to help. But that only means more work for the rest of us. We need to find out how to stop these vampires before someone else...gets hurt."
"What do you suggest?" Willow said quietly.
Wesley slumped his shoulders. "I don't know. I really don't know."
Illyria glanced over at them, more interested than usual. She knew what was going on, she had known what the two teenagers had been up to these past nights, and she had sensed Dawn's changed state from the moment she had come downstairs this morning. She didn't like how this situation was making her feel; she was sorry that the boy was gone. He was a good fighter, and she had liked him. And when she looked at the girl, she felt another frightening, foreign emotion: sympathy.
> > > > > > > > >
Dawn sat up in the room she had been sleeping in for the past month, still crying quietly, although she had calmed down slightly. She drew in a jagged breath. She felt as if she was watching her life from an outsider's perspective. It was impossible to comprehend that all of this was really happening.
She stared at herself in the full length mirror that hung from the wall, gathering herself to her feet and walking closer. She pulled her shirt up to reveal her tanned, flat stomach. In just weeks it would be sticking out, showing everyone what she had gotten herself into. She touched her stomach lightly. Inside was her child. Her BABY. Her's and Connor's. Another tear trickled down her still moist cheek. How had this happened to her? It wasn't supposed to be this way. They were supposed to get to know each other better, go on some dates, and then maybe in a few years consider getting married and having kids. But now here she was, 17, pregnant, and completely alone. In the middle of a potential apocalypse.
She turned around and stared at the bed, where all of this had begun...
One Week Earlier
"This is so frustrating. We have been here almost a month and we are still getting nowhere," Dawn said angrily as she and Connor entered her room and closed the door. She collapsed on the bed, sitting next to him. "I think everyone is out of ideas on how to fight these guys, or what they even want."
He rubbed her back soothingly. "Well at least this month hasn't been a total waste. We found each other."
She smiled. "Very true."
He leaned in and kissed her softly. She relaxed against his chest. "Dawn...I've never felt this way about...anyone before."
She looked up at him. "Me neither."
He took a deep breath. "I...I love you, Dawn."
She froze, her eyes wide. "You...really mean that?"
"Yes," he said, relieved to have gotten that off his chest.
"I love you too," she said happily. "I just..it's so soon, it's only been a few weeks, and I didn't want to jump the gun, I was going to wait to tell you, but-"
"Sssshhh," he said quietly. "It's okay. I didn't know that it could happen this fast, falling in love, but it's like we were destined to be together. Like this whole crazy London adventure happened so we could meet."
She inched closer to him. "I do believe in that. Destiny."
"So do I, now more than ever." He kissed her again. "So the way I see it, the longer it takes us to defeat these vamps the better, because the more time I get to spend with you."
She closed her eyes, absorbing his closeness. "Connor...I want you."
He stroked her hair. "What?"
"I want you. I love you. I know that we shouldn't, but I don't care. We're in the middle of all this craziness and right now it's just you and me. Right here," she said, glancing meaningfully at the bed they were sitting on.
"Oh Dawn..." he muttered. He wanted her so badly. For a while he had reminded himself that she was only seventeen, but to him age didn't matter. He also knew that she was a virgin, and he was not. But that also seemed irrelevant. "I couldn't...not until you're sure."
"I am," she said quietly. "I have the protection, I took it from Anya's suitcase. Please, Connor, I want this now." She grabbed a hold of his shirt and pulled him back onto the bed with her. Unable to resist, he kissed her more passionately. They rolled over as clothes started coming off...
A knock at the door jolted Dawn from her thoughts. "Go away," she yelled.
"Dawnie, it's me. We have to talk, please let me in," came Buffy's voice.
Dawn sighed. After a few seconds she opened the door, to see her sister staring at her uncomfortably. "If this is going to be a lecture, you can save it," Dawn said, sitting back down on the bed.
Buffy closed the door behind her. "It's not. It's just that this is a very big thing, and we need to talk about how we are going to deal with it."
Dawn looked at her suspiciously. "What do you mean, deal with it?"
Buffy forced herself to continue. "Well, you know that there are options-"
Dawn stood up. "No. Don't you dare suggest that I have an abortion. Buffy, this baby is the only part of him that I have left. I am having this baby," she said firmly.
Buffy nodded. "I knew you would say that, I just wanted to make sure everything was out in the open." She paused. "How far along are you?"
Dawn shrugged. "A week or less. The...my...our first time was a week ago today."
Buffy frowned slightly. "How did you know so soon? Were you late?"
"Yes. Only two days, but when you've been having sex every night for the past week, it's enough to make a girl take a test," Dawn said somberly.
Buffy looked confused. "Still...isn't that a little soon, to know?"
Dawn sighed, exasperated. "Buffy, I am pregnant. It's not just the test, I can feel it in my bones."
"Well we still need to get you to a doctor. Just to make sure everything's okay," Buffy said. She had to try and handle this in a mature, responsible way.
Dawn shook her head suddenly. "I just don't understand. We were so careful, we used protection, every time!"
"Dawnie you know that it's not a hundred percent," Buffy said softly. "But I have to admit...I'm surprised that you were sleeping together this soon."
"It's not like we planned it. It just kind of happened. Because we wanted it to. And we didn't have any regrets, I still don't," Dawn said, unwavering. She turned to look at her sister. "Buffy, what am I going to do?"
Buffy's heart broke for her. As her sister looked at her, she had the innocence and wide eyes of a young child that had just scraped their knee on the sidewalk. She had to remind herself that this was real, this was an adult situation and it was real. She reached out and took her sister's hand. "It's all going to be okay. I'm here. I am going to be by your side through everything, from your first doctor's appointment to your delivery. We're going to get through this."
Dawn immediately teared up again. "What are we going to tell the others?"
Buffy sighed. "Nothing, yet. We should be able to keep it secret for a while, until we decide what the best way to deal with this is. In the meantime, I want you away from all of the fighting and vampires. Hopefully soon we will take care of this and then we can go back home, to Rome."
Dawn nodded slowly. "Have you talked to Angel?"
Buffy looked down. "No." They sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Go to him Buffy," Dawn said suddenly. "He needs you. I'll be fine. I...I need time, to think."
Buffy nodded. "If you need anything, please call me." She pulled her sister into a hug. "I'm so sorry Dawnie." Dawn remained silent.
Buffy stood up slowly. "Try to get some rest. It's been a long day." She exited the room, closing the door behind her.
Dawn sat there, not moving for several minutes. Flashes of memory went by in her mind...
"Who's that?"
"I don't know, but he sure is cute."
Connor kissing her for the first time...
"Yeah, it was a great day."
"I think Dawn is capable of handing herself."
"I feel like you see me differently than everyone else does. And the other night? When you kissed me? That was the best moment of my life."
"I know what you mean, when I'm around you, I just...I can't think about anything else."
"Come away with me...and the best part is, we'll be together."
"Dawn...I've never felt this way about...anyone before."
"I love you too."
"I want you. I love you. I know that we shouldn't, but I don't care. We're in the middle of all this craziness and right now it's just you and me. Right here."
"How do you feel?"
"Amazing."
"Hello lover. Want to spend the night again?"
"You feel so good..."
The image of Connor's dead body popped into her mind, causing her to slap her hands over her ears and rock back and forth. "Oh God," she moaned. "Connor..."
She eventually fell back onto the bed, images of the few precious weeks she had spent with her love coursing through her mind, before crying herself to sleep.
> > > > > > > > > > >
Buffy hesitated before knocking on the door. "Angel? It's me." There was no answer for almost a minute. She was just about to turn away when the door suddenly opened. She turned around to see Angel staring back at her, an expression of complete sorrow gracing his face. Wordlessly she closed the short distance between them and took him in her arms. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.
He let go of her, closing the door. "Let me guess. Wesley sent you."
She looked at him sadly. "Yes. Well, he wanted me to. But I'm here because I care. And I can't stand to see you in so much pain."
He sat down on the bed. "It's my fault. I should have been there, I should have pulled him away from that car, if Spike hadn't knocked me out-"
"Spike did what?" Buffy said, in shock. "Why would he..."
Angel scoffed. "Why do you think? He's been fighting with me for your attention ever since we got into this mess. Captain Peroxide wanted to save the day."
Buffy took a deep breath. "Angel, we're going to get them. The vampires who did this, we'll find them and we'll make them pay for what they did to your son."
"It won't bring him back," Angel said firmly. "He's the only child I'll ever have."
"Don't say that," she insisted.
He stared at her. "Why not? It's true. Let's face it Buffy, I'm doomed. I work for over a hundred years, fighting for redemption, and then I thought that I finally got something in return. Some kind of reward. He was never supposed to exist. The human child of two vampires...it's unheard of. I started to think that maybe, just maybe some higher power was watching out for me. And then, I miss his entire childhood, he comes back hating me, and I start to doubt that just a little. But then...I gave him the life he deserved. And he still found his way back to me, we were making progress, real progress, I think..." his voice cracked. "I think that maybe he was starting to think of me as his father. And then, all of a sudden he's gone. I realize now, I realize that it wasn't meant to be. I'm not meant to ever be happy, I'm meant to live my life just like this, sitting alone in a dark room, waiting for the next fight, the next apocalypse."
Tears ran down Buffy's cheeks as she listened to him. She reached out and touched his face, turning it towards her. "You're not alone. I'm here."
He tried to smile, but failed miserably. "Yes. Sure, you're here. You can sit here and hold my hand, and tell me it'll all work out, but then I remember that I can never have you the way I want, and it only makes the pain more unbearable."
Buffy forced back a sob. "Oh Angel..."
"Don't. Please don't," he begged. There was a long silence, filled only by Buffy's quiet sobs.
"How's Dawn?" he asked finally.
Buffy slumped her shoulders. "She's...she's in a lot of pain. She loved him. I think more than any of us realized." There was a lot about them that none of us realized. For a brief second she considered telling Angel about the baby. Maybe it would comfort him, knowing that a part of his son would live on. But she had told Dawn that she wouldn't tell until she was ready, and right now her sister had to come first. Now more than ever. She chose her next words carefully. "But...I think that..." she gave up, realizing that nothing she could say would ease his pain. "Angel...it's okay to cry. You don't have to be strong, it's just me," she said, touching his shoulder.
He looked at her as his eyes started to fill with tears. Soon he was sobbing. She wrapped her arms around him, taking his head in her lap, holding him there and grieving with him.
After a long time they sat there, silent and unmoving. Buffy slowly moved Angel off of her onto the bed. "Rest now," she whispered, squeezing his hand. She turned to exit the room when he stopped her.
"Buffy...thank you."
She bit her lip to stop herself from crying. "Anytime." She forced herself to leave, collapsing against the door once outside.
> > > > > > > > > >
Meanwhile, downstairs, the others were trying to work.
"Sorry Giles, but not even my carpentry expertise can fix this," Xander said gloomily, staring at the extremely mangled house. A few of the walls were already cracked from the earthquake, and today's accident had completely destroyed the walls separating the entryway from the living the kitchen. Basically the whole downstairs was one big, open space.
"I don't think we'll be cooking anytime soon either," Gunn said, staring at the trashed kitchen. The stove was completely ruined, and the microwave was nowhere to be found.
Giles sighed, cleaning his glasses. "It appears I may need to find a new home. Which may be for the better. No offense intended, but it's become a bit crowded since you lot came."
"We could go to a hotel," Oz suggested.
"Hey, these vamps know where we are. I say it would be the smart thing to get our asses out of here ASAP, at least until we know what we're fighting," Faith argued. "All in favor of anywhere but here raise your hands." She raised hers, along with Gunn, Xander, and Oz. Everyone else didn't even seem to hear her. They had been desperately trying to avoid the topic of Connor, but it was clear that it wasn't budging from everyone's minds.
"Willow, have you found anything of use?" Wesley asked tiredly.
Willow shook her head, looking up from the ancient text she had been browsing. "It's hard when you don't even know what you're looking for."
The former rogue demon hunter sighed, closing his own book as well. "Perhaps we should review what we already know. Giles got a call from a friend, saying that a dark power was rising in London."
"And that was a month ago," Giles interjected.
"Don't forget that demon dude said it would be the 'destruction of the world as we know it,'" Xander chimed in.
"We saw them sacrificing a baby slayer," Spike said, speaking for one of the first times since Connor had been taken away.
"At the place where they had me," Oz said. "We still don't even know what they wanted. Or what they've done to the others that were there."
"And don't forget, the locator spell went all kaplooey," Willow added tentatively. Oz being right there was still a little...awkward. She hadn't spoken much to him since he'd arrived, and she hadn't discussed his presence with Tara either.
"Okay, that's good. What else do we know?" Wesley prodded. Dead silence filled the room.
"I think that translates as nothing," Anya said, stating the obvious as usual.
Giles sighed. "We've made a bloody mess of things really." No one could really argue with that. He stood up. "It's been a long day. Why don't we all just get some rest and we can figure out our next plan in the morning."
Everyone stood up and started to talk quietly while moving around, trying to figure out where they were going to sleep tonight. Giles's place wasn't designed to hold fourteen people. Although the previous night, it had been fifteen.
Buffy came downstairs, looking emotionally drained. She stood there briefly, watching everyone, looking for her target. She spotted him across the room, helping Gunn and Xander hand out blankets. She quickly crossed the room until she was standing next to him. "Spike. I need to talk to you."
He looked surprised. "Okay." He followed her out of the room, around the piece of wall that was still standing so they had a little privacy. He was caught off guard when she abruptly slapped him across the face.
"What was that for?" he asked, outraged.
"Oh, don't give me that. Angel told me what you did. Did you really think that would impress me? Knocking him unconscious so that you could play the hero? If you really think that's something I smile upon then maybe you don't know me as well as I thought you did," she hissed. "Angel's son died today. And guess what, I just spent over two hours upstairs with him holding him while he cried. So I guess your little plan backfired, huh Spike? Because at the end of the day, I still ended up with Angel. Hey, you're the one who said it. I don't really love you." She shook her head. "You disappointed me Spike." Satisfied, she turned away and ran up the stairs, leaving him to stand there, wondering what had just happened.
> > > > > > > > > >
"So you are telling me that you left them?" roared the angry voice.
The three vampires who had taken part in the attack on the house earlier winced. "Master, please forgive us-"
"You left the new being there, knowing it's power? It's threat to everything we have worked for?" he yelled.
"Master, they fought back, the slayers, they had stakes-"
"SILENCE!" he bellowed. "You have failed me. Tomorrow, you will bring to me the vessel in which the new being is contained, or else you will all take a little walk in the sunlight. You know the prophecy!"
"Yes, Master, of course," the first vampire stuttered. "From the union of the Key and the Destroyer shall come the One, the One who will end the everlasting battle between good and evil."
"That is why you must bring her to me! If we play our cards right, this child will help us to end this once and for all. Or if we find that it's intentions are not to help our side...then they all must die. Starting with the new life."
> > > > > > > > > >
The first traces of sunlight filtered through the bedroom window, rousing Buffy Summers from her sleep. After dealing with Spike she had come up to find Dawn already asleep, and she had curled up in the chair next to the bed, not wanting to leave her. She hadn't gotten much sleep, with the events of the past month running through her mind. She had started thinking about the baby, Dawn's baby. Her niece or nephew, Angel's grandchild. Something was nagging her, something that the vampires who had driven into the house had said, something that the back of her brain was telling her was important. But she couldn't for the life of her remember what it was, those few terrible minutes were a horrible blur.
Dawn groaned slightly, rolling over onto her front. She grunted, as if in pain. "What the..." she moaned sleepily. Sitting up, she looked down, wondering what she had just rolled over onto. Her mouth fell open when she saw that her stomach was protruding, as if she were about four months pregnant. Her whole body was different. She glanced up in horror at her sister, whose own mouth had fallen open when her sister had sat up, uncovering herself from the blankets. Their eyes locked, a combination of fear and confusion. Just then Buffy remembered what the vampire had said: The new being must die.
"This is so not good," Buffy sighed.
TBC!