CHAPTER FOUR

Still alone, staring on
Wishing her life goodbye
As she goes searching for the man
Long forgiven, but not forgotten

The Corrs - Forgiven Not Forgotten

"I guess maybe we should talk about the missing children," Wesley said, with a nervous glance in Giles' direction. He looked relieved for the distraction. "I'll bring you up to date on what happened in L.A. while Ceara is getting something to eat."

"The children in L.A. were murdered, weren't they?" Giles asked, hoping to center the attention on something other than himself.

"Half of them. We don't know if the remaining missing children were killed and not discovered yet or if they were brought here to Sunnydale," Wesley replied.

"We don't know who's doing this or why. We think maybe it's a human or group of them trying to raise a demon of some sort but we don't have a lot to speculate on yet," Angel supplied, leaning on the table not exactly sure if he should rain on Wesley's parade. The ex-Watcher so liked to expound.

"Any idea as to which demon?" Giles asked, falling into a comfortable regime of speculation and theorizing.

"None. We have a sketch here from Ceara. It's of an image, some sort of sign that she got of while handling a picture of a murdered girl." Wesley dug it out of his attaché case. "Angel got into the morgue and it looks very much like what was carved into the torso of the girl. I haven't yet identified the mark though."

Giles traced the picture with a finger, trying to place it in his memory banks. "It resembles angelic writing or a demonic glyph," Giles said, passing it to Willow and Tara.

"My thoughts exactly but I haven't quite figured it out. They could be carving it wrong for all I know. Ceara didn't get any feel from it other than the symbol itself. She tried to contact the spirits of the children with no success. It would be easier if we knew where they were killed but we don't, only that it's not where the bodies were found." Wesley frowned, not liking to admit failure to the older Watcher. He still felt a little jealous of him.

"I looked up the missing kids herein town," Willow said. "Both go to the middle school. Rachel Polimeni who disappeared on her way home from school and Harry Garner who disappeared after a rehearsal for the Christmas play. I brought along the photos from the paper like you asked, Wesley."

Wesley took the papers from her, looking at the fresh young faces staring woodenly up from their school photos the paper had printed. "Thanks. When Ceara gets back, we'll have her take a look and see if she gets any vibes."

"Here she comes," Tara said with a nod of her head in Ceara's direction.

Wesley popped up and took the basket of Buffalo wings off its precarious perch on top of two plates of burgers and onion rings. Ceara almost dropped the plates while setting them down. She had a beer can tucked under her arm. She put the Foster's oil can on the table.

"Better let that settle before I open it." She sat down.

"Think that's big enough?" Xander dinged a finger on the beer can.

"I think Aussies have a different idea what's a regular beer size than you yanks," Wesley said.

"Don't pick on my beer. I'm looking forward to it. Too bad they don't have better Aussie beer." She twisted in her seat looking for her son. "Waminomni hoksila, come here." She pointed to the food then glanced over at the newspapers. "Those the kids who disappeared from here?"

"Yes. Eat first, Ceara. We can wait a few minutes for you to have a look at them," Wesley said.

"I can eat and try to read a photo at the same time," Ceara said, picking up a wing. "I hate to eat in front of everyone."

"The rest of us ate already," Cordy said. "Go ahead."

"Thanks."

"What Mum?" Aidan asked, coming over to the table. His eyes lit up "Oh, tucker!"

"Bog in. Half the wings are yours," Ceara said, and he greedily loaded them up on his plate.

"That's your cousin, isn't it?" Anya pointed to the keyboardist who still sat at her station drinking water.

Ceara stripped a piece of chicken and dunked it in blue cheese. "Yes, why?"

"She's pregnant."

"For the fourth time," Ceara replied, licking the hot sauce from her fingers.

Anya's face grew thoughtful. "She likes kids then? Xander and I have talked about kids down the road. I'd like some… I think. Would be nice to talk to someone who has them, like you."

"Ahn, maybe this isn't the time," Xander said, jerking his head in Giles' direction. She looked over non-comprehendingly. Giles studied his scotch.

"No, it's okay. What do you want to know?" Ceara asked.

"I've heard this particular horror tale many times before. Can I take my tucker back over there?" Aidan asked, pointing to where Dawn still sat.

"Go," Ceara said. "Hold up a sec." She reached out and grabbed him by his eyebrow ring when he didn't halt instantly.

"Mum!"

She shrugged. "Don't put handles in your face if you don't want me to use them. When you're done eating, I have work for you."

"Righto and Mum, for someone with as many holes punched in her body as you have shouldn't pick on me." He wrinkled his nose at her.

"Move." She swatted him lightly. "First thing, Anya, keep in mind, the bigger they get, the bigger the attitude and the mouth attached to it becomes."

"I heard that, Mum," Aidan called over his shoulder.

"Go eat," she ordered. "You had some specific questions in mind, Anya?" Ceara picked up an onion ring.

"Is morning sickness as bad as they say?" Anya ducked her a head a bit as if dreading the answer.

"So they tell me."

"You didn't have it then?" She looked relieved. "I know not everyone does."

Ceara chewed a mouthful of burger before answering. "I had hyperemesis gravis, a severe form of morning sickness. You can't stop throwing up. I can't tell you how bad normal morning sickness is but that stuff was nasty. On the upside, the first time I was hospitalized for I.V. hydration to keep me from dying, my family got me a little trailer to live in. Guess they felt sort of sorry for me."

"You don't mean that silver metal hot dog you brought down here, the one you have some of your stuff in," Cordy said horrified. "That thing is barely bigger than a coffin."

Ceara bobbed her head. "That's the one. It was my home for about three years."

"If that trailer is an upside, where were you living?" Cordy's dark eyes widened showing a bit of the old money-conscious Cordelia.

"The back seat of my car." Ceara took another healthy bite of burger, scanning their faces for their reactions.

"Your car?" Willow blurted out. Giles winced at the looks in his young friends' eyes, feeling the blame deep inside him.

"I only had enough money to get back to the States. I knew I could get my prenatal care for practically free on the rez in South Dakota since I'm an enrolled Lakota. I could get government assistance but that wasn't enough to get a place and there's not much in the way of apartments on the Rez anyhow so I was living in the car until I could get work. Then I got sick, so much for working." Her eyes caught Giles's, holding him fast. He wanted to look away. He wanted to run off but he didn't so much as move.

"How long did this hyper what'sit last?" Anya asked, rubbing her belly trying to imagine it.

"Three months and two hospitalizations. I nearly died the first time out. That's when I made the appointment to have an abortion," Ceara confessed, whirling an onion ring distractedly around her finger.

"What changed your mind?" Tara asked with a darting look at Giles hoping not to offend him.

Ceara made a face, reaching for another wing. "Well, it'll sound strange but it was Spotted Whirlwind Horse. I guess you'd call her my spirit guide. We had a long talk about duty and the future and she convinced me to change my mind." She shrugged and gnawed on the wing.

"So you listened to a dream horse? And I thought Dru was nuts," Spike said, lighting up.

"Dream horse, who know?" Ceara shrugged. " It doesn't matter. I canceled the appointment."

"But it did get better, right?" Anya seemed to lose heart.

"It did. The middle three months weren't bad at all. Those are my cousin's favorite months. I went to work in a bar in Hot Springs, one hundred and sixty miles round trip every day since there was no work on the Rez or in White Clay at the time. I couldn't afford the land rental in Hot Springs to move the trailer there and my family wanted me to stay close especially after I developed gestational diabetes. Not a huge surprise, it runs in my family and one in four of my people get some form of diabetes."

"That can be very serious, can't it?" Willow asked.

"Sometimes," Ceara rolled her shoulders. "I lived in the trailed, which was camped behind Grandfather's place and I spent most of the day in his home working the beads until the night of the beautiful blizzard."

"Blizzard?" Buffy asked, wondering just how much worse the story was going to get.

"South Dakota in October, you expect them but trust my son to pick one to be born in. Took forever to get to Pine Ridge hospital. I was a little afraid I wouldn't make it there after all he tried his best to be born early. John and Grandfather drove me there. I'm thinking 'great my kid's going to be born in the backseat of a car." Ceara rolled her eyes, noting Giles was looking at her again. She could almost hear his stuttering apologies for it all.

"Not easy?" Anya asked with obvious trepidation.

"You and I share a trait, Anya, narrow hips." Ceara stabbed her hands downwards. "And I'm athletic on top of it so my muscles wouldn't let my hips shift. So Aidan went from trying to be born early to taking thirty-six hours to make his grand appearance."

"Thirty-six hours!" Anya bleated, nearly knocking over her drink.

"Thirty-six hours. I don't want to do something I love for thirty-six straight hours let alone something that felt like trying to shit a watermelon." Ceara snorted.

"I'm not sure I could have done that," Buffy mumbled, with a little shiver.

"Wasn't my first choice, trust me. I spent three months flat on my back and now they have me walking the halls so gravity could help." Ceara thumped the table and Giles jumped. "Gravity! Grandfather, John and I are now trucking up and down the hospital corridors with me teaching them how to swear in about seven different languages."

"Your grandfather, he was a holy man, wasn't he?" Giles asked softly not looking at her.

"Was and is. He's still going strong. He felt I would need him so he came with me to keep me out of trouble. Finally it got to the point where I just couldn't walk any more and I'm there begging the doctor for an epidural. Could have sworn I saw something in my room after they gave it to me. Grandfather told me I imagined it but I'm thinking, demon." Ceara gave them all a knowing look.

"When I was a vengeance demon I visited a lot of pregnant women. They had a lot of use of me," Anya said cheerily.

Ceara nodded. "I was hoping every man would be visited with that kind of pain for thirty six hours."

"Every man?" Xander asked, his face graying.

"Oh, I was much more vindictive than to just wish that on Rupert. All men need to know what birth feels like," Ceara said decisively and Giles folded up a bit more. The other men followed suit.

"I probably would have made you a vengeance demon yourself for that masterful wish," Anya said, still with a bright look.

"And at that point I would have said yes. That's why Grandfather came with me I'm sure. He knew I was likely to get in trouble and I would have. I was ready to hunt down the sadistic bastard who decided all women needed to do was breathe through the pain and we'd be okay. I'd like to kick him in the susus about a dozen times and see how well he breathes through the pain." Ceara jabbed the air to accentuate the point.

"But it got better after the epidural, right?" Anya asked wide-eyed and pale.

"Yes, and at 1:45 in the morning, Halloween, Aidan was born, ten pounds, two ounces and twenty-four inches long, all of it lung," Ceara concluded noting Giles' horrified look with satisfaction.

"Ten pounds…that's a toddler, not a baby!" Willow gasped.

Ceara rolled her eyes then sobered seeing Angel's expression. Wesley had mentioned something involving Angel, a baby and a death but hadn't given her any details and told her never to ask about it. She almost wished she had, seeing the pained look on Angel's face. She forced herself to turn back to Willow. "Tell me about it. Then the fun really started. He didn't seem to want to sleep more than two hours a time."

"He still doesn't. I don't think I've seen him sleep through the night this whole week," Angel said.

"No, he usually doesn't." Ceara shrugged.

"I recall you were never much on sleep, Ceara, rarely more than four or five hours," Giles said softly, still looking very shamed to be part of the conversation.

Ceara snorted. "And you should talk. You were never big on sleeping either. It was hard to keep you pinned to the bed most nights. So Anya, did I answer your questions?"

"Yes, lots of sickness and pain. I'm not so sure that I want children now." Anya's face held a look of utter disappointment.

Xander looped an arm around her, pulling her closer. "You were so excited by the idea of being a mother."

"Anya, let me tell you the two most important things to remember," Ceara said.

"Don't listen to horses that ride out of whirlwind?" Spike asked wryly.

"Okay, three things. The most important thing to know is antibiotics can interfere with birth control pills. They didn't think to tell me that when they handed them to me for an ear infection." Ceara pointed a cautionary finger at the girls. "Imagine my surprise when I went to the doctor and he told me I was pregnant. I nearly pulled off his lips then asked if he had given me tic-tacs instead of the pill. You'd think the pharmacist would have mentioned that to me about the antibiotics but hey it's much more exciting this way. 'We decided to let you play Russian roulette and surprise, you lose'."

"I didn't know that! Why didn't I know that? Oh my God, I could have," Cordy said then trailed off with a deep blush.

"That's why I'm warning all of you, especially you Buffy with your teen-aged sister," Ceara said and Buffy made a face. Ceara turned to Anya. "But the very most important thing, Anya, is that it's all worth it."

Anya gave her an unusually shy smile. "Really?"

"Absolutely. Yes, Aidan drives me nuts and I sit up nights worrying but I can't imagine life without him. Talk to my cousin. She has a lot of cheerier stories about being pregnant, though I'm thinking this will be her last. Our grandmother had fourteen kids she liked them so much."

"Fourteen?" Buffy's jaw dropped.

"Both sides of my family are a little odd and let's leave it at that." Ceara grinned.

"Didn't you want more?" Anya said.

"Not even for lots of money. And after the trouble I had with Aidan the doctors didn't think it wise for me to have another child even if I could. I got pretty torn up inside with Aidan and they think I'm effectively sterile but I'm taking no chances. Still there's little to fear since I'm getting more like a Vulcan every day." Ceara rolled her eyes.

Anya blinked. "What?"

"Vulcans have sex like once every seven years," Ceara said, noting Xander's amused look, figuring she had found a fellow geek.

"What kind of demon is that?" Anya asked horrified. "I am so glad I don't have to go more than seven days."

Xander blushed brightly. "I'll show you Vulcans later, Anya."

"You never married? I know after Mom's divorce…she was lonely." Buffy said with a regretful look. "I felt bad for her but then I really hated the one guy she dated, Ted. It turned out that he was a serial killer robot. Or worse, there was that time she slept with Giles." Buffy glared at her Watcher.

At that, Giles choked on his scotch and Xander on his beer.

"I'm glad I never came across a serial killer robot but that would be my usual luck." Ceara ran a hand over her hair then her lips quirked up. "I sort of decided that I wouldn't date any more and just go buy stock in batteries."

This time Giles, Xander and Wes choked.

"I really think I like you," Spike said, leaning back in his chair, smirking.

"I'm not sure that's a ringing endorsement coming from William the Bloody," Ceara replied tartly.

Spike rolled his eyes.

"Hand me those papers, please. Yo, son, come here!" Ceara called.

"Still eating," Aidan called back as the band took the stage.

"If you talked less, son, you'd be done." Ceara waved at him. "Bring it here."

Aidan eyes her sourly. "A good mum would leave me eat."

"I'm not super-mom, Aidan, adjust."

Aidan made a face and carried the remains of his burger over to the table with Dawn following. Buffy frowned.

"Um, Ceara, I thought we were going to work now," she said.

"We are."

Buffy jerked her head at her sister and Aidan.

"Is there a problem?" Ceara asked.

"Well, this could be graphic. Dawn doesn't need to be seeing it and I'm sure you don't want Aidan to either," Buffy said.

"Buffy, I've been working crime scene photos since I was seven. I've already seen what this particular killer can do," Aidan said, looking a little offended.

"You let him do stuff like that?" Buffy asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I mean, when I contacted the spirit world for the first time, it was like being torn apart from the inside," Willow put in, with an empathetic little bob of her head.

Ceara slung back her hair. "He'll see this stuff whether I want him to or not."

"The first time I remember seeing a ghost, she was a six year old victim of rape and murder who was waiting for me on my swing set to tell me where her body was. I was five. Two years later I had seen enough to really work with them," Aidan said, his full lips pulling into a frown. "I didn't ask to be able to see ghosts but if I don't practice, it'll be worse. I met this guy who never left his apartment because he never learned to control his talent. He'd spark on anything he touched and get all these images to the point he was overwhelmed. He just wandered around the house with gloves on, terrified to even try to live. The ghosts sometimes just seek me and Mum out. If I didn't practice…" He glanced down at his hands with a shiver. Ceara patted his back.

"Buffy, a lot of people who can do what Aidan and Ceara do end up insane if they don't learn control," Giles said, falling back into Watcher mode. He looked over at the two who should have been his family, embarrassed again that he spoke.

"Yeah and if looking at those photos to learn control keeps me from a sitting in a padded cell talking to my belly button, I'm willing to do it. But if you want me and Dawn to sit this out, Wes can always give me the pictures later when Dawn's not around," Aidan said and Dawn looked furious.

"No, I guess it'll be okay," Buffy relented uneasily.

"And I'm not a kid any more. I'm doing research and everything, right?" Dawn said, affronted. She jammed her fists into her hips giving every indication she was not willing to leave. "You were fifteen when you were Chosen."

"I said okay, Dawn. Don't push," Buffy said grumpily and her sister scowled.

Ceara put her hands on the news photos, frowning. Aidan pushed his fingers in next to hers. The others could almost feel the power like a whispering wind moving around the table. The band starting up startled them but had no affect on Ceara or Aidan's concentration.

"I can't get a clear picture of the person…not a person. It's not the one doing this but the one they're trying to call. He's still far away. I can't see him. He won't look at me," Ceara said, reaching for her oil can of Foster's. She popped the top and drained away a long deep swallow of beer.

"I can see his face," Aidan said. "He doesn't like adults…that's why they want the kids. He's looking at me. Wes, you have paper I can draw on?"

"Of course." Wes dug out the paper and pencil from his attaché.

Aidan looked at the paper, scowling. "One of these days I'm going to have to take some art classes. I suck at this."

Angel took the paper. "Tell me what he looked like if you can."

Aidan turned over the pencil to the vampire. "A very heart-shaped face, with a pointy chin and small ears." He waited for Angel to quickly sketch that and nodded his approval. "Okay, he had black hair that's sort of wavy, a little like Xander's but it's all one length to his shoulders."

"Like this?" Angel asked after penciling it in.

"Yep. He has a button nose and very full lips and his teeth are all pointy like a sharks with serrated edges."

"Well, isn't that pleasant," Xander mumbled, craning to look over Angel's shoulder.

"How about his eyes?" Angel asked.

"This is the weird part. They're rather Asian looking and instead of eyeballs, he has teeth," Aidan said.

Angel glanced up at the boy then back at his drawing.

"Is he describing what I think he's describing?" Spike leaned over studying the drawing, a very serious expression on his thin face.

"Aidan, did he have teeth anywhere else?" Angel asked.

"All over. He has little mouths in the palms of his hands and at his finger tips, his nipples and belly button and regions south of there."

"Moufyng demon," Spike muttered, sitting back, disgust curling his lip.

"Oh, surely not," Wesley said uneasily.

"Is this him, Aidan?" Angel gave the boy the sketch.

"That's him." Aidan held the sketch away from him. Dawn crowded closer to see but, at a stern look from Buffy, Aidan turned the paper over.

"Moufyng demon," Angel said decisively.

"Dare I ask what that is?" Buffy asked, eyes on the face-down sketch.

"It's a demon, an eater of souls, preferably children and teens. It rather likes their flesh as well. A well-fed Moufyng demon is rumored to be able to turn your dreams into reality," Giles said, taking the sketch, truly kicking into Watcher mode. His discomfort melted away faced with a familiar challenge. "You saw all of this from the picture?"

"Not really. I got the impression he was looking back at me from the picture. I saw him last night in my sleep," Aidan replied.

"No wonder you don't sleep much," Angel said, tentatively patting the boy's shoulder as if afraid he shouldn't.

"How do we stop this thing?" Buffy asked, looking to Giles as usual.

"Hopefully we can stop whoever's trying to call it forth before they succeed," Wesley said. "Otherwise it'll be very ugly."

"There are certain rituals they must perform. We could try and see if anyone has been purchasing large quantities of myrrh. It's one of the spell ingredients," Giles said.

"I can get on that," Willow put in with enthusiasm as the old team pulled together with practiced ease.

"Good," Buffy said.

"Um, I think we have a more immediate problem," Aidan said, stabbing a finger toward the front of the Bronze.

Buffy turned, feeling what she knew he must have been seeing. A dozen vampires in western gear strolled in. The whole group reacted as one. Buffy shoved Dawn toward the stage with one hand while pulling out a stake from her jacket pocket with the other. Cordy yanked her duffle bag out from under the table and opened it, revealing a few small crossbows, some holy water and crosses. Ceara fished a stake out of her purse as Spike and Angel's features morphed; Spike looking particularly happy to have something to pound on.

"Told you if we kept following this band, they'd lead us to a bunch of tasty cowgirls," one of the vampires drawled.

"Great, our band has undead groupies," Ceara moaned, trying to edge around the table before the panic set in.

None of them were quite successful in that. Some of the audience saw the fangs and golden eyes and the screaming, pushing and running started. Buffy leapt over one of the tables and started pounding on the nearest vamp. Cordy tossed Wesley and Xander crossbows, keeping the last for herself. Spike and Angel threw themselves into the melee with a certain amount of gleeful abandon.

Buffy round-house kicked one of the vampires in the head while shoving her stake home in his partner just in time to see Giles get yanked off his feet and thrown into Willow and Tara who had linked hands to recite a spell. All three went down in a pile, clipping a table, but Angel nearly separated the vampire's head from his body before she could react. Cordy's crossbow bolt nearly winged Buffy before burying itself in the vampire sneaking up behind her. Wondering when Cordy had gotten so good with her aim, Buffy flipped another vampire onto her back and as she staked her, Buffy saw Ceara ram her stake home in a huge Bubba of a vampire.

Hearing a familiar shriek, Buffy whirled and saw Dawn being hauled toward the backdoor by her long hair. She wasn't able to fight the grip the white Stetsoned vampire had on her.

"Dawn!" Buffy screamed, trying to figure out the quickest path to her sister through the over-turned tables and stampeding patrons.

"Little bit," Spike cried, racing her way only to be caught by his duster and thrown to his back by a wiry little vampire cowpoke.

Dawn cried out as Buffy flipped onto the stage, racing along its lip to avoid the congestion of the floor below. Dawn screamed again then choked on vampire dust. Buffy saw Aidan behind her sister, coup stick in hand, rubbing his eyes from the backlash of the vampire dust from his kill.

"Behind you!" Dawn shouted to him.

Aidan twisted around, stabbing out with the stick. Unfortunately it buried itself in the vampire's belly. The vampire batted the boy away and tried to get him while he was down. Aidan spun onto his feet, grabbing for the stick. Buffy dusted the creature first.

"Thanks," he said.

"Thanks for saving my sister," she shot back and looked for the next vampire to take her anger out on but they were all gone.

"No problem. Every night occurrence around here?" Aidan shook the dust off of him.

"These ones were dressed a little more silly but yeah." Buffy smiled as she checked over Dawn who seemed embarrassed for having been so easily put at risk. Satisfied her sister was all right, she scanned the room for her friends to make sure no one was lost. Anya and Xander were helping Willow and Tara up. Spike and Angel looked somehow disappointed it was over so soon. Wesley helped Giles up, the older Englishman bleeding from a small cut above his eye.

"Every time I come to the bloody States," Giles muttered, wiping at his forehead.

"Well, that was exciting," Ceara said. "I think I'm going to have to go peel my cousins off the ceiling. It's going to take me half the night to calm a few of them down. Are you going to be needing anything more from me about this Moufyng demon?"

"I think maybe we all ought to call it a night. We have our research cut out for us now," Wesley said.

"Good. Come on, son, let's make sure everyone is all right," Ceara said.

Aidan gave Dawn a somewhat disappointed look at their interrupted evening. "Right-o."

"Aidan, that was pretty good work with that stick," Angel said.

Aidan basked in that praise. "Thanks. Just glad I could help," he said, hurrying after his mother.

"Cordy, Wes, thanks," Buffy said. "You two have gotten pretty good yourselves."

"Too many demons in L.A. not to," Cordy said, her smile showing her appreciation of Buffy's praise.

"Giles, are you okay?" Buffy asked.

He nodded. "I will be. Is Dawn all right?"

"Thanks to Aidan, yes." Buffy caught Giles' eye but he said nothing. She knew nothing more needed to be said. "Okay, I guess Wesley's right. We should call it a night."