Chapter 10

A.N. Okay I realize that I haven't updated this in over a year, but that's because I had no inspiration to do so. And now I have a ton of inspiration so isn't it better to have a good story a year later then a crappy one without inspiration? Anyway I hope you guys do give it another chance I promise reviews at more regular intervals then once a year!

Second week in February - Week Nine

"It's been so great having you here," Willow hugs Buffy as tears well in her eyes.

"Oh, Wil, don't cry," Buffy requests as the tears start to spill over Willow's cheeks.

"I'm sorry," Willow pushes at her cheeks, "it's just pregnancy hormones, I'm, I'm okay. But you'll come visit again, right?"

Buffy nods, "we were thinking maybe we'd come while Dawn's on Spring Break, that's assuming we can avert any apocalyptic activity."

"And of course there's summer and when they baby is born, now that we've been here you won't be able to keep us away." Dawn promises, moving in to hug Willow.

"Sounds like a plan," Xander adds as he hugs Buffy. "And once you guys are here you can take care of the midnight feedings and stuff."

"Screw that, I call the basement bedroom farthest from the stares," Faith responds.

"We really have to go," Buffy glances at her watch again, "but we're so happy for you and we expect lots of pictures of that growing belly. Bye Oria." Buffy offers the young girl a small wave which Oria returns silently. The teenager had been sullen and moody turning the week long visit and had hardly spoken to anyone, Willow and Xander including and Willow was hoping that once they were visitor free things would settle back into a normal routine.

The trio are not gone more then five minutes when Willow asks, "who's hungry?"

"We just ate an hour an a half ago," Oria points out from the bottom of the stairs where, Willow had noticed, she'd been planning to use as an escape route to mope in her room.

"I'm pregnant," Willow responds, "and I feel like pancakes."

"As in the international house of?" Xander asks, it was a fairly predictable question since Willow had quickly become addicted to their chocolate chip pancakes with strawberry syrup they'd eaten there once a week.

"Exactly," Willow nods, "so let's go."

"I have school so..." Oria moves further up the steps.

"So what?" Willow asks, "I've got a sub coming in, Xand's not going in why don't we call you in sick and we can all skip today."

Oria turns slowly, "you never let me skip school."

"So you want me to change my mind and make you go?" Willow asks arching an eyebrow.

"Just let me grab my jacket," Oria grins before turning and hurrying back up the stairs, the attic had been converted into a room for Oria and she seemed to like the privacy it gave her.

"What's been up with her lately?" Xander asks once Oria's footsteps can be heard going up to the attic.

"I'm not sure," Willow shrugs as she slips back into the coat she'd just shed. "But a day of might do her good, I think she just got overwhelmed with things, obviously something happened in Rome and she doesn't particularly care for Faith or Buffy, that much is obvious."

"You think we were wrong in letting her come to use about why she is the way she is?" Xander asks as he too pulls on his jacket.

"She's only been here for three weeks Xander, I think she'll talk to us when she wants to talk to us, we can't force it on her. Or she'll hate us."

"You're right, but I feel bad just doing nothing, like we're neglecting her or something."

Willow bites her lip, now that Xander had said it she had to agree that maybe they were giving her to much space. "Well you said you had to go by the site today, anyway, right?"

"Yeah, this afternoon after your appointment," Xander nods, "that's not a problem right?"

"No," Willow shakes her head, "I was just thinking that maybe I could take her shopping or something and maybe get her to open up about stuff. It might be easier one on one then if she thinks we're ganging up on her or something."

"Probably a good idea, do the whole chick thing."

"Xander don't say chick thing," Willow scolds lightly as Oria's footsteps can be heard on the stairs again.

"Okay, I'm ready for my second breakfast," Oria announces as she appears in front of them. And as Xander starts opens his mouth Oria teases, "no Lord of the Rings comments from Nerd-boy."

"Hey!" Xander protests.

Willow can't hide her smile as she states, "come on Nerd-boy, your Nerd-baby and I are hungry."

Oria covers her mouth with her hand but it doesn't cover the laughter as they exit the house and head toward the car. "You know Willow, if you expect us always to eat when you're hungry Xander's going to end up weighing 500 pounds."

"Again, hey!" Xander exclaims, "what is it, attack on Xander day? And what about you missy? You eat plenty more then I do."

"I've got the metabolism of a slayer," Oria retorts with a smirk, "so there."

"One day that's going to give out on you and your going to be the size of a blimp," Xander retorts, sticking his tongue out at Oria in the review mirror as he backs the car out of the driveway.

"Xander, sweetie, I don't think slayer metabolism every gives out," Willow laughs from the front passenger seat, turning slightly to wink at Oria.

"Okay, I give up," Xander pulls the car to a stop in front of the house, "you girls can drive yourself to your fattening breakfast."

"Xander, stop being a nerd and drive the car," Willow instructs with a laugh.

"I don't know why I put up with this abuse," Xander mutters, but he can't hide the smile that's playing at the corner of his lips.

"Because you love us," Willow responds leaning over and kissing Xander lightly on the cheek.

"Oh sure, use that against me. All I have to say is that baby better be a boy or we're going to have some serious issues in this family with you girls ganging up on me all of the time." Neither Willow nor Xander miss the bright smile that briefly crosses Oria's face at Xander's comment.

"I can just wait out here," Oria states as they settle in the waiting room for Willow's appointment.

"Of course not," Willow states with a shake of her head, "I want you to come in with us."

"It's yours and Xander's baby," Oria states with her own shake of her head, "it's not my place."

Willow makes a face, "not your place? When they call my name you better get your tushy up and follow us back there. Today's a big day we..." Willow trails at the looks she's getting from Xander and Oria, "what?"

"Willow you just said..."

"Tushy," Oria finishes for Xander.

Willow lowers her voice, "there are babies around."

"Babies in the womb, Wil," Xander explains gently hoping not to tip of Willow's over-active hormones.

"So?" Too late, Willow's voice is slightly harsh. "Life is hard enough without filling these babies with negative energy even before..."

"Willow Rosenberg?" The nurse's call interrupts Willow's rant and saves Xander any physical pain that Willow could possibly inflict.

"Oria you coming?" Willow asks sweetly as she and Xander stand.

"Yeah, of course," Oria stands as well, unwilling to incur the wrath of hormonal Willow and honestly she's glad to be included in the activity.

They have to wait five minutes for the doctor to come in but when she does Oria can tell that Willow is going to love her new doctor. She wears a brightly colored shirt under her white coat and an equally bright smile is spread across her face. "Hi, I'm Dr. Collins. I'm so sorry about the confusion of switching doctors. But I'll be your doctor for the rest of your term, Dr Kelley had a family emergency and had to lighten her patient load, she gave me everyone she had in their first trimester. But she did fill me on the situation, but I'm afraid I don't know anything about this third party," she smiles gently at Oria as she says this.

"Oh, I'm Oria," Oria responds nervously, she'd nearly gotten lost in the conversation.

"She's part of our slightly odd family." Willow adds with a smile.

"Well, good, are there any other people I'll be meeting in the future?"

"Maybe," Willow responds with a shrug, "but our family lives all over the world, Rome, London, Paris, Madrid, Beijing. But they promise to visit often so you'll probably meet some other members."

"Wow, how'd you all get so far spread out over the world?" Dr. Collin's asks, her questions are honest and it's obvious that she's a very authentic person interested in her patients lives.

"Our family is establishing several schools for gifted students through out the world, so they are either establishing the schools or they are recruiting students." Xander responds with the simple story that they told people.

Silence settles over the group for half a second before Dr. Collins states, "okay. Well, this appointment is mostly a meet and greet but we can set up the Doppler and see if we can hear a heartbeat."

"We can hear a heartbeat this week?" Xander asks surprised by this news.

"I tried telling you guys in the waiting room that," Willow points out, "but you were to interested in my use of the word 'tushy'."

Dr. Collins smiles and then informs, "there's a good chance that we'll hear the heartbeat but don't be concerned if we can't. We may have to wait until the next appointment."

But despite Dr. Collin's warning, minutes later the sound of a faint heartbeat can be heard in the room, "oh my God." Xander's eyes are wide in awe, "that's amazing." He moves to take Willow's hand.

"And...and everything sounds okay?" Willow asks as tears stream down her cheeks.

"Everything sounds perfect, the heartbeat is strong and regular," Dr. Collins assures with a wide grin.

"Okay we have an hour and a half to get something to eat before we have to pick Xander up. So where do you want to eat?" Willow asks as she directs the car off of Xander's construction site.

"I dunno, Pazza's?"

"Pizza sounds awesome," Willow responds as she turns the appropriate way toward the pizza place that Oria had selected. Willow is silent during the drive, debating how to bring up the subject of Oria's life to Oria. Pazzo's had been a good choice because it was loud enough that you could have a private conversation without feeling like it could be overheard by the tables around you.

They'd gotten their food and been seated before Willow moves from basic talk about school to the topic she'd been playing out in her head. "So, Oria, you've been living with us for, what, almost a month now?" Willow questions playing with the straw in her cup.

"Yeah," Oria's dark eyes stare at Willow suspiciously.

"But I don't know anything about you beyond the fact that you're a 15-year-old slayer. Which puts me at a disadvantage because you know everything about me, from the time I turned into a ghost to the time when I almost destroyed the world."

Oria shrugs, "you and Xander talk a lot."

"That's a fair statement," Willow nods, "but not today. Today I want to know all about you."

"Come on, Willow, can we not do this?" Oria's eyes are lowered to her slice of pizza.

"No," Willow shakes her head, "we can't not do this. What I said in that doctor's office is true, you're a part of our family and I'm not letting another day go by that we don't know anything about your life."

"Wil..."

"This is my resolve face, if you don't know what it means, learn it." Willow motions to her face as she speaks.

"I was adopted from China when I was 19-months-old to Maria and Phillip Vasquez. I grew up in Madrid, Spain with my watcher as my nanny. Maria's identical twin sister had been a slayer so imagine Maria's surprise when I was one. I was eight when they found out the secret that I'd been keeping for a year, and it was then that they stopped having anything to do with me. I don't blame them, Maria had watched her sister get killed and she didn't want to risk attachment to me should I get called. Cadence Laurence was my watcher and she was my everything. Parents, tutor, best friend...everything.

Willow doesn't miss the 'was' part of that sentence and when Oria falls silence she can't help but say, "I'm sorry."

Oria shakes her head but continues with her story, "we didn't know anything about the Bringers, so I can only assume I was one of their first targets. Lucky me, right? Cadence died protecting me from a bringer. And Maria and Phillip stepped in, they took me into hiding. They apologized for the way they'd treated me for the last six years, gave me the same reasons I already gave you. But they promised that things would change, they died two weeks later in the same style Cadence had. So I headed toward London, sure the Watcher's Council that Cadence trusted so much could help me.

"By the time I got there thought the council had already been destroyed. From there I didn't know where to go, they don't tell potential slayers about who the current slayer is...or at least Cadence never talked to me about Buffy. I spent months using the money I had run with when the Vasquez's died, trying to find out any information I could about the slayer. People knew about her but it was hard to get people talk, it took me almost four months to get to America. And then another two months or so to get to Sunnydale. By the time I got there the only thing that was left was a crater where Sunnydale should have been. I ended up in LA doing whatever jobs a barely 15-year-old could can just to get by, I didn't have the money to try to find Buffy again and for all I knew she died when Sunnydale fell."

Oria doesn't elaborate on the topic of "jobs" and Willow isn't sure she wants to know what Oria had been through, for fear that she'll do something irrational because of situations no one had any control over. "How'd you get to Rome, with Buffy and Faith?" Willow asks when Oria acts like the conversation is closed.

Oria swallows her food before continuing, "I was out one night when a gang of vamps jumped me. I'd kept in shape, going patrolling occasionally but they were just to much and I got knocked out. The next thing I knew I was being woken up by a blonde vampire and being told I was in the law offices of Wolfram and Hart and suddenly there were a million people surrounding me."

"A million?" Willow asks with a smile.

"Seven if you want to be exact about it, one of which was a vampire, the other a ghost and the last a British Ghost."

"Angel and Lorne," Willow muses aloud, "although I don't know who the ghost was."

Oria nods, "yeah, Angel. I didn't get to know any of them because as soon as they found out I was a slayer they shipped me off to Giles in London who sent me to Buffy in Rome."

Willow allows the conversation to lapse for several minutes and when both have finished eating Willow can't help but ask, "what happened in Rome?"

Oria shrugs, nothing really, "I'm sure you've picked up on the fact that I don't get along with Buffy, Dawn or Faith. There's not really a story. Faith and I fought all the time, Dawn acted like I owed them something and Buffy treated me like I was some baby who needed to be sheltered."

Willow nods, they were all understandable reasons for Oria's unhappiness at being in, honestly Willow didn't understand how living with her and Xander constantly hovering would make her feel more comfortable but she doesn't push the subject. Instead she just responds simply, "I'm glad you told me."

"You didn't give me much choice, did you?" Oria asks, but her tone isn't angry.

Willow shrugs, "I guess not."

"Willow, I," Oria sighs trying to figure her words out, "I don't mind if you tell Xander, but I don't want to talk about it anymore. Okay?"

"I can't promise that it'll never come up again," Willow states, "but I do promise that it won't be dinner conversation or something."

Oria nods, "okay. I can handle that."

"Good," Willow nods, "now let's go, we can stop and get some ice cream before we have to pick up Xander."