I know it's been a while, but here's the next chapter of this fic. Hope everyone finds it as good as the first few chapters.

Disclaimer: It's safe to say that if I owned Spike, I'd be shouting it from the rooftops and if I owned Buffy, I'd be throwing her from them. Since I am neither shouting nor committing homicide, they and all the others must not belong to me.

NEXT CHAPTER UPDATE

Chapter 5:

Pain. That's all that was registering in her mind. The pain and the overwhelming sensation of not being in control were making her feel powerless. Spike's slightly calming presence was soothing to her scattered mentality at times, but for the most part the ride to L.A. was excruciating.

Her stomach swelled to the size of a last trimester belly before contracting back to its normal first trimester size. The unborn child even began kicking at once point, which was more startling to notice then to actually feel.

Despite the obvious discomfort she was going through, the drive to L.A. had no rest stops or breaks. They made spectacular time to the city, and even better time to the hotel where Lorne was waiting to listen to her sing. She had no idea what she would sing, as of yet. Maybe she could sing a nursery rhyme in order to be as sarcastic and ironic as possible.

Her. That was all he could think about in the crapped confines of the minivan. Wesley and Giles had been thoughtful enough to somehow locate a vehicle large enough to transport the six of them. Comfort, however, didn't seem to play a part in the vehicle choice. If it had, he was certain, the former watchers would have picked something more delicate to carry their impregnated former charge.

The entire ride had been very taxing on her physical and mental self. To him it seemed as if the baby was fighting off the demon trying to infect it with demonic genes. Not to say that he was certain his own demonic genes weren't the cause of this entire scenario, but the way the watchers were acting made him think otherwise. Whatever was hurting his slayer and their chance at a family had better be the biggest bad the world had never known or else it would wish it had never existed to dare mess with what was his.

His. That's what she was now, right? His slayer. His love. His pet. His Buffy. Buffy. Buffy is such a simple name for such a complicated woman. He could see her biting her lip until it bled to keep from screaming again. She wouldn't want to appear weak in front of the others again. She needed to be strong and he knew that any of his attempts to help her would be fought off, but that did not stop him trying.

"Take it easy, pet. No rushing or else you'll hurt yourself or bit?" Spike attempted being rational with an impatient Buffy.

"I don't want to take things slowly. I want to know what the hell this is inside of me and whether or not I can hurt it for hurting me," Buffy stated darkly as she pushed away from Spike's proffered hand.

She walked towards the door of the hotel intending to cuss and threaten this Lorne guy into figuring out what was wrong with her as fast as possible, but as her hand touched the door she was hit with more pain. She cried out softly to herself as she practically collapsed at the edge of the doorway. Spike was at her side before the others could clearly see what had happened. He had picked her up and carried her through the threshold before Buffy could even start to protest.

Upon entering the large entrance area of the hotel, Spike placed Buffy on the nearest bench he could find. She was knelt over and whimpering to herself. Her eyes closed off from the world and Spike could only assume she was concentrating on meditation to lessen the pain. Her efforts seemed to be failing as she began sobbing in pain.

Buffy screamed out in pure frustration as the pain refused to subside. She had tried to meditate, but that only seemed to make the pain worsen. In a last ditch attempt to end the pain, she reached out for Spike's hand. She gripped it tightly in her own as she faintly noticed the others were talking amongst themselves around Spike and her.

"I'm here, lug," Spike whispered as he held her close and kissed the hand that was crushing his own.

He could feel her grip relaxing, but knew she was still in a large amount of pain. Spike did the only thing he could think of doing. He placed his other hand gently on Buffy's stomach and made small soothing circles on the surface. Almost instantly he felt the tense muscles in the slayer loosen and her startled face looked into his questioningly.

"You're here," she whispered so softly that Spike had to strain to hear it over Lorne's flamboyant walk down the hotel stairs and into the foyer area.

"Welcome, welcome," Lorne spoke dramatically," You must be the slayer and that would make you her..."Lorne trailed off as he noticed the somber expression on everyone in the room. Quickly, he changed the subject," Anyhow, Angelkins doesn't play well with Blondie over there, so he went off to play with Conner and mope in his room. Thinking Cordy's with him. Seems you've already met Wes, and Winifred and Gunn have gone off to take care of a case," Lorne finished a bit too anxiously for it not to sound rushed.

"Get on with it already," Spike growled in Lorne's direction," We've come to you so you could suss out this problem and all you want to do is chat idly while the slayer here is in pain?"

Lorne paled as much as a green, meterosexual demon can, and clapped his hands together to show his readiness.

"Alright. On with the singing," Lorne said as he gestured for Spike to lead Buffy into an office a little aside the greater portion of the room," You two come in here with me and I'll hear you belt a note or two?"

Spike nodded and made ready to pick Buffy up again, when she stood up on her own. She wiped the evidence of tears from her eyes, and began to slowly walk towards the room. Halfway there, she turned to look back at Spike. She smiled briefly and Spike took this as his cue to stand up and join her as she reached the door. Lorne quickly followed them and shut the door on the others still standing around expectantly.

"Well, that went about as well as can be expected," Wesley muttered more to himself than to the others," Let me show you a room you can stay in while you're here."

Wesley began walking towards the stairs, but stopped at Willow's loud complaint," Wait? You mean we'll be here long enough to settle into a room?"

Her puzzled expression etched deeper onto her face as Wesley nodded and replied," I expect you to be here until the child is born or removed from this world. In either case, I assume you would rather sleep in a bed than on the cold floor out here. Besides, Lorne and those two will be in there for a while."

Tara and Dawn picked up their small overnight bags from the floor. In the rush to leave the Summers' home, there had not been much time to pack for one day, let alone countless days. The pair followed closely behind Wesley as Willow still stood near the bench holding her bag of magical supplies.

"Oh," Willow finally managed as she also began to follow Wesley upstairs to a room," I just--assumed it wouldn't take long."

Wesley glanced back at the Wicca before turning to walk down the hallway. He shook his head slightly as he realized that there was so much the young woman was going to have to understand before the sun rose in a few hours. He only hoped that she would be willing to accept the things she learned before it was too late to be of any good to her.

In the room with Lorne, Buffy and Spike were both beginning to lose their patience.

"What do you mean I have to sing and first at that? Bugger this. Slayer's the one with the bun in the oven, not me," Spike argued fiercely to Lorne.

"I know that, but--"Lorne attempted to say until Buffy interrupted him.

"Yeah, I'm the one with the demon brat in me. I should sing first so you can do whatever it is you do and I can get on with getting this thing out of me," Buffy shouted heatedly at Lorne.

"What do you get off by calling the bit a thing and a demon brat? Huh?" Spike began to shout at Buffy.

"Earth to Spike! You're a demon therefore even if this wasn't some sick bug growing in me, it'd still be part of you," Buffy retorted with a scoff and an eye roll.

"So that's it then? Even if it were just baby growing in your oven you'd still hate it because it's a part of me, right? You cold, hearted bi--"Spike yelled.

"If you two could just stop--"Lorne interjected Spike in the middle of his rant only to be cut off by Buffy shouting over him.

"Of course I would hate it! It's demonic spawn! Not a real child. It wouldn't be human and if it came down to it I'd ki--"Buffy began to scream in Spike's direction only to stop instantly when another sharp pain hit her.

The pain was intense enough to send her into immediate early stages of shock. She fell to the floor immediately, shaking uncontrollably as if she was convulsing in the midst of a seizure. Lorne stepped out of her way as her arms flailed violently and her body contorted from the fits of pain surging through it. Spike tried to hold her still, but his efforts were proving futile.

"I tried to warn you," Lorne said in a blaming manner," Intense emotions are what feed the parasite. The more you two fight, the less chance you're unborn kid has a chance to live."

Lorne shook his head sadly as he started to run to get the others for help. He paused briefly to see Spike's eyes tear up as Buffy began to foam at the mouth, then he ran as fast as his expensive shoes would allow it.

Well that's all I have for now. Adieu til next my imagination draws you near...