Chapter 13: Going Into Battle, with Cake
The Decorations were up, the cake was finished, all of the food was ready. Angel was preparing the grill outside. He spent more time sunbathing these days than anyone else. He had spent more time being unable to be in direct sunlight, that now he would just stand outside feeling the warmth of the sun soak into him.
But today his mind wasn't on the sun rays, but on their son. He was three years old today, and was at that age when he knew that he was three, and kept on saying that now he was a 'big boy.' She could watch him for hours. There had been moments in her life when she was the only slayer when she didn't think that she had a future, especially not with the one man who she had ever really loved. But now they had two beautiful children, a thriving business in which they both fought demons. And most importantly, they had each other. She still got chills every time that he wrapped his arms around her.
"Shit!" Came out of Angel's mouth as he burned his finger on the grill.
"You okay, honey!" Buffy yelled out the door at her lover.
"Fine, sweetheart. It may hurt more, but I don't have to worry about being reduced to ashes around fire!" Giggling, Buffy turned back to the room that she had spent all morning decorating. Her only small regret was that she wished that her mother could be here, to play with her kids and spoil them rotten as was the grandparent's right.
Everyone they knew was using the birthday as an excuse to gather, and talk about the old days. Giles and Willow were flying in from England where they were currently running the new school they were developing for Slayers and Watchers and any witches that they discovered. Xander would be taking a break from keeping guard on the Hellmouth in Cleveland, leaving it in the capable hands of Kennedy. Dawn came home last night from college and was planning on staying for the weekend. Connor was ecstatic that his Auntie Dawn was going to be at his birthday party.
The Halliwell sisters and their families were coming to the party. If they hadn't been invited, Wyatt would have shown up anyway. Anyway, they had proven to be good friends and loyal allies in the fight against demons. Piper and Leo were coming with their sons, Wyatt and Chris. Phoebe would be coming with her new husband Dax, who was new to the whole magic and demons scene. Paige would also be coming. They were finally back to their old selves, having faked their death a few months ago, they got sick of not being themselves, apparently. The Scooby and Fang Gangs as they were affectionately called, knew all along that they weren't dead. But now they didn't have to use their fake names. Calling them Jenny, Julie, and Jo Bennett was kind of weird.
Just then, the Halliwell family orbed in. Dax looked a little queasy, "That's okay honey," Phoebe assured the newest member of the Halliwell clan, "It'll get easier as you get used to it." Phoebe looked up and smiled at their hostess, "It's Dax's first trip Orbing. Dax, this is Buffy Summers, the Slayer. Buffy, this is my husband Dax."
"Hi, Buffy, sorry, I'm just a little new to the whole magic exists and demons are real thing." They were interrupted when Wyatt ran to greet his friend, who then ran up the stairs. "Should we be worried about those two, I may not know that much about magic, but I do know boys, and those two are definitely scheming."
Piper chuckled, "I wouldn't worry about them, they are good boys and wouldn't do anything to anybody, at least not on purpose."
"Why 'at least not on purpose?' What did Wyatt do?"
"Oh, about a year ago, Wyatt wanting to protect Leo and I, he shrunk us and locked us in a magically shielded doll house. But he's learned since then. He knows now that you don't use magic on people, or anything that could be seen as 'personal gain.'" But Piper seemed to be assuring herself more than assuring Dax, as she looked up the stairs where the two three year olds were whispering together as they climbed the stairs.
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Well, the birthday party had gone off without a hitch. Connor's friends from his pre-school group had arrived around the same time as the Scooby Gang, and the adults and children enjoyed all of the normal party games (which they got through without Wyatt or Chris using any magical powers), Connor opened his presents, just to hand them over to either his mother or father, and move on to the next present. He got lots of story books, action figures, and toy trucks.
And then, like they were preparing for battle, Angel and Buffy, with the help with a few parents, prepared the children for the birthday cake. All of the children were put in their chairs around a long table, with Connor at the head. A Pile of paper plates and plastic forks were set out in piles along with huge piles of napkins. Then, Buffy carried out the cake with the candles lit, everyone sang 'Happy Birthday' to Connor. Then Buffy cut out pieces of the cake to all the children, then as soon as the kids were finished, they were cleaned off and allowed to play as the adults enjoyed the cake.
Piper and Buffy were standing watching their children playing with the trucks and action figures that Connor got for his birthday. "So you know what everyone says about the terrible twos?" Piper asked Buffy.
"Yeah,"
"Well, do you think that it'll get easier, that they'll stop trying to get into everything, and all that?"
"I don't know, all I know is that everything in this building that isn't childproof is padlocked. Half of our cabinets in the kitchen have a combination lock on it!"
"I know what you mean. Now that Wyatt can climb on the counter top, we have to be careful and put all of the explosive ingredients on the top shelf. Although, luckily Wyatt has no idea what any of that stuff and doesn't want it, because he can orb anything to himself."
"Well, I don't have to worry about that yet, although, Connor has the strength of a Vampire, and so, simple child locks don't keep him out of the cupboards."
"Well, our children certainly are a challenge, but I just have to treat them like they weren't magical, in both love and discipline. That's how our grams raised us."
"We should put out a monthly for parents of magical children." Buffy said giggling. "Imagine it, 'How to deal with their gifts' 'What to do when your three year old Orbs into a stranger's house hundred's of miles away.'"
"Very funny." Piper looked out the window watching the sun go down, as the clouds changed colors that she imagined that heaven must look like.
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Connor's friends from Pre-school left with their parents just after the sun went down, most of them already asleep. Wyatt, Connor, Chris, and Ellie were all asleep in the large playpen set up in the lobby of the hotel. The adults took the quite time to their advantage. They were all sitting around in chairs brought in, drinks of choice in each in their hands as they talked about what was going on in the various aspects of the fight against evil.
Giles and Willow went on about how they had finally created a good curriculum for classes combined of the Slayers and the Watchers. They were be trained to work together, to be able to learn about different demons, researching as well as the physical battling part. It was a little difficult putting them together at first, as the Slayers were high school age, while the Watchers were freshly graduated from College.
Xander complained that he was all alone at the Hellmouth with psycho slayers Kennedy and Faith, with only Robin to be able to talk sports to, and he didn't know all that much. "Nether do you Xander," Willow argued.
"That's beside the point."
Piper looked at the clock, which now read 9 pm. "Oh, Look at those dears, their exhausted, we should probably get them to bed."
Buffy looked up, who had been zoning out because Angel was brushing his fingers up an down her back, which always drove her crazy, "Huh, oh, um, if you want, we were just about to bring Connor and Ellie up to bed, you could just put them down with them. We never get to see each other enough."
"Okay. Sounds great." At that a huge green scaled demon burst through the door growling and looked like he was storming towards the sleeping angels in the playpen, at which Piper reacted first and blew up the demon into a million pieces. Discussing puke yellow slime went everywhere. "God, you'd think they would learn!"
Phoebe was beside Piper, "To the book?"
Before Piper could answer Giles jumped up, "Would you mind, possibly if I could get a look at this book. I have been studying the occult for over 20 years and this would be fascinating."
"Sure, Paige, could you orb home and grab the book, and if Billie's there, bring her too. She could use the practice to research a post-vanquished demon."
"Got it."
"Well, it looks like you all have some questions."
Xander simply smiled in his feel good manner, "Well, that power must be very useful, I can't imagine what it would be like to be able to blow up demons instead of having to cut off their head!"
TBC…
A/N: Hope you liked the chapter. The demon vanquished part was inspired from the Indiana Jones movie, where the bad guy makes such a big show of twirling around his sword and then Harrison Ford simply shoots him and walks on. I always thought that was a funny moment. Yeah George Lucas! Please, Please, Please Review! And if you like Charmed, check out my new crossover, "A Halliwell at Hogwarts" Where you have 11 year old Wyatt get accepted to a Magic School we are all so familiar with!