Title: The Sacrifices
Author: mispel
E-mail: PG-13
Summary: Xander and Anya find a bundle. The new arrival in town reveals herself. Spike is lectured on how to deal with his soul.
Spoilers: Early season 7
Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing
Feedback: Any comments would be welcome
A/N: Takes place in early season 7, not long after Beneath You and Same Time, Same Place.
Previously: An old friend left something at the cemetery. Anya watched Xander and Buffy. Buffy and Xander made a gruesome discovery.
The Sacrifices
Chapter 5: Cacophony
The sudden burst of noise that had cracked the peaceful silence of the demon and vampire infested cemetery settled into a steady wail. Xander gripped the stake in his hand tightly as a reminder that he was armed and ready. He stalked toward the noise while Anya walked over casually.
Xander pushed aside some branches and discovered a baby in a carrier. The baby's face was red and scrunched while he cried. Seeing that he probably wouldn't need the stake, Xander put it away. He noticed that the baby was wearing a blue outfit with yellow ducks or maybe chicks, some kind of poultry. There was also a small, blue blanket bunched up around its kicking feet. Based on all the blue, Xander guessed that the baby must be a boy.
"It's human," Xander concluded as he crouched over the screaming child who looked a few months old.
"That horrible noise didn't come from a human offspring," Anya disagreed dismissively not coming close enough to actually see for herself.
Xander lifted the baby and it quieted down. He shifted the boy until he was holding him comfortably. There, he was a pro, a natural. One day...
Anya still questioned the baby's humanity while peering at him suspiciously. When he offered her a closer look, she scowled at the kid and glared at Xander.
Xander cooed to the baby as he checked to make sure he was all right. The baby was drooling and he didn't look happy, but he seemed OK for a baby abandoned in a Sunnydale cemetery. Remembering the tiny white sock he found by the body of the demon, Xander looked at the baby's feet. They were covered by foootie pajamas. It was good that the kid hadn't been anywhere near the traumatizing, demon, death brawl.
But it wasn't the end of it. There was something other than demon carnage that was known to make babies unhappy. Xander checked the child's diaper gingerly. Safe from the horrors of diaper changing for the moment, he let out a huge sigh of relief. It reminded him that kids were cute and soft and cuddly, and sometimes they grew up to be Nobel Prize winners. But there was all that other stuff that kept parents up at night well into the college years, drove them into debt, tearing their hair out, getting ulcers and second mortgages.
"We were supposed to have one of those," Anya said almost as a question as she looked at the baby, still frowning. "Or a boat."
Xander tried not to think of the two children he had seen in his wedding-stopping vision. They weren't real. He hardly even remembered them. They had faded like faces from a bad dream. But he remembered that they were a huge pain in the ass.
"It was in the plan," Anya said. The plan they had made and he had ruined. He knew it was what she meant.
"Look..." Xander stared, tired of the hinted recriminations. Then he stopped as he saw something move in the shadows.
"Look!"
"You already said that. Only with a different inflection," Anya complained until something jumped her.
A voice came from the walls all around him. It was loud. Felt like the sound was hitting him. Spike hoped that he would go deaf. And blind. Not hearing things and seeing things would be such a relief.
Spike was getting a talking to from the voice. "Hope is a made up thing," it told him. Spike nodded. It was best to agree with everything, avoid a nasty argument.
"Don't let this new thing trip you up. It's nothing. It's like hope. Ignore it, and it will go away. Well, as good as. It will fade, like old curtains left in the sun, threadbare, and see-through, the sun shining right in. Don't fret."
All this talk of sunlight made Spike worry. The voice started to sound familiar. But it was too loud and he couldn't concentrate to recognize it. Abruptly, it changed to a whisper. Its old loudness was a painful echo in Spike's ears. The change threw him off balance.
"Remember how good it used to be? How good it felt. Do you hear that word, 'good'? Good is like salt - you need just a little. You overdosed on it, spoiled the dish, now you're choking," the whisper said, coming from the corner of the room.
Spike could make out a white head there. He stared at it until he could see a small, skinny, old man with white hair. Just as familiarity was about to turn into recognition, the old man looked up and smiled stretching out his face into a terrible grimace. Seeming to reach out across the room as if to enter Spike's mind, the smile stayed frozen on the distended face. Spike couldn't close his eyes to block it out. All he could do was shut his mouth tight so he wouldn't shame himself by screaming.
All Xander saw was a pastel blur rush out from behind a tree and grab Anya from behind. Anya tried to shake it off then she stopped. With one quick twist, Anya threw over her attacker. For the first time, Xander could see her clearly.
"Harmony!"
She was sprawled on the ground going "Ow, ow, ow!". Her hair and clothes were a mess. Looking like she had been playing in the dirt, she stood up casually.
"Hey. So what's new with you guys?" Harmony greeted them placing her hand on one hip. In the other, she carried a grocery bag.
They didn't answer only watched as Harmony tried to run her hand trough her messy hair alluringly only to have it caught in the tangles. Seeing the bewildered glares from Xander and Anya as she untangled her fingers from her head, Harmony gave up her pose.
"That's mine." She pointed to the baby with a ragged, pink fingernail. "That thing you're holding. It's mine," she clarified still pointing.
"Riiight." Xander shifted the baby away from Harmony and raised his stake as a warning.
"If it's yours, prove it," Anya demanded.
"I am not giving a baby to a vampire, Anya," Xander said. He couldn't believe the things she said sometimes.
"We could do that thing, where you each call the baby, and we see who it goes to," Anya suggested reasonably.
"It's not a dog. And it can't walk. I don't think," Xander pointed out. He didn't know much about babies, but he was almost sure this one couldn't walk yet. Xander looked down at the baby as if looking for confirmation. He only got a view of the patch of soft, dark hair on top of his head as the baby was curled in his arms.
"We'll see who it crawls to, then," Anya continued.
"Nooo."
"We could do that other thing, where I take a sword and threaten to split it in two..." Anya made a splitting motion with her hand that chilled Xander a little.
"No splitting!" Xander exclaimed as he held the baby protectively. He was pretty sure Anya wasn't serious. Plus she didn't have a sword.
"Yeah, no splitting. I need it whole. A whole baby," Harmony agreed.
Xander took a deep breath. Talking to Harmony was agony and Anya wasn't helping. Or she was helping but in that way that always made his head hurt. Xander really didn't want to hear any recipes for a 'whole baby'. But he was going to ask about it anyway.
"So you two married yet?" Harmony asked before Xander could say anything.
"Shut up," Anya and Xander said in unison.
"Is that a 'yes'?" Harmony asked vacantly.
Xander couldn't believe that even stupid vampires had a wedding obsession. It was just a ceremony, like the Oscars. Why couldn't they just go on with their lives without it? It was just some words and a piece of paper. There were worse things than not getting married, like a burst appendix, or a scorpion bite, an IRS audit. The baby shifted and made a complaining noise as if to remind Xander of the important issue of the moment.
"Where did you get this kid?" Xander asked Harmony. Harmony looked away with a stubborn set to her jaw.
"Um, Harmony, if you look this way, you'll see I have a stake," Harmony didn't look impressed. "If you look that way, you'll see a vengeance demon you just tried to wrestle with," Xander added. Looking at Anya, Harmony seemed a little worried. Harmony sighed and let her hands fall to her sides. She looked like she was done trying to win this.
"The stupid baby was too much trouble anyway. I can't find the stupid buyer. And I hate diapers," Harmony whined.
Xander held the stake half way up encouraging an actual answer. Harmony shrugged.
"You know, a baby place," she said waving her hand around vaguely.
She moved as if to leave but Anya circled her slowly. Harmony just looked confused, like a penned in sheep.
"Do you mean a dimension made up entirely of babies? They have those, you know," Anya said turning to Xander.
"Really, it must be very poopy," Harmony said wrinkling her nose as if speaking from recent experience.
"Actually..." Anya started to say
But Xander didn't want to hear about an all baby dimension. He had a baby right there, kidnapped by a vampire, for God knows what reason, and he needed to know some stuff if he was going to help the little guy get back where he belonged.
Everything was in its place as decreed. They lay still, waiting for the last element of their ritual to be brought to them. Their ears were just holes on their smooth heads but with them pressed to the ground they could hear if anyone approached. The hatchlings were not yet stirring so there was only silence and far off struggles of things trapped in the dirt.
To be continued