Title: The Sacrifices
Author: mispel
E-mail: PG-13
Summary: Anya recruits Halfrek. Harmony is rescued. Buffy and the gang deal with the baby.
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: Harmony revealed her plans to sell the baby as a sacrifice. Buffy searched for the surviving demon. Anya tied up Harmony and went off to find an informant. Xander was left with the baby.
The Sacrifices
Chapter 7: Confluence
Dragging her feet, Buffy strolled home. It didn't feel like a full night's slaying. Two vamps - well one and a half, really - and a demon for whom she couldn't take credit, and another demon she couldn't catch.
Buffy went through smelly alleys, empty parking lots; walked by abandoned buildings and through a park - all the places you weren't supposed to go. She even lay down on a park bench and pretended to be asleep, practically wearing an "I am demon food, come and get me" sign.
Buffy heard tires screech on a nearby street. She heard someone stepping on broken glass, but nothing attacked her. Turning over, Buffy looked up at the moon. It still looked crooked. Then a ragged edge of a cloud started across it. The sky hadn't been still all night. The clouds were sweeping one after the other, meeting up then separating. The moon wasn't in the same place where it started. When the clouds blocked out the moon, Buffy got up and started home through deserted, but well lit suburban streets.
As he walked down the sidewalk to Buffy's house, Xander looked at the baby. The kid leaned on his shoulder taking even, soft breaths.
"You asleep little guy?"
The streets of Buffy's neighborhood were empty but not too scary. Xander could hear a TV blaring a few houses away. A comfortingly boring, tan sedan pulled into a garage down the block. A nice place to raise kids. Nothing to worry about. Unless a police car happened by and spotted Xander with an illegally obtained baby and an unbelievable excuse.
"You probably think that I'm this big guy who's got it all together," Xander said to the child. The kid had no comment.
"We can be buds though, right? Sure, I eat solid food. Most of the time." The baby didn't look impressed. Xander tried again, "I mean, I'm so on a roll, I can't even recognize me. A real job. An apartment that's not a subterranean dump. One wedding away from having it all. So what went wrong, you ask." Actually the kid didn't ask. But he would if he could. He was such a good, little listener. He just didn't want to interrupt.
"Fate woke up from his nap, that's what happened. Because, see, fate is a lying, old man in a cheesy trench coat," Xander explained to the attentive, little kid as they passed well kept lawns. A tree had a garage sale sign tacked on it. Everything was as it should be in the land of suburbia.
"So fate looks my way and it's like, 'Whoa there, this is not for you. Xander Harris, who do you think you are? Back up a little. Take a look at this magic 8-ball.' And that's it," Xander told the sleepy kid. The child shifted a little, maybe made a little baby sound of sympathy.
Xander had been sleepwalking. Looking at that glowing sphere was a really harsh wake up call. No soft-spoken "wakey, wakey". It was a rousing slap in face, a punch in the gut, a blow to the head. A big reminder of who he was and who he would turn into if he wasn't careful.
So he got off the marriage highway at the next ramp. It was at the last possible second - a sharp turn, tires squealing, rubber marking the road. And he left a ten car pileup behind him. But at least he wasn't on that road any more. This road looked familiar, but he didn't know where it went. As he took the last steps to Buffy's door, Xander kept talking to the baby.
"It was for the best, probably. But it doesn't change the fact that I got suckered. So here is a lesson, one to grow on. If on your wedding day, or at any time, an old man comes up to you with a glowing ball and tells you he is you from the future, ask some questions. Call the cops on him. Make him do a Snoopy dance. Damn his arthritic knees. Woops, sorry about the 'damn'. You didn't hear it from me. It's not going to be your first word, is it?" Xander asked the baby worriedly, craning his head to see if maybe he was safely asleep and incorruptible.
Xander stood on Buffy's front porch and looked down at the kid he was holding. The baby squinted a little under the porch light. He had no idea about his narrow escape. He was in pretty good shape. Not even that dirty. It was just luck that had saved him. But he was ready to fall asleep like nothing had happened.
"Hey, little dude, we're here. When we go in, watch out - they'll be on you like girls on cute. Now, we're going to be outnumbered. It's two against three, and you are kind of small for your size. So stick close to me, and follow my lead," he told the baby just before he walked through the door.
Anya was behind a convenience store searching for the informant that could tell her about the demons who owned a big, ugly jewel and sacrificed babies. He was a slurpee addict and liked to stick close to the source and pick up discarded containers while they were still fresh and lick out the leftovers with his long tongue. Demons could be so gross. Anya kicked at a discarded cardboard box big enough to hide a smallish demon. It skidded away empty.
She wanted to blame Xander, but Anya knew that the current state of her demon reputation was her own fault. Maybe it hadn't been the greatest idea to invite all her so-called demon friends to her so-called wedding. Anya just hadn't wanted half the rented chairs to be empty. On one side of the isle, friends of Xander, on the other side, a lonely wind howling through row after row of empty seats. So they were all conveniently on hand to witness one of the most powerful and feared vengeance demons get dumped at the alter by a human. Well at least Xander's family made a good impression on them. She was still hearing the awed tales of their almost demonlike savagery.
As she walked around the small building, Anya decided that she was doing this because she was bored and to get a few much needed points from D'Hoffryn. Not because of Xander. He was irrelevant. And she wasn't hanging around cemeteries because of old times, or because she hoped to run into him. She did happen to see him with Buffy. But she wasn't spying. Xander and Buffy were spending a lot of time together, though. And not in a cumbersome threesome, in a convenient, little twosome. How cozy.
Finding his filthy layer, but not the demon, Anya stalked off toward a demon bar he liked to frequent. She almost ran right into Halfrek who had appeared in front of her.
"I'm bored!" Anya blurted out defensively.
"OK," Hallie said taken aback by her tone. "Want to see a movie?"
"No. Denekari's minions are in town. I'm going to mess up those freaks. Want to come?"
Harmony struggles with the belt but the stupid, bargain basement, crime against fashion actually held together. After each attempt, Harmony would sit and pout for a while. Then, getting bored with that, and worried that she would get fried at sunrise, she went back to trying to get herself free. In the middle of trying to get loose, she saw someone approach and she beamed. A balding, potbellied, old man in a checkered shirt doddered toward her.
"Do you need help, Miss?" he asked while scratching his head. He looked away like he had somewhere to be.
"Umm, yeah. Dah," Harmony told him ungraciously. He nodded and went around the tree.
"You are going to have to get something to cut me loose," Harmony said in a condescending, singsongy voice. Before she was even finished, the man pulled out a pocketknife. Harmony felt a moment of reflexive fear, but then she remembered that a small knife like that couldn't do much damage to her. It was good to be a vampire.
The old man worked on cutting the belt for a while and the whole time chattered about his wife. He had been away. Somewhere. He couldn't remember the name of the place. He couldn't remember lots of things. A nice place, but they wouldn't let him leave. Now he was back and couldn't find her grave. It was all really tragic and sad, but Harmony wasn't listening. She was hatching a plan.
Once her hands were freed, the old man gave her a hand up. Then he was ready to go on his way, but Harmony stopped him.
"No, Miss. I have to go. She'll think I forgot her," the old man told her as he tried to leave.
Harmony grabbed him by the throat and crushed his windpipe. He dropped to the ground and was dead in no time. Harmony thought how lucky it was that he came along.
When Buffy got home, Dawn opened the door in her pajamas. Buffy had been reaching for the doorknob and she stopped short.
"I see you are ready for bed, but not actually in bed. You get partial credit only," Buffy told Dawn as she walked through the front door.
When she saw Willow take a baby to the living room couch, she stared.
"Who's babysitting," Buffy asked as she followed them.
"Xander."
"Really. But you have a real job," Buffy said surprised to find Xander at her place.
"Being a stay at home parent is a valid choice," Xander quipped.
Willow and Dawn were cooing over the baby on the couch as Xander told Buffy what happened. There was a diaper bag on the coffee table. They had pulled out the contents looking for clues. Now there were diapers, teething rings, and other baby paraphernalia all over the living room. But no convenient "Property Of" stickers or "If Found Return To" tags.
"They make you put tags on luggage. And on dogs. But a baby can just wander around with no ID," Xander said jokingly to a grumpy Buffy.
"We'll all get arrested for kidnapping. Stupid Harmony," Buffy groused.
"We'll sneak the baby back to LA. Maybe we can leave it on an orphanage doorstep," Xander suggested, kidding again.
"Hey, don't leave any prints on the baby, it's going back," Buffy announced and her face was totally serious.
Willow and Dawn looked at Buffy strangely then turned their attention back to the baby.
"What's with you? Aren't you supposed to be slobbering over the baby? It's your duty as a certified, card carrying female," Xander asked.
Seeing as everyone thought she was being strange and unfeeling, Buffy decided to confess.
"I'm trying not to look directly at him. If I can avoid his cute rays, I'll be safe," she explained though everyone still looked at her funny.
"He is cute. Can we keep him?" Dawn asked just to see the look on Buffy's face.
Buffy didn't disappoint her.
The underground cavern was silent and ready, filled with waiting demons laid out on the ground. They might have looked asleep, but each one was alert and listening, keeping unseemly impatience at bay with thoughts of finally seeing their god.
To be continued