Chapter 7

Author's note: Sorry if the last chapter dragged a bit but I'm still trying to get the plot out easily so it's not too confuddling! Thank you to anyone who reviewed, it really makes my day! I hope that I've picked up the pace again so enjoy, but don't worry, the chapters will get longer:- )

Angel walked into the training room where Spike was throwing punches and kicks into a punch bag. The fake blonde had vamped out and pretended not to notice his grandsire when he entered the room.

"Bad… morning?"

Hitting twice more and finishing with a round off kick Spike swung around and shook of his fangs.

"Could say that. What do you want?" Spike was breathing heavily, out of habit, and brushed past Angel on his way out.

Following him out into the corridor Angel replied: "Came to find you for Buffy, she phoned from the hospital wing asking for you."

Spike stopped when he heard the word hospital and quickly turned with a concerned look on his face. It had been two days since Buffy had been released and Willow, Eve and Fred were all also out. So far there hadn't been any more attacks but demons around town had been going crazy and Buffy had spent her time counselling people who had seen or been in an attack. Dawn and Xander's flight had been delayed again and they were due in that evening.

'I told you the whelp couldn't manage to book a suitable flight,' had been Spike's words when he was told of the delay. Something must be wrong for Buffy to be back up there.

"How long ago did she ring?"

"10 minutes?"

"God damn it. Did she say what was wrong?"

"No. All she said was that she needed to see you in her room."

"Bloody hell." Spike swore as he marched off to the lifts.

'You're welcome? Ass hole.' Angel turned in the opposite direction to his office, making a mental note to ask Buffy what was wrong later. She hadn't sounded worried on the phone and he knew her better than to start molly coddling her if there was nothing wrong. Besides recently it had been made quite clear Spike was the only one allowed to show concern and not have his head bitten off for doing so.

When Spike got to the suite he had started calling home, he unlocked the door and marched in. 'Typical the one time she remembers to lock the door I'm in a hurry.'

Buffy was sat on the edge of the bed with her hands clasped on her lap and staring at a spot on the floor.

"Buffy?"

Looking up from the floor, Buffy saw the worry on the vampire's features and couldn't help but smile at how flustered he appeared.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Her reply was blank and careless.

"Nothing? Angel said there was something wrong."

"Exactly." Spike sat down next to her and looked at her, a thousand questions in his eyes. "I'm not pregnant."

Immediately the throbbing feeling in his stomach stopped, and his non-existent blood pressure sunk to a lower level. When Buffy had come out of hospital, the doctor had said something to them both that no one else knew about. When the mysterious disease had spread Buffy was the only one to start throwing up whereas all the others had simply had 'a strong bout of flu', and Buffy and Spike's fear had been that she had become pregnant when she was raped.

"But…the test?"

"It was a false alarm. Apparently home pregnancy tests are never all that reliable, plus using a demon one probably didn't help."

Spike smirked at that. He had been in such a hurry to get a test he grabbed the first one he found before anyone noticed him. "I didn't even know they sold demon pregnancy tests."

"Learn something new everyday." Buffy shot him one of her thousand watt smiles, that he hadn't seen for so long, and he couldn't help but lean over and kiss her soundly. Feeling her fall deeper into him, Spike ran his hands up underneath her cotton tank top and rubbed his hands up an down her warm, smooth back.

"Mmmm…Love you"

"Love you too."

Buffy pressed her forehead against his and looked into his deep blue eyes. "Y'know, I know it sounds weird , but if I had been pregnant…"

"Wouldn't 'av been all that bad?" He finished for her.

"Yeah. I mean I'd love to have a child and, I know for us…but we'd still raise it, and….." Tears began to well up in her eyes, and she angrily wiped at them.

"Shhh, don't worry 'luv, 's understandable."

"No, it's stupid."

"No, it's not" Spike repeated firmly. He couldn't stand it when his Buffy cried, it reminded him too much of back when he was the cause for her tears, and now vowed to himself that no matter what he would make sure she was always happy.

"I…I'll be alright once Dawn and Xander get here, everything's just been so crazy for the past week that I haven't had time to stop and think."

"Don't worry 'luv, they're due in anytime tonight."

In the darkness of a basement office, a small man with large glasses sat staring at the row of television screens in front of him. Black and white figures flashed across the screens at two second intervals.

"The drug has been safely imported at several different ports."

"Goood." A deep voice chuckled in from the shadows.

"Another 2 hours and we should have enough of a build to send in the next phase of our plan." Another voice drawled.

"So it would seem…"