Disclaimers: Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon own it all. I'm just doing this for fun, and hopefully entertainment
Reviews: Welcomed and appreciated
What if the Initiative came to Sunnydale a few years earlier than we thought? And what if Angel got chipped instead of Spike? Just an idea…
Graham entered the Summers' house carrying Drucilla while Buffy, Angel and Spike followed close behind. Joyce Summers was on her way down the stairs and almost screamed when she saw her daughter.
"Buffy! Oh honey, are you alright?" She ran to the small girl and began to feel for broken bones.
Buffy smiled. "I'm fine mom, really. But Dru here, you have to help her, I think she's about to have her baby." She was feeling frantic. "Is Giles here?"
"Yes, Buffy. I'm here." Giles walked to the foyer from the living room, closely followed by Xander, Cordelia, Willow and Oz. "Oh dear, yes. She does look about ready." He looked at Joyce Summers for her opinion. "Joyce?"
"Bring her upstairs to my room and call 911." Joyce began to lead the way.
"We can't." Graham answered as he began to follow her.
"What? Of course you can." She dismissed the young man.
"She's a vampire Mrs. Summers. I don't know what they'll do with her."
She opened her mouth to speak, but just nodded. So this was life in Sunnydale? "Fine, bring her up." It wasn't the girl's fault she was a vampire, someone turned her. But what that damn Initiative and that damn woman did, well as far as she was concerned, that was unforgivable. "We'll take care of you sweetheart." Her voice was so maternal that Drucilla forgot for a moment just what she was and felt her non-existent heart swell with emotion.
Hormones, she thought in her pain induced fog, well, I'd better take it while I can, once this baby comes I won't be having these warm feelings. "Thank you." She ground the words out between the painful contractions.
Joyce gave a grave smile and turned to Giles. "I'll need lots of towels, put some water to boil and then cover it and let it cool before you bring it up." She led Graham up the stairs.
It seemed that hours had passed waiting for Drucilla and still Buffy would not speak to Angel. She knew she was being childish, but the fact that he kept her pregnancy from her irked her no end. What else would he keep from her if he felt it was in her best interest? He treated her like a child even if he was willing to have sex with her like an adult. She shook her head and headed to the backyard.
"Baby please." Angel followed, pleading with her. "I know I made a mistake, but you have to know it was because I love you. I didn't want to lay this on you with your mother not safe." He took a deep breath, "And I was still fighting for control of my life. Our life."
It still freaked her out that for periods during the past few days Angel had been at odds with Angelus. What would've happened if the Initiative hadn't chipped Angelus? It was really a great advertisement for abstinence. Never the less, Angel knew about the pregnancy and didn't tell her. If it wasn't for that great pain in the ass Spike, she still might not know.
"You know how it made me feel to have Spike tell me I was pregnant? That wasn't right, you should've told me." She turned and looked deeply into his eyes. "I'm the slayer not some little teenage bimbo. Okay, sometimes I may act like a teenager, but I know who I am and I know what I want." She turned away from him, "You're my lover not my keeper Angel. You need to trust me and I need to trust you and right now I just don't know if I can."
"Baby please, I made a really bad decision. I did it because I love you and because I wanted to protect you, but it was the wrong thing to do. I promise I will never underestimate you again." He laid his hands lightly on her shoulders. "What do you want to do this?"
Buffy snorted as she turned into his arms. "Like I'm going to end us because you were stupid? I don't think so." She rubbed her face into his chest. "Besides, the sex is just too great."
Angel softly laughed. "I didn't mean about us, I meant about the baby." He pulled away and held her at arms length. "Do you want to have this child? Whatever you decide Buffy, I'll support you 100."
Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at him. "What do you want Angel? You're involved in this as well."
"I…I…you're so young, I don't want to pressure you into something… gods Buffy. A child with you, a child I never thought I would ever be able to have." He paused, his eyes becoming shiny. "Baby, I love you and I don't want to make you do something you're not ready for. And I guess I'm capable, so we could have kids later, if you want."
She hit him softly on his arm. "You are such a dufus. As if I could kill your child. When we made love, whether it was you or Angelus, it was making love for me. Love. This child was conceived in love Angel and I would as soon end this world as end his life, or her life. Hey! Can you tell what sex the baby is?"
He chuckled. "No, just that there's life, new life." He rubbed his hand over her stomach. "So, you want this baby? My baby?"
"Umm, yeah. Think my little heartfelt speech relayed that fact." She dug deeper into his arms. "You know, as the slayer I may never have the chance to have another baby. I mean who really knows how much longer I'll be around." She looked up at him. "We don't live to ripe old age so I've been told. But you'll be able to take care of our child for a very long time."
"Don't go there Buffy. You are going to live to see our children's children. I'll make sure of that." He pulled her close and held on.
"Children, huh? You planning on us having more kids? Let me see how this one feels first, okay? I mean, if Dru is any example of what I can expect, I may be scheduling a c-section."
Graham was sitting behind Drucilla, supporting her back as she pushed. "One more time Dru, it's close." He fought back tears as he could only imagine the pain she was experiencing.
"Graham, please. You have to give me the stake. The only way this baby will come out is if I end my life. I saw it Graham." Her voice was strained and filled with pain.
Joyce shook her head. "Stop being such a drama queen. This is what we women go through. You haven't been in labor all that long. I see the baby's head. Give me another push when I say and this'll be over soon." She turned to Giles. "Give me those clean towels and put one in the water." Looking over the girls knees she smiled at her. "Okay now, give me one last push. Hard, sweetheart, push really hard and stop when I tell you."
Giles turned his head as he fought his nausea. He really ought to call his mum more often, he thought.
Drucilla sat up closer to her knees while Graham held on to her. She squeezed his hand as she pushed for all she was worth.
"Don't stop, don't stop. Here he comes! Stop pushing Drucilla." Joyce smiled as she caught the small child. "Okay, dear. Relax." She placed her pinky finger in the baby's mouth and pulled out a chunk of something Giles didn't want to know about. "Give me those scissors and that shoestring." He turned his head as he reached for the items she asked for and a damp towel. Before she even had a chance to wipe him down, he began to cry. A healthy, loud sound that made Drucilla burst into tears.
"Is he alright then?" Drucilla attempted to sit up, but Graham had laid her back on the pillows.
"He's perfect Drucilla, let me just clean him off and you can have him." Joyce smiled as she wiped off the small child, so perfect she thought. His eyes opened and he looked up at her. "Beautiful." She handed him over to his mother.
"No." Dru turned her head. "I shouldn't. I don't want to hurt him."
Graham took the baby from Joyce and sat on the edge of the bed. "Dru, is that what you're feeling right now? Do you want to hurt him? Drink from him?" Joyce rose from the foot of the bed and quietly led Giles from the room.
Neither Drucilla nor Graham noticed them leave. "No, not right now. But I might." Drucilla's voice held fear.
He laid the child in her arms. "Okay then, when you do I'll be right here and I'll take him from you." He looked into her eyes. "Okay?"
She looked up at the man next to her and then down at the child in her arms and felt something she couldn't remember feeling in centuries. Love, selfless love. And devotion. "How?"
"What Dru?" Graham moved over to an armchair and looked at vampire questioningly.
"How can I feel this? Love. I feel love for him Graham. I don't have a soul, but I feel so much for this child. How can this be?" She was so bewildered.
"You're his mother. I guess that supersedes everything else? Don't question it Dru, just go with it." He couldn't fight the look in his eyes. Love, he had fallen for Dru not long after they brought her in, but so had Riley and his friend had moved on those feelings. Something Graham just couldn't do and once his friend had made his declaration, well it just wouldn't have been proper to move on Riley. It was all too weird. So he let it go. Maybe it was too late, but he'd stand by her as long as she needed him. And maybe, who knows? He shrugged.
Spike had been standing just outside the door. What was all this bullshit, he thought? Entering the room, he went to stand besides Dru. "So, now that this sick experiment is over we can get on with our lives, yeah? I mean, moony- eyed soldier boy here can take the brat and we can get out of Sunnydale for good." He reached for the baby, but Dru pulled him out of Spike's reach.
Drucilla laughed. "Oh Spike, my sweet boy. This is my son. I want him. And really love, after almost a year, you think we'll just pick up where we left off? I'm different, and not just because of my baby."
"But you still need me pet. You need me to take care of you. More so now because of that chip." He was almost pleading.
"I can take care of her and the baby." Graham had stood up, resenting the bleach blond vampire's intrusion.
"Oh, simmer down soldier boy. All your little playmates are dead or running, so it's just you. Really think you can take me?" Spike smirked.
"I can try." Graham wasn't budging.
"Oh for fuck's sake. Can the two of you just put the volume down on the testosterone? Drucilla needs to rest and your gonna make the baby cry." Buffy had come up to check on the vampire on her baby. "And Spike, get real. I mean you deserted her. You lost, pack your bottle of bleach and hit it." She turned to Dru. "Can I see him?"
Drucilla handed her son over to the slayer. "He's awake."
Buffy held the child up to her face as Angel came up to stand behind her. "He's warm."
"He's human Buffy. Wonder what he'll be like when he comes into his lineage." Angel ran his finger over the baby's arm, visions of his own child swimming through his head.
"His lineage? What do you mean?"
Drucilla spoke up. "He's human, but he's still half vampire. He's bound to have abilities." She looked up at her sire. "Can I do this Angel?"
"I have no doubts Dru." Angel answered.
"Oh, give me a bloody break! This is all just a little too warm and fuzzy for me." He turned to Drucilla. "Are you seriously telling me you would choose this domestic bullshit over the life we had?"
"What life Spike? Me being crazy and you taking care of me?" She shrugged. "Well I'll take domestic sanity anytime. I don't know why or how this happened, how or if the chip and this child changed me, but I'm holding on to it for as long as I can. I'm sorry Spike, but you no longer fit into my life. I lost Riley, but I will not lose his son."
Spike sputtered incredulously. "This is un-fucking-believable. You would actually stay here? With them?"
Graham spoke up. "Don't know if we'll stay here, might not be safe yet Dru."
"And what do you have to do with this?" Spike asked angrily.
Drucilla answered. "Please Spike, this is how it has to be. You could never share me with a child and I could never go back to that life. Not now." She looked into his eyes, begging him to understand. Despite it all, his desertion, his deceptions, she loved him. She was, after all, his sire.
"Bugger you all. I've had enough of all this domestic bliss. See you all in hell." He pushed past Angel and headed down the stairs.
Dru turned to Angel. "Please."
"I'll talk to him before he goes." He kissed Buffy and followed Spike.
"Wow, that was really something Drucilla. So, you're feeling all maternally? Do you think it'll last?" She handed the baby back to the vampire.
Drucilla glanced over at Graham. "I don't know. As I told Spike, I don't know what happened to me while I was in the Initiative, but I'm not the same. I'm not even the same girl I was before I was turned. The chip, the experiments, the hormones. Him." She looked down at her baby. "Maybe one, maybe all. But I'm different and I'm going to enjoy whatever they did to me. I really thought I was going to die and the baby's father was going to raise him," she looked at Graham again. "I was half right, wasn't I?" A realization lighting her eyes.
Buffy looked at the two of them in confusion. "Did I totally miss something?"
Graham stared down at his hands. "Riley's sperm didn't take the first time, so Walsh used mine. She told me after you left. Guess she thought it would be added impetus for me to find you. But I had already accepted the fact that the two of you had fallen in love and I was okay with the fact that he would raise the baby, my baby, with love." He looked up at Dru. "You loved him, he loved you. I just wanted you safe. God Drucilla, how could you take that kind of chance and come back?"
Her eyes were wide. She knew Graham had feelings for her but she didn't realize the extent. She also knew Graham had loved Riley and was hurting and feeling guilt from his death, "I had to return, I don't know what was calling me back. I thought it was Buffy and Angel. But now I think the baby wanted us back here. I just wish Riley hadn't…" She felt the tears come to her eyes. She had loved him and she didn't know how to deal with this revelation.
"I know you loved him Dru. I did too. And I expect nothing from you. Just let me help you. You and the baby." He said quietly.
"Oh wow." Buffy could feel the emotions in the room and it floored her. "Guess I should let you guys work this out. Oh, Drucilla. Do you need some blood? And mom picked up some baby formula. I mean, just in case you can't breast feed." She stood uncomfortably by the door, really wanting to leave.
"Yes, some blood. I don't know about the breast feeding. My breasts feel full, but I don't know if I can nourish him. Perhaps you could bring some formula, just in case."
"Yeah, I'll send mom up. She'll know what to do." Buffy almost ran out of the room, she took one last look and saw the two of them staring at each other, not sure what to say. She rolled her eyes. Were all relationships so complicated? Or was it just vampire-human ones?