The woman gave them both a slightly concerned look.
"Um, are you alright?" Buffy shook her head.
"Sorry…What's your name?" The woman gave an embarrassed half smile, and nodded.
"Oh, I always forget that. I'm Mariana Wychel…You must be Buffy Summers…Hi. And, this is?" she asked, pointing to the still surprised Dawn. "Is she okay?"
"She's fine…This is my sister, Dawn. She has your class next hour." Mariana smiled, shaking her hand.
"Nice to meet you Dawn."
"You too…" she said softly.
"Dawn, uh, why don't you go get something to eat?" Buffy stated, shooing her off to lunch. Nodding slowly, Dawn walked away, eyes still wide with confusion.
"You both seemed really surprised to see me here…Is there something wrong with this?" she asked, motioning behind her and indicating the fighting.
"Oh, no…It's just…Gosh, it's a long story."
"Well…Why don't we get together after school gets out? Go grab a cup of coffee or something, so you can tell me?"
"Oh, sure! Sounds great. I was actually just about to see if you wanted to come to the teacher's lounge for lunch…" Mariana smiled.
"I'd love to. I didn't get to eat breakfast, I was so excited about today…"
They were sitting at the table, just about to start eating, when Buffy's phone rang again. Slightly confused, she answered it.
"Hello?"
"Buffy, it's Doctor Monroe again…Listen…I wasn't finished. I said Alex was pregnant…"
"Yeah…" she asked slowly, turning away from Mariana.
"That means that, when she died, she wasn't pregnant anymore. There are traces in her uterus of a baby, of the umbilical cord, and everything…but there was no baby. It was like someone reached into her and took the baby and the umbilical cord, but not the placenta. It was still there, still completely intact. It was like an act of God…" Buffy paused, and turned to look at Mariana.
"Hang on a second, Doctor."
"Alright…" Buffy lowered the phone, her hand over the mic, and looked at Mariana again.
"Can I ask you something?" Mariana smiled.
"Ask anything."
"Do you have a child?" Mariana looked at her a little oddly for a second, but nodded.
"Yes, I do. She's about a year old…Her name is Kiara." Buffy smiled.
"Thanks…Doc?"
"Yeah?"
"Did Alex know?" Monroe sighed.
"I highly doubt it, considering she did ask someone to kill her…" Buffy sighed, sadly, and nodded.
"I wish she had known…perhaps she'd still be here…"
"Perhaps…That's all I had to tell you, Buffy."
"Well, thank you very much, Doctor…Uh…Is there anyway to tell who the dad would have been?"
"Uh, yes…yes, there is. Traces of the child's blood are still here, and we still have the sample of Alex's blood we took when you guys came in last year…all I need is a blood sample of the potential father."
"No problem…"
Buffy pushed open her front door, leading Mariana inside.
"I think you're going to prefer this coffee to the coffee in town." Mariana smiled.
"I hope…Thanks again, Buffy, for inviting me over."
"Oh, it's no problem. Go on into the dining room, make yourself comfortable…In fact, if you want…" Buffy walked in, and pulled open a drawer, removing a laptop. "You can go to the school's website, and check out all the students, learn who's in your classes."
"Aw, thanks, Buffy." She smiled.
"I have to run downstairs, to talk to someone…I'll be right back." Mariana nodded, and clicked onto the Internet.
Buffy jogged down the steps, and found Spike sitting on the floor in the corner, scratching things into the concrete with a knife.
"Spike? I need a favor…" He turned his head.
"What?"
"You need to go to the morgue, so that they can take a sample of your blood…"
"Why?" he asked, looking at her.
"It's because of something the doctor told me…"
"What did he tell you?" Buffy sighed, rubbing her eyes.
"If I told you, you'd flip out, Spike. Could you do this?" she asked, starting back towards the stairs.
"Only if you tell me why!" he called. She spun around.
"Alex was pregnant, Spike!"
Mariana clicked on the yearbook page, to see pictures and stats of the students, and heard footsteps behind her.
"Oh! I almost called you Buffy, I'm sorry…" Mariana smiled.
"That's okay…Buffy invited me over, for coffee…She said she had to do something downstairs…" Willow nodded, moving around the table.
"Oh, alright. Before I forget again, I'm Willow," she said, smiling. Mariana hit enter on the keyboard, and raised her hand, shaking Willow's, then her head.
"I'm Mariana…" Willow stumbled backwards, seeing her face, in utter shock. She hit the bookshelf, knocking a vase to the floor, smashing it. "Oh, gosh, are you alright?" she asked, jumping out of her chair.
"I…I'm fine…Sorry…"
"You're the third person to seem so surprised and…somewhat scared to see me today…Buffy and her sister Dawn did almost the same thing…" Willow nodded. Mariana looked around, and pulled a garbage can over, kneeling on the floor with her hair hanging around her face. Buffy and Spike jogged upstairs, stopping in the doorway. Mariana scooped up pieces of the vase, letting them fall into the garbage.
"Spike, go on to the morgue…You can meet our guest when you come back." He started out the door, but Mariana looked up, dropping pieces into the can.
"Spike?" she asked softly. He pulled the door closed behind him as he jogged down the steps. She stood up, confused, and pulled the door open. She watched Spike climb onto his bike, and take off.
"Mariana? What is it?"
"I know that name…and that face…Buffy? Where is he headed?" Buffy gave her an odd look.
"He's going to the morgue…It's right downtown." Mariana nodded. "Why?"
"He seems so familiar…" Buffy paused, thinking for a second.
"Where do you live?" Mariana glanced behind her.
"Just down the road, actually…"
"Your daughter there?"
"Nope…Daycare, right down the road from the morgue, actually…Why?"
"Why don't we pick her up, so you can take her with you when you go to see Spike?" Mariana shook her head.
"It'd be too traumatic…"
"Willow, we'll be back…" They jogged outside, climbing into Buffy's car. "Do you know her father?"
"Kiara's?"
"Yeah."
"Actually, when I found out I was pregnant, I was baffled. I hadn't been with a guy in, like, a year and a half, at least, and I didn't know how I had a kid…" Buffy gave a faint smile.
"Let's pick her up, you can do a little…DNA check, of her DNA and yours, against Spike's…If you want…I just wanna see…" Mariana sighed.
"Why not…"
Mariana put Kiara on her hip, holding her head against her shoulder, humming a little tune.
"What're you humming?"
"Something I heard a while back…Called 'Early In The Morning…' Don't know how I know it, but I do…" Buffy nodded, thinking, Man, this is getting really weird…She's humming a song Spike's mother sang him, she was practically a born-again-virgin who had a kid…She looks identical to Alex…What is going on here…? Buffy smiled at Mariana, and pulled the door open to the office. Spike looked up from his place on the metal table, giving Buffy an odd look.
"Spike…I want you to meet someone…" He shrugged, and looked over at Monroe.
"Hold still, Spike…" He dabbed a place on Spike's arm with a cotton swab, and pushed the needle thru his skin and into a vein. Mariana shot a glance over at him, and looked away, smiling behind her hair. He sat on the table, in just his tennis shoes and black jeans. He'd tugged off his black, sleeveless shirt and his long black jacket, draping them over the table beside him. The doctor pulled some blood into the needle, took it out, dabbed that spot again, and reached behind him for a band-aid.
"Uh…Spike…This is Mariana…" Mariana closed her bright blue eyes, and turned her head, opening them again and looking at Spike. His reaction wasn't anything like the others. He hopped off the table, after the doctor put the band-aid on him, and ran his fingers over her cheek.
"Mariana…?" he asked. She nodded, looking at him with curious eyes. Buffy moved around, gently taking Kiara out of Mariana's arms.
"Let me hold her…" She walked over, pulling Monroe with, and talked to him quietly. Mariana backed against the wall, her breathing becoming a little shaky.
"What…are you doing?" she asked Spike softly. He looked into her eyes, and let his hand fall to her shoulder, tracing his fingers over her arm, her stomach, and pulling them up to her chest. Mariana took in a sharp breath, shoving his hands back. "Don't you dare do that again," she snapped, taking a step from the wall. He pushed her against the wall again, and shoved his lips against hers roughly. She widened her eyes, and shoved him away. Buffy walked over to Mariana and Spike, holding Kiara.
"He says he'll get yours and Kiara's DNA now…" Mariana took her daughter, and climbed up onto the table. Spike took his jacket and shirt, and tugged Buffy outside the office.
"Who the hell is that?"
"She's a new teacher at the high school…Self-defense teacher. Spike…When Monroe called me earlier, he said that Alex was pregnant, three months pregnant, but that she didn't know it. That was why she was seeing things, hearing things, all that shit she told you. But right before she died, right before you stabbed her, the baby was just gone. Monroe said that it was like someone had just reached into Alex, taken the baby and the umbilical cord, and left everything else untouched. It was an act of God. That baby would be a year old right now, roughly. That's why I brought Mariana in here. She's identical to Alex, and she has a one year old baby girl…Don't try to do stuff with her you would have done with Alex, she told me on the way over that she hadn't had sex for, like, a year and a half prior to becoming pregnant…"
"How'd she have a kid, then?"
"She doesn't know. She's as baffled as the rest of us…" Spike looked over his shoulder at Mariana, who was glancing back at him thru the window in the door. He sighed, and ran his hand over his face, looking back at Buffy.
"Do you think…" He trailed off. Buffy shrugged, turning to head down the hall.
"I don't know what to think just yet, Spike…I mean, she says that you look familiar, like she knows you, and right as we walked in, she was humming that song you hum once in a while…" He turned and looked back at Mariana. She was talking to Monroe.
"Go wait outside…I want to talk to her again…" Mariana opened the door, and paused.
"Buffy? Can you take Kiara outside?" Buffy nodded, taking the little girl, and walked out the door. Mariana looked up at Spike, and glanced beside her. Monroe gathered up the vials he'd just filled, and carried them off into another room. When she looked back, Spike pushed his hand against her throat, knocking her into the wall.
"How do you know that song?"
"What song?"
"The one you were humming earlier." She squeezed her eyes closed.
"I don't know how…" She raised her hands, and gripped his wrist tightly, shoving him against the opposite wall and dropping her feet to the floor. She began to cough, crouching down and rubbing her throat. Spike looked down at her, and helped her back up. "Why are you such an asshole?" she snapped, pulling away and starting out the door.
"Because of how you look." She paused, lifting her eyes.
"What?"
"Buffy didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?" she asked. Spike groaned, grabbing her by the wrist, and pulled her outside. Buffy turned around, still holding Kiara.
"Can you drop Kiara off somewhere where she can be taken care of for a while? We have a lot to tell you," Spike said. Buffy sighed, and Mariana nodded.
"Yeah…Back at the daycare center, they're twenty-four hours." They moved down the street, and Mariana left Kiara with one of the sitters inside. Going back, Mariana started to open Buffy's door.
"I'd like it if you rode back with me," Spike said, motioning to his bike. Mariana turned, and shrugged.
"Alright."
She felt the bike stop, and slowly climbed off, tugging the helmet off and shaking her head. Spike stood, watching her carefully. Mariana looked over at him.
"Why do you always look at me like that?" she asked softly. He shrugged.
"We're going to explain it to you later…" Buffy walked up to the house on her cel phone.
"No, Giles, I'm serious…You have to see this, come on over, please? Thank you…We'll see you in a few…"
"Who was that?" Mariana asked. They pushed the door closed behind them. Buffy looked over.
"My friend Giles…He used to be the librarian, at the old high school…" Mariana nodded.
"Ah, neat…" She jumped, and reached into her back pocket, pulling her cel phone out. "Hello? Yes, this is she…Oh, god, alright, Melissa…I'll be there in a minute…" She closed her phone and shoved it back into her pocket. "Buffy, can you drive me back to the daycare center? Kiara's gotten sick, I need to pick her up…" Buffy nodded, but Spike took her hand.
"I'll take you."
"I can't carry her on a bike…"
"Buffy, keys." Buffy tossed him her keys, and watched them jog out to the car.
"Spike, why do you insist on driving me around right now?" she asked as they pulled out of the driveway and headed back to the daycare center.
"Because…I wanna…get to know you," he said, rolling his eyes. She didn't see it.
"Well…that's nice…but your creeping me out…No offense or anything," she said, looking over at him. He shrugged, and pulled up in front of the daycare center. "Wait here…" Melissa jogged inside, and picked up the little girl, then headed back out and dropped down in the front seat of the car, buckling the seat belt around them.
Buffy looked over at Giles.
"What does it say?"
"Buffy…I'm not sure you're going to believe me…"
"Just tell me…Please?" Giles sighed, and looked down at the book.
"There is a prophecy that, once every few hundred years, there will be two Slayers, born a few years apart, living at the same time…."
"I know that one…I knew that a long time ago…"
"It goes on to say, and I don't know why I didn't see this before, but it says that one Slayer will die…"
"Does it say which one?"
"The older Slayer will die, and it says that the older Slayer will be the more tormented soul…"
"Alex did have her problems," Buffy said softly, looking up at Willow and Xander.
"But it also says, a few pages later…" He flipped a few pages, skimming. "It says that the murdered Slayer will be reincarnated into a similar body, with every single memory of the deceased one, though many will be locked away in a bout of amnesia…This new person will have been in existence, but it will be a person no one really liked, or that was one of those hermit people…They'll be the same age as the deceased would be now…"
"Does it say anything about the Slayer having a child?"
"Uh, yes, it does…how did you know?"
"Alex was pregnant before she died. But…" Buffy went on to explain it to Giles and Willow as Spike and Mariana pulled up in front of the house. Giles looked down at the book.
"It says a girl named Alexandria will become the first-born Slayer of this time…You will be the second," he said, looking at Buffy. "Alexandria will die, and remain that way, searching for a body, for a year. The body she takes will venture to Alexandria's home town…of course…it says that Alexandria will die before she knows of the child inside her, and before she can die, the child will be removed from her body, and placed into the body of the one she will enter later on…" Mariana looked around the living room.
"Does it say who Alex will inhabit…?" Buffy asked. Mariana glanced up at Spike, Kiara asleep against her shoulder. No one saw them standing there.
"The spirit of the older Slayer Alexandria will inhabit the body of newcomer Mariana…"