See first chapter for disclaimers.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The scene from the unnamed show is somewhat AU. Thanks to Storyseeker for beta-reading this. As usual, if you have any comments or preferences, please don't be shy. RandR.

PREVIOUSLY: Case Closed

Spice and Wolf and Huh?

A startled scream greeted them as they stepped out of the latest portal. Faith focused on the source of the cry while Xander scanned their surroundings for potential threats. They appeared to be in a rather exotic smelling shop. The shelves were full of boxes and jars and bags that seemed to hold everything from tea leaves and strange looking powders to noxious looking liquids Xander decided not to speculate on.

"Where did you come from?" a female voice demanded even as running footsteps approached from a back room.

"Sorry to startle you," Faith offered. "We're not here to hurt anyone."

"How did you appear out of nowhere?" the woman asked as a man barged in from the backroom, looking around for whatever had made her scream.

"Honey? What's wrong?"

"These two just stepped out of a hole in the air." The woman pointed at Faith and Xander. The man looked at them curiously.

"If you want an explanation," Xander answered honestly, "we don't have one. We've been bouncing around like this for a while now and just want to get home." It wasn't the first time they'd appeared in front of witnesses. They'd discussed it and come up with several strategies, depending on the reactions of the people who saw them. This situation called for honesty, to a point.

"Um, this sounds complicated," the man said, looking between the shopkeeper and her odd guests.

"It is that," Xander agreed. He trailed off, looking at the man.

"Oh! Sorry." The woman introduced herself. "And this is my husband, Monroe."

"So, what does this 'bouncing around' entail?" Monroe asked.

They explained as best they could without giving away too much that might freak out their hosts. The portals dumped them at various inconvenient places around the world, and at each stop, there was someone in trouble or some kind of problem to solve. "Sounds like the plot of a bad Saturday morning cartoon, doesn't it?"

"Honestly?" Monroe asked. "Yeah, but I can't think of a reason you'd make up something like that."

"Whatever trouble you're looking for better not happen in my shop," the woman warned.

"Why don't we take them to see Nick?" Monroe suggested.

"Who's Nick?" Xander asked.

"He's a friend. If there's anything unusual going on in the city, he would have heard about it. He's a homicide detective."

Xander shrugged. "Okay. Worth a shot." The two demon hunters waited while their hosts closed up the shop and headed for their car. It was rather unusual to find people who were so accepting of their bizarre circumstances, let alone people who were helpful in dealing with it. Xander had to admit, he was a bit leery. He glanced at his partner as they rode through the city. Faith would have looked relaxed to anyone that didn't know her as well as Xander did. She didn't trust good fortune either. They'd both met too many of the wrong kind of people in their travels.

These two seemed fairly nice, but there was something about them that put Faith on edge. Xander asked with a look and a slight nod. She responded with an equally minute shake of her head. Whatever they were, she didn't believe they were a threat.

They eventually arrived outside a nice but rather ordinary looking two story suburban home. After parking in the street, their hosts led the way to the front door. The knock was answered by an irritable looking blond woman who nodded to them and turned back into the house. "Nick! Monroe and Rosalie are here, and they brought guests." She then headed upstairs without a word to any of them.

Their hosts glanced at each other in confusion, then shrugged it off and went in. "Nick?" Monroe called.

"In the kitchen," a voice called back, "just feeding the baby."

The hunters followed the couple into the kitchen, where they found a man feeding a baby that looked about six months old. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Well," Monroe began, "these two dropped in on us earlier. It's kind of complicated, but they're in kind of the same line of work, and we basically need to know if there's anything weirder than normal going on in town."

Nick took a moment to look over the two strangers before turning back to spooning pureed something into the baby's mouth. "Not that I know of," he admitted. "Something I should know?"

"Hopefully not," Xander answered.

"I'm kind of wondering what's going on here," Monroe commented, looking toward the upper story. "I thought you guys were getting along pretty well, had the whole co-parenting thing down."

"Yeah, well… Remember last month when I had that misunderstanding with the Council?"

"The one that ended with them sending an assassin after you?" Monroe asked. "Yeah, vaguely." Nick rolled his eyes at the sarcasm.

"After that was wrapped up, we, ah, kind of had a moment." He put a towel over his shoulder, picked up the baby and burped him.

"What kind of moment?" Monroe asked.

"NICK!"

Nick's head snapped around and he put the baby back in his chair before heading into the living room, scanning his surroundings for possible threats. Xander and Faith followed him, while the others watched from the kitchen door so they could keep an eye on the baby.

The blonde they'd seen earlier came down the stairs in a rush, and Xander realized that she didn't look scared. She looked pissed.

"Is something wrong?" Nick asked carefully, having failed to find any obvious threats and taken note of the woman's mood.

"Yes, something's wrong." She grabbed his shirt front and yanked him closer, surprising everyone. "You knocked me up! Again!"

Into the silence that followed, Monroe said. "Oh. That kind of moment."

"Moment?" Faith winced. "You poor thing."

A beat of silence followed this statement as well, and then it was broken by an unladylike snort from Rosalie. She promptly covered her mouth. "Sorry," she squeaked.

"Well," Monroe grabbed her hand as Xander put an arm around Faith and hustled her toward the door. "I can see you two have a lot to talk about. We'll show ourselves out."