Chapter 3

Buffy wanted to lie in front of the air conditioning vent and eat chocolate cake. She wanted a foot rub and a neck massage. She wanted to have sex with Angel. She just couldn't figure out in which order she wanted to do these things.

Angel had rushed back to his office with a purposeful stride. He had gotten a call while they were in the elevator stating a clan was in his office and they were a tad upset. Upset enough to kill a goat sacrifice on Angel's floor while invoking a few different Gods to smite Angel. Buffy wasn't impressed, but Angel had to go keep the peace.

She walked to her office alone. Fat and alone, she thought. She knew she was going to get bigger still, but for the moment, she wanted to wallow in the fact that she was huge. Angel loved it, he said she glowed. She said she couldn't tie her shoes. They were currently at a standoff.

After calling Giles and expressing the good news, she had asked him about Slayers having children. He had told her there had never been a Slayer that had a child. She was going to be the first. That scared her a little. There was no telling how her body would react to being pregnant. She had never been regular; the stress of her life and the constant strain on her body had done a number on her reproductive system.

It figures, she thought, the one time I ovulate in like seven years is the same day I get some. That's my luck.

She was grateful though. She had never thought about being a mom. Well, she had, but fleetingly. She had never thought she would live long enough to have children. Now, she wanted a bunch. She was considering adoption, though, because this was brutal.

When she had a craving, she got violent. It meant that she had been with clients less and less over the past two months, because her hormones were making her emotions unpredictable. Once the morning sickness stopped, which she would be eternally happy about, the cravings had started. It seemed that whatever normal women went through, she was going to experience three fold. She hadn't been sick in the morning; but the baby books all said morning sickness could happen any time. Hers had been all the time.

She had ended up in the med-lab twice to be treated for dehydration. They had given her a prescription for Compazine and that had helped a little with the vomiting. Angel had hovered over her for months. He was constantly worried about her, which she found endearing but also a little annoying. She had finally gotten mad, and in a fit of hormones, thrown him through a wall in her office. The wall had been fixed and he backed off a little.

Dawn was the most excited of everyone, Buffy thought. She went on and on about baby names, and a shower, and being an aunt. Buffy found her excitement contagious. The first few months had been difficult, but Dawn brightened her outlook on the situation every time Buffy thought she couldn't handle it.

Angel had started preparing a nursery only a few weeks after they confirmed she was pregnant. He had spent countless nights painting the spare bedroom across the hall from theirs. There was now an entire solar system on the walls. It was adobe red, with yellows and pinks and blues. It was a beautiful manifesto. It looked like wallpaper, but Buffy knew every line, every dot, had been painted by Angel. He claimed he still needed a couple months to finish it. He only had a couple months, she had told him, she was due in thirteen weeks. She had given him total control over the Nursery project.

She felt she had enough to deal with. She liked her work, but it was challenging. She was on the phone constantly, speaking through translators. She had traveled once, before she had known she was pregnant, but once she had found out, she and Angel had decided that would no longer be a good idea. Some clan leaders wouldn't come to her, so she was forced to telecommute a lot. Not that she minded, it saved her a lot of jet lag.

She looked up at a knock at her door and smiled as Will came in. He came bearing gifts. In his hands were nice little white boxes which she was sure had come from a bakery.

"You shouldn't have."

"Really? I'll just take these back then." He started moving back towards the door.

"Stakes kill hybrids too, I think." He voice was sweet and he laughed. He opened the boxes for her and handed her a huge chocolate cupcake. He knew her well.

Moans of pleasure escaped her lips and he threw his head back and laughed. She had a serious sweet tooth now that she was pregnant.

"How's the rug rat in there doin'?" He sat in front of her desk and pulled a small carton of milk from his jacket pocket for her.

"You're the best. He's good. She's good. I can't call it an it, you know? I want to be surprised. I think Angel wants to know, but he's a control freak. I need to be surprised. He started kicking this afternoon during Angel's speech. I think my bladder's bruised."

She was only half joking. The doctors told her the child would have her strength, or Angel's strength, or maybe both put together. She could be carrying Superman. They told her the child's senses would be enhanced, but probably not as much as Angel's. The doctors also told her she very well might have bruised organs if the child kicked too hard.

So far, though, her and baby, as she called the being inside her, had an agreement. Baby seemed to know just how much he could kick without hurting his mom. He seemed to know how much she could take.

"You look great Buffy." He meant it.

"I feel good. I feel fat, but good."

"You're not fat, you're pregnant. Big difference. And you look beautiful. And that baby is going to be beautiful. You're sure you don't want to know what it is?" He was as curious as Angel.

She laughed, they were incorrigible, really. "No, I don't. And don't go looking for that answer, either."

"Yes ma'am. I've got to back upstairs. I'll see you later?" Rising, he waited for her to nod in between chews and left. He was confident she was going to be a great mom.

He had other things to do than find out the sex of her kid, he told himself. Wesley would be leaving in a few minutes and his opening was small. Making his way towards Wes's office, he hid in a dark corner in the hallway and watched as the two men passed by him. Gunn was talking a mile a minute and Wes looked more distracted than usual.

He ducked into Wes's office as soon as they had rounded the corner. He went to the desk first. Well, the table, he corrected himself. There was nothing particularly interesting there. There wasn't much of interest in the garbage either. He looked around, wondering where Wesley would put a secret hidey hole.

The picture. The only picture on the left wall. Indeed, there was a tiny compartment behind the Asian print. He smirked and entered the code on the touch pad. He was a dangerous man when he wanted to be, and Wes could be surprisingly predictable sometimes.

A compartment in the opposite wall opened. He went to it quickly. Knowing Wes, it closed after a set period of time. There was a stack of papers. He grabbed the most recent just before the compartment closed. Flipping through the file, he found a note wedged in the middle. The file was boring, nothing to hide away, but the perfect place to hide something was within something boring.

Looking at the note, his face paled for a moment. This wasn't good. He reentered the code that opened the compartment and put the file back as quick as he could. The note went back exactly where it had been. He walked at a pace just slower than a jog out of Wes's office and ducked into a corridor just as Wesley ran down the hallway and threw the door to his office open. Will ran silently down the hall and rounded the corner just as Wes turned around.