Uncursed

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6 & Angel Season 3 A.U.

Author's Note: So...the question's finally been asked. I was wondering how long it would take! Who is Lexie's father? All in good time, my friends.

Chapter Six:

Buffy looked down in wonder as she lay eyes on her little girl. She blocked everything else around her: the noise from the street down below, the neighbors through the walls of the motel, the low hum of the rickety old air conditioner.

Alexis Joyce Summers had only been alive for nearly an hour and already Buffy wanted to do everything in her power to keep Lilah and her slimy lawfirm hands off of her daughter.

She'd managed to escape again, before she went into labor—thank god. Wolfram & Hart's medical staff had been to busy preparing for the 'magical-enduced-labor' they'd planned so they could steal the baby. So...she slipped out. Traded the ugly hospital gown for a nurse's scrubs and snuck right out. Luckily there'd been money in the nurse's pockets. Just enough for one night in a motel, a cute little onsie, a bag of chips, and a very basic first-aid kit.

Not long after arriving at the motel she was in labor. It was over quickly, only about a half an hour before Buffy's baby was born. The newborn seemed to be born with the knowledge that all was not well and remained quiet. This worried Buffy but somehow she just knew the baby was okay.

Since then Buffy couldn't stop staring at the tiny baby. It didn't seem real and yet somehow it was more real than anything she'd been through in the months prior.

The two quickly fell asleep curled up next to each other, mother and daughter, as Lexie ate for the first time. It was as though they were in a bubble and the scary people who wanted to hurt them didn't exist. As if Buffy was just a normal new mother enjoying the comfort of her new child's heartbeat against her own.

Without a moment's notice Buffy sat up, startled. Her Slayer's senses—extraordinarly enhanced by her maternal instincts and out-of-wack hormones—went into hyperdrive and her blood felt as if it were boiling with fear and anticipation. Adrenaline rushed through her veins.

Everything was quiet. Alexis was still asleep; blissfully ignorant of the danger that threatened her. Buffy didn't move. She scanned the room from where she sat. Every corner, every knook, every cranny.

There was nothing . . . but her senses were still on high alert.

She did the only thing she knew. She jumped up, packed what little she had, pulled on her shoes, collected Lexie . . . and left.

She stalked the streets, her senses going in full force but finding nothing as the cause. She held Lexie close to her chest, turning into an alley.

"Slayer, slayer, slayer . . ."

The voice made Buffy's skin crawl. The little hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, her heart pounded, and the Slayer/maternal instincts blazed like fire.

"You know that every time you run away . . . you just hurt yourself more," Lilah Morgan followed her operatives, her high heels click-clacking on the stone street. The operatives were all armed with their guns pointed right at Buffy. Of course they weren't bullets, Buffy knew Lilah better than that. Lilah's bosses needed Buffy alive and if she was delivered any other way it would be Lilah's ass. So no, those weren't bullets. They were tranquilizer darts.

"Shouldn't you be more worried about how a severly pregnant little girl slipped out of your grasp—again?" Buffy taunted. It was her favorite way to torture Lilah—despite the pain they caused Buffy herself.

"Not so pregnant anymore, are we?" Lilah gestured to the bundle in the Slayer's arms.

"I managed," Buffy backed up.

"I see that," Lilah chuckled, pointing to the blood dripping to the ground and the large blood-stain on the clothes Buffy was wearing. True, she'd been bleeding for awhile but she didn't have the time to worry about it. She had to get Lexie somewhere safe. "It won't be much longer before you pass out from blood loss." The evil lawyer shook her head. "Is that how you planned to raise your daughter? Dead?"

"You don't talk about my daughter," Buffy snarled. Momma-slayer was in full force.

"Yes, well . . ." Lilah sighed, "You're just lucky you didn't hurt either of you." She waved her hand to the operatives. "Go. Get them. I want both of them alive."

"Yes m'am," The lead operative signalled his men to life. Buffy backed up away from them. "Targets alive."

The operatives circled Buffy, their guns still aimed. There was no where to go. The world was beginning to become blurry. The Slayer tried to shake away the dizziness . . . but soon she secumbed to the darkness . . .

"NO!"

Buffy sat up, surveying her surroundings. It wasn't like any room she'd ever been in at Wolfram & Hart. It certainly wasn't any of the dingy motels she'd stayed in while in Los Angeles. It had a hotel sort of feel. There was a room off of the room she was in, with a little kitchenette area; stove, refrigerator, sink.

Wait, were those chains attached to her wrist?

Where was she?

This better not be another one of Lilah's tricks. She'd been through enough of those. One time she woke up in an apartment with a guy sitting in a chair beside her. He said he found her on the side of the road unconscious and brought her back to his apartment. Well...he turned out to be another one of Lilah's lackey's doing her bidding. Then once at a diner she worked at an elderly couple told her they'd noticed her and how she seemed so lonely. They invited her to stay at their house . . . which also turned out to be a trap. They weren't an elderly couple at all they were two demons in disguise.

Both times ended her back at Wolfram & Hart under Lilah's clutches. Both times resulted in a fierce mystical beating. They said it wasn't physical so it wouldn't hurt the baby but it sure felt real.

But no . . . this time felt different. The tension isn't in the air, like usual. This time . . . it's comfort she feels.

"You're awake."

The voice, despite how small and quiet, startles her and she jumps.

"I didn't mean to scare you," the voice said. A woman appeared on the floor from behind the chair. "It's just you were making some awful noises in your sleep. Scary stuff, huh? The nightmares get me too . . . Sometimes you wake up and it feels so real that you just want to curl up like a baby and go back to sleep but then you remember that that's where the nightmare came from in the first place."

Buffy didn't quite know what to make of this small, mousy woman. She was all skin and bones-much like Buffy-but her hair was a shade of brown instead of blonde.

"Oh, I should probably introduce myself," the woman stood up, walking tentatively toward the bed. "I'm sorry that was so rude of me." She looked up, laughing. "I sometimes forget these things. It's been so long since I actually had to put manners into practice."

"Are you okay?" Buffy raised her eyebrow.

"M-me?" The woman laughed again, a not-so-stealthly snort erupting from her nose. "I'm, um, good. Great." Somehow Buffy didn't really believe her. "What about you? You were just asleep for a long, long time and you had us all so worried! We didn't know if you were going to wake up . . . and the noises! They really sounded worse than any nightmare I've ever had." In a way, the woman kind of reminded Buffy of a cross between Willow and Dawn.

"I'm fine, thank you," Buffy said. "Except . . . I don't really remember how I got here or where here is. And my daughter . . ." She still wasn't sure if this was a trap or not but the sooner she held Lexie in her arms the better.

"Right, you probably want to see her," The woman nodded. She started to cross toward the attached room. "I'm Fred, by the way."

"Fred," Buffy repeated.

Fred nodded. "Yeah. Well, Winifred but that sounds so stuffy. So . . . Fred."

"I'm Buffy," The Slayer told her.

"I know," Fred disappeared in the other room, only to return a few moments later with a bundle in her arms."Here you go, here's Lexie." Buffy looked up. How did this Fred know her daughter's name? "Your nightmares." Fred said, as if to explain. Buffy nodded. She'd probably yelled out Lexie's name in her sleep.

The Slayer held out her chained arms as Fred put Lexie in her arms. Buffy breathed a sigh of relief as she felt her daughter's heartbeat against her chest.

"She's put all of us through the ringer," Fred's accent was really thick just then. "It's like she knew that there was something wrong with you."

"All of us?" Buffy asked.

"You don't remember coming here, do you," Fred observed. Buffy shook her head. She really didn't. The last thing she remembered was running away from Lilah and the running into a green demon. Things were kind of fuzzy after that. "You came here with Lexie. Then you passed out. We brought you up here. Or actually it's more accurate to say he brought you up here."

"He . . ." Buffy was confused.

"Angel," Fred replied. There must have been a look in Buffy's eyes because then Fred disappeared out of the room.

And just like that she remembered. She thought the green demon was attacking her. She went to the Oracles. They told her the demon was good. They told her to go to Angel, that he would protect her. And when she got to Angel's all of what had happened to her just hit her at once and everything stopped. Her body stopped . . . and she rested.

Now she was awake, refreshed, and ready to protect Lexie again.

"You're awake."

She hadn't even heard the door open or anything. But then again, that wasn't really surprising.

Angel practically flew across the room, sitting on the bed beside her and holding her in her arms.

To Be Continued . . .