Chapter Twenty-One: The Things You Learn.

Since there was Buffy, Giles, Willow, Kennedy, and Xander, and they had no place to go and no way to get there, they stayed in the mansion. Alfred and Bruce went to the penthouse. Richard stayed with Buffy and the others.

It had been this way for two weeks. No Joker. No Riddler. No nothing. It was as if all the bad guys, human and demon alike, had left the city. But they knew that wasn't true. They had just run underground, gathering, waiting for the word that would send them rippling through the city like a tidal wave.

Though Buffy and the Bat did not patrol together, they did meet on occasion on a roof top here and there to catch up. Necessary, but torturous all the same. While she knew what it was he planned, and didn't exactly agree with it, it was his decision to make, and she would stand by him no matter what. She made that very clear to everyone, especially him.

"Why is it like this again?" Xander asked munching on the bran flakes with blueberries and raspberries on top. It wasn't half bad.

"Because we have to find and stop the Joker, you know, Slayer style, but Bruce – I mean Batman – is going to go after these guys, and not in your regular, typical Batman style."

"He is going to pulverize them," Kennedy interpreted.

"He's going to kill them," Buffy corrected, entering the room. The smell of food was making her sick – again – even if it was just fruit and cereal. She had spent the better part of the six o'clock A.M. hour puking her guts up. She swore she saw her spleen at one point. "For what they did to Dick's parents."

"Dick!" Xander huffed, but the stern looks he got from all around the table caused him to stuff a large spoonful of cereal into his mouth, almost choking him, and effectively shutting him up.

"And you are just going to let him?" Giles asked, for the hundredth time over the last two days, or so it seemed. "Wasn't that the whole point the last time this Joker chap terrorized the city: was bring Batman down to his level? Is this not his succeeding?"

"I don't tell Bruce what to do," Buffy snapped, setting the empty coffee pot down a little too hard. The glass shattered all over the place.

"I'll get it," Willow said, coming over and helping her friend pick up the shards of glass. "You don't look so good." She said, eyeing Buffy thoughtfully. "Are you sleeping okay? Sick or something?"

Buffy began to say 'Yes, I am a little under the weather" but Richard walked into the kitchen at that moment. "Hey, sweetheart. Want some breakfast?" She went over to him, ruffling his already sleep tossed hair.

"When is Bruce coming back?" He asked. He wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her ribs.

"Come here," she said, leading him out of the room and onto the nearest couch she could find. "Listen, Bruce will be home soon, okay. He just has something to take care of."

"He thinks I blame him for what happened," Dick whispered, hanging his head down.

"Why would he think that? Why would – " Buffy cut herself off with a gasp. "Richard, what do you know? Tell me, sweetie."

"I know that Bruce is the Batman," he admitted, looking up at her with those strangely shaded bright blue eyes. Willow said that they were the eyes of one who could see what no one else could. Giles said there was gypsy power in the boy's blood. "And I know that you are the Slayer."

Buffy shared a shocked look with Willow who had just followed them into the room carrying a glass of orange juice which she handed to Richard. She didn't look as stunned as Buffy, though.

"How do you know that?" Buffy asked, seeing as Willow was not going to elaborate on the boy's evident gift.

"I just do." He shrugged his small shoulders, and then took a big gulp of the orange juice. "It is in my blood. It just happens."

Willow patted him on the back, sitting down next to him, while Buffy took the place on his other side. "Tell her about your ancestor."

"Many generations ago, my grandfather avenged the death of his middle daughter by cursing the vampire that had killed her." He looked up at Buffy. "He gave him his soul back."

Buffy gasped, covering her hand with her mouth. Her eyes darted to the witch. "Angelus? Richard is descended from the clan who cursed Angelus?" Willow nodded. Richard shrugged again.

"Tell he what else you know," Willow said encouragingly. Richard nodded and reached over to set his glass down on a coaster on the table.

Once again, he looked up into Buffy's eyes and she found it strange that the boy's eyes had a hypnotizing quality to them. It must be a gypsy magic effect, designed to soften a blow, or to try and lessen the shock a person gets when they hear something unexpected, like Buffy did.

"You're pregnant."

"Pregnant!" Giles exclaimed as he sputtered his coffee all over the Gotham Herald he had been reading and then dumping the contents of his coffee cup all over the table as he dropped it.

Xander just sat in stunned silence, his jaw practically resting on the table. He looked like he was about to pass out.

"Oh great," Kennedy mumbled, but Willow silenced her with a scathing look.

"Well," Giles began, trying to clean up the mess he had made while attempting to gather himself. "What are you going to do?"

"The same thing I usually do," Buffy answered her tone suggesting that Giles had asked a stupid question.

"But, Buffy, you can't. I mean," Willow stated, looking at Giles for support, "we don't know how being pregnant will affect you being a slayer. Your powers and such."

"Willow is right," Giles chimed in. "There has never been a Slayer who has conceived a child after being Chosen. The only Slayer who had a child was Wood's mother, and he was already born by the time she was chosen." He took off his glasses and cleaned them with a handkerchief he dug out of his jacket pocket. "There just isn't any information on how this will influence your abilities."

"Well, I can't just sit around and do nothing," Buffy snapped. Hormones, now she understood the mood swings and the throwing up.

"Are you going to tell Bruce?" Xander. Finally coming out of his shock and joining the conversation. Leave it to him to ask the one question Buffy did not want to answer.

"No," she said simply.

"Why not?" Asked Willow.

"Because right now he thinks we are on even ground. I go fight demons and he goes and fights the humans that are doing bad things. We both do our jobs and that is that. If I tell him about this, then he won't think we are on that even ground anymore. He has enough to worry about. I am not going to add this to the burden he already has. If he is worrying about me, then he is not worrying about himself as much as he should."

"I think he worries about you anyway, just like you worry about him," Xander stated, rubbing at his eye patch. Sometimes it still itched.

"Yes, but the worry we have for each other right now is normal. If he finds out about the baby, then he will double worry about me and that makes us uneven. And when things are uneven, then someone gets hurt, usually the person who is…the uneven one." Buffy nodded sagely. It made perfect sense to her.

"He has a right to know," Willow quipped. "He's the father. He should have a say in anything that could concern the welfare of his child."

All of this was making Buffy's head hurt. She had just found out she was pregnant. She would like to be able to take a few moments and let it sink in, and then cry, throw things, cry some more, take a nap, and then cry even more. She knew she had to tell him, but she couldn't do it now. It would influence what had to be done, and what had to be done had to be done. There was no getting around it. As much as she wanted to hide somewhere and protect the life growing inside of her, she knew that she could not. She had to stand and fight.

"I can't tell him," Buffy said firmly. It hurt her, that much was for sure. She so badly wanted to see the look on his face when she told him. But then, doubt creeped into her mind: what if he wasn't ready to be a father? What if he didn't want their baby? She brushed the thought away before she did actually start to cry. "Not now. He needs to focus on what is going on."

Willow began to protest, but Giles stopped her. "Buffy is right. We all need to be focused. We cannot afford to not be vigilant. As much as it bothers me to say this, the fact that she is pregnant does take a back seat to what is going on."

"Don't worry, Buff," Xander said, pulling her into a hug. "Everything will be fine. You'll see. We will kick the bad guy's butts, and declare ourselves heroes though no one will share our sentiments because, you know, we can't like spread the word. And then you and Bruce can have this baby and all the future green-eyed ones you want to. Because they probably will all have green eyes since you both do, and just think of how spoiled they will be. You know, as well as anyone, that he will buy them all the toys, pets, and amusement parks they could ever want."

"I hope you guys have a girl," Willow chimed in, smiling. "Just think, when she gets old enough to date, the guy stupid enough to ask her out will find himself strung up from a street lamp."

"There would be a leveling system," Xander explained. "First time you ask her out – street lamp. I think it would just excel from there. Second offense – balcony, low level. Third offense – balcony, high level. For the most extreme offenses, it is the bridges."

Giles, with the straight face of an extremely great poker player, said, "Mom, would you please tell dad to stop flattening my boyfriend's car with that tank of his?"

Everyone burst out laughing, except for Kennedy, who let out a disgusted sigh. She had remained silent, her arms folded over her chest. Now she stood and left the room in a huff, stomping through the mansion and up the stairs. Willow smiled apologetically and followed her.

"Buffy," Giles said, all real serious again. "I know this insurrection thing has gotten you on edge, all of us really, but you should consider telling him before this is over." Buffy was surprised. "Yes, it may shift his focus some, but he knows what he is doing. He is a very astute young man. Besides, knowledge like this could strengthen a person's resolve as well as their hope and willpower. You should take that into consideration also."

Buffy just nodded and sat down at the table. She was feeling a little nauseous again so she put her head down, resting her forehead on her crossed wrists.

So much had happened. Giles had told all of them about the Insurrection the morning before Bruce and Alfred had left. Though he did not know what the dagger had to do with all of this, and he had studied it greatly, the Insurrection, instead of being a mutiny or anything of the sort, was actually a ceremony that created a hell mouth. The Joker, Fargre'an, and their ilk wanted to turn Gotham into another Sunnydale, and Cleveland, and that small village outside of Rome, only here it would be all of those three combined, and then some. The dagger had to have something to do with this ritual, but while it was obvious to Buffy, Giles did not believe that it was that simple.

While Giles explained this, Buffy had stayed on her side of the room and Bruce on his. Though they both sneaked glances at each other, it was never when they knew the other was looking. She could feel his eyes on her when he did look at her, and she had to fight from returning the look and vice versa, because once that look was shared, their resolve would dwindle. Bruce had to do what the Bat needed to do. He did not want her seeing that side of him. And having them both together was not as good an option as being separated. It was better, if you could call it that, if one was taken out, that the other was still able to do their job. If they were together, the chances of the both of them being hurt or worse was too great.

There had been a few battles over the last two weeks. The bounty was still on the Bat's head so Bruce had allowed Willow to fortify his armor with her magic and runes, protecting him from everything she could think of just to be sure. She had also done her protective spells at the Penthouse and at Wayne Tower.

She sat back up, finding herself alone in the room. She decided she needed to cheek on Dick who was in Bruce's room (her room, their room) watching television on a TV she had brought in for him. He had taken to sleeping with her during the day, staying up all night. Not a great habit and certainly not one Child's Services would be happy about. Fortunately they had been able to get away with it: the woman assigned to them came in the afternoon, at a time when Buffy and Dick was awake, and Bruce was (supposedly) at work at Wayne Tower.

As she went upstairs, she wondered if they would get to raise not only their child, but Richard as well, together.