A/N: One more chapter left after this one. Are you sad? Hope you like the surprise in this one. And Happy 4th of July to those in the States!

Chap. 24: With Arms Wide Open- Nov. 05

"Faith," Buffy whined as she tried in vain to get off the couch. Her body just wouldn't cooperate anymore. She was a Slayer, she was supposed to have more control over her body than other people, and yet she couldn't seem to get off this couch. It just wasn't right.

"What's up, babe?" Faith asked, making her way into the room. She tried not to laugh as she watched Buffy struggling just trying to stand up. Experience had told her she'd be in the dog house if she let out a chuckle.

"I can't get up, and I really have to pee," she whined again. "This is all your fault!"

Faith ignored the second comment, instead moving to help her wife get up off the couch. They'd had that argument several times. Buffy even going so far as to yell at her for not telling her that pregnancy was like this. The brunette was smart enough to keep her mouth shut and not tell her that her own pregnancy with Nevaeh was a breeze compared to Buffy's.

The only truly unbearable thing she'd had to deal with was knowing that at the end of it she had to send her baby away and wouldn't get to see her. And at the time she believed she'd never see her again. She could never express to Buffy how she'd felt that first time she'd walked into the visitors room at the prison to find not only Buffy, but her daughter as well.

"I feel so huge," Buffy pouted as Faith walked with her to the downstairs bathroom.

"Your definitely bigger than I was. This kid is gonna be much bigger than Vaeh was." Faith sucked in a breath, hoping that Buffy's hormones wouldn't have made her hear Faith call her fat, as had happened in the past when Faith had commented on the size of the baby.

"I know, and it's still not over yet."

The last six months had been a crazy ride of family togetherness, and dealing with Buffy's ever changing mood swings. After discussing it with Buffy at length, Faith had decided to enter semi-retirement. She still taught classes, but just as Buffy had decided long ago, she no longer went out to fight on the front lines every night. Being able to be a family was far more important now than it ever was.

Giles wasn't happy that he was losing yet another experienced Slayer, but the fatherly side of him understood. They had earned the right to live as normal lives as possible. There were Slayers all around the world that could handle whatever was coming.

Faith stood outside the bathroom door just in case Buffy needed her help again. So far the original Chosen One was too proud to ask for help in the bathroom, but she knew that Faith stood out there waiting just in case. All though it was a lot easier to get off the toilet than it was the couch. It still took her longer than she would have liked it to.

Washing her hands, she tried not to look at herself in the mirror. Just like the rest of her body, her face looked as if was slightly bloated, and she had bags under eyes. It wasn't easy to get uninterrupted sleep these days. She never was one to sleep on her back, but at the moment that was the only way she could even attempt to sleep.

"Dawn just text me," Faith said when Buffy finally opened the bathroom door. "She asked if her and Kennedy could keep Vaeh overnight."

"What'd you tell them?"

"That it was fine. That cool with you?" Faith asked, afraid that maybe her wife wouldn't like that idea.

"Yeah, it's fine. Did they say why?" Not that she really cared why, it just seemed kind of out of the blue. Kennedy was always up for baby-sitting with Dawn, but she was always grateful when they came to get her at the end of the night. She liked having Dawn all to herself at night, for reasons Buffy wouldn't allow herself to think about.

"Apparently Dawn wants to go see the new Disney movie and Kennedy told them she was absolutely not sitting through a kids movie without a kid present."

So they were using her daughter. Oh well, it was for the best. Nevaeh had been bugging them to see that movie as well, but Buffy wasn't really up to sitting through a long movie. "So, what are we going to do with the whole house to ourselves for a night?"

"Whatever you want," Faith told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and placing a kiss on the side of her head. "I was trying to get the kitchen clean before you yelled for me. Like to get that finished, but then I'm all yours."

The blonde followed her wife into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. She wasn't much help with cleaning these days, her stomach always getting in the way, but she could at least keep Faith company while she did the work.

She was grateful to have a wife who would pick up the slack. Not that Faith was a slacker before, although Buffy definitely did more of the house work. As soon as she started to show, it was like a switch in Faith went off and she was constantly doing everything, not letting Buffy lift a finger.

"Nevaeh sure seems to like her new room," Faith said, starting conversation.

"Finally, I thought she was never going to sleep in there." When they'd first told her they wanted to move her into the empty room she'd thrown a fit, but her room was closer to theirs and they wanted to use it for the baby. They'd finally talked her into it when they told her she could decorate it anyway she wanted.

It took another two days to convince her that a complete Nemo theme room probably wouldn't be best. They'd settle for a princess room with some Nemo decorations. Even then, she'd often crawl into their room at night, or they'd find her asleep on the couch in the morning, or in her old room on a pile of blankets she'd carried in there.

It was hard to believe their little girl would be five years old next month. This baby was due on the twenty-eighth of November, so their kid's birthdays wouldn't be too far apart. Between birthdays and Christmas the couple would be shelling out cash like crazy at the end of the year every year, but they'd love every minute of it.

"Baby's almost ready to go?" Buffy asked Faith, since that was another thing she wasn't allowed to help with.

"Just about. I've got the crib all set up, but waiting for the baby before I wash the bedding. Wouldn't want to put him on dusty blankets."

"Good, yes, she'd probably prefer fresh bedding," Buffy said, putting emphasis on the word she. This was a never ending game for them. They had decided not to find out the sex of the baby, it didn't really matter to either one of them. So they'd decorated the nursery in more neutral tones with a Winnie-the-Pooh theme.

The only thing that really saddened Buffy about this whole thing was that they had to buy a new bassinet for their bedroom. The one Nevaeh had used, and even Buffy herself when she was a baby was somewhere buried in the crater that used to be Sunnydale.

She also really wished her mother was here. She'd really been missing her these last few months. Sure she was already a mom and her own mother had at least got to see her get to that point in her life. But this was different. This was her first pregnancy and it would have been nice to benefit from someone else who had been through this. She was fairly sure that Faith wasn't telling her everything, which meant Buffy was having it harder than she had.

"How about I make some popcorn and we watch a movie?" Faith asked, as she folded up the washcloth and sat it on the bar between the two sinks.

"Alright," Buffy agreed. How times had changed. Once upon a time, they would have had each other's clothes off as soon as they realized they could do so uninterrupted. She knew Faith would be up for it, but she just wasn't feeling sexy these days.

Besides, curling up with her lover on the couch. Life couldn't get much sweeter than that. They found a nice romantic comedy they hadn't seen before and just cuddled together, the popcorn mostly untouched on the coffee table in front of them.

~BF~

Buffy wiggled around. She really wasn't able to get comfortable enough to sleep. Figuring it was pointless to try at this time, she tried to get up without waking Faith, which was easier said than done. A grumpy Faith was never a good thing, and she'd prefer to let her get as much sleep as possible.

Stretching her back, she felt a moment of pain like she'd pulled something. Straightening back up, she headed into their bathroom. She was up anyway, might as well hit the toilet now, it was only a matter of minutes before her body decided it needed it anyway.

"B, what's wrong?" Faith asked, catching her wife pacing back and forth in the living room. She'd tried to find Buffy to curl up to her in her sleep and when she didn't find her, it had woken her up.

"Can't sleep," Buffy told her, stopping in her tracks as Faith walked towards her.

The brunette watched as Buffy's hand rubbed her back, she wasn't even sure her wife was aware she was doing it. "Is that all?" Buffy just nodded her head. "Are you sure?" It may have almost been five years, but she remembered how she was feeling in the time shortly before her water broke.

"My back hurts a little, but I think I just pulled it wrong when I stretched."

"Mmhm," Faith just mumbled.

"You're not going to go back to bed?" Buffy asked when Faith plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV.

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"No point, soon as your water breaks we gotta get to the hospital," Faith said as if it was obvious.

Buffy made a noise of disagreement. "No way am I in labor. I still have three and a half weeks to go."

She knew Buffy wouldn't believe her. Her wife liked to be in control, and she had a nice little plan of how this whole thing was supposed to play out. Going into labor in the middle of the night over three weeks early wasn't in her plan.

It was almost an hour later before Faith was proven right and Buffy's water broke all over the bathroom floor. "No, this can't happen! Anita isn't back yet," Buffy cried.

Anita was the OBGYN that Giles had finally hired after a long search for an acceptable candidate. Buffy liked her instantly and was grateful to finally have a doctor that they could be honest about where this baby came from. One of the other Slayers in Nevada had gotten hurt and she was newly pregnant, so Anita had flown over to check her out and wasn't due back until tomorrow.

"Sorry, babe. But it appears our little one has a different plan." Only reason Faith was able to keep a cool head was because she'd already been through this. She remembered what Buffy was feeling right now. Scared out of her mind.

Grabbing the bag out of the closet, she ran out and threw it in the car. If Anita had been here, they would have just taken her to the infirmary. But Faith had packed a bag for the hospital, just in case. She wasn't about to take any chances of not being prepared.

She ran into the house and grabbed some dry sweats for Buffy. Back down the stairs she went and helped her wife change. Then threw a towel on the mess in the bathroom and wiped it up real quick. Throwing all the wet stuff into the hamper for later, she washed her hands and walked back out to where Buffy was still freaking out in the hallway.

Picking her up, she carried the blonde out to the car and buckled her in. Throwing her phone into the holster on the dashboard, she hit the speed dial for Dawn. "It's 3 a.m. This better be good," Kennedy growled on the other end.

"Buffy's in labor, we're heading to the hospital. Will you and Dawn make the round of calls?" She heard a growl she took as agreement and disconnected the phone. Thank goodness they already had Vaeh at their place, made this whole situation a lot easier.

Buffy groaned in pain as a contraction took over her. "It's okay, sweetie, we'll be there soon," Faith tried to comfort, taking the blonde's hand in her own and placing a kiss on her knuckles.

~BF~

"How we doing?" the doctor asked as she entered the room to check on Buffy, which earned her a glare from the patient that clearly said how she was feeling.

They'd been at the hospital several hours already and each time this doctor, Dr. Colton, came in, she told her the same thing. It wasn't time yet. Buffy was about to strangle her if she told her one more time that it wasn't time to push. She was ready for this to be over with.

"You have a whole clan out in the waiting room," she told them, trying to make conversation. Buffy was too wrapped up in the pain to notice and Faith was too busy comparing this to her own labor. She'd had Angel out there, that was it. Everything had turned out better than she'd ever hoped for though, so for that she was grateful.

"The ones that just got here, they had a cute little girl with them. She yours?" Dr. Colton asked, as she checked Buffy's vitals and then moved to look at her progress.

"Yes, our daughter," Buffy panted.

"Figured, she looks just like you," the doc told Faith. "Well, looks like we're just about ready to push. You ready?"

"I'm passed ready," Buffy growled. She'd opted to go without drugs, she was a Slayer, she could hack a little pain. Or so she'd thought. With the first push, she was wishing she could take that choice back.

In between Faith would wet her forehead down with a washcloth and place kisses in her hair, giving her words of encouragement the whole time. Buffy couldn't imagine going through this with anyone else. Faith was the most perfect partner she could imagine. When she insisted she couldn't push one more time, her wife crawled up behind her and held her as she whispered soothing words into her ear.

Finally a cry was heard throughout the room. "It's a girl," Dr. Colton said proudly, holding up yet another Faith look alike.

Faith got up from behind Buffy and cut the cord. Catching a good glimpse of their daughter before a nurse took her to clean her up.

"You ready to push again?" Dr. Colton asked, pulling both women's attention back to her.

Buffy looked confused, but Faith tried to calm her with an "Oh for the placenta," her voice ending almost on a question.

"No, for the other baby."

"What other baby?" Buffy asked with a hitch to her voice.

"You didn't know you were having twins?" Both women shook their heads no. "Well, surprise," Dr. Colton tried.

She guided the couple through the next set of contractions. Faith took her spot back behind Buffy, holding her tightly. Wishing she could give her some of her strength. She knew how exhausted her wife was feeling, she could feel her emotions like an echo through her whole body. Buffy went almost slack against her as soon as the second baby was finally freed.

"Another girl," they both heard. Looking at their baby, Faith especially was happy to see that this one would be a mini-Buffy, just what she wanted.

Faith moved to relax next to Buffy as the girls were cleaned up. "Here you go Moms, here's your girls," one of the nurses told them as the they were handed the babies.

"We have twins," Buffy said in awe, giving Faith an intense stare before turning back to the baby in her arms. Both of them had dark hair, but the one Buffy was holding was shades lighter than her sister.

"Told ya I had mad skills," Faith joked. Wondering if they'd in fact had the spell work both times they'd tried it back in February. They'd never know for sure, but either way, they had the baby they wanted, and a very special surprise to go with her.

"Now we just need names," Buffy pointed out. They'd never been able to agree on any names they'd thrown out over the last six months. This was going to be hard.

"How about Spencer?"

"Isn't that a boy's name? Where'd you come up with that?" Buffy asked, although she kind of liked it.

"Nah, was watching this new show last night. Chicks name was Spencer. I'd say we name the other Ashley, but somehow I have a feeling those two will end up a couple in the show, so better pick something different."

"Alright, Spencer it is. I'm not big on Ashley anyway, too normal. We need another name that's kind of unique. I know, what about Skye?"

"Spencer and Skye," Faith let it roll over in her mind. "Yeah I like that, they both start with S, but they are different enough that it's not one of those cutesy twin names." Faith leaned over, careful not to jostle either of the sleeping babies, and placed a kiss on Buffy's lips. "I love you."

"I love you too."