Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, but I do own Sophie, baby Lily, and Echo the puppy :)

Tara crept quietly into the nursery, clearing her throat so as not to frighten a certain ex-demon friend who was currently gazing down at the baby sleeping in the crib.

"Hey Tara" Anya whispered. "Did Sophie remember to tell you I was coming? If she didn't, don't freak out. I'm not the first evil and I'm not trying to steal your baby."

"I know" Tara whispered back. "Don't worry, Sophie did remember."

"I just wanted to see her" said Anya, gesturing to baby Lily. "Because, you know, you gave her my name as part of hers, and my name was really all I had to leave behind here, because I died before.."

"I know, it's okay" said Tara, placing a comforting hand on the shoulder of her teary-eyed friend. "You can stay as long as you want." At that moment, Lily began to stir and grizzle. Tara fed her, and burped her, then cleaned up the small amount of spit up milk that had come from the baby's mouth. "You can hold her if you want, just be careful and make sure you support her head properly."

"I know that, I'm not stupid" said Anya, taking the baby from Tara's arms. "She's very small. Are they supposed to be this small?"

"Yeah" Tara smiled, nodding.

"Would mine have been.."

"What do you mean yours?" asked a confused Willow from the doorway, rubbing her eyes. She had almost slept through Anya's visit, but she wanted to see her. Despite disagreeing with the ex-demon the great majority of the time, she had missed her when she died. As a matter of fact, she'd been surprised at just how much she missed her. Tara took a deep breath.

"Okay Will, I'm gonna let you in on something that you can't tell anybody, especially not Xander."

"Um.." Willow gulped, taking a few steps backwards. "I'm not so good at secrets."

"Its not really a secret" said Tara. "Its more a 'don't tell unless you want to send your best friend spiralling into a bottomless pit of depression' type thing."

"Okay" said Willow, still a little worried. "But I have warned you, and if I blab it'll be your fault for telling me in the first place." Tara took another deep breath before replying.

"Anya was pregnant when she died."

"WHAT?!" yelled Willow, before remembering the house's other sleeping occupants and the baby in the ex-demon's arms and trying to calm down. "D-did you just say what I think you just said?" Tara nodded. "Oh goddess! Was it Xander's?" Anya glared at her.

"Of course it was Xander's!" she cried. "The only reason I didn't tell him was because I knew there was a good chance I was going to die and I didn't want him to get all depressed about losing me and a baby, and spending the rest of his life wondering if he could have saved us!"

"Sorry Anya, I didn't mean... this is just a lot to take in at two o'clock in the morning, you know?"

"Do you want to sit down baby?" Tara asked, leading her wife over to the rocking chair.

"Yeah, that would be good" said Willow, sitting. The three women fell into a slightly uncomfortable silence, until a grin spread over Anya's face.

"Hey, your tiny newborn human is smiling at me."

"She smiled for the first time just this morning" said Tara proudly.

"She didn't look like much when she first came out covered in all that blood and gunk, but now she's kinda cute" said Anya. "You might be able to win some money if you enter her in one of those cutest baby contests."

"Maybe it's a good thing you never had children" said Willow, rolling her eyes. At that moment, Cordelia entered the room.

"It's time for us to get going Anya" she sighed. "I wish we could stay longer, but.."

"It's okay" said Anya. She moved to hand Lily back to Tara but Cordy stopped her.

"Oh, hang on. I should have time for one little baby-snuggle before we go."