Stolen with a Kiss:

Giles sits in his office rubbing his wrinkled brow as he reads and re-reads the prophecy before him concerning Buffy and Spike's baby. He's found himself immersed in this text over the past few weeks and finds himself quite stressed out over his studying. He squints his eyes then takes off his glasses to clean them before placing them back on his face. He wants to make sure that he understands this prophecy perfectly. Then Giles looks up as he hears the door to his office creak.

"Hi Giles," Willow says as she enters the room. "I just finished that map of all the potential slayers… its color coded in pretty glowing lights and everything…"

"Right, yes… good job… I'll uh, I'll come look at it later," Giles says obviously distracted.

Willow just smiles getting the hint that he wants to be alone; she exits the room silently and slightly disappointed that he's so involved in whatever he's working on. Giles is grateful for her quick departure and continues to read the ancient text before him. Just as Giles is getting back into his reading his door is opened again. This time it swings a bit louder on its hinges and loudly Xander and Andrew walk in. Frustrated Giles looks up at the both of them with annoyance in his eyes.

"Giles, is there something you can find for Andrew to do," Xander says annoyed and oblivious to Giles's discomfort.

"I told Xander that you said to lend a hand with the construction of the penthouse," Andrew then says.

"Yeah, but I don't need your help Andrew… Giles, please can you just find some assignment for him?"

"Stop it, both of you… you are grown men and can handle this issue on your own," Giles says louder then Xander and Andrew had expected him to. As he sees the two men before him still he calms down a little. "Sorry… I'm just working on something very important right now and I'd like not to be disturbed."

"Sorry," Xander and Andrew say in unison as they leave Giles's office still a little flustered. Giles removes his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose.

--

Slimy, cold, clear goop is rubbed across Buffy's belly. A female doctor with soft curly brown hair runs a cold instrument over her stomach. Buffy watches how as she does this the image of the baby inside her appears on the screen in the hospital room. Her father and Dawn are there beside her; however Spike is not having been unable to make it there in the daylight. As Buffy watches the ultrasound image of her baby Dawn holds her hand with a look of amazement nearly as astonishing as her big sisters.

'Look at her tiny toes," Dawn says with her eyes glued to the screen before her.

"So when should we expect…" Hank begins to say.

"Soon… very soon, I would expect Buffy to go into birth anytime in the next few days actually," the doctor replies.

"That soon… wow um… and she's healthy right… I mean there's nothing… unusual about her, is there?" Buffy asks.

"You mean something unusual like being the child of a vampire and a slayer?"

"Yeah."

"She's perfect… I don't think there's anything to be worried about," the doctor says as Buffy takes a sigh of relief.

"Thanks"

--

Faith sits at a small table across from the blonde mugging victim she tried to help the week before. Despite her best efforts she's found herself liking this man and actually agreed to let him take her out to lunch, after all, he had been persistent about it and Faith figured that the whole point of her excursion away from her powers was to live her life a little. So here Faith sits at a small diner across from Mike attempting to push all preconceived notions about men from her mind.

"So where are you from?" Mike asks as they wait for their food remembering that she's been staying in a hotel.

"Well, I was born here, but uh… I spent most my life moving from place to place, I wouldn't really say I'm from anywhere."

"So what brings you back to town then?"

"I'm kind of on this soul search so to speak… just wanted to figure some stuff out about myself before I went back to London."

"London?"

"Oh, uh yeah… that's where I live now… well kinda, I don't have much of a place there or anything, but it's the closest thing to home I've ever known."

"So what's in London?"

"You know… these are a lot of questions about me… what about you, where are you from?" Faith asks wanting to go no where near any explanation of her being a slayer.

"Oh, sorry… I do that sometimes… Uh, well I've lived here all my life, but I've done a lot of traveling… never really could stay in one place for long, but it was always nice to come home… right now I'm just working on finishing up my degree… I want to do something in foreign relations."

"Wow… that's uh, a lot of school," Faith says feeling a little inadequate at the moment. "School, was never really my thing ya know."

"So what do you do?"

"I um… I have a job in London working with run-aways… you know, how bout we skip all these in-depth questions."

"That's fine with me, I understand if you're not ready to share… I can be… I'm a little pushy when it comes to getting to know someone who I find really interesting."

Faith then smiles at his comment. All her inadequacies about school and life-choices fall away. He finds her interesting, and that's enough to keep Faith interested in him.

--

Needing a break from Andrew, Xander walks into Willow's magic lab and finds her looking over a large map. She has it rolled out on the round table in the back of the room and it takes up nearly the whole table; all across its surface are about five hundred tiny glowing dots the size of pencil points in various colors and glowing at various strengths. Xander walks up behind Willow and startles her as he comes up beside her.

"Oh, Xander, hi… I didn't see you there," Willow says.

"Sorry to sneak up on you… I just uh, needed to take a break from my carpentry… what are you up to?"

"I'm working on locating the new potentials."

"So that's what this is?"

"Yup… the pink dots are the ones that are slayers and the yellow ones are the potentials who can become slayers if they touch the scythe."

"Nifty… so then that really bright pink one…"

"There in California, yep that's Buffy, now I'm just working on figuring out their names and exact locations so we can hunt them down and introduce them to the fabulous world of vampire slayage."

"Ah, and then we'll have a council full of shiny new slayeretts… how I'm not looking forward to that day."

"Yeah, I've been enjoying the quiet lately."

"Eh, what are ya gonna do."

--

The sun has just set in Los Angeles and Spike is glad that Buffy has yet to return home. He throws on his coat and sets out into the night. Drusilla has yet to make a move, but Spike's done waiting. He makes his way down the street with determination in his eyes, he plans to find his former dark princess and kill her before she can hurt his family. Stakes are hidden away beneath his clothing and all Spike's will has been bundled up inside him preparing him to kill his former lover. He can feel her watching him; she'd been doing so for days, now all Spike has to do is find exactly where she is.

As he moves through the night following that tingling feeling she give him he finds that she's leading him somewhere. The thought that it could be a trap passes through his mind for a moment, but then he pushes it away. When he had seen her the week earlier she made it clear that she wanted him back. Spike knows she won't be trying to harm him. As he moves further and further down the street he finds himself in less and less populated areas, then the feeling takes him down into the electrical tunnels.

Spike is so lost in the feeling of Drusilla that as he vanishes below he misses the feeling of another vampire he once knew looming in the shadows. Once Spike has disappeared into darkness of the tunnel Angel steps out into the light of the street lamp. He'd been following Dru since he realized she was in town and waiting to see what it was that she was up to. What Angel hadn't been expecting was to see Spike following after her. The last Angel heard of Spike he had a soul and was working side by side with Buffy, but now Angel wonders if his grandchilid has gone back to his evil ways.

--

Spike drops down into the electrical tunnel, his feet land in a small puddle of water and there before him she stands his black beauty. Her raven hair matches her black dress and she looks at him through her yellow vampire eyes with a seductive glare. Spike pulls a stake from his coat and holds it up prepared to drive it into her cold black heart. He takes a step toward her and Dru saunters closer as well.

"Now, now Spikey… you wouldn't kill your sweet princess would you?"

"Do what I have to Dru."

"Nonsense… I have a gift for you my sweet."

"Don't want your gift Dru."

"Oh, but it's a delicious gift," Dru says as she gets right in Spike's face standing mere inches from him. "I'm going to eat your spark and then it will sit deep inside my belly, together we can eat the sunshine my pet and take the tiny one for our own… She'll be a great power you know, the stars; they've sung it to me."

Dru drags one of her red nails down the front of Spike's chest and Spike braces himself to dust her. As he raises his stake, however, Dru suddenly leans in and kisses him square on the mouth. Spike is stunned, but that's not what keeps him from staking his ex love. As her lips meet his something happens. There is a burning in Spike's chest, a pain that fills his whole body as it's embraced in bright light, a bright light that flows up and out through his lips. The stake from Spike's hand drops to the ground and clatters on the floor. As Drusilla pulls away Spike finds that he feels different. He feels guiltless, vindicated and free. As Spike looks at Drusilla he sees a sly smile creeping across her face and within seconds she's squealing with joy. After a moment of confusion Spike understands. She stole his spark, she stole his soul.

"Spike," A voice calls from behind Spike and as the blonde vampire turns around he sees Angel standing behind him with a stake raised in his hand.

--

"Spike," Buffy calls out as she returns home with Hank and Dawn. She wants to tell him the news she got about the baby, about how they should expect her to be born soon, but as Buffy wanders through the condo she finds that he's no where to be found. A bad feeling tingles at the back of Buffy's mind, but she pushes it away. As Buffy walks back in by her father and sister she meets Dawn's eyes with a look of concern. "Spike's not here," Buffy says.

"I'm sure he just went out to get some blood or something," Dawn responds trying to calm her sister's nerves.

"Right, you're right… I'm sure it's no big deal… I mean Spike goes out all the time. He's fine I'm sure," Buffy says, and as she does she finds that it doesn't even sound convincing to her.

Buffy sits down at the dining room table as her nerves become more tangled with concern. She knows something bad has happened but feels like there's nothing she can do but wait. Somewhere at the back of her mind she's reminded of her dream from when she first flew into L.A, and Drusilla's presence in L.A. only fuels her fears further.

--

"Daddy's come to see the show," Drusilla says with an excited giggle looking at Angel over Spike's shoulder.

"What the bloody hell did you do Dru," Spike says as he focuses his attention on the raven-haired vampire before him.

"She took your soul," Angel called out from behind him causing Spike turn back and glance at his grandsire with true understanding finally filtering through his mind.

"Oh dear, I think my boys are going to fight," Drusilla sings as she slowly vanishes down the tunnel without being noticed by Spike nor Angel.

The second Spike turns to look at Angel he has his stake raised ready to take him out. Spike quickly throws a punch at Angel and from there the two are in a full out fight. In the darkness of the tunnel the two master vampires knock each other around with anger and violence. On some level this fight isn't at all about Angel doing the right thing and taking out a soulless vampire, it's about retribution. Angel slams Spike hard against the wall of the tunnel and raises his stake, before he gets a chance to turn him into dust however, Spike lands a well placed kick between Angel's legs that sends him folding to the ground.

"I'd love to stay and chat peaches, but I've got a lady I need to see," Spike says as he looks down at Angel, climbs up the ladder to the street and takes off. All Angel can think is that he knows he's headed for Buffy.

--

There's a knock at the door and instantly Buffy knows that it's Spike. She jumps to her feet as fast as she can with the weight of her pregnancy and opens the door to see him standing there. She knows something's wrong, but throws her arms around him with relief that he's okay. After a moment she pulls away and steps into the condo. Spike takes a few steps in as well and looks down at her in her flustered condition.

"I was so worried… I just had this horrible feeling that something happened… that Drusilla killed you or I don't know…" Buffy rambles on.

"Buffy, I have to talk to you about something," Spike starts to say.

"Buffy stop," a voice calls from down the hall. Both Buffy and Spike turn to see Angel run up to the doorway only to be stopped by the barrier from his uninvited status. "Buffy, get away from him… he's evil. Drusilla took his soul," Angel says just as he's noticing her pregnancy and finds himself really out of the loop.

"What," is all Buffy can say as she steps back from Spike protectively putting her hands across her belly.

"Love, wait a minute… I was just about to tell you," Spike says knowing that she's scared of him.

"Buffy, invite me in," Angel says, but Buffy denies his request. She finds herself unable to speak completely.

"Spike…"
"Shh, love I won't hurt you. Loved you before the soul remember, I'll get it back," Spike says looking down at her with love deep in his dazzling blue eyes. Buffy remains frightened at first, but after looking in his eyes finds that she knows he does love her and believes that he will seek out his soul for a second time.

"You can't trust him," Angel says from the doorway, but Buffy has already decided that she can, she turns to face Angel.

"Angel… I trust him… he's not going to hurt me, I'll get my dad to invite you in, but you have to believe me," Buffy says and Angel folds. He doesn't trust the bleached vampire beside his former love, but he trusts her.

"Alright," Angel says.

"Okay… then we can all sit down… I need you to tell me what you know about what Dru did so Spike can get his soul back."

Buffy exits the room to get her father while Spike stands in the doorway glaring at his grandsire with a cocky smile and all the pride he can muster for having Buffy trust him over Angel even in his soulless status.

A/N: Next episode "Newborn" airs Monday, stay tuned. Next week Spike and Angel go after Dru. Thanks again to all my reviewers.