Buffy let out a long sigh as she walked into her room, and closed the door behind her. Carefully, she drew the bolt over the door, locking it firmly in place. She sat on the edge of her bed, and put her head in her hands, indulging in a moment of self-pity. She was so tired. She felt like the aching tiredness had gotten into her bones and settled there, so that her very core was made up of exhaustion.

But she had to be strong, for the others. Even if all she wanted to do was curl up and die, she couldn't She was the slayer, and the others relied on her to be strong. So she could fake it, for another day. Brushing off the errant tear that slid down her cheek, Buffy slid Connor's birth cirtificate out of the envelope. She ran her eyes carefully over it, checking for mistakes.

Name: Connor Liam Summers

Father: Liam Angel

Mother: Buffy Anne Summers

Date of Birth: November 19

Hair colour: brown

Eye colour: brown

Buffy's eyes lingered on Angel's name, and with one finger she gently traced the letters of it.

Father: Liam Angel.

Mother: Buffy Anne Summers.

Despite what she had said to Dawn, those two names together filled her with a sort of quiet joy. Somehow, in a way that she couldn't explain to anyone, not even her sister and her best friends, they were a family. Connor linked her and Angel indelably together. She and Angel had a child, it said so right here on Connor's official documents. Even if it wasn't biologically true, it was in all other senses. And that meant something to her, even if it didn't to anyone else.

Buffy sighed again, and slipped off her bed. She opened her closet, and hauled a beat-up leather bag from the back. Unzipping it, Buffy slipped Connor's birth cirtificate into brown envelope, which contained other papers. She hadn't shown this bag to anyone, but this was her emergency bag. In it she had a change of clothes, all the important documents, pictures of her family, and all of Angel's gifts to her. The leather jacket, the book, the necklace, the ring, all were carefully tucked away. If there was one thing that their escape in a camper with Dawn last year had taught her, it was that she might have to run at any time. Better to have her precious things packed so that she could grab them easily.

Buffy pulled out the cash that Wesley had sent her, and opened another envelope, slipping them in with the rest of the bills. Emergency supplies of cash were good too. She had been spiriting as much cash as she could into this stash, just in case. She'd have to be crazy to trust the First Bank of Sunnydale with more than a roll of ones - every demon worth their salt had robbed at place at least once.

She sat back on her heels for a moment, checking through the contents of her emergency bag as she always did when she opened it, before zipping it back up and shoving it back into her closet. She glanced at her watch, swore under her breath, and scrambled to her feet, grabbing her Doublemeat uniform off the back of her chair as she went.

"Operation Slayer is a go"

"I don't see why we have to do this," Andrew whined. "What makes you think anything's changed since the cameras broke down? Come on, let's go watch the new TRON trailer and compare it frame by frame to the original."

Jonathan, who had been slumped in his chair idly spinning it around and around on its wheels, perked up.

"Yeah, let's do that!"

Warren made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat.

"Don't you two buffoons get it?" he demanded. "We have to watch the slayer all the time. Our unfortunate technical difficulties the last two weeks means that we haven't been able to keep tabs on her. Now that we have her on surveillance, we can track her movements and plan our evil schemes accordingly."

"I guess," Andrew said dully.

"Now come over here and help me get the command centre online."

"I thought we agreed to call it the Batcave?" Jonathan said, spinning in his chair again.

"No, that name sucks," Warren snapped back. "Besides, we're not Batman, we're Lex Luthor."

"Lex was Superman's villian," Andrew corrected

"Not in Smallville," said Jonathan.

Andrew frowned.

"I thought we agreed never to talk about Smallville and their obvious disregard for Superman cannon. There were too many fights."

"I like that show," Jonathan replied sulkly.

"You just like to ogle Lana Lang," Andrew countered.

Warren glared at both of them.

"Will you two shut up for one second? I'm bringing the cameras online."

Warren pressed enter on the keyboard, and one by one the images began to appear on the bank of monitors he had set up in front of him. The flickering glow of the screens lit his face, giving him the eerie supervillian quality he was looking for.

"Here we are. Cameras online."

Jonathan stared at the screens for approximately two seconds.

"Good. They're up and running. Can we watch TRON now, Lex?"

"I don't get why we have to keep watching her anyways," Andrew complained. "All she ever does now is go to work at the burger palace and take the kid out for walks."

"Yeah but where did that kid come from?" Warren asked. "It's a mystery, guys! Aren't you the least bit curious why one day there was no kid and the next the slayers in full mommy-mode?"

Jonathan snorted.

"What are we, Nancy Drew? Buffy's got a kid now. So what?"

"So the more we know about this kid, the more we can plan our kidnap of him in revenge. Remember, that was our plan back before our cameras went on the fritz? It took you two 'geniuses' two weeks to fix them!" Warren would have ranted longer, but Andrew punched him in the shoulder.

"Shut up!" he hissed. "Something's happening!"

Sure enough, the camera hidden in a lawn gnome on Buffy's front drive was picking up activity - the slayer's little sister and the redhead witch were sitting down on the front porch, drinks in hand. The slayer's sister sat back in her chair with a sigh.

"It's so quiet," she said.

Willow smiled.

"Yeah. We haven't exactly been making with the quiet around here lately."

"You mean since Buffy got a baby and Xander started renovating the basement?" Dawn quipped.

Willow took a sip of her drink.

"Among other things," she replied. "I never thought I'd be so glad to see Xander sleeping with another man, but him on the couch with Connor is kinda adorible."

"At least Connor's quit hating him," Dawn smirked.

"Quit not being able to stand him, anyways," Willow corrected. "I think they tolerate each other. Which means, hey, another babysitter."

Dawn chuckled humourlessly.

"Yeah, cuz we can't exactly pay Suzy down the street to look after the little monster. What with him being the vampire child and all. Who knows when freaky vamp powers are going to manifest."

Willow grinned.

"As long as it's not drinking blood. Formula I can handle, but blood? Not so much."

They carried on talking, but the nerd trio weren't listening any more.

"Did she just say what I think she said?" Andrew asked in astonishment.

"She just said Buffy's baby is a vampire," replied Jonathan, staring at the other two with wide eyes.

"No," corrected Warren, "What she said was the kid was the child of vampires. Do you know how valuable that makes him?"

"Valuable?" Hedged Jonathan.

Warren was grinning like Christmas had come early.

"Gentlemen, I think I have a plan," he said.

Buffy walked back from work slowly. She was exhausted, she was hungry, and her brain hurt. She just wanted to go home, cuddle her little boy, and sleep for hours. She breathed a sigh of relief as she walked up her own drive and pulled open the front door.

Inside, everyone was in the living room. Xander was sprawled out on the couch, watching television, while Willow and Dawn were playing with Connor off to the side. Buffy smiled and dropped her purse on the stairs.

"Hey there," she said, coming to sit beside her sister and her best friend. "How's my little man? How's my big boy?"

Connor grinned at her, and held out his arms. Buffy felt a rush of gratification. He recognized her as his mother and wanted her. She picked him up and set him in her lap.

"Who's mommy's big boy?" she crooned, wondering what it was about parenthood that made you refer to yourself in third person. "Hey Dawnie, Wil."

"Hey," said Willow, smiling sadly. She'd had another fight with Tara today.

"How are you?" Buffy asked.

Willow shrugged.

"The love of my life hates me and I'm addicted to magick. I'd say I'm dandy."

Buffy winced.

"Sorry, Wil. I wish there was something I could do."

"You're doing it right now," Willow said, giving her a wobbly smile.

Buffy pulled her best friend into a side hug with one arm, rubbing her back soothingly.

"I'll trade places with you," Dawn offered. "I'll be lovesick, and you do my homework."

"It's a deal," Willow agreed.

"Don't say that too loud," Xander reminded them from the couch. "Someone might be listening, and body swapping is so last week."

"Don't worry, I didn't say the magic words," Dawn said, wrinkling her nose. "I've learned that lesson pretty well."

"Good thing too," said Willow, getting up off the floor and retrieving her laptop. "I love you, Dawnie, but I kinda don't wanna go back to high school again."

Connor was squirming on Buffy's lap, making it hard for her to keep hold of him. While she half-listened to the chatter around her, Buffy stood Connor up on his feet, holding his small hands in hers.

Connor had been trying to stand up for the past couple of days, and Buffy figured it wouldn't do any harm to let him. He was still a little young to be walking, according to the parenting books Buffy had taken out of the library and read like a maniac those first couple of weeks. While still clinging on to her fingers, Connor took a stumbling step forward, then another. He pushed her hands away with a surprising amount of force for someone who wasn't one years old yet, and by himself took two more steps before sitting down abruptly.

The room was silent except for the chatter of the television. All eyes were on Connor.

"Did Connor just walk?" Xander asked, startled.

Buffy blinked, looking at her son as he happily played with a toy that had been left on the ground, oblivious to the chaos he had just caused.

"I thought he wasn't going to walk till after he was one?" Dawn said, staring at the baby.

"I guess he's a fast learner," said Buffy. She scooted over to where Connor was sitting, checking to see that his fall hadn't hurt him. He looked up at her with wide, curious eyes.

"Uh, guys?" Willow broke through the stunned silence in the room. "I hate to break up a family moment, but you've got to see this."

Buffy picked Connor up, much to his disapproval, and headed with the others to the dining room table, which Willow had commendeered as her desk in the last months. She'd cleared a space among the papers and textbooks for her computer.

"Look at this," the redhead said, pointing at her screen. It was filled with undulating green lines on a black background.

"Uh, that's great, Wil," Buffy said. "Facinating squiggly lines."

Willow rolled her eyes at Buffy's sarcasm.

"This is a carrier signal. I picked it up two weeks ago, and tried to trace it, but then it disappeared. I set my computer to scan for it if it ever came back, and it just did."

"What is it?" Xander asked, peering over Willow's shoulder.

"It's a video feed."

"Where's it coming from?" Dawn asked.

"Hang on a sec," said Willow. She typed on her computer, then picked up her cell phone. The green waves filled the tiny screen. "It's somewhere close. I'm going to follow it."

Buffy handed Connor off to Dawn, and followed Willow outside the house and down the drive. Willow stopped in front of a lawn gnome, leaning against a tree.

"Here," she said.

Buffy picked up the lawn gnome and smashed it onto the sidewalk. Amid the shards of broken pottery was something black and plastic. Buffy picked it up.

"Someone's been spying on me?" She asked, her voice quiet and dangerous. "Someone's been watching my house? My family?" The urge to maim was rising. "Who did this?"

"I think I can find out by hacking into the signal," Willow said. She turned on her heels and marched back into the house. Buffy flipped the gadget to Xander, and followed.

"Aw Buffy you shouldn't have," Xander quipped. "A new toy just for me."

"Picked it out special," Buffy said grimly.

Willow sat back down at her computer and began typing. Dawn hovered, watching as she swayed from side to side in an attempt to lull Connor to sleep. Buffy let her keep him; she had a feeling she wouldn't want a breakable baby in her hands when she found out who had done this. She felt so violated, so dirty, to know someone had intruded her special space. This house was a demon-free zone, a place of refuge for her and hers. And someone had been watching it.

"Gotcha," Willow said to herself, pressing a final keystroke. Her laptop screen changed from squiggly lines to a black-and-white image of the Magic Box.

"They must have cameras all over the place," she muttered.

"Hey is that Anya?" Dawn asked, watching the vengence demon step into the shop.

"What's she doing with Spike?" asked Xander. "She... oh. Oh."

The room was very quiet as realization dawned on all of them.

Jonathan and Andrew stared at Warren as he outlined his master plan, his face becoming more animated with every sentence.

"... that plan sucks," Andrew summed up for both of them.

Warren glared at them.

"Why? Are you afraid?"

"You're talking about hurting a baby," Jonathan reminded him. "No way. I'm not doing it."

"It's not a baby," Warren reminded him. "It's a vampire. Besides, what did you think you were getting into when you signed on for this, a knitting circle? We're super villians. If we can get that kid, not only can we sell him to the highest bidder, we can get our revenge on the slayer. Remember what she did to your brother, Andrew? Or to your plans, Jonathan?"

"I still don't want to do it," Jonathan said, a whine in his voice.

Andrew shook his head, the motion bringing the monitors back into his view.

"Uh, guys?" he said, interrupting the beginnings of another argument.

Warren swung around.

"What?" he demanded.

Andrew pointed to the monitor labled "Magic Box"

"Did someone change it to channel seven?" he asked tentatively.

The screen showed the main area of the Magic Box. The research table had been stripped of books, and instead was full of... Anya. With Spike on top of her. And they were...

"Woah," said Jonathan.

Warren stared at the screen.

"This is better than porn," he said. "What is this?"

"That's Spike," said Andrew, who had a touch of hero worship directed towards the bleached blond vampire. "The girl is Anya. The ex-demon who works in the shop."

"Isn't she engaged to Xander?" Jonathan asked, his eyes glued on the screen.

"Not any more," Warren said.

A/N: Before anyone gets mad at me for taking the idea of fast growing vampire babies, let me just say I think it's cannon. I've been thinking about it, and how else would Connor be able to survive Qortoth when he was just a helpless baby? He had to have grown up really fast in order to stay alive in a hell dimension. He may look like other kids, but Connor's the child of vampires, there really isn't any "normal" when we're talking about him.