Title: Living In Danger
Author: MSKBSwedish
Rating: Mature
Summery: Set four years after the first story 'Midnight Sun'. Buffy and Spike's daughter Linn is now four years old and it's up to Spike and Buffy to protect their little girl from demons and other sorts of evil when the word gets out that the Slayer and the Slayer of Slayers have a child together. Set as M for heavy adult themes at times.
Note: I own nothing of the Buffyverse.

Chapter Eight – The Buzz

There was a bunch of shouting and yelling within the decrepit mausoleum. Buffy couldn't make out the words or even who it was but her senses were telling her who one of those suspects were going to be. She took a deep breath and shuffled inside of the mausoleum which was in much need of a repair. Venturing further inside, the voices became louder. She was now sure who one of those suspects were.

"I swear, I will pull your heart out through your chest cavity and feed your dust to the rats!" Spike shouted with his hand wrapped around some vampire's throat.

"I swear! I swear, Spike!" The vampire gasped. "I... I don't know... anything!" Spike's hand must have tightened around the vampire when Buffy heard the sounds of the vampire crying out in agony.

"Spike!" Buffy's voice bellowed when she found Spike.

Spike and the unknown vampire twisted their heads to the side to look at Buffy.

"Oh no. Not the slayer!" The vampire struggled harder against Spike.

Spike turned his head quickly back to the vampire. "You listen to me, Finn and you listen to me good you sod." Spike pulled the vampire down and pushed him onto his back. He gripped Finn's shirt in his hands and glared directly into his face. "I want everyone to know. Tell them all. I will find them one by one. I will not stop until Drusilla is found. If you protect her, you are just as good as dust." Spike yanked Finn to his feet. "It won't just be a nasty vampire on their hands either. You make sure they know who they are toying with. The slayer shows no mercy." With that, Spike pushed the vampire toward the door to the mausoleum.

Buffy shifted to the side and waited for the vampire to leave. She knew what Spike was doing and wasn't going to chance dicing the vampire he had just bloodied up.

"Spike." Buffy said quietly. "Come on. We need to go home." Buffy's eyes shown just how exhausted she was.

"I will come home later. I still have some time before the sun rises." Spike said coldly.

Spike walked past Buffy, not bothering to stop to look in her eyes. Buffy's eyes fluttered closed momentarily as to check her anger before walking out behind Spike.

"Please, Spike. I'm so tired. We've been out here for hours. I can't find her and neither can you. We've questioned every vampire and demon that we've found." Buffy caught up to Spike and tugged softly on the arm of his duster. "We will try again tonight." Buffy said as she slipped her fingers between his.

Spike had to hold back his growl of disapproval when he turned to look at Buffy. The anger that he felt was suddenly washed away. Buffy's face said it all. She had smudges of dirt across her face along with random cuts and bruises forming and that included one bad cut on her bottom lip to her chin. She looked like exhaustion had finally set in. Her eyes were a fierce green and it looked like she was having trouble keeping them open as wide as normal.

Wrapping his arm around Buffy, Spike placed a gentle kiss on her brow. "I'm sorry." He whispered. "I've been so wrapped up in finding Linn. Dru's scent isn't anywhere and that makes me so angry." Spike admitted to Buffy while keeping her pulled against him as they walked toward the exit to the cemetery.

"I know. I'm pissed off too but you said so yourself last week, what good are we to Linn if we aren't strong enough?" Buffy said softly to Spike.

Spike nodded in agreement. Buffy was right. He needed to take his own advice and get some rest.

It had been a week since Linn had went missing and still the only they lead was the strand of hair that Spike found in Linn's room that belonged to Drusilla. Of course Spike had searched many nights with that lock of hair in his grasp to try and follow Drusilla's scent but as always, the trail would go cold somewhere. There would be too many scents for him to sift through or he just could no longer smell her. It was making him angry and causing tension between him and Buffy.

As they found their way back to the house, Buffy let go of Spike as she approached the front steps.

"Oh god." Buffy whimpered suddenly as she fell against the steps. Her hands braced, she caught herself on the steps as she fell against them.

A very worried Spike was there in a blink of an eye to help lift Buffy from the steps. "That was quite a fall, love." Spike said as he wrapped an arm around Buffy's back while pulling her arm over his shoulders so he could support her while walking up the rest of the way.

"I just got... really dizzy." Buffy furrowed her brow. She didn't know what was happening to her but the dizzy spells felt all too familiar.

When they were inside and upstairs, Spike ran a bath for the slayer, knowing she needed something to calm her. She asked him to join her in the tub, not wanting to be alone. Buffy didn't want to be alone anymore since Linn had went missing.

While in the tub, Buffy laid against Spike as he lifted his hands to slowly soak her hair in the water and used his fingertips to massage her scalp.

"Spike..." Buffy cut the long silence between them off. "I need to talk to you." Her voice was small and came just loud enough for him to hear.

"What is it, love?" Spike asked. He stopped massaging Buffy's scalp and rested his hands on her shoulders, massaging her shoulders gently.

Buffy sat up suddenly but slowly, careful not to make herself dizzy again. She pulled her knees to her chest and turned her body slightly to look back at Spike.

"I think..." Buffy started. She looked into Spike's eyes and for whatever reason suddenly felt even more naked than she was even though she was completely bare.

"You think...? Go on. Spit it out, pet." Spike used his fingertips to gently stroke Buffy's back, hoping the connection would calm her nerves.

"I might..." Buffy let out a breath of frustration and put her hands on her knees. "Damnitt. I don't know why this is so hard." Buffy grumbled.

"Just say it, sweetheart." Spike encouraged his lover. He could see the frustration on her face. Gently, he guided her face to turn and look him in the eye. "Hey, whatever it is, we will get through it." Spike said with a reassuring smile.

Buffy shook her head. "It's nothing."

"That doesn't look like nothing." Spike retorted.

Buffy sighed. "I think I'm pregnant." She suddenly blurted out. She quickly shifted her eyes to look down at the water they were submerged partially in.

"What?" Spike asked, not sure if he was hearing the slayer right.

"I think I'm pregnant." Buffy shifted her eyes up slowly to look into Spike's eyes.

"Why?" Spike asked as he reached out to stroke the skin of her back again.

"I'm so dizzy. I'm emotional. My breasts are tender. I'm feeling morning sickness again. At first I thought I was sick. Then last week..." Buffy couldn't say the words. Spike knew what she meant. Their daughter's kidnapping. "I thought it was just stress. I thought it was stress still until yesterday morning when I woke up sweating and puked in the trashcan. The only other time that happened is when I was pregnant the first time."

Spike nodded his head in understanding of Buffy's worry. He knew it was a worry. Now wasn't the best time to be expecting a baby when they were searching for their four year old.

"Have you tested yourself, pet?" Spike questioned the slayer.

Buffy shook her head no softly. "I haven't been to the store to get a pregnancy test. It only just occurred to me yesterday and we didn't have time to stop at the store while I was out with Willow and Xander. We had to run to the magic shop and then to Giles' for more information. We were at Giles' for most of the day and when I came home you were ready to go out."

Spike wrapped his arms around Buffy's shoulders and pulled her body to his. Buffy let out a deep breath, feeling like a small weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Why didn't you tell me last night?" Spike mumbled, his lips pressed against Buffy's forehead.

"You were so ready to go out and I wanted to go with you. I needed to distract myself from thinking I might be pregnant. How can we afford another child when we can barely hang on to the one we have?" Buffy's voice was growing with worry. She was starting to get upset and Spike could tell.

"Hey." Spike gripped her shoulders reassuringly in his hands. "Don't say that." Spike whispered. "We are not horrible parents. There are horrible beings out in that world who wish to cause harm. That doesn't make us bad parents, Buffy." Spike refused to believe he was a bad parent. The bad people were the ones that had taken their daughter. They were the enemies, not the parents themselves.

"I don't know if I can handle being pregnant, looking for my child and slaying all together." Buffy added.

Spike nodded his head. "Then Willow and Xander will do patrols, I will continue to interrogate suspects and you will stay home and when we find a lead, I will bring you along with me." Spike said honestly. In his mind, he would have preferred Buffy do that.

"No. I can't just sit at home and be a bump on a log. I'm not doing that. At least I can do is be out there looking for Linn." Buffy demanded.

Buffy refused to sit at home and do nothing. She needed to find her daughter. She needed to be out there night and day looking for Linn to return her safely to her home.

"The whole community has been buzzing, Dru." The vampire informed the long raven haired vampire. She glared at Angelus.

"I know that, darling." Dru looked over at the four year old sitting in the cage. She cried softly into her knees as she held her knees to herself. She looked depleted and hungry. She could hear the little girl's tummy rumbling from where she sat across the room of the secret lair.

"She needs to feed." Angelus said as he stood up. "Why not feet her our new pet." He said whilst picking up the white puppy that licked his fingers once in his arms.

"Oh but the puppy was meant to make her smile, Angelus. Can't we feed get her a human?" Dru asked as she stood, shuffling over to Angelus.

Angelus shook his head and looked alarmingly at Dru. "It's too dangerous for us to leave now. Not with Buffy and Spike actively looking. We have to wait at least a few more days and then we will move the girl." Angelus walked over to the cage as he spoke.

"Little girl..." Angelus knelt down in front of the cage.

Linn picked her head up as tears ran down her cheeks. Her eyes were blood shot and her skin was turning more pale by the hour. She looked starved and dirty. All Angelus could see was Buffy in that face. He could see the resemblance now that he was so close to the child. It was the first time he was getting a good look at the small girl. She was even tiny like her mother but Dru was right. Her eyes were fierce like Spike's.

"Are you hungry?" Angelus asked the child.

Linn nodded her head quickly. "Can I please have juice?" Linn didn't know that only her household called the blood she drank "juice" and she had no clue that she had the ability to bite and drink from the 'tap', so to speak.

"You can have better." Angelus lifted the dog to his mouth and tore into his neck. Instantly, it was lifeless. He stuck his hand through the bars of the cage and offered the blood of the dog to Linn.

Linn cried out in horror at first. She couldn't believe this, monster, would do such a thing. Not to a puppy! But the moment she smelled the blood her nostrils flared and her tummy rumbled and growled.

"Drink it, child. It's not the good stuff but it will suffice." Angelus eagerly encouraged Linn to drink the blood.

She slowly pushed her mouth toward the wound. Her eyes were stuck on Angel as she sucked the blood from the dog before closing her eyes and gripping the lifeless body in her hands. She began to eagerly suck the blood from the open bite. It was slightly bitter but it was better than the "juice" her mother and father would give her.

"Good girl." Angelus said before getting up and turning away from the cage. He walked back over to Dru and sat down. She followed, sitting in his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Oh look, Angelus. We have created a murderer. I love our little family." Dru giggled happily.

"We are not a family, yet. We have to kill Buffy and Spike first. Once we kill Buffy and Spike, this child will be ours and we will raise her to be a savage killer. She will be a true leader." Angelus laughed evilly.

Linn could hear her parents names when she looked up and gently laid the lifeless dog down. She felt guilty when it didn't move but the interest in her parent's names clouded her mind.

"Can I go home? Please?" Linn asked Angelus and Dru. "I miss my mummy and daddy." Linn wrapped her tiny hands around the poles that kept her locked within the cage.

"No!" Angelus shouted causing the little girl to jump.

Linn's bottom lip quivered. She moved back to the little corner of the cage and began to cry again into her hands. She cried for her mother and father over and over again. She couldn't take being away from them any longer.

"Mummy, help me." Linn sobbed into her hands.

"I know where she is!" Buffy shook Spike away suddenly which knocked him from his deep sleep. "I know where Linn is. Get up!" Buffy demanded before hurrying over to her wardrobe to pulled out clothes for herself to get into.

"What's going on, love? Another dream?" Spike asked groggily as he sat up wiping his eyes.

"No. I felt her. I heard her." Buffy pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and walked over to Spike. "She said, 'Mummy, help me'." Buffy looked into Spike's eyes. "Not once in a dream has she said that. It was like we were connected for a split second and her vision was blurry. She was crying but, somehow I could see her surroundings. We need to start searching the mausoleums in more depth. She's going to be inside one of them and we need to do it fast. Whoever has her, Spike..." Buffy was beginning to shake with anger.

Spike stood up quickly and wrapped his arms around Buffy. "Shh. We will find her. Give me a minute to get dressed. You ready the weapons and get the others over here immediately. We are going to need backup." Spike explained.

If they were going to search every nook and cranny of a place that could be a potential crypt, they were going to need all of the help they could get.

...TBC...