Chapter 64: News

Over the course of the next week Nick and Antonio spent as much time as they could with Buffy and Dawn. But by the end of the week, they returned home having pressing business with their company. Nick had actually been interested in going, something he hadn't been before. And Antonio understood why. Nick had a child on the way and those kinds of things change a person just as Nick had changed Antonio when he had come into Antonio's life. Nick had promised he would come back as often as he could. He did not want his child growing up not knowing his or her father.

Nick and Buffy had also talked about after their baby was born. Nick suggested that he and Buffy get married. They could officially get divorced when Buffy and Dawn returned to their original times in a little over ten years. But the marriage would make it easier on official records for Nick to be involved in his child's life.

During the second week Buffy learned how to be a midwife from Paige, who had done it several times before as part of her Coven, so that Buffy could help deliver Dawn's babies. They expected within the next two weeks Dawn would go into labor.

Savannah had started her second year of school in Bear Valley. And as a result, had been taken from Buffy's side where she had remained since returning to Stonehaven. She had waited on Buffy hand and foot trying to make her mother as comfortable as possible. And when Savannah had returned to school, Jeremy and Clay had taken up that duty.

And so, at the end of the second week Buffy and Dawn were sitting on the weight bench in the basement at Stonehaven reading the Toronto papers Jeremy had brought them. Clay was battling the punching bag, starting the long process of training his brain to favor his left arm. The sisters were reading the news aloud—at Clay's request. Not that he cared about the aftermath of events in Toronto, but their reading distracted him.

As Jaime and Robert had predicted, once the portal closed, things had started getting back to normal in Toronto. It wasn't instantaneous—no magic-wand solutions there either. But the city's efforts to clean the water had begun working, and the rats—though still infected—had stopped rampaging. Like Clay, the city had begun the long road to recovery.

As Dawn reached for the National Post, she rubbed her abdomen.

"Still bothering you?" Clay said, stopping.

"Just uncomfortable," Dawn said.

Dawn had been "uncomfortable" since last night, unable to sleep and restless, an intermittent dull ache in her groin. Buffy sat beside her for that very reason. Not because Dawn or Clay didn't enjoy her company, of course they did. They had not wanted to take the chance that Dawn would go into labor and Buffy not be on hand.

Dawn opened the paper. "The Post is blaming the provincial Liberal government for—"

A sudden gush of liquid ran down between Dawn's legs made her jump up.

"Dawn," Buffy said as Clay turned around so fast the ricocheting bag hit him in the back. "Your water broke."

"My—?" Dawn looked at Buffy and then down at the wet stain down her legs, and was still staring, not quite comprehending, when Clay started yelling for Jeremy.

While Buffy had been trained by Paige to be Dawn's midwife, she had wanted Jeremy on call to help just in case.

Buffy waited as Dawn's "discomfort" solidified into recognizable contractions. They were intense, but a few minutes apart—hardly debilitating. Buffy had Jeremy prepare tea from the brew Paige had given Buffy the recipe for. Buffy prepared for the new arrivals.

They'd cleared out Malcolm's room, but hadn't started decorating it yet. Mainly because Malcom's room was going to end up being the nursery for all three babies, Dawn and Buffy's, till they could figure out a better arraignment for Buffy's. Till then Dawn's twins would be in hers and Clay's room and Buffy's baby would be in Buffy's room.

Dawn put bottom sheets on the bassinets, shook out baby blankets, gathered sleepers and opened the package of diapers. Buffy and Clay kept trying to figure out Dawn's next move so they could beat her to it. They both got in the way more than they helped, but Dawn didn't even snap at them. That hour seemed almost surreal, Dawn calmly laying out tiny diapers and bath towels, unperturbed by Clay and Buffy—and later Jeremy—as they tried to persuade her that none of this needed to be done now. When a contraction hit, Dawn would just wait it out, breathing deeply, then carry on. Buffy had said she understood what Dawn was feeling. She had been restless when Savannah had been born.

Then, all of a sudden, the contractions progressed from "that's not so bad" to "holy crap!"

When the time came, Dawn started to push. Baby number one slid into position … then she realized, with sudden clarity, that she was about to shove a baby out of a hole usually used by something much smaller. She panicked, and was about to scream, "I can't do this," when she couldn't help giving a last push and…

"It's a … a boy!" Buffy said as she handed the first baby to Jeremy who proceeded to clean off the baby before handing it to Clay.

"We've got … a boy!" Clay said, grinning. He handed the baby to Dawn and for a second, she was lost in those big unfocused eyes. She nuzzled the top of his head, inhaling the scent of him, a new smell with the barest whiff of the scent that marked him a werewolf. It didn't smell the same as a mature werewolf, but she expected that—Jeremy said it would be subtler.

As Dawn kissed his head, she remembered this wasn't done.

"Better take him," Dawn said to Clay. "The first impression he gets of his mom shouldn't be cursing and screaming. He'll hear enough of that later."

Clay took him, and juggled him around a bit, trying to figure out a safe hold. The baby only whimpered, eyes wide and unblinking, taking in his new world.

"Shouldn't he be … louder?" Dawn asked. "Squalling?"

"Don't worry, Dawn," Buffy said as memories of Savannah's birth came. "It'll come; some babies are just naturally more curious of their world when they first arrive. The doctors were scared something was wrong with Savannah when she didn't cry right away. She was curious; I could see it in her eyes when I held her that one time."

Clay grinned. "And if it doesn't, you won't complain, right?"

"True," Dawn said.

"Okay, now you're only half done," Buffy said. "Tell me when you feel the other one coming?"

Dawn did as they started all over again. This time was better. The way had been cleared and Dawn knew the end would come fast.

"It's a girl," Buffy said as she cut the umbilical cord and proceeded to clean this one herself.

"A girl!" Clay looked over at Dawn, his grin as wide as the first one. "We have a daught—"

His words were drowned out by a squall so loud even Jeremy started.

"I think you have your screamer," Buffy said as she handed the baby to Dawn.

The baby then only a moment, as if getting comfortable in her mother's arms, snuggled in.

As Dawn held her, Buffy bent to kiss the top of her head, and inhaled deeply. Buffy looked to Dawn her eyes wide. "Take a sniff," Buffy said.

Dawn looked at Buffy in confusion and then did as she was told. She blinked. Was that—? No, it shouldn't be. The genes didn't pass to daughters. Dawn took a deep breath of room air, and then tried again. The scent was still there and like her brother had been subtle.

Dawn looked up at Buffy and they both knew that just like with Savannah that the timeline had changed yet again. That hereditary females would now become common place.

"Do you have names picked out?" Jeremy asked.

Dawn looked up. "Um, pretty much."

Dawn and Clay had agreed to Buffy's suggestion for a girl, Joyce Buffy. And as when Buffy had suggested it, she was happy with the choice especially when Clay and Dawn had told her they wanted her to be godmother.

They had also settled on a name for a boy, Logan Giles. Dawn had wanted to remember two men that had been influential in her life.

But there was still one more question. Dawn and Clay hadn't settled on a surname, not because they'd been arguing over it, but because neither of them really cared what name the babies bore. Clay had said, Danvers wasn't even his name. And of course, Dawn had borne so many in the last two centuries that it was hard to choose just one. But there was one she would eventually have to bear again. Why not give her babies that one?

Dawn looked over at Jeremy. "Jeremy, what do you think if we gave them Buffy's and my real last names?"

Jeremy nodded in understanding. He knew the date that Buffy and Dawn would be returning to their old lives and he knew the children would be taken with them. Buffy knew as well as he did that traditionally hereditary males stayed with the Pack and hereditary females never became werewolves. Of course, before now hereditary females had never existed. Even he had caught the girl's scent from where he stood and knew that things had changed. Still he also knew that Buffy would likely challenge him for leadership if he even tried keeping either child with him. And he knew while she had accepted the idea of becoming Pack Leader she wasn't ready. "I think …" he looked at Buffy who glared at him as if telling him to just try it. "That might be a good idea."

Clay slid onto the bed beside Dawn and she smiled up at him.

"Logan Giles Summers and Joyce Buffy Summers," Dawn said as Buffy smiled at her.

Several months later everything was repeated as Buffy went into labor. Nick was listening on the phone having been unable to return as his baby neared full term. In the intervening months Buffy had taught Dawn what she would need to know to help Buffy deliver. As luck would have it, it was a Saturday and Savannah was home from school and holding her mother's hand. Clay and Jeremy stood off to the side watching.

As the baby slid out, Dawn proceeded to clean it off before turning to Buffy and smiling. "It's a girl," she said loud enough so that Nick could hear over the phone.

"We have a girl?" Nick asked as Dawn handed Buffy her daughter.

"Yes," Buffy said as she looked at Savannah. "Savannah has a baby sister."

"What are we naming her?" Nick asked. He and Buffy had discussed it and decided that Buffy should name their child. And so, Buffy picked out the names based on those she loved the most.

If it had been a boy it would be Nicholas Giles Summers.

But it was a girl and Buffy smiled as she looked at Dawn. The choice had been easy for a girl's name. She would name a girl, just as Dawn had done, after her mother and sister. Joyce had given Buffy her own middle name as Buffy's middle name. So, Buffy followed the tradition with one change. She placed her middle name as her daughter's first name. Then she had given her daughter, Dawn's middle name.

"Anne Marie Summers."

Buffy smiled as she leaned down and sniffed her new daughter. Then she looked up at Dawn her eyes wide. "Dawn."

Dawn bent down and took a sniff and her eyes went wide too. Anne had the same scent as Joyce. "Jeremy."

"What's going on?" Nick asked from the phone.

Jeremy walked over next to Buffy and Dawn and bent down to take a whiff and then looked up at the sisters and nodded. "It seems Anne takes after her cousin. We now have four female werewolves in the pack. Two of them hereditary."

"WHAT!" Nick shouted. "How is that possible?"

"I do not know," Jeremy said. "You have to remember, Nick, that Buffy and Dawn are the only female werewolves to ever join the Pack, and to our knowledge the only female werewolves to ever give birth. It's possible since the babies are full blooded werewolves that they inherited from both parents."

Clay, Buffy, Dawn and Jeremy looked at each other their eyes going wide. Then they looked at Savannah. The first ever hereditary Slayer. They knew Dawn was right that the world was changing. It had witnessed the arrival of not one, not two, but three new races; Slayer/witch, Werewolf/witch and Slayer/werewolf/witch—all hereditary. Which meant that Savannah, Logan, Joyce and Anne's children would pass down the genes, and that in time traditional Slayers, traditional witches and traditional werewolves would become three extinct races.

Author's Note: As I said several chapters ago this is the end for now (even though I do have more done). While this doesn't bookend into A Rei of Light, it does have things happening that were mentioned in a Rei of Light, namely Savannah being a Slayer and Dawn's children. So for now this is being marked completed unless someone says they want to see the rest.