It started out as just practice.

Buffy and Connor were sparring just outside the cave that they have been calling home. The 10 year old has become quite adept at fighting. Everything Buffy shows him, he picks up before the day is out. The Slayer has even started letting him help her fight instead of just tracking. Today was no different. Buffy was showing Connor a combination of new moves when it happened.

Three huge demons attack out of nowhere. Buffy immediately pushed Connor behind her as she tried to lead them away from him. She was successful in leading two of them away, but one stayed where Connor was. Over the years, Buffy and Connor have gained quite the arsenal. Most of their weapons are made of wood and sharpened bones. Connor sees the demon approaching him, so he thinks back to his training. The demon makes the first move. The miracle child can see the punch coming, so he side steps, turns, and swipes his foot at the demon's hooves.

The demon falls, and Connor grabs one of their make-shift knives. By then, the demon has recuperated and is close to reaching Connor. The young boy sees this, and rolls on the ground to avoid the hit that would have landed on the back of his head. When Connor stands up, the demon lands a hit on the middle of his chest, sending him flying back several feet. Connor, still dizzy from being airborne, struggles to stand. When he does make it to his feet, the demon is there. It rounds a clawed hand around Connor's neck.

The boy starts choking, and his vision starts getting fuzzy. Suddenly, a knife flys through the air, burying itself into the demon's back. The demon drops Connor in favor of reaching towards the knife in its back. Connor looks past the demon and sees his mother giving a small smile before she's drawn back into her fight. The boy quickly get to his feet, and punches the demon in the face. Forgetting about the knife, the demon focuses his energy back on Connor. The demon swipes at him with his clawed hand. Connor narrowly ducks out of the way, before jumping up and performing a spinning kick to the demon's mid section.

The demon recuperates faster than expected, and swipes at Connor one more time. This time it connects. The claw rips his clothes and cuts into his skin, leaving a 5 inch gash on the side of Connor's gash instantly starts gushing deep red blood. Connor has never felt a pain this great. He lets out a scream of pain just as Buffy has finished beating both of her demons. The young boy, determined to finish this, grabs the closest knife and stumbles to his feet, hand covering the gash. When the demon's not looking, thinking it won, Connor shoves the knife through its face.

As the demon falls dead, Buffy comes running, having heard her child's scream. As she arrives at the scene, Connor collapses. Buffy reaches for him. Her eyes instantly land on the giant gash that's gushing blood. The Slayer scoops Connor up into her arms, bridal style, and rushes into the cave.

She sets the boy down, and rushes to where they keep their few medical supplies. The Slayer grabs some twine and a needle. Buffy rushes back to Connor who is slowly losing consciousness. The Slayer quickly rips Connor's shirt off of him. Knowing she needs to stop the blood, Buffy takes off her shirt. The blood is still spilling heavily as the Slayer presses her shirt on the gash using some pressure. The shirt quickly starts to soak through with blood. "Come on, sweetheart. Stay with me!" Buffy screams as she sees Connor's head start to loll.

The blood starts to slow and Buffy knows it's almost time to stitch the gash up. She removes her blood soaked shirt from the gash, and grabs the needle and twine. The Slayer thread the twine through the needle head, and prepares to start stitching her baby up. This is the worst wound Connor has ever gotten. Over the years, Buffy has endured many injuries. Most of them needed to be stitched. When Connor was really young, she had stitched herself. It hurt like a bitch. As the boy had gotten older, though, she had taught him how to stitch a wound. Every time since then, Buffy had let Connor do it for her every time she was injured to practice. This was the first time she had to stitch him up. She's just glad he's unconscious. The last thing she wants is to cause Connor more pain.

The Slayer makes quick work of it, having tons of practice. She works the needle in and out of Connor's split skin, the twine closing the wound. When Buffy is done, she starts to put the medical supplies away. She's worked herself up, so she reaches up to wipe her nose, hands covered in blood. The Slayer is sweating and crying, so needing to take a breath, she gets up off the ground and steps outside. Even though Quor'toth is quite a scary place, that was the most terrifying thing she has experienced since coming here.

The next few hours are filled with anxiety. Finally, Connor starts to stir. "Mom?" the boy says, tiredly. Buffy quickly rushes towards her baby. "Hey, sweetheart. I'm here." she says as she brushes the hair out of Connor's eyes.

"Where's your shirt?" Connor asks, confused. Buffy looks down and realizes she's not wearing a shirt, just her bra. With all of the worry and anxiety filling the last few hours, she forgot to put a shirt on. "When you got hurt, I had to stop the blood. So I took my shirt off and used it." she says as she points to her newly dark red shirt. "I guess I forgot to put another one on." Buffy then moves towards her clean set of clothes and slips it on.

Connor tries to move and bumps his side. He winces and Buffy is by his side in an instant. "Shh, baby. Don't move." the Slayer says as she snuggles Connor into her side. "Mama, can you tell me more about my father?" When Connor says that, Buffy's heart melts. The boy hadn't called her that since he was seven. "Sure, baby."

Buffy goes on to tell Connor about how they met. How Buffy found out Angel was a vampire, and tried to kill him before finding out he had a soul. She went on to tell him how they first started going out and how they fell in love.

When the Slayer was telling him about their first date to the movies she looked down and saw Connor was asleep. He was leaning against her shoulder and she could feel his little puffs of breath against her shirt. Buffy brushes his hair off of his forehead, and leans down to press a kiss against his skin. She then settles down and falls into a blissful sleep knowing her baby is going to be okay.