A/N: This chapter and next few chapters are essentially a re-write of the episode Gone. As always a million thanks to my lovely Beta Geliot99
Buffy stood at the stove dressed for work, making herself an omelet. She was getting really tired of yogurt and toast and from the moment she woke up, eggs had sounded like the best idea ever. She had just flipped her omelet onto a plate when Spike burst through the backdoor under a blanket.
Buffy turned towards him with her plate in one hand and a spatula in the other, looking at him blankly.
"What are you doing?" She asked looking down the hall to make sure no one was coming. Tara was already gone for the day, Dawn was clunking around upstairs getting ready for school, Willow hadn't been feeling well and had gone back to bed with a cup of tea and Xander should be arriving any minute to pick up Dawn.
"Today's your appointment at the clinic right?"
"Yeah, but not until 4:30. Are you trying for immolation here? Cause you keep that up and I'm pretty sure that's what's gonna happen."
The smile he gave her didn't quite reach his eyes, "Worried bout me, pet?" He said softly as he moved closer, pressing her against the sink with his body against hers.
She leaned into the feeling of his hand on the small of her back and looked up at him, "I'm worried that our kid won't know their pain-in-the-ass father."
He brushed his lips against her neck lightly, "Love it when you talk like that, Goldilocks."
Buffy swatted him with the spatula, "You're not allowed to turn to dust unless I'm doing the dusting, got it?"
"Fair enough." He pulled her into a kiss.
"Still planning on meeting you at your appointment later."
"At least they are calling for rain later, might not have to be so blankety." Buffy said as she scooted away from him and sat down in front of her plate at the kitchen island. She took a bite of her omelet and moaned, "Oh my god, that is so good."
Spike leaned on the counter and grinned as he watched her eat. "That a new thing you're craving?"
She shrugged, taking a big bite, "I am today anyway."
He smiled at her and stooped down, picking up two grocery bags and set them on the counter. Buffy hadn't initially noticed them through the smoke of his entrance and the blanket. He pulled out a loaf of bread, a bag of oranges, two tins of peppermint tea and a dozen containers of yogurt.
A sudden wave of emotion came over her. She resisted the urge to cry and suddenly wanted to jump him right there on the counter top. It was very warm in the kitchen. Fortunately Spike didn't seem to notice as he put the yogurt in the fridge. The thought of licking yogurt off of his sculpted body popped into her mind and she had to push it down.
God, talk about pregnancy cravings—
She cleared her throat, "Thanks, I really needed to restock."
"Still all you can keep down?"
"So far. I'm hoping the eggs do too—" she said, taking another bite when Xander called from the front door. "Dawn! You ready?"
A clamoring of feet on the stairs announced Dawn's descent and Buffy shifted off her stool, shoving the last of her omelet into her mouth. "Crap, can you grab Dawn's lunch out of the fridge? She's going to be late if I don't get her moving." She glanced at the clock and groaned.
Buffy grabbed Dawn's book bag as she took a detour through the living room. Dawn was rushing around looking for her bag while Xander was urging her towards the door. Buffy stopped Dawn with a hand on her shoulder, "Stop worrying about the math test, you'll do fine."
Dawn looked Buffy in the eye as she took her bag, "Thanks. Ohh today is your hair appointment right?" Dawn asked just as Spike was coming up to them.
"Don't forget your lunch, Bit," he interjected, handing it to her.
Buffy shot Spike a quick look before answering Dawn's question, "Yeah, right. Hair appointment. I almost forgot!" She hugged her sister quickly, "So Magic Box after school until Willow and Tara come get you since I don't know how long I'll be."
"I know the drill!" Dawn threw over her shoulder as Xander shot Spike a dirty look and ushered Dawn out of the house. The door hadn't fully closed before a plump red haired woman was standing in the doorway watching Dawn and Xander pass.
"Ahh hi, can I help you?" Buffy stammered as she looked at the clock, she still had a little time before she had to leave for work but it wasn't much.
"Doris Kroger, Social Services."
"Wednesday!" Buffy said smacking her forehead, "Why do I always schedule everything for Wednesday?"
"I'm sorry, is there a problem?"
"Ahh no, just a busy day. Sorry. Can we make this quick, this appointment was made before I started my new job and I completely forgot about it. I have to leave for work in about twenty minutes."
The tea kettle whistled loudly and panic shot through Buffy as her eyes darted from Spike to Doris.
He laid a hand on Buffy's shoulder, "I'll get your tea ready for work, Luv. Would you care for a cup'a Ms. Kroger?" He added rubbing a hand over the back of his neck.
"Oh, no thank you. I will try to make this as quick as possible." She looked down at her clipboard as Spike ducked back into the kitchen.
"I had you down as working at the Doublemeat Palace, I assumed that's changed?"
"Oh yeah, I'm the new secretary at McDaniels Funeral Home."
"Very good," she said blandly as she wrote on her clipboard. "And your boyfriend, does he live here?"
"Oh he hum—"
Spike came back in with Buffy's tea in a large travel mug, "No, I've still got my own place, just popped in after my shift. Buffy has some pretty strict rules about setting a good example for her little sis. Suspect she only keeps me round to tutor her in English Lit," he winked at Buffy.
"That's not—" Buffy started to stammer.
"Only teasing, pet. I know you love me," he shot her a goading smile, relishing in the fact she couldn't argue the point.
Doris was already writing again and didn't seem to notice, she looked back up, "So you just live here alone with Dawn?"
"Oh well there's Willow and Tara. They live here too."
"They are your renters?"
"I humm—" Why didn't I ever think about rent? Because you were dead when they moved in…
"They're friends, they go to UC Sunnydale," Buffy said lamely.
"I see, and do they contribute to the household in someway?"
"Tara works at the University Library part-time but most of that goes towards school. She does help out with groceries and stuff though."
"I see."
Buffy's stomach was starting to turn, the omelet pushing its way back up. She clutched her hand to her mouth. Spike eyed her with concern, "You alright, sweetheart?"
"You do look awfully pale Miss Summers."
"Excuse—" she held up her other hand and ran to the kitchen sink emptying her stomach with a groan.
Spike swallowed down his concern, "I'd better go check on her. Do you have enough to be getting on with or do you need to come back another time?"
Doris seemed rattled, "I should have enough for now, I'll call if I need anything further."
Spike gave her a curt nod seeing her out, "I'll tell her."
"Will she be alright?"
"I'll get her squared away, she'll be fine," he said dismissing her.
Spike made his way into the kitchen where Buffy was simultaneously rinsing out her mouth and cleaning the sink.
"Alright, pet?"
Buffy choked down a sob, "Could that have gone any worse?"
"I don't think it was that bad. She seemed more concerned about you. Said she'll call if she needs anything."
"She probably thinks— oh god—" she cut off, spitting a mouthful of bile into the sink.
"Think maybe you should just stay home?"
Buffy shook her head wiping her mouth, "No way, I just started, I can't call off now. I'll be fine. I have some crackers and my tea. I'll be gold," she groaned unconvincingly and rinsed out her mouth again.
Spike came around the island placing a hand on the back of her neck as she straightened up with a deep breath, "It'll be alright, I've got you," he murmured. He bent his head down poking Buffy's belly lightly, "Oi, you in there, quit givin' your mum so much grief."
She gave a watery chuckle "You can be such a dope," she said as he straightened back up and she let him hold her close to his chest for a long moment before she pulled back. "I have to get going, I don't want to be late. You're coming to the appointment right?"
"Have blanket will travel," he said holding up said blanket.
"Pretty sure we're going to need umbrellas today but sure, keep that with you too I guess."
Buffy sat in the exam room at the free clinic. Although her new job came with full benefits they would not be taking effect right away. Her insides were doing backflips as she sat there staring at a fetal gestation chart on the wall, waiting for the doctor. She had been back from the dead for about two months. Which according to the chart meant that the baby should be about the size of a raspberry if her calculations were accurate.
How can something that small be making me so sick? And where the hell is Spike anyway?
She skimmed her eyes over the other comparisons down to the final month and her eyes bulged.
PUMPKIN!? Oh that can't be right… pumpkin??? Totally dreading that one…
She jiggled her leg in agitation and jumped a little when there was a knock at the door, "Miss Summers?"
"Ahh yeah? That's me, I mean come in."
The door opened and the nurse who had taken her vitals appeared, "I think I found the missing Englishman you told us to keep an eye out for."
Spike poked his head in coming around the edge of the door, "Told you I'd make it, luv."
Something tiny broke inside of her, a portion of the wall she had built around herself that he was slowly chipping away. She felt herself easing into the idea of being more than what they were every time he came through for her and she inhaled deeply, "It's about time, I was starting to think you weren't coming."
Spike went towards her, taking her hand in his, "Not about to miss a thing like this."
The nurse cleared her throat, "The doctor should be in shortly."
The door shut and Spike took another step towards her, "Feeling any better than this morning?"
"A little."
He cupped her jaw in his hand, but was interrupted by another light tap at the door before it cracked open, "How are we doing today?" A woman's rich voice came preceding a woman who looked a little like someone's hippie grandmother. She was wearing a white doctor's coat and a broomstick skirt in various shades of pink with comfortable looking clogs on her feet. Her long braided hair was streaked with gray and she had a pair of glasses hanging from a colorful beaded chain around her neck. "I'm Dr. Gail. You must be Buffy, nice to meet you."
Something about her made a little more tension ease out of her, "You too."
"And I'm assuming this is our father to be?" She asked, giving Spike an appraising look.
Spike nodded looking at Buffy with adoration, "That I am."
"Glad you could join us. Now Buffy, why don't you lay back there and we can get started." She said as she flipped through Buffy's chart.
Spike pulled a chair close to Buffy's head while Dr. Gail walked them through the initial exam. Taking her time to ensure Buffy was as comfortable as possible and answering all of their questions. When it came time to hear the baby's heartbeat, Buffy suddenly got very nervous. It was all becoming so real.
Spike reached for her hand, "Come on, pet, this is the fun part isn't it?"
She squeezed his hand in reply and nodded remembering that he had already heard it.
"That's right, dear, let's meet this little one," Dr. Gail said with a smile as she readied her little pocket device and pressed it to Buffy's skin. A moment later the sound of a quick heartbeat filled the room. Tears welled up in Buffy's eyes. And panic filled her chest. Spike ran his thumb over the back of her hand dispelling some of the panic.
Dr. Gail moved the little device around a bit more, finding the heartbeat from different angles and gave a thoughtful little "Humm."
"Humm. What?" Buffy asked, panic ripping through her again, "Humm, what humm?!"
"Just a minute, let me grab our portable ultrasound machine, I'd like to take a look," she said quickly before ducking out of the room.
Buffy turned to Spike, "Do you think something is wrong?"
"I'm not exactly a midwife. Heart sounds good and strong to me but that's about all I could tell you. I'm sure she's just being thorough."
A moment later Dr. Gail returned with a rolling cart behind her, laden with an ancient looking ultrasound machine. "Let's see what we can see shall we?"
It took her only a few minutes to get set up. She squeezed out a little clear gel on Buffy's stomach and pressed the head of the ultrasound device into her abdomen to find the right angle, "There we are," Dr. Gail turned the screen toward them and tapped it with a finger, "do you see these two little blobs here?"
Spike leaned forward close to Buffy looking at the monitor with her.
"The little jelly beans smushed together?" Buffy asked.
"What are we looking at exactly?" Spike enquired glancing towards the doctor.
"Those are your babies."
"What now?" Spike's voice cracked, "But there's only one heartbeat—"
Dr. Gail gave a shrug, "I've seen this a few times with twins over the years, the hearts are beating in unison. It's not unheard of, especially for identical twins, which is exactly what you have here."
Spike collapsed back into his chair looking dumbfounded at Buffy, "Bloody hell, Luv, twins." He took a few deep breaths steadying himself, he shook his head and leaned towards her again taking in her stunned expression, "Always knew you were a walking miracle Buffy, but this— twins."
Buffy had been shifting her gaze between Spike and the grainy image on screen and nodded numbly. Twins… not one but TWO babies… babies…
Buffy turned wide eyes on him, "Spike?"
He reached forward to cup her cheek. "Don't fret, beautiful, it's just two wee babes, not like it's the apocalypse."
Buffy laughed weakly, "That we can handle."
"And we'll handle this too."
There was the mechanical sound of a printer and Dr. Gail pulled out a little strip of grainy black and white ultrasound photos, handing them over to Buffy, "Babies first photo, I gave you some extras to hand out."
Buffy couldn't pull her eyes off of the pictures. As though being pregnant wasn't enough— twins— identical twins.
Buffy nodded absently. She was so stunned she wasn't sure how to respond.
Spike took the strip of pictures from her and squeezed her hand, "Buffy? Are you alright sweetheart?"
She swallowed and turned back to Spike, "Still wrapping my brain around this."
"I'll leave you two to talk, just make sure you check out with the front desk and I'll see you soon," Dr. Gail said with an understanding smile before heading out of the room.
"We really did do the impossible didn't we?" Spike said.
"Times two."
It was raining heavily when they left the clinic. Buffy and Spike stood out on the sidewalk in front of the building under her umbrella.
"We have visual," Warren said happily as he, Jonathan, and Andrew watched on the computer monitor as Spike pulled the ultrasound pictures from his pocket.
"Where's the audio we—" Jonathan started but stopped when Spike's voice funneled into the van.
"Buffy, you sure you don't want to take these with you?"
"Not right now. I still have to get my hair cut before Dawn suspects anything and I'm just going to obsess over seeing the babies if I have it with me. I'll come over tonight and we can divide up the pictures." Buffy said.
Jonathan gaped, "Did she just say babies?"
"Shush you idiot, I can't hear," Warren complained.
Spike's voice came over the speakers again, "You don't have to pretend, luv. I know you're petrified by the idea of telling the lot of 'em you're carrying my spawn."
Buffy sighed, "I'm not— let's just say I'm getting a little more used to the idea. The telling them about us part. Not the having twins part. The babies might be in kindergarten before I get used to that. And don't call them 'spawn', that just sounds so wrong."
Spike chuckled, "That bit I can understand," on the monitor they could see him as he gave a nod and curled his fingers into the hair at the back of her neck and rested his forehead on hers, "When you're ready, I'll be there."
"I think we're going to have to do it soon, I don't think I can keep hiding all this." Buffy said.
Warren gave a smarmy grin, "Well isn't that interesting?"
The three of them continue to watch Buffy and spike on the monitor while Spike pulled her a little closer under the umbrella, "It'll be better once they know, you'll see," he murmured so low that they could barely hear him over the speakers in the van.
Buffy nodded and let him pull her into a kiss, "But right now, I have to get my haircut."
"Alright," he said as he let his fingers glide through her hair, "just not too much, I love how your hair bounces around, when we—"
They could hear a slap on leather as she smacked his arm, "Oh my god, Spike."
"That's hot," Andrew gushed.
Andrew zoomed the camera in as Spike grinned and bit his lip, "You know you love it."
"He's so cool," Andrew commented, drawing looks from Warren and Jonathan.
"Shut up. I'm probably just going to get a trim anyway. I'll see you tonight," Buffy said.
"Looking forward to it, pet," Spike answered before he ducked out from under the umbrella and dashed towards the back alley towards the sewers while Buffy started down the street away from the van.
Jonathan looked stunned, "I thought vampires couldn't have kids."
"They can't. There's got to be more to it than that—" Warren said as he scrambled to the driver's seat to follow her. They drove past as she entered the salon and had to drive around the block in order to avoid being noticed.
"What are you doing?" Jonathan asked incredulously as Warren parked the van in an alley.
"Tailing her, what's it look like?" Warren snapped.
Andrew looked queasy, "I don't know about this… you heard them."
"Yeah? So what?"
"So? Spike is scary and if those two are a couple now then that's double the risk of this whole operation," Andrew tried to sound reasonable but his voice still had a whiny edge of uncertainty to it.
"Do you two hear yourselves?" Jonathan was on edge now, Buffy had saved him and despite his involvement in messing with her in recent months, he wasn't willing to actually hurt her. Especially now they knew she was pregnant. "She's expecting twins. With a vampire. I think we should stand down. Call this whole thing off."
"Don't be ridiculous, this is a perfect opportunity to gather intel," Warren countered, "can you two just knock it off? We're losing focus here!"
"Because you wanted to tail her!" Jonathan said.
"Right, the invisibility ray!" Andrew cut in excitedly rubbing his hands together.
"I'm not so sure about this guys," Jonathan muttered.
The trio were squabbling over the ray gun in the alley when Buffy came out of the salon, her hair a good three inches shorter. The hair cut had buoyed her spirits a little although she was still feeling stressed about the social worker's visit and the overwhelming news she was about to have twins. However, the thought of Spike's reaction gave her hope. Yes, he had been stunned, so had she, but overall he had been supportive. Reassuring. Loving.
The rain had stopped and she was trying to put a positive spin on her thoughts when it hit her. A sudden flash of light. She fell back onto the sidewalk. A black van sped away just as she reached out a hand to pull herself up and she couldn't see her hand in front of her. It just simply wasn't there. But it was, she could feel it. She could feel the bench she had grabbed onto to break her fall. She patted her chest, she was solid. She moved carefully to sit on the bench. She moved her arms and legs, everything seemed to be in working order.
I'm invisible? Oh right because this day hasn't been freak-tastic enough!!! What do I do now? I can't go to work tomorrow like this— I can't— oh god, Dawn— the babies— think, Buffy, think! Giles, I need to talk to Giles. First thing's first; Get visible.
Instinctively moving her hand to her stomach, she felt her only slightly rounded tummy. Her normal clothes still fit but she could see the slight difference, or feel it as the case may be.
Hopefully the babies are alright too.