He should’ve known that Harmony wouldn’t last. Hell, she didn’t even last two week with Alia, the name they had decided on the first day. Alia, like all babies, needed constant attention and she wasn’t cut out for it. The crying, changing and feeding had taken its toll on the blonde vampiress.
Her clothes were constantly dirty from the feedings, her hair limp and unkempt from when Alia would pull on it and she never kept the nighttime hours like them.
So she would cry during the day and one of them, mostly him, would have to get up to change her or feed her and even play with her until she quiet and went back to sleep.
Oh she tried. The littlest vampire she was, she tried.
She stole all the clothes for Alia, deciding what was in fashion for her and even turning to him to see what he thought. He answered her truthfully, though he lied his ass off when Harm dressed Alia in a horrible frilly pink number with a matching hat. Harm even got a book on how to raise babies, reading it everyday but fell asleep within minutes.
She left about three days ago, leaving a note saying that she couldn’t take the pressure and went to find some peace and quiet. So she went to Las Vegas and left Alia.
Which meant, he is now on the lowest of lows in the demon community. A vampire taking care of a baby. A stake seemed to look brighter by the second.
He glanced over at Alia, playing with the toys Harmony had gotten for her. She wore a white shirt with white baby capris and white tennis shoes today. She looked like one of the child angels you would see in paintings. At least until she needed to be changed...then she was the demon he knew she is.
He tried discovering what he could about the cult that he escaped from but no one was talking...at least when they were sober. And when they did, it made little to no sense. The cult was a old one, newly migrated from somewhere far and they were something not to be messed with. There was news that they were in a heated frenzy over a interrupted ritual.
There were plans on a attack but it never fell through. He was glad that the cult had blamed the Slayer and not himself or he would’ve been in hot water.
“Da, Da, Da...” Alia gurgled, flinging her black teddy about from her play area. It was in the back of the
crypt, hidden from view and out of the way just in case any demons and a certain Slayer dropped in on
him. “Da! Da! Da!--” she continued, getting louder by the second.
“Okay!” he yelled, getting up from the chair to check on her. He walked back and picked her up, holding her up in the air for the least contact. “What is it?”
“Da. Da.” she continued as she swung her teddy. “Da. Da.”
“I’m not your Da, kid.”
“Da!” she repeated, hitting him on the chest with the teddy. He looked into her eyes and he swore for a second that he had seen those eyes somewhere.
She smiled at him before she lost grip on her teddy. It bounced and rolled towards the entrance to the lower crypt and disappeared as it fell through. She squeaked in surprise before sticking out her lower lip.
Tears instantly filled her eyes.
“Oh...bollocks..:” he muttered when she started crying loudly, reaching for her lost teddy.
“Hey, hey, hey.” he rubbed her back in a effort to calm her down. “Don’t cry luv.”
She responded by crying harder.
He tried different things, making faces at her, getting a new toy for her but none of it seemed to work. The crying was getting on his nerves and his patience was getting thin.
“Bloody hell! Would you stop!?” he growled, shifting to game face.
Alia stopped instantly, her eyes wide as she looked at the ridges and fangs before she giggled, reaching to touch his face. She wasn’t afraid at all. Spike growled at her and it made Alia smile. He smiled as well.
“Well, you’re sure a brave lil brat I give you that.” Spike said.
The door of the crypt flew open with a mighty bang and Spike held Alia close as Buffy stood in the doorway.
“Spike, I need some info about--” she dropped off as
Alia squealed and squirmed in Spike’s arms, his vampire face on. She put two and two together and came up with...“Spike, you disgusting vampire! What are you doing with that baby?!”
Spike knew he was in trouble from that deadly look in Buffy’s eyes as she stomped towards him. “Slayer? It’s not what it looks like...” he said, changing into his human face. “I can explain!”
“What can you possibly say to make me think that you weren’t going to eat this baby?” Buffy demanded, snatching Alia from his arms as she continued to glare at him.
“That...” he stopped to think of something before saying, “I found her.”
“Try that again with more conviction.” Buffy warned, holding up her stake. Alia tried grabbing it with her little hands.
“Slayer, you can’t just storm in here and think you can take something that doesn’t belong to you!”
“And what make you think that I would leave this kid here?”
“Alia.”
“What?” Buffy asked, her mouth hanging open.
“Her name is Alia.” Spike said. “It’s the name Harm and I picked for her.”
“You and Harmony?”
“Well until she left.”
“She left you with a baby?”
“Well don’t act so shocked. I know how to take care of babies. I used to all the time for Dru when she felt like eating one.” Buffy gasped in outrage, switched Alia to another arm before punching Spike in the nose again.
“OW!” Spike cried out, grabbing for his nose as a seriously brassed off Slayer yelled at him. He checked to see if it was broken as Buffy raged at him.
“You disgusting, horrible, jackass--” she yelled at him at the top of lungs. “How could you do something like that?!”
Alia startled wailing.
“Oh great job Slayer.” Spike grumbled as he snatched Alia from her back from her and starting rocking her to calm her down. “Making her cry like that.”
Buffy glared at him before grabbing him by the shirt.
“You with me. Now.” she ordered icily. “We’re going to Giles.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At Giles’ apartment, the gang all sat in the living room, the girls surrounding Alia as Xander and Giles kept a close eye on Spike who kept an eye on Alia without looking like he was looking at her. After much giggling and cooing, Giles finally got the girls attention. “I believe we should turn our attention to other larger and much more pressing matters.”
“Yeah like how did blood breath get a baby?” Xander put in. Spike glared at him.
“She’s so cute and she hasn’t made a fuss like the other babies I’ve seen around.” Anya said as she bounced Alia on her knee. She tickled Alia’s chin earning a giggle. “Xander can we get one?”
Xander spit out the soda he was drinking. “W-w-what?!” he sputtered, his eyes wide with fear.
“I just had the carpet cleaners in this week!” Giles complained as he snatched the can from Xander.
“Ahn, honey, we can’t afford a baby!”
“Spike has Alia and he lives in a crypt.” Anya pointed out.
“Guys enough. We’re here to find out how Spike got Alia in the first place.” Buffy said, staring at Spike.
“Why do you bloody care how I got her?” Spike asked. “You can have her! She’s been nothing but a pain in my arse since I got her!”
Alia looked at him and started pouting, her eyes tearing up. She started squirming from Anya’s gasp as she tried to escape. “Oh poor baby. Are you hungry?” Anya asked.
“Here’s her bag.” Spike said, handing Anya the pink fairy bag Harmony has picked for her. Anya grabbed it, and started digging inside for a bottle. She found one, handed Alia to Willow and headed for the kitchen to put it in the microwave. “You put it in for 15 seconds!” he called out.
“Okay!” Anya yelled from the kitchen.
The gang exchanged looks. “What?” he huffed defensively.
“What...happened to her parents?” Willow asked. Alia reached up and patted her face, giggling. “I mean, cuz, they must miss her.”
“What parents?” Spike said as he searched his pockets for his fags. He pulled one out and was about to light it when Alia squealed. “She has no parents as far as I know.”
“Spike!” Buffy snatched the cigarette from his lips. “You don’t smoke around babies!”
“The lil nibs didn’t mind when I smoke in the crypt!” he protested as Buffy threw it in the trash.
“Because she doesn’t have a voice to protest with.” Buffy said. “Or she would have.”
“Help.” They stopped to look at Willow and saw that she was having problems keeping Alia under control. Alia was pulling at Willow’s top, and slapping and kicking. She was giggling as she struggled.
“She doesn’t need a voice to protest it looks like.” Giles commented dryly. He grabbed Alia from a dishevel Willow. Alia struggled against him as well.
“Alia---stop---kicking--- OW!” he cried out as Alia kicked his glasses off.
“Looks like Alia doesn’t like you either Rupes.” Spike smirked.
“Here let me hold her.” Xander said, coming to Giles’ rescue.
“Aw, don’t let the whelp hold her!” Spike complained. “He’ll just upset...her...”
He dropped off as Alia stopped squirming and settled in Xander’s arms. She leaned her head against his right shoulder. “Aw...looks like you’re wrong ol’ pasty face. See, no lady can resist the Xan Man.”
“Here’s her bottle.” Anya said, walking towards Xander with the warm bottle. Xander shifted so he could feed Alia. “Oh....she really likes you Xander.”
“Yeah, makes me wanna heave with this bloody Hallmark moment.” Spike said. “Alia isn’t human.”
“Why do you say that?” Willow asked.
“Because she is what that cult from the church raised.” Spike explained. “I didn’t get rid of that glowing light thing as the Slayer called it. It turned out to be an egg and I kept it...to sell for lots of money.”
“Oh how could you ever think about selling such a cute little angel!” Anya said. Alia coughed and started crying. Anya picked her up and started patting her on the back to calm her down. “You really are evil!”
“You lied to me!” Buffy said outraged. “Well that’s not much of a surprise but still--”
“I thought it was going to be this demon! You know with scales and grrr! fangs but it turned out to be this kid.” Spike said defending himself. “You know how much people pay for something like those?”
“Quite a lot I say.” Giles said. “And you were going to mention this when?”
“Um, well...never.” Spike said sharply.
“Do you realize what this means?” Giles said, polishing his glasses.
“What?” Buffy asked clueless. “What does this mean? Is it bad?”
“Yes, perhaps. I’m not entirely sure...but if what Spike says is true, then that would mean that the cult that we fought some weeks ago has succeeded with their plans.”
Xander tensed when Alia burped. For a second, his brain thought that it was growl, which always means badness. But now Giles had him worry about whether or not it was a good idea that his girlfriend is holding Alia so close to her neck.
“Don’t tell me that Alia will cause the end of the world because that is just bloody riduculious!” Spike said. “ ‘Cuz well look at her!”
“No of course not.” Giles said.
Xander relaxed, comfortable again with little Alia laying against Anya's shoulder..
Giles walked by him and grabbed one of his books of the shelf and opened it to a page as he spoke. “But this cult, from what I could piece together from the symbols at the church, is very old. It has never crossed the oceans until very recently. The books say that this cult deals with the end of the world but it doesn’t say if it brings about the end or not. It talks about raising something of great power...”
“That’s what that boy at the church said.” Buffy said, remembering the young boy she pounded for information.
“He said that it’s a vessel holding a greater power than me and most of everything else. Like a slayer only different. He said that it can‘t be destroyed only nurtured and willed by its Imprinted within four stages.” She sighed, crossing her arms.
“What happens then?”
“Destruction. Death. Creation. Life.”
“That has bad news written all over it.” Xander said.
“No. But I’m sure I can find more. Until then...Alia will have to be protected.”
“Protected?” Willow asked.
“We can’t let the cult get their hands on her. If they do, there’s no telling what they might use her for.” Giles explained.
There was silence in the room so thick that it could be cut with a knife.
“Okay, well thanks for the newsflash but that has nothing to do with me so I’ll just push off.” Spike said, breaking the silence and stood up. He walked out the door before anyone could stop him.
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