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Author's Chapter Notes:
fourth time trying to post, I'm dumping the pic cause that seems to be causing the trouble:(

please let me know what you think. this was a hard one to write.
It was late afternoon when Spike was awoken by the hammering on the door. He could hear two heartbeats outside and smell not only Dawn but Xander as well. Buffy was still asleep curled into his side and he slid his arm out from underneath her before padding across the wooden floor to open the door before Dawn woke her sister up.

‘Where's the fire Niblet? And keep the noise down, Buffy's still asleep,' he grouched, pulling his tee shirt over his head. The flash of a heavenly sculptured body made Dawn smile. Her sister was a lucky woman, all that male goodness to play with!

‘What?’ She snapped when Spike gave her a pointed look. She realised that he had read her body language somehow, from the smirk on his face.

‘Where’s Martin, pet?’ Spike asked quietly and pointedly.

‘He and Anya have gone to visit some demon doctor or other,’ she said. ‘He needed more practise on non humans… and I’m engaged Spike, not dead!’ She added with a smile. ‘Anyway we need you downstairs, that book Buffy was reading is glowing and every time we touch it, it burns.’ Dawn managed to say the whole sentence without taking a single breath.

Spike grabbed for his shirt and started pulling that on as well when Buffy woke up, sat up and ran to the bathroom with her hand over her mouth. Spike grinned to himself but was nearly pushed over when Dawn barged past him. Xander put out a hand to steady the vampire as Dawn followed Buffy into the bathroom to find her throwing up into the toilet.

‘Get Willow!' Dawn yelled at the two males, wetting a cloth and handing it to her sister. Dawn looked whiter than Buffy as she watched in horror as her sister threw up what little was in her stomach. Xander took one look at Buffy and ran out of the room to collect the witch. Spike leaned against the door jamb with his arms crossed and smirked a little. It wasn’t that he liked to see Buffy suffer, ‘cause he really didn’t, but knowing the cause of her sickness made him feel manly and full of love for his pregnant mate.

'It’s OK,' Buffy managed to say between bouts of sickness, trying to reassure the younger Summer’s woman; but from the way Dawn’s heart was thumping Spike didn’t think it was working. Dawn tried not to join in with the vomiting: she hadn't seen her sister this ill in years.

‘Willow will be here in a minute,’ Dawn told her, rewetting the cold cloth and handing it back to Buffy. Buffy gratefully accepted it before sitting against the sink and closing her eyes, her stomach heaving as though she was on a roller coaster. She just hoped it wouldn't last for long. Dawn rubbing her back felt so good and she relaxed into the massage.

Willow came in quietly and took one look at the tableau; she then deliberately shut the door on Spike and Xander, leaving the two males staring at the wooden blockade in surprise. Shut out of the action they sat on the couch and waited to be summoned again. Spike could feel his mate’s discomfort but she didn’t feel worried, and that alone reassured him.

‘Glad you have a huge bathroom, it’s getting crowded in here,' Willow said as she knelt beside her friend. She started to pull her power together, ready to examine Buffy and find out what poison had been used against the slayer, after all a slayer was immune to most things…

Buffy grabbed her wrist and shook her head at her eldest friend. 'I'm supposed to be throwing up: that's why it’s called morning sickness.'

Willow and Dawn stared at one another open mouthed before letting out a scream of joy and hugging Buffy tightly.

‘Need to breathe here,' Buffy giggled and both girls started crying.

Spike heard the scream and the tears and his heart broke, he was terrified for his mate; he damn near took the door off its hinges as he burst through it to find all three women hugging each other and crying. He had been terrified for a few seconds that she had lost the baby and he found the women grinning at one another as though they were loony birds. Xander peered over the top of the vampire’s head to see broad smiles on the girl’s faces.

‘She's pregnant!’ Willow laughed, grabbing hold of Xander and pulling him back into the bedroom. The pair of them started doing a dance in the room, up and down and around and around, a Snoopy dance plus extras.
‘It’s our happy baby dance,’ they tried to explain amidst all the laughter.

‘Buffy's having a baby, Buffy's having a baby!’ Xander sang out as he and Willow danced out of the room. Dawn followed equally joyfully and singing just as loudly as the other two.

By the time Buffy had made it down stairs Willow had made her ginger tea and some dry toast to settle her stomach. Spike was hovering around her like a mother hen, driving her absolutely scatty.

‘If the next nine months are going to be like this William I am going to end up testing out the theory that you are immune to weapons BIG STYLE!' Buffy groused, but secretly she was enjoying all the fuss smiling secretly at her mate’s care. Spike grinned but he still handed her a cushion and put a stool under her feet.

‘Now what was it that brought you up to our room this morning?' Buffy asked Xander, pointedly turning her back on the hovering vampire.

‘That book, it was glowing and when we touched it, it burnt us,’ Xander explained. Buffy looked at it sitting quietly on the table in front of them all.

'Well it’s not glowing now,' she pointed out. Xander went towards it and the cover started emitting an unearthly light.

'Uh Spike, I think you had better get it. I have no need to get fried by a book; are you sure this isn't a hell mouth here, books attacking decent folk?' Xander said to the man beside him.

Spike grinned and picked it up. In his hands it just seemed like a normal leather bound old book. He could smell the must coming off of it. Turning the pages carefully he watched as the words turned from Latin and Greek to plain English before his eyes.

Buffy held out her hand for it and before it could be passed the tome flew to her, landing gently in her lap.

‘Now that's creepy,' Xander commented. Buffy and the others watched as the title changed before them…

“Vampyres and their Stewards” was added to until it read:

“Vampyres and their Stewards and the Slayer Line.”

Buffy opened it up and started reading.

‘…When the first of the shining ones is returned to earth and into the care of his mother's heart, this book will tell the truth of the slayer line… Make a change, us being told the truth,' she groused but she was curious about the little tome in her hands. Her voice triggered a change in the book again and the light started narrowing into a beam, then shone out to illuminate the wall. It was like watching a film being shown before them.
Buffy, Dawn and Spike turned to face the film show. Willow took a seat near Xander and held her oldest friend's hand tightly. They could all feel the tension in the air.

They saw the first slayer lying in the arms of a vampire, game face to the fore, obviously happy, her abdomen swollen with a child. The vampire was stroking her body and she was purring…

Then came the first watchers who seemed angry at the girl. They killed the vampire by beheading him, then used magic to burn his body, all in front of Syneta who was being held back by a couple of Fyarl demons…

She was screaming as they chained her down and used magic to remove the baby, tossing it into the flames that were engulfing the vampire’s body. The preternatural woman desperately tried to save the child pulling hard at her restraints, the blood flowing from her hands as they cut her to pieces, but to no avail. The first slayer's maddened screams made everyone in the room feel sick. The men on the screen watched with no emotion showing on their faces at all. Xander couldn't watch, turning his head from the scene; Willow and Buffy were crying, tears rolling unchecked down their faces.

The scene then changed to the one Buffy knew, to the one they had believed to be the making of the first slayer. Syneta was still chained up and the men were performing magic around her: the spirit of the slayer entered her, but it was twisted and damaged because of the torture Syneta had endured. Instead of it being of the light there was a darkness about her. They watched as magic was performed to seal the heaven's gates from the world, hell mouths were left open and the first watchers were pleased with the power it gave them. Syneta died at the hands of a demon and they used magic to transfer her essence into another young girl, one they trained to think they way they wanted her to…

There were generations of Slayers, all at the mercy of the Council of Watchers, most of whom were abused for the few years they lived.

The light and purity that should have been a part of the slayer was getting more and more hidden as the centuries went on. Then came Buffy: having died at the hands of the Master (that scene elicited a growl from Spike), Xander did CPR and brought her back.

'I owe you for that one, whelp.' Spike said in a stage whisper.

'Any time, dead boy,' the man answered with a grin.

They watched as the part of Buffy that was pure angel was released from its prison in her soul and started to take over her body, pushing out the evil and the darkness.

'This is how it is supposed to be,' a voice echoed around the room.

Buffy glowed from head to toe. The light was brightest around her belly where Spike’s child lay.

Then they watched as Willow performed the spell that released the essence of the slayer from its prison in the scythe, infusing all the potentials around the world with the power that was rightfully theirs. They watched as she stumbled over one word and Morgana was seen to feed the extra energy in she needed. And in the one spell two were performed, the second freeing up the heaven gates and allowing angels to walk the earth again. The first sign of it came when Willow herself was taken over by the goddess to complete the magic, her white hair shining and her eyes aglow with a unearthly light.

The film finished with a map of the world, showing the heavenly gates, from Easter Island to Ayres Rock, and from the Rollright Stones to the Great Wall in China: there were gates all over the world.

There was silence in the room when it was finished. Buffy passed the book to Willow without thinking and the witch took it, and it didn't burn her...

'It won't burn anyone you give permission to handle it,’ Morgana's voice sounded incredibly loud as it broke through the quiet, answering the unasked question. 'You can photocopy the page with all the gates and when you get a bit more practise you all will be able to open one anywhere,' she said quite briskly. 'Dawn, you will be able to open a portal up to anywhere; I will happily show you how when you feel you are ready. Now, people, this is the important bit: Spike and Buffy are the head of this little band until their children grow up.'

Spike smiled. Morgana had said children: obviously the present bun wasn't going to be the only one. He looked pointedly at the older witch and she winked at him; she always knew more than she was telling.

‘Now, people, the world is yours to guard. Willow's spell freed the angels from their captivity, allowing them free rein all over the world, but we also have a gift for you.’ She took Willow's hand in hers and started chanting a simple phrase:

‘Let the door between here and home open. Morgana and Willow.’ She gave the witch a look and Willow repeated the words. A shimmering light appeared in front of them and coalesced into a simple portal; through it they could see buildings and a familiar landscape.

Sunnydale...

‘There are some people there already. When each of you dies, you will be given the choice: heaven or here. Here you will continue living as you always have done, but there will be no violence, no evil demons to fight; it will be sunny heaven, not sunny hell. Everything is ready for you: Andrew has set up the library, the computers work through to any world and you can invite anyone or any demon you like to join you. Willie's is there with the alibi room intact; Clem will arrive eventually or you could ask his clan to set up home there now. There is no life or death there: it simply is.

‘Spike, we have built a luxury home where the old mansion used to stand, for you and your family. Joyce and Anne have their own places; it is a closed universe, a safe haven for slayers and their friends.'

The stunned silence filled the air. The Scoobies looked around at one another: their own heaven, set up just for them…

‘Can we leave?' Dawn's voice asked quietly. She was thinking about Martin: she loved the doctor so much and had no desire to be without him for eternity.

'It’s not a prison child, it’s a haven, and your doctor can come and go as freely as the rest of you.'

Dawn looked relieved.

Morgana looked around the room. ‘All any of you have to do is ask for the gateway to be opened and it will. Willow will have to guide you through the first time, then any of you can guide through another, and so on.'

Buffy looked thoughtful. ‘What if we get a rogue slayer, the way Faith was originally? She will be able to simply let demons in…'

‘No she won't, the protection spells are the strongest heaven has ever cast. Only those of a good and honest heart can enter; if the person is there to cause mischief they simply won't be allowed in.'

The stunned silence that met her words told Morgana more than the words themselves ever could. She smiled as she faded from view, leaving the Scoobies alone in the room.


Chapter End Notes:
well what do you think?



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