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Author's Chapter Notes:
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Dark sail to be updated soon
Buffy could hear the bell ringing as someone tried to get her attention from the front door of the mansion, but whoever it was could wait. She had settled on the sofa with a herbal tea, a box of chocolates and the remote control and she was not moving for anyone or anything. Her back ached, her feet ached and she felt like a stranded whale. Thinking of feet, the sight of them was a long forgotten memory and the only reason she knew her shoes matched was because her mom had told her so this morning, but she loved every hormonal minute of it.

She loved the morning sickness, well not the actual throwing up because that was just ewww, but the knowledge that her baby, his baby, their baby, was safe and growing. She loved the way Spike held her hair back when she was in the bathroom and brought her a drink of water and some dried toast after she had finished.

She loved the tightness of her jeans and then the fact that she couldn’t even get them on now, and the way her breasts grew and grew… she was like a ‘double d’ cup, much to Spike’s delight. He spent many happy hours rubbing cream on to her belly and breasts.

Thanks to his preternatural senses he could hear the baby’s heartbeat and the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of the blood through the placenta. He fell asleep at night soothed by the rhythmic sounds coming from his beloved mate’s body. And Buffy fell asleep to the feeling of Spike stroking her pregnant belly and purring in his contentment. They couldn’t be closer: he kept surprising her with little gifts, a poem, an orchid or just a little cake she had said she wanted. Their life seemed enchanted.

The bell went again and Buffy looked at the TV, wishing she could just zap whoever it was away. When the bell went for the third time Buffy tried to get up from the sofa, but it had eaten her again. She couldn’t swing her body up to the pivot point and was stuck.

‘Stupid damn sofa, evil sofa monster, just you wait until I’m me again,’ she grumbled as she tried to regain her balance.

Xander had wandered in to the mansion via the back door to find the strongest woman he knew struggling to get to her feet. He tried not to laugh as Buffy was complaining and moaning to the sofa.

‘You need a little help there, little lady?’ he asked with a grin and had to finally give in to the laughter as Buffy poked out her tongue at him. She held out her hand gratefully and Xander pulled her gently to her feet, holding out his arm to steady her. Buffy still hadn’t managed to keep her balance and ended up in his arms; Xander pulled her in close so that she was hugging him - but she was safe. Xander was still man enough to admit that the experience was enjoyable, but he was still trying to get Buffy stable when Spike and Anya walked into the room.

‘Buffy that’s not your man, Xander is only supposed to give me orgasms, Spike is available to give you orgasms…’ Anya’s blunt ways sent peals of laughter through the slayer. There was no trace of jealousy from the demon, just a statement of fact. Xander was hers and Spike was Buffy’s.

‘I was trying to get up from the sofa and overbalanced, Anya! I was not stealing your man, he was just being the gentleman and making sure I didn’t fall on the floor,’ Buffy smiled at her forthright friend.

‘Well that’s good then, because we are friends now and I would hate to have to curse you or something; but he is very muscular and I don’t mind him lending you his arms if they stop the baby getting hurt. Xander, you can hug Buffy if it helps the baby.’

‘Thank you Anya,’ Xander answered with a totally straight face.

‘Yes thank you Anya, that’s very kind of you.’ Buffy also managed to keep her face straight.

‘Yes it is, isn’t it?’ Anya continued into the room and put the bag down she was carrying. It was made from heavy leather and reminded Buffy of the slayer bag Robin had given her all those years before.

‘We found this in one of the banks that handled the watchers’ council accounts.’ Anya was talking as Spike helped his wife out of his friend’s grasp and into his own. Spike nuzzled the top of her head, smelling that wonderful Buffy smell.

‘You’re purring Blondie,’ Faith told him as she came into the room. Spike just grinned and flashed her a little fang and gold eye. In game face he could hear the heartbeat coming from the other slayer. In fact he could hear two… the grin got wider and developed into a smirk.

‘Got something to share with the class, Faith?’ he asked, giving her abdomen a very pointed look.

Faith blushed: she actually blushed. And then changed the subject. Quickly.

‘I heard the chatter from everyone and let myself in: hope it was OK?’ she said, moving away from the vamp with his damn superhearing. There were some things a girl just wanted to keep to herself for a little while.

Buffy missed the interplay between the dark haired slayer and her mate, she was just revelling in the fact that he had got his arms around her and she was safe. Anya had been totally oblivious to what had been going on behind her.

‘It seems to be a bag of books and stuff, like that one you told me about with the weird men, but this one is safe. We had it checked for magic and although it has been held in stasis there is no spell actually on it.’

Xander looked at the bag. ‘Well as the only non-magical one amongst you I’m going to look,’ he told the group.

‘Why should that matter?’ Faith was puzzled.

‘Duh: magic can be triggered by a magical being,’ Anya thought it a very silly question; the answer was so obvious, to her at least.

Buffy waddled forward and looked into the bag. It seemed to contain books and paperwork, and a few other trinkets. Something occurred to Buffy.

‘Who was at the door?’ she asked the gang in general.

‘That was me B, didn’t realise that you couldn’t make it without help though, or I wouldn’t have rung it, but I didn’t feel right about just walking in on you.’

‘That’s ok,’ Buffy answered. All the old feelings she had about Faith were long gone. She knew the younger slayer harboured no ill feelings anymore.

Xander was pulling the books out of their hiding place in the old bag. ‘These are a history of the slayers, a real history, prophecies… there’s a copy of that Vampires and their Stewards book you found!’ he said, waving it in the air. ‘This stuff is way old.’ Even human as he was he could feel the age in some of the papers.

‘Look at this,’ he said tugging on a bundle in the bottom. It was a silk scarf embroidered with signs and sigils. Wrapped in the scarf were the ashes of a vampire: they could all sense them. Someone had collected these ashes together and put them into silk to prevent them being reanimated; and in a separate box there were more ashes.

Anya had started looking through the books and read out aloud what she had found.

‘The ashes in the box are those of the first slayer. Her demon lover and the baby are in the scarf; they have been kept apart so that their souls couldn’t meet in the afterlife. Ugh… that’s cruel.’

‘Do you realise that the slayers have been betrayed since the very beginning, when the first one was made? They were supposed to be cared for and looked after, but they were treated like disposable soldiers. Glad I’m not one of heaven’s chosen ones.’ Xander shuddered at the thought of those hundreds of young girls doomed to short, brutal lives just to try and fight the good fight. ‘And not a volunteer amongst them.’

‘The spell was set incorrectly when the Garden of Eden was evacuated: seems like you were betrayed by heaven itself.’ Anya kept on reading from the books.

‘Betrayed by heaven itself: that really is the ultimate betrayal.’ Buffy was angry, she could feel her blood pressure rising. A comforting hand on her shoulder relaxed her. Her Spike always knew what she needed, what she wanted, whispering into her ear all the naughty things he was going to do to her as soon as they were alone. It didn’t help Buffy’s blood pressure but it certainly helped her mood. She smiled and tried to hide the blush that was creeping up her cheeks.

‘It’s why the new Sunnydale was built, baby,’ Joyce’s voice said from behind them all. ‘The Powers That Be knew they had done wrong, but they didn’t know how to put it right. I know how crazy that sounds, but they have no concept of mercy or forgiveness; if you have never sinned you don’t understand how hard it can be to get it right. That’s what you have all been brought together for, you will be the start of a new council of powers, with the concept of mercy fundamental to the running of things.’

Buffy looked at her mother with a mouth wide open: she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

‘Wha?’ Was her only response.

‘We’re going to be working with the powers?’ Xander struggled not to laugh; he looked around the room at all the stunned faces. ‘We’re going to be working with the powers,’ he said again, but this time more soberly; this was no joke.

‘The powers have been relieved of duty for a short time. The Great Balance has decreed that you, in this room, are to train them in such ideas as justice and kindness; there will be others as well, you’ll be like an advisory group, making sure they don’t screw up again.’

‘So mote it be.’ was heard to reverberate around the room, in fact it could be heard all over Sunnydale.

‘So we’re going to tell the powers what to do,’ Buffy looked at her mother. ‘And my baby, is he still going to be some sort of shining one?’

‘He is darling, he is, but you are still going to have to raise him. He’ll be a normalish child, a few extra gifts and so on but nothing you can’t handle; so you are invincible and in charge, at least until you want time off when the little one is old enough to take over.’

‘But what if I make a mistake? What if I hurt someone? I’m not powers material!’

‘You’re my Goddess,’ Spike whispered quietly. Joyce smiled at him: she loved seeing how protective the vampire was with her eldest daughter.

‘You’ll learn, you have made mistakes, but you learned, you all did. The only other Scoobie who will be on the council to start with is Willow: she is one of the two witches, along with Morgana. Xander and Robin will represent the humans, Anya and Spike the demons, and you and Faith the slayers. Anne and I will be your oracles and liaisons.’

None of the Scoobies could believe what they were told, but as they looked at one another they could feel the power infuse them. They knew it was right. The Power that Liked to Mess had been defeated, the Ultimate Betrayal righted and a new Sunnydale would arise from the destruction of the old.



Spike felt useless, he had been pacing up and down the corridor for at least five minutes, and they wouldn’t even let him have a fag.

‘You can come in now Spike,’ Morgana told him, smiling as the vampire used his speed to make it to his mate’s side. Buffy was sitting up and looking around her, finally out of pain.

‘This is all your fault, you know that don’t you.’ But the smile on her face belayed her words.

‘Yeah, I know pet, and when you’re fit and healthy you can punish me however you want.’ Spike curled his tongue up and stuck it behind his lip.

‘And you can stop that mister, that’s how I ended up in this mess in the first place.’ A wince stopped Buffy from saying anything more. Spike held her hand as Morgana checked on the baby’s progress again.

‘Tell you what, you could make a fortune with this magical epidural,’ Buffy told her before grimacing again.

‘It’s time to push Buffy, time to become a mother!’ Morgana told her.

‘Mommy; I want my mommy!’ She cried, and Joyce appeared in a bright light.

‘Well, you didn’t think I was going to miss this did you?’ she said with a smile, going around the bed to hold Buffy’s other hand.

With her mother one side of her and her mate the other, Buffy Anne Summers pushed William Richard Pratt II into the world. When Morgana held him up for his father to see, Spike fainted, much to the women’s amusement. He came round to see his mate and their child basking in the light of a new day that was breaking over New Sunnydale and to hear the cheers as the news spread that the first child had been born safely into their world.


Chapter End Notes:
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