Chapter 36: Waking Up
“Bloody Hell!” Buffy’s eyes flew open in the morning, and she didn’t have time to ponder whether or not the whole pregnancy thing had been a dream, because there was Spike waving the tissue-wrapped test right in front of her face. She shot up in bed.
“Oh my God.”
“You’re telling me, Slayer! Mind you, I’ve never seen one of these bloody things before, but…”
“Spike, I can…”
“Your little sister’s pregnant!”
“What…I…”
“It can’t be yours or Willow’s or Tara’s, not unless they magically conjured up a…”
“Spike!” Buffy exclaimed.
“She must’ve hidden it. If it wasn’t for me tripping over the sodding wastebasket, I never would have…why am I holding this?” He tossed the stick down in the wastebasket next to their bed. “I could kill her. No. The boy. I’ll kill him.”
“Spike, no!” Buffy hissed in a whisper. “You’ll wake up Dawn…”
“Are you deaf, Slayer? I just told you your baby sister, your fifteen-year-old baby sister is having a baby herself, and you’re looking at me like I’m the crazy person!”
“No, you don’t…”
“I knew there was more going on. That little bastard. I’ll kill him. Soul or no soul, he’s mine, the little pri…”
“Spike!” Buffy exclaimed, clamping her hand over Spike’s mouth before he could do anymore verbal damage. “It’s not Dawn’s test. It’s mine.” Spike made a muffled noise that sounded as if he was choking, and his eyes grew wide. “Promise not to yell anymore, and I’ll take my hand off.” He nodded slowly, and she sighed, pulling her hand away. “It’s my test. I’m pregnant.” She studied his face, not sure what to expect.
“You uh…well, this is…uh…”
“Yeah, that’s about where I am right now,” Buffy pointed out.
“How did this…uh…how? S’far as I know, vampires can shoot but they can’t score, if you know…”
“Basketball lingo, really? You don’t even watch sports.”
“Slayer!”
“Hey! Don’t ‘Slayer’ me, right now, buster. This is as much your fault as it is mine…I think.”
“You think? Who else’s fault can it be?” She watched his eyes narrow.
“Oh no. Don’t you even dare. You know you’re the only one.” She saw the anger slowly recede from his eyes. “I don’t know, Spike.”
“How long?”
“How long what?”
“The…the baby…pregnancy…that…”
“Oh. Almost a month, I guess,” she said quietly, sitting on the bed, resting her back against the headboard.
“That puts it at…”
“L.A. We had a lot of sex in L.A., Spike.” It was then that realization hit her. “But we also…the…the claim. Spike. Oh my God.”
“You’re just now figuring that out?” he asked, the panic in his voice rising.
“Well, gee, I just found out that I’m knocked up with a supposedly sterile vampire’s child. That wasn’t exactly the first thing that crossed my mind. The claim…it has to be.”
“You’re really…you’re pregnant?”
“Yeah,” she said with a weak smile. “That explains the fainting and everything, I guess. It’s early, but yay for being the Slayer, I get early symptoms.” Her voice was thick with sarcasm. She caught his gaze following a trail from her breasts to her belly. “I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t believe it at first. I thought the doctor was crazy. So I picked up a test. Spike, I think…I think this is really happening.”
“Unbelievable,” he breathed, moving his hand to her flat stomach. “That’s…that’s really my little guy in there?” She smiled a little. Leave it to the Big Bad to get all mushy about a baby, she laughed to herself.
“I…I hope so. I mean, if I’m pregnant because of you, it better damn well be your kid. I’m not carrying anybody else’s demon spawn.”
“Oi! Don’t call our baby demon spawn.”
“Well…what if…Spike…what if it’s…you know…”
“Evil?”
“Yeah,” she grimaced.
“Guess we’ll know when we hear the heartbeat. If it’s got a heartbeat, it’s got a soul, right?”
“If it’s…yeah, I guess, if it’s ours.”
“We’ll do one of those…those scan thingies, right?”
“Spike what if this isn’t a normal pregnancy? I mean…it’s already…not exactly normal.”
“I don’t know, luv. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
“When we get to it? What if this…what if it’s not a baby? What if it’s a thing growing inside of me, and it decides to rip its way out?” Spike had seen a lot of bloody awful things in his day, but even that image made him cringe.
“Would it make you feel better if we talked to you Watcher?”
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “I don’t want anybody else to know right away. They’ll think…well, probably the same things I’m thinking. I’m…I don’t know what to do, Spike.” He leaned back a little.
“You don’t want it?”
“Spike…I…it’s so sudden! I’m not saying I don’t want it. I’m just saying that I never expected to ever have kids. When I decided to spend my life with you, I figured that the only kids in my life would be Dawn’s or maybe Xander and Anya’s. I never thought…this is just…it’s so much.” She felt tears sting her eyes again. “I’m afraid, Spike. I don’t know what this is or what’s going to happen.”
“Hey, hey, look at me.” He was kneeling in front of her now, holding her hands in his and looking up at her like he had last night. “We’re in this together, ok? If this…if this isn’t a baby…if it’s something else…we’ll take care of it, ok? I want you safe. You’re more important to me than anything, alright? As much as I don’t want to tell him, I think your Watcher’s the only person we can go to that might have any idea about what’s going on.”
“Yeah,” she sniffled. “I know. You’re right.”
“But, Buffy. If this is our baby…if this is really something we made together…wouldn’t it be amazing to see?” he asked, his eyes full of pride, the look a first-time-father-to-be should have.
“Yeah. Yeah, it really would. I just…I don’t know how to do this, Spike.” He kissed her hand.
“Me neither. But this might be my only shot at being a dad. Don’t know if I’ll be a good one. Might be a lousy one. But it’s my only shot.” Buffy felt a lump growing in her throat. The idea of having Spike’s child…it made her heart beat a little faster. In a good way. She never saw herself as mommy material, but the idea of carrying his child…it was scary, but again, not in a bad way. It wasn’t end-of-the-world scary. It was…new page in the book of life scary, not knowing what might happen.
“We’ll go to Giles,” she said between sniffles. “He’ll know who to send us to. If this is our baby…we…we’re gonna do this together. And I mean together. You’re so not going to get out of diaper changing or…or rubbing my swollen feet, ok?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, pet.”
***
“What’s the matter? Is it Dawn?” Giles asked immediately after he’d come inside and closed the door. He saw Spike and Buffy sitting side-by-side on the couch. They both looked nervous, and he hadn’t seen them look like this since they’d told him they were sleeping together. Good Lord, what could it be now? He could only imagine.
“Sit down, Giles,” Buffy said calmly. “Everything’s ok. Dawn’s at school. She’s fine.”
“Then why did you call me over here? Why do you look like you have a secret that you know I’m not going to be happy about?”
“Well,” Buffy said, swallowing hard, “because we do?” Giles felt his blood run cold. He sat down across the room from them. He eyed them both, keeping a special focus on Spike, who looked just as nervous as Buffy. Ok. What was going on?
“What’s going on?”
“Giles, you know how with vampire claims, there could be…you know, a lot of different…uh, little extras?”
“Yes,” he said slowly, bracing himself for the worst.
“Well, we think…we think we know what ours was.” She looked at Spike and squeezed his hand.
“Go on.”
“You have to swear you won’t tell anybody else.” Giles eyed her curiously. “Swear it, Giles.”
“Alright. I…I swear. Now what’s going on?”
“Now…before you…before you start yelling and cleaning your glasses, just remember that I’m really, really scared, and I just want to make sure everything’s…normal.”
“Good Lord, Buffy. What is it? What’s happened?” Buffy braced herself for a blowup. Maybe she wouldn’t have to worry about whether this child was an evil demon or her and Spike’s love child. Maybe Giles would murder her before she had the chance to find out.
“I’m pregnant.” Giles was frozen. He could have been a figure in an oil painting. A sculpture. He didn’t even move to take off his glasses. “Giles?”
“If it makes any difference, we didn’t have a bloody clue this could happen,” Spike pointed out.
“I see.”
“You see? You see? How do you see? We don’t even see. We don’t get it, Giles.”
“No, I don’t understand either. I don’t understand at all.”
“Giles, before you scream or throw things, just please, tell us how we can find out if this baby’s, you know…our baby.” Giles cleared his throat. There were a number of things he wanted to say to them right now, but the only thing he could think of was getting whatever that thing was out of his Slayer.
“I need to make a phone call.” With that, he picked up the phone and walked out of the room, leaving them in silence. Spike was the first to speak.
“Went better than I thought.”
“He’s so pissed off. I mean, did you see that? He didn’t even clean his glasses!”
“You told him not to.”
“True, but the man can’t help himself. He must be…oh God.”
“S’alright, pet,” he breathed. “Let’s just wait and see what happens, alright?”
“When did you become the calm, level-headed one and I became the nutcase?”
“I think when I put that inside of you,” he said, pointing to her belly.
“Yeah? Well, let’s hope it was you and not some slimy, scaly demon that decided to make me its baby mama.” Spike raised an eyebrow at her. “What?” Giles came walking back into the room. He handed Buffy the receiver and sat back down. The vampire and the Slayer looked at him with questioning glances. “So…what’s the what?”
“As luck would have it, Wesley happens to be in the neighborhood.”
“Wesley? Why him?” Buffy wondered, crinkling her nose at the memory of the stuffy younger Watcher.
“Wesley has experience in handling…ah…mystical pregnancies. He’s agreed to see you.”
“Ok, but this isn’t gonna be like…a full…uh, visit is it? I mean, I don’t want him putting his hands anywhere near my…”
“You heard her,” Spike agreed with a nod.
“He’s just going to run a scan and take a sample of your blood and see if he can extract some amniotic fluid. With the pregnancy in such early stages, it might be impossible at this point.”
“But he’ll be able to tell us if our baby’s, you know, a baby?”
“Yes, if all goes well,” Giles said with a nod.
“Ok,” Buffy agreed with a sharp exhalation of breath. “When?”
“He’s going to meet us at a doctor’s office downtown in thirty minutes. They owe him a favor there, it seems. They won’t ask questions.”
“Wait a minute,” Spike pointed out. “I wanna be there.”
“I’ll call you as soon as I find out anything,” Buffy assured him. She grabbed her purse and cell phone and turned to Giles. “Alright. Let’s go.”
***
“What do you mean, inconclusive?” Giles asked, glaring at the younger man.
“It’s too early to tell, honestly. But I’m fairly certain this isn’t a demon pregnancy. If it was, she would most likely have progressed much further than this. You say you’re nearly 4 weeks?”
“Yeah,” Buffy said quietly. “That’s what the doctor said, and that’s when the claim happened, so…I’m guessing so.”
“I can come back at the beginning of February and run more tests, but if the pregnancy continues to progress at a normal pace, then you can at least be certain that you’re the mother and not the host. Most host pregnancies tend to be over quite quickly.” He shuddered at the thought of Cordelia’s rapid demon pregnancy.
“Ok,” Buffy said quietly, feeling somewhat relieved, but scared stiff at the prospect of being in charge of a tiny human being. “So, it’s mine…as far as you can tell?”
“You’re healthy.”
“Good,” Buffy said slowly.
“If it’ll help you sleep better at night, remember this. Of all the mystical pregnancies that have progressed at normal human gestation, the result has been the birth of a healthy human child.”
“So…you don’t think it’ll be born all fangy?”
“I highly doubt it.” He bit his tongue, knowing it would be a bad idea to let slip the fact that not only was there a child born to a vampire, but he was human and born to two vampires. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Still, I’ll return later and follow up.”
“Thank you for your time,” Giles said with a nod. He handed Wesley an unmarked envelope. “For your discretion.”
“I won’t be telling anyone of this.”
“Not even Angel?” Buffy wondered. “I mean, you’re not exactly a doctor or anything, but doesn’t that confidentiality thingy still hold true?”
“I won’t tell a soul,” he assured her.
“Good,” Buffy said, breathing a heavy sigh of relief. “If he knew, he’d just want to get involved. Considering Spike’s the father, I don’t think he’ll be on the side of keeping this in me.” She put her hand over her stomach. “It’s not his problem.”
“I understand,” Wesley agreed. “I really must go.”
“Right. Thanks, Wes.” Wesley nodded, and he left Buffy and Giles alone in the room. Buffy sighed heavily and looked up at her Watcher.
“So, we can rule out scary soul-sucking parasite,” she said with on a positive note. “When he said what he said, I knew…Giles, this baby’s human. I can feel it.” Giles watched her warily.
“Still, we must ere on the side of caution. If anything out of the ordinary happens in the next few weeks, you must tell me.”
“I will. But you have to keep your word. Don’t tell anybody. Anybody.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t say a word. However, I’ll be keeping an eye on you. If this…this pregnancy begins to show any signs of harming you, we must act quickly.” Buffy felt her heart freeze in her chest, but she said nothing. All they could do was wait and hope that everything turned out normally. Though, she couldn’t help but wonder if Giles would prefer the opposite. Having the seed of Spike growing inside of his Slayer was probably the last thing he’d ever hoped for.
***
The day had dwindled down into a quiet evening, and Spike sat on the couch, while Buffy lay with her head in his lap. They were watching something on TV, though neither one of them really had their minds on the show. Spike couldn’t help but think about this child he was going to have with Buffy. So the younger Watcher was pretty sure it was human. That was a good sign, right? Buffy had seemed to think so. While there was still the possibility that some other force had implanted this seed inside of her during their claim, there was also the possibility that this child was a product of their claim, and had they not made their claim at the exact moment they had, the child might not have existed. If that was the case, it was kind of a miracle.
“You realize I can tell you exactly what our baby is the minute I hear it’s heart beating,” Spike pointed out, stroking her hair.
“That’s what I’m counting on. Normal heartbeat means normal baby. Means we’re gonna have to do a lot of damage control so this doesn’t get out. If people hear a Slayer and a vampire made a baby…” She frowned. “And besides that. What kind of parents are we gonna be? I mean, I can’t even get Dawn to clean her room. What if our kid is a messy, mean, half-demon who…who won’t do its homework?”
“Don’t think like that, pet.”
“Think like what?” Dawn asked, walking into the room with a bowl of popcorn.
“Hey Dawnie,” Buffy said with a smile. “Finished your homework?”
“Yeah,” Dawn muttered. “Is there any way to know for sure if my Pre-Cal teacher’s a demon? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure he’s evil.”
“Nah, I think being evil just comes with the territory in Sunnydale.” She glanced at Spike and then at Dawn.
“Did you brush your teeth?”
“What?”
“You know. You got to the dentist next week. Want to make sure they’re extra clean. And make sure you’re flossing.”
“Ok, considering you’re my older sister, you’re pretty much always weird, but what’s with the extra helping of bizarro tonight?”
“I just…wanna make sure you have healthy teeth.”
“Yeah, well they’re my teeth.”
“And I’m paying for them to stay healthy!” Buffy pointed out. “Go floss, now. You’ll be in so much trouble if I have to pay for fillings or…or root canals.” Dawn rolled her eyes and stood up. She glanced at Spike.
“Good luck with that,” she muttered, heading out of the room. Buffy turned to Spike.
“How was that?”
“I’m impressed, Slayer. Think you’re gonna make a real good mum.”
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Chapter End Notes:
Hey guys! I just wanted to say thanks again for your awesome feedback! Please keep it coming! Being single and having never been pregnant, I'm relying on websites and other things like that to help me get certain facts straight. Now, I did find out something interesting. I thought that the baby's heartbeat couldn't be detected until several weeks into the pregnancy...like 6 or 7, but I've read that on occasion, it's been detected at 4 weeks. HUH! Anyway...keep that in mind for further chapters. ;)