I know that this is late. I know it's been months, but I've been doing a full re-haul of all the earlier chapters, adding a little and generally refreshing everything. More soon, I promise!
Chapter Twenty Seven - Complications
He could smell the takeaway from upstairs once they crossed the threshold, from the way the minion perked she could smell it too. He hid his disappointment well, if they had ordered food, the likelyhood of being able to see the his baby was minimal. He supposed there would be a print out like on the telly. They hurried downstairs where Buffy, Raj and Simon were eating Chinese food. Buffy stood as soon as she laid eyes on the teenager.
“Alexis Christine Angelique Veronica Summers Pratt!” She pronounced angrily.
Alex looked confused for a second. She glanced helplessly at Spike who was too distracted convincing himself that a picture would do just fine, and he probably would not even know it was his kid. It was probably the size of a peanut.
“Who?”
Buffy grimaced which dampened her haughty effect but the slayer pressed on. Spike leaned on the doorjamb and watched Buffy attempt to play bad cop.
“You have too many middle names.” She said flapping her hand dismissively. “And in any case, bury the lead-much? You’ve gone all rebel with out a cause. And Spike had to go pick you up from the principal's office?”
Alex turned to Raj, livid.
“You blabber mouth!” She exclaimed.
“You try saying no to her!” Raj replied trying to look harmless.
“You spineless little worm!”
“He is not on trial here, young lady!”
That comment made both Buffy and Alex freeze. Spike caught Raj’s eye at this point, which was a mistake because he looked like he was about to laugh
“Young lady?” the damphyr demanded, She crossed her arms in front of her chest and stepped forward.
Buffy met the challenge. Alex was maybe an inch or so taller.
“You got suspended? You’ve been there for a month! What the hell could you get suspended for?”
“Slaying.” She said.
“Slaying?” Buffy repeated. She looked over at Spike and that back at Alex. “Slaying!”
“Spike took care of it.” The girl said dismissively.
The vampire couldn’t help the grin at that. There was something in the way she said it, like it had been a given he would find a way out of it.
Buffy arched an eyebrow and looked from her to Spike. He tried to school his features away from awe at the thought that he had managed to somewhat parent his offspring, to something resembling support.
“She slayed a vengeance demon.” he explained patiently.
“She slayed a vengeance demon?” Buffy repeated, then her eyes widened comically as the ramifications hit her all at once.
“You didn’t eat her did you?” Raj asked. "Because My family has known this school for generations.”
Spike replied with studied nonchalance. He had wanted to eat her. He had wanted to kill her painfull and then eat her. “Wasn’t worth the head ache.”
Buffy scowled at Spike’s amused face and turned to Raj who looked irritated but not too alarmed. She smacked him frustratedly.
“Shouldn’t this be a thing we worry about?”
Raj coughed away his mirth. “Not really these schools keep all sorts of shit under wraps, pregnancies, royal scandals, all kinds of crap gets swept under the rug in the name of discretion at these places. S’why I picked it. POSH toff factories always keep secrets.”
“Didn’t you go to Eton?” A voice spoke up. Simon was leaning on the counter at the other side of the room.
“S’why I know about the discretion pact.” Raj said sagely.
“You got her out of it?” Buffy asked turning to Spike. “And hey! Non-violent conflict resolution, who even are you?”
“Didn’t kill the bird, didn’t mean I didn’t want to.” Spike said and then changed the topic abruptly. He strained very hard to keep his tone neutral but Alex grinned at him encouragingly. He took a step toward Buffy and hesitated. “How did the test go? How’s the sprog?”
“I haven’t seen it yet.” She said with a shrug. It hadn’t really occurred to her not to wait for him, he had seemed so excited about the scan. “I was going to call Simon when Raj told me about lex and I wanted to wait for you—”
Spike’s studied casual posture dissolved in an instant and his eyes found Buffy’s. She smirked but didn’t finish the sentence, Spike crossed the room in two strides and pulled her into a quick kiss.
It took everything he had to pull away from her, to let their contact end with a single kiss.
“You waited for me, luv?” He murmured.
She smiled.
“Of course.” She said managed to get out. Her arousal rose up around her like perfume and Spike had to tamp down on his own reaction to being near her. “Simon said it was the least he could do.”
He didn’t even try to stop himself from going all soppy. She had made Simon wait. The kiss was brief but powerful. He didn’t allow himself to make anything for of it, there was an audience of three after all, but he cupped the back of her head like he knew she liked and was rewarded with her blushing prettily.
“It is at that.” he agreed. “but that woman has left, yeah?”
“I’ve never seen her at night.” Simon piped up. He seemed to enjoy the bewildered, disturbed faces of Spike and Buffy at his pronouncement.
“She did give me a whole tub of that tea though.” Buffy said. “ So, nothing to worry about there.”
She turned away from him and the spell was broken. Spike realized rather belatedly, that this was the first time they had ever been affectionate. They had fucked a bit, and things were always just a little hot and heavy when they were together, but this, this was different. He had pulled her into a kiss and she hadn’t pulled away. Before he could read too much into it, Spike forced himself to suggest they start the test. He could feel the half formed verses already beginning in his head.
*****
Buffy remembered that day back in that Prague rave-warehouse when Spike had pressed her down on that couch and tapped out the heartbeat of their child so that she could hear it, so that she would know that she was carrying a child--a baby and not some sort of demon. At the time she had been so close to triggering the nuclear option, but Spike’s simple gesture had been enough to quiet down the abject terror for a time. It was not, however, enough to get rid of it entirely. She was never going to keep that level of worry at bay permanently and right now she was all sorts of terror high tide.
She was having a baby.
She let her head fall back and tried to keep her breathing even. She didn’t want to have another panic attack. She was sitting back on Alex’s oversized beanbag chair that Raj had thoughtfully dragged down from the teenager’s room about to have an exam. And after that exam she was going to have a baby. A squalling infant.
With Spike.
Spike who was standing next to her standing, if anything, more nervous than she felt. he was trying and failing not to fidget. He had been pacing, but after Simon shot him two irritated looks inside of three minutes while taking her blood and the vampire stilled. Now, he was sitting awkwardly next to her on the bag.
She took his hand--more as something to do than to take any actual comfort in his physical presence.
Simon smiled at her reassuringly as he neatly packed away the ampules of blood he had just taken. Blood for blood tests about the baby.
The one that she was having with Spike. She needed to focus on the tiny little baby socks and the amazing baby smell and not the rising panic. Simon was packing away the blood, why was he packing away the blood?
“What are you doing?” she demanded. “Why are you putting those away?”
“Don’t freak.” Simon said holding out his hands. “I need to run some tests, and I can’t do those here.”
Buffy took a long deep breath. She had prepared to get all the scary answers now. She had worked up to it and drank a bunch of the tea that tasted like feet. She was all kinds of ready to rip off the band-aid and now she had to wait. The thought made her feel like someone had grabbed her guts and pulled downwards. She nearly struggled to her feet but Spike caught hold of her shoulders keeping her on the bean bag chair.
“Wait, you need to run tests? I don’t get to find out now?” Her voice came out higher than she liked, thin and hysterical. It was a little embarrassing, but she couldn’t help it. “Do I even get to see her?”
Spike shifted behind her. She could feel his every move and every unnecessary breath. Every shift he made made her sink lower into the seat, She wanted to know what idiot designed these things, they were impossible to get out of and irritating to share.
“Spike! Stop moving!”
He held her fast.
“I will once I know you’ll stay on the bloody thing.” Spike replied. It was infuriating that he was so calm in all of this. Wasn’t he supposed to be the unstable one?
“Why are you so damn calm?”
Spike’s smile was so understanding it made her immediately regret waiting for him so he could be at this thing.
“We’ll get to see the nipper, pet. I’m sure of it. Else why bother with that contraption, that right, doc?”
The hands on her shoulders slung themselves around her waist and pulled her close. She realized this was supposed to be a tender moment. This second of togetherness before they saw their child for the first time. She was supposed to be swept up in the blue of his eyes or how near she was to him. But all she could do was be glad that he was on her side because those piercing blue eyes were now focused on someone else.
“Right.” Simon said easily. Buffy distracted herself with thinking about Simon for a second.
Simon was an enigma. He was so young and yet, he was one of the few humans she had ever seen that was immune to Spike’s threatening stare. He was grinning boyishly at them turning some knobs and pressing buttons. “Both of you maybe need to take a breath, this is not a complicated procedure.”
He looked amused which was infuriating but before she could say anything about it, he spoke again.
“Buffy, you will be able to see your child today, I promise. But due to the, er, circumstances, I cannot do most of these tests here, I need to outsource this.”
Spike arched an eyebrow.
“That a dig at gadget?”
Simon was typing something onto the machine. “Gadget?”
“Spike likes nicknames.” Buffy clarified. She had managed to calm her breathing. But every thing that Simon did seemed to be taking forever. She was worried about speaking up, she didn’t want any chit chat to postpone her ultrasound.
Simon placed a few more excruciatingly slow changed to the machine and then removed his rubber gloves--thoughtfully he used yellow one. He reached into his bag, and produced a tube of ultra-sound gel, which he held out to Spike.
The vampire looked at it questioningly.
“I know about the nicknames,” the dark haired man said. “Raj and I do talk occasionally. I was questioning the reference. Take the gel, spread it over her abdomen, I know you’re not going to let me touch her.”
Spike grinned.
“Damn straight.”
“It’ll be cold.” Simon said helpfully. He turned to Buffy. “It’d be warmer if your damn vampire would just let me do it.”
Spike growled lowly.
Buffy rolled her eyes at the posturing and lifted her shirt. Spike spread the gel on her stomach after pressing a quick kiss above her belly button. She flinched at the temperature.
“Hohh, that is cold!”
The vampire grinned.
“Worth it.” he said.
Simon shook his head and pressed the sensor to her Buffy’s belly. Almost instantly the images ballooned onto the screen. Buffy’s irritated expression disappeared instantly. She was mesmerized. Spike’s grip on her loosened, but she didn’t notice. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the screen. She was astonished at the depth of feeling. Like she was a kid again and she needed to soak up every second of the image of her baby on the screen. It was like it to was too good and someone would be around to take it away from her so she couldn’t waste even a fraction of a second of not being absorbed in what she was seeing.
She had always thought that she would be one of those women who would look at her own ultrasound and have to be shown which blobby smear was her child-instead she would see it as brightly as day and she couldn’t breathe.
“Is that her?”
There was something in Spike’s voice was strange, heavy and sweet.
This is what they mean when they say thick with emotion, Buffy mused. She wondered if this was Spike’s version of speechless.
“Those three blobs there? Head and shoulders?”
She processed this at the back of her mind, she was too focused on what was in front of her. When she was little, Buffy remembered being so excited about something she developed a kind of laser focus, it was her mind trying to memorize everything about what excited her. It was happening now, she tried to take in every smudge, every ridge and detail of the child on the screen in front of her. She couldn’t look away, she couldn’t make herself miss a millisecond of her baby being on the screen.
“Is she okay?” She demanded. “Is she healthy? Simon, please answer me, is she okay?”
Simon was not saying anything; he was looking at the images on the screen as intently as Buffy and Spike were.
Buffy realized that she was crying, there were tears streaming down her cheeks. She only became aware of them once a droplet peeled off her chin and dropped on to her collar bone.
“Simon!”
The scientist had the grace to look chagrined.
“Buffy, please, I need to study this.”
“Simon.” Spike’s tone was dangerous.
“I know,” was the dark haired man’s reply. His voice took on a weird reedy quality. “Other than the fact that it’s an abomination and a mystical impossibility, we have a problem.”
“Don’t fucking tell me we have a problem, Zhang, tell me what the bloody problem is!” Spike’s voice was high and desperate.
Buffy couldn't look away from the screen, she thought maybe she could distinguish the head and the shoulders and maybe even the bottom. She was barely registering what was happening behind her.
“Spike, calm down. I can promise you; Your, er, progeny is healthy. 10 fingers, 10 toes, perfectly human, perfectly well developed, there are just three of them.”
That snapped Buffy out of her daze.
“Three?”
Simon nodded.
“Triplets.”
*****
He stood facing the lights of the city taking in every dusty smear and every dull twinkle sprawled over the desert.
He fucking loved Los Angeles.
It was a city that didn’t make sense. No one was from here, no one belonged here. It was a playground not a place. A fairyland perched at the edge of a desert populated by vacuous cows and worker drone bees. It was bereft of the depth of history and teeming with filth and psychoanlysis. And on every freaking corner there was a motherfucking bubble-tea place.
And he fucking loved bubble-tea.
“Sir?”
“Ah, Meecham,” He said magnanimously turning on his heel and spreading his arms. Meecham was a gangly slip of a redhead with an acne problem. Someone's nephew no doubt. He looked barely twenty, then again the older he got, the younger everyone else looks.
His office was a tasteful tableau of leather and laminated hardwood, a universe away from his old digs, the door knob for one thing. He had just finished a call on his very official phone on to his matched desk set.
“What can I do for you?”
“Er-” Meecham stammered. “Sir, you called me in.”
The older man was nodding maniacally, he had called Meecham in, but the hilarious confusion that quickly crashed across his face before he tamped down on it and arranged his feature in a neutral mask.
“And consummate professional that you are, in you came!"
He had gone pale and shake-y. Interns here dropped like mayflies-the man reveled in the desperate attempts to keep calm.
God, he loved working here. The word just didn’t have enough sycophantic, mousy little PA’s.
Wolfram and Hart was not on the good side of things though contrary to popular belief , they were not wholly on the wrong side of things either. They were on their own side. A made-up side. It was a beautiful place and could cause so much trouble.
And that was a cause he could get behind.
“Do you know why I’m here, Meecham?” It was the first time he had ever called Meecham by his real name and Meecham actually flinched. He had been told that the last thing he did before firing his PA was learning the sad fucker’s name.
“Valuable Experinece, sir?”
“Do you usually address your better with “sir”, Meecham?”
He cringed, but obviously didn't know a better way to address him.
“Yes, sir?”
“Do you know who I am, Meecham?”
“The Project Coordinator of the Genesis Project.”
“And did you hear about how I got here?”
Meecham’s eyebrows shot up.
“A round of poker against the Senior Partners for your soul?” He stammered.
“Oh?”
He couldn’t seem to help himself.
“Is that right, sir?”
The Project Coordinator arched an eyebrow. And cower-y Meecham returned instantly. He stood awkwardly waiting for him to indicate what was going to happen. This, of course, tickled him more than anything. He was slowly working his way through the mailroom of the place. He had started putting out false reasons for his very meteoric rise. The last one had been named Chip. He played Tennis.
But, despite his inexperience he was the only one who had any understanding of the two other parties in this little pond, the only other entity that had any experience with hybridization of supernatural creatures. And the Watcher’s Council
In short, Ethan Rayne was clearly the only choice.
“He ripped up my contract.” He said with a grin.
The boy nodded slowly.
Ethan studied him. The boy didn’t look awed like Ethan would have thought. Instead he looked interested, alert. Ethan filed that away for future use.
“Meecham, I’m going to need a meeting with the heads of special projects--Let them know I’ve just spoken to Dara Laird?”
The spindly red-head nodded and bolted.
The smile vanished off his face. Damn that Laird, he had thought that she was competent. He had thought she was ruthless, he had also thought that she was good and broken. Able to focus everything and channel all her energy to her singular purpose that gave her sad existence meaning. How did the bleeding heart Medecins sans Frontiers Dara Sutcliffe find herself Dara Laird experimenting on living beings?
Living beings that she has lost. And could not recover. In Almost two months expending Project resources. He hoped that the threat of a status meeting would be enough to make Laird get back in line--
Then again, maybe it would be nice to go for a jaunt in the old cowboy--he could force Ms. Summers out by applying force back home.
And oh the Fun he would have with Rupert Giles’s girl.
He was just about to turn back to his incredible, grubby view.
He was incredibly surprised when a few minutes later Meecham poked his head into the office. Ethan was so impressed that he actually inclined his head so that the maggot would know he was allowed to talk.
“The Head of Special Projects needs fifteen minutes.”
Ethan nodded him away. He arched an eyebrow and then followed him, wondering what it could be that Lilah wanted.
****
Sunnydale had fallen into a kind of rhythm. Patrol still happened every night, and while the Scoobs were not clocking in nearly the numbers Buffy had, they were still killing a vamp or two a night. It had become a massive team effort of distraction, long range weapons, and a little bit of glamour on Anya to make it look like it was Buffy who was walking with them.
It was after patrol, Mr. Giles has begged off and Xander, Anya, Willow, and Tara were sitting in the corner booth of Carpaccio, a new Italian place that had opened next to the Espresso Pump. It was the only thing aside from a few of the grubbier diners that was open past 10 o’clock in the bustling metropolis that was Sunnydale.
“--so Joey says, Harris, You’re a helluva builder, but I’m the guttersnipe.” Xander was saying. The booth erupted into giggles.
“See you told it much better this time,” Anya commented.
Xander nodded tightly.
“Thanks, Ahn.” He said exchanging a knowing look with Willow.
Tara was letting the conversation flow around her, picking at her eggplant parm, and experiencing major order envy for her girlfriend’s pasta primavera.
“So enough about the real world. How’re things in Academia? they putting a lot of miles on the ol’ noggin?”
Next to Tara, Willow visibly slumped over.
“Well, that bodes well.” Xander said looking worried. “Got something to share with the class there, Will?”
“No,” Will replied. “Well, not on the school-front anyway. My paper topic went kinda kablooey in my political philosophy class so I’m not exactly living the collegiate high life.”
“Nonsense, Will!” the boy exclaimed. “You’re completely designing your own curriculum, they only let the really smart people do that.”
“Is that your class with Eisner?” Tara piped up.
Willow had been particularly frustrated in that class recently. It felt like her girlfriend was killing herself to impress this particular professor who was stubbornly refusing to see Willow’s brilliance. She had mentioned it the other day while she, Giles and Tara had been doing their monthly protection spell at the Magic Box.
Willow nodded miserably and Tara felt a rush of anger towards that particular professor.
“Baby, that man has it in for you.” she said.
“What’s this?” Xander cut in. “A member of the didactic profession not worshipping at the altar of Willow? Someone call the media!”
Willow rolled her eyes.
“Who taught you the word didactic?” she asked without venom.
“We’ve been playing Hooked on Phonics sex games.” Anya replied matter-of -factly. “Didactic was one of the words of the day. And I think that you are using it wrong, Xander.”
There was a small pause in which the rest of the Scoobs giggled awkwardly while Anya just grinned. Sometimes Tara wondered if she knew what she said was awkward and she didn’t care. Xander sure didn’t seem to take her comments well.
“Eisner is a terror,” Tara piped up after a few moments. “I did hear he’s brilliant though.”
“Brilliant and intimidating.” Willow said. “Seriously. It’s like I can’t say anything right in that class. I’m always shooting myself in the foot and then firmly inserting it in my mouth in his class.”
“Wow, those are some mixed metaphors you got there, Will.” Xander observed.
Willow nodded unhappily.
“Yesterday I tried to make a joke about Hamurabi’s code while I was at his office hours and it just went right over his head and I was left standing there like, uh, uh a chump!” she sighed. “I wish I could make something, just whip something up that I could take with me to places and I could just be charming. Like a charming charm!”
That got Tara’s attention. There was something about the way that Willow said that sat wrong with her.
“Like a spell something?” She said.
Willow nodded.
“Yes, exactly!” She said. “Speaking of which! I just finished a project I’ve been working on in that area. I figured out how to conjure a little ball of sunshine, like actual sunshine!”
“That’s great, Will!” Xander said. “That will be super helpful in patrol!”
Tara knew that she was being naggy and she could hear herself being annoying, but she couldn’t help it.
“I thought you were working on an aura purifier for Dawnie.” she blurted out.
Willow looked at her strangely and then waved her hand.
“Oh, that! I finished that ages ago! I dropped it off at Casa Summers before we even did the protection spell this month!”
Tara nodded and tired to relax the furrow of worry that crossed her face. If Will had finished Dawnie’s purifier on Monday then they had done their monthly protection spell on Tuesday, then did the sun burst spell after that. It was Friday now and that was a lot of magic to get done in one week. The monthly protection spell was not an uncomplicated bit of spellcraft either. It was there to protect the Magic Box the way houses are safe from vampires. Even with Mr. Giles it still took them most of the night to get it done.
Tara snapped back to attention, but the conversation had moved on to other things and she couldn’t very well just bring it up again to nag her girlfriend.
“Is it time for dessert yet?” Anya’s voice cut into Tara’s musings.
“Ahn, we talked about rushing through dinner.” Xander replied tightly.
Anya smiled and shook her head.
“Oh, this isn’t about going home to have sex,” she said. “This is about Chocolate lava cake.”
Willow’s eyes lit up.
“Oh! count me in!”
Xander looked thrilled. It was a rare day when Anya and willow agreed on something.
“Well, then by all means!” he said as he signaled for the waiter.
Tara kept the forced smile on her face, Willow was just taking a particular interest in the arcane. Recently her school was not going particularly well but everything on the witchy side of life was coming along nicely. Maybe Willow was just using it as a way to boost her confidence.She looked so happy to have finished that fireball spell. Tara made a mental note to bring up all the magic her girlfriend was doing. She would talk to Willow about it later.
*****
“Triplets, like three of them?” Buffy said absently. She had pressed a hand on her abdomen.
Simon looked nervous. He opened his mouth, but seemed to think the better of it and shut it again. However, Spike caught the hesitation.
“We’re going to need tests, aren’t we? real ones at a bleeding hospital?”
Before Simon could reply, Buffy interrupted him.
“Hospital? Why would we need a hospital? Triplets are normal right?” she demanded. “People have triplets, right? All the time? Right? Simon? Right?”
Spike didn’t look away from Simon but he did pull the panicked slayer into his arms. She allowed herself to be coddled. Spike held her for a second before his own nervous energy forced him to his feet.
“Multiples are common, yes.” Simon said finally. “ Especially where drugs are involved.”
“Drugs?” Buffy repeated, her voice hollow.
Spike froze. This had been intentional. He looked at Simon and saw what the boy had not continued. Of course they were having multiple. Multiple births were better for the Project’s bottom line. The wave of hate and hopelessness that was becoming very fucking familiar threatened to wash over him, but Spike forced it back. He tried to focus on what he could do.
“This is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. We were ready for one child.” Simon said apologetically. “and the bulk of multiple pregnancies are not carried to term which means we would have to deal with multiple visits and multiple doctors..”
Spike set his jaw.
“We have to tell Oxford.”
Buffy whirled around wide eyed.
“Wesley? We have to call in Wesley? But Wesley is a big gun!” she stood. “We have to fire the big gun?”
Spike pulled her back into his arms and rocked her from side to side, trying to sooth her. Her panic was palpable.
“Shh, pet you need to calm down now.” He said knowing that she didn’t like o hear that. He then turned and raised his voice. “You might as well come in here!”
The door opened, Alex and Raj stumbled in, they didn’t even try to pretend they had not been listening to the whole thing. Alex’s lips were set in a grim line and Raj looked almost as panicked as Buffy.
“How do we proceed?”
“A multiple pregnancy is going to make keeping this secret a lot more difficult than we anticipated.” Simon said. “Triplets are almost always born premature, and by almost I mean 90% of the time. They are healthy though and Buffy’s slayer nature might help somewhat.”
Alex was studying Buffy worriedly, the slayer seemed to have gone into a daze, paralyzed with fear and uncertainly.
“Next time maybe lead with that?” Alex suggested.
Simon nodded, he didn't even try to argue.
Buffy had sunk back into the beanbag, Spike knelt before her.
“Are you okay, pet?”
When she looked up at him, her eyes were shiny with tears.
“Can I go?” she asked him. “I just need to go and be-- I don’t know but I can’t be here.”
And with that, she stood and strode out of the room. Spike shot a quick look at the others and then swept out after her.
[Reviews - 185]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 1247 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +