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Spike opened the top left drawer of his desk and pulled out a picture frame. Inside was a picture he had taken of Buffy on their honeymoon. It was the morning after their first night as man and wife and she'd been standing on the balcony with the sunny sky as the background, gazing at him with all the love in the world in her eyes.

"I love you, baby," Spike whispered as he took his finger and traced her face in the picture. "I'm nothing without you, but I have to be here for him. I have to be the father to him that my father wasn't for me. I'm so empty inside without you, and instead of getting better it's getting worse. I just don't know what to do."

He leaned back, bringing the picture to his chest, remembering how he had woken her up that morning. Waking her as he made love to her, tasting her moist warmth as she sighed his name. Since he had won her heart and brought her to his bed, he had not been able to sleep without her beside him. Even now, he found that to be true.

He was sure Dru felt it, since he never slept with her in his arms. The sex wasn’t even the same, and he found it harder and harder to pretend that he wanted his dark princess in that way any longer. Then it hit him; it was just sex and that was the problem. Sex didn't satisfy him any more, not since he'd got a taste of what making love with Buffy was like.

Suddenly he felt a rush of fearful anxiety come over him. He started to pace, unknowingly clutching the picture hard enough to his chest that the soft felt portion broke.

"Oh God! What have I done?" William cried as he finally realized he had hurt his Goldilocks more than he'd realized. He decided to make a phone call that he should have made when Dru had first dropped back into his life, making demands and issuing threats.

Spike grabbed his phone book and shuffled a few pages until he found the number he was looking for. His thoughts focused on one thing; praying the man would hear him out. On his wedding day, Hank Summers had told him to call if he ever found himself in a jam he couldn't get out of.

"Hank Summers."

"Hank, please don't hang up. I need to talk to you," Spike begged.

"It had better be good," Hank replied, his voice calm and neutral.

"I have a story to tell and then a favor to ask," Spike said, as he stood at his office window with the image of his true love in one hand and what might be his salvation in the other.

"I can meet you in, say, thirty minutes," Hank replied, wondering what the young man was going to tell him.

Hank had been very surprised when Spike left his daughter. He was so sure that the younger man was devoted and committed to the marriage, unlike anyone he'd ever met before. Then he had done some investigating and found out a few things that made him understand why Spike did what he felt he had to do. But he had to hear it from the man himself first, to make sure his assumptions were true.

Spike hung up the phone and brought the picture of Buffy up to where he could look at her face and promised, "I'll get you back. If I have to beg, plead, or bleed, I will get you back. And when I do, you won't get rid of me until I'm dead and buried."

He realized now that he hadn't thought everything out as he should have. He'd let his fear of Dru's threats to take Nigel and disappear push him to act rashly. He knew that going the legal route would have been too slow and Dru would have had his son out of his reach by then. Spike had yet to get enough on his dark princess to get custody of Nigel and get him totally away from her.

*******

Buffy felt like she was living in a dream. She recognized her old bedroom from when her parents were married and they lived in L.A.. The one she was now watching herself standing in with her father's arms around her that fateful day as he explained why he was leaving.

"I'm sorry, baby girl," Hank whispered into his daughter's hair as she cried.

"You don't have to leave us," Buffy cried, her heart breaking and the tears running down her cheeks.

"I will always love you. You're blood of my blood," Hank promised. "Your mother and I have grown apart. Our dreams no longer are the same, but we both want what’s best for our girls."

"In other words; you love someone else more than us," Buffy replied.

She wasn't dumb. She’d heard her parents argue about the other women over the last couple of months. They argued all the time about everything, and his job kept him from home a lot.

"Buffy, it's between me and your mother," Hank told her firmly. "It doesn't concern you."

Buffy pulled away sharply and shouted, "Doesn't concern me? You won't be here anymore, Daddy. You’ll have to fit me into your busy schedule."

"No, honey, I will always be there for you," Hank promised, as he pulled her back into his embrace.

Dream Buffy rolled her eyes as she told herself, 'Yeah, that lasted a whole six months. Then it was broken promises, lies, and hardly ever there when it was important for him to be there.'

Buffy started to feel like the room was spinning again and she wondered if she was about to wake up.

*******

"Rupert, please tell me my baby will be okay," Joyce cried as her husband held her close.

He looked over and noticed that Dawn was being taken care of by Willow and Xander. He hugged his wife close, rocking her back and forth. He didn't know what to say so he chose to say nothing at all.

They sat quietly waiting for someone to come and give them any news concerning Buffy's condition. As far as they were concerned, the only ones that mattered were in the waiting room now. No one thought to call Hank, and definitely not Spike.

*******

"Her blood pressures have been running 140's over 90's, no protein in her urine to suggest eclampsia, but enough that I was watching her more closely," Doyle explained to the Emergency room attending physician, Dr. Mark Greene.

"Well, her pressure now is 138 over 90. Everything is looking fine so far where the labs are concerned. I'm thinking we need to shield her abdomen and get a Cat Scan of her head. Might even have someone come down to do an EEG and see how her brain waves are doing," Mark suggested. "We need to find out why she is still unconscious."

"I know," Doyle agreed, praying to the Almighty that no harm had come to her brain.

"I'm going to go and talk it over with the family. Do you know if the father of the babies is here yet?" Mark asked.

Doyle shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "There's no father of the babies coming. She’s a single mum and her mother is her next of kin."

"Okay, let's go and talk to her family. The bed is ready in the ICU and we’ll be moving her there shortly," Mark said. He wondered if this young mother was going to be able to carry these precious little lives inside her womb much longer.

*******

Buffy's eyes started to focus as she found herself back in high school. She realized it was the day of the first gymnastic meet of her senior year. It was the same day Angel asked her out on a date. 'If only I had known then what I know now.'

"You were fantastic," Angel praised her performance.

"Thanks, it was really fun," Buffy said as she smiled at her secret crush.

She developed a crush on Angel two years prior when he first moved to town. Since then he dated several different girls before settling on Cordelia Chase. Cordy was the head cheerleader and he was the captain of the football team. Over the summer they had broken up, leaving him unattached.

Buffy rolled her eyes as she watched her younger self flirt with Angel. She wanted to walk over and smack her other self upside the head and tell her to run like hell, but it was like her feet were glued to the ground, and they ignored her when she yelled at them.

'It's my dream, why can't I do what I want?' she asked as she looked to see if anyone was listening.

"I was wondering…would you like to go out with me to the movies on Friday?" Angel asked.

Buffy smiled, hoping her voice wouldn't fail her. "Sure."

"Great, pick you up at six and maybe we can grab something to eat first."

Buffy fought the urge to scream 'yes!' as she calmly replied, "Sounds great, here's my address."

"Already have it." Angel winked.

"Oh!" She blushed. "Well, I'd better go. My mom is waiting for me outside."

"See you tomorrow at school."

"See ya then."

Buffy stood watching Angel watch her younger self leave the gym. The predatory look on his face made her wonder what he was thinking. She wondered why he chose her, and then broke her heart in the end.

Once again, she felt the funny feeling in her head as the room became unfocused.

*******





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