Chapter 31

“Mommy?”

Buffy’s body jerked, startled by Sarah’s voice and the light tug on her shirtsleeve. She was back in the master bedroom, in front of the closet and on the floor. Propped on her hands and knees, she turned and found Sarah kneeling beside her.

“Mommy, you gotta big mess.”

“Yeah, I guess I do.” Sitting up, Buffy wiped away the hair that refused to stay bound in her ponytail. She quickly glanced around and surveyed the damage she’d done. Shoes, clothing that had slipped from hangers, forgotten purses, and odds and ends stuffed in hot pink gift bag-quality shopping bags were scattered all around. “It looks like I’ve been digging for gold, doesn’t it, baby?”

Sarah nodded, her little face serious, troubled by the clutter.

“Shouldn’t you be taking a nap? Aren’t you sleepy? Is your brother up too?”

“No.”

“No to which question?”

“Um…one, two, three.”

“Okay,” Buffy smiled, not concerned with Sarah missing her nap. Her daughter was a notoriously good sleeper. She’d probably doze off at some point before dinner and still be able to sleep soundly throughout the night. She’d stay in good spirits as long as Jamie behaved himself.

As if that’ll happen.

Thinking of Jamie made her smile grow. He was her wild child, always excited and curious. There was no way to predict the mood he’d be in after his nap. He could be calm and sweet, or completely hyped up, bursting with a new wave of mischievous energy.

“Want to give me a hand?” Buffy asked, although she already knew what Sarah would say. Sarah was her little helper. She loved to shadow her parents, carrying whatever she could hold and eager to follow directions. “We’ll have to move fast before your brother gets up and terrorizes the house again. I’m trying to find a few things, things that I could’ve sworn that I put in the closet. So this means either I’m not as cured,” she paused to roll her eyes and throw up her hands in air-quotes, “as I thought I was, or, I’m just suffering from old age. Either way, I’m not pleased.”

“And deeply annoyed actually,” she grumbled under her breath. She looked at Sarah again and found her listening carefully, ready for her assignment. “I’m looking for some things that aren’t important, but I want to find them anyway. There’s this magazine that’s as old as you are,” Buffy continued to speak as she scanned through a random bag. “It has awesome ideas for decorating a nursery. Themes and color combinations. Do-it-yourself stuff. I also bought this adorable baby book on clearance. It has animals on it. I know how you kids love your animals. I’m sure the new baby will get a kick out of them too.”

“A baby book?”

“Yup. Just like the ones we’ve kept for you, Jamie and Jo. I’m also searching for a DVD.”

“A movie?”

“Not exactly, it’s a DVD of workouts for pre-baby and post-baby. It’s a godsend for shedding the extra baby-weight and—who am I kidding? Seriously, missy, if your dad were here now, he’d be laughing at me. I’m tearing up our room over some really stupid shit.”

“Don’t—bad words are bad, mommy.”

“I know. Sorry,” she said, kissing the top of Sarah’s head. “I’m putting you in charge of the baby book, okay? Once you find it, you and I will fill it up with stickers and stories about your new baby brother or sister.”

“Stickers? I love stickers.”

“I know,” Buffy responded, feeling a little more at ease.

So I can’t find a magazine and a shitty DVD, is that really such a big deal? At least I remember my babies. Sarah has a scrapbook of her favorite stickers. Jamie has a collection of unsharpened pencils that he keeps in a special school box. William and I get after him all the time because he pretends they are swords. The first time he broke one of the pencils—a green one with yellow spirals on it—he cried and cried. William and I ended up driving him to the store past his bedtime to pick up another ten pencils for a dollar.

“Quack!”

Taken out of her thoughts, Buffy laughed, “Come again?”

“Look, mommy, duckies! And a cow, mooo, and a—mommy, what’s this?” Her sparkling pink fingernail, pointed to another image on the hardback book. “Is it a dog?”

“No, that’s a goat. Baby, where did you find that book?” She followed her finger again to a tote bag Buffy had thrown and buried at the beginning of her search. “Seriously?” she mumbled, finding everything that she had been looking for and more pregnancy-related items that she had grouped together for safekeeping. “How’d I miss this?”

Sarah shrugged, her head still bent over the empty baby book. “It was—I moved the big pillow and there it was!”

“I should’ve called you in here sooner, you’re a little detective.”

Sarah beamed, taking Buffy’s words as a major compliment. “Mommy, why’s that pillow so big? It’s bigger than—it’s huuuge!”

“You don’t remember it? I had it with me all the time when Joy was in my tummy. She gave me some killer back pain—and the nausea? She kept moving and kicking me… You and Jamie played with it a few times. In fact, your brother thought it was a trampoline. Is this ringing any bells?”

“Bells? Jingle bells?”

“Don’t you remember?” Buffy laughed, finding it refreshing to ask the question instead of being on its receiving end. “Your brother even had the harebrained idea to jump off the couch and into the pillow. Luckily, daddy caught him in time.”

“Jamie got in trouble. Big trouble,” Sarah added with a pleased gleam in her eyes. “I didn’t. I wasn’t bad. Jamie was.”

“What’d I do?!” Jamie demanded from behind them. Buffy expected to see him with his hands planted on his hips, but instead he had his arms wrapped tightly around Joy and he was carrying her into the room.

“Jamie--.”

“Don’t worry, mommy, I was real careful! I woke up, I peeked in her room and Jo was waiting for me! She wanted me to get her! I got my ladder--.”

“Your stepstool? Oh, Jamie--.”

“I held out my arms and she climbed into my arms like a—like a little monkey!” As if she were agreeing, Joy let out a collection of happy grunts and gurgles. She pressed her wide-opened fingers to Jamie’s cheek and squealed.

“Put her on the carpet or on the bed. Gently, please.”

“I’m not gonna drop her!” Jamie proclaimed, offended by the thought. “I like holding her, she’s heavy! I’ll hold my baby brother too!”

“Let’s not start that again,” Buffy mumbled, getting to her feet and scooping Joy into her arms. “Let’s call the baby, just “the baby,” from now on. And what did we tell you about carrying Joy around?”

“Jo’s not a potato!”

“You can’t carry her around like a sack of potatoes,” Buffy corrected. “You’ve been really good about not doing it this week. If you want to hold her, you need to be sitting and with a grownup. You should’ve called me first.”

“I won’t break her! I promise, mommy!”

“That’s good, your promise means a lot, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. That’s our family’s motto around here and we all have to deal with it.”

His hands balled at his sides and he started to jump in place. ““I’m dealing, but—um, mom, can I have some juice?! Purple juice?! And some fishes?!”

“Is it snack time, already? Didn’t we just eat lunch?” Buffy looked at the clock as Joy squirmed against her chest. Her tiny fingers slipped under the neckline of her shirt and she grasped the strap of her bra. “Ma!” she demanded, giving the strap a tug. “Gee!”

“You’re hungry too? Okay, okay,” she sighed. “We’ll eat. We’ll have fish crackers and purple juice. With straws.”

“Yay!” Jamie yelled and Sarah stood with the new baby book clutched to her chest. “What about your mess, mommy?” she asked.

“We’ll come back to it. No worries. We’ll pick it all up later.”
***

“I would’ve sworn your dad would be back by now. I guess he decided to go shopping with Aunt Willow and Tara after all. That guy, he missed lunch, naptime, and our snack. For someone who said I had nothing to prove, he is sure leaving me to fend for myself.”

“Of course, that’s exactly what I asked for, but that doesn’t stop us from feeling neglected, now does it?” With a yawn, Buffy joined her children on couch. She spread the blanket from Sarah, across Jamie and had plenty of fabric to drape over her shoulders. Lying on her side, she freed her hair from its band and fanned out her ponytail. She swept her legs up, stretching them out along the length of the couch and directly in front of Jamie and Sarah.

“Oh mommy, you trapped us!” Jamie giggled in delight. “Where’s the—who’s got the TV switcher? What’d you do with Jo?”

“I’ve got them both down here,” Buffy answered, carefully maneuvering herself so she could pick up Joy and the television remote off the carpet without rolling off the couch. She put Joy in the hollow space in front of her stomach, but her daughter did not sit still. She pulled herself up, placing her hands on Buffy’s breasts for support. Buffy caught her just before her little fingers started to squeeze.

“That’s one thing I love about having kids, you have to say goodbye to modesty. When your body isn’t bloating, aching, or feeding someone, it’s being used as someone’s personal jungle gym. If some private parts are grabbed along the way—it’s no big. Besides, if you guys aren’t grabbing at me, I have your father to deal with and we all know that man can’t keep his hands to himself.”

“Is that right? Is this a complaint?”

At the sound of William’s voice, the twins shot up. They spun around, leaning against the back of the couch. Accompanied by a choir of ‘hi, dads,” William greeted the twins with kisses. “Sit. Both of you on your backsides. Now, please.”

“What took you so long?”

“Got carried away,” he answered, rounding the couch. He was in his leather jacket and a helmet was dangling from his left hand.

“You found your other present. Do you like it?”

“Yes, very much and thank you.” He bent over to kiss her on the mouth. “The goggles on the top are a nice touch.”

“I really didn’t know what I was looking at,” she confessed with an innocent grin. “I knew I had to keep your head safe—it’s very important to me—and when I found a helmet called a pudding bowl? I had to get it.”

“Cute, Summers.”

“I thought so.” Twisting onto her back, she reached up and tangled her arms around his neck. Instead of hovering above her, he sank down to his knees. “Hey, you,” he said, showing Jamie the helmet with a flip of his wrist. “Try this on for size, big boy.”

“Woah!” Jamie gasped. He clutched the helmet in both hands before putting it on. Not only did it cover his head, but it also covered his eyes and nose. “It’s a-a spaceship! Now I can go to the moon!”

“Now he can go to the moon,” Buffy sang, nuzzling the side of William’s face. She found it pleasantly cool from the outside air. “We’ve been watching, waiting for you to Evel Knievel past the window. You could’ve at least revved the engine or popped a wheelie for us. I’ve been trying to explain the wonders of the motorcycle to them. Clearly, it hasn’t worked out for me.”

“How are you? How are you feeling?” Before she could answer, the back of his hand touched her forehead and cheek. “You’re warm,” he declared, unhooking her arms from his neck and placing them at her sides.

“That’s because I’m under a blanket. I have three kid-shaped heaters on my legs.”

“You’re also pregnant.”

“Because of you.”

“Alright, I’ll agree to that, but I’m not sure what difference it makes.”

“I feel fine.”

“You’re lying down.”

“I’m a little tired, is that a crime, officer?”

“Is it morning sickness?”

“Of course not. It isn’t morning.”

“Ah.”

“I drank juice with the kids. It was too sugary.”

“Without a doubt; they wouldn’t like it any other way.”

Buffy rolled her eyes as he fussed with her hair and tested the temperature of her forehead one more time. “Where’s Willow and Tara?”

“Probably still hunched over some musty old books. Did you know that magic place has a lot more than just crystal trinkets and incense? We could shut it down in a heartbeat. The health and safety violations would blow your mind.”

“Did they have eye of newt and deadly nightshade? Fingers floating around in pickle jars?”

“Not precisely, but—hey, shouldn’t you be a tad more squeamish about these things? With Joy and the twins you couldn’t be near a cracked egg without losing your lunch and now, a finger in pickle juice doesn’t make you bat an eye?”

“The visual in my head is pretty tolerable. It’s when I imagine what it might smell like…” Buffy stopped to take a deep breath. She swallowed, her nose slightly wrinkled. “I feel fine, damn it. Just because I know I’m pregnant that doesn’t mean I’m suddenly having morning sickness twenty-four hours later. And if I might feel like I am, it isn’t real. It’s a mental thing. It happens all the time. People feel great until they’re diagnosed with something, then they have every symptom in the book.”

“How are you feeling, honestly, Buffy?”

“Just a little tired, not even exhausted.”

“Did the kids wear you out?”

“All they did was eat, sleep and play: all the usual stuff. While they napped, I poked around the house.”

“And how did that work out?”

“Well, it worked,” Buffy replied. Mounds of shoes and clothing lying on the floor in front of their closet came to mind, but she shrugged the image away. “All my memories seem to be accounted for. I’ve been making tons of progress. I don’t feel like a stranger in my own house. I knew where we keep Jo’s extra sippy cups. I found the bag of crunchy Cheetos I’ve been hiding from you since my last trip to the grocery store. I did the laundry and was able to put everything away without thinking about it too much.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear all that, but…when you say crunchy Cheetos, do you mean the bag of regular or the hot and spicy kind?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Did you happen to look inside of these bags you hid so well?”

“I didn’t say I had more than one bag,” Buffy answered, eyes narrowed. “Don’t pretend as if you know that I have more than one bag, William. You didn’t find them. You’re just messing with me. I borrowed Jamie’s ladder--.”

“Guess I should be impressed by that, by you being so shifty and all, using whatever means necessary to hide the bags from me. But using his stepstool? The little wooden block that’s barely three inches off the ground? You could’ve got more height tottering around in your stilettos. The cabinet in the garage isn’t even that high, sweetheart.”

“His stepstool is higher than—hey, you ate my Cheetos!”

“Did I say that?” William asked, easily dodging the pillow that she hurled in his direction. Ignoring Buffy’s glares, he managed to get his helmet back from the twins. He paid no special attention to the second pillow that grazed his shoulder as he placed the helmet along with his jacket into the hall closet. “I’ve been under stress,” he said, picking up both pillows. “I crave a bit of salt when I’m stressing, you know that.”

“I’ll make you stress,” Buffy grumbled. “You don’t take food from a pregnant woman, William.”

“In my defense, I didn’t know at the time and neither did you. It was only a hunch and I chose to ignore it.” He placed the pillows on Sarah’s end of the couch and told her to hold them tight. “Keep these things away from your mother, alright, kitten?”

“I’ll give you a hunch too…right upside the head…”

“Oh, I was shaking in my boots before, now I’m completely petrified. Sit up, slayer, and scoot forward.”

Buffy thought about refusing, but his hand was already on her lower back. He helped her bend at the waist and slipped behind her. “We should look into a bigger sofa. This one fits all of us now, but I doubt we could squeeze another baby on here.”

“How about a sectional? A big leather one with built-in cup holders and a massage chair tacked on at the end?”

“Thanks but no thanks.” Yawning, Buffy rearranged her legs. William’s arms came around her, and she snuggled comfortably against his chest. “Sectionals are too bulky and ugly. The last thing you need is a big vibrating chair.”

“Would it really be so bad?” he asked, practically purring into her ear. “I’m sure we could put it to good use.”

“William, don’t be a horndog,” Buffy laughed. Although she didn’t mind him nipping at her neck, she inched away. His lips brushed against her earlobe and she shivered. Her eyes went directly to their children, but they were too engrossed in the television and their own babbling to notice William’s hand sneaking under the blanket. Even Joy was content, perfectly distracted by her older siblings and the occasional wiggle of Buffy’s toes. “Where did you say Tara was again? When is she coming home?”

“Instead of them coming to us, we’ll go to them around dinnertime. Eye of newt and pickled fingers cost a pretty penny. Even after going to bank, I didn’t have the cash to cover half of their bloody ingredients. That’s what they call that shit: ingredients, as if they’re baking a bloody cake. The witches will give us a ring, we’ll pack up, and swing by to pick up the tab. Then we’ll eat and go on from there. And, just so you know, Red’s staying with us.”

“She is? Since when?”

“Since Tara asked if we’d take her in. She was neatly discreet about it. She had a few good excuses: nothing to offer her but a couch, that sort of thing.”

“That means I have to get the guestroom ready.”

“No, you don’t,” William said, tightening his arms around her as she tried to sit up. “It can wait, and when we do get to it, I’ll take care of it. Now, we relax.”

“You’ll change the sheets? Do you even know where I keep sheets for that room? It has a smaller bed so we hardly ever use them. I moved them out of the way to make room for more Christmas decorations just last week.”

“Is that right?” he asked, placing a kiss in Buffy’s hair. “I had no idea.”

Intrigued by the sweet gesture and the subtle change in his voice, Buffy turned and found him smirking. “The room…it needs a quick dusting too.”

“Mmmm…really?”

“Yeah. I try to keep up with it, but it’s too easy to ignore since we don’t use the room often. It’s been vacuumed recently, but—William, what’s your deal? Are you teasing me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

She searched his face for a minute before twisting away in a sulk. “Alright, so I’m a little excited about having my memory back. Maybe I’m babbling while I boast about random shit I couldn’t remember before—that no one even cared about before I lost my memory—but you don’t have to look at me like that.”

“I can’t help it. You are adorable, Summers. My girl knows this and that, and she’s--.”

“And she’s bloody proud of it,” Buffy finished for him. She rolled her eyes, but smiled as William whispered that he was proud of her too.
***



A/N: This wrapping up, you guys. In fact, I finished writing it over the weekend and will be updating every few days until it ends. Meanwhile, if you have a WIP of mine that you'd like to see finished more than others, now is the time to ask. Email me, use livejournal or make a suggestion through comments. Thanks again for reading.





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