The air shook as Althenea and the rest of the Coven from Devon appeared in the Foyer. Charles and Spike had been walking back into the Orb room with yet another name when the room was full of witches, some of whom reached for hidden stakes before remembering that anyone here would be a friend or at least a colleague. There was a yelp as Spike and Charles turned round in game face to confront the new arrivals, coupled with shouting and yells that brought Willow out to see what was going on.
‘Althenea, brilliant to see you!’
‘You too, young Willow.’ Althenea held Willow at arms length looking her up and down critically; the red head was as pale as Spike. Her eyes looked like someone had hit her, they were so dark. She had been working to the limits of her considerable strength and now that the relief column had turned up and she had been relieved, Willow was ready to collapse. Her long time friend and mentor held her for one minute in a loving embrace and then said one word. ‘Bed,’ loudly, pointing out that ‘Willow is exhausted’. She looked at two of the women who had arrived with her. ‘You two: take her to her room and put her to sleep, at least 12 hours; we’ll take over here.’
She swept past everyone and into the room Willow had vacated. Althenea looked around the room and made herself comfortable in the circle. ‘Next!’ she yelled, and the process started again.
Giles looked around and cleaned his glasses. ‘Well, we’ll make you ladies comfortable,’ he said to the rest of the coven.
‘No need Giles, we’re here to work. What’s next?’
‘We need to stop Travers pulling energy from the slayers in the Orbs. He’s getting too much and should be able to break out in about an hour if we don’t do something.’
‘That’s easy,’ one of the older women said. ‘You’ve all been using magic to stop him; what you need is to seal the room with witches’ bottles. He can’t pull power across a threshold sealed like that, but humans can still carry stuff in and out. So I’ll see to that bit. The rest of you take a break. Everyone here has been working flat out for hours and it’s obvious you cannot continue. Eat, sleep, rest; read a book, take a bath. Whatever you like: but you are relieved of duty.’
Xander felt like snapping a salute as he and the others were dismissed.
Riley would be proud of her he thought, as he escorted Rachael into the kitchen for some food before happily heading for bed.
He hadn’t been asleep for more than five minutes, he swore, when he was awoken by a soft knocking on the door. Rachael and Willow were still asleep, arms curled around one another. Xander tried to pretend he couldn’t hear that persistent noise but it continued. He untangled his arms from his girls and, grabbing a robe, made his way toward the noise, eye barely open.
The older woman, Hilda, stood in the corridor, looking slightly embarrassed.
‘Yeah?’ Xander managed to say.
‘Mr. Harris: sorry to wake you so quickly but we need your assistance in preparing the witches bottles.’
‘I’ll wake Willow, she’s good at that stuff.’
‘Uh no sir, it’s you we need.’
‘Oh, right - but I don’t do magic, I um’- yawn- ‘sort of do other stuff.’
‘Well we need, um, well we need, oh dear, this is embarrassing…’
‘Would you please tell me what you need before we wake the girls up? They’re even more tired than I am.’
Willow had woken though. The first Xander and Hilda knew about it was when she wriggled her way under Xander’s arm.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘We need Xander to finish off the witches’ bottles. He’s the only one qualified, and I, um, came up here to ask him if he would, well, you know.’
Despite being exhausted, Willow started giggling. Suddenly she knew more about Giles than she wanted or ever needed to know.
‘Right,’ she said still laughing. ‘Xander, go and pee in that bottle would you? As much as you can; would you please?’
Xander looked at the bottle as though it were a spitting cobra.
‘You want me to pee into the bottle?’
‘Yes please, its important honey, we need you to pee into the bottle.’ Willow felt like she was talking to a five year old. But it was an unusual request. He wandered off with the bottle in his hands. He had to pee into the bottle. Right, he could manage that.
Willow looked at Hilda. ‘So Giles couldn’t help?’
‘No…’
Willow caught Hilda’s eye and started laughing. ‘Did he fill you in on details?’
‘No, but he seemed very uncomfortable that Spike was in the room when we asked, and he had to refuse.’
‘I just bet he did. Oh I would just love to know!’
‘So would I.’
As Hilda started laughing again, Xander returned with a half full bottle and handed it over. Willow, still laughing, went back towards the bed.
Xander crawled back into bed and spooned in behind Rachael as Willow crawled in the other side of the slayer in the middle, a slayer that still hadn’t woken up.
‘Why did I have to pee in the bottle? Why couldn’t one of the girls or Giles do it?’
‘Has to be a pure man.’
‘Well Giles is pure…’
‘Not really, you see he has to be a true virgin.’
Xander spluttered, ‘I’ve got you and Rachael and there was Anya, I’m no virgin!’
‘In the old meaning: un-entered by a man virgin, not never had sex virgin…’
‘Oh, that’s all right then.’ Xander started to drift off to sleep as the words that Willow had said hit him. Giles was unqualified, that meant that….
Xander laughed as he fell deeper into the arms of Morphius. Sly old Ripper, unqualified to be a pure man…
The rest seemed almost an anti climax. Hilda had put witches bottles under the doorways, windows and fireplace in the Orb room. And they watched as Travers simply wilted. He seemed to age ten years before their eyes. The circle containing him flared into life as it was no longer under attack.
The pile of Orbs grew smaller and smaller until there was only one left. Sophia’s Marcus and Rosamund had returned to the mansion earlier, while the Scoobies had still been asleep. But now it was time for the last Orb to be opened and Marcus wanted Spike there when it happened. He had things to tell his ultimate childe and he knew this could possibly be his last chance.
Rosamund looked at the last Orb, hoping, knowing it contained the soul of her daughter. It had been so many years.
Willow and Althenea held hands as they spoke the words together. The final Orb flared and within the haze they saw a beautiful little girl appear and solidify. She smiled with an angel’s smile and ran into the arms of her mother. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Slayers, vampires, witches, the Immortal, all crying happy tears as mother and child were reunited. The gateway grew bigger and Joyce walked through with Jenny.
‘The angel is returned to her family,’ Jenny whispered, looking with love on the sight.
‘Sophie, come to us darling,’ Joyce called. Rosamund was distraught again.
‘No! No, I’m going with her. Marcus and I agreed: I’m leaving too.’
‘So am I,’ Marcus added. ‘I’ll not leave my mate, but I need an hour to talk to Spike. I’ll follow.’
Joyce burst out laughing. Buffy couldn’t believe that her mother would be so heartless.
‘Spike, hold Marcus, please; Buffy, hold Rosamund.’ she instructed. Not wanting to, in fact fighting the very urge, Buffy and Spike did as they were asked by the glowing figures. Marcus went into game face and tried to fight him off but it was useless: even sire strength didn’t work.
Behind the two women, others seemed to be walking through the doorway. Willow felt her heart stop as Tara appeared. Anya caused Xander to move forward, but they seemed unable to move properly.
‘Sophie, come here, child.’ Joyce asked again.
Sophie gave her mother another beaming smile and ran into Joyce’s arms.
The women formed a loose circle around the child.
‘We thought about a gift the Powers could bestow on all of you. To the Marcasean line, we gifted life many years ago, when he didn’t hurt the one he was sent to kill in Galilee. Now we give a true blessing. Child, your imprisonment is over, you are blessed, your life will be blessed. Human-ish, but blessed. Strength of spirit is yours already, but now we return your body.’
Jenny leant in and kissed the little girl, then Joyce spoke. ‘Love is yours but I give you luck in love.’
Tara’s gentle voice cut through. ‘Love is yours, but I give you wisdom.’
‘And I give you luck with money.’ The other women looked at her: Anya stared back.
‘What?? Money is good: she’s too young for orgasms, and lucky in love will sort that out when she’s older, so I give her luck with money. I was told I could give what was important and money is important…’
Xander just burst out laughing. He knew it was supposed to be some sort of solemn moment, but even in heaven Anya never changed.
The laughter was infectious. Soon all were laughing. Anya looked around her. ‘What? What?’
‘Nothing: we’ve just missed you Anya, and I am so glad you’re here.’
‘Hmmm.’
Joyce signalled Buffy. ‘I think a little girl needs her momma,’ she said with a smile.
Buffy smiled back as she and Spike released their captives, watching as the couple rushed to their daughter. She was solid, she was real. Spike could hear the pounding of her heart, a regular drum beat. He could smell her, the smell of a little girl fresh from her bath. It reminded him of Niblet, but most of all it was the noise of her heart beating. A sound missing from the slayers who had been freed.
The little girl ran quickly from Joyce and was scooped up into her daddy’s arms and spun around and around. Rosamund’s face broke into a huge grin and she wrapped her mate and her child in her arms, Rosamund laughing and crying all at the same time.
‘I think this family could do with a little alone time,’ Jenny said and led them all out of the door into the rest of the mansion.
‘Well that’s been quite a day hasn’t it,’ Joyce added, Buffy holding tight to her arm.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
thanks to Cordykitten for reviewing. This story is nearly over, just a couple more chapters to go. thanks to those who've read, even bigger thanks to those who reviewed