A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.
~ Unknown
Buffy sat on the hospital bed in a paper gown with the doctor spreading a cold gel over her stomach. Spike sat by her side holding her hand tightly watching as the doctor took a machine and rubbed it over her belly. He asked with concern in his voice, “Buffy does that hurt?”
She shook her head, “No it’s cold but doesn’t hurt.”
Spike asked nervously, “Will that hurt the baby?”
The doctor shook her head gently explaining, “No, we are just going to take a picture of this baby to see how far along you are if that’s ok with you.”
Buffy squeezed Spike’s hand and Dr. Tucker smiled, “Your baby appears to be 7 weeks old.”
Buffy blinked and looked Spike who looked shocked. Neither said anything as the doctor hit the print screen handing them a picture of little dot on the screen. Buffy frowned repeating, “7 weeks?”
Dr. Tucker nodded, “Next week if you want to come back, we can do another and you can hear the heartbeat.”
Spike smiled, “We’d like that.”
Buffy whispered, “You’re sure 7 weeks?”
Dr. Tucker smiled gently at her not understanding Buffy’s problem with the date, “Yes 7 weeks. Its head is really big and the spine is just starting to grow although that picture doesn’t really show that. Your baby is a little shy and is in the back of your womb but it looks healthy. Here is the cord as you can see and the baby is basically a big head and a little body right now. But don’t worry. Time will fly and soon you will be able to feel it kick. That’s another 3 weeks or so away yet though.”
She handed Buffy a cloth to wipe her stomach off with and said, “I’ll take this picture out front and you can make your second appointment there. Take your time dressing. Congrats Spike and Buffy.”
Spike helped Buffy to dress and asked, “7 weeks. How is that possible?”
Buffy frowned, “Do you think Wilda or the witches did something to make her grow faster before moving her around?”
Spike nodded, “That makes the most sense. Do you think this baby will be normal and all? You heard that witch saying she was stronger, higher senses and all that bloody stupid stuff.”
Buffy spoke softly with her voice full of nervousness, “I think we need to have a heart to heart with Willow. My week old baby is now 7 weeks old and I want to make sure I don’t end up delivering her in 7 weeks instead of 9 months.”
Spike took her hand and together they walked out of the room to make their second appointment.
Later that night, Willow, Oz, Spike and Buffy were sitting in the diner they were in the other day and were having dinner. Buffy looked at Willow in a worried glance and asked, “Willow, why is my baby 7 weeks old instead of a week?”
Willow frowned, “We had to do that. Don’t you remember Spike saying once, ‘The thing about magic? There’s always consequences. Always.’ Well the consequence of this magic is that the baby is growing faster than normal.”
Buffy frowned, “How will I be able to keep doctor appointments if it’s not a normal aging baby? Will it grow older faster after it’s born? Will it continue to grow faster and faster? I know Dr. Tucker is a werewolf and understands these things but I have to know what to tell her so I can make sure I deliver the baby with her…”
Willow put her hand on Buffy’s hand calming her down slightly, “No to all of those. The baby will age normally from now on. When the seer moved your baby she make it grow to 4 weeks so that she could safely move it. When we moved it back, we had to age it to 8 weeks in order to make sure the umbilical cord would work. So your baby is really almost 8 weeks old.”
Buffy nodded as Spike let out a gentle sigh in relief. Buffy looked down at her untouched food and started to eat no longer worried. Willow smiled at how well Buffy took the news and gave Spike a gentle smile as she continued to eat her food.
Buffy laughed as Spike swung her up into his arms and carried her up the stairs to their house. The house still needed a lot of work but they could at last sleep in it with the run down bed. She slapped at Spike’s chest exclaiming, “I can walk, put me down.”
When they reached the door he used the key to unlock the door and kicked it open with his foot before putting her down in the chair. He removed his socks and boots to be more comfortable and bent down to remove Buffy’s as well. When he had finished, Buffy stood up with her hands on her hips saying, “You are so not going to carry me around for the next um, 6 months mister.”
Spike laughed, “7 months pet and no I probably won’t. Eventually you will get heavier and will be harder to carry.”
Buffy gasped and realized what he said. She hadn’t had time to think about such things yet with all the commotion going on. She frowned putting her hand on her stomach and asked, “Will you still want me when I’m fat and ugly?”
Spike laughed and replied huskily, “I’ll always want you.”
Buffy whispered, “Will you still love me?”
Spike shook his head at her question, “Silly bint. Of course I’ll love you. I’ll love you until the day we get removed from this earth and probably well beyond that. You’re mine slayer, mine you hear me?”
Buffy relaxed her stance and got lost in thought at his words. She remembered reading once about mates and what it meant to be mates. She had wondered for a brief moment when her and Spike were sleeping together years ago what it would be like to mate with him. She would have never gone through with it, of course, with her friends all over her case all the time but she had been curious.
She decided not to say anything to Spike though until she thought some more about it and instead whispered, “Make love to me?”
Spike wasn’t one to ever deny Buffy anything and carried her up the stairs the bed placing her gently on it.