Christina Baldwin
As Buffy sat down, the room erupted into clapping and cheering, the four women and Andrew all giving her a standing ovation. Even Faith looked over at her wryly and mouthed ‘Go girl’ across the room.
“I suppose Buffy,” Giles confessed, “I have been looking at this through a father’s eyes instead of a watcher’s, and sadly the so called Head Watcher left the building all together. I’m prepared to put aside my personal misgivings in order to focus on the prophecy. I’m very sorry my dear if I’ve upset you. I hope you’ll forgive me.” Giles said sincerely.
“Thanks, Giles. That means a lot. But in the long term I want the fatherly support as well as the watcherly help. After all you are going to be a Grandad.” Buffy teased him.
“Ah right, so you are.” Giles mused. “Xander what about you? Don’t you have something to say to Buffy?” he prompted.
“I suppose so,” Xander muttered reluctantly. “I’m not happy about it, and I don’t think I ever will be.” Buffy frowned at him. “But I’m sorry I yelled, and I’m sorry I insulted you. I’ll try and keep my opinions to myself from now on,” he conceded. “Best I can do, I’m afraid.”
“Well I guess it will have to do for now,” Buffy conceded reluctantly.
“Right, well, we seem to have established that Buffy slept with, uh had s-sex with Spike the night before the Hellmouth battle. Correct?” asked Giles
“Yes Giles, Spike and I made love the night before the battle,” Buffy confirmed, glaring at Xander as he began to open, and then shut his mouth.
“Ahem, quite. But Buffy, how can this pregnancy test be correct? It’s one thing to sleep with a vampire, but quite another to get pregnant to one. Vampires cannot father children, as they are not capable of producing sperm. The test result must be incorrect. Perhaps we should get you to take another,” Giles suggested.
“Giles you haven’t been listening. I knew I was pregnant before I took the test. Maybe only half an hour before, but subconsciously I think I’ve known for a while. I know my own body Giles. I’ve been throwing up every morning for the last 10 days, I haven’t had a period since a fortnight before the battle and my breasts are getting a little tender,” she mused. “I would’ve worked it out some time this week anyway. The prophecy reveal just sped things up. I have no doubt. I’m pregnant. It’s Spike’s baby. Get with the programme.” Buffy folded her arms and plumped down in the armchair, eyeing Giles and Xander assertively.
“Well we’re with the programme,” enthused Willow as Dawn nodded eagerly beside her, “we’re even all bandwagony. But what I don’t get is how this happened. I mean if Giles is right and vampires don’t have any, well um s-seed, then how did Spike get you pregnant?”
“Well, first of all I think Giles is wrong, and I think it would be fair to say that he doesn’t have any first hand experience of this, and well I, um I do.” Buffy admitted a little sheepishly.
“Oh, no.” Xander groaned, dropping his face into his palms. “I really don’t want to hear this.”
Buffy ignored him as she chewed her lip thoughtfully. “Well it’s always seemed to me that vampires do produce sperm, they certainly produce semen.” At this Xander groaned again, even more loudly, while Giles removed his glasses and began polishing them vigorously. Robin, sat rigidly in the armchair next to Giles, jaw clenched tightly. The rest of the occupants leaned forwards in the seats, listening intently.
“It’s just that,” Buffy continued thoughtfully, “those sperm are dead, or at least undead.”
“Oh God, save me from undead vampire tadpoles,” Xander mumbled into his hands.
“I somehow feel certain that you shall never have to be saved from undead vampire tadpoles Xander,” Giles consoled the man beside him wryly.
“And now you’ve absolutely doomed me. I won’t be able to patrol now without freaking out about running into some overexcited vampire who finds me a nummy treat and …”
“Oh will you two shut up,” Buffy yelled at them. “Mystical pregnancy, fading powers, possible world endage! Could we get back to business?” She settled back down and looked around the room. “I’ve really only told Dawn and Willow about what happened in the Hellmouth. I know you were there Faith and saw what was going down but that was only up until a point. When the amulet activated, Spike called my name. I ran over to him and he was all lit up, with sunlight pouring down onto him then channeling out of the amulet and around the cavern. It wiped out most of the Turok Han in only seconds. I reached up and grabbed his hand.” She took a deep breath before continuing on.
“Flames erupted from between our linked hands as we gazed into one another’s eyes.” At this she stared down at the scar on her hand. “I felt a wave of heat, tingly like electricity, but much more pleasant, surge up my arm and throughout my body. It felt incredible, like a great big jolt of life, physically and emotionally. It was the most incredible sensation I’ve ever experienced, like absolute love and life all rolled into one. The whole time Spike and I were gazing into one another’s eyes, fire still leaping from between our palms. It felt like both our hearts and bodies were totally connected. I told him I loved him,” Buffy paused as sighs and sniffles came from around the room.
“Its sooo romantic,” Andrew said dreamily, “just like Han and Leia.”
“Or Westley and Buttercup,” offered Dawn.
“Or Rose and Jack,” added Willow, “but maybe that’s too close for comfort,” she grimaced. “Okay, boat and iceberg, but big old necklace, hot sex before the end, great big, apocalyptic sinkage and heart breaking romantic sacrifice.” Willow’s musing generated another round of sighs and nods of agreement.
“So what happened next Buffy?” Giles asked thoughtfully.
“Well next the stupid poophead vampire says ‘No you don’t but thanks for saying it’. Aaarrgh! I mean I’ve just opened up my heart and we’ve been all mystical and connecty and he says that! Never mind the apocalypse, I really should have kicked his butt right there.” Buffy complained indignantly.
“And yet, so noble,” Andrew declared before blowing his nose.
“Yeah, I hate to say it, but I actually agree with Andrew. Spike probably just wanted to get you out of there, Buffy. He wanted you to live,” Dawn consoled her sister.
“So Buffy, are you proposing that the heat generated by this amulet, through your connection with Spike, somehow caused your pregnancy,” asked Giles, excited now despite himself.
“You know, just before the amulet powered up, one of the Ubies made himself a Buffy kebab. He stuck his sword right through my gut. Now I know I’ve got Slayer healing and all, but Giles, by the time Spike let go of my hand, my wound was completely healed. And as for all that running and jumping I did to catch the bus, I may be fast and strong but I would never have made it if not for that heatwave. It was like some kind of mystical battery that got all jump-starty on me. If it could heal all my wounds and re-energize me, then why couldn’t it re-animate Spike’s dormant sperm, get all the little deeply deposited wrigglers wriggling again. From that point on, good ol’ Mother Nature takes over and voila, you’ve got one mystically pregnant, vampire loving, prophecy linked Slayer reporting for duty.”
“Good Lord Buffy,” Giles shook his head humbly, “Probably a little more detail than I would wish for, but I think your hypothesis actually has some merit. I feel embarrassed to admit that I’ve been rather hasty in my dismissal of your gut instinct, if you’ll pardon the pun. From now on I shall try very hard to leave my ‘stern but doting father’ hat off and put my ‘sharp, analytical watcher’ hat on. I rather suspect you’re about to tell me that my conclusions about the prophecy are also invalid.”
“Well I guess the only bit you got wrong was who the parents were. I think your interpretation of the Dark and the Light Warriors may have been a little shallow Giles. I don’t think the prophet was referring to skin colour. Spike is a creature of the Dark and I’m a warrior of the Light. No offense Faith and Robin,” Buffy nodded at the silent couple, “but ‘The Parents’ are Spike and I.”
“That’s cool B.,” Faith shot back, “like I’ve always said, me and brats don’t mix too good anyway.” Robin, sitting on the chair behind her seemed to be radiating some sort of negative emotion as he ground out “Fine,” through clenched teeth.
“If your interpretation is correct Buffy, and I am very much inclined to think it is, then we are left with an even larger problem,” warned Giles. “If the Father is unable to claim Sagaria alongside the Mother and the Child, before the first anniversary of the Hellmouth Collapse, then the new Slayers will lose their powers anyway. And if we cannot field a Legion of Slayers, we will be unable to defeat the Scourge of Amroz and before you know it we’re booked in for another apocalypse.”
“Well then Giles,” Buffy said calmly, “you’d better get all of your new Watcher minions with their noses to the grindstone, or whatever you have over here in England, and help me find my vampire.”
“You still think he’s alive don’t you?” Willow asked Buffy.
“Well not alive exactly, ‘cos hello, vampire. But not gone either. I don’t know how exactly, but I can still feel him. And then of course there are the dreams.”
“The dreams? You know Buffy, it really might have been helpful if you’d shared some of this information with us earlier,” Giles shook his head.
“Yeah sorry about that Giles, but you haven’t exactly been around. And anyway, I really haven’t been ready to share until just this last week. I’ve only just considered that my dreams may have been Slayer dreams over the last few days.”
“And it gets worse! How many of these Slayer dreams have you had?’ Giles asked impatiently.
“Um, only at least one every single day since the Hellmouth collapsed, so about maybe 35 or so.” Buffy muttered sheepishly.
“Oh for goodness sakes. What were you thinking? Did you two know about this?” Giles glared at Willow and Dawn.
The two girls glanced at each other quickly and shrugged.
“Well n-not really, Giles, n-no,” Willow stammered. “I mean we knew she was having bad dreams back in California, but not since we arrived in England. We’ve been so busy and …”
“Look can we just move on. All of the dreams start the same – a faithful, technicolour reproduction of the last 24 hours in Sunnydale, but you’re only getting the highlights package. I can see, hear, feel and even smell everything that happened around me. The first few nights that’s all I got – repeats of ‘The End of Sunnydale – The Untold Story’. But after a few nights it changed. First I could hear Spike calling for me from the crater’s edge, then a few nights later, he started begging me not to leave him just as I ran out of the cavern.” The room was absolutely silent as Buffy recalled her dreams.
“Oh Buffy, no wonder you wanted to spend every minute of every day camped out next to the crater,” Giles said sympathetically.
“By the time we flew out, dream Spike was furious, angry at me for leaving him behind.” Dawn and Willow gasped as they realised what Buffy had been going through during that horrible plane flight.
“Since we’ve been here, he alternately begs desperately or throws angry accusations at me.” Tears were streaming down Buffy’s cheeks now. “And it’s really taken me until today to realise that those dreams aren’t just my guilty conscience playing mean tricks on me. I think somehow he’s been calling out to me all along, wanting me to come and find him, needing me to save him,” Buffy was openly sobbing by now. “Please Giles, I need you, I need all of you,” at this she looked around the room, “to help me find him. Not just to fulfil the prophecy, but for me, because I love him, because I need him,” she slid her hand back down over her stomach, “because we both need him.”
Giles quickly dashed a hand across his eyes, pushed his glasses back on his face and cleared his throat. “Of course Buffy, we’ll do what ever we can to find and bring him back safe. But I’m not really sure where to start. Maybe a locator spell …”
“Rupert dear, if you don’t mind me interrupting, I believe that’s why we are here.” Everyone gaped in surprise at the speaker. “Rowan and I have our own story to tell,” Althanea offered calmly. “Unless I’m very much mistaken Buffy, we’ve been sent to help you bring your vampire home.”