Voltaire
Five minutes later, Buffy was sitting on her bed, chewing her bottom lip when there was a knock on her door. She dashed over and opened it just a fraction. Willow and Dawn were standing on the other side, both with cheesy grins on their faces. Willow held up a box labelled ‘First Response Early Result’ like a peace offering.
“Sorry,” she grimaced, “but she ambushed me. But at least no one else saw me,” she offered lamely.
“Just get in here both or you.” Buffy snatched the box out of Willow’s hand and dragged both of the girls inside, slamming the door after them.
“Oh my God Buffy, what does this mean? Do you really think you could be pregnant? And who’s the father? It can’t …”
“Dawn, just shut up for a minute and let me try and read these damn directions,” Buffy frowned as she turned the box over and tried to decipher the simple instructions.
“Oh here, give it to me. It’s not rocket science you know, you just have to pee on the stick.” Dawn looked at the front of the box and squealed. “Oh good, it’s First Response. That one works at any time of day,” she muttered, pulling a foil package out of the box. “Now you just have to take the cap off, hold it like this and pee on that bit. Wait for three minutes and …”
“Dawn how do you know all this? Wait a minute, I really don’t want to know.” Buffy plucked the stick out of her sister’s hands, stuck the cap back on and marched out of the room. Willow and Dawn took one look at each other and headed for the door. Before they could get there, Buffy popped her head back in the room and glared at them.
“Stay there you two, I can pee on my own thank you very much.”
The two girls sat down on the bed, too confused and excited and worried to do or say anything. Time seemed to drag, and it was more like five minutes before the door opened and Buffy came in, stick in hand and frown on face. She looked up at them and shrugged.
“I was so sure,” she said, “but no blue cross only these two pink lines.”
“Oh my God, Buffy, you dumbass,” Dawn jumped up, “two pink lines means positive. See look at the box. You are, you’re pregnant.”
“Language, Dawn,” Buffy replied automatically before stopping. “You what? Oh! Oh!” She peered at the diagram Dawn had thrust at her and then sank down onto the bed, her knees all wobbly. “Oh my God, I’m pregnant.” Tears filled her eyes as she sat staring at the stick.
Willow, still sitting on the bed next to her, reached over and put her arm around Buffy’s shoulder. “Are you alright Buffy?”
Buffy looked up and a smile slowly broke out over her face. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah I think I am. Although …” At this she stopped and bit her lip, frowning thoughtfully.
“Okay, okay, but Buffy. Who? How? When?” Dawn started badgering her sister again.
“Right, right. All will be revealed shortly. It’s quite a story I think and I’m still trying to figure bits of it out for myself. But first things first. It’s two o’clock and none of us has eaten, and I’m starting to feel quite weak and nauseous again. Dawn can you nip down to the kitchen and get Cook to put together a tray for us. Just some sandwiches and maybe some cakes and a few of her cookies, or biscuits, whatever she calls them. After all I am eating for two now,” Buffy grinned at her sister.
“And Willow, can you call a mini meeting for this afternoon. Just Giles and Xander. Oh and Althanea and Rowan too, I was supposed to meet with them anyway. See if you can find out if Faith has taken her pregnancy test yet. If she has, then get her and Robin to come along as well. Tell everyone to meet us in the parlour at 4 o’clock. It’s smaller and the other girls don’t tend to use it much. Then both of you meet me back here in 40 minutes. I’m going to have a little nap.” She grinned once more and lay down as the girls backed out of the room and quietly pulled the door shut.
Two hours later, Buffy sauntered into the cosy little parlour and walked straight to the front of the room. She felt well rested and excited and her tummy was behaving itself now that she’d fed it.
Giles and Xander were already there, both looking very puzzled. Althanea and Rowan were also present; the older witch sitting in a comfortable armchair with her granddaughter perched on the arm. They both grinned encouragingly at her and Buffy swore she could see a twinkle in Althanea’s eyes. Dawn and Willow, who had come down with her, joined the two men on the couch. Last to come in were Faith and Robin. Faith sauntered in boldly, but Robin looked stiff and ill at ease. Buffy was about to begin when Andrew scuttled into the room.
“Andrew, you weren’t invited. Was he?” Buffy turned to ask Willow.
“While I didn’t tell him,” Willow responded quickly.
“Andrew, get out.” Buffy shouted.
“Okay, okay. So I know I wasn’t on the guest list, but I’m here in an official capacity. Umm, I’m representing the Council, recording all of your glorious and tragic stories for prosperity. ‘Cos don’t forget there’s that prophecy thingy with the singing and the sword. And I could write down notes, if I could just find my pencil and some, ah, paper. Hey maybe I could get a special badge made and …”
“Shut up Andrew. Just sit quietly over there. And not a word. Or a camera.” Buffy looked around the room and took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this,” she said. “Faith do you have the results of your pregnancy test?” she asked the dark Slayer.
“Sure B,” and she threw the testing stick on the coffee table. “I’m free and clear. Like I told you, no bun in this girl’s oven,” she boasted as they all peered at the single pink line, clearly displayed in the result window. But as she sat down next to Robin she allowed him to wrap his arm around her back, leaning into him in an uncharacteristic display of vulnerability.
“Okay, well I guess that makes this a little easier,” Buffy said as she pulled out her own plastic stick. She carefully placed it on the table next to Faith’s and stood back. Willow, Dawn, Althanea and Rowan all grinned at her encouragingly, the two Devon witches not showing any surprise at all. Faith and Robin looked at each other and frowned, and Robin embraced the dark slayer more firmly.
Giles and Xander both sat there with their mouths wide open and utter confusion on their faces.
“I don’t understand Buffy, whose test is this?” Giles spluttered in his most paternal tone.
“It’s mine Giles,” she said quietly, sliding her left hand down over her stomach. “I should have guessed earlier,” she shrugged. “I’ve been throwing up every morning for the last week and a half. It’s just that I thought it impossible. I’d never even considered it before. But at the meeting this morning, I just knew. This is the child Giles, the one in Sagaria’s Song.”
“But for that to be true, you would have had to conceive this pregnancy the night before the Hellmouth and who …” Giles stopped there. He and Xander looked at each other then back at Buffy.
“No Buffy,” shouted Xander, leaping up, “it better not be that asshole of a vampire. My God, don’t tell me you’d even think about letting him touch you again. It makes me feel sick to even think about it. How could you?” he snarled.
“Shut up, Xander,” Dawn yelled at him. “You don’t know how she felt about him, how she feels about him still. And you don’t know how they were together. None of us do really,” she added looking up at her sister and reaching out for her hand. “But he’d changed and he was a good man. And he was my friend too. I wish I’d told him that while I had time.”
“Well, I’ll admit that he did seem to care for you Buffy, and he did come in very handy in that final battle. But I must agree with Xander. To have slept with him is really going too far. I thought you would have had more sense. I’m disappointed in you.” Giles proclaimed.
“Stop right there. I am more than disappointed in the pair of you, I am totally and seriously pissed,” Buffy yelled at the two men. “My God what is the problem here? Is it that I slept with a vampire?” She stormed up and down the room, glaring at the two men. “Or is it that I’m in love with that vampire? Maybe it’s that I’ve mystically conceived a baby with that same vampire. Or maybe, just maybe it’s that if I don’t give birth to said mystical baby and somehow resurrect said vampire father, it might just be the end of the freaking world one day soon. And that’s the real world not the sad fricking little world you two are living in,” she yelled.
“Look, I love both of you, like a father and a brother, but I am absolutely and utterly in love with Spike, and you’d better deal with it and help me find a way to bring him back or you may as well say ‘goodbye Buffy, hello Apocalypse!’”