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Chapter 19: Misdirection

Buffy stands in her bedroom staring in her full length mirror. She looks at her profile and runs her hand down the large expanse of her belly. She’s grown so much so fast. She thinks about how surreal it all feels. Looking at her shape, knowing that she fits into very little of her clothes, having forced herself to buy some maternity wear even without wanting to on her tight budget, she knows now that it’s close. Maybe two weeks away, maybe less.

The baby will be coming soon and with that thought comes a rush of fear. Is she ready, will she ever be? Buffy’s mind races with questions surrounding her impending motherhood. Soon she won’t just have a large bump to carry around on her person, soon she’ll have a baby; a baby to look after and care for, to be responsible for. Buffy feels her heart speed up with anxiety as she stares at herself in the mirror. Then she watches her reflection as the fabric of her shirt seems to move on its own accord. Buffy feels the chilly pressure of his hand and turns to see Spike standing behind her, his hand wrapped around her and resting on her belly.

“We don’t have much time left,” Buffy says then turns to look him in the eyes. “untill the baby comes, I don’t think I’m ready,” there is panic in her voice, “what if I’m not ready?”

“I don’t know if anyone ever really is pet, we learn as we go yeah?”

Buffy nods then notices their close proximity. She takes a step back.“Has anyone else gotten back with any info yet?” she asks as she walks over to the bed.

“Not as far as I know… Peaches an’ I checked out all the electrical tunnels, there’s nothing going on down there; he’s talkin’ with the cheerleader now. The others should be back soon though; sunset’s only a bit off now.”

Buffy nods, then she looks to him, her eyes starting to water.“Spike,” she says and he’s before her in seconds moving a stray hair out of her eyes. Her lip trembles slightly.

“What’s wrong love?”

She sniffles then looks down at her fingernails before looking back up to him.

“What if, what if I can’t do this? What if I’m just no good at it, if I’m not a good mom?” a tear rolls down her cheek and Spike finds his heart breaking for her.

He wipes the orb of moisture from her cheek and looks deep into her eyes. “Now you listen here,” Spike says. “I’ve lived for sodding ever Buffy, and I’ve seen a lot of things, I’ve seen you, seen how you fight, how you try… I’ve seen you put everyone around you first, seen you die for them… I know the good that’s in you and there’s no way you could be a bad mum.”

“But…” more tears fall.

“But nothing, anything that’s good in me is because of you. Raisin’ a child doesn’t take books or brains, it doesn’t take a manual ta tell ya what to do, it takes love; and I know you will love her with all your heart.”

Buffy finds herself sobbing with a mess of emotions all running through her; joy, worry, relief, love, pain. Spike reaches out to her and puts a hand on her shoulder. Upon feeling his touch she falls into him. Her face burying into the cotton of his t-shirt, his arms wrapping around her to hold her tight. He shushes her as she cries and holds her tightly. Every day their predicament gets more and more real, and the closer they get to the day the more Spike knows that he needs to be there for her, that she wants him there for her.

--

“We found them,” Xander says as he and Anya walk through the front door.

Everyone else is already huddled in the living room when Xander and Anya enter. Willow and Tara had returned a short time earlier without any luck and now sit side by side on the sofa. Dawn has finished her homework and is holding Connor under Angel’s intense gaze while Cordy sits beside him; and Buffy and Spike have come downstairs and stand by the open weapons chest behind the chairs.

“Found them where?” Willow asks.

“Well now, that’s kind of ironic actually,” Xander says proudly, “Remember that old abandoned warehouse?”

“The one Dru an’ I took up shop in?” Spike asks.

“And kidnapped Willow and I and took us to, yeah, the very one.”

“Great lets revisit the place where I fell through a flight of stairs and ended up in the hospital for a week after getting a rebar through my ribs,” Cordelia complains, “God, there really are a lot of terrible memories in this town.”

“Ok, so this is good,” Buffy says, “We can load up on weapons and take them out.”

“Yeah, except this place is loaded with demons,” Anya adds, “and they looked ready to head out.”

“Head out to go where?” Dawn asks.

“Here, would be my guess,” Angel says, then his eyes fall on Connor resting peacefully in Dawn’s arms. Buffy follows his gaze.

“We have to get out of here,” Buffy says, “get someplace safe.”

“We don’t have time.” All eyes turn to Cordelia to see her floating just inches above the ground, her eyes are glossed over with a distant gaze. It isn’t every premonition that makes her float, just the big ones, and this is a big one. It sends tingling beads of light through her veins and lights up her frontal cortex with images of what’s to come. Like fireflies in a jar the energy buzzes and flies through her. Demons, lots of them, and they’re all on their way to Buffy’s house. “They’ll be here any minute.”

Buffy’s eyes grow wide. There’s not enough time. The demons are coming too soon, the baby is coming too soon, it’s all too soon, and she’s not ready. Her eyes dart past Spike and glance over her friends, the fear in their eyes. No matter how many battles they fight the fear doesn’t ever completely go away. Then her sight lands on Dawn, her sister, holding the innocent baby Connor in her arms. His blue eyes big and round staring up at Dawn; Angel looking at them like he’s about to throw himself into the open, razor teeth lined, jaws of the Hellmouth to save them if it would do any good.

“Dawn, take Connor upstairs, and lock the door.” The girl’s blue eyes go wide and then she does as her sister has asked without another word. Angel watches them go for a moment then turns back to Buffy just as she tosses him a sword, she pulls out an axe for herself as does Spike. Cordy comes up and grabs a sword for herself and Buffy looks at her oddly for a moment.

“Are you sure you can…” Buffy begins.

“Wield a sword? And a crossbow too, like I’ve said Buffy, things change.”

Buffy notices Spike pulling a double barrel shotgun out of the chest then and she looks at him with fear.

“Where did that come from?”

“S’ mine, brought it here over the summer.” He tosses the gun to Xander. “M’ sure you’ve got enough cells left from those commando days to know how to point and shoot.”

“You kept that in the house?” Buffy asks Spike, “That’s so dangerous.”

He quirks an eyebrow at her.

“You have a box full of sharp pointy weapons and you’re worried about a gun?”

“Hey, guys. Can we worry about baby-proofing the house later?” Xander says. “We’ve got company.”

All faces turn to see the soft glowing light of torches approaching the house.

“Buffy, I’m gonna work on putting up a force field, stay inside, we’ll put it around the house.” Buffy nods.

The gang moves to head outside and face Holtz’s army of vengeful demons. Buffy follows them to the door watching Angel and Cordelia move out into the fight followed by her friends. Spike is the last to leave the house and before he steps through the doorway he turns back to face her. They share a wordless moment of understanding, then Spike kisses her on the forehead and rushes out into the fight.

Buffy stands in the doorway and looks out into the yard as demons of all shapes, sizes and colors surge toward the house. Anya has grabbed a crossbow and keeps watch over Willow and Tara as they sit on the porch and try to get a spell forming. Xander moves to the end of the stairs with his shotgun and begins shooting at anything that gets past Spike, Angel, and Cordelia who Buffy takes note moves with her sword with the precision and perfection that she once held in her cheerleading routines.

As the fight rages on Buffy grips her axe tightly in anxiety watching as her friends fight where she should be fighting. Then she has a distraction to pull her mind away from the battle. The sound of glass shattering echoes through the house and Buffy spins around to look up the stairs. She hears Dawn scream and then she’s moving taking the stairs two at a time.

--

“Gahh,” Spike yells as a demon waves a torch before his face. “Bloody torches.”

Cordelia comes up behind the demon he’s fighting and beheads it with a swift and easy swing of her sword. Spike smiles as the beast’s torch falls to the grass and goes out nearly instantly.

The boom of gunfire is heard and Spike twists his head to see Xander rather efficiently taking out another demon with one clean shot to the head. He sees the witches on the porch still nowhere near getting a force field up and Anya haphazardly shooting anything she can get an aim on.

“Spike,” Angel yells and Spike twists around to see his grandsire in a headlock by a rather bulky red horned demon. For a moment Spike smirks at the sight of Angel trying to elbow the beast in the ribs while the dimwit tries to choke the lack of air out of the vampire. Then he rushes in to help.

--

The door is locked. Buffy kicks it in splintering the white painted wood into shards as it breaks apart and falls into Dawn’s room. Before it can even land with a thud the Slayer is bursting into the room. There she sees Dawn knocked to the ground, the brunette girl wiping blood from her split lip, and Holtz standing before the broken window with baby Connor in his arms. Connor begins to cry.

“I’m not here for you,” Holtz says, then looks her up and down with disdain in his eyes.

“You’re not taking him,” Buffy says and raises her axe.

--

Angel now freed from the red demon who was holding him punches another demon knocking him to the ground. Then he looks around and realizes that something is wrong. Cordelia is holding her own against the demons, and Spike is fighting as he usually does - with all that he’s got. He sees the Scoobies, sees the fight, what he doesn’t see is Holtz. Angel turns to face Spike.

“Where’s Holtz?” Angel demands and Spike meets his eyes realizing in that very moment just what Angel has realized.

Crying, no, waling, a baby. Connor. He hears it with his enhanced vampire ears and takes off towards the house abandoning the fight. Behind him Spike follows.

“Buffy,” Spike whispers as he pushes past the demons who are still storming the yard. He follows Angel past Xander and the witches and ignores them all as he moves into the house. It was all a trap, a distraction for Holtz to get to Connor and they fell right into his plan. He needed to separate the fighters from the weak, and he did. Now Connor and Dawn, and Buffy are alone and vulnerable in the house.

The lound bang of a gunshot is heard. Xander shoots at a demon that tries to follow Angel and Spike as they run into the house. Anya yells watching their two best fighters disappear into the house but they don't stop. The battle rages on and it does not slow.

Cordelia swings her sword successfully decapitating another demon, then she spins around and sees that she is alone among them. The crowed has thinned some, but those that are left are full of anger and adrenalin and now they're all gunning for her.

--

“We have to do something,” Willow says from the porch.

There isn’t enough time to do a barrier spell and what they need now is a big gun not a big wall. Willow stands and moves to the stairs. The demons are closing in on Cordelia and nearing the house. The red witch pushes her recent fear of the power of magic aside and begins to chant under her breath. Tara comes to stand behind her and Anya and Xander try to keep the nearing demons at bay. Her hands reach outward and her eyes gloss over. Electricity darts out of Willow’s fingertips and zaps two nearby demons. Others charge forward toward her and the blue bolts of energy flowing from her fingers branch out to reach more of them.

As the magic escapes however it opens the door to let something else in. A dark powerful energy pushes its way into her body and finds its way into her veins. Willow’s eyes cloud dark and her feet lift from the ground until she is floating a foot off the ground. The demons before her start to fall dead to the ground, but it’s obvious that the amount of power flowing through Willow’s body is doing something to her. Her eyes turn black and her roots grow dark. The bolts of electricity that strike down the demons begin to branch out and hit a tree across the road setting it on fire. Then the electricity hits the lamp post it the yard setting it aflame as well as sending shards of its glass case flying into the yard.

Tara and Xander look up to her in fear. While they know Willow would never try to hurt them they can tell the magic is what’s in control here, not Willow. They wonder for just a moment if her magic will destroy everything in sight, including them.

“Oh God,” Cordelia says as she watches Willow from the battlefield of the front yard. “Willow got scary.” Then she feels the warm tingling in her veins. Her skin begins to glow and her own body lifts off the ground. Her skin shimmers as an inner light radiates from her pores. It starts to flood from her and then in a flash the yard is encompassed in blinding white light. Just as hell has its dark power in the game, heaven has a blinding energy in the fight as well.

Willow can feel the power and the dark seeping in, and it feels good. She remembers the feeling having taken hold of her before, the way it flowed through her to allow her to enact her vengeance on Glory or to raise Buffy from the dead. It makes her feel unstoppable. And then just as the dark tries to suck her in completely there is light. The white encompasses her and fills her with such innocence, and compassion that Willow begins to weep. This power is the purest she’s ever felt and more powerful than the dark.

Slowly the light fades and as it does all the demons in the yard fall dead to the ground and Willow slowly floats down to lie on the porch with tears rolling down her cheeks. A silence falls over the yard as everyone stands with their weapons raised and realize that they’ve won.





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