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Chapter 4: Revelations

“Buffy, are you okay?” Willow asks as she peaks her head into the bathroom to see the Slayer hunched over the toilet and attempting to hold her hair back.

“Yeah… I must have the flu or something,” Buffy replies and stands up. Willow steps up to her and places her hand on her forehead. She does feel a little warm.

“Come sit down, I’ll get you a glass of water.” Willow leads Buffy to the round table and the blonde leans on her arm as she sits down. Willow disappears to get Buffy a glass of water while Xander moves to her side and Tara looks at her inquisitively.

“You alright Buffster?” Xander asks.

“Just sick I guess,” Buffy replies and then her eyes meet Tara’s. She sees the witch look at her as if she could see straight through her. Tara realizes that Buffy has caught her glare and looks away for a moment sheepishly.

“Uh, Buffy,” Tara says, “h-have you felt different lately?”

“What?” Buffy asks sitting up straighter.

“I just… there’s something different about you,” Willow hears Tara say as she comes back with a glass of water for her friend.

“Different how?” Willow asks as she hands the glass to Buffy and watches her take a sip.

“I’m not sure, she just… there’s something different… your aura.”

“What, you don’t think some beasty put the voodoo over her?” Xander asks.

“Have you come across a turclov demon recently?” Anya asks from behind the counter. “They have a thing where they infect their victims with a virus that takes on the symptoms of the flu… if you don’t treat it though it starts to, well; turn your innards into mush.”

“Oh God,” Xander says.

“Sorry, no demons lately,” Buffy replies. “But I did feel kinda sick this morning too.”

“Oh! I could do a revealing spell, then if there was something it would, you know… reveal itself,” Willow says then immediately her eyes move to meet Tara’s.

She’d been doing so good staying away from the magic, even though she’s had numerous spells floating through her mind for how to fix things for Buffy. Up until now however she hasn’t actually suggested doing any of them, not even the small forgetting spell she’d been hoping would be able to make Buffy forget about her time in heaven. But, the revealing spell could help her. Willow just wonders if her lover will be mad at her for jumping to it as her first solution.

“Or, not… I mean, it’s probably just the flu,” Willow says.

“No, that might be a good idea,” Tara says.

“Really?”

“Well yeah, I mean a reveling spell is simple and if this is something bad we should find out.”

“Well, okay, umm… what do I do?” Buffy asks.

“Nothing, I just need some incense,” Willow says then walks over to the counter and grabs a bundle off the shelf.

“Hey, that’ll be eleven fifty,” Anya protests, but when she sees a glare from Xander she feels sheepish. “But I’ll put that on your tab of course.”

Willow moves back to stand before Buffy and lights the large bundle of incense moving its orange smoky embers around Buffy in a zigzagging pattern. The smoke makes the Slayer slightly nauseous, but she’s able to keep her cool as Willow begins to chant. She’s a little nervous wondering if there really is some big bad after her. After all she has had someone messing with her lately, what with the day of jobs that would never end and other small events that have seemed out of place. Although she figures it can’t be that bad of a big if the evilest thing it can do to her is give her the sniffles; after all the tricks that have been being played on her are rather lame on the evil scale.

“Three fold magic I bind to bring forth and let us find that which causes her aches and pains and show us now what source remains,” Willow chants and a light breeze flows through Buffy’s hair. At first nothing happens; then a sharp pain rushes through her. This pain, however, is different than before. Buffy clutches at her stomach and doubles over for a moment. Xander reaches out to her, but just as quickly as the pain came upon her it disappears.

“You okay?” Xander asks as she stands up straight.

“Yeah, fine now.”

“Did it work?”

“I’m not sure,” Willow says. “Anyone see anything different?”

“If we don’t see anything does that mean it’s just the flu?” Xander asks, and Buffy sighs a little relieved; then she realizes that it’s not over. A painful cramp rips through Buffy’s belly and she sits down practically falling into her chair. She grips the table as she feels her stomach expand just ever so. The Scoobies look on fearful for their friend and then they all watch as her stomach grows before their eyes.

“Oh God,” Xander says. “It’s a stomach bloating demon disease.”

“Xander, I don’t think that’s it,” Tara says. “Buffy, I… I think… I think you’re p-pregnant.” The Slayer’s eyes go wide. She glares at Tara then looks down to her belly and despite the impossibility of it something tells her that it’s true. Her hands wrap around her now swollen belly and a look of panic overcomes her features. Her mind is finding it hard to process everything at the moment.

“What? But Buffy’s not...” Xander babbles, “I mean she… she doesn’t even…” Sickness returns to Buffy flipping her stomach and bringing her thoughts to Spike. She glances at her friends, a look of shock and confusion colors each of their faces. The disappointment, she can’t face them.

The Slayer bursts out of her chair and storms out the front door. The bell rings violently for a moment as the door swings on its hinges then falls silent.

“So you think she’s really… you know?” Willow asks.

“By her reaction I’d have to say that’s a big ol yes,” Xander says and Willow sits down.

“Well good, I would imagine getting some orgasms would put her in a better mood.”

“Ayn.”

“What? I’m just saying, Buffy’s been feeling down with the whole yanked out of heaven thing and sex makes you feel better.”

Anya’s comments are ignored.

“Who do you think the… you know, father is?” Willow asks.

“D-does Buffy, I mean, do you think she’s seeing someone?” Tara asks.

“If she is she hasn’t said anything to me,” Willow says sad that her friend has been hiding things from her, “Maybe it was just a… a…”

“One night stand?” Anya suggests flippantly.

“God, I don’t want to think about this,” Xander says and sits down beside Willow suddenly feeling sick himself.

“Well maybe it’s a good thing, maybe she does have a boyfriend and she’s you know, getting back to being Buffy,” Willow says hopefully.

“Then why hasn’t she introduced him to any of us?” Xander asks and Willow frowns.

“I-I’m sure Buffy will tell us when she’s ready,” Tara says.

--

The door to Spike’s crypt is kicked open with such force that it smashes against the wall chipping the cement and sending bits of gravel raining onto the ground. A candelabra is knocked over, unlit candles roll across the floor as Buffy steps into the shadows of the tomb leaving a stream of sunlight behind her. Spike stands up from his position in his stolen recliner and turns to face her as she storms across the room.

“Wasn’t expecting you here so early,” Spike says just as Buffy reaches him and slams him hard against the wall, her fingers coiled around his neck. Not exactly the welcome he’d been used to receiving over the past month, not that there hadn’t been a lot of slamming against walls involved.

“What did you do to me!” she yells then retracts her hand from around his neck and steps back. He looks on at her with perplexity sewn into his creased brow.

“What the bloody hell are you on about?”

“This,” Buffy says as she lifts up her shirt and allows Spike to see her slightly swollen belly more clearly. It’s not a large bump, small enough that Buffy could conceal it by a shirt that lifts away from her body like a tee that’s just a little too big or a sweatshirt, but large enough that Spike can understand her concern. “I’m… I’m pregnant,” Buffy all but whispers.

“Well it’s not bloody mine!” Spike shouts, the muscles in his jaw clenching tight, “Vampire remember.”

“You are the only person I’ve been with,” Buffy says firmly and Spike’s face turns to complete shock, not for the fact that he was the only person she’d been with. After all part of Spike knows that if she had someone else to be with, someone acceptable to bring around her friends that she wouldn’t be with him, but the realization that this… child is his, is theirs, shocks him more than anything he’s seen in over a hundred years of existence. He’s still trying to wrap his head around the idea when she speaks again.

“You really didn’t do anything?” Buffy says more calmly now and once again the vampire’s brow furrows.

“Why wou… you are off your gourd you know that Summers.” Buffy rolls her eyes and turns from Spike, frustrated she begins to storm off but he grabs her arm and whips her back around to him. “Where are you going?”

“To get this… thing out of me,” She spits out with vengeance and tries to pull away from Spike, but he holds on to her tighter. For whatever reason Spike finds his body filling with fear and worry, something about her words chills him to the core. She’s pregnant, pregnant with his child, and as he looks into her eyes he can tell that despite how impossible that should be he knows it’s true, he knows he wants it to be true.

“Wait,” Spike says softly.

“Spike, I am not keeping this thing inside me, you’re a demon, who knows what’s…”

“It has a heartbeat,” Spike says effectively silencing Buffy. Her mouth drops open for a moment and her hand instinctively moves to her belly. “I can hear it.” Buffy is completely speechless, Spike moves his hand from his grip around her arm to rest on her belly and she lets him. The feel of his cool digits palming her stomach sends shivers through her. “I can feel it.” Everything she thought she knew upon coming to see Spike is turned upside down. It has a heartbeat, it’s alive, it’s human not a vampire...

“It has a soul?” Buffy asks mostly to herself, but even as she says the words she knows they’re true. Suddenly the thing within her is no longer a thing, but a baby, her baby. It hits her like a ton of bricks knocking the wind out of her, a baby.





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