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Chapter 22


Buffy woke up early the next morning with a sharp pain in her stomach. She
breathed heavily, trying to get the pain to pass. Gasping when it finally
ended, Buffy cried out as another spasm shot through her belly. This wasn’t
normal indigestion or a stomachache- something was wrong. Buffy tried not
to panic at the thought that she was in labor. She was still several weeks
from her due date, and if these were contractions, they were irregular. When
another seizing pain gripped her stomach, Buffy didn’t think as she grabbed
the phone and hit redial, not caring who she got as long as someone picked
up the phone.

“Hello?” said a sleepy voice through a yawn.

“Willow,” Buffy said in a gasp.

“Buffy, what is it? Is something wrong?” Willow asked, instantly awake.

“I think I’m having contractions,” as another pain came over her.

“Oh, Goddess, I’ll be right there!”

Buffy disconnected and crawled out of bed, doing her best to get dressed in
the few seconds she had between the pains. She was trying her hardest not
to get frightened at the speed that they were coming, but it was a lost
cause.

Buffy put on a fleece pull-over, not bothering to change out of her black
jogging pants. She ran a brush through her hair, gripping her dresser as a
wave of nausea hit her. A few seconds later, Buffy heard the key turn in
the lock as Willow came bolting in the house. Buffy was glad that she had
given her friend a spare since she didn’t think she would be capable of
making it down the stairs unassisted.

Glancing at the clock as Willow ran up the stairs, Buffy had to smile.
“How fast did you drive?”

“Only ninety,” Willow said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Are you okay?”

Buffy shook her head. “If these are contractions, they’re really irregular.”

“Okay, is your bag still downstairs?” At Buffy’s nod, Willow took her
friend’s arm and slowly guided her to the stairs. “Did you call Spike?”

Buffy took a deep and shook her head. “At this point, I don’t think I could
remember his number through the pain.”

“Okay, I’ll call him once I get you to the hospital.”

Willow breathed a sigh of relief a few minutes later as Buffy was safely
in her car. She ran around to the driver’s side and hurriedly started the
car.

“Wills?”

“Yeah, Buff?”

“Don’t go ninety, okay?”

“Is eighty okay?”

Buffy closed her eyes, tightening her seatbelt as she leaned her head back against the seat to begin
breathing through yet another contraction.

* * * * *

Once Buffy was changed and lying in a hospital bed, Willow slowly began to
relax as she went to find a phone. Quickly dialing the number, Willow
waited as it rang.

“Hello?”

“Spike, it’s Willow. Buffy’s in labor, and I…Spike?”

* * * * *

Spike dropped the phone, got dressed, and was out the door in less than a
minute, throwing his car into drive.

He arrived at the hospital less than five minutes later and ran up the
stairs to the maternity level. He saw Willow sitting in the waiting room,
nervously wringing her hands.

“Where is she?”

Willow stood up when she saw him. “They won’t let anyone in, just yet.”

“Why the bloody hell not?!”

“Spike, her contractions are really irregular. She’s weeks from her due
date, and the doctors are just trying to stabilize the labor.”

Spike felt fear rip through his chest as he dropped into a nearby chair.
“Did you call my dad?”

“Yeah, he said he’d call everyone.”

“Thanks, Red.”

“What are best friends for?”

* * * * *

Over an hour later, Willow, Xander, Anya, Oz, and Giles all sat in the
waiting room of the hospital while Spike nervously paced the floor. They
still wouldn’t let him in to see Buffy, and he was ready to throw his fist
through the window he kept walking past. Giles had closed the Magic Box
today, even though Saturdays were the busiest days of the week, in
anticipation of his grandchildren arriving.

“Are you Buffy Summers’ family?” a voice asked from the doorway.

Spike, despite being the furthest away, was the first to make it to the
door. “Yes! That’s us, how is she?”

“I’m Dr. Lindsey McDonald. Are you the father?”

Spike nodded as he waited anxiously.

“Buffy is having some very hard contractions, right on top of each other.
We’re currently giving her some medicine to take the edge off, and we’ve got
an IV drip trying to regulate them, but it hasn’t worked so far.”

“How is she?” Spike asked again.

“She’s having a tough time of it. The stress from the labor is causing her
to hyperventilate frequently, and she’s not very coherent at the moment.”

“So she doesn’t know the pain that she’s in?” Giles asked, standing behind
Spike.

“Unfortunately, no. The pain is the only thing she knows right now. She’s
not crying or yelling, presumably because she knows it would use up too much
oxygen for her to do that.”

“What about a C-Section?” asked Willow.

“If we can’t regulate the contractions or the babies start showing distress,
that will be our option. Right now, all three heart-rates are normal,
considering the stress she is under.”

“Can I see her?” Spike asked, a pleading look in his eyes.

“Actually,” Lindsey said. “Whenever she speaks, she’s asking for her
mother.”

The entire room froze.

“Dr. McDonald,” Giles spoke up. “Her mother died over a year ago.”

“Is that normal?” Xander asked worriedly.

“Buffy’s in a lot of pain,” Lindsey said. “When a person is hurting, their
natural instinct is to want their mother or a parental figure. So, yes,
it’s perfectly normal. In that case, it would be better for the father to
be in there with her.”

Spike nearly knocked the doctor over in his rush to get through the Labor
and Delivery unit. Running through the double doors, he quickly asked the
nurse at the station which room he needed. Slowing his pace as he got
closer to her room, Spike took a deep breath before walking in.

The large room was almost dark, only lit by a muted light in the corner of
the room. The TV was on, seemingly for a distraction to the woman in labor.
Spike looked at Buffy, laying on her side, her eyes squeezed shut, trying
to ward off the pain. Her legs were pulled as close to her body as she
could get them. While one hand wrapped protectively around her stomach, the
other twisted into the pillow, causing her knuckles to turn white as she
warded off another contraction.

Spike stared at her for a minute, a worried expression on his face, when he
heard the doctor’s voice behind him.

“You can go sit with her,” he said quietly. “She needs support right now.”

Spike slowly walked over and sat in the chair next to the bed. “It’s me,
baby,” he whispered softly to her.

“Spike?” she asked groggily, opening her eyes. They couldn’t seemed to
focus on him as she stared.

“Yeah, luv, I’m here,” he said softly as he took her hand in his.

He felt the tears spring to his eyes as Buffy moaned, tightening her grip on
his hand as another contraction overtook her.

He watched the doctor as Lindsey went to check a printout from one of the
machines that Buffy was hooked up to. “They’re starting to get more
regular,” he said softly, more to Spike than to Buffy. “She should have an
easier time of it for a while.”

“Doc, will the babies be okay?”

“They should be fine. A little small, but twins are normally born two weeks
early. Being a little earlier than average, we may just have to keep them
an extra night or two.”

Spike nodded, breathing a sigh of relief as Buffy tightened her grip on his
hand again. “It’ll be over soon, baby,” Spike said in a soothing tone as he
gently ran his fingers through her hair.


A/N Just two or three plugs here: I wanted to give a big thank you to destructo-girl for the awesome award she gave me for featuring Secrets of the Heart on her website. Make sure you take a look at her website www.destructo-girl.com and make sure you check out my website www.unseenshadows.4t.com/ashlee to see the award. Also, go look at the new layout of Steph’s website www.unseenshadows.4t.com since she is the one responsible for me having mine :-) And while I’m giving thank you’s and advertisements, yet another thank you to Allison for betaing this story!





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