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NA GRACH CROI


Chapter 25: ‘Rabhadh!’ (Warning)



Buffy listened from the living room and watched her husband, William O’Hara, strode about the front porch of their home. He was talking with Father Giles, or rather, he was grumbling at the ‘gentle’ priest.

“My Buffy,” Will hissed at the priest, “she’s due to have our first child, soon. I cannot just send her off and leave her with strangers, Father.”

The blond woman cringed, worried at what her Will was saying, truthfully. It appeared that the Finn-Raynes were going to make good on their promise to ‘capture’ the O’Hara farm.

‘Parker,’ Buffy thought to herself, ruefully, ‘he was not lying then. Old Ethan Rayne and his foolish sons are going to try and take this farm from ‘my’ family.’

“They’re coming at you, like you’re a criminal boyo,” Father Giles admitted, his blue eyes nervously darting towards the front door of the house. “You’ve said it yourself, you did throw in with the Fenn. Or, the Irish Republic Army, as they’re now going by. I do not fault you son,” Giles shook his head quickly, “just want to warn you. Old Rayne? He’ll have your place by any means necessary and if it is necessary? He’ll take it by force, or by crookery, lad.”

“I will fight them,” Spike growled, also glancing at his front door, anxiously. “With every fiber in my body, I’ll make sure that those bastards do not have O’Hara land.”

“Of course you will,” Father Giles nodded, “I’d expect nothing less from you. However,” he scrunched his brows together, “about your wife? Your coming child and your sister? What about them, William?”

Spike sighed in frustrated defeat. “I guess I will have to send them to safety,” he flopped upon one of the chairs on the front porch. “To you, to the safety of your parrish house, then, Father,” he asked, hopefully.

“No son,” the priest shook his head and sat next to the young man. “I intend on ‘helping’ you and young Harris protect this land from those bastards, the Raynes.”

A slight smirk began on Spike’s mouth and he thumped the imposing priest on his back, gently. “You are a good man, Father Giles,” Spike whispered, reverently. “A good friend and neighbor.”

“Speaking of neighbors,” Giles continued, thoughtfully, “there are some, in Balleycastle, that wish to be here when the Raynes arrive. To take you, that is. I can count at least a dozen men, for certain, that will stand with you and Harris. And your brother,” Father Giles mumbled lowly.

“My brother?” Spike gasped and sat up from the chair, his blue eyes wide with shock.

“Aye,” the priest nodded his fair head, “young Angel. I’ve been in contact with him. For months now. I had to send word to him, William,” the holy man continued. “He needed to know that your family’s place was in danger from the Raynes.”

Spike sighed and leaned back into the chair, his thoughts were solely on his wife and baby now. It was true, the oldest O’Hara was worried, scared even, by this turn of events. The Finn-Raynes were powerful foes, always had been. They could, and would use violence to take the farm for themselves. After all, the fools had tried every other method in the book to gain the land that had belonged to O’Haras for over a hundred years. When those terms did not work? Then violence would be the final resort.

“They mean to come after me, then?” Spike asked the priest again. “To use my known connections with Sinn Fenn to ‘take’ me? To where Father? An English prison?”

Father Giles shrugged, his expression was a worried one. The priest had loved William’s parents, as he did William himself and his lovely wife. Even Angel and Tara O’Hara? He was their priest, their religious leader and he loved them like the children he would never have.

“I’m guessing Will,” Father Giles sighed heavily. “I know you. Know your determination and pride, boy. You won’t go without a fight and all of us that love you? We won’t let them take you. Never.”

“Angel?” Spike asked quietly, almost afraid of the priest’s response.

“He’s been down in Newcastle, for some time now. Since the awful events of Spring. He wrote me first and I replied. It was my duty, William,” Giles nodded solemnly, “to one of my flock. Your brother has done some soul searching, all these months. I wrote him, the last time. Told him of the upcoming trouble here and he wants to help you, William. He is an O’Hara, your own flesh and blood. Time to put this anger behind you both and stand together.”

“Yes,” Spike murmered softly, “it is time to put it behind us. If my wife can forgive my brother for his deceit? Then so can I. I want Angel here, Father,” the blond man’s voice was shaky with emotion. “My brother belongs here, with his family who loves him. Whether we square off with the Finn-Raynes or not? I want Angel home.”

“Now, there’s William O’Hara, the man,” Father Giles grinned happily at his favorite ‘son’. “I’m sure Buffy will agree. She’s a fine woman, Will, a Godsend to you. But, then, you know that, don’t you?”

“Aye, I do,” Spike smiled warmly at thought of his little wife.

“Good,” Buffy said firmly as she came out of the front door. “Because I am in agreement. Angel needs to come home, to his family and be here to help you Will. As for me? I intend on staying put, right here on our farm and right beside my husband.”

“Buffy, Princess,” Will began quickly, “you cannot stay here. Not until this trouble with the Raynes is over. I won’t…”

“Won’t what?” Buffy asked stubbornly, plopping her swollen body down onto her husband’s strong lap. “Won’t let me stay here? With you? You’ve no choice. I’m staying. And I wager that if you ask your sister, Tara? She’ll have the same answer for you.”

Father Giles scowled, briefly, then grinned at the blond woman. “As I said William,” the priest chuckled, “a fine woman. Your little Buffy.”

“You’ll go to Balleycastle, Buffy O’Hara,” Spike growled lowly in his chest. “You and Tara both. You’ll be off in the morning to town and stay with the Chases or the Cohans. I won’t have you or my child put in danger by a bunch of trash like the Finn-Raynes.”

“Oh, you won’t will you?” Buffy squealed loudly, causing both Will and the Father to jump slightly. “I’ll decide whether I stay or go, Mr. O’Hara. This farm, this land,” Buffy swung her slim arm and hand out to sweep the landscape. “It’s O’Hara land. Yours, your parents, your brother and sister’s and now, mine and our child’s land. No worthless band of trash is going to just walk in here and take it from any of us. Right Father?”

“Too right, Buffy O’Hara,” Father Giles smiled affectionately at the tiny, blond dynamo.

Xander Harris took that moment to join the trio on the front porch of the house. He looked ‘troubled’ to say the least.

“Morning Father, Buffy,” Xander nodded respectfully at the priest and Mrs. O’Hara. “Spike,” the dark haired man looked at his employer, somberly, “I’ve just come from the Fitzgerald’s place. I’ve some bad news.”

“Go on,” Spike sat up in the chair and clutched Buffy tighter to his body. He did not like the sound of his friend’s voice, but then again, there had been no good news that morning anyway. Except maybe that Angel would be coming home.

“Old Sean Fitzgerald, the old man, not the son. He was in Coleraine, a few days this past week. Came home, early this morning with some disturbing news.”

“Say it, Xander,” Spike ordered through gritted teeth, although he had an inkling just what ‘it’ was about.

Xander glanced at Buffy and the priest, respectively, then nodded his big head, slowly.

“Old Sean, he was in a pub with some friends, in Coleraine early last evening. That low life Ethan Finn-Rayne? He showed up with his oldest and youngest boys, Riley and Mikel. Along with that worthless hand of his, Graham. They began talking big, Spike,” Xander said lowly. “About how they were going to come here, to your farm and take you to the Sheriff in Coleraine. How you have so much to answer for, you know,” Xander hesitated, “when you were with the Sinn Fenn in England?”

“I suppose they know that our own Sheriff in Balleycastle would never go for this. That’s why the old fool was in Coleraine, talking big and making threats. Old Sean Fitzgerald, he says no one in the place paid much heed to it. But thought you’d better hear of it. Be prepared and all.”

Buffy felt William flinch and she now began to get very frightened indeed. She wrapped her arms tighter, about her husband and gazed at him, anxiously.

“Don’t worry, baby,” Will whispered and nuzzled her cheek with his lips. “They cannot take me anywhere. It’s old man Rayne, just being a arse, as usual. The bastard knows he has no cause to take me, or have me arrested. He’s talking big, sweet. Nothing more.”

“The old fool is setting out a warning, William,” Father Giles interjected. “He’s placing a challenge, knowing that old Sean would surely tell you first thing he could. Probably wants you to either run, or at least send Buffy and Tara off somewhere to haven. At least the idiot has some dignity left in him.”

Everyone stared at the priest, who shrugged amicably. “Never could stand that fool, Ethan,” he explained with a sad smile. “Reminds me of someone, from my youth.”

Father Giles glanced at Buffy and a knowing look passed between them. She realized that the good priest was remembering the Englishman that had gotten his beloved little sister pregnant. It was this man, Father Giles had confided to Buffy, that he had killed with his bare hands.

“By the end of the week,” Xander broke into the quiet again, “Ethan said they’d be here, Spike. Maybe even on the Sabbath, the old devil himself would not do such a thing on the Lord’s day. But Ethan Finn-Rayne and his idiot sons would. That’s for certain.”

Spike gently removed his wife from his lap, but held her all the same. He stood up and took Buffy’s hand in his, then looked out over ‘his’ land. His father’s land and grandfather’s land. An O’Hara had owned this whole vast area for close to two hundred years. Spike was not going to just let it go, just like that. He could not.

“Buffy,” Spike began cautiously, his voice was low, soft and tender. “I cannot have you stay here, with me now. Not you or Tara. You must go to Balleycastle, to the Chase’s or Cohan’s. Both of you.”

“Chase,” Father Giles interrupted quickly, “he’s standing with ‘us’ in this William.”

“I will not leave you, Will,” Buffy shook her head stubbornly. She threw her arms about her husband’s strong body and hugged him tightly to her.

“You will,” Spike countered sadly. “I don’t want you to go Buffy. I want you here, with me, always. But you, our child, you won’t be safe here now. I love you too much to put you in this danger, sweet, you will go, to the Cohans place. Tara and you will go, no later then the day after next. It has to be Princess.” He felt tiny, hot tears begin to slip from his eyes as he held his Buffy close to him.

Buffy began to cry, softly, embarrassed by her fresh tears. It was breaking Will’s heart to send her away, even if it was to haven. She felt her own heart breaking, with pain, with fear.

“They cannot take you, Will,” she whispered desperately into her husbands chest. Which was now wet with her tears.

“They won’t,” Spike replied, his tone was determined and deadly.


A/N: Actually, this fiction is getting a bit too long and I apologize for that. I meant to have it wrapped up by this chapter and well…

There will definitely be a few more chapters and yes, Angel is going to be back, very soon. And, yes, Cordelia and Angel will meet again.

Thank you for reading and reviewing. Luv, Spuf





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