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“Chapter 33: Between Mind and Heart”

Buffy bolted upright in bed, the slicing pain that she was feeling in her lower stomach having woken her up from her sleep. She pushed the covers off of her and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

“Mom,” she hoarsely cried out. The pain sliced through her lower abdomen again, this time sending her to her knees on the floor.

Buffy’s mouth fell open as she began to desperately gulp for air. The pain was making her head dizzy and her body weak. She managed to get up on her feet, slightly hunched over, and walk her way to the bedroom door. The door felt like it was made out of two tons of metal as she pulled it open and stepped out into the hallway. She glanced down the hall towards her mother’s room and a sense of vertigo instantly came over her.

“Mom!” Was the last thing she managed to scream before falling to the floor and passing out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike howled in pain when the stake pierced his chest mere inches from his heart. He couldn’t believe Angel had done it. Albeit, he thought the bastard was going to dust him not injure him.

Angel jerked up at the sound of the familiar scream traveling through the trees. He glanced down at Spike and realized because of that scream he had missed staking Spike in the heart. It startled him when he heard it the first time, causing his aim to be off and for him to miss his target. He heard the scream again and tore his eyes away from Spike to search the trees.

“You arse!” Spike spat out, rolling onto his side. “You tried to kill me!”

“Do you hear her?” Angel asked, ignoring the complaints of his grandchilde. “She’s getting closer.”

“What the bloody hell are you yammering about? I’ve got a bleeding stake in my chest, which you put there, and you’re …” Spike ground his teeth together as another wave of pain shot through his chest.

“She’s out there.”

Spike got to his knees, one hand placed gently over the stake in his chest to keep it from moving around to much. The thing was so close to his heart he was sure that if he moved too much the damn thing would kill him. He rose to his feet and started walking around the tombstones littering the ground. More pain sliced through him when he was jolted to a stop by Angel gripping his arm.

“This doesn’t feel right,” Angel told him, grabbing his arm just a little bit tighter. “We need to get out of here.”

“That’s what I was bloody tryin to do until you stopped me.”

“I know where you need to go,” Angel told him, looking down at the stake in his chest then out towards the darkness of the trees where he knew his childe was.

“I don’t need your help,” Spike argued weakly. “Why not just throw me onto the ground and finish the job you failed to…”

Angel caught Spike in his arms just as the bleached vampire passed out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Giles flipped on his hall light and cursed under his breath at the person who was banging on his door this late at night. This was the first night he was actually getting some well deserved rest and he could just kill the human being who dared to disturb him.

He swung the door open and came face to face with Angel who was barely managing to hang onto Spike, who was hunched over from the middle.

“What are you doing here?” Giles asked trying to get a closer look at Spike.

“Spike needs to be invited in,” Angel said, choosing to ignore the watchers question until they were safe inside.

“It’s three o’clock in the morning Angel. Do you really think…”

“Invite him in now,” Angel repeated, this time with a noticeable growl to indicate the urgency of the situation.

“Bloody hell,” Giles moaned with a roll of his eyes before stepping out of the way and inviting Spike in.

Angel carried Spike over to the couch in the living room and set him down upon it. He made sure that his movements were extremely slow so as not to disturb the wooden stake. Once he was sure Spike would be alright for the time being he turned to address Giles who was still standing by the closed door completely baffled by the site of them showing up at his house.

“Spike needs your help.”

Giles blinked at the abrupt remark from Angel that had no explanation behind it as to why they needed his help. He lowered his head and moved around Angel towards his kitchen. He opened up his fridge and pulled out the cream he needed for the cup of tea he was about to make. He was sure this was going to be a long night and a jolt of caffeine would help to keep his mind focused.

“Giles,” he heard Angel say as he came into the kitchen. “You’re the only one I could think to come to.”

“What are you doing here Angel?” Giles asked again, turning to face him. “I do plan on helping you, but first I would like to know exactly why you need my help.”

Angel sighed heavily. “Spike has a stake in his chest that he needs taken out. I don’t know how close it is to his heart or if it will kill him or not, but it needs to be removed. He’s in a lot of pain”

“I see,” Giles spoke calmly, pouring the freshly brewed tea into his cup and adding a bit of cream to it. “How did this stake get into his chest by chance?”

“As much as I would love to play 21 questions with you right now Giles, there is not time,” Angel lamented. “He might be bleeding internally.”

Giles balked at this. “Bleed to death? How is that possible? He’s not even human.”

“He’s becoming human or at least I think he is,” Angel told him. “You know about his heart beating, right? Well, now he’s breathing.”

“Good heavens.” Giles set down his cup and stalked into the den where Spike still was. “We have to take him to a hospital.”

“We can’t. It would be too risky.”

“And it would be just as risky to have me operate on him if he is human. I’m not skilled in that kind of thing.”

“You’ve done this before; I’ve seen you do it.”

“Angel,” Giles said with a sigh, dumping the rest of his tea into the sink and pulling a glass out from his cupboard. “There is nothing I can do aside from driving you both to the nearest hospital.”

Angel watched as Giles poured straight scotch into the glass he had in his hand and took one hard sip of the stuff. He looked over hi shoulder towards Spike and sighed deeply.

“I’ll do it,” He finally mumbled under his breath after a long moment of silence had hung in the air. “Show me what to do and I’ll do it.”

“Angel,” Giles began to protest. “You can’t….”

Angel grabbed the front of Giles shirt firmly in his hand, stopping the Watcher midway through his sentence. “If we don’t save him, Buffy may die as well! Do you want that to happen?”

“Of course not.”

“Now will you help me?”

“Yes.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Buffy!” Joyce yelled when she saw her daughter lying on the carpet. “Buffy are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Buffy heard her mother’s cries as she slowly regained her senses and remembered where she was. Her head hurt badly but the pain that had nearly killed her earlier was gone. She lifted her head to find her mother hovering over her.

“I’m okay mom.”

“I heard you screaming. Are you sure you’re okay?” Joyce asked once again, helping her daughter to her feet.

“My stomach was hurting, but now I’m fine,” Buffy reassured her. “Might have been something I ate.”

“Are you sure you’re okay. You sounded like you were near death and then I found you on the floor.”

“Mom,” Buffy cut her off. “I’m fine.”

“I guess it could have been something you ate,” Joyce agreed warily. “When you’re pregnant you do get some weird cravings that you come to regret.”

Buffy rested her hand against her stomach, listening to her mom go on and on about the different stages of pregnancy and some of the cravings she had during hers. She had convinced her mother that the pain had probably been from food, but she had failed to convince herself. Something else had caused that sharp pain and she was sure it had to do with her situation. Maybe Giles would know what it was and how to stop it from happening again. Tomorrow she would make a stop by his house so she could talk with him privately.

“Wow, all this talk about food has gotten me hungry,” Buffy interrupted her mom for the second time that night. “Want to go downstairs and raid the kitchen?”

Joyce glanced down at the hand resting against her daughter’s stomach then back up into her eyes. Those eyes that she used to be able to read so well but now appeared so distant. “Yeah, let’s go do that.”

Joyce wrapped her arm around her daughter as they both made their way down the steps to enjoy a late night of snacking.

~~~~~~~~~~

Johnny looked in on Dru before closing the door to her room and walking into his. She had almost been seen tonight by Angel and Spike out in the cemetery. Why she had ran out of the house earlier would be a question he would have to save until morning, but he did know that he had to keep a closer eye on her then he had previously thought. As much as she was helpful to him, her skills could also be a danger to his mission. If his minions hadn’t of caught up with her when they did he was sure she would have reached Angel in no time and ruined everything. He was also very sure that Spike must have heard Dru screaming into the night.

“Why would he leave though?” Johnny wondered aloud. “He was so hell bent on locating her in Vegas, why would he not run to her when he heard her coming to him?”

“Yo, Johnny.”

“Where did they go?” Johnny asked the minion that had just interrupted him.

“Followed them to some lofty apartment place here on the other side of town. The boys couldn’t see inside to well and didn’t stick around long enough to try. Daylight was breaking through the clouds.”

Johnny shook his head. “Alright, did they catch who might live at the place? Was the Slayer with them?”

“Nope, the third figure we saw looked kinda tall. Safe to say they probably went to see a man.”

“What about Dru? Has she said anything about Spike?”

“Nah, keeps mumbling on about some baby.”

“A baby?”

The minion nodded his head. “Something about a baby being the beginning of the end. Real nut job we have in there boss. I don’t know how she made it….”

“A baby?” Johnny repeated to himself, cutting off his minion. “I wonder if the Slayer has something to do with this.”





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