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Chapter 17

On the way to her mother's Buffy dialed Giles and told him he needed to get to her mothers right that second and to not let Tara in under any circumstances. He was surprisingly agreeable and very much concerned.

Clicking her phone shut, she glanced down at Spike and felt tears start to prick the corners of her eyes. She refused to give into them though. She needed to be stoic. Keep a stiff upper lip and not let what she saw and what was happening get to her. If she did, she'd be incapable of fighting.

"Do you think she'll go after Giles?" Joyce asked, worried.

"I don't think she will, but who knows. I mean, she knows the relationship
we ha—you know what it probably doesn't matter because she did just go
after my husband."

"What exactly happened in there Buffy? Is he hurt?"

"I don't know mom. He doesn't appear to be. Not physically anyway. She
had him under a spell."

"What kind of spell? What were they doing?"

"Mom!" Buffy shouted, exasperated. "I don't want to talk about it right
now okay? I need to think."

The silence, however, was deafening.

"Okay, so I'm going to talk now. Brainstorm, all right?"

Joyce nodded.

"I'm sorry mom, I didn't mean to yell at you. I'm just—I feel like I'm going
to crawl out of my skin right now."

"It's okay honey. You just need to take it easy. It's not good for the baby."

"Yeah, I know," Buffy murmured. It was at that moment that she felt the
movement in her womb. Her eyes widened and she snapped to attention.
"Mom," Buffy said urgently, her mouth half closed.

"Did you say something honey?"

"Ssshhh… mom."

"Which is it Buffy? Do you want me to talk or be quiet?" Joyce was getting
testy now.

"The baby just kicked," Buffy whispered.

Joyce's eyes widened and a sappy smile spread across her face. "She did?"

Buffy nodded. "She—or he—did." She placed her hand over her stomach
and felt it again, this time against her hand. She burst into tears. "My baby
kicked and it's Daddy is under some kind of spell and that bitch Tara tried
to have sex with my husband," Buffy wailed through her tears.

"She tried to WHAT?!?" Joyce exclaimed.

"Spike is right. I do run away because all I want to do right now is go back
to London when everything seemed so simple and easy!" "Honey, it wasn't
all that simple and easy."

"Yes it was," Buffy argued, wiping her tears away.

"I remember how much you missed him. You wouldn't be able to do that
again, no matter how much you want to. And especially not now. You have
a baby on the way and a husband to fight for. This is your family Buffy and
you have to stay and protect it."

"I know. I'm just so scared. I don't know what to do."

"You're doing it Buffy. You might not realize it, but you're doing it by
staying by Spike and not giving up. No matter how much you want to, you
haven't. I'm so proud of you honey."

"Thank you mommy," Buffy whimpered and wiped a few more tears away.
She sat back and took one of Spike's lifeless hands and placed it on her
stomach, willing the baby to kick again. He might not be conscious to feel it,
but she still wanted to have him part of the moment.



Giles met them at Joyce's and helped carry Spike in. He set the vampire
down in Buffy's old room turned guest room and met Buffy in the kitchen
where she sipped hot chocolate and was working through a bowl of ice
cream. Sure sign that Buffy was stressed. When Giles entered, she looked
up at him and gestured for him to sit. Joyce placed a mug of tea in front of
Giles and sat down beside him.

"What happened Buffy? What's going on? Are you all right?" Giles asked,
concern etched all over his face. He took off his glasses and started cleaning
them.

"I'm all right Giles. Thanks for the concern." She couldn't help the
bitterness in her voice.

"Of course I'm concerned, there's no reason for your sarcasm."

"Yeah. Right. Maybe you didn't realize it, but you've been under the spell
of Tara too."

His brow furrowed. "Spell? Tara put a spell on us?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna take it from the top. Tell you what I've
observed, what I've learned and what happened tonight. Can you just not
say anything until I'm done?"

Giles nodded.

Buffy launched into her story from when Spike came home telling her
about Tara and how they'd been having problems when it came to the girl.
She explained her take on the night she met Tara, to the conversation she
had with Willow and what happened when she visited Spike in class. She
went on to tell him about her visit to Salem that day and what happened
when she arrived home.

Giles, she observed, grew paler with each word and was gripping the edge
of the table so tight, his knuckles were turning white. That wasn't when he
was cleaning his glasses every five seconds.

"So you believe that the scent that you keep smelling is a spell that Tara is
using so we all fall in line with her and turn against you," Giles said when
she was done.

"Yes. Willow said she found it hard to say no to her, she also she changed
when she became called. She went from loving girlfriend to Willow and
loving daughter to her parents, to basically denying her relationship with
Willow and not bothering to call her parents anymore. Giles, that smell wasn't there this afternoon. The things I saw in her room, the stories her
mother told me – there's nothing that points to ill will from Tara."

"It could be a ruse Buffy. It's like the family whose parents beat a child.
From the outside, they look normal, but inside is discord and dysfunction,"
Joyce offered.

"No. I feel it. I don't think that it's Tara herself. I think she's possessed by
something. Even in a dysfunctional family, you can get a sense that
something is off. I've felt it from day one with Tara. Something about her is
not right. And tonight, before she left she was ranting about how Spike was
meant to be hers. How I got in the way and he was meant for her and not
me."

"A woman obsessed and believing that the man she's ‘in love' with would
say such things—believe such things," Giles pointed out.

"True, but Giles, she had to use a glamour spell to get him to touch her."
Buffy closed her eyes as the image of it popped in her head. She shook it off.

"She knows we're mated and I almost think she wanted me to find them.
She wants all of you against me. If she were just after Spike because she
had some kind of sick obsession with him, she wouldn't care about you. But
she's weaved the spell over Willow, you and Spike. She sought us out. She
used Willow to get to us. All to turn against me."

"Don't you think she'd want to get us on her side so we'd be accepting of
Spike turning his back on you and the baby?" Giles asked.

"I can't explain how I know that there is something else than just wanting
Spike in this mess . . . but I just know it. There's a larger reason and I don't
know what it is or even how to start to figure it out."

The three sat in silence for a long while, pondering. A knock at the door
broke them out of their reverie. Buffy shot up. "I'll get it."

"Buffy, what if it's her?" Joyce asked, putting a hand on Buffy's arm to stop
her daughter.

"It's not. I would have smelled her." Stalking towards the door, she opened
it cautiously, ready to defend herself should she need to. What she saw
however caused her whole body to sag with relief and joy. What she saw
also made her tears start to flow yet again. She saw light at the end of the
tunnel, saw salvation.

"Hey kid."

"Whistler," she breathed and flung herself in the demons arms.



Thank you all so much for the reviews you've left...It's so great to see that you guys are excited about what's happening. I can't even tell you how fast my hands were flying across the keyboard b/c I've been so excited to share it with you! Thank you :)





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