Summary:The sequel to Gambit. Buffy's baby is on the way.
Rating:PG
Disclaimer: Joss, the WB and Fox own the characters.
Cordelia huddled in the darkest corner of the dining room- trying to make herself small so she wouldn't be noticed and sent away. She could hear the low murmur of the voices coming from the kitchen...she edged nearer the door.
"How Long?" Giles was asking, in a voice almost unrecognizable.
"Around midnight," Whistler replied.
The voices stilled; Cordelia crept up the stairs.
Joyce Summers opened the door to Buffy's room. "Cordelia," she said in relief. "I want to get Buffy some cracked ice...could you..."
"Of course!" Cordelia hurried forward. She hadn't seen Buffy since her long labor had begun; and for an instant she wasn't sure that the girl on the bed WAS Buffy. This girl had pain-dimmed eyes in a hollow pale face...then she tiuned her head and smiled- and Cordelia saw that it was indeed her friend.
"It's almost time," Buffy said quietly.
Cordelia didn't know what to say. She knew, as they all did, that Buffy was unlikely to survive the birth.
"It's okay," The Slayer reassured her. "I'm not afraid...I think it'll be a girl, you know? I'd love a little girl. Promise me..."
"Anything!" Cordelia said huskily.
"You'll teach her to accessorize?" Buffy flashed her old, impish grin. Then- her face contorted as the pain hit....
Joyce hurried in. "Call Giles," she instructed, taking her daughter's hand.
Cordelia flew down the stairs. "Giles! It's almost here...the baby..."
"It's early." The Watcher's face was ashen. "It's much too early..."
Whistler shook his head. "It doesn't matter, does it? It's the birth that counts...not whether the dhampire survives."
Cordelia stared at them. "What are you talking about?"
"Dhampires are usually stillborn, Cordelia," Giles explained. "Or else- they die shortly after birth. It's extremely rare for one to live."
"You mean...after all she's been through...Buffy won't get to keep her baby?" Cordelia demanded.
"It's the birth that counts," Whistler repeated. "Life and death- joined together to bring salvation. It will stop the plague. The fact that the dhampire dies is irrelevant."
"It isn't irrelevant to Buffy!" Cordelia raged. "She wants this baby! She'd...like to have a little girl."
"Impossible," Giles said reluctantly. "Dhampires are invariably male." He looked at his trembling hands- and shoved them into his pockets. "I must go to her."
"Are you sure?" Whistler was concerned. "I can manage...it will be hard on you..."
"Not as hard as for her." Giles' voice was bitter. "I brought her to this...and I won't abandon her now!"
He strode out of the kitchen, followed by Whistler.
"Wow." Oz slipped into the room. "I heard that...do you think Giles was talking about Spike, when he spoke of abandoning Buffy? Or..."
"Don't!" Cordelia couldn't bear to hear Oz finish that sentence with Xander's name.
Suddenly Oz tensed. "Visitors."
Cordelia had heard nothing; but Oz moved swiftly to the front door and flung it wide. Spike and Angel were standing there.
Cordelia's eyes widened...Spike was back? With Angel?
"Come in, " Oz invited.
"What's going on?" Spike demanded.
Oz shrugged. "What do you think? She's having the baby."
"I...need to go up there." Spike started for the stairs- but Oz stepped in front of him.
"Get out of my way!" the vampire hissed.
"Not until Giles okays it," Oz's voice was firm. "The last thing she needs right now is some major scene."
Spike wavered...Cordelia saw his eyes and stepped forward. "I'll go."
"You? I don't know," Oz demurred. "You'll just get in the way."
"You wouldn't have said that to Willow," Cordelia said flatly.
Oz flinched; and Angel spoke for the first time. "Where is Willow...and Xander? Up in Buffy's room?"
Cordelia looked at Angel. "Willow died in the plague. And Xander....Xander's gone away...we don't know where."
Almost- then- she thought he saw a flicker of pain in those dead eyes.
"And me...well, I'm going to Buffy. Right now." Cordelia stepped deliberately around Oz.
"Cordelia!" Angel's voice halted her. She looked at him curiously. "Why? I mean...you and Buffy were never...quite...best friends."
Cordelia gave him a long, level look. "Not quite," she admitted. "But...I figure she's the closest I'll ever come."
Joyce, her face grey with fatigue, was still holding her daughter's hand.
Cordelia touched Giles' arm. "Spike and Angel are here," she said softly.
Buffy's eyes fluttered open. "Spike? And...Angel..."
The last name was a gasp; her body contorted...there was a long shattering scream. Then Giles was turning away..."Angel!" he cried. "I'll get...Angel..." Cordelia could hear him shouting down the stairs.
Whistler handed Cordelia a small bundle wrapped in a white blanket. "Didn't make it," he said quietly, "but she was right. The dhampire...was a girl."
Cordelia's eyes filled with tears as she pulled back the blanket and looked at the perfectly-formed infant. The small face was nearly blue...instinctively, she cuddled the child closer.
Angel pushed past her- with no thought for anyone but the semi-conscious
girl on the bed.
"Buffy..." he breathed, gathering her up into his arms. "My love..."
"Hurry, Angel!" Giles urged, looming over his shoulder. "She's hemorrhaging!"
With infinite tenderness, Angel kissed Buffy's lips. Then- he bit her. He'd barely tasted her blood before he slit his wrist and thrust it into her mouth. Cordelia waited until she saw Buffy swallow; and then turned away. The plague was ended, she thought dully, but at what price?
It was then that she felt it...the faintest stirring in her arms...as delicate as the waft of a butterfly's wings.
Her heart in her throat, Cordelia stumbled down the hall to Joyce's room and placed the baby on the bed.
What to do? She covered the minuscule mouth and nose with her own mouth...and began to breath, all the time rubbing the little limbs to warm them. Just as she was about to give up, there was a tremor...then a feeble cry. The infant opened milky blue eyes...and looked at her.
"Yes!" Cordelia breathed in delight. "Come on...you can do it...come on!"
The dreadful blue color faded...the baby opened a rosebud mouth...and yelled lustily.
Cordelia laughed aloud.
"What's going on in here?" Spike stood in the doorway.
Cordelia smiled at him. "Why don't you come in...and meet your daughter?"
Wordlessly, Spike walked over to the bed and stared down at the child.
"She's fine," Cordelia said proudly.
But Spike was beyond hearing. Tentatively he reached down to a tiny hand...and the baby fastened her small fist around his finger and gripped it firmly. The yelling stopped.
"Why don't you hold her?" Cordelia suggested. "See...this way...support her head..."
She left him cuddling his daughter against his chest; while she went to look for Giles. She found him with Angel in the living room.
"Is Buffy..."
"Asleep." Giles smiled at her. "When she wakes, she'll be a vampire; but she'll keep her soul. Best of all, the plague is ended."
Cordelia grinned. "More good news...the baby is still alive...somebody better get some formula!"
Giles and Angel stared at her in shock; then, with a yelp, Giles hurled himself back up the stairs....
The afternoon wore on slowly- Cordelia made sandwiches in the kitchen, helped...or rather, hindered...by Whistler.
Giles wandered in. "She'll be waking soon," he stated. "It's nearly sundown."
Cordelia put down the lettuce. "Then...what will happen?"
"She'll have to leave," Whistler said. "So will Spike and Angel."
"Leave?" Cordelia couldn't believe her ears. "But...what about the baby?"
"It's because of the child," Giles explained. "Dhampires have an uncontrollable urge to destroy all vampires...any in the vicinity would soon cause great distress."
Whistler poured coffee. "A dhampire...will need a lot of training," he commented casually.
"Yes, of course." Giles straightened his shoulders, eyes alight with new purpose. Suddenly he glanced sharply at Whistler. "By the way...that ritual when you married Buffy and Spike...it was a rather archaic form of Latin you used, but one of the words...I thought...was 'cheese.'"
Whistler shrugged. "So...I used my grocery list. What difference does it make?"
"What difference?" Giles was outraged. "What about their marriage vows?"
"A vow is never what matters," Whistler told him. "What matters...is the intent beyond the vow. Nobody yet ever kept a vow if he didn't truly wish it in his heart."
Cordelia slipped up to Buffy's room. She was still asleep; but as Cordelia was about to steal out she stirred and opened her eyes. "Cordy?" she murmured.
"Want to see your little girl?" Cordelia asked, helping her to sit up.
"Oh yes!" Some of the sparkle came back into Buffy's eyes. "And Spike...and Angel." She paused, considering. "Maybe not together."
Both vampires were hovering in the hall.
"She wants her baby," Cordelia said gently. "And...you..."
"Me?" Spike demanded, pushing forward roughly.
"Both of you," Cordelia nodded to Spike. "Not together." But he was already opening the door to Buffy's room. She sighed- so much intensity could get a bit wearing.
When she returned with the baby, she knew at once that something had gone wrong. Buffy still sat up in bed; but Spike had his back turned to her and was staring out the window.
"You're...going to leave me?" Buffy asked in a low tone.
"You...have your soul now. And, Angel is here...I don't want to hold you to a vow you were forced to make..."
"Or...yourself?" Buffy demanded. "You're free now."
"Like you are, pet? Free...of the marriage you never wanted?"
"You mean you didn't want it." Buffy nodded, her fears confirmed. "You never wanted to be married to me."
"No," Spike admitted, "and if you- I mean, now you can be with Angel...forever."
"And leave you free." Buffy finished.
Spike carefully did not turn around. "Exactly," he agreed. "That way...everybody's happy."
Cordelia had heard enough. She stepped forward. "It doesn't seem to me that ANY body's very happy," she handed the child to Buffy. "You both look totally miserable."
"Stay out of this, Cordelia," Spike snapped.
"Why? You know that ritual of Whistler's bound you together- forever! No matter what."
"He was forced to marry me," Buffy protested. "He left me."
"He only went to find Angel to save you," Cordelia said in exasperation. "And- you should have heard him... the night Giles told us you would die in childbirth. He was yelling and screaming all over the house!"
"Cordelia! Shut up!" Spike swung away from the window.
"Well, it's true. He kept shouting that he didn't want the baby..."
"Did you, really?" Buffy whispered.
"What if I did?" Spike said defiantly. His expression changed as he looked at Buffy cradling his child. Hesitantly, he sat down beside his family, tenderly touching his lips to the small downy head.
"Don't hold it against me, love," he told the baby. "I was scared of losing your mother."
Buffy's eyes softened as she looked at them.
Cordelia smiled and slipped out...only to face Angel in the hall.
"There's no hope, is there?" he asked bleakly.
Cordelia's heart ached with pity for him. "She'll always care for you, Angel. You were her first love."
He nodded, as if her words confirmed his own thoughts. "Her first...but not the love of her life. Not...the father of her child."
He turned away...Cordelia followed him down the stairs.
"I'm returning to L.A. tonight," Angel told Whistler.
Whistler nodded, "You still have so much to do there."
"Angel!" Spike called from the steps. "Buffy wants to see you." Angel hesitated, then passed Spike on the way. He looked at the small bundle Spike carried so proudly; and managed a smile. "She looks exactly like Buffy."
Spike grinned. "Liar."
Cordelia finished packing Buffy's things- Oz loaded the back of Spike's car. "Where will you go?" he asked.
"New Orleans first..." Spike said. "Later...maybe New York. But- we'll be back, to keep an eye on things. When...our presence can be explained to our daughter."
Cordelia suddenly realized Whistler was beside her. "What did you want to ask me?" he smiled.
"If...that marriage ceremony didn't matter...why'd you do it?"
He shook his head reproachfully. "Of course it mattered! It was the words that didn't matter! But the intent...that 's what counts."
"Angel is so sad," Cordelia murmured.
"But he doesn't need her as much." Whistler said. "The forces of good and evil...well, they aren't immutable. They shift around pretty much, with people changing sides. Spike...he knows how to love. If what he loves is an agent for the good, then- our side gains a powerful ally. Through love... that's how he'll work out his salvation."
Cordelia was silent, contemplating this. "But Angel is all alone."
"He doesn't have to be," Whistler said thoughtfully. "Why don't you think about that, Cordelia?"
Buffy emerged from the house, carrying her baby. Reluctantly, she handed the infant to her mother. She saw Cordelia and hugged her hard. "Thanks for everything, Cordy," she whispered. "You've been...a best friend."
She hugged her mother, and Whistler, and Oz.
She smiled up at Angel. "Take care of yourself." She gave him a quick kiss.
Finally she turned to Giles. "You're the one who has to train her," she said. "Do a good job!"
"As if she were you," he promised. Then held her tightly. His eyes went to Spike. In that glance a question was asked- and answered. Satisfied, Giles released her.
Buffy kissed the child. "Oh sweetheart," her eyes filled with tears, "I hate to leave you."
Quickly Spike stepped to her side, slipping an arm around her waist. "We'll come back soon, love, " he promised.
"Don't worry, Buffy," Oz chimed in, "I'll be here for her."
Spike swung Buffy up into his arms and placed her tenderly into the front seat.
Suddenly, Oz yelled. "Wait...Buffy! I didn't hear when you told the others...but what's her name?"
Buffy smiled at him. "Giles kept insisting she'd be a boy, so I was planning to pick William." She smiled at Spike. "But when I knew she was a girl, well...there was only one name she could possibly have."
They fell silent then; nobody said another word as they watched the car drive away.
Then Oz reached for the blanket. "I'll take her inside." He stood there a moment, cuddling the baby...then, he said the words he thought he'd never speak again.
"I love you...Willow." He dropped a kiss on the tiny head.
Cordelia watched them go inside...Giles, Joyce, Whistler, Oz...and little Willow. She was about to follow, when she noticed Angel step out of the shadows and head down the dark road. Back to L.A., and his solitary life there.
She thought about Whistler's words...and began walking slowly in the same direction. Oz didn't need her, now that he had another Willow to care for. So did Giles and Joyce...while Buffy and Spike had each other.
Besides, there were all those great shoe stores in L.A.
Cordelia smiled ruefully...and walked a little faster.
"Angel!" She called, "Wait for me!" But he was too far away, moving too swiftly. She increased her speed.
"Angel!" she screamed with all her might.
Far down the road, he heard...turned, and waited.
She started to run.
The End