~Chapter Seven~
AN: I so suck at the smutty stuff *faints*
Buffy opened her eyes and found herself snuggled close to the father of her child. She smiled at the thought of that. She had wanted normal and thought that had meant dating someone like Riley. But, somehow the normalness of her current position struck her as funny. Circumstances aside. She was in bed in her first apartment, pregnant with a precious baby girl, and cuddled lovingly by the father of said child. It was the thing any normal girl would dream of for herself.
She sighed inwardly. Love. She wasn't completely sure what he felt for her. What Riley had said had struck a cord in her, though. It might have been the demon taunting her obviously, but still. She didn't want her daughter raised by parents that hated each other, only staying together for the child. She knew personally the hell that put the kid through and like most parents, wanted better for her daughter. Well, she wasn't too worried if Spike cared for her, everything he had done since saving her from Dracula had spoke to how much he cared for her. And, what she had told Riley was true. She was coming to care for Spike as well. Whether it was the Sire-Childe bond, appreciation for what he did for her, or anything else like that, it didn't matter to her. She had made the decision that she would try to love him.
She felt him shift and his fingers fluttered over her stomach. Her eyes went up to his face and met his azure ones, watching her so intently even now heavy-lidded with sleep.
"You okay, luv?" he asked softly, concern colouring his face slightly.
"Yeah," she nodded and covered his hand with her own. "Just thinking how nice this is."
"Very," he agreed and feathered kisses across her brow. "Bloke could get used t' this."
"You should. I don't plan on going anywhere." She smiled, "Though you probably shouldn't get used to the pregnant thing, I guess."
He lowered his head to kiss her belly reverently and then rested his head against her breast. "I know. I appreciate what a rare an' precious gift you're givin' me, pet. Somethin' I didn' think I'd have or even wanted until I found you."
She rolled her eyes as she stroked his hair. "The powers are the ones that gave us the baby."
"No, slayer, they only made it possible." He lifted his eyes to her. "We made the baby, it's made of us an' a product of our lovemakin'. It's goin' t' have your beauty an' my wit. It's ours an' you are the one that's goin' t' give her life so that we both can raise her up right with love." He cursed his inner William, but at the same time thanked him for the ability to put how he felt into words.
Her eyes widened and tears shown in them. "Spike... that was so..." She pulled his face close and kissed him hard, she doubted it would be hard to find love for a man who could spout such wonderfully sweet things to her.
"Mmm," he deepened the kiss, starting to rub his erection against her thigh.
She reached down and took him in her hand, stroking him slowly and delighting in the groans it wrenched from him. He moved over her, kissing at her shoulder and down to her breast. He tugged at her nipple gently with his teeth and caught at her hips to pin her in place. Moving her hand aside, he positioned himself at her entrance. He needed her, needed her so bad and needed her right then. He teased her, though, moving the tip up and down her slit. His hands kept her from trying to get him inside impatiently.
"Spiiike," she whined, pouting up at him.
"Gonna get that lip," he purred and dipped his head to capture her mouth again, suckling and nibbling said lip.
He finally entered her, slowly inch by torturous inch so that she was whimpering. He still kept her hands pinned in one hand, hips pinned with the other so that she couldn't rush him any. His mouth trailed along her jaw to her throat where he bit down with his blunt teeth before thrusting in completely.
She tossed back her head and gave a sharp groan. He finally let go of her hips so that they could match his rhythm, move with him. He kept her arms pinned, though, even as she twisted at them to get them free. She needed to touch him, run her fingers over every inch of him. She groaned again in need, arching her back to get the friction of his hard chest against her softer breasts. Her legs wrapped around his waist to anchor him tightly to her, rubbing the back of one of his thighs with a foot.
"God, woman... what you do t' me..." he ground out against her shoulder and pumped into her harder, his thrusts quickening. "Always done t' me!" He growled and bit at her shoulder savagely, but still with his blunt teeth.
She moaned loudly and continued to match his thrusts with her own, continued to try to get her arms free in vain. She finally stopped tugging at them as she got lost in the pleasure, continually moaning as his mouth found her breast again. Tongue curling around her hardened peak, teeth grazing, the suckling.
Her back arched almost painfully. "Spike!"
His mouth moved back up to her throat. Between kisses, he rambled, "Let me claim you. I need it so badly, let me claim you, pet. I need t' claim you."
Her brain, hazed with passion, misunderstood what he was really asking, taking it for the euphemism it normally meant. "Yes, oh god, please." She gasped.
He slipped into his vamp face, teeth extending, then bit into her neck. She choked out a hoarse cry of pleasure as her climax hit her with the pleasure-pain of the bite. Her muscles clamped down on him inside her. He drank deeply, then lifted his head to growl "Mine" as he spilled himself. He bent his head to lick at the bite at her neck, finally releasing her hands.
She nuzzled his neck, making little nummy sounds of delight.
"Pet, you need t' say 'yours' t' confirm it. Then bite me back an' do the same." He murmured in her ear.
"Yours," she said slightly puzzled. She wasn't quite sure what she was confirming, but she was all too happy to bite him and get a taste of the yummy sire blood. Her demon took over at his invitation and she drank from his neck. She finally lifted her head after a moment and sighed, "Mine."
"Your, luv, always yours." He said into her mouth as he kissed her.
She was surprised when she felt suddenly something slide into place deep within her. She also could feel him was more acutely then she ever could as a slayer, even if she concentrated, his thoughts. Which were... blushworthy at the moment. She pulled her mouth away and stared up at him in shock, then sat up quickly.
"W-w... what just happened?" She blinked at him.
"I claimed you." He said simply, watching her with a slight frown. "You agreed t' it."
"Well, yeah, but sex never did that before!" She waved a hand between them.
He rolled his eyes at her. "No, you daft bint, the claim! Don' tell me you don' know what a claim is. Didn' your watcher teach you anythin' useful 'bout vamps?" He shook his head.
"I thought when you said that, you meant it like the usual male euphemism for having sex or something!" She looked up at him with wide eyes. "You so better explain what you just did to me."
He sighed and pulled her close, relieved when she didn't resist. That meant she couldn't really be mad at him then, just obviously shocked and confused. He was sorry about that, she didn't need any more of that after the last week or so. He truly had thought her watcher would have thought to cover something like this.
"It's okay, pet. It's nothin' horrible. You know I wouldn' do anythin' bad t' my little golden slayer." He brushed a kiss across her brow. "The claim is somethin' special, it is. It's rare among vamps, cause you know how we like t' play an' have ourselves a right good time of it. But, when a vampire has found the one person they want t' be with for the rest of their unlife, they claim them. Tie that other vampire t' them. It's like a marriage, but even more bindin'."
"Soo... we were just married?" She quirked a brow. "I didn't exactly get a proposal on bended knee and a gaudy ring. And my mom is probably going to be disappointed she didn't get to be with me on my wedding day."
He smirked. "You really wanted her here durin' all that, slayer?"
"Nooo..." she grumbled and hit his shoulder playfully, looking up at him indignantly. "You know what I meant."
"Well, if you really want a ring, we can go shoppin' for that later. Don' mind at all, long as it makes you happy, luv."
"Okay, well get on with more of the explainy on this thing." She sat back against the pillows and waved a hand at him.
He settled beside her and rested his head against her shoulder, hand playing over her stomach as she saw her liked to do a lot lately. It wasn't sexual in nature like his usual addiction to touching her, but more as if he could already sense their child growing in there. Even a few days old and most likely something along the lines of an amoeba at this point.
"You obviously already noticed that when it bound us, we get a sort of link... can talk without talkin' over it. Keep in contact even when we're not together, too." He switched over to doing just that, //We can feel each other, too. Not jus' our thoughts... but, I guess our emotions. We're linked that closely now. I already could sense you a bit that way with the Sire bound I had on you, but now it's much much stronger.//
She groaned. "I won't be able to keep anything from you anymore, will I?"
"Nope," he grinned. //Well... though I really don' want t' tell you, but you'd just figure it out anyways... you can shut me out, but it'd jus' make us both sick. So its not somethin' you really ever do... also, bein' away from each other for a long time or long distances would make us both sick.//
"So... what if something happens to one of us then? We can feel each other... so if we got hurt, the other would feel the pain and everything... and if we were dusted, what then?? We can't be without each other and we'd feel the pain of the death blow, probably..."
He pressed a kiss to her neck over his claiming mark, sending her a bit of calming energy. "The other would die, but I would never let anythin' happen t' you. You know that."
She pouted, not totally okay with this yet. "You so owe me two rings for this... big ones, too. And a big pretty dress. And and... I want a dog." She put her nose in the air and got up, prancing into the bathroom.
*****
After they finished their little shopping trip, Buffy and Spike walked into the Magick Box, frowning at the boards over the window. Anya and Giles were sweeping up broken glass while Tara and Willow went about putting undamaged items back on the shelves while Xander carried a box of broken items to the back. Buffy glanced up at Spike in concern before going over to Willow.
"What happened here?" she asked her friend and picked up a couple things to help put them away.
Willow looked up and gave Buffy a sad smile. "Apparently there was a break in last night. Anya looked over everything when she got here and says she didn't notice anything missing, though."
"Guess they didn't find what they were looking for," Buffy shrugged and frowned down at a rather ugly little statue. She smiled after a moment and turned around, nearly knocking the redhead over. "Oh, I nearly forgot. I do got something good to brighten up a bit. Spike took me shopping and I got a snazzy new ring."
Tara and Willow bent over her hand to make the customary 'ooo's. Anya even hurried over to look.
"Ooo, big." Anya nodded in approval. "He must really love you if he's willing to spend lots of glorious money on you." She glanced over her shoulder at Xander, hoping he got the hint.
"Yeah, um right," Buffy said then lowered her hand.
"So, he proposed? For real this time?" Willow asked excitedly. "We're going to have our first Scooby wedding?"
"Uh, not exactly." She bit her lip and blushed. "According to him, we're already... sorta married. In a weird mystical sense, I just demanded I get a ring if we were."
"You're what?" Giles finally paid attention to the "women chatter" that was going on. He whipped his glasses off his face and started cleaning them with shaking hands. "You mean he..." He trailed off, unable to say it.
"Claimed her," Spike finished, thumbs hooked in his jeans and looking rather pleased with himself.
"Well yes, congratulations then," the englishman moved away to behind the counter. He didn't disapprove or wasn't too shocked. When Buffy was turned and struck up a relationship with the other vampire, he had somewhat expected it to come eventually. Especially when he had learned she was pregnant by him. It was just the sudden imagery that had popped into his head that was getting him utterly flustered. "I need a drink," he muttered before going to the back room.
Buffy took his reaction as a bad sign and frowned, leaning into Spike.
"Oh, don't worry, Buffy. You know he'll come around. He's been really good about all this so far," Willow patted her shoulder.
"What's a claim?" Xander suddenly asked.
Anya looked away then back at him, patting his hand as she handed him another box of broken items then nudging him in the direction of the back room. "I'll explain to you later, honey."
*****
In a house not far from the outskirts of town, Glory sat on the arm of a sofa. She filed her nails, barely listening to the demons in front of her as they told her how their hunting was going. Such ugly little things, they sort of hurt her eyes to look at them. But, sigh, they were needed to do the dirty work that she couldn't be bothered with. Now, if she could just get them to take a bath at least one a week... or at least once a month... She rolled her eyes and stood up, kicking them out of her way.
"I'm really getting bored with you guys." She told them as she went over to the mirror to check her teeth. She leaned back and primped her fried hair. "I need my key and you guys said you would get it for me. And so far, you've been a complete failure."
She turned around to frown at them, crossing her arms in front of her. "I've been really patient with you little warts. But eventually, I'm not going to be so patient. Then, I might have to start killing you, got it?"
"Oh, your most magnificent and beautiful one," one of the demons started hobbling towards her on his knees. "We have looked in every conceivable place in this town."
"Well conceive of more places to look," she shot back and stepped over him to go sit back down on the sofa. "I want my key and I want it now!!"
*****
Over the next few months, things continued on as before. The usual couple of fledges a night for Buffy to feed on and dust while on patrol. There were a couple more reports of break ins where nothing was stolen, but the place being torn apart as if someone was searching for something. The Scoobies continued to do research to find out who this hellgod was that wanted to steal Buffy's baby. They were no closer to narrowing it down and still were waiting for more clues to help tell them which one it might be.
Buffy was starting to show, though, and probably because of hormones she alternated between being delighted with the growth of her baby, to being moody at becoming a 'fat cow'. No amount of reassurance from Spike or the others made her feel less blubbery. She did go visit her mother every day, even though Joyce assured her that she had her own life now and didn't need to bother her poor mother every day. Buffy knew her mom was just saying that to keep Buffy from feeling liked she needed to come every day. But, she wanted to. She liked talking with her mother about the "joys" of pregnancy. Learning from an expert, as she saw it. She also saw it as an excuse to escape an evermore clingy Spike.
Her mother started to look more run down, though. She was always so tired with shadows under her eyes and taking off more and more time from work to stay home. She eventually stopped going out and Buffy got worried. She had thought the surgery and stuff had helped, she kept trying to get her mom to go back to the doctors, but Joyce kept giving excuses and putting it off.
One day, Buffy made the decision that today she was going to make Joyce go to the hospital and if she tried to weasle out of it, she would simply toss her mother over her shoulder and carry her there. All the thunder went out of her as she stepped into the stillness of the house, going into the living room tentatively and looking at the couch in horror.
Spike sensed her distress just before she fainted. She woke to the coroner wheeling Joyce out and Spike cradling her in his arms in the kitchen. From there she remembered little, it was all a blur. Spike took care of most of it with the help of Giles, she mostly stayed in bed except for when Spike dragged her to the funeral. Afterwards, she went back to bed and didn't come out.
Spike couldn't even get her to go out to feed. He had to feeding more than usual then letting her feed off him. It was either that or him knocking out fledges then dragging them back to the apartment. He just left her to her moping while with the help of Giles and Xander, he moved their things into the house which Buffy had obviously inherited. He would wait til she got out of her funk to decide the finer details, no matter how long that took.
He also got to turning the spare room in the house into a nursery with the help of the female scoobies. He tried to get Buffy involved in this, thinking this would at least appeal to her, but nothing. She would just grumble something rude in his direction and roll over to face away from him like any other time he tried to get her out of bed.
On the day the finally made the final move into the house, he resorted to simply picking her up to carry her out of the apartment. When she got to the house, he set her on her feet and looked down at her with an encouraging smile.
"There, finally carried you over the threshold all proper like." He bent to kiss her, but she was already gone, heading upstairs to Joyce's old room.
She crawled into the bed and hugged her mother's old pillow, burying her nose in it to inhale the scent left in it of Joyce. He came into the room and looked down at her with a sigh, finally giving up and going to lay beside her. He curled around her back and buried his face in her hair. Eventually... eventually he would get her back. He just had to give her time.
*****
A couple weeks after they moved in, Spike was at the Magick Box with the Scoobies. He leaned his hip against the counter and hooked his thumbs in his pockets, looking down at his doc martins. Buffy wasn't getting any better and he simply didn't know what to do anymore. If she didn't get better, how was she going to protect their baby and all this moping certainly couldn't be good for the baby in the first place.
"She hasn't gotten out of bed at all?" Tara's brows went up.
"Nope. Not since she died. Was a bloody miracle I even got the slayer outta bed t' go t' the funeral." His fingers twitched, wanting a cigarette. But he didn't even carry them on him anymore. "I stopped even tryin' after we moved in an' her immediately goin' t' Joyce's room. Before that, would come in t' coax her out, only t' get an earful of language I didn' even know she knew."
"Normally, I would say leave her to it... this thing is quite normal for grieving loved ones we were closed to... but what with the danger we all face and her present condition, we shouldn't allow it to go any further." Giles shook his head decisively.
"Well if you got any idea how t' go about it, Rupes, then I'm all ears. I've tried jus' 'bout everythin' I know t' try."
"Yes, well, we'll think of something. We have to. And we're her friends, surely she will realize how much we care about her and need her."
"I'm her soddin' *MATE*!!" Spike straightened and shouted at Giles, hands balled into fists at his side. "*I* bloody well love her an' care about her an' NEED her. An' she won' come out of this for *ME*!!" He flung out his hands, expression tortured. "I don' know what t' do an' it's drivin' me *INSANE*!!"
Willow started to get up to go to him. Spike saw this and turned to leave before they saw the tears that were welling up in his eyes and threatening to start down his cheeks. He stomped towards the door to leave, wrenching it open and nearly toppling over a petite blonde who was reaching out to open the door at the same exact second.
"Bloody shop's closed. Sorry." He averted his eyes and went to step around her, but she stepped into his path.
He finally looked down at the girl, studying her. She must have a death wish to be blocking his way like that. A vampire in a really pissy mood. She looked to be about the nearly the same age as Buffy or maybe a couple years younger. She couldn't be much over five feet tall with long blonde hair that fell nearly to her waist in waves. She had obviously put a couple black streaks in it in some sort of punk style, her dress was the same. It was accompanied by black nail polish and heavy black eyeliner around heavily lashed azure eyes that were looking up at him widely.
"Uh no, I actually came here to see you." She said nervously, obviously studying him as well.
He looked away and swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand, trying to compose himself. "Really? Well if you're here sellin' somethin' or runnin' an errand for someone else..."
"No, no, I was sent here to help." She nodded and tried to look around him at the others. "Can I come in?"
"Sure, knock yourself out," he took an unneeded breath and stepped back to allow her entry, motioning towards the back of the shop. "Sent here... by who?"
She managed to bounce along in her combat boots towards the others. "Actually, it was Willow."
"Me? Huh?" The redhead blinked.
"I'm from the future. I'm a friend and you-they thought it would be less freakier to send someone who wasn't one of you back. So there's wouldn't be two and all that sort of confusion." She shrugged, "I'm here to help you defeat Glory."
"Glory? W-who's Glory?" Giles was cleaning his glasses and squinting at her.
"Glorificus. It's the hellgod that you've been trying to find out about, that wants to maim Buffy's baby." She explained matter-of-factly. "Guess you haven't even learned that yet. Well, I'm from the future and I can help, but I really can't tell you much, cause of the whole affecting the future and all that rot. But, I can lend another pair of strong hands and more magic wielding and all that."
"That would be nice," Tara smiled at her. "By the way, you haven't told us your name."
"Oh, uh, Marie. I'm Marie." She smiled back then looked around. "Uh, where's Buffy? Out on patrol still... cause I really should tell her..."
"No. She's back at home. Won' leave bed ever since her mum died." Spike rocked on his heels and looked away. He looked back at her, "Shouldn' you have known that?"
"I wasn't totally sure where I would be landing. Later in the battle, or earlier, okay?" She rolled her eyes.
"This might help in snapping Buffy out of it, you know." Willow tried to draw their attention to keep them from bickering, especially after Spike's emotional outburst. She wasn't sure what he'd do if pushed again. "So let's go on over to the house and tell her. We'll bring some books and stuff and we can start researching Glorificus now that we got a name."
"Excellent idea." Giles agreed and gathered some books as they all turned to head out.
tbc...
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