"Anything For You"

Author: Maddict
Feedback: permanum@yahoo.com
Rating: PG
Keywords: S/B Fluff
Spoilers: S6. This is all based on speculation anyway. It's harmless.
Summary: It's time but Buffy isn't ready. Can Spike convince her?
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and 20th Century FOX. Please don't sue. I have nothing but a '94 Honda and this computer.
Feedback: Yes, please. It's like heroin for writers and I'm a junkie.
Distribution: Anywhere, just e-mail me first so I can come and visit.
Author's Notes: I know this will never happen but the evidence keeps mounting and everyone is so upset about evil spoilers, I thought I'd have some fun.

The Scooby Gang stood huddled outside Buffy's room in deep conversation when Spike ran up to them.

"Where is she?" He demanded of no one in particular. "Is she OK?"

"She doesn't want to see you," Xander barked at the blond vampire. "You've done enough."

"I don't the patience for this today, Whelp," Spike warned.

"Oh, I'd like to see you try something," Xander countered, getting in Spike's face. "See how long you'd last."

"Hey!" Willow said, stepping between the two men. "Dawn called Spike."

"You did?!" Xander asked, re-focusing his fury on the teenager cowering at his side. "Why?!"

"Because he deserves to be here," Willow said, calmly. "Besides, he's probably the only one that can talk her out of this."

"What do you need me to do?" Spike asked anxiously.

"Buffy has kind of shutdown. She's not letting anyone near her. She's denying that anything is even happening to her," Willow explained. "If you can't get her to do this willingly, they are going resort to drastic measures."

"OK," Spike said, taking a deep breath. "Where is she?"

"Through there," Dawn replied, pointing to the door to their left.

"Thanks, Niblet," Spike said gratefully before throwing a glare at Xander and walking through the door.

"What are you doing here?!" Buffy demanded the instant she saw him.

"Did ya think I was gonna miss this? Not bloody likely."

"I told you. You aren't a part of my life," She snarled through gritted teeth. "In fact, I wish..."

"What do you wish, pet?" He asked, walking over to her.

"I wish I'd never met you," She replied.

"Too late for that don't you think?"

"No, it's never too late. There's a Vengeance Demon out in the hall. All I have to do is say the words and all this disappears."

"Ex-Vengeance Demon, luv. And if you'd never met me, we'd all be in hell. Courtesy of my poof of a Grand-Sire," He corrected, quietly watching her with his head cocked to the side. "Remember?"

"Stop that."

"Stop what? Making sense?"

"Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?" He asked, his voice soft with emotion.

"You're always studying me. Like you've never seen me before."

"Is that a bad thing?" He asked, gently pushing sweat-soaked hair away from her face.

"Yes. It's very unnerving."

"Can't help it, luv. You're a riddle wrapped in a mystery. If I stop, I might miss something."

Pain rippled across her abdomen and forced her into a curled position. Grinding her teeth, she glared daggers at the man her side.

"God, I hate you," She spat.

"No. You don't," He replied, locking eyes with her. "What you hate is that I know you don't. I've always known what you were thinking. What you wanted. Isn't that how we got here?"

Buffy only glowered at him.

"I'm the only one you can't fool and that drives you crazy because you can't hide from me," Spike said intently, sitting on the edge of her bed. "I know you're scared. It's flowing off you in waves. Don't you think I am too?"

Buffy merely turned her face away from him in response.

"I'm not the poof. I'm not the soldier. I'm not even your sodding father. You know could never leave you. How many times do have to come back to get to you realize that?" Spike sighed and reached out a hand to caress her swollen abdomen. "Listen, we can suss out the dog's dinner later, but right now we don't have much time. They're talking about coming in and taking over. Do you really want them to be in control?"

"Do you really think that's going to work?" Buffy scoffed, turning back to glare at him. "You think you can trick me? I'm serious about this. Nothing is happening that I don't to. Not anymore. I'm done."

"Oh. You're done, are you?" Spike repeated, sarcastically. "That's it then. Let's all go home. Real adult, Slayer. I'm sure your mum would be real proud to know that she raised such a coward."

"I'm not a coward, I'm a realist," Buffy said, matter-of-factly. "Having a vampire's child is a physical impossibility. Therefore, this is another hallucination."

"Hallucination?!" Spike barked at her. "When are you going to snap out of this denial and accept your bleeding life?! This is real. It may not be pretty, but life never is. Especially yours. We've been given an amazing gift. Wake up and be the person we all thought you were."

"Yeah, I'm not really buying the whole motivational speech thing. Points for effort though."

"COR! No one can get me brassed off like you, Slayer. This may be our only chance. Do you understand that?" Spike demanded, again fixing her with his intense gaze. "You must, otherwise you would have solved this problem months ago. I never made any demands of you. 130 years and I never thought I'd be here. But I know you always hoped you would. So, if you don't care what your friends and I think, at least care about what you're doing to that dream if you give up now."

Just then the door opened and a tall doctor walked in.

"So how are we in here? Ready?" The doctor asked eagerly.

Spike saw Buffy's skin blanch with fear and sighed.

"Hey Doc, can I bend your ear a tic?" Spike asked, leading the doctor to a far corner of the room.

"We need to start now. Are you the father?" The doctor asked. Spike saw his name was Henderson. "Yeah, but I thought her doc was...Marcum? Where's he?"

"Um, your wife was adamant about resisting our help..." Dr. Henderson sputtered.

Spike smiled. *That's my girl* "He gonna to be OK?"

"Yes," Henderson sighed. "They re-set his nose. Now about your wife..."

"First, don't let her hear you say that or you can put paid to this whole thing. Second, follow my lead. We're going to distract her a little. Just be ready to play catch when I give you the nod. OK?"

"Yeah."

"Smashing. Go get a nurse, whatever you need," Spike said, drawing a deep, unnecessary breath before turning back to Buffy. "Luv, I've got a wager for you."

"Why is he still here?" Buffy asked, eyeing them both suspiciously as the doctor poked his head out the door and motioned for a waiting nurse to enter.

"He's part of the deal. I win, we do this thing; you win, we go home," Spike explained, staring down at her. "Sound fair?"

"Well, you know I can't fight you like this, so what are we supposed to do? Arm Wrestle?"

"Exactly!" Spike exclaimed, waggling his eyebrows.

"You've got to be kidding."

"No, luv. I'm deadly serious. It's this or nothing."

"You're crazy."

"You know you can't hurt me. Not physically, at least. I'm the perfect opponent and time is running out," Spike said, offering her his right hand, while his eyes challenged her to play along. "Let's end this game."

"I'm gonna win," Buffy said, taking the bait. She grabbed hold of his outstretched palm and began to push against it with all her might. Smiling at his success, Spike nodded his head and out of the corner of his eye, saw the doctor and nurse move into position at the foot of the bed. Then it seemed like they were the only two people in the world. There was nothing but this contest. Their most important duel. Just when Spike thought he would drown in her eyes, they widened and she gasped. An insolent wail pierced the silence of the room, breaking their trance. Together, they turned toward the end of the bed to see Dr. Henderson holding a red and squirming baby in his arms.

"It's a girl!" The young doctor beamed.

Using Spike's distraction, Buffy slammed his arm onto the bed. "I told you I'd win," She said and fell back against the pillows, exhausted. Spike tore his eyes from the miracle at the end of the bed to look at the one beside him. "Looks like we both did, luv." He said before capturing her lips in a deep kiss.

"Admit it," Spike whispered close to Buffy's ear. "You were waiting for me, weren't you?"

"Shut up and bring me my daughter," Buffy said, her face turning bright red. Spike smiled back at his Slayer and walked to the end of the bed.

"Would you like to cut the cord?" The nurse asked.

"Yeah," Spike said gleefully, accepting a pair of surgical scissors from the nurse to fulfill his first task as a father. He watched in awestruck wonder as the nurse finished prepping the baby and then finally she was placed in his waiting arms. Staring down at the exquisite bundle one word swirled endlessly through his mind. "Effulgent..." He sighed happily.

"What?" Buffy asked.

"Never mind," Spike said, placing the tiny infant in her mother's arms.

"This is what you were so afraid of? She looks pretty harmless to me. Although, the daughter of the slayer, would probably be pretty dangerous to my kind."

Buffy smiled but she was otherwise speechless; She only realized she was crying when tears began to cloud her vision.

"Slayer?" Spike asked, nervously hoping Buffy wasn't still questioning this situation.

"I'm OK," Buffy said, looking up at him. "She's so beautiful...I was just wishing my mom was here."

"Me, too, pet," Spike said, as he climbed into the bed and hugged her close to him. "Me, too."

"Buffy, she's gorgeous!" Willow exclaimed.

"Thanks, Will," Buffy said.

"Yep, she's a cracking beauty. Just like her mum!" Spike said, beaming with pride. "Warm too! And breathing!"

"Yeah, those are good qualities for a baby to have," Willow replied exchanging a look with Buffy that Spike failed to catch.

"Can I hold her?" Dawn asked.

"Sure," Buffy said, carefully handing the infant to her sister.

"Use both hands!" Spike said, watching the teenager like a hawk.

"Spike, it's OK," Buffy said, grabbing hold of his hand to calm him down. "She's babysat before."

"What are you going to name her?" Willow asked.

"Ava Joyce," Buffy replied, looking over at Dawn.

Dawn gasped. "Mom."

"Yeah," Buffy said softly and felt Spike give her hand a soft squeeze of support.

"This doesn't look that hard at all," Anya said from across the room. "Xander, I want one too."

In response, Xander went completely pale and looked frantically for a change of subject. "Why is there a stake in the baby's bassinet?" He asked. "Are we expecting some vamp action? Aside from the father, that is."

Buffy sighed heavily and glared at the vampire by her side. "Spike?"

"Yeah, well, you were asleep and the super friends here were in cafeteria. So I decided to entertain little Ava with the story of how we met. Which did involve stakes, if you recall," Spike explained, trying to talk himself out of trouble. "Besides, it's never too early to start a child's education."

"Well yeah, cause it's not like it's gonna confuse her any when her mom keeps killing her dad's pals," Xander said as the baby began to fuss and Dawn handed her back to Buffy to be fed. "Or maybe why her dad sleeps all day and drinks blood. Nah, that's not gonna mess a kid up any."

Good thing for Xander, Spike didn't hear that last bit. He was lost in the sight of Buffy feeding their daughter. *Milk!* He reached out and began to gently stroke the infant's shock of blond curls. Moments later, Buffy moved Spike's hand to join her's in support of the baby's head, connecting the three of them.

"Thank you for giving me this, Spike," She said, smiling serenely up at him.

"Anything for you, Slayer," Spike said and held his family close.

The End

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