Disclaimer: If I owned them, would I be sitting in front of my computer writing fan fic?
Summary: Buffy and Angel learn that something is wrong with baby Liam.
A.N. I don't know when babies are supposed to do stuff like roll over and crawl. I'm just making stuff up.This is story 5 in my T&T series.

Buffy noticed that her 8 month old son didn't learn to roll over until just the other day. She noticed that most babies were already crawling and they were younger than Liam. And almost all of the babies in the nursery had said their first words already. She also noticed that he didn't respond to when she snaped in his ear to get his attention.

One day, she had Angel stay home from his job as a P.I. for a prestigous company to watch Liam and to see if he noticed anything unusual about him.

She was working up a patient by the main desk when paramedics came in and Angel right beside the gurney. She rushed over to her fiancee.

"Angel! What happened?"

"I was feeding Liam his bottle and he just started to shake."

Buffy looked down to see her son on the gurney.

"OH GOD! Liam!"

Mark and Carter took the gurney into trauma 2 and began to order labs and ask questions.

"We need an MRI, CT, and an EEG, stat!"

Buffy and Angel stood helplessly as her friends worked to save their son. She hated the feeling. Up until a year and a half ago, she had been the slayer. But once she reached 21, the council had let her go. She still had her increased strength but she never patrolled anymore.

Carol led her and Angel to chairs and they waited. Dr. Green finally came out, a somber expression on his face. Buffy knew it was bad news. She could feel it. She had seen that expression on his face enough in the past two months to know what it meant.

"Buffy, can I speak to you in private? I want to tell you in medical terms what's wrong with Liam."

Buffy glanced at Angel, who gave a slight nod. Carol helped her up. and held onto her arm as Mark led her to trauma 2.

She aubibly gasped when she saw her son hooked up to so many machines. He was on a ventalater, helping him breathe and the heart moniter was beeping steadily. She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard it. Mark showed her the films of Liam's head. He explained that at some point during her pregnancy, Liam had hypoxia and now had developed cerebral palsy.

"If he does come off the ventalater, he will have severe mental retardation later on in life. He will be in and out for treatments and will never be able to talk even if he can hear. It's suggested that you put in a breathing and feeding tube now because he will never be able to eat food regularly."

"And there's no chance that he will be perfectly normal?"

"While he was seizing, his brain was deprived of oxygen for a short time. There is a risk of death right now, Buffy. If he doesn't start breathing on his own in the next three hours, he will be in a vegatative state indefinatley."

Buffy nodded that she understood and went out and told Angel what Dr. Green had told her. They both broke down crying right there and Carol led then into the lounge to be alone.

Go to the next story Aftermath

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