Thine Own Self

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Three

Anni looked down at her hand, still uncertain of what had just happened. Willow, still stunned herself, brought her arms to her stomach as Anni fell to the ground, completely drained of energy and power.

“Um… Wes, Buffy, somebody,” Willow yelled, her voice shaking a little. “Anni’s doing that fainting thing again, and it’s making me feel kinda… chalky.”

Wes and Buffy came running into the room, followed shortly by Kendall, Joss, and Dawn.

“What the hell happened?” Wes asked, kneeling next to his little sister and taking her pulse rather absentmindedly.

“Chalky?” Buffy asked.

“Pregnant woman, not all thesaurus-y,” Willow said to Buffy before turning to the man she had come to love. “I don’t know what happened. We were just… and then… poof.”

Everyone stared at Willow, who wasn’t making sense at all. The Wiccan took a deep breath.

“Anni and I were practicing some simple fire starting techniques, and then her hand was touching my stomach, and she couldn’t pull it off. I could feel the magic running through her body, into mine, and into the baby’s.”

Picking Anni up, Wes turned to Willow. “Are you all right?” he asked her. “Both of you?” Holding Anni with one arm, he set his other hand tenderly on her stomach.

She nodded, but said nothing. Somehow, she thought that something very big had just happened here.

“And you have no idea how or why it happened?” Wes asked. His question hung in the air, unanswered.

“Dammit,” Lilah Morgan muttered as the power running through the shaman caused his body to become incinerated from the inside out. “That’s the third Shaman this week.” She turned to the minion standing in front of her.

“Get me another Shaman,” she said.

“Miss Morgan,” the law clerk stuttered a bit, “I don’t think there’s anything a Shaman can do.”

Lilah played with the idea of dismembering the underling, but discarded the idea. She didn’t have the time or inclination to train a new assistant.

“I want that baby,” Lilah said. “That little brat with her ancient magics took him from me and gave him to my lover’s girlfriend, and I want him back.”

“That cannot happen,” a voice said. Lilah looked toward the pile of ashes on the floor, as the Shaman rose from them and returned to his previous form.

She rolled her eyes. Phoenix Shamans were always so dramatic. “What do you mean it can’t happen?” she asked him, the power she held as the sole head of Wolfram and Hart ringing in her voice, daring him to tell her that she could not have what she wanted.

“The baby is no longer yours,” he said. “It’s not simply a matter of reuniting mother and son in your womb. I would have to take the child from his mother’s womb, and that takes a deep magic.”

Lilah’s eyes flamed when she heard his words. “A baby can’t just become someone else’s,” she told him icily, “and this company was led to believe that you do in fact have that kind of power.”

“We’re not just dealing with natural forces anymore,” he replied. “The baby has a strong will to stay where he is, and somehow, he came by the magic needed to ward off my affront.”

Lilah cursed, looking downward at her blatantly flat stomach, wanting that red headed wench to suffer. This was beyond personal. This was war.

Maddy let out a war cry, Hopie style, and the four young guys playing basketball turned to look her way. Maddy smiled at them, thoroughly unabashed and full of candor.

“I’m Maddy,” she said, her accent more pronounced than usual. The boys rolled their eyes at the very thought that some pretty little British girl might interrupt their game. Maddy met their eyes clearly.

“I’m Maddy,” she said again, looking at each of them in turn, “and I’m going to kiss one of you now. Perhaps all of you.” A thoughtful expression came across her face, and the twelve and thirteen year old boys couldn’t help but think that it was a very nice face.

“You,” Maddy turned to a boy with dark hair and laughing eyes. “You’re first, Mister,” she said. Doing a very good Faith imitation, she walked toward him, eyes on the target. When she reached him, she pushed him against the nearby fence, stood on her very tip-toes, and kissed him, hard on the mouth, closing her eyes and trying to picture the exact method she’d seen Faith and Lindsey use. After a few long moments, she came up for air.

The boy could hardly stare straight, and a dumb founded expression settled over his face as Maddy beamed at the other boys. “You see,” she said, “that wasn’t so bad. Who’s next?”

Clay, Connor and Nicolaa on his heels, cleared his throat from behind his little sister, his eyes bulging with shock at what she had just done. Maddy turned to glance at him briefly before opening her mouth again.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Clay,” she said, not sparing him more than the slightest moment’s notice, “I can’t kiss you next, you’re my brother.” She turned her attention back to the rest of the boys.

Nic, Connor, and Clay all began to speak at once.

“Maddy, what are you doing?” Nic asked, a trace of laughter in her serious voice.

“Madeline,” Clay said, adopting his horrible scolding older brother voice and sending slight shivers down Maddy’s back. It was seldom a good thing when any of her many older brothers used that tone.

“I’ll kill each and every one of you,” Connor said to the boys, his voice low. The boys all stared at him, and Connor stared back, no evidence of joking in his voice.

“Oh well. It was worth a try,” Maddy said to the boys, as always adapting quickly to the situation. “Perhaps I’ll see you all another time.” She hooked her arm carelessly through her brother’s and began walking back toward the hotel.

She smiled up at him. “How has your day been, Clay dear?”

“Don’t ‘Clay dear’ me,” Clay grumbled. His muscles relaxed when he felt Nic’s hand on the back of his neck. He looked at her, surprised. Maddy sent Nic a grateful look, and the older girl shrugged, her hand tingling where it sat on Clay’s warm neck. Nicolaa had been keeping Maddy out of trouble for so long, it had become second nature.

It was Nic who first realized that Connor wasn’t with them.

“Where’d Connor go?” she asked.

Connor hadn’t moved; he was still staring at the four boys, the threat of death very clear in his eyes.

Anni’s eyes fluttered open a bit. “But it’s my turn to flounce Joss,” she mumbled.

Standing next to Joss, Kendall muffled a quick bark of laughter. Joss wished briefly that the non-slayer would stay asleep for a very, very long time. After all, Anni’s boyfriend would need someone to comfort him, and if that someone happened to be Joss, as far as the pariah-ed Potential was concerned, so be it.

“Anni luv,” Wes said, his voice gentle. “Time to wake up, sweetheart.”

Anni’s eyelids fluttered some more, and she continued muttering. “Don’t tell Wes that I have black underwear,” she murmured.

Wes stared at the women crowded into Anni’s room. “Who bought her black underwear?” he asked, the older brother look coming across his face again.

“Not me,” Buffy said.

“Hey, I’m pregnant,” Willow said, using her pregnancy as a convenient alibi for anything.

Wes turned his gaze to Anya, who had entered the room the moment before. “I don’t wear underwear,” she said brightly. There was an awkward pause. “It’s hardly worth the monetary price. Either no one sees it, and then the money is wasted, or someone does see it, but what they really want you to do is take it off. Either way, it’s not a sound business venture, and I personally don’t care for the constriction.” The former vengeance demon smiled at everyone in the room, completely undisturbed by the way they were currently staring at her.

Anni’s eyes opened steadily for a moment, and she sat up in bed. A wicked grin spread across her face. “I’m coming,” she said, her voice as dark and seductive as death itself, “and there’s nothing any of you can do.” Without another word, her body went limp again, and she fell back onto the bed, her light brown hair bouncing slightly into her face.

No one said a word. Somehow, the situation did not seem promising. Wes bent down and patted his sisters cheeks softly.

“Anni,” he said softly. She didn’t respond. Losing his patience, he said, “Annabella.”

Anni’s eyes opened slowly. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“For what?” Wes asked.

Anni sat up slowly and then shrugged. “You tell me,” she said. After a moment, she noticed that everyone was standing in her room. Everyone except…

“Where’s Chance?” she asked.

Joss crept silently out the door, not wishing to stay in the same room with Anni a moment longer.

“I’ll go find her,” Kendall said, not wanting to leave Chance alone to Joss’s mercies. Just as she was leaving the room, Kendall turned around. “And for the record, Anni,” she said, laughter alive in her voice, “it’s my turn to flounce Joss.”

“There will be no flounce-age,” Buffy said, very little conviction in her voice.

“It’s always your turn to flounce Joss,” Anni grumbled.

Kendall grinned. “I know,” she called over her shoulder as she walked out the door, “and it always will be.”

Joss saw Chance, still sitting by herself on the kitchen floor. The expression on her face softened. Of all of the girls, Chance had always been her favorite. Then they’d learned that Chance was different. Special. Something that everyone knew Joss was not.

“Oh, hey Joss,” Chance said softly.

“Hey Chance,” Joss returned cautiously, trying to push her resentment of the younger girl out of her mind. “Been getting any of those oh-look-at-me-I’m-so-special flashes lately?” Inwardly, Joss cringed. She hadn’t wanted to say that at all.

Chance didn’t reply, and she struggled to keep a blank face when she saw the image of a lake flash before her eyes.

The sun was starting to set, and as Dakota thought back over her day, she looked out at the water silently. For a moment, she remembered her mother, but then that memory rippled away, like the tiny waves in the water in front of her.

Standing up and stretching lazily, Kody grinned wickedly and pulled off her top, throwing it to the ground. She had others. After the shopping and shoplifting spree she’d gone on today, she had three others just like it.

She peeled off her jeans and dove into the lake, her arms pulling her powerfully through the water. There was no reason for her to be swimming, naked in a lake by herself, but Dakota Kincaide cared little for reason. She did what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it.

And if the world didn’t like that, as far as she was concerned, the world could go to hell.

“I don’t want you to go, Aunt Faith,” Hopie said, her bottom lip protruding slightly. “You just got back and we haven’t played battle or spar yet or anything.”

Faith grinned at the little girl and picked her up. “I have to go and see if this girl is the one,” Faith tried to explain reasonably.

Hopie frowned thoughtfully. “I know,” she said finally, “but wouldn’t it be better if you and Uncle Lindsey just stayed here and had lots of grown-up wrestling time at night, and then you could play with me during the day. We could play care bears. Daddy could be Grumpy cause he’s broooooooooooody, and I could be Lotsa Luck Bear, and you could be Slayer Bear.”

Faith lifted her left eyebrow slightly. “Slayer Bear?”

Hopie nodded, seriously. “For when the demons attack the Care Bears,” she replied. “There has to be a Slayer Bear.”

Faith pretended to consider it. “When I get back,” she said, “we’ll play, and I’ll be any bear you want me to be.”

“Uncle Lindsey too?” Hopie asked. Faith nodded, and Lindsey, coming into the room, groaned.

Hopie ignored him. She looked at Faith and then buried her head briefly in her champion’s shoulder. She took a deep breath.

“I’m gonna lose a tooth while you’re gone,” she said.

“Which one?” Lindsey asked.

“My left fang,” Hopie replied.

“You don’t have fangs, Hopie,” Faith said, setting the little girl down.

Hopie shrugged. Somehow, that just didn’t seem important.

As she drove, Caleb in his car seat, asleep but never quiet, Kate’s mind drifted over the past few years, staying for long moments over each of Cale’s milestones. He’d been such a good baby, so happy. Even when he’d been teething his sharp little fang teeth, Cale had never had long crying fits like other children.

“Grrrrrrrr,” the little boy growled in his sleep. “Gonna eat you.” Kate’s eyes opened widely as she listened to her little boy growling.

“Gonna eat you, Mr. Hotdog,” he said.

“You’re more than just a balance,” Kate said to him. “You’re a little boy.” She wondered what Angel’s son was like. After all, he and Cale were the same age.

The boys stared at Connor, terrified. Connor said nothing, and somehow, that was all that needed to be said to get his point across.

“We won’t kiss her anymore,” one of the boys promised vehemently. “Ever again.”

All of the boys except for the one who had already kissed Maddy nodded vehemently.

Connor glared at them for a few more seconds and turned to walk back to the hotel.

 

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