Part 11



"This is interesting," Giles muttered more to himself than to anyone in the shop. It was good that he was not expecting anyone to listen, because no one was. Instead, the Scoobies were all around Buffy and Dawn, with the exception of Anya who was helping a customer.

"So, all of a sudden, this burning thing flew in through the window, and it was all like crash, boom, bang and there was glass everywhere," was Dawn's condensed version of what had happened the night before.

Buffy sat by the table, her head rested in her hands. Since Dawn enjoyed being the center of attention, the Slayer thought she had let her sister be just that for once.

Spike sat next to Buffy, holding the hand that was not burned.

"Tired?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she replied. "I guess it's the pregnancy… Although it's worse than usual."

"Well, you're getting further along, pet." Buffy nodded at him, then closed her eyes and leaned on him. He wrapped his arms around her and rocked her back and forth.

"So, Buffy, what do you think this is?" Xander asked, turning his attention from the younger to the older of the Summers sisters.

Buffy opened her eyes and looked at him. "I don't know," she said. She closed her eyes once more.

"Are you tired?" Willow asked, as though the answer was not obvious.

Buffy nodded a small nod, her eyes still closed.

"You know, pet, maybe we should go home and get you to bed if you're that tired," Spike suggested.

Buffy nodded, "Yeah."

"Nibblet, are you coming?" Spike said, helping his fiancé up.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna get my stuff from the back." The brunette disappeared.

Suddenly, Buffy's grip on Spike tightened and she wobbled as she tried to walk.

"Buffy what is it? What's wrong?" Spike asked, immediately concerned. He held an arm around her to steady her, and she leaned on him.

"Spike…" Buffy moaned, "I… I don't feel so good…"

"Buffy, love, what's wrong?"

"I feel sick… I'm so tired…" she whispered.

Her grip on his hand hardened more, and he felt more of her weight on him. Instead of trying to steady her more, he resolutely picked her up in his arms. She had one arm around his neck and her head buried in his shoulder.

"Buffy, stay awake, okay?" Spike begged her, feeling the panic rise.

"But I'm so tired…"

Meanwhile, the gang was just standing around, watching. Then, suddenly, as though something woke them up, they were all around Buffy and Spike. Giles pushed them away from the Slayer, and motioned to Spike to take her into the training room. Dawn returned and when she saw her sister, she was close to tears once more. Giles made her sit down by the table while he went with Spike and Buffy to the training room. When Spike had put her on the floor, with her head on his lap, Giles asked,

"Do you have any idea of what this is?"

Spike shook his head. "No, Watcher, I don't! I don't have a bleedin' clue… Don't you think I would have told you if I did?"

"But, has she done anything special… Anything that could have brought this on?"

"I'm bloody telling you, I don't know!" Spike screamed, so loudly Buffy winced on the floor.

"Oh, love, I'm sorry," Spike said in a tone that was totally unlike his. He stroke her cheek gently.

"Could it have to do with the scroll?" Giles asked to himself. "It might be something…"

"Well then get bloody on it!" Spike said, then asked in a small voice, "What if it's the baby? What if it's hurting?"

"Spike, I'm fairly sure this has nothing to do with the baby. This seems much more like something brought on by magic."

With that, Giles disappeared out of the room, shooting a worried glance at the girl on the floor before returning to the shop. He walked right over to Willow and Tara.

"Can you do a spell to see if she's under some spell?" he asked the two Wiccas. "You know, like she did to see if her mom…"

"We know, Giles, we're already on it. We're using a faster spell than that one though, since we're used to magic."

"Well, she's in the training room with Spike, so when you're ready, just go in there."

The girls nodded and began collecting some ingredients for the spell. Anya gave them what they needed after Xander had convinced her that it was for life or death, and the two Wiccas set everything up around Buffy and Spike. He refused to leave her side, and since it did not matter to the spell, Tara and Willow let him stay.

They began to chant. Willow, who would be the one who saw if anything was affecting Buffy, held a candle in her hands, and soon, her eyes turned black. Her head shot upwards, and then she looked around the room in a confused manner. Moments later, her vision seemed to clear and she remembered what she was supposed to be looking at.

She grasped as she saw Buffy. As soon as she realized what was wrong, she ended the spell and ran out of the room to tell Giles.

"It's her hand," she said. "The injured hand, there is something dark, some magic…"

"Buffy said she'd burned her hand when she tried to grab the scroll when it was still warm…" Giles said, trying to understand. "Of course! The scroll was obviously burning by some sort of magic means, and when she touched it, even if the fire had seemed to go out, it infected her in some way."

"So the cure is…?" Willow asked. She was leaning on Tara, the spell having weakened her.

"I, um, don't know yet. But we will find it," Giles said, trying to sound certain.

"Of course we will," Willow said, trying just as hard to sound equally certain.

Xander walked over to them. "So, what are we looking for?"



* * *



Spike carefully got up, putting Buffy's head down on the mattresses gently. She did not even stir, making him worry even harder. He walked over to the little storage room on the side and took out the blanket and pillow he knew were in there. Then he walked back and positioned him in the same way as he was before, on the floor with her head in his lap. But now, her body was covered by one blanket.

Her breathing was slow, he knew she was sleeping. Although, he wondered how long it would be before she slipped of into unconsciousness.

"You need to wake up, love," he whispered to her, stroking her hair as he always did.

Tara had come in earlier and explained to him what was causing Buffy's sudden sleepiness. She had also told him they were working on the cure. He had taken in the information and nodded, then she had left.

He looked down at her bulging stomach. The one that was growing bigger and bigger for every day that went by. He had already wondered to himself several times how big a stomach could get.

She had told him her worries, her fears. She had a lot of those. She was more scared of becoming a mother than she had ever been, facing any evil.

"I will be responsible for someone's life!" she had exclaimed.

He had told her it would be all right. That all to-be parents worried, but that most turned out fine in the end. And he had told her that he would be with her and their child every single step of the way.

He was scared too. Mostly, he was scared that she would suddenly realize that the last few months had all been a huge mistake and that she would tell him to leave. He knew he would never be able to do that. He needed her like he needed oxygen these days.

"I love you so much, Buffy. Please wake up…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 12



"Giles! Giles! I think I've got it!" Willow exclaimed happily. She ran around the table with the thick book in her hand. "Look."

Giles read what it said on the page, and nodded. "Might just be. But… If we burn the script, we might burn something important."

"More important than Buffy?" Willow asked accusingly.

"No, no, I don't mean that," Giles defended himself. "But, it might be something useful. Maybe we should write it down somewhere before burning it."

"Giles, this thing says it takes twenty-four hours for someone infected by a black spell to get killed by it. That means that if Buffy touched it at like eight thirty last night, we have about half an hour till she will be…"

"Don't say it!" Willow screamed and held her hands over her ears.

Tara, who was holding the talked-about scroll in her hand said in her usual, quiet voice, "I have written down what it says now."

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks and stared at her.

"W-well," Tara stammered, "It wasn't that m-much text, and so I wrote it down while you…"

"Oh, thank you Tara," Giles said before taking the scroll out of her hand. "Now, anyone got matches?"

"Spike probably has a lighter," Xander suggested, but then added, "Never mind," as he remembered that Buffy had made him stop smoking when he became human.

"I have matches here," Anya said and gave a box to Giles. Giles and Willow disappeared into the training room.

Spike looked up when he heard the witch and the Watcher storm in. "We've got the cure," Willow explained happily. She ripped the scroll in four separate parts. "Can you move, this can't be done with you in the middle."

Spike obliged and got up gently as to not hurt Buffy in any way. Willow put the pieces of the scroll around the sleeping Slayer, and then walked around and lit each part on fire. The paper was soon consumed by it and when the spell was broken, Buffy stirred.

Spike was by her side again in a second.

She moved and opened her eyes and noted the blankets covering her. "W-where am I?" she asked quietly.

"You're in the training room, pet. You took a little nap."

"I don't remember…" Buffy mumbled. "I was tired and then…"

"It's okay, love. Everything is fine."

He kissed her forehead. She then tried to get up, but her body was still weak and could not. Spike let her continue to rest, once more with her head on his lap, until she was strong enough to go home.



* * *



"What was this whole deal good for?" the two voices asked, in unison as always.

Kaicynn and Kayarin stood in front of the throne. Both held their hands on their hips, and being mirror images of each other, one might think he was seeing double.

"To see how well they work together," the dark voice of the creature on the throne.

"But what if she had died? It would all have failed…" The sentences were hardly more than a whisper, yet it echoed greatly in the caves, making their voices even more terrifying than they were to begin with.

"She would not have died," the voice assured them. "I put the spell on the Slayer - I could have taken it away if the Wiccas had not figured it out. Now, instead, we know how they work. And now that the Slayer has been under our spell once, it will be easy to get her there again."

The females looked unhappy, their eyes gleaming at him in the darkness.

"Soon, Twins, the real plan will be set in action."

"And the baby?" the two asked, in perfect chorus as always.

"The baby will be ours, I promise." In the flicker of the lit candles, a smirk could be seen on the dark figure's face.



* * *



The Scoobies were all sitting in the Magic Box. Tara and Willow next to each other, Anya and Xander, Dawn leaning on Spike and Buffy holding his hand. They were all looking at the piece of paper that held the scribbled down writing of the now-gone scroll.

"Is it just me or does that look like gibberish?" Xander wondered with a sigh.

"It's not gibberish you daft git, it's in Swedish, as I've said a hundred bloody times already."

"So why don't you just translate it for us?" Xander asked.

"Cause I don't know Swedish well enough you bleedin' idiot."

"Hey! I'm not -"

"Enough!" Giles interrupted. He looked mad. "We won't get any closer by fighting. We need to figure this out though."

"How bout a Swedish translator?" Dawn sighed. "Seems the easiest way to go."

"Actually, I think I could do it," Anya said suddenly. "I spent a century or two in that cold country, and I think I remember some…"

"Why didn't you say that before?" Giles asked, exasperated. He took his glasses of and began polishing them, trying to calm himself.

Anya grabbed the piece of paper. "Okay, this was a really long time ago," Anya said, concentrating. "But here we go…"

Ont ändrat och gott tillsammans

Ett nytt liv gjort från död

Ett litet liv

Förändrar ansiktet av gammal ondska

Om född i mörkret

Död och förstörelse i hennes väg

Om hon i fel tid

Kommer in i denna värld

"I think it says this:

Evil turned and good together

A new life made from former death

A small life

Changes the face of old evil

If born in the dark

Death and destruction in her way

If at the wrong time

She enters the world"

Everyone stared at Anya, and then looked over at Buffy.

"I think that we can take the whole 'a normal kid' thing of the list," Dawn finally said.

"But what does it mean?" Buffy asked. "That my baby's gonna fight?"

"If someone chooses the wrong path to lead her down, yes, I believe so," Giles said.

"I guess whomever threw that thing through your window is after the baby," Willow said. "But why would they give the scroll to you and let you know about their plans?"

"Maybe it's a friend?" Anya said positively. "Some person wants to make you aware that something can happen with your kid."

Again, everyone stared at Anya.

Giles cleared his throat and said, "Well, as much as we could hope for that, I don't think that is the case."

"Yeah," Buffy said. "We live on a Hellmouth, filled with Hellmouth-y demons, and those Hellmouth-y demons aren't always that bright… They like me to know about their plans." She sighed, and Spike squeezed her hand.

"Don't worry," he said, opening his mouth for the first time since Anya had finished translating the text. "I won't let anything hurt our baby."

"I know you won't. And I won't either. If they want the Slayer's baby, they are going to have to go through the Slayer herself and her British boyfriend…"

"And the Slayer's little sister!" Dawn quipped in happily.

"Oh no you don't," Buffy told her little sister. "You are going to stay as far away as possible from this!"

"But -"

"No buts. Otherwise the Slayer's little sister will be grounded till she's forty," Buffy threatened.

Dawn pouted at her big sister. "Fine," she said. "If I'm not needed here, which I'm obviously not, may I then leave? Richie wanted me to meet him at the coffee house."

Buffy looked at her little sister, who'd stood up, hands on her hips. She looked so grown up suddenly. Sure, she was not acting all that grown up, but neither did Buffy all the time. Besides, Buffy understood why Dawn was mad. Dawn felt constantly excluded from the Scooby Gang, because she was too young. Never mind that she was sixteen now, the same age Buffy was when the Scooby Gang had first been created.

"You go. Just call home and have Spike pick you up when you want to get home."

Dawn nodded and disappeared.

Buffy turned her attention back to the piece of paper. "Is there anything else we can do here, or can Spike and I go patrol?"

Giles shot her a look; he still did not feel comfortable having the hugely pregnant Slayer patrolling. Buffy caught the look and sighed. "Fine," she muttered. "He will patrol, after he escorts me home - is that okay with you, Giles?"

"It is for your best, Buffy, you and the baby."

"I know," she said. Under her breath, she added, "Still sucks though."



* * *



Dawn, Spike and Buffy all helped decorate the Summers' home for Christmas. Spike and Dawn went out and got a huge Christmas tree, and he put small lamps all over the roof of the house. Dawn had thought it was hilarious to watch him try and get the electricity to work, at the same time as keeping his balance.

Now the sun had gone down, and the three were cuddled on the couch. It was two days until Christmas, and the trio had felt it was a good time to have a calm night together. Spike had patrolled earlier, but there was not much going on, so he had come home early.

The TV was on, and the Simpsons was showing.

"This is crap."

"Dawn! Language!" Buffy scolded.

"Well it is. I don't care what my friends say, I just don't like it. Can't we watch the movies instead?"

She got up and walked over to the bag on the floor by the tv. Buffy and Spike had gone to Blockbuster earlier on and rented some movies. She picked the first one up.

"'Pearl Harbor'? Why in the world did you rent that? Next… 'The Mexican'? I saw that in the movie theaters. Maybe it's better on a tape where you can fast forward every time it gets boring, cause that's a movie that they could've been rougher on when it was on the cutting board… Still, nah. Ooh, here's something! 'Bridget Jones's diary'! That's what we're watching!"

She popped the tape into the VCR and pushed play before walking back to the sofa. That's when she noticed that her two guardians were both fast asleep on the couch. She smiled to herself. Spike laid behind Buffy, his body spooned against her. One hand rested on her stomach. They looked so cute together. Quietly, she got the camera from the kitchen and took a picture. Another one for her collection of cute pictures to save for the future.



TBC…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 13



On Christmas Eve, the whole gang was gathering in the Summers' home to exchange gifts. The house was filled with activity from the moment Buffy woke up on the couch in Spike's arms and discovered that she should have begun cooking the food an hour earlier. Spike spent several minutes trying to calm her down, and then helped her getting started in the kitchen.

Dawn came down a while later.

"Oh, the cute sleeping couple is up," she grinned.

"Dawn, eat breakfast and then get out," Buffy said. Her tone was not angry, only stressed.

"Geez B, take it easy. It's only the Scoobies coming over, not the President."

Buffy shot Dawn a look and Dawn muttered, "Fine." She took a bowl and filled it with cereal.

Later at night, Spike and Buffy had gotten the food done in a joined effort, and the whole house was filled with the scent of edibles. Xander and Anya had arrived and Anya was putting their gifts under the tree. Tara and Willow was sitting on the couch, cuddling together as the cute couple they were. Dawn was setting the table, and the only one the group was waiting for was Giles.

The doorbell rang and Dawn ran to open. Buffy made her way into the hallway in time to see Giles take his coat off, and hugging Dawn.

"Merry Christmas, Buffy," he greeted her then, and hugged her gently.

"Merry Christmas, Giles," she replied with a smile.

"Ooh, Giles is here, then we can open presents, right?" Anya asked.

"An, take it easy," Xander said, putting an arm around his fiancée. "There'll be plenty of time to open presents later on."

"Good. Cause now that we have spent that much money on them -"

"Not something you're supposed to talk about, An," Xander interrupted.

Willow and Tara came over too, and more greetings were exchanged. Buffy stood silent, one hand resting on her belly, just watching her friends interact. There was a time when she thought she would never have this kind of happiness - especially after her mother died - but as she stood there, she felt complete. Content. Happy.

"If all you kids would be as kind as to step into the dining room!"

Buffy - and the rest of the gang - turned around to see Spike in the doorway, a red apron over his normal black clothing and a Christmas hat on his head.

Xander stood staring. Giles looked amused. Tara, Willow and Dawn giggled and Anya commented, "Nice hat." Buffy herself walked over and kissed him.

"What was that for?" he asked, a silly grin on his face.

She pointed upwards at the mistletoe hanging there and grinned at him.

"Oh. Well then I should move before the whelp or the Watcher gets some ridicules idea…" She giggled, and they made their way into the dining room, where Dawn had set the table and Spike had placed all the food he and Buffy had cooked.

"Mm, smells delicious Buff," Xander said and sat down.

The others followed and soon, they were all eating and laughing and talking.



* * *



"To Giles from Buffy."

Dawn gave the carefully wrapped package to the Watcher, who took it and opened it. He tried not to show it, but he loved opening presents just as much as the youngsters did.

"Thank you Buffy, I've been looking for this," Giles said, holding the book and flipping through a few pages with care.

"You're welcome," the Slayer replied with a smile and a hug to her Watcher.

Dawn, who had been chosen act as Santa and hand the presents out, chose the next gift. "From Xander to Anya."

Anya took the present eagerly and opened it, hardly even noticing the beautiful wrapping paper. Inside was a little box, and Anya squealed in delight when she opened it.

"They are beautiful!" she said, throwing herself around Xander's neck. "But do we really…?"

"Don't worry about that right now. You've wanted those earrings for months, and you're more than worth it." He kissed her gently.

"Let me see," Dawn begged, and Anya held the box up to the teen. The earrings were made out of gold, with small diamonds on. They were gorgeous.

"Shall we continue?" Willow asked, eager herself to give and receive presents. Dawn nodded to the witch and picked the next present up.

"Merry Christmas Buffy, from Dawn," she said. "Well, since it's from me, I can add that it's not really for you, but…"

"And what is that supposed to mean? Did you buy a Backstreet Boys CD or something that you will steal?" The words could have been harsh, but Buffy was smiling and hugged Dawn as she gave her her gift. It was small and soft, and Buffy quickly got the tape off and opened it. She gaped at the content.

"They are adorable, Dawn, thank you!" Buffy said happily. She held up the little blue set of baby clothes to the rest of the gang, and they all 'oohed' and 'ahed'. Buffy lost herself a little in looking at the small set of clothing. Despite the fact that she and Spike had been planning on going shopping for baby stuff, it had not happened so far. Some part of her was still telling her that something might go wrong, that the baby would not be right. But now she was imagining how her baby would look in these clothes. Her baby. She smiled.

While Buffy got lost in thought, Dawn continued to hand out gifts. Tara got a necklace from Willow, and Tara gave Willow a set of shower creams and gels, to which Willow replied, "You think I smell bad?" Then everyone had laughed and continued to enjoy the evening.

"To Xander from Anya." The package was small and Dawn handed it to Xander. He opened it quickly and smiled when he saw the video game Zelda lying there.

"Well, I'm bored with your other video games so I thought I'd get you something else," Anya explained. She received another kiss.

"Ooh, this is for me. 'To Dawn from Buffy'." Dawn quickly shredded the paper on the floor and smiled happily as she picked out a shirt and a pair of pants. "Cool! Thanks B!" She hugged her sister before continuing.

"To Spike from Buffy."

"I told you you didn't have to get me anything, Slayer," Spike said, but taking the gift out of Dawn's hand nonetheless. It too was fairly small and hard, and Spike gently opened it, taking care not to rip the paper. By the time he had opened it fully, Dawn was sighing in boredom.

"Thanks love," Spike said, kissing Buffy. There were three things inside the box. Three frames, holding three pictures. One of Buffy and him, taken at Thanksgiving earlier in the fall. One of Spike, Buffy and Dawn, in the summer out in the sun, not to long after Spike found out he was human. The last one held an ultrasound picture of their baby, from their latest visit at the doctor.

"It's perfect."

"Well, I wanted to find one where I looked better than that -" she pointed at the Thanksgiving one, where her stomach was showing, "- but I didn't find one."

"You look beautiful, love, don't worry." She smiled at him, and wondered how she could ever have been able to resist his charms.

"From Giles to Buffy." Dawn handed her sister an envelope.

"Ooh, more for me?" She opened the envelope and found a gift certificate for Charlotte Russe, one of her favorite stores.

"I, um, didn't quite know what to get you, so I decided you get to chose for yourself."

"That's fine with me, Giles," Buffy smiled.

Another couple of presents were handed out, which was followed by more thank you-s and happy smiles. Finally, Dawn said, "I think that was all."

"Actually," Spike said, sitting up from his seat on the couch. Buffy pouted at him, having lost her comfortable position when Spike moved. "There are some more. Two, to be exact."

He disappeared from the room and came back a moment later with a box - the round kind, in which you got hats in other times - and held it out to Dawn. "Merry Christmas, Nibblet."

Dawn took the box and set it on the floor, and lifted the top off. "Oh my gosh!" she squealed. "She's so pretty!"

"You got her a kitten?!" Buffy exclaimed at the sight of the little fur ball.

"Oh Buffy I can keep her right?" Dawn picked the little animal up and petted her. Then she set the kitten down, and after playing a while with the little ball that Spike had put into the box too, it settled down on Dawn's lap, falling promptly asleep.

"Fine," Buffy sighed. "But she is your responsibility!"

Dawn nodded, before the kitten got her attention again.

"Okay, before everyone falls asleep down here, maybe we should finish off the gift exchange. After all, we have one left." The gang nodded and Buffy wondered what was going on. They were obviously up to something.

"Will you come, pet?" Spike asked and helped the Slayer off the couch. With the gang in tow - Dawn last, with the kitten in her arms - they walked up the stairs over to their bedroom. Spike opened the door and Buffy gasped.

"Oh my… This is…" She stared at the cradle in front of her. It was absolutely perfect. Made out of wood painted white, with layers of white and light, light blue cloths, and small stones embedded in patterns around the bottom. "It is beautiful," Buffy breathed.

"You like it?" Xander asked.

"If I like it? Of course I do! Did you all…"

"Well, Spike came up with the idea," Xander replied, "And I did the wood part. The girls helped with the cloth part, Tara and Anya did the stones. Giles helped with some details, wherever he was, um, needed."

"It has a protective spell around it too," Willow quipped in.

"Guys thank you so much!" She hugged them all, one by one. "Dawn! Did you know about this?"

"I didn't have a clue…" Dawn said, slightly disappointed. She would have loved to be part of this surprise.

"Sorry Dawnie," Willow said, "It just… I dunno. We thought you might want to be surprised too."

Dawn nodded. Meanwhile, Buffy made her way over to Spike, and she kissed him. The kiss quickly became deeper, and finally, Xander cleared her throat to get the two to separate. Buffy and Spike just grinned happily at each other.



TBC…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 14



The Scoobies did not leave until three in the morning. By then, both Buffy and Dawn had fallen asleep, and Spike was the one to say goodbye to their friends instead. The next morning, Buffy awoke at nine, when Dawn came into the room and snuggled up between her and Spike. Buffy smiled, and stroke Dawn's hair as she had done since her sister was a baby.

Half an hour later, they made their way downstairs. Dawn found her stockings filled with smaller gifts and candy, and thus wanted to skip breakfast. But when the smell of pancakes reached her, she changed her mind.

Later that day, Dawn had left to go to Richie. Buffy and Spike sat cuddled on the couch, only semi-watching what was going on on the tv. Dawn's new kitten, named Luna, was sleeping in the hat box, which she was using as a temporary bed.

"Don't you think she's spending too much time with that boy?" Spike asked her.

"Who? Dawn? With Richie?"

"No, Cinderella with her bloody Prince Charming. Of course Dawn."

"Well, no. He is her boyfriend, why shouldn't she spend time with him. He's a nice kid, and a responsible one. And Dawn wouldn't do anything… bad."

"Just like you didn't when you were her age?"

"Why are we having this conversation?" Buffy asked, looking her fiancé in the eye. "Dawn is mature and responsible. I'm sure we can trust her to make the right decisions."

He frowned at her, but did not say anything.

"He won't hurt her, Spike. And even if he does, she has to learn from her own mistakes. You can't protect her from everything."

He looked at her, sadness in his eyes. "No," he said, "But it would be nice if I could protect her from something."

She watched him for a moment, slightly confused, but then realized what he was referring to. "Spike, you didn't fail her. Nor did you fail me. What happened up at the tower was just… You did your best. No one could have asked for anything more from you."

He still did not answer her, and he was looking away. She took his face in her hands and kissed his lips gently, lovingly.

"You didn't fail," she told him.

He took her in, and began kissing her harder. His hands traveled down her body, and he held her closer to him. He buried his face in her neck, kissing her. Her hands moved around his neck and played with her hair, and soon she was lost in him.



* * *



"Don't you think it's weird that we don't have seen or heard anything else about that scroll?" Buffy asked Giles when she was training a week later. Her training was not as hard anymore, but she had to train nonetheless to not lose all the control and power she had gained during the last year.

"I mean, first I get it almost thrown in my head, get a spell cast over me and then it's gone - poof! - with the fire and now we don't hear a thing about it."

She put her hands on her hips and looked up at her Watcher.

"To be honest, Buffy, I have looked into it, but I have yet to find anything of interest," Giles replied. "So far, there hasn't been anything to give us any further clue."

"I hate this. I hate being left in the dark! They can't just throw something in my head and then just disappear! It doesn't work that way!" Buffy was pacing back and forth, getting upset.

"Uh, Buffy, maybe you should sit down. Think about the baby."

"The baby's fine!" the Slayer shot back at him, though rubbing her aching back at the same time. "It's this stupid prophecy or whatever it is that is annoying, nothing else! Oh, I want to hit something…" she muttered under her breath.

"Willow and I are going to continue to look into this, Buffy, but until we find something, you will just have to be careful, all right?"

Buffy stopped pacing, her hands on her hips. She stared at her Watcher for a few moments, then sighed. "Fine. I'll be good."



* * *



"Spike! Get down here now!" Buffy yelled.

It did not take more than ten seconds before Spike was standing in front of her in the hallway, putting his shoes on.

"You know, it would be good if we could avoid being late for this one thing, you know. It's three weeks till we get married - it's kind of a good idea if we know what we're serving, and over all doing," she told him as he got ready.

"Dawn!" she yelled next. Her sister came scurrying down the stairs.

"Yes ma'am?" she asked, staring at her sister.

"Will you please be good tonight? Stay out of trouble? For once?"

"Buffy, I am sixteen years old, not a little baby! Jeez, just relax. I'll be good and I'll be fine. Will you go now?"

The Slayer gave her younger sister a stern look before turning to her fiancé. "Ready?"

"Yes ma'am," he said and Buffy glared at him.

"Let's go."



* * *



He did not know where it had started. Somewhere around the wedding cake, he thought. Spike had been bored to death by the wedding coordinator, and he did not understand how Buffy could sit there and look so, so, so… interested.

They had begun fighting. It had started out with the Slayer telling him,

"Spike, pay attention!"

When he did not, instead yawned visibly, hell had broken loose. He had tried to put an arm around her, but she pushed him away.

"You really don't care about this, now do you?"

"Oh yes Slayer, I care so much about what kind of bleeding wedding cake we are going to eat," he had replied sarcastically, getting a bit annoyed with her.

"You know, you were the one who asked to marry me!"

"I didn't ask to get the whole wedding bloody package with a boring old lady into it!" The wedding coordinator had not even had time to look offended, she just stared from the to-be bride to the to-be groom, wondering if they were really to-be.

"This is what you go through when you get married," Buffy practically yelled at him.

"I don't care! It is boring!"

"I- You- Go to hell, Spike." She turned away, and he stared at her. When she refused to look at him again, he got out of his seat and walked out of the room, leaving one pissed off Slayer and a very confused wedding coordinator behind him.



TBC…

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Part 15



Spike could not sleep. In his mind, his fight with Buffy played, over and over again. The whole fight was in all honesty bloody stupid, but nonetheless, it was a fight. He did not know what had really started it - though he believed his words to Dawn, that things had been intense the last few weeks, what with the wedding coming up, Christmas, and of course the baby, who was soon to be delivered.

The thought made him smile, despite recent events.



* * *



Buffy looked out the window of the cab. The dark night made it hard to see much of anything, but that did not matter. She did not see what she was looking at anyway.

She rested one hand on her huge belly, and felt the baby kick. It was a strange sensation, to have something within you kick, but it was a wonderful sensation all the same. She had not thought that she, as the Slayer, would ever get the chance to have a child. Yet here she was, with the baby soon in her arms.

She let her thoughts slip, wondering if the child would be a boy or a girl, and wondering who it would look more like - her or Spike.

Spike.

She had tried and tried to keep him out of her thoughts, but without succeeding. She could not remember why she had gotten so mad at him. The coordinator had been putting her to sleep too - she had just been putting on an interested face. She did not blame Spike for not doing the same. And yet at the time, it had seemed as the most annoying thing in the world.

The fight had been dumb. It had also been unnecessary. Or maybe that was just it; it had been needed for them to realize that they should not be fighting. Buffy had been with Spike every moment of the day - and night - for the last few weeks, and maybe that was what was showing now. That and the fact that her hormones still seemed to be playing her every now and then.

The cab stopped outside of a small, cute looking hotel. "We are here, ma'am," the driver said.

"Thank you." Buffy paid him and left the car after retrieving her bag.

She had decided to use the hotel reservation when she had the chance, even if it would not be the special just-her-and-Spike-weekend she had hoped it to be. After she had signed in, she took the elevator to the fourth floor and found her room. It was small, with one big comfortable bed in the middle, and two tables on the sides. One chair stood in a corner, and a TV was placed on a small shelf on the wall.

She flopped down on the bed, the bag hitting the floor at the same time.

I miss him already, she realized. I've been away from him for only a couple of hours, and I already miss him.

Slowly, she laid down on the bed. She pulled her feet up as high as her swollen belly would allow it, and before long, she drifted off to sleep.



* * *



The two black shadows outside of the window watched as the Slayer fell asleep. The night was quiet except for the flapping of the two creatures' wings, and they did not disturb the peace in any way when they informed their Master of the girl's whereabouts.

"They have fought," Kaicynn told her Lord through telepathy. "The Chosen One and the vampire that is not have fought."

"She is missing him," Kayarin added.

"This is going to the plan then," the dark voice came back. Kayarin almost gave in to the shudder growing inside of her at the sound of the voice, but stopped herself. Her Master would feel her fright.

"What are we to do, Master?" Kaicynn and Kayarin asked unanimously.

"You are to take her, Twins. You are to take her and bring her to me. And see to it that she is unhurt!"



* * *



A soundproof barrier was set around the hotel room Buffy was staying in, so when the Twins entered the building, no one heard the glass being smashed. Kaicynn and Kayarin placed their hands over the sleeping Slayer, and she twitched for a second beneath the hands of such dark creatures, before falling into an oblivious unconsciousness.

The twins lifted her into the air through magic, and flew after her, leaving the room empty behind.



* * *



Spike woke up the next morning feeling uneasy. It was not a feeling he enjoyed, and for a second, he had to think of just why he was feeling it. Then he remembered.

Buffy.

Fight.

He got off the couch and stretched his slightly aching back - the pains of being human, he thought. Then he jogged up the stairs and peeked into Buffy's room, to see if she had come home during the night. He was not surprised to find that she was not there. He believed that if she had come home, he would have heard it.

Spike walked back downstairs silently, to not wake Dawn up. On the kitchen table laid the note he and Buffy had left for Dawn the night before, with the phone number and the address for the hotel. He quickly dialed the number.

"Hi, I'm calling for Buffy Summers? Room number 408? Thank you."

The woman on the other end did the connection for him, and his ear filled with the ringing signal once more.

When more than ten signals had gone through, he began wondering where she was. He let another five go, but without anyone picking up. A small worry began growing inside of him, because the woman in the reception had told him she had not seen Ms. Summers this morning.

He dialed the number for the hotel once more, and the receptionist was surprised to hear that no one was answering.

"Would you go up and check on her, please?" Spike asked.

"Well, we don't normally…"

"This is important - she is almost nine months pregnant, who knows…" Spike was not used to pleading, but on the other hand, lots of the human ways were still not like him.

"Uh, I see. I will go up and check that Ms. Summers is okay, and I will call you back in a couple of minutes, is that all right? What was your phone number again, sir?"

He gave it to her, and hung up the phone, anxiously awaiting the phone to ring again.

What if she is in labor and can't come to the phone? he asked himself. What if she is sick? What if something nasty came last night? What if…

The phone rang again, and Spike quickly picked it up.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Summers, I am sorry…" the girl on the other end of the line sounded almost hysterical. "I-I went up there, a-and the window… It was shattered, all over the floor… And-and…"

"Where's Buffy?" Spike almost screamed into the receiver.

"W-well, that is the p-problem… We can't find her."

The phone dropped out of Spike's hand and he stared numbly into the wall.



TBC…

Title: Child of Light

Author: Camilla aka Cosmic

Email: bananacosmicgirl@hotmail.com

Rating: R to be on the safe side. Some language/sex/violence, but none more than what you would see on the show, really.

Feedback: I love feedback!!

Distribution: Death Marked Love, ff.net. Anyone else, just ask.



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Part 16



The Gang was in shock.

After Spike had dropped the phone, Dawn had come down the stairs. Spike's screaming had woken her up. She tried getting to Spike by calling to him, but did not manage to get through to him until she slapped him. First then did he seem to notice she was even there at all.

"What is it, Spike?" she asked.

"Th-the Slayer. She's gone." Then he seemed to realize what he had just said. "Bloody hell," he swore, "She's gone!"

He had explained what the receptionist had told him, and he had ordered her to get dressed while he called the others to a meeting at the Magic Shop. First, he had called Willow and Tara to tell them to drive out to the hotel. They were to check if there were any traces or clues as to who had taken Buffy.

The rest of the gang were now sitting in the Magic Shop, all shocked at the news.

"I'm betting my bloody humanity that whoever was behind the sleep-spell is behind this," Spike muttered. He was holding the paper with the translation of what the now-burnt paper had said, and he was pacing back and forth as he talked.

"Whoever it is obviously wants the baby," Dawn said.

"Well, whatever it is, when we find it, I am gonna kill it!" Xander exclaimed. Anya lifted her eyebrow at him.

"You and what army?" she asked. "This is obviously someone pretty powerful. To take the Slayer from a hotel full of people, without anyone noticing it. Besides, the room was on the fourth floor, and the window was broken so he or she probably came through the window, and that means they're probably pretty into magic - or they can fly. How else could they get a pregnant Slayer out?"

"Anya is right, I believe," Giles said, finally speaking. "Though what it is we are looking for, I still have no clue of. We have to wait for Willow and Tara to report if there is anything in the hotel room."

As if on que, the phone rang. Anya picked it up. "Welcome to the Magic Shop, this is Anya speaking, how can I help you spend your money?"

Pause.

"Oh it's you. You wanna talk to Giles?" She gave the receiver to the Watcher and the rest of the group watched him intently as he "hm"ed and "well"ed through the conversation. Before he was done, he said, "Thank you, this might be very useful… Very interesting indeed."

He hung up and turned to the gang. "They found traces of a soundproof spell performed somewhere during the night, and they got the feeling of that something very dark had been on the bed. They also believe that there were two of them, which might help us, because not too many demons work in pairs. Also, the girls are agreeing with your theory that the creatures have wings, Anya."

"To the books then, I'm guessing," Xander sighed.

"Yes, indeed."

"Not for me," Spike announced. "I'm going to Willy's - somehow I'm sure that that wanker has information."

"Can I come?" Dawn asked enthusiastically.

"Absolutely not." Dawn pouted, but Spike stayed strong, and the girl settled for researching with Xander, Anya and Giles.



* * *



"Ah! I don't know anything! I'm telling ya, I don't know!" Punch. "Ow! Hey, now let's be…" Right hook. "Okay, okay, maybe I know something." Eyebrow lift. "Oh yeah, it's all coming back to me now…"

"So talk before -"

Spike did not have to finish the sentence; Willy threw his hands up in the air. "All right," he said in a low voice. "Maybe I know. There are these chicks - two of them. Twins by the looks of it. Keeps talking about a 'Dark Lord', and I might have heard them mention the Slayer's baby a time or two."

Spike growled, and pressed Willy up against the wall. "Anything else you just 'might have heard of'? Like where they might hang out?" he pressed.

"Well… No…" Spike pressed at his throat a little harder. "It's some caves, I think! I don't know where! They've just mentioned caves!"

"Anything else?"

"No!" Willy replied. This time, it seemed honest to Spike. He eyed him for another second before releasing his grip on the other mans throat. With a final stare, he turned around and walked out of there, his duster blowing around his legs making him look almost invincible.

If only that had been how he felt.



* * *



Buffy felt as though her head was about to explode. At the same time, everything - reaching from her toes to her hair, out into her fingers and to the tip of her nose - hurt. She was scared to open her eyes, for she did not know if that would make the pain worse.

"Oh you can open your eyes, Princess. It's dark here."

It seemed whatever had spoken had read her mind. The voice chilled her bones though, and she was reluctant to open her eyes. Whoever had spoken had told the truth - it was dark. A couple of candles, placed near what looked like walls of a cave, were the only light sources. It was damp and chilly.

"How lovely to see that you are awake. Twins!"

Twins? Buffy did not understand what was happening; her mind was too fogged with pain. It also annoyed her that she could turn neither her head nor her body to look around, more than too see the candles out of the corner of her eye. She was tied to some sort of bench, and had no strength to break the ropes.

He Slayer Sense tingled and she could hear flapping. Two creatures had entered the place, and from the sound, Buffy thought, they were flying. Soon, she got it confirmed, as the two creatures - women, twins, by the looks of it - came over her.

"Bind her so I can do the spell," the dark voice instructed the Twins.

"W-what spell?" the Slayer asked in a small voice. "Who are you?"

At that, a cloaked form moved forward. Its hood made it impossible for Buffy to see its face until it was just next to her, leaning over her. Then she could see that where a face with eyes, nose, mouth and other human features would have been, there was only a gap. Something gray, foggy, swirled around inside instead. She did not know why - Buffy had seen lots worse in her days - but it frightened her more than anything else had ever known. She could not even scream.

"I am the Dark Lord. I am just doing a spell to take your baby," the gray fog told her.

That is when she screamed.



* * *



"What do we have? Spike?"

This time it was a full Scooby meeting. All members of the Gang were there - Tara and Willow were back from the hotel and Spike had returned from his visit at Willy's bar. Dawn, Anya, Xander and Giles had not moved from the books since Spike left.

"Willy said there are two 'chicks' as he called them, in on this," Spike told the group. "A set of twins. And someone they call 'the Dark Lord'. He didn't know anything about the latter. But he said they'd mentioned caves. Didn't know where though."

"That fits with what we found at the hotel!" Willow exclaimed. "Both Tara and I got the feeling that there had been two demons there, though they seemed kind of like one at the same time. Twins would explain that."

"We found twins here," Dawn filled in and gave a book to Willow. Spike looked at the pages over the witch's shoulder.

"They are very dark demons," Dawn continued. "The book says that they from the beginning were one, but that she didn't obey some hellgod, and as punishment, the hellgod split them into two. Problem is, though the hellgod thought that would make the demon weaker, it only gave it more strength. The power of the original demon doubled when it was turned into twins."

"Is there anything in there on destroying these lovely ladies?" Xander asked.

"Well, there is something," Giles chimed in. "It mentions that the demon is completely dark, as in extreme evil, and that good would destroy it."

"It's not much to go on, but it's a start…" Spike muttered. "What do the rest of you lot have?"

"Not much. There is an old text about some half ancient evil that was turned into fog some thousand years ago, and in the text, a Slayer's baby was mentioned. Some old prophecy, I think." Xander handed Spike the book.

Spike muttered to himself as he read through the text. "Anya!" he said finally, "Hand me that paper with the translation of the text…" The former vengeance demon, for once, handed Spike what he had asked for without any remark.

"Changes the face… Old evil… Wrong time… Bloody hell, this is the evil we are fighting!"

"Huh?" Xander asked, not getting anything.

"Watcher, come here." Giles moved forward. "This is the same bloody prophecy, written in slightly different ways, isn't it?"

Giles looked closer at the text in the book, and then at the piece of paper. "Very possible, since our translation might not be completely accurate. But I believe it is."

"In that case, I'm thinking we need to find this bleeding thing fast, or we're about to have an apocalypse actually happening."



* * *



Icing mumbling echoed through the room. The Twins were chanting in some language Buffy did not understand, nor did she care to actually try and listen. The fog of the creature she had just seen seemed to lay upon her, and she could no longer control her own body. She felt a pain soaring through her, but the fog still seemed to erase it. She was dimly aware that she parted her legs when the pain came, and equally dimly aware that someone had taken off her pants and instead had clad her in a black gown.

The mumbling began growing, and suddenly, a second shot of pain went through her. This time, the fog was not enough to block it out, and she screamed.

Around her, the twins stopped chanting.

"It is done," they said. "Now all is wait."

The cloaked creature seemed to chuckle to himself as the girl in front of him screamed in pain once again. She tried to turn, wanting to get away, but the ropes holding her were keeping her from getting her will fulfilled.

"Soon Slayer, soon it will all be over."

She screamed again.



TBC…

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