Chapter Five

Another month passed by, and suddenly Buffy found herself unable to wear any of her old clothes. This depressed her severely, although it got better when Dawn took her out to shop. Meanwhile, things in school made time fly by, and Spike managed to get a job. At the hospital, nonetheless. It came as a total surprise when he told her that he, when he was alive, had worked as a doctor. Not fully taught, but still respected. And even through the years as a vampire, Spike had kept himself a jour with what happened in the medical branch, and the workers at Sunnydale Hospital were impressed with him. And with the job came much needed money to the Summers' household.

Giles had discussed Buffy's role as both a Slayer and a to-be mother with her. He had told her that he thought she should be careful and not go out without company until the baby was born – and preferably not after that either, since it would not do the baby any good if his or her mother was killed. Buffy had agreed reluctantly, and Giles had told Spike and the other Scoobies about their deal just to be on the safe side, so that Buffy would not get a stupid idea some night and go out anyway.

They celebrated Dawn's sixteenth birthday, although Dawn insisted on having two candles on the cake instead. "I'm really only a little more than a year and a half old, remember," she had told the Scoobies at their little gathering. At the party she threw for her other friends – those in her age – she had sixteen candles though, figuring it would be a little hard explaining the Key story for people who did not even believe there were creatures that went bump in the night.

Dawn also found herself with her first boyfriend. Richie, the guy she had been talking about on the way home from the hospital, had indeed asked her out and Dawn had found she liked him. So now they were dating. Buffy prayed that they weren't doing anything but the occasional kissing, but on the other hand, she herself had been Dawn's age when she made love with Angel for the first time.

It seemed so long ago.

In reality, it was not more than a couple of years, but it seemed as far away as a lifetime. Back then, Buffy had believed in true love, that Angel and her were soul mates, and that they would live happily ever after. That dream had been shattered over and over again. Now, she had found happiness with Spike, and she hoped that he would keep his promise and stay with her. She knew that she would never leave him.

One night, when Buffy came home from college after a long day of studying, she found the house looking dark from the outside. When she opened the door and walked inside, she saw hundreds of candles, lit everywhere, creating a mystical light and atmosphere.

"Spike?" she called, but none answered.

On the table in the living room, she saw a bouquet of red roses, and a note saying, 'dining room'. She smiled to herself and began walking through the rooms slowly, letting her hair out and taking in the beautiful surroundings that the lights created at the same time. The whole way was lit with candles and they continued in a path towards the dining room.

Someone started playing music, soft classical music, and Buffy smiled. That smiled changed to an ear to ear grin when she saw Spike standing in the dining room, clad in a smoking.

"Welcome home, love," he said, holding out a glass to her. At her skeptical look, he said, "Only cider. Nothing that is bad for you or the little one."

She smiled and they drank. Then he pulled out her chair and they sat down.

"This looks delicious," Buffy said when he presented chicken and rice and vegetables for the main course. "And it is delicious!" she continued after taking a bite.

"Why thank you, pet," he said, grinning. "Don't sound so surprised."

"So, why?" she asked, pouring some Sprite from a can into her glass.

"Why what?" He looked innocently at her.

"Why dinner? Candles? Roses? What have you done?"

"I haven't done anything. Can't a guy just get to surprise his princess every now and then without having a bloody motive behind it?"

"Well, you could, but… Let's just say, I know you." She grinned.

"Okay pet, well then I'll just say you know me fairly well. Because I do have a motive." He smiled and began fishing for something in his pocket.

"Aha!" Buffy exclaimed, but it died out as Spike sat down on one knee in front of her.

"Buffy, I have thought long about this, but… I love you. And I have tried at times to imagine how it would be to not have you in my life. And Slayer, every world I imagine, is hell. You've got me trapped… So, I'm asking you, Buffy Anne Summers: Will you be my wife?"

He held out a little box with a beautiful golden ring in it.

She looked stunned at first when he said the words, but then a smile crept up on her face and she took the little box out of his hand. She looked at it, then deeply into his blue eyes and answered,

"Yes, Spike, I would love to be your wife."

Now it was Spike's turn to be stunned. But before long, he found himself and his ability to move, and he swept her up in his arms, kissing her passionately.

"I love you, Spike," she mumbled as he sat her down on the floor again.

"And I love you, Mrs. Walthrop."

She was walking, no, floating, around on cloud number nine during the following days. Dawn found out that same night, when she found Buffy and Spike making out on the sofa. And for once, her baby sister did not get mad; she just squealed in delight and threw herself around the Slayer and the former vampire. The next morning, Buffy called Willow to tell her best friend about what had happened. The witch had also been screaming, and it was good that Spike had gone to work, or else he might have had second thoughts about marrying Buffy, when he saw how she was acting.

Or not.

Buffy had showed him just how much she loved him and the idea of getting married several times during the night, and Spike too walked around on clouds. There was no happier place to be than the Summers' home.

Five and a half months pregnant and I'm sitting here, flipping through bridal magazines with an ex-demon in a magic shop.

Life could not be better.

Buffy kept a light hand on her bulging stomach as she and Anya flipped through page after page of bridal dresses.

"I like that one," Anya said and pointed to yet another dress. Buffy made a face.

"I will not have a dress with a butt-bow," she said and turned the page. It showed another set of gorgeous dresses, but Buffy looked slightly unhappily at them.

"What's wrong, Buff?" Xander asked, entering the shop. "Oh, you're looking at that." The smile on his face faltered a little, having spent months already with his fiancée drooling over bridal magazines.

"Oh shush, this is fun," Buffy told him. "But I was a little unhappy, I'll admit…"

"How come? I thought everything was fine in Buffy-land."

"Well it is. But, check these girls out. They're all skinny and perfect and definitely not pregnant. I am, and by the time I'm actually marrying Spike, I'll look even worse. I mean, by then, I'll be really, really fat."

Dawn, who'd been sitting by the counter reading some book while listening to the conversation, sighed. She had heard her sister whine about the subject for weeks already, and had suggested that if it was so important for Buffy to be thin on her wedding day, she should wait until the baby was born to get married. But Buffy did not want that, she wanted Spike to be her husband when she gave birth. Dawn thought the whole thing was annoying, but kind of sweet.

Xander had another idea for how Buffy would not have to look fat on her wedding day.

"How about not marrying him?"

Buffy threw a little ball of paper at him, and he laughed and screamed. "Take it easy, Buff, I'm just kidding!" he exclaimed at her look.

"Well it's not fun," Buffy pouted.

Dawn walked over to the group by the table. "Haven't we had this discussion at home already, B?" Her sister had picked up on Faith's old nickname for Buffy a couple of weeks ago.

"Dawn, go away."

"Can we go away together?" Dawn asked hopefully. "We can go like home. I'm bored."

"Dawn…" Buffy began but stopped. "Fine, we'll go home."

Spike would be home by now, and they all needed to eat dinner – which Buffy of course first had to make. Buffy had always thought of herself as a walking disaster in the kitchen, but lately, when she had been forced to at least try and make healthy food, she had found it was not as hard as she had thought. It was actually a whole lot of fun.

"Let's go."

The surroundings were dark, only lit by a few candles standing in no special formation around the room.

"Have you found it?"

The voice that broke the silence was dark and bone chilling. Two smaller, dark figures made their way up towards the throne, both with auras of power and evil around them. They were graceful in their movements, dark clad and identical in their looks.

"It's her, sir," they said in unison. "May we ask why you called us, Lord?"

"You have been called, my Twins, to perform some spells on this girl."

"But this girl is special, Lord," the twins replied, "Not only is she the Chosen One, she is also –"

"I know very well who and what she is," the dark voice from the throne interrupted. "I know what I want, and you have only been called here to do what I tell you. Now will you?"

Through the gracefulness of both demons, the creature on the throne could sense one of the Twins was scared. Yet he did not say anything; he knew he had them both under his power.

"We will do it, Lord," they both said.

Buffy rubbed her lower back while waiting for the water to begin boiling.

"Back hurting, pet?"

Spike's hands moved around her waist and she jumped at the touch, not having heard him enter the room. She sighed loudly as he began massaging carefully.

"Yeah," she said, leaning on him. I guess I should get used to it though. The books said back hurting is common, especially later on in the pregnancy."

He moved his hands from her back onto her stomach again. "Maybe it's worth it," he whispered in her ear.

She giggled. "Well, you wouldn't know anything about it, now would you? You won't have to go through anything to set this child to this world –"

"Nothing, love?"

"Nothing that's uncomfortable," she said, slightly annoyed, as she turner around to face him. He smirked.

"Nah, the part I was involved in was definitely comfortable."

She glared at him. "It's just unfair. Why do I have to take everything? I'm having to changing my body, hurting my back, breast swelling, being sick in the morning…" She looked up at him and saw that he was watching her with a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm being whiny."

"It's all right, love. I understand that it can't be easy, but I still hope that you think it's worth it."

"Oh Spike of course I think it's worth it. To have a baby – it's a chance I thought I'd never get, being the Slayer and all. You know I'm the happiest girl on Earth." She tilted her head to kiss him again.

"I know. Now, let's see if we can make you comfortable again…" He sneaked his hands underneath her shirt, letting her stomach fill his hands before continuing up to her breasts. She sighed happily.

A noise interrupted them and Buffy turned around to find the water on the stove boiling over.

"Shoot," she swore to herself, while Spike took a step back to let her handle the stove. He knew she would only get annoyed if he tried to help her.

Forty-five minutes later, dinner was on the table. Neither one of the two noticed the two dark figures outside of the window, listening intently to every word said.

"I can't believe it's already December."

"And I can't believe I'll be seven months pregnant very, very soon," Buffy sighed to her little sister.

"You know," Dawn told her, "That is the only thing you talk about these days."

Buffy glared at her. "Well it's kinda hard to keep your mind off something that will soon make me unable to see my toes," she shot at her. She made a gesture at her stomach, which did not seem as big at the moment because it was hidden underneath a huge sweatshirt.

"Yeah, yeah," Dawn sighed and turned her attention back to the TV. A second later, she looked back at Buffy. "When's Spike coming home?"

"I don't know, he said it could get late, cause there are a lot of guys sick right now, so he'll have to be there some extra."

"He really likes that job, now doesn't he?" Dawn asked.

"Seems like it. He spends a whole lot of time there, that's all I – Aii!"

A loud crash interrupted the calmness of the room as a ball of fire made thousands of glass splinters rain over the room. Dawn screamed as the pieces tore into her flesh, while Buffy tried her hardest to cover her sister, throwing her down on the floor. A couple of seconds later, all the glass was on the floor, and other than the burning something on the floor, things were calm once more.

"W-what was that?" Dawn stammered quietly, trying unsuccessfully to brush of pieces of glass from her clothing without getting any more cuts.

"I don't know," Buffy replied, "Are you all right?"

She looked at her baby sister. Dawn was bleeding a little from a cut by her right eyebrow, and some smaller shards had bruised her arms, but other than that she seemed physically okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Dawn said. "Though… I hate to say this, but it makes me a little … nervous when there comes burning thing through the window."

Buffy, who was making her way slowly towards the burning something turned around a little and gave her sister a small smile. Then she turned her attention back to the thing on the floor. The fire was dying out quickly, but it seemed as though the thing that had been burning was still fine. It was a rolled up piece of paper.

Buffy stretched her hand out and grabbed it once the fire was out, but screamed and let it go quickly as the thing burned her hand.

"Ouch," she said. "On second thought, I just might wait a little before looking at that…"

Dawn walked over to her sister and took Buffy's hand in hers. "Stay here," she said, "I'm gonna get the first aid kit."

"That's not," Buffy began, but her sister was already out of the room, "Necessary."

At that very moment, the front door opened and Spike came in. His eyes were wide open and he looked around the room in a slight panic. "Buffy?" he asked. "Nibblet?"

"We're here," Buffy said, walking over to him. "We're fine, don't worry."

"Don't worry?!" Spike asked. "I see someone run away from our house and the living room window is broken and I hear screaming and I shouldn't worry?!"

"Spike, really, it's okay. But you saw who did it?" That part had gotten her interest immediately.

"Just a shadow, no, actually there were two," Spike said, now bringing Buffy close and holding her while stroking her hair. "But I didn't see who it was. I would have gone after them but I had to make sure you were all right first. Now I would like to see the bleeding idiots, I would rip their arms off and cut their throats open and -"

"Spike, honey, that is way more than I want to hear," Buffy told him with a smile. "Although I can't say that I wouldn't do just about the same."

"Buffy, here's the first aid kit," Dawn said as she came down the stairs. When she saw that Spike was there, she ran down and threw her arms around him as though it had been years and years since she last saw him.

After Spike had hugged his two favorite girls for another couple of minutes, the trio made their way to the couch. Dawn lay with her head on Buffy's lap, while Buffy herself leaned on Spike a little. Soon, Buffy began stroking her sister's hair. It was a calming motion; it always made her feel better.

Once Dawn had fallen asleep, Buffy and Spike began talking in low voices after wrapping Buffy's burned hand. Spike had picked up the piece of paper from the floor a while before, and the two were now studying it.

"This is stupid," Buffy concluded. "And it's definitely not English."

"No, pet, it isn't."

"Why can't they write things in good ol' English instead of making prophecies in dumb languages that no one knows?" Buffy muttered. "And what's the point of throwing this into our lives when we don't get any of it anyway?"

"Well, as it turns out, love, this doesn't seem to be some ancient language at least."

"Huh? You're saying that you get what this says?" Buffy asked. Her tone was a little too loud, and Dawn stirred on the couch. The couple held their breaths, not wanting Dawn to wake up, and soon, she settled once more.

"Well, I'm not sure, but it seems as though this scroll is written in Swedish."

"Swedish? That's like, um, Sweden, right? Somewhere in Europe?"

"Very good, love. It's in Scandinavia. And if it is Swedish, then there are about nine million people who know the language this is written in."

"Uhu. And this you know because…?"

"Pet, I'm over a hundred years old. I have picked up some things during the years."

Buffy looked at him with a bored look. "So you decided to get to know everything about a country with nine million people?" she asked, disbelief in her voice.

Spike glared at her before turning on his charm instead, knowing that his fiancé was bored with the conversation anyway.

"That wasn't all I learned," he told her in a low voice, brushing his lips over hers.

"Spike, not… Dawn…" Buffy mumbled, but was silenced with a passionate kiss. She tried to resist but found herself loosing the battle with Spike very soon and her hands moved up over his hard, muscular body. Then she abruptly broke off.

"Not here," she whispered and pointed at Dawn, who was still laying with her head on the Slayer's lap.

"I'll fix that," Spike smiled. He got up and lifted Dawn carefully. "I'll be right back." He disappeared up the stairs with the still sleeping Dawn in his arms.

A couple of minutes later he was walking back down the stairs. It was quiet downstairs. Spike found his way to the living room, but stopped in the entrance. A tender smile crept onto his face, because on the couch was the petite Slayer, sleeping. Her bandaged hand rested lightly on her swelling tummy and the other one was under her head.

Spike let Buffy's slow and steady heartbeat, and the baby's faster one, fill his mind as he looked at her on the sofa.

My angel, he thought.

He just stood there watching her for a while, content and happy. Then, half an hour or so later, he walked over and picked her up. She fit so perfectly in her arms. Although the pregnancy was making her heavier, to him she was still as light as a feather. She cuddled closer to him unconsciously, as he made his way up the stairs for the second time.

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