Disclaimer: The characters were made by Joss...I just made them live in Cleveland, get married etc.

Author’s note: Beta’d by the lovely Bloodytearsoflife
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Chapter 2: Unwanted

Buffy stumbled down stairs to get herself some juice, almost colliding with Andrew on his way up to the attic.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered.

Buffy looked curiously at the ‘watcher’ a moment before continuing down the stairs. Andrew had been sullen for weeks now, since he couldn’t track down who or what had killed Gable. It was an open and shut case to Buffy. A demon of unknown origin had done it, and she’d most likely killed it at some point during patrol these last past weeks.

Andrew was just sulking because he didn’t find out what it was.

She supposed she should be nicer to Andrew, he was Giles’ representative in Cleveland. But there something inside of Buffy that refused to let Andrew not suffer because he was taking Giles’ place. If that made sense at all.

Buffy reached up to grip the handle on the fridge door and let her eyes pass over the prophecy that was held up by three magnets. You would think that the number of times she and Spike got it on that she’d be pregnant by now. There was something in her brain that just wasn’t holding out hope anymore. She was doomed to be immortal and childless. Everyone around her was going to have fat grandbabies before she did. Buffy pulled open the fridge, sticking out her tongue at the prophecy and grabbing for her juice.

Pouring herself a glass, she looked up as the phone rang. With so many people in the house it was never necessary to rush to pick it up.

Andrew’s voice came from the stairs: “Buffy! It’s Faith!”

Buffy rolled her eyes. She really didn’t need this now. Not only did she not want to gush and coo over a baby that wasn’t hers but she didn’t need to break down on the phone with Faith. With a sigh, Buffy steeled herself for the conversation and picked up the extension in the kitchen.

“Faith?” asked Buffy into the handset.

“B, sorry for calling so early,” started Faith in a rushed voice.

Buffy glanced at the clock, she hadn’t even realised that it was seven in the morning. Sleeping with a vampire did weird stuff to your internal clock.

“No problem. What’s up?” asked Buffy, expecting to be bombarded with the latest news on the two Faith progeny.

The line was silent for a while and Buffy wasn‘t sure if Faith was still there or if they had gotten disconnected.

“Faith?”

“There’s something here, stalking us. I think I could use some Slayer type help,” Faith rushed out in one breath, completely seriously. “Can you come to New York?”

The jealousy and loathing took a quick exit. “Absolutely, we’ll be there tonight,” said Buffy. “Get your self and the kiddies somewhere safe. I’ll call your cell phone when we land.”

“Thanks B, I owe you one,” noted Faith in a relieved voice.

“And Faith? Next time don’t leave it so late,” Buffy admonished.

“Well I was a little busy taking care of a newborn, I didn’t really notice until yesterday, how close this thing had gotten. I’ve got to go. See you soon?”

“Yeah, I will. Say hello to Richard and Nicole for me,” concluded Buffy, hanging up the phone, only to pick it up again to book tickets to New York on the next flight out.
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Spike and Buffy stepped out of the airport just as the sun was setting. Getting out her cell phone, Buffy dialled Faith’s number again, this time hoping to get through.

The phone on the other end just rang and rang.

With a worried look at her mate, Buffy put away the phone. Spike hailed a cab.

“I don’t know where to look for her though,” she admitted as they slid into the back seat of a yellow taxi.

“Start at the beginning. Their apartment,” he said, leaning towards the plastic divider between them and the taxi driver, giving the man the address of Robin and Faith’s apartment.

Spike leaned back against the seat and clutched Buffy’s hand to his. The worry emanating off of her was almost visible.

The cab stopped outside the apartment complex and Buffy and Spike got out. Buffy looked through her bag to look for the set of keys Faith had left her the last time she was in Cleveland.

Turning the doorknob to the now unlocked apartment, Buffy pushed the door open with her foot and stepped tentatively into the Faith and Robin’s home.

It was decorated sparsely with boxes, as if they were in the process of packing up to move. They were in need of a bigger apartment now that they had two kids. Spike slipped in behind her, no invite needed since that weekend he and Buffy had taken a weekend break from slaying in Cleveland to slay in New York as a vacation last year. The two of them walked around the apartment cautiously, eyes and ears open from any sign that someone was in the apartment.

“Can I help you?” came a voice from the bedroom.

Buffy looked up to see a teenage girl standing with her hands on her hips standing in a bedroom door way.

“If you are breaking in, you might want to get lost, I’ve just called the cops,” continued the girl.

“Who are you?” asked Buffy.

“Look, I’m supposed to be here, you aren’t. If you come any closer, I have pepper spray...”

Spike laughed at this comment. “She’s the sitter, luv,” the vampire concluded, putting his hand out to steady his mate.

“Oh, ya, that makes sense,” conceded Buffy.

There was a thump from the room the girl was standing in front of and the sound of padded feet. Out of the room scurried out a two year old little boy with curly brown hair. The girl picked him up and continued to glare.

“I’m Faith’s friend, this is my husband. She asked us to come here. Do you know where she is?” asked Buffy.

The girl shook her head. “No, but they were supposed to be home before sunset. I thought it was them when you came in the door. I didn’t know anyone else had keys.”

“B!” said Richard, lifting his arms up at Buffy with a smile on his face.

“I think someone recognises me!” observed Buffy with a smile, walking forward to ruffle Richard’s hair.

“You have no idea where they could have gone?” asked Spike, trying to get his wife focused again on the matter at hand.

The girl shook her head again.

“Right then,” he noted, disgruntled.

Tracking Faith and Robin in this city wasn’t going to be easy.

“I’ve got to go,” said the girl. “This job wasn’t supposed to be longer than 6pm. I’ve got a date.”

“And we’ve got to find Robin and Faith,” observed Buffy turning to her mate.

Spike pulled a couple of bills from his back pocket and thrust them at the girl. “This cover the bill?” he asked.

She looked up at him tentatively, reaching for the money. “You sure you aren’t kidnappers or something?”

“Not kidnappers, see the picture on the wall there?” noted Spike pointing to the frame that held a picture of Faith, Anya, Dawn, Willow and Buffy at Buffy’s wedding.

The girl’s eyes went wide and she nodded in comprehension. She put down Richard and grabbed her coat and purse.

“I hope you find them,” she said simply. “Niki’s in the bedroom asleep.” And with that the girl left the apartment.

“Well now we need someone to watch the kids,” said Buffy matter of fact-ly. “Anya!” she shouted up at the ceiling, not caring that it was probably going to wake the baby.

Anya poofed into the apartment, her foot tapping in impatience. “What?”

“We need you to baby sit,” explained Buffy.
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Following Spike’s nose, for Faith’s scent, brought them through a couple of cemeteries and to a warehouse. Inside the warehouse, abandoned and in bad need of repair, Buffy found the first tell tale signs that they were on the right track.

Faith’s cell phone lay in the middle of the warehouse floor, the light flashing that there were three new messages.

“They are close,” noted Spike, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him, making her leave the cell phone there.

They rounded the corner and exited through a side entrance, taking three or four steps before being confronted with the ugly, smelly truth.

Faith and Robin lay, dead on the hard pavement, not a mark on them, but the smell of moldy food in the air.

The implications of it all hit Buffy at once. “I didn’t kill it. It’s all my fault!”
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Buffy and Spike returned to Faith and Robin’s apartment, Buffy’s tears still wet upon her cheeks. The slayer instantly picked up Ricky and held him to her, muttering just how sorry she was and how it was her fault.

“It got them too?” asked Anya, sympathetically.

Spike answered the question with a nod of his head, as he removed Buffy’s cell phone from her coat pocket and began to dial the watcher.

As Spike explained the situation to Giles, Anya led Buffy to the couch, making the slayer sit. “What are you going to do?” asked Anya carefully.

“I’m going to find it and kill it,” growled Buffy startling even Spike.

“I meant about the kids, about the bodies. You have to call the police,” she said. “The kids, they are going to be put into foster care.”

“No,” interrupted Spike. “The police won’t want to hear about it for twenty four hours. They haven’t been missing that long yet.”

“We can’t just leave their bodies there Spike,” added Buffy.

“We either do this the human way, or these kids won’t have a normal life,” he explained reasonably, closing the cell phone up, his conversation with Giles long over. “The watcher is on it. It won’t be long before he’s got the answers we need.”
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They waited until 6 am to phone the police, Anya having left long before. The children slept soundly in their room, unaware of just how much their lives changed since they last saw their parents. There was a sharp knock on the door as the police arrived. Buffy waited for Spike to answer the door as she prepared herself for what she knew was coming.

They had their story down, not that there was much to sort out, just that they hadn’t found the bodies. They had no idea where Robin and Faith were.

Buffy felt numb as the police asked their questions, as the news that Faith and Robin’s bodies had been found, as the fact that the children were going to be taken to foster care until the nearest kin were found.

Spike piped up at the last bit, that they were the nearest kin.

When Faith had had Richard, she’d made a will. Richard and Niki were to go to Buffy and Spike Graves, no questions. Robin and Faith had no other relatives. I guess it helps to have immortal friends to grant the custody of your children to, thought Buffy.

They couldn’t take the kids right away though. They had to check out Faith’s will. Who was her lawyer? How could social services get in contact with them?

Spike supplied Giles’ phone number, the Council’s vault holding the will and testaments of all the Scoobies, and several of the former potential slayers.

Buffy was brought down to the morgue to identify the slain couple.

Xander flew in to be the lawyer for the family, which brought a smile to Buffy’s face. Xander posing as a lawyer? Comical.

Within another twenty four hours everything had settled down. Xander, Spike and Buffy sat in Faith’s apartment in silence.

“Do you know...What was it?” asked Buffy. “Giles has to have something for me. I have to find this thing.”

Xander shook his head sadly. “We’re getting reports of demon hunters being found dead all around the world Buffy. Whatever this thing is, it’s hunting all of us.”

“All the more reason to kill it,” noted Buffy.

“Got more important things to think about now, love,” said Spike softly.

“What’s more important that finding out what did this?” she asked annoyed.

“I was thinking of the babies,” he explained, grabbing her hand an giving it a squeeze.

“He’s right Buffy,” added Xander. “You’ve got Richard and Nicole to think about now.”

“They can come with us. It’ll go to LA next,” she said, standing up.

“How do you know that?” asked Xander.

“Have you had any reports of deaths in LA?” she asked daring him to prove her wrong.

“No, not that the Council is aware of.”

“Then we are going to LA.”
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tbc...