"Buffy! Buffy are you okay?" Willow saw her friend lying still on her bed. She moved closer and saw the bite marks on her neck.

"Oh, Buffy, what happened?" She then burst into sobs at the site of her dead friend. The sobbing and heaving noises woke Buffy from her slumber and she opened her eyes to see a grieving Willow.

"Willow? What's wrong?" Willow regarded her with a confused expression before flinging herself on Buffy for a very much relieved hug.

"Oh, I thought you were dead! I saw Spike and- hey, why didn't he kill you? Not that I'm not glad he didn't or anything," she finished nervously. “I was so worried.”

"Believe when I say it's a long story." Willow, seeing that Buffy was okay, pulled herself together in order to interrogate Buffy properly.

"Well, you've been gone since yesterday with no one knowing of your whereabouts, and believe when I say I love long stories. So spill."

"Well, you promise you won't be mad?"

"Sure. Why would I be mad?"

"Well, you see...."

****************

"Oh god." Willow said.

"Yeah, I know."

"Oh, god, not mad. Not mad at all. Just, ya know, confused, flabbergasted, and a giant truck load of fear. But not angry in the least," Willow said after hearing Buffy's tale.

"Well, how it all started totally wasn't my fault. I had no self control and- how the hell am I gonna explain this to Giles!" she exclaimed.

"Well, I'm guessin' ya don't. He would totally freak. And Xander—he’s a fragile boy… I don’t know what they would think was worse- the claiming or the whole sex with Spike thing… I think this should just be our secret." Buffy’s eyes grew large and round at the mention of the claiming.

"Will, you haveta help me! I can't hide the bite marks. Giles would get all suspicious if tried to cover it up. It would take too long to heal. Please," she pleaded.

"Well, you could just say you, uh, got into a fight with him, which we all know, and he got the upper hand, see? And he bit you and left you for dead, but he didn't drain you. You just sorta passed out or something. You know, like that time with the Master? Or um, Angel?" She finished uncertainly.

"Yeah. Yeah! That could so work. I mean, it's fathomable, right?"

"Definitely," Willow said more surely than she felt.

****************

Giles' Flat


"Well, that seems rather careless for someone of his expertise," Giles said with disbelief after hearing Buffy’s explanation of what occurred between her and Spike.

"Yeah but, yay me, right?" Please don't question this! Buffy begged Giles in her mind.

"Yes, thank God for that. But Buffy, if he comes back, I want you to stay away from him. He's much too powerful now."

"Yeah, Buffster. Really don't need ya dying a second time. Well I mean, not anytime soon," Xander added.

"With ya there, Xander. But I don't think he'll be back," She said with a slight note of dread that only Will noticed.
After Willow told her of what he had done to Parker, she thought maybe there was still a chance. For him to do that there had to have been genuine feelings there, right? Either that or some weirdo possessive guy thing. Or because of the claim… But somehow, it felt different, in a good reassuring way. Maybe he would come back. After all, Spike was hardly the quitting type. Yup, definitely persistent she thought happily.

****************

"Will you sod off about it, you silly bint!" Spike yelled.

"No, Spike. I want to know who she is and I want to know now. You leave for over a day, no one knows where you are, and you come back reeking of some other woman. Her smell's all over you!" Harmony half whined half yelled as she stamped her foot.

You're covered in her... Dru's words played through his mind. He sighed deeply.

"Harmony, really pet. I don't see what you're so upset over," he said in a placating tone.

"What?!" she screeched.

"Well, it’s just that, I came home to you, baby," he replied with false tenderness.

"Oh, you'll always be my little lamb, Spikey Bear!" She jumped into his arms gleefully.

"Yeah. But we gotta go pet. We're leaving Sunnyhell. Tonight."

"Why?"
Because if I don't, I'll drive myself around the bleeding bend a hundred bloody times over obsessing over the Slayer.

"Got what I came for. Best be moving on now," he lied.

"Oh, Can we go to Paris? I've always wanted to go!" she exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands.

"Sure. Now let's pack then." Buffy she's certainly not. But a regular slip and tickle never hurt anyone he thought.

~~~~~~~

7 weeks later in Sunnydale

Diary of Rupert Giles


“Seven weeks, forty-nine days. So much has happened. More accurately, so much has gone to the proverbial pits of hell. Oz left Willow, causing her to perform spells in a preposterous attempt to make her feel better. Said spells left me temporarily blind and turning Xander into a demon magnet—in the sense that he could not escape them.

Xander and Anya have become a definite item and appear to be joined at the hip (not in a literal sense, of course—being on the Hellmouth, one can never know). Anya's quirky sayings and anecdotes, though quite colorful, can (at most times) be quite blunt and disturbing. However, I feel that her thousand plus years of existence and knowledge of the demon world could be useful to us in the future.

Yet, the worst was yet to come. Of these seven weeks, the worst was the discovery of Buffy's pregnancy. She then proceeded to tell me (though thankfully not in great detail) the actual happenings of the day she fought with Spike.

Though everything that I know as a Watcher leads me to believe that this is incorrect, she believes that the child she is carrying is that of Spike's.

‘Buffy, in all our history, a vampire has never been known to conceive or produce a child. Never.’

‘Maybe the Gem had something to with it. Look, I know this sounds crazy, but you have to believe me. I can feel it, Giles. I can feel it,’ she said carefully.

‘Buffy, I have never, by any means been in your situation, but I certainly doubt that after seven weeks that you would be able to feel anything that—’

‘The demon, Giles. My baby has a demon, and I can feel it," she said somberly. "At first I thought my Slayer senses were all screwed up, but when I found out for sure I...’

It saddens me to say this, but I know I had an involuntary look of overt horror flicker across my face. It caused her to stop her explanation as her eyes welled up with tears. My heart… my heart broke for her. She had to turn away from me in order to continue.

‘I know you don't like this. I know that it scares you. It scares me too but, I can't kill my baby Giles. I can't,’ She finished quietly as silent tears escaped her eyes.

"Buffy, think please. Think of how dangerous this is! What if, what if your child isn't- isn't quite right?" I said quietly. At that she turned back around and looked at me with determined eyes.

‘Then that's a chance I'm willing to take,’ she replied with finality. In her mind, the subject was closed.

‘Buffy, I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. I've spoken with Joyce, and she agrees that a child, of any sort, will only negatively affect you. Believe when I say that this would be for the best. If you keep this child, only dreary days will lie ahead.’

’You know, there's an old saying that in order to see the rainbow, you gotta go through a helluva lot of rain. And for this child Giles, I’m prepared to go through an entire storm.’

I should have known better. My Buffy was always determined. I suppose that after four years, I would have realized that. But I wanted so much more for her. After Angel left, I was sure the worst was over. I was... relieved. Angel was definitely an anomaly as far as vampires went, but I guess it’s fair to say he is no longer the only one. Runs in ‘the family’ I suspect.

This whole situation is completely insane, but now I have come to the realization of the exact extent of how terrible it has become. I see the look in her eyes or the way her voice slightly alters at the mention of him - the soulless beast that violated her. I know I'm not paranoid because the others have noticed it too (especially to Xander's chagrin). I just hope that he is never to return, for he can only bring hurt and corruption to her life, but also for the sake of this child.”

Giles closed his book and stood up.

"Well, time for another scotch," he said to himself morosely.