Buffy could swear she heard her name as she kicked the door from its hinges. A pair of black boots sticking out from underneath it told her that someone, indeed had called out her name…or something that sounded like her name.

“Sodding door,” Spike yelled, pushing the panel off of him. “Always a sodding…”

Buffy’s eyes widened to saucer plates as their eyes met.

“Buffy,” he breathed her name like a prayer.

Their brief moment of awe was shattered when Buffy landed a fist into Spike’s gut.

“Who are you?”

“Buffy! Ow! Love, it’s me!”

“No….you’re gone…he’s gone. And I know you aren’t The First, because I can punch you...which I'm planning to do again! So who are you? And how dare you take his form?”

Spike frowned and stood, deflecting another blow aimed at his face.

“Buffy, pet, it’s me.”

Her eyes, already wet with tears flooded over when she gazed into his cool blue pools.

“Oh god…Spike!”

She fell into his arms, her face buried in his shoulder. He enveloped her in his strong arms, as he had done before, but now her grip on his back was tight and fevered, though, no matter how she tugged, something still separated them.

Spike stepped back, pulling away from the Slayer’s grip, to stare at her. She was different…so different now. Her sad eyes spoke the pain that she never would've admitted to when he last saw her. Her hair was disheveled, and her lips were chapped from thirst.

Her face was rounder and fuller. He had always hated when his Slayer was too thin, but she had gained a substantial amount of weight since he had last seen her, he thought, as his eyes traveled down her neck and chest. His gaze faltered on her protruding belly.

“Buffy…you’re…”

She blinked away unbelieving tears and nodded.

“Yeah.”

“You’re pregnant.”

“Yeah…”

Spike’s awed expression hardened and he straightened himself up.

“Ah. Right then. Who’s the lucky bloke?”

Buffy frowned.

“Well I wouldn’t call you lucky, but you are a dope.”

“I said ‘bloke.’”

“Same thing.”

“Buffy, I’m no sodding idiot, vamps can’t have children that way.”

“I know…but it wasn’t even mostly the sex part of it…”

“I don’t follow.”

“It’s…uhh…okay, don’t laugh at me. Promise?”

“On my honor.”

“I need something more than that Spike. We both know how your honor can be.”

He chuckled and raised his right hand.

“Promise. Now go on.”

“Right. Okay, so a few nights after you had…” Buffy’s voice faded slightly and she wiped her eyes. “…after you died I had a Slayer dream.”

“Right…heard of those. Jim Morrison this time?”

She smiled.

“No…it was weird…it was Anya.”

Spike’s expression changed again, softening and flashing with comprehension, and he chuckled lowly.

“Anya.”

“You said you weren’t going to make fun…”

“ ‘m not pet. What’d the bird say?”

“She said because of your sacrifice, The Powers That Be wanted to give you a gift…but they hadn’t planned on me grabbing your hand like I did right before…before what happened. I guess I muddled up the plans for a bit, because they said you wouldn’t get
your reward because of what I did…they said you wouldn’t have your gift until the baby…Anyway, Anya told me that I got a surge of power from you while you had that gem on, and it made your sperm take. It gave them some kind of electric jolt, and woke them up or something. So here I am…pregnant…in stylish yet affordable boots.”

Buffy looked up at Spike, waiting for him to reply. He grabbed her shoulders, pulling her closer to himself, and gently kissed her chapped lips with his own. He pulled away, smiling.

“Buffy, love…you’ll never believe it, but Anya did the same thing to me.”

“Wait, what? How? When?”

“When I died, I think I was in whatever place you had been…it was beautiful Buffy…just like you described it. And I was warm for the first time in a century…I…”

Spike noticed the distraught look on her face and brushed her cheek with his fingers.

“But all I wanted was you, pet. Without you, heaven in’t any better than hanging around the Poofter.”

She smiled.

“So what happened?”

“Well, there I was floating around ‘n minding my own business when I notice that awful necklace is around my neck and I’m stark naked,” he smiled when her eyes lit up at his statement. “So I float around s’more and I hear Anya say hullo. I turned around and a bunch of blokes were staring at me and they all started asking about you. Anya said she pulled some strings or something and I could have one wish, and I told her I wanted to come back to you. She said I’d earned it, and mentioned some surprise, but I didn’t realize it’d be so…”

“Surprising?”

“Yeah, that ‘bout covers it.”

“Trust me, I didn’t expect it either.”

Buffy and Spike stood staring at each other, their eyes browsing every line, dimple and curve on their bodies. He put an arm around her shoulders and his other hand across her belly.

“So, how long have you…”

“About six months. I started wondering what was going on a couple of weeks after…and I was all alone,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. “Everyone just…I mean, they were there, but they couldn’t be there because I couldn’t tell them, you know? And I…all I wanted was you Spike.”

Throwing her arms around his neck, Buffy nuzzled him with her tear-stained face. She choked back more tears that threatened to fall as he gently pet her hair.

“ ‘S alright love. ‘m here now, yeah?”

She stepped back and nodded, wiping her nose and eyes on her sleeve. He bit his lip as he looked at her.

“Buffy?”

“What?”

“Did you mean it?”

“Did I mean what?”

“When I…right before I died. What you said. Did you really mean it?”

She scoffed.

“You’re being shirty.”

"No ‘m not, pet. Just humor me. Did you mean it?”

Spike deflected the punch that Buffy half-heartedly threw at his chest. She grabbed his hand as he deflected her blow and held it tightly.

“Of course I meant it…I’ve meant it every day for the past year. It was losing you that made me…”

“Realize it?”

“No…it just made me accept it. I wasn’t afraid of it anymore, you know?”

“Because you knew you were going to lose me? Buffy that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Not because I was going to lose you, I just…I accepted it because in that moment I knew it wasn’t over. I knew that I'd be with you, somewhere...even if I had to die to do it. I couldn’t let myself accept it if I didn’t think that there was something else. That happened with Angel, and I learned my lesson there. It was…uhh…Anya explained it better.”

“She explained what?”

“Well, when I was still in LA with everyone, I went into this little bookstore. I missed your voice so much I wanted something to remind me of you, and I found this big book of British poetry and when I picked it up, I read this poem. It sounded so much like you, I just started sobbing in the store, and then I heard a voice from behind me say, ‘Don’t cry Buffy!’ I turned around, and it was Anya, and we weren’t in the bookstore anymore, but I still had the book...which I lost. Dammit!”

Spike grinned and walked over to the broken down door, and grabbed the book from underneath it.

“This one love?”

Buffy gasped.

“How did you…?”

“Never mind that now. Just keep going.”

“Right. Well after Anya explained the whole pregnancy thing, she grabbed the book and read that page aloud. She said with it, you’d be able to find me…I thought she meant when I died or something, but I guess…yeah. Well, she never explained it to me, and she just shoo-ed me out of there. I never went back to Angel’s office after that. I just kept driving until I wound up here.”

“How’d you pay for all of it Buffy? It’s not cheap to go across country…”

“Insurance from the house.”

Spike smiled slightly and rubbed her arm.

“You’ve been through too much kid.”

“Yeah, but it’s part of the job isn’t it?”

A loud crumble and a guttural howl echoed through the hallway.

“What the…?”

“We’ve go to go,” Buffy said, grabbing Spike’s hand, “NOW!”

With another growl, it was too late. The Immortal stalked into the hallway. Spike raised a scarred eyebrow.

“YOU!”

--

Angel tapped his foot impatiently. He crossed his arms and huffed, but his ears perked as he heard a doorknob turn. Xander tumbled out of the door, and jumped up quickly.

“Heavy door.”

Willow walked out after him, shaking her head.

“You know I could have zapped it open, right?”

“Got it Will. I can handle a door. Still manly without both eyes.”

“Sorry…hey, where’s Spike?”

Angel sighed.

“He isn’t back yet. I’ve been waiting forever.”

He pointed at the door he had chosen.

“Mine was a big closet.”

Willow smiled meekly.

“Should we go after him then? Maybe he found something?”

A loud howl cut through the air. Willow and Angel locked eyes and ran for the large, red door, with Xander following closely behind them. As they ran down the hall, they could hear the sounds of an epic battle threatening to commence, and two creatures growling at each other.

They were overwhelmingly unprepared for the sight they were greeted with. A very pregnant Buffy was standing a few feet behind Spike, whose vampire face was displayed.

It was strange to see the powerful Slayer being protected by a vampire, but Angel could see the metaphysical connection Spike and Buffy shared, that was invisible to the others. Angel could see a pale red light glowing on both of their hearts…Spike hadn’t claimed her yet, or the light would be almost blindingly brilliant. Angel had only seen four vampires who had mated, and because of their light’s brilliance, the majority of other creatures left them to their own company. But if Spike hadn’t claimed her yet, then there was still time, Angel told himself…he could still have Buffy, pregnant or not…the deep voice of one of The Powers That Be echoed in his mind.

Don’t even try Angelus. We warned you. You have found her…and lost her.

Angel dropped his head into his hands and let out a painful sigh. Luckily for him, everyone was so entranced by the spectacle Spike, Buffy and The Immortal were creating, that no one noticed his exasperated noises. Xander turned to Willow.

“Is it just my eye or does Buffy look…”

“Pregnant?”

“Yeah. Good. I still got it.”

“I don’t think now’s the best time to talk about it though Xan.”

“Right. So who’s that guy?”

Angel gulped an unnecessary breath of air.

“That’s The Immortal.”

Xander laughed, “Oh so what, ‘That Guy,’ or ‘Mr. Vampire’ were already taken?”

Angel scowled at him, but Xander refused to relent.

“Seriously though…It’s not a very catchy name.”


--

The Immortal and Spike had yet to attack one another. Spike eyed up his rival.

“What do you want from her?”

“You should know that already, William. But she wasn’t as easy as your Drusilla was…so I suppose I’ll just take the children and be on my way then.”

“Sorry bloke, can’t let you do that.”

“Oh…wrong answer William. It was nice seeing you again though….”

As The Immortal lunged at Spike, Willow gasped and, in a panic, shouted loudly.

“Eleka kom minus althkzaran!”

Spike stood, ready to defend himself, but instead of an attacker, he was struck by what seemed like a small pebble.

“Ow! What the…?”

Willow began to blush when the pebble started talking, screaming, and attacking Spike’s boot. Buffy gave a relieved sigh.

“Willow…what did you do to him?”

“Well…Angel said he was The Immortal, and I thought, okay, you can’t kill someone who’s immortal, but no one said you can’t change stuff about them so…”

“So?”

“So I panicked and all I could think about was the mini pizzas I’d had for dinner yesterday, so I shrunk him.”

Spike smiled broadly.

“I could kiss you witchling.”

Buffy smacked his stomach.

“Not on your unlife, buster. Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I have a little unfinished business to deal with.”

Buffy leaned down and picked The mini-Immortal up, pinching his coat between her fingers.

“Will, this won’t wear off will it?”

“Nope…Only I can fix it, but I really don’t feel like it….”

Buffy smiled and walked into the small room The Immortal had trapped her in that night. She set him down in a dusty corner of the room and placed a heavy glass over him.

“Don’t ever come near me or my family again! Though I really doubt you’ll get the chance. You should really listen when someone says ‘no.’”

Buffy turned on her heels, grabbed Spike’s duster, and glided out of the room, leaving the pea-sized Immortal screaming his tiny head off in agony and defeat.