A cold splash of water roused both Spike and Angel. Buffy stood above the former, a sheepish grin on her face.

“Fainting was not the reaction I expected. How can you faint, anyway? Don’t you have to have a pulse, or blood flow or something?”

Spike sat up woozily, but Angel remained on the floor, his hands cupping his wet face.

“We ate before we left for the battle...makes it a little easier to have blood to rush to your head.”

Buffy nodded and helped Spike up to the couch, sitting next to him, and offering him the remaining half of the glass of water. He shook his head. The small, curly haired girl sat across from them in a large chair, which further accentuated her small stature. Her small legs kicked back and forth to a silent rhythm. Spike eyed her cautiously, and, when she noticed his glances, she beamed brightly.

“Hi!”

“Hullo…what’s your name, poppet?”

“Uh uh,” the girl said, shaking her head. “Mummy said that a lady never introduces herself first. You go.”

Spike smiled at her.

“Well, my name is William, but everyone calls me Spike.”

A light, bubbling laughter poured from the girl’s lips.

“That’s a silly name, ‘Spike.’ It’s like the doggy on the cartoon I watch! His name is ‘Spike’ too. Do you like dogs?”

“Not really. But since I introduced m’self, you can tell me your name, can’t you?”

Buffy smiled and nodded when the girl, faintly her duplicate, looked questioningly at her.

“My name’s Calidia, but everyone calls me ‘Callie.’”

Spike nodded.

“And how old are you, Callie?”

She sucked absentmindedly on her tooth, and cocked her head to the side.

“I’m one and a half, but I’ll be two in July! Mummy,” she said, turning toward Buffy, “How long until my birthday?”

“Well, July is number eight, and this is April, number four…”

“…Four months?”

“Yep!”

Callie beamed at Spike.

“I’ll be two in four months.”

Spike stood and grabbed Buffy’s hand, leading her out of the room, quickly, an “Excuse us,” barely escaping his lips. Callie looked at Willow, then at Andrew, and smiled at Illyria.

“I like your hair. It’s pretty.”

“Thank you,” Illyria replied, crouching down to aide Angel in standing again.

Callie frowned at him as he rose.

“I don’t like you.”

Angel blinked rapidly and stammered.

“Wwwhy?”

“Because you look mean. You have a big face and I don’t like it. My Mummy says that I’m never to trust boys with big faces.”

--

Buffy couldn’t contain her bright smile, almost identical to Callie’s, as Spike paced in front of her in the secluded hallway.

“You’re going to wear out the carpet, Spike.”

Spike’s arms flew up in frustration.

“She said you missed me, but obviously not enough. Why did you all bring me here Buffy? To torture me? Does Red have it in for me? Eh? Wants to see how I’ll react when I find out that, no, you haven’t been shagging the Immortal like I thought, but you obviously moved on quickly, because, ‘Hey, here’s my little girl, Spike,’ and hey, ‘Doesn’t that mean I was shagging someone else while we were still together?’”

Buffy sighed.

“Are you quite finished?”

A flustered, yet blank stare was her reply. She smiled and stroked his cheekbones with a thin finger.

“She’s yours, you dope.”

He backed away from her and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. That trick doesn’t work on me, pet. Vampire, you know, can’t have kiddies.”

She nodded.

“Right, not in the normal way. But there she is, as real as anything.”

“But…how?”

Willow cleared her throat, and stepped into the hallway.

“I couldn’t help overhearing. Spike, you remember when the gem’s power started to surge through you, and you started glowing?”

“Yeah, Red, I think I’d remember that.”

“Well, Buffy said she grabbed your hand then, right?”

”Yeah…”

“When she did that, a part of your energy, through your soul, retained in her, and…well…it needed somewhere to go, so it went….”

Buffy chuckled.

“Boy did it.”

“But she looks…she doesn’t look like a one-year-old, Red,” Spike said. “She looks at least six or so…is she alright?”

Buffy’s face dropped slightly, and she sighed.

“See, that’s the thing…I was only pregnant for about four months when I had her, and she’s been growing so fast…in every way. She’s mentally and physically about six, but she’s only two…Willow thinks it’s because she’s immortal.”

“She a vampire then?”

Willow shook her head and shrugged.

“No…not really. Anyway, she’s immortal, and is as powerful as a vampire, but she doesn’t need blood.”

“She is a little sensitive to the sun,” Buffy added, “but we’ve figured out with some research, that there is a prophecy about her.”

Spike raised an eyebrow.

“A prophecy about Callie?”

Willow nodded.

“It said that there would be born an immortal child of a
Champion and the Chosen One, who would rid the world of evil…if…”

“If, what, Red?”

Buffy sighed.

“Willow, I think that’s enough for now, I’ll talk to him about it in the morning. I’m kind of exhausted.”

Spike could have sworn he saw the witch’s eyes glimmer at Buffy as she left them alone in the hallway. He felt himself harden as Buffy pressed herself into his chest.

“We have a lot of catching up to do Spike.”

He wiggled an eyebrow and rolled his tongue behind his teeth.

“Really? And how do you plan on catching up, pet?”

“Oh, I’ve had a few ideas floating around since you’ve been gone…I just never thought I’d get to use them.”

“Yeah, like what?”

Spike placed a firm grip around her waist, and nuzzled his face into her neck. She backed away suddenly, and cleared her throat. Callie sniffled and rubbed her sleepy eyes.

“Mummy, I’m tired. May I go to bed, please?”

Buffy smiled and extended her palm to the small girl.

“Of course, sweetheart, do you want me to read you a bedtime story?”

Callie stopped in her tracks, shook her head, and pointed at Spike.

“No. I want him to read me one.”

If Spike could have blushed, he would have, but instead, he stammered.

“Why…why do you want me to read to you, poppet?”

“Well, Mummy’s read to me before, and I figured my Papa should read now.”

Buffy’s eyes grew wide.

“Callie, honey, why did you call Spike your Papa? Did someone tell you something?”

Callie shook her head.

“No Mummy, he just looks like me, and he sounds like the man on the speech tapes you make me listen to. You always said Papa sounded like him.”

Kneeling in front of the curly-haired girl, Spike smiled.

“You’re very bright, just like your Mum, poppet.”

“I knew you were my Papa when I saw you carrying Mummy earlier. Why were you gone so long Papa? Mummy said you were on a special mission, but you couldn’t come home. Wasn’t I special enough for you to come home when I was born, Papa?”

Tears brimmed in Buffy’s eyes, and she turned her head to hide them, but Spike’s own moist eyes caught the image. His heart felt as if it was melting.

“I didn’t want to go, poppet, but if I hadn’t gone on that mission, we wouldn’t have the most special thing in the world…you. Now quit your dawdling, because your Mum and I have to plan something extra-special for all of us to do tomorrow, yeah?”

Callie’s smile was bright enough to warrant sunglasses.

“Yeah!”

"I'll be up to read to you in a minute, poppet."

"Okay! G’night Mummy!"

Callie pecked each of them on the cheek before she galloped off to her bedroom, her pink pig still in tow. Spike stood up and pulled Buffy into a tight embrace. For a few moments, they were silent. He breathed her scent in and sighed in contentment. Smiling, he held her even closer to himself.

“What ‘tapes’ was she talking about, pet?”

“Oh, when she first started speaking, she had a little lisp, so we bought her an English language instructional tape. It seemed to help a lot.”

“Berlitz?”

“Yes.”

He chuckled.

“Did you listen to it first?”

“No.”

”When did you notice…”

“By the time she started saying ‘G’morning Mummy, I want some spam and eggs, pip, pip, cheerio!’ it was too late,” Buffy said in a thick, cockney accent. "I figured I could use it to help her understand how her Papa spoke. She seemed to like speaking like her Papa, so we didn't try to change her accent."

Spike laughed loudly, his eyes sparkled when he caught her gaze again.

“I love you, you know.”

”And I meant what I said at the Hellmouth, you know.”

“I know, pet.”

“Let’s go to bed Spike.”

Callie cleared her throat from the top of the stairs, waggling a worn copy of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" fervently.

"I'll meet you there, pet. Looks like I've got a date with a little girl and the three bears."

--