Disclaimer: The vampires and other characters belong to Joss Whedon, so he gets all the money.
 
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Chapter 16
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Buffy didn’t wake up until after sunset. Giles and Xander had brought her home and gotten her up to her room by the time Spike caught up with them. Giles had wanted to stay until she woke up, but Spike had politely but firmly asked him to leave, promising to call when she woke up. Giles had wanted to protest, but he realized that, like it or not, Spike was Buffy’s husband, and he had no right to force his way into their home. When Dawn came home, she was frightened and alarmed by what had transpired, but Spike’s reassurance calmed her down. Neither of them wanted to leave her side to eat, but finally Spike shooed Dawn downstairs to fix herself a sandwich or something.
 
Spike returned to Buffy’s side and stroked her hand, running his thumb over her wedding band. Come back to me, love. My mind’s all empty without you. At last the silence in his mind became a hum, and a blur of images. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at him in confusion. “Where..?”
 
“You’re at home, love. Spell went a bit wonky.” He helped her sit up, then fetched her a glass of water from the bathroom. She drank it down gratefully, still looking a bit bleary. “What do you remember?”
 
“They were doing that spell,” she said slowly. “All of a sudden it hurt. Like something was being pulled out of my brain or something.”
 
“I felt that,” Spike said, wincing at the memory. “They nearly pulled the Slayer out of you.”
 
“Huh?” Buffy said, uncomprehending.
 
“I tried to explain to the others,” he began. “A Slayer’s a girl crossed with a demon of sorts. Or at least the first one was, and somehow that demonic nature gets passed down. So a spell to pull demons out and make them visible is about the last thing you want to do to a Slayer you want to keep.”
 
“Demon? I don’t get it,” Buffy said. “Does that mean I’m not the Slayer anymore?” Her thoughts were thick with worry.
 
“Demon’s what makes you so strong, so fierce. A demon on the side of good is a powerful tool. Using the enemy’s weapon against him, that sort of thing. But I’m pretty certain that I stopped the spell in time. If I hadn’t, I’m not sure you’d be here speaking to me.” He shuddered a bit at the thought.
 
Buffy shook her head, trying to clear it. Suddenly she panicked. “The baby? Did it hurt the baby?”
 
“Shh. Little one’s unchanged, as far as I can tell.” Buffy relaxed, leaning back against the headboard. Spike took her hands and rubbed them gently. “Buffy, I don’t want Willow doing any more spells on you. This is the third spell in a row that went badly for you, and..”
 
She put a hand to his lips. “Don’t worry. I’m in full agreement on that one.”
 
“I know you want to know what the child is,” Spike said. “But we’ll just have to find out some other way.”
 
“No,” Buffy said firmly. “I used to think the worst thing was not knowing. Now I think I’d rather risk the unknown than risk losing it.” Spike looked up sharply, meeting her intense stare. “This child is ours, Spike. Whatever else it is, it’s ours, and that’s all that matters to me.”
 
“Oh, Buffy,” he breathed. He cupped her face and kissed her gently, closing his eyes and resting his forehead on hers. No one has ever loved me like you do, pet. No one. Don’t bloody deserve it, but I am grateful for it every day.
 
She cupped his face in turn and kissed him back. You do deserve it. I love you, William Pratt. And I’m proud to be carrying your child. Then they heard Dawn coming up the stairs and separated reluctantly.
 
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And so it begins, Buffy sighed one morning about a week later. She had grabbed a pair of jeans out of her drawer, and found to her dismay that she could no longer button them at all. They had been mildly tight the last time, which she had attributed to shrinkage in the wash, but now there was no doubt. She was starting to show.
 
“Problem?” Spike asked, coming in from the bathroom with a towel around his waist.
 
“Just parting company with the skinny jeans for the near future,” she said ruefully. She peeled the jeans back off with a sigh and folded them back up.
 
Spike came over and wrapped his arms around her from behind. He nibbled on her neck as he ran his hand slowly down her body. She sighed as his hands lingered over her breasts, teasing her nipples before continuing downward to caress her belly. The bulge there was slight, but a definite change from her usual taut, flat stomach. “No worries, love. You can just go naked until summer as far as I’m concerned.” His hands continued downward, sliding under her panties, bringing a moan from her lips.
 
“Spike…” she sighed. “Scoobie meeting, remember?”
 
“Plenty of time,” he purred. He continued caressing her, working her underwear slowly off of her and bending her forward. He entered her smoothly as she leaned forward to grip the dresser, gasping at the welcome intrusion. Such a goddess, he thought as she gripped him with her inner muscles.
 
Buffy moaned again, shaking the entire dresser as she vibrated in pleasure. Spike increased his pace, teasing her nipples and her clit in turn until they both cried out their release. Groaning, Spike pulled out of her and she turned to pull him into a melting kiss. ”There may be something to that going naked thing,” she said with a devilish smile.
 
“Never have to wear clothes on my account, just remember that,” he said with his usual smirk. After a few more minutes of kissing they sighed and went back to the task of finding clothes. Finally dressed, he said, “Join me on my run through the tunnels, or meet me there?”
 
“Meet you there, I think. I have a call to make first,” she answered.
 
“Oh? To whom?”
 
“Secret,” she said, smiling. “But I think you’ll like the surprise.”
 
“I’d better,” he growled playfully. “Don’t like being kept in suspense.”
 
“Won’t be for very long. Now scoot, and tell the others I’ll be there soon.”
 
Spike kissed her, grabbed his blanket, and dashed for the sewer. Buffy made her phone call, wrote ‘6 pm’ on the calendar for a day about a week later, then left to meet Spike and the others at the Magic Box.
 
Spike had arrived in the middle of a discussion between Tara, Anya, and Giles, who were all proposing various demons they had found as the ones in Spike and Buffy’s dreams. “Ah, Spike, good that you’re here,” Giles said when he noticed the vampire. “We have some possible suspects for the demons you dreamed about. Any of these look familiar?”
 
Spike came over and looked at several books, along with a printout from some website. He studied them intently for a while, but finally had to shake his head. “No, none of these look right.”
 
“But what do you mean?” Anya said. “I mean, large, black, shiny, it has to be a Rath’nar!”
 
“Yes, but Rath’nar’s don’t have hands. They’ve got these pincer-like things.” Spike pointed to the book, which clearly showed something that looked like a cross between Bigfoot, a beetle, and a lobster. “The things in the dream clearly had hands. One was holding a knife.”
 
“Oh, right,” said Anya. “Are you sure you remember those things correctly? I mean, you were dreaming.”
 
“Bloody well right, I remember them,” he snapped, suppressing a shudder.
 
Giles pulled a notebook out of the pile. “We should go over what you and Buffy remember from your dreams again. Maybe we’re missing something. Where is Buffy anyway?” he asked, looking around.
 
“Had a bit of a wardrobe crisis,” Spike said. Upon seeing the confusion on their faces he added, “She’s starting to show.”
 
Giles turned a bit red at the thought and cleaned his glasses. “Quite. Well, as soon as she arrives we can… ah, Buffy, there you are.” Giles was relieved to change the awkward subject as his Slayer walked in.
 
“Hey Buffy,” Anya chirped. “Spike was saying you’re starting to have trouble fitting in your clothes. That’s exciting!”
 
“Um, yeah, I guess.” Thanks for nothing, Mr. Pratt. Spike shrugged apologetically. “Anyhow, what are we up to?”
 
“We wanted to hear again what you’ve been seeing in your dreams,” Giles said. “We’re trying to see what we’ve overlooked.” They all sat down around the table, with an open notebook containing the previous notes.
 
Buffy began. “The dreams all seem to have these demons in them. In the first dream Spike and I were trying to get to some altar in this room full of them. It was like… I had to get there on time. There was some consequence for not getting to the altar, but I don’t know what it was.”
 
“Did it seem like you were trying to rescue someone or get something?” Giles asked as Tara jotted things down.
 
Buffy shook her head. “I don’t know. There was another dream where I was running down some hallway and I definitely had the baby in my arms, all wrapped up in something black. I was with Spike again, and there was some door we were trying to reach, but all those demons were behind us. In another dream some voice was saying ‘The child is ours’ and something was holding me down and there was this terrible pain across my midsection.” She shuddered with the memory.
 
“I felt it too,” added Spike, grasping Buffy’s hand to steady her.
 
“Was it the demons holding you down?” Tara asked.
 
“I think so. It wasn’t as clear. But the voice and the pain, those seemed very real.”
 
“Were those all the dreams you remember?” asked Giles.
 
“There was another one, but it was just screaming. Someone else was screaming, a woman. I remember being terrified, because I knew they were coming after me, and I couldn’t get away.” Buffy’s voice quavered a little. Steady, love, Spike reassured her. Just dreams at this point.
 
“No idea who the woman was?” Anya put in.
 
“No.”
 
Giles looked at the notes and scratched his head. “Was there any sense of order in these events? Did it seem like one thing definitely came before another?” Buffy’s reply was interrupted by the door opening to admit Willow and Xander, bearing a tray full of cups of coffee.
 
“Sorry we’re late,” Xander explained. “But we brought caffeinated goodness for all.” He had actually bought only enough for the humans in the bunch. Giles, Anya, Willow, and Tara each reached for a cup, leaving two behind.
 
“You can have mine, hon,” Buffy said, handing a cup to Spike. “I tend to stick to decaf these days.” She gave Xander a hard look, and he looked away, taking the last cup of coffee for himself.
 
“Thanks, love,” he said, toasting Xander with a smirk before taking a sip. “Now, where were we?”
 
“I was just going to say that I don’t know what the order of events was in the dreams. They’re all just scenes. Flashes really. The only common thing is the fear and those demon things.”
 
“Spike? Tell us about your dreams again,” said Giles. He and Tara had heard them, but the others had been busy on other projects, and Giles wanted everyone to be on the same page.
 
“I’ve only had a couple that I can remember in detail,” Spike began, pausing for another sip of coffee. “In the first one, there was this room, blood everywhere. It may have been our bedroom at home, I don’t know. There had been a big fight – things scattered everywhere, and all over blood. Buffy was in the middle of all of it, lying there with her eyes closed.”
 
“Was she… was she dead?” Willow asked.
 
“Not sure,” Spike replied. “In the dream her eyes opened and they were yellow. Like a vampire.”
 
“So you really got the feeling she had been turned?” Giles wondered. He shuddered at the thought.
 
“Yeah,” Spike said. Reluctantly he added, “I woke up with the feeling that it was somehow my fault.”
 
“You turned her, you mean?” Xander snapped, looking agitated.
 
“Xander, calm down,” Buffy said. “It was a dream, and he didn’t say he definitely turned me. He just said it was an off feeling.”
 
“Were there other dreams you recall?” Tara asked, looking up once more from the notebook.
 
“Just one where Buffy was screaming bloody murder. I was running to get to her, fast as I could, like I knew I had to get there to save her from something.”
 
“But what about the demons? Didn’t you dream about them too?” Anya said.
 
“I see them, but it’s all disjointed. Battles, demons on all sides. I know they’re large – taller than me. Black. Shiny skin. All ridged and distorted in their faces. One of them was holding a knife in one of the dreams.” He closed his eyes, trying to remember. “The knife was coming down on something. Couldn’t see what it was, but I felt like I needed to get to it.” He shook his head in frustration.
 
“Any thoughts from anyone?” Giles asked. They all sipped coffee while they passed the notes around, trying to come up with an idea.
 
“Have we looked up any demonic rituals that require a sacrifice?” asked Anya. “I mean, given the altar and the knife, that sort of screams ‘blood ritual’ to me.”
 
“Good point,” said Tara. “Maybe we’ve been going about it wrong looking for the demons. Maybe if we sort it out by rituals the rituals will point us at the demons performing them.”
 
“We also gotta remember the wealth factor,” Spike added. “These things can hire the Kratash. That takes resources.”
 
“Have we been looking into demons from other dimensions?” Willow asked. “I mean, these things clearly aren’t common to our world, or we should have been able to find something about them.”
 
“Another good point,” said Giles. “Although my own library may not have what we’re looking for. I may need to look farther afield.”
 
“But what about Spike’s dream,” Xander said. They turned to look at him. “Don’t we need to worry that Spike could turn her? I mean, if that happens it won’t matter if there are demons out to sacrifice Buffy or the baby – she’d be dead already.”
 
Spike glared at Xander. “Listen, whelp,” he growled. “I would never turn Buffy. She’s my mate. And I will rip apart any demon or anyone else who lays a finger on her. Clear?”
 
“Besides, Xander, anything that kills me would drive Spike to suicide,” Buffy added. “Not something you have to worry about, so just drop it.” Her steely voice made Xander gulp quietly and fall silent. Clearly, no one was going to listen to his continuing concerns about this whole Slayer-Vampire relationship.
 
“Have we heard about any more Kratash demons?” Tara asked, changing the subject.
 
“No, although I’m sure they’re around somewhere,” Spike said. “They must’ve figured out that the first one bought it, so they’re being even more careful this time.”
 
“How has the amulet been working?” Willow asked.
 
Buffy shrugged and stood up. “Well, you tell me. Do I look like I’m starting to show?”
 
“You still look as fit as ever,” said Anya.
 
“And I can attest that the heartbeat and all that isn’t audible, even when I’m right next to her,” said Spike.
 
“Then even if the Kratash had been around, they won’t have too many particulars about Buffy’s progress,” Giles said. After a moment he had a thought. “Is there something we can do to detect the Kratash if they’re near?”
 
“Other than looking for women who want to date Harris?” Spike teased. Xander narrowed his eyes at the vampire who smirked and drank more coffee.
 
“Behave, you,” Buffy scolded. “But that is an idea. Is there some way to make them visible?”
 
“I’ll have to look into it,” Willow said. “Maybe a charm of some sort.”
 
“Alright. Willow and Tara, figure out how to detect the Kratash. Anya, I want you to start looking at rituals. Xander, I may need you to give me a ride in a few days.”
 
“To where?” Xander wondered.
 
“To L.A.”
 
“No!” cried Buffy, jumping out of her seat. “You are NOT bringing Angel into this. I am not dealing with him going ballistic because I am married to Spike and carrying his child. Not. Happening.”
 
“Buffy, calm down,” Giles said sternly. “I have no intention of telling Angel anything. But Wesley Wyndam-Price has quite a collection of books that involve demon prophesies and rituals that might be of some assistance. I am merely going to ask him if I can borrow some of them without explaining the details.”
 
Buffy stared him down, looking for any sign of deceit. “Fine,” she said at last. “But if Angel shows up on my doorstep all pissed off and stake-y, I am holding you personally responsible.” She turned to face Xander. “And if you even think about thinking about going to Angel behind our backs they will never find all the pieces, do you understand?”
 
Xander held his hands up in surrender. “Ok, Buff. Jeez. I am on your side, you know.”
 
“Are you?” Buffy said. “Because I sometimes I’m not so sure.” She glared at him for a moment more, then turned back to Giles. “Is there anything else I can do?”
 
“Just keep yourself safe, and let us know if there are any more dreams,” said Giles.
 
“Alright.” She turned to Spike. “I’m going by the store on the way home. Do you need anything?”
 
“Getting low on blood, come to mention it,” he said.
 
“I’ll pick some up,” she said, kissing him gently. “Meet you at home.” She waved to the others and headed out the door.
 
“I’ll be getting along home as well,” Spike said. “Just want you to know I appreciate all the research.”
 
“We all care about her, Spike,” said Tara. “We won’t let you guys down.” With a nod, Spike turned to go down to the basement to get into the tunnels.
 
TBC