Chapter Six

Previously…

Angel ran back into Buffy’s room and came to a stop just inside the room. He looked back and forth between Spike and Buffy, taking giant gulps of air his lungs didn’t even need.

This couldn’t be right. The doctor must have been thinking of someone else. Then Spike’s seemingly disjointed words echoed through his mind. “Drums....”. Angel stilled himself and willed his lungs to stop. He closed his eyes and he listened.

There were a million sounds. Hospital sounds. Machines. People. Focus, damn it. OK. Buffy... Buffy’s heart beating.

But then he heard it.

There were three heartbeats in the room. One strong, slow, and loud...and two very fast and much, much, softer ones.....

**********

Angel’s eyes shot open and he looked at Buffy. Hard. She didn’t really look any different; well, any differently than he’d seen her before. He closed the distance to the bed in two steps and rested his hand on Buffy’s abdomen until he felt the pulsing there, and then jerked it back as if he’d been electrocuted. His mind raced. Why hadn’t he sensed it before now? How could this be? His head whipped around until Spike was back in center focus. Angel easily stepped around the bed, and with a loud angry growl he jerked Spike upright.

Willow came suddenly awake with the fierce roar that echoed from Buffy’s room. Just then the hall window to Buffy’s room shattered as Spike came flying through it. He hit the wall opposite and fell to the floor in a heap. Before Willow could blink, Angel was there, straddling Spike and pounding his face relentlessly with his fists.

“YOU BASTARD!” Angel ground out as he continued to mercilessly beat Spike. “I should’ve killed you YEARS ago.”

Willow thought quickly. She had to separate those two before Angel did kill Spike. But getting in between an angry Angel and his Spike shaped target wasn’t a thought she relished.

“Separate!” Willow shouted, and Angel flew backwards down the hall 20 feet. Angel quickly got up and started striding back towards Spike. Willow immediately threw up a barrier wall in the hallway. Angel simply started pounding on it and growling his objection. Willow quickly realized the crashing glass had brought an audience of panicked and curious hospital staff who were rapidly noticing Angel’s game face. She had to do some really fast glamours and even faster talking to convince the staff that they hadn't seen and heard what the did. Willow pushed a fold in the barrier as she walked through and grabbed Angel by the arm, turning him around as he snarled and looked down at her. Reminding her just who and what she had a hold of.

“Angel, LOOK! You have something on your face making it all bumpy looking, here let me get that for you,” Will practically shouted as she brought a hand up and pretended to wipe his face with the bell of her sleeve. It must have registered somewhat with Angel what she was trying to do, because he shifted back to his human face, but then he yanked his arm back from her and turned back to the barrier between him and a very unconscious looking Spike. Willow quickly assured the confused staff that everything was fine, and no, she didn't know where all those sounds had come from. After a cursory check of the room and hallway, the staff abandoned the group to themselves.

“Let me back in Willow,” Angel seethed.

“You can’t kill him Angel,” Willow was whispering. “Buffy needs him.”

Angel turned back toward Willow; eyes now yellow as his demon begged freedom. “He’s killed her as sure as if he fed from her and ripped her throat out.” Willow flinched at his words. “Do you know what he did to her? Why he keeps mumbling that it’s all his fault? Because it is Willow. She. Will. Die.” Willow was now backing away from Angel and shaking her head.

“No, Angel she was happy,” Willow began pleading with him. “Spike made her happy. Angel, you can’t kill him. Buffy needs him, Angel. She’s...”

Angel spun away from Willow and was staring at Buffy’s room “You should have told me, damn it.”

“Angel, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d take it well. And besides, Buffy made me promise not to tell anyone. She was very specific. ‘Not Giles, not Xander, none of the LA gang,” Willow listed off. “She was pretty certain no one would let her continue slaying if they knew.”

Angel let out a laugh that sounded very bitter and cynical. “She’s right. You want to know why no one would let her?” Willow nodded her head indicating yes, her face shone with curiosity. “Have you ever heard of a pregnant slayer?” Willow thought and shook her head no. “That’s because they all died Willow. Being pregnant makes them slower, throws them off. Not to mention, it draws in a whole hoard of extra demons looking for a easy shot at a weak slayer.”

Willow fell into the nearest chair. It all made sense now. Spike’s panic that Buffy had gone patrolling; Buffy’s insistence that no one know; Spike’s near catatonia and mumbling that it was all his fault. Willow felt her heart sinking. It wasn’t his fault at all; it was hers. It had been her idea to do the spell. She had been the one to push them back together. She hadn’t thought love would wind up killing Buffy again and sending Spike off the deep end.

“No, there must be more Angel. Something that we’re missing about all this. I feel it Angel,” Willow said with quiet assurance that she didn’t know had existed within her anymore.

Suddenly Willow heard a voice in her head calling her. She glanced up and found that she and Angel were no longer in the hospital. They were in a cave filled with hundreds of candles. And in front of them stood a young boy. He was dressed very plainly in a suit Willow was sure she had seen in some very old history books.

The boy looked at her inquisitively for a moment. Just as Willow was about to ask where they were, the boy spoke. “You seek answers to that which your heart already knows.”

“You’re an oracle,” Angel mumbled in amazement at the boy.

“An oracle?” Willow turned her confusion toward Angel. “How do you know that he’s an oracle?”

“Dealt with a few in the last few years.”

“Oh…” Willow faced the boy again. “Um, well, oracle…sir…what can you tell us?” Willow questioned. “Is there more we don’t see?”

The boy looked at the two in front of him and simply grinned. “The one you love has been expected for a long time. We thought she would begin to fulfill her destiny long before now. In fact, she did. However, we were asked to intervene. Wee were able to take back time, but we cannot take back life. So we held part of her destiny, until she was again able to fulfill it.”

“What destiny? I thought being the slayer *was* her destiny,” Willow puzzled.

”It was foretold long ago, ‘Of a souled one and a slayer, each line will begin. One of Slayer, the other, Champion’. As it was foretold, it shall be. She will need you all,” He said, looking at Willow. “It will not be easy. She will need your love,” the boy was staring pointedly at Angel, “*and* his.”

The room spun away, and Angel and Willow found themselves back in the hospital hallway. Spike was coming around and weakly attempting to crawl back to Buffy’s room. Willow took down the barrier and ran over to Spike and tried to help him stand up. She glanced back at Angel who was now sitting in a chair and staring at the floor. Great, now she had two vampires to take care of.

Willow managed to get Spike back in the room and into a chair. She found a washcloth and filled the basin with warm water and began tending to the myriad of gashes and bruises covering Spikes face. His eyes were almost swollen shut already. He didn’t even flinch when she cleaned a particularly nasty gash on his left cheek.

“He’s right you know,” Spike had barely managed to whisper.

“No, he’s not,” Willow continued to clean his wounds. “Seems that baby of yours is going to start a whole line. Can’t very well start a whole line unless everything turns out OK. So see, everything will be fine. Apparently it was foretold,” Willow said in the most comforting voice she could find.

Spike looked up at her, and Willow was certain that if his eyes weren’t so swollen she could see a lot of pain in them. Why did he look so pained? Her words should have cheered him up at least some.

“Which...one....?” He managed through his swelling lips.

“One, what?” Willow asked. The answer came from behind her.

“Child. He means which child,” Angel quietly stated. He was standing next to the bed with his hands in his pockets, staring at Buffy with a puzzled expression.

“Huh? I… I don’t understand, Angel; what do you mean?” Willow was now considering that maybe both vampires had taken more than they could handle.

“Twins,” Was Angel’s quiet response. He was still staring very intently at Buffy. “She’s carrying twins.”