Chapter Eight

Buffy still couldn’t believe she had been in a coma for four weeks. A whole month! Well, that didn’t matter anymore; she was going home today. After the last three days spent in that horrid hospital Buffy had insisted, over the very angry protests of the doctors and nurses, that she was leaving. Even Angel and Giles tried to talk her into staying a little longer. All those “against medical advice” papers were officially signed, and she’d promised she would return in two days for a check up. Unfortunately she hadn’t been able to convince them to take the darn cast off her leg. She was certain it was well healed by now, but they hadn’t even considered it. A problem she would fix as soon as she got home.

Giles pulled the car up the driveway as far as possible and Angel’s car pulled in behind them. Buffy started to fumble with the crutches the hospital had given her when they were pulled out of her hands. Buffy started to protest, but Angel simply leaned in the car and scooped her up in his arms.

“I can walk you know. They gave me some nifty crutches and everything just so I would,” Buffy said very annoyed.

“I know,” Angel responded dryly as he carried her through the door right behind Giles. He carried her over to the couch and set her down as the whole flock of potentials converged in the living room. Each one seemingly excited about having Buffy back, and speak above the others to ask Buffy how she was, if she’d killed the demon, and what her coma was like. Not to mention several obviously eyeing Angel in a very non-threatening way.

Buffy let out a small chuckle as Angel backed up a bit and was shaking his head in abject terror of the flock of teen slayer-maybes. Giles chose that moment to try to disperse the girls, insisting that Buffy would have time for questions later, but right now needed time to rest and get settled back in. Buffy was secretly grateful, as she was still exhausted. Giles covered her with a blanket as Angel rearranged the pillows so Buffy could lean back a little.

“Buffy, I know I told the girls to wait, but I think we need to have a talk. I feel the sooner the better.” Giles said as he sat on the end of couch.

“Um, Giles, is Spike staying in Angel’s car tonight? Cause, I’m thinking the basement might be more comfortable,” Buffy said as if actually debating which would indeed be more comfortable.

“Ah, Spike. Yes, I’d forgotten. Angel, would you mind?” Giles looked at Angel who simply rolled his eyes before heading back out the door.

“Now, would you like to start or shall I?” Giles pointedly looked at Buffy.

Buffy really didn’t want either to start. She’d hoped to find some way to tell Giles about everything without him getting too angry with. She realized now that Spike was entirely correct, but she still found herself in fear of the notion that she couldn’t do her job. That she would have to un-fulfill her destiny for a while.

“Very well then,” Giles took her silence as abdication and began. “Buffy, I am neither naïve, nor ignorant. I am well away of your state. But, I can’t help you or the girls if you don’t talk to me Buffy. So it is imperative that you to tell me everything.”

Buffy just bit her lip and watched Angel deposit Spike in one of the chairs in the living room. He still looked horrible. He wasn’t healing at all and despite her, Willow, and Angel trying he hadn’t fed, talked, or really moved. He just sat there and occasionally his eyes closed for a few hours. They’d tried everything they could think of to pull him out of it.

“Do you think he’ll come back to us?” Buffy questioned Giles.

“I really don’t know.” Giles looked at Spike and flinched. “There is no precedent for this sort of thing. Granted, there’s no shortage of vampires with sanity issues, but I’ve never heard of one in his state of catatonia.” He’d thought Spike looked bad *before* Angel arrived, but the beating Angel had issued his grand-childe was truly frightening. Particularly since no one would tell him why Angel had done it in the first place.

“Buffy, you need to tell Giles. Everything.” Angel was now sitting on the coffee table and staring at her pointedly.

Buffy just stared mournfully at Spike.

Angel let out a hiss and stood up. “Look Buffy, you want to be stubborn and get yourself killed? Because that’s what’s going to happen here. The first time you go back out patrolling alone again you *will* die. I’m not even sure that *I* could protect you, and Spike here isn’t exactly in any position to either. If you want to die so badly, then why the hell did you come back?” Angel said clenching his jaw tight.

Buffy looked from Spike to Angel. He was right. She knew in her heart he was right, just as surely as Spike had been. Heck, it was Spike word for word coming out of Angel’s mouth. But what would she do? She had always had a place. She’d lived her calling for years now. If that was gone, what would she do? Who would she be? As tears began to burst forth, she began telling Giles what had happened.

Giles patiently listened as she went from Spike’s humanity to the Mowrok demon. When she had finished he sat there silent for several minutes staring at his glasses dangling in his hands. “You should have told me, Buffy,” He finally said. It all made sense now. A very scary sense. From Spike’s over protectiveness when he had returned to his look of terror when Buffy had gone on patrol alone.

Buffy’s tears were now stopping as she quietly voiced her fears. “Who am I now? If I can’t slay, what do I do? What do I become? How do I help those girls, Giles?” She was now staring out the window.

“Our first priority right now is your safety. Buffy, you know how inherently dangerous being a slayer is. This pregnancy only increases the danger. Buffy, you should know that this is not unprecedented. There have been several instances of a slayer being with child. Unfortunately, they fall victim not long after. I believe you may have already surpassed all but one other in your gestation, but that doesn’t ensure that you will survive to bring them to term.”

“I’ve defeated the odds lots of times before Giles, I will do it this time too,” Buffy said quietly, stroking her abdomen. “Besides,” she added absently, “that boy told me I would get to see them if I came back.”

“Boy? What boy?” Giles asked.

“While I was in the coma. I saw them. He told me if I didn’t come back ‘they’ would never be. But that I would see them if I came back. He also said my chosen one needed me. He was right about that, though I don’t know what to do for him.” Buffy glanced sadly at Spike.

“Buffy, was the boy dressed funny? Kind of old fashioned?” Angel asked.

“Yeah, way old fashioned. Why?”

Angel looked at Giles. “Oracle. The boy is an Oracle. He spoke to Willow and I. Told us that Buffy and the children had been foretold.”

“Fascinating. What did he say exactly?” Giles inquired, again holding his glasses.

“He said ‘Of a souled one and a slayer, each line will begin. One of Slayer, the other, Champion.’ Then he told me that she would need my love, and his.” Angel spat out the ‘his’ like it had burned his tongue.

Giles pondered the statement a moment. “Have you any idea what it means?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Oracles are usually pretty cryptic, and he didn’t seem inclined to deviate,” Angel said thoughtfully.

“Yes, well be that as it may, the prophecy does bode well for the children.” Giles was having some hope for the first time since hearing Buffy say she was pregnant.

“Can we worry about this prophecy later guys? Giles, we have to get Spike back,” Buffy said squeezing Giles arm in her urgency. “I want to go in and get him. Like Willow did when I was all off in my own world.”

“No,” Angel flatly stated.

“Buffy, that is an extraordinarily dangerous thing to attempt on humans, much less a vampire. I’m not even sure it would be possible. And you are still very weak,” Giles said.

“Giles, I have to try. We’ve tried everything else,” Buffy pleaded.

“Perhaps you should consider letting Willow, or even Angel, attempt to retrieve him?”

“Yes, because we all know that Spike and Angel have a candle burning for each other, that will guide him through the darkness in his soul,” Buffy said, rolling her eyes. “No. It has to be me.”

“No,” Angel echoed his earlier comment. “Buffy, you have no idea what it’s like inside his mind. There’s more than a hundred years of killing and torture. Add a soul to the mix, and the fact he blames himself for your assumed death.... I wouldn’t go in there if I were the last vampire on earth. I can’t let you do it.”

“Angel there is no ‘letting me’ do anything. You heard that oracle boy. I need him. They need him.” Buffy looked back to Giles, “Giles, get Willow. I’m doing this.”

“Buffy, I do wish you would reconsider…” Giles started.

“Giles! With or without you, I am going to do this.” Buffy sent him a look of sheer determination. “So either help me, or get out of my way, because I’m going to bring him back one way or the other.”