Note: Thanks to my beta t_geyer for her unending patience, perseverance and support.

SECTION 7 - LAKE OF FIRE

People cry, people moan.
Look for a dry place to call their home.
Try to find some place to rest their bones.
While the Angels and the Devils try to make THEM their own.

(Nirvana, Album - MTV Unplugged with thanks to Zanthinegirl for the suggestion)




Chapter 7.01
Thursday, July 11th, 2002


"Have you thought about children?"

Buffy's face flushed slightly and her head turned toward Spike. "It-em-well, it's not really..."

"What Buffy's trying to say is that we wouldn't be able to conceive as a couple. And, yeahhh. I've thought about it."

"You have?" Buffy asked in surprise, staring at her fiancé with a shocked expression on her face and then guiltily glancing at the minister who faced them on the other side of his study table. "I'm sorry. It's just kind of a surprise."

Spike reached out and took her hand, lifting it to his lips and kissing her right beside the band of his grandmother's diamond engagement ring before he explained, his gaze alternating between the preacher and his future wife.

"Buffy's young, yet, an' she's already got more responsibilities than most people see in a lifetime. She's got college to finish an' a career to build, if that's what she wants. We've got Dawn to get through college an' on top of that there's the slaying.

Now, maybe one of these days, Buffy's goin' to want to step back an' let Faith or one of her successors take on some more of that side of things, maybe not. If she decides she wants children, then I'll support her all the way, whether that means finding an adoption agency that won't ask too many questions if the money's right or doing the artificial thing, I don't mind, so long as it's done so that no other man is ever going to walk into our life somewhere down the line and have a claim on our kid.

I know it won't be easy an' she'd probably have to do a lot of stuff on her own, like outings an' school runs an' all that but neither one of us would be sittin' here now if what we were lookin' for was the easy way. Buffy's mother was a wonderful woman, an' I think maybe Buffy's got more of her in her than she realises right now. Chances are she'll want a few years to spread her wings once Dawn's off at college before she even thinks about it, but one of these days, she could make a wonderful mother an', I mean, I know it's not ideal, but I'd be there for the kid a hell of a lot more than some of these guys who work in some office from dawn to dusk or leave them with a nanny all the time." His eyes locked with Buffy's, knowing that she might react badly if she chose to regard the fact that he'd obviously thought this through without consulting her, as him making decisions on her behalf. "All I'm saying is, whatever you want, I'll do anything I can to make it happen."

"You would really be willing to bring up another man's child?" she asked in amazement. "I mean I'm not so surprised at the adoption thing but you are sorta possessive guy..."

"I know. And I'm not saying that I like the idea of another man's kid growing inside you, but it wouldn't be another man's kid, not in any way that matters. He wouldn't touch you, or make love to you, wouldn't hold you through the night, wouldn't be there when you had morning sickness an' he wouldn't get to see that kid that we decided to bring into the world grow up to have its mother's eyes or her nose or her smile. You really think I'd pass up on the chance of watchin' your children grow up an' miss hearin' them call me Dad, just 'cause I can't be their biological father?"

"When you put it that way, I guess not. I just... I suppose I told myself it wasn't possible. Not that it'd be any time soon, but I just never..."

The minister nodded. "Well, I suppose you won't have the problem that some couples have when a child comes along unexpectedly, but bear in mind that if you do have children that it's a long term commitment, one that will make an impact on every aspect of your lives together, and unless the situation changes, your nocturnal activities place you both at risk, so it should be a decision you make very carefully. If you go ahead you should have plans for how the children would be looked after if something were to happen to one or both of you, who would care for them, what sort of financial provision you would make for them, which brings us rather nicely to money. Have you decided how you're going to organise your finances after you're married?"

---

 

Giles pushed the double doors open with his back and paused to survey the scene. The room already looked considerably more like a library. There were no more packing cases and the books were now arranged on the shelves according to the same slightly adapted version of the Dewey decimal system that the council had employed for decades. More importantly, thanks more to Penny than to Quentin, even though they had doubled up two to a desk, they had had to move several extra tables in to accommodate all the watchers who were now helping with the research. Some of those who had been unable to work on the titles Bee had highlighted as useful were researching local history and myths to see if they could find some clue on either the seal itself, or how the Turok Han had come to be under the town. Others were going through the Council's references on The First Evil, bringers or Turok Han.

Though Giles couldn't help feeling partly responsible for the fact that there was an ongoing exodus of the local population, it had proved useful in that during daylight hours there had been nothing to prevent teams of researchers from invading every library and museum. The town library had been abandoned as had those on campus, any pretence at a summer session long given up as a lost cause. Only in the local museum had any of the staff remained, a wizened curator who had been recruited after the museum had been sued for negligence for having misplaced a priceless mummy and having the poor taste to replace it with a desiccated corpse that wasn't even the correct sex. A curator who knew something of the nature of the hellmouth, one who, as it turned out, was half demon himself, hiding the golden tint of his eyes behind prescription sunglasses, and just as Bee had done, one who had accumulated his own personal stock of research materials many of which were previously unknown to the watchers.

With all the resources the council had at its disposal it stood to reason that they should have been able to do something about the situation before the level of disquiet was such that people, demon and human alike, were simply leaving town. At first it had been in twos and threes; those who had nothing to tie them down, stay-at-home mothers deciding that the summer vacation gave them an opportunity to visit out of state relatives. The last couple of days, however, had seen streams of cars leaving town.

It was perhaps no wonder that the construction site had been one of the first places to close. Every morning fewer workmen had showed up until it just hadn't been safe or economic to work with so few men especially when they were acting so erratically. According to Xander there had been several fist fights and one guy had tried to drive over another with a mechanical digger.

Spike had received a phone call just the other morning that had resulted in him sending Wesley out to pick up some present he'd ordered for Buffy before the premises were sealed up and the dealer and his family quit town, and this morning they had opened the school's main doors to find all the clothes that Spike had ordered for the wedding, boxed, stacked on the topmost step and shrouded in plastic, even though their final fittings weren't due until tomorrow. With a little over a week to go before the wedding Buffy had already threatened the photographer that she would hunt him down if he went any further than Los Angeles or failed to return if she called him once the situation had been resolved. Bee and Tara, being the most domestically minded of the group, were currently in the school kitchen trying out different cake recipes because the owner of the bakery that had been supposed to be providing the wedding cake had disappeared. Of course, if this had been England they would have had a fruit cake and it would have already been made before he'd done his vanishing act, but these colonials wouldn't know a proper wedding cake if it jumped up and bit them, which he conceded wryly might be just as well, depending how things went in the kitchen.

The florist had already closed up shop and was staying with her sister-in-law some forty miles away, but she had promised that she would be back, however briefly, in nine days time to do the arrangements for the wedding, though Buffy had given the impression that this was solely due to Spike's powers of persuasion. The vampire had apparently spun some tale about being a valued customer, but as Giles had never known the vampire to buy so much as a posy, he found it more likely that he'd threatened the woman into making the concession. Giles didn't even blame him.

Buffy continued to insist that she would deal with the threat before her wedding and plan events accordingly. Her determination was positively frightening, but that day was getting closer and so far there hadn't been any major breakthrough on the research front. The potentials and the younger watchers were getting better, and the best of them were helping out on patrol, but honestly, that was the extent of the available good news. As their bringer prisoner had promised, it didn't seem to matter how many harbingers they killed, more seemed to appear out of the woodwork. Unfortunately, three days after it had been captured, Wes had accompanied Tara downstairs to stand guard while she fed it breakfast, only to find that it had committed suicide by battering the back of its head against the concrete floor until its skull had caved in.

Every night, some of the magic users would cast the spell that allowed them to track different types of demon and the patrols did their best to cull the harbingers' numbers back. Faith, Buffy and Spike were still doing separate patrols in pairs later in the evening that managed to keep the numbers of Turok Han low, but every morning it seemed as if more had replaced them. Often the harbingers flocked around Caleb and though the Turok Han didn't seem quite so dependant on him they also tended to use the tunnels near the vineyard as their base. One thing their research had confirmed so far was that their late prisoner's claim tied in with ancient myths. The First had been able to give its designated champion an unholy strength that was unmatched by any of the forces of light. Then things got a bit hazy. There had been some sort of trickery on the part of the good guys and a truce had been called that basically gave The First dominion over an empty realm but vastly curtailed its powers on this plane. So far, that was as much as they'd been able to glean, but if, as the bringer said, the truce was broken and The First could again grant power to its human champion, then that put Caleb in the same league as Glory, even if he wasn't quite so quick on his feet, but now they didn't have a troll hammer. Buffy hadn't been terribly impressed when Xander pointed out that the only person who had been able to pick it up had had a minor case of death at the end of the battle, but at least she had agreed to avoid any confrontation with Caleb until both she and Spike were fully healed, a time that was fast approaching if it wasn't already here.

Giles carried the two large document storage boxes in his arms over to the table where Penelope was working. He slid them onto the desk.

"The police reports?" Penny asked.

"Yes, Quentin's Interpol contacts finally came through." Giles took the lid off the top box and removed a bundle of reports two or three inches thick. "I'll start with these. Why don't you allocate the rest as you think fit? You seem to have more luck getting them to cooperate than anyone else."

He watched as she took some of the files from the box and made her way toward one of the tables on the far side of the room. He hoped the key to the problem was in one of those boxes somewhere. If not, he could imagine that this might be a very interesting wedding.