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Part 16

"Mommy?"

Buffy spun around to her standing there in his arms.

"Mommy?"

Buffy looked at her and then at Spike. They stood silently over a grave. Buffy stepped closer to her name etched in the sculpted marble. She gasped as she looked at the young woman and Spike. The dark haired girl cried as Spike held her shaking body in her arms.

"I'll kill him for you mom. I promise." She exclaimed.

Buffy turned to see at her mother bathed in white light, smiling at her lovingly. "Mom?"

"Buffy make the most of your life, your time."

"Why?"

"I don't have much time left Buffy. You need to be back before Dawn." Joyce smiled before she suddenly disappeared.

"Nothing is much of what it seems."

Buffy was suddenly in her living room. "What?" Buffy asked.

"Nothing is much of what it seems." Kendra repeated. She shook her head and began to walk away. "I have to go."

"Kendra wait!"

But it was too late, she was gone.

"Just like before." Buffy said just before she woke up.

Buffy hated these weird dreams and although they seemed to be coming frequently as the summer continued, she never told Giles or any of the other scoobies. For some reason she needed to keep this to herself. She didn't know why, but she just knew that she should.

Part 17

"I think that's the last box, pet." Spike huffed as he sealed up the brown carton.

"Great! The movers will be here tomorrow."

"Are you sure you want to move now with the due date being so close and all."

"I don't think we have a choice. I don't want anymore run-ins with that strange man from the last doctor's appointment, and I know that you are worried about how many of Jacob's minions survived, so this just uncomplicates things. I wish Mama Sha was back from visiting her daughter, I wanted to say goodbye to her." Christine's eye brimmed with tears. "This was our place, we picked this out together, Daniel and I. We loved like no two people ever should ever love, and now..." She passed her hand over her belly. "Am I doing what's right?"

Her green eyes looked up to him for approval, "He would be proud of you! Especially after everything you've been through." Spike assured her before kissing her on the forehead.

Christine roughly wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at her watch. "I have my last appointment with Dr. Maltman, in a couple of minutes. We better go, tonight is the last ultrasound before she is born." A crooked smile appeared on her face.

She grabbed a sweater and Spike took his duster and headed out into the unseasonably cool summer night.

That weekend they finally finished moving into their new apartment, and they settled into the box filled living room.

"Hey, we've got all the necessities: a couch and an entertainment center." Christine said as she eased herself onto the sofa.

"A bloke needs nothing more."

"Pass me that bowl from microwave." She called to the vampire in the kitchen.

"What the hell is this? I have seen demons that don't look as bad as this concoction!"

"Just bring the bowl and the other one on the counter."

"I will never get over you women and the whole childbirth thing. I mean, that's a bloody person inside of you waiting to get out.. reminds me of that movie Aliens."

"Ok, that's gross!" Christine scoffed, "I mean, it's soooo not the same!"

"No, what's gross, is broccoli, melted cheese and chocolate sauce." Spike cringed as he handed her the tray.

"I'm eating for two now."

"Yeah, I saw that fuzzy picture thing."

"An ultrasound. And you looked shocked."

"Well it's not like I've been party to many masquerades as a father to be to see an ultrasound. Never ceases to amaze me how fast the world changes. Hell, back in my day a Midwife did all this baby stuff without all the technology crap. "

"Technology crap huh? You sure love to watch Passions on my 56' screen tv... and I don't even wanna know what you download on my computer."

Spike turned around from the entertainment center "I'm going to ignore that."

Christine giggled before she dipped a piece of broccoli in the chocolate syrup.

Spike made a face as she stuffed another piece into her mouth. "Alien!" Spike sang as he turned on the DVD player. "What do you want to watch love?"

"The Princess Bride."

"What a poofter movie." The peroxide vampire groaned putting in the disc.

"Hey! You remind me of Westley."

"Oh god no!"

"You do. I mean he's all heroic and blond and handsome." Christine giggled as a smile crept over Spike's face. "Like you."

"Well go on luv, no need to stop."

She threw a pillow at him before he hopped onto the couch next to her.

Spike watched as Christine got half way through the movie before falling asleep. He gently stretched out her body on the couch and grabbed a comforter from the box marked 'beddings' and covered her with it.

He hated to leave her alone, but he needed to feed, so he quickly left into the night.

Part 18

"Are you sure that she is the young woman?" Quentin Travers asked Lydia as he sipped his Scotch, looking at the picture that they had taken of Christine near the University hospital.

"Absolutely Mr. Travers. According to the Slayer's Codex, she is the one from the land of the mountains in the in the eighth zone from Dakar. She will be the woman that will bear the strongest Slayer. Well, this is the eighth time zone from Dakar, and the tale of her meeting a Master has happened, but we do not know how she survived and how she is to meet Angel. The rest of the prophecy expressly says that the vampire with the heart and soul to love will raise this child as his own."

"She must not be the one." The Councilman shock his head as he took another sip of his drink.

"But the Shaman...."

"The Shaman could be wrong."

"I highly doubt it." Lydia thumbed three her pages upon pages of notes on the

"But we have already talked to Mr. Angel. He knows nothing... and besides, he is in California. How do we not know that the young woman is in LA?"

"Well the Shaman.."

"Here we go back to this again. Have we found where the girl lives yet?"

"No sir. It seems that she moved shortly after you approached her, but it was prophesied that she would meet with a Master vampire soon and survive. And we did hear of Jacob of the Order of Dimrui's death."

"But she could not have done that all by herself and that could also mean for all we know, some vampire could have her and the baby. And if the vampire is not Angel then who the hell could it be. I mean how many vampires did those gypsy curse. We have to find her before this baby is born. The Council has a responsibility to this child, and I do not want a child with her powers to be raised by the wrong... ehmm demon. That doesn't even sound right saying it." Travers scoffed.

"I know it's unsettling."

"Actually it's down right ridiculous. This baby should be under our charge. Not a vampire and definitely not the mother-to-be."

"Mr. Travers, as you well know we should...."

"We should be finding this woman and not pussyfooting around here! With all the resources of the council, finding one pregnant woman should not be a challenge, and I want Winston and Reese to go back to Los Angeles and interview that vampire again."

Lydia chuckled and stopped at Quentin's glare. " Interview with A Vampire!" Quentin looked at her blankly, "The Anne Rice novel… Nevermind!"

Part 19

Spike got back to the apartment minutes before dawn. Once he opened the door, he expected to find Christine still sleeping, instead, the apartment was empty. A sinking feeling hit his stomach until her saw her note.

'Spike I got lots of errands to run as you know time is coming close I got to do a bunch of stuff. See you soon, Chris.'

Spike set the note down back on the table and went to take a quick shower and a nap before Christine came home.

Spike paced the living room and watched as the clock began to wind down to sunset. In half an hour it would be dark and Christine wasn't back from going out and doing some last minute shopping.

The door opened quietly and Christine slipped in as much as her eight and a half month stomach would allow.

"Where'd you go? I was worried about you. You left for the whole day, and didn't call."

"Ok, Spike you're turning out to be more of husband than a friend right now." Christine snapped.

"I just worry." He replied quietly grinding his teeth trying not to snap back, "It's your last couple of weeks in the pregnancy."

Christine shook her head and gave her roomy a quick kiss on the cheek, "I'm sorry. Thanks for the worrying."

"So what did you do all day?" The vampire brushed off the uneasy feeling he had about her.

"Nothing much." She replied, a little too quickly for Spike's liking. "I'm going to have a shower, order a pizza. You know what I like."

Christine disappeared into her bedroom, and as soon as he heard the water turn on, he went to her purse. Something was going on, and he was going to find out what.

In her purse was a cell phone some papers and bank statements. A brown envelope caught his eyes, inside were insurance papers, savings bonds, and a card for a law firm Williams, Williams and MacMaster.

Spike put everything back and walked down the short hallway Even though the shower was on full blast he could still hear her crying. He sighed before he headed back down the stairs.

I can't believe I have no clue what to say to her! Isn't this suppose to be the happiest time of her life? I mean on those bloody tv specials always talk about a mother's glow. He sighed again as he headed down the stairs. "Something is going on, and I have to find out what. Soon."

Part 20

"So how are you doing Buffy?" Willow's voice crackled over the phone lines, "Get any sleep."

"I'm ok. I'm surviving without him but it's hard. I got to go to sleep soon I am so tired. But these dreams that I have been having are not helping my sanity."

"What are they about? Are they about him?"

"You can say his name Willow, and no they aren't about Angel. I don't really want to get into it, Willow. Are we still going to take the tour of the campus tomorrow?"

"Absolutely. Oz is driving us."

Buffy felt a sharp stab of pain in her stomach, and doubled over on the living room floor.

Willow heard a strange thud, "Buffy?!?"

"Willow, I've got to go!" The Slayer hung up the phone abruptly and crawled onto the couch until the pain subsided. Within seconds she felt fine, but the pain was something she had never felt before, and it scared her. She just lay staring at the stucco ceiling until her eyes closed and she fell asleep.

It was only still light outside as Christine gazed at the night's sky outside of her new bedroom window. She didn't have a chance to say a last good bye to Mama Sha in person, to the woman who had become her surrogate mother over the last 5 years. Christine sighed, not noticing the figure standing in the doorway.

"So are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"Nothing is going on, Spike." The raven haired beauty sighed again turning around.

"Why don't I believe you?"

"I found a new doctor today. I kind of need one for the birth and all." Christine not so subtly changed the subject.

"That's not going to work, Pet."

"Well it'll..." Christine suddenly clutched her stomach groaning in pain.

The vampire rushed to her side. "Chris, pet what is it?"

Her eyes were wide with fear and uncertainty. "I think it's time, Spike."

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