Planning
“Well if anything that guy at least didn’t have a problem with you being a vampire.”
“Yeah, well he was nuttier than a fruitcake luv, and wanted to know if the baby was up for sale after it was born so I’m saying no. Hell, no.”
Xander laughed. “I’m surprised you didn’t eat him, or at least maim him slightly.”
“Might still yet, I’ll put it on my to do list, ‘kill smarmy git’.”
“At the rate we’re going, to kill all the smarmy gits you’ll have to kill half the people on that list and the greater population of Brooklyn, Bronx and Soho.”
“Don’t forget those daft buggers in Queens pet.”
They had been in New York for three weeks, talking to healers, mages and any idiot that had any knowledge of mystical pregnancies. The problem was that most of them in the greater New York area were either crazy or disliked the idea of working with a vampire. Xander would have been welcome but he would have had to go to their offices without Spike. That wasn’t going to happen.
Spike steered him towards a bench and went to flag down a cab. Parking in most of New York was terrible so they usually traveled by cab or subway. By Willow’s estimation he was nearing his thirteenth week and they really needed to find some sort of doctor soon. While he never experienced morning sickness he was tired almost all the time now, and cold even though it was getting to be late May.
Willow said it might be anemia. Willow said lots of things actually, Xander had a feeling that she read more about pregnancy than he and Spike put together did and it was their baby. But it was good, they were friends like they hadn’t been in years and Xander even talked to the shy Tara and became friends with her. He hated that he didn’t get to see them, but he’d figured out by now that sometimes it was easier to talk when you didn’t see each other. All the things that you would say with body language couldn’t be translated over the phone or email. They’d had to put things in words and in writing to make it right between them.
The situation in Sunnydale was getting odder by the day. Giles and Willow barely saw Buffy at all anymore. Oh she was still patrolling, but it was with Riley and the Initiative. When Watcher and Slayer did meet it was tense. Willow was worried that Giles would go back to England without a purpose in America so Spike and Xander had gotten together and bribed the man. Actually it had been Xander, he asked if Giles would be the Godfather of their baby and from what Willow had said the stuffy Brit had been struck speechless.
She had also said there was a spare room in his small apartment being cleaned out. It was nice to know they had a home somewhere.
Finally Spike flagged down a car and waved him over. The cab ride to the hotel was made mostly in silence, but Xander could sense Spike’s frustration. He understood it too, they had planned on finding a doctor of some sort and then get an apartment nearby and just…rest for a while. Instead they stayed for a week and a half at the Plaza before moving to Hotel 31.
Hotel 31 was smaller, but less expensive and less noticeable. It was also close to Midtown so it made hunting for Spike easier. Still Xander was tired of living out of suitcases, of living in a place that wasn’t his. It was awful but in a way Xander wanted it all to be over, not the pregnancy so much as the constant worry about being found or caught.
When they got out of the taxi and started to walk under the red awning, Spike opened his mouth and then closed it.
“What Spike?”
“Its just…wait, let’s just get to our room first.”
“Okay.” Now Xander was really, really worried. Spike didn’t usually watch what he said so closely; he would say even the most inappropriate things in the middle of the street for all to hear. Just thinking about it made Xander blush but he followed his lover to their fourth floor room willingly.
Before they talked there was what was becoming their usual routine. Spike had bought portable wards and he activated them all so that no one would be able to approach their room without them knowing and, more importantly, no sound would escape. Xander took to getting comfortable, taking off his outer shirt, Kevlar vest, then his undershirt before carefully putting away all of his other…accessories.
The longer Spike waited the more worried Xander became. He pilled up on the bed and pulled the comforter around him. “Just spill it Spike, it won’t get any easier if you wait. What is it?”
Spike actually ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He was pacing at the end of the bed and Xander’s neck hurt from watching him.
“This last git…Xan I think he was serious. He really thought I’d sell my child. And that one two days ago…he was talking about how powerful the little one would be and, fuck Xander none of these buggers want to help us unless they can get some sort of connection to our child. If I fucking well though that Red and the Watcher could deal with this I’d pay to have them flown out here and set up house, all of us.”
Xander thought about that. It would be nice to see Wills and Giles and even Tara. “If you want…I can call Willow and ask later on. I mean, they can’t be any worse than what we’ve been dealing with? But…it’s not fair to ask Wills to quit school. Maybe…”
Spike all but seized on the idea. “What pet?”
“Well Willow, she got accepted to a lot of schools. I mean a lot. She decided to stay in Sunnydale with Buffy and all that but now…” Xander looked Spike straight in the eye. “How much cash do you have, from the bad old days and now?”
Spike actually ducked his head. “Remember Xander it’s ours, not just mine. Let’s just say that we are very well off, if I were human I could give Trump a run for his money. Some of it’s tied up in stocks, investments and the like but, well whatever it is you have planned we can do, probably.”
Xander chewed on his lip as he thought. “Well, we still have names to go through, but I agree that New York tends to attract the weirdoes, so I’m thinking we should leave. There were a couple of names in Boston, one of them was a regular nurse midwife and the only reason Wills put her on the list was because she’s outspoken in the community about equality for pagans and gays. The thing is that she’s a normal midwife, which would be good but she probably isn’t used to men waddling through the door. Plus, MIT is there, if we help her get a scholarship, and one for Tara, well they might come after this semester’s finished in Sunnydale.”
“And the Watcher would follow. Brilliant luv. That just may work. We’ll call tomorrow and talk to that nurse woman, see what she’s like before making any decisions. When you talk to Red you can suss out her plans for this summer.”
Spike came up and Xander leaned forward so his lover could sit behind him, allowing Xander to lean on his cool chest. He snuggled into Spike’s embrace and could hear faint purring. HE felt a bit better too, the last three people they’d visited had scared him quite a bit, making him feel less like an intelligent person and more like a prized breeding cow.
Spike hands made their way down his midsection. He wasn’t really showing anything yet, but they could both tell the difference. His belly wasn’t quite so flat anymore, and Spike had read in one of their books that cocoa butter helped stretch marks and had taken to rubbing his stomach twice a day with it. Xander didn’t point out that it really wouldn’t help till he did start showing, he figured it was a way for Spike to touch their child. Plus a couple of times it led to lotion in other places as well and that was always of the good.
“Hey Spike?”
“Yeah luv?”
“There’s someplace I want to go shopping for the baby before we leave New York, and it’s supposed to be rainy tomorrow, can we?”
“Sure Xan, whatever you want.”
“You sure about that? Because you’re going to hate it, I can always go by myself.”
“Fuck no, we ain’t splitting up ever again, got that? If I’m going to hate it, you’d better make it worth my while.”
Xander turned in Spike’s arms and grinned. “I think I can handle that.” His hands started down to his lover’s waist as they kissed and in the back of Xander’s mind he hoped that Spike wouldn’t kill him tomorrow.
*****
“No, fuck no! Xander! You tricked me!”
“Uh uh, I said you wouldn’t like it and that was the truth. Come on, this is a once in a lifetime experience for me, and you’re not going to ruin it.” He turned and gave his most pleading expression to his mate. “Please, I never got to go to toy stores as a kid.”
“You owe me more sex for this pet.”
He just grinned at Spike’s surly tone. He figured once they were inside his lover’s inner child would come out to play, and more sex wasn’t a problem. “Okay, come on!”
Xander turned from Spike’s horrified face to the storefront. FAO Schwartz had always been a dream for him; he was lucky if his parents dropped by the Toys-R-Us. The front windows had giant teddy bears hanging in them, and he just grinned as they walked through the doors out of the spring rain.
He ignored Spike’s swearing as they walked past the singing clock tower and saw what he’d been looking for. He walked towards the display with the stuffed animals hurriedly, dodging people in the crowd and heard even more swearing as Spike tried to keep up.
He stopped in awe. There were stuffed animals bigger than he was, and small teddies, cats, dogs, anything a child would want.
“Xander?” His face must have shown Spike something; his tone had changed from the snark he’d been using just a moment ago.
“I never had a teddy bear, Dad said they were for wussies and crybabies. Willow and Jessie gave me one for my fifth birthday, right after we became friends, and Dad found it. He ripped it apart with his hands, pulled the stuffing right out and it felt like he was pulling the stuffing out of me. I…I want my baby to have all the stuffed toys that he or she could ask for and more.”
He could feel Spike’s arms wrap around him and a kiss was pressed to the back of his neck. All the anger at being dragged to a toy store had seemed to have left him. “This place have toys for little nippers too you think?”
“I don’t know, I just was going to get a bear and get out.”
“Let’s find out then, shall we?”
*****
Spike felt every nerve on edge in this place, it was filled with humans, running and shouting and little kiddies all but climbing the shelves. Xander had pointed out that at least it wasn’t after Thanksgiving; the place would have been five times as bad.
He hated being there, but the lost look on his mate’s face as he remembered his parents had made him twist inside and he would do anything to make Xander happy again. Which apparently meant following him around and giving his opinion on toys. A sharp sales clerk had recognized that while the two men may not have been well dressed they were there to spend money and had been helping them for the past two hours.
After encouraging Xander his mate was going just a bit crazy. At least he’d passed on he giant Siberian tiger, for now at least. The clerk had assured them they could purchase over the Internet. Still Spike loved that look of happiness on Xander’s face, and understood wanting to give their child everything in the place.
At least they agreed on most things. They had even decided on a theme for any future nursery they might have, figuring the child of two men shouldn’t have pastels or clowns and bunnies they’d decided on a jungle theme. Of course the toy tiger and leopard for babies with a rattle inside had helped with that choice, and his demon approved of the thought of his offspring being surrounded by predators.
There were other tigers, white and regular, a black panther, lions, just about every fierce cat as well as a wolf or two had made their way into Xander’s pile of shopping. There was a My First Teddy bear, a bigger teddy, and a musical Steiff that played a lullaby. They’d bought CD’s of other lullaby’s, and they have moved on to the baby area where Xander was excitedly clutching some little green bear that was soft and flat for babies.
“Spike look! Leather diaper bags!!”
In the midst of pastels and baby animals there it was, looking like a regular backpack with more pockets. “Right, get that please. Don’t think I can handle something fuzzy for the little nipper.”
Xander laughed. “Right, besides even if we wanted pastels we don’t know what to get, blue or pink. Hey do you want to know? If it’s a boy or a girl.”
Spike pulled up at that thought. “Dunno, hadn’t thought about it really.” A grin made it’s across his face. “Guess it would be nice to find out, so we can plan names and the like. Then again it would be nice to be surprised. What do you think Xan?”
“I don’t know, I’ll have to think about it some. Come on, let’s just go look at the prams and things, to see if we want to order one later!”
Spike shook his head at Xander’s continued enthusiasm. He would be more than tired tonight; his energy levels had been dropping more and more. Still Spike didn’t have the heart to call an end to his excitement. Xander was having too much fun.
He couldn’t help but wonder, a boy with Xander’s looks, a little girl with honey blonde curls? It was something to think about all right.
Spike shook his head at Xander’s continued enthusiasm. He would be more than tired tonight; his energy levels had been dropping more and more. Still Spike didn’t have the heart to call an end to his excitement. Xander was having too much fun.
He couldn’t help but wonder, a boy with Xander’s looks, a little girl with honey blonde curls? It was something to think about all right.
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