Interview
Spike moved silently through their new apartment, trying to straighten up the few personal items they had before he went to wake up his lover. Xander was tired all the time now, and Spike was at his wit’s end. He hated leaving Xander alone, but it was no longer safe for Xander to go out hunting with him at night. In desperation Spike had taken to drinking bagged blood again for part of the time, and only made quick trips to Chinatown or Roxbury to hunt.
If he had believed in the power of prayer Spike would have been using it for the past week. The move from New York to Boston had been bad for Xander, and Spike was worried about his pregnancy. They both wanted this child so much; if anything happened to it they’d grieve for years at the loss of their one chance at a family, no matter how it came about.
But what scared Spike more was the loss of Xander.
They had finally found the spell to keep Xander, Xander when he was turned, when Spike was captured by the Initiative. They hadn’t had the opportunity to do a damn thing about it and now that Xander was pregnant they couldn’t dare do it. Spike was deathly afraid that Xander would die carrying their child and Spike would be without the one person who made him whole.
He shook off his melancholy thoughts and went to wake Xander up. That’s why they were in Boston, to make sure nothing happened to Xander or the baby. Tonight they were meeting with that midwife woman. He could only hope that she would be understanding, from what Red and told both him and Xan even though she was aware of demons and vampires she wasn’t used to mystical pregnancies, just mundane ones. Still that more than likely meant she didn’t want a pound of flesh from him or the baby, and that was more than all right by Spike.
He looked at the clock and sighed. Time to wake up Xander if they were going to be at the café to meet this woman in an hour. Their flat was in an apartment building in the North End, and they didn’t have far to go to meet her. The difficult part was waking Xander up.
He walked into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the big bed and just watched Xander for a few minutes. Xander didn’t have a glow that most pregnant women had, but he had a slight rash around his eyes, and when he was tired there were deep circles under them.
Spike smirked. Xander had been really good with his nutrition the past few weeks, even to the point of giving up on his sodas and coffee, something that even a vampire like Spike would find hard to do. He was undead, that didn’t mean he didn’t get addicted to caffeine. As it was he was chewing through pencils trying to quit smoking so the baby and Xander’s lungs wouldn’t be damaged. Not even born yet and the little nipper inside his lover’s tummy had him wrapped around it’s little finger.
But it was this McCoy woman who set up the meeting place when he’d talked to her this afternoon, and Spike knew for a fact that Xander wouldn’t make it through the night without breaking his diet. Mike’s Pastry was famous for it’s sweets and there would be no controlling Xander. Spike figured it would be okay as long as it was only a one-time thing.
Spike caressed his Xander’s abdomen and felt the slight swell that was their child. “Xander? Xan luv, wake up.”
“Hmmp? What time is it?”
“Time to get up pet. Gotta meet that bint in an hour and I want you to have some dinner before we go out. Lots to do tonight, remember?”
“Five more minutes Spike…” Xander’s voice was muzzy with sleep and Spike chucked at the almost petulant sound of it.
“Nope, lots to do tonight. Getting you and the nipper here checked out and getting some furniture for this place is another. The bed is nice but I’d like a telly and somewhere to sit too pet. Not that I don’t like it when you sit on my lap but it’ll get old after a while.”
“Not to mention that in a few more months I’ll be as big as a whale. All right, I’m up. But I’m protesting being up at this hour, whatever it is.”
Spike all but pulled Xander out of bed and to the bathroom and then went to fix his dinner. Or breakfast; however you looked at it. It was past eight in the evening after all, but for a mortal on vampire time it was breakfast.
Xander came in pulling on an oversized tee shirt, as Spike was finishing slicing bananas to go on top of his cereal. They still needed to go shopping for a better fridge and groceries, when they’d moved into the building it was empty, that’s what made it so perfect.
Spike bought the entire building outright, and they had plans to remodel and then rent some of the other apartments. Of course they were on the top floor and had the biggest space. The other two apartments they were going to fix up for the Watcher and Red and Tara when they finally made their way to Boston.
“Thanks Spike, this looks good. Well as good as cereal without marshmallows can be.”
“Pet those marshmallows in some of those cereals are hard as rocks. Besides this is one of those poofy cereals that’s got all the vitamins a woman needs, according to the box at least. Has to be good for you.”
“You know for a male couple we have some of the strangest conversations on this earth.”
“Try not to think about it Xan, it’ll give you a headache.”
“We’re going shopping for stuff for a nursery at the same time we’re getting the other stuff, right?” Xander had a fake look of innocence on his face and Spike sighed and shook his head, a fond look on his face. “Gotta be at a furniture place anyhow aren’t we? I’d rather not take more than one trip.”
“Cool!” There was what it was all about right now, making his mate happy and smiling. Spike couldn’t help but think what a complete poof he was becoming. He was going to have to visit Roxbury and eat some wanna-be punks to get rid of the sweetness in his mouth.
After buying baby furniture of course. Their apartment had two bedrooms, a big bath and then a huge room that was kitchen and living room all in one. It had big windows, but a few arrangements with some of his contacts and a good bit of money had electric shutters installed in two days.
“Shift your arse Xan, we’re gonna be late to meet this nurse woman if you don’t hurry.”
Xander picked up his bowl of cereal and drank the milk while Spike grabbed his duster and the laptop that contained all the information Willow had gathered about the baby from the Initiative. “Can we stop somewhere else for something to eat later? I’m still hungry.”
“Somehow Xander, I really don’t think it’s gonna be a problem. Come on.” He had to fight to keep the smile off his face as they rode down the elevator. Xander was going to love where they were meeting this woman.
*****
Xander’s mouth hung open as Spike tugged on his hand. “You’d better not be teasing me Spike! I’d better get to order something damn it, or you will have one very grumpy pregnant man on your hands.”
Spike squeezed his fingers and laughed. “Would I do that to you pet?”
“Yes, damn it you would! You are evil after all. And meeting someone that may or may not care about my nutrition in Mike’s is an awful, awful thing to do to me.”
Spike held the door open and ushered Xander in. “Wasn’t my idea, was it? This woman wouldn’t meet with a vamp in her home or come to ours. This is nice and public but with so many people in here we’ll never be noticed.”
“So she knows you’re a vampire? Whoa. Does she know the other part yet?” They sat down at one of the café like tables and looked at a menu.
“Nope, it was hard enough to convince her it wasn’t a trap or that I wasn’t gonna try to eat her. Suspicious woman, you’ve got to admire that.”
They ordered, earl grey and a slice of cherry pie for Spike and chamomile tea and a slice of strawberry cheesecake for Xander. He figured it at least had dairy and fruit so it wouldn’t be too bad for him. Although the looks of some of the chocolate cakes had him changing places with Spike so his back was to the pictures and displays.
Before their desserts came a woman walked up to the table, and both his and Spike stood up as she had a seat. She was average, not too tall, and not too skinny, with a strong jaw. But her face had a kindness in it that more than made up for any flaws and Xander found himself really hoping she would help them. Black hair framed her face and she had bright blue eyes.
“You must be the two men wanting to meet me. Hello, I’m Joanna McCoy.”
The next few minutes were filled with introductions and small talk while Joanna ordered a Boconnotto and a cafe Mocha and Xander tried not to drool on her. As it was he was thankful that Spike didn’t order his usual hot chocolate.
“So why would a vampire and his human consort need the help of a nurse? Especially one in my field?” Joanna’s accent was wonderful, a mixture of New England and a soft Georgian drawl. From what he knew of her, she had been all but driven from her hometown outside of Atlanta just for being pagan.
Spike took on of Xander’s hand on top of the table and the other was fussing with the edge of his duster. Xander knew that his mate was nervous, he was too and he decided he had better start. “See it’s like this, I’m from Sunnydale, have you heard of it?”
“Not really, just enough to know that it’s not a place for a empath to be.”
Spike snorted but didn’t say anything so Xander continued. “See Sunnydale stands over the mouth of hell, literally. I went to high school over the Hellmouth itself. It wasn’t fun, but hey my best friends are witches and one of my friends was the vampire slayer and most of my class survived, giant snake demons at Graduation aside.”
Xander stopped at looked to see if she was buying any of it. Her face was impassive, not showing anything that might be going on in her head so he took a deep breath and continued.
“There’s a lot I could tell you, but long story short I fell in love with Blondie here, despite the fact that he’s a vamp.”
It took a long time to tell the entire story. Most of the people they’d talked to before didn’t care, so Xander was really feeling some hope that they had found someone who would help him.
By the time it came to talk of their joint escape Xander’s voice gave out and Spike nudged his teacup closer to him as the vampire started the tale. Spike told everything and then slid the laptop over to the dark woman. Joanna took a deep breath, looked at both of them and without saying anything started going through the information.
Xander fidgeted, painting patterns with the edge of his fork in the leftover strawberry sauce till it made an awful scraping sound, causing all of them to flinch.
“Sorry.” He gave a sheepish smile and Spike squeezed his hand in reassurance.
“That’s okay, I can tell you both are nervous.” Joanna smiled at them both and closed the laptop. “So why me? I mean why not someone else whose used to dealing with…unusual circumstances?”
“Because the ones we’ve talked to are all bloody idiots. Wanting something from me or Xan, hell even wanting the baby.” Spike spoke with a growl in his voice and this time it was Xander squeezing his hand in reassurance.
“What it is, we want this baby, not for what it may or may not be able to do, or if it can be a sort of advanced human, or anything like that. We want it because it’s ours, it’s our one and only chance of having something made from both of us and we don’t want to lose him or her.”
For the first time since starting their story, Joanna smiled. “Okay, I believe you. I don’t know how much I can help you, but I believe you.”
“Does that mean you can take care of them?” Xander smiled at the obvious concern in Spike’s voice.
“I really don’t know. I’ll have to look over these files and record more thoroughly, maybe even talk to my Dad. Don’t worry, the only people he’ll tell are his two best friends and they won’t say anything. They’re retired Navy, my Dad was a ship’s doctor, so he’ll be able to help me with the military jargon.”
“You sure they won’t say anything?” Xander couldn’t help but worry; he wasn’t a fan of any branch of the military at the moment.
“Let me put it this way, Uncle Jim was an Admiral but he didn’t like some of the things the government was doing. In the end he got busted back down to Captain right before he retired. He always got in trouble because he had what Dad called a ‘White Knight Complex’.”
Spike snorted in amusement. “Sounds like someone else I know, always doing things for the good of humanity over here.”
“Hey!” Xander blushed and Joanna laughed at the both of them.
“Okay here’s what we’ll do. I assume you’ve been watching your diet and all that?”
“Yes, except for tonight and I fully expect Spike to force something icky and healthy on me, like liver and onions, in return for the cheesecake.”
“Well I hate to say it but protein is very good for you.”
Xander made a face. “Yeah, I know. It’s just…well I’ve been craving rare steaks and meat, probably has to do with my…history. And I know it’s not good for me but it’s driving me nuts to cook the stuff.”
“Umm, history.” The woman’s voice was hesitant, as is she really didn’t want to know. Xander looked at Spike and his vampire nodded.
“Yeah, well in tenth grade, I was kind of possessed by a hyena spirit. I kinda ate the school mascot, which wasn’t as bad as the rest of the kids who were possessed because they kind of ate the principal.”
“How the hell do you kind of eat a principal? Wouldn’t you either eat him or not?”
Xander blinked at the woman while Spike out and out laughed at her question. “Thanks Fang. Yeah, okay I ate a pig. The thing is I still have a bit of hyena in my head, along with a soldier possession I once had. It’s kind of crowded in my brain.”
Joanna was still chuckling. “Well for right now, cook the meat, please. I want you to come to my office after sundown tomorrow.” She pulled out a business card with a downtown address. “I take it you’re on a night schedule with Spike?” Xander nodded. “Good, I want you to fast eight hours before coming in, nothing but water okay? We need to get blood tests, amnio, the works. I want you to go home tonight and write down a complete medical history for your family. Also write down any questions you might have, medical, nutritional, anything. That way we’ll spend less time thinking of questions to answer. Okay?”
Xander and Spike looked at each other and answered at the same time. “Great.” “Sounds good.”
Joanna just laughed again. “Yep, I can tell you two are married, you’ve got that whole talking without words thing down to a tee. See you tomorrow night. Oh, and decide if you want to find out if it’s a boy or a girl or not.”
Additional Author’s Notes: Joanna McCoy is not mine; I’m just borrowing her and her family from another favorite fandom of mine. Chocolate goes to the person who can guess what.
.” “Sounds good.”
Joanna just laughed again. “Yep, I can tell you two are married, you’ve got that whole talking without words thing down to a tee. See you tomorrow night. Oh, and decide if you want to find out if it’s a boy or a girl or not.”
Additional Author’s Notes: Joanna McCoy is not mine; I’m just borrowing her and her family from another favorite fandom of mine. Chocolate goes to the person who can guess what.
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