Echoes
by Rainne
Echoes
[reviews]
The dog days of summer were at their miserable peak on a certain day in Southern California, and the heat was making Willow Summers, nee Rosenberg more irritable than usual. Willow, as a general rule, was not an irritable sort of person; however, the normal rules of operation had been recently suspended in the Summers household. This is how it came to pass that on this particular day, Willow was alone on the back porch of the house on Revello Drive, eating a popsicle and trying to control her raging hormones.
Buffy, to no one's surprise, had escaped the house shortly after breakfast, claiming Watcher duties. Willow had to laugh, at least to herself, every time she thought of Buffy as a Watcher. The two concepts, at one time completely antithetical, now meshed in a new form that was uniquely and completely Buffy. She leaned back in her lounge chair and let her mind drift, thinking about all the things that had happened since Giles had agreed to father their child.
Three days after arriving in Sunnydale, Nicki Roland had nearly gotten herself killed goofing around on patrol with Buffy. She would bear a bite-scar on her neck for the rest of her life, and her outlook had altered drastically, much to everyone's relief. After that, she had thrown herself into her magick training and into research with the Scoobies, making herself a valuable member of the team.
Three months later, Dawn had returned to Sunnydale, officially Partnering Janna Markham. Judging by their body language, Buffy and Willow privately thought the girls' partnership might be more than just professional, but had decided not to say anything until the subject was brought up to them. The two girls stayed with Buffy and Willow long enough to find an apartment of their own, and then set up housekeeping themselves.
Two months after that, Willow had awakened one morning with an overpowering nausea. It repeated itself for two days, at which point a home test confirmed that efforts had been successful: Willow was pregnant. Slightly less than a month later, the Slayer-Partner team of Kerry Roberts and Kate Miglione arrived in Sunnydale with a proposition from the Academy that Buffy found impossible to refuse.
The title of Watcher was revived and applied to Buffy, who became the first officially retired Slayer in history. She turned her efforts now to working with and training the new girls. She still researched, she still trained herself, and she continued to patrol twice a week, but for the first time in a long time, Buffy was really, deeply happy. Buffy was also now drawing a sizable paycheck from the funds that had once belonged to the Watcher's Council.
Three Slayers and two Partners now patrolled the Hellmouth, and suddenly Sunnydale was a much safer place to be. And then the calls started coming in. The first one came from Willy the Snitch, who showed up at the house on Revello one morning with an envelope. Willow, fresh from a particularly unpleasant bout of morning sickness, had been less than pleased to find Willy on the porch, but invited him in anyway. He simply shook his head, asking her to give the envelope to "the head Slayer."
"She's not the Slayer any more," Willow had said, but Willy shook his head.
"Once the Slayer, always the Slayer," the slick little man told her. "Just give her that, please. She'll know what to do with it."
The envelope, it turned out, contained a plea for assistance from a coven of witches in south Florida. A nest of vampires had set up housekeeping on South Beach and were snacking on the tourists. Buffy dispatched both teams to Miami to take care of the problem. A day and a half later, Maria Ortega and Virginia Marcos arrived in Sunnydale.
Faith called that night. "You're not the active Slayer any more, B," Faith told her candidly in a tone that brooked no argument. "You're twenty-five years old. As far as Slayers go, that's pretty much old age. It's time for you to step back and let the younger girls patrol the Hellmouth. Send teams out like you need to, but keep one with you at all times."
"I can't just sit back, Faith," Buffy told her. "I'm the Slayer. Even if I am semi-retired. I have to do this."
"You won't be the Slayer for long, then," Faith snapped back in a voice Buffy had never heard her use before. "Ask Giles. Make him tell you. Ask him who the longest-lived Slayer in history is. And then decide whether or not you want to keep on patrolling."
Buffy had asked Giles that very same night, and was stunned by his answer. "The longest-lived Slayer in history? Why, Buffy, I thought you knew... it's you."
Buffy had stopped patrolling completely after that, except for an occasional foray out to observe one of the teams in action. Otherwise, she focused herself completely on research and on training the girls in the gym they'd built next door to the Magic Box.
The gym began quickly to take up a lot of Buffy's time, especially once she started offering self-defense classes to the general public. Between teaching regular students, researching, and training the teams, she had very little time to miss patrolling - even if patrolling had been the type of thing that she would really miss. Plus, at five months, Willow was beginning to show, and the couple was beginning to make the changed in their home and in their lives that were necessary for the advent of the new baby.
Dawn's old room had been cleaned out, and Buffy painted the walls and ceiling sky blue. Then she added sponged-on clouds on the ceiling, some birds, grass at the baseboards, and even a tree. Willow had been delighted with the finished product. They had purchased a baby bed, dresser and changing table, and Xander had surprised them with a handmade rocking chair.
The dispatched teams returned from Miami after two weeks, sun-bronzed and jubilant. Not only had they dusted every vampire in the nest, but they had at Janna's suggestion also gone out and made contacts in the demon underworld there. These contacts had promised to keep them informed of any activity in their area that would need to be dealt with by a Slayer. They had also agreed to pass on the Slayer Central contact information to individuals in other areas who would do the same.
Calls began to come in, requests for Slayer assistance from around the world. Siobhan Kennedy, Callie Westford, and their Partners Ebony Brooks and Tiffany Moore, arived in Sunnydale another month after that. Willow, now seven months gone, no longer suffered from morning sickness, but she also no longer fit into most of her old clothes. She started to experience the violent mood swings that chased Buffy out of the house. Buffy, however, soon learned that escape never helped, as Willow was apt to be ticked with her for running when she finally came home.
Giles and Tara had begun researching Rothschear's manuscripts, the ones which had caused Willow such trouble when they were in England. They were searching for the spells that Willow/Rothschear had used to activate the Slayers. It was Tara's theory that such a spell could be used to activate a Slayer when one was needed; such an activation could even be done when girls graduated from the Academy. That way, when a Slayer was permanently injured or became, like Buffy had, too old to safely patrol, she could retire and take on the status of Watcher instead. Giles had strongly concurred with Tara and they had begun to research.
Xander and Anya were finally getting married, after several years of false starts. Xander had proposed shortly before Willow discovered that she was pregnant. Buffy and Tara had been chosen as bridesmaids, and Willow and Giles as "groomspeople." Anya had been gently persuaded to schedule the wedding for after the baby's birth.
The sound of a car pulling into the driveway brought Willow out of her reverie. She struggled up out of her lounge chair, one hand on her distended belly, and started through the house. She opened the front door just as a dark-haired figure was reaching up to ring the bell. "Faith!"
Faith jumped. "Holy shit, Red! You almost gave me a heart attack."
"You're a vampire, Faith," Willow responded dryly. "You can't have a heart attack. Come inside."
"I coulda still wet myself or fell out or something," Faith grumbled cheerfully as she entered, dropping her knapsack on the floor of the foyer. "Damn, girl, look at you! How far along are you?"
"Just at eight months," Willow replied, moving into the living room and sinking down onto the sofa with a groan. "Eight months, and I could not possibly be more ready for this to be over."
"I bet," Faith said sympathetically, settling herself on the other end of the couch. "Is it a girl or a boy?"
"We don't know," Willow replied, grinning. "We decided we wanted to be surprised."
"Picked out names yet?"
"Either Robert Alexander or Roberta Dawn," Willow replied, rubbing absently at her belly where the baby was kicking. "Robert is a variant of Rupert, so that's where that came from."
"Very cool," Faith approved. They sat quietly for a moment, and then Faith suddenly shook her head. "This is crazy. Surreal, almost."
"What's that?" Willow inquired.
"Us. Me, you, sitting here, like this. Seven years ago you wouldn't have gotten close to me without a machete. And I wouldn't blame you. But here we sit, alone in your house, on the couch; you're about to be a mom, I'm running a school full of girls, and we're just sitting here talking about your baby." She shook her head. "I would never have thought it was possible."
Willow smiled gently. "People change. They grow up. They learn from their mistakes." She extended a hand to Faith. "And people forgive." She squeezed Faith's hand, then let it go and settled in a bit more comfortable. "So, what brings you all the way to Sunnydale?"
"The Academy, what else?" Faith responded, rolling her eyes. "I wanted to check up on the girls, especially Nicki, dig through the books, and maybe have Giles come and look at something." She leaned forward now, her eyes glittering with excitement. "We've found a... like a miniature Stonehenge, out in the woods. It's got this crazy energy vibe about it and none of us can figure it out."
"You should take Tara, too," Willow suggested. "She's really powerful."
"Tara? Oh, your witch friend. She's still around?"
Willow nodded. "She is. She's been a huge help to us."
"Well, I'll take her if she wants to come," Faith said promptly. "Two heads are better than one."
"Why don't we head down to the shop, then?" Willow suggested. "Unless you're tired - did you want to take a nap?"
Faith shook her head. "Nah, I'm five by five. I slept on the plane."
Willow locked the house and handed Faith the keys to the new Xterra which stood in the driveway. "I don't fit behind the wheel any more," she explained as she moved around to the passenger side.
"You sure it's not twins?"
Willow groaned. "Oh, God, I hope not." She rubbed at her temples. "That would be all I'd need."
"Lookin' to have an only child?"
"No... Well... We haven't really talked about it." Willow's hand moved to slowly stroke her belly, smiling as she felt a lazy sort of push from the inside. "Oh, she's stretching."
They paused at a stop sign and Faith raised an eyebrow. "She?"
Willow blushed and grinned sheepishly. "Don't tell Buffy. I'm kind of hoping for a girl."
Faith grinned back. "No shame in it," she assured Willow. She steered the Xterra carefully into a spot outside the Magic Box and climbed out to gape at the storefronts. "When did they put a gym in?"
Willow smiled broadly. "That's Buffy's gym," she announced proudly as Faith helped her out of the vehicle. "She trains the girls there and teaches self-defense classes."
"No shit. That's great!" Faith, with a huge grin, made for the front door of the gym. With Willow behind her, she paused just inside the doorway. Buffy had her back to the door, instructing a wide-eyed class of youngsters. Faith slid her backpack off and gave Willow a wicked grin. She turned then and launched herself across the room at Buffy.
Buffy saw the eyes of her students shift a half-second before her Slayer senses screamed a warning. She spun immediately into a defensive posture just in time to block a punch from Faith. The children scattered, racing to the relative safety of Willow's side as the two Slayers rolled across the mats and came up battle-ready. Willow came up to the side of the mats. "It's okay, kids," she assured them. "They're just sparring. Watch them and learn." The kids all nodded solemnly and stared.
Buffy swept Faith's feet out from under her with a kick and leapt onto the vampire, straddling her waist. Faith rolled them until she was on top. Buffy punched her in the face, knocking her back, and then they were both on their feet again, circling each other. They exchanged a few more bouts of hand-to-hand before Faith kicked Buffy into the wall next to the weapons rack.
"Faith," Buffy greeted her, catching ehr breath. She wiped blood from the corner of her mouth. "Long time no see."
"Yeah, B," Faith responded with a grin through her own split lip. "Lucky for me you still hit like you used to."
"Care to test that with something a little stronger?" Buffy taunted.
Faith raised an eyebrow at the impressive array of bladed weapons on the rack next to Buffy. "You lookin' to wind up in the hospital?"
In response, Buffy pulled down the two quarterstaves which framed the display. She tossed one to Faith and took up a ready stance with her own. They circled one another for a moment and then reentered combat. For a few moments, the only sounds to be heard in the gym were the clack of wood on wood and the soft grunts of the combatants. Then Faith got a lucky shot in, smacking Buffy hard across the lower back and knocking her to the mat. Faith dropped to her knees astride Buffy's shoulders and gently placed one hand on either side of the golden head. "Snap," she whispered. "Vamps one, Buffy zero. Now do you see why I wanted you to keep a team here? I never beat you before, B." She stared into Buffy's eyes with a quiet intensity. "We live large and burn out fast, B. Like stars going nova. Boom."
They stayed in that position for a long moment, the tension between them almost palpable, before Buffy finally nodded. "Message received, Faith," she said softly.
"Okay, then," Faith nodded. She stood and offered Buffy a hand up. "I want that baby to grow up with both its mothers."
Buffy grinned then and hugged Faith. "Good to see you, Faith. No Dakota? You're here on business, then."
Faith nodded. "Nothing apocalyptic, though," she said quickly. "Not this week, anyway."
They shared a laugh, and then Faith moved to sit on the bench near the door with Willow while Buffy regathered her scattered students and finished teaching her class.