Welcome Home
by Rin
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A/N: I know this is short but I'm trying not to keep the stories in a cliff hanger too long.
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The baby was throwing a fit unlike any other Willow had ever known. She'd told Buffy to sleep, to get her strength back, and now she was fully regretting it. She thought about calling Anya but Mrs. Harris would be preoccupied with her own children, having given birth to her own newborn boy the previous. She thought about calling Faith but she was on tour. She thought about calling her own mother but no telling where Mrs. Rosenberg would be this time of the year. Elita just wasn't cooperating with anything she did.
"Come on, baby. Mommy'll buy you something nice." Willow tried bribing her but it still didn't work. Elita felt like she was on fire, and her face was blood red from all of the tears shed. Willow thought about waking Buffy but her wife really needed the sleep. The first two weeks were fun, learning the different ways of the first days of life, and enjoying every moment with their baby but Buffy never slept, breast feeding the girl at all hours of the day, singing her lullabies to get her to go back to sleep at night. "I don't know any lullabies. That's your mommy's department."
Trying to soothe her was just not working, so the redhead tried giving her a cold bath but that still didn't work. Once she managed to feed her one of Buffy's pre-pumped bottles but the little girl only informed Willow that projectile vomit was real. Giving her baby's fever medicine didn't work, and sitting in front of a fan didn't work. Willow was at her wits ends, and her wife was still out cold upstairs.
"How about we call Auntie Fred? I'll bet she knows; she's real smart like you're going to be." Willow held the little crying bundle of joy in her arms, as she managed to grab the cordless with her other hand. Fred had moved back to Sunnydale, having worn out her welcome in LA. Cordelia had moved in with Angel; they'd started some torrid love affair, so the scientist decided to move closer to her parents. The phone rang and rang but still no answer, so Willow slammed the phone with a huff. If she took the little girl to the emergency room, would that make her look like a bad parent because she couldn't handle her newborn daughter?
"Will, what's goin' on?" Buffy finally appeared in all her glory, wiping her tired eyes with her hand. She'd awoken to the feeling that something was wrong, and the sound of a crying baby downstairs confirmed her suspicions. Immediately, she dragged her worn-out ass out of bed, and managed to don her robe before making her way to the scene of the crime. "Will?"
"Buffy, I don't know what to do. I've tried everything but nothing's working, and I didn't want to wake you because you're so tired, and I tried calling Fred but she didn't answer, and I tried giving her a bath, and medicine, and bribes but nothing's working. I'm a bad parent. I'm a bad parent." Willow was sitting in the recliner, holding the fitted Elita close to her, rocking back and forth in a mantra.
"Willow, no. No, you're not a bad parent. Listen to me, listen. Let me have Elita, okay?" Buffy hurried downstairs, and tried to retrieve the little girl from her wife. Finally, Willow let loose, and Buffy managed to get the crying girl in her own secure hold, noticing the blue tint to the baby's skin, and the shallow breathing patterns. "Have you tried calling the doctor?"
"It's so late, and I tried giving her something for her fever but it still didn't work, so I tried feeding her, and that didn't work, and I got all nasty because she threw up, and I just don't know what to do. Buffy, tell me what to do." Willow fell to the floor, sobbing herself. The blonde just stared at her wife in disbelief; the redhead was supposed to be the smart one. Buffy was in no mood to deal with this right now; it was four o'clock in the morning.
"Get up." Her tone was harsh, as she looked down at her wife. She held the crying girl, finally getting Elita to calm down somewhat.
"I screwed it up, everything. Elita..."
"Yeah, you know what, you did screw up, okay?" Buffy holds Elita securely, as she roughly pulls Willow to her feet. "You could have killed her! You almost did!"
"I know! I know! I can't stop. I tried, and I can't." Willow wants to fall on the floor again. She's failed Buffy, she's failed their daughter, and she's failed as a parent. She's turning out to be just like her own parents, not paying attention to their daughter when most needed. All week long, whenever she would be the one to watch Elita, Willow wouldn't be able to handle her, and Buffy would have to drag herself out of bed to take her from her wife. The redhead just couldn't do it.
"You can." Buffy stares at her, not really wanting to deal with this right now. They need to get to the hospital fast, even though she's not a big fan of the place.
"I can't! I can't! I ju...god, I need help! Please!" Willow stands before her wife a sobbing mess, competing against their little girl for the loudest cry. "Please help me, please!" She throws her arms around Buffy and Elita, and continues to cry. "Please." With that final plea, Buffy hugs her wife back, not fully able to understand yet but there's no time to let her wife keep crying. They have to get their baby to the hospital.
"We have to go...now." Buffy sighs, grabs her keys from the table, and doesn't even watch to see if Willow is following but she knows she is; she can feel her, just like she can feel that Elita needs urgent care. A mother and a wife's instinct, she supposes.
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"Pneumonia? But she's only a month old, and it's not even cold outside." Kennedy was holding Jesse in her arms, allowing the older girl to sleep. It had been a long day for them all, helping Anya take care of baby Merrick, making sure that Buffy and Willow actually slept, even though both girls put up a fight, and seeing that Jesse was taken care of completely.
"It's what the doctor said. Dr. Olivia wants us to bring her in, so that she can do check-ups to make sure nothing is wrong because of the procedure, especially since she was fully grown a month earlier than normal." Willow was about to pass out; when they arrived at the emergency room, it was uncharacteristically empty, and the doctor saw them immediately after they finished the paperwork and were sent through triage. It took a whole five minutes for the doctor to figure out the problem; he was once a pediatrician, and had seen this in many newborns. After assuring the girls that their little girl was going to be fine, he prescribed them the proper meds, giving them a small sample that should last Elita through the night, and sent them home with directions. On the way, Willow pulled into a 24 hour Walgreens, and bought overpriced vaporizers, vapo rub, and chocolate bars and iced cappuccinos to keep them awake. Normally, the doctor would have kept the baby on surveillance but they had detected it early enough, and modern medicine was advanced enough to allow the girls to care for Elita at home.
"She's feeling better, though?" Fred stretched from her position with Anya's head on her lap. It was a little awkward. Baby Merrick was asleep in the extra crib upstairs, and Elita was finally put to rest.
"Much." Buffy yawned, beyond tired, and sore from lack of sleep and food. All of her energy had been spent on taking care of the baby, and Willow just followed her around like a little lost puppy, studying her every move, even how to fix the diapers properly. It was amusing watching the redhead try to change the diaper, and at least they were getting along, the fight from two nights ago still looming over their heads.
"We should probably get Anya home." Fred just blushed, as Anya turned around on the couch, and started breathing heavily against her private areas.
"Looks like she's comfortable to me." Kennedy smirked at the brunette, and couldn't help but let out a light chuckle, causing Anya to just cuddle up to Fred even more.
"We'll just let her stay here tonight. Xander's in New York with Faith anyways. He's trying to make up for lost time at work, I think." Willow stretched her limbs above her head; it was one o'clock, and they all had taken turns all day watching over the three rugrats.
"Yeah; she said he's been crying like a baby because he misses her and the kids." Kennedy chuckled lowly again, goosing Anya to wake her up but that only made her start dry humping Fred's leg.
"Okay, that's it!" Fred pushed the woman off the couch, as she landed with a big thud. That woke her up.
"Where's Dawn? She's missing all this action." Kennedy looked over at the new parents, and saw both of them about to drift to sleep. "Okay, up to bed you two. Sometimes, I feel like the parent."
"Know how you feel." Fred was helping a half-awake Anya stand, and the two brunettes pushed the three parents up the stairs, and into their proper beds. Once Anya was asleep, they checked on the kids, while Buffy and Willow prepped themselves for bed. Finding Elita out cold, and that the vaporizer was running properly, the two girls made sure that Buffy and Willow were out cold too before they drove to their own promising beds.
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Meanwhile in New York...
"Oh no. Not again." Xander sat up in bed, wearing nothing but his boxers, and looked down to find a sleeping Faith beside him. He was in for it now.