Getting Ahead of Myself
by sailor80
Thirteen
[reviews]
A/N //dreams//
Downstairs, Faith fared no better. She twisted in the midst of a dream she couldn't wake from.
// She had promised to meet Tara on campus for some fair, but the gallery was busy, and Faith couldn't get away on time. Joyce shooed her out the door half an hour late, and Faith hurried toward their meeting place.
The campus was crowded, and Faith resented the time it took to work her way through the crowd. Suddenly, she knew something was wrong, and became more aggressive, physically moving people aside with a mumbled "excuse me."
When she reached Tara, the blonde was alone on the bench, but Faith's sigh of relief disappeared when Tara looked at her without recognition.
"Tara?" Faith asked cautiously, and sat beside her on the bench. She touched the girl's hand, and Tara whimpered. Faith saw blood, and the swelling, and bit down on a torrent of swear words. She looked around for the one responsible, but there was no trace of it.
Faith moved to Tara's other side. The motion interrupted Tara's tuneless humming, and Faith slid one arm around her. "Let's go get your hand fixed," she said softly, and helped Tara to her feet. //
Faith sat up, jerking the bedclothes with her, and Tara asked sleepily, "What?"
"Are you all right?"
The distress in Faith's voice brought Tara to her side. "I'm fine," she said softly. "What's wrong?"
Faith shook her head and turned to examine Tara. Once she was certain Tara was unharmed, she said, "Bad dream."
"It's over now," Tara answered, and lay down. "C'mere," she coaxed Faith.
Faith went willingly into Tara's arms. She drew a deep breath and took comfort in Tara's familiar scent. Tara kissed the top of Faith's head and rubbed her back until the brunette's breathing was regular. Then she let herself go back to sleep.
Everyone slept in the next morning, and the afternoon was spent arranging furniture in the nursery. Buffy and Willow put up a border of ducklings splashing in the rain. Faith, Tara, and Joyce took on the contents of the several boxes that had arrived during the week, which turned into a changing table, a dresser, and a mobile in primary colors.
When the work was finished, the others left Buffy and Willow in the nursery. Buffy cradled Willow from behind as they took in the changes. Buffy's hand rubbed Willow's belly. "Okay?" Buffy asked softly.
"Yeah." Willow smiled and leaned back to kiss Buffy. She covered Buffy's hand and guided to one side so Buffy could feel the baby's energetic kicking.
"Wow," Buffy said softly.
"She kicks like a Slayer," Willow teased.
Buffy smiled hugely and kissed Willow's neck and cheek. "Have you thought about names?"
"Not really."
"I like Dawn," Buffy said softly.
Willow turned to face Buffy and smiled. "Pretty." After a few seconds, she said, "Dawn Marie Rosenberg Summers."
Buffy smiled and kissed Willow gently. "Sounds good."
"Mmm," Willow hummed, and got as close as she could. "She'll be here soon. Good thing we have her name picked out."
Buffy cupped Willow's cheek. "I am so happy about this, Willow," she said after a few long seconds. "You, her, us, everything."
"Me, too." Willow leaned her face into Buffy's caress and closed her eyes. "I love you so much, Buffy."
"I love you, Will." Buffy kissed her again.
They stood together in the room for a long time, looking around and at each other, until Willow apologized and pulled away. "Baby on the bladder," she explained, and Buffy let her go.
Faith and Tara had a date that evening, so Buffy took the opportunity to speak to Giles alone. He let her in, surprised when she went directly to the table and took a seat.
"Something bad is coming," she said.
"Could you be more specific?"
"I've been having dreams, and they've been getting worse. Something is coming, and it scares the heck outta me." Buffy ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath. "They started in the fall, right when Oz came back."
"Why did you wait so long to tell me?" Giles interrupted.
"It was just one dream, then, and it seemed so far in the future." Buffy hung her head. "I had another one, um, in the spring, and one last night."
"The same dream each time?"
"I wish. That would be way easier to deal with."
"Go on," Giles encouraged.
"The first one, it was good." Buffy paused, smiling. "It was me and Will and Dawn at home."
"Dawn?"
"The baby."
"Ah."
"Anyway, Will and I were in bed, and the baby cried, and I went to the nursery to get her. I changed her diaper and brought her back to bed with us so Will could feed her. Then the alarm clock went off and I woke up."
"That's all?" Giles asked cautiously.
"Yeah."
"What about the next one?"
"It wasn't nice. We were all at the hospital. Willow and Dawn and me and Xander and Anya and Faith and you. We were there because of Tara. Something happened to her. I don't know what, just that Faith was totally wigged over it. Oh, and Dawn was like, I dunno, like 10 or something.
"Then last night, I had another one. It was worse. We were all running, literally running through the streets, and Will insisted we stop to eat. I left you guys to eat and bought a big van, big enough for all of us, and told Xander to drive east as fast as he could." Buffy looked at the table, not seeing the books, before she continued. "Something was still wrong with Tara, and Dawn was bigger, and I was so tired and so scared, scared like I haven't been since I went to fight the Master, knowing I was going to die and couldn't do anything to stop it."
Giles removed his glasses and began polishing them. Buffy's admission of fear bothered him more than anything she had described to him. "I'll begin researching," he reassured her.
"Please don't tell Willow. She totally flipped over the first two, and I need to tell her before we get into deep research mode."
"All right," he agreed, and replaced his glasses. "Perhaps this has to do with the vampire attacks."
"Maybe," Buffy said doubtfully. She got to her feet. "I'm going to patrol, though I doubt I'll find anything."
"Before you go," Giles said, and Buffy groaned and retook her seat. "Please stop trying to intimidate the Council."
"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.
"I mean, no more tackling Council members on the roof, and no more threats."
"Then they better be more stealthy. If we can find them, we're going to bust 'em."
"Furthermore," Giles continued, ignoring Buffy's outburst, "Faith cannot remain here. There is an unprotected Hellmouth in Cleveland."
"Faith is staying," Buffy said, in a tone that brooked no argument. "Willow's having a baby, Faith's involved in the Slayer dreams, and I don't trust the Council not to kill her as soon as she's out of Sunnydale. Plus, she's getting better. Not all crazy and dark and beating vampires to a pulp before staking them. When we get through this, whatever it is, we'll discuss it again. But for now, I promised Faith she's staying, and she is."
"That is not your decision."
Buffy smiled grimly. "It's not theirs, so that leaves it to me and Faith, and she's staying. You want to go toe to toe with Mom over it?"
Giles sighed hugely, realizing that while he could conceivably convince the Slayers to change plans, Joyce would not agree to anything that put either girl at greater risk, and the Council be damned. "No, Buffy, I don't. We'll discuss this again later."
"Fine." Buffy stood up again. "Anything else?"
"No."
"Cool. Good night, Giles."
"Good night, Buffy. Be careful."
Buffy swept the cemeteries, staking a couple new vampires, then stalked through downtown. She saw Faith and Tara leaving the movie theatre, both laughing, and immediately thought of Willow. Buffy wondered why Willow couldn't, or wouldn't, see how Faith had changed, was still changing.
She headed over to the Bronze, where she staked one vampire in the alley, and lured a second one outside to be dusted. Then she headed home. Although it was early, Willow was all ready in bed. Buffy showered before sliding in beside her. She snuggled up to Willow and put her arm across her. She whispered, "I love you," before closing her eyes.
// Red eyes, demon eyes, nearly a foot apart, burst into the Magic Box, splintering the entrance into glass shards and slivers of wood. It moved so quickly, they couldn't react, and a long, forked tongue reached toward Dawn, and both Buffy and Faith moved to protect her. It wasn't necessary, as — snake? worm? something worse? — backed out as quickly as it had entered.
Faith ran to follow it, but Buffy checked first on Willow and Dawn. Once she was certain they were fine, she grabbed Giles and pulled him outside, glad that he had finally ditched the shuddering, grey, rust bucket in favor of a midlife crisis rocket red BMW convertible.
Buffy directed him, urging Giles to use the car to its capacity. He did, slowing only so Faith could dive into the back, before flooring the accelerator again. They caught up near the far edge of the park, where both Slayers easily vaulted the eight-foot fence. Their pursuit paused only long enough for them to grab makeshift weapons, a swingset support for Faith and decorative anchor chain for Buffy, before they split up to flank the creature.
Faith met it first, battering it with the heavy metal pole, slowing it enough that Buffy could leap onto its back and swing the chain around it just behind its massive head. Buffy pulled on the chain with all of her considerable strength while it bucked and twisted in a futile effort to avoid beating by one Slayer and to shake the other off.
It seemed like hours to Buffy, as her muscles complained about the constant strain. She held on, even after it fell to the ground, and Faith continued to beat on the huge head until it was nothing but a pulpy mess. When Buffy was certain it wouldn't move again, she let go of the chain and slid off of it. She called Faith, who took a few more swings before responding. //
"Buffy," Willow said, sharply this time.
Buffy sat up, looking around. Her breath was harsh, and once she realized they were safe, she wrapped Willow in her arms and buried her face in the redhead's neck. Willow pulled Buffy closer and tried to comfort her.
Once the Slayer was calmer, Willow asked, "Another dream?"
"Yeah." Buffy pulled Willow onto her lap.
"You gonna tell me or do I have to throw another fit?"
Buffy sighed. "It's bad, Will. Something's coming, something big."
"Tell me," Willow demanded.
Buffy recounted both her previous dream and this one. When she finished, she rubbed Willow's stomach. "I won't let it hurt you. Either of you."
"I know," Willow answered absently, as she tried to piece together the seemingly incongruous dreams. "Have you told Giles?"
"Yeah." Buffy stilled the movement of her hand when she felt the baby push against her palm.
"What did he say?"
"Research."
"I can do that," Willow said. She turned her attention back to Buffy. "Think you can sleep?"
"I'll try." Buffy laid back, pulling Willow with her. She kissed Willow's head several times while she shifted, trying to find a comfortable position without moving from Buffy's embrace.
Finally she did, lying on her side atop Buffy, who held her tightly. It took a while, but they went back to sleep.