Chapter 34- Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now
“So this spell, it’s foolproof?” I rub the rapidly growin’ bump that used to be Buffy’s flat belly.
“Well, nothing’s foolproof, Faith.” Will catches the look on my face. “B-but I would say yes. Absolutely! 100% foolproof!”
“You’re sure.” I narrow my eyes a little more at her.
She’s got a huge smile on her face and doesn’t waver, “Yep!”
“Good.” If she says so, then she says so. “We have ‘faith’ in you, Will.” She snorts and I wink at her and then give Buffy a kiss. She smiles at me thankin’ me for the kiss and my heart pangs. Feels fuckin’ wonderful.
I look over at Will and blow her a kiss to, she’s done so much for us, and still does so much, without much bitchin’ either. I know I put a lot in her hands, but she’s capable of a lot and she knows how important havin’ this baby is to us. She also knows that goin’ on this mission, aside from bein’ completely nuts, will ensure the future for our child as well as any other kid on the planet.
We’ve had some intel that if these fuckers aren’t eradicated and I do mean eradicated, they’re gonna bring about the end of the world. I mean, yeah, I know right? Same shit different apocalypse, but this one is pretty big, and we’re even callin’ in the cavalry from Europe. Not all of them of course, just in case there’s a trap. Everyone senses that this is major. There’s already been grumblin’s from the current hellmouths around the world. Of which there are now three, the one in Cleveland, the one in D.C. and another in Uzbekistan.
We’ve been camped out at the Academy for a couple of weeks. After I took care of some estate things for my Gee Gee, and helped Aunt Katie with my dad’s stuff, we came back down here to get ready for our mission.
Right now we’re sittin’ in the ‘War Room’, which is really a conference room just off of Giles’ office, goin’ over some last minute stuff.
“Willow, will you tell my sister and her wife that we should go over that map for the Senate offices again, please?”
Dawn’s hella pissed at me and B. She hasn’t looked at us, except with major contempt, or spoken to us directly in about a week. It took her about that long to realize that her shriekin’ at us not to go on this mission wasn’t gonna work, so she finally gave up. But she’s still not done givin’ us hell about it.
“Dawn, we can hear you, ya know?” Buffy says with a huff. “And you’re right; I think it’s good to go over the map again, thanks for suggesting it.” She looks at her sister and gives her a smile.
Dawn is still lookin’ at Willow and turns her head, all beady eyed and hatin’ on B and sticks her tongue out.
Fuckin’ Brat!!!
“DAWN!” I jump up and everyone flinches, except the brat. “Can I see you in Giles’ office?! NOW!”
She stares at me for what seems like thirty minutes. I can see the disgust in her eyes and bitter taste she’s got in her mouth.
If looks could fuckin’ kill…yeah, you know the rest. But I’ve been here before. Stared death down it’s ugly fuckin’ face too many times to count, and I’ll be damned if I’m lettin’ this little pipsqueak, even though she’s taller than me, treat Buffy like that. I don’t care how crazy she thinks we are.
It’s just not happenin’. This shit’s gone on long enough.
She finally pushes her chair out from the table violently and stomps off to the office. I look at everyone else and mutter a sorry and start to leave. Buffy takes me by the hand stoppin’ me.
“Go easy on her, she loves us, she’s just scared.”
I smile sadly at her, “I know, B. I know.” I give her a quick kiss and leave the room, closin’ the door behind me. I can hear them start to go over the map again.
When I get in the office and close the door, she whips around facin’ me. ‘Murder, her.’ Her face says.
Shit, I said Summer’s women could fuckin’ have their own army. I feel like shittin’ my pants right about now, but I’m crazy, so the juiced feelin’ I have is winnin’ out, and I wanna jump right into the fray.
“Before you start yellin’ at me, Dawnie, I wanna say I’m sorry.”
“For being an utter assfaced liar?!”
“What’d I lie about?”
“You told me one time that you’d never again put Buffy in harm’s way, on purpose! YOU LIED!” She looks me in my eyes, borin’ a hole into my soul.
I remember that conversation. It was right after me and B got together. Dawnie was all for it, but she remembered the time when I went crazy and tried to fuck B over and kill her friends. She particularly hated the part where I punched Joyce in the face, so she made me promise that I would never do that again. That if things were goin’ bad between me and B, I’d come talk to her, or Xand or Willow, or anyone that could help me out of what would obviously be a very fuckin’ black mood. She was worried for both of us, but with my track record, anyone could be in danger.
I hated that she had to have that talk with me, but I respected her a ton for doin’ it. She loves her sister and their friends, which are really their family, and she wanted to make sure no one, especially not someone who had already fucked ‘em over, was gonna fuck ‘em over. Again.
She also made me promise I wouldn’t let Buffy put herself in a situation where she was sacrificin’ herself for the world, she’d done that so many times, and twice fatally and it made her fear for B’s life even more than she already did. I understood, so I promised.
Dawn’s still borin’ a hole into the back of my skull through my eyeballs and I wanna look away, fall at her feet and beg for her forgiveness, but me and B are right and I have to stand our ground.
“I know what I told ya, D. And I’m not changin’ that, I’m just tellin’ ya that I’ll make sure, on my life, that I won’t let anything happen to your sister and your niece…or nephew.” I smile to try and ease the tension and she hauls off and slaps my face.
FUCK! I know I’m a slayer and she’s not, but she was made from Buffy’s essence, and lemme tell ya, Buffy’s essence is no fuckin’ slouch. That shit hurt!!
“OW! OW! OW! OW!” She’s holdin’ her hand and checkin’ to see if she broke it. “Your face is like a rock.” She shakes it out and checks it again. I take her hand in mine pullin’ it towards me, and she watches with fascination to see what I’ll do next. I bring it to my face and give her palm a soft kiss lettin’ it linger.
The next moment I feel her other hand in my hair, and I hear a sob from her. Poor Dawnie. I gather her in my arms and let her cry it out. She’s not done hatin’ on me though, ‘cause she tries to push me away a coupla times before lettin’ herself hug me for all she’s worth.
“I know, Dawnie, I know. I promise, I’ll keep her safe.”
“It’s not just her I’m worried about, Faith.” She wails.
“I know, D. The baby’ll be safe, too. I promise. I swear on my life.”
“You’re so dumb, you know that?”
What the fuck? She’s gotta insult my intelligence? I know I’m not the smartest person in the world or even in this room, but I fuckin’ know what I’m doin’ when it comes to slayin’.
“I’m worried about you, too, Faith!!!” She cries harder.
Oh.
“Hey, hey, Dawnie. C’mon, don’t be like that, I’m not worth it.”
OW!!! She fuckin’ stepped on my foot, HARD!
“What the fuck was that for?!”
“You ARE worth it, Faith!” She sobs. “Stop being such a bitch to yourself! I hate when you do that!”
Damn, my toe might be broken. Her and those fuckin’ boots that make her look six feet tall. I mean they’re sexy and all, but they’re also deadly.
“Uh, sorry, Dawnie, but the only one bein’ a bitch to me here, is you. And I think you broke my foot.”
“Oh, stop being such a baby!” She pulls away and looks down at my foot. Her face gets softer and she looks concerned. “Did I really break it?”
“Well, bruised my toe a little.” I pout.
She laughs, “You’re such a dork!” That makes me pout even more. “Oh, no, not ‘Faith pouts’ they’re almost as bad as Buffy’s!”
I pout even more.
“Will you stop, or do I hafta tickle ya?!” Heh. That makes me smile. “See, what a pretty girl.” She’s talkin’ to me like I’m two.
We laugh together for a few minutes.
After the laughter dies down she sighs and looks at me and I can still see how frightened for us she is. Damn, I just wanna tell her that we’re not gonna go anywhere, that me and B’ll stay put and never leave again. But I can’t do that, we’re the best qualified for this particular mission, and if we fail, it’s no use in bein’ alive. Everyone who isn’t already dead, will wish they were.
What we found out in the last two weeks was these fucker’s plan on ringin’ in the death and destruction with a treasure trove of dirty bombs as their appetizer. Yeah, they’re not your garden variety, ‘I’m just gonna open up the gates of hell and let my buddies out’ demons, they mean fuckin’ business.
Thing is though, they got someone powerful, maybe a shaman gone bad, that’s helpin’ ‘em to hide the bombs with magic. If we went and tipped off the government, they’d think we were nuts. They still think B’s a minute away from terrorizin’ the country. If they only knew how many times she saved its sorry ass, they’d fuckin’ anoint her Queen.
That’s ok, though, she’s my Queen, and you bet I make her feel like one every day.
“Dawn, you know we hafta go, don’t you?”
She gives me a sad look.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I can’t give you hell about it.”
“Exactly, you can give me, hell about it. I’ll let you pound my face, or my feet, for hours. But I can’t have ya upsettin’ Buffy, I don’t want her stressin’ any more than she already is.”
“You’re always defending her!!”
Is she fuckin’ nuts? My eyes narrow at her and suddenly she wraps me up in a hug and whispers a thank you in my ear.
“Dawn, you’ll be the fuckin’ death of me.”
“Oh, no, that’ll be your precious offspring. I can only imagine! Yours and Buffy’s attitude and energy and feistiness? I’m just gonna sit back and watch the fireworks.” She smiles big. It’s good to see her happy again, I can’t stand when she or Buffy cry. I guess it’s a thing with the ladies I love, ‘cause I hate when Will cries, too. Come to think of it, when Giles or Xander cries it gets to me, also. Andy not so much, ‘cause that little fucker is always cryin’ and half the time it’s ‘cause of me. What can I say? I like to taunt.
“I know, right?! You get to be the cool Aunt and me and B’ll have to be the bad guys.”
She looks at me and her smile turns to concern. “Speaking of the bad guys, did you tell Buffy about the new player who’s entered into the mix?”
“Nah, and I’m not gonna unless I absolutely have to. Don’t need her thinkin’ the PTB are out to get her, through her bad taste in men.”
“I getcha.”
“You ready to go back in and strategize? Or do ya wanna cry like a little girl some more?” I wink at her.
She punches my arm. “Jerk!” Even though she fakes bein’ mad at me now, the concern on her face is still evident. “You promise, nothing’s gonna happen, to any of you?
I look straight into her eyes and don’t hesitate a beat. “You’ve got my word, D.” She nods her head and takes my arm and we go back to the War Room.
Buffy smiles at us as she sees us walkin’ in arm-in-arm. The others look relieved.
“Everything ok?” B whispers as I take my seat next to her.
“Wonderful, honey, don’t worry about a thing.” I place a kiss on the side of her head and quickly pay attention so that Giles doesn’t have to cluck his tongue at me. I’m tryin’ not to piss him off, he’s been all emotional too.
In fact, I’ve had to do a variation of what I just did with Dawn with every one of the Scoobs except Andrew, he’s been gung ho and very positive. It’s actually been a help, if not just a little bit annoyin’.
“So, we get passed the metal detectors because we’re carrying stakes, then go to the Senator’s office, and who am I again?”
Giles sighs and straighten his glasses. He gives Buffy that ‘Why do you torture me look’, he softens it when I give him my ‘Stop fuckin’ with my woman’ look and he repeats what he just said to her so she gets it.
Buffy’s hand makes it to my thigh and she squeezes. That makes me smile and I look over at Dawnie who gives me the finger with a wink.
Such a bitch.
After the meetin’ devolves into jokes about dirty bombs and how we could use different detergents and soaps to clean ‘em up. Giles says somethin’ about the fate of the world bein’ in the hands of a bunch of imbeciles and leaves the room.
Me and B decide to go lay down a bit. I’m kinda keyed up but she’s been a little tired today. For the past week her stomach has been crampin’ somethin’ fierce, and the docs said it was because of the accelerated rate of growth. We made sure that Buffy’s role in this mission wasn’t gonna put too much stress on the baby, and when they said it would we called in Willow. She did a spell to shield anything from happenin’ to the little one, even stress that Buffy feels, but it’ll only hold for a week or so. We don’t wanna mess with havin’ to shield the baby for longer than that. It could fuck with some of the nutrients it needs to live off of.
I still have my back up plan of shovin’ B in a safehouse and goin’ on this mission by myself, but she’s needed. Believe me if she weren’t she and I would probably have come to blows by now over her not bein’ able to go. Of course, those blows woulda all been one sided, and my face woulda been rearranged, but she wouldn’t be goin’.
I’m actually relieved that she’ll be comin’ with me, ‘cause I feel like I can protect her better. I’m confident like that. And maybe a little bit dumb. Heh.
“Did you and Dawnie have a good talk?”
“Yeah, she slapped my face, and broke my toe.” I shrug. “All in all I’d say that was a good talk.”
“Awww, come here, baby.” She puts her arms out and I slink over to her. “That definitely deserves some Buffy loving.” Her face is one big mask of naughty.
“Did I say it was just my toe? I think she broke the whole foot.” She wraps her arms around my neck and hops up into my arms.
“I’ll make it feel all better; in fact, I’ll make you feel so good you’ll forget you have feet.” She winks.
Damn, that sounds fuckin’ good!
I walk us over to the bed and set her down gently, she pouts because I don’t immediately lay down with her. She’s so spoiled.
“Don’t pout, B. I’m goin’ to go get the cocoa butter, we need to rub it on the belly.”
“The belly.” She smoothes her hands over it. “It’s getting kinda big now, Faith. Like really big. How many weeks did the Doctor say I was?”
“Well she said it had slowed down a bit from the first week or so, even though it’s still growing faster than normal, so it’s about 8 weeks.”
B looks like she’s thinkin’ deep thoughts and as I go about gettin’ some supplies, we usually do this same thing durin’ the day. Rub cocoa butter on her stomach to prevent stretch marks, talk, kiss and then have some lunch and a little afternoon lovin’. Then she naps for a couple of hours, shower, and we train a bit, shower again, go over some strategy, have dinner and then bed, which usually brings about more lovin’.
Then the cycle starts all over again the next day. Thank god we got through the freak outs though. They were throwin’ a cramp into our routine.
When we look back on this time, I want us to remember what we did right before the baby was born in a good way. I know we’re gonna have some fightin’ to go through, but the rest of the time is all about relaxin’ and lovin’.
The other thing I’m glad that’s stopped is the mornin’ sickness. She went through a week more of just yarkin’ at the drop of a hat, it wasn’t fun. In fact my pride got hurt, ‘cause one day we were sittin’ around and I beefed, nothin’ huge and deadly, and she made a face at me like she normally does. Ya know, the ‘Gross, Faith!’ face, like she doesn’t fuckin’ fart, but whatever. Anyway, then all of a sudden she caught a whiff and it was like one of those funny movie kinda scenes. Her cheeks puffed out and her eyes got all big and she had to run for the toilet with her hand over her mouth and she just made it.
If I didn’t feel like such a shit for doin’ it, I woulda laughed but I felt like cryin’ that day. Makin’ someone puke like that might sound funny, but it was like I had just stabbed her or somethin’. She had just been sayin’ how she hadn’t puked in 12 hours, and that might be the last of it and that her throat was finally gettin’ a chance to recover and all. And then I had to go and fuck it up with my bodily functions. That sucked.
“What’re you thinking of, Faith?”
I chuckle, “Nothin’ good that you’d wanna hear, so I’ll say, nothin’.”
She laughs, “You know I never let you get away with that.”
“Yeah, I know, but trust me this time you’d be happier if you just accepted the nothin’ and moved on.”
I can see her thinkin’ it over, and then she nods her head and lets it go. Fuck, she’s always suprisin’ the shit outta me like that. Now I wanna tell her.
“It was not anything big, baby.”
She smirks all knowingly ‘cause she knows I’m gonna tell her. She’s a fuckin’ clever one. Round 1950 to Buffy.
“It was just about me makin’ ya puke that last time and how I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.”
“Awww, it wasn’t that bad, I had been feeling queasy for a while and was trying to stop myself from having to throw up, but then I smelled your ‘wind’ and that was it. You’re still thinking about that?!”
I shrug and pout.
“Get over here, Faith! NOW!” She knows I love dominant Buffy at times like these.
I throw the stuff I had in my hands on the bed and flop next to her. Actin’ like I’ve got no bones in my body.
She laughs and pulls me to her, pettin’ me like I’m a cat. The shit she whispers in my ear I hope she don’t whisper to any animals, ‘cause dude, that would be like bestiality or somethin’. Then I’d have to worry about Junior comin’ out with dog ears or whiskers or somethin’. That thought makes me chuckle, and she gets even friskier.
“What’s my naughty girl thinking of?”
“Nothin’, ma’am.”
“Oh no?” She slides her hand down just below the waistband of my jeans. “Hmmm, no panties today?” I shrug and she tuts. “While in this situation you’d think it would be better for me, but I think I had told you that I like to tease, didn’t I?”
Man, she’s pourin’ it on thick. “Um, I think I mighta heard that way back when.”
“Way back when, what?”
“Way back when…back in the day?”
“No, Faith! Way back when…” She sounds like she’s expectin’ me to add somethin’ on to that.
Huh?
“Oh! Way back when, ma’am.”
“That’s better, Faith. Don’t forget who’s in charge here.” She snakes a finger through my closely cropped bush and dips down a bit into my wetness. That makes me moan.
“BUFFY!!!! FAITH!!!!!”
SHIT! Buffy pulls her hand out of my pants and settles herself back on her side of the bed. Lookin’ all caught.
“Comin’ Dawn!!!” I yell.
I jump up and adjust my pants, and slip my boots on, Buffy’s lookin’ at me like she doesn’t know what to do.
“C’mon, B, let’s get ready, this could be it.” I say in an even voice. No need to get her panicked. “You don’t hafta rush though, I’ll go see what it is first.”
I go to the door and it’s written all over Dawnie’s face, so I push her out in the hall and close the door. “It’s on the TV, they hit Moscow, that wasn’t even on our radar and it was way earlier when we thought.”
“Fuckin’ bastards! All hittin’ us when we least expect it, don’t they have any sense of decorum?”
She smirks, but it’s a sad smirk.
“We send a team?”
“Yes, Satsu’s team that was in the South of France is headed there, as well as two from Uzbekistan and of course the ones already in Moscow.”
“We left those places still well defended though, huh?”
“Of course.”
“Ok, tell Will to get the teleport stuff ready, we’ll be down in five.”
“Good.”
I go back in the room and Buffy’s ready, the spell Will gave us to do in this situation, makes her not look pregnant, it’s like a belly glamour. And that makes me sad. I’ve already gotten used to the bump. Damn, no need to get nostalgic right now. I go over to her and give her a kiss and bend down and give the belly a kiss, too.
Fuck it, I can get nostalgic if I want.
“The President has sent his condolences to those affected by the bombing. No word yet on who’s responsible, the Pentagon is on high alert, the department of Homeland Security has raised the threat level to Red in all of our major cities, and orange for the rest of the country. We go now to our correspondent in Moscow, George, what can you tell us?”
“Well Charles, the city is utter chaos, but it’s sort of a controlled chaos, if you will. The Kremlin has dispatched all of its guards to areas of importance, President Medvedev and high ranking members of his government are being moved to obviously undisclosed locations and the British and American Embassies are being evacuated.” Some dude with a British accent is reportin’ and damned if he don’t sound familiar. I look at Giles. He nods at me. Oh, must be one of ours. We’ve got a few civilians that are workin’ for us in strategic places around the world.
“Well, I think this is our cue.” Giles says with a sigh.
Me and B nod at each other and then back at Giles.
“Everything’s set up and ready to go. You’ll be teleported in to your ‘apartment’ in North West, in your glamours.” Xander says all business like.
Heh, our glamours. These are really gonna be fun. I’m a dude, and B’s my wife. Kinda fittin’ but still, I’m like 40 years old and she’s in her late 20’s. Trophy wife. I’m like a politician’s aide or somethin’. Another one of our plants that can be removed at any time, for situations like this, and someone that can get in close to our friend the Senator’s Aide.
It’ll get us where we need to be, and without any ‘cause for alarm to those who are already in the know with the plot against the slayers and the world.
Fuckin’ A, dude. It’s on.
