So Damn Domestic

Sunnydale 2000. BPOV


We did it, I still can’t believe we actually defeated Adam. And I’m so glad we did. Things were getting to be too stressed around here. So we took a break from monster fighting and enjoyed some serious down time. We’ve been hanging out a lot more then we had been. Willow properly introduced us to Tara, not just as her friend but as her girlfriend. It took me and Xander a little while to get used to the idea of the two of them together but now we’re happy for them.


But the little vacation is over. At least for me anyways. I told the guys to take some extra time off because they deserve it and I need to start patrolling again before something really bad happens. So here I am walking through the park. I already hit a couple of cemeteries and after this I’m going to scope out two more before I go home. Normally I would be home by now or at Riley’s working off some post-slaying tension but there’s just something about tonight that feels off. I can’t really explain it, it’s like…I know something bit is going to happen I just don’t know what. And it’s driving me a little crazy.


Thank God there’s a vampire up ahead. All this negative energy is starting to get to me. I pass his little hiding place in the bushes and wait for him to jump me. And in five…four…three…two…one. I pivot around and punch him in the face. He yells out in pain and staggers backward.


“It’s not nice sneaking up on someone smaller then you.” Ok, that was pretty bad I know. But I had to say something. He lunges at me and I use his momentum to flip him on his back. God, this is great. My adrenaline is pumping, my heart’s beating a million miles a minute and every time I hit the vamp it sends little tingles all over my body. I’ll never admit it to anyone but Faith was right, slaying does get me pumped up.


“Just die already, slayer.” He jumps up and lunges at me again. But I’m ready for him. I kick him in the stomach but he’s barley fazed. Before I can back away from him he backhands me in the face and knees me in the gut. Before I can recover or fight back he kicks me in the face and I fall backwards. Dammit, I dropped my stake! I can get it. It’s only a couple feet away. I crawl towards it and the vamp stomps on my back, making me scream in pain. That’s gonna take a couple days to heal.


“Looks like I win,” he says as he rolls me over onto my back and pins me down. He’s already vamped out and I’m struggling against him but every move I make sends electric shocks of pain to my back. I look into his bright yellow eyes and he smiles a cold smirk. “I wonder if you’ll taste as sweet as you smell.” Gross, I hate it when they say stuff like that. I keep trying to get him off me but he’s a lot stronger then me and my back hurts so bad.


I can feel his unneeded breath on my neck. I shiver when I feel him lick my skin. Fucking gross! He laughs a little and I yelp in pain when he sinks his teeth into me. He takes a big gulp and I feel him shudder. I can feel him taking unneeded breaths as he drinks more of my blood. I can feel his erection against me as his whole body begins to move around. I’m trying to fight back up I’m getting a little light headed.


I can hear something. Like…a buzzing sound, like when there’s a lot of electricity in the air after a lightening storm. I see a bright light appear about thirty feet away from me, over to my right by the park bench. It’s getting bigger and it’s taking the shape of a door. There’s a loud clap, like thunder and something falls out of the door, or portal or whatever it is. The vampire pulls his fangs out of me and looks over at the sight before us. I ignore the pain in my back as I bring my legs up and kick him off me with all my strength. He flies a few feet back and lands on his ass. I jump up and grab my stake and drive it through his heart before he can even get up.


I put my stake in my jacket pocket and slowly walk towards the big, bright light. I can’t tell what’s sitting in front of it. The light is so bright that all I can see is an outline. And I can hear a noise. A high-pitched sound and I think it’s coming from the thing the light spit out. Then there’s another loud clap and the light disappears. It takes my eyes a couple minutes to adjust to the darkness and for the little annoying spots to go away. Now that the portalmajig is gone I can clearly hear the noise. It sounds like crying.


I rush over to it and I see a baby. Not a little infant, it looks about a year old, maybe, I’m not too sure. And it’s sitting in a stroller, one of those umbrella strollers. And now that my eyes are fully adjusted I can tell the baby is a girl. Unless the parents like dressing their boy up in a lot of pink. I kneel down next to her and take a closer look. She doesn’t look hurt, at least I can’t see any wounds. Maybe on her back? I unhook the straps and carefully pull her forward by her arms. I run my hand up and down her back but I don’t feel anything out of the ordinary.


Ok, I need to go see Giles. I’m pretty sure a baby popping out of a bright portally thing is not an everyday occurrence. Unless childbirth is just a story parents made up to scare their children into not having sex. Getting back to the matter at hand. She’s still crying, not as loud as before but she hasn’t stopped. We need to get out of here before every vampire in Sunnydale decides they want a late night snack. I sit her back and re-hook the straps and walk around behind the stroller. There’s a diaper bag, the strap is wrapped tightly around the handles of the stroller. So was this planned? Did someone or something magically abandon their baby? Well, I won’t know until I find out where she came from, and I won’t know that until I get the scoobies on the case.


I finally get to Giles’ house. I stopped along the way to try and calm the baby down. She was crying so hard that she was starting to cough. I thought she was going to fight against me. I mean, I thought most babies this age have a fear of strangers especially when their parents aren’t around, that’s what we learned in home ec. But she came right to me and wrapped her little arms around my neck and cried herself to sleep on my shoulder. And she has a very strong grip. If I weren’t the slayer she’d probably be choking me to death right now. Anyway, I start pounding on the door a little louder then I normally would. I forgot that everyone else in Sunnydale is asleep. I see some lights turn on and hear a very annoyed Giles.


“Yes? What? What possibly couldn’t wait until morning? You inconsiderate-” he stops when he opens the door and sees me standing here. Shock, confusion, surprise, he is all these things. I’m going to kill Xander for talking like that little green guy from Star Wars and getting it stuck in my head. Ok, I’ve gotten side tracked. Fine out where baby came from now, kill Xander later. “Uh, come in,” he says and moves out of the way. I walk into his house and park the stroller off to the side so it’s out of the way. “Did a vampire or demon, ah, kill whoever was watching her?” I probably should explain now.


“No, at least I don’t think so,” I whisper but loud enough for him to hear me. “I was fighting a vampire and then this crackling sound, like electricity, came and then there was, like, a clap of thunder or something and this portally lookin thing came outta nowhere and the stroller rolled out of it. I staked the vamp and after a minute or two the portal disappeared.” I sit down on the couch and gently rub the girl’s back when she starts to whine a little in her sleep.


“What did the portal look like?” he asks as he walks over to a bookshelf and starts pulling some off and piling them up on a table.


“Well, at first it was a bright ball of light. White light, with occasional sparks of blue. And then it turned into a doorway or something and then the baby came out.” I carefully lay her down on the cushion next to me and cover her up with the blanket that was on the back of the couch. She must’ve lived in a warm place or something because all she’s wearing is a thin, light pink dress that reaches her knees. It has little yellow flowers on it and spaghetti straps. Her shoes are pink with red sandals that have a Velcro strap so they won’t fall off her feet. Her dark brown hair is put back in a ponytail with a light pink hair tie. The stroller is also a light pink, along with the diaper bag. Ok, whoever the parents are they really need to learn some new colors.


“And when did all of this happen?” I look over at the clock on the wall. It’s two-thirty in the morning already. Damn, I thought it was earlier then that.


“I’m not sure. Half an hour ago, maybe a little longer. I would’ve been here sooner but I had to stop and calm her down. She was starting to choke she was crying so hard.” There’s something different about her that I can’t put my finger on. Whenever I touch her I get these little tingles on the back of my neck. Almost like I did with Faith, only these are stronger. There’s no way she can be a slayer though. For one thing I’m still alive and Angel would have called me if Faith died. For another thing, only teenage girls are called so it’s completely impossible that this little baby is a slayer.


“And where did all of this take place?” If Giles could be anymore British he’d still be wearing tweed. I sigh and fight back a yawn. Now that my adrenaline is calming down I can feel the full effects of that last fight, and it hurts.


“At the park, by one of the benches. I can take you there. I didn’t stick around very long. I needed to get her someplace safe before the vampires heard her.” I’m not sure why but I have this weird impulse to run the back of my fingers over her chubby little cheek. I also have this strong desire to protect her. And not just protect her from like I would any other innocent, but from everything that could hurt her. I have this feeling like I have to keep her safe, and not only that but I want to.


“Not tonight, but in the morning I’ll have Willow and Tara take a look. Although I think our first priority should be figuring out what she is.” For some reason I have the urge to hit him for saying that but I fight it. And I really don’t like what he said or the way he said it or the way he looked at her when he said it. Almost like he suspects her of doing something really bad.


“What do you mean ‘figure out what she is’? She’s a baby, Giles. An innocent. We have to find out where she came from. Maybe her parents are witches and they sent her here to stop a demon from killing her.” I don’t know hwy I’m getting so mad. I’m probably just really tired only I haven’t realized it yet. He puts down the book he was flipping through and sits down in the chair across from me.


“That’s a possibility. However, she could be a demon sent here from a demon dimension to be found and raised by humans and when she’s old enough she’ll try to destroy the world.” I want to protest but he keeps talking. “I’m not saying you’re wrong and I’m right. She could very well be a human child, but we need to stay open minded to all possibilities until we find out for sure.” He does have a point. Even though he’s completely wrong. “Do you have a place for her to sleep tonight?” He takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes.


“Oh yeah. I’ll just go home and pull out the extra crib we keep in the basement for all of the babies that come here through portals.” He gives me this look like ‘it’s too early for your sarcasm’. Or however Giles would say it. “No I don’t. I have no idea what to do. There’s a diaper bag on the stroller but I haven’t gone through it yet. So I don’t know if she has any milk or diapers or extra clothes or anything.” I really hope this baby wasn’t being breastfed before she came here. A bottle and milk I can buy at the store but breast milk? I really don’t think the supermarket is going to have a very wide selection.


I get up and take the diaper bag off the stroller and sit back down on the couch. I unzip it and start to pull everything out. Ok, we got some pacifiers, a bottle, a container of formula, six diapers, a box of wipes, a stuffed dog that looks like it’s seen better days. A little yellow dress with light purples flowers, and a baby book. Well, not a baby book. ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ by Dr. Seuss. I open it up and on the inside of the cover the manufacturer put ‘This book belongs to:’ and in red ink someone wrote ‘Addison’. And that handwriting looks vaguely familiar. I put everything back and zip the diaper bag up.


“I’ll take her home. I’ll get all of the extra pillows and make a barricade or something so she won’t roll off my bed. I’ll just sleep on the floor or something. I’ll bring her back tomorrow, around nine, I guess. Mom will know what to do. She raised me and I turned out just fine.” He smiles a little and I’m too tired to care whether or not I should be offended by his lack of words. I pick the baby up and carefully put her in the stroller and hook the straps together. I have no idea how to tie the diaper bag around the handles like it was before so I’ll just carry that over my shoulder. I open the front door and I’m about to leave when I hear Giles speak.


“Buffy, do be careful. She may look innocent and helpless but until we determine whether or not she’s dangerous you should treat her as if she is.” I don’t say anything as I walk out onto the porch and shut the door. She isn’t dangerous. She is innocent and helpless and for some reason I feel like she’s mine.


The next morning)


So after I got home we had a couple of problems. Most of them involved her diaper that had so much pee in it, it felt like it weighed five pounds. It took me almost twenty minutes to figure out how to put the new diaper on her. I swear they should come with instructions like ‘Changing a Baby’s Diaper for Dummies’ or something. After I got her diaper changed I made up my bed for her but when I laid down on the floor she started whining. I didn’t want her to wake up my mom so I laid down in the bed at least a foot away from her. I’m not sure what the rules are about sleeping in the same bed with a baby you don’t know. But she crawled over to me and press her body against mine and went back to sleep. I had a little trouble falling asleep because I was afraid of rolling over and squishing her but exhaustion eventually won out.


I just woke up a couple minutes ago. I haven’t moved or anything yet because she’s awake too and she’s quietly jabbering to herself and running her fingers along the palm of my hand. Everything about her is so…tiny. She probably weighs less then fifteen pounds. And she’s so adorable, like a little angel or something. I kinda want to know what her parents look like. To see if she looks more like her mom or dad. I don’t know why, I just wanna know. She rolls over and looks up at me and smiles when she sees I’m awake. I can’t help but smile back.


“Good morning little girl. Did you sleep alright?” I don’t expect her to reply or anything. In home ec we learned that you’re supposed to talk to them like they can understand you, that later on it’ll help with language development. She yawns really wide and I can see that she has almost all of her teeth. She still needs three or four more before she has a full set. “That was a big ol’ yawn. Maybe you need some more sleep.” She snuggles up to me and I think I’m gonna die. This is the best feeling in the entire world. Why am I feeling this way? I hear a knock on my bedroom door.


“Buffy, Willow and Tara are downstairs. Willow said Mr. Giles called them and said you needed to see them. And breakfast is almost ready.” I look over at the clock. It’s almost eight-thirty. I guess I’ll be a little late showing up at Giles’.


“I’ll be down in a minute, Mom.” I hear her walk away. I sigh a little. I really don’t want to get up. “Well, Addison are you hungry?” She looks up at me and I smile a little. She’s just too cute. “I guess that’s your name after all.” I wasn’t too sure, and I’m still not. She could have an older sister named Addison and the book could be a hand-me-down. I sit up and stretch out my arms. My back still hurts a little but nothing like it would if I actually slept on the floor.


I change her diaper just in case she peed again. Although I don’t see how she could. I didn’t give her anything to drink and I’m sure her bladder is empty judging by the weight of the one last night. It only takes me ten minutes to change her diaper this time, which is a big improvement. It would have been less but she wouldn’t hold still. I take out the hair tie and brush her hair with a little difficulty because she wants to do it herself.


I take her out of the pink dress and put her in the yellow one. I’ll have to do some laundry in case it takes longer then a day to figure out where she came from and who or what her parents are. I’ll have to go to the store and get some more diapers. There’s only four left. After she’s ready I get dressed and brush my hair. I pick her up and rest her on my hip. Alright, here does nothin.


I walk downstairs and into the foyer. I hear Willow talking to my mom. I guess Giles told them about the baby because Willow is retelling it to my mom. I was kind of hoping to explain it first but i know I’ll have to go over all the details anyway. I take a deep breath (why am I so nervous?) and I walk into the kitchen. I see my mom on one side of the breakfast bar, Willow and Tara on the other. Mom looks over at me and smiles, which causes Willow to stop talking and she turns around in her seat. Tara does too a couple seconds later. Why are they just staring at me?


“Oh my God!” Willow squeals and jumps up from her seat. She rushes over to me and starts fussing over the baby. Would a ‘good morning, Buffy’ kill her? “She’s just the cutest little thing ever. Yes you are. I could just eat you up. Yes I could.” The baby hides her face in my neck and Willow looks like she’s about to panic. “Oh no. I didn’t scare her, did I? ‘Cause sometimes I come on too strong.” I smile and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.


“She’s still a little tired. Give her a while and I’m sure she’ll be glowing from all the compliments she’s going to get.” She smiles a little ‘thank you’ smile and sits back down on the stool and holds Tara’s hand. Those two are just so damn cute together, I don’t know why I even freaked out in the first place. Ok so maybe it was the little voice in the back of my mind saying ‘Willow’s gay and she’s seen you naked before she was probably checking you out’ but I just reminded myself that this is Willow, she wouldn’t do something like that.


“So, Buffy, where did you find her?” Mom asks as she opens the fridge and pulls out the carton of eggs. I thought she said ‘breakfast is almost ready’ not ‘I’m almost ready to make breakfast’? Don’t you hate it when parents lure their children out of bed with the promise of food only there to be none at all? Me too. “Do you girls want something to eat?” she asks Willow and Tara. Willow says a very enthused ‘yes please’ and Tara says a very shy ‘only if you don’t mind’. “I don’t mind at all dear. I might as well make an extra large amount. Xander and Anya are on their way over and that boy never says no to my cooking.” We all smile and Willow perks up because she has something to say.


“Yeah, he can eat almost as much as Buffy.” Hey! Is she saying I eat like a pig or some other animals with bad eating habits? I glare at her a little and she gets a little sheepish. “So, Buffy, you were saying where you found the baby.” I sit down across from her and sit the baby in my lap.


“Actually I wasn’t but your change of subject is very wise.” I sound a little threatening but I’m smiling so she knows I’m just teasing. I hear the crackling of eggs being poured into the hot skillet.


“Now, Buffy, leave Willow alone. It’s not her fault you eat almost as much as your whole body weight in one day.” And now my own mother is picking on me! I can’t believe this. I look over at Willow and she’s trying not to smile and failing horribly. I glare at her a little.


“Well, it’s a g-good thing you don’t w-weigh very much or you’d eat your m-mother out of h-house and h-home,” Tara says and then blushes and hides her face behind her hair. Ya know, I can see why WIllow fell for Tara. She’s pretty, nice, has killer blue eyes, and she says you’re not fat.


“Thank you Tara. It’s nice to see someone is keep my fragile ego in mind instead of bruising it.” I lance over at Willow and she rolls her eyes. I fidget around a little because my butt’s starting to fall asleep. Did we have to buy wooden stools? “Anyway, I was in the park, got jumped by a vampire and we were fighting to the death when there’s this, like, sizzling sound. Like the sound in the air right after a big lightening storm?” They nod their heads. Good, they know what I’m talking about. “Then there’s this loud noise, like a clap of thunder or something, and this white ball of light came outta nowhere and it got bigger and bigger and then turned into the shape of a door. Then the stroller rolled out of it. I staked the vamp, and then there was another clap of thunder and the light went away.” They nod their heads when I finish talking.


“Do you know what the baby’s name is?” Mom asks as she pours the scrabbled eggs into a big bowl and starts to make more. I look down at the baby and see that she’s looking over at Tara. I look up at Tara and she’s making goofy faces at the baby and then the baby hides her face in my neck and sits there for a few seconds before looking at Tara again. Aw, they’re playing peek-a-boo. Tara notices me watching and blushes at being caught.


“Um, no, not for sure. I found a book in the diaper bag that has the name ‘Addison’ in it but I’m not sure if that’s her name or not. She could have an older sister or something.” My mom pours the second batch of eggs into the bowl and then puts them in the microwave to keep them warm. Then she gets some bacon out of the fridge and puts it in the broiler.


“Well, we’ll just have to test it out,” she says and stands next to me. She looks at the little girl, who has a handful of my hair and is staring at it like ti’s the most interesting thing in the world, and she smiles. “Addison,” she says in a sing-song voice and the baby looks up at her.”


“Addison,” Willow says and she whips her head around to look at Willow. Well it’s good that we know her name. Calling her ‘the baby’ was getting a little demeaning. She’s a person too ya know. “Buffy, when Giles called he said he found a spell that would tell us what she is.” Not this again. She’s an innocent, perfectly harmless and in need of protecting.


“What do you mean, Willow?” Mom asks.” She looks like a normal baby girl.” At least someone is on my side. Willow gets that serious look on her face like she always does right before she explains something.


“Yeah, she does but if what Buffy says is true and she really did come out of some type of portal then she could’ve come from anywhere, including one of the thousands of demon dimensions out there. She could even be, like, a human demon hybrid or something.” Ok, she’s really starting to make me mad. “The spell that Giles found is pretty simple. It won’t take long.” She and Tara exchange a worried glance.


“But?” I ask and shift around in my seat. I can tell by the looks on their faces that I’m probably not going to like this.


“But it requires a couple drops of the subject’s blood.” They were right, I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all.


“Subject, meaning her?” I point to Addison. She grabs my finger and starts to suck on it. Willow nods her head yes and makes an ‘ew’ face because i haven’t pulled my finger away yet. Not that I’m not trying but she has a very strong grip and I don’t want to hurt my finger pulling it out of her mouth. “As long as it’s only a couple. I mean, a little prick to the finger with a needle can’t hurt too bad. Can it?”


(Later that afternoon)


“Willow, hold her arm still!” Giles yells over the loud screaming. Everything we need for the spell is all ready. The only thing we still have to get is Addison’s blood. She was fine, holding still, laughing at the goofy look on Xander’s face, but as soon as Giles poked her little fingertip with the needle she started freaking out. Willow is trying to get a hold of her arm but Addison is a lot stronger then she looks.


“I’m trying, I’m trying. This kid has super-strength or something. Buffy help me.” I refused to take any part of the spell. I wasn’t going to help them hurt a little baby and watching her scream and cry like this is more then I can take. I walk over to her and she holds her arms out for me to pick her up. I do and when she’s crying into my neck I hold onto her little wrist and hold her hand over the mortar and Willow gently squeezes out three or four drops. She lets go and I take Addison into Giles’ bathroom. I close the toilet lid and sit her down on top of it. She’s still crying really hard.


“I know, baby, I know. I won’t let them do that again, I promise.” And I’m not going to. If the spell doesn’t work that’s just too bad because I’m not going to let them hurt an innocent baby again. She’ll probably be traumatized after this or something. I get a tiny band-aid out of the medicine cabinet and kneel down in front of her. She’s not crying as loud as before but she’s still sobbing. I hold onto her hand to look at the hurt finger and...the puncture is already starting to heal. Ok, so maybe she’s not the text book definition of ‘normal’ after all. I put the band-aid on her and take her back into the living room. She’s clinging onto me like her life depends on it and if the spell gives us a bad answer it might.


“Did it work?” I ask as I walk closer to them. Xander and Anya are standing a few feet away from the other three. Willow is hovering over the mortar so Tara and Giles can’t get a good look. Ok, what’s so interesting? Please don’t be a demon. You’re too cute to be evil.


“This isn’t right. It-it can’t be right. Giles, tell me this isn’t right,” Willow says, she sounds very desperate for the answer. “We’ll just do it again. Something must’ve messed up. Buffy, bring her back over here, I’ll get a new needle.” Before I can tell her ‘no fucking way’ the front door slams open. It startles us all and we jump a little and turn to see who it is. Shock, denial, anger, surprise, hatred and a cold shiver run through me all at the same time. I’m lost for words, luckily Willow and Xander know exactly what I’m thinking.


“Faith?!”