Chapter 15

 

(Authors note at the end of chapter…)

 

 

 

William paced back and forth in the small, cramped, dark hallway. Periodically he would glance over at where Gunn was sitting before the door, ear pressed to it as if he could hear something through it.

 

Off to the side Riley was gently bandaging Faith’s hand the two softly conversing.

 

Rolling his shoulders he narrowed his eyes as he stared down the darkened hall.

 

If someone chose to attack them from either direction they would have no warning until they were upon the small group. Unless of course they got lucky and were attacked by only the most inept of vampire and demons, and they made a lot of noise thus warning them of their approach.

 

Frankly William didn’t think that was going to happen. Angelus was determined and certainly not inept… regardless of his failure in capturing Buffy and Darla.

 

He could be classified as slightly insane but…

 

Shaking his head he closed his eyes. God save him from pissed off, territorial vampire males.

 

“Can’t hear a damn thing,” Gunn muttered as he scowled at the door.

 

“The door’s probably soundproofed to some degree,” William shrugged.

 

“Yeah but still… we should be able to hear Darla screaming. I’m sure they heard her states over.”

 

“I’m sure she’s fine,” the Slayer murmured as he eyed the other male. He hadn’t forgotten that the Gunn and Buffy had insinuated upon his arrival that they were more than friends.

 

And that Buffy had seemingly backed him up on it…

 

“So you and Buffy…?” he kept his tone as nonchalant as possible, but still Gunn saw through what he was getting at and grinned slyly up at him.

 

“Why you asking? You afraid you’re poaching on someone else’s territory?”

 

William frowned down at him, “I was there first… I was just wondering how Buffy fit into your relationship with Darla.”

 

“Jealousy’s an interesting look on you,” Gunn smirked. “You should let Buffy see once in a while… and if you want to get really technical she was Angelus’ first… are you planning on giving her up to him?”

 

“Angelus will get his hands on her over my dead body,” the Slayer stated grimly.

 

“He’d probably be willing to take you up on that… this place won’t be safe for long.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Angelus is tracking her, when we went to get the doctor he found us. We had to physically drag her away…”

 

“We can’t do much in the way of moving until the baby’s born…” Will murmured. “Though maybe we should split up after?”

 

“Buffy won’t go for that,” Gunn shook his head. “Angelus knows that the four of us have been working together, if he gets ahold of one of us he’ll use us as bait to lure her out into the open… and she’ll go. She’s got this whole self-deprecating, thinking she’s worthless thing going on,” he frowned at the other male.

 

“Go ahead and say it… I know you want to…”

 

“I care about her, about what happens to her. She doesn’t believe that of course. It’s been a long time since she had friends. People that care about what happens to her.”

 

“I’m not going to hurt her… not anymore,” Will said quietly his eyes downcast.

 

“I believe you, she probably does to but… the stuff you already did, the things you said to her… they did a lot of damage… it’s going to take a while for her to trust in what you feel for her, she’s gonna try and push you away. She’ll probably try and walk away…”

 

“Speaking from experience?”

 

“Darla…” Gunn smiled sadly. “She’ll try and leave when the baby’s born…”

 

“And you’re not going to let her.”

 

“Buffy won’t either. Buffy’ll give herself up to Angelus before she lets him get his hands back on Darla…”

 

“Why…?” William stared at the other male in confusion. He still couldn’t understand why everyone was so hell bent on protecting Darla. When he’d known her the other blonde vampiress had certainly not needed any protection.

 

“The baby’s soul bled into her…”

 

“Yeah I know.”

 

“It’s irreversible… when the baby’s born it won’t go away, Darla has a soul now and if Angelus gets his hands on her, with that soul…”

 

“He’ll destroy her trying to rid her of it.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“You’re in love with her,” Will said simply, his eyes filled with understanding that the other man probably wouldn’t find anywhere else.

 

William would probably be the only person that would understand the love that Gunn felt for the vampiress.

 

“I do… I won’t let her leave me. And I won’t let Angelus get his hands on her again, I’ll kill him myself before I let that happen.”

 

 

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Angelus scowled as he stalked the streets. His black duster flapping behind him the only sound in the deadly silence.

 

He was beyond infuriated… they’d lost the scent. A sure sign that wherever his childer were now… it wasn’t above ground.

 

They’d probably taken to the sewers or electrical tunnels… the city was a mass of them and without knowing where to pinpoint his minions search by the time he figured out which tunnels they had taken to they would be gone.

 

As his minions fell into a line behind him, each scenting the air as they walked. Each wanting to be the one to capture the elusive scent that would take them to where their Master’s childer had hid themselves away.

 

But the scent that was captured was not one that they were expecting and Angelus was the only one that recognized it. His lips curving into a thin smirk as she was brought into sight.

 

His elusive sire… and beside her one of the Slayer’s cannon fodder.

 

They both stood in the middle of the street. Druscilla calm and unmoving. The boy standing slightly behind her, watching their approach with wary eyes, a stake in one hand.

 

Waving his minions back but not off he approached the duo alone, one hand reaching out to caress the skin of his sires cheek only to be thwarted when her hand shot out and held his away.

 

“Angelus.”

 

“Druscilla,” his voice was smooth as he smiled at her. “You brought lunch… how sweet.”

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Doing? Why I’m bringing my mate and my childe home… what are you doing?”

 

“Leave them alone Angelus… it’s out of our hands now,” Dru said thinly.

 

“Unacceptable,” the male vampire shook his head in denial. “They’re mine… they just need a bit of discipline… you remember discipline don’t you Druscilla? Of course you do… you taught me everything I know of course. Do you remember?” he smiled fondly as his eyes grew distant and hazy before snapping back to her. “Although,” he cocked his head to study her. “I think maybe you’ve lost your touch.”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

Angelus smiled, she didn’t know… But he was never one to keep secrets from his beloved mummy.

 

Moving closer, removing his hand from her tight grip he leaned towards her. Faces inches apart he stared at her. “Your Slayer and my sweet girl have been naughty…” he murmured his eyes locking on her dark and unreadable ones. “She allowed him back in, even after all he did to her  and he… he allowed her to taste him.”

 

“William would never let Buffy bite him,” the male snapped defensively. Although from the tone of his voice Angelus knew that it was purely reflexive on his part.

 

“Silly boy,” Angelus sneered.

 

“Leave them alone…” Dru said quietly. “Don’t force her to choose between the two of you… because you’ll lose this time.”

 

“We’ll see,” Angelus smirked as he took a step back.

 

Snapping his fingers, a signal his minions were most obviously waiting for, they rushed forward as a group, Angelus disappearing in a swirl of back leather.

 

With a grumble Xander leapt into the fray beside Dru, stake finding the heart of a vampire moving towards him.

 

“At least he knows how to make an exit.”

 

 

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The hall was quiet. The occupants of it waiting for news… any news from within the tiny room where Darla, Buffy and the doctor had been closeted for going on two hours now.

 

It had been ten minutes since they’d even heard Darla’s muffled screams.

 

Gunn was kneeling opposite the door, his eyes, his entire body trained on it as he waited.

 

William had long ago given up pacing, was instead standing near Gunn, leaning back against the wall.

 

Silence in the hall meant that every other noise sounded like a cannon going off. The nerves of the four waiting were strung tight as bows.

 

“Do you think…?” Gunn started, flying to his feet, exchanging worried look with William as they heard the sounds of footsteps moving towards them.

 

William pulled the stake that had been shoved down the back of his pants out, taking a defensive position that the others mimicked.

 

The flinging of his stake was stopped by a pale white hand just inches from her heart and Dru glanced between William, that stake and the distance that it had traveled with arched brows.

 

“Thought you were someone else,” Will muttered sheepishly.

 

“He’s trapped about a half a mile back,” Xander grinned slapping William on the back as Dru and the Slayer stared at each other.

 

She slowly moved towards him her eyes on his neck, with a gentle hand she tilted his head to the side, a finger dragging over the barely there fang marks. Right above hers… the only remaining sign that Buffy had bit him.

 

“Dru…” he began softly, wincing at the look of pain that flashed through her eyes, then was quickly masked.

 

“Where are they?” Dru asked shaking her head. As surprised as she was that Buffy had not completed the ritual.

 

She’d bit him, claimed him but had not marked him… perhaps knowing as she did that Dru had already marked him and her mark would not be valid until Dru released her claim.

 

She had thought that Buffy would realize that by sending the Slayer to her that she had released her claim upon him… that the Slayer was once more up for grabs.

 

Obviously that wasn’t the case and this was neither the time nor the place to discuss it.

 

“They’re…” William gestured to the still closed door, Dru taking the few steps that landed her directly in front of it. Her hand on the latch to open it she was halted by the fact that the door opened before she could do so. The young man in front of her jumping back, startled at her presence there.

 

“What…?” Gunn began as he moved forward, his face a picture of apprehension as he waited to hear the worst.

 

That both Darla and the baby had died.

 

The doctor smiled a huge grin that lit up his whole face, just as a baby’s wail pierced the silence of the tiny room and adjoining hall.

 

As a group they rushed to the door, Dru moving inside slowly her eyes locked on the pair on the floor.

 

With the baby cradled to her chest, tears in her eyes Darla smiled tiredly at Gunn. Buffy’s hands lightly stroked the baby’s head a look of amazement lining her face.

 

Gunn slipped past Dru, kneeling beside the pair he reached out one trembling hand, tracing a finger down the smooth skin of the new baby’s cheek.

 

“He’s so small…” Faith murmured.

 

“Seven pounds, 3 ounces,” the doctor announced as he kneeled beside Buffy. Touching the gauze that he had affixed to Darla’s stomach he lifted a corner and was unsurprised (especially after the females had told him what they were) to see that the incisions that he had made in order to perform the C-section had started healing over already.

 

Disbelief was still coursing through his body and he had a feeling that when he got home denial would be the next stage.

 

Vampires having baby’s… what was the world coming to?

 

“His name is Connor,” Darla said softly her eyes moving between the baby that she never thought that she would ever see and the man that had her heart firmly in his hand.

 

For a moment her eyes drifted from her two men and rose to meet those of Dru. She was not surprised to see understanding there. All that Whistler had told her would come to pass had… and she knew that Dru most likely knew everything that she did. “Buffy and the Slayer are his protectors.”

 

When one of the undead creates life from nothing.

Two Warriors will be bound to protect it.

The Slayer and the Poet for life.

With aid from polar opposites.

Ensouled Vampire.

Vampire.

Human.

Slayer.

All bound to protect the Destroyer.

 

 

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Authors note: I debated long and hard on what to do with Darla in this story. Part of me wanted to stay with canon but the other… I like (and believe me when I say that I never thought that would happen) Darla. And I like the burgeoning relationship that I have Darla and Gunn in. Talk about an UC couple. *smirk*.

 

Whatever I chose to do with her I knew that it was going to affect how the rest of this story played out… as well as the prophecy that’s in place. So Darla gets a stay, although I can’t say how much longer Angelus’ is going to be in effect.

 

 

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