For Sale by Athenewolfe
 
 
Chapter #1 - For Sale
 
"For sale: baby shoes, never used."

The line haunted her…

She knew she had heard it before, but now and then it crept into her thoughts. She crossed it off the list and then poised her pen one more time.

‘For sale:’…

The tears began again. She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t sell all of the clothes, the toys, the items she had so lovingly picked out for months.

She wasn’t strong enough to this; to sort through the items and sell them. Perhaps everyone was right. Perhaps she should have given it all away or locked the door and walked away. Gone someplace where no one knew her, where people wouldn’t look at her with pity. Wouldn’t talk about her with hushed tones or looked at her with those knowing eyes.

She should have known that this would have happened. She was cursed. She should have listened with they told her that the Slayer walked alone.

But weren’t they the ones who insisted that she have a normal life? Wasn’t that what Angel commanded, or her mom had wistfully implied every time they discussed her calling? A normal life with a normal man?

Anger consumed her. Normal for whom? Normal for a slayer whose family consisted of a dimensional key turned human and friends who read through prophecies over their morning tea? Normal whose only truly human friend was a boy who’s habit of dating demons would some day be the downfall of him?

She was not normal.

She had thought it a miracle once she was freed from being the Chosen One, well Chosen Two.

She had thought it a greater miracle when Spike has Shanshued after his battle against the Senior Partners.

And the greatest miracle of them all came six months later, she had tested positive for her pregnancy test. She and Spike poured over names for months, argued over what would be an appropriate name for a baby who would be born of champions. And when Giles had come begging for assistance that only an experienced leader could give, they had their greatest argument.

Four months into her pregnancy and she was barely showing. Just a bump. They argued about her duty, her destiny, and the impending apocalypse. In the end they went. Because that’s what hero’s did.

It seemed like a bad dream. She watched as Spike went down. One moment he was standing and the next she was kneeling beside him. Before she had time to grieve she felt the blow. Then there was nothing else.

When she awoke, she was in the hospital.

"For sale: baby shoes, never used."

Dropping her pen, Buffy walked out the door. She couldn’t do this anymore.