Disclaimer: Buffy and Spike aren’t mine. I just made them live in Cleveland.

Author’s note: Beta’d by the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife
__________________________________________

Buffy walked about the Council building, her mint green monstrosity of a dress swishing behind her. Anya’s wedding day had come and Buffy was missing a two year old ring bearer. It wasn’t surprising that Richard had gotten lost in crush of the guests and Council lackey’s attending to security. It wasn’t every day that the head of the Council got married, or that a watcher got married to a demon, or that the ceremony was being held in the Council’s chapel.

“Ricky?” called out Buffy into the Council library. Richard had begun to come out of his shell since they had arrive in England, and the mischievous little man had decided that he was going to take off, with the wedding rings! Needless to say everyone was looking for him.

Anya was going to kill anyone who stopped this wedding. But then she didn’t know what was wrong. Just like the last time. Spike was guarding the groom, making sure he didn’t bugger off and Dawn was looking after the sleeping Niki.

Buffy heard a giggle and smiled. He was playing hide and seek, a game that Oz, of all people, had introduced him to. The werewolf was going to get a piece of her mind later. Ducked behind a shelf and holding a book in his hand that looked like it was a children’s book and not a council tome, he was sitting beside the little pillow that Anya and Giles’ wedding rings were tied to.

“Why you cheeky little monkey!” declared Buffy scooping up the wayward child, the pillow, and the book, the title ‘The Magic of Tea Tree Dryads’ grasped in the little guys hands. He wouldn’t let go of it.

Buffy rolled her eyes. She could have easily pulled the book out of his baby grip but then she’d have to deal with a crying child who was, in only a few moments, supposed to walk down the aisle carrying the damned pillow.

A happy Richard, Buffy, the pillow, and the book made it to the chapel with time to spare.

Demons and human alike ooohed and awwwed over the cuteness of the little boy carrying the pillow down the aisle, Buffy following closely behind him, and giving glares to the assembled demons who were looking too much like they’d like to take him home with them.

At the end of the carpet way and just in front of Giles’ friend from the coven in Bath who was to perform the ceremony, Buffy nudged Faith’s little boy to the side and bade him stand. She turned to watch Dawn and Willow walk down the aisle after her. Richard was still carrying the damned book though, tucked under the pillow.

Anya was stunningly beautiful in her white gown, much more flattering than the one she’d wanted to marry Xander in. All eyes were mesmerized by the bride and as the ceremony began in earnest, no one noticed that Buffy grabbed the book away from the little boy and handed it off to her husband when Richard wasn’t looking.
__________________________________________
For the second time in one day Buffy headed to the Council library. This time she was returning the book Richard had taken. It was deceptive. She was flipping through the pages as she rounded the corner to the library, looking at the pictures, which were coloured and on some pages had glitter on them too. It looked like a children’s book, but the words in it were like riddles. Buffy was never one for riddles. She’d had enough slayer dreams to max out her lifetime quota of riddles, thank you very much.

Suddenly a hand grabbed hers and she was pulled back from her destination.

“Spike,” she said in warning not bothering to look up from the book.

“I thought maybe you were sneaking off to do something naughty. Thought I’d join you,” he said with a leer.

Buffy looked up from the book and smiled. “That’s not what I was going to do. I told you, I’m putting back the book Ricky took. Giles will have my head if even one book out of his library went missing.”

Spike plucked the book and pressed her body against the wall, grinding his obvious arousal into her mint green dress.

“You have a one track mind today,” she commented with a smile, reaching back for the book.

He raised an eyebrow at that comment.

“Okay, ya, I know. Library first, then we can find a closet somewhere, ‘kay?” she compromised.

In the end though they didn’t wait until they found a closet.

As Buffy lay on top of an oak library table, her dress up around her ears and the sound of wood scratching on the floor echoing off the walls, as Spike thrust into her wet channel repeatedly, her thoughts were not surprisingly about how Giles would react to the fact that they were copulating in his library.

Her efforts to keep her tongue in check and not scream out her pleasures, crying out her husband’s name as he brought her to orgasm, was all she could think of. Not that she still had the book clutched in her hand, or that it seemed to be glowing.

Spike didn’t have the presence of mind to think it strange either, not while he was nestled between her thighs.

As Buffy bit her lip, hard, to suppress her final scream as she came she finally let the ‘The Magic of Tea Tree Dryads’ fall to the ground.
__________________________________________
They walked back to the reception together, hand in hand, Buffy looking a tad bit guilty. The look on Anya’s face convinced Buffy that the demon knew just exactly what they’d been doing.

“I am not jealous you know, Rupert and I had a little closet encounter not too long ago,” explained Anya quite seriously.

‘Gross’ face spread over Buffy’s features. She so did not want to know that Giles had a sex life. Even though she knew that there was no way that Anya would be happy if she wasn’t getting some on a regular basis. But ignorance was bliss.

“No need to be so eww about it,” continued the bride haughtily. “Go away, we are going to dance soon.”

With a smile, Spike led Buffy away from the bride and towards her sister, who was sitting by herself and looking not too happy. Buffy knew instinctively what was making Dawn so sour. Xander had opted not to attend Anya’s wedding. He’d been invited, Giles had wanted him to be his best man. But no one had taken Xander’s feelings into consideration. He had thought it best for all involved, but mostly for himself, if he didn’t attend. And this was why Dawn was moping.

The infectious giggling of a happy Willow hadn’t been able to get Dawn out of her funk either. Oz and Willow, it seemed had found a happy medium in their relationship. Buffy hadn’t wanted to pry into the details, ‘cause it seemed a little less than monogamous, but they were happy and that’s all that Buffy needed to know.

Buffy sat down beside her sister and patted the younger girl’s shoulder. “You’re bringing down the happy,” she commented.

Dawn glared at her sister. “We’ll it’s not exactly the funness that the last Anya wedding had going for it.”

“Xander wasn’t at that one either,” piped up Spike, earning him another glare from the Oxford undergrad. “Look, the whelp is somewhere in the building. Find him and get yourself out of this rotten mood.”

“And miss Anya throwing the bouquet?” questioned Dawn.
__________________________________________
The bride and groom safely on their way to an undisclosed location for their honeymoon, the Scoobies said their goodbyes as Spike, Buffy, Andrew, and the two little ones headed home to Cleveland. Someone had to guard the Hellmouth after all.

Routines fell back into place. Buffy continued her education, starting a new semester at college, leaving the care of Faith’s babies to Spike during the day. And Andrew resumed his job at an electronics store.

Richard’s third birthday passed in ‘Bob the Builder’ regalia and was only marred by the fact that Buffy seemed to be suffering from the stomach flu.

That didn’t go away.

She hadn’t thought about ‘it’ in such a long time. Two babies to take care of had left her maternal energies effectively occupied. She resorted to a home pregnancy test. Squeezing her eyes shut, refusing to look at the stick in her hand, she blew out a few calming breaths. She peeked one eye open, then the other.

Buffy looked down at the stick in her hand and the little blue cross it displayed.

So I guess that explains the sick and the yuck, she thought.

Overall this was a very happy thought.

Buffy felt tears well up in her eyes. She never thought she would actually have kids, well besides that time when two of then showed up from the future. Now it seemed that she would have fat grandbabies after all and with Spike. Something else to rub in Angel’s face.

Her mind suddenly raced to what they had done different lately. Nothing was springing to mind, except that time in the library with all the books of the Council around them.

Or maybe it was the book she had held in her hand.

Dru had said that it was ‘tea’ that would make the difference. With a chuckle Buffy left the bathroom in search of Spike.
__________________________________________
Buffy plopped down on her husband’s lap. He had been reading Shakespeare again.

“Spike, have we talked recently about how the Hellmouth does the wacky lately?”

“Not since we had that visit from the pixie convention last week. I don’t think pet,” he answered, not looking up from the book.

“Goody, ‘cause here we are having a similar conversation. Have you ever given thought to what you would name your children?” she asked.

Spike got a queer look on his face and looked up.

“Actually William for a boy and Victoria for a girl, but we both know that we wouldn’t be having boys,” he added with a neutral smile.

“Well, we might have to have the names discussion later, ‘cause I’m pregnant,” Buffy exclaimed and thrust the pregnancy test at him.

Spike’s face let up and began to pepper her face with kisses.
__________________________________________
The news that Buffy was pregnant was greeted by much squeeing over the telephone. Dawn was happy, Giles was happy. And Willow was ecstatic, she was going to be an aunt. Richard had just looked at Buffy with a perplexed face, as if to say, ’what the hell? Another sister?’ in that three year old way of his by letting his limited vocabulary express his disgust for the situation.

“No!” he shouted once, and then fumbled to get the stair gate open.

Buffy scooped up the toddler in her arms and wondered just how much of a change her life had taken since Faith’s death. Sooner than she liked to think, she was going to be mother to not only the little rascal in her arms, but his sleeping sister in the living room and the little girl growing in her womb.

And she still hadn’t finished college. Once Richard finally stopped struggling for freedom, his lunch safely in his belly and not all over his clothes as was usually the case, he was set free to play with some of his toys leaving Buffy to clean the house. Her travels took her back into the kitchen and past the fridge.

Blood of light, Blood of dark,
Blood of Blood,
Blood spilt to cover up the evils of blood’s evil,
Undercover of darkness blood is hidden,
Three times blood is split, three times evil rises,
Blood of light, Blood of dark,
Cycle begins anew.

She read it in completion a few times trying to grasp its meeting. She knew that it had to do with her immortality and her kids. She’d read enough of the prophecies about her over the years to figure out that she was ‘light’, meaning that Spike was probably ‘dark’. How very typical was that? And the whole thing is just chalk full of the blood. Blah...why couldn’t it be about marshmallow cream or something yummy?

It’s always about blood. Spike said that so many years ago. She hated when he was right.

Mmmm, marshmallow cream. Buffy’s mind returned to the fluffy stuff she had hidden in her cupboard.
__________________________________________
As the time got closer, Buffy suddenly found herself housing more and more Scoobies. Willow, Dawn, and Oz arrived first; Dawn taking up residence in her old room ignoring the fact that it was littered with Anya‘s stuff. Oz and Willow took Oz’s old room in the basement.

Buffy looked at Anya’s stuff and sighed. The vengeance demon had been able to convince Buffy that she still needed a room in Buffy’s house, because she was going to be popping in a regular basis to keep tabs on her business in Cleveland, as well as starting up another franchise in London. With the new baby, there was no way that Anya could keep the second floor room though. The new little one would be able to sleep in Buffy and Spikes room for the first few weeks sure, but sooner rather than later there was going to be major room changes.

Then Giles, Anya, and Xander arrived, putting more strain on the already exasperated Slayer. The wear and tear on her body, not to mention the fact that Spike had refused to let her slay anything while she was carrying their child had put her in a bad mood. Permanently.

Not only that but Anya stole her thunder right away. With a brilliant smile on her face, Anya announced that Giles had gotten her pregnant as well.

Buffy headed down to the basement training room to vent her frustrations on the punching bag. It was the only thing she was allowed to do that let her vent her frustrations.

Spike watched his mate trudge down to the basement. He had started to grow concerned about her falling down the stairs because she couldn’t see her feet around her protruding tummy. He had refrained from saying anything because he was pretty sure if he put another restriction on her she would start to cry.

He turned and glowered at Anya.

“What? It’s true!” she countered.

“I didn’t think vengeance demons could get pregnant...” started Dawn eagerly looking to glean more information.

Spike didn’t wait around for Anya’s response, before heading down to the basement to his wife’s side. The hoards could find their own room assignments for all he cared. He knew where he was sleeping, but he didn’t want to find himself sleeping beside an irate slayer who couldn’t slay. That always ended with him getting smacked around, and not of the good variety.
__________________________________________
Buffy hung up the phone on Dru. The phone call from LA wishing her good luck on the delivery of her child was odd. She didn’t talk to Angel at all. Fred had babbled on about the baby and how Dru was really excited. Wesley had inquired about the wards and enchantments that were going to be put on the house to further protect the little family. And Dru...Dru had madly talked for half an hour, Buffy not really knowing exactly what she was talking about.

She did get a few lucid moments from the crazed vampire though. Dru was certain that it wasn’t Cat that was nestled in Buffy’s womb. That wasn’t news to Buffy though.

The list on which she’d written the names of her children that she had compiled while Ariel and Cat had stayed was hidden away under her pillow.

So Dru had dicussed names. She’d been really keen on Edith for some reason. There was no way in any hell dimension that Buffy was naming her daughter Edith.

Spike had been pulling for Eugenia, named after his favourite aunt. Buffy had wanted Katrina. Either worked with the middle name they had both picked: Joyce.

Buffy was glad that Dru wasn’t able to leave the Hyperion hotel though, ‘cause she was pretty sure that if the mad vampiress could leave, she’d be living in Buffy’s house too, waiting for the kid to pop.

Buffy had three hours before her due date was going to pass. She’d been so looking forward to getting this kid out of her, so she could resume her normal life again, complete with slaying, being able to pick up Richard and Niki, and not bumping into things all the time. Her tummy was massive, or so she thought. She’d never been pregnant before.

Leaving the office, and her confusion over Dru’s ramblings, she decided that she needed some juice. She got to the kitchen just in time to join Willow, who was making grilled cheese sandwiches.

Willow hadn’t talked much to her since she and Oz had arrived. At first Buffy had thought that it was because Oz had started to rub off on her. She wasn’t too sure now. Willow was super excited about the baby but she wouldn’t talk about how she was or anything of a personal nature.

Buffy took a sip of juice and put down her glass on the kitchen counter. “Ok, spill. I want details. You are keeping something from me and I can tell. Best friends tell you know!”

Willow looked up sheepishly, hiding behind her hair. “I didn’t want to make you mad.”

“Why would I be mad?” asked Buffy.

“Well, you left the room when Anya started gushing about being pregnant....” started Willow.

“Wills, are you and Oz...” Buffy trailed off, her eyes wide.

“Pregnant,” Willow completed, nodding her head.

Buffy smiled and reached out to hug her friend. “I’m excited for you. This means that this baby is going to have lots of cousins!”

Buffy felt a small pull from the baby but brushed it off as another random baby movement.

“Uh? Buffy did you spill your juice on me?” asked Willow.

Buffy backed up and looked down at her denim maternity overalls. They were wet. She looked back up at Willow a look of panic on her face.

“Spike!” she screamed.
__________________________________________
Willow placed baby Graves into Buffy’s arms. She was perfect. They had all made it to the hospital and waited patiently, for hours as Buffy’s voice screamed and swore at her mate for what he’d done to her.

Inside Buffy’s hospital room, an exhausted Slayer held her baby daughter, her bald head and closed eyes revealed nothing about what she was going to look like when she grew up, but she did have Spike’s ears and Buffy’s nose.

“She’s beautiful Buffy,” said Spike leaning in over his wife and daughter.

“The most beautiful girl in all the land,” breathed Buffy with a smile.

“Bianca,” Spike whispered softly.

“Huh?” she looked up in confusion.

“The beautiful daughter in the Taming of the Shrew,” Spike explained

“Pretty name, much better than Eugenia,” she teased.

“Hey! We agreed on Eugenia, my favourite aunt was named Eugenia,” Spike protested.

“Bianca Joyce Summers-Graves,” said Buffy looking down lovingly at her daughter.

The door to Buffy’s bedroom opened, and Dawn peaked her head in.

“Come in Dawn,” said Buffy with a smile on her face. “Come meet your niece, crusty old Aunt Dawn.”

Dawn sat down next to her sister and gazed at the sleeping babe that was being cuddled between the Slayer and her vampire father.

“Has she got a name yet?” asked Dawn.

“Bianca Joyce,” said Buffy.

“Pretty,” agreed Dawn.

Dawn pulled back from the family and took something out of her pocket. The folded mass of white envelops caught Buffy’s eye at once. Dawn tried to flatten the wad of paper.

“You wanna open one?”

Willow entered the room to check on baby and mom. Xander holding Richard‘s hand, Andrew, Giles, Anya, and Oz who was holding Niki all trailed in behind her.

Buffy and Spike looked at each other before both reaching for an envelope. Everyone in the room got an envelope.

There was some discussion about how Niki was gonna wreck hers.

“Okay, on the count of three?” said Dawn.

“One, two, three,” counted down Willow.

Everyone tore. Niki was chewing on hers.

Giles’ envelope opened.

“Bianca Joyce Summers-Graves, born on the 31st of October, 2007” read Giles.

The group smiled knowingly.

“And just look at all the rest of these envelopes Buffy!” laughed Dawn.

“Yes, the similarity between you and the reproductive habits of rabbits is uncanny,” added Anya.
__________________________________________
Fini, for now...there will be more instalments...I’ve got all those envelopes to account for.