Four years later
“Where ya goin’, Jake? Robin, can you grab him? He just keeps gettin’ away from me.”
Wood stepped forward and scooped up his eldest. “Hey, buddy.” Jake laughed and tried to squirm out of his father’s grip. “I don’t think so, you. Not today.” Wood put the boy back down. “Go see mommy,” he told him with a pat on the head, and the three-year-old waddled over to Rae and sat beside her, pretending to be unhappy.
“Thanks,” she said breathlessly. “Faith’s really being a… unco-operative today.” She softly held the six-month-old baby on her blanket on the floor and tried to get her to sleep. There had been much argument between her and Wood about what to name their baby girl; Rae liked her old name too much to just let it go, but Wood thought it was draw attention from the police. Eventually Rae won, unsurprisingly, but the name seemed to have been cursed; Faith was quite seriously a rebel against both her parents. Rae would turn around for one second, literally, and the baby would be sitting on the other side of the room, watching Willow and Kennedy talk with great interest.
Rae would come over and scoop up her baby girl, apologizing to Willow and Kennedy for the constant interruptions of what seemed to be an argument. Rae thought that maybe Faith had been born a lesbo, and thus her incredible interest with Willow and Kennedy lay.
She turned to Wood and asked him to bring her the diaper bag, and she turned back and Faith was already on the other side of the room, actively watching Willow talk. Rae sighed, told Jake to stay there, and walked across the room. “I don’t know how you keep doin’ that,” she told her baby. “No baby can crawl that fast.”
Willow looked sideways at the mother-daughter pair. “Wait,” she said, frowning. “I don’t remember seeing her crawl past here.”
“I turned my back for literally two seconds to ask Robin to grab me somethin’, and she was already over here. It’s like…”
“…magic,” Willow finished, looking at the baby with as much interest as she looked at Willow. Rae rolled her eyes.
“Don’t tell me Faith’s a witch. Don’t do it.”
“F…Rae, I think she might be. Hell, at the peak of my power, I couldn’t apparate like that. That’s incredible.”
Rae frowned at Willow. “Could you maybe stay away from words like ‘hell’ around my kids? It’s taken enough discipline to get me off them, and I just want the best for ‘em,” she whispered.
Willow raised her eyebrows. “Sure. Can I just… this sounds weird, but can I examine your baby?”
Rae watched Faith squirm. “In non-magickal means, though, all right?”
Willow nodded and took the grinning baby away from her mom. Rae turned around reluctantly to see that Jake had run off somewhere again. “Jesus Christ,” she muttered, relapsing into words Wood had worked so hard to turn her off of. “Wood, you got Jake?”
“Of course, dear,” he said tiredly from around the corner, still lecturing his Slayer on their patrol the other night. She stood pretending to be listening but really wondering when the infamous Buffy would get here. That’s pretty much the only reason she’d agreed to come.
Dawn came around the corner, well-rested and holding hands with the no-longer Spike-ish Pete. He was now looking remarkably like Angel, with the brown, spiky hair and the black clothing. He even had the brow-thing going on. The difference was that he looked content. Dawn was worried about Buffy and Xander and their chronic laughing fits; Willow had called them last night and told them to get their asses down there as fast as possible. They drove all night and barely got into Cleveland on time, getting Pete in the house seconds before the sun rose. Neither Buffy nor Xander had seen them yet.
“Where’s Kat?” Dawn asked. She’d brought her Slayer, too; Pete had been stowed away in the back, so Kat had sat up front. She was a very eager Slayer who was also extremely interested in meeting the infamous Buffy, as Dawn had come to know her as. Seeing Faith and Kennedy would also be such an amazing thing for her; she was fascinated by the Battle of Sunnydale.
Wood turned and pointed to the kitchen. Dawn smiled and nodded and went looking for her Slayer.
Giles ran in the door and closed it quickly. He was finally looking like he had back in Sunnydale; age was catching up with him. His hair had started to gray, but he was still a very active gent. His tie and glasses were askew, and it looked as though he’d driven from England despite the Atlantic being in the way. “I’m here!” he said loudly. “I’m here!”
Wood turned around and held out the hand that wasn’t currently holding up his son. “How are you, Giles?”
Giles looked confused and shook Wood’s hand. “I’m well, actually. Tired, in desperate need of a drink, but otherwise ecstatic. Where are they?”
Wood shook his head. “Not here yet. We’ve been waiting for a while. I think the cake’s starting to melt, if that’s possible.”
Giles grinned. “Yes, well, I expect they’ll be here soon. I’m afraid I’m not much acquainted with the house layout… could you direct me to the drink cart?” Wood pointed, and Giles nodded his thanks, making a beeline and ignoring the happy cries of “GILES!” he got along the way.
Willow came down from upstairs holding Faith. She handed her to Rae and looked very serious, asking Rae to come into the kitchen for a second.
“She’s definitely magickally inclined,” Willow said as they entered. “But it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. I’m sure you’ve heard about the time I went nuts about the magick?”
“And went around flaying people?” Rae asked, scared for her baby and her possible new flaying powers.
“Well, yes, that was a side effect,” she said regrettably and shook her head, trying to forget it. “But that’s not what I’m talking about. I could disappear and end up somewhere else, but it took me almost the same amount of time as it would have taken me to run. Your baby can do much more than that. She can teleport. It’s almost eerie, like Anya used to be able to do when she was a vengeance demon.”
“Are you saying my youngest is a vengeance demon?” asked Rae, anger flashing in her eyes.
Willow shook her head sympathetically. “No, Rae. I’m saying she can teleport. That’s all. All she has to do is think about the place she wants to be, and she’s there.” She smiled at the bubbling baby. “She’s very smart, though… she only does it when no one’s paying attention to her.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
Rae sighed. “Well, I’m not sure if I should be relieved or not. Will you have a look at Jake and see if he has any superpowers or whatever?”
Willow nodded. “Sure. Go find your husband and switch the kids; I’ll do it right here.”
A large noise erupted from the front hall, and Willow grinned. “After we greet Buffy and Xander,” she added, and the two of them entered the living room.
“Whoa. This is a surprise,” Buffy said, pleased. The small bundle of joy in her arms stayed asleep despite all the noise.
Giles stepped forward and greeted Buffy, shaking hands with Xander and eventually enveloping him in a very manly hug. The other Slayers kept their distance and watched the legendary Slayer and her son in fascination.
Dawn gave Buffy a gentle hug, careful not to interfere with the baby’s sleep. “What’s his name?” she whispered.
Buffy looked around and didn’t see the person she was looking for. “I’ll tell you in a minute,” she answered, and stepped into the living room to be ambushed by more people happy to see her. Pete, being the only vampire in the crowd, kept his distance. He knew Dawn was wanting kids, something he couldn’t provide. He loved her dearly, more than anything else in the world, but he’d heard great Angel tales from Dawn and about how he suddenly left one day because he was a liability to Buffy. They’d had conversations about their future, and Dawn assured him that she loved him and that they were different because the curse was different. But he could tell that sometimes Dawn doubted their relationship.
Willow stepped forward and greeted the little boy. “He’s gorgeous, guys,” she said to both the parents, her voice wavering slightly. She sniffed. “Man. Makes me almost kind of regret my lifestyle,” she whispered.
Kennedy heard. “Hey! That had better be a joke, missy,” she said playfully, knowing it was.
Buffy grinned and passed off her son to Xander, letting him share the glory while she properly greeted her guests, giving Giles and hug and thanking him for coming just for this. “You’re looking spiffy,” she said.
“I’m rich,” he grinned. “The council is doing unbelievably well. All the students, except Wood and Dawn, of course, are paying me tuition. It’s bloody lovely. The Watcher industry is suddenly doing exceptionally well, either because there are so many Slayers now, or because it’s in New York.”
“Or both,” Buffy added.
“Or both.”
“Does this mean you bought me a car?”
Giles grinned. “Oh, damn. I forgot it back in Britain. I’ll be sure to send it to you in the mail.”
Her response was clipped from a yell of the crowd to tell everyone what the baby’s name was. Buffy grinned and stood on a chair, clearing her throat. “Xander and I had a whole string of arguments about this. I won’t go into details, but it was really amusing at times. Some of the names he chose made me laugh for days.” A polite laughter spread through the small crowd. “Finally we found something we agreed on,” she continued. “We expected him to be a girl, so we were going to name him… or her, after our mutual best friend for years. We were going to name her Willow.” Willow burst out in happy tears and the crowd around her laughed and tried to calm her down. “But then he was a boy, so we decided on Will. Not William, because Xander wouldn’t have his son named after Spike, but just Will.”
The crowd “awwww”ed. Willow kept crying. Buffy held up a hand to signal that she wasn’t done. “But there was still the issue of the middle name. We couldn’t decide on one; Xander wanted it to be Alexander, and I wanted it to be Rupert after Giles, the man I believe to be my surrogate father.” There was more noise from her friends in front of her, and she purposefully avoided Giles’ eyes in case he had a similar reaction to that of Willow. “So we decided on both. Everyone, meet Will Alexander Rupert Harris.”
Her son slept on. She stepped down from the chair but watched Xander and Will together. At that moment, Xander looked like the happiest man on earth, and Buffy was truly happy that she had been the cause of all his joy. For the first time since she was brought back to life, she felt completely at peace. She was whole. She was… cookies.
Giles came over and gave her another hug. “I’m touched,” he whispered, not willing to let himself go on.
“You deserve it, Giles. Everything you ever did for us, especially Dawn and I… There’s no way I’m forgetting that, ever. Thank you so much.”
Giles took a few deep breaths and then ended the hug, patting her fondly on the shoulder and making another mad dash for the drink cart. He promptly calmed down and found himself deep in conversation with Pete.
Rae came forward, having switched the babies and was waiting for Willow to calm down enough to make sure Jake isn’t “magickally inclined”. “Hey, B,” she said.
Buffy grinned. “Hey, Rae. And how’s Jake doing today?”
“Swell!” Jake proclaimed, and giggled.
Buffy grinned back at him. “Thanks for coming, Faith. It must have been really short notice.”
“Hey, now, Faith’s my daughter. And it’s no problem. Wanted to see the family of another Slayer, see if they’re any more or less ‘magickally inclined’ than my kids.”
“What?”
“Faith can teleport, apparently. I’m waiting for Willow to calm before she checks out Jake.”
Buffy was about to respond before a still weeping Willow ambushed her into a big hug and sobbed into her shoulder. “I love you guys,” she repeated multiple times. Buffy hugged her back, grinning, and Rae rolled her eyes. Buffy caught Xander’s eye and he grinned too, and mouthed “I got the same thing a minute ago” to Buffy.
Eventually Willow’s sobs ebbed away and she smiled at Buffy and joined Giles at the drink cart. Rae shook her head and smiled at Buffy, putting Jake down but keeping a firm (well, not firm by a Slayer’s standards) hand on his shoulder so he didn’t escape again. “So, B. Tell me about Xander. What’re you kids up to?”
Buffy grinned. “We were going to move in a long time ago… Xander was living here with me when we first moved in, right? Then he found his own apartment, and he’s going to keep it because of the whole Slayer-danger issue.”
Rae nodded. “That’s smart. Wood and I were going to do that, but we’re sort of… all over each other. All the time. Except today. Maybe it’s everyone being around, I dunno…”
Buffy grinned. “Yeah. Xander stays here during the day, and leaves before sunset to give those pesky vamps the impression that he and I aren’t but friends. Sometimes he stays overnight, but we hide his car. I think I’ll have Will stay with me until he’s old enough not to need me in the night, then he’ll stay at Xander’s.”
Rae laughed. “That’s not going to be as easy as it sounds, B.”
She shook her head sadly at her baby. “No, I guess it won’t be. But I’d rather have him gone and safe than here and in danger. I don’t want anyone knowing that he’s my son. I’m going to have him call me Buffy rather than mom.”
Rae nodded. “That’s one of the reasons I changed my name, to avoid all that. My kids can call me mom or Rae, whatever, because the vamp population knows me as Faith.”
Buffy raised eyebrows. “You’re not hunting, then?”
“I started to, but there are so many Slayers in New York now that it’s almost useless. There are Slayers like those that Wood and Dawn are training that need the practice more than me.”
Buffy was impressed. “When I first met you, you went stir-crazy if you didn’t stake at least two a night.”
Rae grinned. “Yeah, well, jail helped me on that front. I go out and have some fun with Wood and his Slayer every so often so she can see how it’s done, but that’s only when I can get a sitter. These two are kind of a handful,” she admitted.
Dawn came forward and introduced her Slayer to Buffy and Faith, who was very, very interested in both of them. She’d just finished ambushing Kennedy, who was sitting in a corner, looking very tired. The two Slayers grinned at each other and started to answer the endless questions the junior Slayer was asking.
Rae and Wood left that night. Neither Buffy nor Xander ever saw Rae again.
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