My One and Only

Epilogue

"You can all come in now," Spike told the crowded waiting room.

"Is he glowing?" Joyce asked Giles. "I think he very well may be glowing.
Do vampires glow?"

Giles chuckled at his fiancé, entwining her arm through his and pressing a
kiss on her forehead. "Spike is unlike any vampire I've ever known, so I
think he very well may be glowing."

Joyce smiled and rested her head on Giles' shoulder as they followed Tara
and Willow. Whistler trailed behind.

Spike was already at her bedside, still glowing, and gazing at his newborn
baby daughter. Their daughter was completely bald and had Spike's baby blue eyes. Blue eyes that could change as she got older, the nurse told her.
Buffy hoped not. She hoped her daughter had her fathers blue eyes.

"She's so beautiful," Willow breathed.

"She is," Tara cooed.

"What did you name her, sweetie?" Joyce asked, peering at her
granddaughter with tears of happiness in her eyes.

Buffy smiled, "Dawn Hope."

"Beautiful," Joyce breathed.

Spike looked up at Spike who was gazing at her and Dawn adoringly.

"I'm sorry I said I'd never let you touch me again," she whispered to him.

"I don't think you need to whisper, kitten," Spike said jovially. "I think they
all heard you. I think everyone in the hospital heard you."

Buffy blushed profusely and everyone chuckled quietly.

"You ready to hold your daughter?" she asked him and Spike nodded, his
eyes widening.

"I'm afraid to break her," Spike admitted fearfully.

"Do you plan on crushing her?" Buffy giggled. "You won't break her Spike.
You just saw what she went through to get out of me. She's not going to
break."

Spike nodded and held out his hands. Buffy instructed him in how to hold
her and tears of joy slipped from his eyes as he held his daughter.

He looked up at Buffy, "Thank you so much for giving me her."

"Thank you too," she countered.

Whistler stepped forward. "She's a special one," Whistler murmured,
touching her forehead.

Buffy looked up at him. "Isn't she though?"

"Half Light Bringer, half vampire. Part human."

"Are you saying my daughter's a mutt?" Spike hissed warningly.

"Honey, we knew that," Buffy told him gently.

"She'll be a force to be reckoned with when the time comes," Whistler told
them.

"There will be no fighting for this one," Spike cooed at Dawn. "None at all."

Whistler chuckled. "She won't give you much of a choice."

"Whistler, can something be a surprise?" Buffy reprimanded him.

"What uh, sorts of things can she not do?" Joyce asked. "Can I take my
granddaughter to the park? During the day?"

"Yes Joyce, you can," Whistler assured her. "She'll need blood on a regular
basis like her father, and she'll have powers like the both of them. However,
she'll be able to go into the sun and she won't easily be harmed."

"How?" Buffy asked, not wanting to ask something like that about her
newborn.

"Like you, and Spike," Whistler told her.

"Heart," Buffy nodded. "Okay, enough of that! Isn't she beautiful?"

"Gorgeous," Spike murmured, caressing his daughters face.

"I want one," Willow whimpered sappily.

"Maybe one day," Tara assured her.

"Giles? Do you want to hold your granddaughter?" Buffy asked her
surrogate father.

Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them. "Uh, maybe later my dear."

Buffy giggled.

"Well I want to hold her!" Joyce asserted herself and marched up to Spike,
holding out her arms expectantly.

Spike looked up at her as if to ask if he really had to give up his daughter.

"Spike honey, we get to take her home," Buffy assured him.

Reluctantly, Spike handed Dawn over and Joyce cried softly, tears of joy, as
she held her. Spike gathered Buffy in his arms and kissed her forehead. "So,
when I'm allowed to touch you again, we'll make more?"

Buffy grumbled. "We'll talk. Let's give it a couple years okay?"

"You know, if she had been a boy, I was thinking of the name Connor. So,
next time . . . "










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