So Damn Domestic

One Week Later. BPOV


Ok, remember when I said ‘Ya know, if I didn’t have to do this for a bad reason, I could totally see myself getting used to this bed rest thing’? Well I was so wrong. Bed rest is horrible! I can only get up to use the bathroom and take a bath and I’m completely dependent on everyone else to do almost everything for me. I feel like a fat incompetent cow. Not even that because at least a cow gets to walk out in the pastures and eat the grass. I’m going completely insane!


“So I told him ‘I’m pregnant with your children. You did this to me, so the least you can do is get off your lazy ass and fix the damn pipes.’ But did he? Noooo, he didn’t. I swear he’s driving me insane.” That very annoying voice in my ear is Dawn. This is her second phone call here today. It’s only nine in the morning. “He never pays any attention to my needs, everything is always about him. Like the other night, I wanted to go to sleep because I’m always tired and my back hurts and the doctor freaked me out with his ‘premature labor warning signs’ at my last appointment, and while I was trying to fall asleep Kyle kept touching me and trying to get me to sleep with him. I realize we haven’t had sex in over a month, but I don’t want to be touched right now, ya know?”


Here’s one thing I learned about being on bed rest: when you’re annoying little sister calls to complain about her fiancé you can’t say something like ‘Sorry, but I have to run to the store, we’ll talk about this later ok?’ and then hang up and go back to watching T.V. I need to say something that’ll gross her out and get her off this subject.


“Yeah, I totally get it. Kind of like a couple weeks ago when I was cooking dinner, I was wearing a dress because it gets really hot here and I didn’t feel like wearing pants, and Faith came up behind me and slowly reached up my dress and tried to put an ice cube inside of me.” That never happened. Well, at least not last week. We used to have so much fun with ice cubes, then we had a baby and we can’t have kinky fun like that anymore.


“Ok, that was way too much information about your sex life. I gotta go get ready for work now. So I’ll talk to you later ok?” Oh the joy. But I tell her ok and we exchange ‘I love you’s’ and we hang up. I toss the phone towards the end of the bed and it bounces off the mattress and lands on the floor. Oops. Oh well, it’s carpeted so it’s fine. I doubt it broke. I talked to my doctor two days ago and she said that I need to go ahead and schedule the cesarean. So as soon as my baby reaches full term he’ll be developed enough to take out, so as long as nothing else goes wrong and I don’t need an emergency c-section I’ll be giving birth to my baby in eleven weeks. So if I don’t have to have an emergency c-section my baby will be joining this world on February tenth.


Other then the insanity things have been so bad. I haven’t bled anymore, which is great. I don’t have any pain or anything except for the normal stuff and my baby is still really active, which is also great. He keeps me up most of the night but luckily I’m on that good ol’ bed rest so I get to sleep in all day. And yes that was sarcastic. I know my house is a mess. Faith says she’s been cleaning but I know she hasn’t. I have two great spies that are very easily bribed. And according to them the dog has completely taken over my spot on the couch. Stupid dog. If he weren’t old and in pain because of his joints I’d so have Faith make him stay outside. Well, I shouldn’t say that mean stuff about him. He is the only one keeping me company right now.


“You’re not a stupid dog, are you?” I ask and give him a little kiss on top of his head. When I pull back he licks me on the face and I try not to gag. Gross, nasty dog breath. I think he should have some mints or something. I would give him the ones I have in my nightstand drawer but mints will make a dog drool all over the place, it’s really gross. Faith did it once at the house in Shasta Lake when Tucker was a puppy. His breath smelt so damn bad and she gave him five Altoids and he drooled all over the living room carpet. It was disgusting but really funny at the same time. He scoots down on the bed a little and rests his head on my thighs and lets out a long sigh with a little whine thrown in for good measure. “You and me both buddy,” I tell him and pet his really soft fur.


So, this is what my life has become? I used to be something so much more then this. I was the world’s greatest slayer. I was world renowned and feared by almost all demons. Fucking Dracula has heard of me! You don’t get any better then that. But now I’ve been reduced to nothing more then a living incubator, lying in bed because I’m too sick to get out of bed, talking to a dog that I’ve never really liked and Desdemona just cheated on Patrick with Aidan, come on, doesn’t she know that Patrick is going to be the one to take care of her when she’s sick or when she needs a shoulder to cry on? Aidan is just a tough, really hot, ‘I go by my own rules’ guy. He’s never going to love her as much as Patrick does. OH MY GOD! I can’t believe I’m getting this upset over a stupid T.V. show.


The phone starts to ring but I really don’t feel like getting up right now. And even if I did get up I’d have to bend over to pick up the stupid phone and my stomach weighs so much that I’d probably fall over and be stuck on the floor like an overweight turtle or something. So, I do the next best thing. “Tucker, get the phone.” My voice is very enthusiastic and he looks up at me. “Get the phone, get it, go get it.” He slowly gets off the bed and picks up the phone off the floor. “Ok, now bring it to me. Come on Tucker, bring it here.” I pat my leg to hopefully get him to come to me but he just wags his tail and then walks out of the room. “Stupid dog!” Oh well, it’s probably just Dawn needing to rant some more. Well she can rant to the machine ‘cause I’m not getting up just so I can hear her talk about her problems with Kyle. But I’m a little surprised when I hear:


‘Buffy, it’s Chris. I’m just callin to let you know I’m on my way over. Faith asked me to check up on you so you might wanna hide all the food you’re not supposed to be eating and get back in bed if you’re up’. Crap. I didn’t know people where going to be coming over to check up on me! I grab all the empty candy bar wrappers and stuff them in my nightstand drawer. I’ve been in bed all day, I’m not going to risk anything happening to my baby, but Faith doesn’t want me eating a lot of candy. The doctor said it isn’t good for the baby either. Nothing life threatening, but it can cause him to get too big and they’ll have some trouble getting him out. But three candy bars isn’t going to hurt anything. It’s the other seven that I planned on eating that could be troublesome.


I hear a knock on the door and a few seconds later I hear a key being put in the little keyhole thing. Then the door opens and Chris yells out that he’s here and he’s brought food. Ya know, I really have grown to like Faith’s dad. I’m always going to view Giles as my dad, so he has nothing to worry about, but Chris really is a great guy. He loves Faith, he loves my kids, he’s more then willing to babysit whenever we need him to, and he brings me lunch. Which is a really good thing because I’m starting to get hungry.


He’s been bringing me lunch every day for the last week. Faith makes me breakfast in the morning, she waits until Matthew gets on the bus for school, then she takes to Addison to daycare and then goes to school. Chris brings me lunch in the afternoon and makes sure I’m staying in bed and he helps me up when I need to use the bathroom. He usually sticks around and we talk and watch T.V. and he tells me what Faith was like when she was little. Then Faith comes home usually with dinner from PJ’s and sometimes Chris sticks around but he usually leaves. I think I bore him a little too much. Faith moved the little table of Addison’s room and into here so the kids can eat in here with us and not get my clean bedroom all messy. I look over at the door and smile when I see Chris.


“Alright, today I got you a turkey sandwich, with tomatoes, lettuce, light mayonnaise, and honey mustard.” The sandwiches always come in a plastic container, the bottom is black and the lid is clear. “Some sliced cucumbers with ranch dressing for dipping.” Same goes for this only inside the container is a little cup of ranch dressing. Sounds good so far, what else does he have? “And to wash it all down, I got a raspberry smoothie.” Yummy. It all sounds very yummy. And I guess the baby thinks so too ‘cause he’s moving around a little more now.


“Thank you, it sounds great.” He hands me the container with the sandwich and I open it up. Then he pulls something else out of the bag and it smell so much better then what I’m eating. He gets stuff for himself too. “What’s that?” It’s ok with me and I haven’t wanted anything that he’s gotten. Usually it’s chilidogs and stuff like that. I’ve never really liked chilidogs and I’ll only eat them on the fourth of July, it’s like the law or something. But today…oh today he’s eating one of my favorites. I already know what it is. I don’t know why I bothered asking.


“Double cheeseburger with extra ketchup, mustard and pickles.” Uhhh…is it possible to have an orgasm by just hearing someone describe some food? ‘Cause I really think I need to change these pajama bottoms. I give him the biggest pout I’ve ever given. He looks at me for a few seconds and lets out a big sigh. He scratches the back of his head and looks down at his food. He got fries too, they’re still in the bag but I can smell them from here.


“Alright, you can have one bite, but Faith better not find out about it or she’ll whop my ass all the way back to Boston, you got that?” he asks and I nod my head and sit up a little straighter on the bed. He hands me the burger, it’s still in the wrapper. I quickly unwrap part of it and a take a big bite. I let out a long and low moan as the tastes fills almost all of my senses. I haven’t had something so good in so long. The last time I had something that good was when we had Lee’s Chinese Palace when Addison got out of the hospital. I hand him back the burger and he sits down on the bed and turns his attention to the T.V. We both watch it as we eat. “What’d I miss?” He asks and stuffs some fries in his mouth. I dip a cucumber slice in the ranch and take a bite.


“Desdemona cheated on Patrick with Aidan,” I tell him and he lets out a little gasp and asks when. “About ten minutes ago, on the desk at her office.” We go quiet as we watch the melodramatic actors argue over a business arrangement. See Neal and Harris went into business together right after they graduated college, but then Harris’ girlfriend left him for Neal and now Harris wants out of the business but they already signed a contract so if Harris backs out now Neal can sue for thousands, maybe even millions of dollars. It’s all very dramatic.


“Did Erica wake up from her coma yet?” he asks around a big bite of the burger. I shake my head no.


“Not yet. But Sunny came back to visit her.” Sunny is Erica’s son and after he left Connecticut to become a big Hollywood actor she slipped into depression. Her ex-husband tried to get her to leave the house and they got into a huge fight and she ended up fall out the window, but the camera angle switched to the outside of the building so we don’t know if he pushed her or if it was an accident. The ex-husband left town to handle some business in New York, and Erica has been in a coma for three weeks and she’s the only person who can tell what happened because Timothy, the ex-husband, isn’t going to. At least I don’t think so. Wow, my life really has become pathetic, hasn’t it?


FPOV


“Faith, will you scratch a little lower?” B asks and leans forward a little so I can reach lower. She’s taking a bath right now and I’m washing her back. We have candles lit and it’s a very romantic setting so it doesn’t seem like a geriatric type of situation even though it sort of is. This isn’t gonna lead to sex or anything remotely close to it, it’s for bathing purposes only. But it’s fine. My baby needs help and I’m going to help her every step of the way. I’ve been very helpful so far and I haven’t complained much. It is a little tough because I’m not used to handling everything on my own. It’s an adjustment but I’m starting to get used to it.


The kids have been helping out a lot too. Not with the bathing, but they help me make breakfast and dinner, and do the laundry, and clean the house, and the keep Buffy company while I do my homework. I make sure they get out and run around first and burn off some of their energy before they go in and see her. That way they’re not restless and they’ll spend more time with her. It took us a couple days to figure that one out. B got upset and thought that they just didn’t want to spend any time with her but they just needed to get out and run around for a while. So everyday I set aside the chores and shit and play football with ‘em. Addy’s getting into it a little more after I told Mattie to start encouraging her to try it. She’s such a little kiss ass when it comes to him.


“Right there baby?” I ask and gently scratch her back. At first I was usin the loofah but she wanted it to wash her frontal area, so I used the washcloth but she said she didn’t like that so I used my hands and my fingernail accidentally scraped against her but she liked it and now I’m gently scratching her back for her ‘cause she has a hard time reaching. She’s always waddling a lot now and it’s fuckin cute to see. She gets pissed though when she walks to the bathroom and I’ll be smilin a big grin ‘cause she’s just so fuckin cute. She thinks she isn’t attractive anymore, but to me she’s gorgeous. And I did I mention cute?


She’s been on bed rest for a month now and it sucks big time. I miss doing things with her on the weekends or just sitting on the couch together while we watch T.V. I got a smaller T.V. and DVD player and put it in the bedroom but it’s not the same. And the kids really miss spending time with her too. She’s been a little more depressed then normal lately ‘cause Christmas is in two days. The scooby gang is going to stop by to see her but she doesn’t want them here for very long. She doesn’t want them seeing her like this. The only one who doesn’t know how serious the complication is, is Dawn. Since she’s pregnant with twins we thought it would be better not to tell her how bad it is ‘cause she could get too worried and go into premature labor.


“Yeah, right there. God, that feels so good.” She moans a little and tries to press herself against my hand so I’ll scratch harder. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. But I’ll keep at it ‘cause if I stop now she’ll get upset. She’s been crying a lot, way more then normal, but it’s just because of the bed and pelvic rest. We’re both going a little insane because of the last one. A couple days ago I came home from slaying and I was really worked up ‘cause of this badass demon that took me almost an hour to kill. And I came home hornier then a dog in heat and I took an hour-long shower to try and work off the tension but it just wasn’t workin, even with the detachable showerhead.


So I went to bed, still pretty horny and wet and B could smell it and she said ‘I know we’re married, and I know you’d never do it, but if you really need to you can pick someone up in a bar or something and go back to their place for the night’. It almost broke my heart to hear her say that. And no I didn’t take her up on her offer, didn’t even think about it. I told her I’d never ever do that, even with her ‘permission’ because I love her and she’s the one I wanna be with and she almost started crying.


“Baby, we should stop,” I tell her gently and she nods her head but she doesn’t stop trying to press against my hand. So I take my hand off her back and she starts to cry. Great, this is just perfect, and I’m being sarcastic. “Baby, don’t cry, please.” I scoot a little closer to her and wrap my arms around her wet body. God she feels so damn good right now. Her skin is so warm and slick and I just wanna run my tongue all over it. I wanna kiss her from head to toe and then from her toes up to her pussy and put my tongue up inside her as far as I can and wiggle the tip of it ‘cause I know she likes that. This pelvic rest sucks, and I hate that I can’t take a bath with her.


I’ve always loved takin baths with B, but we haven’t taken one together in a while. Last time we took a bath together was two weeks ago and we almost ended up having sex. So even though it sucks it’s better this way ‘cause our self-control isn’t so good right now. Faster then I can react she turns her head to the side and kisses me deeply. I kiss her back for a few minutes, until I feel her hand at the hem of my shirt. I pull back and we’re both panting roughly. “Baby, you know we can’t, it could hurt him.” I reach down and gently press on her stomach.


“I know,” she says between a sob. “But I need you so much…I don’t know…how much longer…I can last.” She keeps crying and I keep trying to comfort her. She knows how bad this is for me too and it’s making it so much worst for her because she wants to give me some release, but she can’t. If she were to do something like that it would lead to more and both her and the baby could suffer because of it. We’ve done good so far. But it’s gotten to a point where she won’t let me touch her at night in bed and I’m too used to falling asleep with her in my arms that I haven’t been sleeping very good.


“Shh baby. Shh, it’s ok B. We’re gonna make it through this, I promise. I promise Buffy.” She calms down after a little while and I help her out of the tub. I help her dry off and change into some pajamas. They’re light blue with little birthday cakes all over ‘em. I bought ‘em for her ‘cause I know she likes pajamas like these ones, ya know, the ones that you look at and say ‘what is she, five?’ I also had some that are yellow with little teddy bears, and some that are purple with little puppies. When I showed ‘em to her it brightened her day ‘cause she was feelin a little depressed. Now there’s nothing I can do to make her happy. I don’t think she’s going to happy again until we bring our little baby home and everything starts to get back to normal. Well, not normal, but we get into a schedule that is more then just her lyin in bed.


“Mama,” I hear Addy at the bedroom door just as I pull my shirt over my head. She doesn’t knock on the door, we’re trying to teach her to start doin that. I think the only way she’s gonna learn is if we start lockin it all the time. “Mama, I can’t get ta sleep.” I put them to bed an hour ago. She’s been really worried about B and the baby. I guess we sort of screwed up a little. Last week when I was waitin in line at the grocery store they had these parenting books and I was flippin through one and it said if the mother has to go on bed rest and she’s pregnant not to tell the kids that mommy’s sick, but instead tell them that ‘she needs to stay in bed so the baby will be healthy when it’s born’. So yeah, we messed up, but we’re human, we screw up sometimes.


“Well come here, baby,” B says and holds her arms out towards Addy. She walks in the room and closes the door. She crawls up on the bed and gets as close to B as she can. I think the only time B sort of forgets about the complication and about the bed and pelvic rest is when she’s with the kids. She likes spending time with them, especially now that she’s sort of cut off from the rest of the world. They color a lot together and do other kinds of arts and crafts, and they watch T.V. and Mattie is tryin to teach B how to play the playstation ‘cause she’s not so good at video games and it’s funny watching her try. She gets a little frustrated but she stays pretty calm.


“You can sleep in here tonight if you want,” B says and Addy nods her head yes. I try really hard not to roll my eyes. She’s been babying them so much. This is the fourth time in the last two weeks that Addy’s slept in here. I wanna give B whatever she wants, as long as it’s safe for her and the baby, but if she keeps letting Addy stay in here it’s just gonna make her jealous when the baby comes and she can’t sleep in here anymore. I wanna say somethin but I know it’ll just make B pissed again. That’s another thing that she gets a lot. It isn’t just sadness and lots of crying. She gets really pissed really easy and if I try to make Addy go back into her own room then it’ll just start a fight between me and B. And I really don’t feel like fighting tonight.


“Mama, hurry up,” Addy whines and cuddles into B. She’s a lot like B, as in she likes that sandwiched feeling. She likes being in between us with both of us pressed up against her. I guess it makes her feel secure since there’s a lot of stress goin on right now. Like I said earlier I’m trying my best to do almost everything by myself but sometimes it all gets to be a little too much and I can get a little bitchy at them. That’s when they back off and go outside and play. Mattie’s friends haven’t been comin over like they used to do all the time. I put a stop to that ‘cause they were startin to drive me a little crazy. So when Mattie gets home from school at three he plays with his friends then he comes home for dinner and after dinner we go outside and play so they’re both nice and calm for when they have their bonding time with B. Then I catch up on my homework and do the dishes.


My dad has been helping out so much. He picks Addy up from daycare and takes care of her until I get home from school. Addy only agreed to go to daycare if she could be home a few minutes before Mattie and since me and Mattie get out of school at the same time there’s no way I’d be able to pick her up and get her home before he gets here. So my dad will bring B her lunch and hang out with her for a while, then go pick up Addy and bring her home and he’ll stick around for a little bit after I get back but he usually leaves about half an hour after. He’s been talking to Giles a lot on the phone, trying to come up with some type of training program for the kids. It has to be approved by both me and B but I know they won’t put them through too much.


Anyway, I slip a pair of panties and crawl under the covers. I lean over her and give B a kiss on the lips and then Addy a little kiss on the forehead and I rest my head on my pillow. B reaches over and turns out her table lamp and the room goes dark. Addy grabs onto my arm and wraps it around her and she snuggles up to Buffy. I look over at B. She looks a little worried. I wonder what she’s thinking about. She doesn’t like to talk about the things that worry her. I think she thinks I’ll get upset or something. I have a feeling that she’s thinking about the operation, the c-section that she has to have. She probably thinks something’s gonna go wrong. It’s a possibility but we switched back to Dr. Montgomery since she’s done so many of these procedures it’s like second nature to her or somethin.


“Baby, please stop worrying. I know you’re scared and I’m a little scared too, but if you worry it’s just gonna upset the baby.” B told me that he gets really active when she gets upset. He kicks at her kidneys really hard until she forces herself to calm down. So now I know when I see her wince a little and grab at her lower back she’s stressin about something and I try to get her to talk but she usually doesn’t. I scoot up higher on the bed and lean over Addy a little bit but I’m not squishing her or anything. I look into B’s eyes and slowly kiss her. I swirl my tongue around hers before I take it into my mouth and gently suck on the tip. The only sounds in the room are the heavy breathing through our noses and the light smacking sound of our kissing.


“Mama that’s yucky, wait ‘til I’m sleepin,” Addy says and lightly kicks me in the stomach with the heel of her foot. Little shit, I hate it when she does that. Sometimes when she sleeps in here she only wants B. She’ll snuggle up to Buffy but then put her legs out horizontal on the bed so I’m at the very edge of it and far away from her and my wife. It gets frustrating but I can’t say anything about it or B’ll get upset and that’s the last thing I want ‘cause she could go into premature labor something. So for now I’ll ignore it but as soon as we bring that baby home Addy’s sleepin in her own bed, that’s for damn sure.


BPOV


That’s right, it’s Christmas, the most depressing day of the year right now. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could get outta bed. It’s four in the morning so everyone is still asleep. Well, except for me and the baby. He’s moving around a little bit. I can feel him stretching out and he’s probably yawning. If he can yawn, I’m not sure. I’m thirty weeks pregnant now, and according to the book that Faith bought me my baby might have hair now. If he is going to get hair. Addison was completely bald and she didn’t start to grow any until she was six months old. We had to make sure to dress her in a pinks and yellows or people thought she was a boy.


I’m going in for my ultrasound in two weeks. The doctor said that there’s a very small chance the placenta has moved and I’m not really letting myself hope that it has. When a doctor says something has a very small chance of happening they usually mean it. A c-section is fine with me. In the book that Faith bought it says that after a cesarean some women feel like they’ve failed as a woman because they couldn’t deliver their baby naturally, but I know I’m not going to feel like that. At least I don’t think. I’ll most likely feel relieved that my baby is ok. Cesareans aren’t as bad as some people say they are, and if it weren’t for this operation both me and my baby would mostly likely die, so I’m just grateful there’s something the doctors can do about this complication.


My stomach has gotten so big the last couple of weeks. I can’t even see my fat, swollen ankles, which is probably for the best. But this is just normal. The second baby is usually bigger because the uterus has already been stretched once before, at least that’s what the book said. Addy loves that my stomach is this big. She can wrap her arms around it and gently hug it and she’ll kiss the skin right above my bellybutton. The baby can hear things from outside the whom so I want everyone to talk to him so he’ll recognize their voices. At least I think he will. I hope he does.


I just hope Addison doesn’t get too jealous. She was a little pissed off at Faith yesterday and they got into a fight. Addison has slept in our room like five or six times in the last couple of weeks. I think it’s because she’s worried about me and she wants to be close to me, but who knows? And she always sleeps in between Faith and me and Faith always gets pushed away a little. So yesterday Faith talked to me about it and said that we should make Addison stay in her room because not only is it not fair for Faith, but when the baby comes Addison might get jealous because she’s not going to be able to sleep in here anymore.


So I had a little talk with my girl and explained that she has to start sleeping in her bed like a big girl. She said ok but that night she came in with her pillow and wanted to crawl up on the bed and Faith took her back into her bedroom and three minutes later Addison was back. So Faith picked her up and took her back in there and then Addison started screaming and saying that Faith just wants me all to herself and it isn’t fair because I’m Addison’s mommy and mommies are supposed to cuddle with their babies. It was so hard hearing her scream like that and not being able to do something about it. Faith handled it as well as she could and Matthew ended up calming Addison down and sitting with her until she fell asleep, but it was so hard listening to that fight.


I’m just so glad that I bought Faith’s Christmas present back in September. We agreed that since we don’t want to spend a lot of Giles’ money this year we’ll only buy each other one expensive gift and the rest of the money will go towards the kids. I bought her a beautiful silver crucifix necklace with diamonds on each end, with a silver chain. She’s going to love it. She has a thing for crucifix necklaces. I have no idea what she bought me but I know it’s kind of big, at least it was in a kind of big box.


I got Willow an ice cream maker because she said she wanted one. And I got Xander a very cool toolbox. It’s shiny and red and it has like fifteen differ layers on the inside so he can pack a massive amount of tools in very little space. For Giles I hunted down a couple original volumes of some books he had back in Sunnydale that he valued a lot. They weren’t magical texts or anything, just some books he had since he was a kid. You have no idea how long it took me to find those. I look everywhere and eventually found some on E-bay. They were the most expensive out of everything else combined.


Dawn I got a new leather jacket and matching boots. I got Kyle some really fancy looking hoof clippers. Right, something I forgot to mention about Kyle that I probably should have said from the very beginning. And don’t get all judgmental, it has nothing to do with the reason why I don’t like him. I’ve already said that I wouldn’t get along with anyone sleeping with my sister, no matter what their age, race, gender or species. Ok, do you remember Xander’s wedding to Anya, and that guy she was talking to when Xander took off and I was trying to keep everyone entertained, and the guy is really a demon? Well, that’s Kyle. His hands are kind of normal, except for the skin, but on the ends of his feet is one large toenail that’s more like a horse’s hoof.


Over the years he’s trimmed off the horns and kept them down, only because he wanted to, Dawn in no way pushed for that. She wants him to be himself around her and she isn’t afraid to let everyone know that she’s dating a demon. I can’t remember the name of whatever demon he is, but he’s not evil, just one of the harmless ones. Like Clem. Come one, how cute was Clem? Everybody loved Clem. I think Faith would have really liked him if she ever met him. He is such a funny guy. Sweet personality too. I know I sound like I’m crushing on him but I’m not. I just think he’s a nice guy. I wonder where he is? I haven’t seen him since he left Sunnydale.


“G’ morning baby. How long have you been awake?” I hear Faith ask over a yawn. I look over at my nightstand. Holy shit it’s six o’ clock! I’ve been zoning out for a long time now. I tell her since four and she gets a little frown on her face. The doctor said that I should use the bathroom right when I wake up even if I don’t feel like I have to go. And I’ve been awake for two hours and I haven’t left the bed. It just slipped my mind. So Faith gets up and helps me out of the bed and I go do my business and check to make sure there’s no blood, and there isn’t. Yay for me. Then she watches me waddle back into bed. I hate that she thinks it’s cute. I smile when I hear the sounds of two little kids running wildly down the hall. Then the bedroom door is thrown open and they both run in.


“It’s Christmas, it’s Christmas!” Addison screams at the top of her lungs and jumps on the bed. Matthew jumps on it two and they both stand up on their feet and jump up and down. They’re trying to get Faith out of bed so she’ll make breakfast because it’s a rule that they’re not allowed to open presents until they’ve had breakfast. To tide them over until everyone gets here we’re going to let them open three presents and Faith gets to pick which ones they get to open because she knows what each one is and she only wants them opening up little things. Then Addison lands on her knees and crawls up to me and pulls down the covers and lifts up my shirt. Fuck, it’s cold in here.


“It’s Christmas little brother, but you don’t get any presents ‘cause you’re still in Mommy’s belly.” I can’t help but roll my eyes. He is getting some presents actually. Faith moved the computer in here last week so I could browse some web sites and I picked out everything I want for him. So I got a lot of dark green stuff. The basinet, the blankets, the diaper bag, the changing table she repainted herself. I got a dark green car seat and stroller, and some dark green teddy bears and the material is almost as soft as velvet. I have one with me right now that I’ve been cuddling up to during the day. I also bought a mass amount of diapers, wipes, onesies, and bottles since I only plan on breast feeding until the colostrum is all eaten up. We can’t buy the formula now because by the time the baby gets here it’ll be expired.


“He got some stuff too Addison, remember? Remember how you helped Mama set up the babies bed?” I ask and look over at the basinet. We want both of the kids to be as involved as possible because it’ll help them adjust. Matthew adjusted pretty well, considering for six years he was an only child but Addison is the one I’m worried about. She is usually pretty independent. She likes to play by herself or with Matthew and most of the time she just ignores me and Faith. But there are times when she wants attention and if she doesn’t get it right away or for as long as she wanted she can turn into a hell spawn. And I know what hell spawn acts like.


“I know Mommy, but he can’t use it until he’s born so those are really birthday presents.” Hmm, I never thought about it like that before. I guess she’s right, they are birthday presents. “Mama I’m hungry,” she says and kisses my stomach again. I feel the baby move around a little bit. He’s going to be attached to her when he’s old enough. He’s always more active whenever Addison talks, it’s really neat. I encourage Matthew to talk to my stomach but he said he feels dumb. I don’t know why, he used to talk to Faith’s stomach all the time when she was pregnant with Addison. It’s probably just the age difference. He was only five when she was conceived, but his birthday was four months before she was born.


“Alright, lets go make breakfast and then you can open a couple of your presents,” Faith says. She gives me a big kiss on the lips and the kids act like they’re grossed out and then they leave to go fix breakfast. I’m not as depressed as I thought I was going to be. For the last couple of days I’ve been crying almost non-stop. Thinking about Christmas and how I was going to miss it because I have to be stuck in bed. But my doctor said I don’t have to be lying down all the time, and I don’t have to support my back when I sit up so I can sit anywhere on the bed, and this is a pretty big bed. And yesterday Faith bought a pretty small tree and put it in the corner of the room and then Matthew and Addison helped her move all the presents under it. The ones that took up too much space are being kept in the garage and Faith’s going to bring those in later on. I couldn’t go to Christmas so they brought it to me. I really do have a wonderful family.


“Ok, here ya go B,” Faith says as she walks into the room with a big tray full of food. It’s not just for me, we usually share breakfast. I don’t know why, we just do. And we always have some healthy food that’s good for me and the baby and it usually doesn’t taste very good but she eats it anyway because she knows how badly I want to sink my teeth into a fat, greasy, artery clogging cheeseburger and then wash it down with an extra large cherry coke. She’s eating healthy because I have to eat healthy and it’s making me love her just a little more. But this morning she’s letting it slide. Bacon, toast with butter and jelly, fried eggs over easy because I like to dip my toast in the yoke, hash browns and a small bowl of fresh fruit.


“Thank you baby,” I tell her and give her a kiss on the lips. Then she leaves the room and helps Addison carry her plate in. We moved the little table to the other end of the room since the basinet is a little bigger then I thought it was going to be. But they’re still pretty close to the bed and we can still see each other so it’s just as good as sitting down at the kitchen table. We tried letting them have their own little food trays up on the bed up Addison accidentally knocked over her glass of orange juice the first day so I put an end to that.


But this is nice. We’re in the same room together, having a great meal, and it’s Christmas. We have a lot to be joyous about. I know this complication is bad and very serious but it could be a lot worst. I’m just grateful we’re all together and all my friends are and family are coming over today. Not like that one Christmas a few years ago when Addison was a little baby and Faith crashed on her motorcycle. That was a very depressing day. So for today I’ll let myself be happy even if the glass is only half full.


FPOV


So Christmas turned out great. B got me the most beautiful cross necklace in the whole world. I don’t know what it is about ‘em but I love ‘em. I have tons of cross necklaces and she always buys me the prettiest ones. And the chain is just the right length the really bring out my cleavage. And I got B a brand new laptop computer. I had Willow pick it out since she’s the brainy one. It also has a wireless internet thing so B doesn’t have to get out of bed to hook up the computer to a phone line or nothin. And she’s always wanted one but we never needed one before since we have the desktop. And Red even got a pink one so it’s nice and girly, B really liked that about it.


The kids got all sorts of toys, Dawn got ‘em clothes like always, and Red got ‘em more educational toys, and some books and stuff. She bought Addy some books about becoming a big sister and what it’s going to be like having a little baby in the house, only it’s in cartoon form. She also got some photo albums for both Mattie and Addy so they can put their favorite pictures in ‘em. I thought that was sweet. Xander got them some toys, Addy some stuffed animals and Mattie a new baseball bat and ball. Money’s kinda tight right now for him so he couldn’t get ‘em much but it’s the thought that counts right?


I got Mattie this really cool, very expensive jungle gym for the backyard. Addy can play on it too, but it’s mostly for Mattie. I also got him some more of those army guys that he likes so much, a new toy chest, and a new bike. We decided to get them more expensive things this year so they didn’t get as many toys, but the quality is really good. Addy got a lot of new furniture for her dollhouse. She also got a few new dolls and clothes for the dolls. I got her a tricycle, and a baby doll. It’s very realistic, not that it moves or anything, but it looks real, and it’s made with some special material so it’s soft, like a real baby and it’s about the average size of a newborn. We’re going to use it to teach her how to hold a baby and how to be gentle.


My dad got Mattie his very own tool kit because my dad bought a new car when he first moved here last month and he wants Mattie to help him fix it up. He bought Addy this really cool power wheels car. It’s a convertible pink Mustang and if it were real I’d so steal it from her and paint it black and deck out the interior with white leather and drive around with the top dropped everywhere I go. But alas, it’s just a toy. She really likes it though because we got Mattie a power wheels when he was younger and he still uses his sometimes. His legs are a little long for it so that’s why it’s only an occasional thing.


I had no idea what to get my dad. Even though he’s back in my life I don’t know him very well so I didn’t know what to get. So I got him a black leather lazy boy recliner for his living room. It has a built in massage thing, the right arm of it lifts up and there’s a cooler inside, and the left arm has a cup holder. I almost bought one for myself until B told me no. And it’s a damn shame too. We could have had so much fun with the built in massage thing. I also bought something for us when she has the baby and she’s all better again. I figured I’d widen our horizons a little and bought a bigger fake cock and a vibrator. She’s gonna love it when I surprise her with that one. But we have to wait until February to play with those.


But enough about that stuff. Christmas is over, which means Christmas break is over, which means I’m back in school and so is Mattie, but not today. Well, at least not for me. I took today off because it’s B’s follow up appointment at the hospital. We’re waiting out in the lobby for Dr. Montgomery to finish doing...whatever the fuck she’s doing. We’ve been here for almost half an hour. B’s resting her head on my shoulder and she’s fallin asleep. I’m not gonna stop her ‘cause she didn’t get much sleep last night. Neither did but she’s pregnant so she gets tired a lot easier then I do.


We were up so late ‘cause Addy had a really bad nightmare and she was up cryin for almost two hours and then she was up just starin at the ceiling for almost an hour before she finally fell asleep. And you can’t just fall asleep when you’re kid’s still awake ‘cause of a nightmare, it’s just not right. She said that in her dream some people broke into the house and one of ‘em had a gun. She said she heard it go off but she didn’t see who was shot. It’s not a slayer dream, when one of us has a slayer dream we all have a slayer dream. Sometimes me and B will share a dream but that hasn’t happened in years. Addy probably got the home invasion and someone gettin shot from a movie that I watched. She saw a little bit of it even though she was supposed to be in her room.


“Hi, Buffy, Faith. Sorry I’m late, but by pervious appointment ran a little late,” Dr. Montgomery says when she walks in the room. She has B’s file in one hand and she shakes our hands with the other. Once the greetings are over with she gets right down to business. “Why don’t you go ahead and sit down on in the chair.” I help B get into the chair and she pulls up her shirt. The doctor puts on some gloves and squirts out some jelly onto Buffy’s stomach and B shivers a little bit. I gently run my hand up and down her arm and she stops squirming. Then the doctor flips on the machine and puts the probey thing to B’s stomach. We’re all quiet until the image appears.


“Ah, look Faith, he’s yawing,” B says and she sounds really excited. And sure enough our little boy is yawing a really big yawn and stretching is little arms above his head. Then the doctor moves the probe a little lower and we can’t see him as good anymore. But the doctor finds what she was looking for and shuts off the machine. She sets the probe down and she doesn’t look like she’s gonna tell us anything good. I fuckin hate this. My wife and our baby could die and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. No demon to kill, no vampire to slay, no spell to cast.


Not even Red will mess around with this. I talked to her about it as soon as we found out. I just didn’t want B to find out about it. But Red said it’s way to dangerous to mess around with something like that because the baby is still developing and even if she uses her magic in the safest way possible he could still come out deformed or something. So there’s nothing I can do to fix this. And there’s a choice that I might have to make and if it comes down to it I don’t have a fuckin clue what to decide.


“The placenta has moved a little but it’s still covering your cervix. The chances of it moving at all were slim to none. So you’re going to need a cesarean.” I hold onto B’s hand ‘cause I know she’s gonna be upset. Or at least I thought so. But she’s not. She smiles at the doctor and says that a cesarean is alright, as long as the baby is healthy that’s all that matters. And I get a chill down my spine. I don’t want to explain it because if I allow myself to think it I won’t able to handle it and I’ll have to leave the room and Buffy will be concerned and she doesn’t need the added stress right now.


“Since you’ve had no bleeding or cramping I’ll take you off of permanent bed rest. You can be up for fifteen minutes at a time but no longer then that, ok?” B agrees and then rubs her belly and smiles. I guess the baby is kicking. She grabs onto my hand and places it over the spot and I feel him moving too. He doesn’t move around a while lot, at least not unless Addy is in the room and talkin a lot. Other then that he’s calm.


“But I’m still on pelvic rest, right?” B asks and the doctor says yes and warns us again about all the horrors that can happen if we have sex. So we’re not going to have sex until a couple weeks after February tenth. She has to recover from the surgery and be a hundred percent better before I’ll give in. I don’t want to risk hurting her. And if I know B as well as I think I do, and I do, then she’s gonna say she’s feeling better then she really is just to get some touch. But I’m not that easy.


“Now the cesarean is going to take a while. We’re going to put an epidural in your back so numb you. You’ll be awake during the operation but a sheet will be placed across your rips so you won’t see any of it. After the incision is made a nurse can lower the sheet if you like so you can see your baby being lifted out of you.” I feel a little ill. I really don’t want to hear this. “After your baby is taken out we’ll remove the placenta, if it’s too deep and we can’t get to it we’ll have to do a hysterectomy or else you’ll bleed to death, you’ll also be given a blood transfusion.” B nods her head yes and rubs her stomach a little more.


“But if everything goes fine then the longest part is sewing you back up. We have to sew each layer back together and it can take up to half an hour. But Faith can hold your baby next to you so you can see him and talk to him if you like. You won’t be able to hold him until you’re in recovery.” B looks a little disappointed but she gets over it. I rub her stomach a little bit too and gently pull my hand away. Gross, it has jelly all over it. “You’ll have to stay in the hospital for five days so we can monitor your recover and if everything goes well both you and your baby can go home. You’ll be prescribed some pain killers but it’ll be safe to breast feed if you plan on doing that.” B nods her head yes. Then the doctor takes a little business card lookin thing out of her jacket pocket and hands it to Buffy.


“That’s my cell phone, pager and home phone number. Please feel free to call if you have any questions and if you have any cramping or bleeding come in right away, alright?” We both nod our heads and we say our goodbyes and after B gets herself cleaned up we leave. Well the surgery sounds gross but at least they’ll be a certain. I don’t think I’d be able to last long seein B’s insides. It’d be way too weird. I’d probably get sick. But at least I’ll be able to hold the baby and keep B occupied with him until they’re done sewing her up. Knowing her she’d probably get bored and start talking to the nurses, distracting them from doin their jobs or something.


I can’t help but feel really excited as we leave the hospital and B is feeling it too. Just five more weeks. Five weeks and our baby is joining the world. We’ll get to see him and hold him and talk to him and name him and take him home. He’s gonna be loved by everyone and he’s gonna be spoiled rotten. My dad already said he’d come over and help take care of everything. But I know deep down he just wants to see his grandson. Everyone is going to be showing up in a couple of weeks. All the scoobies, Kyle, Katie and some of the L.A. gang. They all can’t wait to meet him. Even Angel is excited even if he’s too manly to admit it. But the big guy is a softy. We’re going to take all the help we can get and I know we’re going to get plenty of offers. Until he starts sleeping through the night we’re going to need help, especially with B recovering from a major surgery and the kids adjusting to a baby. But I’m going to love every second of it.