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Waking with a start from a disturbing dream, Buffy gasped for air, clutching the blanket to her chest, before turning onto her back and staring up at the canopy over her bed. For nearly a month now she'd had this dream almost every night, but, on waking, only one image remained clear.
She sat in a rocking chair holding an empty baby's blanket, weeping.
Nearly three months before she'd gone home, to Earth, to her mom and friends. It had been a necessary closure and she was content with her choice to return to Angelus and Hell, but...
Shortly after the ball to celebrate her one hundredth year in Hell, the dream had begun to infect her sleep.
Buffy loved Angelus with all her heart, loved her life with him. It could have grown stale, boring, but it never did. If sometimes she felt a pang of loss when thinking of everyone she'd left behind, one look at her lover would make her feel better.
But...maybe she was missing something she'd never thought to have.
If she'd remained on Earth, her life as a slayer would probably have been short, and she'd only been seventeen when she'd left, way too young to be thinking about kids, but, now, one hundred years later...
The only infants in Hell were born as demons to other demons and grew at their own pace on their own estates or in the villages. Buffy hardly ever saw any unless passing through a town. She never gave them much thought, even those who lived on her own lands.
Human babies were never condemned here. It was rare for anyone under the age of twelve or so to be damned. Those who were all quickly turned into demons, the nastiest of their kind, remaining whatever age they were when they died, yet often so rotten they were never admitted to Court or Society.
Buffy hadn't been close to a baby in a hundred years.
She'd never seriously wanted one.
Even though she was in a human body, with Angelus she could never have one.
But, subconsciously, maybe she wanted one.
A frown on her face, she drifted back to sleep, a sorrow in her she didn't quite understand, an emptiness in her heart she wasn't prepared to face except in dreams.
*****
The dream was different.
Buffy sat in the rocking chair, but the blanket she held wasn't empty. A tiny baby was swaddled in it, held in her arms, close to her heart. Along with the tinkling of a music box, there was the sound of wings, a warm breeze caressing her face, bringing with it the aroma of fresh grass and lilacs and sunshine.
Joy filled her, and she awoke to the startling sound of a tiny cry.
Jerking upright, Buffy stared across the bedroom to a door that hadn't been there before and a room bathed in soft light. Angelus grumbled beside her, rolling away and pulling the covers over his head.
Buffy flung herself from the bed and ran into the room that shouldn't exist.
It was a nursery. Painted lambs frolicking on pale green walls, a shaded lamp lit in one corner, and a white, lace bedecked bassinet sitting in the middle of the room, above which a mobile of lambs and ducks circled, playing a soft tune.
Another cry sounded, almost too soft to hear, and Buffy's breath caught in her throat. Above the edge of the bassinet a little hand rose, waving in the air.
Buffy stumbled forward, nearly fell, only her slayer strength keeping her upright and moving, until she reached the bassinet and stared down in wonder at a swaddled infant with a puff of blonde hair on its head. On its side, it blinked a blue eye up at her and gurgled.
'This is impossible' was her last thought as she fainted.
Angelus' alarmed bark of her name brought her groggily back to consciousness. As she opened her eyes she saw him divert from reaching for her to lean over the bassinet. "What the Hell is that?"
The baby cried and Buffy's memories and confusion rushed back. "It's real?" As she pushed herself to her feet, she watched her lover reach down and pick up the baby.
A look of shock on his face, he turned to her, cradling the infant against his bare chest. Its whimpering cries stopped and it blinked up at him before batting its tiny fist at him.
"It's alive," he whispered.
Moving to lean against him, Buffy hesitantly brushed her fingers over the baby's soft cheek. "I don't understand. I...I've been dreaming about not having a baby and now there's a baby and I can't just wish things into existence."
At Angelus' annoyed grunt, she dragged her eyes away from the infant to his face. "We know someone who can."
"I don't think Lucifer can create a baby out of nothing. It looks human. I mean, its heart is beating, it's breathing."
"It's also starting to stink. Wonder if the King of Hell thought to provide us with diapers," he retorted, turning to place the baby on a changing table.
"Um, do you know what you're doing?"
"No clue."
Rolling her eyes, Buffy dug into a couple drawers, finding tiny clothes and toys and then disposable diapers and wipes. "This is so freaking weird," she muttered before hip checking Angelus out of the way to unwrap the blanket to reveal a cute little pink onesie decorated with hearts and tiny white socks that were half off the smallest feet she'd ever seen. Dragging out memories of babysitting a century before, she managed to get the baby girl cleaned up and changed in a fresh diaper, before pulling the socks back up and snapping the onesie shut.
"It's a girl."
He lover was really brilliant. Snickering, she lifted the baby to her shoulder and moved over to the rocking chair.
It was just like the one in her dreams.
As she sat, she saw that Angelus was opening a box that was sitting on the window seat. "Formula, bottles, an electric warmer thing." He held the container of powdered formula up to read the instructions. "Distilled water?" Glancing back into the large box, he reached down and pulled out a jug. "Huh."
"Can you make up a bottle?"
Sighing heavily, Angelus nodded and placed the items on top of the bureau. "Feed her, then call Lucifer. He made her; he can come get her."
"Angelus..."
"What do we need with a baby?"
Buffy glared at him and the baby patted her face. "Yes, mommy's annoyed with daddy."
"Not daddy," he growled, then muttered really quietly, "papa."
Melting inside as she could tell Angelus' resistence was caving quickly, Buffy rocked gently and started to think about baby girl names. When Angelus brought her a warm bottle and a burp cloth, she saw an odd softness on his face, and smiled up at him. As she started to feed the baby, he crouched in front of them to watch.
"Is this...is this something you've wanted?"
"Yeah, I think so, at least subconsciously. I mean, I never thought about it before Hell because teenage slayer and all, and then, well...I figured it wasn't possible. You're a vampire. We're in Hell." She shrugged. "She's beautiful."
"...Yeah." He sighed again. "I still think you should call Lucifer, but I guess, if she's really human as she appears to be, we can be parents."
"I'm pretty sure we don't have a choice; for one, who else could do it? But, yeah, it feels right."
Angelus leaned forward slightly, watching the baby suckle on the bottle. "She smells like you. Kind of looks like you."
"Maybe she was created from me."
"You missing a rib?"
Chuckling, Buffy used one foot to tip him onto his ass, ignoring his grunt of annoyance.
Silence except for sucking noises fell for a few minutes, then Angelus softly said, "I never thought about having kids when I was alive, never thought about them since, but, Buffy, now that I'm looking at her, really looking, this seems right. Weird, but right."
She knew what he meant. "She feels like ours."
"Why would Lucifer do this?"
"...I'm not sure he did."
"But...Then...God?"
She shrugged again. "We know God exists. I don't know, Angelus. She doesn't feel like Hell at all. Even Lucifer and the Fallen feel a bit like Hell. So do I, but not her. Maybe Hell will eventually corrupt her to the extent it has me, but right now she's perfect and human and ours."
"Yeah, I feel it, too."
She smiled at the awe in his voice and lifted the baby to her shoulder to burp her. "What should we name her?"
"Eve?"
"You're not funny."
Angelus grinned at her, then rose to take the now burped and sleepy baby from her, cradling her like she was glass. "She's new. I mean, I think she's only a few days old at most."
"Yeah, her belly button umbilical thingie is still attached. I peeked under the bandage when I changed her."
"Nova."
"Huh?"
"Her name. It means new."
"Oh...Nova," she tested the name, then nodded. "Nova, yeah, I like it."
"Better than Buffy."
"You're really not funny."
He flashed her a grin before settling Nova back in the bassinet on her side as she'd been before, propped between rolled up blankets. "Why was she sleeping like this?"
"No clue."
"There's a couple baby books in the box."
Buffy went to check them out as Angelus wound the musical mobile. Flipping to a chapter on newborns and sleep she quickly read about the side position and the pros and cons of swaddling. "Okay, she can spit up on her back and choke to death, or smother herself on her stomach."
"That makes sense."
"And we shouldn't cover her up unless she's swaddled because she can strangle. Jeez."
"We're not ever going to sleep again are we."
Leaning up, she pressed a kiss to Angelus' cheek. "Hopefully she'll age normally and we can sleep when she's a toddler." As he wrapped his arm around her, they turned back to Nova who was sleeping, little spit bubbles forming on her perfectly bow shaped lips. "Well, papa?"
"She's never dating."
Burying her laughter in Angelus' side, Buffy shoved aside all worries of the future and just let herself feel right. However Nova got here, whomever created her, she was theirs now.
She was perfect.
End