Walking along the shoreline, Buffy felt wonderful. Her life was really wonderful, which, on the Hellmouth, is really a bad omen, but she’d burn that bridge when she came to it. She was in love with a guy who adored her. True, he was a vamp, but, that had its advantages too.

She stopped, faced into the sun and closed her eyes. Buffy just let the sun wash over her as she listened to the waves break against the shore and enjoyed the fresh smell of the sea. This is one reason she loved living in California, even though she didn’t get to the beach often, it was always nice to know that it was there, waiting for her to return.

Spike came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, set his chin down on her shoulder and closed his eyes.

“How’d you find me here?” Buffy asked.

“If I was blind, I would see you,” Spike whispered.

“Stay with me.” Buffy lay her hands over his where they had settled on their baby growing inside her.

“Forever, that’s the whole point. I’ll never leave, luv.” Spike nuzzled her neck, drawing small circles on her skin with his tongue, running down to her shoulders, taking particular care to trace the bite marks on her neck, his marks, which had completely covered those that the Master had left.

Buffy felt water lapping at her feet. “The tides coming in,” she remarked, but didn’t move. The water was warm, soothing and rising further, now over her knees, to mid thigh.

“Spike, wake up, something’s wrong.”

Buffy and Spike woke with a start.

“What’s wrong?” Spike was already reaching for the bedside light.

“My water broke. It’s time.” Buffy was amazingly calm, perhaps still from the soothing sensation of the dream. Ever since their wedding night, they had shared dreams – sometimes she would be in his, sometimes he would join hers. Not every dream, but enough to know what Spike had said about the bonding was true, they were really connected now on every level.

Spike jumped up and pulled on his jeans before helping Buffy out of bed and into the bathroom to clean up. He called her mom and Giles to let them know what was going on and then went downstairs to pull the car around to the front of the mansion for the trip to the hospital.

**~**

The doctor was talking to her. “Ok, Buffy, on the next contraction you need to really push hard, it’s almost there, I can see its head.”

“No, No, I don’t think I can push anymore.” Buffy was breathless, sweat dripped from every pore, her hair was matted to her head and she was exhausted from hours of childbirth – or at least, trying to make the child birth. “Can’t you just take it out?”

“Buffy, luv, you can do this. I know you can, you’re strong. You’re the strongest woman I've ever known,” Spike was trying to be encouraging.

“You! You don’t talk to me! You did this to me! Next time, just eviscerate me and use my guts for garters, ‘K? Cause this? Not happening again!” Buffy addressed Spike with a deadly look. “Soul my ass. If you had a soul, you would’ve just killed me in my sleep like any respectable vampire!”

Spike had to bite his lip to keep from laughing, which he knew would be very, very bad. When he’d regained his composure he said, “Right, luv, got it. Guts for garters. Be my pleasure.”

Buffy cut her eyes at him but couldn’t respond because another contraction was coming. “Oh, God!”

The doctor was talking again, “PUSH NOW! Push hard! A little more. Just one more time. One more, Buffy! A little more.” Buffy thought if that doctor said “one more” one more time, she might eviscerate her. Instead, Buffy screamed an ear piercing scream and pushed with every ounce of strength she had left.

“That’s it Buffy, we’ve got it! It’s perfect! It’s a girl!”

**~**

Cleaned up and wrapped in pink blankets, Buffy held their daughter while Spike stood at her bedside peering down at the tiny bundle in her arms.

“She looks just like you, Spike! Look at her eyes! And cheek bones! Oh my God, she’s beautiful! Oh, she’s gonna’ break all the little boy’s hearts.”

And Buffy was right, the little girl did look an awful lot like Spike, but he could see Buffy in the little face, too. The Monks hadn’t lied; it really was their baby, made from both of them. Spike clenched his jaw and shut his eyes to hold back the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. “She’s beautiful, luv, just like you.” He was really glad that ‘perfect happiness’ clause to the soul curse had been revoked, because in this moment, he would have lost it. He still wasn’t convinced he needed the sodding thing, but, at times like this, it seemed important.

Buffy’s mom came in and gushed over the baby, repeating many of the same observations that Buffy had made about how much she looked like William. “So, what’s her name?” she looked expectantly between Buffy and Spike.

“Anne Joyce Summers-Weckerly,” Buffy announced, looking at Spike. They had talked about lots of names over the last months, but never really pinned down any one. It wasn’t until Buffy finally got Spike to tell her his mother’s name that she had silently decided on the name if it was a girl; if it was a boy, then she would have gone with William.

Spike smiled back at Buffy and could no longer contain the tears that had been threatening. Leaning in to give her a kiss, he murmured, “I love you, both.”

**~**

As Spike wheeled Buffy and Annie out of the hospital the next night, they passed an obviously deranged man who seemed drawn to Buffy and the baby. Spike stepped between them before the man got too close, but couldn’t stop the man from talking about the “pretty green light . . . such pretty light . . . shiny green . . . bright," as he looked down at the baby. Buffy’s throat tightened at his words and Spike pushed the man further away before taking his place behind the wheelchair again and getting Buffy out to the car.

“What to do you think that meant?” Buffy asked when they were situated with Annie in the car seat and Buffy in the back beside her.

“Dunno, luv. Could just be the prattling of a crazy. Dru said stuff like that often enough,” Spike tried to assure her.

“Yeah, I guess.” But Buffy wasn’t convinced that it was nothing.

**~**

Spike and Buffy were at the beach again, it was one of her favorite dreams and she loved that he could be there with her. Sometimes they would make love in the dreams, wake up in each other’s arms and then actually make love. Other times, like tonight, they would just walk along the shore and talk.

“Spike, can I ask you something?”

“Anything, luv.” Spike kicked a bare foot at the water as they walked along in the surf.

“Did you share dreams with Dru?” This was something Buffy had wondered for a while, but was sort of afraid to ask.

“Yeah, a bit, at first. But, you know Dru, crazy, yeah?” Spike twirled a finger next to his temple. “Being in her dreams was a bit like jumpin’ down the rabbit hole while on a really bad acid trip.” Now he twirled a finger from each hand at his temples, doubling the craziness quota. “So, I stopped doin’ that right quick.”

“You can stop?” Buffy asked, concerned.

“It takes a bit of practice, yeah? But I can stop coming into your dreams, you can stop letting me in, too.”

“Sooo, if I want to have one of my erotic dreams about Principal Snyder, I can dis-invite you that night?” Buffy smiled slyly at Spike who pursed his lips together, making the hollow of his cheeks that much more sexy, and replied, “Well, you can TRY.”

Buffy laughed and took hold of his hand as they continued walking. “So, when did you drop acid?”

“Never directly dropped acid, sort of dropped a guy who dropped acid . . . at Woodstock," he said matter-of-factly.

"Makes the earth stop rotating around the sun and instead, it rotates around you, with lots of pretty colors.” Spike sing-songed the last words in an imitation of Dru while holding his hands up and wiggling all his fingers in front of his eyes.

Buffy raised a brow at him and he shrugged. “It was the 60’s, luv. Ya’ had to be there.”

She laughed and grabbed his hand back as they continued walking down the beach.

**~**

Over the next months, they settled into a new routine that included Annie in nearly everything they did. There were plenty of willing babysitters and, although neither Spike nor Buffy wanted to leave Annie with anyone else, sometimes it was necessary if there was a particularly bad demon or vamp nest that needed to be taken out and Faith needed their help. Faith was spending more and more time in L.A. with Angel, and, as her Watcher, Wesley would go with her on those trips north, leaving the Hellmouth to Buffy, Spike and the Scoobies.

Cordelia had also moved to L.A. to follow her dream to be an actress, but, according to reports from Faith, Cordelia was actually working for Angel most of the time. Xander had met a new girl, Anya. Apparently, she was a 1,000 year old ex-vengeance demon with an innate ability to state the painfully obvious, sometimes at the most inappropriate times. But, she did have good knowledge of the demon world, as well as different dimensions, and she had been helpful dealing with some demons they’d faced on the Hellmouth.

Buffy was able to pass all her high school classes with Spike’s and Willow’s help and graduated with her friends from Sunnydale High in an uneventful, extremely boring, graduation ceremony.

Buffy’s mom and Spike wanted her to sign up for full time college courses the following fall at UC Sunnydale, but she resisted, not wanting to spend that much time away from Annie. So, they compromised, and she signed up for one class, Psych 101, which Willow took with her.

Spike kept his ear to the ground, as it were, with the demon community, to try and forestall any organized demon/vampire assaults or end of the world plans. Recently, there had been lots of rumors flying around about army-type commandos capturing demons and vampires, but no one had any real solid information on them. Buffy and Spike had seen some fatigue wearing guys out and about at different times while they were patrolling, but never could get close enough to get a good look at them or see what was going on. This was something that they needed to check into further, thus the calling of the current Scooby meeting.

“Why are we even worried about these guys? I mean, taking down demons and vampires? Yaaa! Right? Less for us to worry about,” Xander questioned the group.

Spike sat at one end of the table, bouncing the nine month old Annie gently on his knee while Buffy sat at the other end, the rest of the group, Oz, Xander, Anya and Willow were in the middle while Giles paced around the perimeter.

“Perhaps, Xander,” Giles started. “but we don’t know what they’re doing with them. Why go to the trouble of capturing them? Why not simply kill them and be done with it?”

“Maybe they’re studying them, you know . . . to find out the best way to kill the different ones . . . scientific and all,” Willow chimed in.

“Then why take all the vamps? There’s no mystery in killing them,” Buffy commented.

“Sounds like you need to use Spike as bait and have him see what they’re doing first hand,” Anya offered.

“We are NOT using my husband as bait! Bait-y things tend to get sucked off the hook and swallowed.” Buffy was adamant.

Spike cocked an eyebrow at Buffy’s double entendre, but ignored it and said, “Demon bird’s got a point, Buffy. It may be the only way to find out who they are and what they’re doin’.”

Anya smiled triumphantly.

“Spike, what if they haul you away and dust you?” Buffy wasn’t going to accept this plan.

Giles spoke up, “Buffy, do you have another idea as to how to gain access to what these commandos are doing?”

“No,” Buffy admitted meekly. “But there has to be something other than making Spike all bait-y . . . Hey, maybe we could get Angel, let him be bait-y!” she suggested hopefully.

“Noooo,” Spike pulled the word out across his tongue in a low hiss. “This is our town and we’ll handle it.”

At the change in his tone, Annie started to fuss on Spike’s knee. He turned her around and pulled her to his chest. “It’s ok Little Bit, Angel won’t be coming ‘round . . . no need to cry now. Repeat after me, ‘Angel’s a poof’.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “That’s gonna be real funny when the first word she says is ‘Angel’.”

“Say ‘Papa’s the Big Bad’,” Spike amended, and Buffy rolled her eyes again.

Looking back at Buffy, Spike continued his argument. “If they were dusting the vamps, they would just do it, Buffy. They’re taking them somewhere for some reason. They aren’t just gonna go to the trouble of hauling them off and then dust them after all that.”

Spike wasn’t backing down. “All we have to do is find some of these guys, let me walk into them, they’ll take me to . . . where-ever . . . . Red can do a locator spell and Bob’s your uncle!”

Buffy leaned forward in her chair. “No, Bob’s NOT your uncle . . . even if they don't dust you, how do we get you back out? These are army guys, they must have some kind of, oh, I don’t know, DEFENSE against people just waltzing in to their . . . ’where-evers’ . . . and shockingly, maybe even a way to keep the prisoners from waltzing back out. We need to find another way. Maybe we can capture some of these commandos and get them to talk.”

Buffy loved Spike, but his strength was in action, not in making plans – he just wanted to get out there and do something, and she could appreciate that, but sometimes a little hint of a plan wasn’t a bad thing.

Giles was worried about this last idea. “Buffy, presumably, these are humans. You can’t slay them.”

“I didn’t say slay, just a little, persuasion, might be necessary. OOO!! We could put them in a room with Spike and tell them we were gonna’ turn them if they didn’t talk! If they’re all over-the-top with the anti-vamp-ness, that might scare them enough to spill!”

“Yeah, and if they don’t talk, I can go ahead and turn them and then they’ll talk for sure,” Spike’s voice dripped in sarcasm. “Plus, bonus – minions! They can clean the bloody windows for us!”

"Minions clean windows?" Buffy asked, looking curiously at Spike.

Ignoring her and changing to a serious tone, Spike continued. “Buffy, if we capture them and they don’t talk you’re gonna have to let them go – then what? They’ll know who we are, where we live and bugger all. They’ll come back and blow the whole sodding place up with us in it.”

Buffy sighed. “Well, I don’t like any of these plans so far. Can we just think about this a while before we do anything rash?”

**~**

December, 1999:

“What are you?”

Buffy was face to face with Riley Finn, mild mannered TA in her Psych class by day, apparently one of the commando’s they had been looking for, by night.

The Scoobies had yet to come up with a working plan on how to infiltrate the commandos and then had gotten distracted by the Gentlemen, stealing their voices and stealing hearts from their victims. Buffy had found their stronghold and had been more than a little surprised when Riley Finn, dressed in fatigues and carrying one of the commando’s taser guns, had shown up to fight them, as well. Spike had been patrolling in a different section of town, so Buffy faced Riley alone now that the Gentlemen had been, well, blown up by her voice.

“What are YOU?” Riley responded.

“I asked first,” Buffy retorted.

“Ok,” Riley started. “Agent Riley Finn of the Initiative. You?”

“Buffy Summers, The Slayer.” Buffy put her hands on her hips and stared him down. “What do you do?”

“What do you do?” Riley shot back.

“Are we gonna’ play this game all night? I asked you first,” Buffy replied impatiently.

Riley sighed. “It’s classified.”

“Uh-huh. Well, let me tell you what I THINK you do. You capture demons and vampires, probably have some very official name for them, right? Then you what? Play dress up with them? Keep them for household chores? You’re in my town, you’re on my turf and you’re stepping on my toes. Get out.” Buffy was really tired of playing this game with him.

“Your town? What does that mean? What’s a Slayer, anyway?” Riley was a little concerned that this girl did know sort of what the Initiative did, if not all the details.

“Slay-er comma The,” Buffy replied in clipped tones. “Look it up.”

Riley looked around the room at the dead demons and then at the girl in front of him who had effectively fought her way through them and knew the key to killing them. “I need to report this to Dr. Walsh. Maybe we can . . . continue this conversation later. It sounds like we’re on the same side, Buffy.”

“Dr. Walsh? As in Professor Walsh?” Buffy asked. “She's in charge of your little game?”

“It’s not a game, it’s an official military operation designed to reduce and study the HST population!” Riley divulged more than he intended, but Buffy calling it a ‘game’ pissed him off.

“HST?” Buffy questioned.

“Hostile sub-terrestrials.” Now it was Riley’s turn to speak in clipped tones. “I have to go.” He turned on his heel and headed out of the clock tower.

**~**

“What are you gonna do, Buffy?” Willow was asking after Buffy convened the group to let everyone know what she'd found out. Even though it wasn’t much, it was something.

“I dunno’. I’m thinking I might be able to get more information out of Riley. He was all ‘it’s classified’, but he buckled pretty quickly when I started insulting his precious operation. He thinks we’re on the same side, we can use that to our advantage,” Buffy was thinking aloud.

“Not to be all with the obvious, but aren’t we on the same side?” Xander chimed in to the conversation. “They’re killing demons, we kill demons . . . where’s the bad?”

Buffy disagreed. “But they’re not killing demons, they’re taking them. Why, I don’t know; but I don’t see how any good could come from that.”

Buffy was convinced whatever the Initiative was up to, it needed to be stopped.

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