Title: The Shadowy Bridge
Rating: PG13-ish, it seems. This is as close to smut as its going to get.
Summary: Set six years in the future. Our girls find their way back to each other...sort of. Kind of. Jessie, is that a good summary?
Thanks: This is my first and last Buffy fic. I wrote this story personal reasons and now that the tale has been told, I'm quite happy. No need to write more.
Many thanks to the awesome Jess. All bow to Jess. She is wonderous.
Notes: Feedback would be very welcome. I'd honestly like to know your opinions-- positive and/or negative. All thoughts are good.
**********“Oh, return of the sexy glasses,” Willow admired, coming around the corner of the kitchen, holding mugs of steaming hot choclate.
Tara smirked, blushing, and took the mug Willow held out. She sipped it, admiring the lacing of mint Willow had put in with the chocolate.
“So, what’s the verdict?” the redhead asked, sitting down on the floor at Tara’s side. Two books sat open on the coffee table. She set her mug down on the wooden surface, and propped her elbow up on the couch behind them, taking some of Tara’s hair in her fingers and toying gently.
“We should be baby-demon free,” Tara answered, turning and capturing Willow’s lips with her own, tasting the same hot chocolate flavoring on the other woman’s tongue.
The two women pulled away from each other, chuckling.
“Will?” Tara paused, cupping her hand to the side of Willow’s face.
“Yeah?”
“Last night was…”
Willow smirked cockily, “Ooooh, yeah,” she replied simply.
Tara leaned in again and brushed Willow’s lips. “When we get to your place, you won’t have to bite the pillow,” she breathed.
“Nope. No muffled screams,” Willow said around a blush as she captured Tara’s mouth fiercely.
They allowed their lips and tongues to dance freely, only the sound of Anya’s sudden and hysterical sobbing causing them to separate.
Willow sighed. “I think Xander’s about to die at the hands of hormone-controlled Anya. It’s Christmas morning; maybe they’d like a non-demon baby for a present?”
“Yes ma’am,” she said, sliding her hand into Tara’s, smiling as the feeling of cool metal touched her skin; she knew it to be the ring Tara now proudly sported.
They rose and headed into the kitchen, Willow ducking just in time as a can shot through the air. “Hey!” she said, standing up and looking to where the can had smashed into the telephone, shattering it. “That would have defiantly been an owie!”
Tara frowned at Anya. “Watch the temper, lady!” she scowled, placing a protective arm around Willow’s shoulder and tugging the other woman close.
“I told you, no little itty bitty things in boxes for Christmas! No clothes with snaps on the crotch, no crocheted caps, no blankets, no teddy bears!” Anya shouted, waving a fist full of pink and blue knitted material in Xander’s direction. The two had faced off across the kitchen, Xander obviously torn between being apologetic and his convictions.
“Anya!” Xander sighed, holding his hands up in a signal of submission.
“No, Xander, no ‘I’m sorryies!’ Not this time. You knew this would…this would…this is not good!” She screamed, flinging the fist of fabric at Xander.
A random article pegged Tara in the chest. A pink baby-booty clung to her sweater. “A booty?” she asked quietly, twirling it in her fingers, confused.
“An, honey, I’m sorry. I thought you may have started shopping by now and… I …” Xander stuttered. “I mean, it’s been over three months.”
“Xander what am I supposed to do with this stuff?” Anya asked, pointing to the booties now scattered on the kitchen floor.
“Generally they go on babys’ feet,” Dawn replied, munching on an apple as she watched the exchanged with an amused look on her face.
“Do you have the receipts for these? Can we take them back? What if we have to return the baby?” Anya asked, turning to both Buffy and Dawn, looking around the room. “What if we have to return the baby?”
Xander sighed, crossing the room and placing gentle hands on both of Anya’s shoulders. “Honey, we can’t return the baby,” he said, almost whispering. “Once it’s here, it’s here. You know that.”
“But…what if…” she started, eyes pleading with someone, anyone, to give her another option.
Xander sighed, kissing her forehead softly. “I don’t know, Anya.”
Tara found the following moment of silence opportune. “We don’t think you guys should spend the next five months worrying about six-footed babies,” she offered.
Willow smirked, picking up two more booties off the floor. “Even though you’ve prepared for that in the booty department.”
“No demon spawn?” Buffy asked, having watched the previous battle with silent amusement.
“Doesn’t look like it!” Willow replied with a smile.
Tara nodded. “We translated some stuff and, close as we can tell, because you were human before D’Hoffryn, your body chemistry is primarily humanoid, Anya. There shouldn’t be any residual…” Tara paused for a second looking for the right word. “Demonness ….left over that would affect the baby. You were never genetically altered so there’s nothing to be passed that way. You were, in all essence, a human with a magic necklace. The necklace is gone…so is your power.”
“No horned baby?” Xander asked, his face hopeful.
“Doesn’t seem like it, Willow answered, shaking her head.
Dawn snickered “That’ll make childbirth easier.”
Buffy gave her sister a pained look. “Ouch!” she spoke, unconsciously crossing her legs at the mental image.
Anya’s face broke into a smile before she frowned. “Ok, good news about the baby but I’ll have you know I was much more than a plain human with a sparkly necklace! I was the most feared vengeance demon around. I was-”
She was silenced by a gentle kiss from Xander. “We know. Powerful evil woman. We know,” he said when they parted.
“Damn right,” Anya said before smiling again. “But good news about the baby!”
Xander snickered, hearing Willow and Tara chuckle behind him. “Definitely good news,” he said, hugging his fiancé to him.
“Xander?” Anya asked. “Does this mean I can have the party for the baby? With presents? Lots of presents?”
**********
[This message has been edited by Kerrison (edited January 28, 2002).]
