Title:
All That Heaven Will Allow
Chapter
Title: Chapter Nine- Bath Time and Explanations
Author:
Restive Nature
Disclaimer:
I do not own the rights
to BtVS. They belong to Whedon & Mutant Enemy. I also do not own
the rights to Charmed. They belong to the WB. No infringement is
intended and this fiction is for private enjoyment only.
Rating:
PG-13
Genre:
Crossover
Type:
Angst, Action, Humor
Pairing:
canon pairings in both shows
Summary:
Slayer dreams and Whitelighter-Witch hybrid powers collide when the
veil between worlds come close to collapsing. Can baby Wyatt survive
life on the Hellmouth?
Spoilers/
Time line: Season 4 (after “Harsh Light Of Day”) of Buffy and
Season 6 (after “Forget Me... Not”) Of Charmed.
Feedback:
Always welcome!
Distribution:
Ask first please.
A/N:
This was one of my contributions started for NaNoWriMo 2012. The
story was by no means completed in that month and I am looking
forward to continuing it.
A/N2:
There is a definite time difference between these two worlds and the
seasons that I am using. This will hopefully, be explained within the
fiction itself.
All That
Heaven Will Allow
Chapter
Nine
Bath
time And Explanations
“You
wanna try again?” Paige whispered to her sister Phoebe. They were
both sitting, exhausted and pained, on the sofa that was getting past
its prime, that they had placed in the attic. A respite when they
were on the hunt for the perfect spell or potion or as was the case
now, the vigilance they held over their heavily burdened eldest
sister. It had been several hours since Odin had appeared to take
both Chris and Leo, presumably to get them healed of the darkness
that had invaded and pervaded their beings. Chris hadn't seemed as
bad off as Leo was, but in the short time that they were there, Chris
had manged to infect Paige. She was pretty sure it wasn't something
that he intended. At least she hoped he hadn't.
And
not only that, but the emotional backlash of two turning into three
beings attempting to fight off a total darkness had rendered Phoebe
into a gibbering ball of tears and pain. Caught up in
her empathic ability that she still didn't have full control over.
“Not
really wanting to be threatened again,” Phoebe whispered back. She
knew, from Piper's spike in annoyance that they were heard quite
clearly. And she knew from the rise of determination as Piper wrote
spell idea after spell idea, a list she had started after she had
exhausted potion ideas, that the eldest Charmed one, would not rest
until she collapsed unconscious on the floor.
“She's
gonna kill herself from stress before we even get a chance to figure
out what happened to Leo,” Paige pointed out. Before Phoebe could
even open her mouth to reply, Piper beat her to it.
“The
Elder's took our only clues,” Piper spoke, her voice even, which
was a clear sign to both her siblings that she had descended into a
battle ready state, submersing and compartmentalizing her emotions as
best as she was able, to cope. “And since neither you or Phoebe
remember anything more than complete darkness, we need to start
somewhere.”
“Honey,”
Phoebe sighed, rising to her feet wearily and crossing the room.
There was a warning in Piper's stance that was telling Phoebe to back
off, but the senses in her heart more so than her mind were telling
her that Piper desperately needed someone to lean on. “I don't
think the Elder's took Leo to keep us from finding out what happened
down there.”
“I
know that,” Piper replied stubbornly, seemingly unable to look her
sister in the eye. Phoebe understood that too, without benefit of her
new power. If Piper looked and saw the sisterly empathy, just as
simple as that, she'd fall apart.
“From
the sounds of it,” Paige added, “they're going to need every
Elder and Whitelighter they have to heal Leo. And Chris.”
“What
was he doing down there?” Piper burst out suddenly, throwing her
hands up. She smacked them back down as her sister's cringed,
relieved that there were no explosions because their powers were tied
to their emotions and Piper was on the edge already. “He says he
comes from the future, a future where everything was evil and the
lynch pin was Wyatt. Now my son has been taken. Leo encountered a
darkness none of us has ever heard of or seen anything like and-!”
“That's
not true,” Phoebe suddenly shook her head, glancing away from the
scene before her.
“What?”
Piper demanded harshly. “When?”
“Last
year,” Phoebe answered shakily, caught up in memories of a worse
time. Possibly the worst she had dealt with other than Prue's death.
“The baby. My and Cole's baby.”
She
didn't have to look to know the horror that was passing over her
sister's faces as that idea sank in. She felt the shift in their
emotions before their arms were closing around her.
“Oh
God, Phoebe,” Paige murmured. “I had no idea...”
“This
was the darkness you were feeling?” Piper grunted.
“Yeah,”
Phoebe nodded and then sighed and shook her head. “Or maybe. It's
hard for me to tell,” she tried to explain. “Back then, it was
just me and the baby. All I knew were what I and it were feeling. Now
having this backlash from all quarters, especially someone in pain...
But it felt familiar at the same time, you know?”
“Oh
wow, there's a horrible thought,” Paige blurted out and had the
sense to look and feel guilty.
“What?”
Piper demanded lowly. Paige grimaced and threw an apologetic glance
at Phoebe.
“I
was just thinking,” she began slowly, hoping that it would occur to
them on its own as well, so she wouldn't have to bring up this
horrible clue. But neither seemed to be getting it. “What if when
we thought that the Source was destroyed, when the Seer took it...
what if it wasn't?” She cringed her shoulders as she glanced to see
how Piper was taking this. And sure enough the thunderous, frozen
stance of her sister did not bode well.
“And
it would go after Wyatt,” Piper resolved finally, “because that's
what evil does. If it needs a new receptacle...”
“Then
where better, from its point of view, to go?” Phoebe finished for
her. There was another moment of silence before Piper snapped again.
“Come
on now, we have to figure something out,” she let loose of her
sister and began pacing again across the attic floor. “Phoebe,
Paige there has to be something more,”: she tried to encourage. “I
don't want to ask this, but I have to. Can you please try to
remember... everything.”
Her
sister's could see the pain on her face, at the asking, to relive the
horror that they had been through. To figure out what clues they
might have been able to garner through their shared experiences with
the males. But Phoebe was watching more than that. She watched as
Piper's hands continued to clench at her chest, rub across her
stomach. Hunger, she could feel it and though there was also that
sickness that came over your being when you were so past the point of
hunger that wasn't sated... And then with a slight gasp, she rose to
her feet, understanding where it was coming from. She crossed to her
sister and stilled Pipe's hands as they made another pass over her
stomach.
“Piper,
honey, Wyatt isn't going to starve,” she murmured as Piper's
startled eyes flew to her sister's face. “He's... he's smart. He's
resourceful. He can get the things he needs when he understands.
Remember, he simply wanted the dragon and he summoned it to him.”
She wrapped her arms around her sister as her Piper finally rested
her head on the shorter woman's shoulder. “If he wants food, he'll
find a way to get it.” She heard noises from Paige as well, but was
more concentrating on soothing her sister's fears.
“It's
been hours since he ate,” Piper groaned. “Right about now he'd be
finished with his last bottle of the night and be sleeping in his
crib. And he's not. He's not here where I can give him the things he
needs. Where I can hear him in the other room, just breathing. I can
handle a demon taking him, because we'll get him back. That's what,”
her voice began to break, “that's what we do,” she sniffled
heavily and accepted a tissue from Paige. “What I can not handle is
thinking that there's no one there to keep him safe from these simple
things. Things that every child should have. Safety and food and
warmth and love. He's not here in my arms to show him how much I love
him,” she wailed and the dam broke again.
They
barely noticed the light of another Whitelighter orbing into the
attic space. It was Paige that turned, the most attuned to the
sensation since it was a closer part of her heritage. Hovering
protectively over her eldest sister, she sniffed back her own tears
and pain to declare, “if you're not here to help or to tell us
what's going on, then just leave!”
“That's
precisely why I'm here,” Sandra announced from behind them.
AtHwA~AtHwA
"Oh
goodness, who's a little water baby?" Joyce cooed as she held
Wyatt in the kitchen sink. Her daughter had used the other side of
the double sink basin, to adjust the spray once more. Once the
temperature was right, she had pulled the plug on Wyatt's side and
started to let Wyatt's bath water drain. She lifted the child up into
the air and let her daughter rinse the soap residue from the boy's
body. They had already carefully rinsed his blond hair and the ends
were curling just slightly.
It
had taken a little time to get organized, but Joyce knew that
wouldn't matter. The more time they gave to Giles and Xander to get
to the store and back with the supplies that they needed was good.
But she still had to laugh at Buffy, going upstairs to draw a bath
for a baby. She had called her daughter back down and asked her what
she had thought she was doing. When Buffy had given her a dumbfounded
look, and Joyce had hefted Wyatt slightly asking if her daughter was
going to get in the tub with the boy to keep a hold on a slippery
little body. Buffy had commented that she thought since Wyatt could
obviously sit up on his own and even stand, he'd be big enough for
the tub. Relieved that her daughter had at least thought about it,
Joyce had gotten serious, instead of too much teasing. She still
preferred to bathe in the kitchen sink since they didn't know how
he'd react to a bath. It was a smaller area to maintain control of,
which was very important when dealing with a child. Buffy had gone
through a period when she was small, a little smaller than Wyatt had
been when her bath had made her cry every single time. So Joyce was
certainly aware that another little baby was certainly going to be
different from her experiences, so long ago with her own daughter.
"Can
you turn him mom?" Buffy asked as she kept the spray low. Joyce
had been lifting him up and down slightly so that Buffy wasn't
spraying in every direction. Joyce didn't reply, just did as she was
asked. Once Buffy had wisely made sure that all his crooks and
crannies were clear, she turned the spray away before turning off the
water and then reached for the softest towel they'd been able to
find.
"Oh!"
Joyce exclaimed as she quickly turned the boy around. Buffy, worried
for mostly the wrong reasons spun around and then laughed, as she
realized that the little boy was finally behaving as a normal child,
as he peed all over the clean sink. She wondered if he had gotten a
little on her mom which would have been hilarious. "Never had to
worry about that with you at least," Joyce chuckled wryly.
"I
never had a free pee moment?" Buffy laughed as she folded the
towel over her arm and reached for a plastic cup and turned the water
on once more. Filling the cup with warm water, she rinsed the boy's
lower torso and then dropped the cup so that she could open up the
towel and take him from Joyce. Wrapping the ends of the much too
large towel around him as much as she could, the boy cooed in her
arms and she rested her cheek against his head. "That wasn't so
bad was it, little guy?"
"You
did have your moments," Joyce response, not lost in memories,
but there were a few that she recalled easily. "But you couldn't
aim in but one direction. I always kept a little diaper or towel or
something to cover you if we had an accident."
"A
little diaper?" Buffy asked. Joyce nodded.
"You
grew fast enough that we always had a few diapers left over that
didn't fit, but they were good as protection," Joyce explained.
"And when we ran out of those, burp cloth, washcloths, anything
at hand. In fact, it seems to me your were quite a- a "free
peer"!" she heartily teased, using her daughter's own
words.
Buffy
was saved from responding by a knock at the front door and seconds
later, Giles voices announcing that they'd returned. "We're in
the kitchen Giles!" she called back and then glanced down at
Wyatt. "You ready to go get dressed? And maybe a nice, yummy
bottle?" The baby gurgled his agreement. Once Buffy had gathered
supplies, Joyce had run Wyatt's clothes down to the washing machine.
The load had been quick and was in the dryer now.
They
made a small procession to the living room, with Buffy rubbing the
boy's head with the corner end of the towel. Joyce was almost
startled really that her daughter, her once vain and self centered
daughter that had turned into a highly honed, destructive warrior,
could be so gentle. And so attuned to another's needs.
"Diapers!"
Xander announced, as he held up a bag with several packages in it.
"And butt paste?"
"Excellent,"
Buffy crowed. "You guys are just in time."
"And
bottles with all their attachments," Giles offered to Joyce as
he held a large grocery bag out to her. "This came with a bottle
cleaning attachment. I thought that might come in handy. And
formula."
"I'll
take that," Joyce agreed as she accepted the bag. "All
right Buffy. I'll go get Wyatt's bottle ready. You get him into a
diaper honey." Before her daughter could argue, she had taken
the equipment she needed and disappeared into the kitchen. The
bottles would need a good hot wash before she would use them as
intended. And if she was going to be roped into this, she was going
to pass off as much of the difficult stuff as she could. After all
she decided with an amused grin, she'd already out in her time.
Looking
slightly wide eyed and startled, Xander and Giles turned back to see
how the Slayer was going to cope with these new marching orders. But
to their surprise, Buffy was already laying the baby down on the
floor to deal with.
"Uh
Buff?" Xander grunted. "The floor?"
"Is
safer when my hands are going to be busy," she relied.
"Especially if he decides to roll over. Can't fall that way."
"Very
true," Giles agreed, recovering quickly. He reached for another
bag and began to dig in it. "They also had some of these
sleepers, I believe they are."
"We
got two sizes," Xander added. "Did you know they're ordered
by every three months? Why do you think that is?"
“They
grow fast?” Buffy shrugged, more interested in getting a diaper on
the little guy and then dressed because the air in the living room
was a little cooler than that of the kitchen. Wyatt seemed quite used
to the process though as he lay on his back, watching the girl that
had rescued him.
Keeping
her mother's recent words in mind, she had him laid out on the towel
and then expertly flipped the corner end over his private area. True,
he had just had a moment, but she had learned in Slaying, like in
life, that you never knew what was coming next. Luckily for her,
diapers were pretty easy to figure out, but she could see why they'd
come back with different sizes of things. Wyatt seemed right on the
cusp of changing sizes. She tried the smaller first, since he looked
so tiny to her eyes. But the waist ended up rather tight. So she
flipped that diaper over to keep his body covered and reached for the
other pack. She heard Xander chuckling.
"Already
figured out the dangers of little boys, huh Buff?"
"Mom
got the worst of it," she grinned and nodded. "She's got
some good advice though. Now, let's give this one a try." She
turned her head just slightly. "Giles, could you get all those
tags and stickers off of the clothes. Make sure there are no plastic
bits from them to poke at him?"
"Of
course Buffy," Giles acquiesced. "And then perhaps we might
discuss what Anya and Willow were able to discover? We stopped at my
apartment to let them know we were here. They should be on their
way."
"Yeah,
that'd be great," Buffy agreed. They were quiet as she applied
herself to the task which was only broken by Wyatt's baby noises. She
got the diaper ready and some paste applied, which smelled a little
strange, but not bad. She had seen that there were a few red spots on
his bottom that she knew, like any skin care regimen, needed
attention. When she had the diaper done up, she then went back to
making sure that the boy was completely dried off before holding her
hand out to Giles. He immediately placed the sleeper in her hand.
"Try
that one," he murmured. Turned out his eyes were good and it was
only slightly long in the sleeves. The other would have been too
small. "Excellent," he nodded when she finished snapping up
the buttons. "I can return the others tomorrow. They'll be too
small then."
Buffy
nodded and scooped the boy up. "Hmm, I wonder if we have a comb
fine enough for his hair," she wondered, then shook her head.
They'd figure it out and to be honest, while they were waiting on
Wyatt's bottle, she was curious to hear what their research had come
up with. As it was, she hadn't even realized that Willow and Anya
even had been working on it.
Chapter Ten- Adaptability
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