Fiction08- AtHwA- The Slumbering Babe

Title: All That Heaven Will Allow

Chapter Title: Chapter Seven- The Slumbering Babe

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 Seven

The Slumbering Babe

When she saw the smoky, hazy miasma crossing the corridor that she was in, Buffy was instantly wary. The spot, even yards back from it as she was, chilled her to the bone and Buffy was scared of the thought of having to cross it. She wasn't sure why that was, just that something was telling her that if she crossed that line, she was pretty sure that she would not like what she found.

But she was the Slayer and she had a duty, albeit self imposed this time and she forced herself forward. Just as she neared the haze as it curled and writhed in mid air, one hand stretching forward with a damnable curiosity, once again her peripheral vision warned her of activity.

Whipping her head to the right, she saw again that precipitous blue white light. “Come on kid,” she whispered to herself. “I've got enough games of hide and seek in my life. Not tonight.”

Her footfalls were light, carrying her rapidly away from the strange, unidentifiable mist. They became even faster when the baby began to cry. She was running full tilt, not caring what she came across or what fell into her path, when she found her way blocked. Gratified and relieved for Giles and his insistence in training in all sorts of situations, Buffy stilled herself to make sure that she knew where the cries were coming from.

They were definitely ahead of her, just past this wall of rock formation. With a hand pressed against it, Buffy saw small points of soft light breaking through it. That same light that had driven her, pulled her and with a deep breath, she reared back and kicked low and to the side, hoping that the baby wasn't close by and in the way. That single blow created enough of a hole that the entire side of the wall began to collapse. Buffy tumbled through the rapidly quivering debris, waving away the dust that came with it, axe falling to hand as she peered around the darkened room.

There on the far side, the little guy was trying to hold himself up, leaning on a protruding wall, a shimmering light around him. Buffy felt her breath catch. She could sense nothing else in the immediate vicinity. Was it simply a case of the baby being afraid of the dark? Down here, she was sure that it was a natural reaction. “Hey little guy,” she soothed as she took one more step forward. Wyatt tracked her with eyes and head movement as she continued to move closer. “It's okay,” she tried to assure him, but she had picked something else up. Something was heading their way.

The walls seemed to melt, just as Buffy reached the boy and snatched him up. “Gotcha!”

“Slayer!” something hissed and with Wyatt clinging to her jacket, burrowing his head in her neck, she whirled, seeing that it might have just been something of a trap. Especially since that rock wall that she had just broken down? Yeah that one that was now reforming, like those reverse stop motion videos that Xander found so funny.

Her hands working quickly, Buffy managed to loop the scarf she wore over the majority of Wyatt's body, praying that it would hold, because odds were, they were fighting their way out of there.

“Hope your parents forgive me for what you're about to see baby,” she grunted as she tightened a knot while simultaneously loosening up her weapons. “Or better, let's just forget it right now. What d'ya say Wyatt?”

The boy, seemingly okay now that someone sane had a hold of him, gurgled up at her and lifted his free arm to her face. Buffy caught it as she watched the rock like creatures closing in on them. “Not right now, honey,” she chastised as gently as possible as she pushed his hand down. “Aunty Buffy needs to see right now.”

And then there came a new noise that had the rock creatures scrambling. The entire underground was shaking and Buffy fought to hold her ground, to stay upright. When the beings around them had run, probably from a bigger threat than what Buffy by her lonesome presented, her eyes, clear and wide, saw what had them pebbling themselves.

But Wyatt, little innocent baby that he was, lifted his hand once more and giggled. And then the dragon disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. Buffy turned her wide eyed gaze down to the boy. “Did you do that? You...” she lost her fight with her stunned emotions and began to laugh. “If that was you, wow! Good idea. Whose a smart baby? Wyatt is!” she rubbed at his back as he nestled in against her and sighed. “Now, if we can figure out how to get out of here without attracting any more attention...”

And that white light, the one that brought peace, serenity, familiar now to her, surrounded them both and she felt like she was flying. When they came together once more, their beings in a new place, Buffy glanced around in mild confusion, until she saw the rope that she was to use to get them back up to the surface. “Okay,” she muttered, not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Scratch smart. Whose a genius? Huh Wyatt?” There was no responding noise and when Buffy glanced down again, a soft maternal like smile crossed her lips.

Quietly adjusting her gear, and reattaching her safety pinion, she began the long trek up the tunnel and back to safety, the relative amount there was living atop the Hellmouth She muted the grunts and verbal complaints she was wont to make. After all, the little guy had done a good job. And her mother always said,

'Forget waking a sleeping dog Buffy. Never wake a sleeping baby.'

AtHwA~AtHwA

“No, no, no,” Leo chanted to himself. Chris was holding himself still as Leo had collapsed to the ground on his knees.

“What?” the younger Whitelighter whispered, confusion marring his voice.

“He's gone,” Leo choked out brokenly. “Can't you feel it?”

Chris turned in circles again, shaking his head. “No,” he muttered, trying to sense, as Leo had, where Wyatt had been. Where he had gone. Who had taken him.

“She took him!” Leo growled. Pushing off of the ground, he charged forward and after a startled moment, Chris dashed after him. The twists and turns that led them further into the Underworld were no deterrent to the outraged father. Demons that stepped into his path were destroyed instantly, rage fueling his powers rather than the serenity of his position as an Elder.

“Who took him?” Chris panted, as he finally caught up to Leo, who had slid to a halt before a strange gray tendril like smoke. Leo put his hand up and approached the wall of smoke. At least, it seemed like smoke, but Chris, eying it with a natural wariness and one that came from knowledge of a darker future than what they were seeing now, started backing up. The tendrils seemed to gather and were reaching for Leo as well.

“Through here,” Leo grunted. He studied the strange entity, trying to decipher what it was. It seemed familiar on one level, yet totally alien on another. “Wyatt was here and now there's this barrier,” he explained as best as he was able. “A woman took him. Or at least it was disguised as a woman.” He was not going to close his mind to any possibility. They had seen too many female demons that were just as vicious as their male counterparts.

“Are you sure?” Chris questioned and seemed to be trying to remember something, but he was shaking his head. “None of this is familiar,” he whispered to himself and then inhaled sharply, wondering if Leo would question what he had said, demand more information. But the Elder was focused on what was before him. Something about the situation though, struck a chord in Chris and he yelled out a warning just as Leo stepped froward.

The lightning bolt that took Leo in the chest didn't knock him backwards like one would expect. It dropped him where he stood, illuminating him where he lay as it shook through his body. Chris raised his arm hastily against the light show, but it still burned in a curious way and as he had suspected, this was no ordinary smoke. It was an entity entirely of its own and it had a sentience of some sort to strike out at Leo like this.

The air was still crackling as Chris dashed forward to try and grab up Leo before he could sustain any more damage. He felt tiny tendrils of the lightning still lingering, whipping into his face, shoulders and back. But he was scared that Leo had taken damage too great to recover from, especially if left where he was. The news that they had lost Wyatt was bad enough. To take away or lose Leo at the same time would put Piper into a downward spiral that she'd never recover from. The future as he knew it was in jeopardy and he had to do something. Chris wasn't sure that Wyatt was a lost cause. He more than any of them knew what Wyatt was capable of. The trick was just getting him back before any damage could be done to his developing psyche.

With that, Chris orbed himself and his father, out of the Underworld and the one place on earth that was safe to him. It was clear that Piper and her sisters were waiting for word from he and Leo, but they hadn't been resting on their heels either. The looks on their faces, shocked but determined as he orbed them into the manor attic was just what he had expected. But the pain in his mother's face when she didn't see the son she wanted, was what cut him to the bone.

AtHwA~AtHwA

“It's been too long, hasn't it?” Xander asked worriedly as he paced back and forth before the hole that Buffy had created and subsequently jumped into.

“Settle down Xander,” Giles tutted as he reclined, cautiously alert in the face of their location. “Buffy will take precisely as long as necessary and not one second more.”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, with the air of one trying to bolster his own belief, as he rubbed his fingers over his mouth worriedly. “It's just no one knows how many of those seconds are necessary and how many aren't.”

“I have the utmost faith that Buffy will prevail,” Giles offered in a slightly condescending manner. It was hard not to for him, when it came to Xander. Yes, gems and nuggets of wisdom sometimes surfaced within Xander's rambling. But that was just as much the ability to recognize them among the general manure the boy spread, as the actual production of said nuggets. “And a surety that she would prefer not to linger in such a horrific place.”

“Oh,” Xander grunted, obviously catching sight of something as he leaned over to peer down the very non-rabbit like hole. “Giles, incoming,” he warned. The older man instantly rose to his full height and moved over to the hole, leaning a little further over it than the younger man dared to. He whipped his glasses off to give them a good cleaning, rather awkwardly as he was also holding a crossbow. Xander, aware that he was the weaker of the two in a fight, turned to make sure that nothing was creeping up behind them to knock them ass over teakettle into oblivion. He was relieved when his eyes picked nothing out of the darkness. But that in itself was not always a thought that brought relief. There was just nothing he could see at the moment.

Nervously checking over his shoulder every few minutes, then back to the dark shape he had seen rising up from the hole, Xander was freaking himself out with a speed that was startling.

“Settle down Xander,” Giles remarked calmly beside him as he replaced his glasses on the perch of his nose and peered into the crevice before them. “If something wanted to attack, it would have done so earlier, or the moment we were both leaning forward.”

“And if it's a stupid demon?” Xander wondered. “No shortage of those in Sunnydale.”

“Then be prepared for a short fight or a long drop,” Giles snorted, bracing himself. He spared a quick glance at the young adult. “Like usually attracts like.” And as usual, the insult flew over the young man's head. “Ah,” he exclaimed suddenly and began fumbling with his free hand for the flashlight he had brought. He'd decided that it was unnecessary as a source of light comfort, preferring to save the batteries for when it was needed. Xander was smart enough to pluck the crossbow from the older man's hands so that he was in less danger of being accidentally shot that way.

Giles quickly located the torch, as he called it and snapped it on. Unfortunately, it was illumination that was directed right into the eyes of the potential foe. The being that responded dryly and immediately.

“Kill the light, will ya?” Buffy's voice floated up to them. It sounded quieter than usual and demanding, not requesting.

“Oh, yes, sorry,” Giles responded at once, turning the light aside so that it wasn't in his Slayer's eyes.

“Maybe all the way off,” she suggested this time as the males heard a small snuffling sound coming from her general vicinity. Giles dutifully followed her suggestion.

“There's nothing following you up, is there Buff?” Xander asked worriedly, twisting his hands worriedly around the handle of the weapon he was now holding, having leaned the axe he'd had against his leg.

“No,” Buffy grunted quietly, pausing where she was. Both Xander and Giles' eyes widened as they watched her let go of the rope with one hand. “Shh, shh.” She was rubbing at her chest and without the light to illuminate her, they couldn't tell at what, until the very clear sound of a discontented baby sounded in the tunnel. “Go back to sleep baby.” There was a little more rubbing and soothing before she had grabbed at the rope again.

When Buffy began to move again, they could see that before letting go, she had used her toes to find purchase against the rock wall of the tunnel, not trusting what were probably tired and aching arm muscles after the climb and whatever fighting she may have done. They were quiet and prepared to help as soon as possible, trusting in her directives as they had the past few years when it came to these situations.

She accepted their help as soon as she had her hands far enough up to reach them. Gratefully allowing them to lift her out of the hole, gripping under her arms as she cradled the child. “All safe up here?” she queried, glancing around as Xander quickly handed the crossbow back to Giles.

“It's been as quiet as a tomb,” Giles responded, wiping at his forehead as he studied the infant, as much as was possible through the swaddling Buffy had devised. “Or, well, a tomb that's not located here.”

“So this is the baby we've heard so much about?” Xander smiled down at the little guy, who as Buffy had calmed back into slumber, was slack mouthed in innocent sleep.

“No,” Buffy quipped, a little annoyed. “They were having a sale and I figured they're all alike, right?”

“Sorry,” Xander chuckled. Oh, he'd gotten that one, Giles rolled his eyes.

“Well, we should go now,” Giles suggested, gesturing to the way out. “Unless there's anything we should know,” he prompted. “Was there trouble too difficult...” he was having trouble tamping down his curiosity and relative excitement about this excursion of hers. To have a Slayer that went successfully into the Hellmouth, or near enough it and returning... It was unheard of! But Buffy had done it. His already immense pride in her was swelling even more by the moment.

“Not really,” Buffy shook her head as they moved out. “Mostly stuff I haven't seen before. Giles, they're doing something down there. It feels long termy, and I'm not sure if it was just business as usual, but it didn't feel good.”

“Would you attribute that to it being the source of all evil, or was it more?” Giles wondered. When both Buffy and Xander were giving him strange looks that he actually noticed, he shrugged, unapologetic. “You must realize what a unique position this is! Buffy, no one has gone into the Hellmouth and come out unscathed.”

“Uh!” Xander grunted. “And you didn't think to mention this oh I don't know, maybe before she went down there!”

“I'm fine Xan,” Buffy sighed. She understood exactly why Giles hadn't said anything. She was determined to do this and knowing the dangers she faced would only have exacerbated her desire to protect a child at all costs. Telling her would serve no purpose. It was all in with this job. Every day, every night, every heartbeat. She had accepted that. “Though the scathed part was in question.”

“What do you mean?” Giles stammered out excitedly. They were nearing the exit of the building and she was quiet until they were through the doors, almost like a talisman to avoid some bad luck. Like talking about it there would bring it about again.

“We were trapped,” she explained once they had cleared the steps and were at street level once more. “Or I was drawn into a trap. Not really clear. But there were these stone like monsters surrounding Wyatt. They let me in and then formed up ranks.”

“Whoa,” Xander breathed out, keeping pace beside the determined Slayer. She was already moving down the street in the direction of her house. A well remembered path for all of them. “How'd ya beat them? Did'ja use the axe. I like me a good axe.”

“Actually, I think it was Wyatt that scared them off,” Buffy chuckled.

“Really?” Giles grunted. “What precisely did he do?”

“I'm not sure you'll believe me if I tell you,” Buffy giggled, shaking her head in amusement. But she relented at once. “He summoned a dragon. Or maybe it was just a figment, or an illusion. But it seemed real enough. Those rock demon-y things scattered like anti-moths to the flame.” Xander snickered at her little joke. “And then, poof, waved his hand, it disappeared and he zoomed us back to the rope.”

“He zoomed you?” Xander managed to ask before Giles' could. For which the older man was quietly grateful, trying to avoid at certain costs, sounding a fool.

“Well, magicked us,” Buffy shrugged carefully, trying to loosen her clothes a little while keeping the child warm. “Anyone have a sweater I can borrow. I don't want him to get cold.” Giles was instantly removing his tweed coat to wrap around the smaller statured girl's shoulders. It was one of the few times that she didn't protest it's presence. Not only did it carry Giles' body heat, but it was large enough to wrap around the baby as well.

“About this child Buffy,” he began, waiting until he had her attention. “What precisely do you plan to do with him?”

“I was thinking about that,” she replied. “On the climb up. We're gonna go drop a bombshell on Mom.”

“Your mother?” Giles repeated softly and then a little louder, “good lord, this is going to be interesting.”

“Unless you wanna do it,” Buffy snorted. “C'mon Giles, admit it. You're biological clock has been ticking, hasn't it? Yearning for formula and nappies and a dragon summoning baby to make your life complete,” she teased. She didn't have to look to know the older man was rolling his eyes while simultaneously shaking his head.

“Huh,” Xander grunted. “I wonder who he'll turn out like. Giles or our friendly neighborhood chaos worshiper, Ethan Rayne?”

“Don't even go there Xan,” Buffy warned. “Giles might turn that hormonal rage on you,” she teased again and Giles huffed at them.

“While I'm certain that I'd manage, if I really put my mind to it,” he began, “after all, I'm trained to be adept at many situations, I do see your point Buffy.”

“Point,” Xander queried. “She's got a point? I mean, aside from the obvious Mr. Pointy. But... what?”

“Magical baby,” Giles explained, not as patiently as he could manage, but that was business as usual with Xander. “We've no clue how unrestrained his magic is. Were we to take him to the police or the hospital, questions will arise. Questions that we may not be able to answer. No, at the moment, it's better to place him with someone that is in full knowledge of the situation. Along with that, someone with experience with infants is definitely a bonus.”

“Hence going to Mom,” Buffy explained. “I mean, I'm just a college student,” she whined. “I've got no idea what to do with a baby.”

Xander reached out to lightly stroke the infant's head that was just visible through the vee of the tweed coat, resting as he was under Buffy's collar bone. “Saved his life,” Xander pointed out softly. “I'd say you got the instincts that count.”

Her answering smile was all he could have asked for.

Chapter Eight- Nana Jo